Swallows By the Riverbank

Even if fate
pulls these two apart,
their entrusted feelings
will surely someday...

Mistress.

A package has arrived for you.

These past few decades,

I've held onto her letters.

1920, Shanghai

Excuse me.
One newspaper, please.

Thank you.

Excuse me.
Stop the cart.

My.
Now this is a rare sight.
Someone in such eccentric Western clothes
reading a newspaper of all things.

Are you interested in these clothes, madam?
No no.
It's you that I'm interested in.
You look like...

quite the intellectual young lady.

Hah
Haha.

I just got back from overseas,
so I'm still wearing the clothes I came with.
Is that so?

Hmm~
You see...

I'm looking for someone to write letters for me on my behalf.

Might you be interested?

What's your name?
Wu Shion.

Please call me Shiulang from now on.

I'd like your help...
writing a love letter
to my husband.

Understood.
What kind of person is he?

A somewhat perverted old man.
Eeh!?

p10

Well, you can just write whatever.
It's not like he'll give it a proper read anyway.

But...
Just do what you're paid for without thinking too deeply into it.

Now get to work.
Uuh...
I want to see what you can do.

One month later...
I've finished today's quota.

p11

Oh?
That's quite the nice outfit you're wearing today.
It's just my uniform.

Nice. I like stuff like this.
Heh...

p12

Madam Shiulang... You haven't checked it over.
Are you fine with giving me this?

Yes.
Sparing myself trouble is why I asked you write for me in the first place.

Besides, words to me
are like ants walking on a piece of paper.

Just who is your husband, Madam Shiulang?

p13

What's the matter?
You want to know more about me?

Rather than out of interest...
it's that you don't look like the wife of a wealthy military commander.
Well,
you're not exactly healthy, Madam Shiulang.
You don't read text all that much either.

p14

I'm really sorry for being so rude.

It's fine. Don't worry about it.
But seriously, Miss Shion...
You've got quite the sharp eye.
Anyone would notice this much.

You're right.
I only became a military commander's wife just recently.
I was a mere prostitute up until now.

It's only through sheer luck
that I have the life I have now.

p15

You're a returnee, right, Miss Shion?
You get to see the world at a young age
and wear such beautiful clothes...

I'm so jealous of you.

I was there to study abroad,
so I don't really think of it as sightseeing.

I want to go to other countries and learn their knowledge and idealogy
so that I can do something
to help this country and its people.

p16

I want to liberate them.
Even people like you, Madam Shiulang.

Hmm.

She says some pretty neat things.

Hm?

p17

Hahaha. What could this be?
Hey, Shion.

Is this a love letter to a girl?
Uwah!
Why are you looking at other people's things!?

That explains why you have no interest in men.
It's just practice!
Give that back!

I wrote it for a classmate!
The age of free love is almost upon us,
so even romance between women will soon be normal!

p18

Heh...
So you really wrote it for a girl?

That's weird...

Then I won't write.
I won't write ever again.
I was such a fool.

Love isn't something you can buy with money.

I thought you of all people would understand the meaning of my letter, Madam Shiulang.

I've misjudged you!

p19

I don't want anything to do with you anymore!
Eh? I was just kidding!
Shion...!?

p20

Oh, Shion. What a coincidence.
Did you come here to look at the view too?

...Yes.

Ever since I was little,
I've always liked Shanghai Bay.

Back then, I dreamed of becoming rich
and having a house by the bay.
Well, I don't think that nowadays, though.
Ahaha...

Are you still upset with me,
Miss Shion?

p21

I loved you once, Madam Shiulang...
but I've gradually started to hate you.
You sometimes act cold towards people who are beneath you.

I couldn't accept that side of you.
Being a former prostitute,
you should understand the suffering of the weak.

And yet you
have the rancid stench of the wealthy.
You didn't have to go that far.

p22

But unlike you, Shion,

I've never read so many big books
or gone to school,
so nobody taught me about that way of thinking.

p23

...Are you upset with me, Madam Shiulang?

I got a little full of myself.

I'm not upset with you, Miss Shion.

I mean, whatever you say must be the truth, right?

No...
I wasn't trying to get an apology out of you...

I'm just pushing my own ideals on you
and distancing myself.

p24

Four years later, on a thundery summer day,
Noo... My clothes... Uwaaah... The money too... Waaah~
Now now, don't cry. Let's get you changed.
Madam Shiulang, who I hadn't been in touch with for a while, came to my house.

