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darkness that made it impossible to see what was on the table. Gao Ma’s courage began to desert him. “Just now having dinner?” he asked.
    Fourth Uncle merely snorted. “Yes,” Fourth Aunt said impassively. “And you?”
    Gao Ma said he had already eaten.
    Fourth Aunt roughly ordered Jinju to light the lantern.
    “What do we need a lantern for?” Fourth Uncle said abusively. “Afraid you’ll stuff the food up your nose?”
    But Jinju went inside and lit a lantern anyway, then brought it outside and placed it in the center of the table, where Gao Ma noticed a willow basket filled with flatcakes and a bowl of thick bean paste. Garlic was strewn about.
    “Are you sure you don’t want some?” Fourth Aunt asked.
    “I just ate,” Gao Ma replied, glancing at Jinju, who sat with her head down, neither eating nor drinking. Fang Yijun and Fang Yixiang, on the other hand, were loading up flatcakes with bean paste and garlic, then rolling them and stuffing them into their mouths with both hands until their cheeks bulged. As he noisily smoked his pipe, Fourth Uncle watched Gao Ma out of the corner of his eye.
    Fourth Aunt glared at Jinju. “Why don’t you eat instead of sitting there like a block of wood? Are you trying to become an immortal?”
    “I’m not hungry.”
    “I know what’s going on in that sneaky mind of yours,” Fourth Uncle said, “and you can forget it.”
    Jinju glanced at Gao Ma before saying in a strong voice, “I wont do it—I wont marry Liu Shengli!”
    “Just what I’d expect from a slut like you!” Fourth Uncle cursed as he banged his pipe on the table.
    “Who
do
you want to marry?” Fourth Aunt asked her.
    “Gao Ma,” she said defiantly.
    Gao Ma stood up. “Fourth Uncle, Fourth Aunt, the Marriage Law stipulates—”
    “Beat the bastard up!” Fourth Uncle cut him off. “He can’t come into our home and act like this!”
    The two brothers tossed down the food in their hands, picked up their stools, and charged. “Using violence is against the law—it’s illegal!” Gao Ma protested as he tried to ward off the blows.
    “No one would blame us if we beat you to death!” Fang Yijun countered.
    “Gao Ma,” Jinju said tearfully, “get away from here!”
    His head was bleeding. “Go ahead, beat me if you want. I wont even report you. But you can’t stop Jinju and me!”
    From her seat across the table, Fourth Aunt picked up a rolling pin and struck Jinju a glancing blow on the forehead. “Doesn’t the word ‘shame’ mean anything to you? You’ll kill your own mother.”
    “Fuck your ancestors, Gao Ma!” Fourth Uncle growled. “I’d kill my daughter before I’d let her marry you!”
    Gao Ma wiped some blood off his eyebrows. “You can hit me all you want, Fourth Uncle,” he said. “But if you raise a finger against Jinju, I’ll report you to the authorities.” Fourth Uncle picked up his heavy bronze pipe and hit Jinju hard on the head. With a feeble “Oh” she crumpled to the ground.
    “Go report that!” Fourth Uncle said.
    As Gao Ma bent down to help her up, Fang Yixiang clubbed him with a stool.
    When Gao Ma regained consciousness, he was lying in the lane with a large shape standing over him. It was the chestnut colt. A few stars poked pitifully through the cloud cover. The parakeets in Gao Zhileng’s yard shrieked. By lifting one of his arms slowly, he touched the satiny neck of the colt, which nuzzled the back of his hand as its bell tinkled crisply.
    The day after the beating, Gao Ma went to the township government compound to see the deputy administrator, who, drunk as a lord, sat on a beat-up sofa, slurping tea. Instead of greeting Gao Ma, he glared at him bleary-eyed.
    “Deputy Yang,” Gao Ma said, “Fang Yunqiu is violating the Marriage Law by forcing his daughter to marry Liu Shengli. When she protested, he bloodied her head.”
    The deputy laid his glass on the table beside the sofa. “What’s she to you?” he asked snidely.
    “She’s