The Bridegroom

Colleagues at the Muji Railroad Company talk about a young woman named Tingting. Chang Bofan, the director of the Youth League, wonders whether she is “broken” (71), and says “She must be as broad as a city gate” (71). The colleagues laugh. They notice that a married man in his 40s named Benchou is often in Tingting’s office.

A young worker with a promising future named Manjin is working late one evening. Bofan, Shuwei, and four others suddenly come into the office. They ask Manjin to join them in spying on Benchou and Tingting, who are in Tingting’s office. They hope to catch the two “do[ing] something” (74).

They quietly approach Benchou’s office, where they hear Tingting “panting and moaning” (74), and Benchou humming a song. Bofan knocks on the door and shouts. Tingting attempts to escape out of the office window, but they find her and take her back to Benchou’s office. They take photos of sheets, pillows, and a used condom, and confiscate Tingting’s panties as evidence of Benchou and Tingting’s adultery.

Tingting and Benchou get interrogated separately. Manjin takes notes. The director of the Railroad Company, Director Tan Na, interrogates Tingting. Director Tan Na demands to know the private details of Tingting’s relationship with Benchou. She asks how many times she and Benchou have had sex, where, and how it was. After the interrogation, Tingting must write out a confession for her crime. She asks that her colleagues not tell her home village about the incident.

In the days that follow, Benchou goes to work in the Cargo Service, while Tingting begins a new position at the Telegram Station. Manjin’s roommates try to ask him about the details of Tingting’s affair, but Manjin keeps quiet. He notices that women in the dining hall begin paying him attention, including a tall basketball player he’s attracted to.

One evening he hears nurses in the dining hall talking of going to see a film. Hoping he might meet the tall basketball player there, Manjin decides to attend. While walking to the theatre, Manjin sees Tingting. She enters the theatre and Manjin follows. Once inside, he finds the theatre nearly empty. He doesn’t see the nurses or the basketball player.

A woman appears beside him in the row of seats. Manjin can’t see her face. The woman places her hand on Manjin’s leg and pulls Manjin’s hand onto her leg. Manjin’s hand reaches further up the woman’s leg, and “his fingers opened her fleshy folds” (83). After exploring “around her lips” (84) and “tracing the valleys, caverns, gullies” (84), Manjin sees humans, buffaloes, and paddies on the movie screen and begins to feel sick. He starts retching and the woman apologizes, wipes his hand with a handkerchief, thanks him, and leaves the theatre.

Manjin leaves the theatre and finds a girl in a white blouse near the front entrance. Manjin goes up to her and puts his arm around her and says, “[L]et’s do that again!” (84). The woman screams and two men appear. Manjin runs and the men follow him. Ultimately the two men pin him to the ground and take him to the police station.

Locked in a small office in the police station, Manjin begins to weep. After half an hour, Chang Bofan, his boss, arrives with a few policemen. They interrogate him and Manjin explains what happened. Bofan and the policeman discuss the veracity of Manjin’s story. Bofan attempts to defend Manjin, while one of the policemen demands that they find out who it was Manjin encountered in the theatre. They say that the girl in the lobby of the theatre had been the daughter of a Vice Mayor Nan.

When Bofan talks to Manjin alone, Manjin reveals that he had seen Tingting at the movie theatre. During a second round of interrogations, Manjin shares this fact with the policeman. Manjin explains that the woman in the theatre had wiped his hand with a handkerchief. That night, the police go to Tingting’s home and find a handkerchief. They interrogate her. Though she defends herself, she isn’t able to establish an alibi and must write out a confession of the incident.  

It is rumored that Tingting has killed herself with DDT. She doesn’t leave a suicide note. Manjin remains unsure whether it had in fact been Tingting who sat next to him in the theatre. In the dining hall, girls no longer pay Manjin any attention. He sometimes goes to sleep with Tingting’s panties under his pillow. 

A deceased friend leaves his daughter, Beina, in the care of the narrator. As she grows to the age of 23, the narrator worries he will not be able to find her a husband because she is timid and homely. Then, suddenly, a man named Huang Baowen proposes to her. Two months later, they marry. The narrator is suspicious and worried about the marriage. He is unsure of Huang Baowen’s motives. Educated, Baowen is highly sought-after by other women, yet he chooses to marry Beina, who has a “fleshy face” (92) that reminds the narrator of a “blowfish” (92).

