Rebirth of a star - Chapter 2

When Susu woke up, the doctor informed her that she would stay in the hospital for two weeks for observation. At once, she thought that the doctor ought to hold her from leaving the hospital on purpose. After all, her parents were government officials. And from the clear understanding, she became a rich miss. Every day there would be many fresh fruits, cherries, kiwis, sweet oranges, and even snacks. The doctor didn’t allow her to eat the last one, and she felt envious only by looking at them. These were ordinary things that the original Susu had been eating all the time, but the new one hadn’t tried them yet. The taste in her memory was different from the actual one. The immediate consequence was that she gained ten pounds during hospitalization. 

Also, her father occasionally came to visit her as he was busy with work. She received text messages every day. When she first got her cell phone iPhone 5, she learned to use it after half a day. Furthermore, Chinese Romanization was hard to learn. She took precautions and told her mother with sadness, “Mom, I am getting dumb.” 

As a result, Du Hanju was frightened and asked a pile of expert scholars who used their scientific knowledge tools to check on her, and the result came normal. 

After they talked to Susu, they discovered that her reactions were slow. Susu secretly stuck her tongue out; if they had to think about how to do most everyday things they were unfamiliar with, they would have reacted as slow as she did. 

Her big male and third female cousins had visited her. The big cousin was called Su Chenggeng, and her third female cousin was called Du Junuo, and they were a married couple. One was from the father’s side, and the other one was from the mother’s side. From childhood, Susu called them both brother and sister. 

The other cousins were abroad, and one of them called her to ask about her health. Speaking of it, Susu was the youngest one. After receiving a phone call, she realized that her new family was huge. Maternal grandparents and paternal grandparents added up a total of eight children. Fortunately, there were five abroad. Su Chenggeng’s mother (aunt) and his parents were the only ones in China. 

Even though hospitalization made her bored, she got visited by some people, which made her feel quite at ease. Also, the original girl’s personality and temper were great, and her friends and classmates would call her often. Susu’s thought drifted to Yao Yuting and Jiang Ying who were her close friends. However, she didn’t dare to meet them as she was always afraid that they would find out about her changes in personality. To her, friends and parents were two different cases. Parents were always busy, so they didn’t contact her often, but her best friends often did. She had the original Susu’s memories, but she lacked the confidence to face them. 

She told her mom to bring a lot of books to study, and her beloved Mac computer, which she must have been familiar with.  Computing, Internet, English, and Chinese characters, a knowledge that needed to get engraved in Susu’s brain, slowly edged into their own place. Du Hanju did not say much about it. Every day, Aunt Zhao made a lot of delicious food to comfort her baby daughter. Until one day, Susu suddenly saw on the news of a portal website that the Minister of the traffic control department had taken the blame and resigned. Her heart shook violently, as the measurement was official.  His condition lingered in Susu’s heart. 

“Mom,” Susu called out and pointed to the computer screen. 

“Look, the minister who has been in charge resigned.” Du Hanju peeled the oranges calmly without raising her head, “Well, your grandfather said to let him go back to the department for more training. The youngster mustn’t aim too high.” Mommy was so imposing! Lately, she studied a lot of modern things. Susu’s heart had begun to rejoice because her mother was so fierce and powerful. 

Occasionally, Susu would go to the garden where she often saw an old lady. The special ward in the hospital held two patients, an old one and a young one. 

And because it belonged to specific patients, she respected them all no matter if they were men, women, old or young. In her heart, although she stayed there herself, it always had the feeling of seeing the high ranked people in her past life. 

“The spring, a rippling thread of gossamer gleaming sinuous in the sun, borne idly across the court. Pausing to straighten the flower heads of hair ornaments, perplexed to find that my mirror stealing its half-glance at my hair has thrown these gleaming clouds into alarmed disarray. Walking here in my chamber, how should I dare let others see my form!” the sentimental singing voice with gentleness and longing made people get goosebumps. The familiar “Shuimoqiang” made Susu freeze in her place while looking at the flowers that afternoon. The elderly lady finished singing the final verse, with a final pose. Kunqu Opera was about singing and dancing, and the old lady’s movements were exquisite and professional. “Little girl, you can’t understand what I am singing, right?” The old lady smiled. Susu was lost of words at that time and felt like she got looked down on. However, the old lady was still very kind, while she struggled to reply, the old lady had gone away. 

