The Drink and Dream Teahouse

by Justin Hill

  THE DRINK

  AND

  DREAM TEAHOUSE

  by

  Justin Hill

  Published by Justin Hill

  First published in Great Britain in 2001 by Weidenfeld and Nicolson

  First published in the USA in 2002 by Little, Brown

  Visit Justin Hill’s official website at

  www.justinhillauthor.com

  or follow him on Twitter (@JHillAuthor)

  for the latest news, book details, and other information

  Copyright © Justin Hill, 2013

  eBook ISBN: 978-988-122275-9-1

  e-book formatting by Guido Henkel

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

  Paperback ISBN: 978-988-122275-1-5

  For the Shaoyang Tea Party:

  Emma, Windy, Zoë and SongQuing

  For two weeks exploding firecrackers shredded the winter gloom at Shaoyang’s Number Two Space Rocket Factory. The fourteenth and last night was the Lantern Festival: hopeful lovers carried their hearts in moth-skin lanterns, bobbing like hooked fish on the ends of long canes. A river of stars flowed through the night, the candles burned steadily down, and after midnight solitary spirits wandered the streets with increasing desperation‌–‌searching for their perfect match, who might never come.

  The next morning the radio announced the end of the holiday as children searched in the frost for the last unexploded bangers and detonated them in a ragged battle of irregular gunfire. At 7-45 a.m., Beijing Time, Party Secretary Li woke suddenly from a cold green dream that had stranded him back in the year 1967, and which had left him perplexed and nervous. It was the fourth time in as many weeks that the same dream had blown confusion into his sleeping mind, and this time he lay and shivered and thought hard, testing himself for any signs of private insanity.

  Next to him Autumn Cloud, his wife, lay wrapped in cotton quilts, her head tilted back and mouth open, asleep. Party Secretary Li got up and opened the window to feel the frost on his skin. There was a chill morning breeze; firecrackers were sporadically shattering the silence. He rubbed his eyes as the smell of gun powder smarted in his nostrils; opened them and saw the white snow sprinkled with the fallen petals of paper‌–‌cold and red.

  Party Secretary Li tried to carry on his morning’s activities as if nothing at all had happened. He cleared his throat into the toilet, then sat to empty his bowels in one long fluid motion, wiped away the excess with a strip of newspaper. He examined his old walnut-wrinkled face in the mirror and rubbed the chin of stubble that bristled defensively against the cold. He lit a cigarette and smoked; tried hard to be normal.

  At breakfast Autumn Cloud steamed five bread buns full of date paste; and poured out two bowls of sweet rice gruel, patterned with red jujubes and white tremella. She slurped expansively, and he slurped in reply. Slurp, slurp went their morning conversation. Next door, from her concrete balcony, Madam Fan was serenading the world with Beijing Opera. Her voice was shrill and beautiful, every note of the arias perfectly delivered. This morning she sang the young nun’s soliloquy from The White Fur Coat:

  A young nun am I, sixteen years of age,

  My head was shaven in my young maidenhood

  Party Secretary Li slurped, and his wife slurped back.

  My head was shaven in my young maidenhood

  When beauty is past and youth is lost

  Who will marry an old crone?

  ‘She’s been a crone for years,’ Autumn Cloud muttered. ‘Who does she think she is?’

  Party Secretary Li looked up from his breakfast and stared at his wife. Her eyes held his then turned away. The words of the aria seemed to him very beautiful for an instant.

  They are not for my bridal chamber

  These candles on the altar

  They are not for my bridal chamber

  He could picture Madam Fan with her sleeves blowing in the breeze, her shadow dancing on her concrete step next to her.

  From where comes this suffocating ardour?

  From where comes this strange, unearthly ardour?

  The lonely words drifted across the skyline of grey concrete tenements and over the Shaoyang Number Two Space Rocket Factory’s roof of corrugated iron; across the river, beyond the East and North Pagoda, to the hillsides of bamboo and pine, where the north wind whispered back. Party Secretary Li sat for a moment, eyes closed, breathing in circles, in and out, and felt for an instant a canyon-deep calm.

  A young nun am I, sixteen years of age

  My head was shaven in my young maidenhood

  For my father, he loves the Buddhist sutras

  And my mother, she loves the Buddhist priests.

  Party Secretary Li laughed suddenly. He stood up and put on his army greatcoat and Russian fur hat.

  ‘I’m going to the office,’ he said.

  As he left his wife shouted, ‘I thought you retired!’

  He ignored her as he always did, and walked outside.

  ‘What good’s a husband who is always away from the house?’ she cursed his footsteps, muttering as she cleared away the breakfast dishes. Party Secretary Li startled her so much by coming back and answering her this time that she dropped the blue bowl, which shattered, scattering shards across the white tiles, patterning them with fragments of blue and white. He stood for a moment in the doorway, sang to her the line ‘A young nun am I, sixteen years of age,’ and then turned and left.

