Hua Jin sucked his breath in sharply at that. He hadn’t expected Natalia to be so astute as to tamper with the calendar.
This would mean…
During the period that Alice was observing her, there could have been times that it was her and not Natalisa who had woken up and marked the calendar?
He was afraid to ask. Because the moment he asked, Natalia would know about the surveillance. So… Natalia would misunderstand them and think they had some sort of ulterior motive.
“On that day, after I’d replaced the diary, I went out on the balcony to sunbathe. At 9am, the professor came into the room and, as usual, went to the desk to look through the calendar. After that, he came out on the balcony, but it wasn’t my name he called out to.
“Natalisa?”
“Yes. He called me Natalisa.” Natalia narrowed her eyes. “I suddenly sensed there was a connection between the professor and Natalisa.”
The actor listened, intrigued. “What happened in the end?”
“I pretended to be very calm. He called me Natalisa, so I pretended to be Natalisa. He said he wanted to continue his previous homework, so I followed him to a laboratory. In that laboratory, another strange man appeared and taught me some very strange things.”
“What did he teach you?”
“Hypnosis?”
Natalia raised her eyebrows in confusion. “I think that’s the term. I think it was called hypnosis!”
“Did the man have a crystal ball?”
Natalia shook her head at that. “No.”
“No? What did he use then?”
“You know the device used to keep time when playing the piano?”
“I do. A metronome. Did he only use a metronome?”
“No. There was also a clock.”
“A clock?”
“Uh huh…”
Natalia continued, “He began to teach me to experiment. I remember, at the time, he summoned an assistant to his side and began to show me what hypnosis was. He first placed a metronome in front of his assistant. Immediately after that, he gave a long speech. After a few minutes, the assistant was obviously drowsy, so he gently moved the needle…”
“And then the assistant lost consciousness?”
“No. Instead, his eyes widened even more.”
The actor’s jaw dropped. Wasn’t she talking about hypnosis? Why was it so different from what he’d imagined?
Natalia explained, “The assistant’s eyes widened. Then the man started questioning him about what had happened in the past two days. Then the man told him that what had happened in the last two days was nothing more than a dream, and then at the count of three, he would forget all that had happened during that time. After that, he started the countdown. At the end of that, with a snap of his fingers, the man went limp and passed out.”
He was impressed. “So that’s how real hypnosis works?”
“I can’t remember the details. I also felt muddle-headed and scared that day. I kept worrying about my identity being exposed. Actually, I wasn’t sure if the professor really believed that I was Natalisa. I always felt that my acting was poor. I was afraid that he would recognize me, so I was always careful.”
“What happened in the end?”
“I had lessons all day.” After a pause, Natalia continued, “I just had this nagging feeling that the professor was acting strangely towards me that day.”
