Fourth Wife You said, ‘But it is still another several dozen li back to your house.’
Second Son-in-Law replied, ‘I’m worried about Second Daughter home alone, with no one to take care of her if she has an episode.’
Fourth Wife You took the hoe and the shovel from Second Son-in-Law and said, ‘You go ahead then.’
Second Son-in-Law switched the bundle of bones to his other hand, and said, ‘I’m leaving.’
He left, and in the blink of an eye he and his bundle of bones disappeared into the mountain light.
Fourth Wife You continued standing there in the road watching him, and after he was out of sight she called out, ‘Hey… you should treat Second Daughter well… be more compassionate with her…’
She heard his reply emerge from the yellow sunlight, ‘Ma… don’t worry! After the baby is born, I’ll bring you to live with us for a few days…’
Fourth Wife You returned home and was shocked by what she saw. Everything had been turned upside down. The courtyard was covered in spilled grain, and the ancestral tablet on a table in the main room had been toppled over. Stone You’s portrait had fallen to the ground, and the curtains along the wall had been torn down. The grain jars in the interior room had all been opened, and the lids had been left strewn around the bed, the chest, and on the floor. Fourth Wife You went inside to take a look, and it was only then that she noticed that all of the jars were completely empty. Even the jar at the head of the bed, which had been filled with freshly ground flour, had been completely emptied out, and all that was left was a thin layer of flour on the bedding. As for the two jin of sesame oil that had been stored under the table, even the bottle itself was gone. She spun around and walked out, only to notice that there was a ladder leaning against the tree in the courtyard and the freshly-picked ears of corn that had been hanging from the tree branches and the courtyard wall were also missing. Everything had been taken by that wholer, Third Son-in-Law.
It was as though they had been robbed. In the blink of an eye, all of the new and old grain was gone, together with the grain stored in a jar under the table. The corn in the courtyard and a sack of beans in the kitchen were also missing. Fourth Wife You stood stunned in the middle of the courtyard, staring at the bare tree branches and the courtyard wall. She felt her legs grow limp and almost collapsed. She managed to stagger forward a couple of steps, leaning against the tree branch on which they had previously hung corn to dry, then called out for Third Daughter, but there was no response. A deep silence flooded the courtyard, and swept over Fourth Wife You. She suddenly remembered Fourth Idiot, whom she had left locked up in his room. She quickly went up to look in through the window, and saw that he was sleeping soundly, with saliva dribbling out of his mouth. At the head of the bed, there was half a fried bun.
Fourth Wife You leaned against the window and shouted, ‘Pig! Will you wake up?’
Fourth Idiot woke up and sat up in bed.
Fourth Wife You asked him, ‘Where’s Third Daughter?’
Fourth Idiot rubbed his eyes and said, ‘She left with her husband.’
Fourth Wife You asked, ‘Where did they put all of our grain?’
Fourth Idiot said, ‘They hauled it away. I saw them load it onto their cart.’
Fourth Wife You asked, ‘They were able to get it all on one cart?’
Fourth Idiot said, ‘When Third Daughter married her husband, that ass caressed her breasts in the courtyard, then she went into the village to help him borrow another cart. After that, they left – each of them hauling a cart full of grain.’
Fourth Wife You felt her legs go limp, as though her bones had turned to rubber. She slid to the ground, where the midday sun beat down on her. Through the window, she heard Fourth Idiot chewing on his fried bun, and asked,
‘Fourth Babe, so you just watched as they hauled away all of our grain, and didn’t do anything to stop them?’
Fourth Idiot replied, ‘They cooked me a fried bun – a scallion bun I never had before.’
He added, ‘Ma, have you ever had a fried bun?’ As he said this, a piece of fried bun fell from the window onto Fourth Wife You’s head, and then dropped to the ground. She looked at the bun, which was round and had a bite taken out of it. She could make out every individual tooth mark. She focused her attention on the canine marks, and after staring for a while and resting a moment, she leaned against the wall and stood up. She retrieved a key from where it was hidden in the doorframe, opened the door and let Fourth Idiot out.
Fourth Idiot walked out as though he had just been released from prison. He squinted in the sunlight, ran around the courtyard, and came to a stop in front of Fourth Wife You.
Fourth Wife You asked him, ‘Fourth Babe, do you think Third Uncle treats Third Sister well?’
Fourth Idiot said, ‘Yes, extremely well. They even hold hands when they go to the outhouse together.’
Fourth Wife You said, ‘Now you and I are the only ones left. What do you want to eat?’
Fourth Idiot said, ‘I just had five fried buns, and now I’m thirsty.’ Fourth Wife You then told him that, now that Third Daughter was gone, she wouldn’t lock him up in his room anymore. Instead, she would go fix him a bowl of soup and boil him two cloves of pickled garlic.
Chapter Five
Night fell.
As night fell, the sky grew overcast. The mountain ridge behind the village dissolved into darkness like overcooked vegetables being boiled in a pot. The empty house suddenly appeared as desolate as an empty field at night. The grain was all gone, and two of the jars were shattered. Third Daughter and that wholer had even taken the string of chili peppers that had been hanging over the door. Also missing was a pagoda tree branch they had cut to serve as a hoe handle, which had been leaning against the wall behind the door. Carrying an oil lamp, Fourth Wife You put Fourth Idiot to bed, then paced around her room several times. She wanted to clean up the house before going to sleep, but was so exhausted that she couldn’t muster the energy to take another step.
So, she went directly to bed.
As she was about to fall asleep, Fourth Wife You heard a shadowy sound in the room, as though the wind were whispering to her. There was also the soft sound of footsteps pacing back and forth. At this point, the wind began to thin the black clouds outside, and through the window one could see them floating away like water pooled up along the riverbank. The clouds sounded like sparrows breathing. The darkness crowding in through the window piled up on the table and the bed, passed over the bedding and crawled up the wall. Fourth Wife You lay in bed with her eyes half-open, but after a while she suddenly heard the soft sound of sobbing coming from inside the house. She got up to take a look, and saw that it was her husband Stone You, who was curled up in the darkness streaming in through the window, like an earthworm dried in the sun. She said, ‘You worthless thing, your daughter boils a few of your bones and suddenly you are left like this?
He replied, ‘Now that the house has been emptied out, how are you and Fourth Idiot going to manage?’
She said, ‘We can still live in the house. We have a bed to sleep in and we still have land on the ridge, so we won’t starve.’ She added, ‘You should move on, and in the future if you find yourself missing some bones or sinews and have difficulty walking, don’t come looking for me. What good would it do to come to me? Can you help me plough the fields? Can you help me fetch water? Can you help me fetch a sack of someone’s leftover grain?’ He bowed his head so low it seemed as though his hair was draped over his feet. Outside the window, the clouds had already completely dispersed, and inside the house the moonlight cascaded down like water. As Stone You remained curled up on the floor, Fourth Wife You returned to bed and said, ‘If you aren’t going to leave, at least you can make yourself useful and help me clean up the house. Tomorrow, I’m going to get up early to take out the night soil, and then you and I can go visit Eldest and Second Daughters.’