Excerpt Chapter 1: The Enamored Divine Eagle and the Iron Dragon of the Snowy Mountain
The evanescent sun during sunset, like a ball of blazing fire, hung distantly in the hazy firmament. It radiated its magnificent yet tender rays of light, illuminating the vigorous and majestic Qinghai Tibet Plateau, and glistening the meandering Kunlun Snowy Mountains in a dazzle as though they wore a magical veil of gold.
In the variegated sky, there was a mighty and dignified eagle spreading its powerful wings and soaring regally in the air; it looked over this resplendent world in its lofty height, grasping all perceptible changes across the land in its mystical eyes.
A moving train — a wild, untamed iron dragon, propelled itself from the deepest parts of the snowy mountains, and onward, toward the vast and boundless Central Plain. In the eyes of this divine eagle, the fascinating iron dragon seemed to be hiding a mysterious power, spreading an inexplicable message and foreshadowing an extraordinary story that will astound the world.
The Kun-Lun SMCL9 Luxury Train, under the refulgent dusk and against the headwind, sped past one terrain after another: it passed through the forlorn and gloomy gorges, the primeval and vine-clad forests, the luxuriant and prolific meadows, and galloped furiously toward the East.
As it traveled, a resoundingly spirited voice in tenor traversed from the compartments of the train and dispersed across the earth in the form of a song “The Century-Old Feelings”：
There’s a song, hovering in the welkin,
Some say it is the wings of time and space.
She brings you through the clouds of the past,
She lets you see the panorama of the hundred years’ rime.
Oh……
It was a time of mercurial insanity, vagaries of madness,
It was the glisten of sabers, a billowing smoke of tragedy.
In this hundred years,
Princes and courtesans, princesses and romanticists,
Angels and demons, heroes and maidens,
Each mounts upon the stage of the era
The century of diegesis, goes up and down……
The elegant and sonorous tone reverberated into the ether and flowed into the ears of the eagle. It instantly felt rejuvenated and was free of mind and spirit. Just as it started to relish upon this singular vocal, the voice disappeared as unexpectedly as it had appeared.
“Why did the song stop…. And the iron dragon?” the eagle abruptly thought to itself as it searched in all directions, “oh, so the fellow snuck into the belly of that mountain!”
The train dove into the tunnel within the mountain, and after a while, exited from the east mountainside onto a suspension bridge enveloped in the clouds. Soon, it descended and once more underwent another prodigious part of the mountain range.
Behold! The eagle, hoping to prolong its entertainment, flew above the steep ridges in circles, concentrating for the slightest noise of the creature. However, the iron dragon stayed hidden.
“Hey, when does it plan to reveal itself?” the eagle, losing its patience at this game of hide and seek, flapped its proud wings and left. With an obvious feeling of dissatisfaction, it soon vanished under the glowing sunset.
Little did it know that it had hardly flown away from this majestic mountain when the iron dragon, in a blaze of brilliance, appeared from the southeast pass for a moment and quickly zipped into another body. By the time it reappeared, it was now in a land of ice and snow. The “iron dragon”, free from the eyes of the eagle, suddenly seemed joyful and light on its feet, it increased its strides toward the destination…
The shimmering dusk refracted upon the Kunlun SMCL9 and tinted its body in a gilded haze.
The palatial first-class compartments also glowed in full splendor from within. The gorgeous female train attendants in their mess-dress uniforms walked to and fro like a bevy of flowers and jades between the compartments, answering each passenger request with an enticing and competent smile.
These attendants, with their complete hospitality and the acme of beauty and deportment, have won themselves a welcoming glance of approval from each traveler in the vicinity and not one of these riders doesn’t consider themselves lucky having set foot upon this “Imperial Garden”.
Lo! The West Dining Compartment (lounge bar) and the East Dining Compartment (food court) were full of revelry with red lights and green wine; incessant waves of laughter and merrymaking could be heard interchangeably and the clanging of cups never failed to follow their lead.
