It had been eight hours or so when Nian Zhen transformed. If it had been an ugly surprise for An Ning, it was pure h.e.l.l for the five men who came to her aid. After they had all ran outside to check on Nian Zhen, a young man wearing a hakama had lifted his unconscious body up in his arms and took him back to the palace and inside the room he shared with An Ning.

After a slight hesitation, An Ning followed with Gu Sheng behind.

Nian Zhen was already laid out on the bed when she entered. The five young men stood around it, their expressions anxious and concerned.

"It's been years since something like this happened," a young man wearing round Benjamin Franklin gla.s.ses said. He suddenly rounded up on An Ning when he saw her enter the room. "What did you say to him?" he demanded. "What did you do to set him off like this? He's been doing well before you arrived. What did you do to him?"

"Set him off?" An Ning repeated. "You mean this is not an isolated thing? This has happened before?"

"I should have known you were trouble," the young man continued. "I told him. I told him you would upset him. But he wouldn't listen. He insisted it was okay. That he had it under control. What did you to do him?"

"Nothing," An Ning shrugged. "We were talking and he suddenly went bonkers and did an Incredible Hulk on us. I was about to do something about it when you arrived."

"You must have said something," the young man insisted. "Nian Zhen wouldn't lose his temper unless something was said that made him really angry. What did you say to upset him?"

"Can anyone tell me what happened just now?" An Ning said, ignoring the young man, her eyes on the people ringed around the bed. "I take it that when he's upset he turns and becomes this demon version of the Incredible Hulk?"

The young man in the hakama sighed.

"I guess you have the right to know the truth," he said.

"Why?" the young man with the gla.s.ses asked, staring coldly at An Ning. "So she could upset him again and he turns and becomes this unstable?"

"The truth? That it's anger or rage or whatever that causes him to become like this....this monster?" An Ning asked.

"No!" the young man in the gla.s.ses again spoke up. "She doesn't have to know anything. She's not one of us. I won't allow it!"

"You try and interrupt me again and I'm going to rip off your f.u.c.king head off," An Ning said, eyes glacial as she speared the man with a hard stare.

The young man clumped his mouth tight and hastily scampered behind the man in the hakama.

"It would be hours before he wakes up," the young man in the hakama said, looking down at the sleeping Nian Zhen. "We'd better go and talk. My name is Hank by the way, and this young bud with the gla.s.ses is Terri. The big guy is Sumo and that's Gray and the little girl who dresses up like a boy is Kari. Short for Karina. Come on, I'm sure most of us are dying for a drink."

Hank hesitated when he saw Gu Sheng.

"You want to include him in this talk and let him hear what's wrong with your boyfriend?"

"Not my boyfriend," An Ning said. "Gu Sheng is family. Unless you have objections, that is?"

"None," Hank said succinctly. "Let's go then."

The room he led them to was located on the ground floor. It was s.p.a.cious and the large windows overlooked a courtyard with a garden. What surprised An Ning, however, were the walls which were covered with books of all kinds. The cla.s.sics, several versions of the Bible, religious books on Buddhism and Taoism, books on science and physics, coloring books, mystery books, cooking books, DIY books, j.a.panese manga, photography books, even coffee table books on gardening, furniture, and on raising pets.

Hank went to a small side table and took out a bottle of whisky and some gla.s.ses. He poured a gla.s.s for himself, Terri, Sumo and Gray. Kari took a bottle of c.o.ke instead. An Ning and Gu Sheng accepted a bottle of water each. An Ning twisted the cap for Gu Sheng then gave him the bottle. She sat near the window and pulled out a DC comic book. She was flipping through it when Hank finally spoke.

"You don't seem surprised," he said, indicating the comic book.

"We just fought an army which tried to annihilate our kingdom with machines guns, several tanks, missiles and what have yous. A comic book on the exploits of Batman seemed rather tame, wouldn't you agree?"

Hank took a chair by the window near where she was sitting.

"I'm sorry about that. We made a bad investment decision about those s.h.i.+pment. We didn't think those men would actually use them to start a war. When we realized what was happening it was already too late."

"Bad investment decision? You do realize that you could have destroyed Yuqui in a matter of seconds with your f.u.c.king lack of judgment, don't you? Bad investment decision. You made a very stupid decision and nearly annihilated an entire kingdom because you didn't have enough brains to think things through."

Hank, who was at first comfortably sipping his drink and making small talk, stiffened in anger. He glared at An Ning, his handsome face flushed.

"You look quite disturbed, Hank. You're not going to transform into something uglier than Nian Zhen, are you? Don't worry. I won't have any problem snapping your head off if you do," An Ning said, smiling as she slowly drank her water.

