The Pearl Jacket and Other Stories Read online

  Once home I held the letter for Qingqing in my hand and, since I didn’t have much else to do, I pulled the letter out of the envelope. Just one glance and I jumped up in shock. Right in front of me on the very top were these words: “You Are My Only One!”

  Damn! This was the letter intended for Honghong. Which meant I had put the letter for Qingqing into Honghong’s envelope.

  I bolted up and went flying to the post office hoping that I could take back the wrong letter. I got there in time to see the green postal truck disappearing around the corner, leaving behind a dusty cloud. I almost fainted.

  It’s all over. It’s all in Heaven’s hands now. I hated myself so!

  The following day the most feared thing happened: Honghong’s reply letter arrived. At this time, somehow, I became calm, resigned to my fate.

  I opened the envelope and pulled out that familiar color paper. In front of me was Honghong’s neat and graceful handwriting:

  Ah Ming:

  How are you? Oh, how I miss you!

  I am so touched by your deep, heartfelt feelings for me and so grateful. Do you know that my feelings for you are just as deep and heartfelt? Oh, I will never forget for the rest of my life the beautiful time we have spent together ever since I got to know you. Yes, Ah Ming, thanks to you, I feel life is so beautiful, so rich and colorful, and, Ah Ming, I feel so happy and happy!

  Please remember, Ah Ming: You are mine and I will love you forever: You are my one and only love. . . .

  With loving kiss, Yours,

  Honghong

  I couldn’t help but smile and then shake my head. I took out the cigarette lighter, lit up the beautiful letter, and watched it wither into a black roll as those tender words evaporated in dreamy whitish smoke.

  My name is not Ah Ming. My name is Ah Qiang.

  (2003)

  A “Lovebird” for You

  Xing Qingjie

  The day the girl’s flower shop opened, there was not much business. Only one young man came and strolled around with a bored look on his face. Then, almost whimsically, he bought three red roses, and asked the girl to deliver the flowers for him. Since she ran the shop all by herself, she asked the young man to take care of the shop for her before she returned. The young man said yes readily. When the girl had wrapped up the flowers, she picked a green flower from the bucket, inserted it into the red roses, and said:

  “You are my very first client. So here is a bonus ‘lovebird’ for you!” Seeing the confused look in the young man’s face, she said, “Oh, it’s a flower from the south. ‘Lovebird’ is its name.”

  The girl delivered the flowers to the address the young man had given her and saw the girl by the name of Quan. When Quan took the flowers and checked the name on the card, she murmured “thanks,” put the flowers aside, and went on doing whatever she was doing.

  The girl felt sorry for the young man. Yet when she returned to the flower shop and met his warm eyes, she told him, against her own instincts: Quan was thrilled with the flowers and asked me to say thank you. The young man’s face blossomed with joy.

  From then on at around the same time each weekend, the young man would come to the flower shop, buy three roses, and ask the girl to deliver the flowers to Quan. Every time Quan took the flowers from her, there was no look of joy in her face. Sometimes she even looked annoyed. So the girl felt she had to tell the young man the truth so that he would not waste any more time and money on Quan. Yet how could she bring it up to him? The girl thought: Perhaps with time Quan will be touched by the young man and he will win her heart. Gradually the girl became convinced of this possibility and didn’t think much of it any more.

  Thus about half a year passed. One weekend morning the young man came to the flower shop quite early. He said to the girl: “Please deliver flowers for me one last time. Today Quan will be engaged.” The girl was surprised by this unhappy ending and even more so by the young man’s calm acceptance of the inevitable.

  Once again, when she wrapped up three roses, she inserted a “lovebird” right in the middle: a perfect fusion of brilliant red and tender, dewy green. The girl said: “For last time’s sake, here is another ‘lovebird’ for you, on the house.”

  When she was about to leave, it began to rain heavily. The young man was concerned, but the girl said: “Don’t worry. I’ll take a taxi.”

