“No?” Sleepyhead argued. “That’s the source of my bitterness. I may be Sleepyhead, but I’m a man, aren’t I? I’ve got a man’s tool hanging between my legs…”
Lu Liren walked up to Sleepyhead to stop the performance and raised his voice to drown out Sleepyhead’s monologue. “Fellow villagers,” he said, “Zhang Decheng’s words may be a little coarse for our ears, but his meaning is clear and undeniable. Why can some men take four, five, or more wives, while somebody like Zhang Decheng here can’t even find one?”
Debates broke out below the stage, and many eyes turned to Mother, whose face darkened; but there was no sign of anger or hate in her eyes, which were as serene as a placid lake in autumn.
Pandi nudged Sleepyhead. “You can go back down now.”
He took a couple of steps and was about to climb down off the stage when he was reminded of something. He turned and walked up to Zhao Six, grabbed him by the ear, and gave him a resounding slap. “You son of a bitch,” he growled. “Today’s your day too. You probably forgot the time you used the authority you received from Sima Ku to mistreat me!”
Zhao twisted his neck and drove his head into Sleepyhead’s belly. With a yelp, Sleepyhead fell to the ground and rolled off the stage.
The mute rushed up and kicked Zhao Six to the ground. Then he stepped down on Zhao’s neck, twisting the poor man’s face out of shape. He was gasping for breath, but even then he cried out like a man possessed, “You’ll never get me to admit a thing, never! Where’s your conscience? Your crimes are unspeakable…”
Lu Liren bent down to ask the VIP what to do. The man banged his red inkstone on the table, the sign for Lu Liren to read from a slip of paper: “Rich peasant Zhao Six has lived by exploiting others. During the war against Japan, he fed their fellow travelers. When Sima Ku governed the area, he supplied food to bandit soldiers. Now that land reform is underway, he has spread ugly rumors in open defiance of the People’s Government. If a die-hard element like him is not killed, the people’s anger will never be quelled. In the name of the Northeast Gaomi County People’s Government, I hereby sentence Zhao Six to death, judgment to be carried out at once!”
Two of the soldiers picked up Zhao Six and dragged him off like a dead dog. When they reached the weedy edge of the pond, the men backed away to let the mute step up and put a bullet in the back of Zhao’s head. His body lurched into the water. With the smoking gun still in his hand, the mute walked back onto the stage.
The terrified prisoners on stage began banging their heads on the ground. By then they’d all soiled themselves. “Spare me, spare me…” The cooking oil shop proprietress, Old Jin, crawled on her knees up to Lu Liren and wrapped her arms around his legs. “County Head Lu,” she sobbed, “spare me. I’ll give everything to the villagers – my oil, my sesame seeds, all my family property, I won’t keep anything, not even a chicken-feed trough – just don’t take my life. I’ll never do business that exploits people again…” Lu Liren tried to break free of her grasp, but she held on for dear life until an official came up and pried her fingers away. She then crawled toward the VIP. “Take care of her!” Lu Liren commanded. The mute raised his pistol and struck her in the temple. Her eyes rolled up into her head as she fell backward, her single breast pointing at the gloomy sky.
“Who else wants to pour out their bitterness?” Pandi shouted down at the crowd.
Someone began to wail. It was the blind man, Xu Xian’er, who propped himself up on a yellow bamboo staff.
“Lift him up onto the stage,” Pandi said.
No one did. So he made his way toward the stage by tapping his staff on the ground; people jumped out of his way. Then two officials hopped down and hoisted him up onto the stage.
Filled with hatred, Xu Xian’er banged the ground with his staff, punching holes in the loose dirt.
“Speak your piece, Uncle Xu,” said Pandi.
“Commander,” Xu Xian’er said, “can you really exact revenge for me?”
“Don’t worry. You see what we did for Zhang Decheng just now.”
“Then Fll say it,” he said, “I’ll say it. That bastard Sima Ku drove my wife to her grave, and my mother died of anger because of it. He owes me two lives.” Tears fell from his blind eyes.
