登陆注册
6740900000002

第2章 Shell(1)

1

To the best of my recollection, I only went out with Chun Chi that one time, when I was nine. It was the happiest day of my uneventful childhood, and also the saddest.

She took me to see the flower lanterns that day. Her suggestion surprised and delighted me. Why would a blind woman want to see the lanterns? I couldn't understand. Perhaps she just wanted to make me happy. What bliss, an outing with Chun Chi. Aged nine, I cherished every scrap of time spent with her.

It was like a holiday. I wore the outfit Auntie Lan made for me at Spring Festival, and my shoes were new too, never worn outside the house. Chun Chi even had Auntie Lan steam a few red date buns for me to bring along, in case I got hungry. Flower Market Street was some distance from our home, so Chun Chi hired a horse-cart.

At the lantern festival, we walked close together, but she wouldn't let me help her. I bumped into her again and again in the ocean of people. Because she often went out to sea, Chun Chi's clothes smelt faintly of salt water, soft as seagrass. Even in the midst of so many people she seemed a little apart from the crowd. She never let anyone hold her arm, and I doubt passers-by realised she was blind.

The length of Flower Market Street was garlanded with coloured lanterns, and we were buoyed along by the current of people. Neither of us spoke, except for a moment when we passed by a little sweet stall. Hearing the stall-owner calling, Chun Chi stopped abruptly and thrust some money at him, returning with a skewer of candied melon. I was startled — in all these years, she'd never given me anything. A little later, she surprised me again with a paper lantern. As I took it from her hand, the flame looked like a trapped cricket, leaping in fright before settling down. Already I felt something was wrong.

I munched the candied melon and held the paper lantern high, like a good boy. Even as she was planning to leave me, I followed obediently behind her like a tame deer.

Four hours later, we arrived at the end of the street. Chun Chi said she was too tired to walk a step further. She sent me to the cherry blossom cake stall opposite. I took her money and, still holding the lantern high, stepped across the road. Halfway there, I turned to look - she was standing exactly where I had left her, beneath a particularly resplendent cluster of flower lanterns, the outer ring of chrysanthemums beaming down on her, making her look tiny and lost. Although she was trying hard to conceal it, there was a fearful look about her face. This lantern group was called the "drunken concubine" . I made sure I remembered the name, afraid of losing her.

When I got back with two toasty hot pieces of cake, Chun Chi was nowhere to be seen. I sensed immediately that she had left me, but still waited loyally. The weather changed, a fierce wind coming in from the north, and what had been a lovely moonlit night turned malevolent. The crowds thinned as the drunken concubine's lights flickered out, layer by layer. Even the vendors were putting away their trays of chestnut cake and eight-treasure meatballs, ready to go home.

It was only when the sky began to fill with flakes of snow that I acknowledged Chun Chi would not be coming back. She had abandoned me; she had brought me to see the lanterns in order to abandon me. At this thought, hot tears filled my eyes.

I followed the last of the crowds out of Flower Market Street. Extinguishing my paper lantern, I tossed it onto a heap of other torn and broken things. The shrieking north wind at my back, I picked a direction and ran, certain that home was in front of me. The red date buns in my shoulder bag grew hard, thumping against my back like little fists.

A thin layer of new snow made the road slippery. I lost count of how many times I fell, and still I ran. At each junction I asked someone the way. When it grew too late for passers-by, I began banging on doors and demanding directions from sleep-startled houseowners.

It was daybreak before I got home, the snow still falling fiercely. This winter was longer than expected. Auntie Lan opened the door and saw a hapless snowchild, holding an empty bag, shivering on the doorstep. She gabbled in joy, "You're back! I've been worried to death. Haven't slept a wink. How did you find your way home, such a little boy? Miss Chun Chi said she'd lost you." She pulled me towards her, brushing the snow from my body.

Chun Chi only emerged when the sun was high in the sky. She stopped in the middle of the hall as if she had heard me breathing and wanted to listen. I watched her carefully, only allowing myself to calm down when I decided she wasn't angry. I lowered my head and went back to slurping my bowl of Yangchun noodles. It was as if nothing had happened.

She couldn't have known that when she appeared, I began weeping at the sight of her, so close I thought I could hear her slow, stately heartbeat. To hide my tears I bent my head even lower, until my face was almost buried in the noodles.

