The Explosion Chronicles (20 page)

“Your eldest son tricked me. Ever since I was young, I didn’t have a mother or father, or a grandmother or grandfather, so when I met you I regarded you as my elder.

“… You are the one I really care about, but your son Mingguang won’t let me be nice to you.

“… He took advantage of me, and now I’m no longer able to give myself to you. No one would tolerate it if anyone knew I had first given myself to your son, and then had given myself to you.”

Then Little Cui began to cry. In the sound of her weeping, there was a pink wildflower that, in the blink of an eye, became a sorrowful grayish black. Tears streamed down her face and fell onto the leaves on the ground. The tree leaves wept as well, as did the tree’s branches and trunk. As she wept, she bit her lower lip and struggled to swallow her sobs. Eventually, her shoulders stopped shaking, and she was able to stagger out of that pit of sorrow. She wiped the tears from her face and licked her lips. Then, looking intently at Kong Dongde, who was staring off into space, she quietly made an earth-shattering statement:

“I can’t give myself to you, so you should only take a look.”

The wind blew in through the trees, blowing toward the west and around toward the north. Upon saying this, she began to unbutton her clothes. She lifted her arms to take off her shirt, then raised them again to remove her undershirt, leaving only her fiery-red bra. Apart from the wind, the forest was deathly quiet, but the sound of thunder and lightning emanating from Little Cui’s body continued to rush past him.

Her clothes were strewn over the grass and draped over tree branches, like multicolored flags fluttering in the woods.

Just as she, a little earlier, had stripped in front of Mingguang, she rapidly proceeded to remove her clothes. As she was about to take off her bra, an earthquake shook the mountains. The trees swayed back and forth, and after she calmly removed her underwear, the trees and mountains continued to shake. Throughout the earthquake, tears poured out of her eyes as she smiled at him. With each smile,
each bare tree branch became filled with red and yellow flowers. The dead grass came back to life, as a springlike smell of grass and plants rained down on the forest like a thunderstorm. All sorts of birds were singing and flying through the trees. Autumn reverted back to summer, and summer reverted back to spring, until finally time paused in spring. Not until she finally opened her mouth to speak did the season finally return to its proper place.

“I’m returning to my family home. I’ve let your Kong family down.” She let him gaze at her naked body for a moment, then put her underwear back on.

“I know that after I leave Explosion I’ll miss you as much as I would miss my own father or grandfather, but I’m afraid that if I remain here your eldest son may strangle me.”

She took the red bra that was hanging from a tree branch and put it back on.

“If your son can get along well with his wife and not harass me anymore, then perhaps I’ll return to Explosion—and return to your house to work as a maid and wait on you … everything will be even better than before!”

After she had gotten dressed and picked up her bag to leave, she told Kong Dongde one final thing: “I really want to spend the rest of my life with you, cooking and washing for you until you pass away. And after you depart, I too would disappear from this world.” Then, carrying her travel bag, she slowly made her way out of the forest. After proceeding a few steps she looked back. Although she was still smiling, her face was nevertheless increasingly covered in tears. In this way, she walked toward Zhu Ying’s enormous stele. From the stele she headed toward the main road, and on to the world outside Explosion.

Trucks full of mined ore rumbled past her, and following them she, too, disappeared.

3. RIVERS

In the main building of Otherworldly Delights, a white candle produced a black light, and a blue lightbulb produced a purplish red light. The rows of tiny lightbulbs hanging from the electrical cord that stretched from the wall to the ceiling included gray bulbs that glowed white and red bulbs that glowed blue. In the hallway, the reception area, and the living room, there were black, yellow, and green lights all mixed together, and the walls, the floor, and the space in between were lit up in bright colors. After receiving clients throughout the night, the girls slept during the day. In the afternoon, they would sleepily get out of bed and, still half-naked, proceed from the third floor down to the second floor, and from the second floor back up to the third floor. The sound of their ablutions resembled a waterfall. After washing their faces and cleaning their bodies, they stood in the doorway or sat on their beds, smoking, holding all sorts of small mirrors, putting on lipstick, painting their eyebrows, and applying perfume and powder to their bodies. They also compared themselves with each other to see who had the most fat, and who was the thinnest with the largest breasts.

