“Attention, please——Time to get up——Make your breakfast——”

    It was just dawn, in the east end of the Dragon Lane. The leader of the first team Xiang Dashao was walking with his steps clicking and clicking. Then his summons came spreading to the ears of the men and women in the village. So on both sides of the Lane, doors opened one by one. The girls and women, with their fluffy hair, slightly covered high chest, carrying small wooden bucket, with a tower, a brush and toothpaste, in twos and threes, came towards the pier.

    In the early morning, the fog in Coal Golden Marsh was heavy, which made the river water filled with smoke. “Whoa, whoa, whoa——” cocks began to crow. One crowed, then others followed. The whole River of Xianghe slowly opened its sleepy eyes in the rising mist, with the cocks’ crowing.

    The girls and women squatted on the pier, with both hands together, holding up clear water, doing mouthwash, laughing, playing, gossiping some interesting things in bed last night, such as whose brother-in-law sleeping in his sister-in-law’s bed, whose father-in-law liked going to his daughter-in-law’s bedroom, etc. Even private talks between husband and wife would be spread out from the pier, one passing to ten, ten passing to hundreds, making it known to the whole village.

    The pier had become a place where the villagers exchanged information.

    “The short man married a fairy girl. It was unknown where he got this blessing.”

    “We heard that Xuehua in the Yang’s Village was very beautiful, with bright eyes and graceful eyebrows, tall with a white face. It was a pity that a flower would be put on the dog’s excrement.”(*an old saying about a very beautiful girl marrying a bad and ugly man)

    “Nonsense!, except he was short, what’s wrong with Chungen? He was old enough to get married. Well, now, he is ready.”

    “Ah, ah, Why do you speak for Chugen? You should have married him so that he would not have been single for so many years.”

    “Gossip about me. You are really bad.”

    “Shh——someone is coming.”

    Cuiyun came towards the pier with a wooden bucket and a rice basket. “You girls were talking vigorously just now. Why do you stop when I am here? Did you say something bad about me?” Cuiyun talked with them as she washed rice.

    “No, we haven’t talked about you.” “Oh, no. I don’t dare to say something bad about you. I am sacred that Uncle PLA man would shoot at me if I do so.”

    Just now, those girls and women were quacking, but now they became quiet. A sharp-mouthed woman never forgave people. She openly said hello to Cuiyun, but stimulated her secretly by saying “Uncle PLA man”, which referred to the marriage partner introduced to Cuiyun recently. He was a soldier in the army.

    “Well, what do you want to do? You didn’t talk about me? A thorn in the mouth, a fart in the words. What else would you say if I were not here?” Cuiyun said by half joking and half seriously. In fact, when she walked close to the river, she overheard the girls and women gossiping about his elder brother and Xuehua. “My elder brother and Xuehua are not really a good match. But unfortunately, Duck Li introduced her to him. It’s difficult to say whether it will be a disaster or blessing later.” Cuiyun filled her wooden bucket with clear water, washed the rice, her mouth, carried it, went back home. She began to worry about her elder brother Chungen.

    “It’s time to make your breakfast——Get up quickly and make your breakfast——”. Xiang Dashao shouted his reminders to every household door by door within his jurisdiction.

    Xiang Dashao was short for Xiang Dashaoye in full. But all the villagers called him in short, Xiang Dashao. The seniors knew that his grandfather was indeed a young master for a few years. But until his father, the family had sold everything except a few empty rooms. It was good that they became a red origin. However, the seedling was not right although the origin was red. The son inherited his father’s career. He learned how to gamble by playing card games and listening to the opera. “Gamble when there is money, Lose when gambling. Buy a bottle of liquor, Ergetou a well-known Chinese liquor brand, 45-56% of alcohol) when there is no money.” This was a good picture of him. When winter came, with a worn cotton coat tied by a linen string, an old transistor radio in his arms, he sat at the gambling table, playing card games seriously.

    The cards that Xiang Dashao played were different from the current ones. Those were narrow and long. The laymen saw them all look the same because they were all black. But he had good eyesight, seeing them clearly. He only played the game called “Cunhu’er①”, nothing else. Only three people played it, one taking a break among the four. The others would look at the other man’s cards and give advice, but he didn’t. He would take out the semi-conductor, listened to operas by himself. He would turn it down to a minimum sound when listening to operas, almost close against his ears. He listened to some best selected pieces of the revolutionary modern Beijing operas, such as “Be a green pine tree on top of the Tai Mountains.”, “Basket sale”, etc. He hummed as he listened. However, no one had ever heard him singing a piece completely, but he still hummed.

