Part 17 (2/2)
”I don't think so.” He regretted having answered in an uncertain tone, but on the other hand, he had never known how Shuyu felt when she was walking alone. ”Hua, will you keep your mother company when she goes shopping in the city?”
”I will,” she replied with her eyes shut. After a brief lull she said, ”Dad?”
”Yes?”
”Were you scared when you left home alone? You were just a teenager then.”
”Not really.”
”Didn't you miss your friends in Wujia after you left?”
”I had few friends.”
”Ah, I have so many here.” Her voice turned pensive.
While father and daughter were conversing with their eyes closed, the night thickened. The table and chests in the room became obscure. Suddenly somebody yelled from the yard, ”Come out, you pale-faced wolf!” It was Bensheng's hoa.r.s.e voice.
Lin climbed out of bed, put on his pants, and went out. As he opened the door, sour, alcoholic fumes a.s.sailed his nose. Bensheng, in large white shorts and stripped to the waist, pointed at Lin's face and said, ”Elder bro-brother, I want to settle accounts wi-with you tonight.”
”What's this all about?”
”I want you to come h-home with me.”
”All right.”
Hua came out too, in a pair of pink pajamas. Her uncle waved his hand and croaked, ”You're all su-such heartless beasts, so-so ungrateful.”
”You've drunk too much, Bensheng,” Lin said. ”Let me take you-”
”No, my head isn't muddled. Everything is cl-clear in here.” He pointed his thumb at his temple, but his legs buckled, shaking.
”Uncle, please go home.”
”You're ungrateful too. You don't e-even want to eat m-my food. Your aunt made lamb dumplings for you, b-but you wouldn't show your face.”
”Oh, I didn't know that!” Hua wailed.
”Tell me, how come Handong doesn't de-deserve you? Where can you find a better lad, a real scholar?”
”I've told you I don't want to think about him, Uncle.”
”He loves you.”
”I told you I don't want a bookworm.”
Lin felt bad for Bensheng. ”My brother,” he said, ”we were wrong, all right? Please-”
”Don't brother me! You s.n.a.t.c.hed away my sister. Now you're taking Hua away from me. You bully me be-because I don't have a child. You, you're my born enemy. I want to get even with you.” He collapsed to the ground, sobbing like a little boy.
”Uncle, don't be so upset. You can visit us and I'll come back to see you and Aunt. I promise.”
”Don't sweet-talk me. I know you think I'm dirty and greedy, but my heart is pure, like gold.” He thumped his chest with his fist.
As Lin bent down to help him up, Bensheng's stout wife appeared from the darkness, wearing a white T-s.h.i.+rt and mauve slacks. ”My old devil,” she cried at her husband, ”you come home with me.”
”Leave me alone,” he grunted.
”Get up right now!”
”Okay, my little granny.” He tried to climb to his feet, but his legs were rubbery, unable to support him.
His wife turned to Lin and said, ”I told him not to make any trouble here and let you and Hua leave in peace, but he sneaked out after a pot of horse pee.”
”He can't walk anymore. Let me carry him back.” Lin squatted down; Hua and her aunt lifted Bensheng by the arms and put him on Lin's back.
Lin carried him piggyback toward Bensheng's house, which was three hundred yards away, while Hua and her aunt followed, casting their long shadows ahead. As Lin plodded along in the damp moonlight, Bensheng breathed out hot air on the nape of his neck, making his skin tingle. Whenever Bensheng let out a feeble moan or a broken curse, Lin was afraid he would open his mouth to bite him. Hua was saying something to her aunt, her voice hardly audible.
Soon Lin began panting as the load on his back grew heavier and heavier.
4.
Hua was hired by the Splendor Match Plant a week after her arrival at Muji. For the time being she stayed with her mother in the hospital at night. She liked her new job, which was lighter than any work in the village-just gluing a slip of paper on the top of each matchbox and wrapping every ten boxes into a packet. Besides, she made more money now-twenty-eight yuan a month. In her heart she was grateful to her father, but she never said a word about it.
A month later the plant a.s.signed her a room in one of its dormitory houses; so one Sunday morning her mother moved out of the hospital to live with her in town. Lin bought bowls, pots, and some pieces of furniture for them, and he made sure they had enough coal and firewood. From now on, mother and daughter would be on their own. But their life was not worse than other workers'; Hua's earnings and the alimony Shuyu received could help them make ends meet each month.
