Cry Me A Sad River

Part 1-7

Translated By: epikey@tumblr

01

The morning fog rose in the longtang*, the gradually brightening lights reflected cloud after cloud of yellow glow on the alleys.

The morning was not completely bright yet, in the cold blue of the sky, you could still see remnants of the light from stars.

The temperature had dropped quickly in the past few days.

Breathing turned into frost.

The river froze three feet deep.

The distant bright, clear and shining day paused in the memories.

02

"Qi Ming, bring along the milk", just as he was about to pull open the door, his mother rushed out from the living room, in her hand was a packet of milk freshly warmed from the rice cooker, the steam rose from the packaging, "Hey, you boys must drink more milk, do you know that, especially boys like you in the first year of high school, how can you not drink it." After saying that, she pulled unzipped the backpack on Qi Ming's back before shoving the milk in. As her height was quite a lot shorter than her son, his mother stood on her tippy toes for it. After putting in the milk, his mother pinched Qi Ming's arm and started nagging again, "Hey, how can you dress so lightly in winter, this will not do, boys can't just think about being handsome and nothing else."

"Okay okay," Qi Ming answered in a low tone as he pulled open the door, "Ma, I'm about to be late for class."

The dense fog rushed into the room.

Above his head was the pale daylight of mid-winter.

It was still the wee hours of morning; the light wasn't strong enough to light up the entire longtang. Boxes, pots and rubbish bins piled along the sides of the longtang, only their grey outline could be seen through the fog.

Qi Ming closed the door along with his mother's nagging. Only half of "Early after school" could be heard faintly before being cut off by the coldness of the winter day.

Qi Ming lifted the straps of his bag higher, his breaths hung white in the air before him, shrugging his shoulders, he walked towards the mouth of the longtang.

Two steps in and he saw Yi Yao who staggered out from her house, almost bumping into him. Just as Qi Ming was about to open his mouth for a morning greeting, he heard the sharp voice of a woman call from within the house:

"Rush rush rush, are you rushing for reincarnation, why don't you die! Bitch that causes me to lose money!"

Yi Yao raised her hand and her eyes met Qi Ming's awkward expression. No expression can be determined on Yi Yao's passive face through the weak light of the winter morning.

In Qi Ming's memory, Yi Yao's expression as she met his eyes was a slow-motion scene that lasted the duration of an entire century.

03

"Fought with your mom again?"

"Yeah."

"What happened?"

"Forget it, don't mention it", Yi Yao rubbed the bruise on her arm from her mother's pinching the day before, "You know my mom, she's mad, I can't be bothered about her."

"......Yeah. Are you alright?"

"Yeah. Fine."

The morning of the mid-winter. The entire longtang was still silent. As if immersed by the dense fog, there was no sound at all.