A Dazzling Show of Light

From not far away, a small girl was running toward me. It was Bai Mei from earlier. She cuddled her tiger cub to her chest and clumsily ran into my direction.

'Is she calling me?' I thought, because 'Jingyin' is only the name that the prince uses for me.

"Jingyin~!" she screamed and waved at me.

"Jingy-" *fa-thud*

While she was trying to scream the name again, she fell over her own feet and landed face first on the pavement. Her tiger cub was squeezed between the ground and her.

Seeing her fall made my eyes flinch a little. I could clearly imagine the pain of hitting the stone-hard ground with my face. It would surely hurt.

With trembling arms and tears welling up in her eyes, she stood back up and patted the tiger. She probably wanted to comfort it or apologize for the fall.

Bai Mei looked at me again with glassy eyes and her cheeks turned beet-red. She snuggled closer to Zhenli and watched her feet at every step she took; slowly and cautiously.

Arriving before me on the platform, she looked up at me and asked, "What are you doing here, Jingyin?"

'That's what I wanted to ask you. You look much better than before…' I thought and answered her question by pointing at the hooded statue.

"Are you planning to travel? Can Bai Mei and Zhenli come with you? Bai Mei owes you a lot and wants to compensate you!" she begged and looked with a pleading gaze at me.

Her eyes were round like an orb, dazzling from the reflected sunlight in her teary eyes. She also smelled much better now compared to before – like nothing. The stench from earlier was just gone.

'I don't need a travel companion. But I need to know how to use that portal.' I pointed at the statue again and shook my head into its direction.

Tears flowed down her cheeks and she asked in a brittle voice, "You're sending Bai Mei away? …Why? Bai Mei promises she won't be a burden to you! Bai Mei can help!"

'No. No! That's not what I meant!'

I squatted beside her, took her tiny hand, and pointed it at the statue.

"Oh… *sniff* So you aren't sending Bai Mei away? You want to go there with Bai Mei…" she wiped her tears away and returned to her former cheerful self.

As I nodded my head, a wide grin blossomed onto her face. Her white teeth were in full view from her smile. She was definitely happy about this.

"Okay. Let's go! I will enter first!" she told me and went in front of the statue.

'Wait… Did she just stop referring to herself in third person and said "I"?' I was bewildered. 'So she can speak normally…'

Bai Mei ran at full speed to the hooded statue, showing no intention to stop. With her tiger cub in her arms, she closed her eyes and continued running.

'What is she doing?!'

My foot made a step forward, getting into position to run to her and stop her.

*flomp*

Before I could even start my sprint, Bai Mei disappeared in the statue. It was like the statue was an ocean and swallowed her whole. Only a single water ripple, with the epicenter being her former position, spread over the statue's surface.

She's gone.

'Did she just walk into the statue?' I have never seen before that someone can walk into a solid-looking surface and disappear.

Full of curiosity I walked nearer to the statue and touched it. A single water ripple formed near my finger and spread over the statue like it did before.

But my finger didn't feel any resistance from the statue - nothing at all. It was as if my finger was submerged in water.

Slowly I pushed my finger further in, then my arm, and lastly the rest of my body.

For an instance my entire view turned black. Shortly after, I stood inside a spacious hall. It didn't look in the least like a library. There were no bookshelves, no books, nothing; just a big, empty hall.

*ding*

A sound came from my phone, and I pulled it out to check the message.

…

[Message]: Mission "A New Beginning – The Starting Line" was completed.

[Message]: Mission "A New Beginning – The First Step" was added.

…

'I completed a mission?! When? By entering the Palace of Cards?' I wondered myself and looked at the Quest&Mission interface. And there it was:

…

[[Quest]]: A New Beginning (breakthrough-quest)

[The Starting Line]: Enter the Palace of Wisdom (Completed)

[The First Step]: Meet the master of the palace - Zhihui. (In Progress)

…

'Wait… This isn't the Palace of Cards but the Palace of Wisdom?!' I was shocked.

'The prince isn't here anyway; so I can finish my breakthrough quest before going to the Palace of Cards.'

I scanned my surrounding and looked for the Palace Master Zhihui. But the only person I saw was Bai Mei. She stood before me with Zhenli in her hands and gazed at me.

When she saw that I was looking at her, she suggested, "Why don't I start? I only just got my phone from selling the card you gave me. So I only need to register an account."

'She did it again! She talked normal again! But why?' I wondered myself and didn't give her suggestion any attention.

Bai Mei took my silence as a 'yes' and stepped towards the middle of the empty hall. She pulled her phone out and held it up above her head.

A dazzling, golden light emerged at the ceiling, illuminating the entire hall in a bright light. Sparkling dots of light filled the ceiling like stars in the night sky and rained slowly like snowflakes down at us.

Curiously, I lifted my finger and moved it towards one such dot of light. My finger came nearer and nearer, nearly touching it. And then the sparkling dot flew away from me.

Looking back at Bai Mei, all the dazzling spots of light were sucked in by her phone like a vortex, devouring every single dot, not sparing even one.

Suddenly a thought came to my mind: "How come I have an account but never did or saw this play of light?"

It was really confusing. I couldn't figure out from where I got that account from…

When all the dots of light entered Bai Mei's phone, an ethereal voice echoed through the hall, "Your phone is set up and ready to use. Please put your finger on the display to create your account."

Bai Mei lowered her phone and held it in front of her chest. Suddenly, the tiger cub in her arms began to struggle in her grip. Maybe it was scared of the lights or disliked the voice.

"Zhenli, what's the matter?" she asked and moved her hand with the phone towards its head. She probably wanted to pat its head to calm it down.

And right at that time, when the tiger cub saw the phone coming nearer to its face, it stretched out its paw and pushed against the display of the phone.