The Four Books (22 page)

The Child added, “If I had a gun, I could intimidate them into producing more . . . which would allow us to report higher levels of steel production. I could scare them into chopping down more trees and smelting more steel.”

The governor laughed as he looked at the Child, and asked, “How many
jin
per
mu
of grain did you report?

The Child said, “Fifteen hundred.”

Astonished, the governor stared speechlessly at the Child. After gazing at him for a long time, his expression eventually began to harden. Eventually, there was the sound of a car outside and the governor asked the Child, “Is everyone in your district a former professor?” Without waiting for the Child’s response, he added, “Professors are cultured and skilled. If I give you a real gun, I don’t want you to produce fifteen hundred
jin
per
mu
. Could you instead direct those scholars under your command to create an experimental field that would yield ten thousand
jin
per
mu
?” The governor brought a stool over and placed it in front of the Child, allowing him to gaze closely into the Child’s eyes. “If you can direct them to create an experimental ten-thousand-
jin-
per-
mu
field, in which the wheat is as big as ears of corn, and the grains are as large as grains of corn, I will not only take you to the capital to see Tiananmen Square, walk along Chang’an Avenue, climb the Great Wall, and visit the Summer Palace; I will even take you to Zhongnanhai. Do you know about Zhongnanhai? The nation’s highest higher-ups are all at Zhongnanhai. They work, eat, and sleep there. Even foreign presidents are not necessarily permitted to enter Zhongnanhai when they come to China. But as long as you are able to create a ten-thousand-
jin
experimental field in which the ears of wheat are even thicker than ears of corn, I’ll not only take you to Beijing, I’ll arrange to have you live in Zhongnanhai, where you can take photographs of yourself with the highest of the nation’s higher-ups.”

The Child’s eyes opened wide, and he saw that the entire room was full of light. He saw countless angels floating in the air, and heard beautiful music and hymns.

C
HAPTER
11

Fire

1.
Heaven’s Child
, pp. 305–11 (excerpt)

It was under a sky filled with white light that the Child returned.

The Theologian had wanted to pick up the Child from the county seat, but he didn’t. The Child got off the bus at the station, and waited there for a long time, yet there was no trace of the Theologian. The Child was displeased. He then walked alone from the county seat back to the town, and reported to the headquarters what had transpired at the provincial seat. He said that the governor had personally received him, but in the end had selected the
loyalty
steel ingot to represent the province at the capital. He said the governor had assured him that as soon as he was able to produce a ten-thousand-
jin
-per-
mu
field, he would not only have the Child represent the province at the next steel-presenting ceremony at the capital, but furthermore would arrange for him to stay at Zhongnanhai. He also promised that the government’s highest higher-ups would come and have their pictures taken with him.

The Child was very excited, but the higher-ups from the headquarters were displeased.

None of them caressed the Child’s head or patted his shoulder, and instead they just asked him whether or not he had already eaten at the headquarters. The Child shook his head. The higher-ups said he had to go to another district to investigate their steel-smelting activities, so he told the Child he should leave immediately.

The Child left the headquarters.

Then he quickly left town.

The Child was displeased. The sky was filled with white light. They had agreed that if the Theologian could not reach the county seat in time, then he would meet the Child in town. But the Theologian never arrived. The sky was vast, and the great earth was supporting his feet. In all, the Child had spent half a month in the provincial seat, including the time it took to get there and back. In the county seat, the railroad station was full of iron, steel ingots, and iron dregs that they had not had time to send off. But in town, the headquarters courtyard was empty, and was not piled high with round and flat ingots as it had been before. In the distance, there was column after column of smoke. Outside the town, and in other villages, the smoke was bathed in white light. The Child walked back. The sky was vast, and the great earth was supporting his feet. He was alone, but his heart felt more open than before. All of the trees had been chopped down, and the entire land was filled with a naked light. The sunlight rained down as though through a rip in the sky. Although it was winter, it was nevertheless still very warm.

