The Simile Museum

“The engagement was short, and secretly Yanli was very disappointed; she’d always heard that these were the best days of one’s life. Even so, she was very happy when the wedding day arrived. That morning, combing her hair while still half asleep, she lifted her arms up, looked in the mirror, and felt a strange sense of invigoration—as if she’d been crammed into a glass test tube and was now pushing her head up to pop the lid off, ready to leap from the present into future.”

– Eileen Chang