Gold Mountain Blues - Ling Zhang [64]
“Huh!” said his mother. “I can’t read a word but I’ve never been tricked. Didn’t you and your brother go to tutor school? What did you need your mother to teach you for?”
Ah-Fat laughed. “If you could read and write, then you wouldn’t have to get someone to write your letters to me, and you’d save all those eggs, and all that tea, and cash. You don’t even know what your letter-writer actually wrote. When I sent you a cheque, you didn’t know how much it was for, so you could have been cheated, and you’d never know.”
Mrs. Mak laughed too, showing all her chipped teeth. “Yes, you’re right. So long as she doesn’t cost too much in school fees or slack off around the house. Then when you have a daughter, it’s up to you whether you educate her.”
They fell silent. Mrs. Mak looked up. She could see a fuzzy brightness, so she knew the sun had risen to its zenith and the shadows cast by the trees in the paved courtyard would be at their shortest. There was a vibration in the “eyes” within her ears, and she “saw” hosts of worms rustling through the soil under the roots of the banyan tree in the courtyard. It was nearly the end of the first month of the new year. As soon as the earth changed, would be time for ploughing and sowing. Ah-Fat’s wedding had to take place before that started. Tomorrow, a day would have to be fixed.
“Ah-Fat, you little fool!” Mrs. Mak exclaimed, feeling in the basket. “Why are you throwing in all the pods?”
Ah-Fat roused himself hurriedly, to find he had thrown all the peas away and put the pods in the basket. He scrabbled around picking up the peas, and rinsed the dirt off them in a bowl of water.
“Is Six Fingers betrothed to anyone, Mum?” he asked.
“At the end of last year some people from Sai Village came here visiting relatives and saw the scrolls hung in their house. When they found out Six Finger had done them, they got the matchmaker to propose the son of the family to her. But Six Fingers refused. Her mum and dad are still alive but they didn’t want to take her back. That makes her really an orphan with no one to decide things for her. So she’s her own mistress now. But it’s not proper, putting a girl’s calligraphy and paintings on show to strangers.”
“Why did she say no?”
“She said the boy was illiterate.”
Ah-Fat pushed the basket aside and fell on his knees, on top of all the pea pods.
“Mum,” he begged. “Let me be my own master! I want to marry Six Fingers.…”
To Mrs. Mak, it was as if the sun had exploded at her feet, scattering a myriad sparks which peppered her eardrums, making them hum like a hive full of honeybees. When finally the bees flew away, she could hear the sound of her own voice, but now it was a thin, thread-like sound. Her words shredded and were scattered on the wind:
“Wretched boy! Have you forgotten? You’re already betrothed!”
“Of course I haven’t forgotten, Mum. But I don’t know her, and I do know Six Fingers. You know what a good girl she is and I really like her. When I was in Gold Mountain and about to starve to death, Mum,” he went on, “it was only the gold nugget Red Hair left behind that saved me. He was my benefactor. Now all his family are dead and there’s only Six Fingers left. If I marry Six Fingers, that’ll be my way of repaying Red Hair.”
“Have you got maggots in your brain? Red Hair was your uncle, so he was senior to you. He married Six Fingers’ elder sister so that puts Six Fingers in the generation above you too.”
“Yes, but I’ve thought about that too, Mum. Six Fingers is not related to us by blood even if you go back five generations. She and Auntie Cheung Tai are like mother and daughter now, and if Auntie has made Six Fingers her daughter, then that makes Six Fingers the same generation as me.”
“And what about your betrothed and her family, and the three muleloads of betrothal gifts we’re giving them? It’s all arranged. What’s the poor girl done to deserve having her engagement broken off?”
“Mum, if we let them