White Moonlight White Moonlight 02

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A Ren was a sturdy young farmer who had come to the city a few months earlier in search of his older maternal cousin, who lived in G City. He hoped his relative might find him a job so he could save some money.

A Ren was already well into his thirties, yet he still had not found a wife. He thought none of the village girls were good enough for him. His mind was filled instead with visions of the fashionable women who, he believed, ought to inhabit the great cities shown on television.

Perhaps A Ren was simply unlucky. No sooner had he arrived in the city and found his relative than an epidemic broke out, and a lockdown was imposed shortly afterward.

His relative had originally promised to get him a job at the steel mill where he worked. But an accident had occurred at the plant not long before, and someone had died. Worried that he might be held responsible, the workshop supervisor told outsiders that the death had been caused by the epidemic.

The news had barely spread when the mayor, already exhausted from writing self-criticisms, immediately shouted, “How dare anyone spread such a story!” He then ordered the relevant departments to force the factory to suspend all production and cease negotiations over every business matter.

The workshop supervisor had tried to cover up his mistake, only to bring about the factory’s closure instead. The general manager was so furious that he stamped his feet and cursed.

With the factory shut down, A Ren’s relative lost his job as well.

In his relative’s eyes, A Ren was a jinx. Ever since A Ren had arrived, the virus had come, his job had vanished, and nothing had gone right. He never took kindly to the young man, and would occasionally berate him over the smallest matters. He always ended with the same line:

“You little brat. You even turn your nose up at the village chief’s daughter. What, are you planning to fly to heaven?”

His relative had once asked what sort of city girl he wanted to marry. A Ren merely grinned foolishly.

“As long as she’s from the city.”

“You’ve got quite a high opinion of yourself, don’t you?”

His relative gave an exasperated snort and said no more.

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A Ren desperately wanted to make his mark in G City and give his ambitions a chance to flourish.

He had already gone over his “ambitions” hundreds of times in his head until he knew them by heart: to marry a city girl, he first needed an urban household registration. His relative had one. Therefore, following his relative could not possibly be a mistake.

Unfortunately, ideals were plump while reality was painfully thin. One misfortune after another kept A Ren confined to his relative’s home, where he had nothing to do. At a loss as to how to display abilities even he could not clearly define, he stood before the mirror every day, staring blankly at his muscular body. The only thing he truly cared about was obtaining an urban household registration.

His relative was always trying to send him out to find work. Unfortunately, although A Ren was built like an ox, he knew nothing about the internet and could not use a computer. To young people in the city, that was practically the same as being illiterate.

Besides, A Ren’s mind worked in a single straight line. Once he had formed a conclusion, it was extremely difficult to change it, no matter what happened.

Whenever his relative finished berating him through veiled hints, A Ren never got angry, because he had no idea that there was a hidden meaning behind the man’s words. His relative found A Ren’s reaction utterly baffling. At first, he assumed the young man was swallowing his anger. Later, when A Ren took the initiative to mention arranging an urban household registration, his relative was nearly driven to death by exasperation.

After that, whenever he finished scolding A Ren, his relative would speak plainly:

“How can you solve the household-registration problem by sitting at home every day? To obtain urban registration, you need a job in the city! And a house! Do you understand?”

A Ren felt as though the top of his head had suddenly been lifted and a flood of light had poured in. Deeply moved by his relative’s “advice,” he grinned and went out. His relative merely sighed and shook his head helplessly.

For several days, A Ren wandered through the city, walking from the eastern district to the western district, then from the south to the north. He admired the towering buildings and, at the same time, took in the young women of the city.

Though they all wore masks and were wrapped up so tightly that he could not see what they actually looked like, A Ren studied their silhouettes, the way they walked, and the sway of their skirts as their bodies moved. In his mind, he compared them with the girls from his village. That alone brought him a measure of satisfaction.

After a few days, with the epidemic showing no sign of improvement, there were visibly fewer and fewer people on the streets. The pleasing city girls also became a rare sight, and A Ren’s desire to find work diminished considerably.

His relative stopped berating him, but began complaining through pointed remarks instead: nothing in the city worked anymore, this was failing and that was failing, and it was all because of the plague. Listening to him, A Ren began to feel that there was no hope left. He started thinking about going home.

But there was nothing he could do. G City remained under lockdown for months, and the unfortunate A Ren could only stay trapped in his relative’s shabby room.

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That night, lying in bed and turning things over in his mind, A Ren decided that he should hold on a little longer. Perhaps he would still find a way out of his desperate situation.

“Great achievements are not bound by petty details.”

“This is the time to endure hardship and conceal one’s strength!”

…

Whenever he felt miserable, A Ren would silently recite every ancient maxim he could remember from his school days. Whether he used them correctly did not matter. As long as they sounded impressive and rolled easily off the tongue, they would do.

The old sayings his grandmother had once used to lecture him—“The bolder the people, the greater the harvest,” and other slogans popular in the last century—would also echo through his mind from time to time.

After a fierce internal struggle, A Ren’s blood began to surge, and his fighting spirit blazed up once more.

“Heaven, when it is about to entrust a great task to a man, must first…”

As he silently recited the words, A Ren vigorously pounded his powerful chest muscles and made up his mind:

“Just do it!”

Then, perhaps because he had been thinking too hard for too long, A Ren soon drifted wearily into sleep.

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