Wild Fruit

by Keyi Sheng

  She said her lover nearly knocked Love in the Time of Cholera and A Hundred Years of Solitude off the shelf there.

  I said, ‘If people had walked by then, what would you have done?’

  She said, ‘Very few people come to this row to look for books. Most people just come for the atmosphere at the book bar. I realised that early on.’

  I said, ‘I like Gabriel García Márquez. I read him during my first year of university.’

  She glanced at me. ‘I didn’t know you were a literary youth. Books are the cheapest thing to buy. For the price of one pair of shoes, you can buy a basket of books. Pick whatever you want. I’ll buy it for you.’

  I showed no restraint, choosing a whole pile of books. At the cash register, Yehe Nara asked if the boss was in. The cashier said he was out, but would be back in half an hour.

  We found a quiet corner and sat down. A fat cat woke from its nap and tiptoed over, leaning against me so I would pet it. Yehe Nara ordered a cappuccino. I did not like coffee’s bitterness, so ordered a lemonade. I said, ‘I look like a cow when I drink. I’ve always been like that. I’m not stylish enough to drink coffee.’

  Yehe Nara added, ‘I used to like reading books, but stopped doing it completely. There are so many interesting things in life. It’s silly to sit holding a book all the time. You will later find that it’s a waste of time, especially if you cry over a book or think too much – we have to live in the real world.’

  I did not quite agree with her thinking, but perhaps in ten years I would see things in the same way, so for now, I did not want to argue with her. But I did ask, ‘Then why do you want to give me books? Are you trying to sabotage me?’

  She said, ‘It’s your own life. If you want to waste it, it’s up to you. Sometimes you need to waste it. I’m only telling you a principle; I’m not trying to change what you do.’

  We carried on at the bar for a while. I could not win against Yehe Nara. She seemed to be a person with no weaknesses.

  She pulled out her phone and sent a message. I started reading the prologue of Sartre’s In Camera, and quickly got lost in it. I looked up suddenly, and I found there was a man sitting next to Yehe Nara. Entranced, I sucked in a deep, cold breath and did not exhale.

  Yehe Nara said, ‘This is the famous boss of Thinker, Tang Linlu.’

  I still did not respond.

  ‘Oh. . . you look a little familiar. Maybe we’ve met before?’ Tang said, looking at me, with an expression like he was trying hard to identify me.

  It had been many years, and the flower was now in full bloom. He did not recognise me. And that young person, so full of ideals and sorrows, from all those years ago, his eyes pure and transparent, smart and cynical; he was older, too. The boy who had sat under my family’s Chinaberry tree, playing his guitar and singing, his gaze falling on me like a dragonfly flitting on my face. I waited for him to say my name.

  But he did not remember. He swept right past me, and they went on talking vaguely in front of me. I could not understand what they were saying.

  I opened the book and hid my face, pretending to read, listening to my heart pound in my chest. It was exactly the same as it had been ten years earlier. The words on the page turned purple, like the Chinaberry flowers, floating in front of my eyes, their smell light and elegant. The last time Tang had been to our house, he brought Li Xiazhi’s ashes, and when he left, he said to me, ‘Study hard and develop a good conscience, and that will be enough.’

  Several acquaintances came into the store, and Tang went to socialise. Yehe Nara got up and went to the washroom.

  I patted the fat cat. It purred, perfectly content.

  Tang was soon back at his seat. He said. ‘I keep seven or eight cats here, Scottish Fold, American short-haired, Russian blue, a Norwegian forest cat, a Himalayan cat, and a Persian. This one is called Xiazhi. He’s a ragdoll cat. If you like him, I can give him to you.’

  ‘Xiazhi?’ I asked. The fat cat purred and look at me.

  ‘You’re Xiaohan. I knew it the moment I saw you,’ Tang said.

  ‘I don’t have anywhere to keep a cat . . . I’m just an intern.’

  Yehe Nara’s training was of no use. I had reverted back to my EQ level of ten years earlier. I hoped he would talk about that distant past, talking about what he thought of me in his memories.

  ‘You’ve already graduated from university,’ he said, handing me a business card. ‘Where did you study?’

  ‘At the Renmin University of China. I studied Journalism,’ I said. My mind was full of images of his affair with Yehe Nara.

