Overwhelmed with gratitude, Hung-chien said, “Thank you, thank you.”
“After trying every ‘trick and scheme’ to get myself married to a husband like you, you think I wouldn’t look after him carefully?” As she spoke, the rims of her eyes reddened a little.
Hung-chien bowed and genuflected, admitting he was wrong and insisted on taking her out for a cold soft drink.
“I’m not a child. Don’t try cajoling me with food. Those words ‘every trick and scheme’ I’ll never forget as long as I live,” she said.
He put his hand over her mouth to keep her from sighing. In the end she went out with him for a cold soft drink. As she sat sipping her orange juice, she asked if Su Wen-wan had dressed like that before.
He said, “She’s a thirty-year-old married woman, and her clothes are getting more and more flamboyant. It’s enough to make anyone want to laugh to himself. I don’t think she’s anywhere near as cute as you.”
She shook her head and smiled to show that she couldn’t believe her husband’s remark but would like to.
“You heard Hsin-mei say how vulgar she’s become. I don’t know what became of her old refinement. I never expected her to turn so mercenary in one year. She’s not like a well-bred girl at all,” he remarked.
“Maybe she hasn’t changed. Who knows what kind of corrupt official her father is? The daughter naturally takes after the father in some ways. Her real nature has been hidden underneath all along, and now that she’s married and reached her full mental development, her true face finally shows itself. It doesn’t matter if she’s vulgar. I just think she’s too low. She already has a husband, yet she still tries to make up to Hsin-mei. What kind of well-bred girl is that! I’d say she is a concubine’s daughter. Take an ugly, poor wife like me. I may annoy you, but I know my place and wouldn’t ever disgrace you. If you’d married that girl, you might very well have ended up keeping a mistress for Hsin-mei,” she said.
He knew her remarks were very nasty, but could only nod and agree. By thus besmirching Su Wen-wan, the two made up.
This quarrel was like a summer rainstorm—severe while it lasted but over very quickly. From then on, however, each determined to control himself and avoid saying anything that would start a conflict.
The first night on the ship they were out on the deck enjoying the cool air.
“Last year when we first went to the interior on the same ship together, I never thought this year we’d be coming back on the same ship as man and wife,” Hung-chien commented.
Jou-chia took his hand in lieu of a reply.
“How much did you hear of what Hsin-mei and I said on the deck that time? Tell the truth.”
She withdrew her hand and said, “Who wants to listen to your conversation! You men never say anything worth listening to when you’re together. Later I suddenly heard my name mentioned and was so scared I just wanted to run away.”
He said with a smile, “Why didn’t you?”
“Well, it was my name. Of course I had the right to hear the rest.”
“We didn’t say anything bad about you then, did we?”
Throwing him a glance, she said, “Which is why I was so taken in by you. I thought you were a nice person. How was I to know you’re the nastiest of all people?”
In lieu of a reply, Hung-chien took her hand. She asked what day it was, and he told her it was the second of August. She sighed, “In five more days it’ll be the anniversary!”
He asked what anniversary it was, and she replied disappointedly, “How could you have forgotten! Didn’t we meet each other on the morning of August the seventh when Hsin-mei invited us out?”
Hung-chien was more ashamed than if he’d forgotten National Day9 and National Humiliation Day10 both, and he said quickly, “Oh, I remember now. I even remember what dress you were wearing that day.”
Much consoled, Jou-chia said, “I wore a dress with blue flowers on a white background that day, didn’t I? I don’t remember anything about you that day though. It didn’t leave any impression. But of course I remember the date. Isn’t that what they call ‘affinity’—when two strangers meet by chance and slowly become close?”
