A group of 12 young elites of Chengdu (except Zhou. haha) went on an excursion trip to Shangli Ancient Town, Ya'an last sunday.  It was a blast of fun, a whirl of ecstasies and a pile of touches. I feel compelled to write about it. I want to mention a few people in particular.They added to the quality of the trip.

All the 12 group members except Henry the muscle man

The group set off at 8:30 as planned.  I was impressed that everybody was so punctual. That's why I said 'elites'.  Mr. Zhou could not catch up with the other two cars. That's why I said 'except him'. He was really driving slow.  As it was obvious to me, he needs to practise driving more. I was actually super excited at this new finding—there is one more thing in which I am better than him—driving, besides the fact that I am five centimeters taller.

Zhou

I like to joke with Zhou that I am confident whenever I see him.  He always agrees, happily as it seems.  God knows if he has tried to kill me a thousand times.  Zhou is without a doubt the core of our group, the focus of attention, the center of admirations. He is an asset of us all.  But if nobody admires him, I absolutely do. I admire Zhou in many ways. He is such a happy company.  He is always optimistic and humorous.  He is eloquent in many areas, be it English, culture, history, management, business, and even trifles in life.  He talks fast and clearly!  I almost want to open his mouth to see how he manages to move his tongue swiftly without getting stuck somewhere.  He talks well and most of his ideas are either wise or amusing.  He is energetic and vigorous.  He never seems in his 30s.  Even though he is not in any way considered 'handsome' (don't kill me, Zhou), he is regarded as 'handsome' in his heart, his spirit, his soul!  Zhou is a milestone goal for me.  Of all my friends,he truly has enlightened me as one who successfully lives his present, detached from any sort of trouble. He sees people. He easily has empathy with people. He understands and is compassionate.  He is enthusiastic. He is a person of truth.

Henry--third from right

Henry, the muscle man, took great trouble photographing for all of us. As a professional photographer, he volunteered to serve the group.  We found him hopping quickly from one place to another for the best shot. He did not mind the scorching sun.  He got soaked with sweat soon, and his dark-colored face turned red in the sizzling heat.  He was always attending to any request for photos. Henry, the big muscular brother, is a respectable brother.  His humble words made everybody laugh, "Yes, I am the man of muscles.  I actually do heavy labor for a living, you know, moving large bricks or stone chunks.  Then I've become this muscular."  Such a man of humility and frankness.  How can I stop loving him!?

Terry--Second from right

Terry was surely a shock to the whole group.  The sharp contrast of him between Friday and Sunday surprised everybody.  He was silent and highly reserved Friday night, but totally changed to a new person of jokes (quite a good number of them erotic according to ladies) and conversations. He talked a lot during the trip (mostly with ladies  ^_^).  "Terry is really so much fun. I like him," Yiyi reminisced about her car ride with Terry, a broad smile rolling on her face."Terry surprised us by a lot of jokes he made," Yiyyi continued,"He is indeed an interesting and funny guy!"

But his joking with Bo Xiao about their fishy relationship turned on my curiosity. Is there really nothing between them?  Why did he gaze into his eyes with such earnestness? Why did he blush, even a secret one for roughly 2 seconds, when he crossed hand with Bo Xiao and drank? More is yet to be found out.  ACE paparazzi, Action!

Charlene is an erudite lady who seems to know all that is under the sun.  I was awed at her wide scope of knowledge. I burst out a heartfelt compliment, with which she humbly disagreed.  Humility is the best virtue of mankind.  It is humility that keeps us moving forward. So I respect Charlene so much.  Besides, she is a lot better than Zhou in driving.  She is a professional driver, as it was apparently witnessed :)  I'd heard a lot about this lady even before this trip.  She is a legend.  Her crusade is worth writing for ten more pages.She has set an example for overseas students on how to pursue dreams.

Elodie, our only girl that has the potential to succeed the renowned poem translator Prof. Xu Yuanchong, is gentle and glamorous. I know she will protest when I try to put her to this pressure of challenging Prof. Xu. But I am not saying she has already become his challenge.  Who knows what potential accomplishment we can all achieve? How can I say Elodie will never achieve that?  Plus,with the ardent and faithful support from ACE and everyone else, Elodie will march into her dream. She may surprise us all and herself by achieving even bigger.  I jokingly said that she is French, for she was the only one in our group that speaks French and English.  She is good at both.  Elodie was the first one to answer my call for a team of interpretation training.  She is eager to learn.  That is very important and admirable.

Zack rode with me all the way down and all the way back.She was my hero in English.  I have to ask her, "are you sure you were born in Chengdu, not in America?" Anyone would wonder the same way, for Zack speaks such a good American accent that it is hard to believe she was born in Chengdu.  She is westernized, definitely in each and every way of life. She listens to English music; she makes international friends; she speaks English better than Chinese; she thinks in the English way.  She knows western culture more than any other Chinese I've seen. I'd been longing to meet one who has mother-tongued English before I  met Zack.  The very moment I saw her at Cosycorner the other evening, I knew my dream came true right at that moment.

