Big Breasts and Wide Hips (20 page)

Sha Yueliang removed the last two overcoats from one of the bundles and gently rubbed the black fur covering the brown satiny-sleek hide. “Adoptive mother,” he said emotionally, “these are lynx hides. There was only a single pair of them anywhere in a hundred-li radius of Northeast Gaomi. It took old man Geng and his son three years to catch them. This is the male, and this is the female. Have you ever seen a lynx?” His eyes swept the fur-clad girls. Since they didn't answer, he told them about lynxes, like a schoolteacher lecturing his class. “The lynx is a cat, only larger, and resembles a leopard, only smaller. It can climb trees and it can swim. It can leap several feet in the air and is capable of snatching birds off the limbs of trees. It's a very clever animal. This particular pair of lynxes lived amid Northeast Gaomi's unmarked burial mounds, which made it harder to catch them than climbing to the sky. But, eventually, they were caught. Adoptive mother, these two jackets are my gifts to young brother Jintong and his twin sister.” With that, he laid out the two tiny jackets made from the lynxes, animals that when alive could climb trees, could swim, and could leap several feet in the air. He then bent over, picked up the flame-red foxskin coat, shook it out, and laid it too in the crook of Mother's arm. “Adoptive mother,” he said with a catch in his voice, “please don't make me lose face.”

After night fell, Mother bolted the door and called Laidi into our room. She laid me down at the head of the
kang
, alongside my twin sister. I reached out and scratched her face. She cried out and curled up in the corner, as far away from me as possible. Mother was too busy bolting the bedroom door to concern herself with us. My eldest sister was standing at the head of the
kang
, bundled in her purple marten coat, the fox stole around her neck, looking bashful and proud at the same time. Mother climbed onto the
kang.
Taking a silver hairpin from the bun at the back of her head, she picked the knot out of the lamp wick to make it shine brightly. Then she sat up straight and said in a taunting voice, “Sit down, young mistress. Don't be afraid you'll soil your new coat.” Laidi blushed and sat on a stool beside the
kang
, pouting to show she felt hurt. Her fur stole raised its sly chin; oily green lights shot out from her eyes.

The yard was Sha Yueliang's world. Ever since he'd set up a bivouac in our eastern side room, our main gate was never closed all the way. On this particular night, there was a lot more going on in the eastern side room than usual. The bright light of a gas lantern shone through the paper covering of the window, lighting up the whole yard and adding a radiance to the snowflakes swirling in the air. People were running around; the gate kept creaking open and shut; and the crisp sound of donkey hooves clattered up and down the lane. Inside the room, husky male laughter burst into the night between shouts of their finger gambling: Three peach gardens! Five stalwart leaders! Seven plum blossoms and eight horses! The aroma of meat and fish drew my six sisters up to the window in the eastern room, where they leaned against the windowsill and drooled hungrily. Mother watched my eldest sister like a hawk, eyes blazing; Laidi returned the look with unyielding defiance. Blue sparks flew from the clash of gazes. “What are you thinking?” Mother demanded.

“What do you mean?” Laidi asked as she stroked the lush tail of the fox.

“Don't play dumb with me,” Mother said.

“Mother,” Laidi said, “I don't know what you're getting at.”

Changing her tone to one of sadness, Mother said, “Laidi, you're the oldest of nine children, and if you get into trouble, who am I going to rely on?”

My sister jumped to her feet and, in an indignant tone I'd never heard from her before, said, “Just what do you expect of me, Mother? All you care about is Jintong. As far as you're concerned, we girls aren't worth as much as a pile of dog turds!”

“Laidi,” Mother said, “don't change the subject. Jintong may be gold, but you girls are silver. So no more talk about dog turds! It's time for mother and daughter to have a heart-to-heart talk. That fellow Sha is a weasel coming to the chickens with New Year's greetings. He does not have good intentions. He has his eye on you for sure.”

Laidi lowered her head and stroked the foxtail again as tears glistened in her eyes. “Mother,” she said, “I'd be happy to marry a man like him.”

Mother reacted as if struck by lightning. “Laidi,” she said, “you have my blessings no matter whom you marry, just so long as it isn't that Sha fellow.”

“Why?”

“Don't you worry about why.”

