by Yan Lianke
“You aren’t yet seventeen… . Wait, because the town mayor has asked me to make a quick trip into town.” With this, Kong Mingliang quickly headed to the door. When he opened it, as sunlight streamed in and illuminated his body, he turned to look at Cheng Qing and said, “Go see your brother’s grave. It is now covered with flowers.”
Then Mingliang left.
Cheng Qing stood in front of the village chief’s desk until the footsteps in the courtyard had faded away and dusk had fallen. Then she put all of her clothes back on and headed toward the village—to her home. When she arrived at the village square, she saw that the withered grass over her brother’s grave had burst into bloom and had attracted a swarm of bees, butterflies, and chattering orioles.
3. HU DAJUN
I.
Town Mayor Hu Dajun drove to Explosion in the sedan Zhu Ying had purchased with the money she had earned from prostituting herself and had donated to his town.
It was winter, and the yellow sun was directly overhead, like a flaming orb shining down on the mountain ridge. Mayor Hu took the deputy mayor and several other officials in the new sedan, and together they drove through the mountains. As they gazed out the window at the scenery, their faces were shrouded in a bright red glow, and it seemed as though the color would flake right off if you were to touch it. Mayor Hu looked extremely pleased, and the entire way over he kept chortling quietly to himself. The former county mayor was going to the city to become the new city mayor and had agreed to recommend that Mayor Hu replace him as county mayor—because out of the entire county, only Hu had managed to come up with a village like Explosion that was able to become a model of prosperity. Furthermore, Zhu Ying had exerted considerable effort on behalf of this model village, and now Mayor Hu wanted to return to Explosion to host another enrichment conference and to erect a commendatory monument in Zhu Ying’s honor.
II.
A year earlier, after the speed of the trains increased, the residents of Explosion could no longer go to the railroad tracks to unload goods, and as a result the town’s growth had ground to a halt. Town Mayor Hu and Village Chief Kong Mingliang became so anxious that they couldn’t eat or sleep, and in the end the mayor clenched his teeth and stamped his feet and ordered several large trucks to wait in the road just outside Explosion. At the same time, Mayor Hu and Chief Kong held a mobilization meeting in the village, where they announced that representatives from the city had come to Explosion to hire workers, and that all able-bodied men and women in the village between the ages of eighteen and forty—as long as they were able to walk or crawl and were willing to go into the city to work, and earn between three and five thousand yuan a month—could immediately pack their suitcases and their bedding and board the trucks at the base of the mountain.
All of the village’s young people went to investigate.
After everyone departed, the village was left as empty as a wheat field after the harvest.
Those trucks full of villagers from Explosion and the neighboring villages of Liu Gully and Zhang Peak were sent by the mayor and the village chief to a city several hundred li away, where the villagers were deposited on a corner next to the train station. The trucks then parked in a quiet area, and the town mayor and the village chief both got out and proceeded to give every villager a blank letter of introduction with official stamps from both the town and the corresponding village. They said, “You are welcome to fill these out as you wish, and whatever kind of work you want, you are welcome to go find it.” The village men went to work in construction, while the women went to work in restaurants as waitresses and dishwashers. Regardless of whether they were working for Zhu Ying as female or male prostitutes, or were using their tongues to polish people’s shoes or lick their asses, they were not under any circumstances permitted to return home to the village. The town levied a fine of three thousand yuan on anyone who returned to the village after staying in the city for less than six months, a fine of four thousand yuan on those who stayed for less than three months, and a fine of five thousand yuan on those who stayed less than one. Anyone who dared buy a ticket back to the village would be not only fined, but also treated like someone who had more children than permitted under the One-Child Policy.
Following the announcement, the mayor and Kong Mingliang boarded a truck and rode back to the village. Afterward, the residents of Explosion were like drops of water that fall into the ocean and disappear. Occasionally, there would be an incident, which usually involved the villagers orchestrating a theft and then being arrested. Given that there were too many detainees to fit in the jail, the police would drive them back to their hometown, whereupon Mayor Hu would have to take the policeman out to dinner and fete him with alcohol; as he was leaving, he would give him some local specialties.
The policeman said, “Fuck! Your village really does specialize in producing thieves!”
Mayor Hu slapped the face of each thief.
The policeman said, “If we arrest them again we’ll have to enforce the punishment.”
Mayor Hu put the gifts in the police car.
After the car drove away, only the mayor and several dozen thieves were left behind. Mayor Hu looked over and asked them,
“What did you steal?”
“Manhole covers and steel pipes.”
“What else?”
“Television sets from the city dwellers.”
The mayor walked right up to the eldest of the thieves and said, “You should learn from Explosion and not waste your time with petty theft. How much do manhole covers and steel pipes sell for, anyway? And television sets get cheaper every day, to the point that they’re now as cheap as carrots and cabbage. Is it really worth your time to steal this sort of thing?” He continued, “Get lost! All of you, go back to the city, to the provincial capital, to Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Beijing. I won’t punish you for stealing, but within two years you must build several small factories in the village. And if you don’t succeed, and instead are arrested again, I’ll parade you and your families through the streets.” After those youngsters from Liu Gully and Zhang Peak were reprimanded by the mayor and given the new blank letters of introduction, they didn’t even return home to see their parents and instead proceeded directly to take another bus back into the city, and from the city they took the bus to the provincial capital or to other cities.
