The Fantastical World
Chen Qingyang’s Fantasy Flash Fiction No. 1

1. The Mailbox Across Time

While strolling through the flea market along the Seine, a stall selling wall clocks caught my attention.

The owner was an elderly man with snow-white hair. Reclining sideways in a traditional Chinese armchair, he was quietly reading a thread-bound book by himself. The cover of the book was badly worn, and it looked like an ancient volume. He made no effort to attract customers. Every item on display had a tag indicating its year of manufacture and place of origin.

As I was examining a red-bronze wall clock, the old man put down his book, looked at me, and said in English,

“Young man, if Im not mistaken, youre a novelist in your own country.”

I froze for a moment before asking,

“Sir, how do you know what I do?”

The old man smiled mysteriously, stood up, and tapped his forehead with his index finger.

“I saw you a few days ago, busy signing books for your readers at a book-signing event.”

I thought to myself,

Could this old man possibly have clairvoyance?

“These clocks arent meant for you.”

Pointing to a classical bronze mailbox about the size of a mans embrace beside him, he continued,

“This mailbox is destined to be yours. It will help your wishes come true and enable you to fulfill your ambitions.”

“It can fulfill my ambitions?”

I repeated the sentence skeptically.

The old man stepped closer and asked softly,

“Yes. Dont you want to become a film director and turn your own stories into movies?”

“Yes... That really was my dream when I first graduated from school. But my novels have only sold moderately well. Over the years, the limited royalties Ive earned have barely been enough to support the basic living expenses of my family of five. How could I still indulge in such unrealistic dreams?”

The old man placed one hand on my shoulder.

“I know youve lived a difficult life. I know all about it. But your achievements shouldnt end here. So Ive decided to show you another path.”

My eyes reddened with emotion.

“Sir, Ill do as you say.”

“Take this mailbox home and hang it beside the window of your study. From now on, whenever you finish writing the outline of a new story, put it into an envelope and drop it into this mailbox. One week later, a reply will arrive inside it.”

“Sir, do you mean that some great master will guide my writing?”

“Exactly. Before long, youll become famous—a bestselling author. When that day comes, investors who appreciate your talent will naturally seek you out to make films. You may insist that you personally adapt your own novel into a screenplay and direct it yourself, thereby fulfilling your dream of becoming a film director.”

“Then... Sir, how many euros should I pay for this mailbox?”

“One hundred euros.”

“After youve fulfilled your dream and become a famous film director, you must bring it back here and return it to me.”

I took out my wallet from my shirt pocket, removed the only one-hundred-euro banknote I had, and respectfully handed it to the old man.

He accepted the note and gave me a ten-euro bill in change.

“Keep this. Youll need it for lunch later. I know thats the only one-hundred-euro note you have with you.”

Then he handed me a large leather carrying bag.

“This leather bag will make it easier for you to check the mailbox as luggage at the airport.”

I slung the bag over my shoulder.

The old man smiled and waved goodbye.

When I returned to Taoyuan Airport, my wife came to pick me up.

Seeing the large leather bag on my luggage cart, she pointed at it and asked,

“Whats in there?”

“A bronze mailbox. I bought it at the flea market along the Seine. Originally, I had intended to buy an antique wall clock.”

“How much did you spend?”

“Ninety euros, plus sixty euros for shipping.”

“Oh, you... You never hesitate when it comes to spending money...”

My wife continued grumbling until I had loaded all the luggage into the car.

After we got home, I hung the mailbox beside the window in my study.

My wife took two dresses and a French wool overcoat out of the suitcase. She must have looked at the price tags, because she immediately beamed with delight and happily went into the kitchen to prepare dinner.

That very night, I wrote a fantasy film outline in Chinese based on my encounter with the white-haired old man at the flea market along the Seine and my purchase of the mailbox.

After signing my name, I sealed it in an envelope and dropped it into the mailbox hanging beside the window.

The following morning, Mr. Cao, the owner of my publishing company, sent me a message on Line, asking me to write some fantasy or science fiction stories.

I agreed to send him the electronic version of my story outline through Line one week later.

