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Chapter 55 1/2
Nevertheless he lived well, studied hard, passed all the exams, and applied for permanent residence, so that one night, as he came back from Chinatown and stepped into her house, Pan handed him a large, yellowish envelope. ‘It is from the Immigration Department,’ she said.
‘Oh, really? So quick, less than three months,’ Bing said excitedly, tearing the envelope. ‘I thought it would need at least four months.’
Pan didn’t reply to him; her eyes were on his hands.
In a moment, he was reading the letter, and she was checking the passports.
Then he kissed her forehead, to declare, ‘Thank Australia for letting me stay.’
‘She is very pretty,’ Pan said, putting down the passport.
He was a little surprised, but realising it was the first time Pan had seen his wife’s photo, he asked, ‘Is she?’ Then with his hand lifted to fondle her ponytail, he added unreasonably, ‘She is not as tall as you.’
She said no more, her fingers tightening on his waist. ‘Well, a time for celebration.’
She released him, went to the kitchen and returned with a bottle opener. She inserted its twisted point into the cork of the wine already on the table. She began to drill; the cork, very deep inside, was split in the middle but remained outwardly intact. Then Bing took over the task and she went to the fridge, brought back a dish of BBQ chicken she must have purchased from a Chinese shop, and a bag of pistachio nuts, which she opened with scissors and poured its contents onto a platter.
They spent the next hour in drinking, and the following half an hour in love making.
Her head was nestled on his shoulder. ‘When do you ask her over?’ she asked.
He motioned his head to see her, but her eyes were not interested in his attention. So, with his free right hand, he turned her face to him so that she couldn’t hide her eyes from his. But still, she was not interested, evading him by only looking at his low chin.
She didn’t weep, nor sob like a child, but then, her eyes were brimming with tears.
He said not a word. With his fingers he persuaded her eyes, but her sadness kept coming, over her cheek like a river.
The wet coolness he felt on his shoulder, and the faint tremor of her soft body, began to draw his heart, and his penis. He couldn’t help but make another connection with her, with her soul, with her sadness.
Over the next few months, he looked for a job in IT. The supervisor role in the Chinatown restaurant, which had supported him during his three years of study, would have to be replaced with something else, which could be regarded as his career. He told his wife that, as soon as he had found a job, he would determine the date of her departure. But he knew, the decision was more due to his lingering intimacy with Pan than the sake of economic security, about which he had long ceased to worry.
But, hundreds of resumes were sent, Australia wide, and a dozen interviews, mostly with agents, were conducted, and three months had passed by, still, with no offer.
Oh, what a life-making battle!
‘Be patient, it always takes time for anyone to get his first job,’ Pan said to him, holding him, in her bed. ‘I was only lucky to have found a job within a month. Some of my friends took more than six months to get their first one.’
‘I don’t know, but it is so hard,’ he said, despondently, ‘sometimes, I really want to go back to China. After all it isn’t a bad idea, is it? I heard some teachers in my university had started their own English training centre, doing very well. IT is something I don’t feel enthusiastic for. If not for the sake of immigration, it wouldn’t interest me a bit.’ And without comments from her, he went on, complaining, ‘Experience, experience, how could I have the experience just after the study? I have already obtained the certificate of MSCD - Microsoft Certified Software Developer.’
‘I have a friend getting both MCSD and MCSE – Microsoft Certified System Engineer, when he got his first job some years ago,’ she said, moving away from him. ‘Time to get up, I am hungry.’
It was Sunday morning, but, ever since he had been troubled with the job hunting, they had barely enjoyed their common leisure hours on Sundays.
‘Maybe I need to seriously consider getting MCSE as well,’ he said, sitting up against the headboard.
‘Try your best, that is what everyone has to do.’
Later at breakfast, as they drank milk and ate fried eggs, he blurted out, ‘I am thinking of going home.’
She was frowned, ‘Going home? Are you serious?’
‘No, I mean going home to pay a visit.’
‘Oh, you scared me, I thought you wanted to quit Australia altogether.’
‘Well, really, I don’t know, but I think at least I can see my parents, now that I am freer between the two countries.’
A silence elapsed around the table, before Pan asked, ‘How long?’
‘One month?’
‘Then how about your work in Chinatown?’
‘I will have to ask for a long leave,’ he said. ‘Hope I can still have the position when I come back.’
‘I don’t think it will be a problem. Even if you have to find another one, your experience and your friends will of course help,’
she said, matter-of-factly. ‘Do you have enough money?’
‘Yes,’ he replied, thinking of three thousands in his bank account. If not for the new computer he purchased two months ago to assist in preparing for the MCSD tests, he would have had about five thousand. ‘It will be just a flight ticket anyway.’
‘You need buy some gifts,’ she said. ‘Those Australian products.’
‘I know.’
‘If you don’t have enough, let me know.’
‘I will,’ he said, looking at her, warmly, smiling a white smile that had not often visited his face these days.
