Chapter 11 Chapter nine

Kaijing and I tasted the forbidden fruit for the first time on a summer night with a bright moonlight.We sneaked to the end of an unoccupied corridor and hid in the storage room, far away from everyone's eyes and ears.I felt no shame or guilt, just a wild and fresh feeling, as if I was traveling in heaven, flying on top of the waves.If this is bad luck, let it come.I am the daughter of Aunt Bao. Aunt Bao is a woman who cannot restrain her desire. That is how she gave birth to me.Kaijing's back is so smooth, so warm, and so fragrant, how could Doom be so wonderful?I feel his lips on my neck, is this also bad luck?He unbuttoned the back of my blouse and it fell on the floor and I was ruined, but I was happy.Then my clothes slipped off one by one, and I felt myself getting lighter and darker before my eyes.He and I are two shadows, black, weightless, embracing each other, soft and boneless but passionate and wild, with no distractions—when I finally opened my eyes, I found more than a dozen people staring at me.

Kai Jing laughed out loud. "It's okay, they're not real people." He tapped on one of them.This is the whitewashed scene of hell, now turned into a Christmas carol. "They're like the audience didn't see a good show," I said, "so unhappy." There was the Virgin Mary, screaming with her mouth open, and shepherds with horns on their heads, little Jesus' eyes protruded like a frog's.Kaijing put my coat on Mary's head, my skirt on Joseph, and my underwear on baby Jesus.Then Kai Jing covered the three wise men with his own clothes, and turned the shepherd around so that all the statues faced the wall.Then Kai Jing directed me to lie in the haystack, and then we became entangled shadows again.

But what happened next was not as picturesque as that of the fourth state, like trees with sparse branches and leaves reflecting the skylight.We expected it to be wonderful, but the hay made us itchy and the ground stinks of urine.A mouse crawled out of its nest, causing Kai Jing to roll off of me and knock baby Jesus out of the cradle.The frog-eyed monster lay beside us like an illegitimate child of ours.Then Kai Jing stood up and struck a match to look for the mouse.When I saw Kai Jing's private parts, Na Hua'er had already lowered his head.I also found lice on his thigh.After a while, he pointed to my butt and said there were three lice.I jumped up and danced and tried to get rid of the lice. Kai Jing told me to turn around and help me find the lice. I tried not to laugh or scream. When he found it, he burned the lice to death with a matchstick. up.I took my cloak from the Virgin Mary's head, and the Virgin was beaming, as if glad to see that I was ashamed despite my unsatisfied desires.

Both of us hurriedly dressed, both too embarrassed to speak, and he didn't speak as we walked me back to my room.When I got to the door, he said, "I'm sorry, I should control myself." I felt a pang in my heart, and I didn't want to hear his apology and regret.But he said again: "I should wait until the time of our bridal chamber." At this time, I stopped breathing excitedly, and couldn't help crying.He hugged me and told me that he would be my lover for eternity, and I, like him, swore to love each other forever. The two of them were only talking about love, when suddenly the voice of the nun who lived next door to me came: "Hush!" We The two fell silent, and heard her muttering: "I don't think about others at all, I'm not even as good as a chicken..."

The next morning, I felt as if I was a different person, with joy and worry in my heart.Sister Yu once said that among the girls in the alley, you can tell which one is a prostitute at a glance. The eyes of a prostitute are like chickens.I couldn't figure out what she meant by that.Does it mean that their eyes have turned red, or have they become smaller?Can others see my secrets when they look into my eyes?As soon as I entered the hall for breakfast, I saw everyone was there, forming a circle, talking seriously.As soon as I walked in, it seemed that all the teachers raised their eyes and stared at me with shocked and sad expressions on their faces.Then Kai Jing shook his head and said, "Bad news." I was so frightened that my face was pale and my limbs were weak, even if I wanted to run, I couldn't run.Will they kick me out?Did Kaijing's father not agree to our marriage?But how did they know?Who said this?Who saw us?Or who heard it?Kai Jing pointed to the scientists' short-wave radios, and everyone went back to listen to the radio.I can't help thinking: Is it even talking about the two of us on the radio?Still speaking in English?

