Love is a flash in the pan

It’s 2023. Coronavirus disaster was just over, claiming millions of human lives. In July, the middle of winter in Australia, let’s take a look at Melbourne, the famous southernmost city on the mainland, which has topped the list of "the world's most livable cities" for seven consecutive years. At 5:00am that day, the night was spotless, and the resident of a house on the isle of Lakeside Bay No. 4 in the western suburbs of Melbourne pulled up window curtains. For the past month, he had been getting up so early every day, looking north into the night sky, where the dazzling Venus, the morning star, greets him punctually. He clasped his hands together and muttered pray and wish: "Dear Venus, and the almighty cosmos, thank you for the boundless energy you have endowed me. Years ago my family moved from China to this foreign land. We settled down here as a new home. It has been my only spiritual harbor. During the three-year epidemic, I stayed 5000 miles away from my family. Now we are finally reunited. I am so grateful. ” Beyond logic, he then changed to an injured tone, “but I just can not understand why my wife abandons me into a separate room. I have been so lovesick during long years of separation, but we have kept parted in separate rooms under one roof, since I returned home. It is beyond my ken and endurance. Could you tell me why ? Could you save me from breaking heart? ” The man is John, a permanent resident, a Buddhist. It has been almost ten years since he immigrated to Australia. John is engaged in foreign trade business. He was born and brought up on the banks of the Qiantang River in eastern China. In his childhood, he was so naughty that he not only climbed up willow trees to pick out birds from nest, but also dived into pond to catch eels. He is also such a witty and talented student at school, excelling at all subjects. He could keep anything he read instantly rooted in memory. With high honors he graduated from the foreign language department of a renowned university with M.A. degree in language and literature. Had he met Jack Ma, the internet tycoon and Alibaba founder, his contemporary in the same city, on the shore of the scenic spot of West Lake, they could have partnered with fluent conversation in English, amazing and attracting a big crowd of sightseers. Back then, when China was initially opened to outside world, so few nationals could speak fluent English. Graduates like John were offered with many great jobs, including vacancies at central government ministries and commissions in the capital of Beijing, state-owned monopolist enterprises, all with high income and great potential of career progress enabling a life of priviledge and comfort. However, John, our superhero, went off the beaten track. He distinguished himself from many. An eagle, he is determined to soar in the high sky; A dragon, he is committed to beating the waves in the vast ocean. He is the last man to be restricted with rules and regulations. Instead, he kept his finger on the pulse of the times, so he chose to seek his fortune in Shenzhen, the first Special Economic Region symbolizing China opening to the world. So he made it. He got a position as the director of the foreign-related business department in a well-known company, with a whopping monthly salary of RMB3,000, which is by far above average income level (less than RNB500) of an ordinary salaryman. He took to the job like a duck to water. In addition, director John could also boast about a considerable bonus at the end of each working year. At the close of the fourth year in the company, John was dispatched to Hong Kong, the world-class metropolitan neighboring Shenzhen, to play a more important role of the regional manager. His income thus grew even higher. At the dawn of new millennium, John got new vision above broader horizon, into more glorious days ahead. He decided to start his own business. Henceforth he resolutely quit his current job and set up his own international trading company. With excellent foreign language proficiency and four years of business experience, his entrepreneurial debut was smooth and successful. At that time international buy and sell channels were limited to face-to-face talk, and internet application to business was at its infancy. Suppliers of goods could not find foreign buyers, on the contrary, foreign customers found it hard to source good products from China. It was the golden age of Hong Kong traders, and the mainland foreign trade game players were rare. The situation gave rise to Alibaba, whose slogan is exactly “to make all business on earth easy”. John was in his element. It was his era. His export trade business was so thriving that he earned over one million RMB in the first year of running his own company. And in the following years, he purchased several real estate properties, to catch up with the booming market trend, to get on express way towards greater wealth. As an international game player, John became strongly conscious of remarkable disparity between China and the rest of the world at that time. Manufacturing industry boomed at the cost of livable environment; Skyrocketing GDP and per capita income of populace misled the people to crazy pursuit of money, downplaying morals. Administrative supervision gave way to economic output. Consequently, poisonous waste water from chemical plants flew directly into rivers; dangerous additives were applied to food just to elongate its shelf life or make it look fresher or more attractive; doctors tried their best to recommend expensive medicines to patients although they could have been treated at a much lower cost. John made a straightforward