Under the Hawthorn Tree (29 page)

Now she owed Zhang Yi, and she wasn't sure how to repay him. She hoped he didn't want to go out with her, but Zhang Yi didn't appear to be acting any differently. Yes, he always said hello when they met, and sometimes carried his lunch over to say a few words, or else watched as she worked at the noticeboard, but he hadn't asked her to be his girlfriend, so she relaxed.

Mr Wan behaved much better than before. When handing out work he wouldn't speak to her and while the work he gave her was a bit on the heavy side, she preferred it that way.

She arranged to meet Old Third by the river. It was the first time he had seen her with her top tucked into her skirt. He leant in close to her ear and whispered, ‘Your outfit looks really good.'

She had always been embarrassed by her large breasts. All the young girls she knew were the same, they all wore bras that made them look flat. If when they ran their breasts bobbed, they would be laughed at. She was unhappy that Old Third had noticed. ‘You're just like that hunchback Wan, he said the same thing—'

‘What did he say?' Old Third interrupted.

She had no choice but to tell him, as well as the part where Zhang Yi had hit Wan. His face went ghastly pale and he bit his lips together tightly. The same look that Zhang Yi had had appeared in his eyes. ‘You don't understand how it makes a man feel when he hears that the girl he loves has been taken advantage of by another man.'

‘But he didn't take advantage of me.'

‘He made you jump down from a wall. What if you'd hurt yourself? What then?'

She tried to soothe him. ‘Don't worry, next time I won't jump, I'll push him off. It's already in the past,' she urged him repeatedly, scared that he would do something to Mr Wan. ‘Don't get involved, he's not worth it.'

‘Don't worry,' he said, his voice cracking, ‘I won't do anything stupid. I just want to move to Yichang as soon as possible, so I can take care of you. Being so far away, every day I worry about someone taking advantage of you, or that you'll exhaust yourself with work, or injure yourself. I don't ever get a good night's sleep. When I'm at work all I want to do is sleep, but when it's time for bed I'm thinking of you.'

His words touched her, so for the first time she took the initiative and embraced him. He was sitting and she stood before him. He rested his head on her chest and said, ‘I really could sleep like this.'

He really mustn't be sleeping well, she thought, and then he rushes over here during the day to see me. It's tiring him out. She sat down beside him and he lay down, made her lap his pillow, and fell asleep at once. Her heart ached to see him so tired, and she feared that even the smallest movement might startle him awake.

At nearly eight-thirty she woke him. ‘I have to go back otherwise if Mother gets back before me she'll worry.'

He looked at his watch and asked, ‘Did I just fall asleep? Why didn't you wake me? You go back at once . . . Sorry.'

‘Why are you apologising?' she smiled. ‘As long as we're together that's all that matters. Or is there something else?'

He laughed, embarrassed. ‘No, not exactly, it's just that we so rarely get to see each other and you let me fall asleep.' He sneezed a few times, his nose seemed blocked and his voice raspy.

‘I should have used something to cover you just now.' She was shocked. ‘You must have caught a chill while sleeping. We're right by the river here, and this stone bench is cold.'

Holding her he said, ‘I'm the one who slept and you're apologising? You should be hitting me instead.' He sneezed again, turned his head to one side. ‘I haven't been exercising so I'm in such bad shape, I'm like those glass whistles, blow and I break in an instant.'

‘You've probably caught a cold. Remember to take some medicine when you get back.'

‘It's nothing, I hardly ever get sick. I don't need to take medicine.'

He took her back home and she told him not to cross over with her as it was possible her mother was also on her way back. ‘But it's already dark, how can I relax knowing you're crossing on your own?'

‘If you're worried you could walk with me but on the other side of the river.'

So they walked on either side of the river, she taking special care to walk right along the edge so that he could see her. He was wearing a white vest and he carried a white short-sleeved shirt in his hands. A little way along she stopped and looked across to the other side where she saw him stop level with her. He raised his white shirt and flapped it in a circle.

