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Fate Swirls in the Colorful Ghost Month (Huang Yan’s Story)

July 1996

The Sea Pirates’ Camp in the Sulu Sea was quite a unique place, one where the merchildren of famous rulers and diplomats from the zone could meet, play, and explore the wonders of the undersea world together.

During their stay at the camp, they could take part in various entertaining activities such as swimming with dolphins, feeding marine creatures, and diving to the great depths in search of long forgotten treasures. But they would also race each other in the sea caves and compete to see who could make the most beautiful sandcastle; there was no shortage of fun at this camp.

Going there for holidays had always been a dream of fourteen-year-old Huang Yan and his twelve-year-old brother Huang Ling. And now, it was finally about to come true! The two boys were very excited about the upcoming adventure and started screaming with joy when they first saw the brilliantly colored coral reefs surrounding the camp.

Some sea kids were there already, swimming joyously through the tropical waters, the colorful scales of their tails shimmering with countless colors in the underwater sunlight. And behind them was the camp’s building adorned with nets that were abundantly decorated with shells and dried starfish.

*

On the first day of the camp, the caregivers made all the little participants play a game that would help them get to know each other. Huang Yan was so busy keeping an eye on his little brother (who was distracted by everything), that he missed half of his camp colleagues' presentations. Not that he’d learn a lot about them from those presentations anyway—the only languages he could speak were Cantonese and Mandarin. The few basic sentences that he could utter in the Ocean language definitely weren’t enough to help him communicate effectively.

In any case, it was during that presentation game that he first paid attention to Wan, the new princess from the Thai Pearl Empire, who was eight years old, and her lady-in-waiting, Davika, who was six. Despite being so young, Davika quickly came to be a leader of the girls, as she had an outgoing, cheerful personality. Wan observed her with a light smile from the corner where she sat.

Wan was graceful like a sea fairy, and so pretty that she could easily be labelled the most beautiful mermaid in the camp. Because of this, lots of boys tried to impress her in silly ways, which caused her to either laugh from embarrassment (if they were nice) or cry (if they were nasty). Huang Yan looked at them with real envy, upset that they approached her so effortlessly. He was angry at himself, too, for being too shy and too poor at a foreign language to even carry on a conversation with her.

To that, he and his younger brother were quickly labelled “freaks.” At first, he mistakenly thought that it was because of their short black hair, which was stubbornly spiky, looking like a brush for polishing shells. But he discovered very soon that the real reason were their tails. Since they were both from the royal family in the South China Sea, they had cornified, dragon-like scales, very similar to the ones of the yellow dragon. Such scales were unusual, and lots of the camp participants gossiped about them when the two of them swam by. Still, nobody dared to bully them openly, as they were children of the great emperor of the South China Sea, Huang Suoyu.

Well… nobody but Guo Guiying.

She was their fourth cousin and the daughter of the emperor of East China Sea. Her green tail was related to the green dragon and just as cornified.

Guiying was eight years old, like Wan. She often wore black kung-fu shirts and kept her hair in two buns, which gave her a slightly mischievous look. She was extremely playful and a real nuisance to the two brothers. She often swam after the two of them, calling them sea slugs.

Huang Ling would get upset and scream at Guiying at the top of his lungs, but Huang Yan was old enough to know that she didn’t do it out of malice; she just sought their attention because she was bored and lonely.

Her Ocean language skills were nearly non-existent, as she spoke Shanghainese and a bit of Mandarin. So eventually, the two boys chose to make peace with her and let her team up with them, even though Huang Yan still kept throwing wistful looks at the beautiful Wan, wishing she’d join them instead.

After the first three days, once everyone got used to the life of the camp, the caregivers came up with a surprise. They claimed that they had found a secret message from an ancestor of Hai Hun, the famous pirate from the South China Sea, whose name meant “sea ghost” in Chinese.

The news caused much commotion among the youthful campers. Even though Huang Yan and Guiying were old enough to know that it was probably yet another game, they were both very excited about this particular task.

“Yan, we have to find this treasure!” Huang Ling pleaded, hope shining in his almond-shaped brown eyes.

“I know! We will surely do our best, don’t worry!” his brother promised him.

“Yeah! The three sea slugs will surely find the treasure!” Guiying exclaimed, throwing her fist up.

Upon hearing the words the three sea slugs, Huang Yan glanced at her, surprised. “Oh, so now you’re now a sea slug too?”

“Did I ever say I wasn’t one?” Guiying asked slyly. “We must hurry. We need to start looking for clues now if we want to get ahead of others!”

And she swam away with one energetic wave of her forked green caudal fin.

