by Yan Lianke
Mother asked, “What are we going to do, what are we going to do?”
Father replied, “Let’s go back. Why did we have to wake up in the first place? It must have been God who woke us, so that we could warn those who are still sleeping.” He then stuffed the radio into my hand and proceeded to turn the cart around.
“We are really going back.
“We have to go back. Our family is in the town, and even if we don’t care about the town, we have no choice but to care about our own family.”
Finally, Father led Mother away, into the dark night that persisted as dawn was delayed. Step-by-step, they proceeded toward their house in the town at the bottom of the hill.
BOOK TEN
No-Geng: There Is Still One Bird Alive
1. (6:00–6:00)
We didn’t follow the original path back into town. The area north of town was very poor, and few houses there had been robbed. On this particular night, poor homes and poor neighborhoods were comparatively safe. We headed to the river north of town, wanting to enter town from the north. On the road we encountered some people who were sleeping on the embankment beside the canal at the base of the hill. There were a couple of lanterns hanging from a small tree below the embankment, and someone was waking up the sleepers so that they could take turns standing guard. It was as if by standing guard, they could prevent the others from dreamwalking. As we passed, voices emerged from the group of sleepers.
“The sun is about to rise.”
“If we can just hang in there for a little longer, the sun will come up.”
“It’s as if the day has died, and we’ll never see daylight again. When we fled, we didn’t bring our watches or radios, so we have no idea what time it is now.”
Father didn’t tell them that it was already after six o’clock—past the time when the sun would normally have come up. He didn’t tell them that on this day the sun had died, time had died, and the daytime also died. “Go to sleep. Just make sure that one person remains awake to keep the others from dreamwalking. After you go to sleep, the sun will come up, and once it does, everything will be over.” Saying this, Father walked away.
We finally arrived at the area north of town.
We were finally going to enter town.
The murky houses were like dark piles of dirt in the mountains. The murky trees were like clumps of grass along the riverbank. The noisy sound of footsteps dissolved into the night’s tumultuous din, which would periodically drift over from the town and then die away again. The resulting stillness was as if the town’s entire world had died, leaving behind no one and nothing—not even the songs of sparrows and insects. Instead, the only thing left was the occasional calls of night birds. Father parked the cart at the northern entrance to town. It seemed as though there had been no mayhem there, and no dreamwalking. Instead, everyone was sleeping soundly. From that point on, the world was at peace, and the town was also at peace.
Our family quietly returned to town. With the dim beams of our flashlights, we could see the rocks and depressions under our feet. We could see the trees and houses on either side of the road. We could also see many people and things hidden in the darkness. I saw a pair of young women in their thirties standing next to the road, and behind them was a recently built tile-roofed house. The women were standing in front of the entrance like two sisters, and there were lamps hanging from the columns on either side of the entranceway. They lazed about in the light, their eyes half-shut and with a sleepy look on their faces. When they saw that someone was approaching, they smiled. “Who are you? My husband isn’t home, so why don’t you come in and enjoy yourselves?” Our family quickly walked past, and even after we passed we could still hear them calling after us. “Hey, you, if you don’t take advantage of this night to enjoy yourselves, you may not have this opportunity after the sun comes up.”
After we proceeded another hundred meters or so down the street, we saw five or six women beneath a lantern, fanning themselves while eating peanuts and walnuts, as they sat in front of a new building, waiting for men. They had bathed and washed their hair, and either were wearing bras or else were simply topless. Some of them had slippers, while others were barefoot. Some of them were holding fans, while others were holding cloths with which to wipe the sweat from their faces. However, all of them had hiked their dresses up to their waists. They were young, and had married and moved to the town from the countryside over the previous two years. Regardless of whether they were attractive or homely, they had caked their faces with blush, like recently painted statues. Sleep hovered like clouds over their eyes. Their husbands had gone off to work. Ordinarily, they would stand around joking and discussing private matters, but tonight after waking up they had gathered under the pagoda tree in the entranceway. Here, they were able to enjoy the coolness while gossiping and waiting for their husbands to return. It appeared they knew nothing about the mayhem that had occurred in the southern and eastern portions of town. It was as though this area to the north of town did not even belong to the Gaotian Town that had degenerated into violence. Standing in front of them, however, was the village chief’s wife, who was older than the others. It was unclear how she had ended up coming here, or why she, like the other women, was revealing her eggplant-like breasts, and furthermore was serving these younger women some tea and passing them fans. She even shouted with a voice like fire.
