2 Questions Every Girl is Asking Herself

Chapter 11

My next stop was Wuzhen, which literally means "murky town". The faded walls and dark tiles give it a rather "murky" countenance.

Wuzhen is a 1000 year old town in Suzhou that rests on water. Similar in construct to Lijiang, without the vibrant glamour, but richer in cultural complexity. Lijiang is the glitzy diva in the nightclub, Wuzhen is the sophisticated girl next door. One is hot and spicy, the other cool and refreshing. Madonna vs. Drew Berrymore. Lijiang Old Town was the palace for the local ruler, whereas Wuzhen is a town for the common people.

For over a thousand years, Wuzhen has never changed its name, address, water system or lifestyle. The traditional buildings are still well preserved after centuries upon centuries of wear and tear. Some families have lived here for generations, and live here peacefully to this day. For city dwellers like me, Wuzhen is a far and distant dream. But once you come here, you quickly realize how very real and present it is.

The town is built on a dense network of rivers and wharves, with houses along the water, markets close to bridges, and white-gray courtyard residences with their colours mellowed by time. I've always found the way of life from a different time in the East extremely intriguing. In Wuzhen, they show you how it was done, everything from thousand year old pharmacies, wineries, herbal dyeing workshops, tobacco workshops, pawn shops, silk stores, foundry workshops, to what their kitchens looked like, how wedding ceremonies were conducted, what kinds of beds different members of the families slept in, how soy pastes were made, or foot binding was done.  

As I was walking along the narrow flagstone streets eating a freshly steamed "Ding Sheng Gao" – Must Win Cake (a hot fluffy, airy rice bun with a cake-like texture filled with sweet red bean paste; it's supposed to bring you good luck when you take entrance exams to work for the emperor), I got a text message out of the blue.

It was from Hong Wang!

"Hi, where are you touring right now?"

'Hong Wang is messaging ME?!' I fumbled with my Ding Sheng Gao, umbrella, purse and cellphone, suddenly wishing for eight tentacles like an octopus as I eagerly wrote him a response right away:

"Wuzhen water town. Small bridge, flowing river, cute house," I wrote. Face throbbing.

"Wow, you still remember this Chinese poem, bridge river home?...a girl I used to like just got married, got her wedding candy today. I feel a bit odd."

And then he proceeded to tell me their love story over text message. I was amazed and thrilled that he contacted me. I very much thought I'd never hear from him again after that dinner in Beijing. Why was he messaging to tell me about his crush? Did he really have no one to talk to?

"Is this the girl from junior high you were telling me at dinner? Why didn't you pursue her?"

"No she's a translator from my company. We dated for a while."

"And then?"

"And we didn't end up together. She had a boyfriend who wasn't in Beijing at the time. He's now her husband. I was breaking up with my girlfriend at the time...sigh...it's messy."

"So basically you wanted to steal the girl while her boyfriend was out of town, but failed?"

"I wasn't trying to steal her, if I'd wanted to do that, of course I'd have succeeded. We just had feelings for each other but felt there'd be no result. And then my girlfriend came back and wanted to get back together. Sigh..."

I wasn't sure why he was telling me all this. But whatever he was saying, he was talking to me. That's a good sign, right? And it was confirming my suspicion that he might like me. So there might be hope after all?  I needed to come up with an excuse to see him again...