decision to emigrate, to seek a really habitable country. Australia and New Zealand topped his list of destinations. His application went smoothly, and he was granted a business investor visa six months hence. His family moved to Australia in 2015. Since then, he has often shuttled between China and Australia. At the end of 2019, the family of three returned to China to gather with relatives. Shortly after lunar new year day of 2020, Covid-19 pneumonia epidemic broke out at inner city of Wuhan, and swiftly spread to other parts of the whole nation, and rapidly escalating into a catastrophe threatening the whole nation. A few days later, his wife and daughter rushed back to Australia, leaving Jeff in China to look after his business. Unexpectedly, the epidemic wrought havoc with the whole country and then all over the world, followed by city lockdowns, traffic interruptions, flight groundings, endless nucleic acid testing, vaccinations, and lasted over three years. As put it by a marriage psychologist, emotional estrangement occurs to a couple of husband and wife in case they keep separated for more than 3 months, and divorce becomes highly likely. It did happen to John. To his dismay, on the first night of their reunion, his wife Kate proposed to sleep in a separate room, saying that her biological clock differed from John’s: she goes to bed late and gets up late, while John follows a disparate routine, therefore separation can avoid disturbing each other. At that moment John recognized that the epidemic had changed his life, his fate, costing him intimacy with his wife. He had to accept the fate. Kate is not to blame, but covid-19 is. Whatever efforts he had made to keep calm, he was depressed at the queer arrangement. It turned out that he started to suffer from insomnia. On the other hand, staying alone in a separate room has its merits. It enabled him to focus on social media platforms which are blocked in China. He enjoyed f*******:, t****k, Youtube, w******p, which open his eyes to the whole world. John is widely regarded as a scholar businessman. In addition to commodity trade and deal, he loves reading. His research covers a big variety of literature, classic or contemporary, fictions or poems, Chinese or foreign, and composes poems to entertain himself, expressing ambitions and indifference to gains and losses. His idol is Cao Zijian, a historic literature master 1800 years ago, who was said to monopolize 80% of the world's literary talents at his time. John was then in a perfect position to devote himself to reading and surfing the internet with peace of mind and plenty of chances to dialogue with great ancestors, charming fashionable beauties, and whatsoever. As for the nominal wife Kate sleeping in her own bedroom, John had learned not to care any more. She was no longer worthy of his attention. He was staring to prepare for the rest of life without her company. He felt transcendent and open-minded. He was in need of something else to fill the emotional vacancy, therefor he now only cared for his e-commerce on f*******: and t****k, and has uploaded recently collected new products to his online shop, which quickly attracted the attention of several netizens. He looked at the first beautiful lady on f*******: and said hello in response. "Hi, nice to meet you. I am John. Who is the fairy? ” Shortly, the other party responded, "Hey, you flatter me. I am not a fairy. Just a little girl. My name Jeniffer, Chinese name Cui Ting, I am in Los Angeles. Where are you? ” "Oh, Jeniffer, great name. It sounds like “to make a fortune at your sight” in Mandarin. So good luck! Particularly, we businessmen hail at good luck. You share the Chinese surname with the heroine in masterpiece drama. It is a symbol of brave love, real love. Your last name is even more of a nice artistic conception, a vivid description of a young girl standing, slender and tall, outside the long pavilion, by an ancient road……" Before John could finish speaking, the beauty burst into laughter, " I know what the next scene is: emerald grassland extends all way up to the sky." “Hahaha.” John followed suit. "Judging from this profile picture, this lady is from a fairy tale. Los Angeles must be a fairy land. I am in Australia, down to earth, leading an ordinary life. ” "Haha, it’s beyond my imagination. My name is interpreted by you to be so profound. Nice to meet such a handsome Australian guy. I am fond of the new smart toilet seat in your shop. When I last travelled to Japan, I got one. This device is cool, and I am just addicted to it. Want more fixed at home.” "No wonder. This is a must-have for every home. One who uses it knows it. Once you use it, you can not dispense with it all life long. Haha. ” "Awsome. This product is MADE IN CHINA, right? ” "Of course, in the United States, and even around the world, nine out of ten daily necessities are made in China. We are renowned as the world's factory. Look at those foreign brands in vogue. Most are made in China. Without Chinese goods, earthlings cannot survive. I have a China supplier named “Scene Career”, and they promise to make the scene under the human buttocks into a career, an enterprise bigger and stronger. Just think. Whoever has no butt? Whoever doesn't need wash after pooping? What a huge market we have! ” Jeniffer went wild with joy at the joking, "You are a great humorist, I like humor." "I appreciate you like my joke. So lucky you don’s regard me vulgar and smelly, and thumb your nose and block my chat." "I bought one from Japan last time and brought it back here for use, and now I want to arm several other toilets at home, and the price of your update is lower than Japan."