Impermanence Land

Chapter Two

Stella and Lyla watched the play from the front row, Harold from the middle of the seating area, and Bruno at the far end. It seemed like the main character is called Yellow Cat who is played by a boy teenager. The other character is called Grass Tiger who is played by a girl teenager. The plot of the play is that Yellow Cat's four paintings were stolen by four separate characters.

Other characters included the Rainbow Girl, the Leaf Wolf, the Swift Girl, and the Rain Bear. There were a total of four scenes: a woods in spring, a beach in summer, a farm in autumn, and a snowy mountain in winter.

The play ended with the Yellow Cat defeating the four aforementioned characters and retrieving his four paintings.

The season in Longyan Town rotates every six hours. Between dawn and midday is spring, between midday and dusk is summer, between dusk and midnight is autumn, and between midnight and dawn is winter. After the play concluded, the time was two in the afternoon which means it is summer.

Harold gets up from his seat and leaves before he could be seen by Stella and Lyla.

He quickly turns to see that Bruno was bored out of his mind. They both exit the theater where the temperature has risen.

"What did you think of that play?" Harold asked.

"It was boring and the story was lame, too." Bruno answered.

"Did you notice that the characters and locations seem to be based on us?"

"What do you mean? I wasn't paying that much attention to it."

Harold sighs. "Let's start with Rainbow Girl, Lily uses Rainbow-themed Midrash. Leaf Wolf is me because I use Leaf-themed Midrash and have Maiden's Wolf. Swift Girl is Lyla because she uses Swift-themed Midrash. And finally Rain Bear is you since you use Rain-themed Midrash and have Maiden's Bear."

Bruno is surprised. "What?! That can't be a coincidence! How would anyone know that, too?"

"The only answer I can think of is that the Jade Cat was watching us. You and I used our respective Midrash several times. Same with Lily and Lyla."

Bruno has gotten more upset. "He's messing with us! We need to find him and I'm going to punch him!"

"Speaking of which, I haven't detected anyone following the girls. And I'm assuming you haven't detected anyone following me?"

Bruno calms down. "Yeah, you're clean. So that means I might be the one who was followed."

Harold nods. "Yep! Let's flush this someone out before we meet up with the girls."

The boys went to a cafe to get a snack and something to drink. At the cafe, both cousins had coffee and grilled meat on a skewer.

"Let's see if we can flush this guy who might be following you." Harold said.

The boys leave the cafe and head east. While walking, both cousins were constantly scanning the faces of everyone that walked past by. After about thirty minutes of walking, they return to the cafe.

"So," Harold said. "After all that, there is one person that I kept on seeing."

"I think I know who you're talking about." Harold said.

"The guy with the shaved head?"

"He's shorter than Lyla. Wear a white shirt?"

"Blue jeans and brown boots?"

Harold smiles. "And black gloves?"

Bruno also smiles. "We have found our guy!"

Stella and Lyla waited for a few people to leave before they would leave themselves. This way, they wouldn't bump into anyone.

Realizing that the time is only a few minutes past two, Stella wanted to do some exploring before meeting up with Harold and Bruno. "Hey, want to go to the public district?"

"Sure, but we'll have to go through the central district first." Lyla answered.

With that said, the girls spend about ten minutes walking to the central district. There is a mansion at the center. It is made with bricks and painted yellow. Stella looks around and sees a fat man walking out of the mansion. He is wearing a yellow shirt with loose brown pants. "That guy over there must be the leader or something." She points to the fat man.

"If you point at him," Lyla said. "He might notice. Or he could be an employee of the leader."

"He lives in a yellow house and wears a yellow shirt. Let's call him the Yellow Man." Stella laughed.

The Yellow Man unlocks the gate and sees the girls. "Why, hello, girls!" He said in a perverted tone. "Yes, I'm talking about you two." the Yellow Man smiled to reveal his chubby chin. He walks closer to the girls. Within close range, his height is between Stella and Lyla. He extends his right hand to the girls with a perverted smile. "Well, Stella and Lyla? Care to join me? Oh, don't be shy! Just shake my hand. I'm Haoyu and I'm the mayor of this town. And that's where I live. Nice, huh!?" He nods to the mansion.

Stella turns to Lyla and whispers. "There is a bald spot on his head."

Since the Yellow Man was slightly taller than Lyla, she had to tip-toed to take a look at the top of his head. She accidentally lets out a small laugh, and Stella also joins in.

The Yellow Man is annoyed. "What's the matter?"

Stella quickly composes herself. "Oh, nothing! And my friend and I are just leaving."

Lyla quickly agrees. "Yeah, we have somewhere to be, so we gotta go now."

Stella and Lyla turn around and try to walk away.

The Yellow Man, or Haoyu, tries to convince the girls to stay. "Wait! Let's go to my mansion and I can show you girls around."

Lyla tries to think of something. "But you're the mayor. Aren't you busy with your work?"

Stella joins in. "Yeah, we don't want to keep you from your busy work."

Haoyu smirks. "Oh, don't worry about that. That's why I have an assistant. I'll get him right now, so I'll be free to show you girls around."

Stella and Lyla both struggle to find any excuses to get away from this fat man.

"We can go get him together," said Haoyu. "It'll be in the public district and then we can go back to my mansion for dinner." He walks past the girls.

The girls just stood there and watched him walk past.

Haoyu turns around and looks at the girls. "Come on! Let's go!"

"Let's just play along and see what happens." Stella whispered to Lyla.