    Playing card games and listening to operas didn’t prevent him from being a great leader. He got up early every day all the year round, called every households to get up and make breakfast, then urged them to work. In the eyes of Xiangyuan, he was one of the excellent among the leaders. There were seven production teams, one leader for each team. Xiangyuan liked him the most.

    With the protection of this red umbrella of the secretary, he worked more smoothly and boldly.

    It’s often cloudy for the first seven days of the early summer. They should listen to the elders. They saw they hadn’t had any sunshine for quite a few days. But it was not a bad thing without sunshine. It was good to weed the rice seedlings, to spray pesticides, to cut some useless branches, to wipe off the redundant buds for the cotton.

    Urged by Xiang Dashao, Qin Yatou quickly put off her porridge bowl, threw off her chopsticks which fell from the table to the floor. She went out without picking them up. She was in a hurry to catch up with a group of girls and women in the team, went together in a boat to cut branches and to wipe off redundant buds in the cotton fields. It would be troublesome if she was too late to catch the boat. There was no access on all sides of the stack. It would be hard for her to row a boat alone by herself. There was a waterway.

    Qin Yatou and other five or six girls and women sat in a farming boat, going towards the stack. They saw another boat running over from behind. She looked over, found five or six girls and women sitting in the boat, but two men were rowing it with bamboo poles. They rowed very fast. One of the two men was Chunyu. Someone might ask why he came to the stack instead of teaching in the school. To be honest, the lessons in the elementary school were irregular. Not only were they on holidays at the busy farming season, but also at a less busier season or once in a while even when it was not busy. One thing was for sure that all the missed lessons had to be made up for. Leaders of the central elementary school seldom came to inspect in a whole year. So more flexibility for the teachers in the village school. Chunyu asked Teacher Sun for leave because he would replace his brother Chungen to spray pesticide on the stack. Xiang Dashao also told Agen Huo to cooperate with Chunyu. There were too many insects in the rice fields these days. The dose of the pesticide must be accurate, otherwise there would be no effect. Genshui was the only agricultural technician in the village, too busy.

    It was just right for the two men to be a coolie and a boatman for the women cutting branches and wiping off redundant buds for the cotton at the stack. Chunyu didn’t expect to see Qin Yatou on the way to the stack. That joking in the rice seedling field made him thinking hard to get a chance to meet her. God helped him, was it a good chance for him now? At the stack, there were rice fields and cotton fields. Some belonged to the first team, others to the fourth team.

    Chunyu and Agenhuo in the boat from the first team, holding the poles, standing separately in the front cabinet and rear cabinet, pushed the poles left and right, up and down. The boat went very fast, but now when he saw the people in the boat from the fourth team, Chunyu slowed down the boat. Agenhuo had to slowdown, too. The two boats now were going side by side. The redskin willows along the bank were long, flaring softly in the early morning breeze. A few birds with green hair and red mouth were flapping their little wings, flying over the willows, twittering.

    “Look, look, birds and little birds, they are beautiful.” Qin Yatou had a few years of schooling, so once in a while she would be naive like students, feeling happy and excited at seeing some birds. This made Xiangyu, wife of Hunchback Tan, from the next boat, feel disapproved. “Just a few wild birds, why should we look at them?” Xiangyu murmured, without lifting up her eyes, stitching soles of cloth shoes. When they happened to go to work in a farther away places, these women would take some of their needlework, more or less, do it on the way. Now most of the women were making use of time in the boat, stitching soles and knitting, doing their own needlework. Only Qin Yatou didn’t do needlework, which was caught by Xiangyu. Qin Yatou felt embarrassed. Feeling unhappy, she complained the leader about pushing her too much so that she came out in such a hurry that she forgot to bring her needlework. She had a glance at Chunyu in the next boat, thinking that Xiangyu didn’t understand anything, she was hoping that Chunyu would see me.

