Shifu, You'll Do Anything for a Laugh

  Junior recalled that everyone applauded like crazy, anticipating the arrival of He Leping. They didn't have to wait long. She came out in a skintight red outfit and white plastic sandals, with her hair coiled atop her head. All the hot-blooded young men buzzed about her pert breasts, which nearly popped out of their tight wrappings. Some said they were real, others said they weren't. One of the latter insisted that she was wearing plastic cups. She stood on the stage, striking a martial pose, red-tasseled spear in hand. With her chin held high, her back arched, and her dark eyes sparkling, she cut quite a figure. Then she began to twirl her spear, until all anyone could see on the stage was a red blur, and no one could follow the twists and turns of her lithe body. Finally she stopped spinning and stood ramrod straight with her spear, looking like a column of red smoke. The audience seemed frozen in place for a moment, no one making a peep. Then, suddenly snapping out of their trance, they clapped politely, as if physically drained.

  It was a sleepless night for the young men of the village.

  The next day, as members of the commune sprawled on the ground to rest, He Liping and her “nine-stage plum-blossom” were all anyone talked about. Someone said the girl's performance was like a flower stand: attractive but hardly practical; but someone else said it was like the wind, so fast she could keep four or five people at bay at the same time, and how much more practical can you get? Then someone said that anybody who took a girl like her for a wife was in for real trouble, that he'd get off lucky if all she did was beat him, that she definitely was a woman who rode her husband in bed, that no man, even one as strong as an ox, was a match for her “nine-stage plum-blossom.” At that point the tone of the discussion took a dive, and Junior, who was working with the older men at the time, was a little embarrassed and a little upset by what was being said.

  He Liping performed her “nine-stage plum-blossom” only that one time. Apparently, a report was sent to the commune revolutionary committee, from which emerged a pronouncement that spears belonged only in the hands of descendants of the reddest of the red. How could anybody have allowed one to fall into the hands of someone who came from the five black categories?

  Head bowed and utterly demoralized, He Liping worked silently alongside the other members of the commune. Then when all the other city kids spread their wings and flew off to their homes, she felt all alone and lonely, and that gained her plenty of sympathy. The team leader started giving her light duties. No one gave a thought to whether or not she should get married. The young male villagers hadn't forgotten her skills with a spear, and stayed clear of her.

  One day she sat on the footrest of the waterwheel dangling her legs and staring at the placid green water on the pond. Junior, who was resting at the edge of the pond, couldn't keep his eyes off her darkly tanned face; high, bony nose; and eyes so dark and large there didn't seem to be any room for the whites. Her eyebrows swept sharply toward her temple hair, and there was a large, dark red mole squarely in the center of her left brow. Her teeth were very white, her mouth quite large, and her hair so thick and bushy that Junior couldn't see any of her scalp. She was dressed that day in a blue gabardine army-style tunic that was nearly white from all the washings; a snowy white wedge of skin and the lacy trim of an undershirt poked out above the unbuttoned collar of her tunic. As his gaze continued downward, Junior grew so flustered he had to turn his face toward the cabbage patch, over which a pair of butterflies frolicked. But he didn't see the butterflies, since his head was filled with images of He Liping's tunic pockets, which were thrust outward by the arching breasts behind them.

  The oldster Guo Three was not a true farmer. Junior had heard people say he once worked as a “big teapot” in a Qing-dao whorehouse when he was young. Junior didn't know what a “big teapot” did, and he was too shy to ask.

  Guo Three, now wifeless, lived a bachelor's existence, although there was talk that he had something going with the wife of Li Gaofa, who wore her glossy hair pulled straight back above a large fair-skinned face. Broad in the beam, she waddled like a duck when she walked. She lived close enough to the pond so that Junior and Guo Three could see her yard when they worked the waterwheel. A large, black, and very mean dog prowled the area.

  They had been irrigating the cabbage patch for four days when the Li woman came over to the pond carrying a straw basket. She sidled up to the edge of the pond, a little at a time, until she was right beside the waterwheel. “Ge-ge-ge-ge,” she tittered.

