9
on the morning of the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, 1939, in the largest village ofnortheast gaomi township, shangguan lü led her mortal enemy, aunty sun, into her house,ignoring the bullets whizzing overhead, to help deliver her daughter-in-law’s baby. at thevery moment they walked through the door, out on the open field near the bridgehead,japanese horse soldiers were trampling the corpses of guerrilla fighters.
shangguan fulu and his son were milling in the yard with the horse doctor, fan three, whoproudly held up a bottle filled with a viscous green liquid. the three men had been in thesame spot when shangguan lü left to find aunty sun, but were now joined by the redheadedpastor malory. wearing a loose chinese robe, with a heavy brass crucifix around his neck, hewas standing beneath shangguan lu’s window, head up, facing the morning sun, as heintoned a prayer in the local dialect: “dear jesus, lord in heaven. merciful god, reach out totouch the heads of me, your devoted servant, and the friends gathered here, give us thestrength and the courage to face this challenge. let the woman inside safely deliver her infant,give the goat plenty of milk and the laying hens plenty of eggs, throw a sheet of black beforethe eyes of the evil invaders, let their bullets jam in their weapons, and let their horses losetheir way and perish in bogs and marshes. dear lord, send all your punishments down on myhead, let me take unto myself the suffering of all living creatures.” the other men stoodsilently listening to his prayer. the looks on their faces showed the depths to which they weremoved.
with a sneer, aunty sun pushed pastor malory aside and walked in the door. his “amen”
came as he stumbled wide-eyed to keep his balance, hurriedly crossing himself to bring hisprayer to an end.
aunty sun’s silvery hair was combed into a bun held in place by a shiny silver ornament;her sideburns were pinned with mugwort spikes. she was wearing a starched white cottonjacket with a slanted lapel that buttoned down the side; a white handkerchief was tucked inbetween two of the buttons. her black cotton trousers were tied around the ankles above apair of green cotton slippers with black embroidery and white soles. the fresh smell of soapclung to her body. she had prominent cheekbones, a high nose, and lips that formed a tightline above her chin. bright, piercing eyes were set deeply in lovely sockets. her poise andconfident bearing stood in stark contrast to the prosperous, well-fed shangguan lü. takingthe bottle of green liquid from fan three, shangguan lü walked up to aunty sun and saidsoftly, “aunty, this is fan three’s potion to hasten childbirth. will you use it?”
“my dear lady shangguan,” aunty sun said with obvious displeasure, her gaze coveringshangguan lü with icy beauty, then shifting to the men in the yard, “who have you asked tohelp with the delivery, me or fan three?”
“don’t be angry, aunty. as they say, ‘when a patient is dying, find doctors where youcan,’ and ‘anyone with breasts is a mother.’” forcing herself to be congenial, she kept hervoice low and controlled. “i’m asking you, of course. i wouldn’t have disturbed such aneminent personage if i hadn’t reached the end of my rope.”
“didn’t you once accuse me of stealing your chickens?” aunty sun remarked. “if you wantme as the midwife, tell everyone else to stand clear!”
“if that’s how you want it, that’s how you shall have it,” shangguan lü said.
aunty sun removed a thin piece of red cloth from around her waist and tied it to thewindow lattice. she then strode purposefully into the house, and when she reached the door ofthe inside room, she stopped, turned, and said to shangguan lü, “lady shangguan, come withme.”
fan three ran up to the window to retrieve the bottle of green liquid shangguan lü had leftthere. he stuffed it into his bag and headed quickly toward the gate, without so much as abackward glance at the shangguan father and son.
“amen!” pastor malory repeated, making another sign of the cross. then he nodded to theshangguan father and son in a show of friendship.
a shriek from aunty sun tore from inside the room, followed by horrible wails fromshangguan lu.
shangguan shouxi hunkered down on the ground and covered his ears with his hands. hisfather began pacing the yard, hands clasped behind his back, head down, as if he were lookingfor something he’d lost.
pastor malory repeated his prayer in a muted voice, eyes cast to the misty blue sky.
just then the newborn mule emerged from the barn on shaky legs. its damp hide shone likesatin. its weary mother followed it outside to the accompaniment of shangguan lu’sagonizing wails. with its ears standing straight up and its tail tucked between its legs, thedonkey wobbled over to the water trough under a pomegranate tree, casting a fearful glance atthe men in the yard. they ignored it. shangguan shouxi, his ears covered, was weepingloudly. shangguan fulu was still pacing the yard. pastor malory was praying with his eyesclosed. the donkey buried its mouth in the water and drank noisily. when it had drunk its fill,it walked slowly over to the peanut vines held up by stalks of sorghum and began nibbling atthe stalks.