The snow had already been washed away, and the entire land was smooth and silent, displaying a silvery and golden light.

With the great earth supporting his feet, the Child returned.

In the ninety-ninth, everyone would be out in the wasteland managing the fires in the furnaces, as if holding up the sky. The Child approached, and the earth continued to support his feet. For half a month, it was as if he had disappeared from the face of the earth. But in the provincial seat, all of the higher-ups had caressed the Child’s head. By noon, the sunlight had begun to rain down. The Child was completely covered in sweat. He was also extremely thirsty, and only with considerable difficulty was he able to find some snow in a ravine. He sucked on the snow to stanch his thirst. He then took a shortcut home, carrying the yellow canvas travel bag they had given him in the provincial seat, which was just like the bags the professors brought back from the city. But what was different was that there was a large pentagonal star on one side of the Child’s bag, while on the other side were printed the words “Provincial Model Congress on Heroic Steel Smelting.” This line of characters was curved in the shape of a crescent, and below it there was a single character, in red:
loyalty
. Coincidentally, the star was the same shape as the steel ingot the Child had submitted, and the
loyalty
character was the same one that had appeared on the other ingot. The
loyalty
ingot had been sent to represent the province at the capital, while the pentagonal star was left behind in the province’s memorial hall.

The Child carried his travel bag, wondering what had happened in the provincial seat.

He took a shortcut to where the Child and the Theologian had stumbled upon that strange hill half a month earlier. The sky was still filled with bright light—a white light that carried a tint of gold. It was a warm white, and in the open expanse of winter there was no breeze, just silence. In that silence, the Child sat on the strange hill and rested for a while, by which point there was no more light in the sky and no more sound of angels singing. That afternoon, as the sun was about to set, the Child went down to the riverside. From there he could see the ninety-ninth from a distance. There was a row of steel-smelting furnaces along the river, and everyone was standing on the riverbank. There was no light in the sky, and everyone was silent. The Child watched them for a while, without saying a word.

No one came forward to greet him, and no one even waved.

There was no light in the sky. The Child knew that something was going to happen. He felt agitated, and his face tensed up. He switched his bag over to his other hand, and walked into the silence.

The silence swept toward him.

2.
Old Course
, pp. 340–47 (excerpt)

The residents of the ninety-ninth were silent for a while, like a pool of stagnant water next to a pond.

The Child’s tent had burned down. When the fire broke out the day before, the tent began burning furiously, with flames leaping into the sky. Everyone grabbed buckets to carry water from the river. But it was several hundred meters from the tent to the river and back, and by the time they were able to bring any water, the tent and all of its contents—including its roomful of red blossoms, red stars, and certificates, as well as the Child’s quilt and chest full of certificates—had been reduced to ashes. The tent was made from new oilcloth canvas, which embraced the flame as though it were an old lover. The canvas produced a yellowish black smell of burning oil, and the quilt emitted a black smell of burning cotton. Those certificates, red stars, and red blossoms generated a peculiar burning odor that no one had ever smelled before, as they disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

It was not clear how the fire had started. Perhaps someone had lit it intentionally, or maybe someone had accidentally tossed a glowing cigarette butt that had ignited the grass next to the Child’s tent, and then burned down the tent itself. By this point the Child should have already returned from the provincial seat. Once he returned, a group of residents were supposed to receive permission to go home. Those residents who had already accumulated a hundred and ten or twenty blossoms were particularly anxious for the Child to return and award them enough blossoms to bring their total up to a hundred and twenty-five. Five small blossoms could be exchanged for one medium-sized one, and five medium-sized blossoms could be exchanged for a fist-sized pentagonal star. A hundred and twenty-five small blossoms, accordingly, could be exchanged for five pentagonal stars. With these five stars, someone could be free, and the world would become an open expanse. Even those residents who had only just accumulated a hundred blossoms and therefore still had a way to go before they could get to a hundred and twenty-five, even they hoped that the Child would be in a good mood from being selected to represent the province at the national capital at the end of the year, and consequently would be willing to issue them ten, twenty, even thirty blossoms. This way, they would be able to go home for New Year’s. The earth and sky were an open expanse. Before leaving the riverside, the Child had said that even if they didn’t have enough blossoms to be freed altogether, as long as they had ninety or a hundred they would be permitted to return home for New Year’s, at least for a visit.

