1.4 AuYeung LaiSan - In the Hall of Fate

I was walking down a long pebblestone road. There were torches hanging from poles zigzagging along the way, but so few and far between, that it barely illuminated the path. I could tell there were shrubs and trees on both sides, as it obscured the view of what was beyond the bend in the road. Cautiously ventured forward, when reaching the bend, I slowed my steps to peak around the trees. What I  found was just the end of the path. A wall that was so tall, it merged and disappeared into the darkness. The path led to gigantic red double doors with golden door rings. I approached cautiously, head on a swivel, as I expected hidden guards to jump out at any moment, but I reached the door without a single incident. Not knowing where else to go, I lifted the round metal door ring to knock but before I could do so, it quickly swung open towards me. I barely had enough time to jump out of the way.

Peering around the door, I saw a front courtyard almost completely barren. Two stone lions guarded either side of stone steps that led up to a building that emitted an eerie red glow.

After ascending the stairs, I entered a grand hall and to my astonishment, in front of me were three walls full of red string. Red strings hung like curtains from floor to ceiling, if there was even a ceiling. It was so high that the walls seems to just merge at the top. The only wall in the building that did not have red strings was the one I just entered from. On the right and left side of the door lined human size golden statues of all sorts of deities. Platforms that extended up and out from the walls held rows and rows of statues as well.  I hid behind the closest statue and peaked at the workers as I slowly made my way to the last statue.

From my view point, I could see that there were actually stairs at the corner of each floor, they led up to a platform behind the veil of red strings.The platform ends at a decorated wooden railing. Atop of each railing, there were four long rods, each about a foot higher than the last, and it stretches from wall to wall. Thousands of hooks hung from the rods, each one held an octagonal plaque with a pair of red strings dangling underneath.

I observed as a worker held a pair of strings in his palm, it floated and a new knot appeared and it floated back down. Then he hung it back up on the hook. I watched as he repeated that process over and over again until he was too far away for me to see.

Suddenly a familiar face walked in front of me, I reached out and grabbed him. "Lau ZhiHin," I said a little too loud.

The frenzy in the whole hall stopped. Everyone in the hall turned towards the voice but saw nothing. They all looked for a few more seconds and one by one they got back to what they were working on.

ZhiHin was very quick, once he heard his name, he had turned and pulled me to the back of a golden statue. He covered my mouth and shot me a glare that dared me to make a sound. I was in shock and frightened, so I froze and obeyed his command to be quiet.

When he felt it was safe, he quickly led me out of the room, sneaking behind the stairs and into a corridor that led out to a courtyard.

Once clearing the building, my eyes lit up, "Wow, it is beautiful", I said to no one in particular.

Light steam rose from the pond as water lilies with blooms seem to swim along a mysterious current. The fluttering wings  of hummingbirds could be heard but unseen, as they flitter about, visiting each bloom. Along the side, billowing willow trees swayed to the music of the wind.

I could have stayed there half the day just drinking in the tranquility of the scene but I was roughly pulled along by ZhiHin.

Finally, we stopped and he shoved me into a room, slammed the doors shut and ran around the room like a mad man, closing the shutters of every window. I looked around the room until a glimmering stone caught my eye. I walked towards the table, reached out a hand to touch it, a warm sensation spread through my fingers. The stone started to glow and a fuzzy picture appeared. But before it came into focus, a pair of strong hands swung me around, and I saw ZhiHin's chocolate brown eyes barreling down on me. "What are you doing here?" he asked obviously flustered, "How did you even get here?"

"I don't know. One minute I am sitting in a sedan and the next I find myself here," I tried to explain.

"What, that cannot happen," he said inquisitively.

"Well two souls aren't supposed to occupy one body but that happened too," I stated a matter-of-factly.

"What are you saying, that can't happen either," he said with lingering doubt.

"Well it did! I woke up in someone else's body and the original soul was still there. By the way it was a Princess's body you sent me to. And I learned that my body, the body of AuYeung LaiSan has fallen ill," I firmly said with my hands on my hips.

"Oh gosh, this is not good. Not good at all! Much more troublesome than I originally thought," he said with a worried expression. "The other two strings have already started affecting your past and encroaching on your lives. You must hurry and set it all right." He was now stomping left and right and mumbling to himself.

"Wait, what are you saying?" I didn't understand what he meant.

"What I am saying is that when I sent you back you should have returned to your own body because a soul is usually anchored to the body, it is like magnets attracting each other, a ying to a yang. The Princess you mentioned is probably one of the other souls in the entangled red strings and by the looks of it her current body has very strong presence to be able to attract your soul into her body before it reaches your own." he very patiently explained.

"The reason you can be here now is because you are not completely anchored to a body. In the Princess's body, it is like a visitor in a house that is already occupied, eventually if you overstay, you will either grow attached, taking over the body or you will be kicked out. Either way an ejected soul will eventually fade and die." Then he asked, "Did you fall asleep by chance?"

"Yes, how did you know," I questioned.

"Well, when asleep it is when our souls' attachment to the mortal world are the weakest. Our souls may drift away slightly from the body, and it always returns because it is tethered. If you ever experienced your body not be able to move when just awaken while in bed, that is because your body awakened before the soul returned to the body. But after a few moments you are able to move again that is your soul returning back. Because you were in someone else's body this time, your soul is able to travel freely between realms.  You came here to the spirit realm in search of the thing that ties you here, the red string that I still hold. So you were able to find me," he explained.

"So, now that I am here, how do I get back?"

"I can send you back to about the same time you fell asleep, but I cannot exactly say if you will return to your own body or the Princess' body" he said with a bit of concern.

"Wait, what do I do if you send me once again to the Princess's body, how do I get out and return to my own?" I stopped him before he started chanting to open the portal.

"Just do as you did this time, an unanchored soul will easily travel again to this realm. As long as I still hold your strings, your soul will always find me, no matter where I am,"  he said assuringly.

He started to chant and again a golden portal appeared.

I walked through, glancing back at the last minute and saw his face full of worry.

In the mortal world...