Chapter 5: The Frog at the Bottom of the Well

He changed the station, only to find it was also in Chinese. This struck Su Mu as odd; he had been born and raised in America and rarely listened to Chinese-language radio. When he did, it was usually in Cantonese.

He couldn’t help but feel puzzled. Was there a new company launching radio services, or perhaps some special event underway? He twisted the dial again, and this time a song played: “Chrysanthemums wither, pain covers the ground; your smile has faded, petals fall as hearts break, my troubles lie quietly…”

Sure enough, three stations in a row were all in Chinese. This was Los Angeles, California, after all. Thirty or forty kilometers away lay Burbank, home to media giants like ABC, CBS, and NBC—how could there possibly be so many Chinese stations?

Strange as it was, Su Mu didn’t dwell on it. Even if he did, it wouldn’t lead anywhere; it was simply one of those bizarre things that happened when you had too much time on your hands. He listened to the song, found it beautifully sung, and jotted down a few lines of lyrics, planning to ask the owner of the music shop if they had the tape. He wanted to rent it and play it on his Walkman during his journeys to and from school.

The world’s first Walkman was developed by Sony in 1979—a portable cassette player whose name became synonymous with personal music devices. Over the years, new models appeared from various countries, though the price remained fairly high. Su Mu’s mother, wanting him to learn foreign languages but unable to afford a tutor, had finally gritted her teeth and bought him one so he could study at home.

Just then, a woman’s voice came from the radio: “This song was included in Jay Chou’s 2006 album ‘Still Fantasy,’ titled ‘Chrysanthemum Terrace.’ I remember clearly—back then, I was in middle school and queued up with my friends to buy a few copies…”

The pen dropped from Su Mu’s hand onto the desk. He stared wide-eyed and muttered, “What the hell is going on today? First it’s 2018, now 2006. April Fools’ Day has long passed, hasn’t it? Yes… it definitely has.”

He recalled how on April Fools’ Day, a classmate’s drink had been switched for ink by a rival from the neighboring class. He was certain April Fools’ had already come and gone this year.

Even the slowest person would sense something was off by now, let alone the quick-thinking Su Mu. His curiosity grew. Determined not to be fooled, he ran to his grandfather’s room, grabbed the old man’s small radio, and hurried back to his own. After plugging it in and turning it on, he found only English stations—no matter how he adjusted the frequency, it was all English.

The old radio’s Chinese broadcasts and the small radio’s English voices filled the little room together. Su Mu, his expression odd, switched off his grandfather’s radio and pulled up a stool to sit before the old one, continuing to change stations.

Opera, stories, music—everything was narrated in Mandarin. If he hadn’t known exactly where he was, Su Mu might have thought he’d returned to his homeland across the ocean.

While rapidly tuning through channels, he unexpectedly heard “Los Angeles.” He quickly spun the dial back and caught the host’s gruff voice: “…already done; Los Angeles hosted its second Olympic Games in 1984, and will again hold the thirty-fourth Summer Olympics in 2028. UCLA will once again serve as a venue, and its campus will play a key role as the Olympic Village for athletes’ accommodation.

A long time has passed. That year marked New China’s first participation in the Olympics, and unexpectedly, it ranked fourth in total gold medals. At that Olympics, China’s 27-year-old shooting athlete Xu Haifeng won the men’s 60-shot pistol event with a score of 566, earning the first gold medal of the Games and becoming China’s first Olympic gold medalist. He even stayed on UCLA’s campus and left behind a group photo.

So, this time we’re introducing the University of California, Los Angeles—a highly recommended school. The SSAT exam is just months away in 2018; registration closes three weeks before the test, with a fee of $215. Test centers are available in Shanghai, Hangzhou, and other places. We hope students and parents will pay attention to this prestigious institution.

That’s all for today. Please tune in next week at the same time for ‘Travel Abroad with Dashan.’ You can also visit our program’s website for more information about studying abroad. Until next time.”

Su Mu understood now—it was a radio program about studying abroad, inviting them to UCLA. The SSAT exam was next month; he recognized the two cities mentioned and wondered if that great nation across the Pacific had grown so powerful as to beam its signals into America. Considering their mastery of satellite technology, it seemed plausible. As for the 2028 Summer Olympics and Xu Haifeng, he understood none of it.

He did know about his homeland’s first Olympic delegation; there had been celebrations in Chinatown, with people buying tickets to cheer at the event. But oddly, the host spoke as though these events had happened long ago, when in fact they hadn’t yet occurred…

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The days that followed were much the same.

Su Mu attended school as usual, his routine revolving around campus. As for the old radio, he chalked it up to an accident, speculating idly that it might be related to solar storms. Sometimes strange broadcasts would appear; other times, it was normal, playing American stations.

He told no one about it. In the early 1980s, the atmosphere of the Cold War lingered. People would suddenly vanish, taken by the CIA or FBI as spies, never to be seen again. He worried he might land himself in trouble. As for his family, he feared his grandfather would think radio distracted him from studying, so he kept silent.

The channels seemed abnormal, so whenever he heard something interesting, he would jot it down, especially about “fantasies” of the future: watches you could call on, phones that showed TV, played music, took photos, websites for shopping, sites full of videos—all of it fascinated Su Mu.

Piecing together clues from fragmented words, Su Mu glimpsed the world of the future, but for now remained in the dark—like a frog at the bottom of a well, seeing only a small patch of sky overhead. Even if someone described what lay beyond, his mind remained a blur…