Xiaobin Xu - Crystal Wedding

Tianyi began to observe Xian’s new husband, Du. He was a whole nine years younger than Xian, only just above the legal minimum age for marriage. He was a handsome young man, nearly one metre ninety tall. According to Aunt Jie, Di and Xian’s mother, he was a friend of Xian’s from college, where he was doing management studies. He was so obsessed with going to America that he had suffered depression and ended up at Student Counselling Services. He was from the North-East, from a very poor family, so getting to university was a big deal for him. But he needed to pass his English test or he would not get to America, and would have to go back home. That put him under immense pressure so he was in and out of Counselling and, in so doing, got to know Xian.

Xian was a girl with no obvious faults, but little to distinguish her either. As a child, she had idolized Tianyi, just like her elder sister Di or perhaps even more so. But now she was grown-up and was a bit disappointed in her former idol. She found it hard to say why, except that she had felt Tianyi was destined for greater things. Some things were not worth bothering about, of course, but she realized that Tianyi was not only not too bothered, she really could not give a damn. Tianyi was just like any ordinary woman: she was an over-fussy housewife, preoccupied with the usual domestic trivialities and fell out with her mother-in-law. Xian liked Tianyi just as much as before, but she was no longer the Tianyi she had put on a pedestal in their youth.

A poor young man like Du needed someone just like Xian, to give him her complete attention. Xian was very good at listening. That was the role she used to play with Tianyi when they were growing up together so she fell into the role easily the next time it was demanded of her. By that time, Aunt Jie was at her wit’s end in her attempts to marry her girls off. Xian was a dutiful daughter, so when finally a suitor turned up whose only drawback was that he was a few years younger than her, she accepted his marriage proposal with alacrity. Aunt Jie was over the moon, and went around saying to anyone who would listen: ‘Our youngest girl just couldn’t find anyone, and now look what a handsome boy she’s found!’ Of course, doubts still nagged at her. She had a quiet word with Tianyi’s mother: ‘He’s so much younger than her, if you look at them together, does it make our girl look too old?’ Tianyi’s mother could be very nice when she wanted to be, at least to people’s faces. She was quick to reassure her: ‘Of course not. Your Xian has such a young-looking face, she looks three or four years younger than girls of her age.’ Aunt Jie was not comforted: ‘But the lad’s nine years younger than her!’ ‘So what? He’s old-looking, four or five older than his contemporaries, that makes them exactly even, doesn’t it?’ Aunt Jie beamed with delight: ‘You certainly have a good way of putting things.’

But it was a different story when Aunt Jie had gone. Tianyi’s mother grimaced and said to Tianke: ‘The thing is, if a family has pretty daughters, the suitors will come to them. But she’s turned it upside-down, and gone running after the boys’ families. She’s so keen to get those two girls married off, she’s lost all her self-respect. It’s a good thing you and your big sister got married before them. Otherwise, you’d all have been tarred with the same brush.’ The fact was that Tianyi’s mother normally never paid much attention to her. But as soon as there was an outsider in the picture, she became protective, as did Tianke. Tianyi was their flesh and blood, after all.

As far as Du was concerned, the significance of his marriage to Xian went far beyond the union itself. First, it meant he could stay in Beijing, and take his time over the TOEFL test. If he had had to leave Beijing, he would never pass it.

However, although Aunt Jie believed that she had thought of everything, there was one important thing she had not taken into account: the feelings of her eldest daughter, Di. She had no idea that Di had had her eye on Du from the moment they first met.

At that point, Di was pining for Jin as well. He had conducted his ‘sexual experiments’, (Tianyi had told her a bit about that) and then he had rushed off to America, where he wasted no time in falling fall in love with his tutor’s daughter. However dumb Di was, once she found this out, she knew that there was no future in her feelings — they were just wishful thinking.

One evening, Tianyi found the three of them together. Both sisters lavished attention on Du, Di helping him to the choicest bits of the food they were eating, and Xian carrying on a running commentary on his inelegant table manners while fanning him gently. Tianyi smiled: ‘You’ll spoil the boy, the pair of you!’ She saw Di’s fierce blush and thought, I shouldn’t have said that.

On the night of their dinner with Zheng, Lian turned the conversation to The Tree of Knowledge and the prize it had won. By now, he had drunk enough to become effusive: ‘I’ve only ever met two really intelligent people in my life — the man was Jin, the woman was Tianyi. I don’t know how I managed it, but I married her!’ There was a burst of laughter and much clinking of glasses. ‘I think Tianyi’s novel is sensational,’ said Di. ‘It’s so truthful emotionally, and it’s so beautifully written. I don’t think the film’s as good as the book.’ ‘I absolutely agree, it’s not nearly as good as the book,’ Lian said. ‘But film and TV is so much more influential, and there’s nothing we can do about that.’ His voice sounded distorted, as if he was talking through a microphone.

‘I’ve just seen the rough cut, and I didn’t know what to think,’ said Tianyi, slowly sipping her tea. ‘But then I figured that the film is like the child of the novel, once you’ve made up your mind to sell it, it doesn’t matter to you whether it ends up dressed in velvet or in rags.’

‘You’re quite right,’ said Di, her face flushed cherry red. ‘Why are you not saying anything, Zheng? Are you angry because Lian didn’t say you were one of the two most intelligent people he knew? Honestly, you can’t be very intelligent because Tianyi’s novel’s about you and you still haven’t said what you think about it!’

Zheng had been keeping his head down and drinking, but now he went scarlet. Before he had time to speak, Lian hurriedly butted in: ‘It’s true I didn’t say Zheng was the most intelligent man but I’m quite sure he’s the most attractive. I told Tianyi, if I were a woman I’d be very attracted to him.’ Everybody laughed. Zheng joined in too, but it sounded forced.

Zheng left early. Tianyi suddenly took pity on him and was about to see him down to the ground floor, but a subtle change in Lian’s expression made her change her mind. ‘Bye bye,’ she said, as casually as she could manage, and carried on talking and laughing with the others.

Tianyi’s casualness stung Zheng. A month later, he started dating a girl and, in another month, they announced they were getting married.

Then, before she left for America, Di startled Tianyi by saying that she and Du loved each other. She made a point of saying not ‘fallen in love’, but ‘loved each other’.

Tianyi’s first thought was to wonder if she should tell Xian. Di must have guessed, because her next words were: ‘You absolutely mustn’t tell my little sister!’

‘What’s going to happen with Xian, then?’ said Tianyi.

Di was apparently so engrossed in her new-found happiness that she had no answer to this question, except to say: ‘Let’s wait and see.’ Yet she had been unable to keep the thrilling news to herself. She had to share it and it had to be with Tianyi, no one else.

It had all started with the English test and some American dollars. Xian had some because she wanted to go to Italy on an academic exchange. Du asked for $50 to register for his TOEFL exam. But Xian dug her heels in and said no. ‘Why right now?’ she protested. ‘You’re married to me and settled in Beijing. Register next year, or wait until I’m back and register. That won’t be too late.’ But Du dug his heels in too, and there was a massive row. At the crucial moment, Di stepped in. She had $300 saved and offered Du a hundred. Du had never seen that much money in his life and, the day after his wife left for Italy, he took his sister-in-law out in a rowing boat on Beihai Lake. They were out until late in the evening, whispering sweet nothings to each other like a newly-married couple. Du certainly knew how to please a girl like Di: he bought her an intricately braided string of coloured garlic. It was a most original necklace and Di accepted it and put it on.