“Mother, it’s me, Laidi
The cleaver fell from Mother’s hand onto the straw mat atop the kang. Her eldest daughter was home! Eldest Sister was on her knees on the kang, sobbing. We looked into her shadowy face, and I saw it was covered with little bright spots. “Laidi… my first little girl… is it really you? You’re not a ghost, are you? I’m not afraid even if you are. Let me look at you…” Mother groped around at the head of the kang for a match.
First Sister stayed her hand and said softly, “Don’t light the lamp, Mother.”
“Laidi, you heartless thing. Where have you and that fellow Sha been all these years? You’ve made things so hard on your mother.”
“There’s so much to tell you, Mother,” she said. “But first, where’s my daughter?”
Mother picked up little Sha Zaohua, who was fast asleep, and handed her to Eldest Sister. “You call yourself a mother? You may know how to have a baby, but not how to raise it. Dumb animals do better than that… because of her, your fourth sister and seventh sister…”
“One of these days, Mother, I’ll repay you for all you’ve done for me,” First Sister said. “And I’ll make it up to Fourth Sister and Seventh Sister.”
Just then Sixth Sister came up to us. “First Sister!” she yelled.
Laidi lifted her head away from Sha Zaohua and touched Sixth Sister’s face. “Sixth Sister. Where’s Jintong? And Yunii? Ah, Jintong, Yunii, do you still remember your big sister?”
“If not for the demolition battalion,” Mother said, “this whole family would have starved.”
“Mother,” First Sister said, “the men named Jiang and Lu are no good.”
“They treat us well, so we should not say bad things about them.”
“That is part of their scheme. They sent Sha Yueliang a letter demanding his surrender. If he didn’t, they said, they’d take our daughter hostage.”
“How can that be?” Mother asked. “What does a little baby have to do with war?”
“Mother, my reason for coming home this time was to rescue my daughter. I came with a dozen or more soldiers, and we have to head back immediately. We’ll let Jiang and Lu enjoy their empty victory for now. Mother, our debt to you is higher than a mountain, and I hope you’ll let me repay you someday. The night is long, the dreams many. Now I must leave…”
But before she had a chance to finish, Mother grabbed Sha Zaohua out of her arms. “Laidi!” she said angrily. “Don’t think you can win me over so easily. Think how you dumped her on me back then. Well, I spared nothing in raising her this far, so don’t you think you can just come and take her away. All this stuff about Commander Lu and Commissar Jiang is a pack of lies. You want to be a mother now, now that you and Monk Sha have spent all your passion, is that it?”
“Mother, he’s a brigade leader in the Japanese Imperial Forces, commanding over a thousand troops.”
“I don’t care how many men he has or what kind of leader he is,” Mother said. “Have him claim this child in person, and tell him I’ve kept all those rabbits he hung from the tree for him.”
“Mother,” First Sister said, “this involves thousands of troops and their mounts, so don’t interfere.”
“I’ve interfered in things half my life already. Thousands of troops and their mounts or thousands of horses and their riders, it doesn’t matter to me. All I know is, I raised Zaohua, and I’m not about to hand her over to somebody else.”
First Sister reached out and snatched the child away, then jumped down off the kang. “You damned turtle spawn!” Mother cursed. “How dare you!”
Zaohua began to cry.
Mother jumped down off the kang and ran after them.
The crackle of gunfire erupted in the yard. Then we heard chaos on the roof above us, as someone screamed and rolled off onto the ground. A foot crashed through our ceiling, letting in clumps of mud and the glare of starlight. There was loud confusion outside, with gunfire, the clang of bayonets, and a soldier’s shout: “Don’t let them get away!”
A dozen or more soldiers of the demolition battalion came running with kerosene torches, turning the yard from night to day. Someone behind the house shouted, “Tie him up! Now let’s see you run away, my little uncle.”
Commander Lu of the demolition battalion strode into the yard and said to Laidi, who was cowering against the wall, holding tightly on to Sha Zaohua, “This is no way to act, is it, Mrs. Sha?”
Zaohua was crying.
Mother walked out into the yard.
We sprawled against the windowsill to watch.
A man lay alongside the path, his body full of holes, blood forming little puddles that snaked out in all directions. The offensive smell of warm blood. The choking smell of kerosene. Blood oozing from the bullet holes bubbled in places. He wasn’t dead yet: one of his legs twitched spasmodically, he was biting the ground, and his neck was twitching. We couldn’t see his face. Leaves on the trees were like gold or silver foil. The mute was standing in front of Commander Lu, waving his sword and shouting. The Bird Fairy came outside, dressed this time, wearing what could only have been one of the mute’s uniform shirts, which came down to her knees but only half covered her breasts and belly. Her exposed ankles were long and snowy white, the calves sleek and muscular. Her lips were parted, her eyes glazed as she gazed at the torches. A squad of soldiers came into the yard with three bound men in olive drab uniforms. One of them, his face ashen, had been wounded in the shoulder; it was still bleeding. Another was hobbling on a gimp leg. The third man was straining to raise his head, but failing, since the men behind him were pulling it down as low as it would go by a rope around his neck. Commissar Jiang came into the yard, flashlight in hand, the lens covered by a piece of red satin, which turned the light a muted red. Mother’s bare feet slapped the ground – pa-da pa-da – crushing the tiny mounds of dirt raised by worms. Showing no fear at all, she demanded of Commander Lu, “What’s going on here?”
“This has nothing to do with you, aunty,” he said.
Commissar Jiang flashed his red-satined light in Laidi’s face. She stood there like a poplar.
Mother walked up to First Sister and ripped Zaohua out of her hands. Cradling the baby in her arms, she said in a calming voice, “Good girl, don’t be afraid. Granny’s here.”
Zaohua’s cries softened until she was merely sobbing softly.
First Sister held her arms as if the baby were still in them, as if she were petrified. It was an ugly sight. Her face was ghostly white, her gaze frozen. She was wearing a green man’s uniform, under which her full breasts jutted out straight.
“Mrs. Sha, you people could not have received more humane treatment than we gave you. We didn’t try to force you to accept our reorganization,” Commander Lu said. “But you should not have gone over to the Japs.”
“That is for the menfolk to decide. I’m just the man’s wife.”
Commissar Jiang said, “We hear that Mrs. Sha is Commander Sha’s chief of staff.”
“All I know,” First Sister said, “is that I’ve come for my daughter. If you’ve got the balls, go do battle with him. Taking a child hostage is not how a man worthy of the name would go about it.”
“Mrs. Sha, you’ve got it all wrong,” Commissar Jiang said. “We have nothing but affection for Miss Sha. Just ask your mother. Ask your sisters. Heaven and earth are our witnesses. I’ll tell you what we’re all about. We love the child, and everything we do is in her best interests. What we don’t want for this lovely little girl is that she have traitors for parents.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” First Sister said. “You’re wasting your breath. But do what you want with me, since I am your prisoner.”