Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress

Luo spends the night reading, then leaves to tell the story to the Little Seamstress, which makes the Narrator feel jealous for the first time in his life. The Narrator reads the book too, and is deeply moved by his first exposure to literature. He copies passages of the text onto the inside of his sheepskin coat, wishing that he could somnambule like the protagonist of the novel.

Luo returns that night and shows the Narrator a handful of gingko leaves covered in blood, explaining that he collected them after he had sex with the Little Seamstress against the trunk of a magnificent gingko tree near her village.

They return Ursule Mirouet to Four-Eyes, hoping to borrow another book in its place, but he refuses. They regret giving it up, especially because Luo believes reading it to the Little Seamstress would make her more refined. She is deeply affected when he reads passages to her from the inside of the Narrator’s coat, and borrows the coat saying that wearing Balzac’s words against her skin makes her feel more intelligent.

Four-Eyes receives a new pair of glasses from his mother, and news that she has organized for him to leave the mountain to work at a revolutionary journal run by her friend. To avoid accusations of nepotism, however, he first needs to collect some traditional folk songs and popular ballads from the region to publish. He attempted to learn songs from a renowned local singer, an old miller at the nearby Thousand-Meter-Cliff, but offended the impoverished old man by refusing to share a meal of stones in salt water with him. He was rebuffed and forced to return empty-handed, infested with lice from the old man’s bedding, which he has to boil out of his clothes. Luo proposes that he and the Narrator try to procure some folk songs from the old miller in exchange for some more books by Balzac.

With the Little Seamstress’s help, the Narrator is disguised as a party official from Beijing, and Luo as his secretary. They go to the old miller and claim that they are tasked with collecting folk songs from the region. The Narrator speaks in limited Mandarin while Luo acts as his interpreter in the local dialect. The old miller is impressed with their disguises and eventually agrees. They accept his offer of alcohol and stones in salt water, and join him on the lice-infested bed.

The old miller plays a three-stringed instrument like a guitar and sings bare-chested. The undulations of his abdomen fascinate them, and they are wildly amused by his raunchy songs. A distracted Luo accidentally serves them lamp oil in lieu of more liquor.

Luo and the Narrator return to Four-Eyes, exhausted but triumphant. Four-Eyes is initially elated, but once he reads the songs they have recorded he is disappointed and furious, dismissing the suggestive songs as worthless smut. He has become arrogant and unpleasant since learning of his chance to leave the mountain, and the Narrator feels a surge of hatred for him as he tells them to take their songs and go, refusing to give them a book.

Suddenly, however, Four-Eyes has an epiphany and begins altering the lyrics of the old miller’s songs so that they become pro-government propaganda. The Narrator is offended and incensed on the old miller’s behalf, and inadvertently strikes Four-Eyes while trying to snatch the papers from him. Four-Eyes refuses to relinquish the notes, and the Narrator beats him violently, coming back to himself sitting on the wayside minutes later with blood on his jacket. Beside him, Luo is resigned to the fact that they’ll have no more books for the time being.

In August, the Little Seamstress accompanies Luo and the Narrator to the tiny town of Yong Jing for the monthly film screening. They watch The Little Flower Seller again, and the boys feel proud that they are accompanying the most beautiful girl in the crowd. The Little Seamstress tells the Narrator that she prefers the movie’s story when he tells it. They learn that a woman is staying in town on her way to pick up her son, the first youth on the mountain to be released from re-education.

The Little Seamstress takes Luo to visit her grandfather’s grave while the Narrator waits outside the cemetery cooking sweet potatoes. A dignified woman approaches, knitting while riding in a chair carried by a porter. When the porter halts to take a break, the Narrator greets the woman first in the local accent and then in his native Chengdu accent. She joins him, realizing that he is in the countryside for re-education, and introduces herself as Four-Eyes’s mother. She is a famous and wealthy poetess who is forbidden from writing under the current regime.

The Narrator credits the books she gave Four-Eyes for his literary success modifying the folk songs, an assertion which makes her immediately suspicious and perturbed. She asks the Narrator’s name and he gives Luo’s instead, in case Four-Eyes told her of their fight. She consoles him about the fate of Luo’s father and encourages him to hope that ignorance will soon go out of fashion, freeing them all. She says that Four-Eyes has written to her of Luo, whom he likes, and of the Narrator, whom he dislikes and claims to have beaten up.

Luo and the Little Seamstress return after the poetess has left, and the Narrator tells them of their conversation. Neither is upset at the news of Four-Eyes’s imminent departure or particularly indignant at his theft of the old miller’s songs, but they find the fact that the Narrator pretended to be Luo hilarious. When the Little Seamstress laughs, the Narrator feels a desire to marry her despite her relationship with Luo. The Narrator mourns for the loss of their chance to read more of Balzac, and the Little Seamstress proposes that they steal the suitcase of books before Four-Eyes leaves.

Listening to her customers’ gossip, the Little Seamstress learns that Four-Eyes’s mother has bribed the Headman of his village for permission to host a massive banquet to celebrate her son’s departure. Luo and the Narrator aren’t invited, so plan to steal the books during the festivities while everyone is distracted.

Several days before the planned burglary, the Narrator dreams that he breaks into Four-Eyes’s house only to find his mother inside, knitting and smiling at him. The Narrator is disturbed, but Luo dismisses the dream, although he does make adjustments to the plan. Although it is illegal to kill working animals, the day before Four-Eyes is to leave, the Headman of his village slaughters a buffalo for the feast by pushing it off a cliff and pretending that it fell by accident. The cries of the mortally wounded animal echo hauntingly across the mountain for hours before the Headman receives permission from his superiors to put the animal out of its misery.

Luo and the Narrator elbow through the assembled crowd in time to see Four-Eyes collecting the buffalo’s blood in a bowl. Once it is congealed, but still warm, the Headman and Four-Eyes drink the blood with apparent relish as a cure against cowardice. Luo and the Narrator admire the pastoral scene from afar as the whole village gathers around the massive cauldron where they cook the buffalo meat. The sorceresses who treated Luo’s malaria arrive and are paid by the poetess. They read Four-Eyes’s palm and do a dramatic dance to ward off evil.

Luo and the Narrator break into Four-Eyes’s house using a master key they fashioned from an iron nail belonging to the Little Seamstress. They find the suitcase sitting with the other luggage and go through the books it contains, feeling resentment for all those who kept them from accessing the literature sooner. The Narrator suggests they just take a few books, lest their theft be discovered and denounced, but Luo wants them all, vowing to use them to transform the Little Seamstress.

Before they can leave, they hear Four-Eyes and his mother returning in search of tablets to treat Four-Eyes’s upset stomach. Luo and the Narrator replace the suitcase and hide under the beds. Four-Eyes notices the suitcase has been disturbed, and his mother bemoans that he associated himself with sneaky characters like Luo and the Narrator. Four-Eyes’s suspicions are allayed by finding all the books still in place. He is then forced to flee outside to relieve himself of a sudden bout of diarrhea as his body purges itself of the buffalo blood. His mother follows with toilet paper, so Luo and the Narrator grab the suitcase and flee. They reopen the suitcase once they are safely away, discovering that Four-Eyes had added the bloody tail of the slaughtered buffalo to the pile of books.