Exactly one week later, at dusk, there really was a reply inside the mailbox.

It was an English letter.

I opened it.

Inside was a neatly bound English manuscript.

At the end of the manuscript was the signature:

J. R. R. Tolkien

Tolkien?

I was stunned.

Isnt he the British fantasy novelist who wrote The Lord of the Rings*?*

A thought flashed through my mind.

I hurriedly opened my laptop and searched Google for images of Tolkien.

“Good grief! Did I actually meet Tolkien himself?”

But the more I thought about it, the stranger it seemed.

“According to Wikipedia, Tolkien died in 1973. So how could he possibly have appeared at the flea market beside the Seine...?”

After checking the information, I began reading the English manuscript Tolkien had sent me.

I knew that Tolkien had revised my story outline.

What astonished and delighted me was the story itself.

It contained not only suspense but also profound human conflicts. One scene after another unfolded in twists and turns, fantastical yet brilliantly compelling.

I stayed up all night translating the English outline into Chinese.

After finishing the electronic file, I sent it to Mr. Cao through Line.

Then I drank a glass of fresh milk.

As dawn began to break, I went to bed, finally able to sleep peacefully.

2. Doll Xiaomei

Who would have thought that buying a batch of second-hand display mannequins would attract a ghost?

Was this simply the price I paid for trying to save money?

Yet, in the end, that lesson completely changed my life and left me exclaiming,

“Unbelievable!”

I had spent over a million dollars renovating my womens clothing boutique.

Since I needed to reserve my remaining funds for purchasing merchandise, I accepted the suggestion of my capable assistant, Amei, and bought a batch of display mannequins from a second-hand market. They were still in seventy to eighty percent new condition.

To build momentum for the grand opening, the boutique launched a promotional campaign on its very first day.

All fashionable womens clothing was offered at 20% off, and customers who spent over NT$1,000 received an additional 10% discount.

2. Doll Xiaomei (continued)

My main responsibilities were purchasing inventory and balancing the accounts at the end of each day. The sales floor and clothing alterations were left to Amei and Ayu.

Only a few days after the grand opening, the two women reported the same strange occurrence to me one after another.

There was an Oriental-looking display mannequin. One day she was clearly dressed in Outfit A, yet when the shop opened the next morning, she had somehow changed into Outfit B. Sometimes she had even exchanged clothes with another mannequin.

Amei went so far as to vividly describe one incident. While she was dressing the mannequin they had nicknamed "Xiaomei" in a new outfit, she felt that the mannequins eyeballs actually moved, and that her eyebrows and cheeks twitched ever so slightly. It left her feeling that the mannequin was "creepy."

At first, I dismissed it as their imagination and tried to reassure them.

A few days later, unable to resist Ameis repeated requests, I hired some workers to install surveillance cameras—one at the front entrance and another above the checkout counter.

The very next morning, Amei reported that "Xiaomei" had changed into yet another outfit.

The three of us decided to review the security footage together.

Sure enough, not long after the shop had closed, "Xiaomei" actually began to move.

She carried herself like a stylish office lady.

First, she slowly inspected the clothes on every mannequin in the shop.

Then she stopped in front of one mannequin, reached out to feel the fabric, straightened the collar, and examined the outfit carefully. Her mannerisms were almost identical to those of female customers browsing in the store.

Apparently satisfied with the outfit, Xiaomei stepped closer, reached out with both hands, unbuttoned the clothes on that mannequin, and deftly stripped them off.

Holding the outfit in her hands, she walked over to the full-length mirror and held the dress against herself, striking different poses before the mirror.

Next, Xiaomei carried the outfit into the fitting room.

A few minutes later, she emerged wearing the dress, carrying the clothes she had originally been dressed in.

She walked back to the mannequin she had undressed, put her own original outfit onto it, returned to the place where she had originally been standing, and resumed exactly the same pose.

Watching the recording, the three of us simultaneously wore the exact same stunned expression.

“Boss, weve really run into a ghost! Do you think we should call the police?” Ayu was the first to speak.

“The police?” I forced a bitter smile.

“The police dont catch ghosts...”

