I admit I don't know much about Chinese tradition or customs. I'm going by what I learned from Mulan and various documentaries on NatGeo TV. I don't own Tintin, just my . If you spot a glaring mistake, please let me know, either in a review or a pm. Also Geography may be a bit sketchy. The 1940s' aren't great with air and sea travel.

Tintin and the Rest of His Life

Shanghai, China, nineteen forty seven. Two men, and a dog, sit in a train station, waiting for the train to Hong Kong. It was late, as is the nature of anything being waited on.

"Blistering, gad blasted, blowfish!" cursed the older man as he checked his watch yet again. "Why is it that we are always waiting for a train?" he groaned, leaning back on the bench and slumping sullenly. His companion was at a small gift shop not twenty feet away.

"It will come, Captain. It always does. Now, would the Professor prefer a map of China or a book on the history of the various royal families through out the past three thousand years?" asked the younger man brightly, holding up the two afore mentioned items. He would do his best to keep the Captain from getting into one of his famous grumps.

"Tintin, the professor would take the book over anything else. If only to make visitors wonder why such a book is in the library." Captain Haddock said wryly. "He may love calculations, but reading is a close second."

Tintin shrugged and paid for the book, tactic successful. Tintin looked up almost twenty minutes later to see, and hear, the train arriving.

"Finally. I can't wait to get to Hong Kong. From there, we take a ship…" Haddock began enthusiastically.

"It's called a cruise ship. And it will take us to Milan. We'll fly from there to Paris and then home to Brussels." Tintin said, knowing this speech all too well.

They had been with a tour group from America. A bunch of newlyweds and older couples, looking to restart their travels since the war had ended. All of them were idle rich and it had irritated both Tintin and Haddock to no end that these people couldn't or wouldn't believe that the smaller cities and towns of China didn't cater to tourists.

They expected to be pampered and waited on by the townsfolk and were outraged in a sophisticated way that their money didn't have an effect on the way they were provided for.

It was this belief that got the group in trouble. One young American, an heir to an oil company, tried bribing the wrong kind of person in Beijing. They still hadn't found his young wife's' ruby necklace or her entire travel wardrobe. The young man himself had been traumatized so badly, that he had sworn off travelling anywhere outside the United States.

Tintin had found a smuggling ring in Beijing, thanks to the young couple, and had been instrumental in helping to disband it there. He was quite certain that the ring extended further than just one city. One of the men he had helped put in jail had sworn to kill Tintin. The hatred and conviction in the criminals' voice had sent a tiny tendril of fear down Tintin's back. Captain Haddock had waited till the police officer had turned away, before he knocked the man unconscious.

Tintin dozed on the train, as Haddock slept loudly. They were getting odd looks from the Chinese occupants, all who were very reserved and carefully avoiding contact with each other. Not one of them were sleeping. Well, if you don't count infants and children and the very elderly.

The ride to Hong Kong was long and could've been boring, if Haddock had not woken up and promptly spotted the only pretty, young woman on the train who would talk to him and spoke English quite well. They were now talking about typhoons and hurricanes and how one became the other under certain circumstances.

"Tintin, this is Gong, Yin Tai. Did I say it right? Yes, she is attending college in Hong Kong. Yin Tai this is my young friend, Tintin. He's a journalist and we are both adventurers. Just came from Beijing after breaking up a criminal theft ring there." Captain Haddock said grandly.

"How wonderful. Crime has been on the rise since the war. Gangs on the streets, corporate espionage in the businesses, spies and double agents in the government. It makes me too scared to sleep at night, for fear that I will somehow become a target of someone trying to bring about my fathers' dishonour and ruin his business." said Yin Tai quietly, folding hers hands to keep from fidgeting nervously.

"What does your father do?" Tintin asked. "If it's enough to send you to college, it could mean he may be on someone's radar. But not necessarily a criminals."

"My father owns a trading business. It operates all over the Orient. He sends goods to India and as far north as Russia." Yin Tai said proudly. "I was once almost kidnapped when I was a child. My father saved me, but my mother wasn't so lucky."

"Our condolences Yin Tai." said Captain Haddock.

"Thank you. I was an infant when she passed away. I do not know what I have lost as I have not had it. You need not feel sorry for me."