The Scenery of the Lake and the Mountain

by Zhou Daxin

  That evening, several young people arrived at Chu Di Ju. Shortly after their entrance and check-in, they asked impatiently for Mahjong. Shallot tried to explain to them that because most guests in Chu Di Ju spend time sightseeing and few people ask for Mahjong, they did not have it. She also apologized and asked the guests to forgive her mistake. However, they did not yield and insisted on asking Shallot to find a set of Mahjong, otherwise they would check out and move into Shang Xin Yuan. Shallot took the issue to Nuannuan. Nuannuan did not think too much about it, so she said: “If the guests really want to play, you can go to the shop nearby and buy a set for them. The tiles are quite endurable so we can pass them down to future guests who want to play.”

  Shallot nodded and took the money to buy one set of Mahjong tiles and handed to the guests.

  Before she went to bed that night, Nuannuan walked in the courtyard and heard the guests still playing Mahjong in their room. Again she did not give much thought about it and went back into her room to sleep. She slept so deep that the instant she was woken up by the noise, she thought it was just an argument between the security guard and one of the guests who had just come back from a late night stroll by the lake. Therefore, she did not pay attention to the noise and turned over. To her surprise, a gruff male voice rose with a loud knock on her door: “Open up!”

  Nuannuan’s sleepiness was driven away by the sudden noise. She quickly rose out of bed and asked: “Who is it?”

  “The police!” the response sounded dry and forceful.

  “The police?” Nuannuan hurried to put on some clothes and said to herself in curiosity: “What does the police want at this time in the night?”

  She got up and opened the door to look. There were a few police officers standing in the dark courtyard. She did not expect the sight and wanted to ask some questions when the police officer standing in front of her door said to her: “We have received a report that your Chu Di Ju has been organizing gambling. We came to check and caught you on this site. Look, these are the gamblers, their gambling tools and money. What do you have to say?”

  It was then that Nuannuan looked and saw the young people who had asked for Mahjong after they checked in that evening all squatting in the courtyard with cuffed hands. So it was their fault! Nuannuan suddenly felt assured and she said in a calm voice: “They only arrived in the late afternoon —”

  “Come with us to the police station and tell your story there!” said the police officer as he waved his arm. Two female police officers walked towards Nuannuan. Nuannuan’s heart dropped, knowing that this was the trouble that she was worried about. She quickly nodded to Shallot, who hurried over, and said: “You will take care of things at home.”

  The police officers in the town police station kept asking Nuannuan the same questions: “How long have you been sheltering gambling? How much is your commission? How many gambling tables do you have? Have you provided other illegal services to them?”

  Nuannuan insisted on her answer: “Those people only arrived last night and it was the first time that someone had played Mahjong in Chu Di Ju. I have never taken any commission or providing any assistance to any gambling.”

  The interrogation continued until the next morning. The police officers were worn out and told her the results of the interrogation of the gamblers. They all confessed that they had gambled more than 30 times in Chu Di Ju; there were over 40 people at most who were gambling at the same time; Chu Di Ju charged 15 yuan to each gambler per session. Nuannuan shivered at his words and her face turned pale. She had thought it was simply a misunderstanding and she believed that the police would find out about the truth. However, after hearing what the police officer told her, she realized how severe things had gone. This whole thing was not as simple as she had thought. The lies that those people were telling at the same time must be the result of a conspiracy. If the police believed in what they said, both her and Chu Di Ju would have no future. She felt cold sweat on her back. I did not do anything to those people, yet why are they doing this? Was it the idea of — her heart dropped again and she thought of Kuang Kaitian and Xue Chuanxin. At that moment she suddenly understood everything. Everything could be explained as she linked what the young people did with Kuang Kaitian and Xue Chuanxin. How dare they do this to me!

  It was not until the morning of the fourth day that Nuannuan was free to leave the police station on Juxiang Street. She walked back to Chu Wang Village quickly. Due to anxiety, rage and lack of sleep, she was very pale, and stumbled many times during her way back. She clenched her teeth and bowed her head. But she walked as fast as she could on the sandy road between the mountain and the lake. She hastened into the village and stopped in front of the gate of her Chu Di Ju. It had again lost its bustling atmosphere: no one was in front of the gate, which was locked by a large padlock. There was a big paperboard leaning on the threshold that read: “Due to the shelter of gambling, business is suspended for rectification for three months.”

