Chinese Literature

Yang the Elder bounced to his feet and clamped his hands on his hips. “Fine, fine, excellent! As a clan leader, I’m not good enough. I shouldn’t try to save your face for you! All right!” His bloodshot eyes gleamed with a savage light. “Let me ask you then, Yang Chunmei—were you or weren’t you with young Hsiao-chang under the big cedar tree on the slope the night before last?”

_ The question took Chun-mei completely by surprise. Her heart pounded. All eyes seemed to be on her. She could feel her face burning. But then she remembered what Wang Kai, the deputy mayor and Youth League secretary, had just told her—“Face up to him. We'll all support you!” Calming down, Chun-mei conquered her confusion. .

“T was,” she replied evenly.

“Fine, fine, a fine virgin!” Yang the Elder shouted hoarsely in a voice like a shattering crockery pot. He whirled and faced the crowd growing at the door. “Look at her, you old and young of the Yang clan, you respected members of other families! Did you ever see the like?” He coughed and choked, working himself into an incoherent fury. “Why, why, she’s smeared every tablet in our ancestral temple with filth! A virgin, playing around with a boy in secret, and she still has the brass to talk about it! Shameless hussy !”

A flame of rage burst in Chun-mei’s brain. She forgot he was of the older generation.

“Stop talking like a goddamn fool!” she yelled.

This mere girl had dared to swear at him—the Elder thought the heavens had fallen. With an “alya!” he raised his hand and rushed towards her. Chun-mei dodged, and the old man ran into a table with such force that he set four or five cups on it dancing and slopping their Wine in all directions. A number of people immediately swarmed around him, restraining him, trying to soothe him. In the contusion, a skinny rooster of man slipped behind Chun-mei and grabbed her by the back of her collar.

“Little whore,” he squawked, “we’ll tie you up and then see what you have to gay!”

It was Yang Pen-tsai, the idler who had said Chun-mei’s mother should have been hung higher. But just as he was showing how tough he was, a palm slapped hard against his black monkey’s face. Pen-tsai Saw stars, and he quickly released Chun-mei’s neck to rub his own

smarting cheek. He was about to fly at the man who had struck him, ~

when deputy mayor Wang Kai entered the room.

“Break it up, break it up,” called the mayor. “You've all got business to attend at the market-place. We didn’t have this much excitement even last market day, when we put on that publicity campaign about spring planting!”

After Wang Kai had shooed out the crowd, he spoke to Yang the Elder.

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