Northern Girls: Life Goes On

by Sheng Keyi

  Xiaohong, worrying as she walked, suddenly saw the homely form of Sijiang, lying on a white bed. She didn’t know why, out of so many white beds, her eye found Sijiang at a single glance. The girl lay there blankly, limbs flopped carelessly on the sheet, blandly staring up at the ceiling until Xiaohong reached her. Two tears plainly flowed down her cheeks.

  ‘Hey Sijiang, don’t lie there like this,’ Xiaohong advised, suppressing her own tears as she persuaded her friend. She just wanted to cheer Sijiang up, but even she felt it was all a load of crap. If she were the one who had been sterilised, she would be even more deeply in despair than Sijiang was. She would snap at anyone who came near.

  Xiaohong tried to quell the anger in her belly. She kept herself from cursing aloud. She knew this was not the time for cursing. This was the time for easing Sijiang’s suffering. Sijiang couldn’t move – didn’t want to move – and so just lay there, face becoming more drawn. She was no longer that young girl from the days at the salon, face fresh and round as an apple.

  Specs sat quietly on the bed watching her, looking even more uncomfortable than if he had been castrated himself. In fact, as a man who had failed to protect his woman, he had been emasculated. He felt guilty. And, with his woman’s sterilisation, he was as good as castrated anyway. He patted Sijiang’s hand a moment then put a hand on her forehead, as if hoping to bring back the old Sijiang with his touch. Her listless eyes looked straight ahead, hoping for a miracle. After lying still as a block of wood for a long while, Sijiang suddenly showed a ruthless urge to cry, but that pulled at the wound and the physical pain it caused made her restrain herself. She slowly resumed that wooden gaze.

  There were six beds in Sijiang’s ward. The room was bright and clean. Even the flies were too ashamed to stay, wandering in only to make a single circuit before flying back out of the window. Having seen the place they had passed through, the mixed ward with dozens of patients, Xiaohong and Specs could tell this place was a level higher. Sijiang was enjoying superior treatment. No doubt about it, this was a clear sign that someone was trying to cover up a guilty conscience.

  The faces of the nearby women who had also gone under the knife were all full of sympathy. They were able to take a little comfort from Sijiang’s situation, feeling that at least their own surgeries were ‘justified’. And, furthermore, the prospects for their own sex lives after this ordeal still looked bright. As they ate apples, they politely offered some to Sijiang. Xiaohong, feeling that this friendliness vaguely implied complicity, politely refused.

  Lying in the second bed was a woman of about thirty, seemingly the wife of a wealthy local farmer. She lay casually, and when her child needed to be breast-fed, unable to sit up, she simply laid it across her body in a chaotic arc. Several people attended her, coming in and out in a constant stream.

  ‘First let your wounds heal. Don’t develop any other complications. As soon as you recuperate, you should sue them for compensation, at least a hundred thousand yuan or so,’ the breast-feeding woman said.

  ‘Yeah, you definitely gotta get some money. You can’t have kids. Who’s gonna marry you? Who’s gonna take care of you when you’re old?’ The breast-feeding woman’s mother-in-law looked on with a worried expression, hitting right at the heart of the matter with those few words. When she had finished, she clucked her tongue and shook her head, then she took up the nursing child in her arms, turned it towards her and kissed it twice before continuing to play with it.

  What the old lady had said hit a tender spot with Sijiang, renewing her grief. Tears gushed violently from her.

  ‘I’ll marry you, Sijiang. Don’t cry. Crying is going to make the wound worse. I want to marry you!’ Specs clumsily wiped Sijiang’s tears, his movements heavy, as if scrubbing at a particularly stubborn stain.

  His calm tone shocked Xiaohong. She suddenly felt this humble-looking guy was such a beautiful, shining light. Xiaohong became more emotional and the second round of tears fell more heavily than the first. Wiping her eyes, she turned to Specs and said, ‘Let’s go. I’ll take you to the head of the hospital.’

