Part 21 (1/2)

'No, whack him with my trainers!'

Meili puts her phone away and says, 'Quieten down. Now, listen, children. Spring Festival is coming up. If your parents haven't decided what to give you yet, tell them to visit my shop. It's called Fangfang Toy Emporium. It's packed with wonderful toys and games. If they bring one of these business cards I'm handing out to you, they'll get a 20 per cent discount . . .'

At the southern outskirts of town, the bus picks up speed and hurtles past lines of shacks with aluminium rain barrels glinting on the tin roofs.

KEYWORDS: Ming Dynasty theatre, face shape, toffee apple, swaddled, jewel-encrusted, sensitive.

AT THE END of the dancing policemen act, Nannan weaves her way back through the crowd of spectators with three bottles of Coca-Cola, and reaches her seat just as the curtains rise again. The instrumental prelude of a Cantonese opera begins to pour from the large loudspeakers flanking the stage. Meili, Kongzi and Nannan are sitting at the back. A group of scruffy workers who've wandered out from their nearby dormitory house in shorts and flip-flops are standing behind them, smoking. Local officials are seated on the front rows, dressed in freshly pressed trousers and short-sleeved s.h.i.+rts. 'We're in the birthplace of Cantonese opera,' Kongzi shouts over the din. 'This theatre is even older than the Confucius Temple and the Town G.o.d Temple. It's the perfect place to watch The Seventh Fairy Delivers her Son to Earth!'

'Is the opera based on the weaver girl and the cowherd story?' Meili asks, putting her arm around Nannan. She cracks a sunflower seed between her teeth and spits the sh.e.l.l onto her bulge. 'Here,' she says, offering some seeds to Nannan.

'You know I don't like them,' Nannan says, pus.h.i.+ng them away.

'But these ones are freshly roasted, just try one they're delicious,' Meili says, wis.h.i.+ng Nannan would overcome her irrational dislike of seeds. The drums are so loud now, she has to raise her voice to be heard.

'Yes, the Seventh Fairy is the weaver girl, the seventh daughter of the Jade Emperor and the Mother of the West. When she fell pregnant with the cowherd's child, her mother was furious and commanded her to return to Heaven. Now that it's born, she has to hand it over to the father.'

Gongs, violins, drums and guitars all sound out at once, drawing the audience's attention to the brightly lit stage, where two men with hoses are filling the air with white smoke in preparation of the fairy's descent to earth.

'Look, there she is!' Nannan cries out, jumping to her feet. A canvas backdrop is lowered, revealing the green landscape of terraced tea plantations beneath a clear blue sky. The sea of heads, hats and paper fans below wave about in antic.i.p.ation.

A woman in a jewel-encrusted headdress and a long red robe wafts down from the sky with a baby in her arm, singing: 'The Seventh Fairy cradles her swaddled baby son, and looks down at the Nine Regions and weeps, her tears flowing like a river . . .'

'This is boring,' Nannan moans. 'I much preferred the moon-dancing policemen just now.' This free show has been staged by the Foshan Song and Dance Troupe and the Shenxian County Cantonese Opera Company to celebrate 1 August Army Day. Meili, Kongzi and Nannan arrived at the theatre at five o'clock to make sure they'd get seats.

'Shut up!' Kongzi says, tapping Nannan's leg.

'My darling son is too young to know the meaning of grief, to know how my heart breaks at the thought of leaving him . . .' the fairy sings. The cowherd walks onto the stage wearing a headdress decorated with pompoms and ta.s.sels, a thick-belted tunic and padded boots. To a melancholy strain from the violins, he twirls around the fairy and takes her in his arms.

'Feel how fast my heart is beating, Kongzi,' Meili says, pressing his hand against her chest. The sunflower seeds on her belly scatter to the floor. 'The baby reminds me of Waterborn. She was no bigger than that when you sold her. I was still producing milk six months after she was gone. My body was yearning for her to come back.'

Kongzi pulls his hand away and takes a swig of Coca-Cola. Nannan sees a cla.s.smate in the crowd and waves to her. The sweltering, muggy air smells of cigarette smoke, sweat and sulphur. The open-air Ming Dynasty theatre is on the north sh.o.r.e of Womb Lake. Its ornate stage resembles the entrance to the Confucius Temple, with a golden roof supported by large red pillars. Lights pointing at the upturned eaves illuminate strange carved beasts glaring at the audience with mouths agape.

'Forget your sorrow for a moment,' the cowherd sings to the fairy. 'Let me wipe the hot tears from your face, and hold my son in my arms.' He takes the baby from the fairy and, gazing down at him, dances about the stage, the drums beating in time with his rhythmic steps.

'That baby's not real,' Nannan says, brus.h.i.+ng a mosquito off her arm. 'See, it's not moving at all.'

'I am a celestial being and you a mere mortal,' the fairy sings. 'Our love defies the Laws of Heaven. For giving you a male heir, I have been berated and humiliated . . .' As the fairy bursts into tears on the stage, in the unlit darkness at the back of the theatre, Meili weeps as well. Although she can remain on the earth, she has to live like an escaped convict, searching in vain for a place where she can legally give birth to her child. At least no one has tried to harm the fairy's son. As soon as her own son was born, he was killed and condemned to another reincarnation.

