by J E Kerry
“The Chinese Spouting Bowl first appeared in the Han Dynasty,” he commence now outdoor. “Often, the bowls are decorated with four ‘Han’ fish that can be seen at the bottom of the basin, spraying streams of water up the sides of the bowl. Other motifs include leaping dolphins, founts of water or dragons. It is said that the bowl was originally a plaything for the nobles, gifted scholars and socialites in the court of the emperor. It was believed to foster happiness, prolong life and increase strength. These bowls are used for meditation in order for people to harness their inner Qi through the sound of the vibrations.”
The abbot activates vibrations by tracing along the bowl’s handles, causing ripples on the water’s surface around the rim and resumes, “Making one’s energy complete, one can nurture the mind. To do so, first keep the mind pure, and make sure there are no thoughts. Thereby, spirit can be made complete.”
He stares at Wang. “Am I making sense Xiao Wang?”
“Yes Master,” the young lad replies, surprised at nearly being caught zoning out again.
The waterdrops shoot up, quickly becoming continuous streams like tiny fountain jets. The droplets and jets grow and diminish with each rub of the handles.
The abbot generates the precise frequencies needed to produce standing waves, letting the spouts of water rise from these waves while the young students stare in wonder at the magic unfolding before their eyes.
“Making one’s spirit complete, one can recover emptiness,” he goes on. “To do so, first keep the will sincere, and make sure body and mind are united. Thereby, spirit can be returned to emptiness.”
The abbot stops with the demonstration and finishes his lecture by taking the students to a wall across the bowl that depicts a scene of the Baxian (八仙), the ‘Eight Immortals’.
They were a group of legendary Xian, also known as immortals, transcendents or fairies, from Chinese tradition. Each of the individual immortal’s power can be transferred to a tool of power that gives life or destroys evil. Together, these eight tools are called ‘Covert Eight Immortals’.
“To attain immortality,” the abbot begins “there is nothing else but the refinement of the Sanbao, the three treasures of,” he looks expecting at his students.
“Essence, energy and spirit,” the class enthusiastically recites the newly learned lesson in a chorus.
One of the boys raises his hands.
The abbot sighs, “Yes, what is it?”
“So, you are saying all we need to do is to refine our Sanbao and we can live forever?” he asks, clearly intrigued by the prospect.
“Of course,” the abbot insists. “But it’s much easier said than done.”
“Really! Why?” the boy doesn’t give up.
“Because, we’d all be immortal, don’t you think? Only with the highest level of discipline and dedication can the treasures of essence, energy and spirit be refined to grant immortality,” warns the abbot.
Wang stares at his classmates. The hope, drive and imagination this complex lecture gives to a bunch of orphans is inspiring. It kindles a new fire in him to take his training more seriously. Somewhere out there will always be boys like him, and someone should be there to teach them.
The canteen’s clock strikes 11:30. It is lunchtime. Again, canteen trays are picked up and food is chosen and wolfed down at the tables. This time, Xiao Wang shares his dessert with Xiao Zhao and divides his Zhima Qiu (sesame ball), filled with red bean paste in half and hands it to his friend.
“Thank you, Didi,” Xiao Zhao smiles.
“You know you can’t survive here without me,” Wang winks with an accompanying grin.
∞∞∞
It’s noon rest time. While most of the other students nap in their beds, Xiao Wang and Xiao Zhao pick up their backpacks and speed out of the monastery gate, exercising their parkour skills and heading right to the marred stone stairs that lead to a hidden waterfall. Instead of walking on the stairs, they get down on all fours and slink to their destination.
Arriving at the middle-sized waterfall, surrounded on all sides by a lush green forest, the two boys throw their backpacks to the ground, quickly getting out of their robes and jump into the water; excited and full of joy.
While Xiao Wang dares to climb up the rocks of the waterfall, Xiao Zhao reaches for his FGP (flexible glasspad), the size of a mobile phone, and takes some 3D pictures of his friend.
