Fat Years - Chan Koonchung [84]
Shortly after lunch Little Xi had indeed gone online and very soon noticed Lao Chen’s post, after which she went to his Sina blog and read the entire letter. It made her whole body feel totally paralyzed. For the past two years, she had wanted so badly to find someone she could really communicate and share her feelings with, but every time she’d been disappointed. After meeting Lao Chen again, she had fantasized that he was different from other men, but in the end, or so she thought, she had become another woman. As she was despairing more and more, she discovered the church fellowship. She didn’t really believe in religion, but what she had found was a large extended family. Then when the Zhang Family Village rights-protection movement had come along, it made her feel useful. She never imagined that at this point Lao Chen would come into her life again, to declare undying love.
Little Xi sat blankly in front of her computer for over an hour. She knew that at another computer someone else was also sitting there blankly.
Finally, she posted an answer: “I’m no longer the Little Xi that you knew.”
“I like the present you even more” was Lao Chen’s immediate answer.
“I suffer from clinical depression,” she wrote.
“I know. I’ll take care of you,” he fired back.
“My body is decrepit beyond repair.”
“I’m proof of your beauty.”
“I’m not sure I want a relationship.”
“I’ll wait patiently until you decide.”
“I’m sure I don’t have time for a relationship,” Little Xi wrote.
“I can wait as long as you want, in Henan or anywhere else,” Lao Chen answered.
They went back and forth like this until after five in the afternoon, when Little Xi sent her last post: “I have to go off-line. Give me some time to think things over, then we’ll talk again.”
Little Xi went to help the fellowship prepare dinner, and Lao Chen closed down the computer; he decided to go to the church and look for her.
What the two of them didn’t know was that during the entire afternoon many netizens were following their posts with bated breath. After they left their computers, the netizens’ comments on their dialogue took over. Some said it was very moving, some said it was schmaltzy, some said it was cute, and some even said it was disgusting. Taiwanese netizens said they had to admire this romantic auntie and uncle, while mainland netizens said that no matter how you looked at it, it was amazing how they kept going. On the whole, though, these netizens reached a pretty unified verdict: “Stop messing around, Little Xi, make up with Lao Chen and everything will be okay!”
At around six the brothers and sisters of the Warm Springs fellowship finished their evening meal and came to the church with their hearts full of thanksgiving to wait for the witness meeting to begin.
Gao Shengchan and Li Tiejun had also just emerged from the county-government building and decided to say a simple prayer then and there on the street to thank the Lord for His grace. That morning at the meeting with the young and able County Head Yang, Gao Shengchan had said what needed to be said as though with the Lord’s help, stating his case thoroughly and in a dignified manner. Although the county head had remained silent throughout, Gao Shengchan was confident that Yang had listened to him attentively. As for how the official would evaluate the pros and cons of this case and what the fate of the church might be, Gao Shengchan left that in God’s hands.
When they left the morning meeting, the head’s secretary had come to find them, and advised them not to go too far and to be ready to be called back; this was a good sign. The two of them waited in a small restaurant near the government building. “Let’s say a prayer,” Gao Shengchan said, taking Li Tiejun’s hand.
County Head Yang conferred with his advisers, and then called the township leader and the businesses’ representative to an immediate meeting. The meeting lasted until after five, then Yang summoned Gao Shengchan and Li Tiejun to his office. Yang thought like a bureaucrat, but he was