Upon seeing me, he smiled. “I saw your face in the papers today. The entire front entrance is full of reporters, so I thought you might try to leave from this door. I’ve waited quite a while for you.” Then, staring at me, he continued, “Although personality-wise you and that person are truly as different as night and day, your faces are still unable to convince me that this is just a coincidence. Even though last time, I’d already convinced myself to let go of this matter, when you cursed at me in French as you ran off, it instead made me feel that maybe I wasn’t just having a bad dream.”
He had already switched into French to say this last line, his voice trembling emotionally. “I know you can completely understand what I’m saying. I’ve done some investigation; you’re in the French department, your French pronunciation is comparable to a native’s. I feel that this can’t be a coincidence. Could you let me take a look at your ankle and heel?”
My heart was full of doubts, but this time I in the end pulled up the hem of my pants, took off my socks, and stretched my foot forwards for him to see.
My foot had always been unsightly, almost as if it was slightly deformed. My heel was a bit wide. You could even describe it as “thick” and “broad”. Sure enough, this foreign man before me stared at this foot in amazement, so I couldn’t help but explain, “It’s because of a car accident. The injuries probably caused some deformities. Even now there are a lot of shoes that I can’t wear, so I have no option but to have them custom-made.”
He snapped his head up to stare at me, then looked back down at my foot, and the expression on his face completely transformed. In a tone that could be described as fanaticism, he exclaimed, “Yes! I wasn’t just dreaming! Yes, it’s you! It was you all along! Thank God, you’re still alive! My beloved Alicia!”
Then he finally calmed himself down. “No, Darling, how could your foot be ugly, in this world, these are the most beautiful feet I’ve laid eyes on. Your scars are all representations of your glory. These deformities aren’t due to a car accident, these are a pair of feet that dance ballet!”
Thinking back to Yin Xuan’s ballet practice room, I suddenly felt that some details were forming connections in my mind. Instinctively I retorted, “Impossible, this is impossible. I know nothing about dancing.”
But Frank only pressed closer to me. “I recognize your foot, I can even identify you with only your ankle. As a part of the audience below the stage, I’ve watched you for ten whole years, sitting in the front row every time. You’ve danced in those ballet troupes for ten years, so I’ve also watched for ten years. All this time, I’ve been filming for a ballet documentary, following your growth, and in those ten years you have been the best, most promising ballet dancer I’ve seen.” Then in a fluster, he took out a package. “You can take a look at this, inside is all the footage I’ve ever taken of you, plus some of your photos and news clippings about you. You are Alicia. This can’t be a mistake. You absolutely don’t belong here, when I saw the headlines today, I immediately felt that things can’t be as simple as they seems!”
I didn’t dare accept that package, my entire head was a mess. It was as if, right after I’d finally accepted the Yan Xiao that had manifested after that car accident, after I’d been set up as an ordinary French-major university student, a group of people suddenly rushed over to reveal, “We played a joke on you. You aren’t actually you, you come from a different world,” and then wanted to install me in a different identity.
Frank could see my resistance and said, “After you’ve looked over all this information, if you can still completely discard all your suspicions, then I won’t disturb your peace anymore. But I hope that no matter, what you won’t let yourself down. Your past self’s biggest dream was to dance ballet. Not to mention that your disappearance a year ago was extremely suspicious.”
I vaguely responded, “I don’t understand ballet dance, I had a car accident here and injured my leg, ended up bed-ridden for over half a year.”
“No, you’re wrong about yourself. I don’t know who told you this, but in the alley in front of your apartment in Paris, we found a large pool of your blood, yet couldn’t find either you or your body, so in this year we had no choice but to declare you as a missing person. A lot of people already believe that you died, but not I. I know how strong of a girl you are. You wouldn’t throw away your dreams to just die so casually.” A light flashed in Frank’s eyes, “You shine the brightest among all the dancers I’ve ever seen. Our lives were going so smoothly. I planned to film you for my documentary, all the way up til the day you could dance no more.”
