7

Grandma Hui's yellow dog had just bitten the traveling junk collector and Grandpa Yu knew full well he'd upset her though he didn't know she was sitting out back all angry. Once he'd eaten breakfast and the midday snack all at once, he headed up the mountain, carrying two bamboo baskets with a shoulder pole. His task today was to gather some sharp thorns to replace the old blunted ones on the feet of the wooden horses on which the dragon - head pole rested. Too blunt, and rats would climb up and chew on the dragon - head pole, and his name would be spat on by generations.

As he walked, the black dog flew past him, then suddenly stopped and waited for him. It seemed the more he ridiculed and mocked her, the more excited she got in her bouncing up and down. The yellow dog followed too for a little way, as it always did, before finding something interesting that he sniffed at for a while and then went slowly trotting home again.

"You did a good job raising that boy!" Grandpa Yu shouted to the black dog.

He knew exactly where on the mountain to find thorns, and before long they were in his hands. On the way back, he spotted some mushrooms that he picked to take back for Grandma Hui. Back in the village, he knocked on her door, but no answer. Then he shouted "Anyone home?" But when no one replied he let himself in and placed the mushrooms down just inside the doorway.

He was tying the new thorns onto the wooden horses when he heard Grandma Hui say from behind him:

"Brother Yu, I'll take the mushrooms, thank you, but not your money."

He stood up and turned around. She didn't look angry, so he said:

"Sister, please, it was all the black dog's fault. You don't need to do this!"

"It was the yellow dog who bit the man," she said, "so your money has nothing to do with it."

Having said her final word, she put the money down on the wooden dragon head.

"Your temper keeps getting worse!" Grandpa Yu laughed.

Grandma Hui laughed too:

"Me, bad temper? Never! By the way, in the Three Character Classic , it clearly states: 'With an unfilial son, the father is to blame, ' but you told me it goes: 'With an unfilial son, the mother is to blame.' You were trying to fool me!"

They both laughed some more, and the two dogs got excited, bouncing around at their sides, although the black dog was more lackluster than her son.

"Look, the yellow one's lazy as well as having no conscience! Every time I go out he only follows me a few hundred yards before he gets bored and goes back. If he had a conscience he'd stick with me no matter what!"

"Well, I am his owner after all. When I go out, he always stays with me. Ah, if everyone were as loyal as our dogs the world would be a peaceful place."

Grandpa Yu could tell from her tone of voice that she really was talking about dogs rather than calling him a dog, and disloyal. From this, he knew she was no longer angry.

When he was finished tying the new thorns on, Grandpa Yu took out his woven rush rain - cape and used it to polish the dragon - head pole. Grandma Hui got her face up close to the old wood and smelled it:

"Brother Yu, breathe this. It's got this faint fragrance about it. I wonder how many dynasties this old scent drifted through!"

"Your nose is better than mine. Mine's not much good for breathing things anymore," he turned down her invitation.

This use of the word 'breathe' in place of 'smell' was a peculiarity of Water Village, left over from ancient times when it was the norm and still today well - read people know it from the ancient poetry.

"I have the opposite problem — I'm too sensitive. When I breathe the perfume young people use, it makes my head spin! And I love your flowers, but there are a couple that are too strong for me — jasmine and cape jasmine."

"I wish you'd told me before," Grandpa Yu said, still polishing, "I would have got rid of them if I'd known."

"Don't get rid of them," she said hastily, "I may not like them but that doesn't mean everyone else doesn't. The world doesn't revolve around me, and nor should it!"

"Alright," Grandpa Yu shrugged, "whatever you want. I'll leave them."

She picked up a cloth and helped him polish the dragon - head poles.

"When I was little I once saw a dragon dance," she said." I don't remember where it was, or how old I was, but I remember all the lanterns were all tied together with yellow silk and had dragon patterns painted on, not like here in Water Village where we just use bamboo fiber and glue on paper. Here the dragon dance is always at night, but the one I remember seeing was in the daytime."

She never normally talked about things from her past, every kid in Water Village has grandma, but Qiangtuo doesn't. And Grandpa Yu never asked her about them, figuring she probably didn't want to talk about them. All he said now was:

"People do things differently everywhere you go. You walk five kilometers, and the people talk differently. Go the other side of the mountains, and the customs aren't the same. Like, in Water Village people never pay New Year visits or make sacrifices on the second day of the New Year, but on the other side of the river they'll do New Year visits and sacrifices on the second, but not on the first."

Grandma Hui changed the subject:

"Brother Yu, do you think Yama King of Hell knows that this dragon - head pole is a rare relic? You would think he'd be a real connoisseur of this kind of things, wouldn't you? Qiangtuo told me it's worth tens of thousands ... Do you think that's true?"

"No!" Grandpa Yu said, "this pole is the holy heritage of Water Village, and it's priceless! Not only is the workmanship masterful, not only has it been passed down for countless generations, but this kind of nanmu , of this quality! These days you just can't find wood like this!"

Grandma Hui laughed and changed the subject again:

"Let's see which of us dies first. If it's me, I don't want the young people to carry me all over the village in circles, wasting time and making noise. I can't stand the noise! I want to just go straight up the mountain."

Grandpa Yu put down his cloth, and said:

"Sister, I'm sure you won't die before me. You're younger than me and your health is good. Just look at your hair! Seventy - three years old and still jet black!"

"Ah, a few years difference doesn't mean much to Yama," she said, "He'll take us as he pleases!"

To them, death was just a small - talk topic like any other. The sun tilted again to the west for the end of another day, its light shedding whites and wrapping itself in reds, under which the dragon - head pole floated delicate hues of rose.

In her old age, Grandma Hui wore her hair in a bun, the same way she wore it the day she arrived in Water Village, held up with the same shiny silver hairpin, with a spell during her middle age when she cut it short. The secret to her still black and glossy hair at over seventy years old was that she'd never been in the habit of using shampoo. Instead, she washed her hair with hot caustic soda water, which she prepared by taking some rice - stalk dust in a loose - woven bamboo basket, filling it with hot water, and letting it drip down into a wash basin below. The resulting liquid had a faint sweet scent to it, like grass left to dry under the sun. After washing her hair with the rice - stalk dust soda solution, she would take a pinch of tea oil and massage it into her hair. Grandpa Yu never talked about her natural shampoo formula with her, but he knew about it and when he saw the young people buying all kinds of fancy shampoo and conditioner he thought to himself they'd be better off just using rice - stalk dust. He never voiced these thoughts though, just kept them in silence inside his old head.

