i just put four snail mails into the mailbox. they are for daynah (since she couldn’t get my other one), Kozzi, Athena and Leah =) now just wait patiently for the cuties to show up.

i gave them pictures of me and andy. there’s a new surprise picture that’s actually NOT in here!! curious?

we did a bit of moving around today. i got the book shelf from holding junks to actually hold books. hehe.. we got it filled fast. i can’t believe i actually have a total of 16 of my favorite author‘s books. cool.. now i can read them all over again 😉 actually i’ve been reading the book about her trip back to beijing in 1988. she gave insights about this Zhang Bao Sheng person who could do the impossible. her real personal experience with him went like this:

*please excuse my translation*

my sister-in-law’s friend Yang Jie had tried to invite the “Magic” Zhang over many times but he could never seem to keep his promise. many people have already given me insights about his “magic”. he could burn things with his fires and make the cars on the street stop. one time, a man didn’t believe what he did in front of his viewers, he put a coin inside of that man’s stomach. when the man went to the hospital and saw the coin through x-ray, he was terrified. the man went back to Zhang begged Zhang to get the coin out of his stomach. And Zhang did it without much difficulty.

The most interesting part was no one could tell exactly how he did his “magic”. It could be no magic at all. Never was there an explanation. He was protected by the government as a national treasure. In China, in 1988, owning a personal car was rare enough. “Magic” Zhang didn’t just have a personal car, he owned a police car. If he had to go somewhere fast, he could put on the lights and enjoy many unbelievable privileges.

When Zhang finally showed up at my door step, there were already a group of people waiting for his appearance. The only reason he came was because his wife loved my books. I prepared signed books for his wife. He walked in the room and sat on the chair and looked ernest. As a general, he demanded Yang Jie

“Take off your clothes!”

I’ve never seen Yang Jie as worried and uncomfortable as the way she was. She couldn’t decide what to do and looked around for help. Finally my husband went to his room and took one of his brand new white shirts and said to Zhang

“Just use mine. It’s brand new.”

“Magic” Zhang wasn’t very happy but he took the white shirt and held in his hand. Immediately, smoke came out. Within a minute, the shirt was on fire. He threw the burning shirt onto the floor. Everyone started trying their best putting out the fire. Again Zhang demanded

“Yang Jie, your shirt!”

Yang Jie didn’t hestitate this time. She went to my room and took of her shirt and put on one of mine. My shirt looked so tiny on her. She looked very odd when she came out of the room. Everyone wanted to laugh but no one dared to since “Magic” Zhang didn’t laugh. Zhang burnt Yang Jie’s shirt just as easily. Next he cried out

“Name card!”

Right a way, many people offered him name cards. He picked my brother-in-law’s and demanded him to fold the name card up as tiny as possible and then chew on it. My brother-in-law did it without a complaint. Minutes later, he asked my brother-in-law to spit the grounded paper out. Zhang held the paper in his hand and said

“There is still more in your mouth!”

My brother-in-law first used his figers scrabbing his mouth for leftover paper. When Zhang said there were even more, he used a tooth pick. Finally Zhang had all the paper. He kept playing with it with his hand. I stared at his hand. I could only see the letters on the name card gradually returned their legibility. The paper gradually became less grounded. At last the entire name card returned to its originality. The name card was past around to be checked. No one could tell that it had been chewed before. Everyone clapped. But Zhang waved his hand and acted like the act was nothing to him.

It seemed my sister-in-law was expecting his visit for a long time; she was well prepared. She took out a brand new bottle of pills and asked

“I heard you could make the pills fall out of a bottle without opening it?!”

Zhang took the bottle and opened up the lid. My smart sister-in-law chose one with the cork still intact. Zhang shaked his head and asked me and my hushand to write two words on two slips of paper in secret. We did that as quickly and as concealed as possible. We folded the paper slips and handed them to Zhang. Zhang first held my hushand’s and stared at the ceiling for a while. Then he wrote out the word my husband wrote almost in my husband’s exact handwriting.

Zhang turned around and lifted the bottle of pills. The pills started falling off from the bottle. They spread all over the room. We held falling the pills with our hands and checked the bottom of the bottle with our eyes. We could find no opening on the bottom of the bottle. After he emptied out the pills, he turned the bottle over and put it under my eyes. I touched the bottom with my hands. The bottle was made of glass; nothing of the bottle had been disturbed. Zhang said

“Your paper slip is in there and it said ‘double’ on it!”

My eyes widened. Yes, my well folded paper slip was inside.
……..