  IV

  Dr Lei was not easy to find at all. He was right in the middle of the peak season’s increased activity. The fourth time they knocked on his office door, he finally heard and that mouth that couldn’t grow whiskers of any length called out a deep, ‘Come in!’ On his head was a white cap, and a surgical mask dangled from his ear. He drank water from the cup of his stainless steel thermos. When he saw Xiaohong and Specs, he was a little caught off guard. His face was too pale, and that surprised expression was all too clearly seen, like a shadow passing across it.

  ‘You two… have a seat. What can I do for you?’

  Xiaohong glanced at Specs, indicating that he should speak up.

  ‘You all… sterilised her… we aren’t even married yet… you all… have gone too far!’ Specs had too much to say and not enough breath to say it.

  The chairman looked very confused.

  ‘Dr Lei, you got the wrong person. His girlfriend, her name’s Li Sijiang. She’s not married yet, and the hospital sterilised her!’

  ‘I heard about that, but it’s nothing to do with the hospital.’ Dr Lei was quick to shift the blame.

  ‘But sir, this happened at our hospital. It’s our hospital that did the surgery!’ Seeing Dr Lei’s flippant manner, a fury began to well up in Xiaohong, smouldering inside.

  ‘I can tell you this. Li Sijiang’s name was swapped for a local farmer’s wife who has four daughters. She was trying to hide, wanting to escape the family planning regulations. No one thought they would stoop to such trickery. It’s very wicked. But don’t worry, they’ll find out exactly who is responsible. The authorities will investigate carefully. The hospital merely performs the procedure. If the surgery goes wrong or there are complications, that’s the hospital’s responsibility.’

  ‘I want to know, who performed Li Sijiang’s operation?’

  ‘Yeah, who did it?’ Specs echoed, as if just striking upon the crux of the matter.

  ‘Whoever did it, it’s all the same. There’s no personal liability. When something like this happens – and this is the first time – we give it careful attention.’ Dr Lei didn’t think this pair of common wage earners was worth a second thought.

  ‘Why won’t you admit that it was you who did it? I went and checked with Xiao Yuan. You were on duty. You did the surgery. That day you performed eighty-eight operations in all. You broke the previous record for the most operations in a day, didn’t you?’ Xiaohong laid her cards on the table. In one day, eighty-eight women underwent the sterilisation procedure and yet only one person walked carefree out of that operating room, and that was Chairman Lei Yigang.

  Dr Lei was surprised Xiaohong could remember the figures from the report.

  ‘Is it possible you didn’t hear her screaming? She’s just a girl! Why didn’t you hear? Are you all deaf? You didn’t see her struggling? And just like that, you ruined her, without even the least bit of pity! Even veterinarians wouldn’t behave like that!’ Specs stood up furiously. He thought of the four butchers heaving Sijiang to the operating table and this animal surgeon taking his knife so nonchalantly to her. He began to tremble in his anger. But he just stood there with his arms spread wide, uncertain what to do with his two huge hands.

  ‘When they come in on the gurney, they cry and they shout. They all do. After you give them the anaesthetic, they quieten down.’ Dr Lei had obviously received a shock. He leaned his head back several centimetres. He looked at Specs and seeing no further action from that quarter, the colour returned to his face. He went on to say, ‘Let me add, I really do sympathise with your situation. The hospital won’t charge you any fees for the surgery, medication or hospitalisation. Just relax and recuperate.’

  V

  During the peak season at the hospital, those who were busy were extremely busy and those who were not were bored to tears. The busy ones went madly about their work updating statistics, r
ecording the number of those being sterilised. How many were sterilised in the morning, in the afternoon, at night. Whether there were complications. Whether there were side-effects. All over the hospital, the talk was about nothing else but sterilisation, reproductive organs and women’s issues, and there was unprecedented attention to the way of going about it all.

  Xia was suddenly occupied with important matters, which came as something of a surprise to Youqing. It was the administrative offices and labs that were the most leisurely. For the time being, no one bothered about Youqing’s menstrual problem or her fiancé’s work assignments. She was idle and lonely. At first, she wavered between Xia and Xiao Yuan, considering the advantages she liked so much in each of the two men and mulling over their shortcomings. She hated that she could not bundle the two up into one, making the perfect man, just for her.