  “Third Uncle,” she said to Guo Three, “the team leader gave you the best job.”

  Guo Three giggled. “It may look easy, but it's not. Just ask Junior.”

  After working the wheel for several days in a row, Junior had noticed that his arms were, in fact, starting to ache. He just grinned and looked down on the Li woman's greasy, swept-back hair, and had a funny feeling. He didn't like her, not at all.

  “That gimpy devil I'm married to was sent on a rock-gathering expedition to South Mountain,” the Li woman said. “He took his bedroll, since he won't be back for a month. I think the team leader's out to get me. With all the able-bodied young bachelors around here, why'd he send the gimpy devil?”

  Junior noticed that Guo Three was blinking nervously and heard a dry chuckle rattle around in his throat. “He was showing how much he valued you folks,” he said.

  “Hah!” the Li woman snorted angrily. “The old jackass is just out to get me.”

  This time the oldster Guo Three held his tongue. The Li woman stretched lazily and squinted up at the sun. “Third Uncle, it's nearly noon. Time for a break.”

  Guo Three shielded his eyes with his hand and looked up at the sun. “Yes, I guess it is.” He let go of the winch handle and shouted into the field, “Little He, break time!”

  “Third Uncle,” the Li woman said, “that dog of ours has been off his feed the last few days. How about taking a look at him for me?”

  Guo Three glanced at Junior. “After I've smoked a pipeful,” he said.

  As she walked off, the Li woman looked over her shoulder and said, “Don't be too long.”

  “I know, I know,” he replied with affected agitation, as he took out his tobacco pouch and his pipe. “How about you, lad?” he said to Junior with uncharacteristic warmth. “Smoke?” Then he stuck the pipe into his mouth without waiting for an answer. Junior watched him light it. “I'm getting old,” he said as he thumped his waist with his fists. “It doesn't take much for these old bones to start aching.”

  Guo Three walked off in the footsteps of the Li woman. But instead of watching either of them, Junior turned back toward the cabbage patch, where He Liping was standing stock still on a field embankment, hoe in hand. The sight saddened Junior. The water in the pond, polluted by the leather scoops of the waterwheel, turned muddy and rank-smelling. He could almost taste it. The metal pipe gave out a hollow cough, the chain clanked once or twice, the handlebar turned backward a time or two, and the water drained back into the pond. The waterwheel fell silent.

  As he sat on the wooden plank and let his legs dangle over the edge, Junior noticed that his hands had rubbed the rust off the handlebar. On that sunny day, water flowing sluggishly down the furrows in the cabbage patch caught the sun's rays and shone like splintered silver. The plants seemed frozen in place, and so did the high riverbank at the far end of the cabbage patch and the persimmon tree atop it, whose leaves were already starting to turn a fiery red. Junior looked westward just in time to see Guo Three stride into the yard of the Li home, where the big black dog barked once, then wagged his tail in welcome. Guo Three and the dog went inside together. Purple flowers were blooming on lentils climbing a trellis in the yard. Ripples rose on the surface of the pond, where a duck quacked and a goose honked. Two pairs of wings flapped against the water. The white long-necked gander pushed the duck under the water, and when they surfaced, he was riding on her back. Junior jumped to the ground, scooped up a handful of mud, and flung it at the gander. But it was, after all, just mud, which
fell apart before it even hit the water, raising only some tiny splashes. The duck, still mounted by the gander, sped around the pond.

  Junior was visited by emotions he'd never known before. He felt chilled, and the mist above the pond raised goose bumps. He didn't dare straighten up, suddenly mortified by the bulge in his pants. And, wouldn't you know it, He Liping chose that moment to walk along the embankment toward the waterwheel.

  Step by step she drew near to Junior, who by then was sitting on the ground. She seemed much bigger all of a sudden, and her hair shimmered with flecks of golden light. Poor Junior's heart was beating like mad, his teeth were chattering. He rested his hands on his knees, and from there let them slide down to the tops of his feet. Finally he scooped little balls of mud out of the ground.

  He heard He Liping's voice: “Where's Guo Three?”

