Xiaobin Xu - Crystal Wedding

In the early hours of the morning, she finally heard a light snoring coming from the next-door bedroom. She tossed and turned, her eyes fighting to close, her mind ever more wakeful. Her re-awakened body was still in a state of excitement. She was startled at how easily the flesh could betray the spirit. She reached between her legs and discovered she was dripping wet. An old maid could not write, she thought, or only stuff that was dry as dust. Creativity depended wholly on this mysterious juice, this fruit of the Garden of Eden. The west’s concept of passionate love, the east’s symbiosis of yin and yang, attested to that ancient truth. Denying it meant denying oneself. And yet here they were, in a society that had ‘evolved’ to utter barrenness!

The tears welling, she caressed herself fiercely. Her breasts, swollen and hard, her cunt moist and smooth like jade … her orgasm came quickly. Her pelvis jerked and she came to an urgent, hot-flowing climax. She felt an involuntary quivering in her fingers and toes. Then she gradually relaxed and her body cooled down. She suddenly felt utterly desolate.

What a tragedy to be a woman in this barren society, in this barren epoch. A woman had only herself to depend on, for even this small thing bequeathed to her from ancient times. She buried her head in the bedclothes and wept.

Back in the office, she found a letter lying on the desk. It was from America, from Wright State University, Ohio. An invitation. She read and re-read it, her mind in a whirl. She knew all the English words but could not make sense of them. In the end, she had to take it home for Lian to read it to her.

When he came back from his business trips, he always needed to sleep a whole day. He also swept the bedroom with suspicious eyes. Tianyi accepted it, acting calm, although she secretly found it amusing. It was like when she was a child, hiding some mischief from adults, she even got a malicious enjoyment from it. I’ve really gone out on a limb this time, Lian, she thought. Now you just see if you can spot it with your beady eye!

Lian looked at Tianyi’s invitation letter and threw it back at her: ‘Wright State University in Ohio have invited you to go to America, it’s too bad they’re not offering to pay.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Isn’t it clear? An invite where they don’t pay is crap!’

‘Where are you getting all this bad language from, all of a sudden?’

‘Lian suddenly yelled: ‘I’m telling you the truth! The truth is ugly! If you want pretty language, go and find it from someone else!’

He was obviously about to explode with rage, and Tianyi turned away. She went to her study and slammed the door. She could still hear Lian outside. He was yelling: ‘I’m telling you Tianyi, we’ve got this flat through my job. If you crack the walls banging that door, you’ll pay for it!’

Tianyi made a hurried phone call, to Tianyue, who had completed her Masters and was home from America. She had changed, grown much prettier, with bright, expressive eyes. It must be love, thought Tianyi. Her sister must be in love.

She was right. Tianyue was involved with someone. Some years ago, she had told Tianyi what was going on in her life, though for a reserved girl like her, that must have been extraordinarily difficult. She said she and Wei had only done in it fifteen times in as many years. Incredible. There was something wrong with Wei, said Tianyue, but he would not admit it. (Actually, Wei once told Tianyi that it was her sister who had the problem.) Tianyi stepped in and made the pair of them go the hospital for a check-up. The results were inconclusive: there was nothing physically wrong with either of them. That just left incompatibility as the cause.

So Tianyue and Wei sat down and negotiated a very private agreement. They never told anyone the details, but the agreement they drew up basically said that they would keep up the appearances of being married but were each free to go their own way. It became clear that this benefited Tianyue because, from then on, she never looked back. Her current lover was called Yang and was thirteen years younger than her.

When Tianyi set eyes on Yang, she did not like him. He was fair-skinned, on the chubby side, with a small eyes and a turned-down mouth. He was from Hunan and was in Beijing to make money. He did a bit of business and quickly discovered that, to make big bucks in the capital, you needed a foreign language. He enrolled on a very expensive language course, and who should be his teacher but Tianyue.

Yang’s boldness and enthusiasm were genuine, though he was a bit like a bull in a china shop. He also lacked perseverance. He was a young man from a small mountain village in Western Hunan, and the moment he set eyes on Tianyue, he saw her as his saviour. Tianyue, for her part, was bowled over by his initial enthusiasm. She and her husband had got so stale, it seemed hard to believe that there was someone as fired up as Yang. Yang did not even trouble to avoid Wei. He spent all his money on expensive food, which he would bring over to their house and set to and prepare for Tianyue. Tianyue and Wei were barely scraping by in those days, and their idea of a treat was going to a café to have a bit of Sichuan spicy food. So eating well felt special. Wei even said quietly to Tianyue that he actually really liked Yang coming to their house because ‘he brings pork shoulder steaks with him’. Tianyi had mixed feelings: she was happy for them, but also amused and shocked. She understood why her sister despised Wei; he was happy to accept handouts, even if it meant pimping his own wife. Tianyi thought with relief that Lian may have had a bad temper but at least he had some self-respect.

Gradually, Yang began to push the boundaries of good behaviour. He would lie on their double bed even when Wei was in the house. Wei was angry but did not dare object. If he wanted to continue accepting Yang’s largesse, he was hardly in a position to speak his mind. His resentment grew, however and, with no one else to talk to, he finally came to Tianyi to get it off his chest. He had been tidying the house one day, he told her, and he found a big bag in the cupboard full of condoms. He also said that when Yang was around, even Tianyue had no respect for him. Sooner or later, he and Tianyue would split up for sure, he said.

But Yang was extremely deferential to Tianyi. He certainly knew how to turn on the charm and Tianyi let herself be charmed, and was affable in return. Why on earth should she offend Yang just for Wei’s sake? She thought.

On the phone to Tianyue, Tianyi said she was going over there this evening and would take the three of them out to dinner. Tianyue was delighted. It did not matter how much she ate, she was naturally skinny and never put on weight. She easily ate double what Tianyi ate, even though she looked as if she was deprived.

Tianyue was someone who was ruled by her emotions. Towards Tianyi, she was both jealous and admiring at the same time. This little sister of hers seemed like a different generation because of their differing experiences during the Cultural Revolution, even though she was actually only a few years younger. Added to which, Tianyi had always been a strange little sprite of a girl, so terribly intelligent that, in many ways, she made her elder sister feel inferior and she knew it. But her Masters degree and her love affairs had changed her. Tianyi seemed just so-so now; she, Tianyue, had worked hard and was the better woman, certainly more glamorous. Tianyi no longer paid much attention to her appearance, probably because of the child, and had lost her youthful prettiness. It all made Tianyue secretly glad that she was childless. It kept her looking much younger than her years.

They ate dinner at a Uighur restaurant near Tianyue’s house. Tianyi discovered to her surprise, as plate after plate of roast meat appeared before them and was devoured, that her sister was uninterested in the Wright State University invitation. It was the two men who were enthusiastic and discussed it in detail. Yang pronounced magisterially: ‘First, you should get the agreement of your workplace, then figure out a way of getting a financial guarantor, otherwise you’ll have to be your own guarantor.’