Winnie Zeng Shatters the Universe by Katie Zhao

Author:Katie Zhao [Zhao, Katie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2024-04-29T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

At dinner, Kelly finally returned from wherever she’d wandered off to, her Nai Nai floating at her shoulder, and she seemed to be in better spirits. Apparently, the fresh air had really done her some good.

“Whatever. I couldn’t even put ‘Shaman Youth Champion’ on my resume, anyway, so it doesn’t matter that much.” Kelly bit into her steamed pork bun with a shrug.

“Well, there are the prizes,” I blurted out, “not to mention a lifetime of bragging rights. That’ll be nice for the winner.”

Kelly either didn’t hear me or pretended not to. “And now I can chill out for the next few days while I watch you guys struggle through the rest of the tournament.”

“Thanks, Kelly,” David said with a frown. He’d won his round, too, but like me, seemed too exhausted to fully revel in the victory. Plus, since Kelly wouldn’t be advancing, we didn’t want to rub it in her face.

“Anyway, I did some thinking,” Kelly continued, leaning in as though she didn’t want to chance being overheard, “and something was fishy about the way Jingyan fought against me earlier.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Fishy…how?”

“He seemed way more powerful battling me than he was in the first round. Like, our round was over in seconds. Jingyan came at me with such a strong punch, I couldn’t get off the mat.” Kelly must have seriously thought something was wrong, because otherwise no way would she so readily admit how easily she’d been defeated. “And that was a painful punch, too.” She winced, as though the memory of it was too much.

“You think Jingyan cheated somehow?” I asked dubiously. I didn’t see how he could have. It wasn’t like there were steroids that shamans could take to level up our powers. A shaman’s strength came purely from the strength of their bond with their overspirit. Essentially, there was no way to cheat as a shaman.

Kelly shook her head. “No. I think…whoever I fought…wasn’t Jingyan. I know it sounds unbelievable, but I can’t shake the feeling that I was deceived somehow.”

“What?” David dropped his chopsticks onto his plate with a clatter. “You’re saying you fought an imposter?”

“Something like that. He…he said something strange to me, too. Said ‘Chaos comes in fours.’ That doesn’t even make sense.”

“It…kinda makes sense,” I said, thinking quickly. “Four is an unlucky number in Chinese culture, after all.”

“But what does the number four have to do with anything?” David was twisting his hands in his lap. “It’s an unlucky number in Chinese, which isn’t a good sign. But it’s also…so vague. Like, four of what? It could refer to anything.”

Kelly and I exchanged a look. Neither of us had an answer for him. Yet, somewhere in the back of my mind, I couldn’t help but feel like I was missing something. I couldn’t shake the sense that I should be able to connect the dots.

“There definitely is something strange going on at this tournament,” I said, mulling over Kelly’s words. I wasn’t sure that her theory was the right explanation, but I also couldn’t say for sure that it wasn’t.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.