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发帖数: 194 | 1 Chapter 2, Daishan and Xianke's 911
When Daishan wanted to prove to herself whether she and Xianke had ever loved
each other, she would think of September 11, 2001. Xianke's office was in the
north tower and he left earlier than Daishan as usual. Daishan arrived in her
mid-town office, a few mintues after 9am. She began reading scrolling news but
didn't realize the danger was just two miles away in the south. The news said
the south tower was collapsing and then it melted down. North tower repea |
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发帖数: 194 | 2 Chapter 6.1, The Private Return
While Daishan was lost in her wondering, Michael suddenly grumbled and turned
over, seemingly finally relaxed into the space, that he longed for a whole
night but Daishan had just evacuated. Daishan held her breath, watching him,
scared at the thought that he might wake up, but somehow she also expected him
to. Yet he fell sound asleep right after the turn. Daishan turned her head and
caught sight of some cash on the nightstand, all small notes, evidently what
Mic |
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发帖数: 194 | 3 Chapter 8.2 A Car Lost and Found
Daishan broke the exciting news to Xianke at night. Xianke was also very glad
and said, “Poor Lao Chen! He had to call for car service to go to the
airport!” Daishan had never been to Brooklyn area, so they studied the maps
for a while and figured out what subways Daishan had to take to see their car.
The next day Daishan walked out of the No. 5 train rather nervously. It took
her almost half an hour to make out the directions and finally found their
Toyota Came |
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发帖数: 194 | 4 Chapter 1, Daishan got laid off
Xianke and Daishan began dating in graduate school. Daishan had just
transferred to the new school to study computer science and Xianke was a Ph.D.
candidate of the same department. They were both Chinese and coincidently had
to do some TA work together besides taking a couple of common courses and
attending the same seminars. Thus they got to know each other rather quickly.
Then they happened to graduate in the same summer and both got offers in New
York City. Al |
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发帖数: 194 | 5 Chapter 4.2, Daishan Wandering on the Streets
After walking for about 20 minutes, Daishan found herself standing in front of
the Lincoln Center. She stopped to admire the buildings for a while, then she
found so many colorful flags flipping in the wind, so she went over to find
out what's going on. The square was decorated for the Tribeca Film Festival.
Daishan reviewed some posters and bulletin boards for half an hour. She had
read some news about the festival, such as "Down with Love, " starri |
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发帖数: 194 | 6 Chapter 5.1, Drunk in Flirting
Daishan uttered "Aah, It's you!" in a rather pleasantly surprising tone,
but with a certain reserve, and fell silent after that. She looked down at
Michael's hand, which was laying out the napkin for her, and found the palm
rather small, but the fingers long, stringy and sexy. Michael went away for
the drink. Daishan exhaled in relief and clutched her hand to her heart for a
mement. Soon Michael came back with the drink, handed it to Daishan and sat
down opposite t |
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发帖数: 194 | 7 Chapter 7.2 The Wedding Day
The next week Xianke and Daishan were engaged in sending invitations to
friends, booking flowers, making reservations for the restaurant, buying
decorative things, familiarizing with the church people and rehearsing the
ceremony on the previous weekend. On the morning of May 18th, they went to the
beauty shop to do hair first. Daishan got her nails and facials done in the
same place. Li Shu called over when Daishan just had the final touch on her
now painted face. Li |
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发帖数: 194 | 8 Chapter One Friday Morning in April
Thursday night, right before going to bed at 11:30pm, Xianke said to Daishan,
"Let's get married." Daishan has just tuned to WB11's "Everybody Loves
Raymond" and couldn't make sure how serious he was with such a proposal, at
this time and this place. She didn't move her eyes away from the TV screen,
but saw virtually nothing either, only heard "Put down your remote. We will be
right back!" Xianke did not fall asleep immediately, but tossed and turned a
whil |
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发帖数: 194 | 9 Chapter 8.1 Ever After
The next morning Daishan was waken up by Xianke around 7am as usual and asked
him, “Why are you getting up this early?” Xianke scratched his head and
grumbled, “Oh, my god, I forgot I’m taking the day off! I just wake up at
7am habitually!” Dasishan muttered “old habits die hard,” turned around and
tried to sleep again. Xianke still got up, went to the bathroom and then came
back, lay down again. He couldn’t sleep, so he began playing a string of
Daishan’s hair in her ear |
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l***y
发帖数: 791 | 10 loved
the
her
as usual he left home earlier than Daishan.
but
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
need some change here
said
~~~to
with
telecommunication
phone,
now.
swarming
began
checked
eyes,
At
north
were
--no
comma
or |
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发帖数: 194 | 11 Chapter2, Michael from the Gym
One and a half years had slipped away since that tragic day. Most people also
seemed to have forgotten how horrified they had been and how affectionate they
had felt toward other people right after the attack. Life went on, hour by
hour.
