“You don’t like staying home?” he asks me again.
“No.”
“Then what do you want to do?”
I think a while, I used to think I will travel the world after my graduation from graduate school, blogging my experience along the way, after a few years, go back to school to get my PHD degree. Anything further than that have not been in my mind yet. But now I am stuck in this world, I don’t really know if my plan will work here.
“First go back home and then travel the world.” I know he would not understand and I do not expect him to either. I have been on my tiptoes for so long that I suddenly feel the urge to dump it to someone, a stranger in this case, and to talk it freely for once. It might be the darkness of the night, or it might be the feeling that he will not hurt me. Somehow, I feel like he can be safe with a secret.
“Travel the world by running? “ He teases.
“Maybe, as well as plane, train, ship, car, horses, camels…” I sigh and really miss my own world.
He chuckles again. “You are a weird girl with lots of weird thoughts”
“They are not weird. In my world, they are normal.” I feel good talking with a stranger without pretending.
“I see…” After a long pause. He continues. “Where is your world?”
“I don’t know. Somewhere out there.” I am saddened by his question. “I am looking for it too. And I don’t even know how I get here.”
He moves back a little and found the tree trunk to lean on comfortably. Then he raises his head and look at somewhere above my head. His glance lands on the moon. He shows no interests in talking to me anymore.
That suits me well too. I have spoken too much anyway.
So we stay quiet.
It is the beginning of fall. Summer gradually gives away its furious steam. Cool breeze slows down my otherwise pouring sweats and my racing mind.
I can’t help wondering if there is anything else other than the moon he is staring at. So I turn my head and look at the same direction where he has been staring at. But other than the moon, there is nothing else. So I switch my eyes back on him again. Then I realize he is not staring at anything. His eyes are closed. And that gives me the opportunity to stare at him as much as I want.
He looks quite young, not too much older than me, about 5’10 or 5’11. He wears a narrow-cuffed, knee-length tunic over loosely fitted pants, a black belt around his waist and a pair of same colored soft boots.
He is quite handsome. Straight and dominant nose with a pair of almond shaped eyes. His eyebrows is sword-like shape slanting upwards towards his temples. His upper lip is thin and straight and the lower one is soft and plump. The moon casts a clear shadow at his split chin.
He stays perfectly still as if his mind has drifted away and his body has left behind.
“Hmm…” I clear my throat. “Are you all right?”
“No, my soul is somewhere in the sky. “ He says without opening his eyes. I see the corner of his lips raises up.
“Ha Huh, my soul is in the sky. “ Shakespeare would be very happy to find out an ancient Chinese just quoted him, or Shakespeare has copied him?
Then he opens his eyes and smiles. “You are quite a little girl.”
All right, I might be only fourteen in this world, but I have already had my seventeenth year birthday in my original world. And psychologically, I feel even older with everything happened to me. Has there be any seventeen years old need to worry about time traveling or teleporting? Or how to survive afterward? I do not think so.
He pulls himself forward and stands tall on the tree.
“Do you live far?” He asks me.
I am hesitant on how I should answer his question.
He seems understand what I am thinking. “If you live within 5 li from here, I will drop you off by your door. But if you live further than that, you will have to go with me to Chang’an.” Then he adds. “Don’t think that I will let you go anywhere alone at this late night.”
“Will you promise not to wake up my family?” I ask him.
He nods.
We get down the tree and he finds his dog and horse waiting.
He mounts on the horse and extends his right hand to me.
I shake my head. “I will run.”
He looks amazed. “You can still run after all the running you have done tonight?”
“Yes.”
“All right then.” He then calls his dog who jumps right into his arms with a happy bark.
He give the horse a light squeeze at the belly with his feet and they starts moving.
I part my legs a little, crossed my two hands and raised them above my head. A quick stretch, then I start running.
“You lead the way.” He tells me.
2 Papa
I wake up late the next morning and find myself alone on the Kang, the bed platform.
