TUN-HUANG Read Online Free PDF Page B

simultaneously, a cry which was neither a scream nor a moan escaped from the woman’s throat. When he saw blood spurting, Hsing-te thought the woman’s arm, which she had raised toward her head, had been cut off. But her arm was intact. Two fingertips of her left hand had been severed. The spectators were aghast and involuntarily drew back, widening the circle around the woman.
    “All right, I’ll buy her.” Hsing-te called out before he could stop himself. “I’ll buy all of her.”
    “Do you really mean it?” The man wanted to be sure. As this conversation took place, the woman suddenly sat up, supporting herself on the board with her bloody hand. With flushed cheeks she faced Hsing-te and said, “I’m sorry, but we will not sell all. Please don’t misjudge the women of Hsihsia. If you want to buy me, buy me piecemeal.” Then she lay down again. At first Hsing-te could not grasp the meaning behind the woman’s words. Then, realizing that she had misunderstood his intentions, he reassured her. “Oh, I mean to buy you, all right, but I have no personal designs on you. After I buy you, you’re free to go wherever you like.”
    Hsing-te bargained with the man. Not much money was involved, and the two quickly agreed on a price. Hsing-te took out the sum asked by the man, and placing the coins on the board, ordered the woman to be freed.
    Grasping the money greedily, the barbarian turned toward the woman and berated her furiously in a strange tongue. Slowly she rose from the board. Hsing-te made his way through the circle of spectators, who stood there amazed at the turn of events. He left the scene and walked away. When he had gone about fifty feet, Hsing-te heard someone calling him and he looked back. The woman came running toward him. She was now dressed in the rough clothes of North China, and her left hand was bandaged. As she approached, she said, “I don’t want you to spend money without giving something in return. Please take this. It’s all I have.”
    So saying, she gave him a small piece of cloth. Her face was pale, no doubt from the loss of blood. Hsing-te unfolded the cloth and saw some strangely shaped symbols, resembling letters, written on it in three lines, ten symbols to a line.
    “What is this?” he asked.
    “I can’t read it either, but I think it is probably my name and birthplace. We have to have this in order to enter Urgai. I have no further use for it, so I’ll give it to you.”
    “What is Urgai?”
    “You haven’t heard of Urgai? Urgai is Urgai. It means ‘Jewelled City’. It’s the capital of Hsi-hsia.” The woman’s dark, deep-set eyes glittered as she spoke.
    “And where is the barbarian from?” Hsing-te continued his questioning.
    “He’s a Uighur. Of all scoundrels, he is the worst.” With that, she left the cloth in Hsing-te’s hand and quickly vanished into the crowd.
    Hsing-te resumed walking. As he strode along, he realized that something had changed within him. He could not define the change, but somehow a part of his inner being had been completely altered. Hsing-te could not help thinking how ridiculous it had been for him to have been so unhappy about the Palace Examination just a short while before; in retrospect his despair over the lost chance seemed comical. The incident he had just witnessed was completely unrelated to academic learning or books. With his present limited knowledge, it was difficult for him to comprehend the meaning of that experience. And yet, what he had just seen and heard was of an intensity to shake him to the core of his being…in his way of thinking and in his outlook on life.
    What had that young Hsi-hsia woman been thinking as she lay on that board? Did death mean nothing to her? What had made her object to selling her whole body? Was it from modesty? He could not possibly understand the mind of a man who would try to sell a human being piecemeal and could brutally chop off the woman’s fingertips. And she had not even