Old Town by Lin Zhe

which he wanted to put on her finger in the church with the pastor’s blessing. At this time, Mr. Qiao had accepted the position of church pastor in Beijing. Ninth Brother wrote to Mr. and Mrs. Qiao to announce the happy news that during this year’s winter break he would bring his bride to Beijing to visit his two benefactors.
    The rich love and affections within his Old Town home and its joyful air of marriage arrangements intoxicated Ninth Brother. He never even asked anything about the bride. All he thought about was the coming night of the painted candles and the nuptial chamber.
    One night, when he was reading a book in his wing of the courtyard, his eldest nephew walked in. Ninth Brother assumed he wanted to discuss brush pen script. Uncle and nephew were only about two years apart. They had both studied and played together from when they were little and their feelings for each other were sincere and generous. This nephew was keenly interested in brush pen script, and the gift Ninth Brother had brought him was a copy-book of Song dynasty calligraphy masters. His nephew never let this out of his sight.
    Nephew didn’t bother with conversational amenities but came right to the point, “Ninth Uncle, do you know whose family your bride is coming from?”
    “Sure I know. Boss Guo’s Third Miss, from the cloth shop by Drum Tower.”
    “For the two days you’ve been back, I haven’t slept once. Now I’ve made up my mind to tell you the real story.”
    “What real story?”
    “Third Sister.”
    This definitely was not going to be good, and Ninth Brother was unwilling to listen any further. Shaking his hands right and left, he said, “Never mind what kind of a girl she is, I want her to be my wife.”
    “No. Your bride isn’t the Guo’s Third Sister. It’s a distant relative on my mother’s side, someone surnamed Chen.”
    What’s this? Ninth Brother just sat there with a stunned expression, while in his brain played a scene, just like he had seen in the silent films in Shanghai. The new bride, veiled in red, sits by the marital bed. The groom comes forward, lifts the veil from over her head, and a strange face scares the daylights out of him.
    Nephew said, “Ninth Uncle, if you’re unwilling to go through with this, it’s still not too late. This is exactly the reason I wanted to tell you this tonight.”
    After a long, stunned pause, Ninth Brother asked, “Why would Big Sister-in-Law want to do this? I said I would marry only Third Sister Guo, and I left my picture for her to take over there in my place when they discussed marriage!”
    “Just don’t think about Third Sister anymore, Ninth Uncle!”
    “She’s gotten married?”
    “She’s no more.”
    Ninth Brother’s eyes reddened and tears seeped from them.
    Nephew didn’t say that the coffin borne out of the home had been empty. He was unwilling to insult the girl that Ninth Brother so adored.
    How did Ninth Brother ever get through this long, dark night? Would he have raised his head to heaven and asked God: Oh, Lord, God, why didn’t you bless and protect Third Sister? Tearfully, he packed up his traveling things and got ready to head back to Shanghai, never again to return to heartbreak Old Town.
    By early the next morning, his sense of indignation and impulsiveness now settled down, Ninth Brother told Eldest Brother and his wife that if the bride wasn’t to be Third Sister Guo, he wanted to arrange a meeting with new prospects. This was all he could say. Eldest Brother and Big Sister-in-Law were like father and mother and he should obey them. If he had any disagreement with them, he could get it across only in a roundabout way. Before Big Sister-in-Law could open her mouth, Eldest Brother had already agreed to Ninth Brother’s request.
    You can well imagine the results of this visit: Ninth Brother refused to be the groom of the Chen girl. Big Sister-in-Law again sought out her go-between, Mother Sun. A din of drums and gongs and lanterns