Magical Acorn

As the sun set, Ling Qing rode his e-bike home. Having traveled this route over a thousand times, twice a day, it was second nature to him.

Whenever he got off work, Ling Qing felt a sense of detachment. By the time he regained his focus, his rented apartment was already right in front of him.

He couldn't recall what he had been thinking about during the commute; it was as if he had traveled through a time loop, and the memories of that period had simply vanished from his mind.

Swish.

Ling Qing flicked the handlebars, and the e-bike nimbly turned, sliding from the main road into a narrow alley.

As he moved forward, the path was lined with uneven, haphazard buildings, a stark contrast to the trendy, modern structures along the main road.

The twisted, crooked alley was cluttered with protruding platforms and windows, with tangled ropes and electrical wires strung between them.

"Check!"

By the roadside, a group of old men in white undershirts, waving palm-leaf fans, were huddled in a circle, watching the chess match in the center with great interest.

"Get inside and do your homework right now!"

A mother in floral pajamas grabbed her child by the ear and dragged them home, completely ignoring the child's pig-like squeals.

All these mundane scenes of life were things he had seen a thousand times, just like the road he traveled back and forth.

Squeak.

Hitting the brakes, Ling Qing parked his e-bike in a dim passageway out of habit and pulled the charger from under the seat to plug it in.

Amidst the humming of the motor, he took a takeout bag off the bike and walked inside.

He climbed the stairs deep in the corridor, feeling his way through the dark to the second floor, and opened the only wooden door on the cramped landing, bathed in the golden-red sunlight.

Thump.

He threw himself heavily onto a single bed and pulled the quilt from the side over his body.

After a while, once the last rays of the sunset had vanished from the window, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a bright green acorn.

He had found this thing on his way home from work. Just as he stepped out of the office building, the fruit had fallen from the sky and hit him on the head.

He had looked up, but there were no fruit-bearing trees at the office entrance; there was only an elevated highway overhead with endless traffic.

It was peak rush hour, and the road above was jammed solid; it was possible someone had accidentally dropped it.

After watching for a while and seeing no one lean out, Ling Qing gave up.

He had intended to throw it away, but he took a look and found it quite pretty. Besides, he had never seen a real acorn outside of videos and pictures.

Thinking this, he casually tucked it into his pocket.

Now, as he pulled it out, the emerald fruit glowed with a faint luster, crystal clear as if carved from jade.

Yet, he was certain it wasn't jade, as it felt distinctly wooden when he squeezed it, and the weight didn't feel right either.

He searched online with his phone and found that most acorns were a ripe brownish-red, and even the occasional greenish ones didn't have the beautiful luster of the one in his hand.

Ling Qing studied it for a long time and discovered that, besides being beautiful, the acorn was incredibly sturdy.

He had just used his phone to check and confirmed that acorns, like chestnuts, were edible.

However, he tried every method possible but couldn't open it. He clamped it with pliers until it slightly deformed, but it sprang back to its original shape the moment he released the pressure.

He wiped it with his hand, and after brushing away the marks from the pliers, it was as smooth as new, without a single scratch.

Only when his stomach growled did he remember that he had been so busy studying the acorn that he hadn't eaten yet.

By now, it was pitch black outside. He felt for the string at the head of the bed and pulled it, causing the stark white light overhead to flood the room.

He placed the acorn by his pillow, pulled over the small table holding his takeout, and grabbed a cup to pour some water.

He wolfed down the now-cold takeout with lukewarm water, wiped his mouth, and tossed the trash into the bin nearby.

After a sloppy wash in the sink in the corner, he climbed onto the bed, opened his laptop, and mindlessly scrolled through web videos.

Recently, many traditional martial arts videos had appeared online. Most were posted by young people on various platforms, attracting a great deal of attention.

He was among them.

He never imagined that in this day and age, long after the decline of martial arts films, there would still be so many peers practicing in silence.

He clicked on a video, and the scene unfolded.

In a bamboo forest, two young men his age, dressed in martial arts attire, stood facing each other with solemn expressions.

One held a long spear, while the other cradled a long sword.

As the music started, the two began to fight without a word, swords clashing and spears thrusting, cold light flashing everywhere.

At times, they leaped into the air, dodging the spear tips with extreme agility, then countered with a sword strike to force the opponent back. At other times, the sword moved like a dragon, stirring up fallen leaves, only to be deflected by the opponent's spear as it blossomed into a flurry of strikes.

Thwack. Thwack. Thwack.

As the sword blades swept past, bamboo stalks as thick as bowls were cut clean, the sound crisp and the cross-sections as smooth as mirrors.

Boom. Boom. Boom.

Every time the spear tip pierced the bamboo, a flick of the wrist caused it to explode like a firecracker, scattering from root to tip like fireworks.

The two figures leaped high and low, darting up and down, using the slightest leverage under their feet to tread upon the bamboo as if it were flat ground.

The comments section flooded with "Holy shit," "So cool," and "Play it another billion times."

Clang.

With a soft metallic hum, the sword tip collided with the spear point. A gust of air erupted from the center, blowing away the fallen leaves on the ground to reveal the slightly damp earth beneath.

As the camera circled the two, the screen slowly faded to black.

Amidst a barrage of "Holy shit" comments obscuring the screen, the two-minute video, which played out like a high-budget martial arts film, came to an end.

He casually liked, shared, and followed before clicking on the next video.

Before he knew it, the noisy urban village had fallen into a deep silence.

"Waaah, waaah!"

A burst of infant wailing jolted Ling Qing from his immersion in the videos. He checked the time and realized it was already past one in the morning.

He shut down his computer and drifted effortlessly into sleep, accompanied by the new mother's gentle, anxious soothing, the new father's groggy muttering, and the baby's cries.

The thin walls couldn't block out the baby's high-pitched wailing, but having lived here for so long, he was already used to it.

The surrounding neighbors were the same; no one voiced any complaints.

In a hazy state, Ling Qing felt the baby's crying gradually fade away, and soon after, the surroundings fell into a profound stillness.

Except for the occasional cat's meow, he didn't know when or in whose home the next commotion would erupt.

But none of that mattered to the sleeping Ling Qing.

Cold moonlight shone on the floor, and the emerald Acorn that Ling Qing had forgotten by his pillow began to glow with a faint green light, enveloping him within it.