‘Oh, you… such a rogue,’ she was rapidly turning childish, ‘So you are happy now? Can’t wait to see… her?’
‘Hehe, maybe you go together with me? We go visiting the Emei Mountain, to see those sexy monkeys.’
‘You think I dare not to go?’ she stared at him.
‘Haha, then, go together with me.’
‘Then you will hate me.’
…
So, two of them spent the rest of Sunday in a travel agency in Chinatown, booking his ticket for the following Sunday, buying some sheepskins, some bottles of fish oil, some boxes of lanolin oil.
In the week before his departure, his spirits were high, as they had to be for one who is anticipating a family reunion after years of separation. Obviously, infected by him, Pan was happy too. They made love a lot, but in a less sad, more playful manner. And on those occasions, for a reason, Pan liked to kid about him and his wife, and her curiosity about them, even on their life in bed, was hardly contained. He tended to suspect that she had been showing her cheerfulness in order not to dampen his. Or, unless, she was also in need of some time without him? Could it be possible, after six months of living together, she had grown tired of looking after him like a baby?
At the airport, after their departing kiss, she thrust an envelope into his pocket. And immediately, she left him, waving, ‘Don’t drink too much.’ Then she kept on going, without turning to him, not even giving him the expected last glance.
In the envelope there was one thousand dollars.
During the ten hours on board, his mind was stretched wide over the Pacific. At one end was Pan, whose figure seemed to contract, to shrink all the way down to only two teary eyes; at the other, a good huddle of excited people, with their faces radiant, with their hearts turbulent, were restlessly and impatiently waiting for his arrival.
But in the end, Australia was losing, fast retreating into an obscure memory, of not just ten hours but seemingly ten years old.
At Chengdu airport, it was not unlike a dream, when he woke up to see his wife, smiling like a silver flower, and beside her, the joyful faces of his mother, his father, his sister and her husband Hui, and surprisingly, of his childhood friend.
‘Why, Kai, you are also here,’ he said aloud, walked to Kai to bang a couple of times on his thick chest.
Kai laughed, ‘Of course, this is Chengdu. Don’t you forget I am now a permanent resident in the city.’
Bing turned to his wife. Strange, she didn’t seem getting any older, or his Australian adventure had actually tarnished his remembrance of her. Her skin, creamy, her features, small, her fingers, slender; all looked as fresh and tender as if he had seen her for the first time. Holding her hand, tapping her cheek, and kissing her cheek, he was wondering why he had not missed her hard enough during the past three years.
Even his parents, who had one year before moved from village to live together with his sister, looked much younger; their faces looked fuller, though the number of white streaks in their hair had no reason to be reduced. On the scene, there were no tears. There was only a flash of emotion detected in his mother’s face, that faded quickly, as she came over to catch his arms, persuade him to put on the coat she had brought for him, and make general comments about his body. ‘A little fatter, a little fatter,’ she said, giving an opinion with which his father didn’t seem to agree or disagree, for he only smiled calmly beside her, neither nodding nor shaking his head.
But, his sister Ming, in the uniform, was somewhat distant from the trace of his memory. The freshness and roundness of her face were gone, to be printed with subtle lines about her eyes, and better shaped by her chin and cheekbones. At the corner of her mouth was standing half a smile, which was humorous, a little sly, signalling to him, ‘Ge - Brother, I have a lot to say, but only later’.
Contented as she appeared to be, she was, exactly like a young mother.
‘Where is your baby?’ he asked. ‘What is his name?’
‘Oh, you have already forgotten,’ she replied, ‘Gao Yu, he is at home, with his grandma.’
‘Ha, now I have someone calling me uncle,’ he chuckled.
Some time later, they were all in the minivan that belonged to Hui’s company. According to what Ming had told Bing in their phone calls, Hui’s computer business had been running very well, now having about fifteen employees.
They first dropped Kai in the city so that he could take a bus to his university, then travelling a further three hours to Mianyang. But the hours were reduced considerably in their happiness, so that Bing didn’t feet its existence.
Ming’s three-bedroom unit, purchased only a year before, was on the fifth floor, at the top of the building. So without a lift, carrying Bing’s luggage upstairs was a task. But Bing had to only carry the smaller ones. Hui, two years older than himself, shorter but sturdier, and the driver, also an employee in his company, were handling the rest.
The first thing, after Bing had entered the unit, was to hold his little nephew, a chubby, one and half year old baby. This was indeed the first time he had ever held a baby, unless he had done so to his sister in his own babyish years. Lucky the little creature didn’t cry; he stayed calm in his arms, with his unblinking eyes staring at him. But the tranquil moment didn’t last long, for only in another second, the plump body began to wriggle, wrestling passionately against him, to be accompanied by a burst of voice, seeking the safety of anyone else but him, who was a total stranger with those strange ‘goggles’.