We went back to normal after that. Before the winter was over, Chun Chi set out to sea again. When she left, as always, she reminded Auntie Lan to take good care of me.

2

For as long as I could remember, I'd known that even though Chun Chi took care of me, she was no relation of mine. She'd never told me where my real family was.

Auntie Lan said the first time she laid eyes on me, before my first birthday, my eyes were fearful. Chun Chi was gentler then, but smiled no more often than now. She put me in the arms of the wet nurse, Auntie Lan, then walked away without a word.

Before coming here, Auntie Lan had already heard of Chun Chi: a strange old maid living alone in a big house with no family of her own. Blind, but not content to stay quietly at home, tramping up and down between China and the South Seas on a great ship. To a respectable woman as bound up in rules and regulations as Auntie Lan, life on a boat sounded disorderly, especially for a blind woman who sang for a living. She thought Chun Chi must surely be tortured beyond endurance.

同类推荐
  • 罗马帝国衰亡史

    罗马帝国衰亡史

    罗马帝国衰亡史(套装1—6册)》以堂皇宏阔的篇幅,叙述了罗马帝国从公元2世纪安东尼时代的赫赫盛极,到1453年君士坦丁堡陷落时黯然谢幕的1300多年的历史风貌。作者在近400万的洋洋文字中,既发怀古之幽思,悲怆叹惋千年帝国的无奈衰颓乃至烟灭;又阐思辨之深彻,诠释剖析盛衰兴替的永恒历史命题。
  • 三句半搞定商务英语口语

    三句半搞定商务英语口语

    本书涵盖了大部分的商务情景——商务交往、外贸业务、谈判、公司事务及商务旅行等,每个情景你仅需掌握“三旬半”——“半”是指最常用简单的句型。“三句”是最简洁实用的三个交流短句。如果你按照模仿、复述的学习方法。不断熟练运用到实践中,一回生。二回熟。来来回回想忘都难。三句半搞定你的商务英语口语,助你完成由菜鸟到高手的完美蜕变。
  • 翻开就能用 出国旅游英语

    翻开就能用 出国旅游英语

    本书收录了10个与本单元密切相关的单词。汇集了20个与对话相关的短语,包含上一部分的单词。经典、贴切、鲜活的两段对话。网罗了10到20个使用频率最高的句子,分门别类,增加读者的句式储备量。在英语学习的同时,增加一些与话题相关的小知识。活跃学习气氛。
  • 出国应急英语大全

    出国应急英语大全

    “语言的魅力,不仅在于说得对,更在于说得地道得体。很多的英语爱好者在学习时,总是习惯自己先预定场景,再根据情节进行口语练习。而这个场景因为我们的思维定势常常被中国化,而非英语国家的真实语境。在国外真实的语境中,对话是灵活多变的,所以很多学习者在学了多年英语后,还是无法与老外进行流利沟通,自然就无法在国外畅通无阻,随心所欲地旅行了。
  • 玩转幽默英语

    玩转幽默英语

    搜集西方流传的九类笑话:女人与男人、童真童趣、雇主与雇员、律师与警察等,结合实用情景,逐一指点,保证读者活学活用,幽默中玩转英语。
热门推荐
  • 发展的强大潜力

    发展的强大潜力

    怎样面对人生不可避免的缺憾,而不感到缺憾呢?既然躲是一定躲不过去的,那么就勇敢地去面对它吧。孤单不一定不快乐,失去不一定不再有,转身不一定不再回头——勇敢地去面对它,你也许就会发现缺憾的本来面目,你也许就会发现世界的本来面目。
  • 倾澄每天都要秀恩爱

    倾澄每天都要秀恩爱

    这个娱乐圈里,有个马甲贼多的国民男神,叫白宸汐。著名歌手和演员的神秘经纪人是他,某位人人都惧怕的人也是他,有个只有很少人知道的贼牛的黑客也是他。只是他们不知道的是,他也是女神白澄。某天顾总正在直播,身后出现了一个手指在电脑上面飞舞的女孩,嘴里还嚷嚷着:“那啥,我们啥时候去领红本本,啥时候告诉粉丝们我还是他们最想念的作者澄子阿西吧?”弹幕瞬间炸了:【啊啊啊!妈妈告诉我,这不是真的!我男神居然是女生!并且还和演技好颜值低的演员在一起了!】“宝贝,你告诉他们,”顾倾说着,揭开了塑胶面具,对白澄邪魅一笑,“我顾总的颜值低吗?”【多马甲女主X高富帅追妻男主】【娱乐圈/日常向/男追女】——2018.06.07
  • 斯金纳共和思想研究

