Читать книгу Blue Dragon - Kylie Chan - Страница 6
ОглавлениеF inished, Emma, come on back.
‘John’s finished with the demons at the dojo,’ I said. ‘We’ll go back and move on to Bright Mansions.’
When we reached the dojo, Roland Pak was in his office with John, beaming with delight.
‘Where’s Leo and Michael?’ I said.
‘In one of the training rooms,’ John said. ‘Leo’s teaching a group of youngsters. Michael’s assisting.’
‘Come in, come in,’ Roland said to my parents. ‘Come. Sit.’
He rose and gave his seat to my mother, and gestured towards an empty chair for my father. The tiny office was a squeeze with all of us in there. Simone climbed into her father’s lap.
‘You can throw chi too, Emma?’ Roland said, leaning one hip on the desk.
‘Yep,’ I said, standing behind my father and resting my hands on his shoulders. ‘I’m about ten times as good as Michael.’
‘And that’s just in human form,’ John said. ‘In Serpent form she’s another ten times better than that.’
My parents stiffened and I glared at John, but Roland’s grin didn’t shift.
‘Where did you put them all?’ I said.
‘I sent them up to the Mountain. Construction will move three times more quickly with so many extra hands, even if they are unskilled. I may have some of them taught to use heavy equipment; we’re short on bulldozer operators to clear the rubble.’
‘One Two Two’s really done us a huge favour then,’ I said. ‘On to Happy Valley.’
‘How about I drop you at the Jockey Club clubhouse in the Valley on the way?’ John said. ‘You can have lunch there while I sort the demons out.’
‘Uh,’ Roland began. ‘Before you go . . .’
‘Yes, Roland?’ John said.
‘You want me to show you some stuff, don’t you,’ I said.
Roland nodded.
‘Oh, of course,’ John said, leaning back. ‘Least we can do for you, Roland, after putting you through all of this. Imagine having a hundred demons turn up at your front door like that. I’ll get someone to set seals on the studio early next week.’ John rose and slid Simone off his lap. ‘Do you have a free room we can use?’
‘Come this way,’ Roland said, his grin even wider.
‘You guys can stay here and wait for me, if you like,’ I said to my parents.
‘I’d like to see, Emma,’ my father said. ‘Barbie?’
My mother nodded, silent.
Your mother’s not talking much, Simone said into my ear. Is she okay?
‘If it’s all too much for you, just say so, Mum,’ I said, linking my arm into my mother’s and giving her a squeeze as I led her out into the hall. ‘I’ll take you home and let you rest.’
‘I’m okay,’ my mother said softly. ‘I want to see.’
Roland took us down the hall, past the room where Leo had resumed his lesson, to another training room.
It was only about three metres square and didn’t have any mirrors. One wall was windows overlooking the busy Causeway Bay street. I jammed my foot into the mats on the floor to test them: not as good as the ones up on the Peak, just cotton wadding. But they would do.
‘What would you like to see, Roland?’ I said.
‘Siu Lim Tao,’ Roland said.
‘You’re joking. The basic Wing Chun set?’
‘I’m impressed, Roland,’ John said. ‘Good thing to ask for. If Emma performs the set for you, you will see it done by a true Grand Master, in perfection. You should take a video.’
‘I can’t do it perfectly,’ I said, annoyed. ‘Nobody can.’
‘Not even me?’ John said with a grin.
I glared at him. He could see that I wanted to thump him and his grin widened. ‘Do it, Emma. If Roland can find any imperfection in your performance of the set, I will be very impressed indeed.’
‘I’m going to do the basic set of moves for one of the more lethal types of Chinese kung fu,’ I said to my parents. ‘But the most effective styles are the least impressive to look at. Don’t expect too much, okay? After I’ve done this for Roland I’ll do some pretty stuff for you. And I’m not a Grand Master, Roland. Call me sigung and I’ll be very cross indeed.’
‘Sigung,’ John said loudly. He dropped to the floor to sit cross-legged and pulled Simone into his lap, holding her around the waist.
