Light's Fright (formerly Lightwielder in China)

Real World (Chapter 10)

Chapter: Real World

"No. No more crazy bullet trains again." I mumbled into someone's shoulder incoherently.

Li Qiang rolled his eyes. He was giving me a piggy-back ride and still carrying my luggage around for me. Maybe I should be a little more grateful for him. He never seems to run out of strength.

Li Qiang is a tall and heavily-muscled man. Yes, he is indeed in shape. His hair is non-existent, because he shaved his head before I met him apparently. All of these cousins of mine are actually in their late twenties, not early twenties as I'd thought. Li Qiang is not married. Li Jie is married (for a year or more now). Li Cheng has been married since winter. I don't get why Li Qiang is single. Even though I don't really get along with him, he seems like he'd be compatible with at least SOMEBODY.

Li Jie stops in front of three motorcycles out there in the train station parking lot. They seem to be almost waiting for us. They're shiny, new, and I'm in love with them all almost immediately. If there was romance in my life, its right now between these awesome cycles. One is Carrolee's favorite color, crimson glory. Its a good color, but not my favorite. Another is black, which sixth/psychic sense is telling me Aliza's favorite color is it. No, she's not goth though. She just probably likes black. There's nothing wrong with it, I actually think black's an okay color. My psychic sense never tells me anything useful, just random depressing information or info I wouldn't know otherwise, but is still unhelpful. The last motorcycle is cobalt blue, my absolute favorite. The only better blue might be capri/deep sky blue, but I don't like it always. Plus, I don't think many guys would appreciate having a motorcycle that color.

Lie Jie explained, "These are ours. We're going to use them to go to my home, where we'll be staying the night."

"All right! I call this one!" I jump unto the cobalt one. It is totally mine now, sorry for whichever dude I bumped it off of.

Li Jie laughed. "That one is mine. You can ride with me, but no driving it."

"Why not?" I almost whimpered.

Li Cheng said, "Its not a low-speed vehicle, so you'd need a license."

"Figures." I muttered and dutifully put on a matching cobalt-blue helmet as the others put on matching color helmets for their corresponding motorcycles.

Li Jie smiled at me. "Don't worry, we'll get you your own moped you can drive around later. Right now, enjoy the ride."

I put my hands around his waist and held on. Li Jie revved the engine just like in so many racing video games and took off flying almost. Adrenaline started pumping in me. I loved this.

It was night by now in Zhengzhou. The sun had gone down and the city was on fire with artificial lights in every color. Skyscrapers with crazy designs loomed over the train station we were exiting.

"Whoa, what's that building? And that one; and that!" I exclaimed.

Li Cheng on the crimson glory motorcycle shrugged. "Hotel, hotel, hotel, and the one you're facing is again, a hotel."

I looked at Li Cheng in disbelief.

"Don't worry, there's more than just hotels around here. Just wait until we pass the shopping square and you see the highway ramps." He reassured me.

Li Qiang on the black motorcycle grunted, "The square will be on the right.

"And the highway ramps?" I asked.

He smiled for maybe the first time ever I'd seen. "Look above you."

There was a row of lights all one color attached to the ramps on either side, but the color was turning the colors of the rainbow in sequence, and you could see this changing of color throughout the whole highway winding all around Zhengzhou. They were right now light green going blue.

"Wow, are those lights a new addition?" I was enchanted by the pretty sight. And I don't use "pretty" very often.

Li Cheng said, "No, they've been around for a while. Longer than the subway, at least."

I looked over to my right, wondering what now I'd see. There was the shopping square! Tall buildings filled with merchandise of all kinds, cheap and expensive, useful and not-so, rose high above the concrete grounds. Some smaller temporary stands were scattered around below but what really caught my attention was the old-fashioned clock tower kept from thousands of years ago standing in the square's center. Traditional blended with today's world is typical China, but everything seemed so foreign and exotic to me especially. I'd never, ever been outside Chicago except to travel to Danville Airport in coming here. Was this what it might have been like for Chicago, before shadowhiders ruined it?

"So this is the real world." I commented before I drifted asleep still holding Li Jie's waist for support.