‘Mrs Zhang, thank you for telling me about this,’ he said. ‘I am still not of retirement age but my wife soon will be. Her health is not so good so she can get early retirement on those grounds, and that way my daughter can replace her. Why don’t you do the same and let Jingqiu stay in the city? It is always a worry to let the young girls be sent down.’
Jingqiu’s mother had not expected someone as important as Mr Zhong to worry himself about her daughter being sent to the countryside, to take pity on a normal parent’s suffering. But she understood from the tone of his voice that if she were to seek retirement on the grounds of ill health then the school would let Jingqiu replace her. Excited, she thanked him profusely before sending him off.
She told Jingqiu the good news, that after years of worry a huge weight could be taken off her shoulders. ‘I’ll apply to retire and you can replace me, that way you won’t be sent down. Sorting it out will put my mind at rest.’
‘We should let Xin replace you, he’s been away for so many years and has suffered so much. And Yamin’s family only oppose the marriage because he’s in the countryside. If he can come back everything will be fine.’
Jingqiu told Yamin and she was ecstatic. ‘We can finally be together and my family won’t be able to stop us.’ Yamin went to write a letter to tell Xin the news. But he would not agree to the arrangement. He had been away for so long that it was only a matter of time before he would be called back. He said he’d only be using up someone else’s opportunity, Jingqiu should do it, that way she wouldn’t be sent down at all.
Jingqiu’s mother too was determined that she was not to be sent down. She frequently had nightmares in which Jingqiu had had some terrible accident and she would go to her, only to find her daughter lying on a pile of rice straw, her hair matted and dishevelled and her eyes glazed over. ‘I won’t let you go,’ her mother said. ‘You’re still young and you don’t know the kinds of dangers young girls face in the countryside. Since ancient times beautiful girls have suffered bad fates. Here at school you have so many boys taking a fancy to you, causing you trouble, would it be any different there?’
Despite her mother’s feelings Jingqiu persuaded her to go to the school to suggest that Xin should replace her. They responded, however, that as he had only finished junior middle school he was not a suitable candidate. Jingqiu, on the other hand, was; not only was she a senior student, but she was intelligent, morally upstanding, and physically strong. She would make a good teacher, and they agreed to the arrangement.
With no other option available to her Jingqiu agreed too. They couldn’t waste such an opportunity, after all. But she was upset about her poor brother, and she vowed with all her heart to find some other way for him to return.
She was extremely grateful to Old Third that he had told her about the policy, and just in time, for there was no other way that her mother would have found out about it. She wanted him to know but she didn’t know how best to tell him. She had no telephone and she couldn’t write a letter, much less go to West Village herself. She would just have to wait until he came to see her. He, however, was taking his promise not to come as seriously as if it had been made to the Party.
She was sick with longing, just as he had described it in his letters. All she wanted was to see him. Everything that had even the smallest connection to him made her feel close to him. Her heart would thump whenever anyone said the words ‘third’, ‘geological unit’, or ‘army district’, as if they were making secret references to him. She had never dared to call him by his real name, not even to herself, but now when she saw someone with the last name ‘Sun’ or the first name ‘Jianxin’, her heart melted.
Nearly every day she made her way to Dr Cheng’s house to practise the accordion with his wife, Mrs Jiang, or to cuddle their little baby. When Dr Cheng was away she grew restless, and only when he came home and she heard the sound of his voice did she feel that her task for the day was complete and she could return home contented. She didn’t have to speak to him, nor see his face; as long as she heard the sound of his voice she felt at ease. He spoke Mandarin just like Old Third. Most people in Yichang didn’t speak Mandarin, so she rarely heard it being spoken. If Dr Cheng was speaking in the next room she would stop what she was doing and listen quietly. Often she imagined that it was Old Third next door, that she was sitting in Old Third’s home, one of the family. Her exact relationship with him was left unspecified. It didn’t matter. If only I could hear his voice every day, it wouldn’t matter.