  He heard his own quaking reply: “He went to Li Gaofa's house.”

  He heard He Liping walk up to the wooden plank, then heard her spit into the pond. When he looked up to sneak a peek, he found she was leaning over the waterwheel, staring at the gander and duck skimming across the pond. Her rear end stuck up in the air. The sight terrified Junior.

  After a while, He Liping asked him how old he was. He told her fifteen. She asked him how come he wasn't in school. He said he didn't want to go.

  Junior's face was covered with sweat as he stood in front of He Liping, who started to giggle. He didn't dare raise his head.

  Every day after that Guo Three went to Li Gaofa's house to treat the black dog, and He Liping came to pass the time of day with Junior, who was no longer nervous, who no longer broke out in a sweat, who even found the nerve to peek at her once in a while. He could actually smell her.

  One very hot day He Liping shed her faded blue tunic, so that she was wearing only a pink undershirt, and when Junior spotted the straps and snaps of her bra he was so happy he nearly wept.

  “You little creep,” she scolded, “what are you looking at?”

  Junior blushed bright red, but still had the courage to say, “I'm looking at your clothes.”

  With a vinegary frown, she said, “You call these clothes? Wait till you see my nice stuff.”

  “You look good in anything,” Junior said bashfully.

  “Quite the little flatterer, aren't we?” He Liping said.

  “I've got a skirt,” she continued, “that's the same red as those persimmon leaves.”

  As if on signal, they turned to look at the persimmon tree halfway up the river embankment. After surviving several frosts, the sunlit leaves glowed like bright red flames.

  Junior took off running. Halfway up the embankment he climbed the tree and broke off one of the lower branches, which was covered by dozens of glossy red leaves. One had been gnawed by an insect; he plucked it off and threw it away.

  The red-leafed branch was a present for He Liping, who sniffed it for its persimmony aroma. Her face was red, maybe a reflection of the leaves.

  Guo Three saw Junior give He Liping the red leaves, so when they were back on the waterwheel, he giggled, “Want me to be your matchmaker?”

  Junior blushed to the roots of his ears. “Hell no!”

  “Little He isn't bad,” Guo Three went on. “Nice perky tits and a good broad beam.”

  “Don't talk like that,” Junior protested. “She's an educated city girl.. . ten years older than me … so tall. .. .”

  “So what?” Guo Three replied. “Educated girls like doing it as much as anybody. And ten years older, for a girl, is nothing. Besides, ‘Tall girl, short boy — tits in the face, what a joy.’ Now that's living!”

  This little monologue by Guo Three had poor Junior's rear end squirming and his body temperature soaring.

  “The little sparrow's standing up,” Guo Three remarked. “And not so little, at that.”

  From that day onward, Guo Three hardly stopped coaching Junior in certain matters, until finally, unable to suppress his curiosity any longer, Junior broached the subject of the “big teapot.” Guo Three happily obliged with a graphic description of what went on in a whorehouse.

  Junior turned the waterwheel, but his thoughts were miles away: He Liping's image fluttered before his eyes. Guo Three took this as an invitation for even more salacious talk.

  With a crack in his voice, Junior pleaded, “Master Three, please don't talk about things like that.”

  “You dumb prick, what are you getting all weepy about? Go to her. She's itching for it, too!”

  So one day Junior went into the production team's vegetable garden and stole a carrot, which he washed off and hid in tall grass until He Liping carne along. The oldster Guo Three hadn't arrived when she showed up, so Junior handed her the carrot.

  She studied his face as she accepted the gift.

  Junior could only imagine what he looked like at that moment, with his matted, grass-stained hair and tattered clothes.

  “Why are you giving me this carrot?” He Liping asked him.

  “Because I like you,” he said.

  She sighed and rubbed the carrot's orange, glossy skin. “But you're still a child… .” She rubbed his head and walked off with her carrot.

