by Yan Lianke
Fourth Wife You said, “But it is still another several dozen li back to your house.”
Second Son-in-Law replied, “I’m worried about Second Daughter home alone, with no one to take care of her if she has an episode.”
Fourth Wife You took the hoe and the shovel from Second Son-in-Law and said, “You go ahead then.”
Second Son-in-Law switched the bundle of bones to his other hand, and said, “I’m leaving.”
He left, and in the blink of an eye, he and his bundle of bones disappeared into the mountain light.
Fourth Wife You continued standing there in the road watching him, and after he was out of sight she called out, “Hey … you should treat Second Daughter well … be more compassionate with her …”
She heard his reply emerge from the yellow sunlight, “Ma … don’t worry! After the baby is born, I’ll bring you to live with us for a few days …”
Fourth Wife You returned home and was shocked by what she saw. Everything had been turned upside down. The courtyard was covered in spilled grain, and the ancestral tablet on a table in the main room had been toppled over. Stone You’s portrait had fallen to the ground, and the curtains along the wall had been torn down. The grain jars in the interior room had all been opened, and the lids had been left strewn around the bed, the chest, and on the floor. Fourth Wife You went inside to take a look, and it was only then that she noticed that all of the jars were completely empty. Even the jar at the head of the bed, which had been filled with freshly ground flour, had been completely emptied out, and all that was left was a thin layer of flour on the bedding. As for the two jin of sesame oil that had been stored under the table, even the bottle itself was gone. She spun around and walked out, only to notice that there was a ladder leaning against the tree in the courtyard and the freshly picked ears of corn that had been hanging from the tree branches and the courtyard wall were also missing. Everything had been taken by that wholer, Third Son-in-Law.
It was as though they had been robbed. In the blink of an eye, all of the new and old grain was gone, together with the grain stored in a jar under the table. The corn in the courtyard and a sack of beans in the kitchen were also missing. Fourth Wife You stood stunned in the middle of the courtyard, staring at the bare tree branches and the courtyard wall. She felt her legs grow limp and almost collapsed. She managed to stagger forward a couple of steps, leaning against the tree branch on which they had previously hung corn to dry, then called out for Third Daughter, but there was no response. A deep silence flooded the courtyard, and swept over Fourth Wife You. She suddenly remembered Fourth Idiot, whom she had left locked up in his room. She quickly went up to look in through the window, and saw that he was sleeping soundly, with saliva dribbling out of his mouth. At the head of the bed, there was half a fried bun.
Fourth Wife You leaned against the window and shouted, “Pig! Will you wake up?”
Fourth Idiot woke up and sat up in bed.
Fourth Wife You asked him, “Where’s Third Daughter?”
Fourth Idiot rubbed his eyes and said, “She left with her husband.”
Fourth Wife You asked, “Where did they put all of our grain?”
Fourth Idiot said, “They hauled it away. I saw them load it onto their cart.”
Fourth Wife You asked, “They were able to get it all on one cart?”
Fourth Idiot said, “After Third Daughter married her husband, that ass caressed her breasts in the courtyard, then she went into the village to help him borrow another cart. After that, they left—each of them hauling a cart full of grain.”
Fourth Wife You felt her legs go limp, as though her bones had turned to rubber. She slid to the ground, where the midday sun beat down on her. Through the window, she heard Fourth Idiot chewing on his fried bun, and asked, “Fourth Babe, so you just watched as they hauled away all of our grain, and didn’t do anything to stop them?”
Fourth Idiot replied, “They cooked me a fried bun—a scallion bun I never had before.”
He added, “Ma, have you ever had a fried bun?” As he said this, a piece of fried bun fell from the window onto Fourth Wife You’s head, and then dropped to the ground. She looked at the bun, which was round and had a bite taken out of it. She could make out every individual tooth mark. She focused her attention on the canine marks, and after staring for a while and resting a moment, she leaned against the wall and stood up. She retrieved a key from where it was hidden in the doorframe, opened the door, and let Fourth Idiot out.
