by Liu, Cynthea
Cece and the rest of the group followed Jenny into the domed building. Inside, the space was as large as two football fields. The photos she’d seen didn’t do it justice. Cece and Kallyn went up to the railing and looked over. A vast earthen pit lay before them, where rows and rows of statues stood in formation below—warriors, archers, and horses combined. Jenny pointed to a section of the pit marked by a sign. “That is the spot where the farmers tried to dig their well, only to discover broken pottery from Qin Shi Huang’s army. What a find, yes?”
Cece nodded. To think all of this was buried for thousands of years and discovered only by chance.
“When you look at the warriors,” Jenny said, “note that no warrior is identical. Even the height of the statues varies. Anthropologists theorize that the warriors were patterned after an actual army, or the sculptors were given freedom to exercise their own creativity in the warriors’ looks.”
Cece turned to Kallyn. “Either way, the craftsmanship is amazing.” Some of the statues wore different outfits and had unique hairstyles. Even facial expressions varied from one statue to the next. “I wish I could get closer and touch one,” Kallyn said.
Mark stood next to Jenny. “So, you might wonder why the Emperor had this army built. Qin Shi Huang spent much of his days preparing for the afterlife, and while burial objects were common for rulers during that time, no one has seen anything on a scale as large as this. You can also guess the Emperor was something of a megalomaniac. It is also important to note that the army is still fifteen hundred meters away from where Qin Shi Huang’s tomb lies. The tomb is believed to contain a palace full of treasure. However, because the burial site is so large, the tomb goes unexcavated. Archaeologists fear there is no way to preserve all of its contents.”
“Finally,” Jenny added, “scientists estimate nearly seven hundred thousand workers constructed Qin Shi Huang’s mausoleum, taking approximately forty years. To keep the location of the tomb a secret, legend says all of those workers, plus the Emperor’s concubines, were buried with the Emperor.”
Cece grimaced.
“This area has got to be haunted,” Kallyn said.
They proceeded to Pit 2 and Pit 3, where more Terra Cotta Warriors had been excavated. The museum had set up glass cases around the pits. Mark and Jenny allowed the group to roam freely and instructed them to meet outside in forty-five minutes. Cece and Kallyn went from case to case, studying each statue. The very last one they approached was the general, the highest rank held in the Terra Cotta Army. Cece observed the detail that went into creating his hairstyle and clothing. She thought she could stand there forever, taking it in. After a few minutes, Kallyn stepped away from the case. “I think I’m ready. You want to go, Cece?”
Cece checked her watch. They still had another five minutes. She wanted to linger a little longer. “I’ll be right there.”
After Kallyn left, Cece studied the general’s face, captivated by his regal expression.
“The general is pretty cool, isn’t he?”
Cece turned to see Will standing behind her. Immediately, her stomach fluttered. “Um, yeah.”
Will moved to her side and studied the statue some more. Then he looked around. “So what do you think of this place?”
“It’s incredible,” she replied quickly, trying to shake off her nervousness. “There’s no way our team project will be boring with this as the subject.”
“I know . . . . Actually, I’m surprised by how much I’m enjoying everything so far. Not just the project, but our classes, too.”
Cece grinned. “So you’re liking anthropology, huh?”
“Who knew studying artifacts could be so cool?”
Cece’s stomach fluttered again. Did Will just say the word artifacts?
“Anyway,” Will said, “I wanted to tell you I’m sorry about, you know, that thing with Jessica. Are you guys okay now?”
“Yeah, thanks for talking to her.”
Will smiled. “Good, I’m glad.” He looked over his shoulder. “I think the last of the group is leaving. Shall we go?”
Cece nodded.
They headed to the exit, and as Will opened the door for her, she wondered if a perfect guy could become even more perfect.
Chapter Ten
It was Friday. The week had blown by once again. The only difference was Jessica had been staying over at Lisa’s every night. Cece didn’t mind, though—having the room to herself felt like a perk. She finished packing for the trip to Beijing. She couldn’t believe it was almost time to go. In just hours, she’d be on a train with the rest of the students.
Cece opened her wallet, took out the picture, and studied the image of herself as a child. Her stomach twisted with nervousness. She was going back at last. . . to her home city . . . where her birth parents could be. She touched the image and returned the picture to her wallet. Then she zipped up her overnight bag and set it by the door. Now all she had to do was get through a couple more things. First she met with her project team, where they firmed up the script and assigned acting parts to everyone, then afterward, she headed straight to the café near the school to meet with Peter and Kallyn. They went over the details of their plan in Beijing.
“So am I really puking,” Cece said, “or am I just making like I’m puking? What did we decide?”
“I think a few gag reflexes are all you need,” Kallyn said. “Then I’ll stand up and rush you to the restroom.”
“Okay. Got it,” Cece said.
“So you’ve got your train ticket, Peter?” Cece said.
Peter nodded. “I arrive late Sunday morning. I will meet you at your hotel room at one thirty p.m.”
“Can’t wait!” Kallyn rubbed her hands together. “I have a feeling this is going to be really great, Cece.”
“Me, too,” Peter said.
