Free Boy in the Twilight by Yu Hua Page B

said.
    He entered cautiously, peering around the narrow hallway as if walking in such pitch-darkness he couldn’t see his own fingers. I knew he was trying to establish my wife’s whereabouts. It was because of her that he hadn’t been to my house for over a year. In her words, Morning Tang is a jerk.
    Actually, that’s not true. Morning Tang is a good-hearted fellow, generous and kind to his friends, it’s just there are too many women in his life, and that’s why my wife said he was a jerk. In the past, he would often drop by with a woman in tow. Nothing wrong with that—the problem was, it would be a different woman every time, and this is what made my wife start to feel nervous. She’s firmly convinced that men are influenced by the company they keep, and she felt it was really too dangerous for me to continue to interact with him, or—to be more precise—she felt it was too dangerous for
her
. She forgot that I am a decent and dutiful husband and began to issue frequent warnings, and her warnings were full of threats: she would tell me that if I behaved like Morning Tang, I would have disaster staring me in the face. She described all the details of what it would be like once disaster struck, or all the details she could think of. The trouble was, she always had a rich imagination in this area, and as a result I was growing more and more timid.
    But Morning Tang is a careless, clumsy fellow, and he completelyfailed to pick up on the fact that my wife was so wary of him. Although I’d dropped hints lots of times, it made absolutely no impression on him. He could be quite obtuse. So it was that one day he sat down on our sofa and said loudly, “I see my friends getting married one after the other. You were first, and then Chen Lida, then Fang Hong, and then Li Shuhai. All four of you did exactly the same thing, marrying the first woman you met. I don’t understand why you were all in such a hurry to get married. Why didn’t you go out with a few more women first? Why not enjoy a free and independent life, like me? Why do you want to find a woman to tie you down, tie you down so tightly you can’t even breathe? Now, all I need to do is just think of you guys and I can’t help bursting out laughing. As soon as you open your mouths now, you’re all so anxious about the reaction, especially you—you can’t say two sentences without looking at your wife. Don’t you get tired of that? But there’s still time—you’re not old yet, after all. You’ve still got a chance to meet other women. Shall I introduce to one sometime?”
    That’s Morning Tang for you. As soon as he gets going, he forgets himself. He forgot that my wife was stir-frying something in the kitchen, and given how loud his voice was, she heard every single word he said. So my wife marched out, her face livid, giving Morning Tang a prod with her wok, as the oil inside sputtered and spattered all over the place. “Get out of here,” she said. “Get out of my house.”
    Morning Tang’s face twisted with alarm. He beat a hasty retreat, his two hands groping for support on the sofa as he stumbled backward, and he didn’t even have time to cast a glance my way before taking to his heels. I had never beforeseen such a look of sheer terror. I knew it wasn’t my wife he feared as much as the hot wok she was holding. Its spattering din took the steam out of his sails that day, and it had been more than a year since he had stepped inside my door.
    Now, on this hot August night, he suddenly appeared, came into my house, and had a re-encounter with my wife. By this time she was already on her feet, and when she saw Morning Tang she gave a friendly smile. “Oh, it’s you. You haven’t been to see us for a long time.”
    Morning Tang chuckled. It was obvious he remembered the hot wok. He stood there, somewhat ill at ease, until my wife pointed at the straw mat on the floor. “Come and sit down.”
    He glanced at the mat, but remained standing. I