Great Felicity

The two Lou sisters, one named Erqiao, the other, Simei, went for a fitting at the Xiangyun Clothing Emporium. It was their brother's wedding in two days and they were going to be bridesmaids. Erqiao asked the clerk, 'Is the bride here already?' `Yes, she is. She's in the fitting room inside.' Simei tugged at Erqiao, 'Look at that piece of yellow fabric hanging there, the one with the bias stripes.' Erqiao said, 'You already have a yellow dress.' Simei smiled, 'Why not get a couple more while you can? Father can't very well get upset with anyone just now' They went over to feel the fabric; they asked how much it was, and whether the colour would run.
Erqiao took a look at her shoes, 'I shouldn't have worn these shoes today. They're the wrong height for trying on the dresses.' `What shoes are you going to wear on the day?' Simei asked. `Same as yours. Yuqing will be wearing flat shoes. She's taller than our brother mustn't make him look too short, must she?' Simei said in a low voice, `Yuqing's figure . . . brother hasn't seen what she looks like when she takes off her clothes . . .
The two of them burst into giggles. Erqiao looked around them, `Shh! Shh!' Then Simei said, 'She is so stiff you could say "when thrown to the ground there arises the music of bronze bells and stone drums"!' Erqiao laughed. 'Where did you get that? Aren't you poetic! But really, we wouldn't have known what she really looks like if we hadn't been trying on clothes together. Our poor brother . . . for the rest of his life . . . Simei doubled up with laughter, 'The slightest touch and you can hear her bones knocking together. It is probably all right dancing with her, because the music would drown it out. It's a bit strange really. It's not that she's at all thin, so why is she all bones?'
Erqiao said, 'Big frame.'
`Her skin is white enough, it's just a pity she reminds you the other way of the White Bone Demon!' Erqiao laughed and gave her a slap, 'It's not that bad. Ah, poor brother. No use telling him now It's too late . . .
Simei said, 'I think she must be at least thirty.'
`Brother is twenty-six; she's saying that she's twenty-six too.' `It wouldn't be hard to find out. She has so many younger brothers and sisters. If she faked her age, then the younger ones would have to fake theirs too. It's easy to tell from the little ones.'
Erqiao gestured. 'They are all stacked up like dominoes. If you push the first one back in years, they will all fall backwards with a clatter!' They laughed hysterically. Then Erqiao said, `The littlest one has just been born. You can't make him fall back into the womb, can you?'
Simei laughed, 'I'll ask Tangqian in school tomorrow She's Yuqing's cousin, you know'
`You know Tangqian and Liqian well then?'
`They have been quite friendly to me lately.'
Erqiao wagged a cautioning finger at Simei. 'Watch out. After big brother marries Yuqing, there's still another brother left at home. I'm afraid they all have their eyes on him too. Can't blame them for being envious. Yuqing is just no match for our brother-and I'm not the only one who thinks so. Her relatives are even more unspeakable. Each one poorer than the last.'
Yuqing stood with her back to the mirror, looking over her shoulder for a back view She was not as ungainly as her sisters-in-law made her out to be. At least, not in the silvery-white, long-sleeved wedding gown. Thus formally attired, she was very presentable what the newspaper ads might call a lady of refinement:. In comparison, Erqiao and Simei were simply young ladies of the nouveau riche. Although their father had scholarly pretensions, he'd only made his fortune in recent years, and the daughters still had this air of fresh and vulgar merriment.
They said hello to Yuqing, then shooed the shop assistant out and started changing, struggling to pull their dresses over their heads. Through their slips one could see their petulant, pouting breasts.
Yuqing gave her dress a tug and asked, 'Do you think this needs altering?' Erqiao gave her a dutiful glance, then said, `Looks fine!' Yuqing was still worrying that it might be a little too long in the back, when Simei suddenly gave a squeal. She had discovered that the gauze top and the georgette bottom of her gown were two different shades of pink. Each of them felt that hers was the most important role in the wedding. For Erqiao and Simei, Yuqing was the dazzling white caption to appear on the silver screen at the end of a movie 'The End', while they were the exciting previews for the 'Next Change'.