“Hey, who are you? If you are men, then come over here. If you want to sleep with one of these girls, she won’t ask you for a cent. And if you are willing to sleep with me, I’ll give you one or two hundred yuan. Or even three or four hundred.
“Hey, come here! I am the village chief’s wife. The village chief—that pig—left me to go find that woman, Wang Erxiang, leaving me no choice but to find a man of my own.
“Hey, who are you? Come over here! After you come here, I’ll do everything you need here in the village. Big things and little things, I’ll do them all. Why don’t you come?”
We quickly walked past their shouts.
Standing in front of them, Mother released a volley of curses. “How could this be?! How could this be?!” But before Mother had finished, two burly men emerged from an alley to the left and walked over to these women. The men were in their thirties and unmarried. One of them was an idiot—even more so than I—and had a stupid smile on his face. The other one suffered from hysteria, and when he wasn’t having an episode, he would always be walking down the street with his head bowed like someone who was lowly and weak. The two men ordinarily didn’t see much of each other, and when they did meet they were usually as incompatible as a willow and a pagoda tree. On this night, however, they were walking together, and their faces glowed with excitement—appearing as if they had just eaten honey, drunk wine, or gotten married and were entering their bridal chamber. They were chatting as they emerged from the alley. “I hadn’t realized that the Sun family’s daughter was so fine. Her body is like water.” The idiot suddenly came to a stop and stared at the hysteric’s face, as though he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “Really? But his neighbor’s wife was not cooperative, and she wouldn’t let me caress her unless I beat her.”
The hysteric stopped.
“You didn’t do her, did you?”
“Yes, I did her.”
“She’s as beautiful as a dream.”
“A dream is false, but this is real. When people wake up from a dream, they die; but whenever I think of this reality, I quiver with delight.”
The hysteric laughed. His laugh was like the morning sun.
“Where are we going now? We should go home and sleep.”
“We should take advantage of the fact that the sun has not yet come up, and go find women from another couple of households. Today, and in the future, I will always do as you say, so please take me to find another woman.” The hysteric seemed to be pondering something. “Tonight, all the good people are out stealing, killing, and beating people while asleep, and they have left us the wome
n here in the north of town. This street is our personal bridal chamber.” The idiot spoke as clearly as though he had glimpsed this night’s true essence. As he was speaking, he continued forward, pulling the hysteric with him. In this way, the idiot and the hysteric headed toward us. The flashlights they were holding were as bright as the morning sun, and they shone them on us while shouting,
“Are you sleeping or awake? You don’t seem to be stealing, robbing, and plundering.”
We stopped. “Do you know what’s going on in the town center?”
“Everyone is sick, and people are dreamwalking and beating others to death. Before the sun comes up, the town government plans to expel the outsiders and send them back to their hometowns.”
The hysteric said this in a loud voice, sounding completely normal and not ill at all. “Hey, tell me the truth—are there or are there not dreamwalking women standing by the side of the road? Are there or are there not naked women standing in their doorways waiting for me?” Father stared in shock. Mother, who was standing behind Father, also stared in shock. Father shouted, “The fuck there are women waiting in their doorways! If there were, do you think I would have come over here?” Mother shouted, “Why don’t you go look in South Street? South Street is bustling with Western-style women.” Then she noticed that behind her there was the pounding of footsteps, as though an entire army were running toward her. She heard the screams of women being seized. It sounded as though the women were being beaten, after which they permitted their assailants to do as they wished. My father turned around, as did my mother and I. Behind us we saw a group of men detain those women and take them away—leaving behind only the sound of the women’s screams and of the doors slamming shut.
And then . . . and then there was only darkness and stillness, as well as the sound of living footsteps breaking through the deathly solitude.
2. (6:00–6:00)
The town really did die at six o’clock that morning.
