Bi Feiyu - Three Sisters

“We did go to bed, but not like that,” Peng insisted.

“Like what then?” Wei was relentless.

“We were in bed, but we didn’t do it. Honest, we didn’t go to bed like that.”

“Oh? What do you mean by ‘like that’?”

“I mean sleeping together. We didn’t sleep together.”

“Who said you were sleeping? If you were, you wouldn’t have been able to get up to open the door.”

“I don’t mean going to sleep. I mean having a relationship.”

“What kind of relationship?”

“Between a man and a woman.”

“And what is that?” Wei demanded.

“A sexual relationship. You can have her checked at the hospital,” Peng said. In order to prove his innocence, he took a small box out of his pocket and opened it to show the contents—condoms, which he counted in front of everyone. There were ten, not one less.

In a burst of anger, Wei banged the table but was stopped by Director Qian, who signaled him with his eyes to keep the proper attitude.

“What does that prove?” Wei thundered. “I ask you, just what do you expect that to prove? Do you mean to say you can’t have sex without one of those?”

Peng looked up. That’s right. How could he prove he didn’t do it by simply showing them that he didn’t use the condoms? He couldn’t stop blinking. Suddenly he fell to his knees in front of Wei and knocked his head on the floor repeatedly.

“It’s true,” he pleaded. “I’m not lying. We wanted to, but you showed up before we could do it.”

“Did you two talk about it?”

“Yes.”

“Who brought it up?”

Peng thought quietly for a moment before finally saying, “Not me.”

“Who then?”

“She did.”

“Who is she?” Wei was relentless.

“Pang Fenghua,” Peng replied.

Five o’clock Sunday morning. The disappointing news came just before sunrise. The homeroom teacher had gotten away. He’d been guarded by two students of the school security team, but they were, after all, young and inexperienced. They’d dozed off and let the homeroom teacher of Section Three of the class of ’82 sneak away right under their noses.

The security team searched everywhere on campus, even the toilets, but he was nowhere to be found. At 6:10 A.M., Wei Xiangdong gave a self-critical report to Director Qian, who quietly heard him out and then, instead of a reprimand, consoled him: “He didn’t escape. How could he? He has simply fallen into the vast ocean of the people.”

The homeroom teacher “had fallen into the vast ocean of the people.” At 10:45, Yuyang heard Director Qian’s pronouncement from a classmate. Having never seen an ocean, Yuyang tried hard to imagine what it was like, but by lunchtime she still had not conjured up an image of an ocean. But she was convinced that, generally speaking, it must be vaster than she could envision. It must be infinite and boundless. She was sure of that.

BI FEIYUis one of the most respected authors and screenwriters in China today. He was born in 1964 in Xinghua, in the province of Jiangsu. A journalist and poet as well as a novelist, he has been awarded a number of literary prizes, including the prestigious Lu Xun Prize. He co-wrote the film Shanghai Triad, which was directed by the internationally renowned director Zhang Yimou. His first novel is the critically acclaimed Moon Opera.

Jacket design by Alex Camlin

Author photograph © Thomas Langdon

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Many rural villages are populated mainly by families with the same surname.

Here the author is showing how poorly educated Yumi is; she does not write well and her accented Mandarin causes her to choose the wrong words.

This is how country folk might comment that the government is up and running.

People’s Daily, PLA Daily, and Red Flag.

A brand of alarm clocks that refers to a somewhat obscure slogan from the 1950s.

If Little Tang’s son marries Guo’s sister-in-law, she would be considered a member of an older generation than Guo’s, which would make her feel either awkward or proud.

Urban high school students and graduates were sent by Mao into the countryside during the Cultural Revolution to learn from the peasants. Their numbers were in the tens of millions.

A game resembling tag.

Refers to the Long March (1934-35) by Communist forces, which ended at their stronghold in Yan’an.

An expression denoting the ultimate humiliation.

A label forced on individuals who were critical of Mao’s disastrous Great Leap Forward in the 1950s.

A Maoist slogan that means the East (essentially China) shall prevail over the West (mainly Europe and the U.S.).

A common phrase often used by Chairman Mao.

This is not a union in the style of a workers’ organization; the responsibilities at a school are to furnish daily necessities.

An avant-garde poetry movement of the 1980s.

On December 9, 1935, high school and college students in Peiping (Beijing) staged anti-Japanese protests, which are commemorated by the holiday 12-9.