‘When I am able to touch you again,’ I said, moving into position, ‘old man,’ I flipped my fists and moved into Wing Chun stance, ‘I really am going to beat,’ I punched with my left fist and then my right, ‘the living crap out of you.’
‘Stop,’ Roland said, and I froze. ‘Sorry. Apologies. But you didn’t do a signature.’
‘A signature?’ my mother said.
I nodded, still with my right fist out. ‘That’s right. Each Master adds a small move to the start of the set. All of their students do that move first, to acknowledge the Master who taught them. It’s like the Master’s signature.’
‘But you didn’t do one,’ Roland said.
‘No. She was taught by me,’ John said.
‘Oh,’ Roland said softly.
I worked through the rest of the set, finished and saluted. I was greeted with complete silence.
I looked at my parents; their faces were frozen in masks of restraint. They weren’t impressed at all.
John and Simone smiled indulgently.
Roland grinned like an idiot.
‘Emma,’ John said, ‘show it to Roland at full speed.’
‘Some of it’s meant to be done slow.’
‘Show him the fast bits at full speed.’
‘Okay.’
That didn’t take much time at all; at full speed I moved through the set very quickly. My hands were a blur.
I stopped and saluted again. Once again there was complete silence.
Then, ‘I couldn’t see your hands,’ my mother whispered.
Roland had a huge smile on his face and tears ran down his cheeks. He spun and went out. ‘Don’t go anywhere,’ he called from the hallway. ‘I’ll be right back.’
‘Roland’s seen Michael do energy work. Do some for your parents,’ John said.
‘Okay,’ I said. ‘Do you want to see me throw energy?’
‘What does it involve?’ my father said.
‘I take some of my personal energy and push it outside my body. It’s difficult to explain. Might be better if I just showed you. Don’t be scared, I won’t hurt you. If it bothers you, just say so and I’ll stop.’
Both my parents stiffened but remained silent.
‘You sure you want to see?’ I said.
‘Show us,’ my father said, and my mother nodded.
I generated a small ball of chi, only about the size of a tennis ball. I held it on my hands and waited as they became accustomed to it.
‘Okay?’ I said.
My mother nodded. My father didn’t move.
I lifted the chi and floated it around the room. I didn’t move it close to them.
‘Generate another the same size,’ John said.
I hesitated. I’d never tried that before. I put the chi into the centre of the room and left it there, hovering. I held my hands still and concentrated and, to my surprise, managed another one. I moved it off my hands and put it near the first one. Now there were two balls of energy hovering in the centre of the room.
‘Do you think you could produce a third?’ he said.
‘Let me try.’
‘If it gets away from you then drop it,’ John said quickly.
I nodded and concentrated, and produced a third ball. I moved it next to the other two. I tried something; I made them spin vertically around a common axis, like a little Ferris wheel.
‘Cool,’ Simone said softly.
‘Merge them,’ John said without moving.
I pulled them closer together and they joined to form a larger ball of chi.
‘Now separate them again.’
I concentrated and the ball of chi split into three smaller balls again, still spinning. I didn’t have it perfect, each ball of chi was a slightly different size.
Roland came in and stopped dead. ‘Wah!’
‘Make them blue,’ John said.
I concentrated. They went from gold to green, then greenish-blue. I lost it completely: the chi snapped back and hit me in the middle of the stomach, knocking me flat.
Simone burst out laughing, but my parents rushed to me, concerned.
‘Are you okay, sweetheart?’ my mother said as my father lifted me.
‘Yeah, I’m fine,’ I said. ‘Happens all the time when I’m working with energy. It’s on an invisible rubber band. If I lose control, it snaps back and knocks me flat.’ I gestured towards John and Simone who were clutching each other with delight. ‘They think it’s really hilarious.’
‘Well it is, silly Emma,’ Simone said, still giggling.
‘She’s right, you know, Emma,’ John said. He sobered. ‘Oh. You should know — only Immortals can do that. Humans can’t work with more than one chi ball at the same time. Or change the colour. Well done.’
‘Damn,’ I said softly.
