Fourth Wife You was silent for a while. She looked at her son-in-law’s face, then over at the village. She turned toward her house, and from beneath the awning she pulled out a hoe and a couple of shovels. Standing in the courtyard, she shouted upstairs, ‘Third Daughter… Wu Shu… there is something I need to attend to. The two of you can take as much grain as you need. Go ahead and fill up the entire cart, since you’ve made the trip.’ Then, carrying the tools, she left the house. Second Son-in-Law was still standing there waiting. Fourth Wife You came over and handed him the hoe, then led him up to the mountain ridge.
Second Son-in-Law asked in surprise, ‘Ma, where are you going?’
‘To dig up the grave of Second Daughter’s father,’ Fourth Wife You replied without turning around. ‘Didn’t you say you needed a dead person’s bones to cure Second Daughter’s illness? I’ll help get whatever you need.’
Second Son-in-Law ran up to her, the colour draining from his face, surprised at how quickly everything was progressing. He said, ‘I feel a bit bad about her father.’
Fourth Wife You replied, ‘Her father is the one who should feel bad about us.’
Second Son-in-Law said, ‘Even dead, he can’t lie in peace.’
Fourth Wife You replied, ‘He is the one who is not letting us live in peace.’ They walked quickly. Fourth Wife You was only a step away from sixty, but even carrying the shovel she was still faster than her thirty-year-old son-in-law.
Wheat sprouts already blanketed the entire field. The grave was located in a cemetery several li away, where each of the You family graves had a cypress or pine tree planted next to it, covering the ground in shade. The sunlight was squeezed by the shade into a variety of different shapes, or else simply remained shapeless. In front of Stone You’s grave there was a mountain pine, and since Stone You had been dead for a long time, the pine tree had already grown quite tall and bore several sparrow nests. When they reached the grave, Second Son-in-Law hung his shirt on a branch and used a shovel to dig open the grave, knocking down many twigs, leaves, and pinecones in the process.
The grave was opened.
The warm soil emitted milky white steam that spiralled upward and mixed with the scent from the pine trees, the decayed odour of the casket and the fragrant smell of wheat. Second Son-in-Law tossed out spadeful after spadeful of soil, as Fourth Wife You waited under the pine tree and collected pine nuts. Several sparrows were sitting on the tree branches, singing as they looked down at the village before flying away. Another dozen or so sparrows came and alighted in the tree, their songs like a shower on a clear day.
Second Son-in-Law stood on his tiptoes and peeked out of the grave. ‘What are they twittering about?’
Fourth Wife You said, ‘Keep digging. They’re a good omen – it means Second Daughter’s illness really will be cured.’
Second Son-in-Law opened the door to the tomb, and inside he found the decayed coffin. The black paint had long since peeled off, and the wood had been gnawed by insects into a dense honeycomb. The tomb was actually a cellar, and was half a normal person’s height. He squatted in the opening of the tomb, and in the sunlight could see that the coffin was resting on several large stones, and there were two white maggot crawling around on the lid. He knew that these were ordinary grubs, but the sound of them crawling around was as though a mosquito had flown into his ear. The character for ‘Offering’, inscribed on the lid of the coffin, was still faintly visible, and below it there was a date-sized opening that looked like a dark eye staring out. White smoke wafted out of the opening, up past the opening of the tomb and Second Son-in-Law’s head. Second Son-in-Law squatted at the opening of the tomb, as though he had lost the keys to his house and was locked out. Fourth Wife You shouted down to him, ‘Are you afraid?’ He replied, ‘Have I ever been afraid?’ She said, ‘Then open the coffin,’ and he replied, ‘I was just about to.’ He ducked his head and shuffled forward a couple of steps, then placed his hands on the front of the coffin and gently shook it back and forth.
The coffin fell apart. There was the sound of decayed wood shattering, and a cloud of smoke surged out, like water vapour from a hot steamer.
After the dust and smoke dissipated, Second Son-in-Law stood there motionless. Not a speck was left of his father-in-law’s flesh, and the clothing had completely disintegrated. Instead, there was just a layer of dust and a skeleton – foot bones, leg bones, hip bones, back bones, neck bones, and a skull, all neatly arranged in their original configuration. The skull resembled a sheet of dirty paper that had fallen to the ground in the middle of the night, while the two eyes were still clear and bright, like two wells sitting in the sunlight. A shiver ran down his spine, as he took two steps back and shouted,
‘Ma… come take a look.’
Fourth Wife You went down.
Second Son-in-Law said, ‘Say something to my father-in-law. Give him some sort of explanation.’
Fourth Wife You said, ‘We are trying to cure his daughter’s illness. There’s nothing to explain.’ With this, she entered the tomb, squatted down in front of the coffin and pushed aside a couple of maggots that had fallen onto the leg bones. She looked everything over and saw that, apart from some white moss, the walls of the tomb were completely intact. ‘Good soil in this tomb,’ she remarked. Then she turned and asked, ‘Did you bring a sack?’
Second Son-in-Law took a white cloth out of his pocket and laid it out in the lighted area at the entrance to the tomb.
Fourth Wife You asked, ‘Which bone do you want?’
Second Son-in-Law said, ‘Whenever Second Daughter has an episode, her hand begins to tremble, so let’s take a bone from his hand.’
Fourth Wife You took two bones from her husband’s hand and placed them on the cloth, then asked, ‘What else?’
Second Son-in-Law said, ‘Whenever she has an episode she loses the ability to walk.’
Fourth Wife You took one of her husband’s leg bones and placed it on the cloth, then asked, ‘What else?’
Second Son-in-Law said, ‘Anything is fine. Just take a few more.’
Fourth Wife You said, ‘Mental illness is the result of something wrong in the brain, and if the brain can be fixed the illness will be cured. So, we should definitely use the skull.’ As she was saying this, she took the skull and held it in both hands as though it were a bowl, then gently placed it on the cloth. She tied up the four corners of the cloth, and after Second Son-in-Law climbed out of the grave, she handed him the bundle. Then she stepped out of the mud hole and, holding Stone You’s hand, left the graveyard.
Outside, the sun was already at its apex, shining down brightly as the trees and mountains twinkled in the sunlight. On the opposite hill, a villager was preparing his field for planting. He was standing on an elevated area and asked Fourth Wife You what she was doing at the graveyard. She replied that the grave of her husband, who had gone on to enjoy better days, had been flooded by the rain, and she and Second Son-in-Law had come to fill in the collapsed pit. The villager went back to preparing his soil, and the rhythmic sound of his work reverberated up the ravine to the riverbank opposite, and to the other side of the mountain ridge beyond.
After filling in the grave and replacing the grave mound, Fourth Wife You and Second Son-in-Law picked up their tools and returned home. The bone-filled bundle was tied to the handle of Second Son-in-Law’s spade, and it swung back and forth as he walked. All the while, the bones made a grinding sound like bright moonlight falling to Earth, and a stench of decay trailed silently under their feet. Along the mountain ridge, villagers were on their way home after a day’s work. They were driving sheep and oxen, some villagers walking in front of the animals and others walking behind. Upon reaching the crossroad that turned into the village, Fourth Wife You asked, ‘What are we going to have for lunch? Garlic noodles?’ Second Son-in-Law replied, ‘I’m not going. Let Third Son-in-Law eat there. I don’t like him; he takes everything he wants just because he’s a wholer.’