Ghoulies Abroad by Julie Steimle (bts book recommendations txt) 📖

Tom snapped, pointing a finger at the tiger. “He’s under my protection.”

“Why side with that abomination?” the tiger growled.

Tom leaned back. “You can’t be serious. Don’t you know anything about the Deacons? They are the most powerful werewolves in the world.”

“Tom!” Rick swatted his arm. “Stop it! They’ll take that the wrong way.”

Not caring, Tom rubbed Rick’s head, messing up his hair. “It’s the truth, wolf-boy. You could probably buy out this entire village and all the companies in the provenance.”

Groaning, yet watching the tigers consider Rick on a more human level now—as whenever a were-animal hears ‘most powerful’, they think in terms of physical prowess and strength—Rick was glad Tom’s diplomacy in jokes disarmed everyone. The tigers were now less likely to see if Rick was physically stronger than they were—a nonsensical comparison because of course they were more powerful. Yet Rick said, “Nonsense. The government owns all the land in China. I couldn’t buy a thing without their permission.”

In the meantime, the Seven were already setting fire to the demon corpses. And more tigers were becoming human to talk with them. Chen translated, though the tigers eyed him with suspicion during the entire conversation. The gist of it was that some wolves had been sneaking into their territory and causing trouble while also accusing them of the same thing. The tigers themselves had heard rumors from locals near Nanjing about stray tigers going about killing people but they had not yet been able to ascertain who it was. But they were most upset that their village chief had been replaced by a demon who had most likely killed him.

“A similar thing happened with the wolf pack,” Rick interjected.

The tigers glared at him, yet nodded.

“We figured that too,” they said, translated through Chen. “But our leader was insistent it was their fault. Now we know why he thought that.”

“Has there been a rise of demons in the area?” James asked.

Chen translated their answer. “Yes. Slowly at first. Only recently have they been dealing with this current problem. Their people came from Yunnan to escape the purge. They were among the Naxizu when the Cultural Revolution happened. The Maoists sent soldiers to hunt them down…” He stared into space as he heard their next words. “Just like they hunted down my family.”

All of them stared at Chen.

“What?” Rick came up to him.

Nodding, Chen said, “They just told me. During the Cultural Revolution, in order for Communist China to ‘progress’ they worked to eliminate the four olds. Old ideas, old culture, old customs, and old habits. Some of the Chinese call this time the ten years of insanity because so much was destroyed. Anything supernatural was considered an ‘old’—and that included my family.”

“Oh crud,” Daniel muttered, looking sick.

“Do they still think that way now?” Eddie asked, glancing about at the scenery as if there were possibly communist soldiers hiding in the bushes.

Chen shrugged.

Rick shook his head. “No. Look at the way China is today. They are bringing back a lot of the old traditions. They realized that was a big mistake. I mean, those monks are proof of that. They would be considered old culture and old custom and old ideas. Besides, with all the ancient kung fu movies out there now with monsters and the like, I really doubt that’s the case. Besides, Abey, didn’t you once get a formal invitation from China asking for the Seven to come in at their earliest convenience to… I don’t know, help them out?”

Andy nodded, recalling it. “Yeah, we did. But—and think about this—was their call for us to come so we could do another purge? We are not the same as Chen. We weren’t born with abilities. And our job as the Seven is to deal with unruly supernatural things. Howie, it is possible they have not changed their stance at all, just adjusted it.”

Cringing, Rick nodded. But he wondered if that was actually true. After all, he and his father had traveled freely back and forth between the US and China and they must have known he was a werewolf. Surely they followed the SRA’s website on monsters to watch out for.

“How did this village survive the Cultural Revolution?” Semour asked, peering at the tiger people who were now advancing as people and not tigers. They looked like normal Chinese, though Chen said they were not ethnically Han but a group called the Naxi and not native to Jiangsu at all. It had never occurred to any of them that the Chinese also had ethnic groups—but of course there had to be, considering the size of their nation.

Chen said, “They told me that most tiger villages had been slaughtered. But during Mao’s Great Leap Forward they had been so starved that they were overlooked—that and they hid their tiger lineage and killed anyone who found out.”

‘Standard pack behavior for weres,’ Rick thought to himself. It was probably how the wolf pack had survived. He noticed the Seven sneaking glances at him, aware he was not surprised by this information in the slightest.

“Ooookaaaay.” Eddie nodded to himself. He exchanged a look with Semour. “So now what do we do?”

Rick shrugged and headed down the stairs to get back to the road. “I think the packs—I mean villages—can take it from here. You know, now that they know demons have been sneaking among them.”

The tigers eyed him, nodding. Their critical gazed eased some. At least he respected their territory, their expressions said. And he had to. Knowing pack mentality, territory was critical to survival. He had to respect it.

Tom sighed, shrugging.

“I guess we should go,” Daniel said to Andy. “Now that they realize the demons were trying for mutual destruction of the villages, I don’t think their feud will continue with the wolves.”

A tiger snorted. Another made a snarky remark and walked back into the trees, probably to the real location of their village.

“What did he say?” Eddie whispered to Chen.

Chen replied with a cringe. “Something like ‘Don’t get your hopes up. Wolves still suck.’ That kind of thing.”