  ‘Not bad. Do you remember that year when you sneered at that porcupine head fellow at your house? He founded Today Newspaper and is the editor there now. He was Xiazhi’s roommate.’

  ‘Right. Yu Shuzhong.’

  ‘You’ve got a good memory. He’s very successful. The media in the South is very advanced. I suggest you go to Guangzhou to further your development.’

  Dai Xinyue did not make a big fuss over his smashed shop, but simply went about repairing it without complaint.

  That winter, Yihua stood up to her boss. Because the temperature suddenly dropped, the boss gave her old sweaters and cotton jackets to the seven nymphs but announced that she was going to collect rent money from them, deducting thirty yuan for each piece of clothing, straight from the wages of each worker. Yihua leapt up onto the table, scolding her boss, ‘You were a product of the Japanese, so no wonder you want to bully the Chinese people.’

  The boss really had been the child of a rape by Japanese soldiers, but it was a matter no one ever mentioned, especially not in public. The woman could not take it. White foam formed at her mouth as her eyes rolled up, and she collapsed, falling under her desk. Her son-of-a-bitch son and grandson took her to the hospital, then came back and settled the score with Yihua, the son-of-a-bitch grandson slapping her until she bled from the mouth and nose. Yihua wiped the blood stains off her face and went in search of Liuzi. He only brought three people with him and laid out three conditions: one, the seven nymphs’ pay would not be short a single cent; two, the son-of-a-bitch grandson would apologise to Liu Yihua; three, Liu Yihua would be given 5000 yuan for medical fees.

  The son-of-a-bitch son promised to meet the first two conditions, but wanted to negotiate on the third. Liuzi laughed and said, ‘I never give discounts. You better figure out how to settle it.’

  The son-of-a-bitch son and grandson huddled together. They knew Liuzi was ruthless, untouchable, and that losing a little money here would be the best approach. They apologised, restored the full salary, paid damages, and finally dismissed the seven nymphs. When the other six went back to the village, Yihua became a legend. There were all manner of rumours, all of them describing her as a loose girl.

  The 5000 in damages was split fifty-fifty between Yihua and Liuzi, ending up in their pockets. They formed bonds of complicity and common profit through this incident. Money is a lubricant for everything. Yihua did not have to be grateful to Liuzi, nor was she in any way committed to him. Liuzi had only had to talk, whereas she – to her great credit – had borne physical pain.

  After this, without giving any thought to her future, Yihua spent several abstinent nights in a cheap hotel with Liuzi. When they were having mifen for breakfast one morning, she saw in the social commentary section of the newspaper that many people from Hunan were looting and vandalising in Guangzhou, giving people from Hunan a bad name.

  Yihua told Liuzi, ‘Let’s go to Guangzhou and further the bad name of the Hunan people.’

  Liuzi rolled his eyes and said, ‘Desperate love birds. That sounds good. I’m your bodyguard. I’ll go where you go.’

  Yihua did not go home. She went to the post office and remitted 500 yuan to my sister. She attached a message, saying, I’ve gone to Guangzhou.

  *

  The hard train seat was still bearable at the beginning of their journey, but halfway through the night their backsides began to ache, their bodies w
ere sore, and they wanted to lie down. Yihua had never missed a night’s sleep before. It was so unbearable she kept cursing, turning this way and that, but could not get comfortable, so Liuzi generously offered his thigh. Yihua lay on his lap, and he leaned across her back, then they swapped, going back and forth this way several times until they finally slept all the way to Guangzhou.

  When they arrived, day had just broken. They followed the crowd out of the train station and looked around, petrified. Of all the places, they had travelled all the way to Guangzhou, and now they didn’t quite know what to do with themselves. Liuzi smoked to keep himself awake, while Yihua plopped down on her luggage, as if in a stupor. All around were people yelling loudly and dragging big checkered plastic bags. A security officer came and hustled them along, saying the square was only for passing through, not for staying. Liuzi resented the officer’s rudeness. The hot-headedness of a mob boss rushed to his brain, and after only a few words with the other party, they started fighting. The officer was there just for show and was easily knocked down. He quickly spoke into his walkie-talkie and five or six others appeared as if from nowhere, dragging Liuzi to the police station without another word.