Fourth Idiot walked out as though he had just been released from prison. He squinted in the sunlight, ran around the courtyard, and came to a stop in front of Fourth Wife You.
Fourth Wife You asked him, “Fourth Babe, do you think Third Sister’s husband treats her well?”
Fourth Idiot said, “Yes, extremely well. They even hold hands when they go to the outhouse together.”
Fourth Wife You said, “Now you and I are the only ones left. What do you want to eat?”
Fourth Idiot said, “I just had five fried buns, and now I’m thirsty.” Fourth Wife You then told him that, now that Third Sister was gone, she wouldn’t lock him up in his room anymore. Instead, she would go fix him a bowl of soup and boil him two cloves of pickled garlic.
Chapter Five
Night fell.
As night fell, the sky grew overcast. The mountain ridge behind the village dissolved into darkness like overcooked vegetables being boiled in a pot. The empty house suddenly appeared as desolate as an empty field at night. The grain was all gone, and two of the jars were shattered. Third Daughter and that wholer had even taken the string of chili peppers that had been hanging over the door. Also missing was a pagoda tree branch that had been cut to serve as a hoe handle, which had been leaning against the wall behind the door. Carrying an oil lamp, Fourth Wife You put Fourth Idiot to bed, then paced around her room several times. She wanted to clean up the house before going to sleep, but was so exhausted that she couldn’t muster the energy to take another step.
So, she went directly to bed.
As she was about to fall asleep, Fourth Wife You heard a shadowy sound in the room, as though the wind were whispering to her. There was also the soft sound of footsteps pacing back and forth. At this point, the wind began to disperse the black clouds outside, and through the window they could be seen floating away like water pooled up along the riverbank. The clouds sounded like sparrows breathing. The darkness crowding in through the window piled up on the table and the bed, passed over the bedding and crawled up the wall. Fourth Wife You lay in bed with her eyes half-open, but after a while she suddenly heard the soft sound of sobbing coming from inside the house. She got up to take a look, and saw that it was her husband, Stone You, who was curled up in the darkness streaming in through the window, like an earthworm dried in the sun. She said, “You worthless thing, your daughter boils a few of your bones and suddenly you are left like this?”
He replied, “Now that the house has been emptied out, how are you and Fourth Idiot going to manage?”
She said, “We can still live in the house. We have a bed to sleep in and we still have land on the ridge, so we won’t starve.” She added, “You should move on, and in the future if you find yourself missing some bones or sinews and have difficulty walking, don’t come looking for me. What good would it do to come to me? Can you help me plow the fields? Can you help me fetch water? Can you help me fetch a sack of someone’s leftover grain?” He bowed his head so low it seemed as though his hair was draped over his feet. Outside the window, the clouds had already completely dispersed, and inside the house the moonlight cascaded down like water. As Stone You remained curled on the floor, Fourth Wife You returned to bed and said, “If you aren’t going to leave, at least you can make yourself useful and help me clean the house. Tomorrow, I’m going to get up early to take out the night soil, and then you and I can go visit Eldest and Second Daughters.”
Then, Fourth Wife You abruptly went to sleep.
; The next day, she woke up at dawn and saw that the house was still a mess. The only change was that there were now two pools of wet tears in the spot where her husband, Stone You, had lain curled up in a ball all night. She looked over at the two wet patches and said to herself, What’s the point? I still need to do everything myself. She righted the overturned jars, straightened the ancestral tablets, swept the floor, covered the two pools of tears, and took the night soil out into the fields.
Autumn had ended, and the frost had fallen. She cooked Fourth Idiot a fried bun and placed it at the head of his bed, then made a pot of watery soup and left it on the stove.
She took a couple of days to go visit her two daughters.
Second Daughter lived close by, so Fourth Wife You went to visit her first.