Everyone in the Seven nodded.

“Did you notice that those tigers had five toes?” Eddie hissed to Semour when they walked down.

Happy to be going downhill, Semour nodded. “Yep. They aren’t quite the same as Howie. Weres—yes. But I’m not sure they were witch created.”

“Still allergic to honey, though,” Daniel said, going down with them.

All of them nodded.

“By the way, where is my honey?” Daniel asked, looking around among them.

Andy cringed, pointing back up the hill. “Sorry. I accidentally chucked it at the demon during the skirmish when he tried to bite me. The bottle is back there.”

“We don’t need it anyway,” Rick said hastily, hoping Daniel was not going to go back for it. “Those are the only were-beings that I know of that we need to visit.”

They looked to him, thinking on that as they went down. Then Andy asked when they neared the main path, “Where do we have to go next? And you are not intending to ditch us again along the way, are you?”

His face feeling hot, Rick tromped down further, replying, “We are going to Xinghua next. But honestly I don’t know why. Your guess is as good as mine. But I genuinely do have business here and there which you really don’t need to follow me to.”

“I think we can be the judges of that,” Andy said. The air felt heavy with those words. Rick could feel them settle on his shoulders like heavy sand. The sensation itched, making him just want to walk away faster.

Rick groaned as he marched on. “Oh for pity’s… Are you never going to trust me now?”

“Nope,” Semour called down to him.

Eddie swatted Semour. But at least Semour was being honest about it. James and Daniel were averting their eyes and Andy frowned at him.

Once they reached the road, they returned to the hotel via two taxis. Chen rode in one to talk to the taxi driver for Eddie, Tom, and Semour. Rick went in the other with Andy, James, and Daniel. They arrived at the hotel well into the afternoon. The second they were on the curb Tom announced he was starving and demanded they find a restaurant.

Chen dragged them to a KFC.

“Who’d a thought KFC was in China…?” Eddie murmured when they sat down at a table on the second floor. They had found two tables that overlooked the street, giving them a view of the traffic below. Most of the locals in the restaurant stared at the foreigners with wide eyes, whispering to one another about the laowai. Kids in Hello Kitty shirts and teens wearing American flags with weird misspelled phrases in English on them had watched as they had ascended the stairs in the crowded restaurant. Most of them thought it was surreal, considering China was still supposed to be communist.

Rick rolled his eyes, pulling out a chair. “KFC is everywhere. So is McDonalds. Their success is due to adaptation and location.”

“You are sounding more like a businessman every day,” Andy said, drawing out a seat also and sitting in it.

Rick shrugged, opening his wrapper and biting into his spicy chicken wing. Almost all of the chicken in the restaurant was spicy. KFC in China had adapted so much that they sold Beijing duck wraps, congee at breakfast, and had red bean pies for sale. Their current toy for kids was a stuffed Hello Kitty doll in superhero clothes. Eddie had bought one and was taking pictures of them all, making the victory sign. A couple teens had actually asked to have a selfie with Tom on the first floor, to which he happily obliged—as if he were a superstar. Daniel seemed deep in thought, though, munching on french-fries.

Daniel finally said, “Why would a nation work to get rid of their past?”

“Huh?” Eddie looked over to them, digging through his fries. “Who are we talking about?”

“Maybe they were ashamed of it,” Andy murmured while unwrapping his chicken burger.

Daniel shook his head, nibbling on a chicken finger. “I don’t think so.” He looked to Chen. “That… Cultural Revolution. You said they were getting rid of the four olds. What were they again?”

Swallowing his mouthful of cola first, Chen said, “Old ideas, old culture, old customs, and old habits.”

Frowning, Daniel nodded. “Yeah. Thanks. But why try to get rid of all that? China has a rich culture. Ancient. One to be proud of. You had Confucius, for pity’s sake. Emperors. Dynasties.”

Nodding, Chen said with a small thinking smile, “We know that. But it wasn’t about that.”

“Well, it kinda was,” Rick said, taking another bite of his chicken.

Chen shot him a look.

“It was political,” Rick said seriously. “To build up a totalitarian ideology you have to destroy centuries of common sense and perspective on your past. If you made old things the villain, the rising generation will disregard wisdom and follow the current trend—you know ‘new is better’, an ideology which is total nonsense.”

“That’s sounds like modern America to me,” Semour muttered. He opened another box, taking out fried shrimp… which he had thought was a funny thing to find on a KFC menu.  

“Of course China has had to bear the brunt of the damage since,” Rick continued, chewing to one side.

Andy frowned darkly, pointing his sandwich at him. “You mean the deaths of—”

“More than that,” Rick explained. He took another bite, chewing before a bit. “China was once an ancient superpower, but they got themselves stuck behind the times with that dragon lady empress and the entire communist thing. Which was why China was a developing nation in the early 2000’s and has some of the worst pollution in the world, just trying to catch up with the other industrial nations. Command economies suck at progress. Innovation just stifles.”

“And now you are sounding even more like a businessman,” Andy remarked.

Rick smirked as he swallowed. Clearing his throat, he said, “I’ve studied economics. And no social program created by a top heavy government has ever improved a nation economically. Such nations