Boy in the Twilight

by Yu Hua

  Xu Asan lifted the dog’s rear legs and yanked them apart to show me. “Did you get a good look?” he asked.

  I nodded. “Female, right?” he said.

  I shook my head again. “It’s not a woman,” I said. “It’s a bitch.”

  They went off into gales of laughter, and Pug-nose Xu Asan laughed so hard he had to squat down. The dog’s rear legs were still clamped between his hands, and it barked furiously as its head scraped the ground. I just stood there with a smile on my face. After a moment Xu Asan stood up again and pointed at me. “He could tell this dog is a bitch,” he said to the others. Then he squatted down and cackled as loud as a cicada chirping. As soon as he relaxed his grip, the dog dashed off.

  From that day on, whenever Pug-nose Asan and the others saw me, they would say, “Hey, your girlfriend … Hey, your girlfriend fell into the cesspit … Hey, your girlfriend is having a piss … Hey, your girlfriend pinched some meat from my house … Hey, looks like your girlfriend’s pregnant …”

  They were laughing away nonstop. When I saw what a good time they were having, I laughed along with them. I knew they were talking about the dog. They were looking forward to the day when I would take that dog into my house as though she were a woman and spend my life with her.

  Day after day they would talk that way, and every time they would look at me and go ha-ha and tee-hee. So the next time I saw the dog, I felt kind of funny. The dog was as small and skinny as ever, its tongue always hanging out, licking this and that in the street. I would walk past with my load on my back, and when I got close I couldn’t help but stop and look. One day, quietly, I called it. I said, “Hey.”

  When it heard me, it gave a few barks, so I offered it half a steamed bun left over from lunch. It grabbed the bun between its teeth and ran off.

  After I fed it that half bun, it remembered me, and every time it saw me it would bark and I’d have to give it a bun. Once this happened a few times, I remembered to stuff my pockets with things to eat, so I could make it happy when we met in the street. And as soon as it saw me put my hand in my pocket, it knew what was coming and would raise its front legs and bark and jump up on me.

  Later, the dog would tag along with me every day. I would walk in front carrying my load, and it would patter along behind. At the end of the block I would look back and there it would be, barking and wagging its tail. A block later, there would be no sign of it and I wouldn’t know where it had gone. I’d wait for a while, and suddenly it would appear and start following me once more. Sometimes it would run away and not come back until after dark. I would already be in bed, and it would run back, sit outside my door and bark. I’d have to open the door and show myself, and then it would stop barking, wag its tail, and patter away again.

  When I was walking along the street with the dog at my heels, Pug-nose Xu Asan and the others would chuckle. “Hey, out for a stroll with the wife, are you?” they’d say. “Hey, are the two of you going home now? Hey, when you’re in bed together, who cuddles who?”

  “We don’t spend the night together,” I’d tell them.

  “Nonsense,” Xu Asan would say. “Husband and wife are always together at night.”

  “We’re not,” I said.

  “You dummy,” they said. “That’s the whole point of being a couple.”

  Xu Asan made as though to turn off a light. “Click! When the light goes off, that’s when the fun starts.”

  Pug-nose Xu Asan and the others wanted me and the dog to be together at night, and I thought about that, but it never worked out that way. As soon as it got dark, the dog would patter off and I didn’t know where it went. It would come back at dawn, scratch on the door, and wait for me to open it.

  But during the day we’d be together, me carrying the coal and it walking by my side. When I made a delivery, it would roam around the neighborhood, and when I came out it would soon catch up with me.

  After a few days, the dog got rounder and plumper, and grew taller too. When it ran alongside, I could see its belly swing back and forth. Xu Asan and the others noticed this too. “This bitch, have a look at this plump little bitch,” they’d say.

  One day they stopped me in the street and Xu Asan pulled a long face. “Hey, how come we haven’t got our candy yet?” he said.

  The dog barked when they blocked my path. They pointed at the shop across the street. “Do you see that?” they said. “The glass jar on the counter, the one with all the candy in it? See it? Off you go.”

  “What for?” I said.

  “To buy candy,” they said.

  “Why candy?” I said.

  “For us to eat,” they said.

  “Damn it,” Xu Asan said, “you haven’t given us the wedding candy yet! Wedding candy! Don’t you get it? We were your matchmakers, weren’t we?”

