Jia Pingwa - Ruined City

Zhao told Bai about Zhuang’s possible heart problem, so after thinking it over, Bai said, “That’s fine, too. Your problem must have been caused by worry. Take it easy. Didn’t I tell you I’d take care of it? If I can’t even help you with this, then I’d have been a judge in vain all these years.” He walked them out and gave Zhuang a hug when they were saying goodbye, telling them to call him before they came next time. He’d have a camera ready to take a photo with everyone as a cherished memento.

When they returned to Zhuang’s house, Zhao mentioned Zhuang’s episode to Niu Yueqing. She and Liu Yue were so frightened they were soon crying. Saying that Zhuang had never had any heart trouble, Niu Yueqing got some sugar water for him while Liu made ginger tea. They asked him what he would like to eat, but he said he just wanted to sleep, and went to bed. After the visitors left, Niu Yueqing quietly got undressed and lay down next to her husband. Zhuang woke up, so she asked him how he felt. He said he was fine.

“I won’t worry as long as you say you’re fine.” She curled up in his arms and said, “Your heart is as hard as stone. You would probably continue to ignore me if it weren’t for this urgent matter. See how much weight you’ve lost. The trouble you had earlier has probably been caused by worries. Men need to be broad-minded and not let things bother them. No matter how serious something is, it will blow over. What do you say?” Zhuang put his arm around her. When she pressed her body tightly against him, she detected something hard, so she groped around and found the coin.

“Where did this come from? Is it such a treasure that you have to wear it?”

Zhuang hemmed and hawed before saying, “Isn’t it nice enough to wear?”

“A man shouldn’t wear something like this. It must have been a gift. I’ve been leaving you alone these days, and some shameless slut must have gotten you hooked on her.”

“Don’t frighten yourself with scary stories again,” Zhuang said. “Ruan Zhifei called me to come by the other day and said that a qigong master sent his qi on the coin to help ward off evil spirits and maintain good health. Ruan gave it to me.”

“Nine out of every ten things Raun Zhifei says are lies. He had to make up a fantastic story just to give you this. So why did you suffer heart trouble even with it around your neck?”

Wanting to change the subject, Zhuang told her about Ah-lan and Ah-can, which naturally had Niu Yueqing cursing the director. But she also criticized the way Ah-can had handled the matter. She was, after all, a woman, and should never hug or kiss a man, even for vengeance.

“You don’t understand,” Zhuang said.

Niu Yueqing grumbled to herself that he had fallen ill because of the two sisters. He wouldn’t have been like that over passing acquaintances, even if he felt sorry for them. “I don’t understand. But you do, I see. So tell me how you understand her.”

Zhuang snored softly, pretending to be asleep.

. . .

For three days, Xijing was under the assault of torrential rain that was as white as dense strands of hemp hurled down from the sky. It was dark even at noon. Water nearly covered people’s feet in housing compounds and residential buildings, flowing over doorsills and into houses when it didn’t drain fast enough, while the water taps stopped running. People learned that a section of the road outside the west gate had collapsed and broken a water pipe. When Liu Yue took a bucket out to catch rainwater on the balcony, she’d barely left it out before it was filled, but half the water had sloshed over the sides by the time she brought it inside. It was like catching the contents of a cascading waterfall. With too much to do, but unable to leave the house, Zhuang discovered that he had seven boils on his back, though they didn’t hurt. Niu Yueqing was worried, but he said that they might have been caused by the humidity. He applied some menthol ointment. She worried about her mother and the house at Shuangren fu. The phone wasn’t working when she tried to call, so she decided to go over with Liu Yue, but the girl wouldn’t let her go out in the rain and offered to head over there herself. The loudspeaker at the gatehouse, which had been silent for days, suddenly came back to life with “Testing, testing—.”

“A visitor on such a rainy day?” Niu Yueqing said, and, before she finished, Old Mrs. Wei’s voice sounded in the yard, “Zhuang Zhidie, you have a visitor. Come see your guest.”

The color drained from Niu Yueqing’s face. He asked her what was wrong. She responded, “My heart races every time something unexpected occurs.”

“I’m going downstairs anyway,” Liu Yue said as she put on her rain slicker and rain boots, “so I’ll go take a look. I’ll send whoever it is away if it’s not important and let him in if it is.” She ran downstairs. Someone was standing in the rain, drenched from head to toe. It turned out to be the junkman. Ignoring him, Liu Yue said to old Mrs. Wei, “Who’s looking for Zhuang Laoshi?”

She pointed to the old man.

That was strange.

“Are you looking for Zhuang Laoshi?” she asked him.

“I want to see Zhuang Zhidie, not Zhuang Laoshi. I don’t have a laoshi.”

Liu Yue laughed and asked, “What do you want? You can tell me.”

“You once gave me two steamed buns,” he said after taking a look at her.

“Good memory. But you don’t have to thank me.”

“I’m not going to thank you. I want to complain. The stuff stayed in my stomach and made me so bloated I couldn’t sleep that night.”

“So you’ve come in the rain to complain about me?” She walked off.

“You can leave if you want, but your laoshi will still have boils on his back.”

Stunned, Liu Yue halted, wondering how he could have known about the sores. “What did you say?”

“Old Mrs. Niu at Shuangren fu asked me to deliver a message on my way. She said her old man came home several times but didn’t enjoy a single good meal. Neither his son-in-law nor his daughter came, so he lashed the son-in-law’s back with a whip.”

“She doesn’t have an old man. He’s been dead for ages. The old lady is getting muddle-headed again. I’m actually going over there. Where are you headed, Grandpa?”

“Where am I going? The streets are deserted on a rainy day. So I’d be the governor if I went to the Provincial Office, and the mayor if I went to the Municipal Building. I’d be the police if I stood on the traffic platform, and a rich man if I walked into a restaurant. You’re going to Shuangren fu? Well, get on my cart. I’ll be the driver, and when we get there I’ll be your master.”

“You really can talk,” Liu Yue said. “See, I’m getting on your cart, all right? But I feel terrible being taken places by someone your age.”

“Then I’ll get on and you pull the cart. I’ll be an official in a sedan.”

“I can’t pull the cart,” she said, while he took off running slowly down the street with the cart.

“Are you getting dizzy?” he asked.

“No.”

“Then you were born to be taken around, as an official’s wife if not an official.”

She was so amused she laughed. But rain poured into her mouth the moment she opened it, so she tightened the slicker around her. When she noticed that the weedy hair on the old man’s head was plastered in clumps, while his gaunt, bony back was visible under his soaked shirt, Liu Yue felt bad and offered her rain slicker to him.

“You were born unlucky, then.”

“Why is that?”

“If not, why did you offer me your rain slicker? I’ve been running around Xijing for years, and everyone treats me like a madman except those who sleep under the city gate at night.”