*

The trio spent the next three hours swimming around the campsite yard, looking for clues. There was much joyous screaming and laughter, especially from the younger camp participants. Some actually gave up on searching for the treasure to play tag instead, as it gave them more joy.

Huang Ling looked at them with interest, but his brother didn’t let him leave their team. He really wanted to find the treasure. With the eye of his imagination, he saw himself discovering it and earning praise from the camp caregivers. Everyone would look at him then, including the bewitchingly beautiful Wan...

However, the game ended quite differently. The caregivers’ offspring, who were also participating in the camp, broke into the faculty’s room, stole the game’s plan, and found the treasure before other clues were even revealed.

And the loot turned out to be anything but special. It was a very simple-looking wooden chest with a large, ancient Chinese coin attached to the top of it. Inside was a broken spyglass, a fake letter from Hai Hun, which wasn’t even written in Chinese, and hundreds of fish bones that they could trade for cool souvenirs in the shop. What a bummer! Huang Yan thought to himself, disappointed.

Shortly after that, the camp ended and he had to leave without having spoken even one word to the beautiful Wan.

*

Ten Years Later, July 2006

The Ghost Month had begun, bringing with it the full moon, the time of harvest, and two significant observances for the merpeople of the South China Sea: the end of the ascetic period for monastery monks and the beginning of rebirth celebrations dedicated to the deceased.

It was strongly believed that at this time of the year, the hell gates would open, releasing the ghosts into the world of the living so that they could search for food and entertainment once again. As a result, countless performances were held at the capital of the South China Sea, Huangcheng (meaning “yellow city” in Chinese). These shows primarily took place in the evenings, held in experimental playhouses or local opera houses. They skillfully combined martial arts with acrobatics and folk music, creating a unique blend of entertainment. Additionally, there were late-night circuses that featured performances with almost burlesque elements, evolving from the vibrant entertainment culture of Sambath.

On a cold evening, Huang Yan was waiting for his younger brother in a small undersea amusement park built a long while ago, back in the times of the Opium Wars. Sitting on the large vintage tea bowl of a broken merry-go-round, he couldn’t help but contemplate his life.

Everything was going great, and yet he wasn’t feeling happy.

There wasn’t any zest in him. He was barely twenty-four years old yet already feeling jaded about so many things…

He was the emperor’s first son, and so a lot was expected of him. His family was very stern toward him; everyone made sure he’d learned the right virtues and behaved in the best possible way. As a result, Huang Yan grew into a kind, quiet, and somewhat shy young man—one who was modest, hardworking, and dependable.

Those who didn’t know him believed that he probably had to deal with a lot of pressure, but it wasn’t so. Every time he needed help or advice with anything, he could count on the palace staff to assist him, and he was privately schooled by the greatest teachers in their capital. College exams were a formality for him; no university professor would dare to fail him, as he was from the royal family.

His life was truly simple and easy; he just needed to do what he was told to do, and everything would be alright.

But what was the point of living such a life, one directed by everyone else?

Very often, it didn’t even feel like his...

He often dreamt about all the things he’d do if he had courage to show a little more individualism, if he could stop following the suggestions and ideas of everyone around him.

He kept promising himself that one day, he’d be braver and take life into his own hands, but that wasn’t easy. He was a very passive merman, one who couldn’t force himself to do anything that he wasn’t required by others.

Deep down, he knew what kept him paralyzed: the fear of shirking his most important responsibilities, of failing his family’s expectations and losing their approval. It was much easier to give up on his dreams than to take risks, and now, he was about to give up on his last one—that of a happy relationship.

After graduating from college, his parents began pushing him to get married as soon as possible and even found him a couple of attractive candidates. However, Huang Yan was still in love with the beautiful mermaid princess from the Thai Pearl Empire. He hadn’t thought of her for several years, but everything changed after they’d met by accident two years earlier, in 2004.

Both were attending an international event, and this time, luck decided that they were seated one next to another. As a result, he could finally talk to her. She seemed truly happy to see him again, and he found her so, so kind and gentle.

After meeting her again that day, he had completely lost his head and become miserable when he realized that he wouldn’t see her again anytime soon.

This motivated him to go out of his way and attend every international event in the zone to maximize chances of seeing her once more… and then again. Even though his low self-esteem kept whispering to him that he probably had no chance with someone like her, he couldn’t help but try to exchange at least a couple of words with her every time they saw each other.

To his utter surprise, she seemed to like him; her face would always light up when she saw him, and at times, as he was speaking to other diplomats, he even caught her staring at him. Rather than look away bashfully, her smile would grow even wider, as if she wanted to make her presence known.