  When the girl returned it was still pouring like crazy. Once out of the taxi the girl dashed to the flower shop, but was still drenched from head to toe. The young man didn’t turn to leave as usual, though. He said to the girl: “I . . . I want three more red . . . red roses.” The girl looked at him, puzzled. She wrapped up three flowers and, once again, inserted a “lovebird” in their midst. The young man took over the flowers, bent to smell them, and then presented them to her with both hands: “This is for you!”

  Stunned, the girl lowered her head, her face reddening. Then she looked up and said; “Your feelings for Quan are so deep. How can you start to court someone else so fast?”

  The young man said mysteriously: “It is time I tell you this secret: Quan is my sister.”

  “What? You sent flowers to your own sister?” The girl couldn’t believe her ears.

  The young man looked into the girl’s eyes and said: “Otherwise, what excuse do I have to come and see you?”

  The girl smiled, her face blossoming like a flower.

  (2003)

  Mosquito Nets

  Wu Shouchun

  Qun succeeded his father and became a worker at the chemical fertilizer factory.

  The factory’s living quarters for its workers were very cramped. As it happened, one of the workers in the men’s living quarters, who had been married for two years, was finally issued the key to a one-room unit. The “freed up” berth was assigned to Qun.

  It was right in the middle of a cold winter. Yet the other three beds all had their mosquito nets up. Only his bed was bare like a pared-down chicken. Mosquito nets are for protection from mosquitoes. What’s the use of having mosquito nets up in winter when there are no mosquitoes? Isn’t this trading energy for inconvenience? When Qun strolled down the hallway, he noticed that the beds in all the rooms, men and women alike, had their mosquito nets up. Qun was even more puzzled.

  The room was small and didn’t have even a stool. In leisure time when buddies gathered here, everyone and his brother sat his butt along Qun’s bedside because his bed was the only one that didn’t have a mosquito net hanging massively all around it. The bed groaned with so many people sitting on it; his quilt and clothes were pushed aside in a messy pile. Qun figured out the answer to the puzzle and followed suit right away. At first, being inside the mosquito net felt so stuffy, as if a wok was hanging over his head. Gradually, though, he became used to its presence.

  One day he was changing shifts and was supposed to go home, but failed to catch the bus. So he came back to the dorm and crawled into the mosquito-netted bed, following the folksy wisdom of “Early to bed, late to rise/the Sun warms you in daylight/Saves you firewood and rice.” Soon he fell asleep. In the middle of the night he was woken up by some squeaky noises. It reminded him of a scary movie he had seen. He became alarmed. Of the three roommates, one was on sick leave, and the other two had gone home. Where did the strange noise come from? Had a burglar broken in? Qun was too terrified to make any noise or move himself. He listened hard. The noise came from Master Zhang’s bed diagonally across from his own. Mixed in it was a moaning sound. Qun sensed what was going on. Damn! When did Master Zhang return to the factory with his new bride? Must be because of the mosquito net, he thinks I have gone home and the coast is clear. That night Qun didn’t dare get out of bed despite the pressure mounting in his bladder. Not until Master Zhang and his bride had quieted down did Qun dare to tiptoe out and run to another room down the hallway to seek shelter, much like a lost monk.

  The next morning when Master Zhang saw Qun, he asked: “I knew your schedule. Why did you return after only one night at
home?” Qun caught a glimpse of Zhang’s bride and blushed as if he had done something really shameful. He mumbled some excuse and let it be.

  That evening Qun sought a place in another room so as not to be in the way.

  The next day Qun worked the second shift. Master Zhang said to him, “Don’t act like a guerilla when you come back from work at night. Just go to bed and you’ll be fine. Me and my wife are not shy first-timers any more and couldn’t care less. If you try to mess around and cause trouble, though, my wife will beat you up until you cry uncle. So when Qun came back from the shift, he crawled into the mosquito net. He was amazed that besides protection from mosquitoes, the mosquito net had other unintended functions.

  Qing, his girlfriend, came to the factory to visit Qun.

  Puzzled by the mosquito net, she rolled and strung it together and asked: Why use a mosquito net in winter? Qun smiled meaningfully and said: You’ll understand shortly.

  Before leaving, Master Zhang and the other two roommates said: Settle down and have a good time. Don’t worry about us.

