LOVE LIKE THE GALAXY (星汉灿烂, 幸甚至哉)

1

~*~

The building was made of mud bricks. Long and rectangular in shape, it was divided into three equal parts. The middle section housed the main hall and dining area where people would gather, while both ends housed bedrooms. 

Yu Cai Ling stayed in the east wing in a very simple room whose yellow plastered walls were polished till they were bright and clean. A large square stove that looked like it was made from clay was built into the floor, and though its design was simple, it kept one warm enough. Although Yu Cai Ling was usually calm by nature, what followed had almost made her nearly faint with fright.....

There was neither bedframe nor chairs in the room, just a flat varnished wooden board laid on the floor, taking up one-third of the room. Spread over it on one side was what looked like a layer of bedding, and beside it, a few round seat cushions and a very small square table for meals. Yu Cai Ling had seen a few old movies by Akira Kurosawa before, and felt like she was in a similarly barren, ancient Japanese interior. 

When she first woke up more than ten days ago, besides having a splitting headache, this very thought so terrified her that she lost consciousness again, wishing she was dead.

Actually, she came from a very small, 1800-tiered town* in Jiangnan. It was situated in a valley, surrounded by mountains, and had its own dialect and customs. It was once so remote they had never seen foreigners, other than the two who had somehow braved the mountains and the rivers. It was only when the young people working in the big cities outside returned home and described them that they learnt that those were foreign invaders. 

This filled old Village Chief Li with righteous indignation, and he told the villagers to give them sweet potatoes, yams and radish filled with rat poison the next time they encountered them. Unfortunately, no foreign devils came again, and the rat poison never got used.

It was only after the founding of the People's Republic of China, when the government cut through the mountains, laid roads and built bridges and tunnels, that her village slowly emerged as a little mountain town.

"Young Miss, it's time to take your medicine." A middle-aged woman came into the room bearing a coarse wooden tray. Turning towards the small girl holding a thick pile of cloth in her hands, she said, "Ah Mei, put the curtain down. It's cold outside."

Yu Cai Ling hurriedly regained her senses and sat upright. The woman placed the tray on the table. On the tray were two bowls, one large, the other small. In the larger bowl was filled with hot medicinal soup, while the small bowl held three small pieces of candied fruit. Yu Cai Ling raised the clay bowl in silence and drank it all in one go, the soup's bitterness filling her mouth. It was even more difficult to drink than DDVP*. Of course, she had never drunk DDVP before.

After that, she picked up the candied fruit, put it in her mouth and slowly sucked on it as she scrutinised the woman kneeling across from her. This woman asked Yu Cai Ling to call her Ning, but Yu Cai Ling wasn't used to calling others using just one word – it reminded her of the term the hairdresser back in her town's multicomplex used to call her, in a coquettish manner, as if she was calling one of her lovers – but since she was unfamiliar with the local customs, she dared not call her anyhow.