Amei said,

“Maybe we should find a Taoist priest. Isnt that how it always goes in the movies?”

I made a prompt decision and lowered my voice.

“Theres no need to go through all that trouble. After we close tonight, Ill load her into the back of my truck, drive to the bridge, and throw her straight into the Tamsui River.”

At nine oclock that evening, Amei and Ayu finished tidying up the shop and left together.

I pulled the rolling steel door down until only about half a foot remained open.

I was the only person left in the store, sitting behind the counter balancing the days receipts.

Just then, I heard footsteps approaching me.

I looked up.

The mannequin, Xiaomei, was standing less than two meters away.

She calmly sat down in the chair opposite me, glaring at me with an unhappy expression.

Had I not served my military duty on Kinmen, where our unit had been stationed beside Taiwu Cemetery, and developed nerves of steel, anyone else would probably have been scared out of their wits.

I leaned back slightly in my chair, pointed a ballpoint pen at her, and forced myself to remain calm.

“Ive never wronged you, and weve never had any grievance against each other. Why have you come to me?”

Xiaomei swiftly reached out, snatched the pen from my hand, and wrote a line in the sales ledger on the desk:

I have an unresolved grievance. I want to ask you to help me return to the world of the living.

Her handwriting was graceful and elegant.

It didnt look like the handwriting of a nightclub hostess. Instead, it resembled that of a well-educated young woman.

From then on, we communicated entirely in writing.

I asked the questions, and Xiaomei wrote her answers on paper.

She told me that her soul had left her body in a deliberately staged car accident. Her body had become trapped in a vegetative state, while her spirit had attached itself to a mannequin in a nearby second-hand mannequin shop.

It took only a short while before we reached an agreement.

Afterward, in accordance with our arrangement, I let her sit in the front passenger seat and drove her to the gate of a large mansion on Yangde Boulevard in Yangmingshan.

She opened the car door by herself.

Then an astonishing scene unfolded before my eyes.

Xiaomei simply walked straight through the iron gate.

The next instant, she vanished.

But I still remembered her silhouette... and the dress she was wearing.

Although I was astonished, I also felt an immense sense of relief from that day onward.

After that, the bizarre incidents of "the mannequin changing clothes by herself" never happened again in my boutique.

Before long, more and more wealthy young ladies and affluent society women began shopping at my store.

These elegantly dressed women possessed tremendous purchasing power.

They often arrived in groups of three or five, and each of them would casually buy three or five outfits without batting an eye.

Half a year later, a graceful young woman wearing light makeup walked into my boutique.

The long dress she was wearing immediately caught my attention.

Its style and color were exactly the same as the outfit Xiaomei had been wearing when she disappeared.

As she browsed through the clothing racks, her back was turned toward me.

An instinctive thought flashed through my mind.

Xiaomei... its really you. Youve come back.

A moment later, she walked up to me and gave me a deep bow.

Then she smiled sweetly and said,

“My benefactor, Xiaomei has come back to repay your kindness.”

As for what happened next...

I dont need to tell you.

Ill leave that to the readers imagination.

As for me, I won the beautys heart. Like a crow transformed into a magpie, my fortunes changed completely, and I leaped into becoming the son-in-law of the chairman of a publicly listed company.

III.〈The Meteor Man〉

What is the probability of a person being struck by lightning in a lifetime? One in 1.9 million.

Then, what would be the probability of being hit by a meteor?

“Those who survive a great disaster will surely have good fortune afterward.”

Is that really true?

In the past, whenever bird droppings landed on my head, or I stepped on human feces on the ground, I would buy a lottery ticket to drive away my bad luck.

You can laugh at me for being superstitious, but actually, many people around me react in exactly the same way!

Ever since I was struck by a meteor and woke up from unconsciousness, I gradually discovered that my body had developed some “special abilities.”

For example, X-ray vision, the ability to hear other people’s thoughts, the ability to activate electrical appliances by holding onto electric wires with my hands, and the ability to foresee the future.

However, my life fell into a terrifying nightmare.

Many things in my daily life began to change.

Every day, when I left my rented apartment, I started seeing many things I should never have seen.

