Cable Car Caper
“Can I open it?” Violet asked. Henry handed her the envelope. “It’s a riddle,” she said as she pulled out a piece of paper.” She read it out loud.
Twelve animals are important, but you need only two.
One is very loyal and will never let you down.
The other is not liked by all but is very clever, as you must be to complete your tasks.
Each animal will guide you to your next stop.
But beware. Trust those in front of you but no others.
“Twelve? That sounds familiar,” Jessie said. “I know what it means. We learned it last year. The Chinese calendar is separated into twelve-year cycles. Each year has an animal that goes with it. I memorized the animals. Let’s see if I can remember.” She thought for a moment and then rattled off a list. “Rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog, and pig.”
“That’s correct. Very good,” Mr. Yao said.
Violet repeated part of the riddle. “One is very loyal and will never let you down. I know that one. It’s a dog, just like Watch. He’s loyal and never lets us down.”
“I believe you are right,” Mr. Yao said. “Can you make a dog out of these shapes?”
The Aldens tried several ways to make a dog but couldn’t get it just right. “Wenwen, you know how to do this, don’t you?” Jessie asked.
“I do,” Wenwen said. “I can show you or I can give you a hint.”
“A hint, please,” Henry said. He was determined to figure it out.
“When you are done, the dog will look like a breed of dog called a Scottish terrier,” she said. “Do you know that kind of dog?”
“Yes!” Soo Lee said. “They are little black dogs. One of our neighbors had one. They have short ears and short legs and a square face! Maybe the square tan is the dog’s face.”
With that hint they were able to make a dog shape. The Chinese characters on the pieces made four lines.
“Can you read them, Wenwen?” Benny asked.
“I can read the top and the bottom line. The top says Doctor. The bottom line says Village. The other characters don’t make sense.”
“Maybe we need to flip those pieces, since there are characters on the other side too.” Jessie flipped over the middle pieces.
“I can read it all now. It says, Dr. Zhang, Mutianyu Village.”
“Finally!” Henry said. “We are getting closer. Now for the next part.” He read off the line about the second animal. The other is not liked by all but is very clever.
“Which of those animals don’t people like?” Violet asked.
Jessie recited the list again. “Rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog, and pig.”
“Some people don’t like snakes,” Soo Lee said.
“Mrs. McGregor doesn’t like rats,” Benny said.
Henry flipped all the pieces over. “I think it’s a rat. Rats are very clever. They can learn to go through mazes to find food and learn how to use levers to get what they want. I’ve never heard anyone say a snake was clever.”
“Okay, let’s try to make a rat shape,” Jessie said.
The rat turned out to be hard to make. Wenwen had to show them how. “It takes practice,” she said.
“I’m glad you know how to do these,” Jessie said. “Can you read it?”
“Yes, it says Wanli Changcheng.”
“Oh, we thought we might get to go to the Great Wall,” Benny said. He was disappointed. “I wanted to stand on top of it.”
Mr. Yao smiled. “You will get to go. Wanli Changcheng are the Chinese words for the Great Wall. The words have a few different meanings, but I like to tell visitors it means a very long wall.”
“Is Mutianyu Village near a part of the Great Wall?” Henry asked Mr. Yao.
“Yes, it’s at the base of a section of the wall that is very popular with tourists. It’s not too far from Beijing.”
Jessie looked at the clock behind the counter. “It’s getting late. Dr. Zhang won’t be there at night.”
“Let’s return the bikes and then go to our hotel,” Henry suggested. “We’ll go in the morning. I’ll call Mary to come get us at the bike rental shop.”
“Thank you for helping us, Mr. Yao,” Jessie said.
“You’re very welcome.” He picked up one of the cloth animals. It was yellow and red and black and had a smile on its face. “Miss Silverton also arranged for each of you to have one of these. Please feel free to pick out whichever one you want.”
“What are they?” Violet asked. “Are they cats?”