Once he again presented the package to me with a solemn look on his face. “You are her. I will also immediately send notice to Paris, to your instructor and the police. Mrs. Taylor is even more familiar with you than I am, she can tell you everything. And the police department keeps your blood and DNA in storage.”
“No, please wait. Please give me a little more time, right now I still also have my present life.” Saying these words really took all of my strength, because the package I held in my hand was so heavy it seemed to weigh a thousand kilos. It was as if it pressed heavily on my chest, weighing down on each and every pulse of my heartbeat, such that I could barely breathe.
Frank nodded his head. “I’ve seen the announcement of your engagement in the news, your life right now seems to travel on a completely different track. But Darling, let me just give you a single reminder. I don’t know who fabricated your current identity, but if you really are her, then these deceptions wouldn’t be a coincidence.”
He looked me deeply in the eye, his words relentlessly pressing on. “This would be attempted murder.”
The look in his eyes shook me to my core. And in my heart, I felt distraught and helpless. Indeed, if what he said was the truth, then all of this wouldn’t just be some big ruse, it would be attempted murder. A careful and meticulous construction, with the purpose of killing my life’s art, killing the ballet dancer I once was. And furthermore, they’d succeeded.
I’d originally believed that my life was like a straight and smooth road. Even after losing all my memories, I still had Yin Li. I’d planned to live an ordinary life, but it was like fate didn’t want to make things easy for me. From the time that painting had appeared, to the argument between the Yin siblings, up until now with Frank’s confidence about my true identity, everything overlapped messily.
What a joke. I’d returned to that time a year ago, to the circumstances I’d faced when I regained consciousness after that accident. The world was still strange, unfamiliar, and frightening. When Yin Li was extremely untrustworthy, such that I took him to be my enemy. When I didn’t even know who I was, so I could only wait for strangers to insert me into an unfamiliar role in society.
But in my heart, I knew that the world was already completely different.
Upon seeing me, he smiled. “I saw your face in the papers today. The entire front entrance is full of reporters, so I thought you might try to leave from this door. I’ve waited quite a while for you.” Then, staring at me, he continued, “Although personality-wise you and that person are truly as different as night and day, your faces are still unable to convince me that this is just a coincidence. Even though last time, I’d already convinced myself to let go of this matter, when you cursed at me in French as you ran off, it instead made me feel that maybe I wasn’t just having a bad dream.”
He had already switched into French to say this last line, his voice trembling emotionally. “I know you can completely understand what I’m saying. I’ve done some investigation; you’re in the French department, your French pronunciation is comparable to a native’s. I feel that this can’t be a coincidence. Could you let me take a look at your ankle and heel?”
My heart was full of doubts, but this time I in the end pulled up the hem of my pants, took off my socks, and stretched my foot forwards for him to see.
My foot had always been unsightly, almost as if it was slightly deformed. My heel was a bit wide. You could even describe it as “thick” and “broad”. Sure enough, this foreign man before me stared at this foot in amazement, so I couldn’t help but explain, “It’s because of a car accident. The injuries probably caused some deformities. Even now there are a lot of shoes that I can’t wear, so I have no option but to have them custom-made.”
He snapped his head up to stare at me, then looked back down at my foot, and the expression on his face completely transformed. In a tone that could be described as fanaticism, he exclaimed, “Yes! I wasn’t just dreaming! Yes, it’s you! It was you all along! Thank God, you’re still alive! My beloved Alicia!”
Then he finally calmed himself down. “No, Darling, how could your foot be ugly, in this world, these are the most beautiful feet I’ve laid eyes on. Your scars are all representations of your glory. These deformities aren’t due to a car accident, these are a pair of feet that dance ballet!”
Thinking back to Yin Xuan’s ballet practice room, I suddenly felt that some details were forming connections in my mind. Instinctively I retorted, “Impossible, this is impossible. I know nothing about dancing.”