When the clerk came in, Erqiao and Simei both started to complain. The clerk was eager to please, offering to raise it a bit here, tuck it in a bit there. 'There is no mistake. The measurements are all here: waist, nineteen inches; shoulders: fourteen and a half and fourteen for her. No mistake there. Colours not right? That can be changed no problem, no problem. Let's do this: we'll bleach the top a bit; we have a special solution for that. If that's not enough, we'll re-dye the skirt. No problem, no problem.' The clerk was a young fellow of fifteen or sixteen, dressed in a mandarin gown of grey cotton. His smooth white face wore a permanent slick smile. He was extremely patient. Listening to him, one would never have guessed that the evening gowns were only being hired out to these two women. As spiritual and as graceful as a tall narcissus, it was hard to imagine how far he might go when he grew up.
The decor of the Xiangyun Emporium was in something called 'palace style', its red walls complete with gold dragon reliefs. The walls of the fitting room were hung with full-length mirrors and there were bridal pictures everywhere---different heads with different smiles sticking out of the same hired bridal gown. There was a kind of egalitarian and inhuman cheer about the little vermilion room. Yuqing pushed away the jumble of gowns on the aquamarine china stool and sat down. She leaned slightly forward, chin in hand, and watched hr two bridesmaids moodily. Yuqing was very careful not to let her excitement show to be beside yourself with delight at getting married was a sure sign of an eager spinster. Yuqing's face was smooth and blank, like a freshly-made bed; with the heavy imprint of sadness upon it now, it looked as if someone had plonked themselves down on the bed.
Erqiao asked Yuqing, 'Are you almost done shopping?' Yuqing frowned, 'Not nearly! I've been running around all morning. It's so hard to shop these days. Things that are even passable are too expensive. But you can't not buy them either, because they will just be more expensive later.' Erqiao put out a hand. 'Let me see the dress fabric you bought.' Yuqing handed her a package. 'It's a silk-linen blend.' Erqiao poked a hole in the wrapping-paper and brought the package up to her face, as if to suck the contents out through the hole like a mosquito sucking the yolk out of an egg through the shell. She said, `Pattern's not bad.' Simei said, 'It was quite popular for a while last year.' Erqiao said, 'But I'm afraid it will fade. I had something like that. It got all washed out.' Yuqing blushed and snatched the package back, saying, 'The difference is in the quality. They have a cheaper version of the same pattern. But I am the type who won't buy anything that won't last.'
Yuqing had also bought a satin embroidered night-dress, a matching embroidered robe, a silk padded morning gown, embroidered padded slippers, a cloisonné compact and a purse mirror with its own zippered suede cover. She believed that a woman only had one chance in her life to indulge herself, and she should make the most of it. Whatever she saw, she bought, as if there was no tomorrow. There was a kind of valediction and desolation in her heart. Her sadness as she shopped for her trousseau was not entirely put on.
Watching her spend money, her in-laws thought her too extravagant. Even though it was her own money she was spending, it still infuriated the two sisters-in-law Yuqing's was an eminent family in decline. Her parents had scraped together 50,000 for her dowry and now she was spending it all on herself Erqiao, Simei and Sanduo, the brother-in-law, gossiping behind her back, had learned that according to old Chinese customs, everything in the newly-weds' room, except for the bed, was to be furnished by the bride's side. The Western custom was different; but there, on top of having to bring a sum of money as her dowry, the woman also had to provide all the linen for the new household. Whichever custom she went by, Yuqing was wrong to be so irresponsible. The parents-in-law had come off badly in the deal, but suffered in silence. However, the sisters-in-law, also indirectly affected, were less inclined to be good-natured about it.