The world really did die at six o’clock that morning.
In the darkness, at a time when the sun ordinarily would have been several rod-lengths high in the sky, the town collapsed. The town’s deadly battle began. People were as abundant as trees, ants, or grains of sand in the Gobi Desert—as abundant as mountains and oceans, stars and other celestial bodies. The crowds inundated one of the town’s streets, then the entire town. They plunged the whole world into a nightmare. There were several hundred people, more than a thousand, and perhaps even two thousand. Most were men, but about a third were women. It seemed as though everyone who had been dreamwalking that night was participating in this town battle.
As for those who were not dreamwalking, they also took the somnambulism as a pretext to participate in this war of looting and pillaging.
This town battle was the climax of the night’s events. It was everyone’s destination—including both the dreamwalkers and those who were still awake. Initially, the dreamwalkers went to harvest and thresh the wheat, then they went to steal, loot, and kill. The result was like a scene out of some former dynasty. But this town battle that erupted as the dawn was being killed by darkness marked the somnambulism’s true source, as well as its true culmination. Our family headed southwest toward the southern part of town, where the population was densest and the buildings were most abundant. We initially wanted to find that bronze gong, and bang it until all of the dreamwalkers woke up. We initially wanted to go home and bring out our pots, bowls, gas, tea leaves, coffee, and realgar ice-crystal medicinal brew, but decided against it. Someone flitted past us, like a dark shadow. Some people flickered into view, like the gleam of a knife. They were wearing white shirts, and were holding knives, clubs, and a variety of weapons. They had cleavers, machetes, bayonets, daggers, and scythes resting on their shoulders. They were holding axes, hoes, and sickles, and someone was even holding a red-tasseled spear that hadn’t been seen for years. It was difficult to make out their clothing and dress, much less their faces. Instead, all we could see were their shadows and their weapons, and their muffled footsteps sounded like a river flowing ten or twenty meters underground. Some men, afraid of making noise, had taken off their shoes, and were walking barefoot with their shoes under their arms. Some women running after the men were shouting, “Wait for me! Wait for me! If I’m going to die, I want to die with you. If we’re going to die, I want for us to die together.” People had tied yellow ribbons around their foreheads, with everyone’s ribbon folded two fingers wide. They proceeded hurriedly, without saying a word. They simply looked at one another, and at the yellow ribbons on their foreheads. The ribbons were knotted in the back, making it look as though there were a chrysanthemum blossom growing there. Zhang Mutou, who lived across from my family’s house, seemed to be a new man. As he walked past me, he had a steel rod dangling from his waist and was holding a cleaver. He was in the process of tying a yellow ribbon around his forehead, then used the cleaver to cut off the extra fabric. He came to a stop and stood in front of my father, while waving around that two-foot-long steel rod that had been dangling from his waist, and with which he had killed Wang, the kiln worker. “Turn off the light! If you don’t want to live, then go ahead and shine the light on your face!”
He spoke very harshly. Indeed, this wasn’t the Mutou I had known. I stared in shock, then turned off the light. My father took half a step toward Mutou and said in a low voice,
“Are you awake or asleep? What in the world has happened in town?”
“If you want to live, you need to find a yellow ribbon and tie it around your forehead. If you don’t care whether or not you live, however, you can simply continue wandering up and down the town streets.” I couldn’t see his face, and instead all I could see was him shifting his iron rod and cleaver from one hand to the other, and hanging the cleaver from his waist. He waved the rod until finally someone behind him shone a flashlight covered with a cloth. They both commented on my need for a yellow ribbon, then walked away so quickly it sounded as though they were flying, and their shadows moved so quickly it seemed as though they were being blown along by the wind.