Roland saluted me, falling to one knee. ‘Lady.’
‘Oh, for God’s sake, cut it out, Roland,’ I said. ‘I’m not any sort of Immortal.’
‘You certainly look like one to me, Lady,’ Roland said with a huge grin. ‘If you were Chinese I would swear that you were the Lady Yim Wing Chun herself. Or more likely her teacher Ng Mui.’
‘Oh, thank you very much,’ I said. ‘What next?’
‘Me,’ Leo said, coming through the door with two staves. He threw the smaller one to me.
‘Now this is more like it,’ I said. ‘I haven’t beaten Leo up in quite a while.’
‘I’ve been learning, Emma,’ Leo said, readying himself. ‘Bet you a day’s guard duty I can take you.’
‘You are on!’ I said with delight. ‘I haven’t had a proper day off since I finished my thesis.’
‘Whoa, whoa, wait a minute there,’ my father said loudly. ‘Leo’s much taller than Emma and must weigh three times what she does. This is hardly fair!’
‘You are quite right, Brendan,’ John said. ‘Not a fair match at all.’ He concentrated.
Michael appeared in the doorway, holding a staff.
‘This is more like it,’ John said with satisfaction.
‘All bets are off if I’m facing both of them,’ I said. ‘Michael’s half Shen.’
‘Double or nothing,’ Leo said.
‘Come on, Emma, give it a try,’ John said. ‘We might even be able to bring the snake out.’
I gestured towards Michael. ‘He’s half goddamn Shen!’
Michael grinned and saluted me, holding the staff.
‘She’ll fight both of them?’ my mother said softly.
‘Yes!’ Roland said. ‘I have a video camera in my office. Wait! Please!’
‘There are a hundred and fifty demons out there waiting for you,’ I said.
‘Let them wait,’ he said. ‘I don’t think this will take long.’
Roland came back with a video camera. ‘Move into the big room.’
‘But there are students in there!’ I protested.
‘Tell them you taught her,’ John said to Roland.
‘They wouldn’t believe me, Your Highness,’ Roland said. ‘I’d have to tell them that she taught me.’
‘That would work,’ John said. He pulled himself up off the floor and took Simone’s hand. ‘Let’s go.’
‘You know Emma’s only been learning off the Dark Lord for less than a year and a half?’ Leo said to Roland as we went out.
‘Wah!’ Roland said. ‘Amazing! Such talent!’
‘Damn,’ I said softly.
‘She turns into a snake, you said. Why is that? Is she a Shen?’
‘Nobody’s quite sure what she is,’ John said amiably. ‘She’s not a demon, that’s for sure. We’ll just have to wait and see.’
‘Maybe she’s the White Snake,’ Roland said.
John stopped and his face froze. ‘Not possible.’
‘I’m black in Serpent form,’ I said.
‘If the Pagoda has fallen then she may be the White Snake,’ Roland said.
‘If I’m the White Snake then where’s the Red Snake?’ I said.
‘Ah. You know the legend,’ Roland said.
‘Of course I do,’ I said as I entered the larger room. ‘I’ve been doing an enormous amount of research on the nature of Serpent Shen, for obvious reasons.’
‘She is not the White Snake,’ John said, moving to catch up with us. ‘Not possible.’
The students lounged against the long wall, waiting quietly for Leo to return. Roland directed them loudly in Cantonese. ‘All of you, back to the far short wall, stand still, stand quiet. You are about to be extremely privileged. Silence!’
The students moved back, quiet and cowed.
Roland gestured. ‘Whenever you are ready, my Lady.’
‘Mum, Dad, you okay?’ I said. My parents nodded. ‘Go stand with John.’
My parents moved over to John and Simone in front of the mirrors. This room was larger, about six by four metres. Simone took my mother’s hand and smiled up at her.
‘Wait,’ Roland said. He pulled the video camera out and turned it on. ‘Okay, go.’
I nodded to both Leo and Michael. They saluted back. We moved into position. Both of them faced me, side by side.
