Uncle Wei was on the floor of the Lucky Deng Casino when Little Feet scampered up to him. “Did you hear Uncle Wei? Did you hear? The Jade Rabbit has disappeared.” It was late in the shift and there were a number of big spending Cambodians at the high stakes dropball screens. Now was not time for one of Little Feet’s jokes. Uncle Wei snapped at him to get back to his station and make sure the Cambodians had enough real rice wine. As he passed the main bar, Mailing and Jin stopped him.
“Uncle, the Space Agency just said the Jade Rabbit is gone. It just disappeared.” Jin was almost crying as she leaned over the antique plastic bar toward Uncle Wei. “Why do we always have trouble with the moon now? Just when things are picking up again after all the taikonauts got sick on the last moon missions,” she indicated the crowd at the bar and on the floor. “Every time there is some problem on the moon, everyone gets scared. When they get scared, they don’t come out and drink.” Mailing nodded and continued absently stirring a drink that she had been making.
Just as Uncle Wei was going to say something, one of the guests of the casino came up to him as if he knew him. He was a short, thin Cambodian, dressed in the height of Phnom Penh fashion. “I have just seen on my screen that the Jade Rabbit has disappeared. What do you think it means?” He extended his arm and Uncle Wei could see on the semi-rigid sleeve of his outer garment a screen of photo-electric filaments woven into the material of the sleeve. The resolution of the image was impressive, Uncle Wei noted, better than any of the Chinese-made ones that he had seen. On the screen he could see a Beijing presenter talking while, behind him, was an enlarged image of the moon. Uncle Wei stared at it with a growing sense of unease. It looked wrong. The familiar dark pattern of the Jade Rabbit, which usually stood out so plainly during the full moon, was not there. Instead the moon looked naked- too white and shiny to be seen by just anyone. Wanting to catch what the presenter was saying, Uncle Wei touched his ear bud and suddenly he could hear the harsh northern tones of the presenter.
“Terrestrial analysis has proved inconclusive at this point; therefore, the Space Agency will redirect a moon satellite, currently surveying potential uncolonized Helium-3 fields on the far side to investigate.
“The director of the Space Agency has not issued a statement but the Science Council is meeting now along with the heads of the Academies to discuss what the next steps should be. Council Speaker Wu has urged calm and rational thought...”
Uncle Wei switched off his ear bud. He had heard enough. He knew the story about the Jade Rabbit and his return to earth. It was part of the stories that came from the brief Daoist Revival that swept across south China during the early years of the Great Schism. While the Daoist Revival did not last as a religious movement after the end of the conflict, the stories about the Jade Rabbit had made their way into everyday consciousness through a popular children’s serial.
Of the many stories that were told about the Jade Rabbit, one said that the time would come when the Jade Rabbit was almost finished with the elixir of eternal life he had been grinding on the moon since he had been sent there as a reward for his sacrifice by the Lord Buddha. When it came time for the final two ingredients, the Jade Rabbit would come to earth. He would then need the help of an old man and a young girl to find the last ingredients. With the completion of the elixir, the current eon on earth would end and a new people would emerge, fortified by the completed elixir of eternal life. The next eon would, therefore, be the time of the Celestial Kingdom on earth.
Uncle Wei had watched the serial as a child. He had also been told versions of the stories by his grandmother, whose father had been a follower of the Daoist Revival. After the age of seventeen or so; however, Uncle Wei had never taken the stories seriously. It had not been a conscious decision or the result of a great disillusioning; he had simply become interested in other things.
Now, many years later, Uncle Wei made a very good living as the owner of a casino catering to the foreigners who still came to Macau and New Hong Kong to do business, to find adventure or to escape where ever it was that they were from. Uncle Wei’s screen in his office was full of datastreams covering everything from the security of the casino to the neurological status of his employees. There was no room in this world for strange stories about a moon rabbit and the end of life on earth... and yet.
Uncle Wei still stood there with the Cambodian, Jin and Mailing staring at the image of the moon on the Cambodian’s sleeve. He had forgotten where he was going or what he was doing. When he managed to look up, he saw that the whole casino floor had stopped. Everyone was looking at a sleeve screen or a tablet. Only a group of drunk actors from Da Nang continued to make noise, betting on the distance and direction of each increasingly erratic drive of their virtual golf game. Even they; however, were a bit muted now. Some part of their neural network, unimpaired by vodka, was aware that something was happening and was trying to behave appropriately.
