Xiaobin Xu - Crystal Wedding

She stayed out until late at night. At the bus stop on her way back to the guesthouse, she saw some blacks talking and laughing under the dim street lamps. No longer afraid, she gave them a casual wave: ‘Hi!’ She got a ‘Hi!’ and genuine smiles, showing their gleaming white teeth, in return.

Everything she had been told since she was a child was a lie: the two-thirds of the world who lived out their lives in misery were not Americans, but her own countrypeople. The ideal country she had dreamed of since she was a child, was right here.

And soon Tianyue arrived from Salt Lake University, where she was studying to get a place on a Masters course. Tianyi had grown up worshipping her big sister. After her father, Tianyue was the one she was closest to. Now she scrutinized her, genuinely delighted to see her. Tianyue had never had children, and had a good figure. Her clothes fitted well, unlike Tianyi’s. Tianyi had a fine bust but child-bearing had broadened her hips and given her a big bottom. Tianyi envied her sister her figure while Tianyue, naturally flat-chested, envied her little sister her breasts. Was there a woman in this world who was satisfied with the way she looked? Women’s torment about their bodies went on until they died, just like that poor Brazilian model Luisel Ramos who, even though she was 1.75 metres tall, was determined to diet and diet until she was only 45 kilos. For a woman of her height, it would have been surprising if she had not died.

Tianyi noticed her sister’s attitude towards Mei: despite forcing a smile, she avoided looking Mei in the eyes, and busied herself instead in getting out the presents she had brought. As she bent over to unzip her bag, Tianyi noticed that her permed hair had no shine to it all. It looked whiskery, and so brittle it might fall out if you touched it. Her sister’s way of putting on a smile that was not a real smile reminded her of her father. Tianyue got all the presents out, and sat down, exhausted. Mei gave a grudging smile at the sight of a bottle of Chanel perfume. Much better than giving CDs, she said, and went into the kitchen. Startled, Tianyi looked at her retreating figure. Without the Chanel, would they have had any dinner, she wondered? Tianyi dutifully followed her into the kitchen. Mei, ladle in hand, said to her with a smile: ‘You know about my brother and your sister, do you?’ Tianyi was mystified.

Tianyue had just learned to drive and on their journey to Las Vegas, both Tianyi and Ke had to stay alert. Ke was in the front passenger seat, and responsible for looking out front and to the right, while Tianyi, in the back seat, looked out left and behind. All three were on edge. Tianyue told them to remind her when they saw the green Exit sign. That was the way off the expressway and you were in all sorts of trouble if you overshot it.

This was Tianyi’s first experience of American freeways. In China in 1996, there were no roads of this sort, the sort that reminded her of the line from the famous Li Bai poem: Like the Milky Way, fallen from the Ninth Heaven. Looking at them, Tianyi understood for the first time why there were few traffic jams even though there were so many cars in America.

Nevada was a desert, from the middle of which there rose a monumental palace — the famous city of Las Vegas. To Tianyi’s wonderstruck eyes, Las Vegas by night was like a jewel box, revealing an infinity of glittering gems everywhere she looked. There were fantastic light displays, and spectacular, gigantic fountains, four golden horse-heads spitting flames. No living creature could fail to be moved by these heart-stopping sights, let alone a woman like Tianyi, who still had something of the child in her,

Tianyi rushed around taking photographs with the Olympus Lian had brought her back from the US. It had been a good camera back then, and took good pictures. Besides, film processing in the US was of a much better standard than China. In the pictures taken of her, with her fashionable bob and loose-fitting red and blue-patterned jumper, she looked relaxed and pretty, far younger than her forty-odd years.

That trip was the first time she saw a striptease. It was not nearly as expensive as she had imagined, only thirty bucks a person, including drinks. In the dimly-lit room, she was amazed to see these unreal-looking beauties strip off the very last piece of clothing. The lighting made their private parts look unreal too, like patches of grey rubber. The men had clearly seen it all before and acted hard to please. Both men and women alike seemed quite unmoved by the experience. A big-breasted woman approached an overweight man in the row in front of her and gyrated her hips, until the man reached with some difficulty into his pocket, pulled out a hundred-dollar bill and tucked it into her G-string.

The casinos were something else again — quite dazzling. The slot machines with their brilliantly-coloured rows of fruit and numbers, the huge tables offering all kinds of games, roulette, vingt-et-un, dice. The slender young waitresses in their uniforms, going back and forth with trays laden with drinks, the pattering of coins cascading from the machines, the smells, a heady, decadent mixture of perfume, smoke and who knows what else.

Tianyi sat beside her sister, studying the way she pulled the lever of the slot machine, and then Ke bought a large pot of tokens for her. She enjoyed the tinkling they made as they dropped into the tray, and that sudden, wonderful feeling of winning the jackpot. The sisters did not dare gamble for high stakes, because they were playing with someone else’s money. Even so, they had some success, winning two hundred bucks on the one-armed bandits alone.

When they had had enough, they moved to their hotel room, upstairs from the casino. The three of them shared a room, so did not undress. Tianyue had on the silk top she had worn often in Beijing, with small mauve flowers on it. They had one bed, with Tianyue in the middle, and Tianyi and Ke on either side. Ke cracked a few jokes then fell asleep as they were laughing, but Tianyue was restless. Tianyi dozed until the small hours when she was aware of Tianyue silently getting out of bed. It was a strange sort of night. The sounds of cascading coins from the casino downstairs were quite audible, but could not muffle Tianyue’s footsteps as she quietly left the room. As if hypnotized, Tianyi collected her handbag and followed on her sister’s heels.

Back in the casino, Tianyue showed her true mettle: she staked her entire thousand bucks and lost every cent. Tianyi felt herself drawn to follow her sister’s lead: she fed the slot machine with her winnings, and the machine swallowed it all up.

Tianyi still remembered Tianyue’s bewildered expression, but neither sister complained. Tianyi was reminded of the story of Ali Baba. They had both behaved just like the rich men in his cave. They were so self-righteous but they had no reason to laugh at other people. They were no better than anyone else. Humans were greedy and self-destructive by nature.

Salt Lake University, however, was in stark contrast to Las Vegas. This was Tianyue’s home turf. The campus was carpeted in snow, through which poked exquisite flowers Tianyi did not know the names of. They somehow gave her the impression that she had been carried off to the realm of the Snow Queen. Her sister’s rented house was much nicer than she had expected. It was built of sand-coloured brick, and stood in a row of others that looked like Lego houses, or rather cardboard cut-outs. For some reason, she had the impression that these houses were so flimsy that they could be dismantled just like that and then reassembled.

Silence. Tianyi felt as if she had been swallowed up by an unearthly quiet. At the start, she did not even dare raise her voice above a whisper. She was secretly rather fearful of Tianyue’s landlady. She was quite a character, a jewellery-maker, or so Tianyi understood, and reeked of cheap perfume. She was old enough to have liver spots on her hands, but that did not stop her sporting at least six rings set with diamonds, gold, sapphires and emeralds. Tianyi was quite worried that the weight of them would deform her fingers. The woman wore thick blue eye-liner, and her eyelashes were long, curly and thickly mascara’d. But nothing could hide the fact that she was knocking on seventy. The overall effect was of some weird witch, with a glint in her eyes so sinister that Tianyi for a long time avoided meeting her gaze.