He wiped them dry. ‘Be a good boy,’ he said. ‘Don't cry. You and your mother have done well. It does my heart good to see how well you're getting along.’
Finally I managed to squeeze the word Dieh out of my throat.
He set the girl on the ground and said: ‘Jiaojiao, say hello to your brother.’
The girl tried to hide behind his legs while she eyed me timidly.
‘Xiaotong,’ he said, ‘this is your sister.’
The girl had beautiful eyes that reminded me of the woman who always cooked meat for me. I liked her at once. I nodded.
With a sigh of relief, Father picked up his knapsack, then took me by one hand and the little girl by the other, and walked up to the house. Mother's wails came in waves, each swell greater than the last; by the sound of it, she wasn't going to stop anytime soon. Father lowered his head to think for a minute and then he rapped on the door. ‘Yuzhen, I've been a terrible husband…I've come back to apologize and make it up to you…’
Tears gathered in his eyes, and in mine.
‘I've come back to help make a good life for us all. The facts prove that the Yang family knows how life is supposed to be lived, and that the Luo family doesn't. If you can forgive me…I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me…’
Father's profound self-criticism both moved and disappointed me. If he was serious about doing what he said, then if he stayed, he'd quit eating pig's head, wouldn't he? Mother yanked the door open and stood there, hands on her hips, her face ashen, her eyes red, her gaze searing. Father stumbled backward and the little girl scooted behind him, shaking from head to toe.
Mother spewed words like lava from a volcano: ‘So this is what you've become, Luo Tong, you heartless bastard! Five years ago, you abandoned your wife and son to run off with that fox demon and live the good life. How dare you come back?’
‘I'm scared, Daddy,’ the little girl sobbed.
‘How nice for you, a bastard child thrown into the bargain!’ said Mother as she glared at the girl. ‘The spitting image!’ she snarled. ‘A little fox demon! Why haven't you brought the big fox demon back with you? If she showed her face round here, I'd rip her cunt right out of her!’
Father smiled in embarrassment, his body language clearly saying ‘You have to lower your head when you're under someone else's eaves.’
Mother slammed the door shut again. ‘You take that bastard child and get the hell out of here,’ she shouted from the other side. ‘I don't want to see either one of you again! You didn't give us a thought until the fox demon tired of you and threw you out. Go away! You're already dead in the hearts of your wife and son.’
She stormed into her room and began to cry once more.
His eyes closed, Father was breathing like an asthmatic on his last legs. ‘Xiaotong,’ he said, once his breathing returned to normal, ‘I hope you and your mother have a good life. I'll be going now…’
He rubbed my head a second time, then squatted to let the girl climb onto his back. But she was too small, and her coat too bulky; she made it halfway before sliding back to the ground. So he reached behind him, grabbed her by the legs and boosted her onto his back. Then he stood up and leaned forward, sticking his neck out as far as it would go, like an ox in a slaughterhouse. His bulging knapsack swayed under his arm, like a cow's stomach hanging from a butcher block.
‘Don't go, Dieh,’ I cried, grabbing his overcoat. ‘I won't let you go!’
I banged on the door. ‘Niang!’ I shouted to Mother. ‘Niang, please let Dieh stay…’
‘Tell him to get the hell out of here,’ she screamed, ‘the farther the better.’
I stuck my hand in through the gap where the glass pane had been, unlatched the door and flung it open.
‘Go in, Dieh,’ I said. ‘You're staying for me.’
He shook his head and began to walk away with the girl on his back. But I grabbed his coat and began to cry again at the same time as I tried to pull him back through the door. As soon as we were inside, the heat from the stove wrapped itself round