The Secret Talker by Geling Yan

The Secret Talker by Geling Yan

Author:Geling Yan [Geling Yan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperVia
Published: 2021-04-30T22:00:00+00:00


8

Hongmei talked about the weeks leading to her departure from Beijing. A storm had swept over the city, and like the prince in “Cinderella,” Professor Glen had found his bride. He returned to America before her but made sure to mail money for a plane ticket and two beautiful dresses. Half a year and mountains of paperwork later, she was preparing to leave the country.

It was early November, a night not too different from the night of her interrogation two years previously. She cycled back to the courtyard she’d once left each day to go to work, where she’d engaged in political study, taken part in the spring-cleaning, and distributed New Year’s goods. A classic Beijing northern wind was blowing, catching fallen leaves and garbage. She knew her ex-husband had a girlfriend. She’d said to him on the phone, “Congratulations on finding a good woman, Jianjun.” That was when he’d told her to come fetch her clothes and books.

Now she told the secret talker that after that phone call, the guilt she felt toward Jianjun stopped rearing up. He was very calm, telling her to bring someone to help when she came for her things, as it might be hard for a lone woman to run up and down the stairs so much—hinting that he wouldn’t be lending a hand. He also told her that his girlfriend would be there.

She rode past the canteen, bathrooms, and convenience store, and then abruptly remembered that the latter made their own ice creams in the summer. These melted easily because they contained a lot of milk. Jianjun would buy a dozen at a time, tying them together with a hankie, then would sprint the hundred yards to her sixth-floor office. They’d be half melted by the time he got there, and Jianjun would be too, smiling as he dripped with sweat. Next was a clinic, the light in the shift room as dim and grubby as it had been two years ago. The ambulance driver was still playing cards with Old Wang from the boiler room.

She locked up her bike and went into the clinic, where she made a phone call. She heard the person who answered shouting two stories above her. After a while, she heard a door open. The door to what used to be her home. She heard Jianjun’s footsteps coming down the stairs to the phone and could tell he was still wearing the fake leather slippers she’d given him. He said, “Hello, who is this?”

She said nothing. He could already hear it.

Five minutes later, he had entered the clinic. He’d changed into an almost-new shirt, and his hair was styled the way she liked it. He said, “Let’s go.” Not even thinking about it, she followed him out the clinic’s front door and up the stairs. Along the way, he asked her when she was leaving for America and if her parents were coming to see her off. She answered his questions one by one. As for the



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