Strange Beasts of China by Yan Ge

Author:Yan Ge [Ge, Yan]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Melville House
Published: 2021-07-13T00:00:00+00:00

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JIANG TAN SHOWED UP THAT NIGHT – ON MY TV SCREEN. OUR local station was doing a special report on a female thousand league beast whose bones had been laid out on a slab. Jiang Tan stood nearby, pretty as ever. The camera panned across the huddled skeleton of the young beast, shreds of clothing clinging to the bones. ‘We found her just this afternoon,’ said Jiang Tan. ‘Very well-preserved. Death by suicide.’

‘Why did she kill herself?’ the reporter asked.

Jiang Tan’s smile could have brought down cities. Half of Yong’an held its breath. ‘Maybe she was advanced for her age, and had early-onset depression.’ I almost smashed my screen in.

In the middle of the night, the idea for a story came to me. If thousand league beasts knew everything that would happen in the next thousand years, then they’d be born knowing their own fate. Perhaps an entire generation of young beasts killed themselves exactly because of that, thereby ending their species.

Through that, I threaded a love story between two beasts. The ironclad rule of a newspaper fiction writer: never leave out the romance. The plot was full of holes, of course, but nobody expects short stories to make sense.

I hastily handed in my draft the next day. The love story was so mawkish, it was accepted right away. ‘You wrung every bit of emotion out of the older beast falling for the younger,’ my editor gushed. ‘When the young beast committed suicide and the older one starved to death, tears came to my eyes.’

I laughed and hung up. Hugging myself, I sat on the balcony and enjoyed the waning autumn sun. When my professor read this shitty short story, he’d probably feel physical pain. The thought warmed me. I couldn’t stop smiling.

When I first met him, I was a shy, awkward girl who didn’t talk to strangers. I’d insisted on gaining admittance to the zoology department because I wanted to learn all about beasts. On the first day of school, he showed up in a black jumper, dark-rimmed glasses on the high bridge of his nose. He strode up to the lectern and stared at us for a beat, chewing gum. ‘Forget everything you know,’ he said. ‘I’m here to rescue you.’

The lecture theatre burst out laughing, and I couldn’t help joining in. I was third on the list when he took attendance. He called my name three times, pretending he couldn’t hear because my voice was too soft. Irritated, I walked out, and he called after me in a rage, ‘If you have the guts, don’t ever come back!’

I didn’t have the guts, so I came back. I wanted to study zoology, and he was the very best teacher we had, world-famous, a credit to our city and our school.

The last time we quarrelled, we actually ended up hitting each other. Pushed beyond endurance, he held me and roared, ‘When will you learn to do as I say?’

‘Never!’ I spat.

He shoved me away with another roar and sat down.

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