I held my staff out in front, guarding. Leo I could take easily, but Michael was an unknown quantity: not just half Shen, but half tiger as well. He had been learning from John for months now, and had probably come a long way since I had easily bested him when I trialled him for the job as trainee bodyguard to replace Leo.
Leo came at me first. He swung at my head. I blocked it with my own staff, swung it down, twisted it, and tried to take his feet out from under him with the other end.
Michael came at me at the same time. As Leo’s staff went down, Michael went for my head. I flipped my staff under Leo’s and guided it into Michael’s. Their staves clashed together hard and both of them winced.
Leo dropped one hand from his staff and shook it, grimacing.
I jumped back and waited for them.
‘Don’t hurt them too much, Emma,’ John said with delight.
Michael went for my feet, trying to sweep them out from under me.
I leaped over his staff, somersaulted, and planted both feet into Leo’s chest, hard enough to knock him over without hurting him. I bounced off him and somersaulted backwards. I jammed the end of my staff into the floor before my feet hit, spun around it and hit Michael in the chest with my left foot. He staggered back but didn’t fall.
I landed lightly on my feet in front of Michael, jumped right over the top of his head, and spun my staff behind me to take his feet out from under him before he had a chance to turn around.
I rolled and spun to face them, snapping my staff under my left arm and my right hand out into a guard. They were both on the floor, Leo on his back, Michael on his stomach.
‘Come on, guys, up you get,’ I said. ‘I didn’t hit you that hard.’
‘No,’ Leo said without moving. ‘It’s comfy here. These mats are nice and soft, and your feet are damn hard.’
‘What he said,’ Michael said, gasping.
‘Said it wouldn’t take very long,’ John said.
The students suddenly cheered and clapped as one. Some of them whistled. I could swear a couple of them were jumping up and down with delight.
Michael pulled himself to his feet. ‘Can you reverse the Five Point Push?’
‘Uh, yeah,’ I said. ‘Why?’
‘Five Point Push?’ Roland cried with glee.
‘Oh no! I am not a circus act!’
‘Who’d like to feel a Five Point Push?’ Roland called in Cantonese. ‘Step forward!’
Just about every goddamn student in the room stepped forward with a huge grin.
‘Good,’ John said. ‘I’ll time you. Twelve students. See how long it takes.’ He fiddled with his watch. ‘Wait.’ He pressed the buttons. ‘Forgotten how to use the stopwatch on this thing. There. Got it.’
‘Line up,’ Roland said in Cantonese.
The students lined up side by side, and I moved to the end of the line.
‘Ready?’ John said. ‘Go.’
I didn’t bother with all five points on the students. I just hit each of them with a focused band of chi into the central dan tian, one after the other. I had to stop and gather my chi after the fifth student but I made it to the end of the line. ‘Done.’
‘Twelve and a half seconds,’ John said. ‘Pathetic.’
Roland went up to one of the students and studied him closely. ‘And they’re all completely paralysed?’
I picked up one of the students, then laid him carefully on his back on the floor. He was completely rigid.
My mother was astonished. ‘Emma!’
‘What?’
‘How much can you lift?’ my father said. ‘You picked up that kid like he didn’t weigh anything.’
I looked down at the student. His eyes were amused but his face was rigid. ‘I have no idea.’
‘Oh, good idea,’ John said. ‘Lifting from a distance. Must try that later.’
‘PK?’
‘What?’ John said, bewildered.
‘Later.’
I reached down and tapped the student’s stomach, undoing the Push. I held my hand out and helped him up off the floor. He stood and saluted, grinning like an idiot.
‘Take it easy,’ I said. ‘If you feel dizzy then sit.’
I went down the line and undid the rest of the students. A couple of them flopped to sit on the floor, but most of them just shook themselves out.
‘Dismissed,’ Leo said, and the students carefully saluted us and filed out with huge grins on their faces. The minute they were in the hallway they started loudly discussing in Cantonese what they had just seen.
Roland turned off the camera and came to me. ‘Do you think you could come in sometimes and teach?’
‘Oh, no, Roland,’ I said, exasperated. ‘It’s bad enough teaching at the Academy as it is. No more. You have Leo and Michael, and that should be enough for you.’