Following a few more of these incidents, the city police stopped sending the villagers they detained, and instead would simply call up the mayor and ask him to come into the city to collect them—saying that if he didn’t, not only would the city not let the detainees go, it would even publicize the details of the arrests in the newspapers and on television. Whenever the situation grew tense, Mayor Hu had no choice but to go to the police station in the provincial capital or Jiudu City. As soon as he entered, he saw more than a dozen young women from Liu Gully or Zhang Peak squatting in a row along the wall. Each of them was naked except for a bra and a pair of colorful panties, revealing her nubile body.
While the mayor was looking the girls over, one of the police officers walked over and spat on the ground in front of him.
“Are you Mayor Hu?”
The mayor said, “I’m sorry we’ve given you so much trouble.”
The police officer cursed him, saying, “Does your town fucking specialize in producing prostitutes?”
The mayor replied, “When I return, I’ll make sure each of these girls walks through the streets with an old shoe hanging from her neck. We’ll see if they ever dare go out in public again, and furthermore who the fuck would be willing to marry them?”
He led the women away, telling them to get dressed and follow him out of the police station, like students following their teacher out of school. They first crossed one street, then another. When the mayor turned around, he saw that they were all still following him. He stared at them and said, “What are you following me for? If you follow me, will you get food to eat or money to spend? All of you should follow the exampl
e of Zhu Ying, who has returned from Guangzhou and opened a store in the provincial seat.”
The young women stared at him in astonishment, then looked at one another. They proceeded to walk away, like a row of flowers planted along the city streets. Only after they bade the mayor farewell did he reprimand them as though he were their father, calling out,
“You should each become your own boss, like Zhu Ying. You should hire some young women from other towns and counties to work as prostitutes for you. Then you should go straighten out the policeman who spat at me, so that his wife and children abandon him and his family falls apart. You should then become that policeman’s wife, and make sure he doesn’t enjoy a day of happiness for the rest of his life.
“… You should all leave. Get lost! If you aren’t able to replace your thatched-roof house with a tile-roof house within half a year—or able to then replace your tile-roof house with a small building—you will have truly earned the right to be called a whore. You will have lost face on behalf of your ancestors back in Explosion and Balou and will be too depraved to return home and stand before your parents and grandparents.”
From a distance, the young women heard the mayor’s remarks. They gazed at his face that was as plain as dirt, then turned and walked away. They went into the city, their tender flowers blooming as if they were about to bear their plentiful corporeal fruit.
III.
Liu Gully and Zhang Peak followed Explosion’s lead and became extremely wealthy. The villages acquired not only electricity but also roads and running water, as well as a flour factory, a wire factory, a nail factory, a brick factory, and a lime kiln that was still under construction, and all the villagers instantly became rich. It turned out that the ordinary workers who had been charged with building chicken coops and brick kitchens in Jiudu all became foremen in the blink of an eye. Similarly, all of the young women who had worked in hair salons and waited on men at night went to learn from Zhu Ying. First they worked as her disciples, then they were masters, and finally, with Zhu Ying’s help, they went to other cities to establish their own businesses. The most talented among them succeeded in becoming owners of their own hair salons, and passed on their former clients to other young women. This is how things progressed, as the residents of Explosion surged into the cities as though chasing chickens and ducks, and within a year the villages had begun to acquire some urban characteristics. The streets of Liu Gully and Zhang Peak, for instance, were both soon lined with tile-roof houses and other buildings, just like Explosion. Each house had a tall gate with stone lions in front and several stone steps inside.
Why didn’t they simply erect a stele in Zhu Ying’s honor at the entrance to the village? Without Zhu Ying, would those girls have been able to make their villages rich? Zhu Ying did not merely help bring wealth to the families of the young women of Liu Gully and Zhang Peak, she even donated a new sedan to each village.
A directive was sent out to all local village chiefs, instructing them to come to Explosion to attend a meeting. Kong Mingliang had gone to the provincial seat to curry favor, so Mayor Hu himself mobilized the residents of Explosion to clean their houses, sweep their courtyards, and tidy up the streets and alleys. They hosted over a hundred visitors from other villages and towns, who followed Mayor Hu around. The visitors first went to see Liu Gully’s factories and kilns, and then they went to see Zhang Peak’s poultry and livestock. They asked questions as they walked and were able to visit any household they wanted and query the residents on anything they wished.
Eventually, Mayor Hu led everyone to Zhu Ying’s home, which was next door to the Explosion village board building. Everyone saw that the Zhu family home resembled a new-style temple. It was located on one mu of land, and it was a three-story building oriented from east to west. The Zhu family had lived there for only half a year before completely renovating it. The blackish-gray bricks had been artificially distressed, and the windows were made from steel designed to look like carved wood, and inlaid with copper and brass. As for the courtyard wall, because it was made of iron it came to function as the wall around the city park. Although it was winter, grass and bushes grew along the wall, as holly bushes and winter grass added greenery. Everyone stood at the base of the building, exclaiming in delight, and then rushed away to see everything else before the sun set. The visitors reluctantly left Zhu Ying’s house and proceeded back to the village to erect a marble stele in her honor.
