A cultural exchange: requested by Anonymous.

Ryan 25  had a fascination with the Chinese people and their culture.
he had fought about studying overseas but he was frightened he would not fit in and he would be alone.

So when the Chinese New Year came around once again he made sure he went to celebrate it in Chinatown.

As the clocks hit midnight and people started setting off fireworks he sat there alone with his bottle of beer watching the fireworks and wishing he could have a deeper relationship with this culture.

As he sat there lost in his own thoughts a beautiful young Chinese girl sat down next to him.

She introduced herself as Ling Yao.

That brought Ryan back to the present.

Ryan introduced himself and the two started talking.

For some reason the two instinctively knew they could trust each other.

Before Ryan knew what he was doing he was telling her his deepest darkest fantasies.

He told her how he felt he had been born in the wrong culture.

He told her how he felt that deep down he should have been born Chinese.

Ryan was surprised when Ling Yao told him that she felt she should have been born English.

She told him that she had always been envious of the Freedom Western people had.

The two did not know it at the time but they had caused a ripple in the fabric of space-time.

The ripple close the two of them to swap consciousnesses.

Which meant the next morning they both woke up in each other's beds in each other houses in each other's bodies.

Which was a surprise and a shock for both of them.

Ryan found himself in a typical Chinese home.

He was wearing traditional Chinese clothing & from what he could tell he was also a woman.

He looked around the room not sure what to do.

He said out loud what sounded like to him in his head is there anybody there but what came out of his mouth was Nà li yǒurén ma.

Ryan sat there terrified trying to work out what happened to him.

As far as he knew this sort of thing was not possible.

He's sat there panic-stricken not sure what to do when two women enter the room he was in and helped him out of the kimono he was wearing and into a nice floral summer dress.

They told him that his husband had returned and was outside in the gardens waiting for her.

Ryan had no choice but to allow them to dress him and take him out to the gardens to meet the man he was now married to.

When the servants had left them the man looked at him and said I know you're frightened.

I know this is all strange and confusing to you.

But you did say you wanted to be Chinese and I knew my wife wanted to be English.

So even though it saddens me to lose her.

I am happy to make her happy and hopefully you happy too.

I know she did not want to be a man and you did not want to be a woman but fate had brought you two together for a purpose.

So I hope you can learn to love yourself as my wife and love me as your husband.

Ryan just looked at him.

He was getting some very strange from his body.

The body he was in was in love and attracted to this man which meant in some way so was he.

After knowing this reason Ryan felt more happy with his life changing experience.

As he was assured by the husband that he would be loved and treated with the highest respect.

Now that he could understand and speak fluent Chinese Ryan was feeling more comfortable in knowing that he was loved by the surrounding community.

However sometimes when he would look at himself in a mirror Ryan would wonder how Ling Yao was enjoying life in his body back in England.