    Chunyu certainly heard the conversation between Qin Yatou and Xiangyu, also guessed what she meant by talking about the birds. Qin Yatou wore a very good red Dacron short gown. You were silly to think that I would look at you when you talked. I did see your new clothes. But don’t feel unhappy. Why should you get angry with a woman? I would look for you at the stack. Chunyu was thinking like this, with a smile floating to his face. It looked that he was much satisfied with Qin Yatou. Now he couldn’t help her out. It was up for her to sulk.

    Cotton grew very fast. It was only a few days since they cut in barley, planted cotton seedlings. Now the cotton grew as high as half a man’s height. The green leaves were quivering in the morning wind.

    This large piece of cotton field looked all green. The women who came to work lined up in the fields, which made it more colorful. Five to six women were wearing headscarfs, red and yellow, looking very beautiful. When all the women stood in the fields, you would see a few red and yellow points in the green, which was very pleasing to the eyes.

    Cutting branches and wiping off redundant buds were a process during the course of cotton growth. If those male branches were not cut off, there would be all male flowers, looking red and yellow, many flowers but no fruits. No use. If the redundant buds were not wiped off, there would be no flowers. There was another disadvantage about those male branches and redundant buds, they took in too much fertilizer. If they stayed on the cotton seedlings, they would absorb the fertilizer at the roots, so there would be fewer bolls. If too much fertilizer was taken away, the bolls would grow very small, and the output would be very low, which would influence the income of the Brigade.

    Qin Yatou and Xiangyu went into their cotton fields. They were not far away from each other. You could see them very clearly. Usually, these girls and women would do the farm work, talking continuously, sometimes, even singing when they were happy. Among them, Qin Yatou was good at singing and talking. She was the leader. But now, she was not happy, working by herself, not talking with others actively. She was glancing at Chunyu, who was working next to her fields. Chunyu and Agen Huo were spraying pesticide in the seedling fields connected to the fields where Qin Yatou was working. He could see her if he looked up. Qin Yatou looked at the green fields, and Chunyu, absent-minded. She was drifted away in thinking, not concentrating on the farm work.

    Soon it was lunchtime. Qin Yatou heard someone calling her. It was Chunyu,  “Come over, come forward.” She looked around, bent down and quietly walked  forward to Chunyu. “What time did you come over to me?” “You look very beautiful  today. Who do you want to showoff?” Chunyu didn’t answer her question, trying to  test her intentions. “Well, Hunchback Tan’s wife was too exasperating.” “I got it.” “What did you get? Don’t understand me. My heart is fed to the dog, I am afraid.” “You said I was a dog. You said it.” Chunyu reached out to pull Qin Yatou as he said,  but she began to beat him, avoiding to be caught by him. Without two rounds, Qin  Yaou failed, cuddled up in his arms. Chunyu’s heart was beating fast as if an engine  was installed. This was his first time to hold girls in his arms. “Your heart is beating  fast,” Qin Yatou turned round, looking at Chunyu with a face full of youthful vigor.  Chunyu smelled light fragrance on her head, “It smells good.” Putting his mouth  close to hers as he said. Qin Yatou felt a strength attracting her, nervous, but not  afraid. She knew she couldn’t contend with it. For the first time the two, young man  and girl put their tongues into other’ mouth. The touch of tongues was so amazing  that they couldn’t be separated, like two water grasses in the River of Xianghe,  mingled together with water waves. At this moment, both of them were sucking and  sucking with all strength.

    After a while, both of them felt something hot, Chunyu helped her take off her Dacron short gown, then took off his own shirt. They simply sat in the ditch in the cotton field, covered completely by the cotton seedlings. Chunyu felt his dick was getting hard, Qin Yatou’s face went red, her chest was getting swelled by this young man’s touching and rubbing. Qin Yatou became ashamed, closed her eyes, murmuring, “Brother Chunyu, I want you to love me.” “Yes, I do like you. I love you, Qin.” Chunyu couldn’t control himself any more. His two hands stretched into Qin’s chest, grasping her two round and big nipples, kept on rubbing them. “Brother Chunyu, I am yours now. You can’t make a fool of me.” Hearing Chunyu called her  “I love you, Qin” she felt so sweet at heart which she never had before. She thought  that a teacher was different in talking. No one else in the village had never talked  to her like that. Even she herself couldn’t imagine it was so nice to hear Chunyu  calling her like that. What’s more, it was the first time to hear someone say “l(fā)ove” to her. Now Chunyu’s hands became crazier, but Qin didn’t care, let him do it, she  was his girl now. She thoughthe already touched her nipples, was that enough to  show that she was his girl? It couldn’t be, she wanted to be his wife. Thinking like  that, she offered to hug closer with Chunyu. Both of them began to twist, with some  inexplicable impulse.

