True
Story
6,000 Steps to
Paradise 2
1,
A Stone Ladder
2, A Beautiful
Bride
19 November
2006
It all started in 1942, when
the most part of China was under Japanese
occupation. But Sichuan, protected by the
tall mountains surrounded, was untouched
by the war, and the life in villages
carried on as it had always been.
A Sichuan
mountain village
In one of Sichuan mountain
villages, there was a Liu family living
next to a river. And Liu family had a
six-year old boy named Guojiang who had
recently lost his first baby tooth. One
day, as he played with ants in dirt, his
mom was inside the house cooking lunch
for him and the whole family. Then all of
a sudden, a spell of pitch pipes broke
the silence, followed by clamours of
gongs and bellows of drums, which
reminded his mom that Wu’s son was
having a wedding with Xu’s daughter
from a neighbouring village. Judging by
the sound, she believed Xu the Bride must
had arrived. Feeling excited, she halted
cooking and walked out of the door to
find Guojiang. "C’mon boy, let the
bride touch your mouth, then new tooth
will grow sraightway."
So following the
time-honoured village tradition, Jiangguo
was led to the front of the bride’s
sedan. Slowly, a finger, that was white
and smooth as if crafted out of marble,
motioned out of the curtain, and slipped
into the boy’s mouth. Either the boy
was too nervous or simply too hungry, he
had his mouth water running. Felt ashamed
of himself, he tried to do the right
thing by sucking the finger dry, yet when
he did so, he only bit the finger hard.
A bride's
sedan
Xu the Bride was hurt and
tried to pull the finger, but it got
stuck between the boy’s teeth.
Embarrassed by the farce, she lifted a
corner of the curtain to give the boy a
reproached stare.
As the boy looked up, he
caught sight of her. The beauty and grace
of the bride stunned him greatly that he
was convinced she must be a fairy
princess. So there he was, standing in
front of the sedan, with his mouth wide
open, gawking at her, which effectively
brought the whole wedding procession to a
brief pause. And he kept in this way long
after the sedan was gone.
"Hi boy, ease off a
bit," a neighbouring woman advised
him, laughing. "Be a good boy, you
may then find a wife exactly like
her."
Ever since then, the
villagers found a lot of fun in
questioning this little boy with regard
to his future bride. And the boy always
replied in deadly earnest: "Someone
just like Auntie Xu."
3,
A Forbidden Love
(References:
numerous Chinese newspaper reports, TV
programs and online medias)
China
stories are told at wenhousecrafts.com
Pre 6,000
Steps to Paradise-Part 1 | Next: Under
One Roof
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