Page 216 - I Live in the Slums: Stories (The Margellos World Republic of Letters)

had come from the ground. He had said, “Go ahead and cry. Go ahead.” So the
hot-air balloon must have flown away by itself. Had her cousin jumped to the
ground before she had? Yiping felt that her face was burning hot. She was so
ashamed! She wished she could find a hole to hide in.
She didn’t know how much time passed before she heard a voice next door in
her parents’ room. It was Auntie Li.
“He didn’t come this morning. That’s the way he is. When you make a point
of waiting for him, he doesn’t appear. He plays hide-and-seek with you. I can’t
stand his always flying over my head. It’s scarier than a big horsefly!”
“He’s almost finished with his experiments. I guess he’ll leave soon,” Mama
comforted her.
“Really? But I don’t want him to go. Isn’t this strange? The year of the big

snowstorm, he slid into the well but survived. He’s really lucky.”
Sighing, the two women went to the hall. Yiping wondered why they were
sighing.
At twilight that evening, the sun was just setting, and Yiping was standing in
the garden looking at Venus. Venus wasn’t green, but chrysanthemum yellow.
“Do you see her?” Her cousin’s voice—distant and feeble—came from the
mountain over there.
Yiping looked down, a smile on her face. With all her might, she looked at
that mountain. She seemed to faintly see a white dot swaying in the bosk. The
sky darkened quickly. When she looked at the sky again, Venus had really
turned green.