Vol 1 Chapter 11 (1/2)
Chapter 1: Those First Years
Yi Xiu, how is Xiao Ye?
How is shi+namon san? Is your Sunny Doll still there?
We all miss you very much
[Reference to a popular japanese cartoon called Smart Ikkyu San (Yi Xiu) which was translated to Chinese and broadcasted froeneration of children in China ]
1The Start of My Memories
Where is youth?
Every teenager’s eyes are like a black and white cinema screen
Courage, impulsiveness, weak heartednees, curiosity, desire, confusion, sadness, disappoint…
Everything that is a part of the bright colors of youth is staged on that black and white cinema screen
When they are on stage perfornorant of theht inside our eyes
Because they are too close, close inside our eyes, we are unable to seem them
Only when they gradually move further away are we able to see clearly See clearly that everything is perhaps exciting, perhaps there are gains and losses behind the stories that aren’t exciting However, everything is frozen on fil, we can only stand far away by the side of tiather and disperse, gain then lose
This is youth Only when it leaves are we able to see clearly
[This part is really ritten and quite deep so I had a difficult tih withoutI think this pretty s and actions as a teen and it’s only once we grow older than we are able to properly view our actions and memories like on a cinema screen ]
I was born into a very average family that wasn’t rich nor poor My parent’s level of education wasn’t high or low In e of five, I have little recollection of them because when the little me was only one year and 5 months old, my little sister Luo Yuan Yuan was born so randfather [mother’s father]
At randfathers’, I was very happy I was the apple of his eye; a typical ‘honeypot’ (living in coed conditions) child
Grandpa was the best civil engineer in the area, he could draw circles freehandedly and wrote very beautiful calligraphy In his later years, he liked to read Jin Yong [famous Wu Xia writer] To this day, we still have his hand copied version of ‘The Heaven Sword and Light Sabre’, bound into a book like those exquisite ancient novels
Grandpa was born into an affluent faerine farh all sorts of hardshi+ps but no h, he treated it coolly with indifference The only thing that he wasn’t able to treat indifferently was his divorce with grandrandma took mom far away and married another man This man treated my mom very cruelly so randpa again, it was 20 years later At their first , mom had already become cold to the world and corandpa in tears
It was grandrandpa wasn’t to blame but he still felt remorseful and conscious stricken to randchild, his doting love for
According to ant and coveted petty advantages Once, she boughtwhen she tried to helpthat the shoes weren’t pretty enough Noher torurandpa, wanting him to hit her bottom Grandpa actually rolled up a newspaper and smacked her bottom tith it
Also, no matter who took a photo in the family, I had to be in it or else no one can even think of taking one I even wanted to be a part of ues So, in that era where photographs were a serious and uncoraphs of roup of adults with a little kid sandwiched in the h or cry whereas I felt proud
These memories were fro InI didn’t like hi me and wanted to walk so he walked by ht locusts It was norrandpa accoht s Because I liked theht to get children drunk When I spilt ink over randpa’s collection of ancient books, aunt was heartbroken but grandpa only laughed Early in theDawn’ [fa chair cradling low of the sunset
Under grandpa’s doting care, I was obliviously happy
—
At the age of 5, because I had to start primary school, my parents took me back to their side
I remember when my mom first appeared, I refused to call her “ this woman who came from afar who looked heartbroken As I loudly screaht me on the train to return to my ‘home’
Fro started
By grandpa’s side, I was a little princess I had the best things and the enerous love The entire world revolved around irl, my little sister was the actual little princess
My parents were really busy ork and they gave all their spare tirew up by ood speaker, acted spoilt and kne to make my parents happy whereas I was a person ouldn’t say “ tiht up spoilt so ere together, we fought over toys and food I was repeatedly told off by ive in to your little sister”
Through my parent’s ‘sisters have to live in harive in to the little sister’ teachings, the funnest toys had to be given to little sister, the iven to little sister and the prettiest dresses had to be given to little sister In suive it up without a sound
After countless times of ‘older sister yields to little sister’, I started learning to be obedientI often hid so but noould voluntarily let my little sister choose the toy first and whatever she didn’t ould bea word, I would quickly eat and leave; their laughter and conversations had nothing to do with me
I turned fro quiet and reserved I often longed for grandpa At that tiht about hohen I grew up and could go on the train alone, I would return to grandpa’s side Only then would I feel like I still had so to look forward to in my life
—
The picture that I re Mom would be busy in the kitchen while I hid in the corner by the bookcase flicking though ‘Children’s Picture Magazine’ Dad came back from work, when he opened the door, his first words are “Yuan Yuan”