Bi Feiyu - Three Sisters

Yuxiu accepted what had befallen her. She could let everyone off the hook but the little whore Yusui. Thanks to her, Yuxiu was no longer able to hold her head up in Wang Family Village. If the little whore had never uttered those evil, hurtful words, none of this would have happened. The girl would have to pay, especially since she was her own sister. This was one score Yuxiu was determined to settle. And once she’d made up her mind, she swung into action.

One morning before the sun was up, Yuxiu got out of bed and tiptoed up to Yusui’s bed with a kerosene lantern.

The little whore really was a simpleton; she looked dumber than other people even when she slept, with her arms and legs spread all over the place like a dead pig. Yuxiu set down the lantern and took out a pair of scissors. In a matter of seconds, Yusui was bald on one side, not neatly, but as if a dog had gnawed on her hair. It changed her appearance so much that she looked like a different—and very strange—person.

After laying the locks of hair in Yusui’s hand, Yuxiu slapped her sister twice and ran. She’d barely made it to the door when she heard odd noises coming from Yusui. Seeing her own hair in her hand must have scared the little whore silly, especially since she had no idea what had happened. All she could do was scream.

Yuxiu ran as fast and as far as she could, and when she conjured up the bizarre image of Yusui holding clumps of her own hair in her hand, she had to laugh. Soon she was laughing so hard her body seemed to get lighter and she could barely breathe. Few people were as stupid as Yusui, the little whore. It took her forever to realize that her cheeks were stinging. The little whore’s head must be filled with pig intestines.

Once she had settled into a room in the commune compound, Yuxiu uncharacteristically turned into a hardworking, almost servile resident. Yumi could tell that her sister had come to Broken Bridge not because she was clever enough to anticipate Yumi’s plan. Not at all. The little fox fairy had dragged her broken tail to town because she couldn’t stay another day in Wang Family Village. That was a fact.

Yumi would know what sort of fart was coming whenever Yuxiu fidgeted. Pleased with the change in her newly servile sister, she saw no need to tell her about the purchasing station, not yet. Better to give her time to put her lazy past behind her and get rid of her haughty ways. Things had changed, and Yumi was beginning to place a bit of hope in Yuxiu. Time for her to learn how to get along in this world. The girl’s flirty nature had been a constant worry, but no longer.

Rape is never a good thing, but in this case, it had led to a radical shift in behavior when Yuxiu realized that she needed to change for the better. A terrible incident had produced positive results.

Yuxiu had not yet fully recovered from her frightful ordeal; she still had a ways to go to feel as safe and secure as Yumi did, and as the days passed, the heaviness in her heart actually increased. She had left home with one thought—to get as far away from Wang Family Village as possible—and had never considered the prospect that Yumi might not want to take her in.

If that happened, however remote the possibility, she would have no place to go, and now that she had taken the fateful step, fear over that grim scenario began to set in. To complicate matters, there was Guo Jiaxing to deal with, not to mention his daughter, Guo Qiaoqiao; and that made her situation even more grim.

It did not take Yuxiu long to realize that her fate was not in the hands of Yumi, but in those of Guo Jiaxing and, quite possibly, his daughter. Yumi may have considered herself important in Wang Family Village, but in this house she enjoyed no discernible authority. None, actually. This came across most clearly at the dinner table, where Guo always sat at the head in his rattan chair, facing south. He was in the habit of smoking a cigarette before the meal, scowling as if he were angry at someone.

Qiaoqiao was different. A sophomore in high school, she was known for her antics and the loud, coarse language that emerged from her mouth. But at home she was a different person. She’d pull a face as long as a carrying pole and, like her father, appear to be angry at someone. That someone, obviously, was Yumi. When the rice bowls were filled, Yumi sat between Guo Jiaxing on her left and Qiaoqiao on her right, an arrangement that put her on tenterhooks, afraid that she’d do something wrong. When she reached out with her chopsticks to pick something out of a dish, she’d sneak a look first at Guo Jiaxing, then at Qiaoqiao, to check out the looks on their faces.

Yuxiu had spotted this right off. Yumi was afraid of Guo Jiaxing in a strange way that managed to attach her fear to his daughter as well. She was forever trying to win over the girl, but invariably failed, and that drove her to distraction. That knowledge was why Yuxiu was so scrupulous in waiting on the father and daughter. If she indulged them to their satisfaction, Yumi would not be able to send her packing.

Yuxiu had a good idea of how to deal with Guo Jiaxing. Any man his age was susceptible to flattery from a pretty and flirtatious girl. For proof of that she needed to look no further than her own father, Wang Lianfang.

If anything, she was even more confident where Qiaoqiao was concerned. All she had to do was demean herself in Qiaoqiao’s presence, thereby convincing the girl of her own superiority to win the day. Granted, it was not something Yuxiu did with pleasure, but she had only to remind herself that she was used goods, and in that case, what was there to be unhappy about?

Yuxiu worked especially hard in front of Guo Jiaxing and his daughter, always bowing and scraping for their benefit. Qiaoqiao was touched by the first thing Yuxiu ever did for her: coming in early in the morning and discreetly emptying the girl’s chamber pot.

Qiaoqiao was not only a foolish girl, she was also a slob. She compounded her slovenly appearance by eating and drinking as much as she could every day, which made for a full chamber pot. Yuxiu could not even guess when the girl had last emptied it on her own, and when she picked it up, the vile contents splashed over her hand. That action produced instantaneous results—Qiaoqiao actually spoke to her.

Yuxiu was off to a terrific start. When it was time to eat, her shrewdness served her well. Keeping her eye on everyone’s rice bowl, she was quick to act as soon as one was empty.

“Here, let me, brother-in-law,” or “Don’t get up, Qiaoqiao, I’ll get it for you.” Her cunning also manifested itself in how she acted during meals when she adopted a strategy that was the opposite of Yumi’s. It was a gamble, but at mealtime she put on a happy act. Pretending she was in high spirits, she talked nonstop, asking all sorts of comical, even silly questions. She’d cock her head in front of Guo Jiaxing and bat her eyes.

“Brother-in-law,” she’d say, “do all members of the leadership have double-fold eyelids?”

Or “Brother-in-law, are all communes ‘common’ or could some be ‘uncommon’?”

Or “Exactly where is the Party? Is it in Beijing, the ‘northern capital,’ or in Nanjing, the ‘southern capital’?”

Those were the kinds of questions she asked meal after meal, and she was never prettier than when she was asking them. Her face was bright, her look one of naivete and innocence with a trace of seduction. Some were honest questions, things she truly didn’t know, and others she made up for effect. It was exhausting work, racking her brains for things to ask. Fortunately, her father had been a Party secretary for twenty years, which supplied both a rich source of topics and the courage to put them into words.

Yuxiu’s foolishness embarrassed Yumi, who tried to stop her. She was surprised to learn that Guo and his daughter actually found Yuxiu’s questions intriguing and pleasing to the ear. She put smiles on their faces. Qiaoqiao even spit out a mouthful of rice several times from laughing so hard. Yumi, who never thought something like that could happen, was secretly pleased. Guo himself pointed to Yuxiu with his chopsticks after a hearty laugh and said to Yumi, “She’s a fascinating little comrade.”