With a hateful edge to her voice that seemed out of place for a girl her age, Laidi said, “The Shangguan family has worked me like a beast of burden long enough!”

The shrillness of her comment stunned Mother. Scrutinizing her daughter's face, red with anger, she then glanced down at the hand stroking the foxtail. I felt her reach for something close by; it was the whiskbroom used to keep the
kang
neat. Raising it over her head, she screamed hysterically, “How dare you talk to me like that! Just see if I don't beat you to death!”

Mother jumped off the
kang
, holding the whiskbroom high in the air. But instead of getting ready to duck the blow that was sure to come, Laidi raised her head defiantly, and Mother's hand froze in midair; when it finally came down, there was no steam behind it. Letting the whiskbroom fall to the floor, Mother threw her arms around my sister's neck and sobbed, “Laidi, we and that fellow Sha live in two different worlds. I can't sit by and watch my own daughter throw herself into a burning pyre …”

By then, Laidi was sobbing too.

Once they'd cried themselves out, Mother dried my sister's face with the back of her hand and implored her, “Laidi, give me your word you won't have anything to do with that Sha fellow.”

But Laidi stood her ground. “Mother,” she said, “this is something I really want, and not just for me, but for the good of the family.” Out of the corner of her eye, Laidi looked down at the foxskin overcoat and the two little lynx jackets lying on the
kang.

Mother too stood her ground. “I want you all to take off those coats tomorrow.”

“Don't you even care if we freeze to death?” my sister said.

“A damned fur coat peddler is what he is,” Mother complained.

My sister unbolted the door and strode to her room without a backward glance.

Mother sat down feebly on the edge of the
kang
, and I heard raspy breaths coming up from her chest.

Then I heard Sha Yueliang's hesitant footsteps outside the window. His tongue was thick and his lips seemed paralyzed; I knew he wanted to knock against the window frame and, in a tender voice, raise the subject of marriage. But alcohol had dulled his senses and made it impossible for his actions to match his desires. He banged on our window frame so loud and so hard that his hand tore through the paper covering, letting cold air from the outside pour in, along with the stench of alcohol on his breath. In the tone of voice so common to drunks — disgusting yet at the same time somehow endearing — he bellowed, “Mother —”

Mother jumped down off the
kang
and stood there sort of dazed for a moment, before climbing back up on the
kang
and dragging me over from beneath the window, where I'd been lying. “Mother,” Sha said, “Laidi and me, when can we be married … I'm not a patient man …”

Mother clenched her teeth. “You there, Sha,” she said, “like the toad who wants to feast on a swan, you can just dream on!” “What did you say?” Sha Yueliang asked her. “I said, dream on!”

As if he'd suddenly turned sober, Sha said without a trace of slurring, “Adoptive mother, I have never in my life begged anyone for anything.”

“Nobody's asking you to beg me for anything.” With a snicker, he said, “Adoptive mother, I tell you that Sha Yueliang gets and does exactly what he wants …” “You'll have to kill me first.”

“Given that I want to marry your daughter,” Sha said with a laugh, “how could I kill you, my future mother-in-law?” “Then you can forget about marrying my daughter.” Another laugh. “Your daughter is a grown woman, and you can no longer decide her fate. We shall see what happens, my dear mother-in-law.”

Sha walked up to the eastern window, poked a hole in the paper covering, and flung a handful of candy into the room. “Little sisters-in-law,” he shouted, “have some candy. As long as Sha Yueliang is around, you'll eat sweets and drink spicy drinks along with me….”

Sha Yueliang did not sleep that night. Instead he walked around the yard and, except for an occasional cough or an outburst of whistling, which he did quite well, since he could imitate the voices of a dozen different birds, he sang arias from old operas or contemporary anti-Japanese songs at the top of his lungs. One minute he'd sing about Chen Shimei, the evil husband beheaded on the order of the angry Kaifeng magistrate, the next he'd bring his sword down on the neck of a Jap soldier. To keep this resistance hero, drunk on alcohol and love, from breaking into the room, Mother added a second bolt to the door, way up high, and, if that weren't enough, stacked anything she could move, from a bellows to a wardrobe to a pile of broken bricks, up against the door. Then, after putting me safely on her back, she picked up a cleaver and paced the room from one end to the other, back and forth. None of my sisters took off her new fur coat; they huddled together, sweat beading the tips of their noses, as they slept amid the noise created by Sha. Drool from Qiudi's mouth wetted Zhaodi's marten coat; Niandi slept nestled up against Lingdi's bearskin coat like a lamb. Now that I think back, Mother never stood a chance in her struggle with Sha Yueliang. He won over my sisters with his fur coats, and they formed a united front with him; having lost the support of the masses, Mother became a lone warrior.

