‘Is Lianmei married too?’ asked Pingmei. ‘She had an older sister whose husband wasn’t poor but turned out to have a violent temper and would give her terrible beatings twice a week or more. One time he bust her forehead open and she ran home to her family and didn’t go back for ages. That was the sister who tried to make a match for Lianmei,. She who said to her, “Haven’t you taken enough beatings yourself? Do you need me to make up the numbers?” She was determined not to get married, saying that when a woman married, if she didn’t get beaten up she’d be reduced to poverty; if she wasn’t reduced to poverty she’d get beaten up, either way it was a sorry state to be in….’
As Pingmei spoke she bowed her head and stared at the floor, sunk in her memories.
‘… I’d like to see them,’ she said after a while, looking up. ‘Could I?’
‘That’s difficult! Apart from you, it’s not easy to see anyone from our old crew!’
Yuxiang nipped out the flame of his cigarette with his fingers, then flung the butt forcefully to the ground.
‘… Then there’s Xiumei, her husband died and she started living with a man….’
‘Oh!’ Pingmei sighed. ‘And now?’
‘What do you think? She was disowned by her family….’
奶奶會暈車，所以不常出門，但她去過的地方，全家卻沒有人去過，那就是中國。她在那裡學會了很多麵食的作法，尤其是包水餃，奶奶包的水餃非常漂亮，我的包法是奶奶教的，不過速度比不上她。記憶裡，奶奶很會做麵食給我們吃，印象很深的是一種麵粉餅，用麵粉、雞蛋、糖攪拌後，再以小火慢慢煎，在煎好後，香味四溢，吃一口有濃濃的蛋香與淡淡的甜味，讓人停不下筷子，放學回家肚子餓時，就會央求奶奶作給我們吃，她聽到我們愛吃，也會做得很高興。長大後，自己偶爾嘴饞會做這種餅吃，但味道與奶奶做的就是不一樣。炒小魚乾也是，奶奶以薑絲、糖和小火慢慢炒的小魚乾，總是讓人回味無窮，只要她煮這道菜，一定很快被吃光，自己後來學著做，卻一直做不出這種味道，而且我也沒耐心以小火慢慢炒，所以只能學到六、七分像而已。奶奶的食量很小，勸她多吃一點時，她就會感嘆：「後生時想食沒得食，老了有食食毋落」。
