we're all fooled and fooling

When he called on Monday, it was April Fool's, a holiday that people here seem to take much more seriously than I'm used to. So FR was convinced that my leaping heart would be thrown to the ground and stomped upon come Tuesday morning, and just kidding, he wouldn't be able to come, again. But my weak faith managed at least this much - that I drew a line,shook my head insisted, "If the ticket prices suddenly rose (like they can do in the space of minutes) maybe. But not a joke, not this cruel, and I was right.

By Thursday the restoring faith had warmed me into lots of corners, like the sun subverting the weather reports for the holiday. We had two days off plus Sunday, went to bed late, like “睡得晚” and got up late, like "sleep late", spent other time on blankets on the ground overlooking lakes. The rain held off until we reached the restaurant Sunday night, seven of us young people come down from the mountain on a bus on a bike, giddy over how we occasionally met (I was sure they meant something closer to "happenstance") and running on the boardwalk and dirt paths around the small Pipa lake, backlit like the trees by floodlights the color of artificial spring green but still beautiful somehow.

We hung out with my favorite friends, and with others who just happened to be along, and it didn't matter, really. I saw the games, marveled, enjoyed them mostly. ZX says that it can be so intricately woven that no words need be spoken, not a sword raised. The spirit of the eye, they say. And this is why we all love China. And hate it too.

Draught beer and big-bottled beer and walking and the black squeaky couch, FR beside us, tiring of our lapsing-into-English, voices-get-raised, drawn-out-too-long "discussions" of media bias. "Do you feel love for each other when you're talking about those things?" she asks, and I stubbornly insist I do, knowing that something in me is wired to enjoy conflict, from time to time. I also know she's a little bit right, and repent everyday, and try to remember to back down easily. I love friends who rebuke me, and when two of them sit together and we all are close, I am happy. This is a part of the story of the weeks since Justin left. April flies by.