Yu Hua: Boy in the Twilight: Stories of the Hidden China

They went off into gales of laughter, and Pug-nose Xu Asan laughed so hard he had to squat down. The dog’s rear legs were still clamped between his hands, and it barked furiously as its head scraped the ground. I just stood there with a smile on my face. After a moment Xu Asan stood up again and pointed at me. “He could tell this dog is a bitch,” he said to the others. Then he squatted down and cackled as loud as a cicada chirping. As soon as he relaxed his grip, the dog dashed off.

From that day on, whenever Pug-nose Asan and the others saw me, they would say, “Hey, your girlfriend … Hey, your girlfriend fell into the cesspit … Hey, your girlfriend is having a piss … Hey, your girlfriend pinched some meat from my house … Hey, looks like your girlfriend’s pregnant …”

They were laughing away nonstop. When I saw what a good time they were having, I laughed along with them. I knew they were talking about the dog. They were looking forward to the day when I would take that dog into my house as though she were a woman and spend my life with her.

Day after day they would talk that way, and every time they would look at me and go ha-ha and tee-hee. So the next time I saw the dog, I felt kind of funny. The dog was as small and skinny as ever, its tongue always hanging out, licking this and that in the street. I would walk past with my load on my back, and when I got close I couldn’t help but stop and look. One day, quietly, I called it. I said, “Hey.”

When it heard me, it gave a few barks, so I offered it half a steamed bun left over from lunch. It grabbed the bun between its teeth and ran off.

After I fed it that half bun, it remembered me, and every time it saw me it would bark and I’d have to give it a bun. Once this happened a few times, I remembered to stuff my pockets with things to eat, so I could make it happy when we met in the street. And as soon as it saw me put my hand in my pocket, it knew what was coming and would raise its front legs and bark and jump up on me.

Later, the dog would tag along with me every day. I would walk in front carrying my load, and it would patter along behind. At the end of the block I would look back and there it would be, barking and wagging its tail. A block later, there would be no sign of it and I wouldn’t know where it had gone. I’d wait for a while, and suddenly it would appear and start following me once more. Sometimes it would run away and not come back until after dark. I would already be in bed, and it would run back, sit outside my door and bark. I’d have to open the door and show myself, and then it would stop barking, wag its tail, and patter away again.

When I was walking along the street with the dog at my heels, Pug-nose Xu Asan and the others would chuckle. “Hey, out for a stroll with the wife, are you?” they’d say. “Hey, are the two of you going home now? Hey, when you’re in bed together, who cuddles who?”

“We don’t spend the night together,” I’d tell them.

“Nonsense,” Xu Asan would say. “Husband and wife are always together at night.”

“We’re not,” I said.

“You dummy,” they said. “That’s the whole point of being a couple.”

Xu Asan made as though to turn off a light. “Click! When the light goes off, that’s when the fun starts.”

Pug-nose Xu Asan and the others wanted me and the dog to be together at night, and I thought about that, but it never worked out that way. As soon as it got dark, the dog would patter off and I didn’t know where it went. It would come back at dawn, scratch on the door, and wait for me to open it.

But during the day we’d be together, me carrying the coal and it walking by my side. When I made a delivery, it would roam around the neighborhood, and when I came out it would soon catch up with me.

After a few days, the dog got rounder and plumper, and grew taller too. When it ran alongside, I could see its belly swing back and forth. Xu Asan and the others noticed this too. “This bitch, have a look at this plump little bitch,” they’d say.

One day they stopped me in the street and Xu Asan pulled a long face. “Hey, how come we haven’t got our candy yet?” he said.

The dog barked when they blocked my path. They pointed at the shop across the street. “Do you see that?” they said. “The glass jar on the counter, the one with all the candy in it? See it? Off you go.”

“What for?” I said.

“To buy candy,” they said.

“Why candy?” I said.

“For us to eat,” they said.

“Damn it,” Xu Asan said, “you haven’t given us the wedding candy yet! Wedding candy! Don’t you get it? We were your matchmakers, weren’t we?”

So saying, they stuck their hands in my pockets and groped around for some change. This got the dog all riled up; it was growling and lunging. When Xu Asan aimed a kick at it, it ran a few paces back, barking away, and when he took two steps closer, it dashed off. They found some cash in my chest pocket, helped themselves to two twenty-fen notes, and stuffed the rest back. Holding my money aloft, they crowded into the shop opposite. The dog ran back as soon as they were gone, and scampered away again as soon as they came out. Xu Asan and the others stuffed a few bits of candy in my hand. “This is for the happy couple,” they said.

Off they went, laughing and chewing their candy. By this time it was almost dark, and I headed home clutching the candy they’d given me. The dog raced back and forth, now ahead, now behind, barking madly and making a lot of noise. It barked all the way home, and didn’t stop even when we reached the door. It stood there and didn’t seem to want to leave, its head cocked, looking up at me. “Hey, stop that barking,” I said, but it just kept on. “Why don’t you come in?” I said.

It didn’t move and just carried on yowling. But when I waved my hand, it stopped all its ruckus and trotted inside.

From then on, the dog lived in my house. I went and got a pile of straw and laid it in the corner of the room: that was its bed. I thought it over that evening and felt that having a dog move into your house really was a bit like taking a wife. In the future I would have a companion, just as Mr. Chen said. “Finding a companion, that’s what marriage is,” he used to say.

“They say we’re man and wife,” I said, “but a man and a dog can’t be husband and wife. The most we can be is companions.”

I sat down on the straw, next to my dog. It gave a couple of barks. I smiled and laughed, and on hearing me it barked a little more. I smiled and laughed again, and it barked again. So we went on like that for a while, me laughing, it barking, until I remembered I still had candy in my pocket, so I got it out and peeled off the wrapper. “This is candy, wedding candy, that’s what they said …”

When I heard myself say it was wedding candy, I couldn’t help but smile. I peeled off a couple of wrappers, and put one candy in the dog’s mouth and one in mine. “How does it taste?” I said.

I could hear it chewing noisily, and I chewed my candy too, even more noisily. We chewed away and it made me laugh. As soon as I did that, it started barking again.

In our two years together, the dog went with me everywhere. When I lifted my load onto my shoulders it would run ahead barking, and when my baskets were empty it would trot along a step or two behind. Seeing us, people in the town would chuckle. They would point and say, “Hey, are you husband and wife?”

I went “Mm,” walking on ahead with my head down.

“Hey, are you a dog?”

When I went “Mm,” they would start shouting. “Hey, dummy! Hey, dumb dog! Hey, dogface! Hey, dog-fuck! Or is it dog-fucker? Hey, when are you going to be a dog-dad?”

I just went “Mm” to everything. “You’re a man, aren’t you?” Mr. Chen asked. “What’s all this about you and the dog being husband and wife?”