Chinese Stories in English
15. Sympathetic Thief
16. Table for Ping Pong
17. Too Embarrassing
18. What a Relief
10. Opportunity Knocks
11. Phone Call, The
12. Proof of Love
13. Same Business, The
14. Soft Job
Stories Magazine 2012 New Wave Mini-Story Contest Winners (page 2)
All Stories from 故会事•新浪微故事大赛
上海锦绣文章出版社 (at page # in parentheses)
5. Life Story
6. Love Drawing
7. Manuscript, The
8. My Dream
9. New Life
1. Falling in Love
2. First Love
3. Friend in Need, A
4. In the Mail
1. Falling in Love (p. 49)
by Foraging Wind
Her mom set her up with a blind date. The guy was pretty well off, and she'd never have to worry about making a living with him, but as soon as she saw him she didn't like him.
She obeyed her mother. She forced herself to spend a lot of time with him and used the power of suggestion to persuade herself to like him. Eventually she even came to love him.
Then he told her he wanted to break up. "All this effort," she said angrily, "and I just now got myself to love you!"
He looked at her coldly. "But you never got me to love you."
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2. First Love (p. 48)
By @Dust Bunny
Jimmy's a mouse. One day he came home from a blind date and wouldn't eat a thing. He moped around a whole day.
"What is it?" his mom asked. "What happened on your blind date?"
Jimmy sighed. "Just when we saw each other, a big yellow cat rushed out and picked her up in its mouth and ran off. It was love at first sight…."
"Ah, don't be so sad. I'll set you up again in a couple of days."
Jimmy started to cry. "But it was the big yellow cat I fell in love with…."
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3. A Friend in Need (p. 10)
By @Vegetarian Desert Wolf
"I'm here…." Stone dialed Gold's number as soon as he arrived in Beijing.
Last time, when Gold had visited his city, he'd given him a place to stay and fed him as well. Gold had shaken his hand warmly when he left. "You're a good man," he'd said earnestly. "Call me if you're ever in Beijing."
"Hunh? I'm really sorry, I'm not in Beijing…." Gold apologized profusely on his end of the call.
Stone hung up regretfully and headed off to wait for a bus under the sign. He'd only walked a couple of steps when, all of a sudden, he saw Gold hurrying across the crosswalk at the other end of the street.
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4. In the Mail (p. 72)
by @Arty Girl
They met by the elevator at work, and in time they came to secretly like each other. One day he got up the courage to write her a letter and send it off. She didn't respond.
After that day she wasn't willing to look him in the eye. He was hurt, and left the company. She cried alone when he was gone….
No one knew that, the same day he'd sent her that letter, she'd also sent him a love letter. To this day they're still in the downstairs mailbox, the one nobody ever bothers about.
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5. Life Story (p. 7)
by @Zheng Zhiwei
Gao Qiming has only saved four text messages in his phone:
"Gao Qiming, I like you."
"Qiming, I love you."
"Qiming, I want to marry you."
"Ming, your daughter says she misses you. Come home soon."
Gao Qiming has always felt that these four messages in his phone are the warmest of his life.
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6. Love Drawing (p. 73)
by @Ancient Oil Lamp
Grandma called Uncle to her side as she lay on her deathbed. Pointing to a small locket on her breast, she said with a smile, "The jewelry has already been parceled out, right? This is a treasure the old man gave me. I have to take it with me…."
After she'd been cremated, Uncle couldn't keep the others from opening the locket. Inside was a piece of paper, yellowed with age.
It was a drawing of a pair of lovers sitting under a tree. The man was putting a flower in the woman's hair….
I suddenly remembered that Grandpa had been illiterate.
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7. The Manuscript (p. 71)
by @Yuan Yongmin
He wrote a love letter to a beautiful editor at a literary magazine. A week later he received a letter from her. She'd written only three words: "Please Submit Elsewhere".
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8. My Dream (p. 103)
by @Boy Country
The applause thundered in the concert hall as he finished playing the final piece of his solo recital. He looked steadily at his father below the stage.
The MC guessed that the young man must be very close to his father, so he asked him to say something to him. With a tear glistening in his eye, he said:
"Pa, you made me study for 20 years. Today when I got up on this stage, your dream came true. But starting tomorrow I'm going to do something I want to do…. Even though I've long since forgotten what it was."
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9. New Life (p. 102)
by @Can't See Willow Blade
She'd told her husband, "If you ever cheat on me, I'll cut you both down." Her premonition unfortunately came true.
One day she saw on her husband's QQ chat record that he'd hooked up with a girlfriend behind her back, and was getting together with her. She was angry and upset, but after seeing the cold glint of the blade, she decided to call it quits and divorce him instead.
