Derek had given up his job as an English schoolmaster to go and do a Chinese degree because of his interest in the Chinese culture: the history, philosophy, literature and language.
Being a Westerner and as it was early days for Sino British trade, there wasn’t much scope at the time (he graduated in 1980) for him to be employed in anything that would use his Chinese language skills, so he did a Swedish massage course and got a part-time job working as a masseur at a health spa. It was a fairly new concept at the time, I think.
Derek would be on duty, waiting for anyone who’d booked in for a weekend stay at the spa to come for a massage when they wanted one — for relaxation rather than for treating any particular problem like a bad back.
Derek added his own pre-massage routine to the session: running his hands a couple of inches above and along the person’s body to get the qì (氣 (/ 气 / vital energy) going first.
On this occasion, when his hands got to the liver area, Derek got a putrid smell. He said to the woman, “You should get your liver seen to.”
She nearly fell off the massage table in surprise, “How did you know that? Even my doctor couldn’t tell without the X-ray results, which only arrived yesterday. That’s why I’m here for the weekend spa, as the results are not good and I’m stressed out.”
(England, 1981?2?)
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