Grandpa Yu went over to the Hui household in the evening to tell Qiangtuo he wanted his help first thing the next morning shifting some "rounds". Qiangtuo did not know what Grandpa Yu wanted, earning swift rebuke from his mother:

"You knew it. Just do as Grandpa Yu told you!"

In Water Village, as everyone knew, "rounds" means logs that are specifically set aside and used to carve coffins with. Grandpa Yu was preparing to make another coffin using the stacks of camphorwood in his shed, because the one he previously made was now being occupied by You Hui, having already passed away.

Qiangtuo was indeed up first thing the next morning ready to help. This new spate of coffin - building was actually promoted by the conversation about death that Grandpa Yu had had with Grandma Hui the previous night which made him realize he'd better get on with it, good health or not.

Qiangtuo got to work dragging "rounds" out of the shed. After a while, and with a big pile of wood already outside, he said:

"Uncle Yu, this is about how much you'll need, isn't it?"

"No. Keep going. I'm going to need all the wood I've got."

Qiangtuo was unconvinced:

"Eh? This much should be enough for one retirement home I would have thought."

"Don't worry about that," Grandpa Yu said, "Just go bring out some more."

After breakfast, Grandpa Yu got down to work with his saw, while Grandma Hui looked on sitting on a bench she'd carried outside.

"Brother Yu, carving coffins isn't to be taken lightly —have you checked to make sure today is an auspicious date?" she asked.

"Eh, better to get on with it. There's no knowing how long my strength will hold out — if I keep putting it off I might find myself too old and tired to do it later."

"Brother Yu, how on earth did you remember the date when I first came to Water Village," she said, easing down a familiar tangent, a question she'd asked him hundreds of times.

She must be getting old, Grandpa Yu thought to himself. When a woman gets old she starts to talk more, and always about the same things. Ah, it really is true that animals and people are opposites. With animals, it's the males who are better looking, and who talk more. But with people, it's the women who are prettier, and who talk more. That being said, it's only her mouth that's gotten old — her ears are still sharp and then there's her mysterious black hair ...

He chopped his axe down into a round as he replied:

"I remember what date that day was because, on the eighth day of the ninth lunar month, the ration - eaters passed through Water Village and stayed the night. They left the next day, the ninth. At the time, I wanted to join the army and become a ration - eater too, but my mother wouldn't let me go. She was sick, and she told me that if I left that day, the ninth, she'd be dead the next day, the tenth ... So, I ended up not going. It's hard to forget when your mother tells you something like that. The next day, the tenth, Brother Hui brought Sister Hui to Water Village. I even remember what my mother told me that day:'The world is changing, and the ration - eaters' clothes are changing too.'"

Grandma Hui completed the ritual by saying, for the hundredth time:

"Thank the gods I found a good man in your brother Hui. If it weren't for him, I don't know where I might have ended up."

Grandpa Yu was still chopping away with his axe, sending woodchips flying like arrows in all directions.

"You'd better come sit behind me, Sister Hui," he advised her." I wouldn't want you to get hurt by a loose woodchip."

She stood up, laughing:

"The older I get the more I get in the way. Maybe I should stay where I am and get killed by a woodchip and save some time!"

But she did move, and sat down again, thinking about how Grandpa Yu was seventy - seven and still carving coffins. In her mind, there would never be another carpenter in the world like him. Thinking these thoughts, she allowed herself to enjoy the scent of sweet camphorwood — it settled her mind.

"Brother Yu! Watching you make coffins makes me think there's not really anything so great about living in the city. City people, when they die, go to get cremated and just like that there's nothing left of them. Much better to die in the countryside and sleep sweetly in a beautiful wooden retirement home!"

"I don't know if it makes much difference what happens to your body once you're dead, " he replied." Death comes, and your brain goes out like a light. They could boil you in hot water and you wouldn't know better. Everyone's equal in death ... even the top leaders in government grow old, and they burn just like the rest of us. A few moments of fire, and they're lost! Just a few handfuls of dust in the ocean."

"And the fish in that ocean, you think people would still eat them if they knew about all that dust?" Then without waiting for a response, she said:

"What about 'superstition?' Do you believe it's superstition, or not? Remember what happened to Qiuyu when she died? She spent her whole life talking bad about people, and what happened to her? A lightning bolt came and took her jaw clean off!"

She was a truly notorious gossip, and she suffered the corresponding punishment, just as Water Village folklore foretold.

She died in the same year when Grandpa Yu was building his new house. It was just after the last of the late - season rice was harvested, a rare slack time in the farming calendar. Grandpa Yu had just torn down his old house and had moved in with the Huis temporarily, though he planned to have his new house built and ready in plenty of time for New Year's.

Qiuyu of course had something to say about Grandpa Yu living with the Huis:

"You Yu and You Hui already share families and everything else anyway, makes sense they're living together. Especially since that adulterating city woman is there too. Birds of a feather, eh!"

One day around that time, the green official suddenly walked up into the village while Grandpa Yu was working on the frame of his new house. You Yu waved to him, smiling:

"Mr. Green, a rare pleasure!"

(The green official was plenty used to his nickname after nearly twenty years of comings and goings and always people calling him by that name.)

But today he looked angry about something. Seeing the foreboding colours in the man's face, Grandpa Yu's first thought was that there must be some new political campaign starting up and that was why he looked angry. The green official also had made a habit of coming to stay and work in Water Village a while at the start of each new passing political campaign. Grandpa Yu made the appropriate adjustments to his own face, purposefully making himself look more somber.

"Where is she?" the green official called out to Grandpa Yu.

"Who?" he asked, perplexed.

"My wife!"

"Your wife?" Grandpa Yu repeated, even more confused.

The green official's face turned a little purple:

"You Water Village folk have some real foresight, as it turns out, giving me that nickname. My wife cheated on me, and now she's here, for re - education."

Grandpa Yu suddenly understood:

"You mean Little Liu is your wife?"

"Little what?! Who said she's little? Over forty years old and she thinks it's the perfect time to go running around with another man!"