  So saying, they stuck their hands in my pockets and groped around for some change. This got the dog all riled up; it was growling and lunging. When Xu Asan aimed a kick at it, it ran a few paces back, barking away, and when he took two steps closer, it dashed off. They found some cash in my chest pocket, helped themselves to two twenty-fen notes, and stuffed the rest back. Holding my money aloft, they crowded into the shop opposite. The dog ran back as soon as they were gone, and scampered away again as soon as they came out. Xu Asan and the others stuffed a few bits of candy in my hand. “This is for the happy couple,” they said.

  Off they went, laughing and chewing their candy. By this time it was almost dark, and I headed home clutching the candy they’d given me. The dog raced back and forth, now ahead, now behind, barking madly and making a lot of noise. It barked all the way home, and didn’t stop even when we reached the door. It stood there and didn’t seem to want to leave, its head cocked, looking up at me. “Hey, stop that barking,” I said, but it just kept on. “Why don’t you come in?” I said.

  It didn’t move and just carried on yowling. But when I waved my hand, it stopped all its ruckus and trotted inside.

  From then on, the dog lived in my house. I went and got a pile of straw and laid it in the corner of the room: that was its bed. I thought it over that evening and felt that having a dog move into your house really was a bit like taking a wife. In the future I would have a companion, just as Mr. Chen said. “Finding a companion, that’s what marriage is,” he used to say.

  “They say we’re man and wife,” I said, “but a man and a dog can’t be husband and wife. The most we can be is companions.”

  I sat down on the straw, next to my dog. It gave a couple of barks. I smiled and laughed, and on hearing me it barked a little more. I smiled and laughed again, and it barked again. So we went on like that for a while, me laughing, it barking, until I remembered I still had candy in my pocket, so I got it out and peeled off the wrapper. “This is candy, wedding candy, that’s what they said …”

  When I heard myself say it was wedding candy, I couldn’t help but smile. I peeled off a couple of wrappers, and put one candy in the dog’s mouth and one in mine. “How does it taste?” I said.

  I could hear it chewing noisily, and I chewed my candy too, even more noisily. We chewed away and it made me laugh. As soon as I did that, it started barking again.

  In our two years together, the dog went with me everywhere. When I lifted my load onto my shoulders it would run ahead barking, and when my baskets were empty it would trot along a step or two behind. Seeing us, people in the town would chuckle. They would point and say, “Hey, are you husband and wife?”

  I went “Mm,” walking on ahead with my head down.

  “Hey, are you a dog?”

  When I went “Mm,” they would start shouting. “Hey, dummy! Hey, dumb dog! Hey, dogface! Hey, dog-fuck! Or is it dog-fucker? Hey, when are you going to be a dog-dad?”

  I just went “Mm” to everything. “You’re a man, aren’t you?” Mr. Chen asked. “What’s all this about you and the dog being husband and wife?”

  I shook my head. “Man and dog can’t be husband and wife,” I said.<
br />
  “As long as you’re clear about that,” said Mr. Chen. “In the future, if anybody calls you that kind of name, don’t do that ‘Mm, mm’ stuff.”

  I nodded. “Mm,” I went.

  “Don’t keep going ‘Mm,’ just remember what I told you,” he said.

  I nodded and went “Mm” again. He waved me away. “Okay, okay, off you go,” he said.

  I walked off, carrying my load, and the dog pattered along in front of me. It seemed to be putting on a bit more weight every day. Before long it had grown up big and strong, and it began to get ideas. Sometimes I wouldn’t see it for a whole day at a time, and I didn’t know where it had gone off to. It wouldn’t come back until after dark. It would scratch the door, I would open up, and it would slip in and lie down on the straw in the corner. It would put its head on the floor and look at me out of the corners of its eyes, and I would say, “The day before yesterday, when I got to the rice store, I turned around and you were gone, and yesterday when I got to the furniture shop I turned around and you were gone, and today when I got to the pharmacy I turned my head and you were gone …”

  Before I finished speaking, the dog’s eyes would be closed. I had a think, and closed my eyes too …

  As my dog grew taller, it got nice and plump, and when Pug-nose Xu Asan and the others saw me they would say, “Hey, halfwit, when are we going to slaughter the dog?”