“I’m going to my office,” Uncle Wei said to no one in particular. He wandered off toward a pair of discrete sliding doors leading to the warren of administrative offices. As the doors hissed quietly closed behind him, Uncle Wei moved blindly down one corridor and then another until he came to a door with his name on it. Stepping inside, it took his eyes a moment to adjust to the twilight of the datastreams and then to the sudden brightness as the room lights turned on. He stumbled over to the stool by his work bench and sat down. “What is going on with me?” he asked out loud. “I must be working too hard and my imagination is getting out of hand, letting a silly news report affect me like this.” He got up and went over to one of the cabinets against the wall opposite the screen. Opening one of the drawers, he rooted around for a satchel of herbal medicines his niece had given him for when he was tired. Just as he put his hand on the satchel and was pulling it out, the room suddenly got darker. He turned to see that the screen had gone black.
“That idiot data master,” Uncle Wei grumbled. “He’s probably tripped the datalinks again.” He was about to open a comm link on his tablet to the data master when an icon appeared in the center of the screen. “Lucky for him, he sorted that out right away.” Uncle Wei said as he went to find some water to dissolve the medicine in. Before he picked up the bottle, some instinctive sense told him to turn around.
On the screen, covering almost all of it, was the Jade Rabbit. It was looking at Uncle Wei with what could be called a smile.
“Wei Ju, I have been looking for you.”
Uncle Wei stood there, every muscle in his body tense with, not really fear, but something else, something unknown and therefore beyond fear. A part of him tried to will away the input his eyes were giving him. There was a thin, long-eared rabbit on his screen. It was resting; its back legs tucked under its body with its head turned so that it could look directly at Uncle Wei. What was even more unnerving was that the rabbit’s fur was the color of old jade. Its nose was much lighter, almost yellow green, but still recognizably jade. The rabbit’s eyes were closer to emerald in color and had the depth of the best quality diamond. There were facets within facets of light reflecting in the Jade Rabbit’s eyes.
When Uncle Wei did not respond, the rabbit continued, its voice soft, almost melodic. “No matter, Wei Ju. What is important is that I have found you. I need your help.”
“What?” Uncle Wei managed to stutter weakly, his brain still unwilling to process everything that was going on in this moment. All of a sudden, a thought came to him like the magic hand that appears in dropball and catches everything, allowing you, for a brief moment, to rack up the points. “Kong Jundi! This is one of your pranks!” Now that his mind had produced an explanation, Uncle Wei started to relax. His face went from a sickly pale hue to something approaching his normal dark tone as blood began to circulate again. He shifted his weight back and forth between his two feet as he tried to feel them again.
“Wei Ju, this is not a prank and you are the one to help me. It is time to finish the elixir.”
Uncle Wei was not having any more of this. His best friend from when they were in academy together, Kong Jundi, was a designer who was well known in Macau, and across China, for the imagination of the environments he created. These complete virtual experiences were difficult to make well because they had to recreate the sensation of an event in enough detail to encourage the mind to believe that the event was really happening. Kong Jundi specialized in environments that were full of tricks and surprises. This attitude spilled over into his friendships where he would create elaborate pranks for his friends. This was just the sort of thing Jundi would come up with, thought Uncle Wei. He would have seen the reports of the missing Jade Rabbit and, knowing the stories, would have put together this rabbit for Uncle Wei.
“Not that I believe you, but, according to the story, you also need a young girl to find the last ingredients. I am not doing anything until I know that you have the girl already.”
The Jade Rabbit’s eyes became even more intense, causing Uncle Wei suddenly to feel extremely uncomfortable, as if he was seeing something that he was never meant to see. He felt a small part of the millennia the Jade Rabbit had spent on the moon grinding ingredients and watching. Transfixed by those eyes, all thoughts of Jundi evaporated. Uncle Wei could say nothing.
“The time has come Wei Ju. You have been called to this task as sure as Hu Liling was called to her task. Now Wei Ju, you must leave for New Hong Kong where everything we need can be found.”
“New Hong Kong? Tonight? That’s impossible.”
“Not impossible. It simply requires an effort to go.”
Uncle Wei frowned hard and turned away from the screen. “I have a casino to run. My family is waiting for me to come home tonight. I promised I would be there for dinner today. There is no boat there this late...” He stopped. Even though he could not see the Jade Rabbit, he was aware that it was watching him and suddenly he became aware that everything that he was saying was a lie. The truth was: he was scared.
“Wei Ju, now we are getting somewhere.”