    斯金纳共和思想研究

    本书主要从斯金纳的思想史观、“历史语境主义”、“无依附的自由”、国家理论、公民理论入手,着重阐述了斯金纳对思想史研究范式、共和主义基本概念和理论的贡献,并将其理论与传统观点进行了对比和剖析。
  • 神医弃女之帝妃倾世

    神医弃女之帝妃倾世

    她,是皇商嫡女,却因母亲早丧,倍受欺压。新婚前夜,惨死于继妹与未婚夫之手!他,是霸道强横的冷面邪王。冷酷无情,克妻克子!一朝重生,软弱嫡女变身天才神医,原本没有交集的两个人,被一纸赐婚!克死七任妻室?很好,本姑娘也想做一个克母弑妹的恶女!你敢娶吗?某王爷大怒:传令下去,哪个雄性生物敢靠近王妃三尺之内,格杀勿论!——————————————————————新书《邪医狂妃:帝尊,宠翻天!》火热发布,求票支持!请大家点击屏幕右侧(手机用户请下拉点击作者还写过)链接,或者直接搜索蛇发优雅即可。普通读者群:53847342,欢迎大家一起来聊天VIP读者群:641042010,5000粉丝值以上可进,请在普通读者群内加管理员验证。
  • 世界宝藏未解之谜(视觉天下)

    世界宝藏未解之谜(视觉天下)

    《探索·发现》编委会编著的《世界宝藏未解之谜》讲述了:财富因为各种各样的原因停驻在时间隧道里,它们或者被深埋在地下,或者被故意隐藏,或者被秘密收藏,而成为富有神秘色彩的宝藏。每个宝藏的背后,都有一个极富传奇色彩的故事,在历史长河中变得更加神秘。那些宝藏究竟在哪里?那些故事又是何等神秘?阅读《世界宝藏未解之谜》寻找宝藏的秘密。
  • 心理健康阳光女人

    心理健康阳光女人

    拥有积极的心态,可以帮助你更客观、金面地认清周围环境。拥有积极心态的人懂得在各种场合使自己保持良好的心境和稳定的情绪。境遇不佳时,会鼓励自己克服困难、勇往直前;志得意满时,又懂得使自己时刻警醒,不至于迷失。拥有好的能力固然是好事,但如果没有一副好心态,那么好的能力不仅无益于人的发展,反而成了缔造幸福人生的桎梏。在现实中,好心态比起好能力来,往往使人更快地适应环境,取得来自各方面的认同和事业的成功。
  • 英雄劫

    英雄劫

    有心栽花,无心插柳,擎天英雄亦难免,随波逐流!
  • 穿书后的那些年

    穿书后的那些年

    作为一名带着系统穿越的任(蛇)务(精)者(病),秦昭昭由看了许多年小说的经验总结出——一定要低调低调再低调!!虽然寄宿的身体是一名校园玛丽苏女主……但是!这一点也不妨碍秦昭昭重新做学生,过着低调惬意【划掉】的小日子。可是……随着系统任务的完成,某男的出现,离奇的梦……秦昭昭发现,一切远没有那么简单,沙雕玛丽苏剧情下,还掩藏着不一般的东西……【本文沙雕无逻辑,女主并不狂拽酷霸叼】【内含天雷滚滚玛丽苏剧情,慎入!!进入请带好避雷针!】【作者标准断更狗,不喜勿入】
  • 世上云川

    世上云川

    阔别重逢,魏如云发现昔日喜欢的少年廖建川已经成为当红男星,光芒四射。她为了追随他吃尽苦头,他的事业反而被她的痴情影响,两个人的感情出现危机。在此关头,廖建川事业上的对手寇世军故意接近魏如云,三个人开始了一场真真假假的爱情追逐战。
  • 二十几岁以后这样做女孩命最好

    二十几岁以后这样做女孩命最好

    每个女孩心里都藏着一个斑斓的梦,梦的深处坐着白马王子,不管你现在是否邂逅了,谦谦君子,青蛙王子,恐龙公子,或者依然在等待机会,人生主题只有一个,做个好命女。