  Junior and He Liping went to the distant field to re-sow the millet field. Since draft animals needed room to turn around, some spots were left vacant. They arrived at a field where sorghum had just been harvested. Buds were beginning to appear on the newly planted millet, and dry sorghum stalks were stacked at the head of the patch of ground. It was late autumn by then, and getting cold. After spreading their millet seeds for a while, He Liping and Junior rested in front of a sorghum stack to soak up the warm, inviting rays of sunlight. They had an unobstructed view of the newly harvested and deserted field, over which birds circled noisily.

  He Liping laid some bundles of sorghum stalks on the ground and stretched out lazily against them. Junior stood off to the side, gazing down at her. Her face shone in sunlight that was bright enough to make her squint; pretty white teeth showed between her moist, slightly parted lips.

  Junior shivered; his lips felt dry, and there was a lump in his throat. “Guo Three and Li Gaofa's wife do you-know-what,” he managed to say. “Goes there every day …”

  Still squinting, He Liping smiled radiantly.

  “… Guo Three says bad things . .. says you …”

  Still squinting, He Liping spread her arms and legs wide.

  Junior took a step closer. “Guo Three says you're always thinking about doing you-know-what… .”

  He Liping looked up and smiled.

  Junior knelt alongside her. “Guo Three wishes I had the nerve to touch you. …”

  He Liping was smiling.

  Junior began to sob. Through his tears, he said, “Big Sister, I want to touch you … want to touch you, Big Sister… .”

  Junior's hand was no sooner resting upon He Liping's breast than she wrapped her arms and legs tightly around him… .

  The following year, He Liping gave birth to twins, an event that rocked all of Gaomi Township.

  Shen Garden

  A THUNDERBOLT CRACKLED ABOVE A LOCUST TREE OUTSIDE THE bakery, sending brilliant sparks flying off a streetcar cable strung beneath the tree. The summer's first clap of thunder caught people out on the street by surprise; they quickly ran for cover under shop overhangs on both sides of the street. Those on bicycles bent low over their handlebars, hugging the sidewalks and pedaling for all they were worth. A cool wind blew amid sheets of rain slanting down. The chaos on the street grew worse as people fled from the downpour.

  He and she sat opposite each other at a table in the dark bakery, soft drinks-in front of both of them, bright ice cubes bobbing in the dark glasses. Two stale croissants lay on the table, around which a solitary housefly flitted.

  He cocked his head to the side to look at the chaotic scene on the street outside. Branches and leaves on the locust tree were buffeted crazily by the wind, which sent fine dust skittering across the ground. The stench of mud filtere
d into the shop, overwhelming the buttery smell unique to bakeries. Streetcars rolled slowly down the tracks from somewhere off in the distance, nipping at the heels of the ones in front. The heavy rain beating down on the tops of the cars created a cloud of gray mist. The streetcars were packed with passengers, many of whose heads were sticking out of open windows, only to be pelted by stinging drops of rain. The corner of a red dress, caught in one of the streetcar doors, stuck wetly to the step, like a flag of the vanquished.

  “Let it pour, the heavier the better,” he blurted out through clenched teeth. “It's about time. The city's almost dried up, after six months or more without rain. If this dry spell had lasted much longer, the trees would have withered up and died.” He sounded a bit like one of the villains in a revolutionary movie. “How is it there where you are? No rain for a long time, I suspect. I watch the TV weather reports every day to stay on top of your weather there. I was really impressed with that town of yours. I hate big cities, and if not for the kid, I'd have moved there long ago. Small towns are so quiet and cheerful. I wouldn't be surprised if people in your town live ten years longer than those in the cities.”

  “I'd like to visit Shen Garden,” she said.

  “Shen Garden?” He turned around to look at her. “Isn't Shen Garden somewhere in Zhejiang Province? Hangzhou? Or maybe Jinhua. You know, the brain's the first to go once you reach middle age. Four or five years ago, I had a terrific memory, but no more.”

  “I want to visit Shen Garden every time I come to Beijing. But I never get there.” Her eyes flashed through the darkness, and her gaunt, pallid face lit up with spirit.

  Inwardly shocked by the sight, he turned to avoid her penetrating gaze. He heard himself say hoarsely:

  “Here in Beijing we've got Yuanming Gardens and the Summer Palace, but I've never heard of a Shen Garden around here.”