The Tale Never Ends

“Of course, I understand! Perfectly, sir! I’d be bringing the boys there on the double!” Sergeant Zhan uttered apprehensively and he took a deep breath before he redirected his attention back to me. “Well, that was a call from the top…” He explained wearily, “The… the…” “What’s going on, Sergeant Zhan?” I asked. I just had to, even though I know exactly what was going on.

Beads of perspiration rolled anxiously down his face as he struggled to keep himself under control after listening to the unbelievable report from the District Headquarters. “The call came from HQ,” he said again to me, “The victim has awakened suddenly from death. Everyone there now is either shocked or terrified.” An amused smile broke across my face as I emitted an interested “Oh?” and the sergeant went on, “The victim has given a statement after he’s woken up and what he said cleared you. You’re free to go.” He indicated a signal to the young police officer who promptly left with a nod. Then Sergeant Zhan got to his feet just as I was rising from my chair. He placed a hand on my shoulder with a feigned smile, saying, “Well, I’m sorry for the trouble just now. But I’m sure you understand that it was my job.” I responded with a pretentious grin myself and nodded before I brusquely left the interrogation room.

Zheng Shuang saw us out of the police station, looking embarrassed and sorry. He hesitated and finally spoke when we were strolling down the steps. “Well, urm… Shiyan… Is there anything I can do for you?” “Nope,” I said, shaking my head, “But thanks. And thank the chief too. For his confidence in us.” Zheng Shuang nodded, saying nothing.

He drove us back to the Center in a patrol car but he did not come in with us as he still had work to do. Edelweiss and Big Sister were inside and both were worried sick about us. They were so surprised and shocked when they saw us and I gave them a concise account of what happened. “Clearly, Huang Li thought she could land us into trouble. At first, she wanted to trap me inside her Bamen Dunjia enchantment, only for Cao Xuedong to die instead. I guess she failed to resurrect him, so out of spite, she reported to the police. Fortunately, we came back just in time to put a stop to the whole debacle. At least, this part of the trouble is solved.” Big Sister nodded approvingly. “You don’t know how worried we were, both Edelweiss and I…” an uptight her mumbled skittishly, “Father and Mother went missing suddenly without notice, leaving on a little note, saying that they are going for a tour. Then Zheng Shuang appeared, asking to look for Father…”

Nodding my head and gently placing an assuring hand on hers, I interjected softly, saying, “All right, all right. Everything’s fine now. Huang Li’s the one behind all this but everything’s okay now.” Big Sister nodded again, visibly relieved. Edelweiss had slipped out to make a phone call at the first sight of us coming back; it must be to inform Yuanyuan and Xiao Yu about our return.

Indeed, even before our seats were warm, Xiao Yu and Yuanyuan rushed through the door, both tense and upset until they finally calmed down after seeing Lin Feng and Chongxi. Yuanyuan wrapped her arms around Lin Feng’s neck and shook it wildly, “Where have you been for an entire week!? Don’t you know how worried we were?! We thought you were really on the run after murdering someone!” Lin Feng hugged his girlfriend and consoled her, saying, “Don’t worry. Look at us, we’re fine.” Xiao Yu, the more demure and soft-spoken of the two, only stood by, her lips pouting with tears streaming down her pink face.

Scowling at Chongxi’s blockheadedness, Big Sister delivered a flying kick into his hind parts. Rubbing his back, Chongxi huddled closer to Xiao Yu and tried his best to comfort her, only to no avail. In the end, he could only wipe the tears of her eyes.

I grinned and looked at Edelweiss who sat beside me reticently. She looked relaxed, yet I was not. She might have missed me for only a week, but it was years for me! I reached and took her hand. “Don’t you miss me,” I spoke softly. “Everyone’s looking,” she replied, pretending to push me away. “So that means when everyone’s away, we can…” I whispered, the grin on my face grew broader. A bright scarlet patch blazed on Edelweiss’ face as she averted her gaze, saying nothing.

As the only single unattached in the room, Big Sister grimaced at us being in couples and pairs without any apparent consideration for her presence. Annoyed, she cleared her throat distinctively, capturing everyone’s attention and we parted instantly when we realized what was happening, all of us embarrassed beyond words.

With everyone finally settled back to normal, Big Sister began steering the subject back to our travel into the past. “Tell us about your trip of pilgrimage into the past.” Lin Feng, Chongxi, and I looked at each other. “Well, what was a week to you all,” I said, “Was actually a few years to us.” Big Sister’s and Edelweiss’ eyes immediately widened as they became stunned by what they heard. Xiao Yu and Yuanyuan looked only slightly confused as they did not know the whole truth.