After Erqiao and Simei had inspected Yuqing's purchases, they felt personally cheated. Even when they tried to look at it objectively, from the outside, they still couldn't help feeling that it was a shame the stupid woman spent her money in such bad taste.
Of course, they kept smiling. Erqiao smiled and asked, `Do you have shoes to go with the rose-coloured gown you're wearing after the ceremony?' Yuqing said, 'Didn't I tell you? What a bother! That colour is impossible to match. I've been to so many shoe stores. Embroidered shoes only come in bright red, pink or burgundy.' Simei said, 'Don't bother to look any more. My Ma heard that you couldn't find any shoes, so she's making you a pair.' Yuqing said, 'Oh, that's really too . . . anyway, there's no time.' Simei said, 'That's Ma for you. There are so many other more urgent things waiting to be taken care of, and there she is making shoes! There's so much to do at home just now' Erqiao was embarrassed--her mother always embarrassed her. But she couldn't really not defend her in front of others. So she said, 'We have a seamstress at home and she could easily have asked her to rush a pair out. But Ma's like that even if she might not make a good job of it, she feels that this is a way of expressing her affection.' Yuqing felt that she should be touched and was a little uncomfortable. She said, 'That's really too . . . really too . . .' over and over, then she changed her clothes quickly and left the store alone, dragging her head of weary hair to the hairdresser's. Her permed hair felt the heaviness of the rainy day. Please don't let it rain the day after tomorrow.
Mrs Lou was only too happy to make the shoes for her new daughter-in-law, because she felt that she was not up to the tasks before her-despite all the practice she'd had over the last twenty to thirty years. Tracing and cutting patterns for shoes had been her daily tasks before she got married and she was thrilled to have an excuse to retreat into her girlhood memories. Actually, she couldn't even sew very well, but no one really valued or paid attention to such things any more. No one would notice that the stitches were too big or too far apart, or that the toecaps were crooked: things which would have made her sisters and friends laugh at her in the old days.
Though she frowned over the work and tried to look as if she felt put upon, the whole family seemed able to see through her. They knew that the shoes brought her some kind of enjoyment and they all begrudged her it.
Her husband, Lou Xiaobo, came back very late from his office at the bank as usual. Once home, he was impatient for the maid to draw his bath. He put on his slippers and lay on the couch to rest while he flipped through an old Esquire magazine. The Americans really knew how to advertise their products. Above every car floated a little fluff of cuddly white cloud. 'Four Roses' whiskey had crystal clear yellow liquor in a crystal clear glass on a glossy brown table. Beside it lay some red roses such elegance just for a glass of liquor. Xiaobo reached for his cup of tea on the round table next to the couch and his eye fell on the rose-coloured embroidered upper of a slipper being pressed under the glass top of the table. The flat gold flowers glittered in the light. He suddenly felt as if his learning and his wealth had come together in a kind of tasteful sophistication, that his scholarly ambitions were now satisfied. Xiaobo had a degree from America, he was a real scholar. However, his later fulfillment in life had nothing to do with his long period as a student.
The other rose-coloured shoe upper was still in Mrs Lou's hands. When Xiaobo saw it, he couldn't help saying, 'Must you do that in the midst of everything? Can't you put it aside?' Looking at his wife, he could have gone on and on: 'Do you have to cut your hair in a duck tail? if it's convenience you're after, just shave your head. Do you have to wear lilac stockings? And do you have to roll them down below your knees? Do you have to let your black slip show through the slit of your cheongsam?' His voice would be strained with impatience, yet he would adopt a conciliatory tone, for he had a reputation for being a good husband. Who else would have found someone like Mrs Lou through a matchmaker, and come back from his studies abroad to have four children with her and stick with her for thirty years?
Mrs Lou wore eyeglasses. When she frowned, her eyebrows formed an upside-down 'V'. Her face was like a dumpling made by a child playing with dough that had been pinched and kneaded till the dirt from the hands got into the flour, making it a sort of dirty white.
