Xiaobin Xu - Crystal Wedding

The Lu family’s courtyard was sizeable, with a table and benches in the middle. A young woman sat there, combing her long hair in the moonlight. She had obviously just washed it, as she had a big scarf draped over her shoulders. A quiet smile played over her features, and she looked genuinely happy. ‘This is my wife, Nan Hong,’ said Lu Lixiong.

‘You must … must … must be the model for the heroine of Rosy Sunrise, Evening Glow …’ Jin stuttered. He always had a bit of a stammer when he got excited or met someone new, especially if it was an attractive young woman. ‘Yes, you’re right!’ A-Xiong exclaimed. ‘Please, sit down!’ Then he looked at Tianyi: ‘You must be wondering how on earth I got my hands on such a beautiful girl, right?’ He chuckled complacently. He was obviously about to tell them the story of their romance. Luckily, Nan Hong interrupted the flow, to say softly: ‘Hey, you haven’t offered our guests any tea yet!’ It clear to Tianyi that this woman, with her dulcet tones and flirtatious glances, was deliberately playing the siren.

Tianyi suffered through this for a couple of hours, before they were able to leave. Outside, Jin remonstrated: ‘This is ridiculous, Tianyi! You insisted on meeting him, and as soon as you get here, you can’t wait to go! Was it because of his wife? Why should that matter? It doesn’t stop you being friends with him. And he knows so many people, Tianyi, you need to broaden your horizons!’ Tianyi did not know what to say. Eventually, she managed: ‘Right, I owe you one. I’ll make it up to you.’

When Jin next saw Di, he told her how Tianyi had behaved. Di burst out laughing: ‘That’s what she’s like. When she meets a real dragon, she turns tail and flees.’

Four years on from that event, the Jin they met was a very different young man. He still stammered, he still chatted cheerfully about everything under the sun, but he had filled out considerably, and had quite a belly on him. He was a grown man. Something else had changed too: he addressed these two older women as equals, not in the respectful way he used to. Garrulous as always, his main topics of conversation were now politics and agricultural reform. Somehow, he had wormed himself into the confidence of some leading policy makers and thinkers and become their friend.

Just as four years earlier, Di lapped up everything he said, her eyes sparkling with excitement. He found her a most appreciative audience, but what he really wanted was for Tianyi to launch into a fierce debate with him, the way she used to. But Tianyi just could not summon up the enthusiasm. Fortunately, Lian turned up.

Tianyi had said to Di before: ‘How come all Chinese men are so into politics? They all act like they’re going to be the next Premier!’ Di giggled. ‘That must be why they’re so frustrated all the time!’ Tianyi pulled a face: ‘It doesn’t seem normal to me.’

Lian, of course, was another amateur politico. His job in the Planning Commission had made him self-important. He began every sentence with: ‘In the Commission, we …’ He was delighted to meet Jin, and took to him immediately. He was also deeply impressed at the famous names that Jin dropped — but took good care not to make his excitement too obvious. He commented casually: ‘Really! You know Huang Luwei as well? He’s quite an interesting man. I read his article, Meditations on History , his thinking’s pretty much in line with my own.’

‘Wow! Re … really?’ Jin responded effusively. Lian was clearly a new soul mate. ‘I know him very well, shall I introduce you?’ Lian hesitated a fraction. ‘There’s no hurry,’ he said, ‘wait until my thesis is published … But why not take Tianyi to meet him? He’s quite a character, and he loves literature.’ Tianyi looked at him. She never ceased to be amazed by Lian’s self-confidence. She had no idea where it came from, and no inkling that when this self-confidence collapsed, the results would be truly terrifying.

Lian had come to pick her up. Wherever she went these days, he would turn up to take her home. She never said anything, but she liked it all the same. It gave her a simple feeling of happiness that was very precious to her. But her happiness was nothing compared to Lian’s. He had it all: job, wife, child, everything was perfect. What more could a man want?

For some time now, Lian could hardly bear to be apart from Tianyi. He loathed business trips for that reason. Whenever he had to go, he bombarded her with letters, at least one a day, sometimes two. It was crazy, especially for someone like him who didn’t like writing letters. ‘Tianyi, I landed in Guilin airport today and sneezed twice. It must have been my Tianyi thinking of me. Were you? Tianyi?’

Only a cold-blooded reptile could remain unmoved by letters like this. They seemed to set her alight, as if she had been doused in some flammable substance. Compared to the vague fancies she had had in the past, and her so-called former boyfriends, this was true affection. She had always had trouble sleeping, but since her marriage, she slept like a log, no matter how loudly Lian snored. Lian always said he never got a good night’s sleep when he was away on business, because she was not with him. The transition from love to affection felt safe. Tianyi was satisfied with her marriage.

Many years later, however, when she read Milan Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being and came across the surgeon Tomas who, in spite of his string of affairs with female nurses, insisted on sharing his bed only with his wife Teresa, she had to smile. It was nonsense for Tomas, or any man, to pretend that he could separate love and sex.

That evening, they were home very late. At the door, she had a premonition that something was wrong. Sure enough, no sooner had she stepped inside than Tianke thundered at her: ‘What the hell do you think you’re doing getting back this late! You two had this baby, don’t dump it on other people to look after! You know Mother’s not well! You know my work’s crazy! I’ve been slaving away all day and I have to come home and look after your child! What kind of people are you? What way is this to behave?!’

Tianke’s tirades were nothing new but, each time, it carried the same power to wound Tianyi to the core. His eyes seemed about to pop out of his sockets, and his spittle landed on her face. Short of screaming back at him, however, there was nothing for her to do but grin and bear it.

His shouting woke up Niuniu, who began to wail in terror. ‘Lian, I’m sorry, our Tianke just can’t behave decently,’ said Tianyi’s mother. She had got up and thrown on some clothes and stood between her son and her daughter, facing her son-in-law. ‘He’s certainly looked after the baby, carried him back and forth, and thank heavens he had the patience to do that. But now you’re back, and he can’t help but let off steam. He just can’t talk about it, he has to insult the two of you!’ Tianke grabbed hold of his mother: ‘Don’t waste your breath on them! Either I go or they can get the hell out of here! You choose. There’s nothing more to be said. I’ve had enough!’ This was too much for Tianyi. ‘We’re going!’ she shrieked. ‘How much longer are you going to go ranting on?’

Lian stood looking contrite, saying nothing. Tianke spoke to him: ‘Lian, don’t worry, I’m not getting at you personally. This family has been arguing for decades, we’re used to it! You ask Tianyi, isn’t that right?’ Then he added:’ When you married her, I was worried it wouldn’t last, because she’s so weird. If she was a good woman, would she have waited until she was such an old maid before she got married?!’

Somehow, Tianyi found the bottle of baby milk flying out of her hand. Tianke ducked, and the bottle smashed into the full-length mirror, making it craze all over into fragments like snowflakes. There was a moment’s silence, and their mother burst into floods of tears. ‘Oh my God! Now you see what a terrible temper she’s got, Lian! That’s how she treats us, there’s just the two of us, her mother and her little brother, now her Dad’s passed on, and I’m a poor old woman, and that’s how she treats us!’ This was followed by further wails.