The sweater, which was too small, seemed to wrap itself tightly around her. What caught his attention was not the size of the sweater but her curves, her vigor, and her vitality. Though not tall, Yuyang was well developed; her breasts moved in a lovely and compliant way, as if they were too dim-witted to know what was good for them. Her bangs were so soaked with sweat that they stuck to her forehead in a shiny crescent.
Wei moved closer, clasped his hands behind him, and squinted at Yuyang and the dog, his eyes brimming with tenderness. Unaware of his presence, Yuyang kept lifting, leaping, and screaming. And as the game continued, she got bolder and let her fingers remain in the dog’s mouth, which prompted Wei to blurt out, “Careful or he’ll bite.”
Startled, she withdrew her fingers, scraping them against the dog’s teeth in the process. They began to bleed. But she paid no attention to the wound; instead, she spun around and stood at attention in front of Wei.
From her bright red face, he could tell that she was nervous and ill at ease. Her shining eyes darted around, unsure of where to focus.
“Just look at you,” he scolded, but with a hint of affection in his voice. He came up and took her hand; after a cursory glance at the wound, he led her in the direction of the infirmary. The dog, obviously unwilling to let her go, trotted along behind them like a ball of yarn. Wei turned and gave the dog a kick, sending him somersaulting through the air before hitting the ground. With a series of loud yelps, the dog twisted itself around and waddled off.
At the infirmary, Wei picked up a cotton ball soaked in rubbing alcohol.
“Be brave,” he said. “This will sting.”
Yuyang looked up at him, not knowing what to do or say so she did as he said. He kept sucking in air, as if each dab were sending a sharp pain deep into his heart and into his mouth instead of hurting her. After taking care of her wound, he looked out the window just before he slapped her on the rear.
“Now be a good girl, and stop playing with that dog,” he said. Then he mumbled, “What a silly girl.” He sounded like her father, or maybe an uncle, but definitely someone from Wang Family Village.
“Now be a good girl, and stop playing with that dog.” “What a silly girl.” These two brief comments left a powerful impression on Yuyang, and she was deeply touched.
Shortly before the winter break, something extraordinary happened to this “silly girl”—she became pregnant. Yuyang herself was unaware of it and would never have known if Wei hadn’t called her into the duty office. The moment she walked in the door she could tell that something was wrong. She’d been treated well by Wei from the beginning; he’d never frowned at her, and the lines around his eyes had felt like sunshine to her.
But things were different this time. He sat in his chair with a stern look, signaling with his chin for her to shut the door and sit down.
She did as she was told, and her heart filled with anxiety. She wasn’t really afraid because she was secure in the knowledge that Teacher Wei was fond of her. Thinking she’d forgotten to report something important, she asked cautiously, “Has something happened on campus?”
Wei came right to the point. “Something has happened to you.”
“No,” she said, feeling confused. “I’m fine.”
Wei slapped his hand down on the desk and produced a letter. “One of your schoolmates has written to expose you, saying that you are involved with someone and that you have gotten yourself pregnant,” he said.
Yuyang’s mouth fell open. She stared blankly for a moment as she tried to comprehend what he was saying. When she did, she nearly fainted.
“Who said that?” she demanded.
“I need to investigate the allegation,” he replied calmly. The conversation could not continue because the tune “The Well Water at the Frontier is Clear and Pure,” sung by Li Guyi, was blaring through the PA system. It seemed both far off and close by at the same time. In Li Guyi’s falsetto, the words were like sighs or labored breathing, and the singer sounded worn out from expressing so much emotion. This created a strange atmosphere in the room, as the words started to seem both progressively distant and increasingly distinct.
“We can go to the hospital, or I can check it out myself,” Wei said.
Yuyang lowered her head, a welter of thoughts racing through her mind, as she tried to decide what to do. In the end, being checked by Teacher Wei seemed the better option, since he’d been so nice and would not bring false accusations against a good person like her. So she carefully drew the curtains and walked boldly up to him.
Wei was still seated, but he’d turned sideways and had opened his legs wide like a welcoming bay. At the last moment Yuyang’s courage left her, and she clutched the cord holding up her pants, unable to untie it. With an air of official indifference, Wei said, “We can always go to the hospital.”
His words, hinting at compromise, calmed her mind, yet the blood rushed to her face. True gold does not fear fire, and an upright body never fears a slanting shadow. Go ahead and check.
Standing between his legs, she untied her pants and draped the cord around her neck to let Wei press his hand against her belly and move it around slowly. Assured that this was a scientific search for the truth and confident that she knew what that truth was, she had nothing to fear.
Yuyang was innocent—that was proven beyond all doubt. In the spirit of never sparing a single culprit or falsely accusing an innocent person, Wei gave it his all, body and soul, and conducted a thorough inspection that exhausted him; he was sweating and breathing hard. Fortunately the final result allowed Yuyang to breathe a sigh of relief when he patted her buttocks and said, “Good girl.” She was not convinced until he repeated the words, “good girl.”
As she stood there, she felt like crying, for what can be more comforting than the trust of the organization? As she retied her pants, she concentrated on trying to guess who had written that shameless, slanderous letter. Had it not been for Teacher Wei, the consequences would have been unthinkable. Even though he’d been a bit rough and had hurt her more than she wanted to admit, the end result was worth all of her forbearance. Now, like Agatha Christie, she began to analyze, deduce, and evaluate the people in her class and discovered that every boy and girl was a suspect. But who could it be? She vowed to find and expose that despicable person.
Yuyang may have been exonerated by the inspection, but the one who truly came out a winner was Wei Xiangdong, who experienced an unexpected consequence. While rubbing Yuyang’s belly, he discovered, to his amazement, that a certain appendage had regained its life and revived—and with that he recovered the ability and courage to conquer all difficulties. There is justice in the world, after all; heaven rewards those who work hard.
The elated Wei tried to show off in bed that night but got nowhere. He had been able to do it earlier, why not now? The damned thing was importunely shameless—betraying and splitting him once again. What a tragedy!
As he rested the back of his head on his folded arms, Wei’s dejection seemed to reach into the marrow of his bones and send a searing pain straight to his heart. Suddenly distracted, he could not get Yuyang out of his mind. From that point on, she became his obsession.
The winter break was three weeks long, but to Wei Xiangdong it seemed endless. Listless and lethargic, he was reminded that he was neither man nor woman, but had become a true third sex. Now that the students were away, the campus seemed forlorn. It was bad enough that he couldn’t see Yuyang; what made it worse was that there was no one to report to him or to expose others, no one to order around, and no work to take charge of. Life lost its appeal, and he found it difficult to go on.