  So the two settled down in their own territory and space: inside the mosquito net.

  Qun tried to kiss Qing. Qing dodged and warned him with a half-hearted punch.

  Qun said: Nobody else is in here. They are either on the night shift or in beds in other rooms. Don’t worry.

  Qing was still worried.

  When Qun made his move again, Qing struggled, freed one hand, and pulled off a movie actress picture pinned inside the net and said: Isn’t she watching?

  Qing would come more often. Before long, with “the rice already being cooked,” they got married.

  From then on, when Qing came again, Master Zhang and the others didn’t need to leave any more.

  The good thing was every bed had a mosquito net on.

  When Qun was assigned a one-room unit, he still had the mosquito net on, summer or winter.

  Later his factory went bankrupt. Qun and Qing began to do business. They made money and bought an apartment in a garden-like residential compound.

  The entrance door and all the windows of their new home had insect screens. They had all the furniture they needed. Yet occupying the middle of the bedroom was the same old canopy bed.

  At the sight of this bed in the bedroom, which seemed so out of place, visitors would always ask: You’ve spent tons of money for the new home and everything else, why not go all the way with just a bit more? Qun said: The canopy bed is convenient for hanging the mosquito net. The visitors would say: Don’t you have all the insect screens? Look around and see what age we are living in. Sleeping inside a mosquito net in the bedroom, isn’t it suffocating?! Qun mumbled: “Double-safety feature, you know.”

  So Qun discussed this with Qing: Why don’t we buy a new mattress to replace the ugly canopy bed. That’ll shut people up.

  They spent 2,000 yuan on a nice new bed.

  However, somehow they didn’t feel comfortable in it. The worst was when they got into the mood, they just couldn’t follow through.

  Qun turned their wedding photo on the wall to its back and said: No need to be afraid now ’cause nobody is looking any more. Qing said: It’s so empty and open all around. Don’t feel safe.

  One day Master Zhang came to visit. When he saw the mosquito net hanging around the new mattress bed, he couldn’t help laughing.

  Qun asked, “What’s so funny?”

  Master Zhang said: “So you still have the mosquito net on too. . . . ”

  (2003)

  A Caterpillar on Your Shoulder!

  Liu Weiping

  Many years ago a girl lived in an out-of-the-way mountain village. There the girl had her first love. At the time the girl was still quite young, but she was already budding with pubescent feelings. She had a crush on a boy from the same village. And the boy had a crush on her, too. This she could sense from the fire in the eyes of the boy when he happened to look at her.

  Yes, when it started, all that happened between the boy and the girl was exchange of tender glances. The girl saw in the eyes of the boy a ball of glowing fire. The boy saw in the eyes of the girl a spring of tender longings.

  Then the boy and the girl began to see each other. Most of the time they met in the woods. This was how they sent signals to each other. When the girl wanted to go pick wild fruits somewhere, she would say nonchalantly in front of others: “I’m going to the hill to pick wild fruits.” When the girl came to the hill with a basket on her back, she could be certain that the boy would be there gathering firewood. Sometimes the boy would nonchalantly give away the place where he would go gather firewood. When he had gathered half a bundle of firewood, the girl would surely appear nearby, humming folk songs.

  That’s how the boy and the girl saw each other in the woods. Deep and quiet, the woods were an ideal place for such encounters. You can imagine the many intimate moments of passion and tenderness when they were together in such a locale.

  Yet, here is the surprise. During those days in that mountain village, people were quite conservative in such matters. All the boy and the girl did when they were together was to look into each other’s eyes and chitchat some mundane nonsense. The most intimate moment between them would be sitting shoulder to shoulder on the grass.

  The biggest desire the boy cherished would be to hold the girl in his arms. The girl, on her part, longed to be held by the boy, too. Yet there was a thin paper between the two, which neither knew how to pierce through.

  Once, when the boy and girl were in the woods, they saw strings of grapes hanging from branches, black, ripe, mouthwatering grapes. The girl was not tall enough to reach them.

  The boy said: “I know what to do.”

  The girl said: “What?”

