On the second day, the bruises looked slightly lighter. I started to think - "maybe she bumped into something and got bruised... Oh, no, poor her. I walked to her to show my care as a classmate - "What happened to your face, Fangli?"

"I got my nose done."

I understood straight away. Said "Emm." and walked away. I didn't react too much. It's better not to react at situations like this. And she didn't look like she wanted me to comment anyway.

I have to say, I hardly ever looked at her carefully before. But from that day, I realised that whenever I saw her, I couldn't help to JUST look at her nose, nowhere else. Her new nose looked strange, I thought. I also tried hard to keep thinking what she looked like before? Yes, I remembered. She looked much sweeter and more natural I thought.

Not until a few days ago, when we were busy preparing for our half term exams, my roommate Liu Yan said - "I am a bit worried about Fangli's nose. She is right next to me. I am always scared to hit her nose accidentally..."

"Yeah, you reminded me, yes, people who have 'done' their noses, if you hit their nose accidentally, it could result in another operation..." I said.

My words scared Liu Yan - "Oh, no! I stand the biggest possibility of hitting her accidentally. Well, my fan doesn't have eyes... Oh, no, I don't have the spare 20,000 yuan for her to do another operation!"

"What did you say? You mean she spent 20,000 yuan on her nose?"

"Yes, don't you know?!"

"Well, I didn't, but I know now, so I'd better be careful too."

Later on after my talk with Liu Yan, it was almost dramatic, Liu Yan's fan really did hit Fangli's nose accidentally! The air froze in our dance studio. Fangli screamed and walked towards the mirror at the front of the dance studio. She looked and touched her nose. A second seemed so long then. We were all waiting...

Luckily, there wasn't a problem. When it was confirmed, I could hear the whole class let out a sigh of relief.

How much is 20,000 yuan? It could be a normal primary school or secondary school teacher's yearly salary. It also could be people like Jingwen's, who is a professional dancer and choreographer, or even a bit more.

History doesn't always move forward. Chinese women used to bind their feet. My eighty-seven year old granny has bound feet. Except two big toes, she has been standing on her eight dead/broken toes since she was young.
Nowadays, most women choose to wear high heels. Some are very uncomfortable, either with a very thin heels or with a very pointed head. I heard that some women from the States even had their little toes removed to fit in to those stupid pointed head shoes better. Isn't this just a modern version of bound feet?

MeiMei

www.meimei.co.uk