Frog (38 page)

The TV drama
Gao Mengjiu
is being filmed.

The main hall of a county yamen during the Republican era. Though there are signs of reform, it basically follows the old patterns. The words ‘justice’ and ‘integrity’ are carved into a signboard hanging above the hall. One scroll to the side of the signboard proclaims: ‘Wind, then rain, then the blue sky’. Its mate on the other side proclaims: ‘The civil, the martial, and the barbaric’. A large shoe rests on an altar in the centre of the hall.

Gao Mengjiu is in a black tunic and top hat, a watch chain looping out of his breast pocket. Yamen clerks stand straight on both sides of the stage, each holding a long red and black ‘fire and water’ club, but they are dressed in modern black tunics, a comical effect.

The director, cameraman, and sound technician move around busily.

DIRECTOR:
Take your places. Ready – action!

GAO MENGJIU:
(
picks up the shoe and bangs it on the table
) Oh my, oh my . . . What a nuisance! (
sings
) Magistrate Gao is in his hall to try a case: two families, Zhang and Wang, have a dispute over land. Zhang is in the right, and so is Wang. Both families have a claim, and I must settle the dispute. My name is Gao Mengjiu from Weibaodi county in the Tianjin municipality. I joined the army in my youth under Field Marshal Feng Yuxiang, performing outstanding service in battles north and south. Marshal Feng selected me to be his guard battalion commander. One day, Marshal Feng spotted a soldier under my command parading around town in dark glasses, a prostitute on his arm, and censured me for lax discipline. I was so embarrassed at having fallen short of the marshal’s expectations that I tendered my resignation and returned to my native home. In the nineteenth year of the Republic,
1930
, Gao’s fellow townsman Han Fuju, Governor of Shandong, respectfully and repeatedly invited me to take up an official position. I could not refuse the request of a fellow officer, so was sent to Shandong, first as a provincial representative, then as head of Pingyuan, Qufu, and, as of this spring, Gaomi counties. The people here are cunning and stubborn, crime is rampant, gambling is ubiquitous, opium is a scourge, and public order is non-existent. After taking office, I boldly instituted reforms, stamped out criminal activity, promoted filial behaviour, and travelled incognito, resolving difficult cases. (
softly
) Of course, not everything went smoothly, as is always the case for one who is not a sage. And even sages make mistakes from time to time. The local gentry families presented me with a pair of scrolls, with ‘Wind, then rain, then the blue sky’ on one and ‘The civil, the martial, and the barbaric’ on the other. Well written. Extremely well! They also came up with a nickname for me: Gao the Second with Shoe-soles. The origin of this moniker came from my proclivity to use the soles of shoes across the faces of criminals and harridans. (
sings
) In troubled times an official must employ severe punishments/Answering brutality with brutality/Use clever schemes to exterminate bandits/A shoe sole is the tool of an upright magistrate. I say, all you clerks —

YAMEN CLERKS:
Yes, sir!

GAO MENGJIU:
Is all in readiness?

YAMEN CLERKS:
It is.

GAO MENGJIU:
Call for the plaintiffs and defendants.

Chen Mei, baby in her arms, stumbles onto the stage.

CHEN MEI:
Magistrate Bao, please help me gain justice.

Little Lion, Tadpole, and the others enter, one after the other.

The actors playing Zhang and Wang are among the crowd as they enter.

DIRECTOR:
(
frustrated
) Cut! Cut! What’s going on here? This is a mess. Where’s the stage manager?

CHEN MEI:
(
falls to her knees at the front of the stage
) Magistrate Bao, please help me gain justice!

GAO MENGJIU:
My name is Gao, not Bao.

CHEN MEI:
(
amid the sound of the baby’s cries
) Magistrate Bao, I lay an odd grievance at your feet for impartial justice.

Yuan Sai and the cousin take the director aside and say something to him that others cannot hear. The director nods his head. Yuan’s comment to the director can barely be heard:
Our company will donate a hundred thousand
.

The director walks up to Gao Mengjiu and whispers something to him.

The director signals to the cameraman and others to continue filming.

