Jia Pingwa - Ruined City

She lay down, submissively as a cat, and he knelt to smell and kiss her from head to toe. Then he gave her the address of the House of Imperfection Seekers, adding that he would like to see her again. She tearfully agreed.

. . .

The village at the foot of Xijing’s Giant Wild Goose Pagoda had an unusual name, Yaobao, or Divination Fortress. Every one of its residents was a drummer. Their ancestor was said to have been a drummer in the Qin emperor’s army who later settled in the area. In order to commemorate their ancestor’s accomplishment and enforce clan unity, they passed down drumming skills and the performance of drum music from a court dance that originated in the Tang dynasty. Their ancient customs also included a drum festival on the second day of the second lunar month, the traditional holiday when the rain dragon raised its head. A village elder would carry an apricot-yellow flag and lead several hundred drummers in a parade. On this day, the shops in town, seeking good fortune, tied yard-long satin cloths to the flag-bearer’s head when the procession reached their shops, while tens of thousands of firecrackers were set off, creating an earth-shattering din. In recent years, as things changed, the villagers had continued their tradition, but turned drumming into a livelihood. Whenever peasants-turned-entrepreneurs from the southern suburb wanted to promote a new product or celebrate high sales figures, they would hire the drummers from Divination Fortress to play. So in addition to enjoying the drum parade, the residents within the city wall would know from the sound that another peasant had made enough money to show off, and they would surge onto the street to watch.

One Sunday, the drum music sounded again on the street, more spectacularly than ever. Niu Yueqing and Liu Yue, who were winding yarn at home, were agitated by the drumbeat. Liu Yue, who was holding out her hands in the shape of an elongated box, could not concentrate, so Niu Yueqing said, “Can’t you sit still, you little monkey?” She put the yarn away and told the girl to get her high heels for her so they could go out and take a look. After freshening up, they went out onto the street, where a huge crowd blocked their passage. Taking Niu Yueqing by the hand, Liu Yue climbed over the pedestrian railing and threaded her way through the traffic. Niu Yueqing struggled out of the girl’s hand to look a bit more refined and shouted, “Why are you walking so fast, Liu Yue? Afraid you might miss your bridal sedan?” Niu Yueqing had thought that Zhuang would be back home within a few days of his spiteful move to the Literary Federation compound, and was surprised that he had stayed away so long. Her attitude had begun to soften, but she refused to go there for fear of losing her dignity as a wife. Life at home had become tedious. Then she recalled her husband’s complaints about her lack of attention to her appearance, so she went out and bought some new clothes and gave her nearly new used clothes to Liu Yue. She was wearing heels with pointed toes, which pinched her feet soon after she went out to watch the drummers; she cursed the girl for walking so fast. Liu Yue came back and walked more slowly beside her. “I’ve never seen anything like this. Back home, we also have drum music during the New Year’s celebration, but they never beat the drums so fast or so loud. My heart is racing.”

“You don’t just watch the drummers; you have to look at the people who watch the drummers. It’s more fun that way,” Niu Yueqing said.

Liu Yue began paying attention to the people on the street, who were all nicely decked out. Soon she realized that many of them were looking at her.

“Dajie,” she whispered, “you’re so pretty that everyone is looking at you.”

“Me? What for? Who would want to look at an old hag? It’s you they’re watching.”

Though dressed in hand-me-downs, Liu Yue had such a nice figure that she looked good in anything. She was young, and the clothes fitted her better than brand-new ones. She could see that Niu Yueqing was right, that she was the focus of the onlookers’ attention; instead of looking around, she stuck out her chest and raised her head high, checking out of the corner of her eye.

“Don’t stick your chest out like that,” Niu Yueqing said, making the girl giggle.

By the time they had pushed their way through to a spot beneath the clock tower, the drum band was arriving from East Avenue, drawing a large crowd. The two women jumped onto the stone ledge of a fountain outside a hotel, and saw three three-wheelers traveling side by side under a gigantic sign with gold lettering: “Greetings to the Residents of Xijing from Huang Hongbao, Owner of the 101 Pesticide Plant.” Behind the sign, a swarthy, heavy-set man rode on another three-wheeler, grinning from ear to ear and waving to the onlookers. He was followed by four rows of three-wheelers: cymbal players stood on the outside vehicles, clanging on brass cymbals fastened to their hands with yellow ribbons; the vehicles in the middle carried large drums edged with burnt-black tacks. Everyone on the team sported a red-edged yellow sash that hung from the right shoulder across the body. The sashes also had a message: “Good News Heralded from the 101 Pesticide Plant.” With three loud clangs, the players raised their cymbals, which flashed brilliantly under the sun. The drummers, in the meantime, beat their drums three times on the inside and three times on the outside, then twirled their sticks in the air and held one up before dropping it to start again. The onlookers cheered and applauded the performers as they moved in unison, the drums and cymbals playing off each other in rhythmic fashion.

After watching awhile, Niu Yueqing said, “Look at that dark, ugly guy acting like Chairman Mao inspecting the military. People can do just about anything they want to these days, so long as they have the money. I know him. He’s been to our house.”

“I thought he looked familiar. Now I remember. He looks so smug now, but he couldn’t kowtow enough to Zhuang Laoshi,” Liu said, and then let out a loud scream. “Ai—”

“Why are you screaming like that?” Niu Yueqing said.

“Isn’t that Tang Wan’er?”

Niu Yueqing took a closer look. Yes, it was Tang and Xia Jie among the crowd, two beauties in fashionable clothes, very eye-catching. Tang looked around when she heard the scream and spotted them. “Liu Yue! So you’re here with Shimu. Is Zhuang Laoshi with you?” Tang and Xia squeezed their way over and jumped onto the ledge, where they held hands and draped their arms around each other’s shoulder, laughing the whole time. They were an attractive sight to begin with, and now their laughter drew looks from even more people, including a group of idlers who grinned at them. Quickly averting their eyes, they heard one of the men say, “Xiao Shun. Did you hear me, Xiao Shun? Have you lost your soul?”

“Look, four bombs,” another one said.

“What’s a bomb?” Liu Yue whispered to Xia Jie.

“He’s saying you could stun him.”

Liu Yue poked Wan’er in the waist and said, “You’re the bomb. You dressed up so nicely today. Who are you doing it for? So pretty!” She then removed one of Tang’s hairpins and stuck it in Niu Yueqing’s hair, who removed it and saw that it was a tasseled ivory pin from Dali, Yunnan.

“So Zhou Min bought one for you, too, Wan’er,” she said.

Tang blushed.

“It looks so much better on you. Your Zhuang Laoshi bought one for me two years ago when he went to a meeting at Dali. It was too big, too flashy. I can’t wear something like that, so I put it in a chest. I thought it was only sold in Dali, but obviously it’s also available in Xijing.” Niu Yueqing stuck it back in Tang’s hair. Tang gave Liu Yue a playful kick. Liu Yue jumped off, lost her footing, and fell to the ground. After dusting off her gray harem pants, she went back up to join the others.