Everything Under the Sky by Matilde Asensi

Author:Matilde Asensi [Asensi, Matilde]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery, Oceans, land of danger, Shanghai, Biao, Green Gang, China, Adventure, Kuomintang, Shaolin
Published: 2013-08-13T05:00:00+00:00

Surprisingly, my niece was absolutely indifferent to the news. Perhaps, deep down, her transformation had merely been one of self-interest.

“So we'll be leaving Wudang soon?” she asked, furrowing her brow. “I'm not ready to leave my classes yet.”

During breakfast the sun struggled to break through layers of thick clouds on that first morning without rain.

“Biao and I could stay here,” she stubbornly proposed. The boy's eyes lit up, but he didn't dare say a word. He'd just come back from the abbot's palace with the news that a servant would come to accompany us to the meeting at the hour of the Snake.40

“You will go where I go, Fernanda,” I declared, mustering patience. I was the one who had wanted her to stay in Shanghai with Father Castrillo to keep her out of harm's way, and she was the one who had fought not to leave my side. Now she was willing to watch me leave with Lao Jiang and the soldiers just so she could stay in Wudang. “How can I leave you all alone in this Taoist monastery out in the middle of China?”

“Well, I don't know why not, Auntie. We're safer here than anywhere else. Besides, you don't need Biao and me to find the tomb of that darned Emperor Ti Huang … whatever.”

“The case is closed, Fernanda,” I said, raising my hand in the air. “I will not allow you to stay here. Off you go to your classes, but you're to return with Biao as soon as he comes to get you.”

She didn't hesitate and strode out of the room without finishing her breakfast. A sleepy-looking Lao Jiang appeared just then. That was the first morning I'd done tai chi on my own, and although I'd made one mistake after another, the solitude in those serene mountains was magnificent.

“Ni hao,” the antiquarian said. “What news have you got?”

“In an hour—a Western hour, that is—one of the abbot's servants will come to take us to Purple Cloud Palace.”

“Ah, perfect!” he exclaimed happily, sitting down to breakfast. “Didn't you want to visit Ming T'ien first?”

“We were just leaving, weren't we, Biao?” I replied as I got out of my chair. I wasn't sure the old nun would be on her satin cushion that early, but I had to try. It might be the last time I saw her.

We walked down the still-wet cobbled streets, puffs of steam coming out of our mouths. Monks dressed in long black tunics were sweeping the corridors, bridges, patios, palaces, and steps of Wudang, trying to get rid of all the accumulated mud. The cold was revitalizing, and the views after so many days of rain were positively intoxicating. As we passed a path along a cliff, a carpet of white clouds lay several hundred feet below us. Ming T'ien's temple was visible in the distance, across a bridge, on a slope. Wudang was so enormous that the scenery changed each day. This was a city, a mysterious city, in which peace filled your lungs with every breath of fresh air.

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