  Yihua waited outside the police station. An hour later, Liuzi walked out, face bruised and swollen. He said, ‘Fuck it. This is their turf.’

  Yihua said, ‘We haven’t broken out the guns yet, and you’ve already taken a beating, so we’ll just have to follow the rules for now . . . My uncle was put in jail for fighting. By the time he got out, he had wasted away.’

  Liuzi argued, ‘He should have been even more imposing when he got out. It would be intimidating, like a scar on his face.’

  Yihua retorted, ‘No job, poor health, and a fear of seeing the light and other people. . . my uncle is very modest.’

  Liuzi said, ‘You mean I’m not modest?’

  She replied, ‘If you had lived at that time, you would’ve been the first to be shot.’

  He said, ‘I’d show those bullies a thing or two before I was shot.’

  ‘Where are we going?’ Yihua asked.

  A middle-aged woman handed Yihua a paper, printed in black and white. It was a list of recruitment advertisements for Dongguan City.

  ‘Dongguan? Where’s Dongguan?’ Yihua asked.

  Liuzi said, ‘It’s near Guangzhou.’ One of his friends from primary school had worked in the Hsu Fu Chi biscuit factory, but he had been fired for stealing.

  Leaning against a sign at the bus stop, they studied the advertisements in their hands. Electronics factory worker, toy factory labourer, nanny, sales assistant, retail, cashier, hotel hostess, bartender. . . the pair read until they were dizzy with the prospects. Thinking of how many jobs were waiting, their hearts were lifted. They started to feel hungry.

  They found a small food stall and ate bowls of fried rice noodles. It cost five or six times as much as noodles in Yiyang. Even Liuzi pouted over this, ‘If we don’t watch our pockets, we’ll go broke in Guangzhou.’

  Because he got beaten up in Guangzhou, Liuzi did not have a good feeling about the place. But, the advertisement had fallen from the sky, and he had long ago heard of Dongguan, so it seemed to be fate. Liuzi advocated going to Dongguan, so he asked the food stall keeper for directions. There was a bus to Dongguan at the stop outside the stall. It would take less than an hour to get there. By the time they had inquired thoroughly, it was only a little after nine in the morning.

  Liuzi leaned back and tried to look through the densely packed buildings to the sky, but he could only see grey everywhere. The wind brought a deep chill, sometimes stirring the fallen leaves on the ground, crawling over the backs of cold, rushing feet.

  Liuzi said, ‘I never imagined Guangzhou would be so worn that it would look like a rag.’

  ‘I’ve never seen such a good rag. It’s just that the sun hasn’t come out yet,’ declared Yihua.

  Liuzi added, ‘No matter how good the weather is, it’s still just a worn-out rag.’

  He touched the wounds on his face, as if he would not be able to find anything good to say about Guangzhou in this lifetime.

  Yihua said, ‘The noodles were good. I like the big city. I like how you can be sucked right in all at once, then you have to try desperately to swim your way to the surface for breath. I’m sure Guangzhou is more interesting than Dongguan. Since we’re already here, there’s no need to fiddle around and go to a smaller city.’

  When Liuzi tried to persuade her, Yihua retorted, ‘If you want to go to Dongguan, go.’

  Liuzi hung his head. He had said he was her bodyguard, so he should play the part, but he was depressed. Yet, Yihua could afford to act this way, relying on the fact that he liked her to get her way.

  Liuzi was six or seven years older than Yihua. There was a question he had turned over in his mind more than a hundred times, but could still not figure out. He could not understand her. If she did not like him, why would she stay in the hotel with him, or take the train with him, or come to Guangzhou with him, or lay her head on his lap as she slept? But if she liked him, why did she build this wall between them, not allowing him to touch her. He often felt like he was ready explode and was left to suffer with blue balls.

  ‘What are you thinking about?’ Yihua gave Liuzi a push. ‘Look at this.’ She pointed to a wall plastered with colourful flyers.

  Liuzi looked it over for a while, then said, ‘Factory life is hard, and the pay is low. You’ve got more to offer than that. You should go to a hotel and be a hostess.’

  Yihua asked, ‘What’s a hostess?’

  ‘It means you wear a qipao and stand at the hotel’s entrance. When customers come, you take them to their table to eat. The hostess wears pretty clothes, and doesn’t need to wash dishes or serve food, but she gets higher pay.’