Grandpa Yu offered him his tobacco bong. The green official waved the proffered bong away, and pulled out two cigarettes, passing one to Grandpa Yu. They lit up, and Grandpa Yu said:

"Your wife is out in the fields working. I would be out there too, but I asked for leave to build my new house."

They smoked and the green official talked, more curses at his wife than meaningful communication, swearing and choking on smoke, big purple veins of his temple bulging and straining like earthworms.

"Mr. Green, " Grandpa Yu was saying, "Little Liu's been here over half a year now, but no one knows she's your wife. She's kept that secret well hidden, no doubt out of kind thoughts for you. So, if you're here to talk with her, be nice. But if it's a divorce you want you can just go down to the government office, no need to hang around here in Water Village looking for a fight."

"Easy for you to say and be all easy - easy about it!" he said with red eyes, "You think you'd be this calm if it was your wife?"

"Mr. Green," Grandpa Yu laughed, "if you said that to any other Water Village man you'd be in a fight next thing you knew, no question. I don't want to fight, I just want to tell you this — if your wife had an affair, it can only be your fault."

"My fault?! Fart on that! I who've given her three children!"

Grandpa Yu laid his axe down in front of him and swung his torso round, his legs still straddling a beam on the frame of his new house. Both arms wrapped around his chest and looking straight at the green official, he spoke to him in calm voice:

"Do you really think just being able to have children is what makes you a man? Any animal can do that! I'm telling you, if you don't fix your bad temper you'll never be a real man, and your wife will certainly have another affair."

The green official slumped down on the wood chip -covered ground and tears poured from his eyes. Grandpa Yu passed him the bong, and this time, he took it. As the green official loaded it with tobacco, he said:

"My children aren't grown up yet, otherwise I'd just divorce her and be done with it."

"I think of Little Liu as a good person, and so does everyone else in Water Village. We've all almost forgotten why she's here, in fact. If I were you, I would wait here until she finishes work, and speak with her. Tell her you missed her, or something else to show her she still means something to you. You should have come before now, it's been half a year already! Obviously, she would never have gone back to see you — she's scared you'd be angry!"

The green official choked on smoke again, not used to inhaling loose - leaf from a bong. He coughed and hacked for a good while, before saying:

"It's not like I have lots of free time ... I'm only here now because it's Sunday. Anyway, You Yu, we've known each other for nearly twenty years now, but I always thought you didn't like me. Actually, you're the first person who's ever talked with me like this ... directly talked with me, I mean. Thank you for trying to help me and my wife. You're a good man."

Grandpa Yu laughed: "Well, there are no bad men, or women, in Water Village! Now, can I tell you something, and be very direct?"

The green official looked straight at him, holding his breath and saying nothing, preparing himself to hear Grandpa Yu unveil some monumental new truth.

"Well, you look like you're ready to listen, so here it is: Water Village's not far from the county town, as you know, so whenever there's a new political or economic campaign in the county, it's always Water Village where it's first tested out. The upshot is, you've spent a lot of the last twenty years here, overseeing these different campaigns, and in that time, you've got in the bad books of almost everyone in Water Village one way or another, as well as your bosses in the county, and it's because of your arrogance."

The green official looked up at Grandpa Yu and said:

"You said there are no bad people in Water Village, but then what about the class enemies? The landlords, reactionaries and rightists?"

Grandpa Yu said nothing. He just picked up his axe, swung around on his perch, and got back to work on his house. He was building it all on his own, highly unusual. He needed no help, except when it came time to lift the frame off the ground and put it in place, and then also when the time came for tiling. The rest he did himself, shirtless under the hot sun day after day. Having swung axes for over forty summers under that high sun, his skin was black and shiny, his muscles taut. After hours of hard work, he sat down to rest, and picked up his conversation with the green official, still sitting nearby, where he'd left it:

"Are you really only interested in talking about landlords and rightists, after all the things I just told you? Let me tell you again — it's your fault your wife cheated on you, and it's your fault you never got promoted above what you are now! Remember the first time you came here, when the Korean War was going on and you had a pistol on your belt? No one was scared of you! Now you've got no pistol, and again, no one is even a little bit scared of you. You were a bandit once, years ago, weren't you?"

" ... I stopped doing that a long time ago, in 1948. I surrendered," the green official replied.

"Well, perhaps the reason you can't get a promotion is because you were a bandit before. But does that mean bandits are bad people? No! And would you admit yourself to being a bad person? There were bandits here too, about thirty kilometers south in the mountains. They used to ambush sheep farmers heading to town on market day. They never hurt anyone though, just wanted a ransom for the people they captured and even if they didn't get a ransom they still wouldn't hurt anyone. They were just poor and desperate, poor people doing what they could."

"You're right. That is the reason I never made it, " the green official said." I was just about to get a promotion, it was in sight, when someone brought up my 'problematic past.' Argh, I was only fourteen, I didn't know anything, I just followed some people into the mountains because there was nothing to eat. I stayed up there for just a year and a half and then came down and surrendered."

Grandpa Yu began chopping again, and said, intermittently:

"So, it sounds like you know you're not a bad person. Perhaps you shouldn't go around calling other people bad without first thinking a little. I'm over forty years old now, and I've got to know every person in Water Village, about two thousand in total. Not a single one of them is bad. Sure, some are unlikeable, some are harsh to others. They learned that from you and people like you, by the way, how to be harsh and how to punish. Of course, in the past, we had 'clan discipline, ' where anyone showing unfilial behavior was locked in a bamboo cage in the ancestral hall, and anyone could smack them in the behind with a special bamboo cane. But I only ever heard of once when clan discipline was actually used, in my lifetime. And you? How many people have you punished in your time here?"

The green official looked furtively over his shoulders, making sure nobody was around, then said:

"You Yu, everything you just said was textbook reactionary, textbook. But I won't tell anyone. You can trust me."

Grandpa Yu just laughed:

"You can tell people if you like. I'm not afraid! It's not like you have any proof — I could just say it's slander!"

"You Yu, seriously, I won't tell anyone," he insisted, quietly.

"Either way, I don't mind! Tell people if that's what you want!" And with that he got back to work.