Lou Xiaobo also wore glasses and had a plump, round face, but he was his wife's exact opposite-a most capable man, especially good at managing people in social situations. He was a tall man, and though he wore Western suits, he made people think of a graceful dancer with flowing sleeves. His social skills were, in truth, a kind of dance that dazzled his audience and made their heads spin while he twirled en Pointe..
Mr and Mrs Lou were such a mismatched couple that many people felt indignant on his behalf. Mrs Lou knew this very well and it: angered her. Though she often let him have his way in private, she deliberately insulted her husband in front of others, just to show them how Mr Lou both loved and feared her, that things were not as outsiders might think.
Because there were two maids in the room preparing for the wedding, Mrs Lou could not let what Mr Lou had said to her go. She immediately scowled and said, 'What does my making shoes have to do with you? Busybody!'
Xiaobo said nothing more. Usually, he let her have her way in front of other people. If she wanted other people to think of her as bad tempered and sour, that was up to her. He had already sacrificed this much, he might as well be the good husband to the end. However, he was a bit impatient today. The scenes of glossy luxury in the magazine ads and the wealth that he saw in front of his own eyes did not seem to tally. One belonged in the magazine; the other in his own home. He silently said to his wife, 'Why must you make yourself look stupid?' Impatient, but still conciliatory. When the maid told him his bath was ready, he stood up and let his magazine fall to the floor. He didn't bother to pick it up.
Mrs Lou realized that Xiaobo was annoyed. It was all because she wanted to save face when there were people around. She had always resented the people around her. It wasn't as if she didn't realize that if the people who cared about her were all to die, leaving her and her husband to rattle around in the empty house alone, her husband would not bother about her at all. Why be a responsible husband when there's no one to see? She knew that she should really be grateful to the people around her, so she hated them even more.
The clock struck nine. Erqiao and Simei came home by bicycle. They had first gone to their brother and sister-in-law's new home to help decorate and to deliver gifts from friends and relatives. They brought back two baskets woven of handkerchiefs which they had taken there earlier. Yuqing had disliked the design of the handkerchiefs, and she thought such baskets were too vulgar anyway. Their home was too small and there was nowhere these baskets could be kept out of sight. Just as the girls were explaining, two more baskets were delivered. Mrs Lou and her two daughters tipped the delivery boy in some confusion. Mrs Lou still couldn't bear to put down the embroidered shoe upper. It was dangling from a piece of cotton threaded through a needle On her bosom. The sight of the shoe jogged Simei's memory: 'Ma, forget those shoes. Yuqing found a pair.'
Mrs Lou didn't quite hear the undertone of vindictive pleasure in her daughter's casual remarks. Mrs Lou also pretended not to mind at all. `Ah, she found a pair, did she?' So saying, she pulled the thread from the needle and pressed the unfinished shoe upper under the glass table-top.
Then they discovered that an acquaintance they had not invited to the wedding had sent a gift, so an invitation had to be sent to him. Mrs Lou asked the maid to find out if the young master was home. When the maid reported that he was, Mrs
Lou asked him to write out the invitation. Dalu was a head shorter than his father, with a placid, small face and ears that stuck out, like Bashful in Snow White. But in fact he was a garrulous sort and started giving an account of expenses incurred immediately he came in. He was surprised at how much it cost to set up a small household. He had rented two rooms in a friend's house. The floors had to be waxed and the bathtub scoured, and the west-facing windows needed bamboo blinds. Besides regular curtains, they also needed black-out blinds and the colours mustn't clash with the rug and the chairs. Lamps needed shades and bulbs. For mahjong, an extra table was needed with its own table-cloth and lamp Yuqing knew all about such things. There were two rooms plus the kitchen and, if they were going to live a life of probity and seriousness, each room must have a clock in it. Dalu spent his parents' money with a clear conscience, because he was not marrying just anyone. The best thing about Yuqing was that she had breeding. She brought out the best in everyone. Take his father for example whenever he saw Yuqing, he would start talking politics. He would hold forth continuously for a couple of hours, then he would turn to the company and praise Yuqing for being such an unusually knowledgeable woman.
