Oh, one more thing…

While I was in China one more thing happened. 

Yes, that is a ghost.  The ghost of an old woman who died at the Martial Arts Academy.  I noted the ghost while I was learning martial arts for my latest quest. 

The ghost had managed to spook everything and everyone in sight. 

One poor lady was practicing when she saw the board breaker move and just passed out. 

 

The ghost worked out alongside other students…

…and in easily one of the strangest twists I’d ever seen, even took a shower afterwards.

“Someone, do something, please!” one lady screamed.  So, I had to do something.

I ended up having to bring the tombstone to the mausoleum because everyone else was too spooked to even deal with the ghost. 

The Writings of Qin Shan Hu

The first room I walked into looked like it was a huge stadium where fighters learned their craft. 

 

I spotted a hole in the wall, which curiosity told me to dig through. 

 

After I unlocked a switch and pulled a statue…

 

I opened the gate which the switch unlocked.

 

That led to a floor that was yet another level beneath the surface. 

 

I found this dive well, which I explored.  I found nothing of significance in it, though I did find it useful for one other thing...

 

…keeping myself from getting burned from a series of fire traps leading to the chest where Qin Shan Hu’s papers were kept. 

 

 

Eureka! 

 

With the papers in my backpack, I hopped on my scooter and returned to the Forbidden City. 

 

“I have no more to teach you, you have passed all the tests that I have required of you.  You have proven yourself a worthy student.”

Unfinished Business

As the river runs in Shang Simla, so too are the days of my life.

Seriously, I’m in China now, this time taking care of some unfinished business.

I made myself a vow that I would return to China to locate the writings of Qin Shan Hu.  A lot of things have happened between now and then, but now I am holding up my end of the bargain and am in search of Qin’s ancient Mandarin writings. 

 

Andy is here too.  For those of you not reading my other blog, Just Plumb Nuts, he’s my fiancé.  We met in high school but didn’t start dating until we were both young adults.  He’s in heaven because of all the new types of fish he’s catching.  I do think he’s getting a little bit homesick though. 

It was about six-thirty their time when I arrived at the retreat.  I spotted a floor switch, which revealed a flight of stairs leading to some basement.  

Down in the basement I found a pile of rubble that needed to be cleared.

There was a mysterious looking switch… so I dug my hand in the hole and a hidden door opened up to my left. 

There was nothing behind the door but a chest with two ceramic Chinese bowls.  Guess they’re wedding presents from the gods, eh? 

After grabbing the bowls I took out the keystone which would let me inside the tomb, and fit it in the key hole. 

Wish me luck, I’m going in. 

Later, Savannah

Circle of Knowledge

Poor Elliot Saint James.

He was the bookseller over at Circle of Knowledge and the local archivist.

He had just learned that his wife cheated on him. And he's chosen to cry on MY shoulders. How ironic. Especially with Gustave acting stranger and stranger.

"It's going to be all right. You'll find someone else," I told him.

"That's just it," he reminded me, "I already have."

"So you're the one who cheated?"

"She cheated first," he said, "but then I tried to get back at her and cheated myself."

I shook my head. Those games NEVER work.

So while Elliot had his eyeballs deep in the archives ...

I sneaked in to fish out some of the notes for the research paper on the history of nectar that Gustave so absent-mindedly misplaced somewhere in that house. Either that or Jolene tossed that paper in the garbage.

After I was done with getting the notes, I waited outside Gustave's place for him. I was careful to stand next to his marble fountain so that he'd see me. My dress looks like it could be a regular girly flowered dress but it actually has a skull print.

"Bonjour!" he greeted me, still wearing his work uniform. "Interesting outfit."

I laughed. "Merci beaucoup," was all I managed to come up with for a reply.

"Guess what? I did it."

"You did what?"

"I did it. I got those notes for the paper we're presenting to the historical society."

"How?"

"Tres simple, I sneaked into the archives, then I put together the notes I had. Seriously, did you expect me to just let this go?"

"Vous êtes-vous incroyable, savez-vous cela?"

"Je sais."

"To say you are an American, your French is excellent. If I didn't know any better, I'd have thought you a native."

Me and Gustave (cont'd)

"You know, Gustave, the Circle of Knowledge Bookstore is having a big sale," I suggested a little while later. "Maybe we can go in there and look around."
"I'm really kind of tired," he replied, "I was on my feet all day at Yves' shop. Being the special merchant is not the fun and games it appears to be."