After breakfast, Daishan curled up on the sofa and began studying a GMAT
vocabulary book. This was her plan after being laid off: if nothing would ever
work out for her, she would prepare for GMAT exam and try to get herself
admitt |
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发帖数: 194 | 12 Chapter 3.1, the Beginning of One Weekend
When she finished folding laundry, Daishan found another sock missing. She
looked everywhere in the bedroom but it obviously didn't leave a trace at all.
She convinced herself that the sock must have escaped in the laundry room,
intentionally, like what Jerry had metaphored in one episode of "Seinfeld."
And she thought of the escaped women in "The Hours" again. She felt reluctant
to go back to the laundry room for the sock, so she just put the folded
lau |
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发帖数: 194 | 13 Chapter 3.2, Farewell Banquet
Daishan and Xianke went out to dinner with a bunch of friends to see off Chen,
who was going back to China soon. Since Chen was going to have Chinese
meals all the time once back in China, they picked a western resturant for
this farewell banquet instead of a Chinese one, which usually suited every one
better. People kept inquiring about when Chen was leaving, what was his plan
in China et cetra a while having appetites. When the main dishes came through,
they made |
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发帖数: 194 | 14 Chapter 3.3: The Car Being Stolen
Daishan raised her glass and joined the toast, a bit reluctantly. Putting down
the glass, she tried to concentrate on cutting the butterfly rib in her plate
again. She was still in the state of being totally surprised that Xianke had
planned everything out, and that he had chosen to disclose this info with
friends first before even consulting with her. She secretly casted a glance at
him. She suddenly felt so weird, like she had never known this guy before,
this |
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发帖数: 194 | 15 Chapte 4.1, Escape Under Proposal
When she was walking down the Broadway to the south that Sunday afternoon,
Daishan couldn't help but wondering if she had been waiting for such a chance,
a chance that Xianke would lose his temper and would mumble out of control,
thus she would have an appropriate excuse to run away from their life, to
escape from his proposal? She wanted to walk away when Xianke yelled out the
first "stupid" as defintion of her, but she waited till the cops came along.
The poli |
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发帖数: 194 | 16 Chapter 4.3, From the Park to the Theatre to the Bar
Daishan soon hated thinking about Xianke, hated fumbling about what he might
be thinking now. She tried to unfocus and let her mind drift. She went back
suddenly to memeories of Kevin, of his grand wedding ceremony, of his bachelor
night with colleagues in a bar close to their office. Kevin used to like
dragging Manhattanites of them to bars for relaxing on Friday nights. Kevin
had explained to her about all those cocktails and their names, Ma |
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发帖数: 194 | 17 Chapter 5.2, Ride with Michael Back to His Studio
The April night still felt cool once they were outside. The moon strode lonely
over the skyscrapers, flooding silvery light that overshadowed the beams from
the seemingly tired streetlights. In the distance there seemed to be some icy
blue-hued fog floating in mire. Sirens traveled through from several blocks
away. But this street was very quiet and the cars on both sides seemed to have
fallen asleep.
Daishan looked up at the moon over Manhattan, |
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发帖数: 194 | 18 Chapter 5.3, The Night at Michael's Place
Daishan went into the bathroom, closed the door behind her and leaned against
it with eyes shut for a moment. She then walked to the toilet, put down the
lid, wiped the cover carefully with toilet paper before she sat down to pee.
She looked around and saw bottles of shaving gem, after-shave water,
hairdressing gel, deodorant and cologne scattered everywhere on the top of the
sink, a couple of white towles hung on the back of the bathroom door,
newspaper |
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发帖数: 194 | 19 Chapter 6.2, The Reconciliation
Daishan struggled on bed, trying to sleep for half an hour and finally gave
up. She turned on the TV and found nothing interesting, so she popped the DVD
"Talk to Her" into the player. They rented the movie on their way back from
dinner at Changan last Friday night, but she never got a chance to watch it,
assuming that she would have the whole week to watch and rewatch. It turned
out to be a surprisingly fine movie, successfully depicting the desperate
fascinatio |
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发帖数: 194 | 20 Chapter 7, Planning a Wedding
After being majored as an enigneer for seven years and then professed in
industry technology for two more years, Daishan sometimes thought that
everything in her life had become somehow like one object-oriented programming
project to her, which once she had ideas of the big frame and the modulars,
she could finish the rest work gradually in perfect order. Now that Michael,
like a "bug" in her non-programming life, being fixed, she suddenly felt like
seeing ever |
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t*******n
发帖数: 4445 | 21
Toyota Camery, discarded near a garbage site, standing there lonely by itself.
~~repetition?~~
Daishan inserted the key into the car door, hand trembling a little with
~~door lock~~
anything valuable, reusable, were taken off and away; only the steel shell,
~~ had been stripped o |
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发帖数: 194 | 22 Chapter 8.3 Moving Day in June
It rained a lot in May. Daishan stayed at home most of the time, writing up
their insurance materials. She also went out a few times hunting for a new
apartment. By the middle of June, they had decided to take an apartment in
Forest Hills, which was actually a junior four, with spacious bedroom, living
room and a small study, but the rent was just half of what they were paying
now. Xianke was also satisfied with the place, though his commute time would
have to doub |
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