Spring arrived in Yunnan in March, with the unique brooms blooming everywhere. Chen Chen and Ah Zi spent a night in the capital city and then came to the ancient city.
“The artisan I found on the Internet lives here!” Chen Chen pointed at a piece of tie-dyed fabric and asked, “does it look good?”
Ah Zi withdrew her eyes from a nearby store that specialized in the hand-made lanterns to Chen Chen. “Yeah. We can buy ourselves as a scarf.”
The two women wandered around the whole morning and they turned into the beautiful girls of the Bai nationality, wearing the skinny skirts and waistbands which were all folk costumes, as well as the traditional hat.
“Right here!” After having dinner, Chen Chen wandered through the small alley and finally, they found the exact position of the store they searched online. However, the door was locked. Ah Zi looked in from the window and said, “It seems no one is in.”
Chen Chen looked around and asked, “What shall we do?”
“Ask around.” Ah Zi then came to the store which sold wood carvings across the street, only informed that the store owner went back to his hometown a week before for something had befallen him.
“Do you know where his hometown is?”
“In Laiza.”
Then they found a hotel which was located in a quaint courtyard, with the milky way hanging above and fireflies flying around.
Chen Chen sighed with emotions lying on the bamboo chair. “When we get old, we shall buy a wooden house here, getting up with the sunrise and getting rest with the sunset, bidding our farewells to the whole wide world slowly.”
“Well. You are still too young to say farewells!” Ah Zi caught a firefly and put it in a gla.s.s bottle. “I had looked it up on the Internet that an ancient road which is still under developing is near the small town called Laiza. We may have a look at it.”
“Well…” Chen Chen’s voice came unclear. Ah Zi then turned around, only to find that she would fall asleep.
The next morning, Chen Chen woke up to find she and Ah Zi had slept in the courtyard, with a woolen blanket covering their body.
“You even fetch a blanket when you woke up in the midnight. It’s nice!” Ah Zi praised her. “Or we would catch a cold.”
“You didn’t do it?” Chen Chen mumbled while with mouthwash welling up her mouth. “I slept too well to be woken up.”
Ah Zi looked at her and asked, “Then who did it?”
“Probably the shop owner of the hotel.” Chen Chen said after a thought. “The old couple looks so nice!”
“Yeah!”
After having breakfast, the two took a bus to Laiza. It was already dark when they had arrived there. Ah Zi rubbed her waist. When they reached the inn they had booked on the Internet in advance, she went straight to bed.
Chen Chen insisted on taking a shower and then fell in the bed. In a daze, she felt someone had pushed her. However, just as when she wanted to open her eyes, but she was too sleepy so she kept sleeping. The next morning, she woke up to find the towel to dry her hair was on the floor.
“Luckily, it fell on the floor or the hair won’t be dried up.”
This town bordered on the frontier of Huaxia and Burma and the village they were heading for was on the ancient road. But the only way to get in was by horse.
A local villager was hired as a guide, and it took them an afternoon to find the village named Daye where they could only find one inn. When Chen Chen and Ah Zi saw the owner of the inn, they were both stunned.
“Wow, the owner was so beautiful!” Chen Chen whispered, “but she looked unlike a girl of the minority nationality.”
Ah Zi nodded and said, “I never expect I would meet a beauty here.”
“The two of you girls come here for fun?” The owner of the inn gave each of them a bowl of milky tea.
She was already pretty enough, but a smile made her even stunning. She was wearing a colorful gown, and when she was walking, the gown flowing, which made her a fairy from the celestial world.
“You look so beautiful!” Chen Chen could not help but say to her, “Are you of Han nationality?”
The woman chuckled and said, “Thank you. I’m of Han nationality. I’m overshadowed by you pretty young girls!”
“So you are a young girl too!” Ah Zi looked at her and asked, “you must be of our age.”
“I’m over thirteen. How can I count as a young girl!” The owner looked so delighted and she then served them a dish of dairy products. “Come on, take a bite. Home-made.”
Chen Chen looked at her in surprise and she said, “Your appearance is so deceptive for you just look of our age. Why do you come here?”
When the woman was trying to say something, a man came in from the door, thin and tall. His triangle eyes flashed upon every one of them, which made them very comfortable.
“Ah Yue, we got guests today!” the man said, sounding as if he was familiar with the woman. He walked by her side and leaned his face towards her.
“Lao San, it’s so late. What are you up to?” The woman took a few steps back and asked, frowning.
The man called Lao San smiled obscenely and said, “Today, I met Brother Pao. He said he was too busy to visit you these days. He fears you would worry about him, so he sends me to tell you this.”
“I see,” the owner said and pushed him to the door. “Today, I have guests. You must leave.”
Lao San left hesitantly, and he even turned around to smile at Chen Chen and Ah Zi, which made the two tremble.
“Let’s take a rest!” Ah Zi pulled Chen Chen and said. Chen Chen nodded her head. At this moment, the owner had locked up the gate. Hearing they were about to go to bed, she handed them a bronze kettle and said, “There is hot water and there is hot spring at the back of your room. You can take a bath.”