Yuan Sai walks up to Tadpole and Little Lion and speaks to them in hushed tones.

GAO MENGJIU:
(
picks up the shoe and bangs it on the table
) Citizen at the front of this hall, hear me. I will today be extraordinarily generous by deciding an additional case. Tell me your name, your residency, what charges you bring, against whom, all in complete truth. If I hear one false note, do you know how I will deal with it?

CHEN MEI:
I do not.

YAMEN CLERKS:
(
in unison
) Woo-wei!

GAO MENGJIU:
(
takes hold of the shoe and bangs it on the table
) If there is one dishonest word, I will use this shoe on your face.

CHEN MEI:
Now I know.

GAO MENGJIU:
Tell me everything.

CHEN MEI:
Hear my report, Your Honour: My name is Chen Mei, I am from Northeast Gaomi Township. I lost my mother when I was a girl and grew up alone with my older sister. We took jobs at a toy factory, where there was a fire that killed my sister and destroyed my face . . .

GAO MENGJIU:
Remove your veil, Chen Mei, and let me see the damage.

CHEN MEI:
I cannot remove it, Magistrate Bao.

GAO MENGJIU:
Why not?

CHEN MEI:
With it on I am human, if I remove it I am a demon.

GAO MENGJIU:
When I decide a case, Chen Mei, I follow the letter of the law. With that veil over your face, how am I supposed to know you are who you say you are?

CHEN MEI:
Will you tell them all to cover their eyes, Your Honour?

GAO MENGJIU:
Cover your eyes, all of you.

CHEN MEI:
I will let you see, Magistrate. It is a bitter life I lead!

Chen Mei
puts the baby down, removes the veil, and covers her face with both hands.

Gao makes a sign to the front of the hall. Little Lion rushes forward and picks up the baby.

LITTLE LION:
(
sobs
) My darling, Jinwa, my little Jinwa, let Mama take a look at you . . . Tadpole, come look, what’s wrong with Jinwa . . . that crazy woman has killed my baby!

CHEN MEI:
(
screams and madly rushes towards Little Lion
) My baby . . . Your Honour, she has stolen my baby . . .

The yamen clerks stop her.

Gugu slowly enters.

TADPOLE:
Gugu is here.

LITTLE LION:
Gugu, tell me what’s wrong with Jinwa.

Gugu pinches and rubs the child in places. The baby cries. Tadpole hands Little Lion a nursing bottle. She puts the nipple in the baby’s mouth. The crying stops.

CHEN MEI:
Don’t let her feed my baby, Your Honour. That milk is toxic. I have milk, Your Honour . . . I’ll squeeze some out for Your Honour if you do not believe me.

Chen Bi and Li Shou enter.

CHEN BI:
(
pounds a crutch on the floor
) Fairness, I demand fairness!

GAO MENGJIU:
(
sorrowfully
) Cover your face, Chen Mei.

CHEN MEI:
(
terrified, she grabs the veil and covers her face
) I have frightened you, Your Honour. I am so sorry.

GAO MENGJIU:
Chen Mei, your case has fallen into my hands, so I must get to the bottom of it.

CHEN MEI:
Thank you, Your Honour.

Tadpole and Yuan Sai try to bundle Little Lion off the stage.

GAO MENGJIU:
(
bangs his shoe on the table
) Stop right there! No one leaves until I have handed down my judgement. Watch them, yamen clerks.

The director gives a sign to Gao, who pretends not to have seen it.

GAO MENGJIU:
Chen Mei, you insist that the baby is yours. Then I ask you, who is the father?

CHEN MEI:
He is a high official, a rich man, a powerful man.

GAO MENGJIU:
No matter how high, how rich, or how powerful, he must have a name.

CHEN MEI:
I do not know his name.

GAO MENGJIU:
When were you married?

CHEN MEI:
I have never been married.

GAO MENGJIU:
Oh, a child out of wedlock. Then when did you and he . . . in bed?

CHEN MEI:
I do not understand, Your Honour.

GAO MENGJIU:
Ah! When did you sleep with him? What do they say – make love? Understand?