As Xiao Wang reaches the top of the waterfall, he claws his nails into the rock, stalling suddenly.
Xiao Zhao observes the situation from the ground, wondering, “Didi?” he asks, shouting up to his friend.
“What are you waiting for? Are you a man or a mouse?! Don’t be scared. You can do it! Focus your Qi and breathe!”
“Give me a break Gege. I’m not an immortal yet,” Wang retorts screaming from the top.
Xiao Wang musters all of his heart and tries to regulate his breathing, staring determinedly ahead.
“Focus your Qi and breathe,” he says to himself. “Focus your Qi and breathe. You can do this.”
Xiao Wang does a step forward, gets into position and jumps; gracefully sliding into the water as Xiao Zhao cheers from the side and takes pictures.
After Xiao Wang resurfaces and joins his friend at a close-by rock to dry, the two take selfies with Xiao Zhao’s FGP, goofing around under the shining sun.
* BACK TO THE YEAR 2341 *
Zhao is pulled out of his memories just as Wang returns with their breakfast and spots the holo-photograph in his friend’s hand.
“You still have that?” he asks, pleasantly surprised.
“You’re always close to my heart, darling!” Zhao jokes as they sit down on the bench and Wang makes a funny face, handing his friend the Chinese Jian Bing. They begin to eat.
“What brings you back?” Wang questions with his mouth full.
“As you’ve already noticed,” he points to his new uniform, “I was actually promoted,” Zhao replies, ramming his teeth into the pancake and ripping it apart like a hungry bear.
“Really?” Wang stalls for a second, looking up cheerful and proud, “Congratulations, Gege”.
“So, you came all this way to tell me about your promotion?” he interrogates further.
“Not precisely.” Zhao hesitates and guilt creeps into his expression.
Wang’s eating deliberately slows in time with this.
“Zhao Yun, what have you done ‘this’ time?!” he asks with a finishing bite.
“I’ve filled out another application ... for you.” Zhao replies and immediately distances himself from Wang on the bench, guessing what’s up next.
“You’ve got exactly five seconds.” Wang inhales patiently, trying to keep his cool.
Zhao swallows the last piece of his Jian Bing and sprints away while his Didi gently rises to the feet and takes his Taoist robe off, revealing the athletic body of a Chinese Adonis, cluttered with ancient characters tattooed on arm and back, with a large tribal Dragon crossing his chest. His muscular shoulders relax, shimmering in the brisk sun like the wings of a golden phoenix.
Wang breaks into a sprint after his friend and flashes back to the time Zhao left for the AN-CDC military.
“Didi, you’re supposed to be going with me.” Zhao insists, standing at the entrance in full military kit; his uniform in stark contrast to Wang’s flowing Taoist robe.
“I do not like the sound or the sight of war,” Wang replies.
“We both know that’s not what this is,” Zhao replies. “You are just being sentimental.”
“If we all leave chasing our dreams, who will ensure that future orphans will be able to chase theirs?”
“Come on. Master Yuan is still here and he’s …”
“Getting old,” Wang cuts in.
“Little Yin just came three days ago,” pleads Wang, “her parents have been taken from her at such a tender age. A by-product of these silly wars with the Rebels.”
“That’s why I am going to make sure thi
s never happens again,” Zhao counters. “Good men like you and I need to make sure kids like her aren’t left stranded again.”
“Then who tends to these ones who survived the current debacle? You know I talked to her yesterday? She wants to be a warrior like her father. She’s just five years old Zhao.”
“I see I can’t convince you yet. You will come to your senses eventually,” Zhao acquiesces with a soft dip of his head.
They stare at each other for several tense moments before breaking into a tear-filled hug.
“How will you survive here without me Didi?” Zhao says, his voice breaking with emotion.
“I’ll keep on being a gentle man Gege,” Wang replies with pearling tears.
For years after that, Zhao Yun would come back to see his friend and try to convince him to join the military. But Wang has grown even more bored and disillusioned with the government as the years went by.
