Under the Hawthorn Tree (35 page)

The man recognised Jingqiu. ‘Hi, “mung bean soup”, isn't it?'

‘Is she your “mung bean soup”?' the woman asked, as she came to the door.

The man laughed. ‘No, she's Sun's. I said that eating venison stoked the old fires, and she said a bit of mung bean soup would sort it out.' He laughed again.

Jingqiu didn't care what they were talking about. ‘Do you know when he gets off work?'

‘He? Who d'you mean?' the man joked.

‘Do you know Old Cai here?' the woman asked, pointing at the man. ‘He's my husband. I've come for a visit, and I've only just arrived today. You must have been here a while, do you know if my Cai has any mung bean soup of his own in the village? They're all having things on the side, not one of them's decent or honest, got one in each village, they have.'

‘Sun's been transferred,' he said, ignoring his wife. ‘Didn't you know?'

‘Where did he get transferred?'

‘To the second unit.'

Jingqiu was struck dumb, how could he be transferred and not tell her? She stood rooted to the spot, before eventually plucking up the courage to ask, ‘Do you know . . . where the second unit is based?'

Cai's wife tugged at his sleeve. ‘Don't go causing trouble. This Sun belongs to someone else, if he'd wanted her to know, wouldn't he have told her? Be careful not to stir up trouble.'

‘You've got it all wrong,' Jingqiu stuttered awkwardly. ‘I just wanted to give him back this book. I've disturbed you . . .' With that she ran away.

Little Zhou saw her return, out of sorts, and asked her a few times if she was okay, but she didn't reply. They had already started cooking when they got back to the farm, so Jingqiu ran straight to the kitchen to lend a hand. After they had finished serving the students and the teachers were sitting down to eat, however, her head started hurting and she completely lost her appetite, so she made her excuses and went to her room to sleep.

The next day, Little Zhou wanted to go with her to fetch the water, but Jingqiu refused. ‘Don't, you've got heart problems, you shouldn't be collecting the water.'

‘My heart problems came about because I was scared to be sent down, that's all, let me help you. You're always the one who collects the water, why doesn't Miss Zhao ever do it?'

This had never occurred to Jingqiu; when the water ran out she just went to get more. But she was worried that people might not approve if Little Zhou helped her, so she insisted, ‘Look, I'll do it, okay?'

‘Do you think people will gossip?' he laughed. ‘In that case you shouldn't have gone to lie down instead of eating your dinner. Any gossip now isn't going to match yesterday's.'

‘What were they saying yesterday?'

‘That we got up to things on our drive yesterday . . .'

‘What exactly were they saying?'

‘That I did you, of course,' he grinned cheekily.

Jingqiu felt faint; she thought she knew what ‘doing someone' meant. ‘Who . . . who said that?' she said, shaking. ‘I want to speak to them.'

‘No, don't,' Little Zhou said. ‘If you go asking them I won't tell you anything ever again.'

‘Why would they say such things?'

‘We were back late yesterday, and you were in a strange mood. Then you didn't eat but went straight to bed. Not to mention the fact that I have a reputation for being a bit of a rascal, so it's no wonder they jumped to that conclusion. But I already explained, so you don't need to say anything more. The bigger deal you make of it, the more people will talk.'

‘Then, did you say where we went yesterday?' Jingqiu was extremely nervous.

‘Of course not, relax. I may be a rascal, but I have my own sense of honour.' Then a grin spread again across his face, and he continued, ‘Anyway, with you being so pretty it'd be worth me getting a bad reputation . . .'

Jingqiu was starting to suspect that it might all just be Little Zhou talking it up. He had always loved to suggest something was going on, saying that other people were gossiping about them. She didn't say any more. She started out to collect the water, but he pulled at her shoulder pole and wouldn't let her leave. ‘What exactly was going on yesterday? Were you visiting your boyfriend? He wasn't there, or was he hiding from you?'

‘Don't go making wild guesses, there's no boyfriend . . .' She thought for a moment and then asked, ‘Do you know what “mung bean soup” means?' She explained the circumstances behind the first time she heard the phrase, and added some selected passages from her conversation with Old Cai and his wife.

