That evening, Qiang called as usual and Tianyi gave him the good news: ‘I’ve got a copy of Old City.’ Qiang was delighted. Unluckily, Lian was in a foul mood that day. As deputy CEO, he felt he was really somebody now and, after going out to work all day, he was annoyed when he got home and Tianyi nagged him to do chores like give Niuniu a bath. In fact it drove him mad. Besides, the little boy was at a particularly mischievous stage and that added to his aggravation. So just as Qiang was settling down to his usual lengthy natter with Tianyi, he heard a roar at the other end of line: ‘Get your clothes off!’ Poor Qiang was so startled he nearly dropped the receiver.
Lian was of course directing the order to his son, who customarily dawdled over this duty for half an hour. But he was really getting at Tianyi. Why did he have to work all day and then come home and bath his son? While Tianyi, who didn’t have to go to the office, could not even attend to her son’s bath and spent all the time chatting endlessly on the phone. He was not going to stand for it a moment longer!
Little did he imagine that his shouted command had stirred sexual fantasies in Qiang. What would it be like, he wondered, to see Tianyi take her clothes off? What would she look like? He was certainly not unaware of her slender waist and full breasts, and when he was alone with her, he found her femininity thoroughly distracting.
A few days later, Wusheng arrived in Beijing. In high spirits, Qiang fixed up to go and meet him with Tianyi. He was banking on the fact that although Wusheng was now a celebrity author, he was an unsophisticated countryman at heart, and would be only too eager to accept an invitation from a film company. But when they arrived at the rather ordinary guesthouse where he was staying, he was taken aback to discover that Wusheng was in an uncooperative mood. Clutching his belly, he refused to get out of bed and complained: ‘I’ve got terrible stomach ache, I’m not going anywhere!’ Qiang had to grab hold of him: ‘Hey, Wusheng, old man! The company bosses have invited you to a banquet! Don’t mess us around like this!’ Wusheng’s reaction was to ignore Tianyi’s presence and pull up his sweatshirt to reveal a sallow belly neatly covered in five big plasters: ‘Just take a look at this! I’m not kidding you! I’m ill, I’ve got terrible belly ache!’
With the greatest difficulty, they managed to get Wusheng up and march him down to the Shunfeng Restaurant, famous throughout Beijing for its lavish dining. Here the deputy director of the film company, Mr Feng, splashed out on delicacies like shark’s fin with papaya especially for Wusheng, but the author just sat there, pecking at his food, pale and morosely silent. Even when others spoke, he said nothing. It was Tianyi who finally succeeded in drawing him into the conversation: ‘I’ve heard you’re a master of the art of doing horoscopes, and your readings are very accurate,’ she said. ‘Why don’t you do one for Mr Feng?’ At that, Wusheng’s thick lips parted and he turned to the director, speaking in a thick rural drawclass="underline" ‘May I ask when you were born, sir?’ The combination of the accent and his rather quaint way of expressing himself was comical, and Mr Feng suppressed a smile: ‘I was born in 1944, the thirteenth day of the first month by the old calendar, between 5 and 7 in the evening.’
Wusheng picked up two chopsticks and made a lengthy show of turning them this way and that. Then he pronounced: ‘It would not be appropriate for me to tell you now. I’ll write you a letter informing you of my reading after I return home.’ That certainly made the diners curious and there was a stream of questions. Tianyi hastily added her own time, day, month and year of birth. As she did so, she caught a slight smile at the corner of Qiang’s lips, the sort of indulgent smile an older man might give a junior he had taken a fancy to, and she could not help blushing.
The dinner grew more uproarious, and no one mentioned Old City again. But just as the meal was ending, Wusheng suddenly said: ‘You’ve been in such a hurry to get hold of the proofs, but I don’t think you’ll want it.’ He was only too right.
Distressing times followed for Tianyi. Head office came down very hard on Qiang. When the company’s executives read Old City they deemed it pornographic; Tangtang Film Productions would be mad to go for a work like that. It would be absolutely the wrong way to go! At the directors’ meeting, Qiang was subject to heavy criticism. In turn, he dumped all the blame onto Tianyi. This was no surprise; almost any man in his position would have taken the same decision to save their jobs. In the Chinese media and cultural world a ‘Duke of Windsor’ who preferred a beautiful woman to his country would be a laughing stock!
Tianyi was completely isolated. For a long time, she did not know what was going on in head office meetings. All she knew was that Qiang had grown thinner, more taciturn and more guarded in his speech, all of which distressed her. She put out very discreet feelers but never got any real answers. She just had the impression that a gloomy Qiang was growing distant from her. She saw the situation deteriorate but could do nothing to redeem it. It felt like a knife turning in her gut.
She summoned up her courage and went to his office. Quietly, she asked him: ‘Qiang, has there been a problem with Old City? If there has, then just dump the blame on me. Really, it doesn’t matter a bit. I’m not planning to join the Party or become an official, so there’s no way it can harm me.’ For an instant, Qiang was genuinely moved. But the very next moment, he hardened his heart and waved her away.
Many years later, when Tianyi finally found out what had been going on, she smiled cynically. What had made her imagine that her love was returned?
At the time, the next thing to happen was that that she received a letter from Wusheng. It contained the horoscope he had done for her, telling her that if she took a trip to the South-West this springtime, romance might ensue. She threw the letter onto the table with a wry smile. However, some days later, she received an invitation from Yunnan TV to go to Xishuangbanna. By nature, Tianyi preferred to avoid confrontations by keeping out of the way. This invitation had come just at the right time. The one person she would miss was Qiang, but on the other hand, he might be in a better frame of mind by the time she got back.
Of course, there were strings attached. Yunnan TV wanted Tianyi to collaborate with a young local screen writer, Mo, on the script for a film about animal protection, and then get her company to invest in it. She and Mo went to a valley of wild elephants around sixty kilometres from Jinghong, the chief city of the Xishuangbanna area. It was very much off the beaten track. Tianyi was a well-travelled woman but the unusual scenery of this place truly amazed her. There was something uniquely chilling and mysterious about the atmosphere of the place. There had been no building at all here with the exception of some wooden shacks that did duty as guest houses. They were built up in the branches of lofty trees, and connected by rudimentary wooden steps and bridges. The tree canopy that hid the sky above and the rivulets that glittered beneath made this primitive valley look like something out of Dante’s Divina Commedia. It was stunning and Tianyi was amazed that in their industrialized society, scenery as primeval as this still existed.
The screenwriter, Mo, was a local youth, and talked to Tianyi in a thick Yunnan dialect. They were eating their dinner outdoors that evening and Tianyi told him that this was the best and most special meal she had ever had in Yunnan. There were fragrant wild mushrooms and meat and greens, all mixed with rice. Exquisite.