For example, female coworkers walking toward me without wearing underwear.

I also heard many things I should never have known.

For example, the boss’s female secretary silently cursing in her mind that the boss was a crocodile without tears.

I did not dare reveal these special abilities to anyone around me, because I did not want them to regard me as a “freak.”

I decided to break up with my girlfriend of two years.

She was a woman who planned everything in advance and lived an extremely organized life.

I foresaw my future after marrying her.

She would turn me into a money-printing machine that never malfunctioned.

Using both soft and hard tactics, she would force me to climb higher in my career, earn more money, and become a successful man.

Then my treatment would be almost the same as that of the shepherd dog Leishie raised by my family.

My daily living allowance would be only ten dollars, and the only property under my name would be the used heavy motorcycle I was currently riding.

How could I possibly “lift a rock and smash my own feet”?

Therefore, I first lied to her that I suffered from infertility.

But she said it did not matter. After marriage, if necessary, we could adopt children.

Since that plan failed, I lied again and told her that I had a hereditary case of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

She knew my father was an ALS patient, but she did not know that I had been adopted.

This plan indeed struck the fatal point.

She asked me to give her one month to “think it over.”

She disappeared for exactly one month and one day.

When I thought I had finally escaped from her, she appeared again in the lobby of my company.

She told me that she had thought it through, and she was willing to take all her savings from her bank account and accompany me to Europe and America to search for famous doctors.

This plan failed again.

So I hardened my heart.

I secretly resigned from my job, left Taipei, went to Shanghai, changed my name, and hid myself.

After arriving in unfamiliar Shanghai, I applied for a job as a casino dealer.

This job suited me perfectly.

Those gamblers who knew how to count cards were all defeated by me.

Of course, I was merely making good use of my X-ray vision and mind-reading ability.

The casino owner gave me an imposing nickname:

“The One Who Takes Everything.”

He treasured me like a precious possession.

But no one can stay lucky forever.

By accident, I overheard two big-shot gangsters who were gamblers plotting together to kidnap me.

They wanted to force me to reveal the truth, explain clearly my gambling skills and my background.

If I refused to tell them everything, they would kill me.

Therefore, carrying a handbag full of cash, I fled Shanghai overnight and returned to Taipei.

Immediately afterward, I found a plastic surgery clinic and had myself:

“completely transformed and started life anew.”

With a large amount of cash in hand, I wanted to find a place where I could leisurely enjoy life.

So I went to Taitung, bought several hectares of hillside land, built several wooden cabins, and started running a bed-and-breakfast business.

Every day, I lived a peaceful rural life of farming at sunrise and studying at sunset.

I tried my best not to use my special abilities anymore.

Gradually, I forgot that I was an “outsider.”

But one night, my employee, an Amis woman named Qiuping, said something strange.

That evening, when I had just returned from town, she told me she saw a blue light glowing around my body.

I looked like a firefly walking out from the end of a small alley.

At first, she thought she had “seen a ghost.”

I repeatedly warned her not to tell anyone about my body glowing.

To seal her lips, I decided to marry her.

Because I had seen the future.

The future Qiuping was indeed an “extremely tough and capable” wife of a business owner.

IV.〈Bungee Jumping〉

Unable to resist my roommate’s repeated persuasion, coaxing, and pressure, I finally agreed to accompany him during the long holiday to experience bungee jumping.

Riding our heavy motorcycles, the two of us arrived at the site located upstream of a river.

It was an arch-shaped iron bridge hanging high above a deep valley.

The owner was a foreigner with golden hair and blue eyes, a typical muscular man.

His assistant had deep facial features, and judging from his accent, he was probably an Indigenous person.

Both men were big and strong, moving skillfully and working together with excellent coordination.

Watching the thrill-seekers in front of us jump into the deep valley, some screamed at the top of their lungs, while others closed their eyes and pretended to remain calm.

Seeing all kinds of exciting and amusing reactions, I felt these people were clearly paying money to torture themselves.

My roommate was ahead of me in line.

When he jumped, he spread his arms and legs like a Formosan flying squirrel.