“Take your time, uncle,” Lu Liren said.
“In the fifteenth year of the Republic, 1926, my mother spent thirty silver dollars to get me a wife, the daughter of a beggar woman in West Village. She sold a cow and a pig, plus two pecks of wheat, and all she got was thirty silver dollars. Everyone said my wife was pretty, but that word – pretty – spelled disaster. Sima Ku was only sixteen or seventeen at the time, but even at that age he was no good. Since his family had money and power, he made a habit of coming over to my house to sing and play his two-stringed
He fell to his knees.
A district official came over to pull him to his feet, but he said, “I won’t get up if you won’t avenge me…”
“Uncle,” Lu Liren said, “Sima Ku will not escape the net of justice, and when we catch him, we will redress this injustice.”
“Sima Ku is a sparrow hawk, the king of the skies,” the blind man said. “You’ll never catch him. So I ask the government to repay one life with another. Execute his son and daughter. Commander, I know you’re related to Sima Ku, but if you are a true dispenser of justice, you’ll honor my request. If you let personal feelings get in the way, then Xu the blind man will go home and hang himself, so Sima won’t be able to get to me when he returns.”
“Uncle,” Lu Liren managed to blurt out, “every grievance has its target, every debt has its creditor. A person must be held responsible for his deeds. Since Sima Ku caused the deaths, only Sima can be held accountable. The children are blameless.”
Xu struck the ground with his staff. “Fellow villagers,” he called out, “did you hear that? Don’t let yourselves be fooled. Sima Ku has run away, Sima Ting is in hiding, and the children will be grown before you know it. County Head Lu is related to them, which counts for a great deal. Fellow villagers, alive Xu Xian’er is only this staff, and dead he is little more than food for the dogs. Compared to you, I am nothing, but, fellow villagers, do not be fooled by these people…”
Pandi blew up: “Old blind man, your demands are unreasonable!”
“Miss Pandi,” Xu the blind man said, “you and the rest of the Shangguans are impressive. When the Jap devils were here, your eldest brother-in-law, Sha Yueliang, was in charge. Then during the reign of the Kuomintang, your second brother-in-law, Sima Ku, ran roughshod over the area. Now you and Lu Liren are in charge. You Shangguans are flagpoles that cannot be cut down, boats that cannot be overturned. Someday, when the Americans rule China, your family will boast a foreign son-in-law…”
Sima Liang’s face had turned ghostly white; he was clutching Mother’s hand. Sima Feng and Sima Huang hid their faces in Mother’s armpits. Sha Zaohua was crying. So was Lu Shengli. So, too, after a while, was Eighth Sister, Yunii.
Their crying drew the attention of people both on and below the stage. The gloomy VIP looked down at us.
Xu Xian’er may have been blind, but he knelt right at the feet of the VIP. “Sir,” he howled tearfully, “stand up for this old blind man!” He banged his head on the ground as he howled, until his forehead was covered with dirt.
Lu Liren looked at the VIP, pleading with his eyes; the VIP returned his look with an icy stare that was as sharp as a knife. Lu’s face was beaded with sweat that dampened his headband, making it look like a wound on his forehead. No longer calm and at ease, he alternated between looking down at his feet and gazing out at the crowd below, the courage to make eye contact with the VIP long gone.
Pandi had also lost the poise of a district commander. Her face was bright red, her lower lip trembled. “Blind old Xu,” she shouted in the tone of a countrywoman, “you’re trying to stir up trouble! What has my family ever done to you? That slutty wife of yours seduced Sima Ku and took him out into the wheat field. Then when they were caught, she swallowed opium because she couldn’t face decent folk. Not only that, people said you used to bite her all night long, like a dog. She showed people the scars on her chest, did you know that? You were the cause of your wife’s death. What Sima Ku did was wrong, but most of the blame falls on you! So if anybody is to be shot, I say we start with you!”
“You heard that, didn’t you, exalted sir?” Blind Xu said. “Cut down the wheat stalks, and a wolf appears.”
