Just over a month after Youqing died, Chunsheng arrived. He was no longer called Chunsheng — he was called Liberation Liu. When other people saw him they’d all address him as Magistrate Liu, but I still called him Chunsheng. He told me that after he was taken prisoner he joined the Liberation Army. He fought all the way down to Fujian and later went to war in korea. Chunsheng was lucky to have come back in one piece after all those battles he had fought in. After the korean War he was transferred to civilian work and moved to a nearby county. He didn’t come to our county until the year Youqing died.
We were all home when Chunsheng arrived. Before Chunsheng even got to the door the team leader announced him, calling out, “Fugui, Magistrate Liu has come to see you.”
The team leader and Chunsheng both came in.
“It’s Chunsheng, Chunsheng’s here,” I told Jiazhen.
Who could have known that as soon as Jiazhen heard it was Chunsheng, tears would trickle from her eyes? She rushed at Chunsheng, screaming, “Get out!”
I was completely caught off guard by Jiazhen’s reaction and didn’t know what to do. The team leader got anxious.
“How can you talk like that to Magistrate Liu?” he demanded.
But Jiazhen couldn’t have cared less about all that. Screaming through her tears, she cried, “You give me back my Youqing!”
Chunsheng shook his head and said to Jiazhen, “This is a little token of my regard.”
Chunsheng tried to hand some money to Jiazhen, but she wouldn’t even look at it. Lunging at him again, she shouted, “Leave! Get out!”
The team leader rushed over to Jiazhen to keep her from Chunsheng.
“Jiazhen, you’ve got everything mixed up,” the team leader explained. “Youqing was killed in an accident. It wasn’t Magistrate Liu’s fault.”
Seeing that Jiazhen wouldn’t take the money, Chunsheng handed it to me.
“Fugui, take it. I beg you,” he said.
Seeing Jiazhen like that, how could I take the money? When Chunsheng stuffed the money into the palm of my hand, Jiazhen’s anger instantly switched to me. She screamed, “Your son’s life is worth only two hundred yuan?”
I quickly stuffed the money back into Chunsheng’s hand. After Jiazhen threw him out, Chunsheng came back on two other occasions, but no matter what, Jiazhen wouldn’t let him in. Women are stubborn — once they get their minds set on something, no one can budge them. As I saw Chunsheng off to the edge of the village I told him, “Chunsheng, from now on it’s probably best if you don’t come back anymore.”
He nodded and left. It would be years before I would see Chunsheng again. I didn’t see him until the Cultural Revolution.
When the Cultural Revolution hit, the whole town turned upside down. The streets were crawling with people, and there were fights every day. People were even beaten to death. No one from the countryside dared go into town. Compared with what was happening in town, the countryside was much more peaceful. Everything was just like before, except that you didn’t feel as safe when you were asleep at night. That was because Chairman Mao’s supreme directives were always issued in the middle of the night. The team leader would stand in the middle of the drying field and blow his whistle with all his might. When we’d hear that whistle we’d all jump out of bed and rush down to the drying field to hear the announcements. The team leader would be standing there yelling, “Everybody to the drying field! The venerable Chairman Mao has some instructions for you!”
We were just your average everyday folk. It wasn’t that we didn’t care about national issues, it was simply that we didn’t understand that kind of stuff. We would listen to the team leader in the same way that the team leader would listen to the higher-ups. All it took was one word from the higher-ups and we’d all think and do whatever they wanted.
Jiazhen and I were worried about Fengxia. She was getting older, and we felt we should really find her a husband. Fengxia looked just like Jiazhen did when she was younger. If it hadn’t been for that sickness when she was little, the matchmakers would have already broken down our door. As time went by I had less and less energy, and it seemed like Jiazhen would never fully recover from her illness. We’d been through a lot in this life, and just as a pear falls from a tree when it’s ripe, we were also getting to ripe old age. But we couldn’t stop worrying about Fengxia. She was different from other people. Who would be there to take care of her when she got old?
Fengxia may have been a deaf-mute, but she was still a woman, and she had to have known that it was only natural for men and women to get married eventually. Every year there were village women marrying out and other new brides who married in. During the excitement of the drums and gongs, Fengxia would always stand there holding on to her hoe as if in a trance. The young people in the village would always point at her and laugh.
When the Wang family’s third son married, everyone in the village said that his bride was a real beauty. The day the bride was welcomed into the village, she was wearing a quilted red jacket and couldn’t stop her nervous giggling. Watching from the field I could see her — she was red all over. Her apple-red face was especially attractive.
Everyone working in the fields ran over to see. The groom took a pack of Flying Horse cigarettes out of his pocket and passed some out to the more senior men. A few of the younger guys nearby yelled out, “Hey, what about us?”
The groom gave a sinister laugh and stuffed the cigarettes back into his pocket. The young guys rushed over to steal them, yelling, “You’ve got a woman who’s gonna sleep with you tonight and you can’t even spare a damn cigarette!”
The groom tried with all his might to hold on to his pack of Flying Horses, but the guys pried his fingers open and snatched his cigarettes away. Once they got them, one of the young men held them up in the air while his buddies rushed up the ridge to get their share.
The young men who were left surrounded the bride, snickering obnoxiously and making lewd comments. The bride just lowered her head and smiled. There isn’t much that can spoil a woman’s wedding day; new brides are happy regardless of what goes on around them.
Fengxia was in the field, and as soon as she saw the scene she seemed to enter a trance. She didn’t even blink; she just stood there motionless, holding her hoe tightly in her hands. Standing off to one side watching her, I felt so sad. Deep down I thought that if she wanted to see the wedding I should let her. Fengxia had a tough life, and the only bit of happiness she had was watching another woman getting married. No one expected that after standing there watching for a while she would actually walk over. Standing next to the bride, she smiled awkwardly and then followed the bride off on her procession. All the young guys started to laugh hysterically. Fengxia was wearing an outfit covered with patches, while the bride was wearing an immaculate and brightly colored dress — she was pretty, too. Seeing them walk together, there was no comparison. It was sad to see Fengxia ridiculed like that. She wasn’t wearing any makeup, but her face was just as red as the bride’s. She kept turning around, unable to keep her eyes off the new bride.
The young guys from the village continued to laugh and holler. “Fengxia wants a man!” they taunted.
That comment wasn’t so bad, but who could have guessed that before long they would start in with their nasty jokes?
“Fengxia’s got her eye on your bed!” someone said to the bride.
As soon as Fengxia started walking beside her, the bride stopped smiling. It was obvious that she looked down on Fengxia. It was then that somebody said to the groom, “You little bastard, you really got a good deal. You get to marry two for the price of one. Tonight you’ll have one on top and one on the bottom!”