Mulberry and Peach (11 page)

Joy, still grinning, returns to her place on the
k'ang
and begins massaging Aunt Shen's legs.

The oil lamp on the table sputters and almost goes out. We haven't had electricity or water for two days. Now the fire in the stove is dying down.

Chia-kang opens the door to the stove and throws in a shovelful of coal. The fire flares up again, the flames licking higher and higher, about to leap out of the stove. He hurriedly slams the door shut. The shadow of the acacia tree, with its branches stretching up to the sky, appears etched in the paper window.

Suddenly the clamour of shouts and a dog's barking come toward us. The noise moves from the main gate to the Gate of the Dangling Flowers. The barking comes into the main courtyard. The howls lengthen into low muffled whimpers.

Aunt Shen turns to face the wall. ‘Dogs cry at funerals. Chia-kang, get that dog out of here.'

I go with Chia-kang to the courtyard. Ice has formed on the ground. The sky is dark. Seven or eight of the students are beating a black shadow by the wall with clubs and poles. The shadow darts from corner to corner, whimpering. The rest of the students stand aside, cheering.

I ask them whey they are beating the dog. ‘There's nothing to eat in this city. When you're hungry, you want to eat meat!' replies one of the students, grinding his teeth.

‘Mulberry, last night I dreamed you were at the Altar of Heaven.'

‘I've never, ever been there, Chia-kang.'

‘Maybe that's just as well. The Temple of Heaven, the Imperial Park, the Imperial Temple, the Confucian Temple, Yung-ho Palace, now they're all overrun by refugees. The holy grounds of the sacred temples of the past are now contaminated, but when I dreamed about the Temple of Heaven, there was one tiny part untouched.

‘You know, the Temple of Heaven is the place where the Ming and Ch'ing emperors sacrificed to Heaven and prayed for a good harvest. All around, as far as you can see, are old cypress trees. The Hall of Prayer, the Imperial Circular Hall, and the Altar of Heaven are all located at the Temple of Heaven. The Hall of Prayer is where the emperors prayed for a good harvest. It's a huge round triple-roofed hall with double eaves. The ceiling of the dome is decorated with golden dragons and phoenixes, glazed blue tiles; there are no beams. The three roofs and the double eaves are supported solely by twenty-eight giant pillars. The Imperial Circular Hall houses the memorial tablets of the emperors. It's a small circular shrine with a golden roof, glazed blue tiles, red walls, and glazed doors. The Altar of Heaven is where the emperors sacrificed to heaven. It's a three-tiered circular terrace built of white marble. The centre of the altar is a round stone encircled by nine rings of marble. Each ring consists of marble slabs arranged in multiples of nine. The rings radiate from the centre like ripples on a pond. When you stand there, you feel like you've touched heaven. If you whisper in the centre of the altar, you can hear a loud echo.

‘The Temple of Heaven I dreamed about wasn't like that at all. The Hall of Prayer, the Imperial Circular Hall, the Altar of Heaven were crowded with refugees' straw mats, quilts, and sheets. Ragged pants were hanging out to dry in the sun on the white marble balustrades. The memorial tablets of the emperors had been thrown down to the ground, and the Hall of Prayer was full of excrement.

‘The old cypress trees had been cut down.

‘Only the shrine of the Altar of Heaven was still clean: white marble stones. The sky above the shrine was still clear blue. Mulberry, I dreamed you were lying in the centre of the altar, naked, looking up at the sky. You were so clean and pure. I had to make love to you. We rolled over and over on top of the altar, shouting. The space between heaven and earth was filled with our shouting. Between heaven and earth there was only you and me, two naked bodies entwined together.'

He gently pushes me down on the sofa in my room and begins stripping off my clothes.

I suddenly sit up. ‘No, Chia-kang, you must respect me.'

‘I know you're a pure, clean girl. I want to marry you right away. Even if we sleep together now, it's all right because we're going to get married.'

‘Even if I sleep with my own husband, it's still dirty.'

