With a little grimace, Huixian said, ‘I’m not a shirt, you know. How am I supposed to be hung out? I won’t hang out on any boat. They put me down in their book as lost, so they’ll have to broadcast my name and put up posters. If I can’t find my mama, she’ll have to find me.’
‘They could broadcast a hundred times,’ said Dayong, who’d reappeared at some point, ‘and it wouldn’t make any difference. Your mother’s a drowned ghost, and if one of those finds you, you’re in big trouble.’ He added fearsomely, ‘If your mother finds you, then you’ll be a drowned ghost too, with moss growing all over your body.’
All ten of Huixian’s fingers, which had been swirling in the air, stopped moving. She knew exactly what Dayong was talking about. Her eyes wide with fear, she stared at him. Dayong’s mother knew that this time he’d gone too far. ‘Don’t say things like that, Dayong,’ she said, pushing him towards the cabin.
But not in time. Twirling the ball of silk thread over her head, Huixian stormed after the boy. ‘Who are you calling a drowned ghost? You’re a drowned ghost! With moss growing all over your body!’ She flayed him with her silk thread as she raged on. Each scream was shriller and angrier than the one before. She was nearly hysterical. The strange thing was, she’d learned how to swear like a boat person, her curses aimed at the whole family: ‘I’ll thump, I’ll thump you, I’ll thump your mother, I’ll thump everybody in your family!’
Hearing the commotion, Sun Ximing’s wife ran up breathlessly and went to Huixian’s aid. ‘I tell you, that son of yours may not know right from wrong,’ she said, pointing at Dayong’s mother, ‘but what about you? The heavens will deal with anyone who torments this child.’
‘What kind of talk is that?’ Yingtao’s mother rejoined. ‘You have no idea what’s going on here! My son didn’t torment her, she hit him, and he didn’t hit back. She’s no dummy. Were you listening when she called everyone in our family a drowned ghost? Or when she cursed us with filthy language? The little tramp said she’s going to thump us all!’
Sun’s wife rolled her eyes at Yingtao’s mother and her children. ‘Forget it!’ she said angrily with a wave of her hands. ‘Just let it go. Talking to you people is a waste of time.’ Taking Huixian by the hand, she returned to barge number one. ‘I told you not to go on to any of these barges just because of how they look,’ she said. ‘There are good barges, and there are those that just look good. Stay away from the bad ones.’
Yingtao’s mother, enraged by these comments, ran after Sun’s wife. ‘You filthy-mouthed woman,’ she bellowed. ‘What do you mean by good and bad barges? How dare you put stupid thoughts like that in the head of a little girl! Does she belong to you, just because she spent one night on your barge? That’s where she learned all those bad things. Why don’t you take a good look at yourself? Your body odour could suffocate a person and you can barely spell three words. What makes you think you’d be a good mama to her?’
Sun Ximing’s wife turned back to look at her. ‘I may not be able to spell three words, but how many can you spell? And maybe I’m not qualified to be her mama, but you couldn’t even be her amah. Don’t think I don’t know how you and your old man were assigned to this fleet. If the authorities hadn’t decided to be lenient, you two—’ Her harangue was cut short by a flying broom that struck her on the leg. ‘Ouch!’ She spun around to see who had thrown it. It was Yingtao, who stood with her hands on her hips, glaring at Sun’s wife and at Huixian. This time, Sun’s wife knew, she’d gone too far. After kicking the broom into the river, she took Huixian’s hand and said, ‘Let’s go home.’
After she had thrown the broom, Yingtao ran to her mother, whose hands were pressed to her chest, her face a ghostly white; she finally managed to exhale. Aiming a mouthful of spit at the spot where the other woman had stood, she railed, ‘Even your underarms don’t stink as much as your mouth. Damn you! You’ve got a nerve, talking about my family like that. Everybody knows the scandalous history of your husband and your little sister, who got an abortion after she began to show. So who do you think you are — a big shot just because your husband muddled his way into the job of fleet commander? I tell you, there’s plenty of dirt to go around on the eleven barges of this fleet, but you’ll never find ours at the bottom of the heap. If I hear any more rubbish from you, I’ll tear your lips off!’
I wasn’t shocked by what I was hearing, but it was unexpected. Such matters had always gone unspoken aboard the boats. I’d heard that all the fleet families had stained records, but no one talked about them, even during violent arguments. It was a matter of principle. But with the arrival of Huixian, strange things had begun to happen, and a climate of anxiety now dominated our peaceful lives. Insults flew. I hated squabbles among the boat women. But that day was different, because they were arguing over Huixian. No one had any inkling about my feelings towards her, a protective urge that surprised even me, and that grew stronger every day. I’d experienced a secret torment when we’d taken her ashore, but now, miraculously, she was going to stay with us. And yet that miracle filled me with apprehension. The argument between the two women had resolved nothing. Given the blotted history of all eleven families, which barge should she make her home? Who was good enough to be her mama? I mulled the question over, but couldn’t come up with an answer. The world of barges was just too small. Yingtao’s mother was certainly not worthy of being her new mother. Sun Ximing’s wife treated her well and was, at heart, a good woman. But she was illiterate and had terrible body odour that would create a bad environment for Huixian’s daily life. I thought about my own mother, and how she’d often sighed over how good her life would have been if I’d been a daughter instead of a son. She was educated, cleanliness was important to her, and she cared about how she looked; she’d have been a good mother for Huixian. Unfortunately, she’d never get the chance. So who was the best candidate? If I had to select a general among all the pygmies, I guess it would have to be Desheng’s wife, though there was talk that she’d abandoned the man she’d just married to run off with Desheng and join him on the barge. But she was the only woman in the fleet who brushed her teeth every day. She was clean, she was smart, and she had a way with words. Some people said that she and her husband lacked the necessary experience, since they had no children of their own, but to my way of thinking that was a virtue. They were the only ones who would treat Huixian as their own daughter.
Desheng and his wife, who were standing on the bow of their ship, had heard the argument. Desheng’s wife was partial to Sun’s wife, while he found them both equally disagreeable. ‘Raising hell like that is stupid,’ he said. ‘Those shrews won’t say what they ought to be saying, and let fly with things that should never be said. Neither of them is worthy of being the girl’s mother. If she stayed with them, she’d grow up to be a shrew just like them.’
‘What the hell,’ I said to Desheng. ‘Why don’t you take her?’
He and his wife exchanged a hurried glance. ‘We like the little girl, we really do,’ she said. ‘But she was turned over to the fleet, so we should all meet to discuss how best to take care of her.’