Love in a Fallen City

The story opens with a description of the passengers on a bus in Hong Kong. The first passenger introduced is Nie Chuanqing, a young man sleeping against the bus window with his bus ticket in his mouth. The bus stops and his professor's daughter, Yan Danzhu, gets on board. Many people at school avoid Chuanqing, but Danzhu, despite being popular, goes out of her way to befriend him. He is worried about talking to her on the bus because he is slightly deaf from his father hitting him in the ear. She sits next to him, and the two discuss how they will both be taking Danzhu’s father’s course on the history of Chinese literature this semester. Chuanqing says that Professor Yan is nice but doesn't like him very much, as shown by his poor grades in the course. Danzhu replies that her father is just harder on Chuanqing because he is from Shanghai, so his Chinese is better than the students from Hong Kong. (In mainland China, many people speak Mandarin, whereas in Hong Kong, people speak Cantonese.) She complains to Chuanqing about how people often try to pursue romantic relationships with her when she just wants friendship; she tells him that she feels she can talk to him about such things because he is “like a girl” (82). When Danzhu asks Chuanqing why he doesn’t have people over to his house to play tennis, he replies the tennis court is used for drying laundry and cooking opium, and she starts to cry. Chuanqing changes the subject, and they talk about her father, whose full name Chuanqing learns is Yan Ziye.

Chuanqing gets off the bus a few stops after Danzhu and walks into the large, dilapidated mansion where his family lives. He runs into his mother’s maid, Amah Liu, who tells him that he must see his father and stepmother. Both are smoking opium when he goes in to see them. Chuanqing’s father asks him about his coursework, and both call him lazy and tell him to cook them some opium. While Chuanqing cooks, his stepmother says people say Danzhu is interested in him. His father retorts that she is only interested in his money.

Aunt Xu arrives. Chuanqing goes to his bedroom to study, but it is full of opium smoke, which makes him feel sick, so he goes to the living room instead. He realizes that he has seen Yan Ziye’s name in a note inside Early Tide magazine addressed to his late mother, Feng Biluo. His aunt tells him to leave because they will be playing mah-jongg in the living room, so he returns to his room and searches his trunk to find the magazine. However, he realizes that it had been lost when his family moved from Shanghai to Hong Kong. He thinks about how much he misses his mother, who died when he was four years old. His parents hated each other, and after his mother died, his father began to hate him too.

Biluo met Yan Ziye when she was a teenager; he was tutoring her cousins to prepare them for school. Yan’s family asked for her hand in marriage, but Biluo’s grandfather’s concubine refused the offer on Biluo’s behalf. However, Biluo and Yan saw each other a few more times. Yan asked Biluo if she would go abroad with him and leave her family, but she refused. When Yan returned to Shanghai, Biluo was already married to Nie Jiechen, Chuanqing’s father. Chuanqing wonders how his life would have been different if his mother had made a different choice.

The next day, Chuanqing is distracted in Professor Yan's class. Danzhu is there, looking beautiful, and the other students fight to sit next to her. In class, Chuanqing reflects that if his mother had married the professor, “their life together would probably not have been perfectly blissful” (95). On the other hand, he imagines that he would be better than Danzhu had he been their child. Chuanqing begins to resent Danzhu. His grades in school slip, and he fails Professor Yan’s class. Over summer break, Chuanqing reflects on how much he is like his father. The next semester, he studies much harder but still struggles in literature class. While preparing for finals, Professor Yan asks him a question in front of the whole class, but Chuanqing is unable to answer and begins crying. Professor Yan grows frustrated and says, “Aren’t you ashamed of yourself? […] If all the youth of China were like you, China would be done for!” (98). He throws him out of the class.

That night, there is a school Christmas Eve dance. Chuanqing’s father allows him to go, but instead, Chuanqing decides to wander around nearby. While he is walking, Danzhu approaches him and asks him to take her home. While they walk, she says he should forgive her father and that if he explains why he has been so preoccupied, her father will understand. When she presses him about what is going on, Chuanqing grows angry, and they argue. He tells Danzhu that he wants to be more than friends, but Danzhu says he ought to show some manliness if that's his goal. Chuanqing starts to walk away from her, and she runs after him. He tells her that he wishes she were dead and beats her unconscious. Then, he runs back home, knowing that he will have to face his actions once classes start back up again after winter break.