"Could I join?" A beautiful feminine voice on my right.  I turned and found this gorgeous woman in an exotic, ethnic dress, smiling in confidence. That was an evening at Cosycorner in July. And ever since, I've seen a real-life, living example of English learning - Zack.

Molly was a quiet girl.  She used to be a legend to me,too, a star who makes my heart beating fast just to think of her.  The Beautiful anchorwoman of ACE English Radio.  What a great title!  So I was afraid of approaching her, but I know I was longing for the privilege.  "Come and join us on ACE Radio," Zhou would encourage me in July. "Join Molly and show on our radio."  My goodness, how dare I?  Me, an English learner who is still staggering along with English!  This is all so true about my recall about Molly in July. I listened to a lot of audio clips of her program, and got enchanted by her professionalism, her enunciating Chinese and English, her cheerful personality, her crystal giggling, her erudition. . . I hate it that I've not got a deft pen to use better words to describe my imagination about such a wonderful lady.  And it was truly this way when I saw her—the tall, confident and shy girl.  If Mr. Zhou is the founder of ACE English, Molly is by all means the pillar. I admire Zhou's wisdom of having found Molly.  An idea abruptly came up to me—I thought of a verse in a poem—Of a thousand people, he found you; of a thousand years you were right there waiting. You waited through time.  And the wait was legendary!

What have I written so far?  All about people!  Yes,people are what make our life interesting.  I love to observe people.  Their words; their behavior; even their wave of hand, their unknowing glimpse would tell their stories.  Stories are beautiful.  We see people by listening to what they say. Of all the happy stories, this one about Mr. Yang is worth writing.  Zhou led us to the tomb of Mr. Yang's ancestors. He is a tomb keeper.

 
We were absorbed by the carvings, the shapes and the mosses all over the tomb.  I was busy studying its workmanship, well I was pretending to look sophisticated, because I knew nothing about it. ^_^ Zhou had mentioned about Yang the tomb keeper.  Yang has a bed by the tomb and he sleeps there every night.  I saw the bed, exactly to the right side of the tomb, with shabby quilt and pillow.  Everything I saw was spelling "Poverty". I saw nobody except our group members.  I was wondering why.

"I, I, let..me….tell you about..my..story." An old voice was heard from behind, and I saw a long bamboo pole sticking right over my head toward the tomb structure. Mr. Yang rushed up the hill where we were standing.  He must have seen us from the distance, stopped what he was doing and came rushing our way.

Mr. Yang, the tomb keeper, a respectable old man

"Have a rest.  Drink water". Mr. Zhou suggested.  But Yang could not wait. "No problem.  I am happy to tell you all about this tomb.  Thank you for coming to see me." Still gasping, yang continued to tell the long story. His local dialect was hard to catch, but we all managed to get most of it.  When Yang was a child, his father worked for Jiang Kaishek's government. After liberation, he was charged the crime of "counter-revolution" and sentenced to death.  In the 80s when China government started to correct mistaken sentences, Yang's father was proved innocent.  The Ya'an City court passed a written "Statement of Correction" for him, and Mr. Yang framed it and kept it hanging on the rim of the bed.

My narration of this story is short, but Mr. Yang passionately told it in at least 20 minutes. I found that he became emotional as he came to the correction statement. He still loves his father. Being corrected is so important for him that he kept the document perfectly intact and is always eager to show people.

"My family of six passed away, one after another, after my father was shot by the government. Some of the children starved to death; my mother hanged herself. Others died of diseases except me." Yang said it slowly, with unbelievable peace.  He was not so emotional as a minute ago when he talked about the correction statement.  My heart passed a quick throb at the moment!  What a nice man! So forgiving and passionate and loving.  What a poor man!  He was left behind as an orphan and managed his way out through the hard years.  He is not complaining, not even about the government.  He talked as if this was a story of someone else.  He is used to his lonely life.  He is used to hardship. He
is strong, so strong that I become ashamed when I compare myself with him.

"The government did not repay me financially. All I got was a statement of correction." Yang added. The group was exploded.  All of us angrily protested.  But Yang did not.  He stood there waiting in patience.  He continued talking when we became quiet.  At that moment, I found that I could not see clearly, as tears were welling up in my eyes.

We walked down the hill, and I heard Mr. Yang repeatedly saying, "Thank you for coming.  Thank you so very much. Good luck. Take care."  He is always trying to wish others the best.  He is not trying to get anything for himself.  Such a personality, such a virtue!  Do we have many people like him in the cities? I could never forget the old man Yang.  He became the best part of my memories on this trip.  

More photos here ：http://home.www.engbus.cn/space-181807-do-album-id-4719.html