The Promise of Muyang

Six-year-old Xia Zilin poked the smooth, slippery cheek of the few-month-old Mu Yu, then turned to the two young women chatting animatedly in the garden and said, "Little sister, she looks so fun to play with."

The two young women looked at Mu Yu, who had plump little lips bubbling with spit, eyes wide, and chubby arms waving, and smiled brightly.

Five-year-old Mu Yu chased ten-year-old Xia Zilin around the living room again and again, saying, "Zilin, let's play a game. I want to be the bride."

Xia Zilin turned and caught Mu Yu as she ran into her, looking helpless. "I'm a girl, and when you grow up, you'll marry a boy and be his bride."

"I don't want to. None of them are as pretty as you, big sister." Mu Yu turned to one of the young women in the living room. "Aunt Chu, I want to be Zilin's bride."

The two young women looked at Zilin, whose brows were tightly knit even as her eyes brimmed with affection, and smiled with elegance.

On a day of thunder and rain, twelve-year-old Mu Yu watched seventeen-year-old Zilin stand unsteadily before the graves of Uncle Xia and Aunt Chu. She went over, took Zilin's hand, and looked up at her. "Zilin, I'll stay by your side from now on."

Zilin lowered her head and looked at Mu Yu's resolute face. The tears she had held back for so long poured from her eyes. At that moment, Zilin finally couldn't bear the pain of losing her parents any longer. She fell to her knees, held Mu Yu, and wept bitterly.

At eighteen, beneath the golden sunlight filtering through the banyan tree, Mu Yu looked at twenty-three-year-old Xia Zilin and said, "Zilin, I like you. I think I mean it in a romantic way..."