  They were drooling at the mouth. “When it snows,” they said, “we’ll slaughter it, add water and soy sauce, cinnamon and the five spices … Braise it slowly for a whole day. It’ll taste so damn good.”

  When I knew they wanted to eat my dog, I quickly picked up my load and went on my way, the dog running along by my side. I remembered what they’d said, how they’d eat my dog when it snowed. “When is it going to snow?” I asked Mr. Chen.

  “That’s a long time from now,” Mr. Chen said. “You’re still wearing a T-shirt. You need to wait till you’re wearing a padded jacket.”

  When Mr. Chen said that, I didn’t feel so anxious. But what happened was, before I had started wearing a padded jacket, before the snow came, Pug-nose Xu Asan and the others already wanted to eat my dog. They got a bone and tricked it into Xu Asan’s house, and then they shut the door and closed the windows and started beating my dog with sticks, trying to kill my dog, so they could braise it on the stove for a day.

  My dog knew they wanted to kill and eat it, so it hid underneath Xu Asan’s bed and wouldn’t come out. Xu Asan and the others poked it with their sticks, and it barked so loud I heard it when I was doing my rounds.

  That morning I looked over my shoulder when I reached the bridge, and the dog was nowhere to be seen. In the afternoon I heard it barking furiously as I walked past Xu Asan’s house, so I came to a stop and was standing by the door when Xu Asan and the others came out. “Hey, halfwit, we were just about to look for you,” they said. “Hey, halfwit, hurry up and tell your dog to come out.”

  They thrust a looped rope into my hands. “Put this around the dog’s neck and strangle it,” they said.

  I shook my head and pushed the lasso away. “It hasn’t snowed yet,” I said.

  “What’s the halfwit saying?” they asked each other.

  “He says it hasn’t snowed yet.”

  “What does he mean it hasn’t snowed yet?”

  “No idea,” they said. “To know that, you’d have to be a halfwit too.”

  I could hear the dog barking inside, and there were people poking it with sticks. Xu Asan patted me on the shoulder. “Hey buddy, hurry up and tell the dog to come out.”

  They dragged me over there. “What are you calling him buddy for?” they said. “Cut the crap … Take this rope … and strangle the dog … You won’t? You’d better, or we’ll strangle you next.”

  Xu Asan blocked their way. “He’s a halfwit. There’s no point in trying to scare him, he won’t understand. We need to trick him …”

  “Tricking him won’t work,” they said. “He still won’t understand.”

  I saw Mr. Chen walking over. He had his hands in his pockets and was walking slowly, step by step.

  “Let’s just take the bed apart,” they said. “Then the dog will have no place to hide.”

  “We can’t take the bed apart,” Xu Asan said. “The dog’s already in a panic. If it feels any more threatened, it’ll bite.”

  “You dog, you mangy dog …,” they said to me. “Yeah, it’s you we’re talking to. Why don’t you hurry up and answer?”

  I bent my head and went “Mm” a couple of times. Mr. Chen spoke up off to one side. “If you want him to help,” he said, “you need to call him by his real name. If you keep on using bad words and cursing him, he’s never going to help. You say he’s a halfwit, but he’s not always such a fool.”

  “You’re right,” said Xu Asan, “let’s call him by his real name. Who knows his real name? What’s he called? What’s this halfwit’s name?”

  “Do you know, Mr. Chen?” they asked.

  “Of course I know,” he said.

  Xu Asan and the others surrounded him. “Mr. Chen, what’s this halfwit’s name?” they asked.

  “His name is Laifa.”

  When I heard that, my heart skipped a beat. Xu Asan came up to me and put his arm on my shoulder. “Laifa,” he said.

  My heart began to thump. Xu Asan, his arm around me, walked me toward his house. “Laifa, we’re old pals … Laifa, go and tell your dog to come out … Laifa, all you need to do is walk over to the bed … Laifa, just call it nicely now … Laifa, just say ‘Hey’ … Laifa, I’m counting on you.”

  I went into Xu Asan’s bedroom, squatted down, and saw my dog lying prone beneath the bed. There was blood all over it. I called it gently. “Hey.”

