Old Town (29 page)

2.

B
AOHUA AND
B
AOSHENG
were both students at the public middle school. The Three People’s Principles Youth Corps, a Guomindang organization was active at this school.
³⁶
To prevent the students from being corrupted by the communists, the doors of the Youth Corps were open to all, and appearing in their class photograph was sufficient for the students of each academic year to be considered to have joined this organization. Baohua’s class picture had already been taken, but that was on the very day that she had skipped her math test by pretending to be sick at home. In this way she became the only student in her class without a party affiliation. Because she was introverted by nature and not much of a mixer, her classmates and the Youth Corps leaders never discovered that some “element” had slipped through the net. She even received a copy of the class photograph with the inscription, “Souvenir of Y Class of X School Joining the Three People’s Principles Youth Corps.”

In one more day, Baosheng’s class was to have its picture taken. That evening, when the whole family was seated at the dinner table, he suddenly remembered that to be in the photograph he had to wear the school uniform. Earlier that day he had gotten his shirt collar torn fighting with a classmate. Daddy was saying grace. Baosheng barely waited for the “Amen.”

“Amen—Ma, my clothes got torn. Could you mend them for me?”

“You’ve grown again. What you have are too short. We’ll go buy some material in a couple of days and Ma will make you some new clothes.”

“There isn’t enough time. Tomorrow the school is going to take our picture.”

Daddy asked, “What’s the occasion? Why the photograph?”

“For group membership in the Youth Corps,” cut in Baohua. The doctor put down his chopsticks, and fixed his gaze on Baosheng. “You’re not to join.”

Baosheng thought this strange.
Didn’t Daddy all along tell us to obey the school teachers? Joining this is what everybody does at school. Why is Daddy against it?
He concentrated on shoveling rice into his mouth and never dared say another word.

Second Sister also felt puzzled.
Since it was something the school teacher ordered, what could be wrong with it?
As soon as the children withdrew from the table, she said to her husband, “Baosheng’s sensible now. Since he started lower-middle school, generally he hasn’t made his teacher angry. If he was as naughty as before, surely the teacher wouldn’t have let him join that group.”

The doctor also realized that he had reacted too strongly. He felt astonished at how extreme his feelings had been. With a forced smile that signified just how complicated his feelings were, he looked over at his wife.

This glance conveyed the retraction of an order by the head of a family. After cleaning up the dinner table, Second Sister then took out her sewing basket and mended Baosheng’s shirt.

The doctor sat on the rattan chair deep in thought. Enchun was still at Shuiguan’s home. Into that little coop were crammed all three generations of a family. He ought to think of how to find the young man another place of refuge. Up north the Communist Party was rapidly expanding its power and influence. According to a newspaper analysis of the situation, in the future a divided rule might be formed, north and south, using the Yangzi River as a natural boundary.
Could Enchun continue to stay in hiding like this? Where did his future lie?

He couldn’t sit still as he pondered these thoughts, and picking up his little medical bag, he went out the back door to the river to see Enchun. An old mother at Shuiguan’s had taken sick. The neighbors thought that Dr. Lin had come to see a patient.

On the following day, Baosheng went off to school wearing the school uniform his mother had mended and ironed for him. When the teacher ordered the students to move the benches to the sports field to prepare for the photographs, Baosheng, acting on a sudden impulse, slipped away. Across from the school was a new bookstore where he wanted to take a look at
The Romance of the Three Kingdoms
. At home Daddy didn’t let him read this book. There was no need to fear the teacher would put him on report. It felt good not having to worry about this.

Baosheng took out a crumpled one hundred
yuan
bill and, pointing to
The Romance of the Three Kingdoms
on the book rack, asked whether this amount was enough. The shop owner laughed warmly and told him to look at it as much as he pleased and that it didn’t matter whether or not he had money.

“Young man, aren’t you playing hooky by running over here?”

“It’s not hooky. They’re having their pictures taken at the school, but I’m not joining in.”

“I know that’s for group membership in the Youth Corps. How can you dare not to take part?

“Uh, my daddy doesn’t like the idea of my joining it.”

“What does your daddy do?”

How come this shop owner’s talking so much?
Baosheng, absorbed in the part about the “Peach Orchard Oath,”
³⁷
felt a bit impatient.

The shop owner took the hint and kept his mouth shut right up until when the school bell sounded the end of classes and only then did he say, “You can take it home with you.”