Uncle Wei turned, startled by what the Jade Rabbit said. “What do you mean?”
“You have fear and you admit it. This is what is needed, an honest assessment of the situation. But,” the Jade Rabbit continued, stopping Uncle Wei as he was about to speak, “The truth is only the starting point. Now you need to move. Find the way to go to New Hong Kong tonight. I am with you.” With that, the Jade Rabbit disappeared from the screen on the wall.
Seconds later, Uncle Wei heard a chirp in his ear bud, signaling a new comm link. Reluctantly he took out his tablet and saw the Jade Rabbit, now shrunk down to fit this screen, looking up at him with its emerald eyes. With a fleeting grimace of fear, Uncle Wei shoved the tablet back into the pouch on his hip and stood staring blankly at the wall in front of him. There was a voice inside him, very faint but persistent, telling him to do what the Jade Rabbit asked. He was stunned by this thought. Why would he even consider something so crazy as to try and make the trip from Macau to New Hong Kong tonight seeing that he had never left Macau in his life up to this point? The voice persisted and, without realizing he had started, he found himself in front of the screen. He tapped it with his thumb, index and ring finger together quickly twice. A voice control opened.
“Find transportation for me from Macau to New Hong Kong tonight,” he said. As he waited for the datastream to open, he told himself that there was no harm in checking. At least he could tell the Jade Rabbit that it was true there was no way for him to get to New Hong Kong tonight. He recalled being told once that there were only two trains that ran between the cities per day, one in the morning; the other around 5pm.
The icon for the datastream appeared. Uncle Wei tapped it and it spilled out a cascade of information: train timetables, lists of boat services and timetables, maps for an overland journey by jirou che, a rickshaw powered by augmented human power. Uncle Wei looked at all the information spread out in front of him and realized that it was possible. He could actually get to New Hong Kong tonight. Absently expanding one data current containing information on a boat line, he noticed that there was a boat that left the Macau harbor at 2200 and arrived at 2330. He looked at the time display on the screen. It was 1948. He had plenty of time as the harbor was only a short jirou che ride away.
He had started to purchase a ticket when he suddenly stopped, frozen by a question. He pulled out his tablet. The Jade Rabbit was still there with its legs tucked up under it looking at him.
“Why am I going to New Hong Kong? If I am going to do this, I should know why?”
The Jade Rabbit stared at him for some time without saying anything. Uncle Wei suddenly felt nervous. He wondered if he had said something wrong, somehow offended the Jade Rabbit. “I am sorry. I should not have questioned you,” he apologized.
“Are you really sorry?”
The question cut through Uncle Wei’s thoughts like a cold winter breeze coming through the mountains. He paused to consider. “No. I just thought I might have said something to offend you.”
“What made you think that?”
“You didn’t say anything.”
The Jade Rabbit laughed, not unkindly but with an edge that Uncle Wei could not help but feel. “People think they know so much, but really, you know almost nothing.” The Jade Rabbit continued, musing, “It is a miracle that anything happens here.
“No Wei Ju, I was merely waiting to see what you really wanted to say. It seems to me you have other, more interesting questions to ask.”
Uncle Wei was confused. “I don’t know about that. Can we at least start with my original question?”
After another disconcerting pause, the Jade Rabbit responded, “You are going to New Hong Kong to find Hu Liling. After that, we will be very close to the last ingredients.”
“Why don’t I just look her up and contact her? What does going to New Hong Kong have to do with finding her?”
“Hu Liling cannot be found through the net. You have to go and actually find Hu Liling.”
Uncle Wei’s fear woke up. If this Hu Liling was not findable on the net, it meant that she was either an illegal resident in New Hong Kong or a serious criminal. Those were the only types of people who were not traceable. If the stories were true and she was a young girl, it was not likely that she was a criminal. She was probably a street child. Uncle Wei imagined all kinds of reasons for why Hu Liling was on the street, each more lurid and tragic than the last. Images of a life time of serials and spectaculars about the Hong Kong underworld sprang to life in his mind. Driven by the fear these images caused, Uncle Wei asked, “What happens if I don’t go to find Hu Liling?”
“Everything,” the Jade Rabbit replied.
“What do you mean ‘everything’?” Uncle Wei demanded.
Just then the door to his office opened and the head of his bar who everyone called “Boss” leaned in. Boss was a thin, bald man with an attractive face and an air of sophistication that gave rise to his name. “Uncle Wei, I hope I am not disturbing you.”
