Perhaps eight months after his birth, Kai Lan went for what his mother called a ‘play date’ with two other children in their community. A baby girl a few months younger than Kai Lan who was named Tong Ran Ran, and a boy about a year old who could stand named Wu Do Han.

Kai Lan was confused at first at his mother placing him on the soft mat with all the toys and these two strangers. He had taken one look at them and turned to follow his mother, but Ning Wei had just chuckled.

“I’m right here, Xiao Kai, you play with Xiao Ran and Xiao Han,” then Ning Wei had turned to start talking with the mothers of the two other children.

Kai Lan had sat back on his bottom, confused as he looked up at his mother. These two? But he didn’t know them. And they didn’t smell of anything but a baby. They didn’t smell like a soothing soup like his mother, nor of the herb gardens like his father. They were just…

Kai Lan turned back towards the two others with a sudden realisation. They weren’t connected to any of the elements. That was why they didn’t smell like anything but themselves.

Ran Ran, who was in the process of trying to fit a triangle into a circular hole of a plastic toy, sensed a gaze on her and looked over towards the new arrival on the play mat. He was dressed in a simple green shirt and brown shorts, but he was far prettier than Do Han. Do Han was smelly too, but this boy wasn’t. In fact, this boy was really pretty. With silky black hair and green eyes like gem stones, his pale skin pudgy and blemish free.

Ran Ran could only stare as the boy crawled towards her. He arrived beside her, sitting back on his bottom before he looked down at her hands.

Kai Lan looked at the triangle shape, then at the plastic ball the girl was trying to fit it into through a circular hole. Kai Lan then reached out and grabbed the plastic ball and turned it until he found the triangle hole and faced it towards Ran Ran.

Ran Ran looked down at it with a frown. Why did he move it? What was the point of that, the stupid triangle still wouldn’t go into- oh!

The triangle easily slid through the hole and she let it go. It rattled as it fell into the ball and Ran Ran brought the hole closer to look inside. The triangle was indeed in there. Ran Ran then looked up at Kai Lan who was busy picking up the square shape. Kai Lan offered it to her and Ran Ran took it, then tried to fit it into the triangle hole. Was this the magic hole that would make the shapes go in?

No, it didn’t look like it. Then Kai Lan reached forward and moved the ball again until the square hole faced Ran Ran. Ran Ran looked at it, then at Kai Lan before she placed the shape into the hole and it dropped inside.

Ran Ran looked over at Kai Lan again. What was this magic?

Kai Lan then looked over at the other boy who was playing with a toy truck, rolling it back and forth on its wheels.

He watched for a moment, then felt something hit his chest.

“Ran Ran!” snapped one of the women, Ran Ran’s mother, Cai Fang, “We don’t throw things! I’m so sorry Ning-ah-”

Kai Lan ignored the outburst, looking at the circle shape that Ran Ran had thrown and picking it up before he turned to the ball and placed it in the circle hole. Ran Ran dragged the circle hole towards her to look inside and was dumbfounded again. Her gaze turned to Kai Lan as if asking, ‘How did you do that?’

The remaining mother, Yi Yi, chuckled, “Xiao Kai is so adorable, Ning-ah, such a gentleman! He looks to all the world like he’s doting on Ran Ran!”

The other two mothers watched the children a moment longer, with Ran Ran watching as Kai Lan never struggled to fit the shapes into the right holes, and Ran Ran watching on in shock. After a moment, the other two women giggled as well.

“Does he play that often, Ah-Ning?”

Ning Wei smiled, “Not often no. We do have one at home but after a few days of playing with it, Xiao Kai almost seemed to grow bored of it. Wu Lan took to getting more complex toys to challenge him more”.

“He is only eight months, isn’t he?” asked Yi Yi.

Ning Wei nodded, “He is. It does scare me sometimes how much he seems to understand. It almost makes me feel like an incompetent parent”.

Yi Yi scoffed, “I would be raving if I had such a son. I love Do Han dearly and wouldn’t replace him for the world, but I do admit to feeling jealous that Kai Lan is not my son”.

Cai Fang sighed, after she returned from opening the cage and letting the shapes fall out again before she placed it back together handed it back to the two, “Aye, I can’t get over how shocked Ran Ran looks every time Kai Lan places a shape in the right hole. It’s priceless”.

Yi Yi grinned, “Want to bet that Kai Lan can teach her how to do it by the end of today?”

Cai Fang grinned, “You’re on, 5 Spirit Dollars, Kai Lan might be smart for his age, but he doesn’t seem like the teaching type”.

Yi Yi turned to Ning Wei questioningly.

Ning Wei shook her head, “No, not me, I think I shall just watch this one”.

“Very well,” Yi Yi stated, “You can be judge”.

Kai Lan, unaware of the mothers’ bet, continued to play with Ran Ran at her insistence, though quickly grew bored with the repetitive shapes in holes. He looked around him for other toys, finding a car much like Do Han’s truck. Do Han, noticing the other boy with the car, moved closer on shaky legs. Do Han had of course noticed the other boy, and had been watching Ran Ran’s fixation on him. Do Han was not necessarily jealous, it was more than he and Ran Ran had never really liked the same games, and a small part of Do Han had hoped that the new addition would play more with him. Do Han, being the oldest of the three, took the car from Kai Lan’s hand and rolled it back and forth on the ground before he rolled his own truck back and forth. Kai Lan took the hint and copied his action with his own car. Ran Ran, seeing that Kai Lan’s attention had been drawn elsewhere, angrily threw another shape.

But rather than cry or wail when the shape hit him, Kai Lan patiently handed the shape back and moved the ball to the right hole before he turned back to Do Han’s game with cars.

The afternoon continued in much the same way, with Kai Lan splitting his attention between the two other children of his age. While unsure at first, he came to realise quickly that these two were both around his own age, and that they were unconcerned with the wisps of energy that most adults and older children were concerned with. In fact, they seemed blissfully unaware of them. Kai Lan spent his time with them trying to understand them, and when he left with his mother, he had concluded that concepts he had grasped were not as clear to these two. Particularly Ran Ran, though she had managed to learn that the ball and shapes were not magic much to Mother Yi Yi’s joy.

After that, Kai Lan started going out with his mother more. To the market in town, to visit others, to parks and gardens. To a place for children to go during the day. One that Do Han already attended.

And through all these places and all these interactions, Kai Lan grew more and more aware of the energies that surrounded him, and grew to understand each as both separate energies, and energies that worked in tandem to drive the world around him.