The Tale Never Ends

Our eyeballs nearly popped out of their sockets when we saw the things disappearing right before us! Slowly, all of us turned our gaze at Big Sister, imploring her tacitly for an answer.

Big Sister chuckled, pleased with herself. Her fox’s ears twitched as we watched her and she pointed at her earring which shook and twinkled once like a little star. Out of nowhere, Lin Feng’s whip appeared in her hand!

Big Sister chortled again proudly. “You are not the only one whom Father had left an heirloom; this earring Father gave me is also a magical item too!” Being all too familiar with fantasy novels about magic, sorcery, and the attainment of immortality, I confirmed, “That’s an earring with storage abilities?” “Well, I guess you can call it that,” Big Sister tilted her head in wonder before she finally nodded. “I’ve not heard anyone calling it this way before though. This was something Father kept with him. It opens a small magical dimensional space where we can store anything, large or small, inside except living things.”

I was slightly mesmerized if not envious of Big Sister’s earring. But wait. Big Sister had mentioned before that Father took it off his own ear and gave it to her. Since when does Father wear earrings?! I have never seen him wearing one before!

Then again, Father had always been known for his quirkiness. Wearing earrings should suit him well enough, I smiled.

We hopped on a train at the county seat of Wu Zhong. Big Sister never stopped keeping her eyes peeled for anything that whizzed by the windows. Just then, a voice approached us, calling loudly, “Beers, drinks, mineral water! Peanuts, baked seeds, and instant noodles! Hey, boy! Get your legs off the aisle!”

I immediately withdrew my foot to allow the woman pushing the food cart to pass. She smiled at me as she trotted off, plying her wares with the voice of a blaring trumpet. Big Sister tore her eyes off the window and asked, her head nudging at the back of the woman. “What’s she doing?” “I’m sure you’ve seen peddlers pushing carts of food around the streets before?” I said and Big Sister nodded tentatively. “It’s almost the same,” I said again, “It’s quite a journey from here to our stop. And this woman is pushing her cart around, selling snacks and refreshments.” And Big Sister nodded again.

Big Sister had learned a great deal since leaving the mountains. She understood that she would need to better equip herself to survive and thrive in today’s society—a matrix of differing ideas, views, beliefs, cultures, desires, and distractions. Yet Big Sister preferred to learn and comprehend her new environment on her own without asking many questions. But I guess that could only be normal; my Big Sister took immense pride in her exceptional learning and reasoning abilities after all.

Lin Feng and Chongxi sat together, talking to each other sporadically about Zhang Zhigui and his letter. But I had hardly any interest in the conversation, at least not until we knew more. Edelweiss sat by my side with her arms curled around mine, wearing a set of headphones as she listened to some guzheng music.

It has been some time since we got hitched to each other, I mused. Edelweiss was the kind of girl almost every man would dream of. A girl who would try her best to understand you and that included your likes and dislikes as well as your job. I knew from the start that Edelweiss was good with a horsehead fiddle—morin khuur in Mongolia—and only that. But now, she had been trying to learn more about guzheng, listening to guzheng music whenever she was free, just for me. But that was not all. She had also been learning about online games and reading about my line of work—Chinese magic and sorcery, the paranormal and the occult and the like. All because all of these were part of my life and she wished to know more about me like how a good little wife should. But despite the many times I had told her that she needed not to push herself too hard, Edelweiss still felt that she could have done more.

But it should have not been surprising to me. Edelweiss admired Aunt Ulan so greatly that she did her best to emulate her in every way and every mind. Simply by reading Aunt Ulan’s expression and gestures, she could immediately read Aunt Ulan’s mind and she was indeed the best person to be Aunt Ulan’s deputy at her camp. And now, being my wife, Edelweiss was doing the same. But a strange dread crept through me. In some ways, this is love: you surrender to the person you love everything else that you hold dear, including your freedom and your deepest secret! It could virtually be impossible for me to keep a cache of money of my own, I grimaced quietly, nevermind cheating behind her!

I shook my head, smiling to myself dismally. But Big Sister saw me and asked, “What’s wrong, Little Brother?” “Nothing!” I replied at once, “Just thinking about the state of becoming one with my sword.” She was however pleased, thinking that I was actually earnest to learn more. “Just ask me if you need anything, okay!”

I merely nodded, wondering if I had said something I should not have.

