Chapter 13: Shibao Pavilion

Shibao Ge, also known as the famous Shibao Pavilion located in the southwest of the capital city, was not just another a tourist attraction of ancient architecture, history and gardens.

Founded in the early years of the Qing dynasty, it was one of the oldest existing libraries in the country. The library was initially a private collection of prized rare books belonging to Shi Minzhong, an imperial historian. Over the centuries, the private collection was inherited and carefully maintained by the descendants of this official. Unfortunately, during the Opium Wars and after the fall of the Qing dynasty, the precious collection of antique books were taken and stolen by invading foreign forces and local thieves. It was only in the last few decades that many antique books were recovered from the black market, private auctions and donations from private collectors. Currently, it housed a collection of about 40,000 antique books and had been established by the local government as a national heritage site. The private library was also transformed into a museum and research library in collaboration with multiple universities. It was a widely known fact that the Shibao Pavilion also housed the ancestral home of the Shi family, which boasted a long line of ancestors who were historians of the imperial court. Nothing much was known about the family members of the present generations except that they were the owners, curators and caretakers of the Shibao Pavilion that we were familiar with today. While most people were only familiar with the building and names of people who had long turned into dust, they did not know that the Shi family had been hiding a secret for more than a century. They were the leader of a secret and mysterious organisation known as the Association of Private Libraries.

The Association of Private Libraries, simply known as "the Library Association" or "the Association" by its scattered members today, was founded in the 1700s as a society of bibliophiles who shared a hobby of collecting books. It adopted a new identity and agenda in the days of the dwindling influence of the Qing dynasty in order to combat the rising occurrences of antique books theft and to recover lost books circulating around foreign hands. As it was established by the Shi family—who had relations with the imperial family—the position of the leader was naturally inherited by the family's descendants. Today, the person at the helm of the Association was none other than Shi Ruijie, the only male direct descendant of Shi Minzhong among the younger generation of the Shi clan.

As an association, it was a given that there were members. However, membership was exclusive. There were only seven other private libraries that were a part of this organisation, and they were all at least a century old. I was not told the names of the member libraries, but Li Qin said that they had all been transformed into museums, companies or other forms of entities in different parts of the country today. For example, Ji Kai's family had incorporated their family's private library into the publishing company that they operated today. Similarly, Li Qin's family had a portfolio of numerous businesses, one of which was a franchise of bookstores with both physical and online presence. With a large extended family all over the country, they had their private library collection divided and stored in different bookstores. After all, who in the right mind would rob an ordinary bookstore?

However, despite being an association, the skill of traversing the millions of universes in books was a secret shared only by the Ji, Shi and Li clan. During the lunch meeting last week, I learnt that Ji Kai's ancestors had defied the law of physics and discovered a way to bend space and time hundreds of years ago and it was only in the last century that the skill was taught to the elite members of the Shi and Li families as disciples of Wanshu Lou.

Due to the pandemic, there were few visitors at Shibao Pavilion this year even though it was Golden Week. The management of the museum had launched free virtual tours on social media, revealing some of the secluded buildings and tranquil gardens that had never been accessible by tourists before. Bibliophiles and the general public alike had tuned into the live streams but a virtual tour could only satisfy one's eyes but not one's heart.

The main entrance of Shibao Pavilion had a copper green tiled hanging hill roof with vermilion pillars and tall doors that opened into a traditional courtyard with certain modern day features such as national flag being flown on a flagpole, a ticketing counter, signages and a large map of Shibao Pavilion's layout. The buildings housing the museum, research centre and the Shi family's ancestral hall were located in the south and the gardens were mainly in the north of the compound. What was unique about Shibao Pavilion was that in the middle of the cluster two-storeyed pavilions, a large pond was built. It was one of those ancient libraries that had architectural features to protect the buildings and books from fire-damage. The wooden walls were specially constructed and reinforced with non-combustible materials and stone walls were used to create partitions between adjacent buildings. In case of fire, it would only raze one building as the stone partitions would prevent the fire from spreading further.

It was only after I was asked to show my green health code and had my temperature taken that I was allowed entry into the compound. A few local tourists lurked around the front yard, snapping photographs and shooting videos. Smiling to myself, I headed towards the main building. Stepping across the threshold, my heart skipped a beat at the thought that there was no more chance of turning back.

"Welcome to Shibao Pavilion! May I see your ticket or e-ticket?" An employee greeted me warmly. Her cheerful tone made up for the unseen smile that hidden behind a mask.

"Hello." I looked about flustered and jumpy, my hands fumbling to unlock my phone to access my e-ticket. When I had unlocked it after numerous incorrect inputs, I realised that I had no ticket to show in the first place.

The sudden transition from the bright outdoors lighting to the dim inside of the building was disorientating.

