Under the Hawthorn Tree by Ai Mi, Anna Holmwood Read Free Book Online

you’re a pen repairman.’
    â€˜So you’re a pen repairman?’ she had laughed.
    â€˜Uh-huh, I like to tinker with things, repair fountain pens, watches, clocks, I’ve even taken apart an accordion just to have a look inside. But I had a look at your old pen, and it can’t be fixed, it needs to be replaced. When I get the chance, I’ll buy you a new one. Aren’t you afraid of getting ink on your face when you use this old pen? You girls find that particularly embarrassing.’
    She hadn’t replied. Her family was poor so she couldn’t afford a new pen. This old pen, in its day, had also been a present.
    Now he passed her the new pen. ‘Do you like it?’
    Jingqiu took it. It was a handsome Gold Star brand fountain pen, so lovely. She couldn’t bear the thought of putting ink into it. She thought she could maybe take it and pay him back later, but then she remembered, even the money her mother had had to pay in advance to cover her food on this expedition was borrowed. Reminded of this, and feeling ashamed, she returned the pen to Old Third. ‘I don’t want it, my pen works fine.’
    â€˜Why don’t you want it? Don’t you like it? When I was buying it I thought, you probably don’t like black, but this type doesn’t come in any other colours. I think it’s a good pen, the nib is fine, perfect for your delicate characters.’ He paused. ‘Use this pen for now, next time I’ll buy you a better one.’
    â€˜No, don’t. It’s not that I don’t like this one, it’s nice, too nice . . . and expensive.’
    He relaxed. ‘It wasn’t expensive. As long as you like it. Why don’t you put some ink in it and give it a try?’ As he spoke he took her ink bottle and filled the pen himself. Before writing he swayed the pen from side to side, as if mulling over a tricky problem. After performing this ritual, he wrote quickly in her notebook.
    Over his shoulder, she could see that he’d written a poem.
    If life is lived in single file, please walk in front so I can watch you all the time;
    if life’s road is walked in two lanes, side by side,
    let me take you by the hand, so when we walk through life’s sea of people,
forever you will be mine.
    She really liked it. ‘Who wrote it?’
    â€˜I just wrote whatever came into my head. It’s not a poem, really.’ He insisted she take the pen, saying that if she didn’t take it he would go to her association and tell them that the pen was a donation given especially to Jingqiu to allow her to write the distinguished history of West Village. Jingqiu wasn’t sure if he was teasing and worried that he really might do this, and then everyone would know, she decided to take it. But she promised to pay him back once she had earned some money.
    â€˜Fine,’ he said, ‘I’ll wait.’

Chapter Five
    The following Wednesday and Thursday it was Jingqiu’s turn to return home to Yichang. She had given her first two allocated holidays to a fellow student, Good Health Lee, because in fact he wasn’t in good health at all. His face was constantly covered in blotches which required regular hospital check-ups. But another reason Jingqiu let him go in her place was that she didn’t actually have the money to get home. Her mother’s salary was just over forty yuan a month and that had to pay for her mother and sister’s living costs, pocket money for her brother, and some had to go to help her father in the labour camp. Each month their expenditure exceeded their income. But her form teacher had sent a letter back with a member of Jingqiu’s association. The school was going to put on a show, and the class needed Jingqiu to choreograph the steps for their performance. They’d already collected the money she would need for the bus so she had noï¾ choice.
    Jingqiu’s mother taught at No. 8 Middle