Moon Princess Read Online Free Page B

going for something to eat?’
    Sienna jumped at the chance to spend some time with her dad. ‘Yes, please! Maybe we can go to the restaurant opposite?’
    â€˜Really?’ her dad asked in surprise. ‘The old cookshop? Well, if that’s what you want, then at least we won’t have to battle through the traffic.’
    They put on their shoes and took the lift down. But, to Sienna’s disappointment, the boy wasn’t sitting outside the restaurant today. An old man with white hair and not many teeth looked up in surprise as the two foreigners came into his restaurant.
    Dad tried to exchange a few words with the man, but he couldn’t understand the dialect in which he spoke. Sienna knew her father spoke good Mandarin, or Standard Chinese, but the old people in Shanghai communicated almost exclusively in Shanghai hua – Shanghainese.
    The man pointed to the menu, a few photos on the wall. Sienna and her father ordered fried noodles and sat down on plastic stools as the man disappeared through a saloon door into the kitchen.
    â€˜Sienna, there’s something I need to tell you,’ Dad began hesitantly. ‘I know the move hasn’t been easy for you, and that I’m working a lot at the moment …’
    Sienna swallowed and twisted her hair nervously between her fingers.
    Her father continued, ‘The bank’s sending me inland. To Henan. That means I’ll be away for a few weeks. Can you manage without me?’
    Sienna continued fiddling with her hair. She would have liked to tell her dad how much she needed him – that he couldn’t go. That he couldn’t leave her alone with a bully like Ling. She would’ve liked to tell him about the photograph too. But she knew he wouldn’t listen. Instead, she raised her head and met his eyes defiantly.
    â€˜Of all places, do you have to go to Henan ?’
    Dad stiffened for a brief moment. Sienna knew both of them were thinking about her mum. That she had been in Henan when she disappeared.
    He swallowed quickly and said, ‘Yes, Sienna, I do have to go there. But it’s for work – in a different part of the province. It has nothing to dowith your mother.’
    And what if you simply disappear there too, and I never see you again? Sienna wanted to yell. But she could see tears welling up in Dad’s eyes, and he grasped her hand. Before she could stop herself, she blurted out, ‘Are you going to look for Mum? Perhaps if you—’
    â€˜Please, Sienna. Don’t start that again. The police have done everything they can.’ Dad was squeezing her hand so tightly now that it hurt.
    At that moment the fried noodles arrived. Sienna glanced up, startled, and found herself looking into the face of the boy.
    â€˜ Man man chi ,’ he said politely, and sat down behind the counter.
    Sienna struggled to concentrate on the food, but she could feel that the boy’s eyes never left her for a second. He was looking at her as if he’d known her for a long time.
    When Dad got up to pay, the old man came out of the kitchen. As Dad handed over the money to the man, Sienna felt the boy appear beside her. He looked afraid as he put a finger to his lips, passing her a small piece of paper thathad been folded over many times. Sienna looked at him questioningly, but the boy disappeared into the kitchen and she saw him raise his hand shyly in farewell.

4 Qiezei – Thief
    A few days after her father had left for his trip, Sienna was lying on her bed, staring at the piece of paper the boy from the restaurant had given her, as she had done every day since she’d received it. The paper was crumpled and looked as if the boy had been carrying it around in his pocket for a long time.
    It was a photograph of a small statue. The figure was wearing a long robe, covering its head and back, and stood on the back of a dragon.Sienna couldn’t be sure but she thought it was a woman. Her