He bounced up and down several times between the deep valley.

In less than three minutes, he had burned three thousand-dollar bills.

I suddenly felt a little heartbroken.

Those three thousand-dollar bills were enough for me to enjoy delicious hot pot meals for lunch and dinner for ten consecutive days.

When my turn came, I personally put on the chest harness, waist belt, and groin safety strap, skillfully wrapping them around my body and fastening the buckles.

The Indigenous coach asked curiously:

“Have you jumped before?”

I nodded with a smile and was too lazy to give further explanation.

The coach reminded me:

“You can hug a pillow to relieve your nervousness.”

I thought to myself:

“XD, you really underestimate me. When I served in the military, I was in a special forces unit. I received parachuting and mountain training. This little scene is nothing but a piece of cake.”

I jumped headfirst, feet upward.

Like a dolphin opening its eyes, I watched the riverbed rapidly rush toward me.

In an instant, everything before my eyes turned completely black.

The wind behind my ears suddenly became completely silent.

I was feeling puzzled.

A few seconds later, an alarm clock suddenly rang beside my ears.

“Huh? Am I sleeping?”

I turned over and sat up.

Looking around the room, judging from the delicate decorations, this should be a girl’s bedroom.

More than ten empty beer cans were scattered across the floor.

I muttered to myself:

“How did I come back here?

Wasn’t I just doing bungee jumping?

Where am I?”

Then the bathroom door opened.

A big girl walked out.

Her lower body was wrapped in a towel, and another towel was wrapped around her head.

I stared at her in shock.

The girl had a pair of large, bun-shaped breasts and walked toward me.

“Xiaoli, you’re awake!

I told you, just dump your boyfriend.

There are plenty of other good men in the world!”

“Xiaoli? I’m Xiaoli?”

I immediately realized:

“Now things have gotten serious.”

I lowered my head and looked.

Inside my pajamas, I actually had a pair of breasts.

And they were even papaya-shaped.

“Who is Xiaoli?”

I gathered up my courage and asked:

“Who is Xiaoli? And who are you?”

“What? Is this some kind of post-breakup trauma syndrome? Don’t try that trick on me! Here, this is today’s newspaper. You’ve been sleeping for more than half a day. It’s almost noon already.”

The girl picked up a newspaper from the desk and handed it to me.

“After you finish reading the newspaper, remember to wait for me at the restaurant. We’ll eat together.”

The girl turned around, walked to the wardrobe beside the bed, removed her towel, and with her back facing me, put on her bra and underwear.

“Do not look at what you should not see.”

I shifted my eyes back to the newspaper.

A headline and picture on the front page immediately terrified me:

“Extreme Joy Turns into Tragedy: Accident During Bungee Jumping, Male Graduate Student Dies in Dahan River Valley.”

I slapped my forehead several times.

For a moment, I could not figure out what was happening.

How did I end up here, with a completely unfamiliar identity?

At that moment, the phone rang.

I picked it up and answered.

“Sir, I’m sorry. Your time has not come yet. I mistakenly hooked the wrong person.”

V.〈Love Letter from the Sea〉

After retiring from university, I came alone to the seaside of Taimali, Taitung, rented a house, and settled there.

With beautiful mountains and clear waters, along with a retirement pension sufficient for my needs, every day I wandered along the beach barefoot, chasing waves.

I lay on the warm, soft sand, watching clouds and listening to the wind.

I walked along the hills, surrounded by fields of golden needle flowers and lilies, experiencing the fragrance of flowers carried by the salty sea breeze.

With a slow pace of life and a peaceful state of mind, I enjoyed the setting sun of my retirement years.

One day, I had just returned from a walk on the beach.

At the mailbox in front of my house hung half of an envelope.

I pulled it out.

The elegant handwriting looked strangely familiar.

I took out the letter paper and a photograph.

It was a photograph of me and Xiufeng on a cruise ship during the year we graduated from high school.

The letter was brief.

It said that one week later, when the Lotus Cruise docked at Hualien Harbor, I could go to the pier and meet her.

I looked at the date written at the bottom of the letter.

