Eileen Chang - The Golden Cangue

Author: Yu Dafu, Xu Zhimo
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-10-01
Features: Thirty years ago in Shanghai, on a moonlit night, we might not have caught sight of the moon from thirty years ago. Young people imagine the moon from thirty years ago as a copper coin-sized, red and yellow, damp halo, like a teardrop on a Xun Xuan letter paper, old and hazy. In the memories of the elderly, the moon from thirty years ago is joyful, bigger, rounder, and whiter than the moon in front of them. However, looking back after thirty years of hardship, even the most beautiful moonlight cannot escape a touch of melancholy. The moonlight falls on the pillow of Feng Xiao, the newly married concubine's maidservant of the Jiang mansion. Feng Xiao opens her eyes and sees her pale green hand resting on the half-worn Korean cotton bedding. She thinks, "Is it moonlight?" Feng Xiao sleeps on the floor under the window. Those years were busy with regime changes, and the Jiang mansion fled to Qinhai for safety, with the house too small to live in. As a result, this room was crammed with servants, sleeping haphazardly. Feng Xiao vaguely hears a rustling sound from behind the big bed, guessing someone got up for a bathroom break. She turns over and sees the curtain lifted, a dark figure stepping out in slippers...