But Frank only pressed closer to me. “I recognize your foot, I can even identify you with only your ankle. As a part of the audience below the stage, I’ve watched you for ten whole years, sitting in the front row every time. You’ve danced in those ballet troupes for ten years, so I’ve also watched for ten years. All this time, I’ve been filming for a ballet documentary, following your growth, and in those ten years you have been the best, most promising ballet dancer I’ve seen.” Then in a fluster, he took out a package. “You can take a look at this, inside is all the footage I’ve ever taken of you, plus some of your photos and news clippings about you. You are Alicia. This can’t be a mistake. You absolutely don’t belong here, when I saw the headlines today, I immediately felt that things can’t be as simple as they seems!”
I didn’t dare accept that package, my entire head was a mess. It was as if, right after I’d finally accepted the Yan Xiao that had manifested after that car accident, after I’d been set up as an ordinary French-major university student, a group of people suddenly rushed over to reveal, “We played a joke on you. You aren’t actually you, you come from a different world,” and then wanted to install me in a different identity.
Frank could see my resistance and said, “After you’ve looked over all this information, if you can still completely discard all your suspicions, then I won’t disturb your peace anymore. But I hope that no matter, what you won’t let yourself down. Your past self’s biggest dream was to dance ballet. Not to mention that your disappearance a year ago was extremely suspicious.”
I vaguely responded, “I don’t understand ballet dance, I had a car accident here and injured my leg, ended up bed-ridden for over half a year.”
“No, you’re wrong about yourself. I don’t know who told you this, but in the alley in front of your apartment in Paris, we found a large pool of your blood, yet couldn’t find either you or your body, so in this year we had no choice but to declare you as a missing person. A lot of people already believe that you died, but not I. I know how strong of a girl you are. You wouldn’t throw away your dreams to just die so casually.” A light flashed in Frank’s eyes, “You shine the brightest among all the dancers I’ve ever seen. Our lives were going so smoothly. I planned to film you for my documentary, all the way up til the day you could dance no more.”
Once he again presented the package to me with a solemn look on his face. “You are her. I will also immediately send notice to Paris, to your instructor and the police. Mrs. Taylor is even more familiar with you than I am, she can tell you everything. And the police department keeps your blood and DNA in storage.”
“No, please wait. Please give me a little more time, right now I still also have my present life.” Saying these words really took all of my strength, because the package I held in my hand was so heavy it seemed to weigh a thousand kilos. It was as if it pressed heavily on my chest, weighing down on each and every pulse of my heartbeat, such that I could barely breathe.
Frank nodded his head. “I’ve seen the announcement of your engagement in the news, your life right now seems to travel on a completely different track. But Darling, let me just give you a single reminder. I don’t know who fabricated your current identity, but if you really are her, then these deceptions wouldn’t be a coincidence.”
He looked me deeply in the eye, his words relentlessly pressing on. “This would be attempted murder.”
The look in his eyes shook me to my core. And in my heart, I felt distraught and helpless. Indeed, if what he said was the truth, then all of this wouldn’t just be some big ruse, it would be attempted murder. A careful and meticulous construction, with the purpose of killing my life’s art, killing the ballet dancer I once was. And furthermore, they’d succeeded.
I’d originally believed that my life was like a straight and smooth road. Even after losing all my memories, I still had Yin Li. I’d planned to live an ordinary life, but it was like fate didn’t want to make things easy for me. From the time that painting had appeared, to the argument between the Yin siblings, up until now with Frank’s confidence about my true identity, everything overlapped messily.
What a joke. I’d returned to that time a year ago, to the circumstances I’d faced when I regained consciousness after that accident. The world was still strange, unfamiliar, and frightening. When Yin Li was extremely untrustworthy, such that I took him to be my enemy. When I didn’t even know who I was, so I could only wait for strangers to insert me into an unfamiliar role in society.
But in my heart, I knew that the world was already completely different.