Niang (mom) always let me sleep as much as I want, whenever I want. That is quite different from my own mother, who leads a very self-disciplined life herself. She always thought I have been badly spoiled by my grandparents when I lived in China. So her way of toughing me up has caused quite a friction between us. We had a hard time getting along the first year after I came back to U.S. Things eventually got better, especially after I got accepted to the gifted program half year later. But I still had lots of rules to follow. I had to go to bed no later than eleven at night; I had to attend all the activities she signed up for me; and I had to learn all the extra curriculums she has found for me. All these rules had made me an absolute nerd and a total bore in the eyes of others. But my mom did not care at all. She always says “Someday you will appreciate everything I have asked you to do.”
Academically, I was fine. Socially, I was a pure disaster.
“Shiaonu” My younger brother Ponu breaks my thought.
“What is it?” I still lie down on the Kang, stretching a bit, feeling lazy and relaxed.
“Hurry up, I just found the duck eggs.” Ponu can never hide his excitement.
I scramble off the Kang and quickly put on my clothes. About seven months back, my older brother Jinu brought home twenty duck eggs. Since I had been taking care of chickens for the family, which is the only chore Niang has assigned to me, I think it won’t be too much trouble to take care of some ducks along the way. After eating like a vegan for two months, I can literally drool over any dish with a drop of oil, not to mention some delicious pork.
Niang struggles with money all the time. Other than a few acres of farm land and occasional sales of linen fabric woven by Niang, the family doesn’t have any other source of income. Jinu, my older brother, works as an apprentice for a blacksmith shop. He doesn’t get paid, but with a free room and board.
Other than what grows in our own fields, there is no money to buy food from others. I began to lay my eyes on surroundings. There are actually lots of food available: fish and crabs from the pond, bamboo shoot from bamboo woods and etc. But I’d like to have a steady supply of nutritional food. That’s why I have been very enthusiastic about raising chicken and ducks.
I started with five chickens in the backyard. At first they would not lay eggs, even after Ponu borrowed a big rooster from one of our neighbors. Then I remembered how people feed earthworms to the chickens in the organic chicken farm. So I took Ponu running around the hill daily to dig for earthworms. And that worked. All our chickens lay eggs daily. Then we expanded our chicken colony and also started a life with at least one egg per person per day.
Now we have thirty chicken laying eggs daily. Other than the ones we eat, we also save the extra. Every time when Jinu goes back to town, he brings eggs with him to sell at the farmer’s market.
“How many did you get?” I rush out to kitchen and quickly brush my teeth with willow branches and salt.
“Let me take you there. Those ducks did not lay eggs in the chicken nest.”
Ponu is never patient. He would rather see me running out with him right off bed. As soon as I finish brus
hing my teeth, he grabs my hand and leads me to the lakes.
“Girls are so fussy.” He complains.
“…” I have only brushed my teeth. I haven’t even got the chance to wash my face or brush my hair.
We live in a village next to Bahe River. Along the river path, a large area of swamps and ponds were formed due to the low altitude and run-off water. As a farming village, villagers are more interested in the property that can grow grains. So this area have been left alone. After the ducklings, hatched by hens, were about 20 days old, Ponu and I have been herding them here every day, where they hunt their own food or play in the water happily.
“Look, look over there.” Ponu points out a piece of dry land in the middle of the pond.
A couple of white spots between the high reeds. I can barely make it out. “Those white spots?”
“Yes, they are eggs. I only found out when one duck came out there.”
This is a good news. “Do you think there are more eggs hiding there?”
“I believe so. They are really bad ducks. Laying eggs at a place where we cannot collect.” He complains. I got tickled by that. I try to tell him that they are the angry birds and we are the pigs. But I know he will not get the joke.
Anyway, it is a relief. We have been wondering how come those ducks won’t lay eggs for quite some time now. They don’t like the earthworms we provided to them.
“Let’s go make a raft.” I suggest.
“Really? How?”