After eight months of being married, Beina still is not pregnant. One morning, Beina tells the narrator that Baowen hasn’t come home since the night before. The narrator makes calls around town in order to find Huang, but is unsuccessful. The narrator receives a call from the Public Security Bureau. They have detained Huang Baowen for indecent activity. They ask the narrator to come to the Bureau as soon as he can.  

When the narrator arrives at the Public Secretary Bureau, he finds a dozen officials from other companies and organizations. They are all directed to a conference room. A middle-aged man enters; he is Chief Miao from the Investigation Department. Chief Miao tells the group that they are dealing with a case of homosexuality. Many in the group don’t know what the term means and begin to ask questions. Chief Miao explains that homosexuality is when “people of the same sex have a sexual relationship” (95). The accused men will serve a sentence ranging from a few months to a few years.

What had occurred was that the men had formed a group which met on Thursday evenings in an office building. There, they would socialize, dance, cuddle, and kiss. After the meeting with Chief Miao is over, the narrator goes to a room in the basement, where he reads Baowen’s confession and meets with him. Baowen’s confession states that he had only joined the group twice, but he doesn’t deny that he is a homosexual.

During the narrator’s meeting with Baowen, Baowen admits that he liked a man in the group, and that he would’ve done something with the man if he could have. The narrator calls him sick and Baowen says, “So? I’m a sick man. You think I don’t know that?” (97). Baowen claims he tried to cure himself in the past but has never been interested in women. The narrator asks why Baowen married Beina in the first place and Baowen explains that he had told her in the beginning that he didn’t like women and might not be able to give her a baby. He argues that the marriage is beneficial for both of them. Though the narrator is angry, he decides to try to help Baowen as best he can from receiving severe punishments from the government.

Rumors about Baowen began to spread around the factory. The narrator visits Beina at her home to console her. Beina defends Baowen and their marriage. Though they have never slept together in their eight months of marriage, Beina says of Baowen that he is “better than a normal man” (101).

With the help of the narrator, Baowen goes to a mental hospital instead of jail. Beina cries at hearing the good news. The narrator and Baowen bike to the Public Security Bureau before Baowen will go to the mental hospital in a van. Baowen tells them not to tell his mother the truth of his situation. A van arrives and takes Baowen away.

The narrator visits Baowen at the mental hospital. The hospital is located on a mountain southwest of Muji City a few miles. A doctor named Mai tells the narrator that his son-in-law is doing well. The hospital is administering Baowen a treatment called an “electric bath” (104). The narrator asks if he can watch the treatment and the doctor says yes.

The narrator enters a small room with a bathtub along with the doctors, where he sees a bathtub attached to rubber cords and a control panel. A nurse fills the bath up with hot water. Baowen undresses and enters the tub. At first, Baowen appears relaxed in the tub, but as the nurse increases the electricity, Baowen begins to writhe and moan, visibly suffering. Nevertheless, he asks for more electricity.

The narrator steps outside for a few minutes, and then visits Baowen once more after the bath is over. Baowen is shaking. He expresses his hope to leave the hospital soon.  

Around a month later, the narrator and Beina visit Baowen in the hospital again and find him in good health. Baowen and Beina chat and share malted milk and candies. The narrator goes to the nurses’ office and finds the nurse who had administered Baowen’s electric bath, Long Fuhai. The narrator tries to give Long Fuhai a carton of cigarettes as a token of gratitude for treating Baowen with consideration and care, but Long Fuhai suggests that the narrator should give the cigarettes to Dr. Mai instead.

The narrator goes to Dr. Mai’s office. He gives Dr. Mai two cartons of cigarettes and Dr. Mai thanks him and puts them under his desk. The narrator asks the doctor if Baowen might be better before the upcoming holiday. The doctor replies that there is no cure for homosexuality, because “homosexuality isn’t an illness” (111). Instead, the doctor says, homosexuality is simply a preference, or it might be congenital. He gives Baowen an electric bath because the Department of Public Health forces him to do so, but he believes electrotherapy is ineffective in curing homosexuality. Before the narrator leaves, the doctor says he’ll take good care of Baowen.

Five days before the holiday, the narrator receives a call from the Public Secretary Bureau, informing him that Baowen has repeated his crime of homosexuality. He and the nurse Long Fuhai formed a relationship. After a cleaner passed by in the hallway, Long Fuhai became convinced that the man had seen them. Long Fuhai confessed the relationship to the hospital leaders of the hospital. Long Fuhai gets probation, while Baowen receives three and a half years in jail.

The narrator tells Beina about Baowen’s situation. He tries to convince her to divorce him, but she refuses. She says instead that she’ll wait for him to get out of jail. The narrator tells her not to come see him again.