The young couple were both knowledgeable people. In shopping for their new home they had bought the little things first, leaving the important things till last, so that when they had used up their money they could ask for more a bed, for example, was a must. Mrs Lou exclaimed, 'You kids have no planning!' She loved her son, but she loved her money, too. She felt a gentle tug at her heart-strings. 'I'll give you my bed. I'll just use your single one.' Erqiao, Sanduo and Simei protested with one voice: 'That's no good. There will be many guests here over the next couple of days. There has always been a set of two double beds in Ma's room. If all of a sudden one is gone, replaced by a single bed, people will say that the daughter-in-law came in and broke the household up. You can't do that. With father, reputation comes first.'
While they were talking, Xiaobo came out, bathrobe over his shoulders, and pointed at Mrs Lou with his glasses which were all steamed up. 'That's so typical of all of you. Leaving everything until the last possible minute. When I saw that suite of teak furniture at the auction house last year, I wanted to buy it for Dalu. You wouldn't listen to me then.' Dalu laughed, 'I hadn't even met Yuqing then.' Xiaobo glared at him, then, feeling that his look wasn't impressive enough, put on his glasses and glared at him again. Mrs Lou was afraid father and son might get into a row and quickly said, 'Really, it's a pity we didn't buy it at the time. Since Dalu would have gotten married sooner or later, we couldn't have gone wrong with it.'
Xiaobo stuck out his chin, 'Do I have to take care of everything in this household? What have you been doing? Whenever the children were absent from school, I had to be the one to write their excuses.' These two things weren't really related, but Mrs Lou knew that Xiaobo had more than once made the same kind of complaint in front of the relatives. Though she felt that her husband was justified, she had her own grievances and felt deprived of an outlet. Suddenly it all welled up within her and she wanted to answer back: 'If we have been treating you badly here at home, then don't come back! I'm sure you have another woman outside. That's why you keep finding fault with things at home this won't do, that won't do.' Then she remembered that she was going to be a mother-in-law soon and swallowed her words. She put her shoulders back and clattered to the bathroom where she gargled noisily, swishing the water around in her mouth, then spitting it out with a vengeance. Whenever Mrs Lou was angry and wanted to cry, she always channelled her impulse into bluff and hearty action-letting it all out.
Outside the bathroom, father and son continued talking. Xiaobo had asked, with a slightly challenging tone in his voice, `Who was it that sent the gift that came just now? Anyone I know?' Dalu said, 'A man from our company.' Xiaobo was surprised. 'Everybody from the office pitched in for a joint gift. Why does he have to give you a separate one? Do we have to give him an invitation? Is he one of your drinking buddies?' Dalu explained, 'He is from the accounts department. He is one of Mr Feng's men.' Xiaobo understood immediately and changed his whole tone of voice, switching the topic to Mr Feng and how the tabloids had been making a joke of him.
They were, after all, father and son. Mrs Lou felt isolated. The whole Lou family, her husband, her children, the young and old, so handsome, so competitive, she loved them all and they, time after time, banded together to think of different ways to prove her inadequate. Her husband had always been concerned about his reputation even when they were poor. He had always loved to socialize and was therefore always putting her in various embarrassing situations and, time and again, finding that she didn't measure up. As the family became wealthy, it should have meant an easier time, but she hadn't realized that as the parties became grander, she would find herself even more inadequate.
