Xiaobin Xu - Crystal Wedding

Zheng’s mother, Ke Zhilan, told Tianyi later that she had been too frightened to open the door in case it was had news. When she finally opened up, she saw a good-looking girl whom she took to be in her late 20s. (Actually Tianyi was 30-something by that time.) As she let her in, Tianyi’s first words were: ‘Excuse me, Mrs. Ke, do you have any news of Zheng?’

Mrs Ke was immediately taken with Tianyi. She made her sit down beside her and peeled a pomelo for her. This was the kind of special treatment that her daughter-in-law Yiyi, Zheng’s wife, had never been accorded. Yiyi, of course, was a thoroughly bad lot. This family was living proof of the old adage that mothers-and daughters-in-law were natural enemies. In Mrs. Ke’s view, Yiyi was a calculating young vixen, whose main aims had been to seduce her precious boy, and stir up trouble in the family. Zheng was her second son and her outright favorite. The eldest, Lin, and the younger boy, Jun, were both more streetwise than he was. He was the brainy, kind one who always got a raw deal. What made her heart ache was that he never complained about it. Like when he went to Changsha to set up the company; that must have been really hard because he was very ill after he got back. For a long time, he hardly spoke, and even those bright eyes of his looked dull. She kept asking but he had refused to say a word. He just buttoned his lips. That slut had spotted her opportunity and got her claws into him! The pair of them weren’t even married and she was cheerily calling them ‘Dad’ and ‘Mum’. She was shameless! thought Mrs. Ke. But now that Zheng was in trouble, she simply vanished without trace. Not like this girl she had never met before who, though she was not exactly beautiful, seemed quite out of the ordinary. She was a well-grounded young woman, you could tell that at a glance. So Mrs. Ke roused her husband Hua Liankai and the old couple bustled around treating her as if she was family.

Mr Hua had helped run this military academy until his retirement two years ago. Never strong, he became depressed after falling out with his headstrong, disobedient sons, and his illness worsened. However, their midnight visitor made his eyes brighten. He thought he had rarely come across a girl of such shining purity, so thoughtful and idealistic, but still lively. She was someone special, he could tell that. He smiled as he listened to his wife probing questions.

‘How old are you, young lady?’ Mrs. Ke asked, her eyes fixed on Tianyi. ‘About 25 or 26?’

‘Heavens, no, I’m over thirty!’

‘And you’re still not married?’

Tianyi laughed: ‘Oh yes, I’ve been married for a while. I’ve got a son of four years old.’

‘Ah, our boy’s out of luck then! Have you known him long?’

‘Oh, a long time … eight or nine years …’

Mrs. Ke looked astonished. “You’ve known him that long, girl, and you never thought to come and pay us a visit?”

Tianyi was lost for words. It was true, she had never thought of that. When Zheng took her in his arms the night of the storm at the Miyun Reservoir, he had seemed like a child who had squeezed out of a crack in the rock, a solitary loner. When she thought more about it, it was true that she had never sought out the families of any of her previous boyfriends. Unless she absolutely had to, the thought that she might ‘go and see the parents’ never occurred to her. She had been married five years, but she would have been hard put to say, if asked, what Lian’s parents were up to. And Zheng was pretty much the same, she thought. There was one occasion when he had taken her home because it was raining and had met her parents, but that was all. They both preferred to be free to enjoy themselves as they wished, beyond the reach of parental supervision. On this point, they were very similar, while Lian was just the opposite.

Fortunately, Mr Hua changed the subject and said to his wife: ‘The girl’s here to ask about Zheng, what are you going on at her like this for?’ Tears started to run down Mrs Ke’s face. ‘He hasn’t been home for more than three months!’ she said. ‘The last time, he just dropped in to pick up some medicine, then left. He was running a temperature then, and I don’t know if he’s better now!’

‘Have you any idea where he might have gone?’ asked Tianyi, very worried.

‘Probably Changsha. That’s where he had the company,’ Hua Liankai said. ‘But don’t you go looking for him, girl, whatever you do, it’s really dangerous out there.’