The green official was squatting on the ground. He rocked back on his heels, smoking and gazing up towards the sun while he waited for his wife. Unlike other officials, he did not own a watch. A cock crowed, which got every cock in the village clamoring to be the loudest. This didn't last long, and then all that was left in the now even heavier silence of the village was the lonely noise of the axe's rhythmic chopping. Not even a wisp of cloud in the blue sky, just the sun holding court, stopped high up in the sky, not looking like moving any time soon. Bored, the green official forced some small talk:

"You said you only heard of one person who got the 'clan discipline.' Is that person still around?"

"Of course!" Grandpa Yu replied, "I won't name him, but during the Land Reform in 1950 he was the fiercest Communist in Water Village. Seems those days, the rude and unfilial have all become the pride and glory of officialdom!"

The green official was sitting in the Huis' house when the workers came back at noon. Little Liu was walking side by side with Grandma Hui, talking and laughing together, when she saw her husband. Her face went white.

Grandma Hui already knew all about Little Liu and the green official, and hadn't told anyone, not even her husband. She and Little Liu were bosom friends by now, no little detail of their lives they hadn't already talked about and shared.

"Mr... . Mr. Green," Grandma Hui said, taken aback," you're here!" She recovered quickly, continuing: "Little Liu has been a great help around here, and she has excellent relations with the masses. You two talk. I'm going to go cook." And she walked out the front door.

Before she'd taken a few steps, she turned around and saw Little Liu was following her.

"What's the matter?" she asked.

"I'm going to fetch water," was all Little Liu said.

Not thinking, Grandma Hui called for You Hui and told him to go get the water instead.

You Hui didn't really want to go — he was hanging out at Grandpa Yu's house, but he came walking reluctantly over anyway. Since Little Liu moved into their home he'd only had to fetch water a handful of times.

But Little Liu was adamant, as usual:

"Sister Hui, let me get the water. My head's a mess, I need some time to think."

Grandma Hui waved You Hui away, who ambled back to Grandpa Yu's construction site to lend a hand. Then she went back inside and put the rice on, before turning to the green official and saying to him:

"You know, I've lost count of how many times she's cried over you. She blames it all on herself. She probably would have killed herself if it weren't for her children. You two need to work this out. She told me you're a good man, but your temper's bad. It's normal for husband and wife to argue once in a while, but you have to improve your temper. As for her mistake, I know it won't happen again."

"You Yu told me the same thing," he replied." Have you two been swapping notes about me this whole time?"

"What are you talking about? I'm the only person in Water Village who knows about you two. Anyway, you should think all this through. I'm going to go make the midday snack."

The sun was moving again now. Grandpa Yu looked up at it and wondered why Fatuo, Qiangtuo and Qiao'er weren't back home yet. Early that morning they'd gone to the river to pick ragweed. Grandma Yu was sure they'd stuck around afterward to swim, but she didn't say anything to her husband in case it made him angry. Actually, Grandpa Yu suspected as much, and was worried they'd gone swimming in Frog Pool. He used to swim in the river too when he was young. It was deeper back then, and he would often see big boats with white sails. He still remembered the envy he felt when he saw the sailors eating on their boats.

Suddenly, he heard the sound of children chasing each other and play - fighting. That must be them. His eyes flashed anger, and he yelled:

"Fatuo, get over here!"

Fatuo knew he was in trouble and edged flinching toward his father, hands already up covering his head. Grandpa Yu grabbed him by the arm, his fingernail leaving a thin white line on the boy's arm. He cuffed him around the ears, and the boy fell heavily down on the ground.

"You're a disgrace! You're not a kid anymore, and it's time you acted like it! If you don't watch yourself, I'll skin you with my own two hands!"

Grandma Hui came running out and pulled Fatuo into her protective arms:

"How could you! He's a child, you can't hit him with your man hands! Anyway, you can't just blame him, Qiangtuo's not a little boy anymore either. Qiangtuo! It was you who told Fatuo to take you swimming, wasn't it?!"

"I was too scared to go to Frog Pool," Qiangtuo defended himself, "but brother Fatuo said anyone who's too scared to go there is a son of a bitch!"

Grandpa Yu started towards Fatuo with a wooden measuring rod upraised. He lashed it down but Grandma Hui jumped in the way to shield Fatuo, and it hit her instead, snapping on impact. Grandma Yu came running out, cursing her husband:

"Beating children again, that's all you know how to do! If you want to beat someone, beat me. I'm the one who raised these children. I should take the responsibility!

Now Fatuo jumped out from behind Grandma Hui:

"I didn't say that!" he yelled.

"Yes, he did!" Qiao'er shouted from the sideline.

"He did," Qiangtuo also insisted, "I swear, he said 'whoever's too scared to go to Frog Pool is a ..."

Before he could finish the sentence he was silenced by a slap across the face from his mother. He started crying while still trying to talk and defend himself, so his words just crumbled into incoherent gurgling mumbles that no one could understand. Grandma Yu grabbed Fatuo by the arm and pulled him away, muttering:

"What were you thinking going to Frog Pool? Don't you know how dangerous ... the bottomless hole and turtle spirit? And you seem to think it's a fun place for a casual outing!"

Fatuo was scared his mother was getting ready to beat him, so he tore away and ran to the arms of Grandma Hui where he hid.

Qiuyu happened to be passing by and, seeing there was a show going on, stopped to watch as Grandpa Yu shielded Qiangtuo from Grandma Hui.

"Isn't this sweet!" she crooned, "Only a truly kind, wise man like Grandpa Yu could put his nephew before his own son! So much love, it's quite touching really."

Grandpa Yu had no time to listen to Qiuyu's fake niceties, but Grandma Yu said:

"Back off, Qiuyu! And don't stick your nose in my family's private business!"

"Oh, I wouldn't dare," she replied, still all false sincerity, "Anyway, I'm not the type to beat my dog, let alone my son! In my house, we look after our own, not strays!"

Grandma Hui said nothing to Qiuyu, just grabbed Fatuo and dragged him towards the house, while shouting at Qiangtuo:

"Get inside the house! No more nonsense, just go! Even dogs know when to go back to their kennel!"

"Who are you telling to go back to their kennel, Grandma Hui?" Qiuyu crowed.