    “Lunch now. Don’t do it any more.” A few women on the ridge shouted to this side where Qin stayed. This shouting scared them. They seemed to have come back to the earth from heaven with cloud and fog. Qin Yatou quickly put on her clothes in order, replied, “I got it.” Chunyu had hoped to kiss her another time, but was stopped by Qin with her finger touching on his forehead. “Bad guy, you want to do all these in one day!” Chunyu sure understood what she said. With their love, happy days in the future would belong.

    As soon as Qin Yatou went back to the ridge, those girls and women began to chirp. “You shouldn’t have worked so hard. It was lunchtime.” “You didn’t hear us, what were you doing hiding in the ditch of the fields?” This time, Qin Yatou behaved better, she didn’t argue, nor say anything. As the old saying went, the fairies couldn’t do anything if you didn’t speak. Qin Yatou got on the boat, took out the lunchbox from her basket, began to eat with her chopsticks. She felt it strange that she had never had such a delicious lunch before.

    Chunyu acted as if nothing had happened, carrying his orchid sea bowl, walking over to the women as he ate. “What delicious food have you got with you?” While he was talking, Agen Huo walking behind began to use his chopstick to get food from those women’ bowls. The women didn’t stop him. They knew that Agen Huo would report to the leader in the evening. How many work points they would get depended on Agen Huo’s good comments. “Well, not much, only fried egg-plants, Do you like it, Teacher Liu?” Hunchback’s wife Xiangyu came over to Chunyu, flattering him. Chunyu didn’t answer her, walking straight to Qin Yatou. “Be generous like Xiangyu. Let’s share the same salted fish.” He used his chopsticks as he said. But Qin Yatou stopped him with her chopsticks. The two pairs of chopsticks mingled together, crackling. This made her face become red again. She did this originally for others to look, but couldn’t help thinking of the thing they did just now. Both of them felt a little bit uneasy.

    In the afternoon, while spraying pesticide, Agen Huo didn’t work attentively as he did in the morning. He suffered from his regular illness. In a while, you couldn’t see him in the fields. He said to Chunyu, “Lose a big one if you get a small advantage. I ate a few pieces of salted fish from those women at lunch. Now my stomach is feeling bad, I have to go and shit.” “Go and shit. Be quick. Come back and work better.” Chunyu didn’t have time to care about Agen Huo’s stomach. He was thinking all about what he did with Qin Yatou this morning. He held the control stick of the sprayer, pushed one time but without the next, absent-minded.

    Xiangyu fell on evil days. She drank a big mug of winter melon soup, her  stomach now was swelling, she couldn’t hold it. So she left for a ditch to pee. But  she didn’t know that Agen Huo followed her. As soon as she squatted into the ditch,  with her trousers not completely off, Agen Huo went over and threw himself at her  like a hungry dog,pressing over her body. Xiangyu was surprised, she didn’t even  take it in before Agen Huo squeezed his dick into her vagina, twitching hard. Stuck  in the ditch, Xiangyu couldn’t do much to resist, her hands clawed on his head,  scolding,” Damn you, get off me quickly.” Scolding was one thing, but her voice had  to be kept low, otherwise she would lose face if the other women heard her. And her  husband would kill her. In a moment, Xiangyu felt her lower part of the body moist.  Honestly speaking this was not worse than that with Hunchback Tan. Thinking like  that, she couldn’t help moving a bit. He body began to twist under Agen Huo. But  Agen Huo couldn’t do any more, drooped. This dissatisfied her, “A semen man,  That’s all. I laid down for you to have sex, but you couldn’t. Damn it. Get away!” Agen Huo had not expected this to happen. He wiped off the semen with some cotton  leaves, buttoned up, said, “Next time, I would let you see how hard I will fuck you,  I will make you enjoy more. Don’t worry, I will tell the leader to add you three more  work points.” He left without even pulling Xiangyu up from the ditch. “Heartless,  a bad guy.” Xiangyu had to get up by herself, scolding. She found her shorts wet  much, then scolded again, “You didn’t have sex properly, making your stuff spill all  over.” Wiping off with cotton leaves, thinking about what they did just now. It was  so fast as if it had never happened. But that big piece of semen spot reminded her of its happening. She became excited at recalling it. But men were different. “No skin broken, no muscle wounded, with two legs clipping, go home for supper.” “If Agen Huo spoke this out, I would tear off his mouth.” Xiangyu said to herself angrily, left the place where they had a hard fighting.