  In the morning, Xiaohong was in the kitchen washing vegetables when she felt something wrong. Her period had come. She wiped her hands and hastily went to her dorm to sort herself out. She had just climbed halfway up the second flight of stairs, when she saw Youqing’s door on the third floor open, and a man’s heel came into view, followed by another, then by the legs, back and finally the head. Obviously the couple was still completing their goodbyes.

  ‘Alright. Hurry up. It’s about time for work. If people find out, it will be bad.’ Youqing finished her whining speech, then kissed him a couple of times, pushing him out and closing the door. Xiaohong rushed back a couple of steps to the floor below then pretended to be just coming into the stairwell. At the point where the staircase turned between the second and third floors, she ‘bumped’ into Xiao Yuan.

  ‘Hey! Good morning.’ Xiaohong smiled in a tacit understanding then noticed that Xiao Yuan’s zip was only half closed, as if it had been hastily done up. In snatching some pleasure during working hours, Youqing had rushed him a little too much. Or perhaps he was the one who was a little too hasty, making love as quickly as clearing his bowels rather than taking the time to enjoy himself. Xiaohong gave another knowing smile and pointed at his crotch.

  Xiao Yuan looked down and, as he zipped up his fly, said jocularly, ‘Hey, you shouldn’t be looking.’

  ‘I thought you were showing it off on purpose.’ Xiaohong found dealing with men to be a simple thing, joking easily like this with them. With women, especially the doctors and staff at the hospital, it was different. Just take her relationship with Youqing. It was as hard as uncooked rice, no matter what she did.

  ‘What’re you doing here anyway? I’m off to work.’ Xiao Yuan said as he walked down the stairs. When he tried to pass Xiaohong, the staircase was too narrow. She did her best to pull her breasts in close but still brushed them up against his arm. Or rather, let his arm brush up against her chest.

  ‘My period came,’ Xiaohong said provocatively. Xiao Yuan smiled shyly at her and walked off quickly. Xiaohong watched him go down the staircase and open the door. She noticed that his arse was like a woman’s, full and sensuous.

  VI

  When Liao dropped in, Xiaohong’s holiday was over. She pretended that her back was hurting so that Liao would not dare act rashly. He was becoming more urgent, always reaching an end just as Xiaohong was beginning to get excited. The duration was shorter each time. It was like an incurable disease. He just could not help himself. The more he worried about his endurance, the more quickly things came to an end. The more Xiaohong concentrated on reaching a climax, worrying that he would come to an early finish, the more unlikely she was to climax at all. Over time, it became a vicious circle. Xiaohong put up with it for a while then grew irritable. She had lost the morsel of interest she had once taken in Liao’s body. All the same, even if they didn’t engage in physical relations, Xiaohong was willing to carry on with him. He had plenty of fresh ideas, was always full of good advice and knew a lot about life. What he didn’t understand was why his cock had become so powerless.

  He chatted about some of the recent cases he had encountered. It all sounded a lot like the hospital. Other than the doctors, there were no healthy people. Hearing about the cases just created a feeling that the world was in turmoil. There was murder, arson, adultery, prostitution and gambling everywhere. He mentioned Julia Wilde now and then, and how time just ticked on without regard for human suffering. As he chatted casually, he took some pleasure in Xiaohong’s upper body.

  Xiaohong’s breasts were not as sensitive as before. She was virtually numb as Liao caressed her. Later, he rubbed his naked thigh back and forth over hers, slowly finding some satisfaction. Suddenly, he seemed preoccupied. He sighed, then stopped stroking her and said, ‘Xiaohong, I’m getting married.’

  Xiaohong remained silent.

  ‘I’m getting married!’ he repeated loudly. Then he buried his face into her large bosom. The room was dark and he could only see the curves of her body. She seemed to be asleep. Liao shifted so that there was a space between them, then moved to the other side of the bed and lay there.

