Xiaobin Xu - Crystal Wedding

But one man’s arrival proved to be a turning point for Tianyi. His name was Feng Dayuan, and he was the father of Kexing, whose lead role in the film of The Tree of Knowledge had made her a household name. In 1990, Dayuan had just taken over as deputy director of a film production company. He had already taken note of Tianyi and The Tree of Knowledge in his previous post, heading up its literary department. This was no thanks to his daughter, who was highly ambitious and never recommended any works to him, especially when it was by someone of the same sex. Kexing by dint of toadying to all and sundry, did make it abroad and became the first actress from the Chinese mainland to make it in Hollywood. Of course, in a dozen years there, she only managed to play walk-on parts and, even though she appeared scantily-clad, her body was too scrawny to attract attention.

Dayuan had not come to see the pictures, but to meet the author of The Tree of Knowledge . At their first meeting, he was disappointed. Dayuan liked three kinds of women: the young and pretty ones; those who were older but were sexy and flirtatious enough to pique his interest; and those who were not pretty but were young and unsophisticated, had a personality and were articulate, even a bit mouthy. Sadly for him, Yang Tianyi fell into none of these categories. She was young and female but physically, she looked matronly. Her writing was beautiful and highly individual, but as a person, she was neither pretty nor did she have much personality. Older women, even at thirty-six or thirty-seven, could pass as quite young if they looked after their appearance. But Yang Tianyi’s outfit was dowdy, she had a sallow complexion and dark circles under her eyes, and seemed exhausted. Whatever was wrong with the woman?

Tianyi was a woman ruled by her emotions: when she was happy, she was combative and brimmed with energy; and when she was depressed, she looked haggard and dragged herself around as if she could hardly stand upright. Dayuan must have caught Tianyi at her lowest moment. Fortunately, the success of the exhibition lifted her spirits just a little, and banished some of the shadows from her face, allowing a ray of light through. Dayuan walked around the exhibition illuminated by that light. When he came back to see her again, he had made up his mind what he was going to say to her. His producer’s eye had unexpectedly been caught by one picture. He wanted someone who could paint like that, it did not matter if she was a rubbish-collector. So for the moment, he suspended his judgment of her as a woman.

Dayuan was not particularly knowledgeable, or enthusiastic, about art. Put simply, he liked that picture because it was the spitting image of his daughter, the actress Kexing. In the picture, she was holding a bass guitar in her arms, her face curtained in sleek black hair, below which her white neck was visible. The tones of the picture were cool, the background a violet-blue colour, the kind of colour the Russian painter Vrubel so loved. Dayuan did not really understand the finer points of the painting, but he knew that was the colour his daughter most loved. How he wished he could fly her back from the other side of the world to look at the picture!

So, for the sake of a painting, this middle-aged 1990s director approached this woman who otherwise fell far short of his standards, and spoke: ‘Yang Tianyi, would you like to join my production company?’

Tianyi felt this was her lucky break. Leaving her sinecure at the Academy of Letters, and making a new start, all proved very easy. Once she had sorted out the paperwork, she prepared to take Qing to see Zheng’s parents. That morning, Tianyi helped the girl with her makeup. She knew how to apply make-up but only seemed able to use her skills on other people.

Qing was a typical provincial girl from a modest family, unsophisticated and without much taste. She had nothing suitable to wear, so Tianyi opened her wardrobe and picked out a suit in silvery blue with phoenix tail flowers embroidered on it in silver thread. Then she took out the necklace of black thread interwoven with shells, and got Qing to put it on. She put her hair up for her and put the finishing touches to her makeup. Qing smiled at herself in the mirror: ‘It’s true what they say, Tianyi, people need clothes the way a horse needs a saddle! I’m ready to audition for the Central Academy of Drama now!’

Tianyi put on a pearly-gray pencil skirt with an embroidered linen top, and they set off in good spirits. On the way, they bought some gifts of food. Tianyi thought that if Zheng’s parents were going to visit him in prison this month, they could take him some. But nothing worked out as she had expected.

When Zheng’s parents saw Qing, they looked anything but happy. Tianyi did her best to break the ice, but they were extremely reserved towards her. Tianyi racked her brains but could not imagine what the problem was. Qing seemed oblivious, as she smiled and chatted to Tianyi’s mother. Mrs Ke peeled a juicy Sichuan orange for her, but it seemed to Tianyi that she was only going through the motions. In between mouthfuls of orange, Qing talked on and on about Zheng. Then she said: ‘Tianyi, you go home, I’m going to spend a couple of days with Zheng’s Mum and Dad.’ Tianyi saw the beseeching look Mrs Ke gave her, then the older woman said: ‘Tianyi, maybe next time … The thing is the house is in a terrible mess, I haven’t cleared up.’

Qing butted in before Tianyi could speak: ‘Mrs Ke, don’t worry, I’ll do it for you. It’s no problem, I’m really good at cleaning and tidying.’ She smiled sweetly at Tianyi. ‘You go on home, Tianyi. You’ve been cooking my meals for a couple of months, you deserve a rest.’

Tianyi walked out into the courtyard feeling utterly helpless. Qing seemed to have cast herself in the role of the Hua family’s future daughter-in-law. Of course, there were a few problems with this but Tianyi could not bring herself to break the truth to her. For a start she had no idea how Zheng felt. Qing’s version of events was that Zheng really did love her, and when his parents told him that Qing was with them when they visited him in prison, then it would be a huge boost for his morale. Also, if Tianyi absolutely had to be the one to puncture her illusions, Qing would never forgive her. The girl would be convinced that she, Tianyi, was putting obstacles in her way out of jealousy. Tianyi felt the only thing she could do was to back off.

As it was a Saturday, Tianyi went to pick up Niuniu, who was now at a different nursery where he boarded, coming home only on Wednesdays and Saturdays. She took him straight to a restaurant where they often ate because, even though it was a bit small, it was spotlessly clean, and offered good home-cooking. Niuniu loved it, and normally ate well. But today he picked at his food, and the reason was simple: Auntie Tianyue and her boyfriend Uncle Yang were eating with them.

Tianyue knew the restaurant well, because every time she visited, if they had nothing good to eat at home, Tianyi and Lian brought her here. The trouble was that Niuniu did not like his aunt, and liked Yang even less. As soon as he saw them, his little face clouded over. Tianyi, who had always thought that her son had a tendency to be grumpy, had the greatest difficulty in making him to say hello to his aunt and uncle. Some people just took an instinctive dislike to one another for some reason, and that was how it was for Niuniu and Tianyue. But compared to how he was with Yang, he was politeness itself to his auntie. Yang he treated as his natural-born enemy.

Tianyue was radiant that evening. She said to her sister: ‘Yang and I have both taken the English test, Tianyi. Do a reading for us and tell us if we’ve passed?’

Amongst her circle of friends, Tianyi was famous for doing readings from the I Ching. But that night, before she had had time to do one for her sister, Tianyi had a strange dream. A glittering golden tiger was standing at the entrance to a tunnel, looking back with a great yearning in its eyes. Then it waved its tail and it was as if a pure gold fan splayed open, and folded together again. Then it walked into the darkness and slowly disappeared. She dreamed it at four o’clock in the morning. Dreams she had at that hour were generally very accurate. Her sister was born in the Year of the Tiger and the dream clearly meant that her sister could go, and that going would bring her good fortune.