Jia Pingwa - Ruined City

Zhuang couldn’t stop laughing as he pelted her with pieces of clay. “Where did you hear that dirty joke?” he jeered. “You wouldn’t be afraid even if it were a horn, I’m sure.” Suddenly he squatted down and asked her to clean his ears.

“What’s wrong with your ears?”

“I got so aroused by your story that I can’t walk at the moment. If you clean my ears, I will focus on them and it will shrink back down.”

“I don’t care. You’ll just have to live with the erection,” she said and ran into the village ahead of him.

When they finally found Aunty Liu’s house, she was weaving in the hallway. It was a sweltering day, so she only had a vest on top, with walnut leaves tucked around her waist. She cried out and stepped away from the loom when she saw them.

“My goodness. Why are you here? And why hasn’t your wife come to enjoy the countryside? I haven’t been to the city for days now, and I’ve missed you all. A while ago the soles of my feet were itching, which people say means I’ll see my loved ones. I was wondering who would be coming, and it turned out to be you, not my mother or my uncle.”

“So you’ve missed us. We’re tired from the walk, but you haven’t offered us a chair or some water,” Zhuang said.

The woman cried out as she thumped her forehead and invited them in. She boiled water to poach some eggs, but Tang politely declined, saying she was full. She would just have some water. Unable to change Tang’s mind, Liu put an egg in another bowl and took it outside, where she shouted for her son to come eat it. In the meantime, Zhuang moved two eggs from his bowl to Tang’s. “Eat them. Don’t they look like my you-know-whats? Why aren’t you eating?”

“Behave yourself,” Tang whispered. “She treats you like a saint.”

When Aunty Liu returned, she said many nice things as she watched them eat and drink.

“I haven’t seen you in a long time,” Zhuang said. “See how thin I’ve gotten without your milk?”

“I talked to Wu San next door before he went into the city to sell vegetables this morning. I asked him to deliver a message to your house if he happened to walk by. The cow is sick.”

“The cow is sick?”

“She hasn’t eaten in days. I took her out for a walk three days ago, but she lay down yesterday and can’t get back up. The poor animal has made money for us for so long, and I’m really afraid something bad might happen to her. I asked a vet to take a look, but he didn’t know what’s wrong. He just said she should be better in a few days. How can she get better if she doesn’t eat or drink? My husband went to Qianbao to get Jiao the Cripple, a famous vet.”

Zhuang went to the cow pen and was pained by the sight of the cow, which was reduced to skin and bones. The cow recognized him and, flicking her ears, tried to get up, but she couldn’t quite make it. She looked at Zhuang, and Tang’s eyes moistened.

“Poor thing. She’s shedding sad tears, just like humans. Look at her udder; she’s so skinny it looks huge.”

They squatted down to shoo the mosquitoes and flies away.

The rings on the yard gate sounded while they were talking, and in walked two men. One of them, Aunty Liu’s husband, whom Zhuang had met once before, was carrying a leather case on his back. The one behind limped in; he was obviously the vet. After a brief greeting, he squatted by the cow and observed the animal for some time before turning back her eyelids, prying open her lips, and raising her tail to check her back there. He followed that up by putting his ear on different parts of the cow’s body and knocking on her back, making a loud thumping noise. When he was done, he broke into a big smile. “Can she be saved?” Aunty Liu asked.

“How much did you pay for her?”

“Four hundred and fifty-three yuan, from Mount Zhongnan. We’re destined to be together; she started giving milk right after she came, and she has such a nice temper she’s like family.”

“How long have you been selling milk?” the vet asked.

“Over a year now. The poor thing, she walked up streets and down alleyways with me.”

“Then I’ll have to congratulate you. You’ve earned back what you paid for the cow by selling her milk. Moreover, she’ll give you several thousand yuan with about a hundred jin of meat and the hide. She has a liver problem, you know. Cows, like humans, can have liver diseases, but when a cow’s liver goes bad, it produces cow bezoar, which is valuable stuff. People have tried everything to get cows to produce it, but your family has this cow. It’s like money raining down on you. What’s your concern?”

“What are you talking about? I don’t care about cow bezoar, whatever that is. I’m not so cold-hearted that I could watch my cow die just to get that stuff. She’s a member of the family. Please write a prescription for her. I’ll give her the medicine and let her rest.”

“I’ve never met anyone like you. You have a good heart, but let me tell you, I can’t cure her; no one can. Listen to me, find a butcher tomorrow and you can still get some meat off her. If you wait too long, you won’t be able to save her, and her flesh will melt away.”

Aunty Liu turned and went back to the house to cry, ignoring her husband when he told her to make the vet something to eat. Irritated, he cursed, “Would you cry that hard if your old man died?” Looking somewhat embarrassed, he turned to Zhuang and Tang. “That wife of mine is so muddle-headed that neither heaven nor earth can clear her mind. Let’s go inside. I’ll have her make something for us.”

“Aunty Liu has had the cow for a long time,” Zhuang said. “That’s why she feels so bad. I only drank its milk, and I feel bad.”

They heard the sound of water sloshing in a basin. “Are you preparing dough?” her husband asked. “Make us some noodle soup.”

Aunty Liu walked out with a basin containing mung-bean paste for the cow. The vet frowned and said, “I’ll be on my way. Someone in another village has asked me to check on their cow. You can pay me now. This cow isn’t going to live much longer, so eight or ten yuan will do.” Aunty Liu’s husband tried to get the vet to stay, but he begged off, so her husband paid him and saw him to the gate. In the face of Aunty Liu’s sorrow, Zhuang and Tang decided to leave, too; when they said good-bye and walked to the gate, the cow lowed from inside.

Zhuang shook his head. “I don’t know what’s happening these days. There have been so many disasters, it’s enough to make you lose heart.”

“Did you and Liu Yue get together again?” Tang asked him.

“Why bring that up when I’m talking about serious matters?”

“You slept with her, so naturally that will lead to a disaster. If you continue, either you or I will meet with a bad end.”

Zhuang said that was nonsense, but deep down he was troubled, and as he looked back, fear set in. “Why would I do that? She’s in love with Zhao Jingwu, and everything is fine with him.”

“It’s still early,” she said.

When they reached Huancheng Road, he wanted to hail a taxi, but she preferred to walk so they could talk. For some reason, Zhuang thought of Ah-lan. He asked Tang if she would be willing to visit Ah-lan at the mental hospital. He had told her about the sisters, leaving out his relationship with Ah-can. She was unhappy that he wanted to go see Ah-lan at that moment.

“Have you been thinking about her? Do you regret not being her lover? I’m with you now, and still you’re thinking about her. As people say, whatever you can’t eat smells wonderful until you actually eat it.”

“This is the road to the hospital, which reminded me of her. Why are you jealous? I don’t know what you’d be thinking if she weren’t ill.”