Chapter 20 — The Illusion of Spring Peaches

On the newly turned page, I saw a slightly yellowish black-and-white photograph. In the picture, Gu Nan Sheng was dressed in a Western-style suit, his hair neatly combed, exuding an extraordinary aura. This time, I finally caught a clear glimpse of his true face—a handsome young man with bright eyes and a smile that was both gentle and quietly resolute. Beside him, Chun Dao had changed into a modern Western dress, wearing an overcoat, her hair swept up in a high bun, and her eyes sparkling as though they could speak. Standing side by side, their smiles radiated something profoundly luminous... the fierce faith of a new era.

Hesitantly, I asked, "What happened next...? After that... how did they end up?"

Hearing this, Zhang Ming Ming’s face flashed with a trace of sorrow. He answered in a deep, subdued voice, "Later... Gu Nan Sheng died, in the year 1910."

He had perished amidst the gloomy shadows of night, right before the dawn could break. Outside the window, the winter night bit with a freezing chill, while inside the room, it was so quiet that the sound of breathing echoed clearly. No one spoke another word. Silently, I reached out and touched the photograph, my fingertips gently brushing across their faces. In the picture, the two of them were smiling, their smiles radiant and full of happiness, as if time had never dared to carry them far away. A sudden tightness gripped my chest, and I let out a soft sigh, whispering, "They... truly looked wonderful together."

After a moment, Zhang Ming Ming spoke again, as if trying to shatter the heavy silence: "He... died during a covert operation. Gu Nan Sheng was captured by the Qing soldiers and publicly beheaded right in the marketplace." His voice grew choked, but he pressed on, "Back then, the imperial court hunted Chun Dao everywhere, and she was already... pregnant."

He paused for a beat, then turned to the next page.

In the new photograph, Chun Dao sat on a wooden chair, cradling a newborn baby girl in her arms. Her face was thin and pale, yet her eyes blazed with a fierce, enduring strength, as though she possessed the fortitude to single-handedly support the entire world.

Zhang Ming Ming recounted softly, "Thanks to Gu Nan Sheng's comrades, Chun Dao was secretly smuggled abroad. From then on, she carried her daughter and began a life of exile, constantly running while struggling to scrape together a living."

The next page. Chun Dao had now grown into a mature woman, holding her daughter inside a small photo studio overseas.

Zhang Ming Ming continued, "Chun Dao was literate and skilled with numbers, so later she worked as an accountant in a Chinese restaurant in Chinatown. She worked there... for the rest of her life."

I watched as the old photographs were turned page by page. In the succeeding pictures, Chun Dao gradually aged, her hair turning silver strand by strand, while the little girl in her arms stepped by step blossomed into a beautiful young maiden. The next page, the maiden transformed into a mature woman, and then photographs of a bustling, joyful family reunion began to appear.

Until... Chun Dao completely vanished from the frames. In her place, the daughter of yesteryear followed in her mother's footsteps, slowly stepping into her twilight years.

The final page. In the photograph, an elderly woman, her face etched with a web of deep wrinkles, held a young girl of about ten or eleven years old in her arms. Both of them smiled together, their eyes brimming with tenderness and happiness.

Zhang Ming Ming pointed at the little girl in the picture and said slowly, "This is my mother. When my mother was little, she was extremely close to my great-grandmother."

He gently lifted the corner of the photograph, his voice sinking low, "When my great-grandmother passed away, my mother stayed by her side until her very last breath."

I stared long and hard at the picture, gazing at the wrinkles on that aged face, suddenly overtaken by the strange sensation that I had crossed over more than a century to gently touch sorrows that had long fallen asleep in the river of time.

Zhang Ming Ming spoke softly once more, "My mother told me that in her final days, my great-grandmother was no longer entirely lucid. She would always call my mother Chun Dao, and insisted that my mother call her Xiu Xiu."

Surprised, I echoed, "Xiu Xiu...?"

Zhang Ming Ming nodded in confirmation. "That's right. It was the pet name that Chun Dao had given to my great-grandmother—Xiu Xiu."

In that fleeting instant, the image of the black cat with emerald-green eyes surfaced in my mind once more. My heart gave a sharp twitch, and the bridge of my nose burned with a sudden stinging ache. So... it had never truly forgotten Chun Dao.

After Zhang Ming Ming finished telling all these stories, I gathered Ah Li and returned to my own room. I looked down at the cat, hesitated for a moment, and asked, "So... what kind of world was the one we just fell into, anyway?"

Ah Li had just finished eating the pate in its bowl, raised its head, and leisurely licked its paws. "That was a world woven from the lingering obsessions of Xiu Xiu and the remnant souls left behind in that garden. You were pulled in because Xiu Xiu saw you wearing the exact same outfit as Chun Dao through that painting."

I was momentarily stunned, then suddenly remembered something else. "I can understand why Master Gu and Madam Gu appeared in that garden. But why were Gu Nan Sheng and his revolutionary comrades there too? Didn't... didn't they die elsewhere?"

Ah Li paused for a fraction of a second, replying lazily, "Gu Nan Sheng appeared because of his parents' deep-seated obsession. Their yearning for their son dragged a fragment of his consciousness into that world. As for his comrades... perhaps it was born from his own unyielding obsessions. His fierce longing to fulfill a lofty ideal unconsciously pulled a portion of his comrades' consciousness into the garden as well."

I fell silent for a short while, then asked again, "Then... where are those consciousness fragments now?"

Ah Li stretched its body out long, its soft belly smudged with a few crumbs of pate, its voice drooping with fatigue. "Off to be reincarnated, of course."

I let out a long breath, my heart instantly feeling much lighter. "Well... that's good."

Softly, I asked once more, "Ah Li, do you think... Chun Dao and Gu Nan Sheng might meet again in this lifetime? And what about Chun Dao and Xiu Xiu... will they... ever find each other again?"

Ah Li narrowed its eyes, curled its tail tightly around its body, and let out a lazy yawn. "Who knows."

With that, it turned away, rested its head upon a soft pillow, and refused to grant me another word of reply, obediently sinking into a deep, peaceful slumber.

A long time afterward, Li Shao and I once again visited the ancient town. In a quiet, narrow alley, I happened to catch sight of a young couple leading a little girl of about three years old. They looked nothing like Gu Nan Sheng and Chun Dao at all, yet within their eyes and in the curve of their smiles, I could still sense... something intimately familiar.

As they walked past me, I heard the mother gently call out to her child, "Xiu Xiu! Be careful, don't run too fast!"

The little girl lunged into her mother's arms, wrapping her tiny arms tightly around her neck, giggling brightly in the warm sunlight. The sunlight slanted down, and as I looked into the child's large, sparkling eyes, a fleeting image flashed through my mind—the little black cat with emerald-green eyes that used to act so spoiled against my chest.

The corners of my lips curved upward into a tender, relieved smile.

"That's wonderful... You all... finally found each other again."