“Take all the people with us here on this ship, for instance,” he said, launching forth. “We don’t have a single acquaintance among them. We don’t know where they came from or why they took this particular ship, and we assume it’s just an accident that brought us all here together. But if we got to know their circumstances and destinations, then we’d realize that their taking this boat wasn’t accidental at all, that they have reasons for taking this one just like us. It’s like turning on the radio. You give the dial a turn and catch a phrase of Peking opera from this radio station, a phrase of an announcement from that one, and then suddenly a phrase of a foreign song, a melody—bits and pieces which make no sense when all brought together. But each broken fragment has a context in the program being broadcast on that radio station and isn’t just nonsense. All you have to do is tune in to one particular station, and you’ll understand its meaning. Dealing with other people is just like that. Strangers we don’t know very well—”
She let out a big yawn a full inch square in area. Like all people he hated having someone yawn while listening to him. A year’s experience in the classroom with hypnosis in disguise had only increased this hatred. He immediately stopped.
She said apologetically, “I’m tired. Go on talking.”
“If you’re tired,” he said, “then go to bed. I won’t talk anymore.”
“We were having a nice talk about ourselves,” she complained. “Why did you have to get off onto everyone on the ship and the whole of humanity?”
“All you women can ever talk about is yourselves,” he said in exasperation. “Beyond that you don’t understand a thing! You go on to bed first. I want to sit here for a while longer.”
Jou-chia went off, pretending to ignore him. After Hung-chien had had a cigarette, he calmed down and began thinking how funny it was. That discourse really was like a lecture from a podium. He hadn’t even taught a full year and already he’d developed this habit. Next time he’d have to be more careful and correct himself. No wonder after being a professor for so many years Lu Tzu-hsiao proposed as though he were giving an oral examination to his students. But then Jou-chia was too unrestrained. She always criticized him for having so much to say to other people while having nothing to say to her when he came back. Well, today when he launched into a long discourse with her, she just yawned. And to think he’d even praised her for being so submissive in his letter home!
For the last couple of days Hung-chien had begun to feel apprehensive as he neared home, and his mind was filled with all kinds of thoughts. Returning home, he felt, is not as simple as it was made out to be. While a long separation doesn’t amount to a temporary death, one at least becomes a stranger to his family. Returning home is just like returning something half-cooked to the pot. It has to be stewed a little longer before it becomes tender. Now that I am bringing Jou-chia home with me, I’ll need even more time to adapt to the family. Thinking about it made him uneasy, and he was afraid to go to bed. Sleep is such a fickle thing. When not wanted, it comes, and when it is invited, coaxed, and enticed along by every available trick, it puts on airs and conceals itself. Rather than toss and turn on his warm pillow, Hung-chien would just as soon sit for a while longer on the deck.
Jou-chia waited for her husband to come and make up, but when after a long while he didn’t appear, she put away her resentment and went to sleep.
9
IT WAS IN his letter home announcing his engagement that Hung-chien had praised his wife for being submissive. When Fang Tun-weng finished reading the letter, he cackled like a hen that has just laid an egg, and within one minute the whole family had learned the news. After the old couple got over their initial surprise, vexation followed. Mrs. Fang especially reviled her son for being too rash, wondering why he hadn’t asked for his parents’ consent before
getting engaged.
Tun-weng said, “We fulfilled our parental responsibilities by arranging a match for him with the Chous’ daughter. This time he made the decision himself. If it turns out well, then so much the better. If not, then he can’t complain about it to Mother and Father. Why worry about them?”
“I wonder what that Miss Sun is like,” said Mrs. Fang. “Hung-chien is such a muddlehead. He didn’t even send a picture!”
Tun-weng asked for the letter back from his Second Daughter-in-law, and reading it over said, “He says here in his letter she’s ‘submissive by nature.’”
Like all those with little education, Mrs. Fang was very superstitious about black words written on white paper, but she then raised a question of social geography, “Is she from another province? Outsiders are always a bit rough in their ways. They never get along with us.”
Second Daughter-in-law said, “She’s not from another province. She’s from another county.”
“As long as Hung-chien thinks she’s submissive,” said Tun-weng, “it’s all right. Ai, the way daughters-in-law are nowadays, how can you still expect her to be filial? That could never be.”
Second Daughter-in-law and Third Daughter-in-law exchanged glances, simultaneously wiping the genial expressions from their faces.