The servants who'd do my laundry for me everyday are gone!
Do your own laundry!

She had been driven out of her home,

p25

while I had graduated from university
and become a press reporter.

Now then, take your medicine.

You won't feel any better
until your fever goes down.

Shion...

p26

I feel cold.
It's because of the fever.
It's like everything's going far away.
Yeah.

Shion.
Are you going to leave me behind?
She must be delirious from the fever.
Are you going to kick me out?

p29

I was afraid,
that what happened that day could've just been a delirious vision I had,
so I never worked up the courage to ask Shion about it.

p30

Shion told me
that she'd let me live with her from now on.

"This is my way of saying thanks for what you used to do for me, Madam Shiulang."

...That's how she explained it.

Now that I think about it,
isn't it like we're married?

No! I mustn't think like that...

I'm not into that kind of thing!

p31

Hey.
Shouldn't you start looking for a job soon?

?
Right... A job, huh?
I guess so.

Hah...
Maybe I'll go back to being a prostitute.
Kidding! I'm just kidding!
Although I have thought about becoming a hostess or a songstress.

Just those?

Also, you should fix all those bad habits of yours.
Like smoking and drinking.
A hostess can't do that!

If you wanna live in my house, you gotta live by my rules!
Right!

p32

Afterwards, everything was going smoothly.

By a fortuitous chance,
I was able to help Madam Shiulang become an actress.

1931, Hong Kong

Thank you for your help today.
Not at all.
Thank you too.

Doo you have any interest in performing overseas?
Eh?
I'm sure the American audience would love an Oriental beauty like you.

Here's my card.

p33

Shion! Shion!
Shiulang. How's work going?
Just finished up safely. More importantly...

Overseas work!?
This is a great opportunity!

So you'll support me?
Well... I want to,
but it's not that simple.

I can't go with you,
so you'll have to make all your decisions on your own.

But... if I do go,
it'd be ingrateful towards you, who worried about me the most...

p34

Why must you always let others dictate how you live your life?
You should decide this for yourself.

Well then, it will take six months to go through the formalities.
We will contact you again then.

It's finally over.
I'll go to America, earn money,
and come pick Shion up.
Extra! Extra!

p35

Shanghai has been attacked!
Extra! Shanghai has been attacked!
Shanghai has been attacked!

p36

Shion?
Eh?
Shiulang?
Why haven't you been answering?

Well y'know, with everything happening over here,
we've only just managed to get the presses up and running again.

But
I'm so glad... that you're okay.

Relax. I'm not gonna die that easily.

p37

Shion, can you come to America with me?
Sorry, I can't.

If even just one person leaves the press,
that's an entire set of hands they'll be short on.

There won't be anyone left to record everything that's happening,
so I don't want to leave just yet.
It's just one person.
What difference would that even make?

Even so, I don't want
to become that one person.

p38

It'll all be for nothing if you die.
Not at all.
Please try to understand, Shiulang.
I've spent all this time trying to understand you,
so why won't you compromise just this once?

Shiulang...

p39

The next year, I went to America
and ceased all contact with Shion.
It wasn't the most ideal life,
but it wasn't too bad either.

p40

Afterwards, the entire world got caught up in the war.

Shion.

Sometimes I dream
about the day I first met Shion.

p41

I might've admired to be like Shion back then.
That's why I called out to her.
I wanted to know about her way of thinking and way of life.

p42

Until the dream ended,
I didn't say a work to Shion.
All I could do was watch
as she walked across the bay to a place I could no longer see.

p43

1945, America

The war is over!
The war is over!
It's over!

To my dear Shiulang,

p44

things aren't looking too good over here.
In the event I won't get to see you again,
I'm sending you this letter.
Your lover again?
Yeah... More or less.
It's not gonna get there, y'know?
Haha. I just wanna jot down how I feel right now.

Well... Maybe it'll get there...
I'm sorry I couldn't stop myself from sending it.

p45

But if this letter does manage to reach you,

it's because of the efforts
of many people.

That alone gives it meaning, right?

p46

Letters truly are amazing, don't you think?
They can convey how you feel at the time.
So as you're reading this,

even if we're not in the same time,

p47-48

althought we're far apart,
I'll surely feel the same way you do.

p49

Thank you, Shiulang.

Please
let fortune smile upon you.

Through people's hands, these entrusted words will once again be embraced by someone.

Warning