“I hope so.” Cece smiled at her friends and tried to ignore the hammering in her chest.
That evening, the S.A.S.S. group traveled by bus to the Xi’an Railway Station. When they arrived, Cece and Kallyn followed Mark and Jenny across a wide plaza toward a long, imposing building. Outside, locals with their belongings milled around, and inside the scene was the same, only much more crowded.
Mark and Jenny handed out tickets. “These are sleeper trains,” Mark told everyone. “Four to a cabin, please.” Cece, Kallyn, Jess, and Lisa decided they’d share a compartment. Cece glanced over and noticed that Will, Alex, Chris, and Dreyfuss had formed their own group. After the tickets were distributed, Mark explained how to board the train. “In China, the typical way to get on is to shove your way through, even if you have reserved seating. Don’t try to understand the logic. Go with the flow and watch your belongings.”
Mark led the group down an escalator to the platform, where more people waited to board. As soon as the train doors opened, it was just as Mark had said—complete madness. Cece and her roomies squeezed onto the train. When they finally burst through the door to a train car, Cece was thankful she and her things had made it in one piece.
It didn’t take long for them to find their cabin, a few doors down from the end of the car. The room was compact but very functional. To the left and right were upper and lower berths. In between the berths was a large window, and a short table extended out below it. Cece glanced at a fresh flower that was sitting in a vase on the table. Nice touch.
“This almost seems better than the dorm.” Kallyn threw her bag onto a sleeper up top. “We even have our own TVs.” She gestured at a screen at the foot of her bed.
“Better than the dorm?” Jess said, dumping her things on the lower berth. “I wouldn’t go that far.”
Lisa sat on the sleeper opposite Jessica. “At least they gave us slippers.”
“Well, I think it’s like a cute little hotel,” Cece said as she took the bed above Lisa.
It was just past eight thirty in the evening when the train rolled out of the station. From the window, the lights of the city whizzed by until the train reached the co
untryside, and then the view became pitch-black. Cece snuggled in and faced the wall. But as the train gently rocked, sleep didn’t come. Thoughts of her impending weekend started going through her mind. She tried to imagine her visit to the orphanage, but that proved to be difficult. She didn’t know what to expect: What would she see? Whom would she meet? Would she be treated with animosity or kindness? And most of all, what would she learn about her birth family? Her thoughts kept circling in her mind, and the harder she tried to sleep, the more awake she felt. By one, Cece had to do something else or she feared she would get no rest at all. Maybe taking a walk would settle her mind. She quietly got out of bed, slipped a T-shirt over her tank top, and redid the tie on her lounge pants. Then she put on her flip-flops and gingerly opened the door.
The dimly lit hall was as quiet as her compartment had been. She moved from one car to the next, sliding the doors open, not paying much attention to where she was headed until she hit a dining car with tables on either side. The food concession was closed, but Cece was surprised to see Will and Alex playing cards at one of the tables.
Will looked up. “Oh, hey, Cece.”
Alex turned to face her. “Hey.”
“Uh, hi, guys.” Cece quickly tried to smooth her hair, then looked down at herself from her T-shirt to her beat-up flip-flops. Ugh.
“What are you doing up?” Will said.
“Oh...I...I couldn’t sleep.”
Alex glanced at Will, then grinned. “Speaking of sleep, I’d better go to bed.” He stacked the cards together and shoved them in his pocket. “I’m up by fifty points, Will—don’t forget.”
He left through the opposite door, leaving Will and Cece completely alone.
Will gestured at the table. “Care to join me?”
Cece wrapped her arms around herself, unsure.
“Come on, Cece. I swear, I won’t say anything about the hair.” He looked her up and down. “Or the outfit, which is very cute by the way. Grandma pants suit you.”
Cece groaned. “Will.”
“Okay, I won’t say any more.” He put up two fingers. “Scout’s honor.”
Already feeling a bit more at ease, Cece headed toward the table. Maybe talking to Will could help. She sat across from him.
“So, how come you can’t sleep?”
Cece rested her hands on the edge of the table. “I think it’s nerves.”
“Nerves?” Will studied her face intently. “Does this have something to do with your birth parents?”
She sighed. “It has everything to do with my birth parents. This is the big weekend. I’m going to my orphanage.”
“You are?” Will said. “That’s great. Wait a second—how? Aren’t you going to be with us the whole weekend? Did you get permission from Jenny?”
“Um. . . no. ” Cece bit her lip. “And maybe that’s part of the reason for the nerves, too. It’s kinda complicated.”
Will nodded. “Explain.”
“Well...” Cece took in a breath, then filled Will in on her plans for the orphanage, including Peter and Kallyn’s participation. And as she unloaded it all to him, the weight on her shoulders started to lift. Having Will sit quietly and listen somehow helped her organize her thoughts. But when she got to the part about all of her doubts and questions at the orphanage, her nervousness came back again. “I just can’t stop thinking about what’s going to happen.”
“I think I know what can help,” Will said.
“What?”
“Realize what you don’t have control over, Cece. All you can do now is hope for the best.”
Cece looked at Will thoughtfully. “You’re speaking from experience, aren’t you?
“Maybe.”
