Chapter 6: Chang'e must regret stealing the elixir of life (II)
Translator's note: curious about why I'm working on the earlier chapters? You can find an explanation in the translator's note on the ninth chapter.
Once one night had passed and light returned, Song Shijiu’s height changed, more or less that of a two year old. This time, Li Shiyi took care, and before going to sleep, changed her into a large cotton garment that covered her hands and feet, and when she opened her eyes, found that it was just perfect, the sleeves enveloping her wrists, aligned neatly with the line like the joint of a lotus root. Li Shiyi had just fetched water and stooped at the front of the door brushing her teeth when she heard the gate of the courtyard creak, and Tu Laoyao, back inclined as he carried a bundle wrapped in blue and white cloth with a scattered flower pattern, stood upright and grinned, and when Li Shiyi raised her brows in question, Tu Laoyao said, in high spirits, “I’ve packed, let’s go!”
Li Shiyi stood up, wiping the water from the corner of her mouth with the back of her hand, and said, “You’re going?”
Tu Laoyao nodded. “I thought about it all night—this Shijiu was brought aboveground by me; I really ought to keep an eye on her, so if she really is a bad person, I should grab onto her ankles, and this way it’ll allow your venerable self to run away first.” Seeing the line of Li Shiyi’s lips moving, Tu Laoyao hurriedly added, “Also, my child is going to be born, and in the end I should act as a father, not constantly live as before, so I’ve thought about learning a trade from you, earning money, and then in the future, allow the baby to become a cultured person. My wife even agreed,” he added with a laugh, still seeming like the same ruffian as before.
“She agreed?” Li Shiyi turned her head to the left and approached, carrying a glass and blinked. “Didn’t you say your wife was eight or nine months along?” So close to giving birth, unexpectedly allowing the man to leave and search for a way to make a living, that really was strange.
Tu Laoyao drew his neck back, eyelids drooping and shoulders askew as he looked at the ground, before a sound came from the doorstep and Li Shiyi turned her head, catching sight of little Shijiu supporting herself against the door, suckling at a mantou,[1] eyelids lifting upwards, small, bright deer-like eyes fixed on her, and when Li Shiyi raised a brow, she was able to read three characters—he’s flattering you.
Song Shijiu opened her mouth and took a bite, for the first time learning how to eat food, still not quite used to it yet. She used all of her strength to chew, her white milk teeth like identical cowry shells, suddenly looking adorable.Tu Laoyao cleared his throat, letting out an embarrassed hai, minding his own business, and mumbled to himself, “Three or four months isn’t that different from seven or eight months, is it?”
Li Shiyi’s chest moved, her cool expression sweeping over Tu Laoyao. Tu Laoyao hurriedly tore open the bag, fishing things out from within it like treasures, and said, “I woke up early in the morning and asked around for some old little girl’s clothes; since we might be gone for a few days, I prepared for up to ten year old’s, but I don’t know if that’ll be enough or not. These salted duck eggs,” he said, holding two or three in the flesh of his palm in front of Li Shiyi for a moment, before putting them back away, and continuing, “seeing that you ate them with relish last time, I stuffed them in there as well.”
Li Shiyi didn’t have anything to say, and turned to cradle Song Shijiu’s head, and once she held it in her hand, gently and directly turned it, giving her a pat on the back, and then went inside.
Though it was called going to distant places, from Sijiucheng to Tianjin, it was actually only three shichen. It was the first time Tu Laoyao had been on a train, and it was a novel experience to watch Li Shiyi buy the tickets, and he grasped it in his hand as he looked left and right, line of sight falling to the ticket price, his eyes almost bulged out of his head, and he said, “My goodness!” He cautiously and solemnly folded the ticket, and put it in the pocket closest to his heart, and buttoned it up safely, and thinking about it, reached his left hand and covered it, and only then was able to relax.
Though the Jingfeng Railroad had only been in operation a few years, the people waiting for the train were all respectable, dressed in impeccable Western style, with shiny leather shoes as they stood by the side of the railroad track, small leather suitcases in one hand and black, Western-style hats in the other, calling to mind a spirit of beauty, and Tu Laoyao stuck out his chest, striving to stand in a more English fashion, but his gaze swept over his own clothes, which were at odds with the others’, and at once felt disheartened.