Laughing to herself she wanted to say, Have you surrendered? Why are you flying the white flag? But he was too far away and wouldn't be able to hear her. She continued before stopping again to look over in his direction. He stopped and flapped his white shirt again. They walked and stopped like this until she got to the gate of the campus. The last time she stopped to look over at him she waited for him to leave but he didn't move. She waved her hand at him, shooing him away to find a place for the night. But he too started waving, perhaps to tell her to go first.

Then she saw him stretch out his arms, this time he was not waving, but rather it looked as if he was holding her. She checked that there was no one around and then reached out to him. The two of them stood, on either side of the river, their arms wide, holding each other. Tears welled in her eyes so she turned and ran into the campus where she hid behind the gate.

He was still standing there, with his arms reached out. Behind him stretched the long riverbank and the street lights shone above him. He was wearing white and looked so small, so lonely, so bleak.

That night Jingqiu slept badly and had several dreams about Old Third. One minute she was dreaming that he was coughing until he started bringing up blood, the next that he was fighting hunchback Wan. She kept thinking in her dream, as long as this is only a dream, as long as this is only a dream.

Later, when she woke and discovered it really had been a dream she let out a sigh of relief. The sun still hadn't risen but she couldn't get back to sleep. She didn't know if Old Third had found a place to stay the previous night. He said that sometimes he couldn't find a place because he didn't have the papers that said he was on a work trip required by all hotels, so he would stay in the pavilion overnight. Before midnight there would be people in the pavilion playing chess and cooling off after the day's heat, and then after midnight he would be left on his own, he said, thinking about her.

She didn't know when she would next see him – they hadn't been able to fix a time – though she knew that as soon as he had the opportunity he would come see her. Before, she had been afraid that he would tease her and not come, but it wasn't like that any more.

The next morning she went to the paper factory and as before went first to Wan Changsheng's office to be assigned her job for the day. As his door was still closed she sat on the ground outside and waited. Soon other workers came and sat down to wait too.

‘The boss must've tired himself out burning the midnight oil and now he can't get up,' someone said. ‘As long it all gets counted I don't care when he comes, the later the better.'

They waited until half past eight but Mr Wan still hadn't arrived and everyone was concerned because if they delayed much longer they wouldn't get any work that day. Some of them discussed going to find someone else at the factory to see if anyone knew what had happened to him.

After some time the factory sent a section manager who told them, ‘Last night Mr Wan was beaten up so he can't come today. I don't know what work he had planned to give you so I can't organise any. Why don't you all go home and come back tomorrow.'

The temporary workers made their way out of the factory, swearing and muttering, if we aren't going to work today they should've told us earlier. Half the day's already gone before they say anything, they've wasted our time.

Jingqiu started to fret, it must have been Old Third. But, she reasoned, after he took me back to the campus he stood there for ages, surely the crossing must have closed? He can't have swum across to beat Mr Wan up, surely? If he had wanted to swim across, though, it was perfectly possible. Was he saying goodbye to me yesterday when he reached out his arms and stood there for such a long time? Maybe he knew he would go to jail for what he was about to do?

She simply had to find out what exactly had happened, how badly Wan had been hurt and whether they had caught the person who had done it. Did the police even know who it was? She didn't know who to ask, and in desperation she tried everyone. She even ran to Mr Liu's office to ask him if he knew what was going on.

‘I've only just found out myself that he was beaten up,' Mr Liu replied. Seeing Jingqiu so worked up he became curious and asked, ‘Mr Wan usually stirs up negative feelings in people. I never thought you would be so worried about him.'

Jingqiu had no intention of explaining, and instead stuttered a few words in reply before running off to find Zhang Yi. Zhang Yi was still asleep and was woken by his roommates. He emerged in the hall, rubbing his eyes. ‘Have you heard? Someone beat up Mr Wan last night, he couldn't come to work.'

‘Really?' Zhang Yi replied excitedly. ‘Serves him right. Who did it? Whoever it was is more ruthless than me.'

‘I thought it was you,' Jingqiu replied.