Mrs. Fang said, “I wonder if the Suns have money.”
Tun-weng said with a smile, “Her father works in a newspaper office. Newspapermen are good extorters, so they must have money, ha, ha! Our Eldest seems to have the luck of a fool. The Chous of his first engagement were quite well off. Then he took a fancy to Su Hung-yeh’s daughter, whose family is also rich and powerful. Now these Suns I don’t think could be too bad. In any case, this girl is a college graduate and has a job. She can probably support herself.”
These remarks of Tun-weng’s unwittingly made two enemies for Jou-chia: Third Daughter-in-law and her sister-in-law, whose family circumstances were very ordinary and who had only high school education.
Then a letter came from Hung-chien in Hong Kong announcing his marriage and asking his father for money. Shocked and angered upon reading it, Tun-weng immediately grew very pensive. He and Mrs. Fang closed their bedroom door and studied the letter for a long time. Mrs. Fang blamed Jou-chia for seducing her son; Tun-weng also expressed some rather disrespectful views on the subject of free courtship and modern women. But he was the head of the family, and as such he felt that when one family member lost face, he lost face as well. Not only must the family disgrace not be spread abroad, it must not be spread within the family either. He must cover up for his eldest son and daughter-in-law among his sons and daughters-in-law. He sighed, “Sons and daughters certainly are ‘seeds of retribution.’ One has to worry about them all one’s life. Mother, what’s the use of getting upset about it? At least they knew enough to get married. That’s all.”
During dinner Tun-weng smiled easily and said, “We had a letter from Hung-chien today. They’ve arrived in Hong Kong. One of his friends traveling with them decided to get married in Hong Kong. Hung-chien went red-eyed with envy and wants to have the wedding ceremony with Miss Sun at the same time. The way the young people do things they are like a swarm of bees; they all like to get in on the excitement. He also mentioned that he’d be saving me money and effort. Well, he is being considerate toward Mother this way, isn’t he?”
He waited till everyone had finished exclaiming, then continued, “When P’eng-t’u and Feng-i were married, I took care of all the expenses. If we were to have a wedding now on just as grand a scale as they were before in our village, I couldn’t afford it. Hung-chien is saving me from having to take out my pocketbook, so how can I not be pleased? Nevertheless, P’eng-t’u, I want you to wire him some money for me tomorrow. That’ll show that I treat you three brothers alike and keep him from accusing his parents of being unfair in the future.”
After dinner, as Tun-weng was leaving the table, he said, “He’s chosen a good way. Whenever there’s a marriage, the two involved never worry about a thing. It’s always the others around them who are kept on the go. If he’d gotten married in Shanghai, it wouldn’t have been just Mother and me, but even you and your wives who’d have been worked to death. This way it’s to the benefit of all.”
He was confident these remarks had clearly pointed out all the advantages in such a way that his sons and daughters-in-law would never become suspicious. That day he wrote in his diary: “A letter came from son Hung-chien in Hong Kong stating that he planned to marry Miss Sun Jou-chia there. In consideration of the unusual times and the family’s straitened circumstances, he had decided to economize and save trouble. It is a commendable idea, and so I have wired some money to help arrange it.”
Third Daughter-in-law had returned to her room and was just washing her face when Second Daughter-in-law came in and whispered, “Did you hear that? I think something funny is going on. Couldn’t they even wait the three or four days from Hong Kong to Shanghai?”
Not to be outdone, Third Daughter-in-law said, “When they suddenly got engaged in the interior, I thought it was too abrupt. Something was wrong even then.”
“Precisely!” said Second Daughter-in-law. “I thought so too. Let’s see, when did they get engaged?”
The two of them counted it out on their fingers, looked at each other and smiled. Feng-i, a simple-hearted soul, was so astounded that his eyes grew big and his jaw dropped.
Second Daughter-in-law said with a laugh, “Third Uncle, I’m afraid our First Sister-in-law will be the record-breaker among the Fang daughters-in-law.”
