Hainan Dao

Book II Chapter 05

HAINAN DAO BOOK II

CHAPTER 05

Yixi sat up in bed. He yawned and stretched, and then reached behind to scratch himself on the back of the head. Pushing aside the covers, he swung his feet over the edge of the cot, and that’s when he remembered.

Today was the day.

His eyes wandered over to the table. They glossed over the fancy things on it that his mother had laid out for him the night before. Among them, a black silk coat with shiny buttons all the way down the front. And a round, bop hat to match.

He shuffled over to the side of the table and sat down. Picking up the items one by one, he played with them, turning them over this way and that. He ran the back of his hand down the length of the shirt, feeling the texture of the fabric. He raised his eyebrows. He’d never worn anything like this before.

After he washed up, he slipped on the coat, the cap, the sash. The hat was a bit tight. And the garment itched him on the shoulder. Doing up the last button, he treaded over to the washbasin sitting on the sill by the window. He bent his head down and peered into it.

Deep inside the copper bowl, behind the wavering glass-like surface, Yixi saw an unsteady young man with a deep furrow to his brow, staring back at him from the other side of the water. The young man appeared strange. He didn’t look like someone who was going to be married today. It wasn’t anything specific. He just didn’t look the part somehow. Yixi lifted his finger and reached out toward the other side. The other young man did the same. Their fingers touched, and the world and everything in it disappeared.

***

Yixi left the house accompanied by a number of his male cousins. These made up his receiving party, also known as Xiongdi. (Brothers.) When they arrived at the Fung’s house, as expected, they were held back at the door by the bride’s ‘sisters’, or Zimei, who demanded that money should be given before they were allowed to enter. Yixi reached into his pouch and handed over the red packet given to him earlier by his mother. In it was a small fortune of ninety-nine Yuan and ninety-nine Sien. The number nine sounded like the word for ‘long-lasting’, so it was considered to be a symbol for good luck.

The women opened the door.

All the men shouted for joy. They hurried into the house and smiled and congratulated everyone they met. The people within, in turn, offered their well wishes and laughed and brought them food from the kitchen. Is the bride ready? The young men asked. No! Of course not! Came the response. She is still inside weeping, dreading to leave her father’s house, as any good daughter is bound to do…

Through it all, through the noise and the hustle and the bustle, Yixi remained two steps back.

Two steps. Two miles. Two hundred leagues.

He saw everything. He heard everything. But he was only the boy in the basin now. He had switched places with the stranger on the other side. And now, from that distant shore he looked on, as the stranger knelt before Mr. Fung, along with this young woman in red who also knelt down beside him. Together, they presented to the old man tea, and received his blessing in return.

The stranger traveled back to Sanjia after that, riding upon the back of an ox, while the bride’s carriage and her attendants followed closely behind. From a distance, Yixi saw them go into the house. They knelt down before Mother and Grandfather. Again with the tea. Again with the red envelopes. Yixi watched as the stranger and his red bride performed every rite, every ceremony. He turned away and sighed.

It was all a game. A play enacted for someone else, a performance to entertain someone he didn’t know and didn’t care anything about.

At the banquet that evening, the parents on both sides met again and drank and were happy. The new couple sat by their side and were silent. This was not lost on Grandfather. He glanced over his shoulder at his newly married grandson. Smiling, the old man shook his head. He turned back to Mr. Fung and resumed drinking and discussing the goods sold in the store.