Kaijing finally told me the truth, the bad news was not that our affair had come to blows, but I didn't feel lucky in the slightest.He said: "The Japanese launched an attack last night, near Beijing, and everyone said that this time there must be a war." When I heard Marco Polo on the radio, how about Marco Polo, I asked, "What is this Marco Polo?" Sister Yu said, "It's the Marco Polo Bridge. The Japanese pirates have captured this bridge." I was surprised to hear her use such a derogatory term for the Japanese.In school, she is the one who teaches students not to swear at people, even people we hate.Sister Yu went on to say, "They fired guns into the sky, saying it was a drill. So our team fired back at them to teach these crooks a lesson. Then a Japanese pirate disappeared. Maybe the coward was scared away, but the Japanese said The disappearance of one person is enough reason to declare war," said Sister Yu, who translated the English from the radio, making it difficult to tell what was news and what was her comment.

"What is this Marco Polo Bridge," I said, "where is it?" "On the north side, Wanping," said Miss Grutoff, "it's very close to the railway station." "But that's Marco Polo Bridge, forty-six miles away from our village," I said. "When did they change the name of the bridge?" "More than six hundred years ago," Miss Grutov said, "Marco Polo praised this bridge, and people called it the Marco Polo Bridge." Everyone continued to talk about the war, but I I was wondering why no one in our village knew that the bridge had changed its name so many years ago. "Which way are the Japanese coming?" I asked. "Should we go north to Beijing, or go south to our place?"

At this time, everyone suddenly stopped talking.A woman stood in the doorway, the bright daylight came from behind her, she stood in the shadows, I couldn't see who it was, only she was wearing a long robe.I heard her ask: "Does Liu Ruling still live here?" I squinted my eyes.Who is the one?So many things have puzzled me already, and here comes this man.I walked towards her, and the confusion in my heart gradually turned into a guess, and the guess turned into a certainty.It's Aunt Bao.I often dream of her ghost returning.Now, just like in a dream, she can speak, and there is no scar on her face, just like in a dream, I rushed to her, and finally, this time, she didn't push me away.She opened her arms and shouted, "You really recognized your own sister!"

The morning dew gradually turned to frost, and we got married twice that winter, one in American style and one in Chinese style.At the American wedding, I wore a white wedding dress given to me by Miss Grutoff, which she had prepared for her own wedding, but never had a chance to wear.Her lover died in the Great War, so this is an ominous dress.But when she gave it to me, her eyes were filled with tears of happiness, how could I refuse?At the Chinese wedding banquet, the red dress and red hijab I wore were all embroidered by Gao Ling for me. After the banquet, students and friends carried us into the bridal chamber.The bridal chamber is exactly the room where Kai Jing and I had our first kiss and made jokes.Now the room is clean, no mice, no urine, no fleas, no hay.A week ago, the students painted a new layer of yellow paint on the walls and painted the beams red.They pushed the statues all over the side.In order to keep the three wise men from staring at us, I hung a curtain with rope to keep the statue behind.On the night of our bridal chamber, the students made a fuss outside the house for a long time, teasing us with jokes, laughing wildly, and setting off firecrackers.In the end they got tired and left, finally Kai Jing and I faced each other alone for the first time as husband and wife.That night, nothing was forbidden, and we had sex in bed.

The next day, we should visit our in-laws.So we went through two doors along the corridor and came to the room where Teacher Pan lived.I bowed to him, served tea to my father-in-law, and called him "Papa", and everyone laughed at the etiquette.Then I drove to a small shrine, and I put Aunt Bao's photo in a frame and placed it inside.We also poured tea for Aunt Bao, then burned incense, Kai Jing called Aunt Bao "Mom", and promised Aunt Bao that she would take care of my family, including my ancestors. "I'm part of your family now, too," he said. Suddenly, a burst of cold air rushed down from my neck.Why?I thought of my ancestor who died in the monkey's mouth hole.Is it for this reason?I remembered the bones we never put back in the cave, and the family curse.What does it mean to think of these things at this time?