‘Could you teach me?’ Roland said softly.
‘Tell you what, my friend,’ I said, patting him on the shoulder, ‘how about you come over to Wan Chai and learn from the Dark Lord himself? You are welcome to join an occasional class in the Wudang Academy. If you don’t mind being put in with a bunch of young people.’
‘Wudang?’ Roland breathed. ‘Wudangshan? Really?’
‘Yes. His Mountain,’ I said. ‘We moved it down here. It’s in Wan Chai until we repair the damage.’
‘Very good, Emma,’ John said. ‘Anyone got a card?’
‘Gamma can call Roland later and organise it,’ I said.
Roland fell to his knees and saluted me, then John. ‘I can’t tell you what this means to me.’
‘Get up off the floor or the deal is off,’ I growled. ‘And if you do that to me again, the deal is off anyway. I’m starving, John. Let’s have something to eat here before we go to the Valley. The demons can wait.’
John bowed slightly to me. ‘My Lady.’
I went to my parents. ‘You guys okay?’
‘That was amazing, Emma,’ my mother said. ‘You beat both of those huge men with no trouble at all. I was sure you’d get hurt. But you made it look easy. Some of the stuff you did was astonishing.’
‘Thanks,’ I said. ‘Let’s go and eat. Leo, Michael, want to come with us?’
‘Maybe next time,’ Leo said.
‘Say hello to Rob for me,’ I said, and Leo grinned.
‘I’m meeting somebody,’ Michael said.
‘Cynthia?’
Michael’s grin matched Leo’s. ‘Maybe.’
‘Okay, see you guys later.’ I turned to Roland. ‘Want to join us?’
‘Yes! Sure!’ Roland said, delighted. ‘But only if you let me buy.’
John opened his mouth to do the polite Chinese thing of arguing backwards and forwards about who would pay but I was too hungry to mess around. ‘Shut up. Roland can pay. Let’s go.’
Roland stiffened, then grinned broadly.
John slapped Roland on the back and guided him out. ‘You see what I have to put up with? Typical barbarian Foreign Devil. Manners of a peasant.’
‘At least I’ll get fed some time today,’ I said loudly as I linked my arm in my mother’s and held my hand out for Simone. ‘Come on, guys, let’s go find something to eat.’
We went to a noodle bar not far from Roland’s building. It was a typical small Hong Kong restaurant, about five metres wide, with a glassed-in area at the front where the noodles were prepared and a small kitchen at the back for the rest of the dishes. It was nearly full; usual lunchtime crowd, mostly people sitting in the booths at the side, but some larger groups at the round tables in the middle.
A waiter guided us to a large round table that seated six, its plain green laminate top worn through with use. A few menus and cards with daily specials were jammed into a plastic stand next to the bottles of soy and chilli sauce and the big steel chopstick holder.
The walls on both sides were covered with cracked and tarnished mirrors, an attempt to make the restaurant appear larger. Large sheets of cardboard with specials were stuck to the mirrors, the dishes written vertically in black marker with the prices underneath. The floor was well-worn green mosaic tiles, slippery with oil; the walls were matching pale green bathroom tiles. The ceiling was black with grease and a huge, ancient air conditioner throbbed painfully in the centre.
The owner of the restaurant greeted Roland in Cantonese, and plonked glasses of black tea in front of each of us.
‘Are you sure this place is healthy? It’s awfully . . .’ My mother searched for the right word.
‘Don’t worry, you can’t get sick while you’re with him,’ I said, gesturing towards John. ‘Besides, being old and tatty doesn’t mean anything. The food is still good.’
‘Old and tatty?’ John said, eyeing me with amusement.
‘Exactly,’ I said. ‘But still good.’
Roland was speechless.
‘Can I have some beef brisket ho fan?’ Simone said.
‘Do you want tendon in it?’ I said.
‘Tendon?’ my mother said. ‘Yes, please,’ Simone said. ‘Tendon’s good.’
‘Tendon?’ my mother said. ‘Like, gristle tendon?’