Ponu has always been my accomplice in crime. Most of the time, I think of ideas and he executes them.
“We can cut some bamboos and tie them as a bamboo raft.”
“That will work?” He questions.
“Of course.” I have never made one myself, but I have seen many.
Right next to the pond, there is a large area of bamboo woods. It takes us whole day to get all the bamboos we need. With just a dull knife, Ponu has done all the chopping and cutting. I think it’s time to ask Jinu to make a hand saw for us.
When we get home, Niang has started cooking dinner already. Neither Niang nor my mom is a good cook. My mom only cares for nutritional values of the food. She thinks it’s a waste a life spending hours preparing for food. To her, a good book is more satisfying than a good meal. I started cooking after my mom fed me the same food for a week: tuna salad with canned chicken soup.
“Niang, what are you cooking?” I enter the kitchen and see my Niang is busy kneading the dough. Ponu went to backyard to herd the ducks back and feed chickens.
“I was thinking about making some Bing Zi.”
Bing Zi is like a pizza slowly bake over the pan. But I am hungry. I have not eaten anything all day.
I see the boiling water in the clay pot and some washed tomatoes. I suggest to Niang. “Niang, how about I cook something quickly. I am hungry and I believe you are hungry too.”
“Sure.” She immediately stops what she is doing.
I have been cooking a lot recently. At beginning, my cooking was terrible since most of the ingredients are different than the ones I know. After a while, I got a hang of them and started cooking really delicious food. Both Niang and Ponu enjoy my cooking. And their encouragement made me even more adventurous in replicating what my grandma used to cook.
“Let’s make a Mao Er Duo.” Mao Er Duo, cat ear, is just a fast-cooking noodle soup, with any soup base you like.
Niang has already got used to my new ideas. She just calmly says. “All right, let me make sure the fire works for you.”
I removed some water into a different pot. Mao Er Duo is easy to make. With the dough ready by hand, I just need to get the soup base ready. So I crack four eggs in the pot with boiling water and gently mix the soup with a pair of chopsticks, then quickly dice tomatoes and put them into the egg soup. With the dough on my left hand, I then use my right hand to quickly pull small pieces of dough with my thumb and index finger. The pulled dough should be the same size as a cat ear, hence the name.
While the Mao Er Duo is cooking, I wash, peel and slice a couple of cucumbers. The idea is to cover the noodle soup with sliced cucumbers when serving. This way the texture will be both chewy and crispy, while mixing with delicious egg-tomato soup.
“Niang, Shiaonu, hurry, hurry, Papa is home. Papa is home.” Ponu sounds so excited outside the kitchen.
I haven’t figured out what it means before Niang passes out in front of me.
Niang eventually wakes up and we let her lie down on the Kang. She cries in Papa’s arms while Ponu and I quietly go to kitchen and prepare the dinner.
When Ponu and I carry the food in, Niang has already calmed down. She is talking with Papa on the Kang. Papa, with a big smile on his face, looks lean and astute. He pulls a short table from end of Kang and helps us put down the bowls, spoons and chopsticks.
“Shiaonu made this.” Ponu tells Papa when he puts down the big clay pot contains Mao Er Duo.
“My little girl has become a good cook now.” Papa rubs on my head affectionately. “Your Niang has told me how much help you have been to her.”
My face turns red. Niang and my two brothers have treated me like a little kid. Now Papa joins them. He laughs loudly at my embarrassment.
During the dinner, Papa tells us about his life in the army at the border city as well as the war with Xiongnu Empire.
Xiongnu Empire, combined with different nomad tribes, resides in Xiongnu steppe, which is modern day Eurasia Steppe. Its territory includes modern day Mongolia, Siberia, East Kazakhstan, Inner Mongolia, Western Manchuria and East Kyrgyzstan. Xiongnu people is the direct ancestor of Mongols and Huns. At this time, Han and Xiongnu have been engaged into the so called Han-Xiongnu War for nine years already.
“Papa, have you really killed any Xiongnu?” Ponu asks in excitement.