I didn’t know what, in fact, had occurred in town. Even Zhang Mutou was no longer his former self. The stillness was broken by the puttering of a cart, as though someone had ignited an entire sheet of fireworks. Everyone who passed us turned to stare at our foreheads. Those who were carrying lanterns and flashlights shone them on our foreheads, and they were initially mute with astonishment, but then continued on. We all knew the people shining the lights, but it was as though none of them could recognize us. Zhang Yuantian. Wang Dayou. Wang Ergou. There was also Boss Gao from the tea shop, who, during the first half of the night, had organized the other shopkeepers and urged them not to sleep, so that they could guard their shops. Some people were standing in a shop that had been left empty after the thieves had carted away all of the electronics. The bystanders looked at the shop’s owners, Zhang Ming and his wife, as well as their two burly sons. When we called out their names, they didn’t answer, and instead they turned and stared at our heads. They again asked, “Do you not want to live? Do you not want to live?” They kept asking us these questions as we stood, baffled, on the side of the road, and looked out at the crowd like sheep that had gotten separated from their flock. At this point, Uncle Xia walked up to us, then came to a halt. “During the first half of the night, you were awake and rescued my family. During the second half of the night, I was awake and rescued yours. Our families are now even, and neither of us owes the other anything.” As he said this, he took out a couple of strips of yellow silk and handed them to my parents. “If you want to live, then fold these and tie them around your forehead. On the other hand, if you want to die, you can simply toss these aside and wait to be decapitated and have your corpse put on public display. Or you can wait for the Heavenly Kingdom to be established, and have your entire family carted off to the Kingdom’s new execution grounds.” “Where are you all going?”
“We want to go back to the M
ing dynasty. To the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.”
“What Ming dynasty? What Taiping Heavenly Kingdom? They both ended several hundred years ago. How are you going to go back to the Ming dynasty? How are you going to go back to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom?”
“How dare you speak like this? Do you not even want to live? If you don’t want to live, then don’t bring us down with you, OK?”
“You are dreamwalking. I see that you are definitely dreamwalking.”
“You’re the one who’s dreamwalking! Your entire family is dreamwalking!”
As we were cursing each other, Uncle Xia stalked off. He left as though he were trying to escape us. His footsteps sounded as though he were flying. In the blink of an eye, he dissolved into the dark night. My family picked up the strips of yellow silk that he had dropped, and stood there, stupefied. People around us were muttering under their breath. All around there was the sound of footsteps—a combination of frenzied, quick, and cotton-soft footsteps. The air was full of an evil force, like an invisible wind. Everyone was walking into this wind, and was left dizzy by it. Some were clearly sleeping, but it also seemed as though they were awake. Meanwhile, those who were awake looked as though they were sleeping.
We left the cart on the side of the road.
On the side of the road, we tied the yellow silk around our foreheads. We repeatedly turned to look at the people around us. They were enveloped in sleep, and while asleep they wanted to participate in the bloody town battle. They wanted to live and die while asleep. As Mother was tying the silk ribbon around my forehead, she looked at Father’s face. “Why don’t you let Niannian go home? He is only a child. Don’t make him suffer tonight.” After Father finished tying his ribbon, he looked at the ones Mother and I had tied around our own foreheads. “Whoever goes home will have to go through that intersection, and will also have to pass through that group embroiled in the town battle. Let’s continue in the same direction. Now that we have tied these strips of silk around our foreheads, that means we have entered the battle. We have become townspeople, and have become just like dreamwalkers. No one will look at us suspiciously anymore. Once people see these yellow ribbons around our heads, they will be reassured and will focus only on hurrying forward through this daytime night.” The time should have been that of sunrise. In the past, this would have been the time when the rising sun would be magnificently shining down and staining everything golden yellow—including the town, the river, the forest, and all the houses—and it was the time when the shops below the fields would have opened for business. But in this extended night, people had not yet woken up from their dreams. They had not emerged from their somnambulism. Instead, they continued slipping toward the bloody town battle at the depths of their dreams and their dreamwalking. At an intersection away from the square, the dream stopped and the battle erupted. People crowded around as though attending a meeting, and as they piled on top of one another, the lights flickered on and off and the air was filled with the chattering of their voices. Pieces of news circulated through the crowd, as though red-hot