Still, Big Sister never took her eyes off me, watching me intently as if she was prodding at me to ask her for help. Relenting, I asked the first question I thought of, “I can’t seem to understand how being one with the Shiyan Blade could make me so tired.” “Err… I don’t know the answer to that either,” Big Sister answered, “No one sword is exactly the same as another. Each blade is singular, you need to first remember this. So is the state of each person’s oneness with his weapon. But I have never thought of this exhaustion of yours before. You are the Spirit of the Shiyan Blade; your oneness with it should have been the most perfect.”

I pursed my lips and shrugged. “Well, I guess we’d have to ask Father when we get back then. If anyone should know anything about it, it must be him,” I muttered. That seemed to fill Big Sister with a whiff of pride, “Of course! Father is so great that no mortal man could ever hope to equal.” That compliment from her earned a shrug of assent from me.

We were talking when suddenly we felt someone coming close. We turned and saw a young lad dressed in the uniform of the train company, carrying a shopping basket as he shuffled down the aisle. He stopped beside us and put down his basket to take out something.

We stared at him. This must be one of the salespeople on the train, now peddling whatever things he was trying to sell. I watched him curiously as he took out something from the basket, peeled off its wrapper and took out something that I first thought was candy. Then he began giving a sample each to everyone in the coach, saying aloud, “Exotic blueberries from Mount Changbai! Wild exotic blueberries! How is it, young lady? Is it good? How about a bag of it? It doesn’t cost a lot. Only ten yuan each!”

Big Sister smiled as she chewed on the blueberries and the young lad hovered around her like a butterfly over a rose, saying, “How is it, lady? It’s good, eh?”

True to the tradition of our Murong family, Big Sister was also a deviously mischievous one. From the nasty look she gave the little lad, I could see that she was concocting some mischief! She spat out her blueberry, now a blue-black misshapen blob both wet and lumpy and smacked her lips. “Hmm… I can’t see how especially “exotic” these berries are…” Last but not least, she flashed a coquettish smile that made the young man’s heart swoon. He took out another berry from his bag and even assiduously peeled its skin before feeding it to Big Sister, whose mouth gaped wide with tremendous alacrity.

I stared at Big Sister’s bold and suggestive grin as she chomped at the berry and thought, you should be careful of what you wish for, young man!

“How was it?” The young man asked again, “Do you like it?” “Hmm… Taste’s not bad…” Big Sister nodded, wearing a satisfied smile. “How about a bag? We have a 5+1 offer; buy 5 bags and get 1 for free!” “How much is a bag of these berries?” Big Sister asked, wantonly unabashed. The smile on the young man’s face only grew wider by the second. “Oh, it’s not a lot. It’s only 10 for each!”

For the past few days, among the many things that I had been trying to drill Big Sister in many basics about living in modern society, the concept of money was one of the most important lessons that she had a knack in. As soon as she heard the price of the bags of blueberries, Big Sister pouted her lips at once, putting on a look that would have so easily melted the hearts of so many boys. “10 yuan?! That’s so expensive! I used to pick these freely when I lived in the wilderness of Mount Changbai. They’re everywhere! But here you are, selling a bag of a paltry few berries for 10 yuan!” Hearing this, the boy was not in the least angry. Instead, the grin on his face only grew broader; in fact, he began to reveal his true self, saying, “Oh, we must be neighbors then! I live nearby too! Let me offer you one for free as a token of friendship!” The mention of “free’ made Big Sister nodded profusely, her head bobbing up and down like a balloon. The young man took another new bag of berries from his basket and gave it to Big Sister. But he did not forget to whip out his cell phone. “How about leaving me your WeChat ID? We can be friends and chat, seeing as we’re neighbors!”

Big Sister’s hand froze before her fingers even closed in on the bag of blueberries when the phrase “Wechat ID” reached her ears. Then there was the unmistakable whiff of rage in her eyes! The phrase was now a taboo to Big Sister; the brawl at the hot pot restaurant started because of thug’s request for Big Sister’s Wechat ID, hence until this day, the definition of the phrase “Wechat ID” was synonymous to bullying her darling Little Brother and teasing her!

I quickly reached for the bag of berries and tried to hush Big Sister down before things could escalate, speaking to the young man, “My Big Sister grew up in rural areas far away from the city. She’s only been with me for just a few days. So she doesn’t have a Wechat account yet.”