“Who says I didn’t? Several youngsters crowded around me, in front and behind, and they even reached for my breasts. I just thought the young men had never seen anything like it, so I let them. I’m a mother of three, and those weren’t made of gold or silver. Who knew those damn kids wanted my money, not my breasts. They should be taken out and shot, or cut to pieces.”
The people who heard her howled with laughter.
“My anger has made me lose my head,” she said. “What was I saying?” She crouched down as the crowd surged again.
“There’s a lesson for you,” Xia Jie said to Tang Wan’er. “You’re going braless today, aren’t you?”
“It’s too hot in the summer to wear one,” Tang said, as Liu Yue ran over.
“There’s something here by Zhuang Laoshi, Dajie.”
“Let’s see what he wrote.” Wan’er grabbed the brochure and read aloud.
“Stop that. What a disgrace to have his name on this. That Huang guy probably didn’t warn him,” Niu Yueqing said as the people around them pointed and whispered. She heard a man say to someone next to him, “See them? Those are the wives of the writers.”
“Which ones? Where?” several people asked in unison.
“The one in the middle, in a green qipao, that’s Zhuang Zhidie’s wife.”
Niu Yueqing’s heart skipped a beat as she said to herself, He must know me, but I don’t know him. If he knows me, he should come say hello. Why hasn’t he? Why is he gossiping like that? Is he making fun of me because he knows that Zhidie and I had a fight? She turned to the others.
“Let’s go. Let’s get away from these gawking eyes.”
They got down off the platform and headed toward South Avenue.
“Since we’re not going to watch anymore, why don’t we go to my place for a game of mahjong?” Xia said. “It’s not far,”
“Liu Yue and I have to get back. We’ve been out too long already.”
“I had you in mind when I made the suggestion,” Xia Jie said. “You’re always so busy, you can never get away. Now that you’ve found the time and are in the mood to come out, you must stop by my place. Wan’er, Liu Yue, we’ll carry her if we have to.”
“All right,” Niu Yueqing laughed. “I’ll treat myself today.”
The four of them breezed down several lanes before reaching Meng’s house.
Once inside, they washed their sweaty faces, and Tang borrowed some of Xia’s cosmetics for a touch-up. A table was set up, dice were cast to determine the seating order, and they sat down to their tiles.
“Where’s Yunfang?” Niu Yueqing asked. “Practicing qigong at the Yunhuang Temple?”
“Who knows? He’s studying Shao Yong day and night. He’s already lost the sight in one eye and probably will wind up losing it in the other.”
The other women all knew about Meng’s eye, so they joked about who would look at Xia’s pretty face if he were completely blind.
“If that happened, I’d bring a man over. He wouldn’t be upset if he couldn’t see.” Xia’s comment left the others speechless; they didn’t know what to say to her. Niu Yueqing heard someone selling fresh milk outside.
“It sounds like Aunty Liu, Liu Yue,” she said. “Go see if it is.”
She went outside. Aunty Liu had brought her cow.
“Out selling milk at this hour, Aunty Liu?”
“Oh, it’s you, Liu Yue. What are you doing here? I went to North Avenue this morning to deliver milk and was stopped on the way home. I couldn’t get through no matter what.”
“Tie your cow up here and come in. Dajie is inside playing mahjong.”
Without waiting for a response, Liu tethered the cow to a purple pagoda tree and led Aunty Liu inside, where she was greeted by the three women.
“This place is too nice for someone like me.”
“Don’t worry about that. It’s a friend’s house. We buy milk from you most days, but it’s late today, so don’t be in a hurry to go home. Stick around for a game. We’ll have lunch here. Niu Yueqing dragged Aunty Liu over to the card table. A lifelong mahjong fan back home, Aunty Liu was happy to be invited by these urban ladies and could not wait to play a round. And yet, despite the honor, she was worried they might be betting more than she could afford. Touching her pocket to get a feel of how much money she had earned selling milk, she knew that if she lost it, she would have wasted a trip into the city and, worse, might wind up owing them money, which would make her a laughingstock. So she begged off. Knowing what was on her mind, Niu Yueqing said: “We play small, one yuan, maybe half that, a round. Here, you play a round for me. You can keep what you win, and I’ll pick up the losses.”
“Zhuang shimu is too rich already,” Tang said, “so we’re going after her today,”
Aunty Liu sat down. “All right, I will play a round for you. My hands smell, so I’ll just play one round.”
When Niu Yueqing stood up, Liu Yue said: “Take my place, Dajie. I have to go to the compound to make lunch for Zhuang Laoshi.”
Feigning ignorance, Wan’er said, “Is Zhuang Laoshi staying at the compound?”
Niu Yueqing ignored her and turned to Liu Yue. “Don’t worry about him. He comes and goes as he pleases. He just doesn’t think we can do the same.”
“Did they have a fight?” Wan’er asked Liu Yue. “Are they living apart?”
“Not really,” Liu Yue whispered and then turned away. Curious about what was happening between Zhuang and his wife, Tang was peeved at the girl’s response, but she knew better than to show her displeasure. Yet as she moved her tiles, she could not stop wondering, and ended up playing a wrong tile. Liu Yue snapped it up and kissed it.
“I’m too good a feeder,” Tang said. She got up and asked Niu Yueqing to play for her, saying she would deposit her poison in the toilet. When she walked out the door, she saw the cow lying on the ground, motionless except for her tail, which she was swishing back and forth to chase away insects. Tang made a secret pledge: Zhidie keeps asking me to wait for him, so did he find an excuse to fight with his wife, or was it just a common quarrel? If it’s for me, let the cow moo once; if not, then nothing. She watched for a while, until the cow cocked her ears and let out a snort, not a moo. With no way to tell if she was the cause of the fight, she turned around unhappily.
“Ai-ya, it’s you, Zhuang Laoshi!” she called out shrilly. “I didn’t expect to see you here. As they say, the road turns when the mountain won’t.”
When the women inside heard her shout, Niu Yueqing pushed her tiles away. “Don’t tell him I’m here,” she said as she went into the bedroom and lowered the curtain. That was all the proof Tang needed that they really had had a fight, which elated her. She gestured to the other women with a smile and said, “Come, sit here, Zhuang Laoshi. Shimu is here. Now, where did she go?”
The others decided to go along. “When Shimu heard you were here,” one of them said, “she went inside to ‘get pretty for the one who pleases her most.’” They struggled to keep from laughing. So did Tang, who said, “Leaving already? After you heard that Shimu is here?” She walked into the yard and slammed the door shut, prompting Niu Yueqing to curse from the bedroom, “Let him go. Don’t stop him. Let him go, and he’ll never have to see me again if he doesn’t want to.” She seemed about to cry, which the other women found laughable. Xia Jie and Liu Yue went into the bedroom to drag her out.
“It’s all Wan’er’s fault. How could Zhuang Zhidie just show up like that?” Xia Jie said. “Wan’er, come, kowtow to Shimu to apologize.”
Clearly in high spirits, Tang swayed in and actually got down on her knees in front of Niu Yueqing, who could not suppress her amusement despite her anger. Pinching the girl’s lips, she said, “You little tart. You ought to go out on the street to sing ‘We are pests’; I will use 101 to kill you.”