2Shangguan Lü emptied her dustpan onto the exposed surface of the kang, whose grass matand bedding had been rolled up and put to one side, then cast a worried look at her daughter-in-law, Shangguan Lu, who moaned as she gripped the edge of the kang. After tamping¹ thedirt down with both hands, she said softly to her daughter-in-law, “You can climb back upnow.”
Shangguan Lu trembled under the gentle gaze of her mother-in-law. As she stared sadly atthe older woman’s kind face, her ashen² lips quivered, as if she wanted to say something.
“The devil’s gotten back into that old bastard³ Sima, firing his gun so early in the morning!”
Shangguan Lü announced.
“Mother …” Shangguan Lu said.
Clapping her hands to loosen the dirt, Shangguan Lü muttered softly, “My good daughter-in-law, try your best! If this one’s a girl, too, I’d be a fool to keep defending you.”
Tears trickled⁴ from Shangguan Lu’s eyes as she bit down on her lip; holding up hersagging belly⁵, she climbed back onto the dirt-covered kang.
“You’ve been down this road before,” Shangguan Lü said as she laid a roll of white cottonand a pair of scissors on the kang. “Go ahead and have your baby.” Then, with an impatientfrown, she said, “Your father-in-law and Laidi’s daddy are in the barn tending to the blackdonkey. This will be her first foal, so I should be out there giving them a hand.”
Shangguan Lu nodded. Another explosion flew in on the wind, setting off a round ofbarking by frightened dogs. Sima Ting’s booming voice came in fits: “Fellow townsmen, fleefor your lives, don’t wait another minute …” She felt the baby inside her kick, as if inresponse to Sima Ting’s shouts, the stabbing pains forcing drops of rancid sweat out of everypore in her body. She clenched⁶ her teeth to keep the scream inside her from bursting out.
Through the mist of tears she saw the lush black hair of her mother-in-law as she knelt at thealtar and placed three sandalwood joss sticks in Guanyin’s burner.

分享到：