There was a large open field in front of Explosion, right where the main road entered the village. It was there that the town mayor erected the stele in Zhu Ying’s honor. The stele was made of marble and was an inch thick, eight inches wide, one foot two inches high, and it was carved with bowl-size Chinese characters.
The base of the stele had already been placed in a pit.
Around the base, the villagers added not only dirt but also a ring of concrete. There was a fresh smell of cement in the air. When the sun was directly overhead, the town’s cadres either stood in the sun or sat on their cotton shoes, staring intently at the mayor’s face and watching his mouth open and close as he spoke. He said,
“Tell me, who here is Zhu Ying’s equal? Does anyone know? When Zhu Ying first arrived in Guangzhou, she was merely an assistant in a hair salon, but now she has opened an amusement park in the provincial capital, which is large enough to accommodate nine hundred men and women bathing at the same time. Every day she earns enough money to buy several sedans or even build a small house!
“How can we not erect a stele for her?” the mayor asked. “Not only did she help her family build a new house, she also helped the families of a hundred other young women construct new tile-roofed houses and other buildings.” He added, “She not only helped the families of these young women construct new tile-roofed houses and buildings, she also helped provide Liu Gully and Zhang Peak with electricity, running water, and a paved road. Where did all this money come from? It was donated by Zhu Ying and the other women! It was all donated from the money earned by these hundred-odd young women working for Zhu Ying.
“There is also something else.” The mayor paused, gazing down at the cadres, then he cleared his throat and said, “Zhu Ying said that next spring she is going to repave the cement road leading from the town to the village. She is going to convert the dirt road into a national-standard paved road. Do you know how much it will cost to repave this road?”
The mayor shouted, “It will cost millions!”
He added, “As mayor, I have no way of rewarding Zhu Ying other than to erect this stele in her honor.”
Accordingly, an enormous stone stele as big as a wall was erected, and everyone in attendance saw the basket-size characters inscribed on its front:
TO GET RICH, LEARN FROM EXPLOSION
TAKE ZHU YING AS A MODEL
His listeners began applauding the erection of the stele, applauding so hard that their palms were soon covered in blood.
4. KONG DONGDE AND HIS SONS
I.
As everyone was appealing for spring to return, the paulownia tree sprouted its pink blossoms and the apricot tree sprouted its jade-white blossoms. When spring finally did in fact arrive, Kong Dongde saw that all of the graves in the village square were covered in winter jasmine—but while at this time of year they normally would be bursting into green and sprouting flowers, these particular plants were neither green nor flowering. The willows along the river and next to the well were also no longer producing new growth. There was no lingering winter chill, and each day was warmer than the last, as people removed their padded clothing. Once you passed the Qingming holiday and began approaching the fifth solar term, spring should have started to arrive. But this year, even though it was already the beginning of the third lunar month, the spring greenery was still not willing to emerge.
One morning, Kong Dongde thought about the spring, then took a couple of mynah birds he had raised and hung their cage from the willow tree next to Zhu Qingfang’s grave in the middle of the villag
e square. Then, like city residents who go to the parks in the morning to do their daily exercises, he proceeded to exercise in the open area in the square in front of the graves. He didn’t really want to exercise, but it was just that the preceding few years had convinced him that life was good, and he had now entered a period of calm and refinement. During the first half of Kong Dongde’s life Zhu Qingfang had always forced him to crouch in submission; now Kong Dongde was smiling happily while Zhu Qingfang was buried six feet under.
So, every day after getting up, Kong Dongde would take those two mynah birds and hang their cage in front of Zhu Qingfang’s grave, and then he would exercise right there in the square, happily greeting everyone who passed by. The days were gradually becoming warmer, and after exercising he would soon be covered in sweat. He would remove his jacket, but rather than hang it from a nearby tree, he would instead make a point of walking past several graves to hang it on the same tree on which he had already hung the cage with the pair of mynah birds. He would then walk back over the same graves, would stomp several times on Zhu Qingfang’s grave mound, and only then would he return to his exercises.
During that period, the air was brisk and there was a humid breeze. Every morning, Kong Dongde would walk back and forth over Zhu Qingfang’s grave. There was a path leading up to the grave, and the earth of the mound itself was packed down very hard. The new soil that had been deposited during the Qingming grave-sweeping holiday had already been stomped into the ground, to the point that the grave mound appeared quite low. One day, Kong Dongde decided that the MOST LOYAL OLD COMMUNIST inscription on Zhu Qingfang’s tombstone was displeasing, and therefore proceeded to plaster it with mud. Another day, he decided that the entire gravestone was displeasing, so he asked some villagers to knock it down—but before they had a chance to finish, he told them to stop.