She'd thought she wouldn't be able to leave him. As it turned out, she only had to edit a few lines of the script. On the stage of her life, she was still the director.
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10. Opportunity Knocks (p. 56)
by @Liu Xidi
Young Wang was sitting in a coffee shop when a girl walked over and asked, "Are you here for a blind date arranged by Auntie Wong?"
Young Wang looked her up and down. "Just my type," he thought to himself. "Why not make the make the best of it."
"Right," he answered. "Have a seat."
On the day they were getting married, he came clean and told her that he hadn't been there for a blind date. She smiled and said, "I wasn't either. I used that as an excuse to start a conversation…."
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11. The Phone Call (p. 10)
By @Quit You Like Smoking
Ah-Biao's cell phone rang. It was an unfamiliar number.
He answered it. "Hello. Who's calling, please."
"Is this…. Biao?"
Grandma, is that you!? Things are OK back in the village, aren't they?"
"First talk to your Grandpa. He's about to…. It's not good." Grandma choked down a sob.
"Biao," Grandpa said, "I miss… you."
The phone went silent. This was the first time Ah-Biao had heard his Grandpa's voice over the phone.
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12. Proof of Love (p. 72)
By @Mie and Him
"I don't have a fancy car or a luxurious home, but I do have a heartfelt love for you…." He sent the finished love letter off to the girl he venerated.
The next day he got a text message from her: "I believe your motives are sincere, but S says he's willing to give up his fancy car and luxurious home for me, even though he's a billionaire. I have substantial doubts about that, so I've decided to give him a chance to prove it."
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13. The Same Business (p. 8)
by @Heilongjiang Iron Lee
The chief administrator of a hospital and the manager of a telecom company were attending a dinner party.
During the meal someone said, "Your two businesses are really very much alike. You're both service enterprises. And neither of you keeps after your customers until you've smashed them to the point they no longer want to live."
"We're not alike," the telecom manager said. "Sometimes our company gives gifts to people paying their subscriber fees, like cell phones or soy bean oil."
The hospital administrator said, "And sometimes the gynecology unit of our hospital gives consumers a child…."
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14. A Soft Job (p. 28)
by @Grain in the Rain
Sandy got a job as a secretary with a big company when she graduated from college. She'd been on the job several days without being given any work to do, so she asked her boss about it.
"Just worry about getting to work on time," the boss said with an ambiguous smile. "The company's big enough to carry you, don't you think?"
Sandy scowled and told her boss she was quitting. He did everything he could to get her to stay, but she walked away proudly.
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15. The Sympathetic Thief (p. 10)
By @Fallen Flowers Watch Blooms
Her bag was stolen with more than two hundred Yuan and her cell phone in it. She kept sending out text messages saying she was willing to buy the phone back, increasing the price from one hundred to one thousand Yuan, but the thief didn't reply.
But then, just as she was giving up hope, she received an unexpected package containing her phone and a piece of paper.
"Please forgive me for looking at the videos in your phone," it said. "I can't take your money, 'cause I have a daughter the same age as your kid."
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16. Table for Ping Pong (p. 87)
By @Happy-Go-Lucky
The boss liked to play ping pong, and he wanted to find a place in the office where he could set up a table. The problem was, there wasn't any room.
Young Li saw what the boss was thinking. He decided to make the man happy and get himself noticed. He pushed some of the tables in the lunchroom together as a makeshift ping-pong table.
Young Li always looked to see what the boss wanted; the boss had been looking for a creative guy like that; and their co-workers are still looking for a place to eat lunch.
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17. Too Embarrassing (p. 72)
by @Slow South
She noticed her mother had a habit of taking out a pile of letters and reading them every time she and Dad had an argument. She knew they were love letters Dad had written to Mom when they were young.
She also noticed that, every time Mom started reading the love letters, Dad would get out a can of ashes. She understood Mom's habit, but for the life of her, she couldn't understand Dad's.
Eventually she asked him about it. He smiled happily and said, "Your mom's easily embarrassed. She made me burn her love letters."
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18. What a Relief (p. 73)
by @Red Flower Aboard
Miss Liu discovered that her boyfriend was starting to get friendly with a woman at work. She wanted to revive his feelings for her, so she wrote a love letter to herself and signed it with a coworker's name.
She gave the letter to her boyfriend. "You'd better be careful," she said. "If you don't want me, someone else will."
When the boyfriend finished reading, it was like a burden had been lifted from his shoulders. "I've been worried that you were dependent on me," he said, "and no one else would want you if we split. Looks like my worries were exaggerated. I'm not worried anymore, so let's break up."
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