Microstories 微故事 0001：Vines 藤蔓
和你在一起，我希望我们可以有一条思路，像两根藤蔓一起生长，长在同一棵树上。我希望你有意识地选择跟我分享的内容，目的是你的思想跟我的思想交织在一起。找我，向我伸手，我也会这样做。你说，我说，你说，我说，两根藤蔓一起向上生长在同一棵树上。
Word List
藤蔓 téngmàn vine
思路 sīlù train of thought
根 gēn measure word for long, thin things (e.g. vines, branches, hair, ropes)
棵 kē measure word for trees
思想 sīxiǎng thought, ideology
内容 nèiróng content
交织 jiāozhī interweave, entwine
内容 nèiróng content
Image source: ChatGPT. (2025, July 21). A watercolor painting of a close-up of a tree trunk with two vines growing together and up [AI-generated image]. OpenAI. https://chat.openai.com/
Notes
1. Since I’m trying to “think” in Chinese but want to share this 微故事 with English-speaking friends, I asked Nico Ranng, author of Ill Grandeur, if he would use his knowledge of English and Chinese, sensitivity to the nuances and ironies of life, and beautiful words to translate it. Here it is:
Vines
With you, I hope we can follow a single thread of thought,
like two vines winding upward together,
growing side by side on the same tree.
I hope what you choose to share with me is chosen with care,
not just to speak, but to let our minds entwine.
Reach for me, and I’ll reach back.
You speak, then I speak.
You again, then I,
two vines spiraling higher,
twisting together on the same living trunk.
2. Our editor, Mary, 侯慧颖 Hóu Huìyǐng, contributed significantly to helping me write this 延伸隐喻 yánshēn yǐnyù extended metaphor.
3. In these strange times of people talking at - rather than with - each other, of people speaking and speaking with longing to feel heard, of people speaking and speaking so as not to have to feel, this 微故事 is what I long for. In a future chapter of 枝丫2，main character Zhang Laoban will remember his wife having said this to him.
微故事 Wēigùshì is a series of occasional vignettes featuring objects in the 胡同 and in the lives of 枝丫’s denizens. Twig 枝丫 Zhīyā is a fantasy series written in Simplified Chinese characters available for free for intermediate level adult readers. Here are the FAQs, the most-read chapters, and the table of contents.
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The table of contents for the 枝丫 series is here.
枝丫2 begins here. The complete 枝丫2 story so far, just 汉字，is here.
Word lists for review are in Hack Chinese.
微故事 Wēigùshì, a series of occasional vignettes featuring objects in the 胡同 and in the lives of 枝丫’s denizens.
Main page: Twig 枝丫: A fantasy novel