Page 212 - I Live in the Slums: Stories (The Margellos World Republic of Letters)

She went once, and then once more, until the two water containers were full.
When she sat down to rest, Auntie Li dropped in.

“Is your cousin a man or a bird? He flew over my head, and I was so scared I
fell down! It was too eerie, wasn’t it?—a big guy flying back and forth over your
head! I’ve lived a long time, and nothing like this has ever happened in our
village before.”
Yiping was entranced. She looked at Auntie Li and laughed out loud.
“What’s so funny? Huh?”
When Auntie Li left, Yiping noticed that she also had a smile on her face.
What on earth was Cousin up to? What did he want to communicate to the
villagers?
After Yiping ate, she cleaned up the kitchen and went to bed. She planned to
take a long, long nap.
She closed her eyes and counted. As she counted, she grew excited again and

forgot how far she had counted. So she started again. She started over again
several times to no avail. She looked at the clock. More than an hour had passed
when she decided to get up and go to the field and pick beans.
As she picked beans, she looked at Tomb Mountain. One moment, it seemed
that she saw a small red dot climbing to the mountain top. When she looked
more carefully, she saw nothing. Probably the sun had been shining in her eyes.
While Yiping was thinking about her cousin’s dangerous behavior, she heard
people talking behind her.
“That Xuwu—he’s risking his life.”
She turned around and saw that no one was there. Who had been talking?
Yiping was busy the entire afternoon with the beans, washing them and
drying them. Finally she finished everything.
When the sun set, she ran out of the house and looked carefully at the sky.
She looked and looked, but she didn’t see Venus. There was no star at all in the
sky. When she was about to enter her courtyard, Auntie Li appeared. She
blocked the way and wanted her to answer a question.

“Xuwu has been staying in our village for such a long time: Does that mean
he wants to marry you?”
“What nonsense!”
Very uneasy, Yiping pushed her away and dashed into her courtyard.

Yiping didn’t go to bed until late. Before she went to bed, she opened the back
door.

Every now and then she shone her flashlight on the clock. When it was almost
midnight, she got dressed and sneaked out. As she stood at the courtyard gate,