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 as 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 since 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 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)
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