The Jade Pendant

When Li Huowang confirmed that the thing pressed against his chest was indeed real, his heart hammered. The first thought that burst into his mind was instinctive: "I have to tell Dr. Li!"

But his right foot had barely lifted off the ground when it froze midair. Other thoughts exploded in his head.

He knew—his hallucinations contained more than just that piece of candy. There were other things. More valuable things.

Savoring the sweetness dissolving on his tongue, Li Huowang paced slowly around the ward.

"This is an opportunity! A chance to make Yang Na and me rich overnight! Maybe even climb to the top of the world!" Thrilled, he made up his mind.

"Can't tell Dr. Li. I don't want to get sliced up in a lab, and anyway that's not his department." He kept the thought to himself.

"But I shouldn't jump to conclusions yet. I need to figure out exactly what's going on." He locked that resolve inside.

Just as he was thinking that, the surroundings began to warp and shift. The clean, orderly hospital room receded.

By now he was used to this. He quickly stuffed the test papers and books into his schoolbag and tossed it into a far corner, so he wouldn't tear them up when the hallucination took hold.

Then he pressed the red button beside the bed. A few seconds later, the last thing he saw before the scene dissolved was several nurses walking in and strapping him down with restraints.

When he opened his eyes again, the crude, cold cave was back. The deformed "junior brothers and sisters" beside him stared at him curiously.

Sitting up from the icy stone floor, Li Huowang once more surveyed everything around him with a peculiar perspective.

Sure, it was a hallucination. But in his eyes, it was now a treasure vault stuffed with riches.

Maybe he wasn't sick at all. Maybe he had a rare, special ability—just a bunch of quacks couldn't diagnose it.

"Maybe I'm not crazy. Right, exactly. I'm not crazy."

He was so sick of the label "psycho." Everyone looked at him like something alien. Like the moment he got sick, he stopped being human and turned into a freak.

The thought that he might finally shed that label made Li Huowang's excitement uncontrollable.

In high spirits, he reached over and cheerfully rubbed the bald head of a nearby disciple who had leaned in. "Ha, this is actually kind of fun."

"What are you all huddling for? Get back to work! If you mess up the medicine ingredients the master needs for his great immortality project, he'll skin you alive!" An extremely grating voice came from the cave entrance.

Li Huowang turned. It was the aloof Daoist who had delivered messages earlier. The same arrogance was plastered on his face, as if just speaking to a bunch of "ingredients" like Li Huowang would dirty his eyes.

Li Huowang remembered this guy's name. In this hallucination, his Daoist title was Xuan Yang.

Meeting Li Huowang's unapologetic stare, Xuan Yang clearly saw it as a challenge. He flicked his horsetail whisk and strode over. "Junior Brother Li, what a pity you didn't become the master's ingredient this time."

Li Huowang couldn't be bothered with the sarcasm. His attention was locked on the round jade pendant hanging at Xuan Yang's waist.

"Is this thing an antique? If I could send it to the real world and sell it, it'd be worth a fortune, right?"

"But how do I do it? Same as that piece—just grab it and press it to my chest?"

Xuan Yang said a few more things and got no reaction. Taking Li Huowang's silence for fear, he sneered, lifted his chin, and turned to leave this place meant for ingredients.

Watching his back, Li Huowang set a plan in his mind. That jade pendant was his next test subject for the transmission.

And how to get it? Simple: steal it tonight. "That pendant is nice, but pretty soon it's going to be mine."

A small hand, nearly translucent white, reached out from beside him and tugged lightly on his hemp-cloth sleeve. A soft, sticky-sweet voice sounded in his ear.

"Senior Brother Li, hurry up and work. If we don't finish, there won't be any dinner."

Li Huowang turned to look. It was that albino girl he had helped earlier.

After a moment's thought, he reached into his chest pocket, pulled out the half-melted piece of black candy, and placed it in her hand. Then he turned, walked to his station, picked up his pestle, and started working.

For now—whether here or back at the hospital—he decided not to do anything too outrageous.

Something this earth-shattering shouldn't be shared with anyone. He had to slowly figure out the rules first before making any other moves.

The day's labor ended amid the dull pounding of pestles. Late at night, lying on the large communal bed, listening to the snoring and teeth-grinding around him, Li Huowang slowly opened his eyes.

The cave was pitch-dark, windowless. He groped his way toward the entrance.

First he went to his workstation and picked up a piece of the bluish stone he had ground. Its faint phosphorescence gave him enough light to navigate the black limestone tunnels.

Sure, carrying a glowing rock in the dark was a bit conspicuous, but Li Huowang didn't care.

"If someone catches me, I'll just retreat back to the hospital. I've got an escape route—what's there to be afraid of?" He muttered to himself smugly as he walked alone through the cavern.

The whole hallucination existed because of him. Why would he be afraid of something he created? Even if he couldn't control it yet.

The cavern system had been extensively developed. Li Huowang had been here long enough to know his way around.

Soon he slipped into Xuan Yang's cave. It was still crude, but the single bed large enough for one person was proof enough of the gap between Xuan Yang and the human ingredients like Li Huowang.

But to Li Huowang's surprise, Xuan Yang wasn't in the cave. His clothes were there, though. Li Huowang didn't care. He reached into the Daoist robe, found the jade pendant, and yanked it free.

Stealing out of the cave, he examined the round pendant by the light of his fluorescent stone.

It was crystalline, smooth, and carved with delicate cloud patterns. Even someone with no knowledge of jade could tell it was high-quality.

The more Li Huowang looked, the happier he felt. If he really could bring this thing to the real world, this single pendant would cover at least four years of tuition for him and Yang Na.

"Heh heh, Yang Na… Yang Na, get ready to be a little rich girl." Li Huowang tucked the pendant into his pocket and started back.

Everything had gone smoothly—but not everything stays smooth. Just as he neared the entrance, he turned a corner on the stone steps and ran straight into a group of people.

They were a bunch of boys and girls around his age. Their terrified faces flickered in the dim light of the fireboxes they held.

Both sides were badly startled. They stood frozen for a long time, no one speaking.

Finally Li Huowang broke the silence. Pointing his fluorescent rock at one figure in the crowd wearing a hemp robe, he asked: "Senior Brother Xuan Yang, dressed like that… were you demoted to the ingredient room?"

Not just Xuan Yang, but several other acolytes who had handled different tasks were there too. One of the boys who used to fan the furnace was among them.

But whatever they had done before, now they all wore the same coarse hemp clothes. Nothing else.

Xuan Yang didn't have his daytime arrogance. His expression flickered rapidly a few times before he walked up to Li Huowang and lowered his voice.

"Come! Come with us! We're getting out of this hellhole! I've already bribed the gatekeeper."

"Go? Oh, so you're—"

Before Li Huowang could finish the word "escaping," Xuan Yang clamped a hand over his mouth.