“She dresses well.”
“For whose benefit?” she demanded. “Gong Jingyuan’s wife said Wang’s wife got around quite a bit when she was young. In the old days, when she worked as a salesgirl at a shopping center, she did it with a man after work behind the counter, and very noisily. When people looked to see what was going on, they saw her legs sticking up, so they banged on the door, but the two of them were oblivious. They hung on to each other until they were finished, even after people broke down the door and stormed in.”
As she went on, she reached out to touch him and found his erection. So she guided him on top of her. ☐☐ ☐☐ ☐☐ [The author has deleted 51 words.] She cried out and curled into a ball.
“So you couldn’t hold out, either,” Zhuang said.
“I didn’t complain, so don’t you. You’re always saying you can’t manage, but talking about Wang’s wife got you excited. How can you expect me to last longer than you? You were born to be the master of the house, stretching out your arms to be dressed and opening your mouth to be fed, while I have to tend to every little thing in both houses.”
“Stop the nonsense. How old are you, anyway? Look at Zhou Min’s wife. She may be a few years younger than you, but after all she’s gone through, there’s not a wrinkle on her face.”
That upset Yueqing. “So Wang’s wife is not enough for you? Now you have to bring this one up. What has she gone through? Xia Jie told me that she ran away with Zhou Min.”
“That’s right.”
“If she could run away from her husband, that can only mean she was the mistress of a house who did not have to do housework. That’s what makes women so despicable. Once they’re well dressed and well fed, the more a man treasures them, the more they’re tempted to engage in illicit affairs.”
“When was Xia Jie here?”
“This afternoon. She brought me a jade chrysanthemum bracelet, saying it was from Tang Wan’er, who felt bad that I couldn’t make it to her dinner the other day.”
“You see, she’s nice to you, and yet you say unkind things about her behind her back. Where’s the bracelet? Let’s see what kind of jade it is.”
“It doesn’t fit my fat arm, so I put it away. When have I said something unkind about her? I’m just unhappy that every time you meet a woman somewhere, you come home and contrast my shortcomings with her virtues. People say you can go crazy trying to compare yourself with others. I wouldn’t have all these wrinkles if I didn’t have to worry about every little thing in this house.”
That shut Zhuang up in regard to Tang Wan’er.
“You do work too hard, so why don’t we hire some help? The other day, Zhao Jingwu promised to find someone for us. When that happens, you’ll be the leisurely lady of the house, and you won’t have to lift a finger. All you’ll have to do is give orders.”
That mollified her a bit. “You wait and see. I’ll make my skin smooth and soft.”
They talked for a while before she curled up in his arms like a kitten and fell asleep. Zhuang, on the other hand, wasn’t sleepy, so after she started snoring, he quietly sat up and reached for a magazine under the pillow. Bored after a few pages, he lit a cigarette and waited for the flute to start up again. But there was no flute, and no shouts from the old junkman.
The next day, Niu Yueqing ordered a birthday cake from a bakery in the Guan Gong Temple and told the baker to decorate it with seventieth-birthday wishes. Then she bought some fine Suzhou silk, a bottle of aged liquor from Shuanggou, a package of cured mutton, two catties of brown sugar, and half a cattie of Dragonwell tea. Upon her return, Zhuang told her he didn’t feel like going.
“You don’t want to go? What do I say when Wang’s wife asks why?”
“There will be too many people there, and I don’t feel like dragging myself over and having to talk to them. If he asks, just tell them the mayor wanted to see me and I couldn’t get away.”
“They want you there to make the Wang family look good. He’ll be upset. He might be willing to lend us the money, but what do I do if he isn’t? Do you really not want to go, or do you think I’ll make you look bad? If that’s it, then I’ll stay home.”
“You think too much. I’ll write a scroll for you to take along, and I’m sure that will make the old lady happy.” Zhuang unrolled a sheet of rice paper and wrote: The setting sun is unimaginably splendid / The human world values emotion late in life. Then he told his wife to run along with it.
When she was gone, Zhuang considered going to Zhou Min’s house, wondering what he might give to Tang Wan’er. After searching through the wardrobe, he found only some snacks and candy, nothing worth taking, so he went into Old Mrs. Niu’s bedroom, where he found a piece of floral silk in her closet. The old lady kept him around to chat, going on and on about Yueqing’s father coming to stir up trouble when it was barely light out. She told him she had asked the old man what made him so angry so early in the morning and he’d said, “Why won’t you do something about them since I can’t?”
“Who are they?” Zhuang asked.
“I asked him,” she said. “I told him our son-in-law is a celebrity who sits at the same table as the mayor, so who would dare pick on him? He said it was the new couple next door. They fought and argued all day long, making so much noise he couldn’t sleep and lost his appetite. I thought it over. He never lied. Since you’re not going to the birthday party, go take a look. If there really are troublesome neighbors, plant a peach-wood stake on the spot.”
When she finished, she went out into the yard and began slicing a peach tree with a knife. Bemused and annoyed, Zhuang helped her back inside before he carved three stakes with the promise of checking on the old man’s grave.
He would have left after settling the old lady down if not for Niu Yueqing’s cousin, who arrived from the countryside with a package of millet. The old lady was so pleased, her smile turned to sobs, saying how wonderful the woman was, always thinking about her. Mrs. Niu asked about the woman’s father, with a litany of questions: What’s he doing? Why hasn’t he visited lately? People in the countryside are rich now, so he’s forgotten about an old sister even though she doesn’t plan to borrow money from him. The cousin quickly explained that her father had taken over the village’s brick kiln. Though he was too old for manual labor, he had been a well-known stoker and was put in charge of regulating the fire’s intensity. He simply could not get away at the moment.
“So he can’t get away,” Old Mrs. Niu said. “How did he find the time to come every three or four days to eat and drink and then leave with a sack of grain in the past?”
The cousin blanched at the reproach, prompting Zhuang to smooth things over by saying that his mother-in-law’s brain was addled, which was why she talked nonsense all day long.
“How could I be upset over what she said? She was telling the truth. Life was tough back then, with so many children in the family. We were lucky to have Aunty’s help.” The cousin turned to the old lady. “Aunty, you have every right to complain about my father. He knows he hasn’t been to see you in a long time. We’re having a temple festival in ten days, and there will be an opera performance. He asked me to bring you back with me.”
“Your brother-in-law here gets free tickets for shows at the city’s Yisu Club, Sanyi Club, and Shangyou Club, so why would I want to go see a rural opera?” the old lady said.
“A theater performance is different from open-air. Besides, now that we’re doing so much better, my father would like you to be our special guest. He’ll even wait on you.”