Page 121 - I Live in the Slums: Stories (The Margellos World Republic of Letters)

CROW MOUNTAIN

I’d been waiting for a long time for Qinglian, who lived on the fifth floor, to
take me to a place called Crow Mountain. It was a vacant five-story building on

the brink of collapse. It used to be the municipal office. I had passed by it only
once, the year I was four. I remembered Mama pointing at the large, tightly
closed windows and saying to me, “This is Crow Mountain!” All kinds of
questions occurred to me right away. “What do you mean, it’s a mountain?” I
asked. “It’s obviously a building. Where are the crows? Are these windows shut
so tightly because they’re afraid the crows inside will fly away?” Dad was
standing beside me. I wanted to ask still more questions, but he cut me off:
“Come on, let’s go!”
Later we moved to another part of the city. It was Qinglian who told me more
about that building. Qinglian was only fourteen but already a beauty, and I
envied her. She always frowned as she said to me, “Juhua, Juhua, how can you
be so ugly? I’m embarrassed to be seen with you.” I knew she was kidding, so I
didn’t get mad. We had been talking about Crow Mountain for a long time.
Everything I knew about it came from Qinglian. Though I could still vaguely
remember that large building outside the city, I hadn’t been back a single time.
The city was too big. But Qinglian went every year because her uncle was a

gatekeeper there.
“They’re always saying it’s going to collapse, but actually it isn’t. It’ll be fine
for decades. It’s so much fun inside!” she said.
Year after year, I pleaded with her to take me there, and finally she agreed to
take me one Saturday. It was a Monday morning when she made this promise.
Those five days dragged on forever, because I was afraid she would change her
mind. I needn’t have worried, though, for we finally set out for the building as
scheduled.
On the bus, Qinglian frowned sternly and didn’t say a word. Whenever I
asked a question, she just shook her head.
After we got off the bus and walked along the dirt road, I began to relive all
my memories. Not far from the office building was a well. Back then, its water

had overflowed into the nearby fields. My dad had filled a bottle with the well
water and given it to me to drink. Now the well had gone dry, and the nearby
paddy fields had also disappeared and turned into wasteland.
“When we reach Crow Mountain, you can’t just keep asking questions.”