Mrs Jiang wanted Jingqiu to knit her son a woollen jumper. Once she had finished, Mrs Jiang gave Jingqiu money as the pattern had been complicated and it had taken a long time, but Jingqiu refused it. ‘I don’t take money for helping someone with their knitting.’
Mrs Jiang thought of another method to repay Jingqiu. Mrs Jiang only ever made the odd thing like a pair of shorts on her sewing machine, whereas Jingqiu had to do her sewing by hand. ‘My machine sits here unused and gathering dust. I don’t have time to use it, why don’t you come and use it, else it’ll rust.’
Mrs Jiang’s offer was heaven sent. Unable to resist, Jingqiu soon got the machine’s wheel spinning. Mrs Jiang bought some pieces of material so that Jingqiu could help her and Dr Cheng’s mother make overalls for her two sons. Jingqiu cut the pattern and sewed them together, each fitting perfectly.
At that time Jingqiu was only comfortable making tops for women and children. Men’s clothes were difficult and pockets and trouser waists seemed nigh-on impossible. Mrs Jiang bought material and told Jingqiu to treat the couple as test dummies by making tops from cotton and woollen cloth, and a Mao suit for Dr Cheng. ‘You can do it. I’ve bought the material now so don’t make me waste it. Don’t be afraid, if you make a mistake in the cutting you can always use the material to make my eldest something, and if not, then his brother. It won’t go to waste.’ Jingqiu cut and sewed and in the end, the clothes turned out pretty well.
But making clothes for Dr Cheng made her blush and her heart pound. One day she was making him some trousers and she needed to take his leg, waist and crotch measurements. Taking the tape measure, she decided to start with his waist. Dr Cheng lifted his woollen jumper. Despite the fact that he was still wearing a shirt and there was not an inch of flesh in sight Jingqiu was so startled that she ducked away and said, ‘No need to measure, just find an old pair of trousers and I’ll use those.’
Once, when she was making a woollen jacket the material was so nice that she couldn’t bring herself to use an old top for her measurements so she asked Dr Cheng to stand before her so that she could do it properly. She reached her arms behind his back and around his chest trying her best not to brush against him. On making the two ends of her tape measure meet she was unable to catch her breath; she had recognised Old Third’s manly scent. She felt dizzy and spots clouded her eyes. ‘I’ll just use one of your old tops,’ she said. With that she rushed away. From then on she resolutely avoided measuring Dr Cheng. Once she finished the clothes she wouldn’t even have him try them on to check that they fitted properly.
Polyester trousers became very fashionable around that time. To make them, however, you had to use an overlock stitch, which was not possible on most sewing machines. On seeing Jingqiu run off to ask someone to help her every time she made trousers, Mrs Jiang decided to ask a friend to help her get hold of a second-hand machine to do the job. Not many people on Jiangxin Island had even simple sewing machines as they were one of the ‘three treasures’, along with bikes and watches, that brides would ask for as a wedding present from the husband’s family. An overlock machine, therefore, would drive people wild with envy. With such ‘modern weapons’ at her disposal, Jingqiu was like a ferocious tiger given wings; not only could she make nice clothes, but she could make them quickly.
Mrs Jia
ng introduced Jingqiu to her colleagues and friends so that she could make clothes for them too, and they would usually come on Sundays at lunchtime to order them. Jingqiu would measure, cut and sew on the spot so that within a couple of hours they were finished and ironed, with buttons sewed on, and ready to be worn on the way home. Tailors were not common in those days as the labour was more expensive than the materials. Not only that, but you also had to wait a long time for your clothes to be ready, and even then they might not fit. More and more people, therefore, asked Jingqiu to make their clothes.
Mrs Jiang told Jingqiu to ask for a bit of money for her work but Jingqiu refused on the grounds that she was helping Mrs Jiang’s friends while using Mrs Jiang’s machine. ‘How can I ask for money? And if I do, that would make me a “black market factory”. It’d be a disaster if anyone found out.’