‘When it’s been boiled for a few hours it turns to jelly,’ I said. ‘It’s actually very good. You should try some.’
‘Could you choose something suitable for us, Emma?’ my father said. ‘You know what we like. Something . . . something normal.’
‘Beef stir fry ho fan,’ John said. ‘Gwang chau ngau ho.’
‘Good idea,’ I said. ‘Vegetarian for us?’
‘Of course. Roland?’
‘Fishing boat congee,’ Roland said. He pulled out the video camera and turned it on with a musical ping. ‘I have to see this again.’
‘Don’t show it to anybody, please, Roland,’ I said.
He nodded as he flipped open the LCD screen to view the video. The sound of us talking came through the speakers on the camera as he played it back. Then he went completely rigid and his mouth dropped open. ‘Wah!’
I bent around to see, then quickly put my hand over the screen to hide it from the people at the next table. ‘Turn it off! For God’s sake, Roland, turn it off!’ I grabbed the camera and pressed the button to turn off the playback. ‘Really don’t let anybody see that!’
Roland stared at John with his mouth still open. I placed the camera on the table.
‘Was it me?’ John said.
I nodded silently.
‘What?’ my father said.
‘It was him,’ I said. ‘Really him. What he really looks like. I thought you were taping us, Roland.’
‘You should show your parents,’ John said. ‘I think they should see.’
I leaned over the table to speak softly to him. ‘Yeah, let’s just rub it in for the poor people that their daughter is engaged to a goddamn animal.’
‘Shen,’ John said.
‘I want to see. Can I see?’ Simone said. ‘I want to see, Daddy.’
I looked around. Nobody else in the restaurant had noticed, and if Simone was next to me I could hide the screen. Roland picked up the camera and handed it back to me. ‘Show her.’
‘Okay,’ I said. ‘Just don’t say anything too loud, okay?’ I gestured. ‘Next to me.’
Simone moved next to me, leaning over my shoulder. My mother bent around to see as well. I turned on the video camera and pressed the playback button.
There we were. Leo and Michael readied themselves. I had my back to the camera, preparing as well. The camera panned to the side wall and my parents appeared. Next to them was the Turtle. It appeared about a metre and a half long, with a massive, gleaming black shell. Its face had the wise expression of a natural turtle, but its eyes were John’s and full of amusement as it watched us. John’s human form was there as well, a transparent image over the top of the Turtle, holding Simone in his lap.
I froze the image so that Simone could look properly.
‘I look really weird like that,’ she said.
‘What do you see?’ John said.
‘Both of you,’ I said. ‘Haven’t you seen it before?’
‘Nope,’ John said. ‘Never played it back to watch it.’
We shared a look. He’d made tapes for me, and I’d done the same for him, but we never looked at ourselves, we only watched each other.
His eyes crinkled up when he saw my face. ‘Often wondered what I’d look like. In still photos you only see the human form, and I thought it’d be the same in videos as well. I was wrong.’
‘It depends how drained you are,’ I said. ‘You must be running on empty right now. Usually it’s just a very faint shadow, almost invisible. This is the clearest I’ve ever seen it.’ He didn’t make tapes for me when he was very drained, as well, but neither of us mentioned it. ‘How long before you need to see the Lady again?’
‘I still have a while. Let me see,’ he said.
I passed the video camera to him and he studied it with the same amusement that was visible in the Turtle’s eyes. ‘Damn, but I’m ugly.’ He passed the camera to my father who viewed the image, his face rigid with control.
‘The Turtle’s not pretty either,’ I said, and Simone giggled.
‘You really are a turtle,’ Roland said with awe.
My father passed the camera to my mother. She stared at it with her eyes wide. She glanced up at John, then back at the image. She didn’t say anything.
I took the camera from her and passed it back to Roland. ‘Could you do me a favour, Roland?’
‘Of course, anything, Lady Emma,’ he said, without looking away from the image on the camera.
‘Could you make a copy of this for me, my friend?’
Roland glanced up at me, then at John. ‘Of course.’
