The crack was narrow just enough for a ray to go through.
缝极狭，刚好够一道光线通过。
On the one end of the crack, it was my wide open eyes;
缝的这端，我睁大了眼睛;
on the other end, it was crowded with people and vehicles.
缝的那端，则是车水马龙。
The crack has disappeared, the memory of it never goes away.
纵缝已消失，但记忆常在。
When I was just at the age of studying in primary school, I slept in the same room with my grandma in our old house.
当我还在上小学时，我和奶奶在老房子里睡一间卧室。
Actually, there was an exclusive room for me, but I was just too scared to sleep alone as my parents were working outside during that period. So we left the room unoccupied.
事实上，他们专门给我腾了一间房，只是囿于爸妈不在家，我不敢一个人睡，便让它空着了。
My grandpa had two younger brothers. The house then we lived was distributed to him by his father while his youngest brother lived together with us under one roof.
爷爷有两个弟弟，我们住的那幢老房子就是从他爸爸那分下来给他和他最小的弟弟(也就是我的小爷爷)的。
Unlike the modern buildings, our old house bore a special structure.
与现代建筑不同，老房子构造极具特色。
To let in some light, the watts-covered roof needed to be inserted a transparent glass tile somewhere.
为了让房子里透点光，人们往往会在屋顶瓦片的某处掺杂一片透明的玻璃瓦。
And a more common practice at that time in the village was to leave somewhere open-air, as our house did.
不过那时在农村更常见的做法是直接留个露天的地方，我们的老房子就是这样。
The room in which I slept had two exits, one with a door while the other without.
我睡的那间卧室有两个出口，一个有门，一个直接空着。
The no-door exit was alongside the channel which linked the kitchen and the living room of my grandpa's youngest brother.
空着的那个出口恰好是小爷爷客厅通往厨房的通道经过的地方。
And it was also the open-air place for the light to come in.
同时也正好是这幢房子留的露天的地方。
One needed to go down three steps to enter into the room from the channel.
从通道到我的卧室要下三级台阶。
When it rained, the steps got really slippery. So my grandma would always put several buckets there to collect rain water.
每每下雨时，台阶处淋了雨就极易打滑，所以奶奶总会在那放几个桶接雨水。
Right there, I found something unusual.
也就是在那儿，奇异的事情发生了。
Since our room was comparatively big, my grandparents had divided it into two parts, one for sleeping, the other working.
由于我的卧室较大，爷爷奶奶将其分为了两半，一半用于睡觉，一半用于干活。
By working, I mean at that time my grandparents made part of their money by doing some handicrafts and selling them at a price slightly higher than their costs.
所谓干活，其实也就是爷爷奶奶以不高的成本做些手工品，再以略高于成本的价格将其卖出，作为部分收入来源。
Every night, I slept early in order to get up early for school, accompanied by their hammers' beating sound and the faint light.
每晚，为了早起上学，我总是还没等他们干完活就在床上躺下了，伴随我入睡的是他们锤子的敲击声和老房子微弱的灯光。
My bed was separated by a cabinet from the steps I mentioned. The cabinet, however, didn't rely on the wall tightly, but left a crack.
我的床和我前面提到的台阶由一个橱柜隔开，然而这橱柜并没有紧贴着墙，而是留了一道缝。
Then one night something unusual happened.
于是，那个晚上，神奇的事情发生了。
When I lay on the bed as usual, seeing through the crack, what suddenly came into my sight was a busy street.
我像往常一样躺在床上，朝那条缝望去，一条街道突然出现在了我的眼前。
At that time, the most efficient way for my grandpa to sell his handicrafts was to sell them at the market. As I remembered, he went to different markets frequently, and sometimes he would bring back some snacks for me. He would also describe the streets where the markets were held.
这里要说的是，爷爷那时卖手工品最主要的途径就是去赶集。印象中，他三天两头去不同的集市赶集。有时他会给我带一些零食，他也会给我描述集市的街道摆设。
The street I saw was just like what he had described. There were all kinds of vendors on both sides of the street, people walking in various paces towards both directions with diverse expressions on their faces.
而那一晚我所看到的街道正如他描述的那样，街道两旁摆着各色摊位，行人们来来往往，步调不一，表情各异。
For a moment, I seemed to see my grandpa on the street, showing his handicrafts to others.
恍惚间，我仿佛看见爷爷也在街上，他正向别人展示他的手工品。
After that, I saw the street many times , sometimes even in the morning. But when I stood on the steps looking through the crack towards my bed, everything appeared to be ordinary.
那之后，我又多次看到了那条街道，有时甚至是在早上。但当我从台阶上透过缝往床上望时，一切又再正常不过。
I told this magical discovery to my grandma who, of course, did not believe in me and told me to stop talking nonsense.
我把这一神奇的发现告诉了奶奶，奶奶自然是不信的，还叫我别胡言乱语。
Then a few years later, my parents decided to build a new house, so the old one, having no reason to be kept, was torn down.
后来没几年，爸妈决定建新房，就把老房子拆了。
The crack became a mystery forever.
这条缝成了永远解不开的谜题。
Later, when I thought back, I found a relatively reasonable explanation for it. I was at a too young age when I had maybe the most imaginative mind in my whole life.
我后来想想，大概是因为那时年纪真的太小，本就是想象力最丰富的阶段；
And my grandpa's vivid descriptions towards the streets invoked my desire to go there.The buckets on the steps seen from a long distance or in an obscure way, were just like containers.
外加爷爷对街道的生动描述使我对它产生了向往，而台阶上的水桶从远处看或模糊地看就像是集装箱。
What was more, with an open-air roof, the light ribands around would always be blown up easily, which enhanced the dynamic feature of the scene.
此外，那儿又是通风口，周边的飘带类的轻物难免被风吹动，愈发加强了场景的动态性。
The crack itself was narrow enough to make it impossible for a clear view. When all these added up, it may make a little sense.
缝本身也极窄，透过它只能模糊地看。当这一切因素叠加在一起，可能就说得通了。
Anyway, now every time I think of it, I still find it kind of magical. I'd like to mark it as a childhood privilege, which I cherish a lot.
总之，我现在每每想起，仍觉得神奇不已。我将这标榜为童年专属记忆，我极为珍视的记忆。