‘Don't you understand anything?' Little Zhou looked at her. ‘They're talking about when a man feels hot, when he wants to . . . do it to a woman. But you didn't get it, and told them to eat some mung bean soup to cool off. Do you think mung bean soup helps for that kind of fire? They were laughing at you for being so stupid.'

‘Forget it,' she muttered. ‘I can't be sure with you, I don't get what you're talking about, and you don't understand what it is I'm asking.'

Jingqiu had not yet recovered from her sulk since returning from West Village and after hearing Little Zhou's explanation of the meaning of mung bean soup she descended even deeper into it. So, Old Third was two-faced, and had been all along; to her face he acted like their relationship was sacred, yet behind her back he was talking about her in this way with his friends. It was disgusting. He went without saying anything, and he didn't even try to tell me, she thought, making me go all the way there for nothing, to be humiliated and set everyone talking.

The problem was she couldn't be sure that Old Third really was like that, it could all be a misunderstanding. The thing she was most afraid of was that she might never find out, that she would be kept guessing and in a state of fear and anxiety. No matter how bad the situation was, as long as everything was brought out into the open, there would be nothing to be scared. She decided that the next time she went to Yanjia River with Little Zhou to do the shopping she would visit Fang at the middle school and ask for Old Third's address, then she would ask Little Zhou to take her there so that Old Third could explain what was going on, to her face.

But Mr Zheng never sent her to do the shopping with Little Zhou again. When they needed anything he called on Miss Zhao to go or else went himself. Not only that, but when he went back to the school to report on their work he told Jingqiu's mother about what had happened with Little Zhou. Her mother immediately wrote a letter for Mr Zheng to take back to the farm.

When Jingqiu saw her mother's letter she felt dizzy. How come everyone loves to make something out of nothing? Can't it just be that two people went out to buy rice and were just a bit late coming back? Do they really need to see hidden meaning in it? But it was not easy for her to get angry as these people were all her former teachers, and she still greatly respected them.

She pondered the problem from all angles but she couldn't accept what was being implied, so she ran to find Mr Zheng. ‘Mr Zheng, if you think I have done anything wrong you can tell me to my face, don't tell my mother. She is a nervous person, these rumours will only make her sick.'

‘I only did it for your own good. Little Zhou has a violent temper and is an ignorant boy. What are his good points exactly?'

Jingqiu said, wounded by the injustice of it all, ‘But we are not . . . boyfriend and girlfriend. We've only had contact because of our work, why did you have to go suggesting all of that?'

Mr Zheng did not answer her question and instead said, ‘The thing is, our school has lots of good comrades, such as Mr Quan from your volleyball team. He's a good man, he's made a lot of progress over the last few years, he's joined the Party, been promoted to cadre, he's honest and dependable . . .'

Jingqiu couldn't believe her ears, everyone was always telling her she was too young and that she shouldn't be thinking about this sort of thing and now Mr Zheng was suggesting that she should find herself a nice young comrade then she could start thinking about this sort of thing. He seemed to be saying, I told your mother not because you shouldn't
have a boyfriend, but because you shouldn't have
that
boyfriend. She was too scared to say anything more apart from repeat her innocence, before heading back to her room.

Part of her also found it quite amusing; before, when she was in junior middle school, she had had some feelings for Mr Quan, especially when he had first come to No. 8 Middle School. He was young and inexperienced, and as none of the students were scared of him they would often tease. But after that he started to get friends in high places. She didn't know why, but from the moment Mr Quan started to climb his way upwards in status she rather stopped liked him, maybe because she liked underdogs the best. Now, hearing Mr Zheng speak like that about him, she was starting to detest her former teacher. It was almost as if he was using his connections in order to push Little Zhou aside and get ahead.