Everyone was anxious with expectation. Those who already had at least hundred and twenty blossoms began preparing their bags as soon as the Child left, while those with a hundred or so also started preparing their things in anticipation of being permitted to return home for New Year’s. They were all hoping that the Child would come back from the provincial seat as soon as possible, and that he would be permitted to represent the entire province at the capital the next spring. They hoped he would be able to present their steel as a model for the nation, while also taking the opportunity to tour the capital and become worldly. But the day before the Child was scheduled to return, his tent burned to the ground. The tent and tent poles burned up, as did the certificates and red blossoms, together with all of the glittering red blossoms that the residents of Re-Ed had posted inside. Everything was reduced to ashes in the blink of an eye. The fire had begun the previous evening. After idly hanging around for a few days, everyone returned to their own rooms in their thatched huts, either to sleep or to play cards or chess. Those who were preparing to leave checked their bags one more time, to make sure they hadn’t forgotten to pack something they would need, or hadn’t accidentally packed something they definitely wouldn’t need. It was at this point, just as the sun was setting over the river, that someone on the embankment suddenly shouted,

“Fire! Quick, come help fight the fire!”

This cry was like a tornado roaring down the riverbank. Everyone rushed out of their huts and saw that there was a column of dark smoke rising from the Child’s tent, spiraling up into the sky. The flames that were initially obscured by the dark smoke pushed their way out, whereupon everyone started shouting to get buckets from their rooms and from the steel furnaces. They carried the buckets down to the river, but by the time they were able to bring the water back, the Child’s tent was already burning brightly. Where before there had merely been dark smoke, now there were open flames. People began approaching carefully. Those who had brought water threw it on the fire, and those who were shouting orders continued shouting. Everyone continued running frantically back and forth, from the burning tent down to the river and back. They struggled for more than two hours, until finally the fire began to subside. Amid the layer of black ash, mud, and scattered embers of canvas and tent poles, there were a pair of the Child’s soaked shirts and Liberation shoes. Apart from this, all that was left was cinder and mud.

At this point, it occurred to everyone that what went up in flames was not only the Child’s tent, but also the row upon row of their own red blossoms and red stars that were posted inside. They stared speechlessly at that pile of blackness, as silence enveloped the earth.

By nightfall, no one had eaten. As usual, the canteen had steamed some buns, cooked some radish, and boiled some rice congee, but not one of those people who had already earned more than a hundred blossoms went to eat. Meanwhile, those who had fewer blossoms wanted to go, but were afraid that those who had more would curse them, and furthermore, in a gesture of solidarity, they also refused to eat. That night no one chatted or played cards or chess, as they had done in the past. Instead, the ninety-ninth was as quiet as if everyone had died. At daybreak everyone started looking down the road for the Child, since they knew he was supposed to return. Seeing no trace of him, they went back to the huts to wait. They waited until noon, and then until afternoon and dusk, right up until the time of day when the Child’s tent had caught on fire, but still no one called out. One person was standing on the embankment, stretching his neck to look down the road leading out to the rest of the world, and then he suddenly started running, saying hoarsely, “Quick, come look. . . . Quick, come look!” He gestured toward the road leading out to the rest of the world, where they saw someone walking toward the tent compound. First, the figure appeared as merely a tiny black dot, like a leaf fluttering to the ground. Then, that dot began to assume a human form, and they were able to see that it was in fact the Child.