The Malachite curse 6 : I know who killed Cuifen 15 August 2025
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Eu-Meh increased the pressure on Chow’s shoulders as this latter stopped in her tracks and turned around to face her.
- Don’t turn, don’t attract anyone’s attention, said Eu-Meh - What do you mean you know who killed Cuifen, said Chow - I said I think I know who killed her, though I am not certain - Tell me now, I cannot wait to hear this - Promise me first that you will not do anything as I only have a suspicion, not a certainty on who the killer is - Tell me, tell me or I will go mad - Calm down Chow, people are starting to stare at us - Let us go to your house and talk then
Chow could hardly contain her impatience and it was now her who was leading the way towards Eu-Meh’s house. She glanced back and saw Ju-Long scowling at them and she wondered if it was him, Eu-Meh’s nephew who had done it. She knew how hot headed the boy could be despite all of his aunt’s efforts in raising him to be a good young man. She had also overheard him speaking to his aunt of his aspirations regarding Cuifen and wondered if he had killed her in a fit of rage after she had refused his love. She too knew that Cuifen wanted to go to the big city and make a name for herself as a singer. Other people who had heard of Cuifen’s aspirations thought it a scandal but Chow had always wanted Cuifen to remain free-spirited and not weighed down by tradition like she had been, having to endure a lifetime of beatings because she could not divorce her husband. She would never have let anything similar happen to her beloved daughter but all of that was so far away now.
Chow’s shoulders heaved and she started to cry again, her ugly and usually expressionless face contorted into a hideously sorrowful mask as she let out a wail that seemed to never end. Eu-Meh grabbed her again by the shoulders and half-dragged, half-hauled her to her house. As soon as they entered, Eu-Meh removed her and Chow’s shoes and pulled Chow towards the kitchen. She sat her in front of the fire that she had left burning and prepared some tea for both of them. Chow was prostrate again, her eyes staring emptily at the fire in front of her. Eu-Meh thrust a cup of tea into Chow’s hands and slowly put her fingers around the cup so that she could actually hold it. Chow seemed to slowly emerge from her lethargy and looked at Eu-Meh with renewed tears in her eyes.
- Who was it, she said - I told you I think I know who it is but I am not sure. Do you remember Fang, the little girl who used to come and play with Ju-Long when he first came to my house after his mother died? - I am not sure, what does she look like? - It is the young girl whom you might have seen at my house when I first introduced Cuifen to Ju-Long. She was also at the burial today, sitting just behind Ju-Long. A young girl whose braided hair was topped with jasmine and peonies. - Why would she want to kill Cuifen? Why now? - I think she never forgave Cuifen for stealing away Ju-Long’s heart. After he had met Cuifen, he never bothered to meet with Fang again and every time he received written messages or gifts from her he just threw them away in front of the door. I have seen her many times cry when she saw those discarded items and have scolded him many times for being so cruel to her but he could not care for anybody else than Cuifen. She was his whole life. - Why would she kill her now if not before? - The night of Cuifen’s murder, Ju-Long had come back home in a very sombre mood. He looked so angry that I later thought that maybe he had killed Cuifen but it was not the case. I overheard him some days ago fighting with Fang and he was telling her that whatever she had done, it would not make him love her as he would always love Cuifen and not her even though Cuifen was dead. - So did Fang tell him she killed Cuifen? - No, but from what I heard, she had seen him watching Cuifen and Ming-Hoa in what he thought was an embrace, not realising that Ming-Hoa had actually assaulted Cuifen. When he had started retreating, disgusted and angry, she popped out of her hiding place and tried to take his hand but he had broken away and started running towards his home. Later on, she had told him that Cuifen had not been embracing Ming-Hoa and that, on the contrary, she had been struggling to get rid of him before he covered her mouth to stifle her cries and caused her to faint. - I still don’t understand. Why did she kill Cuifen and how did she do that? - I think that she had tried initially to help Cuifen by pulling away Ming-Hoa by his hair and hitting him on the head. It might be that later, on seeing Cuifen lying still and helpless, she decided to get rid of her rival in order to win back Ju-Long’s heart.
Chow jumped up with amazing agility for her age and started to run towards the door. Eu-Meh realised that she meant to go and attack Fang and rushed towards the door blocking Chow’s exit. The two women stood face to face, one with her face contorted with rage and the other with dismay that she could be the reason why Chow might commit a murder. She would have to find a way to calm her down although she realised it was going to be very hard to reason with Chow now…
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Mother sensed her questions and Mama Jain wondered why she bothered keeping things to herself as Mother would anyway always know what it was that she was thinking about. Mother told her that the segmentation was required because the Goddess dwelt more in the metaphysical world and required hiding from the world portions of her that would cause too much damage to human beings if exposed in the physical. After the initial segmentation into six portions, there was in 2020 another series of fragmentation that brought the total for the Goddess to 9 segments of mind together with what was Mama Jain’s own mind which remained the independent 10th mind. All the minds could communicate together while remaining totally independent from each other. Mama Jain could not access the other 9 portions if the Goddess deemed it undesirable for her.
The fragmentation of Mama Jain’s mind had been a lengthy and painful process for the mind itself although Mama Jain’s consciousness had not felt anything. This was not because consciousness did not feel anything but more because Mama Jain’s consciousness had left her body, leaving only the mind to respond to external stimuli in an automated way. The mind’s solitary automated way was however stilted and sometimes bizarre as there remained a partial connection with the consciousness making what the mind interpreted rather warped and erratic. Therefore, while Mama Jain’s consciousness was away experiencing something totally different and difficult to understand for her mind, the body was responding with a mind that could only rely on a bunch of memories both lived and heard of without the possibility of distinguishing one from the other making her reactions weird for others.
Given that Mother was now explaining, Mama Jain asked her why precisely 9 fragments and Mother explained that this was due to the tertiary system that was the only valid one to allow one to remain out of the world of duality. Indeed, upon entering Mama Jain’s body, the Goddess would somehow be sucked into portions of duality and the way this could interact with the Goddess’ heavenly presence had never been tested before. Therefore, to avoid any harm to the host, the main parts of the Goddess would be put as consciousness split among the 9 minds as nine was the square of 3. From an arithmetical point of view, 9 was equal to 7 plus 2 so represented the value of heavenly abode sitting side by side with duality and not being integrated into it. Mama Jain found these mathematical descriptions bizarre but decided that she was not one to be able to counter Mother’s explanations with any valid arguments so made a mental note of what she was saying.
Mother mentioned to Mama Jain that Gaia had begun the journey of 30 years that was leading to the final evolution into Nova Gaia in 2016 but had had to reset owing to some conflicting nodes of information. She had now resumed her journey towards Nova Gaia which would now see the light of day in 2050. During her consciousness journey, Gaia would gravitate towards new realms making it possible for mankind to see previously unseen planets and stars. While humanity would think that these were new elements in the cosmos, it would actually only be because of Gaia’s metaphysical journey with the evolution of her consciousness which would entail the evolution of human consciousness and be at the same time dependent upon it. The evolution of human consciousness would then lead to humanity discovering what was already there but not visible before given Gaia’s alternate consciousness. In short, humanity saw what Gaia had unfolded because Gaia “saw” by reaching a new realm of consciousness something that had always been there. Mama Jain had already known that the journey had begun but she had not fathomed that this would be connected with a recalculation of the 30 years making the treaty on Mars now only possible by 2050. As Mother had left by now, she sat back in her chair and rocked herself to the music, feeling the soothing music engulf her…
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