“They are a special kind of cat,” he replied. “They are tigers. Tigers mean many things in China. They can be a symbol of strength and bravery. Even though they aren’t puzzles, I like them very much so I keep them in my shop.”
“I love them!” Violet said.
“Me too!” Soo Lee cried.
Everyone picked out a tiger of their own. They put them in their camera bags and then said good-bye to Mr. Yao.
Wenwen showed them the way back. They dropped of the bikes and then Wenwen said, “I should go home too. I have to go to school tomorrow.”
“Thank you very much for helping us,” Jessie said. “We couldn’t have figured out the riddle without you.”
“You’re welcome. It was fun.” They exchanged email addresses, promising to stay in touch. Wenwen got back on her bike and waved good-bye as she rode away.
Henry called the phone number Mary had given them. It didn’t take her long to arrive.
“Did you have a good day?” she asked when they climbed into the van.
“We did,” Jessie said. “And we’ll need to be driven somewhere else tomorrow, but we’ll let you know exactly where and when you pick us up.” Jessie had been thinking about the last riddle and the part about trusting no one but who was in front of them. She didn’t know if that meant Mary or not. In the morning, Mary would have to know where they were going, but Jessie was uneasy about telling her in advance.
“That’s fine,” Mary said. “I’ll pick you up at whatever time you need to leave. You’re going to like your hotel. It used to be a house for an official at the imperial court, and it’s built in a traditional style called a courtyard residence. There is a lovely inner courtyard with a pool full of big goldfish called koi.”
She turned down a street that was so narrow the van barely fit on it. “These types of streets are called hutongs,” she explained. “They are full of old buildings like your hotel. It’s a very special area of Beijing.”
Violet said, “I’m glad we are getting to see so much. This is a nice city to visit.”
When they pulled up in front of the hotel, Jessie arranged for Mary to pick them back up at eight o’clock the next morning.
The hotel was as nice as Mary had described. Benny, Soo Lee, and Violet got to feed the koi while Henry and Jessie went to find Cousin Joe and Cousin Alice. They all met back in the courtyard.
“Is it time to eat again?” Benny asked. “Solving all those riddles made me very hungry.”
“It is,” Cousin Alice said. “The clerk at the hotel recommends the restaurant right next door.”
The restaurant was much fancier than the dumpling restaurant. A glass roof covered a courtyard full of tables. The courtyard opened at one end to a garden of tall bamboo that had a stone path winding through it.
“It’s almost like eating outside!” Violet said as they sat down at a table near the garden.
“A garden inside a restaurant is a great idea,” Jessie said. “And I can’t wait to try the food.”
They ordered something called a tasting menu so they could try several different dishes. Once the food arrived and they were eating the spring rolls and rice balls and fruit dishes, Henry and Jessie explained their plans for the following day.
“We haven’t seen any signs of the Argents, so I hope we can deliver the artifact without any problems,” Henry said.
“I ho
pe so too,” Cousin Joe said. “This has been a very pleasant trip so far.”
After dinner they were all very tired. Cousin Alice tried to hide a yawn when she said, “Why don’t we all turn in? Traveling tired me out.”
The next morning after breakfast, Jessie said to the others, “We’d better take our backpacks and everything with us. We don’t know if we’ll be coming back here. We never know when we are going to get a new clue,” she explained to Cousin Alice and Cousin Joe.
Henry called Mary, and they gathered in the lobby to wait for her to arrive.
“How long will it take to get to that village? Mutan…something?” Benny asked.
The hotel clerk overheard Benny. She asked, “Do you mean Mutianyu by the Great Wall?”
Benny nodded.
“It’s not far,” the woman said. “About one and a half hours.”
Jessie wished Benny hadn’t asked. Though there was no one else in the lobby besides the clerk, the note had said not to let anyone know where they were going.
Mary arrived and Jessie explained where they wanted to go. “Oh, you’ll have fun there!” Mary exclaimed. “I’m glad you are getting to see some sites.”
