Love
in China
True Story
11 November 2006
Recently
a Chinese media (The Chinese Women’s
Daily) has selected top 10 contemporary
true love stories from nearly 3000
entries.
Here
is one of them:
 
I only Have Eyes
for You
1
By the time Zhang
Jian (张剑) left home after
high school to go to Guangzhou looking
for work, he was just 19. Like a lot of
Jiangsu man, he has slim and delicate
features, which helped secure him a job
as security guard at the special economic
zone.
In the
neighbouring city of Shenzhen there was
an 18-year old girl named Yanzi (燕子), and like many girls
from Hunan, she’s tall, exquisite,
gentle and cheerful. After obtained a
computer-training certificate, she worked
in the office of a foreign-invested
company.
When Zhang Jian
met Yanzi at a party, they fell in love
at the first sight and exchanged phone
numbers. Since then, though both were
thousands miles away from their families,
they felt lonely no more. The young
lovers spent all weekends and holidays
together and cared for each other.
Some months
later, Yanzi followed Zhang Jian to visit
his home at a village in Pei County, the
birthplace of the founding emperor of the
Han Dynasty, and was warmly welcomed and
whole-heartedly accepted by his family.
Zhang Jian’s parents promised to
prepare for their wedding after they’d
grown a few years older.
At the time it
seemed to be a match made in heaven;
no-one suspected that the path leading to
their wedding would be so long and so
rocky.
About a half year
later, one day when Zhang Jian was on
duty, a white car crashed into a garden
fence and was badly damaged. Zhang Jian
dashed forward to help the driver, a
young woman in her late twenties, get out
of her car. Quickly he arranged for the
car to be taken away for repair, and
found a taxi to take her home.
Since then,
whenever the young woman, Rong, paid a
visit to her business friend there, she
would go out of her way to engage in
small talk with Zhang Jian. And if he was
not on duty, she would then invite him to
yum cha.
Once when they
sat down for a drink, Rong began to tell
him her sad personal stories. Zhang Jian
felt for her and tried his best to cheer
her up, and that somehow touched Rong to
the heart greatly. Few days late, she
declaimed to him that she loved him.
On hearing this,
Zhang Jian was taken aback. Once gathered
his thoughts, he fished out Yanzi’s
photo from his wallet to make it clear
that he had already had a girlfriend.
Rong was puzzled.
As the wealthy owner of a large trading
company, she wasn’t prepared to be
refused by man, let along by a poor man.
"But, she’s just an office clerk
… How can she help you in your career
development?" She frowned. "You’re
a man, surely the career success is the
most important thing in your life. Just
come to think of it, by sharing my
business and wealth, you can become a
successful businessman instantly.
Besides, I truly love you, does that not
matter to you?"
"But I love
her," said Zhang Jian, and believed
that was enough reason.
But that was not
enough for Rong to give him up. Quite
contrary. Zhang’s stubborn love for a
poor girl only proved that he was a man
of trustworthy and integrity, which made
him all the more attractive to her. So
she began calling him daily, sending him
gifts and cooking him meals.
That was not what
Zhang Jian wanted however - he worried
their closeness would hurt Yanzi's
feelings. So he resigned from his job.
Yanzi resigned too, and followed him
home.
A Jiangnan
village
Zhang Jian’s
parents made a living off a small apple
orchard. To help the young lovers start
own business, Zhang’s father gave the
pair 2,000 baby ducks.
As a city girl
Yanzi initially had a hard time adjusting
to village life and duck-herding work,
but her love for Zhang Jian made her
strong and she was determined to stick it
out. One year on, by the end of 2001, the
pair had earned enough money to open an
interior deco store at a nearby town. The
business was good, but the work was
equally backbreaking. As they could not
afford to hire staff, the pair had to do
everything themselves. And Yanzi’s
hands, used to fly up and down computer
keyboard, were full of cuts from metal
and glass. But she felt content and
happy, because she was with the man she
loved.
Another year
passed. And they thought they were
blessed, for they were able to live
together and work together, and as they
witnessed how their hard work brought
success in business.
Then misfortune
struck.
At the end of the
2002, Yanzi received an urgent phone call
from her mother, saying her father was
diagnosed with cancer. Next day, the pair
closed their store and hurried to her
sick dad’s bedside. One week later,
Yanzi was struck by a motorbike.
She lost her
consciousness almost immediately.
At hospital’s
emergency room, the microscopic
examination revealed extensive damage to
her brain, and within a single day, she
underwent two open-skull surgeries.
Peering through
the window to the intensive care unit,
Zhang Jian could barely recognise her
face. He darted out onto the rooftop, and
cried and shouted savagely. When he
eventually returned to the building, the
nurses noticed his bleeding lips and
blood-smeared hands. He was evidently
biting himself like a raging beast.
Yanzi survived,
but remained in deep coma. Zhang Jian
stayed at her bedside day and night,
calling her name, "Yanzi, wake up, I’m
your Ar Jian, please, look at me, I beg
you …"
But Yanzi did not
respond. One month had passed, Zhang Jian
had talked himself hoarse, yet Yanzi had
no sign of opening her eyes.
Zhang Jian fell
into a dark pit of despair, and life
force was slowly drained out of him. He
began drafting his last letter to his
parents and preparing for his own demise
… …
I
only Have Eyes for You 2
(Reference: 唤醒生命的爱,
周瑜 亦清)
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