After Shuyu and Hua had settled down, Lin began to attend to his own affairs. One day in October, he and Manna went to the Marriage Registration Office downtown. They gave each of the two women clerks a small bag of Mouse toffees. Without delay the older woman, who looked wizened and limped slightly, filled out a certificate for them. It was a piece of scarlet paper, folded and embossed with the golden words: Marriage License. Marriage License.
Then the preparations for the wedding began. They were allocated a one-bedroom apartment, which needed a lot of cleaning. For a week, in the evenings they brushed the cobwebs off the ceilings, scrubbed the floors and doors, painted the rusty bed that Lin had borrowed from the Section of General Affairs, and scoured the cooking range. They cleaned the windowpanes, which were speckled with fly droppings, and sealed the cracks around the window with flour-paste and strips of newspaper. The northern wall of the bedroom had some crevices; when it was windy outside, cold air would surge in, making the wallpaper vibrate with eerie noises. Two masons were sent over by the Logistics Department; they filled the crevices with mortar and then whitewashed all the walls.
In addition to the cleaning and repairing, Lin had to buy a large amount of candies, branded cigarettes, fruit, and wine. At the time these fancy things were in short supply, and he could get them only through the back door. Also, he was trying to buy a black-and-white TV set, which required a coupon he didn't have. So in the evening he bicycled about the city visiting people who might be able to help him, and he often returned late at night. Meanwhile Manna had a cold; she was coughing a lot.
The wedding took place in the conference room on the first Sunday of November. More than half of the hospital's staff and their families gathered there that evening. Most of the leaders and their wives attended the wedding, but Mrs. Su would not come because she abhorred the very idea of divorce. Somehow she couldn't stop calling Manna ”Doctor Kong's concubine” whenever the couple came to mind.
Sodas, bottles of wine, platters of apples and frozen pears, and plates of roasted hazelnuts, sunflower seeds, pine nuts, cigarettes, and candies were laid out on twenty-four tables, which had been arranged into six rows. Children turned noisy at the sight of so many goodies; most of them were Young Pioneers, wearing around their necks a triangular scarf that represented a corner of a red flag. Some boys were running about and shouting at their pals while spitting out sh.e.l.ls of sunflower seeds or cracking roasted pine nuts with their molars. A few little girls were warming their hands on the radiators below the double-glazed windows, which were partly packed with sawdust in between. The panes were covered with frost, s.h.i.+mmering in the fluorescent lights; on them one could see the patterns of clamsh.e.l.ls, seaweed, reefs, waves, capes, islands. It had snowed heavily that morning, and the whirring of the north wind could be heard through the windows.
On the front wall were posted two large words written in black ink on red paper: ”Happy Marriage!” Six strings of colorful bunting intersected one another in the air. There were also two lines of balloons wavering almost imperceptibly; one of them was popped, hanging up there like a blue baby sock.
When the room was nearly full, Director Ming Chen went to the front and clapped his hands. ”May I have your attention please,” he called. People quieted down.
”Comrades and friends,” he announced in a booming voice, ”today we've gathered here to celebrate the happy union of Comrade Lin Kong and Comrade Manna Wu. I'm very honored to officiate at this wedding. You all know who they are, as you see them every day. So let us make the ceremony simple and short. First, let us meet the bride and the groom.”
To loud applause Lin and Manna got up and turned around to face the people. Bareheaded, they both had on brand-new uniforms, with a red paper flower on their chests. Manna wore s.h.i.+ny patent-leather shoes while Lin was in big-toed boots, the standard army issue made of suede and canvas. She seemed nervous, not knowing where to put her hands, and kept smiling to a few nurses from her ward. Then at the request of Ming Chen, together the couple bowed to the audience, some of whom stood up and whooped while others applauded. More people were coming in from the doors at the back. A few women whispered about the bride's complexion, which had turned rather sallow the last few weeks. Someone said, ”Look at Doctor Kong's face. He's such a gloomy man that you never see him in high spirits.”
Director Chen announced again, ”Now, the bride and the groom pay tribute to the Party and Chairman Mao.”
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