Everyone was quiet on the ride except for Benny and Soo Lee, who played with their cloth tigers and tried to think of names for them.
When Mary pulled into a parking lot and announced they had arrived, Benny said, “I don’t see a wall.”
Mary laughed, “You’ll see it when you get out and look up.”
Everyone jumped out of the van. The wall was far above them, way up on top of a steep slope. Benny’s mouth dropped open. “It looks a lot bigger than it did on the poster!”
“In many places, the wall was built to run across the tops of mountain ridges,” Mary explained. “That made it even more difficult for invaders to cross. I’ll be waiting down here when you’ve seen everything,” she said. “I’m going to get some coffee and read a book I brought while I wait. Take as much time as you need.”
Everyone got their camera cases and Henry took the duffel bag as well. They walked through the parking lot and into an area where people were selling souvenirs, hats, and arts and crafts.
“There’s a sign for Mutianyu Village,” Henry said. “I hope it’s not very big. I don’t know how we are supposed to find Dr. Zhang there.”
The village wasn’t very large. They walked around looking at some of the older buildings until they saw a sign with both Chinese characters and English words on it. The English part read, Mutianyu Guest House and Restaurant.
“Let’s go ask there,” Jessie suggested.
Inside they found a woman at a reception desk working on a laptop. She looked up and smiled. “Can I help you? I’m afraid we have no rooms available, but our restaurant is open.”
“We are looking for someone,” Henry said. “Someone named Dr. Zhang. Do you know her? Or him? We don’t know if Dr. Zhang is a man or a woman.”
“Yes, of course,” the woman responded. “Dr. Zhang is a woman. She is staying here while she works on a book, but today she is on top of the wall, showing a group of visiting students around.”
“We’d like to see her as soon as possible,” Jessie said. “Would we be able to find her if we went to the top of the wall?”
“Yes, unless you pass her coming down as you go up. She’ll be with a large group of young people. She is about the age of this lady and gentleman,” the woman said smiling at Cousin Joe and Cousin Alice. “Dr. Zhang carries a cane with her, though she doesn’t use it all the time. It has a silver dragon head for a handle. You should be able to recognize that.”
“What is the best way to get to the top?” Henry asked. “Is there a path?”
“There is, but it’s quite a long ways to the top. It’s about four thousand steps and will take you more than an hour to hike. If you want to get up more quickly, there is a cable car you can ride.”
“Let’s take the cable car,” Violet said. “That sounds like fun.”
“Yes,” Jessie said. “I’d like to find Dr. Zhang as soon as we can.”
The woman from the guesthouse told them how to find the ticket booth for the cable car. They bought tickets and then went to wait in line.
“These look like cable cars at ski resorts,” Benny said as he watched the bright orange cars go up the mountain. “I didn’t know they used cable cars in other places.”
“It’s a good way to get up high,” Jessie said. “And since they are all enclosed, people can go up and down even in bad weather.”
The platform they were waiting on was very crowded. “Stay close,” Jessie said to the others. “We don’t want to get separated.” They inched forward as the people in front of them got on their cars. When it was their turn, the operator asked how many were in their group. Cousin Joe replied, “Seven.”
“You’ll need two cars then,” the man said. He directed Cousin Joe, Cousin Alice, and Soo Lee to one. “The rest of you can go up in the next one.” Cousin Joe, Cousin Alice, and Soo Lee got into their car, and Soo Lee waved good-bye through the window.
The next cable car came up the platform, and the man directed the children inside. Jessie, Benny, and Violet were already in when someone on the platform behind Henry yelled, “Watch out!” in a scared voice. Henry stumbled forward into the car, but a person outside the car reached in and took hold of the strap on the duffel bag. Henry tried to grab it back, but the bag was yanked off Henry’s shoulder as the door closed. “Wait!” Henry yelled, but the car was already moving away from the station. The duffel bag was gone.
