by Cao Wenxuan
One Sunday afternoon it was Sunflower’s turn to keep watch. Baba and Mama had gone with some other villagers to dig a water channel miles away from Damaidi. Nainai was at home, preparing food and looking after the pig and the goats, and Bronze had taken the buffalo to graze near the reeds and to pick fluffy reed panicles. They were going to make another hundred pairs of shoes this year, and they were already reckoning on this income as they planned their accounts.
Sunflower took her homework with her to the arrowhead field. She had a long bamboo pole beside her, which Bronze had made to chase away the ducks. The pole had a piece of string tied to one end and a bundle of grass hanging freely from the string.
Although it was winter, it was a warm sunny afternoon. The arrowhead field was filled with water, as were the fields around it, and the sunlight bounced off the surface, dazzling Sunflower’s eyes. A few wading birds were searching in the water for food. They looked so elegant. As soon as a bird caught one of the little fish that were in the water, it would hold it tightly in its beak, thrash it from side to side, crane its neck up to the sky and slowly gulp it down.
From time to time, the wind picked up, sending ripples running across the water. The moss on the surface was a brilliant green, like emerald silk, despite the water being bitterly cold. On the ridges between the fields there were dark-skinned beets growing half in and half out of the mud. It was tempting to go and pull one up, rinse it in the water and take a bite. Sunflower felt very content, watching the field full of water in the bright sunshine.
Sunflower thought she could hear ducks. She looked round and saw a flock heading towards her on the little river that ran alongside the field. Behind them was a little duck-boat, and steering it was none other than Gayu.
The moment she saw him, Sunflower began to panic.
Gayu knew she was there. He turned his back to her and peed in the river, delighting in the contrasting colours as it spattered in the water. He remained there for ages, lost in thought. Then he had an idea.
Gayu turned, glanced at Sunflower sitting on the ridge of the field and shouted to his ducks to stop. While he had been messing about, they had swum on ahead. The ducks knew his voice and his commands. They stopped where they were, or swam off towards the reeds at the side of the water.
Gayu steered the boat to the side of the river, tied it to a tree, climbed onto the bank and, clutching the long-handled shovel he used to drive the ducks, sat down at the edge of the field.
He was wearing a loose black padded jacket and equally loose black padded trousers. Sunflower kept an eye on him as he sat there. An image of the black bear at the circus came to mind. She wanted to laugh, but didn’t dare. She was always wary of Gayu. She continued to sit by the side of the field reading her book, but she couldn’t concentrate. She wished Bronze would appear.
When Gayu saw that Sunflower was ignoring him, he stood up, sank his shovel into the ground, dug out a piece of mud and hurled it through the air. It landed in the calm water with a great big splash. The wading birds were startled and flew into the air. They circled overhead a few times, and when they saw that Gayu wasn’t moving on, they flew off to another paddy field.
Now there were just the two of them, Gayu and Sunflower, sitting by the paddy field. The edges of the fields were covered in loose, dry winter grass. Gayu thought about lying down for a while, and instinctively slipped into a lying position. The grass felt good, like a soft mattress. The sun was in his eyes, so he closed them.
When the ducks on the river lost sight of their master, they started quacking. Gayu ignored them. But they were anxious, quacking and flapping their wings. They tried to climb up the bank, but it was steep and they kept slipping back into the river. They shook the water off their feathers, flapped their wings and started climbing again. Fearless, one by one the whole flock climbed up onto the bank. As soon as they saw Gayu they relaxed and began to look around in the grass for food.
The moment Sunflower saw the ducks on the bank, she put down her book, grabbed the long pole and leapt to her feet.
The ducks seemed to have heard her, too. They stopped searching for food and huddled together at the side of the paddy field. They were quiet; they seemed to be looking at something. A speckled drake lowered his head and, as he did so, saw his reflection in the water.
Sunflower clutched the bamboo pole. She didn’t dare take her eyes off the ducks.
