Sun Yi looked at her husband. He was only five years her senior, but more often these days he seemed far older than his years. Many people looked to him for leadership and advice. It was taking a toll on him. Having such a strong-willed daughter was also taxing on both of them.
Sun Yi said, “I can take her to class this evening. You cook dinner and I will stay a little while and talk to the Master.”
They could hear that Lu Lei was chatting with Barbie in her room. Sun Yi tiptoed over to her doorway to listen.
“And that’s why I’m going to learn Kung Fu like Casey and Matt and also Wei Bao. I have to get ready for Tai Chi class now. You lie here and meditate. I will be back soon.”
Lu Lei sat in the lotus position in the front row of the class of twenty. The Master watched them while he meditated with his eyes open, pushing the thoughts of the afternoon’s demonstrators out of his mind. Some students seemed unsettled, including Lu Lei, whose face had an almost imperceptible twist.
He allowed the students more time than usual to find calm. It was likely that they all had already heard about the demonstration and had talked about it among themselves.
Before continuing the class, he told the students to relax and listen to him for a few minutes. They all remained seated on the floor, wondering what he was going to say.
“When we are very young, our ego emerges to protect us as we move into the world. We learn to heed its warnings. It tells us what we should fear and what we should love.”
The Master let the silence fall on them. Lu Lei loved the sound of his voice. It was like a warm blanket. Nothing could harm her when he was speaking.
“Remember that the ego can only give you advice. You are free to follow or not follow. You are all free to thank the ego and then take a different path from the one it prescribes. It is a simple choice. There are always just two paths from which to choose. One path is that of fear. But beware! The path of fear leads to separation, aggression and more fear. The other path—which is, of course, love,—leads to unity, acceptance and to more love.”
He continued, “In the coming days, you must undertake the following assignment ...”
The students murmured. Assignments from the Master always seemed simple at the outset, but turned out to be challenging. He constantly reminded them that growth can appear to hurt. He often asked them, “How were your growing pains this week?” There was a rumor that the Master conspired with members of the community to test the students and help them learn their lessons. Nobody knew if it was true.
The Master gave them their assignment for the week, “Watch for the unconscious choices you make. Notice whether you choose fear or love. If someone bumps into you on the street, which feeling do you choose? If your parents tell you to mop the floor or do your homework, which feeling do you choose?”
All the students were smirking now. It was going to be an interesting week. The Master smiled at Lu Lei and she beamed back at him. It consistently amazed him how quickly the youngsters took on new information. Lu Lei seemed too young for such esoteric activities, but the simplicity of one so young could be an advantage.
The Master began leading the students through their exercises. Halfway through class, he moved Lu Lei next to a talented ten-year-old girl and told the two to work together. The Master placed the rest of the students in pairs to work through the self-defense exercises, most of which were new to Lu Lei.
“Breathe,” he reminded them; their loose-fitting canvas uniforms punctuating the silence, like sails snapping in a breeze.
Lu Lei and the ten-year-old girl’s movements became fluid. As she went through the motions with her new friend, Lu Lei felt a glow inside herself. The Master nodded in approval. An enormous step forward for the littlest pupil.
Lu Lei did not notice that her mother had been watching from the door. Sun Yi had arrived a little early, wanting to see how her little girl was progressing. The Master nodded to Sun Yi in greeting, raising an eyebrow as if to say, “watch this.” Sun Yi’s mouth opened a little in surprise as she watched Lu Lei flawlessly executing the new movements with the taller girl– spiraling her arm around the other girl’s hand, taking the wrist, pulling her in and then passing her other hand behind the neck of the other girl as she turned her feet and sent the girl gently to the ground in a controlled somersault.
Sun Yi’s heart warmed and her worries melted away as she watched her child succeed.
Wu Feng cooked, his mind at ease. For many years he had been practicing the art of immersing himself in each activity, be it sweeping leaves or adding spices to a wok of ingredients.
Several concerned students had already called with news of the arrests. He hoped to get more details from Sun Yi when she arrived home with Lu Lei after her discussion with the Master. Until then, he would focus his entire being on dinner for his girls.
The toll of the ship’s bell next to the door came as an unpleasant surprise. Normally, Wu Feng would hear the door rattling and opening inward. Lu Lei would leap at him so he could catch her and whirl her around. The Police Chief’s forced smile greeted him when he opened the door. “Wu Feng. Good evening, comrade.”
“Good evening, Chief.”
“I offer my most humble apologies for the late visit, but...considering our many years of...association, I felt I should come here in person to deliver this message.”
“Thank you, Chief. I feel honored.”
“You may already have heard. There have been several arrests made. We are no longer tolerating demonstrations by your group. Today’s demonstrators have been detained. Indefinitely. For questioning. With the possibility of re-education through labor.”
Wu Feng closed his eyes and exhaled loudly through the nose. He would have preferred not to look at him at all, feeling such profound disappointment in the man. On opening his eyes again, he found himself gazing at the Chief’s boots. He worked his gaze back up to the face, which had now taken on a darker expression.
The Chief blinked and continued, a little louder now, “The promotion of social instability is a crime. Any further demonstrations will be met with the arrest and detention of all participants.”