‘Why did you think it would be me? I was working the night shift.'

‘I thought you might have been teaching him a lesson for last time,' Jingqiu replied, now thoroughly disappointed. ‘I thought you might be in trouble over it.'

‘Don't worry about me,' Zhang Yi replied, visibly touched. ‘It wasn't me, honest. Since coming to work here I've not been in a fight once. I only did that last time because he took advantage of you. You've always been good to me, helped me, ever since primary school.'

Jingqiu recalled all the times she had wished he would call in sick and felt ashamed. ‘What do you mean helped you, didn't the teacher tell me to do it?'

‘Did you notice I only ever listened to you? That's why the teacher asked you to look after me.'

Jingqiu didn't know whether to laugh or cry, and thought to herself, no matter how I tried to hold you back I couldn't, and you say you only listened to me.

‘If you're not working today,' Zhang Yi said, ‘let's go and watch a film.'

‘You've just got off your night shift,' Jingqiu said quickly. ‘You go to sleep, otherwise you won't have energy for work tonight.'

‘I'll go back to bed now then. See, I still listen to whatever you say.' He went back to his dorm to sleep and Jingqiu went back home.

At home Jingqiu was as fidgety as before, and the image of Old Third having his hands tied and being led away by the police kept floating before her eyes. How could you be so hot-headed? Is it worth giving up your life for this hunchback? But then she blamed herself. Why did she go blabbing about it in the first place? If she hadn't said anything, how would Old Third have known about it? If he got caught it'd all be her fault.

She thought about running to the police station to confess that it was all her doing, that she had hit him because he had taken advantage of her, that she'd had no alternative. But they would never believe her, and anyway, Mr Wan would definitely know if he'd been beaten up by a boy or a girl.

There was no way she could stay at home, so she ran back to the factory to see if there was any news. More and more people had heard about the incident. It really did seem that Mr Wan roused feelings of hatred in people. Not one person who had heard that he had been beaten up expressed any sympathy, and although they did not express pleasure at his misfortune, they did discuss it with gusto.

‘It must have been someone who really hates him,' someone offered. ‘I heard that they chose a strategic spot, and kicked him several times in the stomach and between his legs. It sounded terrible, his balls must have been totally smashed. He won't be having any sons.'

On hearing this Jingqiu knew that at least Mr Wan wasn't dead. The situation could still be resolved, Old Third wouldn't get the death sentence. But she also thought that if Mr Wan wasn't dead, that meant he could describe the person who had beaten him, which was in some ways worse. But Old Third was so intelligent, surely he wouldn't have let Mr Wan see his face?

The next day she went early to the factory and sat outside Mr Wan's office without knowing exactly what it was she was waiting for. It was immaterial now whether or not she had a job, the important thing was to find out about the latest developments. Had Old Third been captured? After a while the other temporary workers came one by one. The favourite topic of conversation, naturally, was the incident with Mr Wan.

One of the workers, known as Beady Eyes, had, up to now, always appeared a well-informed individual, and today was no exception. ‘It all happened in front of Mr Wan's door.' She spoke with authority. ‘He had just returned from taking a walk to cool off in the evening air when the person came out of the dark with a bag or something covering his head, and then he punched and kicked him. Apparently the attacker didn't say anything, so it must have been someone he knows well otherwise why would he cover his head and not want Mr Wan to hear his voice?'

Another middle-aged woman known as Crazy Lady Qin spoke up. ‘He must be an army guy who doesn't know his own strength.' Crazy Lady Qin had a particular affection for army guys because she had once dragged the head of an army propaganda department ‘into trouble', bringing with her an illegitimate child.

‘It was your propaganda guy, wasn't it?' someone teased. ‘The boss must have had a thing for you for your army man to come back and retaliate.'

Crazy Lady Qin didn't try to defend herself but stifled a grin. ‘Men are always beating each other up over some woman. The boss must have been beaten over one of ours,' she said, looking sideways at the women present. She had a squint, so even if the person she wanted to look at was right in front of her she had to turn her whole body to one side.