  The boy said: “I’ll carry you so you can reach the grapes.”

  The girl was delighted: “Wonderful!” Then the girl realized something and said: “That means you’ll hold me in your arms? How can you hold me in your arms now?”

  What the girl meant was the boy couldn’t hold her in his arms until they were married.

  When it came down to it, the boy was a shy kid. What he didn’t know was despite what she had said, the girl longed for him to gather her in his arms no matter what.

  Fortunately the boy was not obtuse. When they were together again in the woods, the boy told the girl that nowadays in the cities outside the mountain women liked to talk about the “Three Measurements.”

  The boy said: “You have such a good figure. Must be the ideal ‘Three Measurements’”

  The girl’s eyes shone with curiosity. What the boy had just told her was quite interesting.

  After beating about the bush for a while, the boy said: “Want me to do your ‘Three Measurements’?”

  The girl said: “Alright. But, how can you measure? There is no ruler here.”

  The boy opened his arms and said: “My arms are the ruler. I guarantee you the ruler is one hundred percent accurate.”

  The girl couldn’t help but smile shyly. She knew what was going on in the boy’s mind. She said: “Won’t that mean you’ll hold me in your arms? How can you hold me in your arms now?”

  Both the boy and the girl longed to hug each other, yet they couldn’t find a way to do so. Nothing is as sweet as this tantalizing feeling one experiences during this time of pubescent love.

  Later, the boy and girl were together again in the woods. As before they sat there and chitchatted some mundane nonsense. What they really wanted to say to each other was said through their eyes. When their passionate eyes met again, the boy cried out suddenly:

  “Oh my, a caterpillar on your shoulder!”

  Terrified, the girl screamed and threw herself into the boy’s arms. It was probably an instinctive reaction on the part of the girl when she threw herself into the boy’s arms. She wanted him to get rid of the scary caterpillar on her shoulder.

  The boy held the girl tightly in his arms as if he were holding the beauty of the entire world.

/>   The girl held the boy tightly as if she were holding the happiness of an entire lifetime.

  The first hug between the boy and the girl was instigated by none other than a caterpillar. Yet, in reality, there was no caterpillar on her shoulder at all. None! That was a lie told by the boy. What is not clear is whether the boy had come up with the lie on the spur of the moment or as a result of long, careful planning. Either way, it is testimonial enough to the power of love.

  Years later the girl left for the city where she worked first as a beauty salon girl, then an escort, and then the mistress of a fat cat. Once, the fat cat took the girl on a sightseeing trip. When they walked into the woods of the scenic place, the fat cat suddenly cried out to the girl:

  “Oh my, a caterpillar on your shoulder!”

  Terrified, the girl screamed. However, she didn’t throw herself into the fat cat’s arms. Instead, she took out a paper napkin and brushed off the caterpillar carefully.

  The crisis was resolved, yet the girl squatted down, covering her face in her hands.

  The same cry of “A caterpillar on your shoulder!” had pierced through so many years of time and hit hard the heart that had been numbed for so long. Who else in the world would be so sensitive to the tremors of the girl’s heart as the boy had once?

  The fat cat stood there and said: “Why, a mere caterpillar scared the wits out of you, and now you can’t stand up!”

  A sobbing sound leaked through the fingers of the girl.

  (2004)

  Big Buddy

  Wang Kuishan

  Dorm Room 6028 of the Chinese Department had eight residents. Chen Hao was the oldest. So everybody called him Big Buddy fondly.

  By the time of their junior year, everyone in the class became involved in a romantic relationship, as if they had all been hit by a contagious disease at the same time. All the female students in the class had been “claimed” in the blink of an eye. That all had been claimed is not an accurate statement because there was still one damsel who was yet to be “claimed:” Liu Meiyan. When it came down to it, there wasn’t anything visibly wrong with Liu Meiyan. If one had to be picky, then, she was a bit on the heavy side. 1.6 meters tall, yet 130 jin in weight. Liu Meiyan, for her part, though, was quite open about it. She would say in front of everybody “I gain weight even if I live on water alone. There’s nothing I can do about it.“