The speckled drake was the first to jump into the paddy field, and after that, the other ducks started jumping in too.
“SHOO! SHOO!” shouted Sunflower.
There were still a lot of ducks on the bank, hesitating before they jumped. But they soon made up their minds when Sunflower ran over waving the pole at them. They flapped their wings and flew into the paddy field. Before long it was completely covered in ducks.
Sunflower tried to shoo them away, but the ducks didn’t care. The smarter ones started pulling fresh white corms out of the mud, stretching their necks and gobbling them down. The others quickly followed. They dodged Sunflower’s pole, dragging their long flat beaks through the mud. Now they had tasted the corms, they weren’t going to leave quite so easily! And why should they? Their master was lying at the side of the field, showing no concern about their activity. He was giving them permission to help themselves.
In the winter sunlight, while the rest of the world was at peace, Gayu’s ducks were making the most appalling racket as they raided the family’s arrowhead field.
Gayu didn’t lift a finger. He lay stretched out on the grass, soaking up the warm sunshine, keeping one eye on Sunflower as she ran up and down in a panic. It was exactly what he’d been hoping for: panic and fear. He remembered the day she had sat under the old tree and had gone home with Bronze’s family – it was in the afternoon and in the sunshine, just like today. He heard Sunflower’s shoo-shooing and happily closed his eyes. The sunlight filtered through his eyelids, and the sky seemed red.
As soon as Sunflower had chased away one group of ducks, another group poked their beaks in the mud somewhere else. The paddy field was full of the sight of stubby ducks’ tails pointing to the sky, and long ducks’ necks gulping down corms. The water that had been calm and clear was now a muddy pool. The ducks had stirred it up so much that there were little fish gasping for breath on the field ridge.
Sunflower was in tears. She was getting tired.
“How could you?” she screamed at the ducks.
But the ducks were shameless. They plunged their beaks – so many beaks – into the mud, ploughing it up, turning out the corms, their faces covered in slime, two beady black eyes peering out. Why would they stop now?
Sunflower watched helplessly as the ducks feasted on the family’s crop. Each corm – each lucky mushroom – was as precious as gold. She wanted to run home and fetch someone, but the paddy field was a long way from home, and by the time she got there the ducks would have finished the lot. She looked around her, but apart from a few birds flying overhead, there was no other sign of life.
“Your ducks are eating our arrowhead corms!” she yelled at Gayu.
But Gayu lay there, as still as a dead dog.
Sunflower took off her shoes and socks, rolled up her trouser legs and, ignoring the iciness of the water, waded in. This time the ducks really did get a fright. They flapped their wings, quacked loudly and fled into the next field. But this one was just a paddy field, and once the ducks had searched about in the mud and discovered there was nothing to be eaten, they came back to the surface, where they sat motionless, watching Sunflower. When the wind blew, they were blown off to one side.
Sunflower stood in the arrowhead field, holding the bamboo pole. She had pins and needles in her legs and feet. The water was cold enough for a thin layer of ice to freeze over the surface at night. Soon she was shivering all over and her teeth were chattering. But she would not give up. She would stay there until Bronze came.
In the next field the wind had blown the ducks into the distance. The
y looked contented – with their bellies full, they were probably sleepy – and many had tucked their heads under their wings to rest. It didn’t look as though they would come and invade the arrowhead field again, so Sunflower scrambled up the bank. As she washed the slime from her legs and feet, she saw how red they had turned. She rubbed them, then jumped up and down in the sunshine to get warm, all the while looking in the direction in which Bronze had gone to collect reed panicles.
But the ducks came floating back, against the wind. They flooded back into the arrowhead field.
Again Sunflower went down into the water, but this time they weren’t scared of her at all. When she slashed the bamboo pole through the air, they just jumped out of the way. They soon realized that she couldn’t lift her feet out of the mud easily, so there was no need to hurry away. They simply dodged the pole, then floated back again.
