Pow!

days in chaotic exuberance. Our shack looked particularly shabby, tucked in among a bunch of newly built red-tiled houses, like a beggar kneeling in front of a clutch of landlords and rich merchants, in silks and satins, asking for alms. The wall round our yard came up barely to an adult's waist and was topped by weeds. It couldn't keep out a pregnant bitch, let alone a thief. In fact, the pregnant bitch from the home of Guo Six often jumped into our yard to feast on our discarded bones. I used to watch, fascinated, as she scaled the wall, her black teats scraping the top and then swaying as she landed. Father carried me on his shoulders so I could look down on Mother as she scraped and sliced and chopped with her cleaver, cursing us as we walked by. She had to scavenge sweet potato scraps from the garbage heap in front of the train station. Thanks to my lazy, gluttonous Father, we lived a life of extremes, with potfuls of meat on the stove during the good times and empty pots during the bad. In response to Mother's curses, he'd say: ‘Any day now, very soon, the second land-reform campaign will begin, and you'll thank me when it does. Don't for a minute envy Lao Lan, since he'll wind up like that landlord father of his, dragged off to the bridgehead by a mob of poor peasants to be shot.’ He'd aim an imaginary rifle at Mother's head and fire: Bang! She'd grab her head with both hands and pale with fright. But the second land-reform campaign didn't come and didn't come, and poor Mother was forced to bring home rotten sweet potatoes for the pigs, two little animals that never got enough to eat and that squealed hungrily most of the time. It was so annoying. ‘What the hell are you squealing for?’ Father shouted at them once, ‘Keep it up and I'll toss you two little bastards in a pot and have you for dinner!’ Cleaver in hand, Mother glared at him. ‘Don't even think about it. Those are my pigs. I raised them, and no one's to harm a hair on them. Either the fish dies or the net breaks.’ ‘Take it easy,’ Father said, laughing gleefully. ‘I wouldn't touch those skin-and-bones animals for anything.’ I took a long look at the pigs—there really wasn't much meat on either of them, although those four fleshy ears would have made for good snacking. To me, the ears were the best part of a pig's head—no fat, not much grease and tiny little bones that crunch nicely. Best eaten with cucumbers, the thorny ones with flowers, some mashed garlic and sesame oil. ‘We can eat their ears!’ I said. Mother glared at me. ‘I'll cut off your ears and eat them first, you little bastard!’ Steaming, she came at me with her cleaver and I ran fearfully into Father's arms. She grabbed hold of my ear and jerked it hard while Father tried to pull me free—by the neck—and I screamed for all I was worth, afraid my ear would be ripped off. My screams sounded like the squeals of the pigs being slaughtered in the village. Finally, Father managed to yank me free. After examining my bruised ear, he looked up and said: ‘How can you be so mean? People say that even a tiger won't eat its young, so I guess that makes you worse than a tiger!’ Rage turned Mother's face waxen and her lips purple; she stood at the stove, shaking from head to toe. Emboldened by my father's protection, I cursed, spitting out her full name: ‘Yang Yuzhen, you stinking old lady, you're making my life a living hell!’ Stunned by my outburst, she just gaped at me, while Father chuckled as he picked me up and took off at a run. We were already out in the yard by the time we heard Mother's shrill wail: ‘I'm so mad I could die, you little bastard…’ Her two pigs wagged their curly tails and began rooting in the mud at the base of the wall, like convicts trying to burrow under a prison wall to freedom. Father rapped me on the head and said softly: ‘You little imp, how did you know your mother's name?’ I looked into his swarthy, sombre face: ‘I heard you say it!’ ‘When did I ever tell you her name was Yang Yuzhen?’ ‘You told it to Aunty Wild Mule. You said: “Yang Yuzhen, that stinking old lady, is making my life a living hell!”’ Father clamped his hand over my mouth. ‘Shut up, damn you,’ he said under his breath. ‘I've been a pretty good father so far, so don't go and ruin things for me now.’ His supple hand gave off a peppery tobacco smell; it was not the sort of man's hand you usually saw in a farming village. But he'd