Chapter 891: Anchor Point
"What?"
"I'm afraid that my memories might vanish now." The White Sheep said. "I've never felt this way before. In the past, I just gave myself subtle suggestions day after day, but now I'm starting to feel scared... There are many things I cannot forget, and many people I must remember..."
That familiar feeling was coming back again... The White Sheep had started saying things I needed to carefully comprehend.
"I don't really understand... Brother Yang." I said. "You're already an 'Earth-level Zodiac' now... Logically speaking, it's impossible for you to 'lose your memory,' right? Aside from continuing to 'ascend'... you would..."
I couldn't bring myself to say 'vanish into nothingness,' but the White Sheep could surely guess.
"What if I'm about to become something beyond the 'Zodiac'?" The White Sheep asked. "I'm really a bit scared... Yan Zhichun, I'm walking a path that no one in this world has ever walked before. I don't know what's waiting for me ahead."
"I... I understand..."
Lu Xun once said that there is no path in the world at first; when many people walk it, it becomes a path.
But if in a pitch-black direction, only a single person gropes forward in the dark... can that still be called a path?
"So, what can truly etch memories into the heart?" The White Sheep asked again.
"Brother Yang... asking me this question... isn't that a bit..."
"No, I think you can help me answer it." The White Sheep said. "You once inadvertently solved a huge problem for me."
"I...?" I didn't quite get it. The only time the White Sheep ever needed my help was when he was looking for a 'face,' and I wasn't even the one who found that face.
"Yes..." The White Sheep extended his hand covered in white fur and pointed to his temple. "It's 'the storage of knowledge.'"
I was momentarily stunned. "You should be far more knowledgeable than me now... but all that came from your own reading..."
"But you showed me a simpler way to remember things—using the names of various effects and theorems to organize and summarize. That way, I only need to remember a few words to retrieve the entire chain of knowledge."
I felt that the White Sheep was overestimating me a bit. Even if he really didn't know the names of those effects and theorems, it wouldn't have stopped him from figuring out that knowledge on his own.
"So do you have any other simple ways to store memories?" The White Sheep said. "Like effects, laws, or theorems—using small things to hold on to important memories."
"Well..." I thought carefully. It seemed I had actually made a conscious effort to learn memory techniques before.
But my starting point was really different from the White Sheep's... When I was a child, my memory wasn't very good, which led to poor academic performance, so I took the initiative to learn how to improve my memory.
But did the White Sheep really need these memory techniques?
"Brother Yang... I'm not sure if you'll find this useful..." I said in a low voice. "If you want to remember something important, you can use the 'Anchor Memory Method.' That is, when you're experiencing something important, associate it with something else. That way, when you see that thing later, it will trigger the memory of that moment."
"Something else...?" The White Sheep looked at me. "For example?"
"For example..."
I looked around for a while and found that there didn't seem to be anything in the room I could use as an example.
Suddenly, an idea struck me, so I reached out and knocked on the table in front of the White Sheep.
*Thump thump thump!*
The White Sheep's expression clearly froze when he heard the sound.
"Like this sound." I said. "When you feel something is important, you can knock on the table. That way, the next time you knock, you'll remember what you were doing the last time you knocked."
"So this is called the 'Anchor Memory Method'..."
The White Sheep nodded after hearing that. His expression wasn't that of someone learning something new, but rather someone realizing the name of a method he had been using all along.
"Brother Yang... have you been using this method all along?" I asked.
The White Sheep didn't answer. He just sighed and said, "Yan Zhichun, what if there's nothing at hand that can serve as an 'anchor point'? What if I can't even knock on a table?"
"Well..." I thought for a moment and said, "In what kind of situation would you need to establish an 'anchor point'?"
"For example, in a dream." The White Sheep said.
In a dream...?
"Actually, an imagined association object could also work."
"Imagined?"
I turned my head and noticed that on the White Sheep's desk, there was actually a cartoon lamb pattern.
"What's this...?" I picked up the cartoon lamb and found it was sewn from fabric.
"A 'client' left it here. She said she found it on the road and thought it suited me, so she gave it as thanks for helping her store her Tao." The White Sheep said. "I don't like such boring ways of showing gratitude. She would have been better off leaving a life here instead."
I shook my head helplessly, brought the cartoon lamb closer, and tucked it into the pocket on the left breast of the White Sheep's suit jacket.
"What are you doing?" The White Sheep frowned as he looked at his suit.
I had to admit... the White Sheep's stern face paired with that cartoon lamb created an indescribably bizarre image.
"Brother Yang, this cartoon lamb doesn't suit you at all." I said.
"Need you say that...?" The White Sheep said doubtfully.
"So this can also serve as an 'anchor point.'" I said. "I don't know if this example makes it clear. You wouldn't normally wear clothes with cartoon patterns, but if one day in a dream you suddenly find yourself wearing a shirt or suit with a cartoon pattern, you'd immediately realize 'something is very wrong' and so on..."
"Oh...?" The White Sheep squinted slightly, then nodded. "Any other examples?"
"Uh... also..." I really didn't know how to give more examples. "Brother Yang... is there something specific you need to remember? I think it's better to analyze based on the actual situation."
"I..." The White Sheep paused, then said, "I need to remember a flawless symbol. She appears together with 'Summer' and disappears together with 'Summer.' She is pure, tranquil, and perfect. Her appearance will lead us to see the end of everything."
I showed a troubled expression upon hearing this. The White Sheep's description was a bit too abstract.
What kind of thing did he need to remember?
A flawless 'symbol'...?
"At first, I need this symbol to lead me forward fearlessly. Then I need to use this symbol to plunge myself into despair. After that, this symbol will make me feel that 'something is very wrong.' Finally, she will lead me to the end."
After saying this, the White Sheep looked at me. "How can I accurately and separately remember the different states at different times?"
Good heavens... Had the White Sheep really not overestimated me?
This was clearly no longer a question I could answer. The White Sheep seemed to have revealed part of his plan to me, but every step was extremely abstract!
Yet somehow... I felt that the situation he was describing, I had read about in some book.