On reflection, Mrs Jiang agreed that it was best for her not to risk it, so instead she asked her friends to bring small gifts to express their gratitude. They brought anything and everything; notebooks, pens, a few eggs, a few kilos of rice or fruit. Whatever the gift Mrs Jiang did her best to persuade Jingqiu to take it. ‘Don’t bite the hand that feeds you,’ she would say. ‘They’re only thanking you.’ Jingqiu accepted some of the gifts, but gave back those that she deemed too large. ‘It’s like we’ve hit oil!’ her mother joked when Jingqiu brought them home.
Chapter Twenty-One
In May Fang came to Yichang, bringing with her some bright red hawthorn flowers wrapped in plastic. Jingqiu understood at once that Old Third had asked her to bring them. Neither, however, dared say anything in front of Jingqiu’s mother or sister. Only when Jingqiu took Fang to the bus station did Fang confirm it, ‘Old Third asked me to bring them.’
‘How is he?’
Fang scrunched up her face. ‘Not well.’
‘Is he sick?’ asked Jingqiu anxiously.
‘Yeah, he’s sick all right.’ Seeing just how anxious Jingqiu was on hearing this, Fang started to laugh. ‘Lovesick, that is. So, you two are together. Why didn’t you tell me?’
‘Don’t talk rubbish,’ Jingqiu said quickly. ‘What do you mean, together? I’m still at school, how could we possibly be together?’
‘What are you so scared of? I don’t go to your school, what’s the point of lying to me about it? Old Third has told me everything. He really likes you. He dumped his fiancée just for you.’
Jingqiu was stern in her reply. ‘He didn’t do it for me, they had already split up.’
‘Wouldn’t it be a good thing if he dumped her for you? It shows how much he likes you.’
‘What’s good about it? If he can dump his fiancée for me that means he could do the same to me for someone else.’
‘He would never break up with you.’ Fang reached into her bag and brought out a letter. ‘I’ll give it to you if you let me read it,’ she said, laughing. ‘Otherwise I’ll take it home and give it back to him. I’ll say you don’t want him or his letters. He’d be so upset he’d chuck himself in the river.’
‘He hasn’t sealed it so are you telling me you don’t know how to open it yourself?’ Jingqiu said, pretending not to care.
Fang looked injured. ‘What do you take me for? The fact that he didn’t seal it means he trusts me, how could I open it?’ She threw the letter at Jingqiu. ‘If you don’t want me to read it, forget it. But there’s no need to say such nasty things.’
‘Wait ’til I’ve had a look, so I know whether you can read it.’
Fang smiled. ‘Forget it, I’m only joking. What’s it got to do with me? It’s probably all “my dear Jingqiu, I miss you day and night . . . blah, blah.”’
Jingqiu tore open the letter and read it quickly before folding it. She smiled. ‘You’re wrong. He didn’t say anything like that.’
Jingqiu returned home still beaming about Old Third’s letter and flowers but her mother was waiting with some bad news from Mr Zhong: the bureau of education had made some changes to the new policy. Over twenty people had already retired to be replaced by their children, but these youngsters were of uneven capability, not all teachers’ children make good teachers after all. So this time it had been decided that all the sons and daughters should work as kitchen staff instead.
With the red tape for her retirement almost completed, the news that Jingqiu would not replace her as a teacher but rather as one of the kitchen staff made Jingqiu’s mother so angry she nearly had a relapse. But Jingqiu took it calmly, perhaps because she always prepared for the worst. This sort of thing did not fill her with panic, and she comforted her mother. ‘If I’m to work in the kitchen then that’s what I’ll do. There’s no such thing as high- or low-status work in the revolution, and it’s certainly better than being sent to the countryside, isn’t it?’