Lin Feng then began explaining to them the true nature of our trip that we were on a journey of pilgrimage, not in the present, but in the past. The revelation left both Xiao Yu and Yuanyuan bewildered with disbelief, especially Xiao Yu, who looked as if she could not quite believe what she was hearing, but Yuanyuan was looking rather envious.

Hardly witty with words, Chongxi never once mentioned to the introverted Xiao Yu about our quest. In fact, they rarely talked about our adventures. On the other hand, Yuanyuan and Lin Feng were another completely different combination; they talked so much about our adventures that I daresay that Lin Feng must have told her another heavily-exaggerated account of my first travel through Time before and that must be why she looked so envious now.

Big Sister was at least mollified that we were fine and well. She propped a leg over a knee, saying, “All right then. Let’s talk about that magistrate constable who came looking for Father. What is going on actually? He refused to tell us anything.” Knowing that the “magistrate constable” was in fact Zheng Shuang, I shrugged. “After I apprehended the Cao Xuedong’s ghost at his house, I handed him to his girlfriend, Huang Li. But it appears that she failed to revive him. Somehow, she came up with the idea of reporting the incident to the authorities so that they would come to arrest me.” Big Sister furrowed a brow and pressed on, “And then?”

“What else?” Lin Feng quipped, saying, “We came back in time. Would you believe it? We came back right inside the Wu Zhong Police Station. Zheng Shuang was so shocked when he saw us that he choked when he was eating and noodles sprouted right out of his nostrils!” And Lin Feng burst into fits of guffaws.

Big Sister stared strangely at Lin Feng with a disapproving look on her face. Chongxi, still wiping beads of tears off Xiao Yu’s eyelashes, added, “We sent Xiao Qi and her sisters to the police district headquarters so that one of them could enter Cao Xuedong’s dead body and pretend to be him. That should clear us all.”

“Hahahaha!” Big Sister laughed and said, “You must have been learning how to cheat during your time outside! Come on, is it even logical that a person who’s been dead for seven days wake up again! Imagine how many people could be scared witless by this!” I giggled, shrugging my shoulders. “Well, that’s the least of our concern for now. At first, I only wanted Xiao Qi to pretend to be Cao Xuedong, move his body somewhere else and leave it there. But I discovered that the officer in charge of this inquiry, the one who came from the district headquarters, was also one of Huang Li’s kin. I was having hallucinations again when I shook his hand. So I decided to play a stronger hand. He could be maintaining contact with Huang Li. God knows what else they’re plotting now.”

“So where are Xiao Qi and her sisters now?” I answered with a smile, “Home, naturally. They are to go home immediately right after their errand.” That elicited an exasperated smile from Big Sister.

As we were talking, Chongxi remembered something suddenly. He turned to Yuanyuan, saying, “Speaking of errands, bring us to your old house later. We have an errand to do there.” “What errand?” Yuanyuan looked at him suspiciously. A perplexed Lin Feng then understood and he quipped, saying, “To take something back.”

Yuanyuan shrugged her shoulder with ambivalence then she too remembered something. “You reminded me of something as well, now that we’re talking about my old place.” Everyone looked at her. “The settlements at my old place are being demolished. The building team was moving West, demolishing all of the abandoned buildings there until they were forced to halt. There have been rumors… Rumors that they have encountered something bizarre!”

If she was expecting a strong and enthusiastic reception from us, she would be disappointed. None of us stirred and the few years of training in the past had seen to that. We had been seeing demons and monsters as frequently as we saw humans that there was little that could surprise us anymore.

A disenchanted Yuanyuan continued, “The building team is now just outside an old residence. They’ve tried everything but nothing they did could do anything to remove any brick or mortar from the ancient building. There have been people saying that the house was so old that it has developed a consciousness of its own. The vehicles and motors that the building team is using fail whenever they want to do anything. In the end, the foreman of the building team sent a man to climb the roof. The man was ordered to start by removing the tiles from the top but guess what happened to him!”

She paused to let the moment sink in, hoping that she could try pique our interest again only to meet the blank stares coming from us. Looking positively forlorn now, she divulged, saying, “An unseen force pushed him off the roof and the man rolled down like a ball and fell to the ground with a good many tiles coming down and crashed on him. He’s in the hospital now, badly injured. I heard that the foreman has sent for a Taoist priest a few days ago. They say he’d be performing a ritual soon!”