Sword by Da Chen

Author:Da Chen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2008-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

Eight

“WHAT LUCK THAT we still have our necks,” Tong Ting cried, his words bursting out in a harsh whisper as he urged Miu Miu along. The crowd dispersed into a web of small streets and hidden lanes that fanned off from the gate.

“Be careful—don’t talk so loud. They are everywhere. See there, by the incense store.” She gestured to the royal guards watching the people from their post in an elevated box at the corner of the street where they stood guard.

“Which sex did you say our baby was, and what village did you name?” Tong Ting asked curiously.

“What did you write on your paper?” Miu Miu asked in return.

“I said a boy, and that we were from Goose Village. So what was your answer?”

“I told him none of that. I said that I was from a flock of villages, maybe Duck Village, Turtle Village, Cicada Village, or Willow Village. I finally settled on Cow Village. I told him my husband looked like a cow as other men of Bull Village do.”

“And what gender did you say our child was?”

“A calf or a duckling or a seedling.”

“We could have lost our necks!”

“But we didn’t.”

“How could you be so bold to make jest out of his questions?” Tong Ting wondered. “And how clever of you to play it up and profit from your madness!”

“No, you are the clever one. You gave me the cues to follow.”

He put his arm around her shoulders, giving her a squeeze, and got a slap back in return.

“We are not clear of the danger yet,” she warned, throwing off his arm.

“Our luck at the gate makes me feel as if we can fulfill any task together.”

“Luck will run thin. Strategy is what we need. I am only a country girl. Tell me, city boy, where do we go from here? I am lost. You have been here before, haven’t you?”

“Every day of my life since I turned twelve, I have been coming to this city, helping my father carry his fortune-teller stand, his ghost-chasing spade, and his heavy cloak.”

“What does he do here?”

“Here in the city he is a funeral weeper,” Tong Ting said. “Sometimes the son of a wealthy family is so happy about his father’s death that tears are hard to come by. Father cries so well that he sometimes even moves those coldhearted rich sons to tears. He is almost never out of work. There is always death as there is life.”

“What luck to be such a good weeper in a big city like this.”

“It is no luck, really. He has red, teary eyes after years of manning the hot stove for your father, and he pretends that it is his own wife whom he is mourning, not some stranger. My mother died when I was a young boy,” he said quietly, prompting Miu Miu to squeeze his arm in comfort.

The inner city looked like the stage of the regional operas performed in her muddy village square during the Spring Festival. From roof to roof, colorful banners were strung across the streets.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.