Tang felt better now that she had learned that Zhuang was tied up with gallery business. “Really? I haven’t been sleeping well lately. I walked too fast on my way here and I’m thirsty. Do you have any brown sugar? Could you make me a glass of sugar water?”
Xia got up to get the water. “Not sleeping well? Maybe you and Zhou Min should give it a rest at night. Why drink water with brown sugar on a hot day like this?”
“I have cold qi in my stomach. The doctor told me to drink it.” The water made her sweat and energized her. They chatted for a while. Xia suggested that they go for a walk. Tang wanted to go home for a nap, but Xia was so insistent that she couldn’t say no.
They walked out through the city’s south gate in high spirits, but when Tang felt a dull pain down below, she leaned against the bridgehead and said, “Let’s rest here awhile.” She gazed at the riverside park. A few puffy clouds and a brilliant sun hung high in the sky. The water in the city moat ran loudly past clumps of frog eggs congealed in waterweeds. Some of the eggs had hatched, releasing countless little tadpoles. The sight brought a smile to Tang’s face, but she avoided the reference when Xia asked her what she was smiling about. Instead she said, “Look at the wind.” A gust of wind rose from the water, climbed the riverbank, and crossed over the railings around the park, where it eddied and refused to die down. She had casually mentioned the wind, but now their attention was drawn to a tree it was attacking, a river locust whose trunk had been split in two. Interestingly, a large rock was inlaid at the split.
“The two sides of the split were quite close at first, but a gardener put in a rock to keep them apart. As the tree grew bigger and taller, the rock got stuck in there,” Xia said.
“What does the tree remind you of?”
“It looks like a Y.”
“Look again,” Tang said.
“An upside-down character for man, 人.”
“What kind of man?” Tang insisted.
“Just like a man. What else is there to see?”
“Look at the rock.”
“You little slut. How in the world did you think of that?” Finally understanding what Tang was getting at, Xia pinched her; they giggled as they got tangled up in their horseplay, drawing the attention of passersby.
“No more. People are looking at us,” Xia said.
“Who cares, they’re just looking.”
“Be honest with me, Wan’er. How many times can Zhou Min give it to you in a day? You’re like a nymphomaniac. Have you seen how thin he’s gotten?”
“You have it all wrong. We barely do it once a month, and we’ve just about forgotten it altogether.”
“I don’t believe you. Not counting Zhou Min, I’m sure you could stop any man in his tracks.”
“Then I’d be a real fox fairy.”
“That reminds of something. Last night I was reading Strange Tales from a Scholar’s Studio, and the stories about foxes and ghosts frightened me. Yunfang said he wasn’t afraid of fox fairies and was in fact wishing that one would open the window and come in late at night. I told him to dream on. With his stinky body, not even fleas or bedbugs care to bite him. When I went to bed, I marveled over Pu Songling’s fantastic stories. How could a fox become a fairy? If there’s a woman everyone could love, I’ve only seen one in my life, and that’s you.”
“When I read Pu Songling,” Tang Wan’er said, “he strikes me as the romantic type. He must have had many lovers. He loved them but could not be with them forever, so his longing turned them into fox fairies in his stories.”
“Where did you get a thought like that? Have you fallen for someone, or is someone in love with you?”
With Zhuang Zhidie’s image filling her mind, Tang smiled, her eyes turning into crescent moons as she blushed. “It was just a thought. Where would I get a lover? The world is strange, Xia Jie. If there are men, there have to be women — how do you feel when you’re with Meng Laoshi?”
“We regret making love because it’s so lifeless, but then a few days later, the desire returns.”
“Then you could both be leaders.”
“Leaders?”
“Which government office these days doesn’t have a leader who frequently makes mistakes? They conduct self-reflections for their superiors and then go out and make the same mistakes again. It goes on and on, and nothing happens to their official positions.”
They had a good laugh over that.
“That’s why we say that food and sex are the basis of human nature,” Xia Jie said.
“Actually, God played a trick on us humans, and there’s nothing we can do about it.”
“What do you mean?”
“He wants us to live, so we need to eat. But eating is so much trouble. First we have to grow the crops; then, after we harvest the grain, we have to mill it and turn it into food. When we eat, we have to chew, swallow, digest, and get rid of the waste. So much heavy-duty work is involved. But He gave us a desire for food, so we do all this willingly. Take what men and women do, for example. Its original purpose was procreation, but who would go through all the trouble if we weren’t given sexual urges? So just when you’re enjoying the pleasure, you fulfill your responsibility of having children. It would be great if we could go halfway, having the fun without the duty.”
“Is that what that crazy brain of yours thinks about?” Xia said as she reached out to tickle Tang under her arms. Overcome with laughter, Tang struggled out of Xia’s reach and ran across the bridge, with Xia hot in pursuit. One following the other, they ran through the gate and into the park, where Tang collapsed on the lawn. Xia ran over and pounced, but Tang was motionless. So Xia picked up a leg and took off her shoe. “Let’s see you run now.”
“Xia Dajie.” Tang turned her head to call out, her lips bloodless and her face bathed in sweat. Her eyes rolled up as she passed out.
. . .
Xia Jie hailed a pedicab to take her friend to the hospital, but Wan’er woke up on the way and refused to go. She said she’d had fainting spells before and had been overtired recently, which must have brought on another attack. She’d be fine once she got home and rested. Touching Tang’s forehead, Xia noted that the sweat was no longer cold and that the color was returning to her cheeks, so she gave the driver an additional five yuan to take them to Tang’s place. When they got into the quiet house, Tang went to lie down.
“Are you feeling better now, Wan’er?”
“Much better. Thank you so much, Xia Dajie.”
“You really scared me today. I wouldn’t want to live if something terrible were to happen to you.”
“Then you and I would become a pair of sexy ghosts.”
“You can still joke at a moment like this! I’ll make something for you. What do you feel like eating?”
“Nothing.” Tang smiled weakly. “I just want to sleep. I’ll be fine after I wake up. Why don’t you go on home?”
“Why isn’t Zhou Min home? Did he go to work? Let me call him at work.”
“Call on your way home. Why not try Zhuang Laoshi’s place first? He might be there.”
Xia made her another cup of water with brown sugar and set it by her bed before going out to make the phone call.
When she reached Zhuang and told him that Tang had fallen ill, he hopped on his scooter and raced over. Zhou was still at the magazine. Tang wept the moment she saw Zhuang’s face. As he dried her tears, he asked what had happened. After she told him, he was stunned into silence and sat on the bed for a long time. He thumped himself on the forehead. The sight brought secret joy to her, but she said, “You must hate me now. I’m so sorry that I got rid of your child.”
“No, Wan’er, you’ve done nothing wrong. I let you down.” He wrapped his arms around her head and said softly. “I should have been the one to go through the torment, but you had to endure it all alone. You’re really a good woman. But why didn’t you take care of yourself? Why did you have to keep Xia Jie company after you’d just had the procedure?”