CHEN MEI:
I have never slept with a man, Your Honour, I am a virgin.

GAO MENGJIU:
Ah! Now I
am
confused. How could you be pregnant and have a baby if you have never slept with a man? Are you ignorant of basic biological knowledge?

CHEN MEI:
Your Honour, every word of what I say is the truth (
points to the group that includes Little Lion
) With a syringe they . . .

GAO MENGJIU:
A test tube baby.

CHEN MEI:
No, not a test tube baby.

GAO MENGJIU:
I understand. It’s the sort of artificial insemination they use for livestock.

CHEN MEI:
(
on her knees
) Please, Your Honour, pass your fair judgement. I wanted to have this baby at first to earn enough to pay my father’s hospital bills, then drown myself in the river. But death stopped being attractive once I became pregnant and felt him moving around inside me. There were other women like me, but who hated the children they were carrying. I loved mine. My disfigured face and scarred body itch and hurt on rainy, overcast days, and on hot dry days, my wounds crack and bleed. It was hard to carry my baby to term, Your Honour. I suffered miserably, but by being careful I was able to have a successful delivery. But those people lied to me, saying my baby was stillborn. I knew he wasn’t dead, so I searched and searched until I found him. I don’t want the surrogate fee, a million, ten million, I don’t care, I just want my baby. Please, Your Honour, make them give me my baby . . .

GAO MENGJIU:
(
to Tadpole and Little Lion
) Are you legally married?

TADPOLE:
For more than thirty years.

GAO MENGJIU:
And all that time you had no child?

LITTLE LION:
(
unhappily
) What would you call him, if not a child?

GAO MENGJIU:
You look to me to be in your fifties, am I right?

LITTLE LION:
I knew you’d ask that. (
points to Gugu
) This is our Northeast Gaomi Township’s doctor of obstetrics, who has delivered thousands of babies and has cured many women of infertility. Who knows, maybe you yourself were one of her babies. She will testify for me, since she was with me throughout my pregnancy to the birth of my baby.

GAO MENGJIU:
I have long been familiar with Gugu’s reputation. You are a local sage, someone who enjoys universal respect and whose words carry great weight.

GUGU:
I delivered that child.

GAO MENGJIU:
(
asks Chen Mei
) Did she deliver your baby?

CHEN MEI:
They blindfolded me in the delivery room, Your Honour.

GAO MENGJIU:
This case is difficult to adjudicate. We will need DNA results.

The director goes up to whisper something to Gao, who has words with him under his breath.

GAO MENGJIU:
(
sighs, then sings
) Strange case, strange case, a very strange case – putting old Gao in a difficult place – to whom does the child belong – an ingenious plan has come to me. (
steps down
) Hear me, everyone, since your case has fallen into my hands, I must turn make-believe into real life and make my judgement! Yamen clerks!

CLERKS:
Yes, sir!

GAO MENGJIU:
If anyone disputes my judgement, use a shoe on their face.

CLERKS:
Yes!

GAO MENGJIU:
Chen Mei, Little Lion, each of you tells a convincing story, and I cannot choose one over the other. Therefore, I must ask Little Lion to give the child to me for now.

LITTLE LION:
I won’t . . .

GAO MENGJIU:
Yamen clerks!

CLERKS:
(
in unison
) Woo-wei . . .

The director whispers to Tadpole, who nudges Little Lion and indicates she should hand the baby to Gao Mengjiu.

GAO MENGJIU:
(
softly as he looks down at the baby
) A fine baby for sure. No wonder the two families are fighting over him. Hear me, Chen Mei, Little Lion, I cannot decide to whom the child belongs, so I must ask you to try to take him from me. Whoever wrests the child from my hands gets him. A messy case deserves a messy resolution. (
holds the child over his head
) Now!

Both Chen Mei and Little Lion rush up and grab hold of the baby, who begins to cry. Chen Mei wrests him away and holds him to her breast.

GAO MENGJIU:
Yamen clerks, take the child away from Chen Mei and arrest her.

The clerks take the baby from Chen Mei and hand him to Gao.