Uncle Wei looked up somewhat guiltily from his tablet to the datastream on the wall and then to the head of the bar. “No Boss, what is it?”
Boss stepped into the room, followed Uncle Wei’s gaze to the screen; then he turned his attention back to Uncle Wei. “The Cambodians want another three bottles of rice wine. Should I get it for them?”
“Can they pay for them?”
Boss nodded. “It’s not a question of paying. They have drunk three already. If they drink another three, we will only have one bottle of real rice wine left.”
Uncle Wei understood. Real rice wine was very hard to come by. There were not many places that could sustain large scale rice production any more. Most of these were in the outer reaches of the Mekong, adding the difficulty of transportation to the already high cost.
“You remember how long it took us to get these bottles?” Boss asked.
“Yes.” Uncle Wei thought about it for a moment then said, “They are paying customers, and they are gambling a lot, aren’t they? Well, then they can have the rice wine.”
Boss looked at him for a moment. It was not the answer he had expected from Uncle Wei. In fact, it was not the answer that Uncle Wei had expected from himself either. He would have normally tried to offer them something else in order to preserve at least two of the bottles. Now, he found that he could not worry about somebody in the future possibly wanting more than one bottle of rice wine. The idea seemed absurd to him. If he ran out, he ran out. It was not like most people could afford it anyway. He had only sold twenty bottles in the last five years, compared to the hundreds of bottles of wheatgrass vodka he sold a year.
“Is there anything else Boss?” Boss shook his head, turned and walked out of the office.
Returning to the tablet, Uncle Wei found the Jade Rabbit still there in the same position regarding him with those infinitely deep eyes. “Do you have any idea where I should start looking for this Hu Liling? New Hong Kong is a big city.”
“You can start in the area near the train station. It is likely that you will find what you are looking for there.”
Forty-five minutes later, Uncle Wei was walking onto the deck of one of the new motorized sail boats that made the regular trip between Macau and New Hong Kong. He was reflecting on how simple it had been to go. He had told his staff that he had some business to take care of, left Boss in charge; then he told his family he had to go out for work and would not be home until tomorrow. No one minded or said anything about it, except his wife who asked if he wanted her to save some of the fish she was cooking for his lunch.
Since it was late and there were very few passengers, Uncle Wei had his choice of seats. After some consideration, he chose one in the front of the cabin looking out across the foredeck to the sea. He could hear the creak of the rigging above his head and then the sudden pulse as the engine started. The boat jumped forward as the lines were released and made its way out of the mostly still harbor and into the river.
Once the boat left the arch of lights cast by Macau, the surroundings were dark. Two small lights at the bow only weakly illuminated a patch directly ahead. After a bit, Uncle Wei was tired of straining to see something and pulled out his tablet and unfolded the digital paper to its full size. Holding one corner he gave it a quick, hard shake, which turned the paper rigid.
Now that he had the full screen available, Uncle Wei had decided to see if there was anything that he could find about Hu Liling. Despite what the Jade Rabbit said, he could not believe that there nothing about this girl to be found, especially since he had access to some official datastreams. What turned up, however, was not very helpful. Most of it referred to a Hu Liling who came to New Hong Kong from the US during the Great Schism and had subsequently been involved in the Daoist Revival as a teacher in their academies. She had been a revered teacher and leader of Daoist study groups, when, suddenly, she had left the Revival for unknown reasons when she was forty nine.
There were plenty of other women named Hu Liling in New Hong Kong but, Uncle Wei did not think that they would be the girl he was looking for. They were all easy to find and most were older women, not little girls. Closing the search datastream, he tapped the Jade Rabbit icon. Suddenly it was there, taking up the full screen. “Do you have any more information on Hu Liling? What does she look like? What does she do?”
“You are going about this the wrong way. I have told you all you need. You are looking for Hu Liling and you will find what you need near the train station. There is nothing more to add.”
Uncle Wei suddenly lost the excitement that he had had at taking his first boat trip. Again he wondered why he had listened to this image on his screens, why he was in the middle of the Zujing River on his way to New Hong Kong. It was madness, he muttered to himself, simply madness. He decided he would get the next boat back to Macau as soon as this one docked.
“Wei Ju, look ahead,” the Jade Rabbit said. Uncle Wei did and let out a gasp. As the boat crested a swell, he could see the horizon to his right glowing warm golden yellow. As he watched, the boat tacked towards the light and the motor started again. Soon the lights became more distinct and spread across his field of vision. He was approaching New Hong Kong.