However, if you told her to live differently, to forgo the nice clothes, the visits and return visits, she would be unhappy then too and feel bereft. Prosperity, frustration, embarrassment this was life. Mrs Lou felt another tug at her heart-strings. As she stood at the wash-basin, facing the mirror; she felt an itch, as if something had fallen under the rim of her glasses. She thought it was a tear-drop. With a corner of her handkerchief around a finger, she rubbed it and found that it was just a little green bug attracted by the light. Mrs Lou took off her glasses and looked and looked again, pulling up the lid to inspect her eye, afraid a bug might have got inside. She stood right up close to the mirror, almost pressing her face to it. She gazed at herself, at her pale, stolid, spreading cheeks -she couldn't even articulate to herself her own misery. The eyebrows were drawn together, always frowning, but her expression said only, 'Oh bother! Bother!' and nothing of her misery.
Although the couple had had a tiff, the next day, when something came up, his wife still called Xiaobo at the office to ask his advice. The retired director of transport was supposed to serve as chief witness for the marriage ceremony. But though he was no longer an official, like all officials, he covered his tracks well. He had slipped out of Shanghai without so much as a by-your-leave. Xiaobo couldn't come up with anyone comparable at a moment's notice, so he asked his wife to look up a man named Li, who was the director of a hospital, and had a certain cachet as well. Mrs Lou went by car to his house, braving the rain. Once inside the Li house, she opened her wet umbrella and set it on the sitting-room carpet. She took off her sky-blue transparent rain cape, held it by the collar and shook the water from it. Then she took out a handkerchief to wipe the drops from her leather overcoat. The leather coat hadn't been buttoned up and fell open all the way down to reveal her splayed feet. Rain cape in hand, she looked around, then put the dripping cape on the sofa and sat down herself. Dr Li was not at home. Mrs Li came out to greet her. Mrs Lou gave her a business card with `Lou Xiaobo' on it and said, 'Xiaobo and Dr Li are well acquainted.' Mrs Li was Cantonese and could only manage a few stilted phrases of Mandarin. She didn't seem very clear about anything. Fortunately, Mrs Lou had absolute confidence in Xiaobo's reputation and was therefore able to state the purpose of her visit with composure. Mrs Li said, 'I will let him know and have him call you.' Mrs Lou then handed over two canisters of tea, which Mrs Li did her best to refuse. Mrs Lou was determined that she should have them, but when Mrs Li finally accepted, her manner had taken on a definite chill. Mrs Lou felt that she had made a mess of things once again. However, with thirty years of countless faux pas behind her, she sat on, impervious. She sat until it was time to go, then she stood up, put on her rain cape and took her leave. It wasn't till she got to the door that she discovered that she had left her umbrella inside and turning back to retrieve it, nodded at Mrs Li again a reserved nod indicating that the other's status was too humble for a bow.
The truth was, Mrs Lou did feel nervous about the whole visit. She opened her umbrella even before she got out of the door; then discovered that she couldn't pass through and had to close the umbrella, once again splattering the floor with rain­water.
Dr Li called later to say that he would officiate at the wedding.
It was still raining the day of the wedding. The Lou’s were worried that too few guests would show up. Their fears were groundless, however. In these times, who would give a gift and not come to eat his share? The ceremony was at three in the afternoon. By two-thirty, the hall was already filling up, with the guests naturally divided into two groups. The groom's guests sat on one side; the bride's on the other. Everybody was smiling, chatting, fluttering back and forth, some pulling down seats to sit on. In the grand hall, there were great red pillars entwined with green dragons. The walls were of black glass and a black glass altar held a little gold Buddha. This was the Orient as a little old foreign lady might imagine it. Under all stretched a vast floral Peking carpet. You walked on the carpet, but your feet never touched the flowers woven into it there was always something in between. The huge room with its colourful decorations was like a big glass globe, with shifting patterns of colour at its centre. The guests were all flies climbing gingerly over the surface of the globe, trying to get inside.
