The Great Worm Lich

Soon the staff found Lili’s booking details and submitted her passport together with two room key cards to Lili. She then smiled politely while bowing and said, “I’ve found your booking, Ms. Lili. Your room number would be B4506, welcome! We’re glad you chose to stay with the Golden Dragon Hotel.”

“Thanks. I would like to ask if your hotel provides personal clothes shopping service?”

“Ms. Lili, we provide every service for the guest’s comfort convenience and make them feel like home.”

“That’s great. Please order a full set of casual wear for this handsome fella next to me. Include undergarments and sports shoes as well, get the best ones and send them to our room first thing in the morning.”

The staff was stunned for a while. She then turned around to look at Zhang Lisheng who was tanned and skinny like a wild monkey. She said while showing eight teeth, “Alright, Ms. Lili. This ‘handsome man’ has a nice body. If you’re looking for casual wear, it seems like there’s no need for custom tailoring.”

“I’ll prepare them before 8 a.m. tomorrow. By then you can call to our front desk and the staff on-duty will send it to your room.”

“Thanks. Just to let you know that I’m buying the clothes for my son.”

“He’s my own son, he inherited my genes so of course, he has a nice body,” Lili said proudly and walked towards the lobby elevator under the guidance of the doorman while holding Zhang Lisheng’s hand.

Seeing that she had gone distantly, the female staff quietly gotten next to her close colleague and chuckled secretly while saying softly, “Did you hear that? The hick who was carrying a bamboo basket just now is an American.”

“Such a cool cosplay.”

“If I’m not on duty, I would definitely take a picture of him with my phone and create a ‘guess what’ post, and put it online. Whoever managed to guess where he came from, will bring me out for dinner.”

“Doesn’t that mean you would win no matter what?”

“Of course, the perk of being a beauty like me.”

As the two female staff were chatting away with ‘pstt’ noise while laughing at the hotel lobby’s front desk, a young man whose movement was agile like a phantom had entered Guawo Village Zhang family’s old house by crossing the wall silently within the chilly deep mountain autumn wind. He was wearing black tight clothes and his head was covered with a black head cover.

It was complete darkness in the house door. In the dark night, the man in black eyes was shining in faint yellow, as it glowed like a mountain cat’s eyes.

He observed around while his ears moved for a few times. Suddenly, he frowned in doubt.

It was 3 a.m. to 4 a.m. in the middle of the night, which was the time where ordinary people were mostly tired and had the deepest sleep. However, there was not even a sound of human breathing in the old house.

The man in black shook both his hands carefully. As he shook lightly, the fingernails at tips of his 10 fingers that were a little messy and seemed like they had not been trimmed for quite some time flashed a terrifying glow under the moonlight all of the sudden.

He leaned his body down with four limbs on the ground like a beast. He managed to leap over ten meters away within a second and dashed straight into the old house’s central room.

There were no traps in the central room, just a few pieces of clothes that were scattered around. There were some messy footprints on the wooden table and wooden chairs.

“He’d escaped, he’s smart.” The young man stood up and picked up Zhang Lisheng’s clothes that were scattered on the ground. After sniffing the clothes, the man who was tall, skinny and slightly hunched strolled out of the central room.

After relaxing his muscles in the courtyard, he leaped onto the top of the wall in one step like his feet was pressed on spring. He soon disappeared and he was nowhere to be seen.

Zhang Lisheng who was supposed to be fighting for his life at the moment brushed his shoulders past the killer who was coming for his life ordered by someone in Eastern Guangdong. Meanwhile, he was falling asleep in the comfort of the luxurious hotel suite’s bathtub in the bathroom.

The Golden Dragon Hotel’s business suite’s living room had two separated individual master bedrooms with bathroom in each of them, so that the two guests who were staying in the same room could have their private space.

After settling down, Lili gave the bigger and more comfortable master bedroom to Zhang Lisheng, while she took a shower in the other bedroom.

As she washed her sleepiness and fatigue away, she put on clean home pajamas, but she could not sleep after rolling in her bed. She felt like there was something important that she had yet to do.

After thinking about it carefully, Lili got off the bed immediately and walked out of the bedroom. She passed through the living room and stuck her ear on Zhang Lisheng’s bedroom door to listen carefully.

There was no snoring in the bedroom, but only a faint water sound that was flowing continuously.

Lili hesitated for a while and opened her son’s bedroom door and walked to the bathroom door. She said gently, “Baby, mother forget to say good night.”

“It’s already 3 a.m. in the middle of the night right now, rest early. Good night, sweet dreams.”

While feeling drowsy, Zhang Lisheng was stunned for quite a while after hearing somebody saying good night to him outside of the bathroom room all of the sudden. He then replied blankly, “Erm, okay, good night mother.”

“Oh yea, my baby. I think I heard you were speaking English in the car. Also, I think you said that your spoken English is good enough to carry out a conversation at ease. Am I right?”

