Chapter 9 First Meet

"Come and find me, kid, I'm waiting for you..."

Joy and Baby heard the sound, it appeared to come from somewhere beyond the distant stars, and brought the chill of the interstellar spaces with it. The intermittent echo reminded you of the wake-up of your midnight dream, and then it gradually went away until it completely disappeared, leaving only the aftertaste.

"Baby, have you heard it? Can you tell whose voice it is?”

"I can't tell. I only know it's from a very old cat."

"Do you feel funny?"

Joy and Baby were floating inside a boat on the middle of the lake what Joy visualized as a gigantic transparent bubble, which is like an independent sealed cabin, allowing them to breathe freely in it. There was another bubble-boat nearby with a good-looking guy inside who was watching her in wonder on the boundless lake. Just for a moment, her dark eyes caught his while a feeling of shame came over her. She glanced shyly at him out of the corners of her eyes.

"Hello!" he was smiling and waving his left hand.

"Hello!" she managed to croak a greeting.

He was about her age, almost a head taller than Joy, dark, shining shot hair, healthy, olive skin and fine dark brown eyes. And he was wearing a white suede stylish jacket and old shabby jeans with bottoms frayed. Joy was entranced with his attractive voice.

"I am Hayden Huang, this is Sky." he was introduced himself and a hamster in his hand.

Joy thought to herself how handsome Hayden was, with his temperament nurtured with art. Baby was biting her right leg till she realized that she was a bit obsessive and it was her turn to perform the introduction. Baby gave her a contemptuous look and signed her to put him up. She felt a little humiliated by his scornful remarks.

"Joy Gao, and this is Baby." She lifted the cat.

There were fishes swimming and playing in the lake, the sun danced on the blue lake, and the water in the lake was as even as a mirror. A fresh breeze puffed across the lake, gleaming ripples cut the lake’s surface. The boy was smiling and the sun shone on his face, Joy was gawking at the surreal face that she could not move her eyes away.

"It’s beautiful, isn’t it?" Hayden spoke up.

She was nodding her head without a word, setting Baby down and poking the edge of the bubble with her index finger; it was soft and spongy to the touch, dodging in the opposite direction.

"Wow, they are alive? It is amazing."

The boy just laughed and didn’t reply. After a while, Joy summoned up courage and spoke again.

"Where are we?"

"North. Do you know the Black Tortoise?"

"How stupid am I."Joy was thinking to herself again, "Of course it was the Black Tortoise’ territory, where else would it be."

"Did you find the totem yet?"

"Not yet, otherwise I will be out of this thing right now. Even though the lake scenery is great, it does not feel good trapped inside here. "

"But I found this, a nine interlocking ring." Hayden continued.

A nine interlocking ring is considered to be a Chinese classic of illusion magic. Making nine rings by the tinsel, solid metal rings appear to link and unlink, pass through each other, form chains and other complex patterns and configurations. A player must operate repeatedly according to certain procedure, legally causes in nine link completely thorough child copper circle, or after puts on the set to loosen completely. Moreover, a nine interlocking ring also defers to one kind of order to solve.

His bubble was somehow shaking at the minute he picked up the linking ring. The movement took him by surprise, and Hayden’s foot slipped, knocking the other one out of the way so he could hardly keep his feet. Joy sighted that a bunch of fish formed an invisible hand, pushing the bubble forward, and it started rolling back and forth above the lake.

"Hayden, be careful, drop it." Joy yelled aloud.

Hayden throw away the nine interlocking ring,  the fishes stopped their actions in a second. Most fishes managed to swim nearby, beating the water with their tail, leaving little swirling vortices in the lake.

"Are you alright?"

"I’m fine. What the hell was that?"

"Apparently another challenge of multitasking, the ring must be the trigger of the attack; we should unlock it as we should dodge the attack."

"Do you know how to play it?"

"Yes, Dad used to play these traditional Chinese puzzle games with me when I was young. Only the first link can go up and down freely. The trick is the first three rings; you need to figure out the relationship of the upper, the lower and the middle rings. It seems that the fishes will deliver an attack on the bubble once we pick up the nine interlocking ring."

"There is no easy task, but we can lie down to unlock the ring. Last time these little creatures took advantage of me without my noticing."

"Of course, I believe so. We should try."

Baby was already fetched the nine interlocking ring to her side. Joy flattened herself on the bubble bottom as well as she could and started to unlock the ring. The fishes were gathering around the bottom once she took up the ring. She felt a vibration that traveled through the water without warning, but she was forced to pay attention to the ring. Baby was scratching the bottom surface of the bubble to keep their balance while reminding her to concentrate.

After about half an hour of intense focus, she had done the difficult part. When she was killing herself to get it done, she lifted her eyes and looked out the bubble. Hayden was clearly relaxed and in an expansive mood, it had been some time since he finished.

"So you know how to play it."

"Aha! Got you!"

"Now what?"

"Have you played the Hoopla? You need to throw the ring out to catch the fish."

"Seriously?"

"Watch closely."

Hayden threw a ring out, which made its way into the water directly without catching any fishes.

"By the way, if the ring did not catch a fish, it will be back right away." He added.

Joy picked up all the rings and threw them into the shoal of fish where fishes were celebrating  the victory. Only half of the rings stuck right on the target, what missed  had returned back.

"Brilliant." 

"Thank you."Joy was so intent on the work that she didn’t notice about Hayden.

"Do you want me to wait for you?"

Hayden was already accomplished the task, the bubble that imprisoned him was nonexistent; he was standing on the surface of the lake as if he was standing on the ground. Under his feet the totem of the Black Tortoise covered all over the lake, there was a basket there. Joy had a slender hope in her heart that he would be waited for her, but she blurted out.

"It doesn’t matter, you go ahead."

"OK, see you then. It is a pleasure to meet you." He gave her a conspiratorial wink.

"See you. Wish you all the best."

Joy stood watching him go until he disappeared behind tatters of sky-fog that had come loose, thinking that she should say something to him.

After she used up all the rings, she was standing in the middle of the lake as well. Joy bowed her head and worshiped at the Black Tortoise, with dragon’s head, tortoise’s body and snake’s tail. She felt refreshed and energetic; the lake seemed to be endued with endless vigor and vitality. She walked slowly towards the basket, which was full of wheat flashing on the lake.

Joy thought constantly about Sunshine, she wanted to know what had come of her.