Stories, everybody's got one

What is that opening line to some movie or TV show... something about stories, everybody's got one.

While in Yangshuo, I met a woman. She was an interesting person who seemed to know a few people in town. She introduced me to a local fruit and to a woman in a wheelchair who sells them. She chided me for not going to her to get tickets for the light show as she could have gotten them cheaper. We took a few walks together and on one of those walks we talked about ghost stories. As we shared ghost stories, we laughed and enjoyed the night moon. Friends. An interesting person along my travels.

She had mentioned on our walks that she had a boyfriend a while back. When he came to Yangshuo, he couldn't speak much Chinese but eventually his Chinese got better. But at the same time, her English didn't improve much. I teased her that she needed to find a boyfriend that didn't care about learning Chinese and, perhaps, I needed to find a girlfriend who didn't care about learning English. In this light, I suggested, we would not be good for each other.

Leaving Yangshuo, I felt that I would miss her. It's nice to find someone you can talk with easily, especially when it is in a language that you are learning.

Returning to Shijiazhuang, we kept in touch. More of her story unfolded. I had the impression that the old boyfriend wasn't a recent thing but I was wrong. Where I guessed that they broke up because he left town, that wasn't the case. He is still in town. And he isn't a nice guy from her accounts. My friend is at a loss. She can't go back to her hometown out of shame. The 骗子 (scum) is making her life in Yangshuo difficult. She feels stupid for committing her time and life to him. She is now over 30.

I don't know how this story will progress. I hope she can forgive herself.