    After wrapping up the job, they went home. Hunchback Tan found something wrong with his wife, then asked, “Why are you feeling so tired? The work today wasn’t so hard.” “I am having a period” she replied angrily. That meant she was menstruating. This was not a good thing. They would feel tired and sleepy once they were having a period. But as long as you were a woman, you couldn’t avoid it once a month. Mostly it was regular. Once it wasn’t, there might be some problem. As a man, how could he know what time her period came and went. He never cared about this. He could not say anything about this womanish fussy thing. He became happy as long as he was safe to work, to get a good harvest, to catch much fish and shrimp. When happy, he would ask Xiangyu to pick some tofu from the shop in the east end, cooked some small fish, drank some barley liquor, feeling hot and horny, so he closed all the doors early and put his wife down in bed, to have sex with her. He never cared about the dates of her period, it had nothing to do with him. He only knew that she was his wife, as long as she had her vagina he could have sex with her. He could fuck as he wanted. Nobody could stop him. It looked that she would be fucked by him tonight. When he came in, she found lots of fish jumping in the basket on his back. Besides, he was interested in her tiredness. This was obvious that he wanted to have sex.

    There were three people in the family, Hunchback Tan, his wife Xiangyu and their son Black Vegetable Melon① , 23 years old, unmarried. Few women at Xiangyu’s age only had one child. It was said that Xiangyu could have more children. It’s strange that she could have more children, why did she have only one? This pestilential woman Xiangyu was like a henin the nest that would not lay eggs. It was so difficult to have her lay another egg. There was no egg after the fart. It was also said that Xiangyu was a bitch. Any man in the village who wanted to have sex with her could do it. So there was rumor that she had too many sexes with other men that she suffered from some kind of disease, as a resultshe could not have any more children. Sure all these words couldn’t be said in front of Hunchback Tan, otherwise he would kill her. Then again, these were just rumors, which were not trustworthy.They would be gone with wind.

    Hunchback Tan lived on the Dragon waist in the west end of the village. He was  a well-known catcher of fish. He had a hunchback, bending forward, very suitable  for his fish-catching for a living. On ordinary days, after finishing assigned farm  work, he allowed himself a bit of time, put on his fishing gown, with a fishing basket  on his back, walking around, looking for a pool to catch fish. He was born with  eagle eyes, knowing Fengshui(*the location of a house or tomb supposed to have  an influence on the fortune of a family) and fish very well. If he knew there were  crucians (*name of fish) in a pool, he would be sure to catch crucians, not swordfish.  The most famous thing about his fish catching was called “Getting a fish under  the willow.” When someone had a guest, was too busy to buy some good food, the  neighbour would remind him of “That’s easy. Go and ask Hunchback Tan for some  fish.” So he hurriedly went to Tan’s house, but found no fish in his fishtank. It was  empty. “No more fish?” Tan hunched his body, didn’t answer, only asked, “Have you  got a guest?” “My kid’s second Uncle is here. I have got no good dish to entertain.” “OK. I will find a way.” He said with a laughter, then went out, walked to the willow  beside the river. He found a place, squatted down into the water, in a minute, his  hands came out with a lively fish. He put it in his basket. Within the time of smoking  a cigarette,he got some good fish for lunch. He couldn’t help feeling proud, “This is  spot sale, very fresh.”

    Tan was very flexible for his side business. If it happened that the buyer hadn’t got the money, he could still take the fish home, on account. Tan would wipe his fishing hands, said with a nice smile, “That’s all right. Since we live in the same village, we cannot get away from each other.” Even when entertaining some leaders from the Brigade, they had to ask Tan for help. “Have you got a swordfish about two jin? We want it alive to cook soup.” “Yes, yes.” Tan replied as he went to catch the fish from the tank. The fish got skipping out of water. Tan put it in the basket. The man took it, said, “On account.” “Ok.” Tan hunched his back, took him out to the front door.