Papa’s face turns little grim. “Yes, I had to. “
“How many have you killed?” Ponu continues without noticing how uneasy Papa looks.
“Ponu,” I elbow him a little. “Do you like the Mao Er Duo?”
“Of course. Will you make more tomorrow? I really like it.” Ponu’s attention switches to food right away.
“Papa, “I ask him, “Are you going back to the army or are you going to stay home now?”
Noticing my effort with Ponu, Papa smiles. “I should be able to stay home unless there is more drafting. I have fulfilled my two-year regular military service for His Majesty.”
Under Emperor Wu, every male, between the ages of twenty to fifty six, needs to serve in the army for two years. However, extra draft may also apply when in need.
“Papa, who is your commanding general?” I ask.
During Emperor Wu, there are a few famous Generals. Both my grandpas have been very interested in this period. My grandpa at my mom side was a historian specializing in Han Dynasty. My grandpa at my dad side, a Hungarian, also interested in this period since one of the direct impact of the Han-Xiongnu war is the west migration of Xiongnu tribes and the founding of Hun Empire in Hungary. Under their influence, I have read so many books about this period and I have been a translator between them when they researched this time period.
“I have been very lucky. General Wei has been my commanding general.” Papa says.
“General Wei Qing?” I ask cautiously.
Papa smiles. “Yes, it’s him. Very nice guy. He has treated us very good.”
I jump on my feet abruptly.
“Ha ha ha ha….” Unable to hold my excitement, I start laughing and jumping up and down around the room.
Everyone looks at me as if I have just lost my mind. What they don’t know is what this means to me. General Wei Qing has been my idol since I was a kid. In Chinese history, he and his nephew Huo Qubing have been called “Two Pillars of Han Empire”. They have won every single battles they have engaged. The strategies they have used would have been studied for thousands of years. With their leadership, China expanded its territory all the way north to modern day Russia. Their effor
ts not only would have protected Han citizens from being robbed and being raided every year, but also would have secured the establishment of Silk Road. They have been the heroes for every Chinese.
For the first time since I came to this world, I feel blessed. Despite over two thousand years between us, I have come to the same period as they are.
“Papa, Papa,” I shake his arm excitedly. “Please, please, take me to meet General Wei and General Huo.”
Papa is amused by my eagerness, but he also looks puzzled. “Who is General Huo?”
“What? You don’t know General Huo? He is….” I stop quickly.
General Huo Qubing has been a shining star as soon as he goes for his first battle. So the only reason Papa hasn’t heard about him is because his first battle hasn’t happened yet. I calm down and try to remember the sequence of wars I have read.
“So Papa, who was the Xiongnu leader that General Wei was fighting with last time?” I ask him carefully.
“That was Right Worthy Prince of Xiongnu. We have captured 15,000 of his men, dozens of nobles and millions of cattle.”
Papa then starts describing how Right Worthy Prince was drunk with his concubine when General Wei’s started the night assault with 30,000 cavalrymen. With his guards’ help, Right Worthy Prince and his concubine escaped barely.
Based on my memory, General Huo Qubing’s first battle should be the one after this one, which is going to be next year. That’s why Papa hasn’t heard about General Huo yet.
“Papa, please take me to meet with General Wei too.” Ponu also begs Papa.
Papa looks a little embarrassed with our pleading. “General Wei is a very busy man. I don’t want to bother him. Besides, I am just one of thousands soldiers. I don’t believe he will see us.”
Ponu and I exchange the look to each other. Neither one of us wants to give up the chance of meeting General Wei.
“Papa, we just want to see how he looks like. We don’t necessarily need to meet him.” I persist. I can be satisfied by watching him from far away, so I know if he is tall or short, fat of lean, handsome or ugly.
“I don’t know.” Papa still doesn’t sound so sure. “I might be able to take you two to see him from far. I know where he lives in capital Chang’an.”
My Soul is in the Sky Page 2
