Eventually, no deal was made. The old woman left with her tricycle, and grandmother went to work in the fields in a bad mood, leaving us three sisters still the “only three” without pierced ears in the courtyard, possibly even in the entire village. At the time, we felt embarrassed but also secretly relieved we hadn’t suffered physical pain. Because in the following week, I saw many playmates crying with swollen, suppurating ears, some with ear lobes rotting away. I heard this was the inevitable pain of ear piercing – painful but would eventually heal.
A group of young girls began comparing the severity of their pain, with the one who had a piece of ear lobe rot off declared the winner. Everyone conceded, and that person looked quite proud, making others jealous.
Unlike grandmother’s support for ear piercing, mother was completely against it. She had heard that women who pierce their ears would be reborn as women in their next life, which was too pitiful, so she absolutely forbade her daughters from piercing their ears.
In her generation, being a woman was extremely difficult, especially rural women who were busy year-round, working in the fields while managing the home. In their spare time, they would do handicrafts to earn a little income to buy clothes and snacks for their children, sometimes so tired they couldn’t even cry. Therefore, mother hoped her daughters would suffer in this life, and in the next life, they should definitely be born as men, because men only needed to work in the fields, and after finishing, could sit with crossed legs waiting to eat and sleep, doing nothing.
Men didn’t need to stand in cold streams at 4 AM washing clothes, cook breakfast at 5, feed pigs and chickens, get dirty preparing three meals, follow their husbands to the fields, especially when there was no money to buy gas stoves, and they could only cook using traditional stoves…
Mother believed being a woman was an unfortunate fate, so she didn’t allow her daughters to pierce their ears, hoping her children would be born male in their next life.
So, to this day, we three sisters still have no ear piercings, fortunately avoiding the fate of rotting ears, never experiencing the feeling of having our ear lobes pierced by a needle (and I absolutely do not regret this).
Nowadays, ear piercing techniques are said to be painless, hygienic, and safe, but I still maintain the integrity of my ears.
On one hand, I’m afraid of pain (purely remembering the wails of childhood companions), and on the other, because of mother’s expectations. I dare not harm what I’ve inherited; moreover, I’ve never liked any decorative items without practical use, so I would never pierce two holes to place some shiny things.
At six years old, I left behind this small memory, and for some reason, I remember it vividly to this day. The only thing I can’t understand is why I thought piercing ears would make me look like a fairy descending to earth?
It’s just two holes. Fortunately, I never pierced them. Harming one’s body is certainly not something to be praised, and being as pain-averse as I am, this is my guiding principle.