After taking a bath in the hot spring, they took a good sleep. The second morning, the owner prepared breakfast for them. Yet, out of expectation, as they were about to finish the breakfast, two men came in.
“Landlady, we want to check in!”
One of the men was 1.9 meters high, tall and strong. He shouted at the courtyard.
Ah Zi was shocked, and turned her head abruptly, only to find two strange faces. She muttered in her heart, that the voice was too similar to Bear’s…
Ah Zi noticed the figure was even like Bear’s when the men walked in the hall. Yet his facial features were uglier than Bear’s. The other looked quite normal except for his sharp eyes. But one could hardly recognize him if he was drowned by the crowd.
“Hey, what happened? I could hardly meet anyone at usual times. It’s so busy today.” The landlady walked out from the kitchen and said, “Come in this way. You can choose whichever room you want.”
Chen Chen suddenly called out, “The two innermost rooms are ours.”
“Don’t worry. We won’t fight for a room with two young girls!” That man who resembled Bear chuckled at Chen Chen and Chen Chen returned him with a smile too out of politeness.
Ah Zi stared at her and said, “don’t smile at anyone so easily. He looked like a bad guy.”
Chen Chen made a face and said, “Well. Have you been full? We have to look for that shop owner!”
According to what the landlady had told them, they found the artisan in the western part of the village, who went back to take care of his sick mother and he would not return to the ancient town within a short time. But he recommended another artisan to Chen Chen, who was in the town.
“Alas, why do they have no phone? Or we could have saved the trip.” Ah Zi picked a little flower at the roadside and said, “Let’s stay here for days for fun or it’ll be a waste.”
Chen Chen kept the address people wrote for her and said, “We can go to the border area so that we can see the gambling stone.”
“We can buy one, and we might by chance buy one contains jade!” Ah Zi said with excitement.
They headed ahead for one hour as the villagers told them to see there was a temple-looking building in the heavy woods.
“How would they be there?” Ah Zi pointed at the two men not far away.
Chen Chen saw them two and said, “they might be here for fun too.”
The man waved at them when he recognized the two of them. “Hi, what a coincidence!”
Chen Chen caught a glance at the man who uttered nothing for she thought him so strange and made her unexplainably nervous.
“Not at all,” Ah Zi said and pulled Chen Chen to leave. “Let’s separate. Don’t follow us!”
When they entered the temple, the man who had kept quiet did keep up with them. Four people walked around the monument at a distance.
“The two men must be bad guys.” Ah Zi cast a glance at the back secretly. “It seldom gets visitors here.” Suddenly, her eyes wide opened, and she uttered, “will they come here to do drug business?”
Chen Chen covered her mouth and said, “Be quiet!”
“It’s horrible.” Ah Zi lowered her voice and asked, “shall we call the police?”
“Do you get proves?” Chen Chen rolled her eyes and continued, “they might be like us to look for some man.”
Ah Zi curled her lip corner and said, “anyway, they don’t look like good people. We’d better keep a distance.”
“Yes.” Chen Chen pulled her and walk ahead. “Tomorrow, we’ll arrive at the border area.”
As a result, the two of them met the two men when they sailed to the border the next day.
“Hey, what do you mean?” Ah Zi stood at the bow and refused them boarding.
The man taking after Bear chuckled and said, “It’s quick to go to the border from this place! You can’t let us go back to town, can you?”
Chen Chen glanced at the other man, but found he was staring at her too. She hurriedly looked away, not noting that the man lifted his lip corner.
“Hurry. If you don’t take the chance, you will miss the boat,” the villager cried at them. “Today, there will be a market, as well as a stone market!”
Ah Zi reluctantly let them get on the boat, and then pulled Chen Chen away to sit on the faraway bow.
“We must stay away from them. The more I look at them, the more suspicious they are.”
Chen Chen nodded but she was still shivering inside for that man’s stare made her anxious. So she had to stare at her hand. It took quite a long time to land, and she then pulled Ah Zi and ran away.
“Okay, okay!” Ah Zi let go of her hand. “Take a break, I’m exhausted.”
Chen Chen also took a breath and found that they had been in a street with stalls on both sides, with large and small stones on it.
“Well?” Ah Zi pointed to a place not far away, “Isn’t… isn’t that the landlady?”
“How can it be!” Chen Chen looked at that way. “Ah, it’s her.”
The owner’s colorful gown was very conspicuous. She was pulled by a man, apparently not strong enough, and was quickly dragged away by the man.
Chen Chen was worried about her and said, “Might there will be something going wrong?”
“Shall we follow them and take a look?” Ah Zi proposed, “the lady’s so pretty…”
The two of them ran towards the place where the lady disappeared, only to find it was an entrance leading to a small alley. They were not so frightened since it was in the daytime, so they walked in along the wall. But there were even smaller ways in this alley.
They walked and walked and didn’t know how long it had been. Then a woman’s crying was heard.