"Hey, they're talking about those relics I found in Egypt."

"I know, c'est tres interessante."

"Mes parents, my parents were both professors at the Sorbonne. My father was a Dutch national, my mother was French. I was an only child. When they retired, they came to Champs Les Sims where they raised me. When I was a teenager, their Cessna plane crashed in the Swiss Alps when they were on vacation. Their bodies were never found."

My French isn't great but it's passable. "Oh, c'est terrible!" I exclaimed.

"Que sera, sera," he sighed. "It is what it is. I learnt to live with it, I had no choice. I was alone in the world. Then Jolene sort of made herself my protector --"

"Ah, so that's it. You're afraid to leave the cocoon, take chances, take risks."

Gustave laughed. "And here you are, you take risks for a living." He then took a deep breath and asked a question I didn't expect. "Why do you do this work?"

"Because I like it."

"Days at a time in dusty underground tombs."

"Because I love it."

"You should be at home going to parties and planning your wedding."

"I've never been a party person. They never made me comfortable."

"I bet you have suitors lined up at your door."

"None that I'm interested in."

He later revealed that he had an extensive collection of postage stamps from all over the world, and I offered to give him a few of my Sunset Valley stamps, the ones with Victor Goth and Chester Landgraab on them. He seemed excited about that.
"You know the Admiral had a chateau here."

I gently needled him. "I know, I was in it. You sent me into his library. Did you forget already?"

He had a worried look on his face. "You've made me talk about my childhood," he then said, "but I have not heard one word about yours."

"There isn't much to talk about," I told him, "my story has been all over the gossip magazines. I was an enfant terrible."

"You?"

"Oui, c'est vrai. My early childhood was normal -- if you consider learning that you were able to talk to ghosts normal -- but when I became a teenager I started acting out. Skipping school, drinking, breaking curfew -- you name it, I was doing it. Eventually, though, I figured out that I had to stop doing what I was doing or I was going to end up in a very bad place. So just before graduation I straightened myself up and then when I was in the midst of deciding what I wanted to do, I signed up with MorcuCorp --"

"Hence, the adventures."

"What are you thinking about?" He had a blank expression on his face. Gustave sure is hard to read sometimes.

"A lot of things, actuellement." He let out a deep breath. "You, my parents --"

"Me?"

"I like you, a whole lot. I might even say that I care for you. But I am afraid that I am not good enough for you. You deserve someone who can do much more for you than I ever could."

Me and Gustave

Gustave invited me over to his place. Again.

Apparently the guy is a couch potato. "When I get home from work," he told me, "I like to sit on the couch and relax with either a good book or a good history program."

"So, what's the deal with you and Jolene?" I asked him. "Is she, like, your girlfriend or something?"



"Jo and I, we grew up together. Our parents were great friends. We went to the same schools, had the same group of friends, and then when we grew up, we decided to become roommates. She married a Parisian, a garcon called Montaque, and when that didn't work out she returned here and bought the cafe.

"We moved in here as soon as the marriage was dissolved. We never actually dated -- is that what you Americans call that? -- but have remained great friends."

"That explains it! Her marriage didn't work out so she's trying to make YOU miserable, too. Gustave, I have a novel idea -- can't you just move out?"

"I'm not sure I can," he told me.

"Why?"

"I'm clumsy, I'll forget my head if it weren't attached --"

"Gustave, I'm sure you would make it on your own if you tried. Because, really, you're abiding by her rules instead of your own."

"I have tried. If you hadn't gone in the kitchen the other day the whole house would have burned!"

Me and Mean Jolene

Before heading over to Gustave's, I went back to base camp and fixed myself a sushi dinner, amidst the prying eyes of the Chinese delegation. My affection for the seaweed dish has been well documented; I fell in love with it the first time mom learned the recipe and fixed it for me. I eventually learned to make it myself.

After eating I took a little jog through the town...

...and paid a visit to the cafe. Pssst, here I am, about to deal once again with Mean Jolene.

"What's the deal with you, huh?" I asked. "You gonna do this to any woman who crosses Gustave's path? Let me tell you something, he's a handsome guy, you'd better get used to this."

"No," she whispered, "not every girl, just spoiled vich Amedicans."

"You don't know anything about me!"

"I know enough to know that I do not like you."

"Thanks. I take that as a compliment." When I walked out, she followed me.

"What gives you the privilege to take over this town?" Jolene asked me. "You walk around here like you own the place."

"My parents taught me to believe in myself."