When Meili returns her tear-filled eyes to the stage, suddenly the fairy looks identical to her, and the cowherd to Kongzi.

'What miseries you've had to endure to produce a child for me!' the cowherd sings.

'I have no regrets,' the fairy sings back to him. 'The hundred days we spent together could vanquish a lifetime of sadness.'

'Yes, for one hundred days, we were as happy as two fish in a lake. And now, as I hold my son in my arms, my sorrows melt away . . .'

'My dear love, we're not fated to remain together. Now that I have delivered our son to you, I must return to the Celestial Palace. I in the sky and you on the earth, with the Milky Way between us: it won't be easy to meet again . . .'

Meili pats her belly and whispers, Don't worry, little Heaven, I'll make sure that this incarnation will be successful. The family planning laws won't last much longer. Just wait patiently in my womb a few more years until it's legal for you to come out. And when that time comes, if you still refuse to budge, I'll dig into my tummy b.u.t.ton and pull you out with my bare hands! On the stage, the heartbroken fairy circles the cowherd, tossing her head back and flicking her long sleeves in despair. Meili strokes Nannan's ponytail, and feels her tears slowly dry up.

'Why were you crying, Mum?' Nannan asks. 'That baby won't die. I understand Cantonese. The daddy said he'd look after him.'

'I was just thinking about Waterborn,' Meili says, wiping her eyes carefully, trying not to smudge her eyeliner.

'If I died and came back as a boy, you and Daddy would be so happy! I hate myself. I hate being a girl . . .'

'Stop muttering and look at the opera,' Kongzi says impatiently. Nannan leans over Meili and taps her empty Coca-Cola bottle on his head.

'How sad that you must leave us!' the cowherd cries. He is stifling in his thick costume, and sweat flies from his face whenever he moves his head. 'My love for you is like a river. Not even the sharpest sword can sever its flow. Farewell, sweet fairy . . .'

'My heart is dying, but we mustn't cry. Goodbye, husband, goodbye, child . . .' Meili watches the fairy step onto a cloud and rise into the blue sky, and feels a part of herself rise to the heavens with her.

By the time they squeeze their way out of the departing crowd, Meili's dress is drenched in sweat. Halfway home, Kongzi takes her hand and says, 'Let's go to a restaurant. My treat.'

'Your treat?' Meili says, taken aback. 'OK then, follow me.' She decides to take them to the Hunan restaurant Tang introduced her to. She loves its homely atmosphere and rich, spicy food.

After Kongzi pours himself a gla.s.s of beer, Nannan challenges him to an arm wrestle. She grasps his fist and forces it onto the table. Kongzi retaliates, slamming hers down with greater force. 'Calm down, Kongzi,' Meili says, 'and serve out this steamed pork.'

'I thought you'd given up meat,' Kongzi says.

'I had, but I think I should eat some for the baby's sake. The pickles and raw vegetables I've been living on this week can't have provided much nutrition.' Meili downloaded a vegetarian diet drawn up by a Taiwanese nutritionist, hoping it would help her lose weight.

'I don't like meat, either, Mum,' Nannan whines. 'I want a toffee apple.'

'Why didn't we ever take a photograph of Waterborn?' Meili asks Kongzi. 'Who did she look like?'

'She had my face shape and your features,' Kongzi says. He fumbles in his pockets for his cigarettes, then remembers he's given up, and wraps his hands around his gla.s.s of beer instead.

'No, Waterborn was my sister, so she must have looked like me,' says Nannan. 'I remember when you came back after giving her away, Daddy. You said: ”Don't be sad, Nannan. From now on, I'll only love you.”'

'Nonsense, don't lie: I'd never say such a thing!'

'I heard you say it countless times!' Meili retorts. 'Kongzi, there's something I've never told you before: Waterborn was born with a sixth finger on her left hand. Sister Mao chopped it off in the delivery room.'

'So that's why her hand was bandaged!' Kongzi says. 'You told me Sister Mao accidentally cut her with the forceps.'

'Dad, why did you call me Nannan? It sounds like ”boy-boy”. My cla.s.smates said you chose the name because you wished you'd had a son.'

'No, what I've always wanted is a son and a daughter: one of each.'

'Don't lie to me. You two are always arguing about wanting a son. Now I'm older I understand. It's because of me that those family planning officers killed Happiness and that you gave Waterborn away. The government only allows parents to have one child living with them.'

'That may be the rule, Nannan,' Kongzi says. 'But still, your mother and I are doing our best to make sure you have a little sibling to keep you company once we're gone.'

'If you wanted me to have a sibling, why did you sell Waterborn?' A fly darts off Nannan's hand and settles on the table.

'Don't touch the fly it's filthy!' Meili says to Kongzi, as he's about to swat it, then she turns to Nannan and says: 'Your father, he he just wasn't thinking straight that day. He and I are working hard, saving up money so that you can go to university when you're older. Kongzi, I'm still hungry. Order a yellow croaker steamed with salted vegetables.'

'No, you're saving up money to buy little Heaven a residence permit,' Nannan says.