Grandma Yu knew her Sister Hui would never get involved in a squabble with Qiuyu, so she took it on herself to defend her friend:

"Oh, for goodness' sake, she was talking to her son! Can't you just mind your own business?"

But any sign of resistance was just fuel on Qiuyu's fire. She raised her voice and started shuffling her feet to show agitation:

"What's it got to do with you? I was talking to her , not you. But I shouldn't be surprised — you two do share everything: you live together, you raise each other's children. I mean you practically wear the same pair of trousers! Real Communists, you two!"

Throughout this, You Hui was squatting by the door of his house, silent. It was not the done thing in Water Village for men to take part in a women's fight. To do so risked ridicule from the whole village. But this time he couldn't help himself. Leaping to his feet, he charged at Qiuyu, snarling like a tiger. Luckily, there were plenty of people gathered round watching, so someone was on hand to hold him back and talk him down:

"Don't do it! If you lay hands on her it'll really get out of control! You don't want that kind of trouble!"

Just then, the green official emerged from the Huis' house, finger pointing at Qiuyu with full force of official condemnation:

"What did you just say? No, I know what you said. You dirtied the name of Communism with your dirty mouth!"

Qiuyu had no idea the green official had been within earshot the whole time, but in the heat and ignorance of the moment it seemed to her she could use him to her advantage in this argument.

"Ah, we have an official from the county here with us. He can help settle this. What I actually meant when I said they are real Communists was that they are good Communist citizens! Nothing I said was meant to criticize. Actually I think it's great how they help each other — You Hui helps You Yu build his house, in return You Yu helps You Hui raise his son. They're both scratching each other's backs, real model Communists! If I wanted to talk bad about them, I would have brought up that woman official adulteress from the city, but I never did!"

Suddenly, the green official's face turned purple while his eyes bulged:

"Shut up!" he screamed at Qiuyu, "Shut up, or I'll make you sorry you ever opened your filthy mouth!"

Qiuyu was stunned. How could an official talk like that, to a woman? She had good reason to be scared, though she didn't know how badly she'd misjudged the situation. So, she ducked her head and ran, darting through a gap in the circle of onlookers like an animal surrounded by hunters.

Only after all this was over did Little Liu return, water pails over her shoulder, passing by the crowd outside the Yus' house with head bowed low. The well was close by, and she'd heard everything Qiuyu said. Without talking to anyone, she walked straight inside, past Grandma Hui who was standing in the door and greeted her with:

"Food's ready!"

Grandma Yu came over too, to give Fatuo another, less public talking - to. Grandma Hui advised her to go easy on him, because after all he was just a silly boy who didn't understand "these things."

Everyone was seated around the kitchen table, except Little Liu. The green official came out of her room and sat down, saying:

"She doesn't want to eat."

After eating, Grandpa Yu smoked for a while, and then got back to work with his axe. The day was stifling hot, and Qiangtuo and Qiao'er didn't have much to do but sit in the doorway and shout an old rhyme they believed was a magic spell for bringing wind:

"Cuckoo, cuckoo, cuckoo! Come and bring us breezes! Cuckoo, cuckoo, cuckoo! Come and bring us breezes! HUH! HUH!"

The production team leader's whistle cut through the heat.

"Time for work! This afternoon we transplant oilseed rape!"

The oil - crops and the wheats all have their allotted planting time in the old lunar calendar — the oilseed rape goes to field in the ninth month.

Grandma Hui knocked on Little Liu's bedroom door and shouted:

"Come eat something, quickly. You can't go out to work on an empty stomach with your low blood sugar!"

Little Liu opened the door, her eyes red and puffy, and said:

"Sister Hui, I can't go out in the state I'm in. Please, could you ask them to let me have the afternoon off?"

Grandma Hui knew the green official was in there, and her reply was for both of them:

"Alright, I will. You two stay here and have a proper talk, no fighting."

That evening, Tiepao went to visit Grandpa Yu, and offer apologies for his mother's behavior. He was many generations the junior of Grandma and Grandpa Yu, and he spoke to them with the utmost respect:

"I heard about what happened today, and I'm sorry. My mother's mouth can't be stopped. But, please, I hope you don't take it to heart."

Grandpa Yu replied: "Well, for my part I told your mother exactly what I thought, made no bones about it. I may have spoken a bit harshly. Please don't hold it against me."

Then Grandma Yu said:

"Tiepao, you should go talk with Grandma Hui and apologize. She shouldn't have to put up with what your mother said — at one time or another she's helped just about everyone in the village; she deserves better."

"Oh yes, I'm on my way there now, straight away," Tiepao replied in a hurry.

"Aw," he sighed on his way out, "there's no changing my mother now. Sixty years old and no end in sight to the poison that comes out her mouth."

Little Liu left Water Village not long after the green official's arrival. It was a tearful farewell with Grandma Hui:

"Sister Hui, I never would have made it through these ten months without you. And of course, Brother Hui, brother Yu, and Sister Yu. All four of you are the very best people in Water Village. I'll never forget your kindness."

A few days later, Grandpa Yu put up the frame of his new house. Winter was just arriving in Water Village. The oilseed rape was a foot high already, and the wheat had grown as high as a man's finger. In the early mornings the sun would emerge through thin wreathes of cold mist like an egg yolk in the cooking pot, bright yellow but easy to look at. Meanwhile white frost pinned plants and trees tight to the ground like lime powder scattered everywhere.

After breakfast that morning, a big group of village men gathered in front of Grandpa Yu's house. Grandma Yu handed out cigarettes specially bought for the occasion, smiling at everyone. Some of the men lit up straight away, others carefully placed their cigarettes behind their ears.

The wooden frame for the six rooms of the new house was laid out on the ground, and the foundation stones for the building's pillars were neatly arranged, looking like big carved stone drums. These beautiful stones caught the eye of a few of the men, who commented:

"Uncle Yu, where did you get foundation stones this high quality from without anyone hearing about it?"

"A Buddha came and spoke with me in a dream," he joked, "and told me where to find them ready - made!"

In fact, he'd got them from a stone mason up in the mountains a few years earlier. He'd been helping the man build his house, and instead of money, he asked him to carve these stones and deliver them to Water Village for him.

Now everyone gathered around the stones to admire them and say how they were even better than the ones the rich landlords used to have before the liberation.