On the Earth Dragon’s Back
“Who did that?” Jessie cried as they all crowded around the back of the car trying to see who on the platform had the duffel bag.
“I don’t see the bag,” Violet said. “There are too many people.” Some of them were pointing up at the cable car. Others were turning around like they were trying to see what was happening.
“It was someone who had on a dark blue coat,” Benny said. “I saw the coat sleeve.”
“I did too,” Henry added. “I think it was a woman. I saw a hand on the strap. It was someone with long fingers and painted red fingernails.”
“I see someone with a blond ponytail and a blue coat. There,” Jessie said. They could see a tall woman walking away from the platform. She had the duffel bag slung over one shoulder.
“Anna Argent,” Violet said.
“I can’t believe she found us here,” Jessie said. Anna Argent had already tried to steal artifacts from them in other places. She was very clever and very quick.
Henry sat down on one of the benches in the car. “We knew the Argents were going to try something like that, but it just surprised me. I didn’t expect it to be here.”
“It’s a good thing it was a decoy bag,” Jessie said as she sat down too. “All the artifacts are still safe.” She patted her camera bag.
“I wish I knew how they found us,” Henry said. “The only people who knew where we were going were Mary, Wenwen, and the owner of the puzzle shop. Tricia said we could trust Wenwen and Mr. Yao.”
“Maybe Mary called someone after we went to the village,” Violet said.
“They wouldn’t have had time to get here,” Henry responded. “Unless someone was following the van all the way from Beijing.”
Jessie knew there was one other person. She got out her phone and called the hotel. The clerk answered. Jessie explained who she was and then asked, “Did anyone call for us?”
“Yes,” the hotel clerk said. “Right after you left. The person said they needed to get in touch with you right away. I was lucky I knew where you were going. I hope they found you.”
“Yes, they did,” Jessie said. She didn’t tell the clerk they didn’t want to be found. “Did the caller tell you their name?”
“It was a man by the name of John Smith,” the clerk said.
“Thank you.” Jessie hung up the phone and then told the others what the clerk said. “Someone made up
the name John Smith to find out where we were.”
“That’s very sneaky!” Violet cried.
“Whoever took it isn’t going to be happy when they realize they’ve been tricked,” Henry said.
“Good!” Benny said. “We don’t want them to be happy.”
“No, we don’t, but we want them to go away and not try again,” Henry told him.
“Maybe they won’t open the packages until they are a long way from here,” Violet said.
“I hope they don’t,” Jessie said as she looked back down the slope. “If they open them right away, they will either follow us to the top of the wall or wait for us when we come down.”
That made all of them nervous.
“We should at least be able to get the artifact to Dr. Zhang safely,” Henry said.
As they came closer to the wall, it seemed to grow bigger and bigger. “It’s so big, it even has little buildings on top!” Benny exclaimed.
“I think those are watchtowers,” Henry said. “They kept watch all year long, even in winter.”
“I see Soo Lee!” Violet said. “She’s waving at us.”
When they got off the cable car, they explained to the others what had happened.
“Those Argents are no good,” Cousin Joe declared.
“They aren’t,” Henry said. “But we can find ways to fool them, even Anna.”
“I’m glad you thought of the camera bags, Henry,” Cousin Alice said.
“I hope that Anna doesn’t follow us up here!” Soo Lee said, looking around at the other tourists.
“We’ll keep the other artifacts safe,” Jessie told her. “Let’s find Professor Zhang so we can deliver the one to her.”
They walked up the wall where a large group of young people stood listening to a Chinese woman. The woman had a cane with her.
“I’m sure that’s Dr. Zhang,” Henry said. “And those people listening to her look like students because they are taking notes in notebooks.”
They stood at the back of the group until the woman was finished speaking. As the group moved away, the woman saw them. She came over. “Hello,” she said. “Can I help you?”