Chinese Stories in English
1. Carry Me
2. Chance Encounter, A
3. Clone
4. Detour
5. Fighters
17. There for Him
18. Three Years In
19. Too Scared
20. Wanderer, The
21. What Luck!
6. Finding Love
7. Heavy
8. I Like You
9. Letting Go
10. Lost Love
11. Old Flame, An
12. Riding
13. Seven Years
14. Spirit, The
15. Survivor, The
16. Teacher's Pet
Selections from Mini-Stories that Move the Heart (触动心脏的微小说)
All Stories by Anonymous; Published on several web sites including:
http://bbs.tianya.cn/post-funinfo-6387326-1.shtml
and http://www.8s8s.com/xingzuo/aiqinggushi/31451.html
1. Carry Me
They went for a walk in the park every day after dinner. She was very delicate and every time, after they’d walked a little way, she would spout: “Carry me on your back.”
And he wasn’t always willing. Sometimes he’d squat down, pretending he’d let her get on, but as soon as she tried he’d scuttle off, and she’d go chasing after him.
He got sick a couple of years ago and went into the hospital. She would occasionally come to the park to walk by herself.
Toward the end she asked him: “Is there anything you’d like?”
He smiled and said, “I’d like to carry you on my back one more time.”
The most genuine moments are the ones we really yearn for.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2. Chance Encounter
She hailed a cab. After she got in she realized the driver was – him!!
They were lovers ten years ago, but her parents made her break up with him. They hadn’t seen each other since, even though they lived in the same city.
-- How are you?
-- Fine. You?
-- Me, too.
She saw he was still wearing the wrist watch she’d given him.
He heard the bells on her purse tinkling when she got out of the cab, a sweet sound, crisp and clear. He’d given them to her.
No matter how long we’ve been separated, we’re still in love.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3. Clone
In outsiders’ eyes, they were cute twins, brother and sister.
In truth, the brother was a clone, a warehouse for spare body parts. His fate was to live just for her.
The sister developed a heart problem when they were sixteen, meaning that the brother’s life had reached its end.
But she didn’t want him to die in her place. She ran outside but passed out in the street. He carried her back in.
He wasn’t there when she woke up, but there was a note: “Don’t worry, a clone doesn’t know joy or sorrow.”
Parting, certainly a kind of ending that can’t be put off.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4. Detour
This was my third time this year on a blind date arranged by my parents with a proposed marriage partner.
As soon as we sat down my mother began to talk about the young girl’s positive points. Her ulterior motive was that I really must chose this girl to take home as my wife.
When my mom finished talking, the girl’s mother started talking me up to her daughter.
Half an hour later the two mothers winked at each other and left the table, leaving the two of us alone.
We sat looking at each other in silence for a minute. She was the first to speak:
“Long time no see.”
After a long detour, we’re back together.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5. Fighters
They fought from the day they got married. Every little thing would start an earth-shattering argument.
Their son and daughter were born and grew up to the sounds of arguing. And they got older, too. Then it was “stubborn old goat” and “old bag”, constantly back and forth at each other.
Finally one day the children, choking back their tears, told their father as he was lying in bed sick: “Mom’s gone.”
The old man giggled happily: “Now, peace and quiet!”
Next morning they found that their father had stopped breathing sometime during the night.
Romance is slowly growing old with you.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6. Finding Love
I rode home from work with my girlfriend every day. I don’t know when it started, but a young man, a real hunk, was always at the subway entrance, leaning on a racing bike, making eyes at her. My girlfriend ignored him, but the hunk and his bike were there every day. Gradually she started to look hopeful, and was colder and colder to me.
That went on until, one day, the hunk held out a rose. “Leave him, OK?” “Of course.” She was very excited.
He turned to me and said, “She doesn’t love you. Be my boyfriend.” I took the flower.
Don’t be happy too soon.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7. Heavy
He’s carrying her piggyback. She asks if she’s heavy.
"You tell me, with the whole world on my back, shouldn’t it feel heavy?"
You might be just one person as far as the world is concerned, but for me, you’re my whole world.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8. I Like You
“I like you.” She’s said it to him three times.
When they were classmates in high school: “I seem to like you.” “If you want to copy my homework, just say so. I won’t mind.”
When he took over the family business and she was a secretary: “I really do like you.” “If you don’t want to work overtime, just say so. I won’t make you.”
When the family arranged a marriage for him and she was the bridesmaid: “I still like you….” “If you want to steal me away, just say so. I’ll go with you.”
Actually, I like you, too.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
9. Letting Go
A sufferer said to a monk: “I can’t let go of some things, and some people.”
The monk said: “There’s nothing that can’t be let go of.”
He said: “But I just can’t do it.”
The monk let him have a teacup into which he poured hot water, and kept pouring until the water spilled out.
The sufferer was burned and immediately let go.
“There’s nothing in this world that can’t be let go of,” said the monk. “When it hurts enough, you’ll naturally let go.”
In affaires d’coeur, some people would rather die of pain than put it behind them.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
10. Lost Love
They ran into each other years after they’d split up.
Man: How’re you doing?
Woman: Fine.
Man: And how’s he?
Woman: He’s fine. How are you?
Man: Good.
Woman: And how is she?
Man: She just told me she’s fine.
I still love you. How about you?
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
11. An Old Flame
She had a child with her when they met again, a boy maybe three years old.
He, on the other hand, had a pretty young girl on his arm.
-- You… How’s things? He spoke first.
-- Oh, really good. How ‘bout you?
-- Me, I’m good, too.
The man smiled and reached over to rub the young boy’s head. The girl graciously shook hands with her.
They exchanged pleasantries, but when each went on their way the boy and the girl asked:
-- Auntie, who was that man?