Meanwhile, Qiao'er was darting around between the men, enjoying the clamor until a shout from her mother put an end to the fun:

"That's enough horsing around, Qiao'er! You really don't want to get on the wrong side of that frame when it goes up!"

So, she ran off to the front of the Huis' house, and got a few village girls to do hopscotch with her. She was good with her hands, and quickly drew the squares with a piece of old tile she picked up from the ground. Just as she was hopping on it, she heard a big shout of "heave!" She looked over, and the big wooden frame was already up! The girls all stopped playing to watch. One of them asked Qiao'er:

"Which one is your bedroom, Qiao'er?"

"My dad says I have to wait till I'm older. Wangtuo gets the biggest room, that one on the left, and the one on the right is for Fatuo," she replied.

"What about you?" one of the other girls asked, "I guess you must be getting married off soon and that's why you don't have a room! When you come back to visit you'll sleep in the shed!"

Qiao'er didn't really understand, but knew that she was being made fun of, so she chased the girl, fists raised, ready to fight.

At the construction site, the men were preparing to haul the central beam of the house up into place. This in fact was the main event of the day's work, which Grandpa Yu had prepared for specifically by asking a geomancer when might be an auspicious time of day. He didn't tell anyone he'd done this, worried that people might say he was superstitious, but the men all secretly knew anyway.

The beam itself was made of camphorwood, thick and straight, a beauteous length of wood fine enough to make all the neighbors jealous. When judging the quality of a house, the beam holds many answers, in much the same way as a young would - be bride can be judged by the temperament of her mother.

Grandpa Yu had already wrapped a piece of red cloth around the middle of the beam, which he used as background for a ritual magic mirror made of bronze that he nailed to the wood, along with some ancient coins. Ancient coins are easy enough to get hold of, but the bronze magic mirror is much harder to find. In those days, most people made do with glass replicas of the real thing. Grandpa Yu didn't have to find it though — it came from his old house, where it used to hang up on the old beam. All he had to do was polish it and it shone with new light.

Now he looked up at the sun to judge the time. The moment had arrived. The men wrapped a brown rope, nice and new, around the beam at both ends, and with a shout of "up!" strong men heaved it up steady onto the frame.

As soon as it settled in place, Tiepao killed a sacrificial cockerel and threw it up over the beam. Firecrackers crackled, and everyone there proclaimed together:

"May it be good! May it be good! May it be good!"

According to custom, when a chicken is sacrificed for a new beam, its meat is given to the carpenter as his due. But Grandpa Yu was his own carpenter, so he had no choice but to keep it.

"Grandpa Yu, you can't keep the carpentry and the chicken all to yourself!" Tiepao joked.

Grandma Yu was in high spirits too, as she announced to the crowd:

"Everyone is invited to a midday meal! There will be chicken and soup for everybody here! I want you all to share in our good fortune!"

Once the roof tiles were on, the house finally looked like a house. The tiles were an exquisite finishing touch, prompting sighs and admiration from everyone who saw. This was without a doubt the finest house in Water Village, and all the other villagers freely admitted it.

In these final days of building, Grandpa Yu drew crowds of spectators who were at first fascinated by the way he reversed the usual order of building a house, and eventually allowed themselves to be persuaded that his way was better, and quicker. As he explained to them, leaving the frame and tiles till last gave him plenty of time to install the windows and walls at his leisure with none of the normal rush.

Meanwhile, the weather grew colder. The walls weren't installed yet, so the Yus kept a big fire going under the roof and people gathered around it every day to chat. One rainy day when the villagers didn't go out to work in the fields, Grandma Hui was sitting by the fireside stitching the sole of a cloth shoe. She asked Grandpa Yu:

"What're those that are written on the pillars? They look like something a Taoist priest would write, but I can't tell what they mean."

"I think these must be the only words I know that you don't!" Grandpa Yu laughed, "They're marks that are passed down from the originator of architecture, Carpenter Luban. They're compass markers, actually. See, this one says 'eastern mountain,' and this one says 'western mountain.' The east is on the left, and the west is on the right. Then there's 'forward mountain' that shows which way is forward, and 'back mountain, ' to show which way is back."

Grandma Hui took a closer look and said:

"But, it's south that's to the left, not east!"

"The east and west that carpenters use are different," he explained." We use the middle room of a house as a bearing point. Then, left is always east, and right is always west. East is the cardinal direction, and west is the secondary direction. That's why when Wangtuo gets married, he'll live in the eastern room, and Fatuo will live in the western room."

"What about you and Sister Yu?" Grandma Hui asked, laughing.

Grandma Yu answered for him:

"Oh, old fogeys like us don't get our own room, not with rotten, unfilial children like ours! We'll just sleep outside and make do with their scraps!"

"You're one to talk, sister!" Grandma Hui said, "Wangtuo and Fatuo are excellent young people. They wouldn't betray you like that! But my Qiangtuo ... I don't dare think I could rely on him. He has a temper like an ox!"

While the ladies talked, Grandpa Yu was absorbed in detailed little tasks around the house, until Grandma Hui asked him another question:

"Are those foreign words on the walls I see, Brother Yu? I've never seen a carpenter write foreign words before!"

A little embarrassed, he replied:

"They're English letters ... Wangtuo showed me how. There are so many wall pieces, so I numbered each one so they wouldn't get mixed up. I thought it'd be easier this way than writing out the old traditional numbers, you know, with all the confusing heavenly stems and earthly branches. So, I at least have one technique Luban didn't teach me!"

Grandpa Yu didn't really want or need help with the last bits of building, but You Hui had nothing else to do and so sat around handing him things anyway and taking absolutely no part in all this high - flung conversation of heavenly and earthly matters. Normally, Grandma Hui liked this quality in her husband — he was the quiet, honest type — but occasionally she'd get frustrated and angry with him and tell him she wished he had a bit more life in him instead of sitting around like an inanimate object waiting to erode.

Grandpa Yu moved his family into the new house on the twentieth day of the eleventh lunar month and of course, the day was marked by a big party with food and wine. According to Water Village custom, whenever someone moves into a new house they have to personally go around all their blood relatives and invite them to a party. Everyone else was perfectly welcome to turn up uninvited and have a drink. This event was called "drinking the village wine." Relatives are supposed to bring a present, but everyone else could come with or without, or they could just set off a firecracker on the hosts' behalf.

