By Liang Xiaoyang

The Heaven-sent Girls

By Liang Xiaoyang

I had been working in the city for one year when I met my first girlfriend. She was a city resident, and her family strongly opposed our relationship because my family was too impoverished—our relationship was doomed from the start.

During my toughest times,a bowl of noodles was often my only meal for the whole day.One day I stayed up all night writing a sincere love letter to my ideal companion.I had it published in the local newspaper.

After reading it,a girl named Mingyue came to visit me at my flat.“The article you’ve written is so heartfelt and touching.”She told me.She helped me clean the messy floor and started cooking rice.

Mingyue was from Xinjiang,a province in the northwest of China, and she accepted a temporary secretarial job in one of the local hospitals in Beiliu City,Guangxi Province,after graduating from college in Hangzhou.

In my second summer in the city, after I broke up with my first girlfriend,Mingyue became a regular visitor and dear friend.Every two or three days,she would come to my flat,and we would chat about whatever topic presented itself from 8 p. m.until midnight;or sometimes we just sit silently together for a long time.Anyway,the topics were typically neither about Xinjiang nor literature,but about daily life.One night,as the old electric fan was droning,she was sweeping and mopping the floor.When she put the mop away after she finished,I couldn’t help but embracing her.

In the fall of 1997,we got married.At that time,it was prevalent for the bridegroom to send nuptial gifts to the bride’s family.Mingyue told me,“Xinjiang is no exception. The nuptial gifts there would normally be tens of thousands of Chinese yuan,and some families even ask the groom for a flat and a car.”

However,in her phone call to herparents,she spoke frankly about my family,“His family borrowed lots of money to support three children to attend school.Now,there is 5, 000 yuan or so left in debt,and his monthly salary is less than 200 yuan.”

Her parents migrated to Xinjiang when they were young,and they had suffered a lot.They had been living in a pastoral area,and were in rather poor health,so they couldn’t manage to attend our wedding ceremony in Guangxi.Her mother told her flatly,“Sweetheart,your dad and I planned to ask Xiaoyang’s family for several thousand yuan as a nominal nuptial gift,so that our neighbors would not look down upon us.But since you’ve made it clear about the fact that he has no money,we will not ask for anything from him.Instead,we’ll give you 10,000 yuan as a dowry.”

I felt touched and guilty when Mingyue told me this.To be frank, my family couldn’t afford to give even a few thousand yuan at that time.

To my surprise,Mingyue refused her mother’s offer of 10,000 yuan. She just told her,“Please rest assured about our wedding,as it will be a decent one to be held in a fine hotel.”

After hanging up the phone,she told me,“It is up to us to strive for fortune.”However,as her mother refused to forgo a gift,Mingyue accepted 2,000 yuan from her in the end.

Later,I told my parents about this,and they let out a huge sigh of relief.My father said,“Our neighbors joked that since you’ve married a northern girl,her parents are just too far away to ask us for a nuptial gift.”

Later on in our marriage,after a number of years of trying,we still hadn’t had a child.My parents thought it was my wife’s problem, and my mother even took her to some traditional doctors,who prescribed strange folk medicines for her.My wife even ate some ashes from burned paper with spells on it, but nothing happened.

My wife was from the faraway prairies,and she had an unyielding personality.However,each time we went back to my hometown,she paid her respects to my father sincerely,yet my father was always cold towards her,and never talked much with her.My mother even told me secretly,“Your dad thinks you should consider divorce.”

Later,we had saved some money, and went to a large hospital to seek help.We sought a number of different treatments,and eventually found a professor to carry out a comprehensive medical examination for us. The result showed that it was my problem.

I was extremely pessimistic during those days.I thought of seeking a divorce.Many nights I even wandered on the roof of my flat contemplating our marriage.My wife followed me to the roof one night.She hugged me and cried,“Don’t be weary my love.I won’t leave you for the rest of my life.”

With tears in my eyes,I watched the twinkling lights in the small town under the dark sky,and I realized that the woman from Xinjiang was someone I could stick together with through life and death,no matter what.

As we couldn’t afford the traveling expenses to go to Xinjiang,I still hadn’t met my parents-in-law, even after we’d been married for six years.My wife,who hadn’t seen her parents for ten years,decided to resign from her job so we could go back to Xinjiang.It was time for me to pay a visit to my parents-in-law.

In the spring of 2003,after a five-day,four-night trip by train,we arrived in the town of Yili.After arriving there,I felt refreshed and happy,despite being so far away from home.

After years and years of marriage, my wife miraculously became pregnant.

Right after the Spring Festival of 2004,our belated miracle daughter was born,near the riverside of Yili, with snowflakes fluttering about. She was like a small kitten,so delicate,thin and tiny.This heaven-sent girl made us cry with joy.

(FromGuangxi Literature,September 2015.Translation:Zhu Yaguang.)