New Hong Kong was, in fact, what used to be the suburbs of Hong Kong. A number of years of heavy typhoons and rising ocean levels had made many of the islands and low-lying areas of Hong Kong Island uninhabitable. As a result the city shifted to the north, incorporating existing towns and building new residential and business areas in between them.
Uncle Wei watched as the boat eased into the harbor and up to one of the berths. Once it had docked, Uncle Wei got up and made his way out to the end of the dock. He asked the attendant sitting in a small booth how he could get to the train station. The young man silently pointed off to his left. Uncle Wei saw a line of jirou che.
“There isn’t a tram or train there?”
The attendant shook his head. As he walked to the front of the line, Uncle Wei reasoned that it was not every day he came to New Hong Kong, so why not spend extra and be taken there personally. After negotiating with the driver for some time, the contract was agreed and escrowed and they set off, Uncle Wei sitting comfortably on the bench seat in the cabin while the driver climbed onto his seat behind and started pedaling out onto the road toward the center of town. Building up a store of energy on the level part of the road, the driver shifted on the power booster as the road slowly rose up toward the center of the city. Uncle Wei sat absorbing the sights along the way. This part of the city was all new and was rather uniform in its appearance; most buildings were constructed in what was called the ‘New South Style,’ a mix of old European functionalism and fung shui principles.
Suddenly, Uncle Wei had a thought. He touched the speaker button in the cabin and it lit up. “Excuse me, have you ever heard of Hu Liling?”
“Hu Liling? Don’t know anything about Hu Liling, but there is a little environment run by Hu Xialin near here.”
“I don’t think that is what I am looking for. A friend asked me to look up a cousin of his named Hu Liling.”
The driver laughed conspiratorially, “I know most of the girls around here. Don’t know any who go by that name.”
Uncle Wei blushed. He had not thought about how his question would sound. Embarrassed, he was reaching up to turn off the speaker when the driver said, “Wait a moment. I do remember that name from somewhere. I don’t think it’s a girl though. Where was it?” He was silent for a few moments.
They were now coming up to the crest of a ridge and Uncle Wei could see the train station off in the distance. It sat alone, surrounded on all sides by the flat hard surface that supported the long-distance hover trains.
“I remember now!” The driver exclaimed excitedly. “It’s right up here.” He slowed down and suddenly swung off the main street into a small road that ran back into an office park. The driver cut the engine and the jirou che rolled to a halt. “There it is,”
Uncle Wei leaned forward. At first he had no idea what the driver was pointing at, then he saw it: the only lit sign on the row of buildings next to him. It took him a moment to read the whole sign as it scrolled down the side of an ornate door: Hu Liling Long Life Health Center. The driver announced proudly, “I never forget any place I have been. Took a family here once from the train station. Took me forever to find it because it’s not on a geo-view, but I finally found it.”
“Do you mind if I have a quick look?”
“Not at all. You are paying.”
Uncle Wei opened the door to the cabin and stepped out. He walked over to the door. It was deceptively large. The sign’s characters were larger than normal, which masked the door’s height in the dark. Gingerly touching a panel of the door, he realized it was made of a single piece of real wood. He had only ever seen a door like this on the ancient church in downtown Macau. Just above his hand there was a strip that ran horizontally across the door. On it were carved a number of what appeared to be Chinese characters but they were from before the First Simplification and Uncle Wei found them too complicated to distinguish. He reached into his pouch and pulled out his tablet. Uncle Wei tapped the Jade Rabbit icon. When it appeared, he turned the tablet toward the door and sign. “Is this what we are looking for?”
“Do you think it is?”
Uncle Wei shrugged and turned the tablet back to face him. “I thought, because of the name and the fact that the door is so old and out of place here, it must be important.”
“Do you know what it says?” the Jade Rabbit asked. Uncle Wei shook his head. “It says, ‘The walls have made the chamber, but it is the empty space within that give it value.’” The Jade Rabbit continued, “It is a variation on an ancient Daoist saying which appeared in many temples before the Revival.”
Uncle Wei rubbed his eyes and sighed at the Jade Rabbit’s response. He realized that he was tired and there was little chance of him getting home before tomorrow morning at the earliest. The absurdity of the situation he had gotten himself into came back to him. Here he was in New Hong Kong looking for something that would lead him to someone who he was not sure even existed, all at the request of a jade colored rabbit on his screen who never answered his questions directly. He started laughing hard, almost uncontrollably. Suddenly he doubled over and sank to his knees.
