Signpost (5)

Mi tried hard to recall any famous figures from the Republic of China era, the last emperor's name, and the empress's name, Wanrong. Mi looked at the charming Qiao, who wore delicate embroidered shoes; perhaps she was a pampered young lady raised in seclusion. She said she had come here because of Sun Yat-sen. Mi hesitated for a moment before asking, "Do you know the Soong sisters? Soong Ai-ling? Soong Ching-ling? Soong Mei-ling?"

Joe shook her head in El's arms and said weakly, "When I came here, the emperor was still on the throne. Later I heard that the emperor issued an edict to abdicate and left the Forbidden City, and after that I don't know anything."

"Uh, when I came here, the world was different. I... I come from a world more than a hundred years in the future." Mi was a little dazed. She couldn't remember when the emperor had stepped down, but it certainly couldn't have been later than 1911. She began to introduce her origins, the Blue Star that El had mentioned: "Now we can all go to school, we go to schools. The government, the government offices, let us go to school for free. Nine years of compulsory education, regardless of gender, everyone can go. Um, we don't have an emperor anymore, um, and no president either. Oh, Taiwan still has a president, we call him Chairman, Taiwan calls us the mainland. Do you know Taiwan? It's Ryukyu, right? It's the place that Zheng Chenggong conquered. Zheng Chenggong was from the Ming Dynasty, I think. I'm confused. Did you come here in 1911? Was there a war when you left?"

“There were indeed many wars back then. I know the foreigners occupied Beijing,” Qiao raised her head, her eyes red-rimmed, her expression filled with fear and apprehension. “And then?”

"Then came World War I and World War II. People all over the world were fighting, on and off for many years. We were also constantly fighting. If we won, we had to pay reparations; if we lost, we also had to pay reparations. This went on for decades, until liberation came. The People's Republic of China was founded in 1949. Do you know the Gregorian calendar? Don't you? Let me calculate," Mi lowered her head and fiddled with her fingers, trying to figure out what 1949 minus 1911 equaled. After a moment of silence, Mi continued, "The People's Republic of China was founded in 1949. The People's Republic of China was founded by the Communist Party. We are now a socialist country. Do you know Mr. Sun Yat-sen? Were you from the Republic of China or the Qing Dynasty?" Mi didn't know what to say to comfort this person who had been away from his homeland for so long, nor did she know if the soul of this person from over a hundred years ago could understand what she was saying.

Seeing Joe's confused look, Mi continued, "Now we use cell phones, the kind you can hold in your hand, and we can contact each other anywhere. No matter where you are on Earth, or what you call Blue Star, you can see each other through your phone. You know airplanes, right? And rockets too. We've not only gone to space, but we've also landed on the moon. The moon is the moon, and we've been there several times. We've brought back lunar soil, and we're researching how to grow crops on it. By the way, our country's astronauts have grown cotton on the moon. There's no Wu Gang (a legendary figure associated with the moon), and no osmanthus trees, but there's cotton—moon cotton! It's amazing! Hey, do you know America? You know, the United States? They have two astronauts stranded in space right now, stuck on the space station. Their spacecraft broke down somewhere, so their astronauts have to stay on the space station, relying on other countries to send them food. I think it's a man and a woman; they were still in space when I came here."

Joe was slowly drawn in by Mi's words. He looked up at Mi with his wet eyes and asked, "You guys can already fly?"

"Go to heaven?" Mi chuckled and shook his head, then glanced at Qiao, who seemed to have stepped out of the painting of court ladies, and said, "You could say that. It's basically coming to the outer reaches of Earth, what we call space. In space, which you call the sky, they've built a space station, like building a house in the sky. Then, periodically, people will go up there to stay for a few days. They even have special clothes that allow them to walk in space. In space, there's no gravity—well, not really, just that Earth's gravity isn't that strong—so they can only float. You can think of it as them flying in space. But humanity hasn't found a way to control direction in space yet, so once you leave the space station, it's like you have to tie a rope around yourself whenever you leave home, or you'll never be able to go back."

"Your world must be wonderful right now!" Joe said with a longing expression. "It is wonderful."

“We have a saying where I’m from—the world is a giant makeshift stage. You’ve definitely heard of plays, those stages made of straw, they’re really shabby.” Mi shook his head. “You know, governments are scrambling to slack off, seeing which one can pull off a miracle. Do you understand what that means, government?”

"I know, thank you for telling me all this, thank you." Qiao's eyes were bright and moist from tears, with a slight redness around her eyes. Her long eyelashes were slightly stuck together because of the tears, and her black, cat-eye-like pupils sparkled. Her eyebrows were long and slender, and her smooth forehead was covered with light, cloud-like bangs. Mi couldn't help but exclaim, "Ah, this looks better than any kind of wispy bangs!"

"Thank you for comforting my homesickness." Qiao squinted shyly, revealing a bashful smile, her small nose twitching slightly. She gently bit her lip and said, "My home is in Beiping. It's a pleasure to meet you." Mi watched as Qiao's pearly teeth gently bit her pink lips, and her mind involuntarily screamed, "Ah, what a beautiful person! Classic, delicate, and elegant!" Mi turned to look at the European beauty, El, and muttered to herself, "Eastern beauties are still more attractive."