On this particular day around noon, as the girls were preparing to receive their clients, Zhu Ying suddenly appeared. The girls quickly put away their eyebrow pencils, lipstick, and toiletry cases, then in unison they all cried Mother or Sister. They watched as the red light from the green bulbs shone on Zhu Ying’s no longer vigorous face, sketching a pattern of happiness, melancholia, and discomfort.

“Have any of you received any clients in their seventies?” Zhu Ying looked around at that group of girls who were all in their twenties. When they merely stared back at her in confusion, she added, “He is my father-in-law, and is seventy years old. He has a thin face, and his hair has gone gray. When I started at Otherworldly Delights, it was precisely so that one day I could bring him here.” Hearing one
of the girls tittering in amusement, she glared at the girl until she stopped, as all of the other girls fixed their gazes on their madam’s face. They saw her complexion alternate between red, yellow, black, and white, making her appear as though she wasn’t even real. But her voice was clear and animated, and she announced, “In the next few days, he will definitely come to Otherwordly Delights to pay us a visit. In the next couple of weeks, he will definitely come to see one of you.” As she said this, she again looked at those girls with their gleaming skin. She paused, then said more loudly, “Everyone remember what I told you. No matter whom he comes to see, you should receive him with your highest skills. He is my father-in-law, but I view him like my own father. Whatever you do, you should make sure he enjoys himself. You also must not accept a single cent of his money, and let him understand that he won’t be charged if he returns, either. I want him to become a frequent guest. The next time he requests a room with one of you, I won’t merely give you the amount of money you would have earned with five or ten clients, but rather, as long as he keeps coming, I’ll make sure you receive any sum of money you want!”

The girls did not fully understand what Zhu Ying was saying. How could they have this dad-like father-in-law come to Otherworldly Delights, and then become a repeat customer? They watched her with bated breath, as the light continued to change colors, with the red lights shining red and the white lights shining white. Zhu Ying’s face returned to its normal color. In her typical rosy complexion there was a trace of pallor, and she had wrinkles on her forehead and around her eyes. What’s more, she had prominent bags under her eyes.

As she stood, without painted eyebrows or face powder, among this group of highly made-up girls, her bare face made her look even older and more decrepit. No one had any idea what she was thinking,
or how heavy the secrets were that she was bearing in her heart, which pressed down on her so much that her voice was hoarse. The waiting room was full of the scent of perfume, and the trace of light that shone in through the permanently closed window illuminated the girls’ backs and Zhu Ying’s shoulders. As the girls were quietly listening to Zhu Ying, one of them asked very solemnly,

“What if this seventy-year-old man dies while he is with one of us?”

Everyone laughed brightly.

“If you are able to have him die while he is with you …”—Zhu Ying fixed her gaze on the girl—“Isn’t your name Ah Xia? Ah Xia, if you are able to have him die while he is with you, then whoever you later wish to marry, I will find him for you, and however much money you want, I’ll deposit it for you. In fact, if you want this entire brothel, I will give it to you as well. You’d be the madam, and I would return home and obediently serve as the mayor’s wife.”

Ah Xia replied solemnly, “What if I don’t want this Otherworldly Delights brothel but rather want to marry the mayor myself?”

Zhu Ying’s heart skipped a beat, and her legs again felt weak. She realized that Ah Xia must have had relations with the mayor, but she didn’t hate her for it. Instead, she examined Ah Xia’s appearance, then immediately stood up and, with a smile, she said, “OK.” She then wiped the smile from her face and added, “As long as you can have Kong Dongde die while he is with you, and as long as the mayor is willing to marry you, I will divorce him and move out of his home.” With this, the meeting concluded. Zhu Ying told all of the girls to return to their rooms and either eat or get made up, and prepare to receive the day’s new crop of clients. It was afternoon, and they would soon start arriving. At this point, Zhu Ying and Ah Xia were the only ones in the receiving room. Zhu Ying looked at Ah Xia’s tall physique and ample breasts, and saw that her face and
body were suffused with tenderness and beauty. Not only was she sure that Ah Xia must have had intimate relations with the mayor, she also had a good idea of what positions they must have used in bed, and what sorts of sweet nothings the mayor must have told her. Zhu Ying took a step toward Ah Xia, stared at the pencil-thin ridge of her nose, and after a pause said softly,

“I’m relying on you… .