Sunflower stood in the mud and felt helpless. All around her the ducks were noisily gobbling down the arrowhead corms. She climbed onto the bank and screamed at Gayu, “Your ducks are eating our arrowhead corms!”
Everything around her was moving: the water, the grass, the leaves on the trees. Everything but Gayu. She poked him with the bamboo pole.
“Did you hear me?”
There was no response. She moved closer and gave him a hard push.
“Your ducks are eating our arrowhead corms!”
Gayu still didn’t move.
She grabbed his arm to pull him up. But he was sleeping like a pig. When she let go of his arm, it flopped to the ground as though it didn’t belong to him. Sunflower flinched and stepped back.
Gayu lay there, completely still, his eyes closed and his hair blowing in the wind like the grass. Sunflower crouched on her haunches, reached forward and pushed his head. It rolled to one side and then stopped, just like a watermelon.
“Gayu,” she said quietly.
“GAYU!” she shouted. Then she leapt to her feet and ran back to the village, screaming, “Gayu’s dead! Gayu’s dead!”
She had almost reached the village when Bronze appeared. In fits and starts she told him everything. Bronze was suspicious and ran back with her to the paddy field. Just before they got there they heard Gayu’s peculiar way of singing. They followed the sound and saw him steering his little boat and driving his ducks towards the big river. The sun was in the west, and the ducks were calm, as though they hadn’t a thought in their heads. The evening breeze blew ripples across the water, which flowed onto their bodies and ran down their tails back into the river.
Bronze devised a story and made Sunflower agree to it. They told the family that he’d taken over from Sunflower that afternoon so that she could go and do her schoolwork. He was watching the arrowhead field but went chasing after a wild rabbit, and that was when Gayu’s ducks had got in.
Baba crouched by the side of the devastated arrowhead field. He held his head in his hands and for a long time was completely silent. Then he went down into the field and fished around in the mud with his foot. Before, he would have immediately felt several corms, but now there wasn’t a single one. He grabbed a handful of mud and hurled it into the distance. Bronze and Sunflower hung their heads and stood very still at the edge of the field.
Baba grabbed another handful of mud, turned round and looked at Bronze. Then he hurled it. Bronze didn’t try to dodge, and the mud splattered on his chest. Sunflower looked anxiously at Baba. He grabbed another handful of mud, and hurled it at Bronze. He hurled a string of foul language at Bronze, too. He couldn’t control himself. He pelted his son with mud, not caring where it hit him. Bronze made no attempt to wipe the mud away, even when it splattered on his face. He didn’t even raise his hands. He took everything that was thrown at him.
“BABA! BABA!” Sunflower was in tears.
Nainai was walking near by. When she heard Sunflower crying, she hurried over, hobbling with her stick. She saw Bronze covered head to toe in mud, threw down her stick and went to stand in front of him.
“Hurl the mud at me!” she called out to Baba. “Come on! What’s the matter with you?”
Baba’s head dropped to his chest, his hands went limp and the mud dropped into the water with a dull splash.
Nainai slipped one hand into Bronze’s and the other into Sunflower’s.
“Let’s go home,” she said.
That evening, Bronze wasn’t allowed any supper. He wasn’t allowed inside at all. Baba made him stand outside in the bitterly cold wind.
Sunflower didn’t eat either. She stood up to go and join Bronze.
“Sit down and eat!” Baba roared at her.
But she was determined to stand outside with Bronze. Baba was beside himself with rage. He stormed outside, grabbed her arm with his big strong hand and dragged her back inside. Sunflower struggled against him, and somehow managed to break free. When Baba reached out to grab her, she looked at him and then fell to her knees.
“Baba! Baba! I was the one watching the arrowhead field. It was my turn. Bronze was picking reed panicles all afternoon.” Tears were streaming down her face.
Mama ran outside and tried to pull her to her feet, but she wouldn’t get up. She was determined to stay on her knees. It was the respectful thing to do. She pointed to the haystack in front of her. “Bronze gathered a whole sackful of reed panicles. It’s behind the haystack.”