  She stared at the paperboard for a long while. She was shouting inside: “Kuang Kaitian! Finally you have succeeded in sabotaging me!”

  Seeing Nuannuan return, Shallot quickly ran out of the side door. She opened the padlock on the gate and said: “After you left that day, Kuang Kaitian brought several people down along with the paperboard about the suspension of business. He told me to close up after dawn and check out all guests before lunch. We can’t take in any more new guest or send any tour guides to take guests to sightseeing. Our boats must not go into the lake, we must not take anyone to camp on the hill or to fish by the lake. No more tea should be served to the seats by the pond. I had to follow his orders, and stopped everything.”

  Nuannuan did not know what to say. She slowly walked into the courtyard.

  “Nuannuan, I have been doubting those gamblers. How can this whole thing be such a coincidence? They arrived and asked for Mahjong, and someone came to arrest them the moment they started playing! Not to mention the sudden suspension of business quickly after they were arrested!”

  Nuannuan did not continue the topic. She asked in a low voice: “You haven’t paid the salary to our staff members, right?”

  “No, I have not. I thought I should wait for you to come back.”

  “Pay them now. Pay them the salary of half a month.”

  “Sure! I will go —”

  Before Shallot finished, the sound of a bugle rose and interrupted her. The two turned their faces and saw through the holes of the wall brick pattern that it was the start of Farewell in Shang Xin Yuan.

  Nuannuan stayed quiet. She turned to walk out of the gate.

  “Where are you going? Are you going to find Kuang Kaitian?” said Shallot as she held Nuannuan’s hand to pull her back. She was in tears. “My sister, I need you to make peace with him. They say that one step back will let you see a broader sky. Jiuding and I, we have decided to go claim our compensation money from Shang Xin Yuan. Of course it’s not fair, but we are under their power and threats, we must bow our heads to live. Now you must see we cannot win by reporting them and going against them. I heard that Kuang Kaitian has recently earned the award of Distinguished Village Leader, and he is also the Party secretary now. He has a lot of connections in the town and the county. With the money and power of the Five Continents Group behind Xue Chuanxin, I wonder whether there is any connection that they cannot reach now! You are just a woman, and you can’t fight with money and power combined. If you ask me, we should yield and let it go. We don’t need to pay attention to them and we won’t report on them anymore. We will suspend the business for three months. But after three months, we can be assured to run our business again. Don’t you worry about me, or Juiding and the other people; it’s our bad luck. We got in the way by being the neighbours of Shang Xin Yuan.”

  Nuannuan did not answer. Instead she turned and walked towards Shang Xin Yuan.

  Chapter 57

  She walked straight into Kuang Kaitian’s office, but did not speak. Instead, she glar
ed at him. Kaitian did not say anything either. He glared back at her. However, after a short while, he turned his eyes away and asked in a calm voice: “What now? You need me for anything?”

  “Kuang! You are so vicious!” said Nuannuan clenching her teeth. “I was so blind to fall in love with you before. I was such a fool to marry you against all odds.”

  “What are you talking about? Did I cross you? We don’t interfere with each other anymore. You can do your business and I shall do my work. Are you here to ask for trouble? Is it your intention to make things awkward?”

  “You are a pig, you don’t speak or act like a man. Aren’t you ashamed of sabotaging others? Aren’t you scared of your bad Karma?! Aren’t you worried that the Buddha will punish you?”

  “What nonsense! Who did I sabotage?” said Kaitian, his eyes widened in anger. “Are you unhappy with my order to suspend the business in Chu Di Ju? I am doing what a Leader should do in the village. Moreover, it was your own fault. How can you shelter gambling? Don’t you know it’s against the law?”

  “Bullshit! You know better than anyone else that I did not shelter any gambling. You know better than anyone else where those Mahjong people came from!”

  “Since you know what happened, you should also know that you must stop working against me! I have told you so many times not to mess with Shang Xin Yuan, but you never listened. Are you happy now that Chu Di Ju is closed and you have no money to earn at all? Are you comfortable being held by the police? If you can learn a lesson from this, you can reopen after three months. If not, I will make sure that your business will always be suspended! I will make sure that your empty houses in Chu Di Ju rot for nothing and that you go back to your old days farming from morning till night! Do you think you can fight with me, your Leader? I’ll tell you again, things have changed, and now you are on the territory of me and Xue Chuanxin! It is simple, you ought to be obedient and don’t say or do anything that you should not!”