The room suddenly quieted down. An Ning hadn't bothered lowering her voice so everybody heard what she said. All heads swiveled to where she was sitting, hands drawn and revealing their weapons.

"Don't even bother attacking me," An Ning was still calm, still drinking her water. "After I've snapped Hank's head off here, my sword will be on it's way to cut Terri's head off next. I won't even have to leave my seat to kill the rest of you. I'll just let my gun do it for me."

And just to let them know she wasn't joking one little bit, An Ning's sword suddenly flew to where Terri was standing, slas.h.i.+ng at him before stopping half an inch from his neck. Still, the blade nicked his skin until blood appeared. They didn't even know where the gun came from but it was already in front of them, ready to be fired with just one command from its master.

"Didn't even take a minute," An Ning said, putting the water bottle down. "Begin talking," she told Hank.

Hank, however, was in no condition to talk. He sat stunned as he watched Terri slid to the floor in a dead faint. The rest of the group were no better. Sumo and Gray were staring at the gun with large, petrified eyes while Kari had her eyes tightly closed, tears streaming down her pale and ashen face.

"What the...?" An Ning asked, watching their reaction open mouthed.

"Please, stop," Hank said pleadingly. "Don't hurt them."

"Who says I was going to hurt them? They were the ones who pulled out their knives and that whip. What the heck? If you're seriously just trying to scare me, don't. I don't scare easy and I fight back. Stop with the crying, for G.o.d's sake! There, the gun is back on its box. The sword, too. If I knew you'd be this easy to scare I wouldn't have said anything. Everybody okay now?"

Everybody was not okay. Hank ran to help Terri to his feet then revived him with a sip from a bottle of water. Sumo and Gray fussed over Kari but she was crying and still s.h.i.+vering from reaction. An Ning looked over to them with a helpless expression.

"For G.o.d's sake, here," she said, walking over to Kari and slapping her hard on her face.

The slap was so loud that it basically stunned everybody into silence. Only Gu Sheng, who had remained silent and kept a low profile on the background, was reduced to covering his mouth to hide his giggles.

"Are you alright?" An Ning asked Kari, who nodded, her hand on her bruised cheek.

"I...I'm okay," she said, looking at An Ning with a complicated expression on her face.

"Give her some water," she told Gu Sheng who, shoulders still racked with the giggles, handed Kari his bottle of water. Kari drank from it still dazed with shock.

"Okay, everybody's fine. Everybody has their drink? Okay, now begin talking," she again looked at Hank.

"What about?" he asked, looking at her as if she was a monster.

"Do you want me to whack your head so you'll remember?" An Ning suggested.

"You're a very strange woman, do you know that?"

"Yes, I've been told that and worse. You people are obviously not from around here. You came from the same world and time where Nian Zhen and I came from. So, I guess my question is, how did that happen and why are you here with him?"

There was silence. It was not fear of An Ning this time or anxiety about Nian Zhen. It was more of the question shocking them after hearing it for the first time. As if its full impact hadn't bothered them before but now that somebody finally asked and the question was out there hanging on the air, they suddenly had no idea how to answer it.

"I..I was the first to meet, Nian Zhen," Terri's voice was tentative and his eyes when they met An Ning's were uncertain. "Did...did you know what happened to him?"

"You mean about his brother ejecting his soul from his body?" An Ning asked. "Wait, you met him in his spirit form? That would mean..."

"Yes, I was a wandering soul just like him. We all are. Or were," Terri corrected. "In my case, I died in an accident just a few months after my wedding. I...I opened my eyes in the hospital and saw my wife crying over my body. I tried to tell her I was still alive but she...she couldn't hear me. It was then I realized that I had died."

Terri was silent, staring inwardly at a distant image they couldn't see but could only imagine.

"They buried my body and I thought....I waited, you see. I thought something would happen. Somebody would get me, judge me then put me in either heaven or h.e.l.l but n.o.body did. n.o.body even thought to look for me. I waited and waited until years pa.s.sed. I saw my wife marry one of my friends. Have his kids, turn old and die. I thought the reason I was still there was because I was waiting for her. If she dies then my wait was over. We would be together and I'll leave with her and go somewhere."

The voice ended in a bitter sob.

"She didn't even know I was there. She didn't even see me. She took her last breath and that was it. I was alone as I had always been. I didn't want to stay there anymore. My wife was dead and I couldn't...I left and wandered around until one day when I was at the beach and I heard a voice. I saw a young man. He was lying on the sand, clutching at his stomach and crying. I thought something bad had happened. He had been attacked or something and was now lying there dying. I wanted to help but what could I do? I was a spirit. I couldn't influence the living even if I wanted to."

