Have you ever been to Shenzhen? Have you ever worn a dress priced in four digits or a suit in five digits sold in Seibu Department Store? Have you ever eaten dried noodles with peanut b.u.t.ter of two yuan in Ba Deng Street? Have you ever visited Minsk Aircraft Carrier World? Dameisha Beach is covered with sunflower seeds sh.e.l.ls, cigarette b.u.t.ts and instant noodle bags; digging into the sands, you may find condoms of different lengths, thicknesses and sizes. Have you ever been there? Have you ever been idling about the East Gate, which is still crowded even in the wee hours? …

Jiang Youyou was never adopted successfully in Xiangfan Welfare Home when she was young. She was adopted twice, but the first time her adoptive mother got pregnant and could not afford to support her, so she was sent back to the welfare home at the age of seven. The second adoptive family was very wealthy, and she was fed and dressed up like a princess. When she wore a pair of small-heeled leather shoes with pink bowknots for the first time, Jiang Youyou felt herself in a dream. Her schoolmates envied her very much. Every day she was sent off to school and picked up back after school by an Audi. She could never forget the day of her birthday. She wore a small crown on doll-like curls. The white Tutu skirt set off her sweet cheeks, and the Swarovski crystal cherry necklace she wore was gleaming. Her birthday present was a Swatch limited-edition wrist watch of "Snow Elf".

The birthday cake for that day was as tall as a man, and all her schoolmates were invited to have a buffet in a revolving restaurant, where one could freely get endless ice cream of various flavors. After the banquet, they were all invited to see the film Harry Potter 2 (Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets), each ticket cost 60 yuan. No girl did not stamp her feet with envy. Nevertheless, a man got on her bed at the midnight that day. Her adoptive father slipped in her quilt and rubbed Jiang Youyou"s immature body ceaselessly, breathing heavily with unpleasant mixed smells of alcohol and garlic. He was crazy like a wild lion ravaging a lamb. Jiang Youyou cried helplessly but her adoptive mother played deaf and dump in the next room. She sighed and covered her ears, turning over. She only hoped to stop her husband from chasing after the beauties with Jiang Youyou"s body.

Finally, Jiang Youyou bit it hard at the moment when he sent his huge c.o.c.k to her mouth. Her adoptive father"s face twisted painfully. Holding his p.e.n.i.s with Jiang"s teeth print, he slapped her hard across the face and hurried away in panic. At midnight of her birthday, Jiang Youyou hurriedly packed up some clothes and ran all the way to the welfare home, crying with a bleeding nose, sobbing and swearing. She seemed to murmur curses against her parents, and accused them of giving birth to her and abandoning her soon afterwards. When she spat on the ground, the bright red nosebleed flowed into her mouth, warm, with the smell of rusty iron.

Since then Jiang Youyou was not adopted again and she never saw the second adoptive parents again. It was said that the whole family emigrated abroad.

Ms Fang, director of the welfare home, watching her grow up from a baby to a young girl, finally opened her thick lips and said on one day, "Or, you may go to another city for your development?"

After her graduation from the college, Jiang Youyou had been working in the welfare home, taking care of those disabled or r.e.t.a.r.ded children. Director Fang felt strange at that time how there could be such cruel parents who should abandon such a lovely baby to the welfare home.

It was a Sunday in the autumn. In the central yard of the welfare home the shadow of the phoenix tree was very cool. Fang Ruxiang, an old woman, was playing flying chess with several children when she heard the crying of a baby. So there was another person who sent a child to here. Fang Ruxiang shook her head. After telling the children not to disobey the rule of the chess and not to do anything just as one pleased, she went to the front door in a hurry, only to see pa.s.sers-by by the roadside. Perhaps the parents casting the baby aside were among them.

By the first glimpse, she found the baby was less than one year old, with extremely long eyelashes. She was put in a paper box, curling up like a cat. She cried loudly, which meant she didn"t have anything wrong with her throat and lung. On a piece of paper in an envelope was written the date of her birth, and a bag of wheat was at her side. She had her own name—Jiang Youyou, and it said that she was a child from a village and the family had already had two other daughters and was really impossible to afford the third. The name was quite humble, but that was just as well for the baby. As the saying goes, a baby with a humble name would be easier to bring up. Although she could not be said as ravis.h.i.+ng and stunning, she would be one little beauty in the future, and one could see this from her facial features.

After all, the smart yet rebellious kid would leave her to make a living all by herself in another city far from her hometown. A girl in her twenties went to a flouris.h.i.+ng yet strange city for her own direction of survival, with only a college diploma and a thin stack of banknotes, which was both comforting and worrying. Fang Ruxiang sewed a "thief-proofing" bag on her briefs, which was a pink underwear. She cut a piece off an old T-s.h.i.+rt of her own for the bag. Jiang Youyou squatted beside her when Fang was sewing, putting her head on Fang"s knees, grinning, "You really show me how an old mother pulls thread to sew for a travelling child."