    Hunchback Tan treated nicely everyone in the village. All of them knew that he was very popular. He not only caught fish, but also threw nets. During the day, he looked for pools and ponds. In the evening he rowed a small boat, threw a net into the water that he had found during the day. The next day, he would row his boat before dawn, traveling more than ten miles to the county town to sell fish.All was quiet in the stillness of the night.

    After working for a whole day, the men would sit beside the stove, eating the shelled peanuts that their wife had just fried, holding with chopsticks some home cooked dishes like chives with eggs, drinking a small bottle of alcohol. After eating and drinking, they got a little bit drunk, went straight into bed with their wife, had sex.

    In summer evenings, the river behind the houses was gurgling, flowing continuously all the way down, through the water pile wharf. The water held the piles in its arms, becoming more torrent, then making lots of waves, flowing out of the village.

    At this moment, the lights in the store of Er Kuazi were especially bright. All  year round, it was difficult to use the public electricity. Most of the lights of the  villagers were only a kind of decorations. It would be great to use the lights for five  days and nights at the Spring Festival. It was too difficult to use lights on ordinary  days. At dark, all of them used foreign oil lamps, like glowworms, with very dim  light, they couldn’t do anything. All they could do was to go to the store to share the  light, chatting and gossiping. Thus, many people came here not to buy. Er Kuazi was  kind-hearted. He welcomed every one to drop in,sit and talk. Grandma Three was  getting older, went to sleep early. When many people were there, she would close  the door of the hall way which led to her bedroom in order to prevent the noises  from interrupting her sleep. At the moment, Xiang Dashao, Agen Huo and a few  other people were sitting at the small table in the hall room, telling some stories. The  secretary Xiangyuan walked in, said to Xiang Dashao, “How did it go with the farm  work these days?” “Very good.” Xiang Dasho rose up and answered. “That’s great.  Some teams were not normal. You have to get up early tomorrow. Go home earlier.” Xiangyuan said to them with care. Xiang Dashao went out of the store, So did Agen  Huo and other people. Xiangyuan then asked Er Kuazi about the business in the  store. Er Kuazi told him it was ok. So Xiangyuan went to the Brigade Department.

    When the lights in the store went off, the Brigade and the elementary school became dark. One person couldn’t fall asleep in the darkness. Who? It was Qin Yatou, lying in bed, but her mind went away to Chunyu. This was not what Xiangyuan could imagine.

    Tonight, Monk Cai was not keeping watch at the Brigade Department. Xiangyuan said to him, “Don’t always stay at the Department, there is nothing to watch. You should go home, clean it. How do you still call it home without being there for a month? It might look like a doghouse.” Xiangyuan sat alone on his bed, without lighting a lamp, just quietly. He was waiting for Lai Tizi, Genshui’s mother. They came to an agreement that she would come to the Brigade Department when it got dark. Was it easy for him to keep Genshui as the only agricultural technician left from the seven? As an old saying went, Little help brought much return. Lai Tizi was willing to dedicate herself to Xiangyuan. For a country woman like her, what else could she give to Xiangyuan for thanksgiving besides her body? As long as he said he wanted her, she would never make Xiangyuan disappointed. Xiangyuan had done everything to get prepared. No one else was there. She should be here at any minute. Xiangyuan was usually calm, but now he became anxious.

    Finally someone pushed open the door. He couldn’t wait to rush up, hugged  and dragged her to bed. The woman obeyed him, soon, his dick was put in her body.  Although in his early fifties, he was very strong in having sex, fucking her hard and  fast. The woman said, “Shall we live together?” “Yes.” At this moment, Xiangyuan  was too busy fucking, without time to talk nonsense. “Compared to your wife, who  is better?” “You are much better, much better!” Xiangyuan was enjoying himself fucking, too busy with his dick, got no time to talk. “Bang!” A big slapping was  given to him from the woman under him. “Xiangyuan, you bitch, see who I am?” Then the woman lit the lamp on the table. Although it was as bright as the one in the  store, Xiangyuan could still see clearly it was not Lai Tizi, but his own wife Qiao  Guanzi.

