flushed.
It was not the first time her mind had been occupied. Before Bashi there had been Teacher Gu and Mrs. Gu, but some longings seemed to be more demanding than others, and Nini felt her body was too small to contain her secret now. She had to bite the inside of her mouth to avoid blurting the news to a stranger on the street or, even worse, to her own family. In the end, when it seemed that she was going to explode, Nini picked up the baby and told Little Fourth and Little Fifth that she was taking the baby to the marketplace. The two girls begged to tag along, but Nini said she had other things to tend to, and they would not be of any help. To appease the girls, Nini gave them each a candy she had brought home from Bashi's house. She promised more snacks if they remained well behaved in the house. Couldn't they play in the yard? Little Fourth asked, and she promised that they would not step into the alley. Nini hesitated. The two girls were growing into a pair of twins, and once they had each other, their world was complete. It was usually fine to let them play in the yard, but Nini decided that this time it would not hurt for her to exercise more authority so that each favor would be returned with gratitude and obedience. She told the girls that she would have to lock them in the house. They looked unhappy, yet neither complained. They stood side by side, each sucking on the candy and watching Nini close the door and padlock it from the outside.
“I've found you a brother-in-law,” Nini whispered to Little Sixth in the street, her lips touching the baby's ear.
The baby pointed to a police car with lights flashing on a side street and said, “Light-light.”
“I'll find you a good husband too, and people will be so jealous that their eyes will turn green,” Nini said to Little Sixth, imagining the helpless infuriation of her parents and the two older girls. If Little Fourth and Little Fifth behaved, she would consider helping them too. She pulled gently until the baby had to look at her instead of the police car. “Listen. Do you want a better life? If you do, you have to stick with me. Don't ever love anybody else in the family. Nobody will make you happy except me, your big sister.”
“Sis,” Little Sixth said, and put her wet mouth on Nini's cheek.
“Your brother-in-law,” Nini said, and blushed at her audacious name for Bashi. “Your big brother, he knows how to make a stone laugh.”
The baby babbled, practicing saying “brother,” a new word for her.
“He's rich and he'll give you a dowry when it's your turn to get married. Don't ever expect that from anybody else.”
When they entered Bashi's house through the unlocked door, for a moment nobody replied to Nini's greetings. The bedroom door was closed. Nini knocked on the door. “I know you're inside. Don't try to play a trick on me,” she said.
There was no reply from the room. Nini put her ear on the door and heard a rustling of clothes. “Bashi?” she said.
A second, he replied, his voice filled with panic. Nini pushed the door open. Bashi rushed to her, a hand buttoning his fly. “I didn't know you were coming,” he said, panting a little.
She studied his flushed face. “Who's here?”
“Nobody,” Bashi said. “Only me.”
Nini shoved Little Sixth into Bashi's arms and went in to check. She found Bashi's reaction suspicious, and instinctively she knew it was another woman he was hiding from her. She picked up Bashi's unmade quilt from his bed but there was no one hiding underneath. She peeked under the bed. On the other side of the curtain, his grandmother's bed was empty. So was the closet.
“What are you looking for?” Bashi said with a smile, the baby sitting astride his shoulders and pulling his hair.
“Are you hiding someone from me?” Nini asked, when she could not find a trace of another woman in the bedroom.
“Of course not,” Bashi said.
“Why else were you sleeping in the middle of the morning?”
“I wasn't really sleeping. I came back from a walk and thought I would take a rest in bed,” Bashi said. “In fact, I was dreaming about you when you came in.”
“What idiot would believe you?”
“Believe me,” Bashi said. “I have no one to think about but you.”
Nini thought of laughing at him but he gazed at her with a desperate look in his eyes. “I'll believe you,” she said.
“I talked to Mrs. Hua.”
Nini felt her heart pause for a beat. “What did she say?”
“She did not say no,” Bashi said.
“But did she agree?”
“She said she needed to talk to Old Hua, but I think they will agree. I can't see why not. Mrs. Hua looked like she was ready to kiss me when I said I wanted to marry you.”
“Nonsense. Why would she want to kiss you? She's an old woman.”
“Then do you want to kiss me, young woman?”
Nini punched Bashi on his arm. He jumped aside, which made the baby shriek with happiness. Nini opened both arms, trying to catch Bashi, and he hopped around, all three of them laughing.
Nini was the first to calm down. She was tired now, she said, sitting on Bashi's bed. Little Sixth pulled Bashi's hair, demanding more rides. He marched around in the bedroom, singing a song about soldiers going to the front in Korea, the baby patting his head and Nini humming along. When he finished the song, he lowered the baby and put her next to Nini. Then he took the baby's kerchief and folded it into a small mouse and played tricks with his fingers