“Yes, mother. There’s a foreign teacher who came to our village a few years back and forced us to use English throughout the class.” Zhang Lisheng added a sentence in his heart at the same time as he replied, “That’s the foreigner teacher who was hailing the taxi that hit father to death.”

Lili who was outside of the door said while sounding glad, “Why not we converse in English from now onwards?”

“Mother would like to know your English standard so that I could choose which grade to enroll you in America.”

“Certainly, madam. Mom.”

“Such fine much, baby.”

“Really? Actually, I’m not sure about my English level but the foreign teacher said that my proficiency should be able to converse with others naturally in complex context.”

“He even suggested me to study a course that’s related to language and become a diplomat in the future.”

“Your English is really not bad, it’s the authentic New Yorker accent. This is unbelievable and a great surprise.”

“You’ve overcome the language barrier so quick, mother is very relieved. Can you talk more, baby?”

“Sure, can I not go to America?” Zhang Lisheng had the hunch in his heart and slipped his tongue.

Lili who was outside the door said very softly but in determination after a short while of silence, “Of course not, baby.”

“It’s too late now, we should rest. Good night.”

There were footsteps after that and the bedroom was quiet again later on.

It was late in the morning on the next day when Zhang Lisheng woke up, still feeling sleepy and let out a yawn when he got out of the bed.

He stepped on the soft carpet in the hotel bedroom with his bare feet. He jolted and recalled where he was, after being stunned for a long time.

It was difficult for anyone to get used to their life that had a 180 degree of change all of the sudden.

Zhang Lisheng washed his face with cold water in the bathroom. Eventually, he realized that running away from his problem was not the solution. With his wizard worm in his hands, he walked out of the room with hesitation.

It was the suite’s living room outside of his bedroom. The bright sun was shining its sunlight generously into the big floor up to the ceiling window that was facing the streets.

The coffee table that replaced the dining table was presented with various fragrant Chinese breakfast. There were seven to eight variations of broth alone including porridge, gruel, bean juice, peanut porridge and more.

On the couch next to the coffee table, Lili was looking closely at a couple of casual wear that seemed to be extra large children size that was opened up.

Hearing Zhang Lisheng opening the door, she stood up and looked at his son while saying in English with a smile, “Baby, you’re up.”

“Breakfast time has passed, I supposed you’re waking up soon so I ordered a take-out for you. Come, eat.”

“After you’re done with breakfast, put on the new clothes that I bought and we’ll go for passport photo taking.”

“I’ve asked the staff just now, there’s a digital studio that specializes in taking passport photos along the street, on the left turn outside of the hotel.”

“After that, we can tour Chengdu all day today. Oh right, mother doesn’t know this, but have you been to Chengdu before?”

Zhang Lisheng was not as natural as Lili was. His performance was even worse than last night after he rested for a night. He could not even call out ‘mother’ at the moment, all he could do was reply stiffly, “No.”

“Then let us get a tour guide or we can look for the attractions online.”

“What are you carrying, baby?”

Hearing his mother asking about his wizard worm, Zhang Lisheng picked up Mountoad unnaturally and explained simply, “It’s－It’s my auspicious toy. It’s also －also the only toy that has been with me since I was young. We’ve never been apart.”

“It looks like a －it’s a frog. That’s a wooden frog right?”

Zhang Lisheng said on the fly, “Yes, its name is Mountoad. Its look came from an ancient Chinese auspicious mythology which means, turning misfortunes into luck.”

“It accompanies me whenever father wasn’t around.”

As Zhang Lisheng came up with his lie, he was getting smoother and smoother and his expression was getting more and more natural.

As a professional educator, Lili soon realized that the silly and ugly frog was most probably the thing that her son used to express his feelings to. She felt a moment of pain in her heart and sat down again while smiling. She patted the couch beside her and said, “Baby, come sit down and have breakfast.”

“You have a wooden frog as big as a football as your auspicious toy and you’ve never gone anywhere without it. Then did you use to bring it to school as well?”

Zhang Lisheng sat next to his mother and placed his wizard worm that was not moving at all when no incantation was chanted to drive it on his feet and nodded while saying, “It’s a little heavy but it’s nothing inconvenient to bring it to school, when I carry it in my bamboo basket.”

“Since you’ve got this habit, you can still be with your cute auspicious toy anywhere you go, when you’re in America. Mother will get you a big school bag.”

“Eat your breakfast quick, the porridge is getting cold.” Lili peeled a boiled egg and placed it in the porridge. She then put the bowl of porridge into her son’s hands with the tone of guidance instead of forcing him.

The meal that Zhang Lisheng had, later on, was the warmest breakfast that he had ever had in his life. However, he felt uncomfortable and struggling deep in his heart at the same time. He was eager to leave all this behind and return to the Miaowei Village in the deep mountain that had raised him, feed him and the place that he was familiar with.

However, it remained just as a memory. Zhang Lisheng was indulging deeper and deeper into the ‘motherly love web’ that Lili weaved. Eventually, the one and the only thing that he did after breakfast was to put on the casual wear that Lili specially ordered for him at the hotel.