    It turned out that Qiao Guanzi was suspicious that her husband had been having  affairs with Lai Tizi for quite some time, but couldn’t find evidence. Who could  be willing to help Qiao Guanzi to get evidence of catching Xiangyuan having sex  with Lai Tizi on the spot? Without others’ help, Qiao Guanzi couldn’t get personal  evidence. Without personal evidence, it was more difficult to get material evidence,  unless catching them on the spot. She had to be patient for the opportunity. It came  today. In the daytime, she overheard Xiangyuan giving Lai Tizi “special messages.” He didn’t have his super as slowly as he used to. Qiao Guanzi didn’t say anything,  neither asked him when he went out. Soon, the target appeared in the Dragon Lane,  specially dressed up. Qiao Guanzi got very angry. “Tonight I will catch this adultery  in the act, see how you two shameless people step down.” Thinking of this, she  became pleased with herself.

    With the shelter from the dark night, Qiao Guanzi followed the target. As expected, the target went into the gate, but Qiao Guanzi didn’t enter, listening to the steps walking further almost into Xiangyuan’s office. Then she quietly went into the room. It would not work out if Xiangyuan came in at this moment. Qiao Guanzi discovered that no movements after the target went in, she was sure that Xiangyuan was not there yet. Thinking that her own husband would have sex with the other woman in front of her, Qiao Guanzi became intolerable. “Am I worse than that woman? I will never give them this chance to have sex tonight.” With this decision made, Qiao Guanzi drove away Lai Tizi, hid herself behind the door, saw her husband enter the room. After a while, she quietly enter the office.

    All happened as Qiao Guanzi had expected. She couldn’t imagine that the man who had slept with her for tens of years would be so crazy in fucking her, even said shameless words like“Much better.” Well, now it was time for her to give vent to her anger. She couldn’t bear it any more. Otherwise she would become mad and sick. Just now, the slap by Qiao Guanzi confused Xiangyuan. He didn’t realize the sudden change. Qiao Guanzi poured out her bellyful of bitter water. “Xiangyuan, you are a heartless beast. What wrongs did I do to you? Why should you treat me like this? You touch your heart with your hands to see which meal was not made for you by me at home? Even the hot water for your face wash in the morning and feet wash in the evening, I prepared everything for you. I always thought you were too busy with work, but how could I imagine that you were busy with fucking another woman? You devil,for how many years?……” Qiao Guanzi cried out, without even putting her clothes back in order. Xiangyuan was frightened. Xiangyuan always had his own idea for anything no matter how big it was. He was quick-minded, took immediate action. But now he was rattled, plopped down on his knees before his wife, “You can do whatever to beat or punish me, but do not cry and scream in the Brigade Department. This would create a bad impression. Let’ s go home and do whatever you like. I will listen to you. Ok?”

    Although she was raged with anger, Qiao Guanzi didn’t expect the reactions of her husband like this. What’s more, even though he had sex with other women outside, he was still her husband, and the secretary in the village. It would be really bad for him to speak this out. She would forgive him as long as he controlled his dick, not to make mistakes again. So she turned round to grasp her husband kneeling down on the floor. “You devil, get up. If you do it again, I will cut your dick, feed the dog.” “Ok, feed the dog.” Xiangyuan kowtowed, bowed, rose up. When did he ever knee down before others? But this time, his legs felt numb. Qiao Guanzi had to support him with her hands, went home.

    Xiang Dashao called people to get up and make breakfast, to go to work, without a day of break, throughout the year, he did this every day, unless he was sick or unable to get up. By then Agenhuo would take his place to do it. Agen Huo called differently, “Our leader said, it’s time to get up and make breakfast——” Agen Huo did the same as Xiang Dashao, door to door, knocking at the door or window, repeating the same sentence. It sounded as if the Japanese invaders came into the village, unpleasing, hateful.

    Agen Huo was loyal to the leader. The leader asked him to knock at the east window three times in Hunchback Tan’s house. He did as he was told, only three times, with big strength. He was yelled by Tan’s wife, “Got it. Don’t knock at the window any more.” Agen Huo was not a “Two hundred and fifty”, because he knew Tan and his wife slept in the east room, it was necessary to call the master in the house to get up and make breakfast. Unnecessary to call every one in the house. It would take him too much time.

    Having been yelled at by Xiangyu, Agen Huo became very unhappy. After walking around, he ran to the leader and reported about her, “The bad woman Xiangyu was very rude. I was yelled by her in an early morning, then I might have a bad hair day.” “Go, go. I am suffering from headache. I would suffer more if I continued listening to your complaints.” Agen Huo was only his assistant. Xiang Dashao didn’t have a good face to show him. What’s more, he scolded Xiangyu, his private sex partner. Agen Huo originally thought to please the leader, but unsuccessful. He felt resentful at heart, murmuring, “Next time, don’t let me see you having sex in the ditch.”

