Jia Pingwa - Ruined City

The taxi dropped Zhuang off first. As the night ended, he found he no longer needed the crutches, though his foot still hurt a bit. Everyone was happy for him. The old lady attributed the improvement to the efficacious amulets. The next night, Liu Yue was fast asleep when she heard the old lady say, “The amulet quelled the evil spirits, so stop making a scene. The maid is here. Do you want her to laugh at you?” Liu Yue thought they had a visitor, but when she opened her eyes, there was nothing to see but flickering moonlight.

“Are you seeing things again, Aunty?” she asked the old lady, who sat up in her coffin.

“So, you’re awake. Have you been awake for a while?” Without waiting for a reply, she scolded someone and flung one of the shoes she was holding. Then she laughed. She habitually slept with shoes in her arms. “Your soul stays with you if you sleep with your shoes,” she said. “When you’re asleep, it’s like being dead, but not really. Your soul leaves you to circle above your head. Your dreams are your soul. You can’t dream if you don’t cradle your shoes, and if you don’t dream, your soul will leave. That is real death.”

Liu Yue did not believe her, but she didn’t dare touch the shoes. Often the old lady would fall asleep watching TV, cradling them in her arms. Liu Yue would never try to wake her; instead she would wave her hand in front of the old lady’s eyes. When she got no response, she would carry the old lady, shoes and all, to her coffin bed. Sometimes the old lady would be awake, and when Liu Yue waved her hand in front of her face, she would say, “I’m awake, but don’t forget to leave the shoes in my arms if I fall asleep.”

Having seen her throw a shoe, she asked what was happening.

“Your uncle is here. He was standing by the wall and I hit him.”

Breaking out in a cold sweat, Liu Yue snapped on the light, and saw nothing at the wall but the wooden peg she had put up earlier that afternoon to hang her clothes on. The old lady got up and walked over to touch the peg, saying it was something that had belonged to her husband. She wondered out loud why it had turned into a wooden peg.

“Where did the old fart get that kind of energy?” She pulled out the peg and tossed it out the window. “No harm if a dog gets it,” she mumbled.

When day broke, Zhuang went out to the gate for some milk and listened to Zhou Min play the xun at the city wall. After a prolonged period of immobility, he was happy to be walking again, so he went over to the city wall, but Zhou had left. He stood there, looking at the red bricks in the morning sun, before heading home to ask Liu Yue, “Has anyone come by?” “No one,” she said. “Any phone calls?” “No.”

“Why isn’t she here?” Zhuang murmured, and Liu Yue was reminded of his behavior with Tang Wan’er a few days before. She wondered if they had made a date for her to come over that day.

“Are you talking about Tang Wan’er?” she asked.

“What makes you say that? Zhou Min went to see the secretary-general, and I was wondering what happened. He hasn’t come by to bring me up to date, and he hasn’t sent Wan’er.”

So he is waiting for her , Liu Yue said to herself. “I think she’ll be here,” she said to him. When there was no sign of Tang, he went to his study to write a letter.

At ten-fifteen, Tang showed up. “Liu Yue,” she called out softly at the door. She smiled, her white teeth sparkling. Liu Yue was doing laundry; with her hands covered in suds, she looked up and saw that Tang had a new hairstyle and was wearing a loose purple dress.

They’re having an affair , she said to herself as jealousy welled up inside, but she smiled. “You must have been in a hurry, Wan’er. Look at the sweat on your neck. Anything important? Zhuang Shimu isn’t home, but Laoshi is in the study. Why don’t you go on in?”

“Shimu is out? I thought she’d be home. I came to visit her.”

“She has an ear infection that has affected her hearing. You’d have to raise your voice to talk to her, making conversation impossible. You wouldn’t have enjoyed the visit.” Glancing at Tang’s rising chest, she reached out and touched her breast. “Such a pretty color. Where did you get it?”

Liu Yue pinched Tang’s nipple while pretending to comment on the dress. It hurt, so Wan’er pushed the hand away. While this was going on, Zhuang walked out of the study to greet Wan’er. They sat down to talk.

“Stay for lunch,” he said. “My wife is always saying you don’t get enough to eat at home, and she wants you to drop by for a meal now and then.”

“There’s no need for that,” she said. “We have everything at home.”

“We won’t make you pay for your food,” he said, turning to Liu Yue. “Go buy some pork and some leeks. We’ll have dumplings for lunch.”

“It’s about time I went to the market,” Liu Yue said, picking up her shopping basket.

As soon as she left, Tang Wan’er ran into Zhuang’s arms with tears in her eyes.

“You’re crying again. Don’t cry.”

“I miss you so much. I thought these three days would never end.”

They hugged and kissed madly. She reached down between his legs. When he gestured toward the bedroom, they pulled apart. He looked in through the slightly open door to see the old lady sleeping in her bedroom; closing the door softly, he went into the study, followed by Wan’er, who tiptoed in and closed the door quietly. They immediately began undressing.

“You’re not wearing underwear.”

“To save you time.”

He sat her down in his leather chair, raised her legs, and kissed her down below. ☐☐ ☐☐ ☐☐ [The author has deleted 42 words.] The more she squirmed, the more he was aroused; he kept kissing her and felt an itch on his back. He asked her to scratch him. “It’s a mosquito. A mosquito in broad daylight?” She began scratching his back. “Who do you think you’re biting? Who, who do you, you think, you — you — oh, oh.” She stopped, her eyes rolled back, and her body stiffened. He felt a surge of warm liquid. ☐☐ ☐☐ ☐☐ [The author has deleted 33 words.] Zhuang stood up and smiled. “What does it taste like?” she asked. “Here, taste it.” He put his mouth on hers, then stepped down and stretched out his leg, only to land on her with a shriek.

“What’s wrong?”

“My foot.”

“Don’t put any weight on it,” she said.

“It’ll be all right.” He was about to begin again when she said, “Let me do it.” She got up to give him the chair. ☐☐ ☐☐ ☐☐ [The author has deleted 25 words.]

“Don’t make any noise,” he said. “The old lady is sleeping in the next room.”

“I don’t care.” She continued to moan and groan, so he handed her a handkerchief to stuff in her mouth. She bit down. ☐☐ ☐☐ ☐☐ [The author has deleted 18 words.]

“Hurry up and get dressed. Liu Yue will be back soon,” he said.

She put her dress back on, combed her hair, and wiped her sweaty face. She asked how her lipstick looked. It was completely gone, of course. He applied a fresh coat, and when he was done, he raised her skirt to write something on her thigh. She did not put up a struggle, letting him write while she powdered her face in a mirror. When he finished, she looked down to see what he had written. “Worry-free hall,” she read.

“That’s the name of a study, isn’t it?” she said.

“Why don’t I write it on a piece of paper with a brush and paste it up in your house?”

“People are fascinating. We have a head that brings us worries, but we have these parts to help rid us of problems. Have you had enough?” she said.

“Have you?”

“I have. I’m so satisfied it should last me a week.”