There were two who, not content with lingering awhile, fretted their limbs outside the glass ball, and plotted how to get into the luxurious interior. Yuqing's five girl cousins had all come with their mother. The eldest and the second were nice enough girls, but they were not young any more and were getting over-anxious. The second, Liqian, had had an unlined cheongsam specially made for the occasion. However, she was not prepared for the unexpected drop in temperature after two days of rain. It was too early for the hotel to turn the heating on, so she was unable to take off her old overcoat, not because she couldn't bear the cold, but because she couldn't stand the concerned queries, 'Aren't you cold?' Liqian was born unlucky. Although she got there early, somehow she could not find a seat. She was leaning against a pillar she liked to do things like that. Her pale exhausted face was a challenge; it seemed to say, 'I am tired of this world. That's why I am also tired of you are you tired of me?' The challenge lay in the unexpected twist at the end.
Her sister, Tangqian, was not as tall as her, but her face was fuller, so at first glance she looked younger. Tangqian was a spirited girl. But in spite of all her years of spiritedness, she was still unmarried, and she was beginning to lose her self-confidence. Her little round soul had shattered, and had been repaired with white china. Her eyes were white china, so were her teeth, which were slightly protruding hard, white as snow and every bit as cold and cruel. But she kept smiling and was even more spirited. Seeing one of her cousins from afar, she immediately stood up to beckon her to come sit by her, and gave up her chair for her. She sat on the arm rest instead, pointing and gesturing, chatting and laughing. More quietly she asked if the usher standing at the door was the groom's brother. When she heard that he was only a clerk from Xiaobo's bank, she lost interest. More and more relatives were arriving. She greeted and chatted with each one, holding their hands warmly. Tangqian's laughing voice seemed to have teeth. At first, the teeth nibbled and teased, but eventually, their bite became painful.
The band struck up. The magnificent procession of bride, groom, groomsmen and bridesmaids marched slowly in. In that moment of breathless anticipation, there was goodwill and poetry: pink and pale yellow bridesmaids were like the colourful clouds of dawn. The black-jacketed men were like swallows, dark shadows gliding through the clouds. The white bride with her half-closed eyes was like a corpse who had not quite awakened at the dawn of its resurrection her glow was understated. All were ushered in to the strains of uplifting music.
When the bride and groom came to a stop, the chief witness made his speech: 'Ladies and gentlemen. I . . . today . . . am very . . . happy . .. .' The atmosphere immediately changed. The chief witness mentioned the new morality, new thinking and the responsibilities of citizens. He hoped that the couple would be diligent in producing little citizens. Everybody laughed. Then it was a speech from the person who had introduced the couple to each other. He didn't have to stand on ceremony and could be as creative as he wanted. His main point: this man and woman will be sleeping together in a little while. Take a good look at them now, because a little later, you won't be able to. The speaker's difficulty was that he was not allowed to say any of this directly, but fortunately his audience understood him and knew to laugh. But the speech dragged on too long and hardly anyone was laughing by the end.
The band struck up the recessional. As the bride left, her white wedding gown seemed a little worn, her face likewise.
The guests started cheering and showering them with confetti. The people at the back threw confetti all over the people in front. Tangqian had been staring at the best man, the groom's brother, Sanduo, throughout the ceremony. Suddenly, she let out a wild hoot of joy and threw a whole bag of confetti at him.
The bride, the groom and the attendants went to have their pictures taken. The guests went next door for tea. Tangqian, spiritedly, and Liqian, coolly, ate their cake.
Half-way through, the bride and groom came back. The band started up again. The bride and groom were the first onto the dance floor. This was the young people's arena. Even those who didn't dance crowded around the dance floor to watch. The older ladies stood quietly at the back, smiling discreetly. Even though they had been pushed out of the limelight, they retained a sort of negative importance, like a seal squarely stamped on a painting. Without it, the painting is valueless.
Nobody invited Tangqian to dance. She kept smiling, as if she had a slab of white china in her mouth, and couldn't close it up.
