China with the company of her cricket, a gift of good luck from her grandmother
prior to her matchmaking session. Now I seriously would have thought that
something like that would be an old tradition long lost. Not true.
I was returning from Zizhuyuan Park one day when I found a
really large underground mall. It goes three stories down, and has a lot of
little cubicle like shops that have niche specific items that you can't
normally find in the supermarket. There were dozens of plant shops, fishing
shops, etc. In one intersection of a couple of aisles there were several pet
stores, and one was specifically dedicated to birds. I was walking near said
store and there was this high-pitched sound like a fire alarm sound going off, and
I noticed the noise was certainly louder the closer to the bird store I was.
It wasn't until I practically had my ears pressed upon them
that I noticed these little wicker cages and lo and behold, crickets. They were
really large, about the size of my whole thumb, and unlike Mulan's these were a
brilliant green. They cost 30 RMB each (about 5 USD) which may not be a whole
lot, but much more than I would be willing to pay for a cricket, and I
certainly know that the amount of sleep lost with that incessant chirping
cannot possibly be lucky.
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