  ‘You should get married. Don’t waste your youth and your lively sperm. When you’re married, you will have a perfect place to store them.’

  Xiaohong was wide awake.

  VII

  Prior to being discharged from the hospital, Sijiang suddenly came down with a high fever. She came very close to registering her name for the afterlife. It left just as suddenly as it had come on. It scared the hospital staff half to death. If Sijiang got ill and died like that, this surgical procedure would become an even more complicated issue. Sijiang became an object to be carefully protected. The doctors and nurses came in turn, touching her forehead and checking her temperature. They did everything they could, acting as if Sijiang were their own daughter.

  Dr Lei, representing the hospital, came especially to see Sijiang. The visiting envoy had a huge team with him. Lined up in order of priority behind Dr Lei were the hospital’s vice president, chief executive officer and several departmental heads who had come spontaneously to support the rest. They surrounded Sijiang, looking down at her in turn, as if paying respect to her mortal remains. She felt like a martyr returning home from some heroic battle. They stayed for a few short minutes, expressed brief words of earnest expectation then filed out. Their white forms receded from the room like a solemn row of priests, slowly disappearing into the ward.

  Sijiang’s hair was dishevelled. Her face, once the fever was gone, wore a faint smile. It was the first time she had done so since the operation. Her smile brought a happy tremble to Specs’s lips, and he cried, ‘Sijiang! It’s good to see you smile!’

  Specs held her clammy hand, looking like he would never leave her side. Her body had begun to give off a thick odour of sweat, like a length of nearly rotten meat. But this cut of meat could move now and its fingers were flexible once again. When Specs told her that the hospital fees and medication were all to be absorbed by the hospital, she curled those fingers round the medicine and popped it into her mouth, looking much more relaxed. Perhaps the drugs had numbed her. No matter how tough the pill was to swallow, it also had a wonderful aftertaste to it. Once she was given injections in her hip, or some liquid medicine, she no longer looked like she was going to join the heroic ranks of martyrdom.

  ‘Sijiang, we’ll work out what to do when you’re out of hospital. We can sue them, get compensation and an explanation,’ Specs said quietly but firmly, almost as if he were shaking a fist.

  Sijiang nodded, fully empowering Specs to act in the matter, just as if he were already head of the family.

  Thirteen

  I

  Youqing, the little bitch, was kind of pushy. Making use of the hospital’s karaoke room for a party, she called all the doctors and her friends together to celebrate her twenty-fifth birthday and went on about it constantly. The karaoke room was big and equipped with a fair-sized dance floor. The older doctors took a few turns then went home to their wives, leaving the younger singletons to carry on partying. Youqing had taken extra care in making herself up. Hair was
hed, blow-dried and swept across her forehead in the most fashionable style, she was quite charming.

  Xiaohong had not intended to join the party. She hesitated for a long time but seeing as Youqing had invited her, she felt she should at least go and offer her congratulations. When Xiaohong came sauntering in, she saw Youqing dressed in a perky white dress, looking like a butterfly spinning proudly across the dance floor. Xiaohong sat down, peeled a banana and drank some tea. She took out a present wrapped in bright paper, waiting to give it to Youqing when the dance was over. Youqing swayed in Xiao Yuan’s arms, dancing slowly. She turned, gliding to one side then twisted the other way before returning to his embrace, like a yo-yo reaching the end of its line before coming back to the palm. Xiao Yuan handled Youqing’s body with a delicate touch, as if he held a little chick in his hand.

  When she had finished her turn about the dance floor, Youqing saw Xiaohong. She tossed Xiao Yuan aside and went over to the table.

  ‘Ah Hong!’ she said, ‘you just arrived?’

  ‘Happy birthday, Youqing. I had something I needed to do, so I’m a bit late. Here’s a lipstick case, just a little something for you,’ Xiaohong said, handing the pretty little package to her.

  ‘You didn’t have to do that. Here, have an apple.’ Youqing took the gift from her as she welcomed Xiaohong like a courteous host.