Susu shrugged her shoulders and went back to her room alone to stand in front of the mirror. She cleared her voice and sang in front of it “I didn’t know peonies were blooming in profusion before I entered the gardens of spring. Impeccable youth and beauty are all granted to broken shambles. My soul buds in loneliness in spite of its best age. Where in the world are there happy reunions? Iridescent clouds spread by dawn and bead curtains entangle with pendants of rain. Rosy glows render though jade windows, silk threads of rain and fragrant winds and painted boats tiptoe upon the misty ripples. With past days spent behind embroidered screens, I now breathe extravagantly in nature.” It felt wrong when she raised her hand and threw her feet. She felt like the body wasn’t her own. The eyes in the mirror were stiff, and her limbs were totally out of harmony. After all, it wasn’t the body of a person who practiced for many years. She saw her new face in the mirror many times for a week, a standard beauty of a child that wasn’t fully grown up. These big eyes, oval face with a good foundation that made people jealous. Her old self was quite different than the new one, bright and intelligent round eyes, quick-witted and lovely appearance. But because it carried secrets, it seemed a bit deep and dejected. Her old face was also small, but the sharp phoenix eyes turned to be full of charms. 

“Susu, what’s wrong with you?” Du Hanju pushed the door and saw her daughter looking at the mirror for a long time. Susu turned around, and smiled, in the smile was an infinite sorrow. 

“Ah, don’t frighten your mother. What’s wrong?” Du Hanju was in shock as it seemed her daughter drove her feelings away for it to come back again. Susu lowered her head, and raised it again with a brilliant smile, “Mom, I’m alright. Who’s the old lady next door?” 

“Oh, I heard that the person on the other side was an old artist,” Du Hanju was diverted from the topic by her daughter, and in a blink of an eye, she forgot about the feeling for a moment. 

“An old artist,” Susu repeated and asked herself, “Was it Kunqu opera?” 

“Well, it’s about opera,” she stared at her child because she seemed too interested in the topic. Susu took her mother’s hand not wanting to carry on with the conversation and asked her when she would get discharged. 

 “The doctor said that next week you would be discharged if you get better.” Du Hanju stroked her daughter’s hair gently. Suddenly, the phone rang. Susu answered the phone successfully. It was Jiang Ying-ran. “Susu, this episode of Kangxi is super nice, can you watch the TV now?” the young girl laughed with her face down after her friend squealed out. Susu used to be a fan of Kangxi. 

“Kangxi comes” was a Taiwan’s entertainment TV talk program, the word “Kangxi” came from the second word of the names of a male and a female hosts: Cai Kabgyong and Xu Xiti. Susu got other interesting ones in her computer folder that had some funny episodes. For example, the previous episode of “Black and white matches” the one that was announced by Fan Wiqi and Chen Jianzhou got downloaded. 

Susu turned on the laptop and connected to the internet and then found the episode that Jiang strongly recommended. 

“All right, I won’t keep talking to you. You watch yours, and I will watch mine.” RanRan knew that Susu found it, and she couldn’t wait to hang up and enjoy it herself. Susu pulled Du Hanju, and the pair watched the show and laughed at every funny sentence in the program, so they ended up spending a sweet afternoon. After Du Hanju left, Susu held her laptop. 

She stayed in the room inside bored, surfing the internet. In the afternoon, when she recalled her past life, she felt a sudden tightness in her chest. Her heart was astringent as it seems to be punished by someone. The woman in the computer screen in tears reflected the memories of the stage in her heart. She seemed proud that she was successful. 

Desire, happiness, and hope to stand on stage again burst in her heart. ‘Dream’ was a new word to Susu, which she learned in this new world. Originally there were no dreams for her as long as she was full and warm for a lifetime. From the memories of her current self, Susu felt confused about a lot of things. Usually, Young children don’t know the way they want to pick. But now Susu knew, she wanted to go back on stage.

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