The Chief now stared hard at Wu Feng, eyebrows raised for a moment as if to add an extra bit of physical provocation to the bad news, “Today’s arrests were gentle, but I can assure you that any future demonstrations by any of you ‘Tai Chis’,” he paused for a second for emphasis, “will be dealt with in the manner which you all deserve.”
Remembering his school days with the bully, Wu Feng reminded himself that the Chief’s vindictive nature fed off people’s people’s fear. He sighed, looking into his eyes, and smiled.
“You seem upset, Chief.”
Inside, Wu Feng was kicking himself for not exercising self-control. But now, that was that. There was no coming back from those four little words. Time slowed down. The phrase echoed back and forth in both the men’s heads: You seem upset Chief...
“You were always such a smug little Tai Chi. If those teachers hadn’t been around to save you, I would have beaten your head in with a chair. My father sent me to the army because of you.”
The crackle of gravel under bicycle tires startled him. He looked over the Chief’s shoulder.
“Lu Lei. Dinner is ready. I have cooked pork.” Wu Feng winked at the Chief.
The Chief, looking uncertain, whispered, “This is not yet over, but it will be soon.”
The Chief nodded at Sun Yi, marching past her back to his car. Sun Yi turned her head and watched him with dismay.
“Wu Feng. What did you say to him? Tell me right now.”
“I just said that he seemed...upset.”
His adrenaline coursed through his system. He had let his ego get the better of him. Ingrained memories of the bullying from his school days had come to the surface. His ego pushed him to provoke the Chief. He’d felt a strong urge to hurt him. He had not felt this way for many years.
He looked at Sun Yi, whose hands were on her hips,
still waiting for a better explanation.
He gestured toward the house. “Let us eat now. I shall tell you all about it after dinner. Lu Lei, how was class?”
“Good.”
Sun Yi was about to head inside but stopped in front of Wu Feng and glared at him for a good five seconds and then humphed and went into the house muttering.
6
The Bully
Lu Lei had been asleep for eleven hours when her mother came to get her out of bed.
“What did you dream, Lu Lei?”
“I was flying in the clouds with my new fighting partner from tai chi class. We were wearing white silk uniforms. We were happy.”
Lu Lei threw the cover back and leapt from her bed to the floor, landing in a tai chi stance.
“Brush your teeth,” yelled her mother.
Wu Feng had slept poorly. He’d been up most of the night, thinking about solutions to their growing problem with the Chief while Sun Yi talked in her sleep, though this morning she could not remember much of her dreams–only a brief scene of thousands of white birds on a beach, facing the ocean.
They talked at breakfast, but no decisions were made except to discuss the situation again at dinner tonight at Matt and Casey Nelson’s home, to which the Master had also been invited.
On their way out of the house, Lu Lei forgot her red scarf and ran back into her room, emerging again with the school scarf tied around her neck. Sun Yi waited at the door, holding it open against the strong wind, urging her, “Faster. Move.”
Lu Lei smiled to herself because she had stowed Barbie in her bag without her mother realizing. She thought to herself, The girls at school will be so impressed. The only problem with Barbie was that she couldn’t bend her legs to do tai chi, but she was so beautiful that no one would ever dare to attack her.
This morning her mother rode faster than her normal pace, with a strong wind at their back, and Lu Lei held her arms out, almost like flying in her dream. She was looking forward to school.
Sun Yi mused, Ah, to be a child again. So carefree. No idea what’s going on around her. Just happy.
Lu Lei said goodbye to her mother and skipped toward her friends. She was excited to show them Barbie. It was nearly time to go inside and start class, but Lu Lei couldn’t resist the urge to reach inside her bag and pull her out. One girl gasped. “White hair.”
Suddenly, all the girls wanted to touch the doll.
“So skinny.”
“Look at her eyes. They are blue.”
“Wow, she is a mermaid.”
Barbie was passed around from girl to girl. Then to a boy.
“Here. Give it to me,” said Wei Bao, standing behind the boy. The boy turned and passed Barbie to Wei Bao, who stuffed her into his bag.
“Come, children. Let’s all go inside. Line up in silence. Class starts in a few minutes.”
Lu Lei felt panicked. While the teacher lined everyone up in single file, Lu Lei felt the tears run down her cheeks. She cried quietly, her eyes burning holes in the back of Wei Bao’s big, ugly head. He turned back and looked at her and smiled. Lu Lei did not like being stolen from.
The Master’s assignment to “notice whether you are choosing fear or love” had flown far from Lu Lei’s mind.
Wu Feng read the paper while he ate breakfast alone at home. On page two was another derogatory article about Falun Gong. The article stated that all Falun Gong books were now illegal to own. The government was escalating their crackdown.
Unable to talk about this on the phone for fear of who was listening, he decided to forget about all of it until dinner at the Nelsons’, when he could listen to what the Master had to say. Wu Feng moved to the living room, sat on the floor and crossed his legs. Closing his eyes, he let his thoughts evaporate.
A moment later Sun Yi opened the front door and carried bags of groceries over to the kitchen. Wu Feng rolled his eyes, giving up on his meditation, and got up to help her.
