Ghost Pot

Chapter 22

In the dark woods, the moonlight cast dappled shadows. The young novice monk Youliang grabbed Nizi's hand and ran for his life until their legs could no longer move. Then they stopped. A bright, shimmering river lay before them, and they finally arrived at the Yellow River.

The cool moonlight, the still river, and the occasional croaking of frogs from the bank—otherwise, all was quiet.

"We've reached the Yellow River..." Youliang said, panting, as he held Nizi's hand.

Nizi blushed and broke free of her hand.

Youliang felt embarrassed and said shyly, "This is not Fengling Ferry. We've gone to the west. The river branch on the other side of the Yellow River is the Wei River."

"I wonder how Grandpa Master Yidu is doing?" Nizi asked softly.

"Don't be afraid, my master is incredibly skilled in martial arts. No one can beat him. After I've settled you in, I'll secretly go back to see him," Youliang said, patting his chest.

“My grandfather is dead, and Dahei is dead too,” Nizi told him.

"Your grandfather's name is Dahei?" Youliang asked in surprise.

"No, Dahei is a big black dog that my grandpa and I raised. It's very close to me. When I was little, it would even cuddle with me while I slept." Nizi's eyes welled up with tears as she thought of her grandpa and Dahei.

“Look over there…” Youliang said, pointing to the reeds on the bank.

Under the clear moonlight, a small boat could be seen drifting among the reeds on the banks of the Yellow River. It was a small boat used for fishing and shrimping at night. Youliang pulled Nizi and ran towards it.

“Hey, uncle…” Youliang shouted from the shore.

The fisherman on the small boat was a middle-aged man. Hearing the shouts from the shore, he looked up and asked, "What's up?"

“Uncle, my sister and I want to cross the river…” Youliang said.

"No, can't you see I'm busy?" the middle-aged fisherman refused.

"Benefactor, please do me a favor, Amitabha," Youliang pleaded, clasping his hands together.

"Oh, so you're a young monk. Alright, come aboard." The fisherman's attitude immediately changed when he saw that the person standing in the moonlight was a young novice.

"It's so late, young master, why are you still crossing the river?" The fisherman steadied the small boat, pulled the two of them onto the boat, and asked in confusion.

"This..." Youliang was a monk, and his master had always taught him to be honest and not to lie. When the fisherman asked him this question, he really didn't know how to answer.

“Mother is sick, so I’ve come to find my brother and go home,” Nizi said decisively.

"Oh, is that so? Hold on tight, I'm about to set sail." The fisherman rowed the boat, swaying gently, towards the opposite bank of the Yellow River.

Although Nizi grew up on the banks of the Yellow River, she had never crossed the river before. In her eyes, the other side of the Yellow River was always a place that she longed for and was mysterious. Now that she was really going to cross the Yellow River, she became a little uneasy.

When they disembarked, Youliang took off his shoes and socks, jumped into the mud, and carried Nizi to the dry west bank. The two then headed south.

At dawn, exhausted, they climbed up a small hill. Below the hill lay a small village nestled among peach blossoms—Aoli, Youliang's home.

Nizi stood on the hilltop, looking back at the hazy north bank of the Yellow River in the distance. "Grandpa, Dahei, Nizi is gone. When will she return?" she cried out in her heart, tears streaming down her face…

Chapter 30, Part 1

In late spring, in a remote corner of the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, the mountains stretch endlessly, the ravines are deep and secluded, and clusters of white and purplish-red wild rhododendrons bloom on the hillsides, covering the mountains and fields, which is intoxicating.

Around noon, a group of people arrived in Nansan, Zhenkang County, looking travel-worn. Leading them was an elderly monk, followed by a young boy with a large blue bird perched on the boy's shoulder. They were Elder Anxi and Shen Caihua, who had traveled from Poyang Lake in Jiangxi to southwestern Yunnan.

This place is called Nansan, which means "the place where girls get married" in the Dai language. It is a small town in the middle of the China-Myanmar border where Han and Dai people live together.

This day happened to be Jiaji Day Street, a custom that originated in the early years of the Republic of China, where people went to the market on the days of the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches. People from both China and Myanmar traded with each other, and the streets were bustling with small vendors.

Elder Anxi pointed to the mountain range ahead and said, “This place is less than ten kilometers from the old town of Shan State in Myanmar. If we go south for more than nine hundred kilometers, we will reach Yangon. Let’s eat something in the town first, and then go southeast for three kilometers to the 124th boundary marker. There is a hidden cave there. If we walk less than two kilometers inside the cave, we can cross the border directly to Kokang in Myanmar.”

“Grandpa Elder, is it far from a place called… ‘Enmai River’?” Shen Caihua suddenly asked.

“Not too far, Xiao Xiao, have you heard of Enmai River?” Elder Anxi asked in surprise.

“Xiaoxiao has a friend who lives there,” Dudu answered first.

“Oh, alright, we can pass by then.” Elder Anxi nodded.

The streets were bustling with people dressed in strange and unusual costumes. Most of them were women from ethnic groups such as De'ang, Dai, Miao, Yi, Wa, and Lisu, who chased and laughed along the way.

