Tie Ning - The Bathing Women

Yu Dasheng seemed alarmed and asked, “Talk to me?”

Tiao said, “Yes, you’re her old leader anyway.”

Yu Dasheng hesitated again, another small hesitation, and said, “Okay.”

He made an appointment with her.

He sat behind his huge office desk and looked at her, and she sat in the soft guest chair looking at him. He was probably about sixty years old, his hair had turned grey, but his back was still straight. She liked men and women who didn’t dye their hair, feeling they always looked younger than those who had fake black hair. A few minutes ago, on her way to the provincial government’s office building, she suddenly had an urge to turn back, like the time she was to meet Mike at the Austin airport. She had these urges when a decision had been made but not put into action yet. Suddenly she doubted that the meeting made any sense. Did she want to force him to admit that he was Fei’s father? That was too ridiculous. How could she take Fei’s sickbed ravings seriously? She was still thinking about turning back after she entered the lift of the governor’s office building. She stared at the second button of the shirt of a male employee, who entered the lift at the same time as she did. She was thinking that if this fellow got off before she did, then she would leave with him and not see Yu Dasheng; if he got off after her, then she had no choice but to see Yu Dasheng. As it turned out, he pressed the button for seven and she needed to go to level three, so she got off at the third floor.

There was an awkward silence between them at first, then Tiao glanced at the brown paper bag by her feet and remembered she had brought books for the governor. She took out a set of Children’s English, finely printed with a fragrant smell, and said, “This is a series of fun English-learning books that our publishing house brought out in cooperation with a Canadian publisher. Governor, maybe your grandchildren will like them — you must have a grandson or granddaughter, right?”

The atmosphere was softened — words like “grandson” and “granddaughter” could ease all kinds of tension. Yu Dasheng said, “I have a granddaughter. I’ll give this set of books to her.”

Tiao said, “When Fei and I were little, we were not lucky enough to have so many pretty books. Back then there were a few old back issues of Soviet Woman in our house, which Fei and I read over and over again. We read all the fashion articles, recipes, and stories in them.”

Yu Dasheng became attentive. He said, “Oh? How old were you?”

Tiao said, “I was thirteen, and Fei was sixteen. We also passed around some Soviet spy stories to read then, such as Red Safe, Amber Necklace —”

Yu Dasheng interrupted Tiao. “These stories were around even when I was young.”

Tiao said, “Oh, then you’ll recognize this story if I tell you the details. It’s about a man and a woman who live in the same courtyard but are never seen talking to each other. They appear to be strangers even though they have been neighbours for many years. The ending is something quite unusual. The police solve a spy case, and the spy is the man in the courtyard. And his assistant is the woman who lives next door but apparently has never talked to him. How did they manage to work together? It turns out the woman’s wardrobe against the wall is a secret door to her male neighbour. Every night, as long as she gets into the wardrobe she can go to the male spy’s place. Do you remember this detail, Governor Yu? Both Fei and I got really frightened. It was exciting and scary at the same time. Ever since I read those stories, I got suspicious even about our wardrobe, always thinking there was a secret door in it. I was afraid to leave these sorts of books by my pillow at night. I had to toss them far away because I was so afraid the spies in the book would jump out and choke me to death. One day, Fei borrowed my Red Safe. Next day she told me that she had thrown my book away. She said it was too dark when she was on her way home. She mumbled to herself as she was walking. The book in her backpack seemed like a spy who was trailing her, and the leaves underneath crunched as she went along. Finally she couldn’t take it anymore. So she took out the book, threw it into the darkness, and then started to run. After that she asked me, ‘Hey, Tiao, do you have other books like it? Lend me another.’ You see how we were back then, scared but still wanting to read — the more scared we were, the more we wanted to read. Later we read much less. After Fei became a worker, she probably didn’t read those kinds of books anymore.”

“Has your friendship lasted to this day?”

“You can say that. We all admired her when we were little. She was a beauty. She had been a beauty since she was little. Don’t you think so?”

Yu Dasheng made no comment about this. Tiao started to relax and decided to lead the conversation to Tang Jingjing. She said, “Fei was a beauty because her mother, Teacher Tang, was also very beautiful.”

Yu Dasheng took a careful look at Tiao. His body, which had been leaning back in his leather swivel chair, almost imperceptibly leaned forward. He said, “Her mother, Tang Jingjing, do you also know her?”

Tiao said, “I was still living in Beijing when I was in the first grade. Teacher Tang was a maths teacher for the higher grades. I saw her stand on a stage being denounced by people, with a sign hanging in front of her chest. The sign read ‘I’m … I’m …’”

“I’m what?”

“The sign read ‘I’m a female hooligan.’ They asked her to lower her head and she refused, so they made her eat shit and she did.”

“You meant she ate … ate shit?”

“Yes, she ate it, because if she hadn’t they would have brought her daughter, Fei, to the stage to be put on display. I knew only after I grew up that Fei was her illegitimate daughter. Fei is a child without a father.”

Yu Dasheng held his interlocked hands in front of his chest. Tiao looked at his hands and tried to judge with as little emotion as possible: the pair of hands did look like Fei’s. Maybe it was just a coincidence. But because she had a strong desire to probe Yu Dasheng, she would rather everything was true. She stared at that pair of hands that seemed to be suffering and said, “Later, Teacher Tang died.”

“Yes, she died in a very miserable way.”

“Did you know her?”

Yu Dasheng said, “No, I didn’t know her — Teacher Tang. I had left Beijing by that time.”

Tiao said, “You mean if you hadn’t left Beijing, you might have known Teacher Tang?”

Yu Dasheng said, “No, maybe I misspoke, because one Beijinger doesn’t necessarily know another Beijinger.”

Tiao said, “I agree. For instance, a Beijinger like you and a Beijinger like me have been living in Fuan for so many years, but haven’t we only just got to know each other?”

Yu Dasheng laughed quietly.

“But Fei didn’t think so. She believed that in the ocean of people, the ones that are meant to meet will meet eventually, such as family members, or a father, for example. For a while, she was convinced that her father lived right in Beijing—”

Yu Dasheng glanced at his watch and interrupted Tiao. “I’m afraid I can’t give you too much time — I have a meeting that I need to attend. Your friend Fei was indeed the worker in my old factory. Not too long ago, maybe last year, she came to me with a university admission issue concerning her relative’s child, and the problem was solved. Is there anything else that she wants you to ask me to do for her? Or is there anything I can do for you?”

Tiao stood up from the chair and said, “No. Both Fei and I don’t need you to do anything for us. Especially Fei. She won’t be coming to see you anymore.”