"Hold on, sorry. I don't have a ticket." I laughed nervously but I quickly put on a confident front. "I have an appointment with Ms Li Qin. My name is Fang Yuhan."

"Alright, kindly hold on for a moment." The museum employee turned to the side and lifted up a clipboard with a piece of paper. Her eyes scanned through the list of names before swinging open the side gate to let me through. "Please come this way."

I thought that we would have to walk a distance and navigate through corridors, passageways and courtyards before reaching the destination, but surprisingly I was only brought to the adjacent storied pavilion. As compared to the other buildings, the one that stood before me appeared slightly less well-maintained and had many modern characteristics. Air conditioner compressors surrounded by potted plants decorated the front of the greyish building covered with foliage. Looking through the glass windows, I could see office furniture, computers and ordinary office workers. However, there was still a lingering dignified charm of an influential family's ancestral residence. 

The employee tapped her corporate pass onto a sensor at the side of the entrance and graciously held open the door for me. Thanking her, I walked in first and waited for her to enter after me. She handed me off to another employee working at one of the desks in the large hall, who led me to a room on the second storey.

The second employee knocked on the door. "Mr Shi, your guest is here."

I was expecting to hear a 'come in' or for the employee to simply turn the knob but the door suddenly swung opened.

"You're here!" Li Qin appeared at the door with a dazzling smile, dressed in her usual fashionable clothes. "Come on in and we can start the briefing."

***

Stifling a yawn, I tuned my ears intently to Li Qin's explanation of the tasks that we had to complete in a very special book, The Eighth Verse, written by an early 19th century author named Lin Jiahe. That was only a pen name and his real name something that had not been publicly revealed. However, of course the Association members knew his real name—otherwise they wouldn't be living up to their bibliophilic reputations. It appeared that he was a rather celebrated young author who gradually faded out of the public's eye, so much so that his most recent piece of work was never published and the draft even had some missing pages.

The task for the Association this time was to enter the book and live through the whole story to find out the events that took place on those missing pages. The elders of the Association were planning to fill up those gaps before publishing the book on the late-author's estate's behalf.

"Yuhan looks really worried," Ruijie suddenly remarked during the Q&A segment, causing all the heads in the room to turn towards me. After successfully making me the centre of attention, he leaned back into the sofa with a laidback smile. "But I'm sure that you have already done your homework and have prepared well. You won't go wrong if you followed what I said."

My face grew warm as my eyes swept across the many unfamiliar faces of strangers who were peering at me curiously. They were probably just as curious about me as I was about their identities. At the lunch meeting with Li Qin and Ruijie last week, I was only asked if I could assist their Association to traverse a very special book and make notes about the daily activities of the fictional characters. I only knew that Ruijie was going to accompany me on this mission, not that four, no—five—or maybe six other people would be coming along! From their introduction at the start of the meeting, I had only retained two of their names.

"Ruirui, you sound as if you have a lot of experience gadding about multiple book realms. But honestly, you look worried as well," the young man opposite Ruijie jested, inviting chuckles from around the room.

A small smile broke out on my face and I felt the tension in my facial muscles lightened.

"Ge, even though I haven't had much opportunities to enter into the books, I think that I've still done so many more times than you have," Ruijie protested while fiddling with his bottle, his voice gradually losing its strength. "I said that with all due respect."

"Well, that's because I've been really busy with work—and I have even fewer opportunities than you."

"Tang xiong, don't bully Gao Shuai-ge." Another member in the room quickly rejoined with a scoff. "All of us can't be compared to Xuyang-ge and Ji Kai-gege."

My eyes narrowed upon hearing Ji Kai's name being paired with "gege", with the words dubbed by a sweet sounding voice. Oh, right. She's Ruijie's younger cousin, Shi Ruimin. And the person who had teased Ruijie was Gao Shuai, one of the forgotten names.

If that person's name was not mentioned, it would have been added to the list as well.

"Speaking of Ji Kai, is he really not joining us this time?" Gao Shui asked and looked about the room. His glance at me had lingered for about a second longer than with others.

I wrapped my hands around the neck of my mineral water bottle and simply smiled.

"I saw on Shuzhen's Moments that they are currently on a road trip," answered Li Yan, Li Qin's younger cousin. Noticing a scowl forming on Ruimin's face, she hurriedly elaborated, "with a group of friends. So I don't think Ji Kai and Shuzhen are joining us. From the younger members of the Association, there are only us on this matter today."

Shuzhen? That Yan Shuzhen from high school, class 3D? She was also a member of the Association? No wonder Ji Kai always had a friendly relationship with her during our old school days. I didn't keep tabs on her after we had graduated so I didn't know her future life plans. It seemed like her life plans apparently involved Ji Kai—she even went overseas with him.

