6

passion and my granddad made wild love for three days and nights, until her already thick lipswere puffy and swollen. trickles of blood seeped into the cracks between her teeth, and whengranddad kissed her, the taste of blood nearly drove him crazy. the rain didn’t let up duringthose three days, and when the blue-and-gold light vanished from the room, the rustling of grey-green sorghum, the watery croaks of frogs, and the nibbling sounds of wild rabbits came on theair from the fields. the chilled, fetid air was saturated with a thousand smells.

when granddad awoke on the morning of the fourth day, he looked at passion lying besidehim and discovered how gaunt and bony she had become; her closed eyes were rimmed withdark-purple circles, her thick lips were cracked and peeling. hearing the loud crash of a housecollapsing somewhere in the village, he quickly dressed and stumbled down off the kang, only tofall flat on his face; he was stunned. as he lay on the floor, his stomach rumbled from hunger.

managing to get to his feet, he called out weakly for the woman liu. no answer. he went intothe room that passion shared with her, but the only thing lying on the kang mat was a green frog;no sign of liu.

returning to the room where he and passion had spent the last three days and nights, he pickedup several squashed slices of salted eggs and gobbled them down, shell and all. but they onlywhetted his appetite, so he went into the kitchen and dug through the cabinet, where he foundfour mildewed buns, nine salted eggs, two pieces of preserved bean curd, and three witheredscallions; he gobbled everything down and finished it off with a ladleful of peanut oil.

the sun’s rays spread across the sorghum field like blood. passion was still asleep, andgranddad looked at her body, sleek as the hide of the black mule. he poked her in the belly withhis pistol, and she awoke with a smile, blue flames leaping out of her eyes; but he staggered outinto the yard and looked up at the huge, round sun, which was like a damp, newborn infant, stillcovered with its mother’s blood. all around him, rain puddles shone bright red.

the wall separating the eastern and western compounds had come down. uncle arhat, thewoman liu, and the distillery hands ran outside to look at the sun.

‘were you in there gambling all this time?’ granddad asked.

‘yes,’ uncle arhat answered, ‘for three days and three nights.’

once the rain had stopped and the sky was clear, the water receded quickly, exposing a layerof soil as wet and shiny as grease. grandma rode up on her mud-spattered black mule out of thegooey muck of the field, holding father in her arms. as they picked up each other’s scent, thetwo mules, separated for so long, began to paw the ground, bob their heads, and bray loudly.

when they were led up to the feeding trough, they nudged and nibbled each other intimately.

embarrassed, granddad took father from grandma, whose eyes were red and puffy; shesmelled slightly of mildew. ‘did you take care of everything?’ granddad asked her.

‘we buried her this morning. two more days of rain and the maggots would have got to her.’

‘that was quite a rain, all right. the bottom must have fallen out of the milky way.’ he turnedto my father. ‘douguan, say hello to your foster-dad.’

‘foster-dad? that’s a “bloodless” relationship. yours is “blooded”,’ grandma chided him.

‘hold him while i go inside and change.’

passion walked outside with a brass basin to get some water. granddad smiled knowingly, towhich she responded with a look of annoyance.

‘what’s wrong?’ he asked softly.

‘it’s all the fault of that damned rain!’ she snapped back.

‘what did you say to him?’ he heard grandma ask passion after she carried the water inside.

‘nothing.’

‘didn’t you say it was all the fault of that damned rain?’

‘no, no, i said that damned rain probably came because the bottom fell out of the milky way.’

grandma uttered an ‘oh!’ granddad heard the water splashing in the brass basin.

three days later, grandma said she was going home to burn incense for great-grandma. whenshe and father were seated on the black mule, she said to passion, ‘i won’t be back tonight.’

that night the woman liu went over to the eastern compound to gamble with the hired hands.

golden flames lit up grandma’s room again.

after riding the mule back under the stars, she stood beneath the window and listened to whatwas going on inside. during the angry tirade that followed, grandma gouged a dozen bloodylines in passion’s face with her nails and slapped granddad’s left cheek – hard. he just laughed.

she raised her hand again, but before it reached his cheek it went limp, and she merely brushedhis shoulder. he sent her reeling with a vicious slap.

grandma burst out crying.

granddad left, taking passion with him.