Free Old Town by Lin Zhe

gossip and made up many scandalous stories about her: the “preaching” was faked; what was true was something improper; conditions at the Guo home weren’t lucky; and Boss Guo had no face to meet anybody and so just stayed at home pretending to be sick!
    As my great-grandfather Guo became more bedridden, he was taken care of by my great-grandmother and thus became increasingly cut off from the world outside his door. Since they stayed at home the whole time, all the commotion on West Street had not reached inside the Guo residence. Eldest Sister and Second Sister heard these sarcastic comments and idle gossip but didn’t give any weight to them. Third Sister believed in the god of the Western people. She was always mouthing “God this” and “the Lord that.” The two sisters were worried that the girl might go and become a Western-Buddha nun, and so they took her aside and asked her, “If you believe in the god of the Westerners, can you still get married?” Third Sister replied that God is happy when people get married and have children,” which was a relief to her two older sisters.
    Chinese Medicine Practitioner Chen, who looked after Boss Guo, belonged to a family whose friendship with the Guos spanned several generations. When, one day, Mr. Chen came in response to a call for his presence, he did not immediately take pulses and make his diagnosis as he normally did. He just sat in the main hall on the old-fashioned wooden armchair drinking cup after cup of tea. By coincidence, Granny’s younger brothers just then got into a scrap over something or other and tussled from the back courtyard to the one in front. Mr. Chen took this opportunity to raise the subject with his old friend of restraining and disciplining children. He began by praising Third Daughter’s beauty and intelligence, and, with much meandering, touched on the various rumors about her. Boss Guo didn’t say one word, but the fine porcelain cup he was holding suddenly shattered into pieces. Toward evening, when Third Sister returned from school, her mother and father rained blows on her head, and forbade her from ever again crossing the threshold out of the Guo home. Her mother brought in a widow from the countryside to live in Third Sister’s room and ensure that the girl’s virtue was well guarded. The widow never let her go out of sight. But Third Sister’s good name was now ruined in Old Town and she could never get married. Her mother sent a message to an uncle holding some official position in a faraway mountain district “to find a mother-in-law” for the girl.
    What a disaster! I can’t think of anything to compare it to in accurately describing just how serious this all was. At that time, neither Eldest Sister nor Second Sister “had a mother-in-law” and Third Sister’s bad reputation had certainly made the two of them despair of their own prospects. Did they feel anger and resentment toward their younger sister?
    Grandma’s uncle arranged for Third Sister to be the lesser wife of a wealthy yokel in his mountain district. This bumpkin sent a team of porters with the betrothal gifts, and so around West Street the Guo family was judged to have regained a little face. Not only was Third Sister going to be married, she was going to enter a good man’s home. So many poles of gifts were brought in and deployed like impressive battle formations in the Guo home that all of West Street grew alarmed.
    It rained heavily that night and the virtue-guarding widow slumbered deeply. By the time she awoke, Third Sister was nowhere to be seen.
    This was an even greater disaster! The skies above the Guo home had collapsed.
    Third Sister had “died.” All the Guos could do now was to bear an empty coffin out of the house. However, this empty coffin couldn’t put an end to all the conjectures and rumors of the West Street neighborhood. Just about everyone knew that Third Sister had eloped with “that man.” West Street’s several