‘I suppose that’s the only way to deal with things these days,’ her mother sighed. ‘But when I think that my daughter, who is so intelligent and capable, is going to spend her whole life slaving over a stove, it is hard to stay calm.’
Jingqiu repeated what Old Third had said to her as further comfort: ‘Don’t think so far into the future, the world is constantly changing. Who knows, after a few years of working in the kitchen I might be transferred to another job.’
‘My daughter takes things more philosophically than I.’
It’s fate, Jingqiu thought. How else should I take it, if not philosophically?
But by the time the holidays had started, Jingqiu’s mother’s retirement had been organised but Jingqiu’s new job had not. What was taking the school so long? Was she to be working in the kitchen or as a teacher? All the others who had applied had had everything taken care of, and yet they had all heard of the policy from Jingqiu’s mother. She had been first to apply and was the last to have everything confirmed. Her mother was afraid that they would wait, and wait, and it would all come to nothing, so she ran back and forth to Mr Zhong’s house to ask him to hurry the school with the paperwork.
Jingqiu’s family were now in a dire financial situation. The pension that her mother received was only twenty-eight yuan a month. Her previous income had been nearly forty-five yuan a month and that had been insufficient to support the family so, yet again, Jingqiu went to find temporary work. Even though her exact job was uncertain, people believed she was already a teacher earning big bucks, and many good friends started to distance themselves from her. Maybe people find it easy to sympathise with those who are less fortunate, but nothing makes them more unhappy than when the previously down and out stumble on a bit of luck.
‘How she behaves right now is crucial,’ Mr Zhong repeatedly told Jingqiu’s mother. ‘Tell Jingqiu she mustn’t under any circumstances make a mistake. If we let her replace you lots of people will be jealous and will have something to say about it. You must be especially careful, don’t make our job more difficult.’
Even the head of the neighbourhood committee, Director Li, knew about Jingqiu’s application to replace her mother. The day that Jingqiu’s mother took her to see the director to get temporary work, Director Li said, ‘Mrs Zhang, the fact is, life is not about earning endless pots of money, a bit is enough, we shouldn’t be so greedy.’
Her mother laughed awkwardly, not understanding what exactly it was Director Li was getting at.
‘Isn’t Jingqiu replacing you as a teacher?’ Director Li said. ‘How can you still be coming here for more work? We have more people looking than we have jobs, so I have to give priority to people who are struggling to make ends meet.’
‘My mother has retired, but my job is yet to be finalised,’ Jingqiu explained. ‘We are in real difficulty, much worse than before because mother’s pension is a fraction of her previous income.’
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‘Ah – then shouldn’t you go to the countryside and wait there for your job to be organised? If I give you a job, won’t I be helping you hang around in the city?’
‘Jingqiu, let’s go. We don’t want to trouble Director Li.’
But Jingqiu wouldn’t leave. ‘Mother, you go back first, I’ll wait a little longer.’ Turning to Director Li she said, ‘I’m not trying to escape being sent down, but my family is in a desperate situation. If I don’t work they won’t survive.’
Director Li let out a sigh. ‘If you want to wait that’s fine. But I’m not guaranteeing there will be a job for you.’
Jingqiu waited for two days and still Director Li did not arrange any work for her. Twice employers settled on Jingqiu before Director Li forced someone else on to their hands. ‘Your difficulties are temporary, you could borrow some money to tide you over. Once you become a teacher you won’t have anything to worry about.’
Jingqiu explained that it was likely she would not become a teacher, but was to work in the kitchens, to which Director Li shook her head disapprovingly. ‘Why is that necessary? You’d rather work in the kitchens than go down to the countryside? Go for a couple of years and then come back as a worker, that’d be much better.’
On the third morning Jingqiu got to Director Li’s house early and sat herself in the main room to wait for work. Just as she was contemplating what she would do if she didn’t get any work that day she heard a voice call out, ‘Jingqiu, are you waiting for a job?’
Under the Hawthorn Tree Page 19
