The Pearl Jacket and Other Stories. Shouhua Qi
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,