The wife nodded. Slowly she walked along the defensive wall, her footsteps getting weaker and weaker.
Then, her son started to utter something under his breath--
“
Lin, Chen, He…” The woman stared at her son. Had he gone mad?
“
What are you saying, dear?” she asked.
“
Uncle taught me how to read, remember?” he replied, pointing at names engraved in the stones of the
Great Wall. Looking closer, the mother could just see faint outlines of the words that her son was reading off.
But why were there names on the bricks?
Then, something caught her eye. She stopped in her tracks and peeked at a brick, bearing familiar Chinese
characters.
She rubbed her eyes, horrified. Raising her hand, the woman traced the script delicately. With a gasp, she
recognized it was her brother-in-law’s name. Beside it was another stone, bearing her late husband’s name. She
mournfully wiped the dust off the brick with her sleeve and bowed down to it. Then a bit of the wall collapsed.
She looked up abruptly, and gasped as if someone had knocked all the wind out of her. Peeking through the hole
in the wall, the woman could see a familiar, beloved face. Though she wanted to walk away, something held her
back, as if icy fingers had frozen her legs to the ground.
She shuddered, the realization hitting her like a bullet going through her heart. At that moment, her soul
had decided that it was time, time to give up. There was nothing left to live for, no one left to wait for. Still
grasping her son’s hand, she leapt into the Yellow Sea, her death unheard as the waves thundered, crashing over
where her body had sunk.
Miranda let go of her breath and clapped her book shut. She shivered internally. Walking to the side of the
Great Wall, she peered at the waves, which remained eerily silent. Miranda could almost hear the wife’s cries of
defeat and smell the rank, disgusting odour of peasants forced to labour on the wall. Fingering a stone, she
silently mourned for all who were lost during the constructing of the prestigious Great Wall of China.
^ Qinhuangdao was the place named after Emperor Qin where he sent servants overseas to search for elixir.
* * *