‘Call him uncle, Yu Yu, call him uncle,’ a number of feminine voices were cooing the baby. And no sooner had he handed him over to his mother, than his tearless wailing stopped. But his eyes, like those of a young bull, were still fixing on him, gleaming with all the curiosity in the world.
It was late afternoon, and in China, it was winter. The overnight hours in the air should have tired him, but he was only excited. His mother asked him to at least take a shower, saying that a hot bath would do him better, if he didn’t want to recollect some sleep. So he decided to listen to her, who then made ready a new set of everything for him - pyjamas, shorts, pants, shirt, sweater, socks, a leather coat, and leather shoes with insoles ready. So, no doubt, some minutes later, he turned out to be a fresh person, altogether Made-in-China. His mother then spent many minutes pulling his cuffs and collars, muttering, ‘smaller, and tighter, here and there’, treating him like a model about to walk on a stage. And his wife, sitting relatively quiet on the couch, was enjoying the scene; her little smiles indulgent, amused, though not without a trace of mockery, or jealousy.
The dinner in the restaurant was full of gaiety. Including the baby and Hui’s parents and younger brother Yong, a total of nine people sat around a huge round table. Sons and husbands were quick for the drinks, while their wives or mothers had to incessantly ask them to eat more food. Snowflake beer was not as bitter as VB, and of course, far less expensive. The Sichuan-style cuisine was honest, genuine in terms of the amount and quality of the spices and the savoury taste, compared to those bilingual dishes in Box Hill or Chinatown.
His mother, sitting opposite to him, smiled all the time; her face seemed tinted with a new layer of health, that had apparently smoothed or concealed her old wrinkles. His father was also less reserved, spoke aloud in toasting Hui’s father. The friendship between Qiuyan and Ming was enviable, as they quickly threw themselves into their micro-talk soon after they sat next to each other. Qiuyan’s cheeks were looking never so delicate and tender. Even the baby in his grandma’s arms was acting high in spirit, his little fingers tearing some vegetable leaves, his fat, folded arms swinging, now and then uttering some bird-like cackles to entertain the crowd.
Bing had emptied many glasses, but he didn’t feel drunk, rather imagined he could gulp a lot more. He might have slipped out some Australian experiences that he certainly wanted to keep as secrets, but he couldn’t remember, though he cared very much.
Later that night, Qiuyan was so tight and small and juicy that he felt it was his first time with her. In his intoxication, Pan’s body seemed to flash, yet instead of incurring some conventional guilt, it augmented his ecstasy. So that, in the following sober days, as he watched the radiance in his wife’s cheeks, his moral intent to blame himself was growing keener, and more wishful, though ineffective just the same. For now, Pan, like other women, from whom he had acquired their intimacy, had fallen into the remote back of his mind. It was like Qiuyan had become a new girl, a new woman, a fresh virgin to him, and his past with her had been almost erased.
She was new to him, and he to her, in the light of truth she didn’t know. But he knew.
A week later, he went home, together with her and Ming and his parents. In the mud-house that had been well looked after by his uncle, they drank loudly the rice-wine, and became absorbed in his favourite foods sourced by his mother from other villagers. And one day, they paid a visit to their family graveyard, burning many bunches of incense and fireworks at the graveside.
On their way back home, he asked his mother, ‘Why is there not even one swallow in the sky? Three years ago there were still a number of them.’
‘Swallows?’ his mother said, as if responding to an ancient topic, ‘I don’t think there were any even three years ago.’
‘Are you sure?’
‘Yes, unless Ming says otherwise,’ she said.
Ming said, ‘I can’t remember exactly when the swallows disappeared. Too much pesticide and fertilizers have been used in the fields, killing almost everything, frogs, dragonflies, and the loaches. The swallows couldn’t survive with that.’
‘I think there are still some, in the hills,’ his cousin Dan said
Then Qiuyan laughed, ‘Nowadays who cares about swallows? All about money and production.’
His mother remarked formally, ‘Yes, the harvest is much better now. The villagers are rich, doing a lot of things. Young people go to the city. Dan also wants to go, don’t you, Dan?’
Ming answered for him, ‘I am still waiting for an answer from the factory. Shouldn’t be a problem. I will call them again when I go back.’
‘What type of job?’ asked Bing, glad that his sister could help Dan find a job in the city.
‘It is in a home decoration company,’ she replied.
‘Can you also find a job for me?’ he asked, not at all kidding.
‘Haha, what do you want to do?’ Ming was amused, ‘Computer, or English?’
‘Anything, so long as it is not dish washing, or kitchen hand.’
They all laughed, as if this was much a joke. Then his mother was serious, ‘It is not a bad idea; things are getting better, a lot
of people are making a lot of money. Australia is too far away.’
He knew his mother was telling the truth, though he and others made no comments.
After the village, their next stop was Sangton county, where Kai was to meet them. Kai’s parents, with of course assistance from Kai, had built a big brick house up there. It was a trend for the richer, more capable villagers, to move into the town or the county or even bigger cities, depending on their resources.
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