Groups of white-collar workers and intellectuals gathered themselves in the lounge bar that served light snacks and alcoholic drinks; other gentlemen and ladies, in the spring of youth, accompanied each other to the dance floor and danced in rhythm to the lively brisk music.
The food court was packed to the brink and formed one giant hubbub of ordering and taking orders. The sumptuous dinner menu included various dishes from every region of North and South, and among them, the cumin roasted lamb, potato beef stew, dried fruits and honeyed nut confections were the hottest sellers. With the company of music and young waitresses, it was no wonder these consumers indulged in more servings and imbibed more drinks than they should.
By the windowsill, in Room Eight of the ninth passenger car resonating with Schubert’s “Ave Maria”, an elegant eastern beauty sat alone and absorbed. She was spellbound by the outside panorama: the translucent icy plateau, the mesmerizing kaleidoscopic twilight, the crystalized wintersweet…… All these natural sceneries, further embellished by the golden sunset, painted a picturesque enchantment.
”Ah, how beautiful”, she extolled, “What a fantasyland!”
In the corners of her eyes, three sika deer suddenly appeared among the white birch trees, running in a panic along the track. They were being chased by a fierce snow leopard.
It was ill-fated that the deer picked this time to forage and they resented not having longer legs. Death was imminent and the first to resign its life was but a fawn, the slowest and weakest among the family. The leopard gained speed like an arrow and leaped on the fawn with a vicious bite on the neck and killed it upon the spot. However, the leopard was not satisfied with its reward and proceeded to chase down the remaining two. While a considerable gap had been created between the prey and the predator, how can the deer hope to escape from one of the world’s famous “sprinting champions”? Within seconds, the second deer succumbed to the fangs of the leopard and became the main course of its dinner.
The male deer, left with no choice, abandoned its loved ones and ran desperately toward east and further into the forest. At a seemingly safe distance, the sole survivor sighed a lugubrious relief as it looked back at the hunter eating the scrumptious meal composed of its companions. But the lone deer could not anticipate that what laid in the depth of the forest was a pack of wolves waiting to ambush. Just as it stepped into their territory, the wolves threw themselves at the fatigued deer, easily bringing it down before madly ingesting the body.
“How cruel!” The lady gasped out loud, much appalled at what she had just witnessed in just the span of a few seconds. “Who knew such a terrifying and bloody occurrence would happen under this dazzling macrocosm….. Perhaps this is the logic of the natural world? No, not so! Not only in the world of beasts…” She answered to herself. “Even in our self-proclaimed civilized and cultured society with the supposed rules of law and order, is it not perpetually a replay of the tragedy of violent terrorism, bloody massacre, and the rule of the jungle? And is the history of human civilization not just a sanguinary record of wars; and the evolution of past dynasties not just a library of blood-stained imperial annals tweaked by the victors?”
The incident provoked much thought from the beauty as she sat silently ruminating….
Her name was Jin Ziqi, a well-known reporter of the Hong Kong Golden Phoenix TV. For years she had been thinking of planning a literary documentary related to the course of human civilization and its ultimate objective. She named it Huaxia Genesis.
However, at the mere age of twenty-nine, she understood how limited her experience and knowledge were — that is, to only use the expertise in her career of journalism to cover a literary work which intertwines numerous sciences and disciplines to divulge the essence of the purpose of human civilization, its development and its future value, was obviously a tall project to undertake given her current level of erudition.
While her ken fell short of her ambitions, she was, as the common parlance says, determined to broaden her horizon. And under the old axiom that the traveling of a thousand miles is the equivalent of ten thousand scrolls, she set out on a journey to increase her wealth of wisdom.
The reason for her visit to the Tibet Plateau was to interview a religious theoretician, albeit a recluse, named Gongsun Hao. In recent years, the sage produced two stirring works labeled The Essence of Dao and Truth (Human Magnanimity) and Prehistoric Civilization. Upon perusing the momentous philosophical and historical masterpieces, a hundred emotions swelled in her heart and the edifying effect of her mind was so evident that she instantly sought to travel to his secret abode in hope of enlightening herself and furthering her project.