meanwhile, inside the house, aunty sun stuck her hand up the birth canal to extract thebaby’s other leg. the pregnant mother screeched once before passing out. then, afterinserting some yellow powder into shangguan lu’s nostrils, aunty sun grabbed the baby’slegs and waited calmly. shangguan lu moaned as she regained consciousness, then sneezed,causing a series of violent spasms. her back arched, then settled back down heavily. that waswhat aunty sun had been waiting for: she pulled the baby out of the birth canal, and as itslong, flat head cleared the mother’s body, it made a loud popping sound, as if shot from acannon. aunty sun’s white jacket was spattered with blood.
hanging upside down in aunty sun’s hand was a purplish baby girl.
shangguan lü began beating her chest and wailing. “stop crying! there’s another one inthere!” aunty sun demanded angrily.
shangguan lu’s belly was jerking and twitching horribly; blood gushing from between herlegs washed out another down-covered infant.
when she spotted the little wormlike object between the baby’s legs, shangguan lü fell toher knees beside the kang.
“what a shame,” aunty sun said pensively, “another stillborn.”
suddenly dizzy, shangguan lü fell forward and banged her head on the kang. she stoodwith difficulty, propping herself up by the kang, and gazed at her daughter-in-law, whose facewas stone gray. then, with a moan of despair, she shuffled out of the room.
a pall of death hung over the yard. her son was on his knees, the bloody stump of his neckresting on the ground, a stream of fresh blood snaking along the ground; his head, a look offear frozen on the face, sat perfectly upright in front of his torso. her husband was gnawing abrick on the path; one of his arms was tucked under his abdomen, the other stretched out infront of him. a mixture of gray matter and bright red blood from a gaping wound in the backof his head stained the path around him. pastor malory was on his knees, making the sign ofthe cross and mumbling something in a foreign tongue. two massive horses, reins drapedacross their backs, were eating the sorghum stalks supporting the peanut vines, while thedonkey and her newborn mule huddled in a corner of the wall, the young animal’s headtucked under one of its mother’s legs, its tail writhing like a snake. two japanese men inkhaki stood there, one cleaning his sword with a handkerchief, the other hacking downsorghum stalks with his sword, sending peanuts to the ground, where they were eaten by thetwo horses, whose tails swished happily.
suddenly feeling the earth wheel on its axis, shangguan lü had a single thought: to rescueher son and her husband. instead, she crumpled heavily to the ground like a toppled wall.
aunty sun quickly skirted shangguan lü’s body and strode steadily out of the yard. butone of the japanese soldiers, who had remarkably wide-set eyes and short eyebrows, threwdown his handkerchief and moved to block her way, standing rigidly between her and thegate. pointing the tip of his sword at her heart, he said something that was only gibberish toher, a loutish expression on his face. she looked at him calmly, the hint of a sneer on her lips.
she took a step backward; the japanese soldier took a step forward. she retreated two moresteps, he took two steps forward, the tip of the sword still pressed up against her breast. as hebore relentlessly down on her, aunty sun reached up and brushed his sword to the side. thenone of her feet flashed through the air and landed precisely on his wrist, knocking the swordout of his hand. she rushed up and slapped him across the face. with a yelp of pain, hecovered his face. his comrade ran up, sword in hand, and aimed it at aunty sun’s head. shespun out of the way and grabbed his wrist, shaking it until he too dropped his sword. then sheboxed his ear, and although it didn’t seem to be much of a slap, his face began to swellimmediately.
without so much as looking back, aunty sun strode out of the yard, as one of the soldiersraised his rifle and fired. her body stiffened for a moment, then sprawled forward in thegateway of the shangguan house.
at that moment, the two youngest mute grandsons, who had come looking for her, werefelled by the same bullet on the steps leading up to the shangguan gate. the three oldergrandsons were, at the time, occupied with cutting up the rump of a dead horse on theriverbank, where the smell of gunpowder thickened the air.
at around noon, a swarm of japanese soldiers filled the shangguan compound. the horsesoldiers found a basket in the barn, into which they scooped the loose peanuts and carriedthem out into the lane to feed their weary horses. two of the soldiers took pastor malorycaptive. then a military doctor, eyeglasses perched on the pale bridge of his nose, followedhis commander into the room where shangguan lu lay. with a frown, he opened his medicalkit, donned a pair of surgical gloves, and cut the babies’ umbilical cords with a stainless steelknife. picking up the infant boy by the feet, he slapped it on the backside until a hoarse cryemerged from the other end. he then picked up the baby girl and repeated the procedure untilthere were signs of life. after cleaning the cuts on the umbilical cords with iodine, hewrapped the babies in white gauzy cotton and gave shangguan lu injections to stop thebleeding. all the while the doctor was performing his lifesaving procedures on mother andchildren, a journalist was taking photographs from various angles. a month later, thesephotographs would appear in a japanese newspaper back home to bear witness to thefriendship between china and japan.