Second Daughter lived in a three-room adobe-walled house, and the courtyard was filled with tung trees that had already begun to shed their leaves. The ground was covered in river sand, and when they sprinkled water on the ground and swept up all the dirt and dust, the sand would sparkle in the sunlight. The courtyard walls were made of recently tamped earth, and stood straight and tall. There was a red glow in the air, and a fresh scent emanated from the courtyard, entrancing everyone as though it were early spring. Fourth Wife You thought that, as in previous years, she would be able to smell even from several li away the bitter scent of the Chinese medicines her daughter was brewing, and that after entering the village half the villagers would give her the cold shoulder on account of the fact that she had given birth to four idiot children and married her idiot daughter into this village. This time, they didn’t. Instead, all of the villagers had gone into the fields, and the few familiar people Fourth Wife You did run into simply smiled and nodded to her. As she was walking down the street, at one point she stopped and stood in the sun in front of Second Daughter’s courtyard. She stroked the smooth adobe walls, and looked up at the rows of small tiles lining the tops of the walls. She gently pushed open the door to enter the courtyard, and then stood there silently. The sand got into her shoes and made her feet itch. The steam from the ground had a fragrant smell. She went over to the window and saw that the medicine dregs that had been piled there were now gone, and instead there was a brown stone table surrounded by several stone benches. The sun was shining down, and Second Daughter was drying out the cloth shoe soles she had just sewn. Her daughter had her back to Fourth Wife You, and each time she sewed a stitch she would hold her hand in the air and look over to the right, then run the needle through her hair. Fourth Wife You stood quietly behind her daughter. She was surprised to see her daughter’s hair neatly arranged in a thick braid without a single strand out of place. In thirty years, she had never seen her daughter’s hair so tidy. Fourth Wife You’s heart began to race with excitement. She saw that her daughter’s face was bright red, like the leaves of a persimmon tree after a rainstorm. Her daughter could embroider and sew shoe soles—things she’d never been able to do before the marriage. Now, not only could she apparently do these things, but furthermore the soles she sewed were all tight and even, and on the bottoms she had embroidered a pattern like a woman’s braids. Turning to the sewing kit on the stone table, Fourth Wife You saw that it was made from wicker and smelled of fresh paint. She turned to Second Daughter’s neatly arranged clothes, and noticed that the stitching consisted of a single continuous thread—turning and going straight where necessary, like a path through a mountain range. At this point, Fourth Wife You couldn’t help calling out to her daughter.
Second Daughter turned around, and the hand holding the thread froze in midair.
Fourth Wife You said, “Daughter.”
Second Daughter put down her needle and thread, and immediately stood up. “Mother.”
Mother and daughter gazed at one another, as the leaves from the tung tree in the courtyard gently fluttered to the ground.
Fourth Wife You asked, “You can make shoes?”
Second Daughter blushed, and said, “I want to make a pair of shoes for my brother.”
Fourth Wife You asked, “Did you make the clothes you are wearing now?”
Second Daughter looked down at her clothes and replied, “Yes, I did.”
Fourth Wife You said, “That sewing kit is also yours?”
Second Daughter said, “My husband just bought it for me—a home needs a sewing basket.”
Fourth Wife You’s eyes filled with tears. She remained silent for a long time, and then asked, “And what about your illness? Are you any better?”
