Scarring Jasmine-Chapter Forty Two Revelation

12/29 Sunday 44-62F Mostly Cloudy 

Another year passed. On July seventh, the Lugou Bridge Incident took place, which announced the beginning of all-out war between China and Imperial Japan.

While Jasmine’s life remained the same—She still lived in sister Gui’s place, working for tailor Zhang and spending the rest of her time selling her embroidered goods in the market. She had four hundred fifty silver coins now, which would allow her to rent a small shop and buy a sewing machine. However, she was hesitant--The situation of the society had become very unstable. On the street all the time there were demonstrations and protests; people held big signs and banners, calling loudly: “Down with Japanese Imperialism!” “Unite to resist Japan!” “Restore our lost territories!”

One of the demonstrators happened to knock over two baskets in the fruit booth next to Jasmine’s. The peaches and apricots fell on the ground and ran all over the place. The vendor complained angrily while he was picking up his fruit: “Asshole! Pay back my peaches! Every day you bunch of jerks bullshit on the road preventing me from doing business! I have five mouths to feed! What’s the use of protesting? I don’t care about who takes over the country. We folks have to survive first!”

A young man must have heard his complaint, thus he walked to the vendor and stepped on the peach which the vendor was just about to pick up. The peach was smashed. The young man scolded: “How could you say something like that?! It is our country; we must protect it! Do you know how many people have died and lost their homeland? Do you want yourself, your children, your grandchildren, all your family to be enslaved by our enemy? Your petty life won’t be secured if you lose your country! Just because there are so many people like you in China, we have lost our battles and land one after another! It is a great shame!!”

Whether due to embarrassment or to avoid conflict, the vendor kept mute. That young man was going to say something else, another man from the crowd stopped him: “That’s enough. He already feels ashamed! Go back to your demonstration!” The young man scooted a glance at the newcomer and obeyed. The new person bent down, picked up the rest of the available fruit and put them back in the baskets. Then he left one silver coin on the vendor’s booth table: “Uncle, please take the money, I apologize for all the trouble which they have caused you.” 

The vendor’s face cracked into a big smile. “Thank you, mister!” He said, meanwhile grabbed the coin into his pocket.

“Shanyuan, let’s go home. My parents must be waiting for us for lunch.” Jasmine heard a woman’s voice. Shanyuan? She lifted her head to look at that man’s face. Right at that moment, that man also turned his eyes in her direction. 

“Jasmine, is that you?” He called and hurried to her booth. 

Jasmine rose from her little stool and smiled at him, “Yes Shanyuan, it is me. Long time no see!”

She saw Shanyuan stop his eyes on the left side of her face, but he didn’t say anything afterward. “Are you all ok?” He tried to remain a calm tone in his voice. 

“Yes, I am ok. I divorced three years ago and came to Shanghai alone. Now as you can see, I am a street vendor, selling the things made by myself. I am very happy with what I am doing.” 

Shanyuan nodded, browsed over her booth, “They are very well made. I am proud of you.” Then he moved his eyes back to her; his lips trembled slightly. Jasmine turned her head so he could only see the right side of her face. 

“How is Aunt Xue? She lent my father five thousand silver coins; we always think about repaying her but just don’t know her address.” 

“She is ok. She lives in Yuyao with my aunt. I asked her multiple times to come to Shanghai but she refused. She said that she was waiting for an old friend who had promised to go visit her; she mustn’t fail him therefore she couldn’t leave.” 

“Shanyuan, may I have Aunt Xue’s address so my brother can return the money to her?” 

“I don’t think that she needs it. But I will tell you anyway so Mumei can ask her: South Mountain village, Yuyao county, household Jiang. He will find my mother there. How are Uncle and Aunt Bai? How is Mumei now?”

“My father passed away five years ago; my mother and brother live in the same house in Suzhou. They are fine. My brother remarried and is a father of a nine-year-old girl and a baby boy.” 

“I am so sorry about Uncle Bai.” Shanyuan looked up into space, “I haven’t gone back to Suzhou for more than nine years; and it was even longer than that since the last time I saw him in your house. Alas, time flies! I will go visit his grave on next Tomb-Sweeping Day and see your family. I am a teacher now, teaching in a university. These days the students are on strike for demonstrations; sometimes I help them a bit. This is my wife Jasmy,” he held out his hand to a woman, who stood by his side smiling at Jasmine. “We married two years ago, and now have twin daughters. My parents-in-law live nearby; today we came to visit them and it was so lucky that I met you. Are you living around?” 