“It’s very windy outside. I remember now that the wind blew in my dream last night. Swirling wind. Changes coming.”
Matt Nelson jogged at a brisk pace. He used his morning runs to take the temperature of the times. He liked to stay connected to the feeling on the street. During periods when the Communist Party made changes or flexed its muscles, he jogged slower to check that they had not put a tail on him.
During their time in China, he and Casey had done their best to avoid suspicion. They refrained from making close friends with other foreigners. The occasional dinner with local officials was considered normal, however, and Casey would work her magic after the men had gotten into the rice wine. She’d mapped out much of the government structure, taking note of who owed whom, whose child married whom, and who had done something unseemly or illegal that could be used against him. It was all on file, ready to be leveraged if needed.
Human rights violations, on the other hand, were not on Matt and Casey’s shopping list. It had been drummed into them before they came to China that whatever moral indignation the social injustice may evoke; it was of little interest to Langley. News of China’s crimes against its own people tended to find its own way to the West. Reports that did land on FBI desks were passed on to other departments for spinning, to generate anti-Chinese sentiment. Matt and Casey had been trained not to involve themselves in anything outside their CIA mandate. Matt occasionally had to remind Casey about the dangers of crossing the line. He always quoted the title of the case study presented to them by an instructor at Camp Peary: “Doing good will get you killed.”
Matt turned a corner and slowed to a walk, hands on his hips, circling. He stopped and leaned against the corner of the wall to stretch, looking through his wrap-around, reflective sunglasses, back the way he had come.
The row of small posters glued to the wall caught his attention. He checked over his shoulder before stopping and pulling one down, folding it into his pocket. On his way back he paused at the market and bought a bag of lychee from the old man with whom he liked to chat.
“Still going to tai chi in the park?” asked Matt, watching him put the fruit in a bag.
The old man said nothing, but as he pressed the bag of fruit into Matt’s hand, he held onto it for a moment, looked Matt in the eye and shook his head grimly.
Casey called out as Matt opened the door, “Did you get the lychees?”
“I did. The old fruit seller just quit his tai chi in the park. A sign of the times. What do you make of this?” He dug the flyer out of his pocket and walked over to Casey, kissing her on the lips.
“You're sweaty,” she smiled back at him, taking the flyer. “That’s not good at all,” she said, pushing his hand off her and stepping away. “These people must really love getting locked up.”
Matt nodded gravely. “Tomorrow at five in the afternoon.”
“Let’s make damn sure to talk Sun Yi and Wu Feng out of going to that shit show,” said Casey. “Did you read the paper this morning?” she asked.
“No. Why?”
“More of the same, but they are going to burn books.”
“Interesting times,” mused Matt, walking over to the paper lying on the dining table. “Are you thinking of having another chat with our policeman?”
“Might be a good idea. It looks like both sides are gearing up for a showdown.”
By the time morning eye exercises came around, Lu Lei’s feelings of panic had almost drained away. The loudspeaker crackled out the lady’s voice, counting off the numbers for the eye exercises. Lu Lei's thoughts drifted to last night’s class, working with the other girl on the new techniques which she had found so easy, and the Master’s homework assignment to choose love instead of fear. She would choose love, right after she rescued Barbie from Wei Bao.
The teacher’s eyes were closed as she stood in front of the class leading the eye exercises, using her thumb and forefinger to push the tendons of different parts of her face in circles. Lu Lei heard something small land on the table in front of her, and s
he looked down to see what it was. Gasping in horror, she saw that it was Barbie’s arm. She whirled around to look at Wei Bao, who was laughing with the boy next to him. Lu Lei stared at them with utter hatred until she forced herself to turn back around so as not to get in trouble.
The eye exercises ended, and the teacher spent the next fifteen minutes teaching the class a song called “I Love Beijing Tiananmen,” but Lu Lei could only think about rescuing Barbie from Wei Bao. The teacher told her to stop turning around. Lu Lei was just waiting for the bell.
The song ended, and all the students thanked the teacher in unison. The bell rang and the children all stood up and started to leave the classroom. Lu Lei ran to the doorway and got in front of Wei Bao. She saw that Barbie was in his hand, now behind his back.
“Give her back.” she yelled. He smirked back at her and said, “She’s mine now, Tai Chi.”
Lu Lei stepped forward and made a grab for it, but he put his hand high in the air, out of her reach. She moved right in to him, forgetting all her training, and tried to reach it by jumping.
“Ow,” he said, after she landed on his foot. Wei Bao put his hand on her chest and gave her a shove, sending her a couple of steps backward into a desk. The teacher had seen what was going on and was wading through the children toward Lu Lei, commanding, “Stop that!”
Lu Lei recovered her balance and stepped back in toward Wei Bao. He held out his other hand to hold her away. Lu Lei’s hand, in perfect form, spiraled around his arm and caught his wrist, pulling him in toward her. She placed her other hand behind Wei Bao’s neck and then, with a firm turn of her feet, sent him in a rough somersault, head first into a chair.
Surviving Spies (Irving Waters, Spy Fiction Series) Page 6