On the second day, Li Yan had just gotten off the plane and was rushing to a demolished historical site.
Only a person like him, with a life so caught up in mystery, would do something like that.
There was a rock sitting at the entrance of a walkway, similar to those in the Classic Gardens of Suzhou. On it was a couplet inscribed in red:
The pursuit of knowledge
turns savage to savant.
“I’m sorry, I have no idea what you’re talking about,” said the elderly man.
Li Yan remained calm and replied, “I know the Walled City was torn down before I came back. Many things were forgotten, but can you just try and think back carefully again, Mr. Hou?”
The elderly man shook his head, “Young man, that all sounds like fiction to me. I’ve lived here for more than ten years. And while the Kowloon associations and safety were problems, the Grand Duke and He Lian Sheng sound like they’re right out of a movie script.”
The elderly man looked slightly defeated as he continued, “This place was nothing more than a slum.”
Li Yan sat still for a whole minute before speaking again. “Sorry to disturb you.”
As he stood to take his leave, he pulled out his phone and searched for the names of all the Chinese detectives who were active during Hong Kong’s colonial period.
There wasn’t a Li Yaoguang.
Li Yan became heavy-hearted.
…
“Gong Ruxin? Of course I know who she is,” nodded the man dressed in a neatly-pressed suit. If Li Yan’s memory was anything to go by, this office building had been owned by one of Judy’s subsidiary companies, and Gong Ruxin was the name of her adoptive mother.
Li Yan tried to conceal his overwhelming joy with a slight cough, replying “Her daughter…”
Just as Li Yan started to speak, the man looked at him strangely. “Pardon me, sir, but Madam Gong never had a daughter…”
…
Pavilion for Cherished Words, Kowloon Walled City Park, Hong Kong.
Warm rays of sun in the vermilion sky shone through the tree canopy, and the broken pebbles that paved the ground were neat and clean. The bonsai trees placed around the park created beautiful scenery.
Who would guess that fifty thousand people had once lived within these walls?
As the skies darkened, the tourists began to leave the park.
Li Yan was holding a bottle of beer, eyes red, humming nonchalantly to a familiar tune.
“Snow white and the seven dwarfs…”
“Snow white and the seven dwarfs with different traits…”
“First time here, sir?” asked a stranger wearing a cap as Li Yan walked by.
“Nope,” Li Yan subconsciously shook his head, but then changed his answer. “Oh, yes. It is.”
The girl didn’t seem too bothered by his reply. She picked out a Snow White balloon from the bunch she was holding and handed it to Li Yan
“Thanks,” Li Yan nodded as the girl smiled and left.
Li Yan was quite a sight, with a bottle of beer in one hand and a balloon in another.
He staggered as he continued to hum raspily, “Seven little dwarfs with seven wooden sticks, shoving them up Snow White until she’s loose and weak, hehehe…”
He laughed to himself, blurry-eyed. “F*ck!”
He hurled the beer bottle with such brute force that it crashed loudly at the base of the trash can.
“Why are you so pissed off. You’ve finally recovered from your illness.”
Li Yan turned towards the voice and saw Mo Tapir.
The surroundings were suddenly eerily quiet. Even the burning sunset seemed to have stopped in time.
“It was all fake?”
“Just think about it… time travel is impossible. Haven’t you heard of Grandfather Paradox?”
Li Yan squeezed his eyes shut, unable to speak for a moment.
“But, this isn’t all fake,” said the big guy with a greasy smile. He continued, “There are no two identical leaves, but there are many similar ones. If everything was just a dream, how could you have recovered from your illness? But then again, you could just be living another dream.” The big guy couldn’t help but take another subtle dig at Li Yan.
“Is this a parallel universe?” Li Yan asked, still deep in thought.
“Yes, but not quite.”
“What do you mean?”
“It is a parallel universe, yes. But the gap between these two universes is probably much larger than you could ever imagine.”
“Go on,” said Li Yan with slight interest. He was relieved at the thought of Judy being a person in an alternate universe. He wouldn’t have been able to face the saggy, old Judy of today if she still existed in this one.
“Human beings have always been keen to explore the universe, but they lack understanding of the ground beneath their feet. They can’t see the truth and they can’t predict the future…”
The big guy breathed into his sleeves, wiped down the flower bed, and sat down.
“A great scientist who just passed not long ago had a theory about parallel universes. He believed that in a parallel universe, he would have been an active person who loved exercising and sports.”
“But actually, there was much more he could do. For example, he could put himself on another planet and hit on hot aliens, or he could play quidditch flying around on his broom…”
“Harry Potter?”
“No, none of that. Just a possibility,” replied the big guy as he smacked his lips together.
“I don’t quite get it,” said Li Yan with furrowed brows.
“As the Chinese saying goes, ‘Confucius never talks supernaturalism’. And if, just if, the witches who were burnt to death in the Middle Ages did in fact have supernatural powers but were just wiped out, and if some prince had decided that witches weren’t harmful to civilization and used their powers to create a massive magic revolution, then your life today would have been very different. That’s a possibility.”
“I think I understand now. Besides, that story was rather impressive,” Li Yan replied with a sarcastic smile plastered on his face.
“Or, as another example…” Big guy said as he pointed to the ground, “From this moment on, if their spirits take shape once again, and the power of the Qi becomes reality in a night, and all the great martial artists are reborn, and the rules of the world change… then now, the parallel universe is no longer parallel.”
“If I hadn’t witnessed it, I would have thought you were messing with me.”
“Is there a loophole in my theory?”
“No, not really, But your fantasy sounds all too familiar…” Li Yan puffed out a cold laugh as he spoke.
The big guy maintained his demeanor and continued, “I’m talking about possibilities. The human imagination is like possibilities–both are limitless.”
“So the background of the Yanfu cases was connected to your knowledge of the world you live in, but completely distorted.”
Mo Tapir interlocked his fingers and explained, “Yanfu is also known as Jambudvipa. There, legend has it that there was once a tree, and each of its fruit represented a brand new world. And we humans are like ladybugs, jumping from one fruit to another,”
“And that makes us Yanfu Walkers.”