The air was felt so lightweight as she strutted down the bund for the first time in the past 10 years or so .
Shanghai was overwhelmingly different .
The buildings , they were all covered with shiny polished glass as they caught the colourful spectra of light . They were all like towers that probably headed already into heaven , casting a shadow on Ping Ann as she gasped at their grace . Previously that day she went to find the old apartment blocks from 10 years ago but they were trampled down to mountains of bricks and walls with the interior iron frames sticking out , posters of Teresa Tang still stuck on them . Inside the rubble , Ping Ann believes that it also buried the woman she was 10 years ago . That woman , the one with the coal black hair , cigarette in her hand and an effortless charm was a wild creature . She was eccentric and strange because her eyes weren ’ t blinded by the roles the world told her she should take by the ones who wanted to limit her world only to that little apartment on the third floor . And even when they tried she found her way past , like how she always did , not through brute force , but through the strength that was so elegant but so potent . She was cruel and immoral but loving and sentimental at the same time . She was a pioneer , a mystery , a paradox and a list of other things that people could not comprehend . What remained today was a tired women with wrinkles and strands of white hair , in search of the only one that mattered to her this whole entire time but then lost her completely . Ping Ann still were in contact with people who knew every street but also every alley of this city , who still felt honoured to do this old school underworld legend some favours . She knew exactly where Mei lived , but decided to support her from afar . Even though Ping Ann wasn ’ t as sharp as she was 10 years ago , there was still one dimension of her that remained ; wherever she goes , trouble followed .
The 15.3 kilometres from her place to Mei ’ s felt so close but she did not travel them to risk ruining her daughter ’ s life again . It was only 15.3 kilometres . But on some days , it felt like infinity .
She looked up at the blood orange sky as people rushed from one place to another in their busy lives , past the old woman who stood still for a moment to acknowledge the beauty of this city . Heels clicked on the pavements as groups of confident young women march down the streets after work . Some thought about how to avoid the traffic while others thought about their children . She watched them with amusement as some of them pulled out a small shiny screen and looked at it sometimes discretely .
All around her was a Shanghai she didn ’ t recognize . A shanghai that seemed more liberated , more relaxed for the women that called this place home . She felt like a complete stranger to the screens everywhere vary in size from what you can hold in your hand to gigantic ones that covered the buildings . She couldn ’ t find her way around the city as effortlessly as before . She couldn ’ t even understand some of the foreign languages spoken between people who looked very different from how she looked . However something permanent still remained that time did not decay and declare passé . It was its charisma , its charm , and the beauty in its strength and fearlessness which made ping Ann feel at home in this metropolis .