Bound by the undulating stream, compared to the city of Shanghai, Lujiayan seemed to be much older and yet fairly well-off. The buildings were two-storey, constructed with brick and mortar, and the roads were paved with greenish slate cobblestones. After arriving at the dock at a little past two in the afternoon, I made my way into the village. Before long I came upon a central well that looked very much like a dance stage. A crowd of women encircled it, washing clothes. I began to explain in a somewhat confused way what kind of person I was looking for, but before I had finished speaking two women seemed to know already who it was I wanted. One of them, a woman who seemed to be a little past middle age, spoke to me.

‘The person you are looking for is called Abing. His ears can hear anything carried on the wind, they’re exceptional … he can probably hear what we are saying now. At this time of day he will be in the ancestral hall. If you go there you will find him.’

As she spoke she gestured in the direction I should go. At first I thought she was pointing towards a nearby greyish structure, but I was wrong. She stretched her arm out again and spoke. ‘Look! It’s that one, the one with the two columns and the pedicab parked out front.’

The building she was speaking of was octagonal in shape and located at the end of the alley, about a hundred metres away. At that distance, how could anyone have heard what we were saying? Perhaps only the newest CR-60 radio from the US could have detected our conversation, and maybe not even that.

I couldn’t help but feel this was all very strange.

The ancestral hall stood as the ancient symbol of the town. Its eaves were bedecked with carved dragons, phoenixes, lions and tigers. The town’s forefathers had had the menagerie carved in an effort to beautify the hall; now they stood witness to the passage of time. The colours had become mottled and it was not hard to guess that they had lacked care for quite a while. But something of the building’s former bearing and presence remained; time had not totally destroyed that. There were many idle people milling about – it was all a bit chaotic. The idlers were a collection of old men, a few women with children, and a number of cripples. It was plain to see that the ancestral hall had become the public square at which the townsfolk gathered and passed the time.