Everyone liked Grandpa Yu, so his party was well -attended, loud with drinking and constant firecrackers, and ran from noon well into the night. Amidst the constant stream of guests coming and going, everyone still managed to notice Qiuyu, who came in behind her son Tiepao. People also noticed that though there were two of them, they only set off one firecracker, and this despite the fact that normally only one person from each family would come to drink the village wine. This was too easy a subject for casual gossip, and the party guests happily indulged. But Grandpa and Grandma Yu didn't care. They were actually delighted to see each and every person that came through the door, even including Qiuyu, who shouted"congratulations!" across the room, and sat down next to her son Tiepao, from where her eyes followed Grandpa Yu around the room. When he walked by her table, she practically jumped to her feet to speak with him:

"Congratulations, Grandpa Yu!"

He clapped an appreciative hand on her shoulder and said, laughing:

"You're a senior guest tonight, Qiuyu! Make sure you have plenty to eat and drink!"

Qiuyu's lips were already shiny with grease from what she'd already eaten as she patted her belly and said:

"It's not often I come to a party at a rich man's house, so I've loosened my belt and I'm ready to stuff myself till I burst and die a happy death!"

The other guests at her table all laughed.

"When an old cow dies, everyone gets a share of the meat!" one of them joked.

"Qiuyu," another said, "if you die, we'll eat for three days and three nights by your funeral pyre, then we'll carry you up to the Mound of Ultimate Peace and it'll be the biggest, loudest procession Water Village's ever seen!"

Tiepao shot a glance across the table at his mother, and said:

"Who are you kidding? Nobody's going to carry her anywhere when she dies — people have to like you to do that for you. No, when she goes the best she can hope is people will pick up a few shovels and hoof her out of town."

None of this talk led to hard feelings, since Water Village people like to let their hair down at a party and joke about topics that are normally much more sensitive, death being one of them. Nobody gets angry when a party is swinging and the mood is right.

Qiuyu just laughed it off:

"How does the old proverb go? 'When ten thousand people hate you, death looks for you.' You'd have to add together three or four generations of Water Village people to get to ten thousand people! I'm not going anywhere until I've earned the hate of ten thousand people!"

"Then that would make you an evil spirit sent here to curse our village for one thousand years!" someone shouted.

It was cold and a big fire roared in front of the house, spreading warmth and light everywhere, illuminating excited men absorbed in simple party games, for example finger - guessing, where two players count to three and draw different number of fingers on one hand and guess how many the other has, with drinking for the loser. Outside, thin winter mist chilled the air, and nobody cared. Tiepao was the only one still sitting down eating, and the early arrivals had all gone home already.

The hangers - on were talking around the fire, while little children darted in and out, madly enjoying it all. Every now and then Wangtuo and Fatuo heaped more logs on the fire, sending flames flying up high into the air.

Someone caught sight of Qiuyu stretched out on the table and called over to Tiepao:

"Your mother's fallen asleep! Or wait, is she just drunk?"

Looking over at her, Tiepao said:

"She's not drunk! Mum, go home and sleep!"

He gave her prone body a push, and she slid softly off the table onto the floor. Everyone laughed:

"Your mother sure can sleep, Tiepao! Like a baby! She'll live to one hundred, no doubt about it, no, one thousand years old, sleeping like that!"

Tiepao tried to pull her up, saying again:

"Mum, go home and sleep!"

Something wasn't right. He kicked a bench out of the way and pulled his mother into his arms:

"Mother! Wake up! Mum, wake up!"

He kept shouting for his mother, and sobs began to shake his words. Grandma Hui came running over, checked her neck for a pulse and put her ear up against her nose.

"You Hui," she shouted, "quick, go get my medicine box!"

He returned a few moments later. She took out her stethoscope and listened for a while.

"She's gone," she said.

Tiepao sobbed:

"You left before I even burned spirit money for you! Why didn't you say something! Why did you just go!"

Grandma Yu quickly got some spirit money out from her room and set it alight in front of Qiuyu's body. Everyone else sprang into action, helping with all the many little things that needed to be done. In the village, people always know what to do when the unexpected happens. Firecrackers were set off outside Tiepao's house, another three piles of spirit money were burned at the door, and Qiuyu's body was carried to her home while Tiepao's whole family wailed their grief. The family of the bereaved is not allowed to handle the funeral arrangements — these things must always be handled by someone else. So, someone ran off to heat water for Grandma Hui, who was getting ready to prepare Qiuyu's body for her funeral.

"Too cold," she said, looking at the water, "Go add some more hot water. It's cold out today."

A few village women were standing nearby ready to assist Grandma Hui. One of them asked:

"Does it matter how hot the water is? Surely she doesn't know the difference now?"

Grandma Hui replied in a gentle voice:

"We must respect the dead. When serving the departed, you must think of them in the same way as if they were a living person."

True to her word, she bathed Qiuyu carefully and with tenderness, talking to her the whole time:

"Do you feel the water? It's nice and hot. Don't worry. I'm washing you good and clean to get you on your way! I'll wash your back first. You're so lucky to leave on a full stomach like this, no illness or pain or anything. I wonder what good deeds you did in your past lives to earn that luck!"

"Why did she go so suddenly, Grandma Hui?" one of the women asked.

"There were a few different things it could have been," she answered. "Acute inflammation of the pancreas perhaps, or maybe a heart attack, or maybe it was something else entirely. I'm not an expert; if there were a real doctor here, from the hospital, they'd know for sure what it is without having to look twice."

Someone asked Tiepao if her mother's grave clothes had been prepared.

"No, she hasn't so much as mentioned it," he replied, "She really believes she's going to live past a thousand and still be going strong."

Grandma Hui's lady assistants then began to discuss who they recommend asking to lend them grave clothes. They ended up with a few old ladies in the village who had their grave clothes prepared, and asked Tiepao to go ask around, since it's customary for the son to borrow grave clothes for his bereaved parent. Their advice to him was:

"Just sweet - talk them a little. It won't be hard — lending out grave clothes is a perfect way to earn some 'secret virtue' karma."

"Argh, forget grave clothes for a moment. I don't even have a coffin for her," Tiepao replied, dejected.