 

The parlour door opens. Large flakes of snow whirl around the doorsill. Tiny icicles dangle from the acacia branches. A crow, immobile, sits on a branch, a black statue in ice.

Hsing-hsing hurries in, removes the red scarf from around her head and brushes the snow from her clothes. Her long pigtails swish back and forth. She goes into Aunt Shen's room, saying, ‘A bomb went off at the airport, killing and wounding more than forty people!'

‘Who did it?' asks Chia-kang.

‘Someone said that the Nationalists did it as they were retreating from the airport. Someone else said the Eighth Army did it as they were seizing the airport . . .'

‘Then the Eighth Army is really going to fight its way into Peking.'

‘Second Master Shen, the Eighth Army is already at the base of the city wall. Grain and vegetables can't get into the city. The city's food supply is almost gone. My mother hoarded up twenty sacks of flour and forty heads of cabbage. The Nationalist government just released a lot of prisoners in order to save food, but the prisoners didn't want to leave the prison. No one would feed them if they left. The guards forced them out with bayonets. The government has declared a general amnesty. They have even released traitors from the Japanese occupation and a lot of students who had been jailed for demonstrating. Five or six students from our university were released. Some people say that Nationalist Commander Fu Tso-i is talking peace with the Eighth Army, and that he wants to form a coalition government with them. Other people say that Fu Tso-i is withdrawing to the Northwest to join forces with Ma Hung-k'uei. Anyway, Peking will never be the same. Someone else said . . .'

‘Hsing-hsing, stop it, don't go on!' says Aunt Shen lying on the
k'ang
with her face to the wall.

‘Hsing-hsing,' laughs Chia-kang. ‘Tell us some good news, not bad news. We're just doing fine here, and then you come bursting in like a firecracker with all this bad news. May I ask where you got all these rumours?'

‘Rumours? Things are changing out there. You are still shut up at home playing Second Master Shen. There are all sorts of reports on
the bulletin board at school. We don't even go to class anymore. Everyone is wriggling and dancing to the Rice-sprout Song.'

‘Hsing-hsing, are you happy that the Eighth Army is coming?'

‘Why should I be happy? I'm just not afraid, that's all.'

‘Do you think that once the Eighth Army arrives, your family will have an easy time? Your grandfather was a wealthy landlord and your father is an official in Nanking!'

‘That has nothing to do with me. My mother and I are victims of the old society. My father hasn't paid any attention to my mother for more than ten years. He took his concubine and her children to the South to live in luxury. We never had any part of it. My mother stayed home and took care of his parents. When the old lady died, she was the one who had to find someone for the old man. Joy!'

‘Hai!' Joy is still sitting on the
k'ang,
massaging Aunt Shen's legs. She is still grinning.

‘Joy, my grandfather has your new room all ready for you. He has even bought the flowers you'll wear!'

‘White lilies.'

Hsing-hsing laughs. ‘Silly girl, even if it were summer now, you couldn't find white lilies in Peking. No fresh flowers or vegetables can come into the city. You have to pay gold for cabbages. Aunt, I came today about Joy . . .'

‘Has the old gentleman changed his mind?' says Aunt Shen, suddenly turning over.

‘He won't change his mind! He wants her to come earlier. He says that things are getting worse and worse. When the Eighth Army enters the city, he won't be able to marry Joy.

‘He had wanted to invite enough guests to fill two tables at the wedding banquet. Now the guests can't come. Some suddenly left for the South. Others are moving to smaller houses. Some have set up stalls in Tung-tan selling things. Others are trying to get plane reservations to escape. The old gentleman asked me to come over and ask Auntie if Joy could come over tomorrow.'

‘How can I bear to see Joy leave? For the past few years, I have had to have my legs massaged day and night. These days you have to give up whoever wants to leave and whatever you have to throw away. Come and get her tomorrow.'

‘Joy!'

‘Hai!'

‘Pack up your things. I'll come get you early tomorrow.'

‘Hai!' Joy's grin widens.

