Frog

In the spring of 1966, early on Qingming, grave-sweeping day, Gugu came to the village to perform routine exams on girls who had reached child-bearing age. She was accompanied by the apprentice we knew only by her nickname: Little Lion. Eighteen years old, short and stocky, she had a pug nose surrounded by pimples, eyes too wide for her face and dishevelled hair. When they’d finished their exams, Gugu brought Little Lion home with her for dinner.

Wheat cakes, hard-boiled eggs, yellow onions and fermented bean sauce.

We’d already eaten, so we watched Gugu and Little Lion eat.

The girl was so shy she wouldn’t look us in the eye. Her pimples stood out like red beans.

Seeming to take to the girl, Mother asked her one question after another, moving increasingly close to the marriage question. That’s enough questions, Sister-in-law, Gugu said. You’re not looking for a daughter-in-law, are you?

You must be joking, Mother said. How could a village woman like me aspire that high? Little Lion is on the national payroll. There isn’t one among your nephews who’s worthy of her.

Little Lion’s head drooped lower; her appetite seemed to have left her.

My classmates Wang Gan and Chen Bi came running up at that moment. Wang Gan was so focused on the inside of the house he stepped on a bowl of chicken feed and smashed it.

You clumsy oaf, Mother scolded. Why don’t you look where you’re going!

Wang Gan just rubbed his neck and sniggered like an idiot.

How’s your sister, Wang Gan? Gugu asked. Has she grown some?

About the same.

Tell your father when you get home — she swallowed a bite of wheat cake and wiped her mouth with her handkerchief — that your mother mustn’t have another child. If she tries, her uterus will come right out of her.

Don’t talk to them about women’s health, Mother said.

Why not? Gugu replied. I want them to know how hard it is to be a woman. Half the women in this village have a descended uterus, the other half have inflammations. His mother’s uterus has torn loose and hangs there like a rotten plum. But Wang Jiao wants another son. The next time I see him… and you, Chen Bi, your mother isn’t well either —

Mother cut her off and turned to me: Scram, she scolded. You and your knucklehead friends go play outside. I don’t want you goofing around in here.

Out in the lane, Wang Gan said, Xiaopao, you have to treat us to some roasted peanuts.

Why’s that?

Because we have a secret, Chen Bi said.

Tell me, I said.

First treat us to some peanuts.

I don’t have any money.

What do you mean, you don’t have any money? Chen Bi said. You stole a piece of cast-off copper from the state-run farm and sold it for one-twenty. Did you think we didn’t know?

I didn’t steal it, I jumped to my own defence. They threw it away.

Whether you stole it or not doesn’t matter. You did sell it for one-twenty. Your treat, come on. Wang Gan pointed to the swing set next to the threshing square, where people had gathered around an old man who sold roasted peanuts amid the back-and-forth creaks of swings.

After I divided thirty cents’ worth of peanuts into three portions, a dreadfully earnest Wang Gan said, Xiaopao, your aunt is going to marry the county Party secretary to be his second wife.

Like hell! I said.

Once she’s married to him, Chen Bi, said, your family will be in a much better position. Before you know it your brothers and your sister, even you, will be moved into the city, where you’ll get jobs, eat marketable rice, go to college, and become Party cadres. Don’t forget your friends when that happens.

That Little Lion is quite the looker! Wang Gan blurted out.

14

When the ‘sweet potato kids’ were born, the household heads could register them with the commune and receive coupons for sixteen and a half feet of cotton and two jin of soybean oil. The amounts were doubled for twins. The receivers’ eyes would be moist and their hearts would swell as they gazed upon the gold-coloured oil and the cotton coupons, printed with sweet-smelling ink. What a wonderful new society! Gifts for the newborn. The nation needs people, Mother said. The nation needs workers; it values people.

The masses were grateful for the gifts received and silently vowed to repay the nation with even more children. The wife of the granary watchman, Xiao Shangchun, who was the mother of my classmate Xiao Xiachun, had already given my friend three kid sisters, the youngest still nursing, and she was pregnant again. On my way home from tending our ox, I often saw Xiao Shangchun coming down off the little bridge on his rickety bicycle. He’d put on so much weight his bicycle strained audibly under its burden. Old Xiao, villagers liked to tease, how old are you now? Do you have to go at it every night? No, he’d say with a grin, but I have to labour hard to produce people for the nation.