"Ah, well, I don't think many people would be willing to give you their coffin," Grandma Yu said, "but let me go have a word with your Grandpa Yu and see if he can carve one up for you quickly!"

Tiepao bowed deep to her, hands clasped in gratitude and reverence.

"Grandma Yu," he said, "a thousand years of joy will be your reward!"

With that, he set off to borrow grave clothes for his dead mother, while Grandma Hui shouted for more hot water:

"Can't let it cool down!"

Then the heavens boomed. A flash of light, and Qiuyu's jaw was gone, sheared off by lightning, so her chin hung ghoulishly from her dead head. Her lower eyelids peeled open too, eyes showing white rolled into the back of their sockets. The women, scared senseless, clutched at their chests.

"It's true! I believe it now!" someone shouted." She spoke too much evil, and see — struck by lightning, a lightning bolt hit her!"

"Shhh," Grandma Hui hurried to hush whoever it was; "She's dead. Hold your tongue!"

She bent down and pushed Qiuyu's chin back into place and re - closed her eyelids.

Meanwhile, someone else had just remembered a proverb about how lightning in winter is inauspicious:

"'When lightning strikes in winter cold, no cows will keep in field or fold.' Oh, now I'm scared next year there'll be a famine!"

Tiepao came running back, newly - borrowed grave clothes in his hands, sobs wracking his tragic voice as he called out to his mother:

"You're on the other side now mother, please bless and look over Water Village, the good people of Water Village! They're here to see you off!"

For her coffin, Grandpa Yu sawed off some of the wood set aside for his house, and worked all through the night to have it ready in the morning. When Tiepao heard this, he came running straight to his workshop and fell down on his knees at his feet and kowtowed three times, head banging loudly on the ground:

"Grandpa Yu, a thousand years of blessings to you! May your children and your grandchildren prosper and inherit ten thousand riches!"

"Don't worry about the coffin," Grandpa Yu said, "You should go — you have many other things to see to. I'll stay here and paint the coffin, it wouldn't be right to send your mother off in a box of white wood. Go ask the Taoist priest when is a good day for the funeral. Then, if there's enough time, I'll do two coats of paint. Otherwise, I'll just do one. Don't worry about the paint either — I have plenty to spare."

"I will go talk with the priest right away. Thank you for reminding me — since my mother died I just feel so numb, I can't think straight."

Tiepao paused for a moment, and then said:

"It was me who made her go drink the village wine at your house. She was too embarrassed to go at first, but I told her that Grandma Yu and yourself aren't the kind of people to hold a grudge. I said to her, 'Why don't you just go?' And then, she did ..."

"No one could have expected that to happen, Tiepao," Grandpa Yu said, "Don't cry. We'll give your mother a good send - off."

On his way out now, Tiepao called from the doorway:

"Grandpa Yu, I'll settle the money for the wood and paint with you later."

Grandpa Yu shook his head and said:

"Go. Now isn't the time to talk about money."

Tiepao did as he was told. A while later, he came running back to tell Grandpa Yu:

"I went to see the priest, but someone told me he's given up his job — he doesn't do any of the old Buddhist or Taoist ceremonies anymore because he's scared he'll get in trouble. Apparently, he was accused of 'spreading superstition.' Grandpa Yu, will you go talk to him? He won't listen to me, but if you go he'll have to listen!"

"I've got my hands full. I can't go off talking with the priest! Go back and talk with him, and tell him that if anyone criticises him for doing his job, I'll ask that person whether or not they'll be needing our help next time one of their relatives dies. Say exactly those words to him, and tell him I was the one who said them. Oh, and take a chicken to give him as well."

After Tiepao left again, Grandpa Yu got back down to work, not stopping until he'd carved out the shape of the coffin, around dawn. For breakfast, he went to Tiepao's house and ate some "funeral pyre rice."

Tiepao gave him the latest news about the priest:

"Grandpa Yu, the priest said he's not allowed to say those superstitious things anymore. He said it's all in the past now."

"And who told him that?" Grandpa Yu asked.

"He said it was some official, a higher - up, who told him."

Grandpa Yu fell silent. He finished his breakfast quickly, then hurried back home to work on the coffin. A few idlers came to watch him work and attempt to make small - talk with the hard - working carpenter:

"Qiuyu really said a lot of bad things in her life. Even after she was dead, God of Thunder still saw fit to take off her jaw," someone commented.

"We must respect the dead," Grandpa Yu replied, "I don't want to hear any more of that talk."

"Well, I'm just worried that when time comes for her to go up the mountain, the porters will take their chance to pay her back for her wrongs."

"Tiepao's a good son, why would anyone want to make him suffer?" Grandpa Yu said, woodchips flying from under his hands.

"It's not him, it's Qiuyu they want to make suffer."

"Listen to me when I say, the world of the living can only be at peace as long as the dead are also at peace. When she goes up the mountain, the porters better do it right. Don't spoil things for her family."

In the end, the priest chose the twenty fifth day of the eleventh month for the funeral, so no time to do a second coat of paint, especially since paint takes longer to dry in the winter. So, Grandpa Yu did the best he could, sanding the wood extra fine, so that even with just one coat of black paint the coffin shone.

On the day of the funeral, a thin sheet of frost had fragile claws in the ground. The porters, eight at the front and eight at the back, all wore straw sandals, their heads wrapped with strips of white cloth. Two people were entrusted with bearing the pole, one in front, one at the back. This was a solemn task — only people whom the village trusted and esteemed were allowed to take it up. As the coffin made its way on shoulders up the mountain road, Tiepao kneeled down at regular intervals to thank the porters:

"Village uncles, village nephews, thank you for carrying my mother safely up the mountain!"

Grandpa Yu followed behind, shouting out the special words the Taoist priest had prepared and written out for the funeral. They were different than normal:

"Smash Confucius!"

Then, the porters all chorused in union: "Aoh!"

"Disgraced General Lin Biao is an enemy of the people!"

"Aoh!"

Grandpa Yu kept chanting dutifully, but under his breath he cursed:

"A person's died here, but still they want us to care about all their earthly nonsense!" /uvfN8c4BzZkV5MycsLKDmKNvrN76FFDRskSgPwU3c3S0RIp70f++Wo4JFzSLuy+