Baosheng stared at the rental deposit written on the book jacket. “I don’t have enough money.”

“I won’t charge you anything. Let’s become friends. Later on you can just go ahead and take any book you want to read.”

The owner pushed the hundred
yuan
bill back into Baosheng’s hand.

Suddenly, such an unexpected friend had burst into his life. Baosheng was delighted with this unexpected good fortune. “Really?”

“‘Once a word leaves the mouth, a team of horses can’t overtake it.’ My name’s Bai. You can call me Big Brother Bai. And yours?”

“Lin is my family name.”

“Younger Brother Lin. Good. We’ll swear our Oath of Brotherhood in the shop.”

Baosheng raced joyfully home with
The Romance of the Three Kingdoms
tucked into his shirt, intending to tell Baoqing about this at the first chance he got. He hadn’t the slightest idea that this was one of those turning points that happens in a person’s life. A book made Baosheng a sought-after and locked-in target of the communist underground organization.

3.

I
T WAS
S
UNDAY
again and the faithful came to the church for the worship service. Nobody knew about the ransacking that had hit this place a few days before. Everything was as always. Mrs. Chen sang and played one hymn after the other. The sunlight outside the window shone down on her densely wrinkled face. Everyone could see that she was as joyous as a bird on the end of a branch. The pastor at his pulpit also similarly exuded joy and gladness. Today’s lesson was “God bestows blessings on our children and grandchildren.” He gave examples from the Old Testament and told about the sons and daughters of many of the faithful who had escaped all their dangers. He most of all wanted to tell Enchun’s story, but this he couldn’t do.

Originally, Enchun was to have led that evening’s study session, as Teacher Zhao was going to the outskirts of Old Town to provide guidance to a newly established youth study group. Late that afternoon, though, Teacher Zhao suddenly sprained his foot. In all the years of going up and down the steps in front of his house, he had never once suffered a sprain. But such a thing would have to happen just at this time. Immediately his foot became so swollen he couldn’t move, so all he could do was to have Enchun substitute for him. As a result, Teacher Zhao and several students were all caught on the spot, while Enchun escaped a calamity as a result of this unforeseen turn of events.

Here was another coincidence. The pastor and his wife sensed this was God’s special love for the faithful and they accepted His reward for their lifelong resolve to spread the Good News. More than once did the Bible mention that Jehovah invariably brought blessings on the people and their descendants who believed in Him. The Bible was the word of God. It was the covenant between God and His people. And God could be trusted.

Every word of the pastor’s sermon fell into the deepest recesses of the doctor’s heart. Today he wore the Western-style suit that he hadn’t put on for so long. He brought his three children with him, intending to lead them into Jesus’ fold early in their lives. With the times the way they were, Baosheng and Baoqing would sooner or later join this party or that faction. As long as they were God’s children, their parents could rest easy about them. At home the night before, he had coached them on how to respond to the pastor’s questions, explaining why such-and-such had to be the answers. He said a lot and the children had no idea what he was talking about. They only knew that from when they were little, Daddy and Ma were Christians in the same way that they knew Daddy treated people who were sick and Ma sewed marriage dowries for people. They didn’t have any special longings, but they wanted to obey their father and make him pleased with them.

When the pastor in his pulpit called upon the “new people,” the brothers and sister of the Lin family stood up in a row. Dr. Lin became all worked up and grasped his wife’s hand. She glanced over at him and saw the reddened rims of his eyes. Her own eyes reddened too. This event was the most valuable gift that the husband and wife received in this life.

On Sunday afternoons, the Lin parents would usually take the children to spend time with either the Lin or the Guo elders. These relatives had all settled down in every corner of Old Town. Old Lady Guo and her drunkard first son lived above a provisions store at Drum Tower. Big Brother and Big Sister-in-Law Lin had moved into a little wreck of a place at South Gate.

Second Sister was rushing to finish a bridal trousseau. Her husband had lost his job and again they had to rely on the livelihood from her sewing. Ninth Brother sat beside her to keep her company. Sometimes he even helped her with some stitching, so his battlefield-trained craftsmanship once again found a use for itself.