"Master, shall we just eat some rice noodles at the stall up ahead?" Elder Peng asked, stepping forward.

“Alright, it’s still early, everyone take a rest and stay in Kokang tonight,” Elder Anxi said.

"Rice noodles! Authentic Mengzi Crossing-the-Bridge Rice Noodles! Eat rice noodles!" Behind the steaming rice noodle stall, a middle-aged couple was loudly hawking their wares, holding soup ladles in their hands. Around the simple bamboo table, many people on their way to the market were slurping up the hot rice noodle soup.

"It's delicious." Shen Caihua was both tired and hungry, and he kept praising the food as he leaned over the casserole.

The Venerable Anxi smiled and said, "This soup is made by simmering pork bones, old hens, and Xuanwei ham from Yunnan for a long time. It has a unique aroma. I have lived in Yangon for a long time, and I often miss the Crossing-the-Bridge Noodles from my hometown. There is also a heartwarming legend behind it..."

“I know that,” Dudu quickly interjected. “Legend has it that there was a scholar named Yang in Mengzi County who studied at South Lake every day. His wife, being virtuous, would prepare his meals and bring them to the pavilion in the middle of the lake. The scholar studied so diligently that he often forgot to eat, and as a result, he often ate cold food, and his health gradually deteriorated. His wife was anxious and distressed, and in her spare time, she killed the old hen in the house, stewed it in a clay pot, and brought it to him to nourish him. When she went to collect the dishes, she saw that the food she had brought was untouched, and her husband was still engrossed in his book. She had no choice but to…” She took the food back to reheat it. When she picked up the clay pot, she found it was still piping hot. Lifting the lid, she discovered a layer of chicken fat covering the surface of the soup. The earthenware pot, being a slow conductor of heat, had sealed the heat inside. From then on, his wife used this method to keep the soup warm, and she would also cook rice noodles, vegetables, and sliced meat in the hot chicken broth, serving it to her husband while it was still hot. It was incredibly delicious, and people quickly followed suit. Because Yang Xiucai's wife had to cross a small bridge to deliver the clay pot to the pavilion in the middle of the lake, people called this way of eating "Crossing-the-Bridge Rice Noodles."

A round of applause erupted around them. It turned out that passersby had discovered the talking parrot and stopped in their tracks, crowding around to see what was so special about it.

"Little boy, are you selling this big bird?" someone offered.

Shen Caihua shook his head.

"Make way! Make way!" A rude shout rang out, and people quickly made way for them.

Chapter 30, Part 2

Several men in grass-green military jackets pushed through the crowd and stepped forward, asking, "Whose parrot is this?"

“Mine,” Shen Caihua replied cautiously.

“Our boss bought it,” said the leader, a man with a small black mustache, as he casually tossed down a ten-yuan bill.

"Not for sale," Shen Caihua replied curtly.

"Really? Let me see, what a clever and nimble parrot." A fair-skinned, thin middle-aged man stepped forward, and the men in tight-fitting clothes respectfully stepped aside and stood on either side.

Elder Anxi glanced at the man, who was wearing a leather glove on his left hand and had a gray falcon perched on his canvas-wrapped arm. The falcon was about the size of a large rooster, with strong and powerful claws and a pair of eyes that gleamed with shrewdness.

The falcon's gaze was fixed on Dudu, and a few drops of saliva dripped from its sharp, hooked beak.

Dudu dared not look directly into the falcon's fierce eyes, and quietly moved her body closer to Chen Caihua.

“Hmm, this is a rare blue-and-white macaw, said to be as powerful as a falcon. Young man, do you dare to have a match with my eagle Awen?” the middle-aged man said, speaking in standard Yunnan Mandarin.

"Who are you?" Elder Anxi asked calmly.

"We're from Kokang across the river, here for the market. Ah Wen's been itching to get his hands on this effeminate parrot for ages," the middle-aged man said mockingly.

"Go ahead and fight! The big parrot is so tall, it can definitely beat that little eagle!" some busybodies shouted.

Shen Caihua was, after all, still a child at heart, and he quietly asked Dudu, "Can you beat it?"

Dudu said timidly in a low voice, "It's a high... Altai falcon, very, very fierce."

“Dudu, you have potential, you can definitely do it. When you were telling the legend of ‘Crossing-the-Bridge Rice Noodles’ just now, you almost forgot your stuttering problem,” Caihua encouraged.

"Really...really?" Dudu seemed to have gained some confidence.

"Hmph, this parrot may be taller than Awen, but it's a sissy and a complete good-for-nothing," the middle-aged man said, trying to provoke him.

"I...I'm not a sissy!" Dudu retorted angrily.

The middle-aged man thrust his arm upwards and said, "Awen, go and capture that sissy!"

The falcon darted into the air with a "whoosh," flapping its wings forcefully and emitting hoarse, threatening sounds.

Dudu hesitated for a moment, then gritted her teeth, flapped her wings, and flew into the sky, where cheers erupted from the crowd of onlookers.