And so, Ziqi came to Qinghai bringing along her trusted photojournalist, Ceng Fan, as her companion. Together, they walked through the Tibet steppes, along the lakeshores and clambered the paths on the Kunlun Mountains to search for the residence of this mysterious figure. They travelled nonstop across Golmud, Dulan, Qumacai, Yushu, Nachitai; Tanggula Mountains and Bayan Har Mountains. Two months passed and the red leaves of fall have been replaced by the feathers of snow, yet not a trace of his shadow could be found. Just as they were about to give up, a substantial clue finally surfaced among the waters.
One noon, they stumbled upon an elderly fisherman by the waterbank of West Lake who informed them of a cottage called Hong He Cao Lu (红鹤草庐) deep within the Ma Qinggang Mountain on the Bear Ear Peak, where a saint supposedly resided according to all the villagers living at the foot of this mountain. Delighted, the two followed the instructions of the fisherman and endeavored to surmount the craggy peak.
They passed through Santala and trudged down south of the Flower Pass Valley until the mountain came into view. From an entrance beside a small stream that can hardly be called a path, they laboriously ascended in the direction of the main peak.
As the sun sank to the far West, they finally arrived at the waist of the mountain and were at once enveloped by mists exceedingly thick and surrounded by jagged rocks of grotesque shapes. In the deepest part of the hidden glen, the apparition of a hut suddenly appeared.
“Ziqi look!” Ceng Fan pointed his fingers. “Hong He Cao Lu, that’s it!”
“Finally!” Ziqi said excitedly, “How wonderful! Heaven rewards those who seek after all. Let’s take a look inside!”
Ziqi and Ceng Fan strutted toward the exquisitely-made bamboo-structured hut. A collection of ancient cypress trees surrounded the vicinage while fences made of white pine encircled the courtyard. On the lintel of the front gate (which they had mistaken to be the hut), hung a plaque that read “红鹤草庐”, in ancient characters. The two sides of the door were engraved with a striking couplet: the first scroll: 珠藏泽自媚, second scroll: 玉韫山含辉.
“This must be his abode, it does not lack any genteel etiquette!” Ziqi marveled, as much at the striking calligraphy style of the characters as she marveled at the genius of the couplet.
“For sure, this is truly a saint’s residence.” Ceng Fan sublimed. “Let’s go inside.”
“Hold on,” Ziqi raised her hand. “we are supposed to see if the owner is home.”
“Sorry I got too excited!” Ceng Fan began to holler. “Excuse us, is Mr.Gongsun here? Anybody inside?” Ceng Fan called multiple times but heard no reply. Then he proceeded to knock the front door but to no avail. “Looks like nobody’s here.” “Let’s go inside.”
They pushed open the unlatched front gate and walked in. Five separate structures immediately came into view that together formed a horseshoe shape. Three main rooms were situated in the front and two wings sat at the rear ends; the middle court was the main hall; right, the master bedroom; and left, the bookroom. A grand maidenhair tree with a trunk of five men’s arm span stood at the center of the horseshoe surrounded by a beautiful, well-tended flower bed. In the backyard, an orchard of considerable size can be seen with a lotus pond in the middle adjoined by a pavilion.
“This is so much bigger than it looks from the outside!” Ceng Fan remarked.
The two reporters observed the entire vacant courtyard with exceeding reverence and though the owner was nowhere to be seen, they marveled at the quaint and simple elegance of the unique designs as well as attracted by the natural and tranquil scenery. They nonchalantly walked to the pavilion to enjoy the view: a stream of limpid water gushed out of the back mountain spring and flowed into the lotus pond with blossoming hibiscus. A pair of handsome cranes bathed themselves in the lucid waters while a shoal of red carps puttered beneath them.
“Look at how lovely and at ease they are!” Ziqi smiled, “Who knew there is such a captivating spring-like place deep in the mountains five thousand feet above ground!”
