Happy Dreams

by Jia Pingwa

The way big people got big was by conferring a bit of power on little people like the gateman—that earned them a good name.

Some years later, she died, and all those friends were grief-stricken. Together they raised enough money for her funeral. Because she had no family, they buried her by the roadside. One day, during Dali’s reign in the Tang dynasty, a foreign monk arrived from the Western Regions. He saw the gravestone, sat with legs crossed in the lotus position, and lit incense. Then he said his prayers, circling the gravestone and uttering praises for many days. Seeing this, someone said to him, “This woman was a harlot. Anyone could be her husband. Her family cast her off, and that’s why she’s buried here. Why is a monk like you worshipping her?” The monk replied, “This woman was a great sage. She was merciful and charitable, and sacrificed herself for the world’s desires. This is the so-called Chain-Bones Bodhisattva, and now that she has completed her business in this world, she has become a saint. If you do not believe me, then open the coffin and look.” And so the onlookers dug up the coffin and found that every bone in her body was locked together, just as the monk had said. People were amazed. They all engaged in a period of fasting and then erected a pagoda dedicated to her.

So Yichun’s a hooker, but she was forced into it. She’s sacrificed herself to accomplish something truly admirable. And I’m not exactly white as snow myself. I’m willing to buy stolen goods from the Ghost Market. I’ve gone collecting medical waste, haven’t I? Who is white as snow in our world?

In other words, when she came with me, she didn’t come as a hooker, and I certainly wasn’t her john.

We finally sifted through the trash without further incident, and we collected pretty decent stuff. But by now we looked more like dung beetles than humans.

when the three of us were together, I had the impression that Wufu was drawing away from me and much preferred cracking jokes with Eight instead. I felt sorry for them. They were so poor that their minds were poor too. But there was always one whale in a shoal of fish, and one phoenix in a flock of birds, so I couldn’t get angry.

“Has it ever occurred to you that by the time you’ve gathered a goodly amount of wisdom and knowledge, you’re old and death is staring you in the face? Don’t you wish your child could start from where you are now, instead of starting from the beginning? Well, mark my words: the Happy you see in front of you isn’t the same Happy who arrived in Xi’an. We’re starting again on the basis of the wealth of city experience that we’ve accumulated.”

So I made Happy Liu the subject of my novel. He was, after all, unique. Yet he was also typical. He had turned into the man that he was now because the more life weighed on him, the more he knew how to bear difficulties lightly; the more he suffered, the more enjoyment he got out of life. “Happy Liu, now I understand you!” I exclaimed.