The house was peaceful and quiet. Baohua had tucked herself away into her lady’s chamber. One of the boys had been sent out to look in on Grandma Guo and the other to visit their uncle, Big Brother. Baoqing brought over some watered-down spirits to his alcoholic uncle. Second Sister had stored away three bottles for him. While she couldn’t bear the idea of actually drinking this herself, she wanted to bring relief to her brother. Whenever he was too long away from the smell of strong drink he would just sit there on the street and burst into loud lamentations. The municipal government was at Drum Tower too. Several times, empty bottle in hand, he had wanted to barge in and demand the mayor give him something to drink. Though the liquor that Second Sister supplied to her brother became increasingly diluted, the inebriate never sensed how his big sister was dealing with him. He would drink and complain, “The morals of this world have gone to the dogs when even liquor no longer tastes like it used to.”

This gave husband and wife a source of conversation that never ran dry. They imagined her drunkard brother guzzling up what Baoqing brought him and blinking at the thought of how the morals of this age were changing. They just laughed and laughed. Indeed, Old Town folk had this saying: “When bad luck hits, wine wouldn’t ferment.” The final years of the Qing dynasty had been hard times to be a wine merchant in Old Town.

There was still much for them to discuss about the chaos of the war and their own separation at that time. When the children weren’t around, Second Sister would ask with a pretty pout about Shanghai. “What happened there?” After Ninth Brother had returned, the widow often wrote him. In all these letters she said she missed him. Second Sister would “eat the vinegar” of jealousy, and every time she showed it, Ninth Brother would swear up and down about his faithfulness—which would then arouse an ineffable sweetness in her. Over time those old Shanghai stories became the seasoning and spice of their married life.

Ninth Brother gazed spellbound at Second Sister passing the thread through the eye of her needle. He often did that, and on every occasion his heart could not help but beat a little faster, as if it were the first time he was seeing this woman. The children had all grown and she was still so beautiful. He couldn’t keep himself from cupping her face in his hands to kiss her. Startled, she shied away from him, pointing to Baohua’s room.

At this moment of marital intimacy, Pastor and Mrs. Chen suddenly arrived, together with a girl who looked like a student. Mrs. Chen’s face wore an expression that was hard to read as she said, “This young lady wants to find Enchun. Does Dr. Lin have any news of him?”

Dr. Lin didn’t know how he should respond to this and cast a beseeching look at his wife.

Second Sister kept on sewing as if nothing at all were amiss and, glancing with eyes half-closed at the girl, replied, “It’s been quite a few days since we last saw Enchun. If
you
see him, tell him to drop by and spend some time with us whenever he has the chance.”

“Dr. Lin, I’ve heard Classmate Enchun speak of you. My name is Huang Shuyi. He would certainly be willing to see me. I need to meet with him before this evening.”

Baohua emerged from her lady’s chamber. Full of hostility, she sized up Huang Shuyi.
Isn’t this a girl student of the Teachers’ College? What’s her relationship with Big Brother Enchun? She isn’t the least bit good looking
.

Abruptly, Dr. Lin took up his medical bag. “You all stay here. I have an appointment with a patient.”

He didn’t leave from the back door. Only after making a roundabout circuit on the street to confirm that no one was tailing him did he go by way of the moat to Shuiguan’s home.

When Enchun heard Huang Shuyi’s name, the dark eyes behind his glasses immediately lit up.

The doctor didn’t ask much. He guessed the girl was a communist messenger coming to coordinate something with Enchun. He told Enchun to change into the old clothes Shuiguan wore when he was pulling his rickshaw. Then he led him through the back door into the kitchen.

Baohua saw her daddy motion the girl student to go to the kitchen. Neither he nor Ma accompanied her there, but sat with Mrs. Chen at the Eight Immortals table looking terribly mysterious. Curiosity drove her to see what this was all about. When she saw the girl student sitting and talking with Enchun at the stove, their heads practically glued together, she was so enraged she started to tremble all over. The thing she could still do was to cry, and burying herself back in her room, she did just that—a whole river of tears.

Only a sheet of wood separated the lady’s chamber from the kitchen. At every minute, at every second, Baohua’s ears were zeroed in on Enchun and the girl. They were about to set out. Her mother lit the fire to cook something for them. Her father also helped by squeezing together rice balls for them to eat along the way. She didn’t know where they were going, or for what purpose. She only felt that they both were like a pair of eloping lovers. And the people helping them elope were none other than her own parents. Her closest and dearest people had formed an alliance to betray her. In agony and despair, Baohua just wished she could die.

When dawn came, the doctor discovered his precious daughter was running a high fever and babbling wildly. After this there was no end of her illnesses, serious and minor. The only thing for her was to leave school and stay at home.