True
Story
6,000 Steps to
Paradise 3
1,
A Stone Ladder
2,
A Beautiful Bride
3, A Forbidden Love
22 November
2006
10 years
had past. It was year 1953, by then the
Japanese had long gone, so did the
Republic of China. Now it entered the era
of the People’s Republic of China.
And
Guojiang was no longer a little boy, but
a 16-year old lad. His heart began
to throb with passion. Each night after
his day work on farm, he lied in bed
losing himself in thinking of a woman –
not any woman, but Xu, the bride he first
got his eye on when he was six.
Xu the
Bride, at 26 with four children from one
to nine, was now a widow. Being blamed by
her mother-in-law for being a bad luck,
she was denied any help and had to
struggle to bring up her children by
herself. Carrying the baby on her back,
she stood on street corner selling her
home-made straw sandals, 5 fens a pair;
and went to mountains collecting
mushrooms to boil in plain water for she
could not afford salt even it was only 6
fens a kilo.
Guojiang
felt for her, and his sight quietly
followed her every movement. He would be
in pain had she knitted her brows, and
felt joyous if she smiled. But whenever
they met on streets, he was flooded with
awe for her, and blushed to the point
that he dared not to look at her in the
face.
Before
long a chance for a close encounter
finally came. One day when Xu went to
fetch water, she slipped from the pitted
stone steps and fell into the river,
along with the baby on her back. By the
time Guojiang just happened to be at
home. Hearing the scream, he leaped out
of the house, plunged into the water and
dragged the mother and the baby ashore.
Since
then, they became close. Whenever he got
time, he would go to check if there was
anything he could do to help. For the
next three years, he took all heavy
chores around her house, from fetching
water to collecting and chopping
firewood.
Initially
to her, he was forever a little boy who
embarrassed her on her wedding day. But
as the lad grew into a fine young man,
gradually a subtle change had occurred in
the relationship between them. From time
to time, they would stole furtive glances
at one another.
Rumours
and gossips eventually spread like
wildfire. Some people went to warn
Guojiang to his face that he must not
create a scandal to make the whole
village ashamed.
The young
man gave not a hoot for that. He watched
how a rosy colour reappeared on Xu’s
cheeks and how her radiant smile once
again melt his heart. As long as she was
happy, nothing mattered to him.
But the
gossips affected Xu greatly. Fearing that
a tainted reputation might hinder
Guojiang from finding a decent bride, she
decided to disappear from his life.
One August
afternoon, 1956, Xu spotted Guojiang on
the street and quickly dodged away. But
Guojiang had already seen her and, as he
always did, went over to talk to her.
Hollowed
eyed, she averted her sight to him, and
said, "You’d better not talk to me
again." With that, she turned and
walked away.
It was
totally lost in Guojiang. He stood there
for quite a while with his head whirling
and mind going blank. On his way home he
kept mumbling to himself, "What did
I do wrong …"
When he
slowly sobbed up, he cudgelled his brains
to mull over each word she said to him,
and reflected long and hard, until
eventually an answer suggested itself.
Gossips! It must be the gossips that kept
her away from him.
Then he
should let her know what he really felt
about her. As he thought this, he jumped
out of the bed in high spirit.
Then
another possibility called to his mind.
What if she indeed disliked him? Would
she get offended and never want to talk
to him again if he decleared his love to
her? This dim prospect threw him back to
the bed.
But
looking back over the years, he was
convinced that she in fact liked him. A
confidence as such, again, perked him up.
So just
like this, he tossed himself up and down
as he weighted the pros and cons, until
eventually he said to himself,
"Hell, even she rejects my love, I
will always be there whenever she needs
me."
Once the
decision was made, his heart became calm
and mind clear. Quietly, he made straight
for Xu’s house.
When he
got there, he said simply, "Marry
me!"
She looked
up with a start - standing before her was
a man ten years her junior. She then
turned to view her four kids asleep in
bed. Her nose twitched and she began to
weep. "No … it’s not fair … to
you ... And your parents would never
agree..." Face bathed in tears, she
kept shaking her head, and attempted to
edge away.
With a
sudden release of a torrent of emotion,
Guojiang darted foward to take her by
both her hands. His eyes fixed on her
with intensity, and he bellowed, "I’m
serious, please!"
Her head
stopped shaking, but bent low, and their
hands were covered with her tears.
Next
morning, news broke out in this mountain
village: Widow Xu disappeared, along with
her kids and the son of Liu family, that
19-year-old young man Guojiang.
4,
A Life in the Wild
(References:
numerous Chinese newspaper reports and
online medias)
China
stories are told at wenhousecrafts.com
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