  “You bastard!” Overwhelmed by anger, Nuannuan picked up a cup on the desk and threw it at Kaitian. Kuang Kaitian did not expect her to try to hurt him. Dodging from the hit, he rushed over. He kicked Nuannuan and shouted out with an angry face: “You bitch! How dare you attack me?! Don’t you know who I am? I’m your Leader! I’m the king of Chu Wang Village! I will show you what a king can do!”

  Nuannuan could not stop his attack. She fell onto the floor after a few kicks. But Kuang Kaitian did not stop. He moved forwards and kicked her relentlessly. Nuannuan tried to strike at his feet. But slowly she stopped moving. It was the blood from her mouth and body that had stopped Kuang Kaitian from taking out his full rage. He calmed down and stood for a while, breathing heavily. Then, he walked to the door and shouted to two security guards outside: “Come and take this bitch Chu Nuannuan back to her house!”

  The two security guards entered. They were too stunned to move, seeing Nuannuan covered in blood. Kuang Kaitian shouted again: “What are you doing? Go take her!”

  The two men bent over to carry Nuannuan out. Xue Chuanxin had been listening to everything from next door. He came out now and asked Kuang Kaitian in a low voice: “Will she be OK?”

  Kuang Kaitian waved his arm and said: “What can happen to her? That bitch deserves a good beating! If you don’t beat her, she will keep being proud and never learn her place in here! How dare she work against me? Who does she think she is?”

  Shallot was washing the guestroom beddings in the courtyard when the two security guards carried Nuannuan inside. She was shocked by the blood covering Nuannuan’s body and let out a scream: “What happened?”

  The two men did not dare to answer. They put Nuannuan into bed and left. Shallot hurried over and held Nuannuan in her arms. She asked in tears: “Nuannuan, did they hit you?”

  Nuannuan could only give a weak, vague whisper of answer: “Kuang Kaitian, that pig.”

  Nuannuan slept in pain over the next few days. Once in a while she would open her eyes, and every time she looked she saw Shallot sitting next to her. In her blurred memory she knew that Shallot had been taking care of her. On the tenth day, Nuannuan finally woke up and was able to open her eyes completely.

  Nuannuan said in a soft voice: “Shallot my sister, how you have suffered.”

  Shallot held her hands and burst into tears. She said: “Nuannuan, you were beaten by Kuang Kaitian because you wanted to help me and the other people. I can’t take this. I have made up my mind, we will not sue or report on their deeds of tearing down our houses and occupy our land. We will yield on that. But he hurt you, and I won’t yield on that! I will avenge you!”

  Nuannuan shook her head and said: “Shallot my sister, Kuang Kaitian and I did not end up like this simply because of what happened to you. Don’t worry about me. I will report him as soon as I can walk again. I will go to the city, to the provincial office to report on him. He and Xue Chuanxin cannot have bought everything under the sky!”

  Shallot wiped her tears and said: “I can’t see you suffer again. He has crossed the line and it’s time for his punishment!”

  Nuannuan squeezed her hand and said in a weak voice: “He has power. No one dares to punish him without the support of the township office and the county office.”

  Shallot sneered and stopped talking.

  Nuannuan was able to struggle out of bed after half a month, but only after a few steps would she succumb to dizziness. Shallot was worried about her staying in bed all day, so she made a wooden cane for her to carry when walking around the courtyard. Several more days had passed and Nuannuan was eventually able to take care of herself. However, she could not move around much before she started panting heavily.

  One morning, Shallot served Nuannuan breakfast and supported her to sit down in the courtyard. She then went back to her room and changed into the clothes that her husband used to wear when performing in Farewell. She said to her: “Nuannuan my sister, your brother Changling has something else to do away from the village. So I will be in Farewell instead of him today. I will row the boat for King Zi and earn my 10 yuan.”

  Nuannuan smiled and said: “Go. But your clothes are for men.”

  Shallot said: “They are for men. I can be a man today.”

