Beyond the Logic of Love

Three years ago, fifteen-year-old Gong Chang went with his roommate to spend the summer at the boy's hometown. After getting off the train, they boarded a crowded bus, then walked along a mountain trail for an hour before reaching a shabby wooden door. His roommate fished a rusty key out of a hole beside the door and warmly invited Gong Chang inside. The poverty inside overturned everything Gong Chang had believed about the world in his fifteen years. He had thought the poorest people could be were a family of three living in a hundred-square-meter home with a car for getting around. Watching the family bustle about to prepare for his arrival, Gong Chang offered to help with some chores. The next day, Gong Chang went up the mountain with his roommate. The rugged trail made him fall several times. At first he could keep up, but gradually his roommate disappeared from sight. Gong Chang shouted, but no one answered. He called out again and again, his voice echoing through the mountains, yet still no one responded. Three years ago, twenty-one-year-old Zhao Yanyan encountered the only ray of light in her life. Because of that light, she accepted her imperfections, believing it was compensation from heaven for the darkness of her first twenty-one years. But soon that light vanished without a trace.