The next day, with me on her back, Mother ran over to tell Third Master Fan that she'd decided that the best way to repay Aunty Sun for her midwifery was to marry Laidi to one of the mute sons of the Sun family — the hero of the battle with the crows. The day the decision was announced would begin their engagement; the dowry would be presented the next day; and the wedding would take place the day after that. Third Master Fan stared at Mother with a look of confusion in his eyes. “Uncle,” Mother said, “don't worry about the details. I'll take care of Matchmaker Xie.” “But this is doing things backward.” “Yes, it is,” Mother replied. “Why do it this way?” “Please, Uncle, don't ask. Just have the mute come to our house at noon with his engagement gifts.” “What can he possibly have as gifts?” Third Master Fan asked. “Tell him to bring what he can,” Mother replied.

On the way home, I sensed Mother's fear and deep anxiety. She'd been right to be worried. The minute we walked into the yard, we were confronted by a pack of animals, dancing and singing: a weasel, a black bear, a roe deer, a dog, a sheep, and a rabbit; the only one missing was a marten. The purple marten, a fox wrapped around its neck, was seated on sacks of grain in the eastern side room, staring at the commander, who was sitting on the floor cleaning his powder gourd and musket.

Mother dragged Laidi off the sacks of grain and announced icily, “Commander Sha, she has been promised to another. You resistance fighters aren't the type to take another man's wife, I presume.”

“That goes without saying,” Sha replied evenly.

Mother dragged my eldest sister out of the eastern side room.

At noon, the mute son of the Sun family showed up at our door carrying a wild rabbit. He was wearing a tiny padded jacket, with his belly showing below and his neck above; the sleeves barely covered half his thick arms. All the buttons were missing, so he used a hemp rope to hold up his trousers. He nodded and bowed to Mother, an idiotic grin creasing his face. He held the rabbit up to Mother in both hands. Third Master Fan, who had come with the mute, said, “Shangguan Shouxi's widow, I've done as you asked.”

Mother looked down at the wild rabbit, a trickle of blood congealing at the corner of its mouth, and stood frozen to the spot. Then she pointed to the mute son of the Sun family and said, “Uncle, I'd like the two of you to stick around. Don't go home yet. We'll stew the rabbit with some carrots for an engagement dinner.”

Laidi's wails erupted in the eastern room. At first she sounded like a little girl crying, shrill and childish. That lasted a few minutes, and was quickly replaced by throaty, jagged wails wrapped around a succession of frightful, filthy curses. After about ten minutes, when the moisture was gone, those gave way to arid, brittle cries.

Laidi was sitting on the dirt floor of the eastern room, in front of the
kang
, soiling her precious coat, and not caring. She was staring straight ahead, no tears on her face, her mouth hanging slack and looking like a dried-up well. Arid-brittle cries were emerging from that dried-up well, endlessly. My six other sisters were sobbing softly, tears rolling over a bear hide, dancing atop a roe deer hide, shimmering on a weasel hide, wetting a sheep hide, and soiling a rabbit hide.

Third Master Fan stuck his head in the door; as if he'd seen a ghost, his eyes bugged out and his lips twitched. He backed out of the room, turned, and stumbled off as fast as he could.

The mute son of the Sun family stood in our living room, twisting his neck to gaze curiously at everything within eyesight. Besides the idiotic grin, the expression on his face revealed a host of impenetrable thoughts, a fossilized bleakness, a numb sorrow. Eventually, I even spotted a fearful expression of rage on that face.

Mother ran a wire through the rabbit's mouth and hung it from a rafter. The wails of terror from my eldest sister fell on deaf ears. The mute's strange expression did not register with Mother, who attacked the rabbit with her chipped, rusty cleaver. Sha Yueliang walked out of the eastern side room, his musket slung over his back. Without even looking up, Mother said icily, “Commander Sha, today is my eldest daughter's engagement day, and this rabbit is the engagement gift.”