i imagine that jiang cheng walks along the piers with infant a-ling to get him to sleep, and very quietly tells him stories about his mother, his parents' love, his uncle, his grandparents, all the ghosts of lotus pier that linger at places where the waves meet aged wood, with only one person who remembers them.
and somehow, as a-ling gets older and angrier, the weight of the word "orphan" weighing heavier and heavier on his tiny shoulders, jiang cheng finds that those stories don't come so easily anymore. the words get tangled in his throat, and his a-ling goes from curling up in his arms to walking alongside him, hand in hand. then, all too soon, he's too old to hold hands, and then jin ling is too old to walk the piers with his uncle instead of going out with his friends, and jiang cheng walks alone.
the ghosts still linger, now remembered by two. one who wishes so desperately to keep it all in the past, to move forward, to leave it all behind again. and another who has once more found the words to bring to life stories of people long gone, but has no one to tell them to.
