True
Story
6,000 Steps to
Paradise (4)
1,
A Stone Ladder
2,
A Beautiful Bride
3,
A Forbidden Love
4, A Life in the
Wilderness
26 November 2006
Deep in China’s
heartland in Sichuan province bordering
Guizhou and Chongqing, there is a vast
expanse of primeval forest. Deep in the
forest, there is a majestic mountain
called Middle Slope (半坡头) with its summit 1500 m
above the sea level. Deep in the mountain
where the dense foliage is cleft to a
broad open field, there was a hatched
cottage.
Next to the
cottage under a shed, there were baskets
containing wild walnuts, jujubes and
herbs; before the cottage on a levelled
ground, leaves of mujiang trees
spread out drying in the sun in
preparation for flour milling; around the
cottage along gentle slopes, there were
cornfields and vegetable patches growing
potato and sweet potato.
Somewhere off in
the distance, there was a lush grove
where beeboxes were placed and swarms of
bees buzzed in trees that bore with wild
fruits and had howler monkeys perched in.
Nearby in a hollow, bordered with stones,
a mountain stream rolled its winding
course through the shades. The water was
limpid, reflecting a green glow. When the
late afternoon sun slanted golden gleams
across the flow, a topless young man
straightened out his back, hands griping
a fish struggling to slip out of his
strong hold. "Pan!" this
20-year old shouted at a 13-year old.
"Yeah, Uncle Guojiang, here!"
the 13-year old hurriedly presented a
wooden pan to allow the fish to be tossed
in.
Barefoot,
Guojiang jumped onto the shore and strode
towards the cottage, with three kids
hopping around him, and monkeys hopping
around the kids.
In front of the
cottage, a toddler was doing its best to
take a wobbly walk. Next to it, Xu was
busily plying her needle. Seeing the
group approaching, she stopped her work
and took over the pan to prepare a fish
soup dinner. Then the family of six sat
under the sky to have a meal, in the
company of the restless monkeys springing
around for leftovers, and a flock of
birds that from time to time shove the
hilltops.
Soon the dazzling
clouds paled - the sun in mountains
forever retired early and in great hasty,
even during summer season. Having settled
the children into bed, Guojiang and Xu
returned to the open.
Outside was a
field of silver. The moon had climbed
high in the sky, illuminating the
landscape with its humble and simple
reflection. The pair rested on the meadow
slope, viewing the murky outlines of the
hills. As Xu caught a glimpse of the dark
mass of forest looming in a short
distance, and heard down the shallows the
stream flew fast in turbulence, she asked
Guojiang, for the 101th time since they
fled the village to the abandoned cottage
in the wild, "You sure you have no
regrets?"
"Here you
come again," Guojiang got red in the
face. "Do you really want me to rip
open my chest to show you my heart?"
"Shoo…"
Xu covered his mouth with her hand.
"I just think you’ve lost so
much..."
"I only lost
gossips, but I’ve got you!"
Xu averted her
sight to the sky, where the stars
spangling sweep of the firmament
flickered in the black space, like tears
twinkling in her black eyes.
Little they
suspected at the time that their simple
happiness was soon to be tempered and
they would be forced to flee once again.
One day, the
world suddenly turned gloomy above and
below as the clouds gathered thick and
dense, blocking the sun in all
directions. Moments later, a string of
freak claps of thunder exploded over the
little settlement and flashes kept
hurling down lightening balls, which
eventually tore open the sky. The rain
pelt down in wrath. Amid the intense
bombardments of thunder and shafts of
light, the mountain torrent rolled and
roared, and the violent spewing flood,
tumbling with white foams, shook the
foundation of the house, while a powerful
gust of wind ripped off the hatched roof
and tossed it down the gully.
By the time the
clouds rolled away and the sun
re-emerged, what was revealed in the
field sparkling like crystal was a
paradise lost. In the swirling mists and
vapours that lingered around, they
witnessed hopelessly their refuge was
reduced to a ruinous heap.
5,
A Hous on the Hilltop
(References:
numerous Chinese newspaper reports and
online medias)
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