"I need to see the post for myself. Did she post a picture or was it just a status update?" Ruimin reached for her phone but withdrew her hand when Li Qin loudly cleared her throat.

"If all of you have no questions, we must set off soon. You can save your gossip sessions for next time." Li Qin shut her laptop and stood up. "Ruijie and Yuhan, stay back for a moment. The rest of you, follow Xuyang to get changed and get your hairdo done. Make sure you listen to his instructions and behave yourselves when you enter the book!"

The other members of the Association slowly filtered out of the room along with their belongings and constant quipping. I stared after them, wondering why we had to be separated into two groups and where they were heading to.

How would entering the book work this time? Until today, I had not yet found the answer as to this mystery of traversing book realms or even transmigration.

"We aren't going together with them?"

Li Qin looked at me with an indulgent smile. "Xuyang will take them into the book first. You and Ruijie will go after. If you have any questions or comments for us that you did not raise earlier, you can ask now. "

I shook my head. There were so many emotions coursing through me at the moment that I felt too fatigued to speak. My heart trembled at the thought of having to go through the entire ordeal of a fantasy and supernatural experience again. At least this time I wasn't going to be alone.

"Alright, if you don't have any questions then we'll set off in about half an hour." She glanced down at her watch and continued, "just remember, safety first. I'm not sure what your experience was at Wanshu Lou, but I believe it may be quite different this time, so if you encounter any difficulties later, do ask Ruijie for help."

"It will be different?" I echoed. When Li Qin explained the mission, I was under the impression that things were going to be similar except that the mechanism to enter and exit the book would be different. After all, how different would things be if in both cases you have meddlesome people traversing into fictional worlds and wrecking havoc?

"Actually, we're also not very sure." Ruijie shrugged his shoulders and crossed his arms. "We only know that the rules that we have programmed into our system are different from what they have at Wanshu Lou. Unlike our Shibao Ge, Wanshu Lou itself doesn't even exist in the real world, unlike our Shibao Ge. In fact, none of us have visited Wanshu Lou before because our surnames are not 'Ji'. Throughout history, only the Ji family had possession of this skill—it was only shared with outsiders when the Association was formed and the members became disciples in Wanshu Lou. The Association wasn't meant to be a society of people where people enter books as a hobby."

Nodding, Li Qin added: "I've only told you about the present day Association of Private Libraries but not about its much earlier history. My family's private library collection used to contain mostly poetry, philosophy and educational books—typical of a literary family. Shibao Ge, as you know, is famous for its collection of historical archives and chronicles. And the Ji family collects fiction books." She paused and look at me to see if I was following her explanation. I hummed softly to acknowledge as the listener.

"Since we only acquired the skill of entering books in the past century or so, the technology that we have is more developed and advanced, and it's also more straightforward." She resumed after the waiting silence. "Later, all you have to do is walk through a door and you'll reach your destination!"

"It's that simple," Ruijie beamed proudly.

If it was so simple, then why didn't you utilise it more?

I looked at him uncertainly but kept my smile politely plastered on my face. Rather than waste my time to continue the conversation, I'd prefer to use the time to mentally revise the instructions.

The Association had sent groups of people into the book in the past few months to act as scouts and make preparations for us, the Travellers, to enter. After going through the door, Ruijie and I should find ourselves in a house which the Association had prepared for us. We had to quickly settle down and get into character while awaiting for events to occur according to the point. The character that I was going to be shadowing would arrive at the house when—

"Ok, both of you can get changed and get your hair styled now," Li Qin announced soon after receiving a message notification on her phone. "Bring your belongings and check to make sure you don't leave anything behind."

I almost leapt to my feet but then I recalled my identity. The role that I was going to play in the book was pretty much a maidservant. Once again, there was no chance to wear the beautifully designed and embroidered dresses or have an elegantly elaborated hairstyle.

***

Author's Notes:

To recap, here is a summary of the different characters and places that were mentioned:

Characters —

Fang Yuhan - our protagonist

Li Qin - a member of the Association; from the Li family clan

Shi Ruijie - a member of the Association and also the President of the Association; from the Shi family clan

Shi Ruimin - Ruijie's younger female cousin; a member of the Association; from the Shi family clan

Gao Shuai - a member of the Association; from the Gao family clan

Li Yan - Li Qin's younger female cousin; a member of the Association; from the Li family clan

Li Xuyang - Li Qin's male cousin; a member of the Association; from the Li family clan

Yan Shuzhen - a member of the Association; from the Yan family clan

Ji Kai - a member of the Association; from the Ji family clan; Yuhan's ex-classmate from high school

Places —

Shibao Pavilion / Shibao Ge - a museum which also houses the Shi family clan's ancestral home

Wanshu Tower / Wanshu Lou - the library that Ji Kai's family owns which Yuhan visited five years ago