Li Shiyi, on the other hand, was indifferent, still in that nondescript coat of hers, the dusty old guapi hat, one hand holding A Yin’s letter as she read it attentively with her head bowed, the other hand held out with a finger for Song Shijiu to grasp. Even the hand that was holding the letter was relaxed, and an air of experience and knowledge, calm and composed, showed through.
The sound of clattering approached from the distance, the faint scent of rust following it, a shiny black, neat train coming to a stop with a foggy whistle, and Tu Laoyao, tight with anxiety, heard from a not too distant the sound of a delicate, continuous voice: “Shiyi!”
Three people turned their heads towards the location of the sound, finding that it was in fact yesterday’s A Yin. Her dark red qipao, with peonies outlined in gold, fit close to her skin, and on the outside, she was covered by a well-cut, pale black overcoat with a fur collar, her small, leather-covered hands holding a brown leather suitcase, the crown of her head spilling watery-glossy, long hair, and her posture was as leisurely and pretty as a water snake’s. Attention fell uniformly on her form, and an indecent youth let out a whistle, but she didn’t get angry, eyes turning and taking the opportunity to blow a kiss in return, hand held out levely until she arrived at Li Shiyi’s side. “Get on,” she said, and grasped Li Shiyi’s hand, and stuffed her leather suitcase into Tu Laoyao’s hand, and took two or three steps in her high heels onto the train.
The carriage was both neat and clean, the leather seats side by side covered in white pillow cloths, meant for wiping the glass so as to allow ample light in, clean scent pervading the cosy atmosphere, one that Tu Laoyao couldn’t place, before deciding that it was a foreign scent.
They had only just sat down when the train began to move leisurely, and Tu Laoyao’s heartbeat picked up despite the excessive preparations he’d made in his mind, but seeing that there was no reaction from those by his side, pressed his nose to the glass and watched the scenery fashing by outside, like watching a Western film, becoming dizzy after a short time, and he shook his head back and forth, only then having time to ask A Yin, who was sitting before him, “Why did you come?”
“Shiyi insisted on not taking my money, insisting on my freeloading, even wanting me to have no shame about it.” A Yin coiled the curls of her hair.
“Weren’t you feeling badly? Are you already well?” Tu Laoyao asked.
“Much better.”
“What sort of illness? It got better this quickly?” Tu Laoyao asked strangely.
A Yin rested her head on the inner lip of the carriage, saying indifferently, “Lazy tendons; I took them out and stewed them into soup and drank it.”
Seeing she was speaking nonsense again, he didn’t acknowledge her, though it happened at that moment that his stomach ached a bit, so he pressed his thighs together and walked on tiptoes, walking with some alarm and trembling as he looked for somewhere to relieve himself.
Li Shiyi gathered Song Shijiu up and closed her eyes to rest, while Song Shijiu opened her eyes wide and looked around, and the rich lady by the side caught sight of her pale, jade-carved appearance, and suddenly felt she was entirely adorable, and turned her gaze to her, finding that the child was unexpectedly well-behaved and quiet, and couldn’t help but exclaim, “What a well-behaved child, seeing her, my heart really is fond of her.”
Li Shiyi opened her eyes, and seeing that the lady was reaching out a hand to tease her, Song Shijiu blinked her eyes, supporting herself on Li Shiyi’s right hand, the palm of her hand pressing against her own mouth, and with a high, clear burbling sound, reached out her arm, and calmly blew a kiss towards her.
The lady stared blankly, seeing that little Shijiu playing with single-minded devotion with those fingers, and then cast a glance at Li Shiyi’s poor complexion, and finally her line of sight fell on the A Yin’s heavily-perfumed form. Li Shiyi’s right hand reached out, and she supported the left side of Song Shijiu’s soft face, and using the strength of her four fingers, turned her face so it was facing straight ahead, then thought for a moment, and extracted a new newspaper from her side, and spread it out in front of her, then tilted her head down, and said into Song Shijiu’s ear softly, “If you can, learn to read.”
Her voice was magnetic, as if having come from an old gramophone record, but unfortunately she was breathing right into her ear. Song Shijiu’s face turned, and her large, glistening eyes watched her, and soon after, she obediently bowed her head, earnestly studying the Chinese characters on the newspaper. Li Shiyi hed her waist firmly, tilting her head to glance at her soft, smooth baby hairs, an indistinct, rarely seen interest in her eyes.
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Translator's notes:
[1]: Mantou (馒头) are steamed buns, the plain counterpart to baozi.
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