Great Call of China (S.A.S.S.) (14 page)

“But what?”

“Well, if he likes me so much, why hasn’t he asked me out?”

“Uh... what have we just been talking about? He’s been with Jess twenty-four/seven since the program started. And if that’s not the sole reason, then maybe you haven’t given him any idea that
you’re
interested. Have you sent out any smoke signals?”

Cece nodded. “I have.”

Kallyn raised an eyebrow. “Since when?”

“Um . . . when I went out to the club. We touched knees. And then during karaoke, I joked around with him.”

Kallyn laughed. “Yeah, that’s smoke signals. There’s your problem. Everyone knows that guys are dumb when it comes to reading girls. And I’m guessing you are about as hard to read as a Chinese textbook. So get out there and start flirting.”

Cece shook her head. “Bad idea. Not now.”

“Why not?”

“What about her?”

“
Hello,
Kallyn. If I start hitting on Will—if I even knew how—it would make Jess ballistic, and with Beijing barely over a week away, I seriously don’t need that right now. I want things calm, peaceful,
sane
. So let’s just talk about what I’m supposed to do next about Jess, okay?

“Fine.” Kallyn sat forward. “You keep doing nothing.”

“Nothing?”

“Well, you certainly won’t apologize to her because what would you be apologizing for? And you can’t lie to her and say you don’t like Will when you already admitted to it, in not so many words. Seriously, aside from escaping the country, you have no other choices. So keep sitting it out. See what happens.”

Cece thought it over. “Sit it out, like,
forever
?”

“Yup.”

Cece leaned back in her chair. “Okay, at least that’s easy.”

 

The next day, Cece went to the theater to meet her project team. As she opened the door, she wondered if Jess would be there. Or if she did show up, would she claw her eyes out or what? When Cece walked in, everyone but her roommate was there, and she felt a little relieved.

“So, Cece, where’s Jessica?” Alex said.

Cece shrugged. “Um, I’m not sure.”

“I think she’ll be here,” Will said. “I just talked to her this morning.” He gave Cece a reassuring look.

Interesting.
Maybe he somehow fixed the situation.

“All right,” Alex said. “We’ll wait.”

Chris kicked his feet up on the chair in front of him. “I’m in no hurry.”

Just then, the doors to the theater swung open, and Jess strolled in, looking better than ever. “Hey, everybody.”

She came down the aisle and took a seat next to Cece. “So, what topic did we get?

Cece stared at Jess.

“What’s up, Cece?” Jess said.

“Um, not much.”
What exactly had Will said to her?

“I checked the board yesterday,” Alex said. “We got our number-one choice—the Emperor.”

“Excellent.” Jess leaned back and studied her fingernails. It was like nothing had happened the night before. Cece decided she’d have to figure it out later. She turned her attention to the meeting.

“So, I took the liberty of doing some research last night.” Alex pulled
A History of China
from his backpack. “I think we need to get acquainted with who Qin Shi Huang really was.” He passed the book to Chris, who opened it to a bookmarked page.

“One of the most interesting things I learned,” Alex continued, “was that the guy was a total nut.”

Chris looked at the book. “And kind of ugly, too.” He passed it to Jess, who quickly handed it to Cece. Cece thumbed through the pages and read the headers. “Succession to the Empire,” “Achievements and Miles-tones”...

“So what made this guy so whacko?” Chris asked.

“The man was brutal,” Alex said. “Killed anyone who got in his way. He amassed a huge army and basically subdued all of the warring states in China. And once he unified China, he began this quest to discover how to live forever. He even started eating mercury, thinking it would make him immortal. Of course, all that did was made him sick and even crazier until he eventually died.”

Cece stopped flipping through the book. “That’s pretty horrible,” she said. “But what does all of that have to do with anthropology?”

That’s when Alex leaned in, as if Cece had asked precisely the right question. “Well, you know the Terra Cotta Warriors, the archaeological dig we’re going to see next week?”