The cruise ship docking at Hualien Harbor—

Wasn’t that tomorrow?

After returning inside the house, I found the suit I had worn thirty years ago.

I rode my black Ducati into town, sent the suit to a laundry shop for dry cleaning, and then went to a barbershop for a haircut and grooming.

Early the next morning, I drove my sedan to Hualien Harbor.

After walking for more than ten minutes, I arrived at the pier.

Sure enough, a cruise ship was docked there.

Passengers were walking toward the escalator one after another.

Fifteen minutes later, a stylish, graceful mature woman walked toward me, pulling a suitcase.

As her facial features gradually became clearer, I froze.

Wasn’t she Chen Xiufeng from thirty years ago?

The woman held a photograph and came in front of me.

“Excuse me, are you Chen Qu Fei?”

“Yes, I am Chen Qu Fei. You are…”

I examined her facial features carefully.

It felt as if I had crossed through another lifetime.

“Before my mother passed away, she instructed me to find you.”

“Your mother? Passed away? Are you Xiufeng’s daughter?”

“Yes. My name is Chen Nian Fei. My mother and I lived in Kyoto, Japan for many years. She passed away just last month.”

“Chen Nian Fei? Your facial features are almost exactly the same as Xiufeng’s from back then.”

“In order for you to recognize her, she copied herself and gave birth to me.”

“Copied? You mean…”

I became completely confused by this girl.

“Twenty-five years ago, my mother gave birth to me through asexual reproduction. She never married. She once said that in this lifetime, apart from you, she would never be with another man.”

The girl’s calm words shook me as violently as a meteor striking the earth.

“Why did she do this? You two…”

I whispered.

“My mother asked me to come here and accompany you in her place.”

“How did she know I was living in seclusion by the seaside of Taimali, Taitung?”

“Intuition, I suppose. My mother told me that back then, she broke up with you on the beach in Taimali.”

The girl followed me to the parking lot and sat in my sedan.

The car drove toward downtown Hualien.

I wanted to show her my hospitality as a local host.

“The mountains and ocean scenery here are exactly like what my mother described in her diary—a paradise untouched by worldly struggles.”

Nian Fei looked completely relaxed and continued:

“To live in such a poetic and picturesque place for the rest of my life… I must thank my mother for arranging this.”

“No way. I’m already an old man in my sixties. You should return to Japan.”

“I have already handled my mother’s properties in Kyoto. I came here to help you fulfill your dream.”

The girl spoke casually, but I was completely confused.

“Fulfill my dream? At this stage of my life, what dreams could I possibly have?”

“Your dream of making movies!

Your more than one hundred movie scripts, and every script story you posted online, were carefully read by my mother while she was alive.

My mother instructed me to dispose of her properties and bring the funds to find you.”

“But with my physical strength, how many movies can I still make?”

“You don’t need to worry about that.”

The girl took a metal container from her handbag and said:

“From now on, take one pill every month. Your body functions and appearance will remain exactly as they are now.”

I asked curiously:

“How amazing. Where did this pill come from?”

The girl slowly explained:

“After my mother left you and came to Japan, she studied medicine at Kyoto University. After graduation, she stayed in the research department and devoted herself to biochemical technology research and development.

This pill was the starting point of her fortune.

After continuous improvements, the effects finally became completely stable before she passed away last year.”

“I see.

Your mother was already a genius in science back then.

Unfortunately, I had elderly parents to care for and could not leave Taiwan.”

As I spoke, my thoughts returned to thirty years ago.

Xiufeng had invited me to study in Japan with her, marry, and build a family.

I would study art.

She would devote herself to medicine.

But at that time, I could not leave.

All I could do was sadly break up with her…

The sedan returned to Taimali.

After settling her luggage, Nian Fei picked up a backpack and asked me to accompany her to the beach.

When we arrived at the beach,

the sea breeze gently blew her long hair.

She took out a yellow jade urn from the backpack.

I knew it was an urn containing ashes.

The girl walked into the seawater.

The water reached her knees.

She opened the urn and scattered the ashes into the waves.

She seemed to whisper some words.

Fifteen minutes later, Nian Fei turned around and walked back.