Tangqian and Liqian were wondering if they should leave early, before people began to disperse, in order to make an impression, to give people the chance to enquire who the beautiful woman in blue was. Just as they were getting ready to leave, a woman they knew well came over to their table, and started complaining to their mother. 'Isn't there anyone in charge here? We don't have anything at our table. There really should be someone in charge of each table.' Their mother immediately served her some tea. She sat down and proceeded to shove food into her mouth, neither eagerly nor coldly, just totally impassively. As there was no way Tangqian and Liqian could express their disgust, they could only urge their mother to leave.
When they spotted Sanduo standing beside Mrs Lou, they went up to them to say goodbye. Mrs Lou was confused, as if she had switched to a new pair of glasses, and couldn't tell who they were. When she had finally figured out who they were, she simply frowned and asked, 'Why not stay a little longer?' Mrs Lou was so busy today, she felt she had every right to frown as much as she wanted.
Since the Lou family was a 'modern' family, they only invited a few close relatives to the evening banquet, and there weren't any rowdy wedding night pranks. The next day, the new couple went back to the groom's family for lunch. The bride's parents and siblings were also there. They already had proofs of the wedding pictures. In one, Yuqing stood there alone, her white gown stiffly starched and ironed, her body tilted forward at a precarious angle; she looked like a paper doll propped up on a cardboard stand. There was one of her with Dalu in which her veil was over her face. Her features were indistinct, as if the shadow of a vengeful ghost had accidentally been captured on film. Yuqing was greatly dissatisfied with the pictures and decided that she would rent the gown again and have her pictures retaken.
After lunch, Xiaobo discussed world affairs with himself In the throes of his eloquence, he stood up to gesticulate and banged his hand on the table. Mrs Lou was sitting on the sofa with the in-laws and her daughter-in-law. She calmly stretched her legs and looked at her lilac stockings, rolled below her knees. She then noticed that no one was really listening; they were passing the wedding pictures around. Now and again, someone yawned. Mrs Lou felt a sudden surge of disgust, but she didn't know whether it was disgust for her husband or for those watching them act like a couple.
The bride's mother wanted to smoke, and Mrs Lou reached over to get the lighter. The midday sun shone on the glass-topped table. The rose-coloured embroidered shoe upper under the glass glittered. Mrs Lou's hand and heart rested awhile over that brilliance. She suddenly remembered that when she was little, she used to stand in front of her house watching the wedding processions: the bridal palanquins and the bands, striking up their relentless and barbaric pipe and gong music, muffling the weeping of the bride. The sound of drums and gongs made the heart quake. In the heat of the noonday sun, colourful tassels from the palanquin—a row of light green, a row of pink, a row of deep red row upon row rippled in the wind like waves making your head spin and then bringing the clarity of the noonday sun, like the strong yellow wine one drinks at Dragon Boat Festival. A palanquin bearer's patched short blue trousers showed beneath his embroidered jacket. From above the jacket stuck out his skinny, yellow neck, shiny with sweat, like a maggot squirming out of a jar. The palanquin bearers and the band marched in rows, swaggering extravagantly and colourfully, and the spectators were also immersed in the procession. Everybody was caught up in an immense sense of joy outside themselves that left them reeling.
After all these years, Mrs Lou still remembered. Since she was married and even her eldest son was now married, she should have known that marriage was nothing like that. The weddings she had witnessed as a child gave her a feeling of wholeness. Somehow, her son's celebration hadn't come together. She did not know why that was.
Her husband suddenly ended his discussion of current affairs. Resting his elbow on the mantelpiece, he gave his daughter-in-law a sideways glance and, in the most progressive and scientific tone of voice befitting a new-style father, he asked, 'How does it feel to be married? It's all right, is it?'
Yuqing hesitated a little, then, with all the aplomb she could command, she replied, 'It's fine.' After she had said that, she blushed.
They all laughed, but were slightly ill at case, not certain if they should have laughed or not. Mrs Lou knew that her husband had made a joke, but she didn't really catch what he said, so she laughed the loudest.

Translated by Janet ,Ng with Janice Wickeri