Second Daughter began to sob silently, tears streaming down her face and onto her clothing. Her face, however, continued beaming, a glow of excitement emanating from her cheeks. She said, “Mother, I drank an entire cartload of that Chinese medicine, until the dregs were piled as high as a mound of night soil, but it didn’t have any effect whatsoever. Last month, however, my husband brought back a bag of bones he found somewhere, and boiled them with some red dates and crystal sugar. After I drank the first dose I became so excited I couldn’t sleep that night, and after the second I felt as though I could fly. Those bones yielded seven doses in all, and yesterday I finished the final one. After I drank the third dose, whenever other villagers saw me they said my illness seemed almost cured, and by the time I finished the sixth batch my husband said I no longer had the slightest trace of illness.” As Second Daughter was saying this, her tears gradually dried, leaving behind only a glow of excitement. When she opened her mouth to speak, it was as if she were opening a sluice gate and letting the water pour out. As the sun began shining on the eastern side of the courtyard, her entire face was bathed in light, as red as though it had been painted. It didn’t even occur to Second Daughter that her mother had walked several dozen li to visit her, and might need to sit down and have something to eat or drink. Instead, Second Daughter continued standing at a distance, chattering nonstop as though she had never before had a chance to speak with her mother. She said that after her illness was cured, she asked her husband countless times whose bones these were and where he had found them. She asked him to go fetch some more, so that her sisters and her brother could take the medicine as well, but her husband wouldn’t say a word. Second Daughter said that her husband had taken several saplings to sell in the township. He had planned to buy a few things and then return, and afterward the two of them would go to her mother’s house. She added that, before returning to visit her mother, she had planned to finish making this pair of shoes for her younger brother as part of her sisterly devotion to her idiot brother. At this point, Second Daughter picked up one of the shoes and examined it, noting that this one was already done and that she would finish the other one later that day. She would nail the straps on overnight, and then her younger brother would be able to wear the shoes she had made for him with her own hands. Fourth Wife You’s tears began welling up and she suddenly doubled over, as though she had been standing for too long and needed to stop and rest. She squatted in front of her daughter and began wailing. She covered her face with her hands as tears streamed down. Her weary sobs became bright, as they flowed through Second Daughter’s house and courtyard and out into the village and the mountain range. In the blink of an eye, the entire world was filled with the sound of weeping.
Second Daughter was startled. She stared at her mother, then rushed over and shouted, “Ma, what’s wrong? What’s wrong? Aren’t you happy I’m cured?” She shook her mother’s arm with both hands, until her mother almost toppled over. Upon hearing the ruckus, her neighbors came rushing over, as did people who were merely walking down the street. Soon, a large crowd was standing in the courtyard, and they all asked, “What’s wrong?” Second Daughter replied, “When she saw I was cured, my mother started crying. And she cried so hard it seemed as though she were made of tears.” One villager tried to comfort Fourth Wife You, saying, “It is a miracle your daughter’s illness has been cured. Why would you cry over a miracle?” Another said, “Don’t pressure her. Let her cry it out. She is crying from del
ight that her daughter is cured. Those are tears of happiness.” So the villagers stopped trying to restrain her, and assumed she would eventually stop on her own. But she continued crying harder than ever, as long as the endless road through the fields. Eventually, the villagers got fed up, and one man said, “How are you still crying? What is there to cry about? Why don’t we buy some more of the medicine your daughter took, and cure your other three children as well?”
With this, the man walked away.
Fourth Wife You stared silently at the man’s departing shadow. She had a peaceful expression, beneath which there was a sudden burst of excitement. She looked out at her daughter’s neighbors and said, “You can all leave now. I won’t cry anymore. The You family has been saved.” After the villagers all left, her excitement gradually faded and was replaced by a layer of pale determination, as though she were wearing a metal mask. She said, “Second Daughter, come here to mother.” Then she squeezed her daughter’s hand, pulled and stretched her arms, and peeled back her eyelids. She waved her hand in front of her daughter’s face and saw that her large black eyes spun to follow her hand. Eventually, she asked, “Do you still fear your husband at night?”
Second Daughter blushed and said, “I am cured now.”
Fourth Wife You said, “Give mother two bowls of egg noodle soup, and then mother will return home.”
Second Daughter said, “Ma, why don’t you sleep over tonight? Tomorrow my husband will return from town. He said that he was going to buy you a scarf.”
Fourth Wife You replied, “I have to go home tonight. Now I know how to cure this illness. Give mother two bowls of soup, and I’ll be on my way.”
Second Daughter stood there with a look of surprise.
Fourth Wife You said, “Go on, and give me some extra eggs in the soup, and some extra sesame oil.”