A few days later the wedding pictures arrived. Jou-chia’s face in the photographs very nearly matched the ideal she had of herself. Tun-weng was delighted when he saw them. Mrs. Fang put on her needlework glasses several times for a closer look. Feng-i said to his wife in private, “Sun Jou-chia is rather pretty. A lot better than the Chou girl who died.”
Third Daughter-in-law said with a scornful laugh, “Photographs aren’t dependable. You can’t be sure until you see her. Some people are photogenic, and some are not. Very ugly people sometimes take good pictures, so don’t be taken in. Why’d they take only a bust photo? It must be because they couldn’t take the whole body. Draping it in silk and covering it up with flowers wouldn’t help either, I’ll bet. Huh, I was married into your family in proper, formal manner. Now I have to call a girl like that Eldest Sister-in-law. Of all the rotten luck! I really don’t like it one bit. You see. That’s a college graduate!”
Second Daughter-in-law expressed her feelings to her husband in this way, “Did you notice? There’s an overly made-up look about Sun Jou-chia’s face. You can tell at a glance she’s an immoral woman, which is why she could do such a shameless thing. Your mother and father are two old fools to be praising her beauty! I don’t mean to brag, but the sisters in my family were so clean and proper that our father wouldn’t even let us write letters to our fiancés after we’d gotten engaged, to say nothing of ever having a boy friend.”
P’eng-t’u said, “I’m afraid these in-laws of Eldest Brother’s can’t compare with the Chous. Chou Hou-ch’ing sure knows how to speculate and do business. His Golden Touch Bank has really prospered. Eldest Brother was a fool to break with him! The day before yesterday I ran into Chou Hou-ch’ing’s son, who used to study with Hung-chien. He’s seventeen or eighteen, and already he’s assistant manager of the bank and can drive a car. I’m thinking of making friends with his father and restoring relations between the Chou and Fang families. Later we can pool our capital and invest. But don’t tell anyone about this.”
Jou-chia wouldn’t go straight to her husband’s home as soon as she got off the ship, but insisted on going back to her own home first. Hung-chien understood her shyness and didn’t force her. He knew they couldn’t set aside a room for him to stay in at home. The room he had lived in after breaking with the Chous was dark and narrow, just big enough for a small bed. Jou-chia had also made it clear that she would not be a d
aughter-in-law in a big family, so for the time being they would just have to stay in their own homes while they looked for rooms.
They went ashore, paid protection money to the policemen and detectives in the French Concession, and claimed their luggage. Hung-chien went with his wife to the Suns first. Since the taxi was waiting and each second was being counted, his courtesy call to his in-laws was brief to the extreme. He returned home alone. When his parents saw that the bride had not come with him, they were quite displeased, but at the same time relieved. The small room Hung-chien had occupied before was now given over to the two old maidservants to sleep in and had not yet been vacated. If the bride really had come, there wouldn’t even have been room for changing clothes.
The old couple plied their son with all sorts of questions. Besides asking about the bride, they also wanted to know about his job for the rest of the year. To keep up a good front, Hung-chien said that the newspaper office had asked him to head the Office of Information.
Tun-weng said, “Then, you’ll be staying in Shanghai for a while. It’s so crowded here at home. Now I suppose I’ll have to try finding you rooms nearby. Ai!”
Since one doesn’t thank a close relative, Hung-chien had nothing to say. Tun-weng instructed his son to go that evening and invite Jou-chia over for lunch the next day. At the same time Hung-chien was to ask his mother-and father-in-law to decide upon a convenient day, so he could pick a restaurant and invite his relatives out in proper style.
Confident that he was well versed in the art of dealing with people, Tun-weng said with a smile to Mrs. Fang, “In the old-fashioned marriage, a sedan chair would carry the bride over whether she was shy or not. But not so nowadays. I’m thinking of asking Second Daughter-in-law or Third Daughter-in-law to go to the Suns with Hung-chien to invite her over and express their welcome. That way she won’t feel like such a stranger.”
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