My Name Is Zhang Ruolan

[Time Travel, Ancient Proverbs, Growth, Sadomasochism, Chronology 1959] My name is Zhang Ruolan. I am eighty-two years old this year. I was born on the fifth day of February in 1944. I am a monkey. I have lived twice in this life. For the first time, when I was fifteen and fifty-nine, I was so hungry that I dug reed roots on the ground and fell down. When I opened my eyes again, I found myself in a place with no telephone poles. There I met Shen Qinghe, a poor scholar wearing a blue shirt. He taught me how to read, gave me a name, and married me. Later he was killed. The person who harmed him was named Hou, and he was powerful. Crushing Shen Qinghe to death was like crushing an ant to death. Mr. Hou locked me in the backyard for more than 20 years and took away my children, thinking that this would grind me into a hollow shell. He didn't know that I was writing Shen Qinghe's name under the copy paper day and night. Then I woke up. The white walls of the health center, the radio broadcast in 1959. Those more than seventy years were just a dream. But my hands remember the touch of the blood book, and my heart remembers that person's voice. I filled my notebook with my dreams. When I wrote "The End of the Play", I raised my head - he was standing in the light of the door, wearing that white washed green shirt, and smiled at me. "I've been waiting for you for a long time."