2:10:12
The ancients said, "Good luck never
comes in pairs. Bad luck always does."
2:10:17
To this age I still ponder
on how true these words are.
2:10:21
We were evacuated
to a small village...
2:10:24
that was near Aoli.
2:10:26
Who was to know that on
the day of the evacuation...
2:10:29
the seventh day
of the seventh lunar month...
2:10:33
a policeman asked us,
"What are you doing here?"
2:10:36
I told him we've come as part
of the evacuation of Taipei.
2:10:39
- He said, "Didn't you hear the sirens?"
- I said, "What sirens? More air raids?"
2:10:45
He said, "No, the Japanese
have surrendered."
2:10:48
Japan had surrendered?
2:10:49
So he told us we went there
for no reason.
2:10:52
But there we were...
2:10:54
at a time when
transportation was impossible.
2:10:57
So we went to the house
originally assigned to us.
2:11:00
Who knows why, but it happened
to be a coffin shop.
2:11:03
My wife thought...
2:11:05
"It's the seventh day
of the seventh month."
2:11:07
So she cooked some oily rice as
offering to the goddess of children.
2:11:10
My father-in-law's eyes always lit up
when he saw a bottle.
2:11:13
If there was drink,
he had to drink it.
2:11:17
So he got drunk
and fell asleep in a coffin.
2:11:20
In the middle of the night...
2:11:21
he woke up shivering.
2:11:24
I asked him what was wrong.
2:11:27
First he was cold, then hot.
2:11:30
The locals said
he had contracted malaria...
2:11:36
compounded by
acclimatization problems.
2:11:39
He was the first.
Then it was my turn.
2:11:43
The third was my wife.
2:11:48
Fortunately, my elder son and
daughter didn't get the disease...
2:11:53
but my younger son did.
2:11:57
He wasn't even two years old.