His childhood nickname is Guiwa.
Gui is the tenth Heavenly Stem, chosen by his grandfather. His grandfather was a Taoist priest of the Hong generation at the Zhang Heavenly Master's residence on Longhu Mountain. He used characters from the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches to name his grandson. Gui belongs to water and is the tenth of the Heavenly Stems. Later, when they went to America, there were many Cantonese people there. Since Gui sounds much like the word for ghost, people kept calling him that until he became Ghost Kid. After being called Ghost Kid for so long, the name eventually became A Gui.
His full name is Mei Dehen. His father chose it. Mei Dehen means that everything is wonderful and everything is good. It's a fine name, but it doesn't quite suit the man.
He spent twenty-eight years in America. At five, he followed his father to San Francisco, where he worked the stove at Mei Family Cuisine in Chinatown for twelve years, fourteen hours a day. Then something happened, and he was sent back.
It was raining in Xijing the day he returned to China. Carrying a suitcase, he walked into Pomegranate Alley in the old city and stopped before an old wooden door. The lock was rusted shut, so he kicked it open. Weeds grew taller than a person in the courtyard. A portrait of Zhang Tianshi hung in the middle of the main room, and three spent incense sticks stood in the burner. Beneath it lay a letter his grandfather had left him.
He lit three sticks of incense. The ash curled into the shape of a tiger, and the Patriarch arrived riding one.
He tidied up the old courtyard, repaired the house, got the water and electricity working, and opened a private restaurant. The sign hung above the gate: Old Mei's Kitchen. Beneath it, in smaller letters: Old Mei's Kitchen, everything is wonderful.
He didn't advertise, and nobody came. So every day he lay beneath the pomegranate tree and basked in the sun. Then someone pushed open the door.
Mei Dehen sat at the worktable, burning incense, drawing talismans, reading fortunes from characters, and cooking. He never left Pomegranate Alley, but stories came looking for him.
At Old Mei's Kitchen, people came to eat. What they ate was food, but also fate.