Terri had been looking at An Ning with a sad smile that slowly unfolded into a genuine grin.

"And then...and then while I was standing there looking at him he spoke. At me. He asked me who I was and what I was doing there. I...I just stared at him stunned. I haven't spoken in years. Not once even when I spent all those years around my wife. What's the use? She couldn't hear me anyway. But there was this young man...he spoke to me...he can see me. I think he must have thought I was an idiot because I just broke down crying in front of him."

Terri laughed, the memory making him tear up.

"It was...it was the first time in over fifty years that I felt I was still part of the world...part of something. I've been abandoned by G.o.d, abandoned by fate, even abandoned by the devil. And here was this young man, the first human contact I had in years. We started talking and he told me he was just like me, a wandering spirit forgotten by time."

"He told you about his brother?" An Ning asked.

"He told me that unlike me, however, he didn't die a natural death but that his brother killed him," Terri said. "His brother died and stole his body, ejecting his soul until he was left to wander as a lost spirit. Maybe because I've lived the rest of my death as a living soul, I believed what he said. There were still some mysteries in the world that even science hadn't discovered or if it has had no explanation for. Why not possession and soul ejection? We've been told by the highest authority that the soul is finite. It has a once destination once the physical body rots or dies. But it was different with both Nian Zhe and me. What made us different? Were we cursed? Why were we abandoned just like that?"

"And did you find the answer?" An Ning asked.

Terri looked over at Hank, who smiled bitterly.

"Of course not. Terri here even thought it had something to do with the weight of the sins he committed when he was still alive. The only problem is that besides masturbating excessively when he was a kid, he was a good citizen to his country, a good son to his parents, a good colleague to his co-workers, and a good husband to his wife. If we use excessive masturbation as equivalent to and more serious than murder then what does it mean if you anger your neighbor by p.i.s.sing in his yard?"

"Or maybe it was another way around?" An Ning suggested. "That he didn't sin enough so his boring life wasn't too interesting to be bothered with. The angels who were monitoring him forgot about him while they were busy watching the more sinful and interesting lives led by drug-addicted actors, dirty politicians, or even serial killers."

Her listeners gaped at her then broke into hilarious laughter.

"Why didn't I think of that?" Sumo, who looked like what his name implied: broad, fat and huge, said while wiping his streaming eyes. "We should have committed a murder or two when we were still alive so fate and the world would remember us. As it is, we died forgotten because we were too nice to be noticed by either G.o.d or the devil himself."

"And what were you when you were still alive?" An Ning asked him.

"Me?" Sumo asked, smiling a little. "I lived in j.a.pan, worked in j.a.pan and died in America during a wrestling bout. Heart attack after winning the world t.i.tle. I couldn't understand why my soul stayed in America though. My parents took my body and I thought I'd be going with them but when I tried to board the airplane, I was suck back to the same arena I died in. And I couldn't even understand English. I forgot how to speak when I met Nian Zhen. But by then, I was fluent in the English language so understood what he was saying."

"And what did he say?"

"That there were others like me out there. Wandering souls who, for no particular reason, were abandoned by time and G.o.d."

"Have you ever watched that popular Christmas movie about Rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer?" Hank asked An Ning.

"I've seen it. Why?"

"We were like those broken toys in the Island of Toys. We were left on an island where our maker abandoned us for no particular reason other than he forgot about us. You may have been right in saying we led very boring lives so were forgotten because of it, but we stayed alone in that island for years, wondering if we were ever going to be rescued or not."

"And Nian Zhen was that rescuer you were waiting for?"

"He certainly fit the description," Gray, a young man who looked like a nerdy version of Rain, said. "Unlike us, he was angry, you see. Angry because he said he committed a big sin against his wife and died before he had the chance to correct it."

"I think he was more angry in the manner in which he 'died' than the idea of dying a natural death," Hank said. "And the fact that it involved his brother upset him more than anything else."

"That part of it still confuses me though," An Ning said. "How could something as strange as that happen? And if his brother died where did his soul go?"

"Where most souls end up. Heaven or h.e.l.l," Hank said.

"So, where did you meet, Nian Zhen?" An Ning asked him. "In the funeral of your wife or your mother?"

Hank grinned.

"Surrounded by bodies of my victims," he said, smiling at An Ning.

"What?"

"I was that serial killer you were talking about earlier. I met Nian Zhen when my last victim was about to take her last breath. I was walking around examining the other corpses when he showed up. Scared the h.e.l.l out of me. I thought he was a ghost. But he was worse than that. Much, much worse. He was what you might call my conscience.