∞∞∞
Accompanied by the rising midday sun, Wang hunts Zhao down through the lush monastery garden and along the busy prayer hall filled with Taoist monks of all ages devoutly chanting their daily prayers.
Zhao is out of sight, but Wang moves with confidence, as though he already knows where his friend is and closes enough distance for Zhao to come again within view. The pair run up walls, jump across the roof tops and trees, speed up the monastery stairs, and exhibit breathtaking Parkour skills that seem to make them fly like ancient Chinese heroes in the sky, until they finish their race at the monastery’s secret waterfall spot and dive into the crystal clear water, refreshing their sweaty bodies.
The two friends return to the surface, getting out to dry, and hang their trousers on an inviting bush.
Looking for a place to rest, they sit on a close-by rock and enjoy the caressing sun beams on their naked skin.
“Please come with me, brother,” Zhao Yun commences with a deep and serious voice that leaves no doubt for his honest intention.
“We’ve discussed this before,” Wang replies, almost emotionlessly.
There’s a moment of awkward silence between the pair as they observe a beautiful white Pipevine swallowtail butterfly landing on Wang’s drying trousers.
Zhao Yun turns directly to him and faces Wang eye to eye. The expression is firm, steel-like, and lacking any of the playfulness it previously held.
“It’s different this time,” Zhao continues after a pause. “We really need you.”
“You always say that,” Wang answers dismissively.
Zhao immediately reaches out to hold the tip of his friend's knee with one hand and squeezes it a bit tight to assert the seriousness of situation.
“Do you trust me?” he asks with big eyes and an intense energy that pushes Wang off balance.
“Of course, I do,” Wang says, “but...”
Zhao cuts in short, “Then come with me and all your questions will be answered. I promise, Didi. You won’t regret it.” He now puts both of his hands on Wang’s shoulders, “A new journey awaits you”.
By his cautious nature, Wang studies his friend’s expression carefully. It is as if time would stand still for a moment, wrapping itself around their bodies and whispering into their ears about the secrets of time and space.
Wang eventually agrees, nodding, and indirectly suggests that he does know deep inside it’s time for him to end this chapter in life and begin a new one.
∞∞∞
A VTH (Vac-Train-Hyperloop) rushes through the mountainous Chinese landscape of the New Asia Plateau and ducks underneath endless caverns, weaving around wide bends along the mountainsides. The VTH is a vacuum tube train for a very high-speed rail transportation.
It is a maglev (magnetic levitation) line using partly evacuated tubes. Vac-trains avail themselves of gravity to assist their acceleration and have surpassed the aircraft as the world’s fastest mode of transportation since the 21st century.
Wang and Zhao sit opposite one another in a section of the carriage. White and gold velvet with the AN-CDC emblem stitched on its surface, holds the modern organic seating and other furnishings together while integrated holo-screens decorate corners and walls for the passengers to enjoy. An automatic, hovering snack- trolley passes by the pair’s row and Zhao glances over the variety of strawberry, kiwi, banana, cherry, apricot, apple, tangerine and mango Bing Tanghulu (冰糖葫蘆), a traditional Northern Chinese snack of candied Crataegus pinnatifida, also known as mountain hawthorn, and chooses two pineapple-cherry bamboo skewers. Bing Tanghulu originates back in the ancient Song Dynasty.
It is said that one of the Emperor’s concubines was sick and the doctor prescribed hawthorn berries, still on the twig, dipped in rock sugar syrup, which soon led the way for candy-coated fruit.
“Isn’t it weird that the predicament of an Emperor’s concubine gave rise to a whole new type of candy?” Wang asks thoughtfully.
Zhao rolls his eyes, “Seriously Didi?”
“What?”
“You have the option to plunge into delicious candy and all you can think of are the philosophical implications of its origin?” Zhao asks looking at his friend oddly.
“Well someone has to think of these things,” Wang replies evasively.
“I’m so glad I got you out of that cave when I did,” Zhao sighs. “Let me know when you are ready to live life instead of thinking too much about it.”