Mama went to look. She returned with the sack in her arms and placed it in front of Baba. She was crying now too.
With a lump rising in her throat, Sunflower stayed on her knees and hung her head in shame.
Baba considered going to Gayu’s house to ask for compensation, but he soon abandoned the idea. Gayu’s father was renowned for his love of money, and for being the most unreasonable person in Damaidi. If Baba went to complain, he’d get a lot of hassle and no money. But Bronze could not forget this injustice; he would settle the score somehow. He was always looking out of the corner of his eye, watching Gayu and his ducks.
Whenever Gayu sensed he was being watched, he quickly took his ducks down to the river. He’d always been nervous of Bronze. All the children in the village were. They didn’t know how the mute might react, what he might do if he was annoyed. He was a mystery to them. Ever since that grey rainy day when they’d seen him out grazing his buffalo, sitting all by himself on a mound of earth on the wasteland, they’d kept their distance or hurried away as soon as he appeared.
Bronze kept a firm eye on Gayu.
One day, Gayu took his ducks down to the river, and disappeared. Bronze was hiding with his buffalo in a stretch of reeds near by. The clever buffalo sensed Bronze was up to something, and stood without making a sound.
The moment Gayu was out of sight, Bronze leapt to his feet and jumped onto the buffalo. He slapped it on the rump, and off it ran, trampling the reeds underfoot. They charged along the river shore towards the ducks. The flock had just been fed, and the ducks were resting, half-asleep. By the time they heard the thundering hooves, the buffalo was right in front of them. They shrieked in panic and fled in all directions. A few narrowly missed being trampled underfoot.
Bronze didn’t hang around. He rode off into the distance, leaving the ducks in distress. They were all over the place: in the water, in the grass, quacking away on the shore.
It was nightfall before Gayu had gathered his flock together again.
Early the next morning, Gayu’s father set out as usual with a wicker basket to collect the eggs from the duck pen. He did this every morning, and it was his favourite time of the day. He would see the white and grey-green duck eggs on the ground, and feel that life was good, very good. Carefully, he would pick them up and put them in his basket. With New Year approaching, duck eggs were getting more and more valuable.
But that morning, something was wrong. As he walked through the duck pen, he could only find a few eggs dotted about. He collected no more than a dozen. He shook his head and wondered what was going on. It wasn’t as if ducks could go on strike and refuse to lay. H
e looked up at the sky. There was no change there. Everything was normal. He left the duck pen with a light basket and a heavy heart.
He could never have guessed that the ducks had already laid their eggs before returning to the duck pen. They’d had such a shock the previous day that they’d laid them in the river!
Over the next few days, Bronze seized every opportunity to ride his buffalo and charge after the ducks, disrupting their egg-laying pattern. Some of them laid their eggs in the middle of the afternoon in the grass by the river, and made the village children very happy when they found them.
Then, one day, Bronze decided to stop launching secret attacks on Gayu’s ducks. He would make one final attack in broad daylight. He wanted the whole village to see that his family would not be cheated. He took an old bedcover from home, which was printed with large flowers on a red background, and tied it to a bamboo pole. He held it up in the air and waved it about like a flag. Then he waited for the children to come out of school.
Gayu had taken his ducks to a paddy field that had already been harvested, to scavenge whatever was left. When Bronze appeared on the ridge of the paddy field, riding tall and proud on the buffalo and holding up his flag, Gayu had no idea what to expect. He grabbed the iron shovel he used for driving the ducks.
The children started to spill out of school. Many of them were heading towards the fields. All of a sudden, on Bronze’s signal, the buffalo stormed towards the ducks. The old bedcover unfurled behind Bronze like a flag and flapped noisily in the wind. The ducks couldn’t have been more terrified if their nests had been on fire. They fled in all directions. Bronze and the buffalo put on a magnificent performance in the empty paddy field, racing and turning, turning and racing. The ridge by the field was crowded with excited children eagerly watching the spectacle. Gayu sat on the ground, paralysed.