  She turned to leave. When she reached the gate, Shallot paused and turned her head before saying: “Nuannuan, this is my first time to act in the performance, and I will be the boatman of the king of Chu. I really wish that you can check out how good I am by the door and tell me if I do look like a boatman of Chu.”

  Seeing her serious face, Nuannuan tried her best to nod and smile as she answered: “Sure! I will step out of the courtyard to check you out.”

  Nuannuan sat in the courtyard for a while after Shallot left. She wanted to see Dangen in the Kuang’s house next door. She had not seen Dangen since the attack. Dangen’s grandparents seemed to know what had caused her situation and they did not send Dangen over to see her in fear of the things that she might say to him. Nuannuan rose to walk towards the gate when she saw a man with a beard wearing the clothes of people from the city. She thought he was a new tourist and hastened to explain to him that Chu Di Ju is closed at the moment and that they could not take him in. She told him to stay in Shang Xin Yuan. However, the man did not stop and walked straight next to her. He asked in a gentle tone: “You must be manager Chu Nuannuan. How is your injury?”

  Nuannuan looked at him in suspicion. She asked herself: “Who is he? How does he know about my injury?”

  Before she could ask who he is, Mr. Han the accountant suddenly walked out from the corner of the wall. He shouted loudly to the man with the beard: “You must be a tourist! Come to Shang Xin Yuan to watch the performance of Farewell about life in Chu! You will like it!”

  The man turned and asked Mr. Han the accountant: “When does it start?”

  “Right now. Go!” Mr. Han kept rushing him.

  The man with the beard nodded to Nuannuan and left with Mr. Han.

  Nuannuan leaned against the gate and
thought about the man’s words. She felt more curious. At that moment, she could hear the bugles and the bamboo whistles so she knew that the Farewell had started. She remembered what Shallot had asked of her, and slowly walked out with her cane.

  It was a nice day. The sky looked clear, as though someone had cleaned it. There were no clouds, and the sky was pure blue; no breeze on the lake to raise any waves, the lake was as peaceful as a large mirror reflecting the pure blue sky. The boats of the king of Chu emerged from the reeds of the lake on this beautiful day. They quickly approached the lakeside. Nuannuan saw Shallot wearing her Chu clothes as she stood on the tail of the boat carrying King Zi. She was rowing as hard as she could. The boat had brought a breeze that blew up the ridges of Shallot’s clothes and played with her short hair in the hat. She kept rowing against the wind and it made her soft figure look more majestic. Nuannuan kept her gaze on the tail of the boat. She knew that once she turned her eyes, she would see the man who was playing King Zi, the man who made her heart drop every time she thought about him. Kuang Kaitian …

  Nuannuan did not look at the following performance of the ritual led by “King Zi”. She had been so familiar with that scene that the sight had been imprinted into her mind. She kept her gaze at the king’s boat rowed by Shallot and she saw Shallot keeping herself busy on the boat after “King Zi” and his stewards stepped out. She would occasionally stand up, but after a short while she squatted down again until “King Zi” and his stewards returned on the boats during music. It was time for the farewell. The music turned sad and deep as the boats slowly departed. “King Zi” stood on the boat and bowed to his motherland when the stewards were kneeling down to salute on their boats. Shallot started rowing again. All the boatmen needed to do by then was to row the boats back into the reeds; everyone did that except for Shallot, who kept rowing the boat into the center of the lake. People surrounding the lakeside to watch the performance had noticed her and they kept watching her in surprise. Nuannuan did not expect it either, and thought that Shallot was confused, because her husband Changlin did not explain the role well enough to her. Nuannuan saw clearly that “King Zi” and his stewards were turning to look at Shallot; they were probably asking for the reason why she had changed the performance. To everyone’s astonishment, the boat suddenly shook and broke into pieces. Everyone on that boat fell into the lake. When Kaitian fell, Nuannuan saw Shallot rush towards him. People watching on the land did not worry when the boat broke because they knew that everyone could swim in the village. It was not a big deal that someone fell into the lake. Naturally, Nuannuan did not worry either. She was a little bit concerned with Shallot, in fear that Kuang Kaitian would decrease her payment because of the mistake. Everyone was watching in silence. Seeing the locals calm and assured, the tourists did not act either. Nuannuan also caught a glimpse of Xue Chuanxin as he was standing amongst the tourists with a confused look.