When they got to my house, they all went in to see Fengxia. They left their instruments outside so the young guys from the village could keep the music going. Wearing her new clothes, Fengxia looked really stunning. Even I, as her father, had never imagined she could look so beautiful. She was sitting by Jiazhen’s bed, checking each man who came in to see if he was Erxi. When she finally saw him she lowered her head. When Erxi’s friends from town saw Fengxia, they all said, “Wow, this crooked-head of ours really lucked out.”
For years after that, whenever other girls in the village were married off, it would be said that none of their weddings compared to Fengxia’s. That day, when Fengxia was called out of the house, her face was as red as a tomato. Never before had so many people looked at her at the same time, and aside from burying her head in her chest, she didn’t know what to do. Erxi took her by the hand and led her over to the cart. Even after seeing the chair, Fengxia still didn’t quite know what to do. A roar of laughter erupted from the people watching when Erxi, who was a full head shorter than Fengxia, picked her up and placed her in the chair. Fengxia laughed, too.
“Mom, Dad, I’m taking Fengxia away,” Erxi told Jiazhen and me.
With that, Erxi started pulling the cart away. The moment the cart began to move, Fengxia abruptly raised her head and turned around, anxiously looking back. I knew that she was looking for Jiazhen and me. But I was standing right beside her, with Jiazhen on my back. As soon as she caught sight of us, she started to cry. She twisted her body around to look at us through her tears. Suddenly I thought back to when Fengxia was thirteen and that guy had taken her away — she had that same tearful look in her eyes as she had back then. As soon as I thought of that, tears began streaming down my face, and at the same moment I felt moisture on my neck and knew that Jiazhen was crying, too. But this time it’s different, I thought. This time Fengxia’s getting married. I smiled and said, “Jiazhen, today’s a happy occasion. You should be smiling.”
Erxi had a good heart. While he was pulling the cart he kept looking back at his bride. When he noticed a teary-eyed Fengxia turning back to look at us, Erxi stopped and turned to look at us as well. The more Fengxia cried, the sadder she seemed to get, and her shoulders began to tremble. I could feel my heart tightening up. I yelled to Erxi, “Erxi, what are you waiting for? Fengxia’s your wife now.”
When Fengxia moved to town it felt like our spirits had gone with her — no matter what Jiazhen and I did, we couldn’t help but feel empty inside. We didn’t use to notice Fengxia coming and going all the time, but the moment she left it became so quiet. Jiazhen and I were the only ones left. We just kept looking around the house as if, after decades of living there, we hadn’t already seen enough. For me it was okay; working in the field, I could get my mind off Fengxia. But it was really hard on Jiazhen. Sitting in bed all day with nothing to do, how could she not feel the loss with her Fengxia gone? She used to stay in bed all day without saying anything, but after Fengxia left she started to feel really terrible. Her lower back was tender and her shoulders were sore. It seemed like no matter what she did she couldn’t get comfortable. I could completely sympathize with her — staying in bed all day is even more exhausting than working in the field. Her body couldn’t even move. At dusk I would carry her piggyback around the village, and when the other villagers saw Jiazhen they would affectionately ask her all about how she’d been doing. Jiazhen would feel much more at ease and, leaning close to my ear, she’d whisper, “They won’t laugh at us, will they?”
“Why would they laugh at us? What’s so funny about me carrying my own wife?” I’d reply.
Jiazhen began to like reminiscing about the past. When we’d get to a certain spot she’d want to tell stories about back when Fengxia and Youqing were children. After going on and on about them, she’d laugh. When we got to the edge of the village, Jiazhen brought up the day I came home. She had been working in the field that day when she heard someone call out to Fengxia and Youqing in a loud voice. She looked up and saw me immediately, but at first she didn’t believe her eyes. When Jiazhen got to this point her laughter mixed with tears. Teardrops ran down my neck as she said, “Once you came home, everything was great.”
According to custom, Fengxia was supposed to come back to visit in a month — we were also supposed to wait at least a month before we went to visit her. So you can imagine our surprise when she came home in less than ten days. One evening, just after we had eaten, someone called from outside, “Fugui, you’d better head down to the village entrance. It looks like that crooked-headed son-in-law of yours is coming.”
At first I didn’t believe him. Everyone in the village knew how much Jiazhen and I missed Fengxia, so I figured they were just playing a joke on us. I remember telling Jiazhen, “It can’t be them, it’s been only ten days.”
But Jiazhen started to get anxious and said, “Hurry up and go take a look.”
I ran down to take a look, and what do you know, it really was Erxi. Lifting his left shoulder, he was carrying a cake; Fengxia was walking beside him. Hand in hand, they were all smiles as they approached me. When the people from the village saw them they all laughed — in those days you’d never see couples holding hands. I told them, “Erxi’s a city boy. Those people in town have got a bit of that foreign flavor.”
Jiazhen was ecstatic when Fengxia and Erxi came home. As soon as Fengxia sat down on the corner of the bed, Jiazhen couldn’t stop caressing her hand. She kept saying that Fengxia had gained weight, but how much weight could someone really gain in ten days?
“We had no idea you were coming,” I told Erxi. “We didn’t even prepare anything.”
Erxi giggled. He said he hadn’t known he was coming, either. Fengxia had taken him by the hand, and he’d just blindly followed her all the way.
After Fengxia came home that day, I also said to hell with the old custom and started going into town just about every other day. Now that I mention it, it was really Jiazhen who wanted me to go, but I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that I enjoyed visiting them, too. When I’d go into town it would be with the same fervor and enthusiasm I had going into town when I was young, only this time I was going for a different reason.
Before I left, I went down to our private plot to cut some fresh vegetables and put them in a basket. I was wearing the new cloth shoes Jiazhen had made for me. When I cut the vegetables I got my shoes dirty, and when Jiazhen saw she stopped me and told me to wipe off the mud before I left.
“An old man like me couldn’t care less about some mud on my shoes,” I told her.
“You can’t say that,” Jiazhen retorted. “Even though you’re old you’re still a person. And as long as you’re a person you should try to keep clean.”
She was right. Even after being sick in bed for so many years, unable even to go down to the fields, she still made sure her hair was neat and combed every day. So I put on some clean clothes and walked to the edge of the village. When the other villagers saw me carrying the basket of fresh vegetables they asked, “Off to see Fengxia again?”
I nodded, “Yep.”
“You keep going back there. Doesn’t that crooked-headed son-in-law of yours get sick of you?” they asked.
“Erxi isn’t like that,” I answered.
Erxi’s neighbors took a real fancy to Fengxia. As soon as I’d get there they’d all compliment her by saying how hardworking and intelligent she was. Once she started sweeping she’d sweep the ground in front of her neighbors’ houses — hell, once she got going, she’d sweep half the street. Seeing Fengxia beginning to break a sweat, the neighbors would go over and pat her on the back to tell her to stop. Only then would she go back inside with a bright smile on her face.