“Yeah.”

“Qin Shi Huang would have never built an army of that scale if he didn’t believe in the afterlife in a big way. And if you don’t understand what the guy had been thinking, you wouldn’t really know what that whole site is about.”

“So,” Chris said, “what we cover in our documentary is how this man’s craziness resulted in the Terra Cotta Warriors?

“Not exactly,” Alex replied. “But I think we can find a way to talk about the culture of living in that time period. What people believed then and how the Terra Cotta Warriors are a physical representation of those beliefs.”

“I see what you’re saying,” Will said. “In our film, we could focus on at least two fields within anthropology: culture and archaeology.”

Cece nodded. “Sounds good to me.”

“Great,” Alex said. “We have a plan. Jess, you agree?”

Jess yawned. “Just tell me what I need to do.”

“Okay.” Alex pulled out a notepad. “Let’s start by divvying up responsibilities....”

The team spent the next couple of hours thinking of everything they would need for a completed project, then assigned roles. They agreed that everyone would participate in the filming. Alex and Chris would be in charge of the script, Cece would work on the subtitles, and Will would take care of the set. Jess volunteered for the costumes.

“So tomorrow,” Alex said, wrapping up the meeting, “let’s take in as much as we can when we visit the Terra Cotta Warriors. If no one minds, I’ll take the video camera first and get footage that we can use in our film later.”

No one objected, and they all packed up. Cece put away her notebook and noticed Jess was waiting for her in the aisle. “Let’s go, Cece,” Jess said.

Cece’s forehead wrinkled. Were they back on good terms? She slung her purse onto her shoulder, and they walked out, heading for the dorms.

“Okay, Jess,” Cece said, “what’s going on? Just yesterday, you acted like you were ready to kill me and Will.”

“I know,” Jess said. “And I’m sorry about that.” She sounded sincere. “I realize you have nothing to do with this.”

Cece began to relax.
Thank goodness.

“I mean, sure, at first I was convinced you were after Will behind my back. But after I stopped to think about it, that’s silly. You’ve been nothing but a friend to me, and with all that studying you do and given all the time I was with Will, how would you have had the opportunity?”

“Right.” Cece said, glad that Jess was seeing the truth. Well, most of it anyway.

“Of course, Will found me this morning and tried to explain the same thing. But all that did was solidify what I was thinking already . . . . ”

“And what was that?” Cece said.

“That I should be mad at
him,
of course. The guy totally led me on, then tossed me to the street like I didn’t matter. What a waste of time! Seriously, just being in the same room with him is torture.”

“Okay, but now I’m confused. If you’re mad at him, why did you just act like nothing had happened?”

“Well, obviously, we made up. At least that’s what he thinks. I told him we shouldn’t let anything get in the way of our friendship. Even
space
. Wasn’t that big of me?”

“So you’re not crushing on him anymore.”

“No way. Besides, I’m beginning to think Chris is much more my speed. Did you notice how he looked at me during the meeting? Now that guy has taste.”

Cece stopped walking and stared at Jessica.
Unbelievable.
The girl could turn her emotions on and off just like that.

“Cece, stop looking at me like that.”

“I’m just trying to figure you out, that’s all.”

“C,” Jess continued toward the dorm, “you should know by now that someone like me can’t be so easily figured out.”

 

The next morning, Cece had a moment to check her e-mail before she had to meet the group for their excursion to the Terra Cotta Warriors and Horses.

 

Cece wrote Alison back, thanking her for keeping up her cover.
Mom had called?
She took the cell from her backpack and realized she never powered it on. No wonder she hadn’t known. She filled Alison in on her plans for the orphanage. She also relayed the whole Jess and Will saga. Next, she composed an e-mail to her mother, apologizing for being so hard to reach and explaining it away with details about all of the schoolwork she had to do. This time she ended her message with extra hugs and kisses, but she knew that it wouldn’t be enough to keep her mother from worrying. Cece sighed, then grabbed her purse and headed out to meet the group.

