Chapter 61: Sister Peach Blossom Signs Up for the Dance

After the meeting with the heads of the villagers’ groups concluded, everyone left in high spirits. Following Shale’s suggestion, Secretary Tao issued a strict order: each villagers’ group must provide at least one participant for the performance, aged no less than sixteen and no more than twenty-three.

Each participant would receive a daily subsidy of eight yuan.

Eight yuan was no small sum, considering rehearsals usually started in the evening and lasted just two or three hours each day. Over a month, these young students could earn more than two hundred yuan, and if they won an award, there would be further prizes from the town and county.

The group leaders from Upper Tao Village were quite pleased. Their groups included many students attending the Thirteenth Middle School, so finding a few participants was no trouble at all. Only the two group leaders from Lower Sand Village looked worried. The atmosphere for studying in Lower Sand was much weaker compared to Upper Tao. Most, like Gang Mengzi, left school for work after junior high.

As the Sha family would say, “What’s the use of studying? Our ancestral graves have never smoked with luck. We’ve never produced a scholar, only laborers, generation after generation.” Only Sha Shenghuo was an oddity—his family was dirt poor, yet he insisted on sending his son Sha Futian to school. After two tries, the boy finally got into the county’s top high school. His daughter Sha Lan was gifted as well, but he wouldn’t send her—only her stubborn will and a loan from Le’er forced his hand.

The three of them walked along the path back to their village, the two leaders scratching their heads.

“Le’er, what should our group do?”

“What do you mean, what should we do? Don’t we have someone ready-made?” Le’er replied with a smile.

“Who?”

“Me, for one.”

“You count?” Le’er’s uncle suddenly realized. “My brain must be full of worms! I’m getting slow, ha! There’s nothing to worry about, then.”

“If your brain’s got worms, shouldn’t you get some pesticide and kill them?” Old Shengen teased, “But I really am worried to death. Where am I supposed to find someone? Should we call Lanmei back?”

Sha Lan was from Lower Village, in their group.

“Uncle Shengen, don’t ask Sha Lan. She’s already having a hard enough time at school in the county. How could she come back?” Le’er defended Sha Lan. “Besides, you have someone suitable right in your group.”

“Who?”

“Sister Yinxiang,” Le’er said, picking up a stone and tossing it at a flock of birds in a tree. The birds, startled by the flying stone, scattered in unison. “Sister Yinxiang went to high school too. I’ve heard she was a great dancer. She’s only twenty-one now—just the right age.”

“That’s true—my brain must be full of worms, too.”

Old Shengen smiled at Le’er. He’d long known about the affair between Le’er and Yinxiang, but couldn’t be bothered to interfere. Le’er was no longer the pushover he once was—now, he could command the wind and rain, and who dared offend him?

“I’ve got some pesticide at my place. Need me to kill your worms for you?” Le’er’s uncle shot back. The two old men bantered all the way home. Le’er’s yellow dog suddenly barked and dashed into the unharvested sweet potato field.

“Rabbit! Where’s the rabbit?” Le’er’s uncle shouted, grabbing a clod of earth and hurling it after the dog. The clod burst apart mid-air, sending a cloud of dust drifting on the wind.

“What on earth are you throwing?” Old Shengen grumbled, rubbing his eyes. “With your aim, you couldn’t hit a blind rabbit. Go throw your wife’s crabs instead. Now I’ve got dust in my eyes.”

The yellow dog failed to catch the rabbit and wagged its tail as it trotted back. Leaving the old men to their bickering, Le’er ran home through the bamboo grove with his dog. No one else was at home, so he had to prepare a meal for himself. Lately, trouble had been brewing; he had only managed to dig a small pit for the pond.

He went to check on the pit, shook his head, and left it for another day—he couldn’t dig it out alone. He’d have to hire people again, which meant paying more wages.

Money was pouring out of his pockets as if he were digging at his own flesh. A chill wind blew in from Little Sand River. Facing the wind, he decided to stroll through the village and talk to Luo Yinxiang about the performance. The yellow dog wanted to follow, wagging its tail, but Le’er shouted at it.

“Stay home and guard the house.”

The dog barked twice in protest, but reluctantly retreated into the yard, sitting at the gate and watching its master leave.

When Le’er reached the village, many greeted him.

“Le’er, have you eaten?”

“Le’er, come rest at my place.”

By the creek, several women were washing clothes—among them Sister Taohong and Sister Guihua. Spotting Le’er from afar, Taohong straightened up and called out to him.

“Le’er, Le’er—”

“What’s the matter, Sister Taohong?” Le’er ambled over, grinning. All the women looked up and smiled at him.

“I have something to discuss with you,” Taohong joked. “You’re looking for Yinxiang, aren’t you? She went back to her mother’s family today. I heard from Old Shengen that the village needs people for the performance, with subsidies, too?”

“That’s right. I was just about to talk to Sister Yinxiang about it.”

“Well, sign me up then. I hear there’s eight yuan a day—what a good deal!”

“You want to perform, too?”

Le’er eyed Taohong’s ample bosom and waist, as thick as a barrel, and couldn’t help but laugh. She certainly wasn’t short on courage.

“What are you looking at me for? My waist may not be as slender as Yinxiang’s, but it’s still supple. I used to dance, you know—you can ask anyone around, I was famous back in the day! Maybe even better than Yinxiang,” Taohong declared confidently. The other women started teasing her, with Guihua the most mischievous.

“Taohong, show us a dance first. With your barrel waist, aren’t you afraid your chest will fall off when you start twisting?”

“That’s right, Taohong—let’s see a dance first, or how can Le’er sign you up?”

“Fine, I’m not afraid of embarrassment!” Taohong strode onto the path, humming “dong qiang dong qiang dong dong qiang…” as she began to dance, swaying her waist and gesturing with her hands. Her “orchid hands” were quite graceful, and her steps proper, but with all that extra flesh and her large chest, she looked a bit like a water buffalo dancing.

She was doing a traditional yangge dance, and the women burst into laughter.

“What are you laughing at? If I had a red sash, you’d all be so dazzled your eyes would pop out.”

“Taohong, your chest dances better than you do,” Guihua gasped between fits of laughter, “I heard they have striptease in the city—if you took off your clothes and danced with your chest and belly, you’d be a star!”

“Just you wait!”

Taohong laughed too and splashed Guihua with water from the creek. Guihua retaliated, and soon water was flying everywhere.

“Enough, enough!” Le’er called out, “There are two big crabs fighting in the water.”

“Where?”

All the women looked into the stream.

“Can’t you see them?” Le’er said, pointing at their reflections in the water. “Look, not just two—several! Check if your crabs have fallen in.”

Only then did the women realize what he meant.

“You little rascal, mocking us—are you looking for trouble?”

A flurry of hands splashed water at Le’er, who laughed and ran away. The women were left doubled over with laughter, their merriment carried far on the autumn breeze.