The Tale Never Ends

The salesman immediately froze when I yanked the bag of berries out of his hand and realized that he had been too direct and facetious. He stowed away his phone and quickly withdrew away with Big Sister enjoying her berries, simpering at herself.

He quickly took out more bags of berries from his basket and began hawking his goods to other passengers as if the earlier episode with Big Sister was only a dream. But no one else would be foolish enough to let such a fat chance to get away! The rest of the other passengers mobbed the salesman with shouts and screams, “We are also your neighbors too! Give us each one free bag! We’ll give you our Wechat IDs!” This train was coming from the direction of North-eastern China and most of the passengers boarded the train from the first stop. Everything turned into a disaster for the salesman. Never did he realize that his flippant attempt to get Big Sister’s contact would turn into a catastrophe!

Big Sister flashed a proud smirk at her triumph that made us all giggled. Then I thrust a hand into Big Sister’s bag and grabbed a handful of berries. I shoved one into my mouth and peeled another before feeding it to Edelweiss. Feigning exasperation, Big Sister grumbled, “Come on! There’re only so many berries inside one bag! What you just took is almost everything! Gimme back a little! Come on!” I raised aloft my fistful of berries so that Big Sister could not reach them, screaming, “No! I’ll tell Father and Mother about what you did! You cheating charlatan! I’ll make sure they’ll punish you for cheating innocents!” “Mind your own business, you little whelp,” Big Sister hissed as she leaped, trying to grab at my outstretched arm, “Gimme that!”

Sitting opposite our seats, Lin Feng and Chongxi burst into guffaws watching us. Chongxi patted on the former’s shoulders and said, “Shiyan is still good to me. I’m even shorter than Big Sister Lan and yet he never once tried this on me.” And another burst of laughter erupted.

We reached Shanggu, Chengde after another three hours. Yishui Town was not very far from Shanggu, being in Yi County, Hebei. Wu Zhong was famous for the Eight Sights of Wu Zhong while Yi County was also known for its very own “ten sights” which were all popular tourist attractions. Additionally, Yi County was also the place where many prominent figures in history hailed from. Among them included Jing Ke who was most famous for his assassination attempt on Qin Shi Huang and the Five Heroes of Mount Langya, five war heroes during China’s repulsion of Japanese forces during the Second World War.

We called for a cab and told the driver our destination, Yishui of Yi County. “You’re looking to go sightseeing, or…” The cab driver asked. I quickly turned to Chongxi, scratching my head. “Do you know where Zhang Zhigui’s home is?” Chongxi thought for a moment and he told the driver, “It’s somewhere north of Yishui. A village called Dongyubu.” The cab driver nodded. He twisted his keys and the taxi roared to life. “You guys look like some students looking for classmates?” And that comment made my lips curled. That was hardly surprising. A bunch of young people going to somewhere unknown instead of the usual tourist attractions.

Getting no answer from us, the cab driver turned back to face the front and steered his vehicle out of the train station. Apparently, the journey would take a while. According to the cab driver, our destination, Dongyubu Village was at the north-eastern corner of Yi County while we were still in Shanggu Town, very well beyond the outskirts of Yi County itself.

The one-hour journey would then cost me more than a hundred yuan, much to my chagrin. When we finally reached our destination, I got down the taxi, feeling sort of cheated. But there was hardly anything we could do as strangers here. Places like these would most likely be serviced by express buses, but we did not know where the bus terminals were at.

We were dropped at the front of Dongyubu Village and to our amazement, it was a very old village. There were also quite a number of new brick-and-mortar buildings, some of them even few stories high, but we felt as if we had strolled into a settlement in some bygone age.

Just then, a young man was riding an electric motorcycle, coming out of the village. I quickly strode over and waved him down. “Hi there. I would like to ask if there’s a family called Zhang here.” The man stared at me with a perplexed expression and said, “Most of the people here are Zhang.” Oh my, I should have known! “My apologies. We’re looking for a Zhang family where the head of the family is a young man in his twenties.”

