Three Years Later
On the edge of Erhai Lake, there was a plain-looking hotel. Though it was called a hotel, it was just
three stories tall. Compared to other hotel, this one was rather small.
Although it was next to Erhai Lake, the location was not particularly good. The nearest hotel were all
hundreds of meters away from this small western-style building.
A woman in loose-fitting cotton and linen clothes, which were common to the area, was lying under the
veranda on the first floor on an old-fashioned bamboo lounge chair. The chair swung back and forth,
and the woman swayed along. Next to her chair was a square stool, with a pot of golden kumquat and
Pu'er tea, and a half-full tea cup. Occasionally, a few seabirds flew across the surface of Erhai Lake to
catch small shrimps that were a local specialty of Erhai Lake.
The blue sky was filled with soft, white clouds felt almost within hand’s reach. An old tree fell over on
the shore, and with the rise of the lake’s water level, half of the tree was submerged, so only the old
tree stump was left exposed. A parrot from somewhere flew by one day, which the lady on the lounge
chair now adopted.
Everything was calm and soothing, free of worries from the rest of the world.
A distant commotion drew closer and closer, which interrupted the tranquility of the evening.
"Boss, it's terrible! The couple on the second floor are arguing! Hurry!" Carol, the hired help, jumped to
the woman on the lounge chair.
"Okay, Carol, let me sleep just a little longer." The woman turned over and said calmly. The chair was
not spacious enough, so she changed directions, and continued to sleep. Her eyes were shut the
whole time.
"Huh? Boss, there’s trouble brewing and you still want to sleep. Come on, get up lah."
The woman on the chair, with a patient look, finally sat up in reaction to the weird tone from the helper
girl:
"Carol, have you been watching those Taiwanese TV series again? How many times do I have to tell
you, don’t imitate the tone from Taiwan anymore. You don’t sound the same, your accent is not like the
local accent... Carol, oh queen, goddess, your majesty... please, spare us mere mortals, stop poisoning
my ears."
"Boss!" Carol was angry and placed her hands on her hips. Too bad she was born with a little round
face that didn’t look fierce at all, but she thought that her appearance looked fierce, "Boss! I'm going to
be angry lah!"
"Okay, you go be angry, and I’ll go back to sleep." As she said, she laid back down again.
Before she could lie down completely, Carol grabbed her arm and said, "Boss, the couple on the
second floor are going to tear down our small hotel! How can you still be able to sleep lah!"
The woman on the chair hurriedly raised her hands to surrender: "OK, OK, Queen Carol, I'll go, I'll go
now, alright? Please don't speak using that accent anymore, it's too hypnotizing. "
"Boss, don't make fun of people like that lah."
The woman rubbed her temples to ease her headache.
"Boss, what's the matter? Migraines again?" The young girl was always straight-forward, without the
slightest schemes. The woman waved her hand, "I’m okay, Carol, help me up. I must just feel a bit
dizzy from my nap."
After she finished talking, a piece of candy showed up before her, "Boss, low blood sugar is low blood
sugar, don’t say you’re dizzy from sleeping. Don’t act like I don't know."
The woman readily accepted Carol’s kindness, silently picked up the candy from Carol’s palm, peeled
off the wrapper, and placed it into her mouth. The fragrance of rose lingered within her lips and teeth.
The local area was rich in roses, so its fragrance was everywhere. The candy that Carol bought also
had this kind of rosy smell.
The candy tasted even better after a while. Under the blue sky and white clouds, the woman slowly
lifted the thin blanket off her body and slowly stood up. To her, it seemed as if everything could be
toned down slowly. To her, time was the most useless thing.
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