A blush rose on her face.

With shy determination, she said:

“From today onward, we are husband and wife.”

She reached out her hand and held mine.

“My mother said that you would cherish me with the same love you had for her.”

I looked at her serious face.

A knowing smile appeared on my face.

VI.〈The Magic Paintbrush〉

In the gazebo of a small park on a street corner, there was a little stall.

An easel, a wooden box, two wooden stools, and a folding lounge chair—

These were the only belongings of Tang Ge, a middle-aged portrait artist.

His business was slow, not because his painting skills were poor, but because he was a man with too much personality.

He would only pick up his brush for customers whom he found pleasing to the eye.

Moreover, he had another unpleasant rule:

He would never accept a customer he had painted before.

On this particular day, heavy rain poured down.

Throughout the entire morning, not a single customer came to ask him for a portrait.

He quietly sat there reading the Bible.

At noon, an old homeless man dressed in ragged clothes arrived.

A dirty canvas bag hung from his chest.

Soaked from the rain, he sat down on the wooden stool and stared eagerly at the French baguette in Tang Ge’s hand.

Tang Ge tore the bread into two pieces.

He handed the longer piece to the old man, along with half a bottle of mineral water that he had already drunk from.

Amid the curtain of rain, the old man did not hesitate.

He took big bites of the bread and drank the water.

Soon, he finished the bread, burped, and immediately pulled a wooden pencil box out of his canvas bag.

“Your name is Tang, right?”

“Yes, elder brother.”

Tang Ge was still chewing the bread in his mouth.

“Do you know why I came to find you?”

Tang Ge shook his head.

“Like you, I used to be a street portrait artist. Right now, I am looking for my successor.”

“So you are a senior in the same profession. But why did you choose me?”

“You are my shadow. Your personality is exactly like mine.”

“Like yours? Stubborn and bad-tempered?”

Tang Ge gave a bitter smile.

“That’s right.”

The old man held out the wooden box.

“This wooden box will be passed on to you. From now on, you are my successor.”

The old man placed the wooden box into Tang Ge’s hands.

“Inside the box are a pair of paintbrushes. One is a black ink brush, and the other is a colored brush. Open it and take a look.”

“Senior, what do you want me to do for you?”

Tang Ge opened the wooden box.

Sure enough, there was a pair of brushes inside.

The old man said seriously:

“Take these two brushes and use them to do the right things.

The black brush is used for erasing.

The colored brush is used for creating.

The only restriction is that you must never use them to harm others for your own benefit.”

“I understand!

When will you come back, senior?”

“You should call me Master now.

I will not come back.

Now take out the black brush from the box and erase my image.”

“Ma… Master, but I cannot do that!

That would be ungrateful…”

“Listen to me.

Pick up the brush and erase me.

Let me return to Heaven and report back.

Then go wait at the bank across the street.

Soon, a group of criminals carrying knives and guns will rush in and rob it.”

“Return to Heaven and report back?

Master, you… you really are a god… an immortal.”

The old man smiled and nodded.

“Pick up the black brush and erase me.”

Tang Ge picked up the black brush.

He waved it in the air and drew several strokes.

The old man’s image gradually disappeared.

At that moment, the heavy rain suddenly stopped.

Tang Ge knew that his Master wanted him to begin his new mission.

He packed up his belongings and headed toward the bank across the street.

Not long afterward, a group of criminals wearing masks got out of a sedan.

They carried various firearms and rushed aggressively into the bank.

They immediately fired shots at the ceiling and shouted orders, demanding that everyone inside remain still.

At that moment, Tang Ge, who had been sitting in a corner reading the newspaper, calmly reached into his coat pocket and took out the two paintbrushes.

First, he used the black brush to erase the weapons from the criminals’ hands.

Facing this sudden change, every criminal stood frozen in shock, their mouths hanging open.

Tang Ge then used the colored brush to draw handcuffs around their wrists and shackles around their ankles.

One after another, the criminals fell helplessly to the ground.

Afterword

This short story was originally published in “Cong Rong Literature” Quarterly, Issue No. 42, July 2025.