Chapter 8
Was the Tian surname really so important?
Even if I found a husband willing to marry into the family, did that name have to continue?
Over the past year, I had urged Mother many times to divorce.
But her views were traditional, and she could not bear to leave me.
She always hesitated.
Now, even as I studied, worry gnawed at me. “Mother, if you don’t divorce, even if I get into County No. 1 High, the old woman and Father won’t let me attend, will they?”
One night, while doing math problems, I heard Mother and Auntie Zhang murmuring about divorce.
On the way home, the night wind billowed Mother’s coat.
Her voice drifted to me.
“Tian Tian, I will divorce your father. I promise I’ll send you to high school and university.”
“When?”
“Getting divorced is easy. Winning custody of you is harder. Auntie Zhang suggested a plan, but it will take time.”
“What plan?”
“Don’t ask. I promise you’ll stay in school. Just concentrate on studying.”
It was ten when we reached home.
Father was out.
Since Mother began turning over her wages, he had quarreled with the old woman several times.
He gave her only half.
He pocketed the rest and drank until after midnight every day.
As Mother put the key in the door, Auntie Xia stood beyond the courtyard wall.
She was confused only during her episodes. Most of the time she was perfectly lucid.
Uncle Xia treated her well too.
“I saw your man go into Widow Wang’s house today…”
Mother’s hand paused on the key.
The night was too dark for me to see her face. I heard only her quiet reply. “All right. I understand.”
Widow Wang was two years older than Mother.
She had borne two sons, one of whom survived.
Widows were easy targets for gossip, but from what I had seen, she truly was not one to behave herself.
Even when Mother did not work overtime, she stayed late with me at Auntie Zhang’s.
Rumors gradually spread through the village.
When the village organized road repairs, Widow Wang openly went to Father and asked him to scratch an itch on her back.
Mother told me, “Don’t think about any of it. Don’t listen. Just study hard. I promise I can handle this.”
In the final exam of my first term in ninth grade, I rose from fortieth to fifteenth in the year.
My homeroom teacher kept me behind. “Tian Tian, I can see how hard you’ve worked. You’ve improved greatly.”
“But judging by our school’s past admission rate, you need to reach the top ten to be safe. Don’t slack off during winter break. Understand?”
That winter, the tea factory where Mother worked began having financial trouble.
It could not even pay wages before the New Year.
The old woman and Father cursed about it.
On New Year’s Eve, Father said he was going out to pay holiday calls.
He was still absent at eleven thirty, when we set off firecrackers and shut the door on the old year.
Our advanced class resumed lessons on the sixth day of the first lunar month.
Our teachers were wonderful. They gave us extra lessons without compensation.
My homeroom teacher even refused the cured pork Mother sent him.
“Getting into County No. 1 High will be the best repayment you can give me.”
Mother sat beside me whenever I studied at night, making handicrafts for spare change.
Auntie Zhang said studying taxed the brain and I needed nourishment.
Mother slaughtered our laying hens for me one after another.
She even asked someone going to the county seat to buy me milk powder.
In the May practice exam, I placed eighth in the year.
My hands shook with excitement when I received the report.
Mother and Auntie Zhang both had tears in their eyes.
“Hold steady. Keep this rank and County No. 1 High is yours.”
I had barely enjoyed the news for two days when a bombshell struck.
Widow Wang was pregnant, and the child was Father’s.