“Indeed, it’s supposed to be late autumn, yet here is full of the beauty of spring!” Ceng Fan said happily as he took a deep breath. “All my photographer instincts are tempting me to take photos…”
Before Ceng Fan finished his sentence, a thunderous roar suddenly came from the West side. The sound fluctuated across the trees and trembled the earth. The two, terrified, turned around and found a ferocious tiger crouching on top of the huge eagle-shaped boulder from across the pond.
“Oh God! What should we do?” Ceng Fan whimpered.
“It’s looking right at us!” Ziqi petrified, “don’t move, we’re dead if we upset it.”
The tiger eyed covetously at the two uninvited guests and roared again before leaping down the rock waterside and closing in steadily.
“Run! It’s not going to let us go!”
“You go first,” Ceng Fan pulled out a stiletto from his backpack and gripped it tightly with both hands. “I’ll stall it…”
“No, we have to leave together!” said Ziqi as she hastily drew a pistol she had hid in her waist.
The tiger emitted a low rumbling growl and gradually increased its movement. They, in turn, also quickened their haste of retreat. The tiger roared and wasted no time to pounce on them.
Although Ceng Fan was scared out of his wits, as a man, he was prepared to lay down his life to protect Ziqi. We’re not going to make it, thought Ziqi. She tightly gripped her gun and aimed at the tiger in midair and pulled the trigger. Bang! Bang! Two ear-splitting shots fired off and the tiger fell on the ground. Ceng Fan and Ziqi, having already lost control of their legs from fright in their retreat, abruptly stepped empty. Pudong! Pudong! the two fell into the lotus pond.
It wasn’t until when they desperately scrambled back from the water and saw the quiescent tiger did they finally come back to their senses. And, as though waking from a nightmare, they looked at each other’s soaking wet bodies and pallor faces, and the two did not know whether to laugh or cry.
“Not bad,” remarked Ceng Fan in a strangely good mood while wiping the beads of sweat off his face and still trying to recover himself. “If it weren’t for those shots, who knew what would’ve happened.”
“Really? Did I really hit the tiger?” Ziqi looked at the gun and a complacent smile appeared from her pallid countenance. “It was wise of me to bring the gun I suppose.”
“Quit smirking,” Ceng Fan teased, “I was the one who told you to bring it. I still have the bullets in my bag…. Oh, wait! The bullets! Ziqi there’s no bullet in the gun!”
“What? The bullets are still in your bag?” Ziqi nervously checked her gun for the bullet shells but found it empty. The two looked at each other in consternation. “So who killed the tiger?” “who knows I just heard two gunshots.” “Maybe it was divine intervention….”
Dusk was approaching and the entire place suddenly felt heavy and the atmosphere eerie. “Ziqi, we should leave this place. It’s getting dark and we must descend the mountain…”
Hardly had he finished his sentence when a loutish and gruff voice interrupted him. “Stop right there! You barged into my house, shot at my garden protector, and you think you can just leave?”
“Ah? Who are you?” Ziqi, could not discern where the voice was coming from. “We did not kill the tiger… May I ask who you are?”
“I am the person who saved you!” A gust of wind whizzed by a ginkgo tree with a diameter of three arm-span at the southern end of the pond. Ziqi followed the whistling of the tree and looked up: a man dressed in a formal Tang Dynasty apparel swiftly landed on the pavilion across from them. Ziqi, upon closer scrutiny, saw that the man had a rough look with thick eyebrows and a beard shaped like a lion mane that surrounded his entire face like a frame. With a stature nearing seven feet, his stout and towering body created an imposing aura.
The guardian took out a whip from his belt and cracked it twice in the empty air around the unconscious tiger. Pah! Pah! It sounded surprisingly similar to the gunshots. Immediately, the tiger awakened from its slumber and glanced at its master in obeisance. Again the guardian whipped, and the tiger, first shaking its head reluctantly and then turning into an obedient nod, ponderously left the scene in a timorous motion and disappeared beyond the fences and returned to the dense forest.
Ziqi and Ceng Fan, upon witnessing the spectacular performance, thanked their savior at once. “So it was you! Thank you mister for saving our lives!”