“Yes, my place isn’t far. But you can always come and find me in this market before early afternoon.”

Shanyuan gave her a nod, and his eyes were still fixing on her: “Ok, sure. Please take care. I am sorry that we have to go now, but I will come back to see you soon. So long!” 

Jasmine also nodded her head slightly, “So long.”

She watched Shanyuan and his wife until they vanished in the crowd. The peach vendor came to her and thumbed up. “You know him? What a gentleman he is!” Jasmine didn’t say anything; in her eyes, the sky had turned grey. Jasmy, it was the nickname that Uncle Xiao used to call her. Now he had found his Jasmy, while she wasn’t that Jasmine anymore. Her first dream had long gone!

Since then, Jasmine started to have a special feeling for those protesting people, perhaps because she knew that Shanyuan was behind them. What he did was all right; what he supported should be supported by her as well. 

One late afternoon she went to the market to buy vegetables and found a big crowd gathering in front of a large white banner, on which some words were written in red: “One pint land, one pint blood; one million youths, one million soldiers!” An ear-length-short haired girl in the crowd was making a speech enthusiastically: “Uncles, aunts, brothers and sisters, our country is in danger! Japanese attacked Beijing, so what’s their next target? It will be Nanjing, Wuhan, and all China! Even though we, as Chinese, can’t all go to the front line and take guns, we still can do our best to fulfill our duty and support our country! How? By donating our money! Our warriors need weapons, trucks, uniforms and food! Our one pack of cigarette, one pair of shoes, one pound of pork, added up together will be the tanks, the bombs, and the bullets! Donate what we have now! To support our warriors, to guard our land, to defeat the enemy wolves!”

However, nobody in the crowd did. They either talked to each other, or just stood and looked around. Jasmine was very impressed by that girl’s speech, who looked just a few years younger than her but already knew so many things! And who must be a college student perhaps even from Shanyuan’s school. Therefore, Jasmine pushed through the crowd, walked to the donation box, and dumped all the money from her purse into it: The sum was about ten silver coins thirty-eight coppers, the turnover she had earned in the past few days.

The sounds coming from the silver coins highly encouraged the girl. She stopped Jasmine, held her arm, and spoke loudly: “Look, this sister sets a perfect example for us! She is so beautiful, but there is a cut on her face. Who did that to her? It must be either the landlords, or the capitalists, or the bandits, or even the Japanese! Uncles and brothers, do you want your daughters, wives, sisters to suffer what she had suffered? Do you want them to have a cut on their faces? Don’t you want to save a beautiful lady like this one? So, we shouldn’t hesitate and just stand by! It can happen to everyone! Let’s pour our money into the donation box, do what she just did! We must protect our families, our women!”

The crowd was stirred; eventually one man stepped forward, “I will donate, for my wife, for my country!” He emptied his pocket and put all the coins into the box; then some others followed him. In a short time, everyone in the crowd had transformed from onlookers to volunteers lining up to donate. 

Jasmine struggled away from that girl and ran out of the crowd. She felt awkward yet excited. Her scar betrayed their enthusiasm--It was neither cut by the landlord, nor the capitalist, nor the bandit, nor the Japanese; she cut it herself!

Since Jasmine had no money to buy vegetables, she returned home empty-handed. That day she only had rice congee for dinner.

A few days later after Jasmine met Shanyuan, he came to the market alone to see her. “Please don’t worry, do your business first. Later I would like to go to your place with you.” He said to Jasmine. Gradually the market became much emptier, he helped her pack up her goods and carry them to where she lived. Jasmine made tea for him, then they sat silently in her little room. 

“Jasmine, are you really happy?” At last, Shanyuan asked. 

“Yes, I am.” 

“Ten years ago, I missed an opportunity to say something important to you.” He rose to his feet and stood in front of the window, “I don’t know whether it is too late or not for a second chance, but whatever you want me to do now, I will do it for you.” 

Jasmine was stunned. She looked at his back, wondering what kind of expression his face was wearing. After some time, she stood up, found one pair of embroidered slippers from her basket, and walked to Shanyuan: “I was very grateful for every moment we spent together; you didn’t miss anything. Please accept these slippers for your wife, I hope she will like them.” 

Shanyuan took the slippers, watching Jasmine walk back to her seat, “Thank you, I will.” He spoke in a very lonesome voice.