"Are all witches this beautiful?" Mi didn't pay attention to what Joe said at all. She thought of the charming Second Elder. Even the Fourth Elder, who was covered in wounds, still had a pair of bright and beautiful eyes.

"Is it beautiful?" El looked at himself and then at Joe. "Well, actually, witches don't have a fixed appearance. What you see is just our incarnation, or rather, the body we create."

Mi froze again. If a wisp of air could express confusion, it would be like Mi now, solidified into a cloud of gray air. Mi felt incapable of thinking. She looked at the small stone in her hand, then at El, who held a gray ribbon in her hand—the one El had taken from Mi. Mi stood up, observing herself. She had condensed into a ball, enveloped in a membrane. Where was her ink droplet? She could no longer spread out like a net.

Mi lowered her head in thought. At first, she was transparent, then she transformed into ink droplets. These ink droplets, like millions of soldiers, obeyed her commands, searching the entire forest, constantly looking for a way out. Sometimes she felt like a monkey in a laboratory, making all sorts of futile attempts, amusing the observers outside. Mi pondered carefully when she first felt this way. Was it when she dragged her ink droplet soldiers to create various abstract geometric shapes? No, it was much earlier. When she was still a transparent blob, she always felt countless gazes piercing through this silent forest.

Mi stared at the small stone in her hand, this round, teardrop-shaped stone—it was this stone that had ended Mi's Ink Drop state. Mi looked at herself, a hazy, gray mass, now resembling more of a tiny mist figure, her condensed form blurred. Having lost her Ink Drop soldiers, she could only run with all her might, repeatedly stabbing the sharp point of the small stone into the protective shield. Sometimes Mi could feel the shield trembling; it was like a protracted battle, a test of endurance. Mi wanted to return to the dormant flower to rest, but El had taken a portion of her energy. What was that? Mi thought of the Ink Drops absorbed by the mist—where had they gone? Were they absorbed by this small stone? Was that why it kept following Mi?

Mi opened her arms, and a small stone hovered in front of her. Mi pointed at the stone with her finger, and the stone tilted halfway, twisting slightly before pointing its tiny pointed tip towards the sky above the forest. Mi climbed the giant tree; she couldn't fly now, only climb. Even at the top, she could only touch a small patch above it, the clouds churning far away. She threw the small stone high into the air with all her might. The stone jumped a short distance, then stopped and looked at Mi, its tiny pointed tip pointing sometimes at Mi, sometimes at the clouds, as if asking, "Aren't you coming with me?" The stone hesitated, but finally returned to Mi's side.

"Can you talk?" Mi asked, pointing at the small stones.

The small stone spun around once and remained suspended in front of Mi. Mi reached out and felt around the stone: "This doesn't make sense. How are you hanging in the air?"

Mi crawled into a dormant flower. Inside, it was still warm and comfortable. A small stone was pressed against the petals. Mi blinked; she thought she could see the stone tickling her. Mi reached out and picked up the stone. This time, the sharp point pointed directly at her. Mi held out her finger and turned the stone around. The stone spun in her palm but still pointed at her. Who could sleep peacefully with a sharp stone pointing at them? Mi had to crawl out of the dormant flower. As soon as she was out, the sharp point of the stone pointed at the clouds again.

"What kind of strange little thing are you?" Mi walked toward El and Joe in the center of the forest, the little stone following her like a loyal guard.

El was still staring at the gray ribbon in her hand, the one that had been taken out of the air by Mi. Mi stood to the side, watching the ribbon for a long time. She felt nothing as the ribbon left her, just like the drops of ink, which simply vanished.

Mi reached out and touched the small stone again. It hurt. This small stone was the only thing in this forest that she could feel. The dormant flowers and grass could make her feel softness, but it was an illusion. As long as she closed her eyes, she could feel softness throughout the entire forest.

Mi walked up to El and Joe. El looked down at the ribbon in his hand and said, "Hmm, sword. You know ancient martial arts. You are a truly amazing soul, a powerful consciousness."

“You must have a lot of questions, right? Let me tell you first.” El handed the ribbon back to Mi, who watched as it transformed into a cloud of gray mist and merged back into herself. Mi reached out and touched everything, but there was nothing but air. Mi didn't know how a ribbon had appeared out of thin air and then suddenly disappeared. Was El a higher being? Or did she really know magic?

“What you’re holding is a guiding stone. Every witch has her own guiding stone. You found yours in Fallen Leaf Valley, so it seems you really want to get out,” El said, pointing to the small stone. “As long as you’re a witch, the guiding stone will follow you. When you’re lost, it will show you the way. To put it another way, the guiding stone is you who dispels all illusions; it’s your deepest need. The guiding stone is yourself.”

"You mean this little stone?" Mi squeezed the stone in her hand. This stone could make her feel pain; it hurt when she kicked her toe, and it hurt when she squeezed it. "You're saying this is me?"

"Yes, the guiding stone is your heart. Your eyes may deceive you, but the guiding stone will not. The guiding stone was the only thing you could pick up in the Witch Forest before you became a witch, because it came to the Witch Forest with you. Normally, the guiding stone should be with you, but your situation is special. We also returned quite late. Although we don't know how you separated from the guiding stone, you eventually found your guiding stone. You are very good."

“Forget about any guiding stones, I can’t go anywhere anyway,” Mi said, a little frustrated. She nervously squeezed the stone in her hand. “Tell me about this godforsaken place, this place that never changes.”