“Hello, Mr. Luo,” she said.
“Hello,” he said, standing up. “Is it cold outside?”
“Not in the car.” Although he couldn’t see her clearly, he knew she was smiling. “But here”—she looked around her—”here it’s a little cold…. Er, I’m Zhuang Yan, Mr. Luo.”
“Hello, Zhuang Yan. Let’s light the fireplace.”
And so Luo Ji knelt down and put some of the neatly stacked fruitwood into the fireplace. He said, “Have you ever seen one before? Here, come have a seat.”
She came over and sat on the sofa, still in the shadows. “Oh… only in the movies.”
Luo Ji struck a match and lit the fire-starter under the wood pile. The flame stretched like it was alive, and the woman gradually took shape in its soft golden glow. Luo Ji gripped tightly to the match with two fingers as it burnt down. He needed the pain to tell him this wasn’t a dream. It was like he had ignited the sun, which now shone on a dreamworld-turned-reality. Outside, the sun could remain forever hidden by clouds and night, so long as his world had her and the firelight in it.
Da Shi, you really are a devil. Where did you find her? How the hell were you able to find her?
Luo Ji looked away, back into the fire, and tears came unbidden to his eyes. This made him a little scared to look at her, until he realized there was no reason to hide—she would probably think it was the smoke that made him cry. He rubbed his tears away with a hand.
“It’s really warm, and nice…” she said with a smile as she watched the flames.
Her words and her smile made Luo Ji’s heart tremble.
“Why is it like this?” She looked up and glanced around the dim living room a second time.
“It’s not the same as you imagined?”
“It’s not the same.”
“It’s not…” He thought about her name. “It’s not ‘dignified’ enough for you?”
She smiled at him. “My name is the ‘yan’ that means color, not dignity.”
“Oh, I see. Perhaps you think there ought to be lots of maps, and a large screen, and clusters of uniformed generals, and I’d be here pointing at things with a stick?”
“That’s it exactly, Mr. Luo.” Delighted, her smile blossomed like a rose in bloom.
Luo Ji stood up. “You must be tired from the journey. Have some tea.” He hesitated. “Or would you care for some wine? It’ll ward off the cold.”
She nodded. “Okay.” She accepted the goblet with a quiet “Thank you,” and took a small sip.
Looking at her innocently holding the wineglass stirred the most delicate parts of his mind. She drank when invited. She trusted the world and had no wariness about it at all. Yes, everything in the world was lying in wait to hurt her, except here. She needed to be cared for here. This was her castle.
He sat down and looked at her, and then said, as calmly as he could, “What did they tell you before you came?”
“That I’d be coming to work, of course.” She flashed him that innocent smile that dashed his heart to pieces. “Mr. Luo, what will I be working on?”
“What did you study?”
“Traditional painting, at the Central Academy of Fine Arts.”
“Ah. Have you graduated?”
“Yes. I just graduated, and have been looking for work while I prepare for grad school.”
Luo Ji considered this for a while, but he couldn’t come up with anything for her to do. “Well, as for work, we’ll talk about that tomorrow. You must be tired. First you must sleep well…. Do you like it here?”
“I don’t know. There was a lot of fog when I came from the airport, and then it got dark, so I couldn’t see anything…. Mr. Luo, where is this?”
“I don’t know either.”
She nodded and chuckled to herself, clearly not believing him.
“I really don’t know where we are. The land looks like Scandinavia. I could call and ask right now.” He reached for the phone next to the sofa.
“No, don’t, Mr. Luo. It’s nice not knowing.”
“Why?”
“Once you know, the world turns narrow.”
My god, he exclaimed to himself.
All of a sudden, she exclaimed, “Mr. Luo, look at how lovely the wine is in the firelight.”
The wine, soaked in the light of the fire, shone with a glistening crimson found only in dreams.
“What do you think it looks like?” he asked nervously.
“Well, I think it looks like eyes.”
“The eyes of twilight, no?”
“The eyes of twilight? That’s a marvelous way to put it, Mr. Luo.”
“Dawn or twilight? You prefer twilight, do you?”
“That’s right. How did you know? I love painting the twilight.” Her eyes shone crystalline in the firelight, as if asking, What’s wrong with that?
The next morning, after the rain had cleared, Luo Ji felt as if God had washed out this Garden of Eden to prepare for Zhuang Yan’s arrival. When she saw its true appearance for the first time, what Luo Ji heard was not the squeals and fussing and exclamations that young women like her usually made. No, in the face of such a magnificent vista, she fell into an awed and breathless state and was unable to speak even one word of praise. He could tell that she was far more sensitive to natural beauty than other women.
“So you really like to paint?” he asked.
She stared speechless at the distant snow peak, and it was some time before she recovered her senses. “Oh, yes. But if I’d grown up here, I probably wouldn’t.”
“Why’s that?”
“I’ve imagined lots of wonderful places, and when I paint them it’s like I’ve been there. But this place has everything from my dreams and imagination, so what would a painting do?”
“That’s true. When the beauty in your imagination becomes reality, it’s really…” He trailed off, and glanced at Zhuang Yan against the sunrise, the angel who had stepped out of his dream. The happiness in his heart rippled like the waves on the lake sparkling in the light. The UN and the PDC never imagined that this would be a consequence of the Wallfacer Project. If he died now, he wouldn’t care.
“Mr. Luo, if it rained so much yesterday, why hasn’t the snow on that mountain been washed away?” she asked.
“The rain fell below the snowline. That mountain has snow year-round. The climate here is very different from back in China.”
“Have you been to the mountain?”
“No. I haven’t been here very long.” He noticed that the girl’s eyes never left the mountain. “Do you like snowcaps?”
She nodded.
“Then let’s go.”
“Really? When?” she exclaimed in excitement.
“We can set off now. There’s a simple roadway that runs to the foot of the mountain, and if we go now, we can be back by evening.”
“What about work?” Zhuang Yan tore her eyes from the mountain and looked at Luo Ji.
“Work can be set aside for now. You just arrived,” he said perfunctorily.
“Well…” She tilted her head, giving his heart a jolt. The naïve expression was one he had seen on her countless times before. “Mr. Luo, I’ve got to know what it is I’m doing.”
He looked into the distance and thought for a few seconds, then said with finality, “I’ll tell you when we’ve reached the mountain.”
“Great! Then we should be off, shouldn’t we?”
“Right. It’s easier if we take the boat to the other side of the lake and then drive from there.”