    Agen Huo didn’t understand why Xiang Dashao asked him to knock at the door or window. After all, he was still a “Two hundred and fifty.” Why did the leader ask him to knock three times at the window? For many years, Xiang Dashao had formed his own special ways to call people to get up and go to work…… There was a lot of stress in this knock. A few knocks at the door for regular families, to knock at the window for special families. How many times to knock didn’t have the same meaning. Today he asked Agen Huo to knock three times on her window, which meant that he wanted Xiangyu to go to his place. It was Xiangyu today, it might be another woman tomorrow. This kind of agreement had the same meaning to other women. If knocking on the window two times, that meant Xiang Dashao would go to her place soon, asking the wife to go to work some time later. The woman who got this hint had to find an excuse to ask her husband to leave earlier, then went to the mirror to do some makeup, got ready in bed, waiting for him.

    Xiang Dashao’s dump wife was away for three days. She went back to her’s mother’s house because of the celebration of her brother’s one-year-old son’s birthday. He was almost forty years old, but had no children. He didn’t want to go. His wife saw him putting a long face, so went with a small package. The mother’s families were important, there was no reason not to take responsibility for them. This was what his wife thought, maybe what all the women in the village thought. Just right, it was perfect for him since his wife was away. In fact, he never made light of her, beat her as he liked, scolded her as he wanted. If he got angry outside, his wife would fall on an evil day. She knew that he hooked up with other women, but she couldn’t stop him, thinking that as a dump woman, she could marry a leader, her mother’s families would feel proud of her. All men liked to have sex with other women. Besides, she hadn’t produced any children for him after being married for many years. Let him be. Man would become old, by then, others would not need him any more, but I would still do. He would still be my husband. Her heart was like a mirror. She was thinking of the future.

    “Where’s your wife?” As Xiangyu walked into his house, she saw Xiang Dashao sitting in bed dressed up. A few hens were eating chaff heads, but didn’t see his wife. She didn’t fear her, as she couldn’t speak. She would dare to have sex with him even in front of her. In her eyes, his wife was not a person. Xiang Dashao snuffed out the cigarette more than half smoked, couldn’t bear to throw away the other half. So he put it on the small cabinet beside the bed, together with the foreign match. Then he reached out for Xiangyu, dragged her to his bed. Xiangyu didn’t stop him, went up to him. Without his help, Xiangyu undressed herself, naked, lay in his arms, rubbing and touching. His dick began to get hard, found out its regular place. “Were you sick? Why are you so strong?” Xiangyu pinched on his arms, her body twitched with his rhythm. “Well, it’s a small sickness. How can it stop me from having sex?” Xiang Dashao didn’t stop fucking as he talked. “Well, I got it. You are pretending to be sick.” Xiangyu didn’t finish, implying that he got horny, wanted to fuck. “Touch my forehead to see whether I am getting a fever?” He was originally too busy with both of his hands, now he took one hand from her nipples and took it to his forehead. “Don’t always fuck me down, pressing me too much. Now let me drive up on you.” Xiangyu had much experience in sex. “Ok. Come up on me.” Both of them didn’t bear to take his dick out, hugging tight with each other, turned over. Like driving a horse, Xiangyu sat on his dick. “Women were liberated!” Xiangyu kept on twitching, naked with her nipples swinging on left and right. Even Xiang Dashao couldn’t imagine that Xiangyu was so excited.

    It was because they both got too excited, fucked too hard, the frame bed was  creaking, at last it couldn’t stand any more, one of the legs broke. They were both  doing hard, no one cared, kept on. How could they stop it halfway? Xiangyu said,  “I am done” as she rose up naked. As she looked at herself, her lower legs were  shaking. Xiang Dashao was still reluctant, “Why did you want sex so hard? It was  not important for the bed to break, but it would kill you. You might not go to work  today. I will deal with it.” “No. I got to leave. I can even go first, then find an excuse  to pretend to suffer from stomachache, then come home.” “Ok. Do as you please.” Before parting with each other, he even grasped her nipples, soft, reluctant to move  his hand away.