“Who are you,” the man asked in rejoinder, “that you dare break into my residence. What is your motive?”
“Savior, you are mistaken,” Ceng Fan tried to explain, “We are reporters from the Hong Kong Golden Phoenix and we came here in hope of seeking Mr. Gongsun Hao. We travelled far to get here and seeing that no one answered the door after many knocks, we impetuously decided to come in. We are sorry for our poor manners, please forgive us!”
“If it weren’t for your act of bravery,” Ziqi added, “and stepping in to help us, we would’ve been the dinner of that beast! If it’s not too presumptuous of us, may I ask for your name so that we may return the favor in the future?”
“I’m Fan Kui,” the roughneck said with a grunt. “If you want to say something just say it!”
“Master Fan Kui,” Ceng Fan immediately followed, “Do you perhaps know where Mr. Gongsun Hao is?”
“Mr. Gongsun?” Fan Kui shook his head. “He’s not here.”
“Does that mean you know where he is?” Ziqi eagerly pursued, “You must know him then!”
“Who said I know him,” Fan Kui refuted with a grumpy voice. “Alright, it’s getting dark. Hurry and go down the mountain. The weather here is unpredictable!” He turned around and was about to leave.
“Master Fan Kui, are you just going to leave us?” Ziqi said in a panic, “look at how soaked we are, it’s already dark outside. We might just freeze on our way down. Plus, we have yet to find Mr. Gongsun!”
Fan Kui stopped and looked closely at the two drenched reporters for the first time with his unreadable face. “Okay, fine you may stay for a night here… follow me.”
“I am all gratitude.” thanked Ziqi as she made a meaningful glance to Ceng Fan. They walked toward the main court.
“Master Fan Kui is a kind warrior. Not only did you save the two of us but also allowed us to stay for the night. How fortunate of us to have met you…” Ceng Fan complimented.
“Stop with the act!” Fan Kui suddenly twisted his head in a haughty manner and said acrimoniously, “you people sound too glib…. Consider yourselves lucky for tonight.”
Ziqi and Ceng Fan, bewildered by the acerbity of his demeanor, quietly followed Fan Kui to the right wing chamber without wanting to make it any more awkward than it had to.
“The girl stays here. You…” The gruff man pointed at Ceng Fan and frowned, “You, follow me.”
Soon, he brought Ceng Fan to the left wing guest room and tossed him the key. “Don’t touch anything here. It’s a guest room but also a weapon storage. Don’t wander outside unless you want to get eaten by a bear.”
”Yes sir, I’ll remember! Thanks again!” Ceng Fan unlocked the door and was about to enter before a giant hand patted on his shoulder. “Wha? Oh…Fan Kui Master…”
“Look, I’m warning you!” admonished Fan Kui sternly, “Don’t make a scene here or else you’ll be sorry!”
“I understand…” Ceng Fan replied on sufferance. “Ah and what about Gong Sun….” The uncanny man had already vanished into the phantoms of the night.
Ceng Fan walked in and examined the room. The room was shabby and in desperate need of repair. The various openings in the walls allowed the pale moonlight to penetrate the room and its silver rays reflected across the gleaming blades and spears stacked against each other by the walls. Fan Kui’s admonishment continued to linger at the back of his mind. The night was unearthly quiet and Ceng Fan wondered if his boss was alright. He dialed her phone number but there was no service.
Ceng Fan, accompanied by fear, concerns, starvation, and enervation, drooped into a state of drowsiness and spent the night in between an incessant cycle of sleeping and awakening…
Across the courtyard, Ziqi entered the room, set her luggage on the bed and lit a plum candlelight. Following the soft glow from the candle, she observed this unfamiliar yet exquisitely charming boudoir.
The spacious zhennan-hardwood bedframe was covered by an embroidered flower quilt; a dressing table imitating the antiquity sat between the bed and window, on top of which a gorgeous prismatic mirror and a Song-style snuffbox were neatly placed. To the east of the latticed window stood a mahogany desk with a handcrafted Guqin on top. A quaint yet scenic Chinese painting of five seraphic ladies bathing and disporting themselves by the Ji Shui River hung on the middle of the wall directly across the bed, the supple and alluring grace of the bevy made them seem to come to life.