When attacking prey, the Altai Saker Falcon always flies above its prey to gain a high vantage point. It then folds its wings, aligning the flight feathers with its body's longitudinal axis, and retracts its head to its shoulders. At a speed of 75-100 meters per second and a 25-degree angle, it swoops down on its prey. Just before reaching it, it slightly opens its wings and strikes or grabs the prey with its hind toes and claws. Furthermore, it can attack small flying birds in mid-air like a fighter jet, catching up with its prey and striking it with its wings to send it plummeting from the sky before swooping down to capture it with its sharp talons.

Although this falcon is an extremely fierce bird of prey, it had never seen a hyacinth macaw from South America and did not know how powerful it was.

In Brazil, legend has it that during the colonial invasion, a soldier fired at a pair of blue-and-white macaws. One of them fell to the ground with a thud, and just as the soldier was gloating over his prey, the other parrot descended from the sky, first pecking out the shooter's eye, and then twisting the double-barreled shotgun into a "pretzel" with its huge beak.

After being captured in the Amazon rainforest as a cub, Dudu was sent directly to the National Palace Museum in Taipei. He was well-fed and cared for and has been domesticated, losing his wild nature. Otherwise, he would have been fearless even if he encountered a giant Himalayan eagle.

The falcon soared high into the sky, then swooped down menacingly at high speed towards Dudu...

Chapter 30, Part 3

Dudu squinted and saw a black dot in the sky rushing towards it like lightning. Startled, it turned and ran away, flapping its wings in a panic and fleeing in disarray.

The falcon caught up with Dudu at a speed of nearly 100 meters per second (equivalent to 360 kilometers per hour), its wings slightly spread to cushion the impact, and its two sharp talons plunged directly into Dudu's chubby back...

Dudu, who was used to a life of luxury, was overweight and therefore flew relatively slowly. When it felt a sudden gust of wind coming from behind, it was so frightened that it rolled over and its two paws caught the two sharp talons of the falcon. They twisted together and fell from the sky.

Dudu glanced at the falcon so close to it and saw that its huge curved beak was several times thicker than the falcon's beige beak. Overjoyed, it pecked down hard, biting the falcon's beak and snapping it off with a "crack." The falcon immediately fainted and released its talons.

Dudu flipped over and soared into the air, straddling the falcon's back. With its claws gripping its back, it flapped its victorious wings and slowly landed on the rice noodle stall.

The onlookers clapped enthusiastically, and Shen Caihua's face flushed with excitement, while Elder Anxi shook his head.

Dudu proudly raised her neck and said repeatedly, "Thank... thank you everyone." Then she kicked the unconscious falcon Awen under the table.

Xiao Caihua happily hugged Dudu's neck and said, "I told you you could do it..."

A woman with a child brought Dudu a handful of walnuts, and others gave it some hazelnuts and other nuts. Dudu was overjoyed.

The middle-aged man picked up the falcon and saw that Awen's beak had been bitten off. He angrily threw it to the ground, glared at them fiercely, and turned to leave. The men in tight-fitting clothes who were following him also left.

“These people are from the Kokang Communist Party People’s Army. If you are crossing the border, you should be careful of them,” the rice noodle stall owners kindly reminded them.

"The Burmese Communist Party People's Army?" Elder Anxi asked.

"Yes, they call it the People's Army, but it's actually just a bunch of educated youth from Shanghai, Chongqing, and Kunming who went there to fight the government army alongside the Burmese Communist Party," the stall owner explained.

"Oh, thank you for your guidance. It's getting late, we should get going," Elder Anxi said.

After leaving Nansan Market, they did not take the main road leading to the border, but instead followed a hidden mountain path into the depths of the valley. Soon, they arrived at the foot of a high cliff not far from the 124th boundary marker on the China-Myanmar border.

Behind the dense thicket of trees lay a cave entrance, part of a karst cave system that led directly to Kokang in Myanmar. Border control between China and Myanmar is lax, allowing free movement between the two sides. While Elder Anxi and his companions possessed passports, Shen Caihua and the old beggar were unable to cross the border normally. Furthermore, hyacinth macaws are a Class I protected animal and cannot be exported. Therefore, Elder Anxi decided to cross the border illegally.

Elder Anxi waved his hand, and Elder Peng was the first to enter the cave. Elder Anxi followed, holding Shen Caihua's hand. Dudu was still standing on Shen Caihua's shoulder, its excitement not yet fully subsided. It had left the walnuts and hazelnuts in its little master's pocket.

The two guardians escorted the old beggar to the very back of the procession.

Chapter 31, Part 1

The cave was pitch black. The two guardians carried flashlights, which they turned on to illuminate the stone passageway beneath their feet. They proceeded cautiously.

Karst caves are the result of long-term erosion of limestone by groundwater. Under the light of a flashlight, you can see many stalactites, flowstones, and cave flowers formed by the deposition of calcium carbonate. Several stalactites hang down from the ceiling and connect with stalagmites on the ground, forming stone pillars of varying thickness and unique shapes. The winding paths lead to secluded spots, creating a deep and mysterious atmosphere.