“Is that how come you’re not totally bent out of shape about your parents?”
Will ran a hand through his hair. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m not thrilled about it . . . but”—he looked up at her and smiled—“it’s how I get through it.”
Cece drummed her fingers on the table. “Hope for the best? Forget everything else.”
“Yeah.”
“I guess it’s something I could try.”
Will got up. “And I think I know something else that might help. Stand up.”
Cece stood, wondering where they would go next. But before she could figure that out, Will put his arms around her and gave her a hug. “How’s that?”
Cece stiffened, then relaxed in his arms, overcome by his warmth. She rested her head on his shoulder. There was something wonderfully innocent about the embrace. No awkwardness. No pressure. Just someone who cared. About her.
“Yeah,” Cece said. “That works, too.”
Cece woke the next morning with the memory of Will’s hug lingering in her mind. Then as the train pulled into Beijing, the feeling was replaced by the excitement of seeing her orphanage city. She got off the train with Kallyn and followed the group through a massive train station bursting with life. When they made it outside, Cece noticed the city resembled Xi’an in many respects. New buildings, construction everywhere, lots of traffic. Bicycles. But things here seemed bigger and better somehow. Were the streets cleaner? The architecture more refined? Cece couldn’t quite exactly explain it, but the city felt like it was important and official, living up to its role as China’s capital.
On the bus ride to the hotel, Cece and Kallyn got a chance to see more of Beijing. “Now, our hotel,” Mark explained, “is centrally located near the Forbidden City. And in case anyone is wondering, the palace got its name because no one was allowed to enter or leave without permission from the Emperor. Not surprisingly, the place is also surrounded by a wall and a moat, so we won’t be able to get a good view of it when we drive by. However, Tiananmen Square, another major landmark, will be readily visible.”
Readily visible was an understatement. Not long after Mark spoke, Cece saw the square through her window—a flat stretch of concrete that seemed to span forever.
“Tiananmen Square,” Jenny said, “is the largest of its kind in the world. It covers four hundred thousand square meters. Over one million people can assemble here for ceremonies, parades, and political speeches.”
One million?
“Tomorrow, after we visit Zhoukoudian, the site where the Peking Man was found, we will return to the Forbidden City and see the highlights of the square.”
“Hey,” Kallyn said, “isn’t this the place where all those students died protesting the government?”
Cece nodded. From what she knew from her history class, thousands of students gathered in the square, calling out for democratic reform, and refused to leave. After several months, the Chinese government sent in military tanks, literally crushing hundreds of protestors. It made Cece uncomfortable to think about it.
“You know what I heard?” Kallyn said. “If you Google ‘Tiananmen Square’ in China, you get no results. Sorta creepy, isn’t it?”
“Yeah,” Cece said. “I’ve heard that, too.” It wasn’t exactly the most appealing story she’d heard about China. Censoring history and killing people who were only expressing their political views ranked right up there. As far as Cece knew, one of the goals of communism was to eliminate oppression. But it seemed to Cece that preventing freedom of speech was oppression. Like the government’s family policies, it was another of those issues Cece didn’t quite understand.
As the bus continued, Mark made another announcement. “We’re getting close to the hotel. Now ideally, the program would have liked to set up your stay at a traditional courtyard hotel with Chinese decor, but because those places aren’t large enough for our group, we’re staying at a Western chain. Once you all have had a chance to check out your rooms, head downstairs for breakfast, and then we’ll head out again to the Great Wall. Your bags will be in your room when we return.”
The bus pulled up to a modern building about eight stories high. Red carpet covered the entrance floor, and men in uniforms with brass luggage carts awaited them. The canopy above read Holiday Inn.
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br /> “This is a Holiday Inn?” Kallyn said. “You’d think this is a Four Seasons.”
“I’m not complaining,” Cece said, standing up.
They entered the lobby, and Jenny handed out room keys. Cece and Kallyn found their room on the seventh floor, and Kallyn slipped the key into the card reader. The light flashed green, and they stepped inside.
The room was large, complete with two double beds and a sitting area. “Forget the train,” Kallyn said, flopping onto one of the fluffy beds. “This is way better than the dorm.” She grabbed a room-service menu and thumbed through it while Cece went over to the window.
Cece scanned the city skyline. Somewhere out there was her orphanage.
“So what’s it like to be home?” Kallyn said.
“Home?”
“You know. Back here.”
“Well...” Cece considered Kallyn’s question as she examined the view again. “This doesn’t feel all that different from Xi’an. I’m beginning to wonder if China will ever feel familiar.”
Kallyn got up and looked out the window with Cece. “That’ll probably change. Once you get to the orphanage.”
“Maybe, ” Cece said.
“Come on.” Kallyn moved away from the window. “Let’s go downstairs and meet the group.”
After breakfast, the group got on the bus for their excursion to the Great Wall. Jenny explained they would travel about seventy-five kilometers northwest of the city and drive into the Tianshou Mountains, where the Wall crested its ridges. As the bus traveled along a multilane expressway, they left the city behind and entered a beautiful countryside with craggy mountains in the background. The only thing spoiling the atmosphere was the gray sky.