The young ahong smiled at Nick. He did not even look at the "gift" Nick had brought, as if he was dissatisfied with it—or perhaps simply wanted to be polite.
Nick was just about to speak.
"This is China, so we must act according to Chinese rules," the young ahong said. "The book says not to run too fast, or you will catch up to yourself. When that happens, one of the two must die."
"What does that mean?" Nick asked.
"How much do you know about Turkish?"
Nick looked at him blankly.
"Turkish was originally one of the languages of the Turks. Later, it absorbed a great deal of Arabic and Persian, so Turkish can be divided into two periods: Old Turkish before the fifteenth century, and Ottoman Turkish after the fifteenth century. The book you gave me was written in Ottoman Turkish."
"You mean it was fake?" Nick asked.
"The Macedonian Empire is gone, but the Macedonians remain. Is it strange for a Macedonian living in the fifteenth century to record the story of another race in Turkish?"
Nick could not answer.
"Although the Jiyin People vanished from mainstream civilization, their mixed-blood descendants and their civilization continued to be passed down. They disliked using writing. They believed sound possessed unusual effects and spent a great deal of time practicing it, because in a world of total darkness, sound was the best means of communication."
"So their history was passed down by word of mouth?" Nick asked.
"Not only that. You forgot that they believed hair was the path of dreams, and dreams could help them trace their origins." The ahong spoke calmly. "A living Jiyin Person must serve dozens of souls."
"Those Shadows were actually ghosts?" Nick asked.
"There is a story I want to tell you, but