“As long as he comes over here.”

After Zhu Ying said these sentences, the two of them separated. At this point, Zhu Ying was about to hold similar meetings at each of the other establishments, but just as she was about to leave, those lights once again began shining different colors, with the red bulbs emitting black light, the yellow bulbs emitting green light, and the purple bulbs emitting milky white light. On the wall, the floor, and the bureau in the reception hall—everywhere that there were lights, red, white, and yellow peony, chrysanthemum, and poppy blossoms grew out of the walls and the windowsills, between the cracks in the bricks, and from the wooden rafters. A thick floral smell filled the reception hall, the corridor, and all of the rooms.

4. ANIMALS

When Kong Dongde went to visit his son Kong Mingguang, he took some fruit, vegetables, and rice flour. For more than a month and a half, ever since Little Cui departed, Kong Mingguang had not left Second Dog’s house. Also, no one saw him go out to buy oil, salt, or pickled vegetables. No one knew how he was getting by, without opening the door during the day or turning on the lights at night. No one in the village or town knew what had occurred in the Kong household. Little Cui had taken her bags and disappeared. Then someone from Cai Qinfang’s household came to fetch her clothes
and belongings, which were loaded onto a cart and hauled away. Kong Dongde’s wife urged him on a daily basis to go visit his son, and after she had urged him more than a hundred times, he finally took some provisions, crossed the street, and headed over.

When Kong Dongde pushed open the courtyard gate, he saw Mingguang sitting on a reed mat in the shade under a tree. The ground around the mat was strewn with overturned bowls and dishes, and dried-up vegetables were still caked onto the sides of the bowls and dishes. A number of sparrows were energetically pecking at the leftovers. Mingguang was sitting there motionless, like a corpse. His hair was disheveled, his face was covered in stubble, and his eyes were sunken. In the middle of his exhausted face, his eyes resembled two dark pits.

“You’re still alive?” Kong Dongde stood in the doorway.

With considerable effort, his son turned and looked at his father with a blank stare.

Kong Dongde placed the provisions on the mat, then went into the kitchen. He saw that there were some tree sprouts on the chopping board. He peered into the wok and saw several fishes swimming around in the water that was left inside. When he emerged, he looked at his son’s and Little Cui’s bedroom, and saw the large red marital
double happiness
characters posted on the wall—though after a month and a half in the dark they had faded so much that they looked as though they had already been there for many years. The breeze that entered through the window and the open door blew the
double happiness
characters so that they flapped sorrowfully. On the table, there was a textbook and box of chalk that his son used when teaching at the school. On the pages of the textbook, however, plants were growing, and there was a bird’s nest inside the chalk box, while colorful flowers grew from the ends of the pieces of chalk. As Kong Dongde was standing in the middle of the room,
he saw that the ceiling and the walls were covered with pictures of Little Cui’s tearfully smiley face. As he was about to walk out, Kong Dongde stumbled upon a hairpin Little Cui had left behind. He leaned over to pick it up and saw that as he was holding it in his hand it slowly turned into a flower. He carefully placed this hairpin-turned-flower in his pocket, then walked out and, standing in the doorway, said to his son,

“Go fetch Qinfang and bring her back. You should continue teaching at the school and get on with your life.”

Mingguang acted as if he hadn’t heard a word.

Kong Dongde took a couple of steps toward him and said,

“The town will soon become a county, and this county will be ours. Whatever you want to do in the county, I’ll tell your brother Mingliang to make it happen—as long as you and Qinfang get on with your lives.”

Mingguang acted as if he hadn’t heard a word his father said.

“You can’t simply hang yourself from a tree.” Kong Dongde brought over a stool and sat directly in front of his son, and began offering Mingguang advice on life, particularly with respect to his daughter-in-law, Qinfang. He described how Mingguang’s younger brother had exhausted himself trying to bring the town prosperity and to transform Explosion into an independent county. He described how Mingliang had run here and there in order to make this town into a county seat. Finally, he said,