“What is the name of this person you’re looking for?” The man asked suddenly. “Zhang Zhigui. Wait. I think he should be called Zhang Ying,” I muttered apprehensively. The man broke into a smile. “You should’ve just said so! He’s a kin of mine! Come, I’ll bring you to him!”

The man wheeled his bike around and led us back into the village with us trotting behind. I cantered ahead and said to the man, “So, Zhang Zhigui’s your brother. So you’re…” “I’m Zhang Su. But according to the customs of my family, I’m more commonly addressed as Yuelu (literally, Lunar Deer). It’s the courtesy name given to me. Zhigui is an elder cousin of mine.” I nodded, uttering an off-handed “Oh.” So this is Zhang Zhigui’s younger cousin, I mused. It was a surprise to run into a member of Zhigui’s family just at the entrance of the village. Still, it was strange finding Zhang Zhigui’s family nowhere near as pedantic and abstruse as he was.

Before long, we came to a large set of doors. A looming monolith with tiled roofings built in ancient Chinese style. Zhang Su went to the door and banged hard on the doors with large knockers. Then I began to realize why did we felt as if we had walked back into older times: all of the buildings in this village retained old Chinese architectural styles, especially older buildings that maintained styles of the Han Dynasty!

A series of hurried footsteps came from the other side of the doors. The loud scuffing of shoes on stone stopped suddenly and one of the doors creaked open. A lean, scrawny face looked out and the emaciated frame of the person who opened the door emerged and I saw the same baggy eyes that always reminded me of Nagato from the anime Naruto whenever I saw them—Yan Jishi, one of the Champions of Yishui! Zhang Zhigui’s companion who would never stop sprouting expletives!

Seeing us standing outside, Yan Jishi chuckled. “You’re here! That’s so fast! We were just talking about how you guys might need another few more days to arrive! Come on in! Come on, don’t dawdle outside!” He waved us in, pushing the door wider for us.

We walked into the wide courtyard and there was Lu Bugong and Zhang Zhigui. The former was inside the main hall, twiddling with some wooden blocks and Zhang Zhigui was playing with a little girl. They both stop when they saw us and froze for a second before they smiled. Zhang Zhigui rushed to me and grabbed my hand. “I can’t believe that you’re already here, Shiyan! I’ve been expecting you!” “Look at you,” I replied serenely, trying to put up my best face, “I was already on the way as soon as I read your letter.” Zhang Zhigui then greeted everyone warmly. But all of us knew that everything was only a play. A play-acting on Zhang Zhigui’s part. Hence, none of us really took his words to heart.

Lu Bugong noticed Edelweiss and greeted her mildly, “Hi, Edelweiss. Wow, you two lovebirds are sure inseparable,” which Edelweiss returned only a polite and placid nod.

My patience was evaporating with all the small talk going on. “Zhigui,” I said, putting up a benign expression, “Tell me. What’s going on? Your letter only said you needed our help.” It was hardly time yet for me to show my hand and I thought it best to play on for the moment. We could not alert our enemy, whoever or whatever he or she might be until the time was right. With a fake smile to pretend to fall for his ruse, I went on, “You sounded really hurried in your letter and said nothing about this trouble.”

Zhang Zhigui first led us inside and ushered us to our seats. Then he said to Zhang Su and the little girl, “Yuelu, Youwei. Please leave us.” Zhang Su and the little girl looked at each other and promptly turned and left, leaving only the five of us with Zhang Zhigui and his companions.

“What is it? Trouble so grave that not even you three can handle?” I pressed. Zhang Zhigui nodded first before he evaded my question. “Shiyan, I have been looking into your Shiyan Blade. Do you know what have I found?”

Chongxi, I, and the rest of my companions traded quick looks before I turned my gaze back to Zhang Zhigui and asked, “What is it that you’ve discovered?”

Zhang Zhigui chuckled. “Here’s what I found: Woe is at hand whenever Shiyan Blade reemerges! To put it more precisely, whenever the Shiyan Blade appears out of hiding that would be when trouble strikes!”