“There are no poisonous curses in this world,” Kai Jing told me later. "Those are superstitions, and superstitions are nothing to worry about. The only curse is the worry you can't let go of." "But those are all Aunt Bao told me. Aunt Bao is very smart." "She was self-taught and only exposed to those old ideas. She didn't have the opportunity to study science and go to university like me." "Then why did my father die? Why did Aunt Bao die?" "Your father died in an accident, and Aunt Bao committed suicide. You told me that." "But why did God arrange it this way?" "This is not God's arrangement. There is no reason at all." I love my husband so much that I try to embrace these new concepts: no curses, no bad luck, no good luck.When I see dark clouds in the sky and start worrying, I tell myself there's no reason for it.When Feng Shui turned the other way, I tried to convince myself that there was no mystery at all.For a while, I lived happily without so many unnecessary worries. One spring afternoon, the students were acting.I remember very clearly that it was a scene in the movie, which was translated into Chinese by Miss Dowler.The students were mindful until "kneel down and start praying".At that moment, my life completely changed.Teacher Pan rushed into the hall, panting and yelling, "Kaijing and the others have been arrested." Over the next two months, I gradually lost weight.Gao Ling forced me to eat, but I couldn't taste anything.I always thought of the spell of Houzuidong, and I told Gao Ling about it, and she was the only one.Sister Yu presided over the prayer meeting, praying for a miracle to happen, and praying that the Communist forces would quickly defeat the Japanese, so that Kaijing, Lao Dong and Xiao Zhao could return to us quickly.Teacher Pan walked in the yard all day, and her eyes were clouded by cataracts.Although the battle did not come to the side of the mountain, Miss Grutoff and Miss Dowler still did not allow the students to go out and go out of the courtyard.They all heard many scary stories about how Japanese soldiers raped young girls.They found a large American flag and hung it over the gate, as if it were a talisman that would protect us from evil spirits. Two months after the three disappeared, half of Sister Yu's prayers were answered.Early that morning, three people walked in through the gate.Miss Grutoff rang the bell to let everyone know.Everyone shouted at once, saying that Kai Jing, Lao Dong and Xiao Zhao are back.I ran across the yard in such a hurry that I fell and almost broke my ankle.Kaijing and I embraced tightly, weeping with joy.His face was thinner and darker; his hair and skin smelled of smoke.His eyes were different too.I remember thinking at the time, his eyes dimmed.Now I think that at that time, he had lost some of his life and vitality. "The Japanese took this mountain," he told us. "Scatter our troops." In this way, Sister Yu knew that half of the miracle she prayed for had not been realized. "They'll come for us." I heated up the bath water, sat him in the narrow wooden tub, and wiped him with a cloth.Then we went into the bedroom, and I nailed up the lattice with cloth to make it dark.We lay down and he whispered to me as we made love.All my senses were awakened, I couldn't believe I was in his arms right now, his eyes were looking at me.He said, "There's no curse." I listened so hard, I made myself believe I could hear him. "You're brave, you're strong," he added.I wanted to refute him that I didn't want to be so strong, but I was already sobbing and speechless. "You can't change that," he said. "It's your nature." He kissed my eyes, one side for the other. "Qiaoxiaoqianxi, beautiful eyes looking forward to Xi. You are so beautiful. Life and death are as good as life, and you will talk to Zicheng. Hold your hand and grow old together with you." He said, and said, until I promised that I believed him , until I can bear no more caresses. That night, the Japanese really came to look for Kai Jing, Old Dong and Xiao Zhao.Miss Grutoff was brave enough to declare that she was an American and that Japanese had no right to enter the orphanage.The Japanese ignored her protests at all, they rushed in, and when they were about to enter the room where the students were hiding, Kai Jing and two others came out and told them not to look any further.I rushed up to go with him, but was stopped. A few days later, I heard cries of pain in the hall.Gao Ling came to me with red eyes, and I stopped her from telling her, but I already knew what had happened in my heart.For the next month, I tried my best to keep Kai Jing alive in my heart and mind.After a while, I tried my best to convince myself of his words: "There is no poisonous curse." Finally, I finally got Gao Ling to tell the truth. Two Japanese officers interrogated them day and night, trying to get them to tell where the Communist troops had gone.On the third day, they asked everyone to line up, including Kai Jing, Lao Dong, Xiao Zhao, and thirty other villagers.A soldier stood nearby with a bayonet.The Japanese officer said that he would ask them again, one by one.Then, one by one, they shook their heads and fell down one by one.In my head, sometimes Kai Kyung is the first to fall, sometimes he's the last, sometimes he's in the middle. I wasn't there when it happened.But the only way to get this scene out of my mind is to hide it in my memory.In my memory, everything is safe, he was with me, he kissed me, and said to me: "Life and death are inseparable, talk to Zicheng. Hold your hand, and grow old together with you."