When day broke, Zhuang went out to the gate for some milk and listened to Zhou Min play the xun at the city wall. After a prolonged period of immobility, he was happy to be walking again, so he went over to the city wall, but Zhou had left. He stood there, looking at the red bricks in the morning sun, before heading home to ask Liu Yue, “Has anyone come by?” “No one,” she said. “Any phone calls?” “No.”
“Why isn’t she here?” Zhuang murmured, and Liu Yue was reminded of his behavior with Tang Wan’er a few days before. She wondered if they had made a date for her to come over that day.
“Are you talking about Tang Wan’er?” she asked.
“What makes you say that? Zhou Min went to see the secretary-general, and I was wondering what happened. He hasn’t come by to bring me up to date, and he hasn’t sent Wan’er.”
So he is waiting for her, Liu Yue said to herself. “I think she’ll be here,” she said to him. When there was no sign of Tang, he went to his study to write a letter.
At ten-fifteen, Tang showed up. “Liu Yue,” she called out softly at the door. She smiled, her white teeth sparkling. Liu Yue was doing laundry; with her hands covered in suds, she looked up and saw that Tang had a new hairstyle and was wearing a loose purple dress.
They’re having an affair, she said to herself as jealousy welled up inside, but she smiled. “You must have been in a hurry, Wan’er. Look at the sweat on your neck. Anything important? Zhuang Shimu isn’t home, but Laoshi is in the study. Why don’t you go on in?”
“Shimu is out? I thought she’d be home. I came to visit her.”
“She has an ear infection that has affected her hearing. You’d have to raise your voice to talk to her, making conversation impossible. You wouldn’t have enjoyed the visit.” Glancing at Tang’s rising chest, she reached out and touched her breast. “Such a pretty color. Where did you get it?”
Liu Yue pinched Tang’s nipple while pretending to comment on the dress. It hurt, so Wan’er pushed the hand away. While this was going on, Zhuang walked out of the study to greet Wan’er. They sat down to talk.
“Stay for lunch,” he said. “My wife is always saying you don’t get enough to eat at home, and she wants you to drop by for a meal now and then.”
“There’s no need for that,” she said. “We have everything at home.”
“We won’t make you pay for your food,” he said, turning to Liu Yue. “Go buy some pork and some leeks. We’ll have dumplings for lunch.”
“It’s about time I went to the market,” Liu Yue said, picking up her shopping basket.
As soon as she left, Tang Wan’er ran into Zhuang’s arms with tears in her eyes.
“You’re crying again. Don’t cry.”
“I miss you so much. I thought these three days would never end.”
They hugged and kissed madly. She reached down between his legs. When he gestured toward the bedroom, they pulled apart. He looked in through the slightly open door to see the old lady sleeping in her bedroom; closing the door softly, he went into the study, followed by Wan’er, who tiptoed in and closed the door quietly. They immediately began undressing.
“You’re not wearing underwear.”
“To save you time.”
He sat her down in his leather chair, raised her legs, and kissed her down below. ☐☐ ☐☐ ☐☐ [The author has deleted 42 words.] The more she squirmed, the more he was aroused; he kept kissing her and felt an itch on his back. He asked her to scratch him. “It’s a mosquito. A mosquito in broad daylight?” She began scratching his back. “Who do you think you’re biting? Who, who do you, you think, you — you — oh, oh.” She stopped, her eyes rolled back, and her body stiffened. He felt a surge of warm liquid. ☐☐ ☐☐ ☐☐ [The author has deleted 33 words.] Zhuang stood up and smiled. “What does it taste like?” she asked. “Here, taste it.” He put his mouth on hers, then stepped down and stretched out his leg, only to land on her with a shriek.
“What’s wrong?”
“My foot.”
“Don’t put any weight on it,” she said.
“It’ll be all right.” He was about to begin again when she said, “Let me do it.” She got up to give him the chair. ☐☐ ☐☐ ☐☐ [The author has deleted 25 words.]
“Don’t make any noise,” he said. “The old lady is sleeping in the next room.”
“I don’t care.” She continued to moan and groan, so he handed her a handkerchief to stuff in her mouth. She bit down. ☐☐ ☐☐ ☐☐ [The author has deleted 18 words.]
“Hurry up and get dressed. Liu Yue will be back soon,” he said.
She put her dress back on, combed her hair, and wiped her sweaty face. She asked how her lipstick looked. It was completely gone, of course. He applied a fresh coat, and when he was done, he raised her skirt to write something on her thigh. She did not put up a struggle, letting him write while she powdered her face in a mirror. When he finished, she looked down to see what he had written. “Worry-free hall,” she read.
“That’s the name of a study, isn’t it?” she said.
“Why don’t I write it on a piece of paper with a brush and paste it up in your house?”
“People are fascinating. We have a head that brings us worries, but we have these parts to help rid us of problems. Have you had enough?” she said.
“Have you?”
“I have. I’m so satisfied it should last me a week.”
“Me too. I don’t know what I’d do without you,” he said.
“Then why don’t you marry me as soon as possible?
He lowered his head, with a pained look.
“Let’s not talk about that. It’s a blessing to love and be loved, don’t you think?”
“Yes,” he replied. “But I still want to say, wait for me. You must wait for me.”
They went back into the living room, where they talked until Liu Yue returned and went into the kitchen to prepare the dumplings. Wan’er looked at her watch.
“Ai-ya,” she said. “It’s getting late. I should go home to make lunch for Zhou Min. He’s been going to see the secretary-general the past three days, but hasn’t seen him yet. He said that if he fails to see him again today, he’ll go to the man’s house and wait on his doorstep.” She got up to leave.
“I won’t keep you,” Zhuang said. “Didn’t you say you wanted a book?” They went into the study, and Liu Yue, worried they would take the book she was reading, put down her knife and followed them. The study door was ajar, but the curtain was down; two pairs of facing shoes, the high heels standing on top of the others, were visible under the curtain. She spun around and went back to the kitchen. A few moments later, she heard Tang call out. “I’ll be going now, Liu Yue.” She watched as she walked out, not making a move to see her off.
After walking Tang out, Zhuang returned to the kitchen to help with the vegetables. He asked Liu Yue the price of pork. Without replying, Liu kept chopping noisily. “Be careful not to cut your hand,” Zhuang said, sensing that the girl was on to them. But he knew she would say nothing even if she was sure, so he let her be. Suddenly exhausted, he went to his room for a nap.
After finishing the fillings, Liu Yue thought about her own feelings for Zhuang, who had said so many nice things to her. But his heart, it appeared, was with Tang Wan’er. That was deflating. Then she told herself that Zhuang could have a relationship with her as easily as he had with Tang. But was she exaggerating her own importance, or was she thinking too much? She had rejected him once. Wasn’t that how Tang Wan’er got in ahead of her? Now she was angry with Wan’er.
“Shameless bitch,” she cursed silently. “Remembering to cook for Zhou Min after what you did!”
She came out to speak to Zhuang, and when she saw him napping, she speculated that they must have been engaged in something while she was out grocery shopping. If she had any evidence, she would tell Shimu. She went into the study but could find nothing suspicious, nothing but three sheets of writing paper. It was a love letter to “Dear Ah-xian” from “Meizi, who loves you.” She snickered at their correspondence. The letter had yet to be sent when the woman came over, so he must have shown it to her. A careful study of the significance of the code names revealed nothing, so she laid the sheets on the floor to make them look as if they had been blown off the desk by the wind, before walking out and closing the door behind her.