China Town

Mirela A. Nica
I went there for the Little Big jeans, which I had heard about from my classmates at school. I didn't know what brand clothes were or why some people were so proud of them, but I had started to think that they were like a ticket to join a group of friends. And since the feeling of belonging had also been born in me, my parents found the cheaper solution at Doraly, where we all stayed with the worry that we might leave from there, rather, naked. Too much hassle. The same knitted pants, under the jeans to make them look tight, were the base.
 
 Iulia Stavre
Wearing their caps low over their eyes, the two stopped. After the chase like in the movies, being tired and wet because of the rain, they leaned against the wall, looked at each other and burst out laughing. The sturdiest one assured the tattooed one. Here we are needles in a haystack. The smell of frying and spices hit their nostrils, and they suddenly felt the hunger in their stomachs. Once he learned where their trail had vanished, the boss called an old friend. He promised to deliver the two suitcases to him as soon as possible.
 
 Gabriel Rusu
He knows that life is a continuous war, and wars never bring happiness. They leave behind only suffering and wounds that never heal. Every man is condemned to fight until his last breath. Then he appears, probably that's why people call him Tianshi, meaning the angel. When you feel like you can't take it anymore, there is a path hidden from the eyes of the world. Behind the stalls, you find shelter. The poison sprinkled in the pipe becomes a cure, and for a few hours, it feels as though you're stripping away all the weight that presses on your soul.

 
(Translated by Eliza Radu / University of Bucharest, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, MTTLC, year I / Corrected by Silvia Petrescu, coordinator of the translations)