  As soon as it heard my voice, it scurried out and threw its paws on me, butting me with its head and chest, so my face was smeared with blood. It gave a baying noise, a baying noise I’d never heard it make before, and that upset me a lot. I reached over to give it a hug, and no sooner did I hold it close to me than they put the rope around its neck. With a tug they dragged it out of my arms. Before I realized it, the hands that were hugging the dog were empty. I heard it give a little woof, just a little woof, that’s all, and I saw its four feet scrabble on the ground for a little, and then it didn’t move anymore. “It hasn’t snowed yet!” I said, as they dragged it away.

  They looked at me and laughed.

  That evening I sat by myself on the straw where the dog used to sleep. I thought about the whole thing. I knew my dog was dead. I knew they’d poured water over it, and soy sauce and cinnamon and the five spices, and now they’d braise it over a fire for a day and tomorrow they’d eat it.

  I thought about this for a long time. I knew that it was my fault the dog died. It got strangled because I coaxed it out from under Xu Asan’s bed. My heart thumped when they called me Laifa, and that was all it took to get me to do what they said. I shook my head when I remembered that, and shook it for a good long time. “Next time somebody calls me Laifa,” I said to myself, “I’m just not going to answer them.”

  BOY IN THE TWILIGHT

  It was the middle of an autumn day. Sun Fu sat beside a fruit stand, his eyes squinting in the bright sunshine. He leaned forward, hands on his knees, and his grizzled hair seemed gray in the sunlight, gray like the road that lay before him, a wide road that extended from the far distance and then stretched off in the other direction. He had occupied this spot for three years now, selling fruit near where the long-haul buses stopped. When a car drove by, it shrouded him in the dust stirred by its passage, plunging him into darkness, and it was a moment before he and his fruit re-emerged, as though unveiled by a new dawn.

  After the cloud of dust had passed, he saw an urchin in dirty clothes in front of the stall, watching him with dark, gleaming eyes. As he returned the boy’s gaze, the boy put a hand on the fruit, a hand with long black fingernails. When he saw the nails brush against a shiny red apple, Sun Fu rai
sed his hand to wave him away, the way he would swat away a fly. “Clear off,” he said.

  The boy withdrew his grubby hand and swayed a little as he shuffled off, his arms hanging slack at his sides. On such a skinny body his head looked oversized.

  Others were now approaching the stand, and Sun Fu turned to look. They stopped on the other side of the stall and threw him a glance. “How much are the apples?” they asked. “How much for a pound of bananas?”

  Sun Fu stood up, weighed apples and bananas on his steelyard, and took their money. Then he sat down and put his hands on his knees. The boy had come back. This time he was not standing directly in front, but off to one side, his glowing eyes fixed on the apples and bananas, as Sun Fu watched him with equal attention. After gazing at the fruit for a while, the boy looked up at Sun Fu. “I’m hungry,” he said.

  Sun Fu was silent. “I’m hungry,” the boy repeated, a note of urgency creeping into his voice.

  Sun Fu scowled. “Clear off.”

  The boy’s body seemed to give a shiver. “Clear off,” Sun Fu said again, more loudly.

  The boy gave a start. His body swayed hesitantly before his legs began to move. Sun Fu took his eyes off the boy and switched his attention to the highway. A long-haul bus had come to a halt on the other side of the road, and the people inside stood up. Through the bus windows, he could see a column of shoulders crowding toward the doors; a moment later, passengers poured from both ends of the bus. Then, out of the corner of his eye, Sun Fu saw the boy dashing off as fast as his legs could carry him. He wondered why, and then he saw the boy’s flailing hand: it was clutching something, something round. Now he recognized what it was. He leapt to his feet and set off in chase. “Stop thief!” he shouted. “Stop that thief there.”

  It was afternoon now. Dust flew as the boy fled along the highway. He heard shouting behind him, and looked round to see Sun Fu in hot pursuit. He floundered on desperately, gasping for breath, and when his legs began to go soft he knew he had no more reserves of energy. Looking back a second time, he saw Sun Fu still on his tail, yelling and waving his arms furiously. All hope gone, the boy came to a stop and turned around, panting heavily. He watched until Sun Fu was almost on top of him and then raised the apple to his mouth and took a big bite out of it.