secrets were being passed from hand to hand and from mouth to mouth. Everyone was standing in the street, crowded together like clumps of weeds growing in the wilderness. The lamps were on, and were shining only on the ground and on people’s bodies, not on their faces or heads. Many people covered their lamps with their hands, or covered their flashlights with a piece of cloth. “What’s going on up ahead?” . . . “The cadres are wearing imperial robes.” . . . “What’s going on up ahead?” . . . “They say that we’re almost at the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.” . . . “What’s going on up ahead?” . . . “The Heavenly Kingdom’s great battle is about to begin. They are going to drive out the outsiders who are attacking the town’s Heavenly Kingdom, and chop them into mincemeat.” This news circulated like the wind or a cloud. The news was like a seed buried in the soil and about to sprout. Although it should have been morning, the sky was still as dark as though it were the middle of the night. The air was jet black, as were the trees, walls, and buildings. Some of the town’s streetlamps had originally been lit, but now they were being extinguished. Just as the lamps were being extinguished, we saw the village chief leading away the village widow, Wang Erxiang—that young and radiant woman. Both of them had yellow ribbons tied around their heads, and they were carrying Wang Erxiang’s little girl, who was sleeping soundly. They turned and made their way toward an alleyway beyond the crowd. Their complexions appeared clean and pure, and they did not look at all sleepy. Their eyes were as large as walnuts. They ran as fast as monkeys or fish, trying desperately to escape the crowd. They fled into the dark night. They were eloping, so that they could enjoy a heavenly life together. My father called out, “Chief! Chief!” But the village chief acted as though he hadn’t heard anything. The village chief and Erxiang left behind the crowd, they left behind the world, which was plunged into darkness. People found themselves sandwiched between the ground and the lamplight. The light was scattered like glowing embers flickering on and off. The air was hot and dry, but it was not yet as hot as a burning stove. A cool morning breeze surged into town and circulated through the crowd and the streets. Many of the silk ribbons people were wearing around their foreheads remained soaked in sweat, which dripped down onto their cheeks and noses. As we were making our way through the crowd, I saw that many people’s faces resembled bricks or blocks of wood. They looked as excited as though they were dividing up money at a wedding. Or as agitated as the town’s idiot or the town’s hysteric. Some people’s eyes were only half-open, and there were also many who appeared as though they were not at all sleepy. They looked just like the village chief and Erxiang, except for the fact that their eyes were completely bloodshot—as though they were exhausted but simply couldn’t fall asleep. There was a couple whose names I couldn’t recall, who were hiding under a roadside electrical pole. Hanging from the pole, about a foot from the ground, there was a lamp with a glass cover and a bean-sprout-like flame. Under the lamp there was a shovel handle and a cleaver, and in the lamplight you could see that their faces, which had already been viciously kicked, were full of nervousness and disquiet. The silk ribbons around their foreheads were so soaked in sweat that it looked as if they had just been washed. “Ma Huzi and Cai Guifen, you two are also here?” My father pulled me away, and my mother followed. Our entire family left the crowd and headed over toward that couple. “We can see that you are awake, so perhaps you can tell us what on earth is happening up ahead?” Ma Huzi stared at my father, my mother, and our entire family, then he lowered his voice until it was barely audible. “I hear that the town mayor has already been killed, as well as some of the townspeople and cadres who were awake and didn’t participate in the uprising. You absolutely mustn’t say you were rescued by someone who was awake, and you absolutely mustn’t reveal that we are awake.” Then he looked at the people sleeping and dreamwalking around him. “There is going to be a battle, and all of the town’s roads have been blocked off. Even the intersections located farthest from North Street have been barricaded. Impoverished women from North Street have been seized to serve as comfort women for the army, and I hear that these women even include the village chief’s wife. It’s really extraordinary, that in order to establish a Kingdom of Heaven, the town would be willing to engage outsiders in a deadly battle. An hour ago, those townspeople who were still awake and unwilling to go to battle were tied up and held in the town government building’s back courtyard. It’s only because we were willing to fight that we are still alive, and were able to come here.” Their voices were as soft as a fly, and they spoke as though they had narrowly escaped death. They sounded almost as if they were dreamwalking. “Tianbao, you and your family must leave immediately. Those of us who are still awake must not congregate together. If we do, it would be too easy for those who are half-awake and half-asleep to find us—and if they do, it will be the end.” He waved us away, and even gently pushed Father back.