“It wasn’t a cave,” Wang says on the defensive. “That place nurtured you for years.”
Zhao merely stares at him for a few moments then shakes his head. “Are you buying the candies or not?”
He uses his RFID (radio-frequency identification), a microchip the size of a rice grain implanted in the fleshy part of the skin between the thumb and the forefinger, to pay for their snack. The chip uses near-field communication (NFC) technology and basically acts as his personal AI, letting him not only pay virtually with points but also giving him automatic access to approved buildings, opening doors without a key, downloading data to any device and having the ministry of health on alert if he’s sick, injured or dead.
Since the founding of the A-Nation these chips are mandatory and implanted right after birth. Anyone without a RFID is flagged as a Rebel and denied access to any of the dome cities. However, there have been successful hacks in the past wherefore the AN-CDC Ministry of National Security is close to release their next high-end invention which has been announced last year to become the ultimate weapon against any kind of Rebel-attacks.
“I can’t remember the last time I had one of these.” Wang says and separates the sugar-coated pineapple from the tip of his skewer, eating his Tanghulu with relish.
“Interesting. What about the poor plant whose life had to be cut short just for your pleasure?” Zhao drills sarcastically.
“The fact that I can take a timeout to have an outside thought on something conventional, doesn’t mean I forbid it,” Wang maintains.
“Well I can’t argue with that. You clearly do not forbid those pineapples,” comments Zhao watching Wang close his eyes in bliss as he goes to town on the candy of imperial origins.
“Hey, it’s not my fault you don’t have the kind of taste buds I have.”
“Really, what’s so special about your taste buds?”
“They’ve been drinking a lot of herbal tea lately,” Wang says with a smile.
Zhao shakes his head once more with rolling eyes.
“Well, enjoy it while it lasts brother. There won’t be any candy at the SFB. You’ll receive your vegan diet plan before training begins. The Council has now completely banned all meat, dairy, sugar and alcohol production as of next month. Our scientists have finally made a neural breakthrough on the gut-brain-axis. They are now able to control the Vagus nerve via our RFID and basically manage our appetite to tell us what is most nutritious and healthy for our body,” Zhao responds, licking his fingers clean. “We’ve got about 3 weeks to finish the remnants of old products. After that, we’ll all be Vegans.”
Wang
’s face grows clouded for a bit. Zhao watches him and sighs in frustration once more.
“No don’t say it. I know what you are thinking,” he chides.
“I get the need to have a vegan diet, but they are taking the choice away at a biological, nay, cellular level,” Wang argues.
“Don’t you think I know that? Don’t you think I’ve used all my powers of existential reasoning to ponder on this?” asks an animated Zhao. “You have to understand. Humans will crave what they always crave. No matter how many laws you put in place,” Zhao tries to reason with his friend.
“That doesn’t make any sense,” whispers Wang hotly. “Soldiers are trained through discipline of the body and the mind. Have you forgotten all those things we learnt at the monastery?”
Zhao sighs sadly. “Those monks were far removed from society’s reality, old friend.”
“What?”
“There isn’t time for all that anymore. This is not the 21st century. Soldiers do not take time to build their strengths like they used to. Not with the presence of advanced weaponry and cyborgs,” Zhao explains.
“I get all that. Everyone’s desire is to be strong and they use technology to augment that but eliminating an entire class of diet?” Wang comments.
“Wait a minute. Why are we even arguing about this?” wonders Zhao. “You are practically pro-vegan most of the time.”
Wang raises his eyebrows slightly at his friend in a knowing glance.
“It was never about the vegan diet was it?” Zhao realizes out loud.
“There’s no more freedom out here in society. The spotlight is simply too bright. Everyone is being held under a microscope. We are doing all that while either plotting wars or plotting the technology to use in the next war,” Wang reveals his actual thought to his friend.
“Listen Didi. I get it. And I promise to help you push through this,” Zhao keeps a reassuring tone with another questioning glance, “I did it when you came to the monastery so many years ago. I helped you fit in. Didn’t I?”