  ‘You think a hotel would want me?’ Yihua asked, stirred.

  Liuzi looked her over. He said, ‘You won’t have any problem, even at a five star hotel.’

  Yihua laughed. ‘Liuzi, you finally tell the truth. Of course, someone looking half-Indian like I do is pretty rare, so I must be in demand.’

  Liuzi looked at the advertisement again. ‘North Tianhe Bingsheng Restaurant. Serving congee . . . recruiting hostesses . . . requirements: at least 1.65 metres tall, good-looking . . . Aiyoh, Huahua, can you speak Mandarin?’

  ‘I told you to stop calling me Huahua. It sounds awful. Like you’re calling a dog.’

  ‘It says you need to speak Cantonese and Mandarin . . . If you’re really pretty, you can receive preferential consideration.’

  Yihua said a few words in Mandarin. The pair nearly died laughing.

  ‘It feels awkward to speak Mandarin in front of you. Back when I was studying, my Mandarin pronunciation was very accurate. I won’t have any problem speaking. But what about you? You don’t mean you plan not to work and just let me support you?’

  ‘This isn’t my territory. I’ll wait until you get settled into a job, then when I run out of money, I’ll go back.’

  ‘Actually, my youngest aunt is in Guangzhou, but I don’t want to look her up now.’

  ‘Since when did you have relatives in Guangzhou?’

  ‘It’s true. She’s a news reporter.’

  ‘Then it would be good to look her up.’

  ‘My aunt looks down on the uneducated . . . If you haven’t studied and you go out into the world, is that really as good as death?’

  ‘So you don’t want to rely on your relatives. With as strong a backbone as you have, I don’t think you’ll die.’

  Shui Qin returned home to visit Shunqiu as he recovered, carrying back various herbs to boost the blood and nutrition, along with peanut oil and rice, showing that she was not going to eat for free. She poured pleasing words right into my mother’s ear. She came in calling ‘Mother,’ as if she were a schoolgirl coming home at the end of the day. My mother always fell for this. Shui Qin’s sweet words washed away all the former complaints she harboured inside. Added to this, t
hey were no longer living under the same roof, so there was less friction over trivial matters. The old grudge was no more; it had been replaced by joy and happiness. Xianxian was more loveable than ever. Her sweet talk was just like her mother’s, and often left my parents quite speechless. She loved to perform, and was not shy and reserved like the village children. She sang when she talked and danced when she walked, as if the sunlight had broken the soil, allowing new flowers to bloom and butterflies to flit into open graves. She brought springtime with her.

  When she next came back, Shui Qin looked quite cheerful. She told my brother privately that she had signed a contract with the school and taken over the design and production of the costumes for their show. She would be very busy. She needed to employ at least five or six girls who could sew, and she had already spoken to the shop next door about taking over its storefront.

  My brother said, ‘Where will you get the money?’

  Shui Qin replied, ‘I got an advance payment when I signed the contract.’

  She stretched out five fingers.

  ‘Five thousand?’ he asked.

  ‘Add a zero,’ she replied.

  My brother stared in disbelief. He had grown very thin. His nose looked as if it had been sharpened, his chin like an awl ready to stab the ground, and even his smile looked pointy. His expression quickly collapsed. He thought of how he was of no help, and there was a hint of shame in his new expression.

  Shui Qin said, ‘After a while, you should come to the city to recuperate. You’ll be able to take care of Xianxian. She’s learned to go online and play games now, so she needs to be controlled.’

  My brother promised to go into the city to keep an eye on Xianxian. He then added, ‘Chuntian learned sewing. Add her to your group of seamstresses. Anyway, all she does is play cards all day and night, and fight with Zhima.’

  Shui Qin said, ‘What about Yicao?’

  My brother replied, ‘She’ll be in secondary school and living on campus soon.’

  Shui Qin agreed, feeling it was better to keep good things in the immediate family. Most of the women in the village had learned to sew when they were girls. Very quickly, she finalised the rest of the candidates, who agreed to be paid by the piece for those that passed the inspection. This sort of flexibility was meant to cater to the village women who had to take care of farming duties while they worked. Each time they received the money, it would enrich their housekeeping fund; this would provide real motivation.