The driver glanced over with concern. “Hey, are you alright?” he yelled.
Uncle Wei could not answer him. The sense of absurdity that he felt in this moment was spreading. He realized his life running a casino for foreigners on a rock at the edge of China was ridiculous; so were his battles with Little Feet. Then there was the new flat he had moved into even though he did not like it. He was there because his wife’s brother managed the building and told them he could get them a good deal, so they had left their old flat near the casino and moved to almost the other side of Macau. In that moment, Uncle Wei felt with frightening clarity the complete meaningless of everything that he was and had done. So he laughed and laughed.
The old door opened silently and a girl of about ten stood in the doorway. She had long hair that fell straight down her back. Her face was serious, but somehow kind. She saw Uncle Wei there on the sidewalk in front of the door laughing and asked him if he would like a glass of water. Trying to calm himself down, Uncle Wei nodded. The girl turned and retreated into the building, returning a few moments later with a small cup which she carefully carried out to Uncle Wei and handed to him. As he drank the water, he realized that he had never really tasted water before. He had always drunk it without giving any thought to its texture, smell or taste. Now he tasted the water and it felt creamy and somewhat viscous, as if it had substance. There was a slight tang on the tip of his tongue, almost metallic, as the water passed down his throat. Finishing, he handed the cup back. “Thank you.”
She bowed her head slightly. “You are welcome, Uncle.”
In that moment, Uncle Wei felt the tablet become heavy in his hand. It was also getting awkward to hold, as if it was getting thicker. Uncle Wei dropped the tablet with a shout because he had felt fur under his thumb, which had been on the screen. Looking down, he watched the Jade Rabbit squeeze itself out of the screen. Back first, followed by its hind legs and finally its head, the Jade Rabbit shook itself and settled on the sidewalk between the girl and Uncle Wei.
“Thank you both. You have given me the last ingredients for the elixir. Now I can return to complete it.”
Given what he had just understood about his life, the fact that the Jade Rabbit had just left his screen and was quite materially there in front of him did not faze Uncle Wei. Instead he had two more important questions. “Wait. What were the last ingredients?”
The Jade Rabbit replied, “The energy of comprehension and the energy of compassion. You have understood your situation and this young lady has shown compassion in recognizing a stranger in need and offering what help she could.”
“But surely we are not the only ones to have understanding and compassion. Why us?”
“Because you were at the right time and the right place,” the Jade Rabbit replied. “I did not need these ingredients before now and, when I was ready, you were looking for something, even if you did not acknowledge it.”
“What do you mean, I was looking for something?”
The Jade Rabbit looked up at him. The eyes, now that they were real, were even more mysterious, but Uncle Wei did not find them forbidding as they were before; instead they were inviting, calling him to plunge into their depths. “Wei Ju. You chose to find me on your screen.”
Uncle Wei started to argue, but then realized that the Jade Rabbit was telling the truth. The moment that he saw the picture of the moon without the Jade Rabbit and remembered the story, he wanted to be the one to be selected by the Jade Rabbit to help him. It was why he had stayed in the room with him and not turned off the screen, why he had searched for a way to get to New Hong Kong, why he was here on his knees talking to a jade rabbit while a little girl watched them.
“So what happens now?” Uncle Wei asked. “Is it the end of the eon and life on earth?”
The Jade Rabbit laughed. “You humans are so dramatic, always looking for the excitement of the end and never interested in what is here, now in front of you.” The Jade Rabbit suddenly leaped up and kept going up, up, up as if there was no gravity. Uncle Wei watched until he could not see the rabbit any more.
Once the Jade Rabbit was out of sight, the young girl said, “There is a bed here you are welcome to use for a few hours. After the first meditation, you can go where ever you like.”
Uncle Wei nodded, stood up, walked over to the driver and paid for his time. Having not seen the Jade Rabbit, the jirou che driver set off, muttering to himself about the strange people from Macau. Uncle Wei turned and walked back to where the girl was standing. “OK. I am ready to go.” She pointed toward door and Uncle Wei walked through it. The girl followed, closing the door behind her.
Just before sunrise, the Space Agency official confirmed what people had seen already, that the Jade Rabbit was again visible in its familiar place on the surface of the moon. The official noted that the brief disappearance was due to particular conditions in the upper atmosphere that distorted our view of the moon. He said that the satellite images during that period showed that nothing had happened on the moon to cause the shape to disappear. He did not, however, make the satellite datastream available.