I went to the bonfire outside, and there was the hopeless Yuan Chongxi, engrossed so deeply in another binge of food and drinks...
Lin Feng waved me to his side, and I sat down. A girl handed him a lamb's leg which he passed to me. "Come, Brother! I know you'll love this!" I could not resist a smile, taking the roasted leg from him and nibbled a bite, tasting it. The rich flavor of the roasted meat tingled my senses; it was fabulous! Aunt Ulan sat down beside me, grinning. "Have some more, my good boy!" My head bobbed profusely like a little boy as I continued chomping down on my meat while taking a cup of kumis (fermented mare's milk) from her hand. It was the first time I had tasted such a drink, which was an impressive experience. Aunt Ulan was overjoyed to see me enjoying the food. She placed her fingers to her mouth and whistled hard, and the music and revelry rose to a crescendo as everyone rose to their feet and began dancing around the fire. Some were strumming
We were alerted by the arrival of a line of oxen-drawn wagons that waited outside the encampment at nine the following morning. Each of the wagons was carrying a large crate, and the convoy was led by the agent who had tried, and failed, to secure an audience with Aunt Ulan. "The goods are all on the ox carts," he said, "Feel free to inspect the goods, Chief Ulan!" Under orders from Aunt Ulan, some of the girls carefully pried open the lids of the crates and inspected the rifles and boxes of ammunition. Still wrapped in oil papers, the guns could be seen glistening with gun oil when the wrappers were peeled off! Satisfied, Aunt Ulan barked some instructions to her girls, ordering them to begin hauling the crates into the camp, but the agent came to her and stopped her immediately. "Wait!" he cried, "You can take the goods, but not the crates!" "What nonsense is this?" Aunt Ulan glared at him indignantly and earned the agent's hesitant answer, "I'm afraid this is my emp
When we went back, we began discussing the possible places that Zheng Tong might have escaped to. But the surrounding regions were nothing but a desolate no man's land; miles and miles of barren wastelands where no one could survive. An urgent call for help would also require at least a day or two for the police to arrive from the nearest station. I shook my head helplessly, looking at Yuan Chongxi, who looked at me too. I could see that he too loathed Zheng Tong very much, since his teacher had suffered a tormenting ordeal at the hand of Zheng Tong's father. "Zheng Tong's father, Zheng Haoshan, was the one that had caused great pain to my teacher!" he muttered bitterly, "The suffering that he bears even to this day, was also that evil monster's handiwork! But I do not think Zheng Tong is an overly smart and careful man. He was hardly careful enough when he thought he had us." I nodded in agreement. "He would not have been in such a pitiful state now if he was careful
When night fell, we watched Aunt Ulan's cabin from afar, watching through binoculars for any movement. Two pieces of talismans laid in two separate ashtrays on my table. Long have we waited, until one of the talismans broke into fire, disintegrating into cinders swiftly in its ashtray before its counterpart in another tray burst into flames as well? I yanked my binoculars from the table and peered into its barrel, scanning intently on the outside of Aunt Ulan's cabin. But everything was well; nothing outside was disturbed! I waited for another ten minutes, keeping a close watch at the cabin door. Something was wrong! I rushed out of my cabin, calling Lin Feng and Yuan Chongxi to keep up, and tore across the compound towards Aunt Ulan's cottage. We stormed through the door and turned on the lamps. I inspected the lamb skin mannequins and found a tiny blood-red dot on the decoy I had set in Aunt Ulan's bed! The enemy was here, and he had left! But how did he came in? We had been watch
With my two companions, Lin Feng and Yuan Chongxi, and Aunt Fen's six ghostly Sisters, I set off on a journey into Inner Mongolia; the trip, disguised as a travel tour, was in fact a crusade to investigate and eradicate the remnants of an evil cult, the Creed of the Eight Trigrams. Little did we realize that this was an elaborate ruse to lure me into a trap! Not only did the mastermind of the whole episode, a man called Zheng Tong, harbored hatred towards us three; moreover, he had a father called Zheng Haoshan, whom my father had slain for the atrocities he had committed many years ago. Zheng Haoshan joined the Creed and became the Seventh of the Thirteen Apostles of the diabolical order. He was hell-bent on enacting vengeance on me, having armed himself in a surplus of druidic and mediumistic sorcery in addition to shamanistic venomous curses that had caused us a string of troubles. During the course of our adventures, we encountered a former "paramour"
Mr. Kang was one of the councilmen of a village from Fengrun District. His mother was in hysteria over the disappearance of his neighbor's chicken. A simple matter of a missing chicken would not have a councilman traveled so far for help; but the owner of the chicken was a shrew, a termagant with an intolerable streak of temper that would embitter anyone who would dare commit the folly of antagonizing her. She was known to everyone in the village to sit and pout at the gates of anyone who had offended her, wearing the person down until apologies were tendered and disdainfully accepted by her. As it turned out, she woke up one day and found her chicken missing. But she had not even the slightest inkling of who to look for, sitting outside her house and began grumbling that her chicken must have been poached by weasels. Coincidentally, her angered complaints were heard by Mr. Kang's mother, who succumbed into fits of rage and anger herself. The old lady took to the streets, storming t
For the past few evenings, I had been adjourning directly to the Internet cafe once I had finished closing the Center that I spent my dinner time poring over the computer screens while munching my food. For an entire year, I had been cooped up in the Center, studiously perusing the booklet that my father had given me that I almost became a hermit that was detached from the world. It was only after our return from Inner Mongolia that I had found out the existence of a new Internet game that had grown popular more than a year ago. Much of my recent hours I had spent engrossed in the game, that I became part of a tacit brotherhood of players bound together by the game who regularly fill the seats of my nearby Internet cafe to the hilt as we chanted the mantra "WINNER WINNER, CHICKEN DINNER!" as we played the game. Even the caretaker of the cafe, a young girl, could easily recognize me now; not only I had subscribed for a five-hundred-yuan account, but I had also become on
The large double-decker was not a normal bus coming from nor it was heading to somewhere else; it was a conveyance from the Underworld, here to deliver spirits and ghosts! The ghost of the dumb person had felt it coming; this explained his forlorn reluctance to leave the black cat! He, a dumb person, did have less attachment left in this world than other common people, save for the black cat which had been his companion for some time. With Smoky's wellbeing now seen to, the ghost could now pass on in peace, hence the coming of the Underworld Express for him. Most spirits and ghosts were taken by the heralds of Hell into the Underworld. But those which final wishes had been fulfilled, and had passed on in peace, could just ride on the bus into the Realm of the Dead without wading through messy formalities. The bus had found the ghost of the dumb person, since his final deathbed bequest was effectuated. The large bus screeched to a halt before us. Its doors slid open, re
We entered the house and I asked of the patient. "There's no need to rush," said Mr. Wang, "You have all traveled far to come here. Please enjoy a meal first!" He led us into a dining hall inside where a table, laid full of sumptuous appetizers: mantis shrimp, peanuts, and jellyfish salad, was waiting for us. There were two men already seated at the table, who introduced themselves both as Lius. We chatted and exchanged greetings as more dishes came from the kitchen. Our hosts tried their earnest to entertain us, their chopsticks waltzing around the table to fill our plates and bowls with delicacies. Out of respect for them, Lin Feng and I returned the gesture, picking food for them as well, although Yuan Chongxi, in his usual tactless manner, continued wolfing down his food and drinks. Halfway through the food, drinks, and merriment, we felt a strong and overwhelming heaviness falling upon us and everything went dark... I was awoken to the voice of somebody whispering