She boarded the bus and sat beside Kallyn for the ninety-minute trip out of the city.

“So, what’s the deal with Jess?” Kallyn said in a low voice. “I’m surprised that she’s even within ten feet of Will.”

Cece glanced behind her. Jess was sitting next to Will, but she seemed to be focusing her attention on Chris. “Well, Jess talked to me yesterday, and apparently, she is trying to be the bigger person by pretending to be Will’s friend—don’t tell me how weird that sounds—I know. And I’ve been deemed an innocent party in the whole fiasco. And get this—you see that guy she’s talking to? Chris?”

“Yeah. Wait a second, don’t tell me. He’s the next victim.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Man, Jessica is something else.”

Cece nodded. “Tell me about it.”

The bus made its way out of the bustling city, taking a highway into the countryside. From the window, Cece saw miles of flat grassland that looked barely touched, except for the occasional groupings of shacks or signs hinting at civilization nearby. As they drew closer to their destination, the landscape turned into something that resembled suburbia.

Soon, they pulled into a large parking lot, and Cece and Kallyn got off, eager to take in this magnificent place they had seen only in pictures until now. Mark made an announcement to the group. “It will be a long walk from here,” he warned. “Xi’an has put a lot of energy into building a commercial area between the lot and the museum. Resist shopping now. We’ll give you time to look around afterward.” He and Jenny led the group through an area that looked like a fancy outdoor mall. Restaurants and shops flanked both sides of the main pedestrian path, and the path itself was decorated with abstract statues and fountains. In addition to the retail stores, vendors with makeshift tables stood displaying souvenirs, ranging from beautiful paper kites to ubiquitous replicas of the Terra Cotta Warriors.

Once the group arrived at the museum complex, Cece stood before a wide-open square with modern-looking buildings on the left and right, and one larger, domed building in front. Flowers decorated the center of the square. Jenny and Mark stood before the flowers, and Jenny began the tour. “The Terra Cotta Warriors and Horses you are about to see are funerary statues created in 246 B.C. for Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of unified China. The site was discovered by farmers who were digging a well in 1974. Since its discovery, archaeologists have excavated more than seven thousand warriors, horses, and weapons. We will begin by visiting Pit One, the largest of the three pits open to the public.”

Cece and the rest of the group followed Jenny into the domed building. Inside, the space was as large as two football fields. The photos she’d seen didn’t do it justice. Cece and Kallyn went up to the railing and looked over. A vast earthen pit lay before them, where rows and rows of statues stood in formation below—warriors, archers, and horses combined. Jenny pointed to a section of the pit marked by a sign. “That is the spot where the farmers tried to dig their well, only to discover broken pottery from Qin Shi Huang’s army. What a find, yes?”

Cece nodded. To think all of this was buried for thousands of years and discovered only by chance.

“When you look at the warriors,” Jenny said, “note that no warrior is identical. Even the height of the statues varies. Anthropologists theorize that the warriors were patterned after an actual army, or the sculptors were given freedom to exercise their own creativity in the warriors’ looks.”

Cece turned to Kallyn. “Either way, the craftsmanship is amazing.” Some of the statues wore different outfits and had unique hairstyles. Even facial expressions varied from one statue to the next. “I wish I could get closer and touch one,” Kallyn said.

Mark stood next to Jenny. “So, you might wonder why the Emperor had this army built. Qin Shi Huang spent much of his days preparing for the afterlife, and while burial objects were common for rulers during that time, no one has seen anything on a scale as large as this. You can also guess the Emperor was something of a megalomaniac. It is also important to note that the army is still fifteen hundred meters away from where Qin Shi Huang’s tomb lies. The tomb is believed to contain a palace full of treasure. However, because the burial site is so large, the tomb goes unexcavated. Archaeologists fear there is no way to preserve all of its contents.”