She had planned to remain friendly towards Little Zhou, while distancing herself from him in order to avoid more gossip, but after seeing Mr Zheng put him down just to promote another teacher, she began to sympathise with Little Zhou. He was only a temporary worker, and she was reminded of her own time as a temp. Furthermore, he preferred to have a bad reputation rather than reveal what exactly had happened that day they came back late. She respected his ‘honourable rascal' code of ethics.

A few days later it rained heavily, damaging the huts on the farm and the mountain road. Mr Zheng used this as an excuse to ask Mr Quan to come from Yichang to help for a week on the farm. Jingqiu didn't have an ounce of feeling for Mr Quan, she couldn't even be bothered speaking to him, so when they bumped into each other she only greeted him quickly and went on.

It was not until the last week of November that Jingqiu had another opportunity to leave the farm with Little Zhou, this time because the students had not brought enough money for their mess fee and they were fast running out of rice. They couldn't let the students run back home to collect more money so Mr Zheng had no option but to send a teacher to go from door to door collecting ration tickets. Miss Zhao knew that this was a terrible job that would result in aggravation from the parents, it would be hard work with no reward in other words, so she made excuses and it was left to Jingqiu to do it.

Mr Zheng called Jingqiu to one side and spent ages warning her of the dangers, before eventually allowing her to return with Little Zhou to Yichang to ‘collect their debts'. Once they had finished collecting the money, they were to buy rice in the city, and Little Zhou would take it back to the farm. She, in the meanwhile, could take two days' holiday.

Little Zhou was also aware that Mr Zheng was purposefully keeping them apart, and he complained a great deal about it on the way. As she listened to him she started to form a plan. Once they got to Yanjia River she asked Little Zhou to stop, saying that she wanted to see a friend and it would only take a couple of minutes.

‘Boy or girl?'

‘Girl,' she replied firmly.

‘If it's a boy again, I'm coming in for a fight,' he joked. ‘Last time it got me a bad reputation, I'm not going along with it this time.'

Once they arrived at Yanjia River she asked where the middle school was. Luckily it was not a big town so the school was located close to the main road. Little Zhou drove the tractor to the school and switched off the engine. ‘This time I don't have anything in the tractor, so I don't need to watch over it. I'll come with you.'

Jingqiu wouldn't let him come, which only caused him to be more curious. ‘Didn't you say it was a female friend? Why won't you let me come? Are you afraid that your friend will take a liking to me?'

There was no way to win against him. The more she tried, the more he talked, and anyway, she was about to ask him to drive to the second unit so she wouldn't be able to hide anything from him. She gave up, and let him come with her into the school. They stood under one of the school's trees, waiting for the school bell. Jingqiu asked a pupil where Fang's classroom was, and then she asked someone else to ask her to come out.

Fang looked at Jingqiu, then at Little Zhou, and said sadly, ‘Brother is in the county hospital, can't you go and visit him? You may not want him any more, but . . . you could at least be a friend to him. Go and see him, it's . . . terminal.'

Jingqiu was extremely upset Lin had contracted a terminal illness. She wanted to explain that it wasn't that she didn't want him, it was just that she didn't love him, but the word ‘terminal' scared her stiff, she couldn't get the words out. ‘Do you know which ward he's in?' she asked quietly.

Fang wrote the address of the hospital and the number of his ward on a piece of paper and gave it to her, then stood, silent, her eyes filled with tears. Jingqiu also stood in silence, then asked carefully, ‘Do you know what it is he's got?'

‘Leukaemia.'

Jingqiu felt that it would be an inappropriate moment to ask for Old Third's new address, and even if she asked she wouldn't have time to go. It would be better to sort it out after she had been to visit Lin.

The school bell rang again and Fang whispered, ‘I'm going back to my classroom. You go by yourself . . . don't take your friend.' Jingqiu was frozen to the spot.

‘Who's sick?' Little Zhou asked. ‘Your face has turned as white as a ghost . . .'

‘It's her older brother. I used to live with them, I want to go and see him, he helped me a lot. Do you know how you get leukaemia?'

‘I heard someone say that it only appeared after the atomic bomb, but someone at my school had it and died from it. Apparently it's . . . incurable.'