“Wow… it’s so beautiful! Worthy of the name of paradise!” Ziqi thought to herself.
She fetched her spare clothes from her luggage and was about to take off her damped ones when a whiff of jasmine embraced her. What a nice smell! Where is it coming from? She examined the room with rapt attention. Waves of redolence rolled from the silky drapery near the bed’s end. She raised the curtain. Ah! A secret hot spring!
She entered this mysterious chamber that was as big as the boudoir. At the center of the room was a bathing pool constructed out of mosaic marbles; a constant fragrant steam fumed out of the hot water floating with flower petals. The aroma circulated and permeated the entire room and under the light of four wall lamps at every corner of the bath along with the misty purple steam, the chamber was dreamlike.
“Wow! What a lovely hot spring!” Ziqi said out loud, “Who could’ve guessed that high above the mountains and deep within the clouds there is such a tasteful and mysterious place!”
She blissfully undressed herself, revealing a body that resembled that of eastern models, slender and long yet voluptuous and curvaceous. Gently, she slid herself into the bath and immediately felt rejuvenated and light. She reflexively stroked her smooth skin with her delicate hands. All her fatigue was instantly washed away by the magical spring. She rested comfortably in the water and slowly her mind began to drift….
“Ziqi, how are you?” came a crisp and tender voice of a male.
Ziqi, astonished, turned and saw the curtain being lifted. “Who are you? Do not come…. I am bathing!” She hastily grabbed a towel and wrapped herself in it. “Stay there! Don’t come or I’ll yell!”
Before she finished speaking, a debonair man with a confident smile appeared behind the curtain and approached her without a hint of worry or awkwardness. “Ziqi, stop panicking. It’s me.”
Ziqi flabbergasted, flashed her eyes. “Ah! It’s you! How did you know I was here?”
“You tell me! I searched everywhere for you. Who knew you came to Ma Qinggang Mountain. How worrisome!” said the man in a slightly blaming tone.
Ziqi thought he looked familiar but could not recognize him at first through the steam and mist. She became even more confused after what he just said. She tightened the towel around her body and sunk herself deep into the water except her head. “You… you didn’t even give a heads-up and just barged in… get out we’ll talk later!” She muttered abashedly.
“Ziqi, stop treating me like an outsider.” The man frowned. “Am I supposed to look away when my own woman is taking a shower?”
“Leihong Ge? I’m not dreaming right? How did you know that I was here?” Ziqi raised her head in disbelief and strained her eyes to see through the steam.
Dongfang Leihong walked to the edge of the bath, half squatting, “How would I not know your whereabouts? You little oriole, even if you fly to the end of the sky, I’ll find you.”
“It is you!” Ziqi said excitedly as she loosened the grip on her towel. “But, it took you long enough to find your prey…where have you been all these years? 薄情一去，信书无个，悔当初不把雕鞍锁…”
Leihong smiled, “Then 彩线慵拈伴伊坐，和我，莫使年少，光阴虚过，right?”
The duet looked at each other affectionately and laughed. Ziqi lifted herself out of the water. “But seriously, why do you have to be so mysterious. You claim that I am your woman but I would’ve become a lonesome housewife had we married! I couldn’t even find a trace of your shadow!”
“Come on, don’t make it sound so bad,” Lei Hong gently grabbed her delicate hands and said tenderly, “I have a mission that I must accomplish. I must ask you to be patient for a bit longer. I swear we will be together forever.”
She gazed at him with her deep, amber pupils that radiated love and admiration. “Do you know, I’ve been waiting for you all this time. During our last phone call you said you were heading to Europe and I never heard from you again. I found out later that you were involved in the Golden Ship Customs Case and had to leave your company. Some said you went to Korea, some said you joined a smuggling organization. I was so worried. I just wanted to see you. I missed you so much!”
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