Tianyi was very late home that night. For the first time ever, Lian had waited up for her. He did not ask her any questions, just said: ‘Get yourself washed and go to bed.’ She could not sleep. Some time later, around two o’clock, they suddenly heard trucks thundering by. Lian crept out of bed and tiptoed to the window. She followed him and they peered through a crack in the curtains. Down below, they saw a convoy of military trucks full of soldiers driving past, the dim street lights shining eerily down on them. Then the silence was broken by the sound of a gunshot. Shocked, Tianyi pulled the curtains open and looked to see where the gunfire was coming from. Lian, just as swiftly, pulled the curtains together again and glared at her. ‘What do you think you’re doing? Do you want to get us killed?’ Tianyi returned his stare: ‘Will it come to that?’ ‘Of course it will,’ he said, through gritted teeth. ‘You lot don’t understand a thing!’ The solitary gunshot had caused a commotion in the street and Tianyi threw on some clothes so that she could go out and look. But Lian grabbed hold of her angrily. ‘Cool it, OK? We’ve got to get your uncle and aunt to the airport tomorrow. There are no taxis, I’ll have to take them on a tricycle. Dammit, just let me get some sleep, will you?’

Lately, Lian had been prone to flying into a temper, swearing, bellowing and smashing anything within reach. She did not understand what was up with him. It was the middle of the night so she just had to put up with it, but she was not a patient person by nature and felt increasingly resentful. She tossed and turned, unable to sleep. As soon as it was light, she’d leave, she thought, and go to her mother’s house. She would see her uncle and aunt off and then go to Changsha to look for Zheng.

Plans dreamed at night rarely survive the cold light of day, however. When she woke, she was too giddy to get out of bed. Lian was already up. ‘Hurry up,’ he urged her. ‘The later we leave it, the more difficult it will be to get there.’ He seemed in a much better mood, however. She was aware that his mood swings were worsening: he either lavished endearments on his wife and son or acted as if he wanted to kill them. Once Niuniu had confided to her: ‘Dad’s crazy.’ Another time, she overheard him say to Momo from next door: ‘I’d like to mash my dad up into a meat patty and take a chunk of him.’ She laughed at first, then thought about it and decided actually it was not good at all. It was the first sign of hostility the boy had shown towards his father. The effects on Niuniu of his father’s mood swings were all too obvious: the little boy’s bottom was black and blue with bruises. Lian was either cuddling him adoringly, or he would pick him up with one hand and begin to thrash him with his trouser belt. The worst was when he made him kneel on the washboard. Tianyi naturally found this unendurable and shouted furiously at him.

The rows had become more frequent. Tianyi was thoroughly fed-up with marriage and home. But as soon as this thought came to her, Lian seemed to sense it and behaved better. Now he said: ‘Get yourself ready and I’ll go down and buy some breakfast.’ Tianyi hurriedly got Niuniu up, washed and dressed him. Niuniu always liked snuggling up in bed. Tianyi’s way of dealing with this was to pounce and snatch him from the bed, singing: ‘Arise you heroes from your slumbers!’ And his face widened into a big smile, making his right cheek dimple. Today she dressed him in the outfit her uncle and aunt had brought him, a striped, short-sleeved shirt and dungarees. He looked very smart. By the time they were both ready, Lian was back with soymilk and shaobing sesame cakes. He rushed in shouting: ‘Tianyi, guess what! That gunshot last night came from a police motorbike patrol. They were turning the corner, right by the grocery store downstairs. Some people were playing chess under the streetlights and when the police drove by, they shouted abuse, and the police fired. There are still a bunch of people standing around down there now, looking at a bloody shoe that’s been pinned to the wall. They’re saying the person got shot in the foot, and was taken to hospital but wasn’t badly injured.’ Tianyi was busy tying Niuniu’s shoelaces. ‘Shooting someone so casually …’ she muttered to herself. ‘This is a major disturbance! Of course, they’re going to shoot,’ said Lian, taking a big bite of sesame cake. ‘Those people were asking for it.’ Tianyi said nothing. She did not want to get upset this early in the morning. But Lian had not finished. ‘I’m telling you, you’ve got to be careful what you say and do, wherever you are, at work or anywhere else. You shouldn’t go to work if you can help it … You think I don’t know where you went last night? I bet you went to Zheng’s.’ Tianyi quivered, but said stubbornly: ‘So what if I did? I just went to find out what was going on. I can’t just back off when a friend’s in danger …’ She almost choked on the last words, shocked into silence as Lian struck the table with his fist and roared in a voice so thunderous it made the building shake: ‘Now you listen to me, Yang Tianyi! You’re not on your own any more, you’re a mother! You’ve got a responsibility for Niuniu. Those sort of people are under surveillance 24/7 just now, so don’t go playing heroics! You really don’t understand a thing, do you?’