‘Lately the old gentleman has been very cheerful, even praising my mother for being a good daughter-in-law. Things are getting worse and worse. All the scrolls in the house have been taken down and packed away. He took out a painting of the sun rising in the East above the ocean and hung it in the parlour. He said it had a double meaning: it's supposed to bring good luck and decorate the room, but it also could welcome the Red Army. Mulberry,' Hsing-hsing suddenly turns to me, ‘I really envy you. You came up here to the North all by yourself. The South really is more open-minded. I've never been to the South, but I really want to go. When I think of the South, I think of willow trees.'

‘I've wanted to go to the South for a long time, but I couldn't get away,' says Chia-kang looking at his mother's tiny, flower-like chignon of grey hair. ‘To me the South is an endless rampart of stone, an old monk, bent over, tugging on the rope to ring the bell at the Temple of the Crowing Cock, his whole life spent like that, just ringing the bell.'

‘To me Peking is grey cranes flying over the Gate of Heavenly Peace, it's mansions of the Manchu Monarchs, lots of gates, secluded courtyards. It's houses haunted by fox spirits,' I say.

Chia-kang laughs. ‘So you escaped to Peking. Hsing-hsing and I want to escape to the South.'

‘But now both North and South are in chaos.'

‘Did you hear that? Did you hear that, Chia-kang?' says Aunt Shen, still facing the wall. She raises her arm and shakes her finger in the air, ‘The North and South are both in chaos. You better listen to me and stay at home.'

‘“Inside Peking there's a big circle. In the big circle is a smaller circle. In the smaller circle is the imperial yellow circle where I live.”'
Chia-kang begins to sing the role of the disguised emperor in the opera
The Town of Mei-lung.

Hsing-hsing immediately takes up the role of the flirtatious innkeeper who does not recognise him.

“You, my lady, aren't being polite. You should not crush these begonia flowers. I, in all my dignity, shall retrieve them. I shall place, place, place these begonia flowers in your hair
.”' Chia-kang throws the red scarf over Hsing-hsing's head.

‘“You're nothing special!”'
Hsing-hsing brushes off the scarf and eyes Chia-kang flirtatiously, her taunting expression about to crinkle into a smile. ‘Second Master Shen, return to your imperial yellow circle. Come on, Mulberry, sing a part.'

‘How could a girl from the South know how to sing Peking Opera?' answers Aunt Shen.

‘Do you know how to make dumplings, Mulberry?' asks Hsing-hsing.

‘Sure I know. I roll out the dough really thin and then use the mouth of a glass to cut out the dumpling skins.'

Aunt Shen, Chia-kang, and Hsing-hsing laugh at my method. Joy, seeing them laugh, also chortles.

‘Paper cutouts for windows!'

I don't know what they're selling outside.

‘It's almost New Year's. We ought to put up fresh window paper. Well, we'll forget about it this year,' says Aunt Shen. ‘Hsing-hsing, since you've been here, I feel a little better. Don't go. Stay and sleep on my bed. There aren't many good times left. That way you won't have to come again tomorrow. You can take Joy away early in the morning.'

I'm still an outsider at the Shen's.

 

Joy giggles as she goes out the door with her bags.

Mr Cheng, who has been staying in the east wing pays a visit to the Shens. He announces that his family is leaving tomorrow to fly to Nanking. He has a friend in Nanking named K‘ung who wants to bring his whole family by plane to Peking. The Chengs will live in the K'ungs' house in Nanking. The K'ungs will come to stay in the Chengs' place in Peking. He asks Aunt Shen if it's all right for the K'ungs to live in the east wing.

Aunt Shen says, ‘As long as they are decent people, anybody can come live here free. It's better than having it occupied by troops or refugees. What's the use of fleeing south, though? Mulberry just came from there. The South is as chaotic as Peking.'

I look at Mr Cheng and nod. ‘Hsü-chou has been taken. The Communists will cross the Yangtze River any moment now. I just fled from Nanking to come here.'