-- Hey, Cuz, who was that woman?
We’re still letting life pass us by.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
12. Riding
Nighttime, a young man has a girl on the back of his motorbike:
Girl: Slow down. I’m scared.
Young Man: No, this is fun.
Girl: Please, I’m scared.
Young Man: All right, then, tell me you love me.
Girl: O.K. I love you. Now you can slow down.
Young Man: Can you take my helmet off and wear it yourself? It feels uncomfortable on me.
-- The Next Day --
A newspaper report: Brake failure caused a motor bike accident. One of the two riders was killed, and one survived….
Even though you’re dead, it doesn’t stop me from loving you.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
13. Seven Years
He’d dumped his fiancée 7 years ago because he was going overseas. Now he’s had some success in his career and he’s starting to feel ashamed of what he did. He’s heard she’s had some tough times. He thinks about patching things up.
He goes to her fish stand in the market. She’s scaling a fish, and there’s a baby boy squatting beside her. He’s startled because the boy looks a bit like him.
She stops all of a sudden and, pointing at a man in the next stall, says: “Why ain’t you fed this kid yet?” He sighs and walks away.
She gives a cigarette to the man in the next stall: “Sorry ‘bout that.”
I don’t want to be your baggage. I don’t want to hand you a lifetime of guilt.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
14. Spirit
A ghost moved up behind him as he stood in front of the mirror.
Cold hands suddenly covered his eyes. “Guess who I am?”
The voice was icy, terrifying, but he calmly said “You’re a ghost.”
“Ahh, no fun, you got me again.” In an instant the icy voice had changed to – hers.
She stamped her foot, turned into vapor and floated back to the urn.
“Silly woman, twenty years playing this game and she still hasn’t had enough,” he grumbled, and yet his wrinkled face was brimming with happiness.
Though you’re not here, your spirit is with me always, and that’s enough to warm my heart.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
15. Survivor
He was in a plane crash and was the sole survivor out of a hundred-plus people on board.
When the rescuers found him, the medics all said that his injuries were so serious, it was a miracle he’d survived.
Later she asked him, really, how had he made it through.
He smiled and said, “While I was laying there I kept thinking, if I’m not around anymore, who would there be to keep you happy?”
He loves her completely, a true heart full of bliss.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
16. Teacher’s Pet
– Ten years ago –
He asked her: “Teacher, can I love you?” She smiled, “Silly boy, you’re still a child.”
– Ten years later –
He’d grown up and was getting married. She sent a gift but didn’t attend the wedding.
– Twenty years later –
He heard she’d gotten sick and died. He went to her funeral, and took his wife, and only then found out she’d never married.
– Thirty years later –
He came across his childhood homework book while he was moving. Written on the last page, in eye-catching characters, was the line: But I’m willing to wait for you to grow up.
An opportunity lost in a moment will be lost forever.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
17. There for Him
At age three he peed his pants. She took hers off to give to him, telling him to be sure to return them.
At age thirteen he went for one of the girls in his school. She shoved her wallet at him, telling him to be sure to return it.
At age twenty-three he went out without an umbrella. She tossed him one, telling him to be sure to return it.
At age thirty-three he lost his ring. She took off hers, which was just like it, telling him to be sure to return it.
At age forty-three their airplane was going down. She put the parachute on him, waving it aside with a smile. No need to return it this time.
She loved him, see?
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
18. Three Years into the Relationship
He’d never made a commitment to her. She’d hinted at it, sometimes clearly and sometimes obliquely, but he’d just smiled and said nothing.
This year they were taking a train to visit their families. Her home was several stops before his. Feeling lost, she asked him to wake her at her stop and went to sleep. He woke her up a few hours later: We’re there.
She looked out the window and strange scenery filled her eyes. She turned her head to face him and he smiled indulgently: Mom’s letting me bring you home to meet her.
Commitments aren’t only made by words.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
19. Too Scared
His phone vibrated. He had a message. “I’ve decided to tell it all, bro. Pray for me!”
He stared blankly at the screen, then replied: “Oh. So go for it.”
“I’ve been putzin’ around outside the dude’s door forever, scared to knock.”
“Pluck it up and knock! I got your back!”
“You think the dude’ll go for it?”
“How should I know? Do I have ESP?”
He dropped his phone. It seemed like his heart was aching.
The phone vibrated again. It was a phone call. “Open the door, OK? I’m still scared to knock.”
Dummy. The one I like is you.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
20. Wanderer, The
On the day we graduated, my girlfriend of three years told me:
“She likes the gypsy life. She wants to roam around foreign lands while she’s still young.”
I didn’t say anything…. Seven years went by in the blink of an eye. She suddenly appeared one afternoon in the falling rain, clad in a glorious outfit, and stood in front of me saying:
“I’m gotten sick of the gypsy life. I want to find an anchorage where I can stop and rest.”
The sound of her voice was still in my ears when a little child, not deterred by the cold, came out from behind my back and hugged me:
“Daddy, Mom says to come in and eat….”
Why didn’t you take me with you back then, to roam the world with you?
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
21. What Luck!
He slipped and fell on the frozen ground as he was getting off the bus. A sharp pain made him feel like his wrist was broken.
Another expense. The 1,200 Yuan he’d just made was for his wife’s dialysis, and he didn’t have his kid’s tuition for next year. He felt like crying but his eyes were dry. Then, just as he was picking himself up off the ground, he heard a scream and the people waiting at the bus stop scattered.
A bus that couldn’t brake because the ground was too slippery ran into the crowd. He didn’t get out of the way and was swept head over heels. He’d found the money for medicine.
A tragedy, but hope in the midst of despair.
To get Chinese text by return email, send name of story to jimmahler1@yahoo.com