Читать книгу The Pearl Jacket and Other Stories - Shouhua Qi - Страница 33

Mo Xiaomi

When their home caught fire, so many valuable things were burnt with it. Including their marriage certificate.

At the time the couple didn’t think much of it. They continued to be husband and wife, and live their life together. If they could go on living like that until they were very old, perhaps that certificate would never be missed.

Yet the problem was they couldn’t bear to live with each other any more and were getting ready to divorce.

The custody of the children and division of property and so on had all been talked about and agreed upon. So, one day, the two went to the Community Marriage Registrar’s Office to finalize the paperwork. Yet when the registrar asked them to show their marriage certificate, they had nothing to show. They said their colleagues, neighbors, relatives, and friends could all vouch for them. Why did they need any certificate to prove it? The registrar, however, did not budge: “The certificate is a prerequisite. You have to prove that you are a couple first before you can be certified that you aren’t a couple any more, don’t you?”

So the two went about proving that they were a couple.

First, they found the “go-between” who introduced them to each other. The “go-between” confirmed by establishing the fact of how they had got to know each other, fallen in love, and gotten married.

They then found their mutual friends, a couple around the same age as they. That couple confirmed by establishing the fact of the two couples going on a honeymoon trip together.

They also found their former neighbors who confirmed by establishing the fact of how the couple had become parents when their twins were born.

Finally they went back to their own employers. The personnel office of each side confirmed their marital status with a letter.

Then, with all these pieces of proof in hand they went back to the Marriage Registrar’s Office. The registrar examined each document carefully and reissued them a marriage certificate.

It had taken them several months of single-minded, concerted efforts (they hadn’t been of the same mind for so long) to prove they were a couple. Now, it seemed so easy to change were into weren’t.

All of a sudden, though, the two began to hesitate. Since so many people had shown proof that they were a couple, why didn’t they try again to prove that to themselves?

(2001)