  Autumn Cloud hurried to the door to watch him. Who did he think he was? What if word got around that her husband was singing the lines of a young girl?

  The offices were closed, so Party Secretary Li walked around the back of Number 7 block of flats. He stood and surveyed the black soil of the allotments. Old Zhu was there, raking up dead leaves into a heap. His white hair, gap-toothed smile and skin of a baby.

  ‘How was Spring Festival?’ Party Secretary Li asked.

  ‘Good!’ Zhu answered. ‘Good!’

  ‘Did your son come back?’

  ‘No, too far. Too far. And yours?’

  ‘No. Had no time off.’

  They stood in silence for a while. Young people never came back to Shaoyang, not even to die. There was nothing for them here, except memories. Party Secretary Li watched Old Zhu rake up another pile of leaves. There were now two piles of leaves, two tumbled mosaics of russet and black and brown. He lit a cigarette.

  ‘Want one?’

  Old Zhu shook his head.

  Party Secretary Li lit his own, breathed in and then out in a long plume of smoke. It tasted stale. He threw it away, burrowed his hands deep into his trouser pockets. He watched Old Zhu rake up a third pile of leaves. The three piles made up the shape of a triangle. Three was a lucky number, but in each pile of leaves he could feel the chill of his dream: it was in the cigarettes he smoked, the food he ate, and it coloured his sleep.

  ‘Did you hear?’ Old Zhu asked, as he straightened his back and leant on his rake’s shaft.

  ‘Hear what?’

  ‘They’re closing the factory,’ Old Zhu said.

  ‘They’re doing what?’ he asked.

  ‘Closing the factory.’

  ‘This factory?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Impossible.’

  ‘It’s t
rue.’

  ‘It can’t be.’

  Old Zhu looked up into the thicket of branches above his head that rained the leaves that he raked into piles. He thought of the factory, scratched his head, and said simply, ‘It is.’

  Party Secretary Li’s seventy-eight-year-old heart palpitated as he hurried home. They couldn’t close the factory, he told himself, not this factory. He opened the front door and called out to his wife. There was no answer. He checked in the kitchen, she wasn’t there. He went to the bedroom door and opened it, but apart for the pale winter sunlight that stretched across the floor, the room was deserted.

  The wooden chair creaked in protest as Party Secretary Li sat down at his desk, creaked again as he shuffled closer to the desk. He picked out his finest brush and squirted some ink from a plastic bottle onto a white chipped plate. The ink settled across one half of the plate, black and white, yin and yang. He dipped his brush into the ink and settled his mind. Madam Fan was still practising her Beijing Opera, she had a tape player on in the background. Fan and tape mixed up so that he could no longer tell which was which. Outside he could smell the smoke that drifted up from Old Zhu’s burning leaves, as they crumbled into ash.

  Party Secretary Li leant over a long sheet and the world went very silent, except for the whisper of brush on paper. He wrote the strokes of each character out carefully, stood back to survey his work. He took out his seal and printed his red square stamp at the end, then hung the first banner from his study window.

  It read:

  Our Leaders are Drunk on the Taste of Corruption

  He returned to his desk and drew another sheet of paper from the pile. He dipped his brush into the ink and wiped away the excess.

  The Immortals are Jealous of the Lifestyle of Our ‘Officials’

  He stamped it with his seal of red.

  The Privileged Officials Masturbate Over Blue Movies

  And pulled another sheet from the pile. Autumn Cloud spent the morning shopping in the market. She bought pork and spinach, beansprouts and a square of dofu. On the way back she met Mrs Cao who invited her to go and play mah-jong.

  ‘We’re betting,’ Mrs Cao said with a wink.

  Autumn Cloud screwed up her face.

  ‘Come on, I’ll carry your shopping!’ Mrs Cao insisted. ‘We need a fourth person.’

  They joined Madam Fan’s husband and sister who were playing mah-jong in the kitchen. There was a brazier of glowing coals under the table that kept their feet warm, while their fingertips were still icy cold. Madam Fan sang on the balcony, occasionally casting disapproving glances at them through the window. Her arias and the clicking sound of the tiles being shuffled filled the morning. Autumn Cloud was nervous because she was starting to lose money. She pretended it was of no matter.

  ‘I wish she’d give up on her rotten singing!’ Madam Fan’s husband cursed.

  Autumn Cloud laughed louder than the rest.

  ‘The factory’s going to be closed,’ Mrs Cao mentioned.

  ‘Good,’ Madam Fan’s husband replied.

  ‘Good,’ Autumn Cloud echoed, not meaning to say good at all. They shuffled the tiles around the centre of the table as she sat worrying. ‘What will happen to our pensions?’ she asked at last.

  ‘Oh, they’ll still pay them,’ Mrs Cao said.

  Autumn Cloud nodded, trying to hide her relief. ‘And what about the workers?’

  ‘I don’t think there are any workers left are there?’ Madam Fan’s husband replied.

  ‘A hundred I think,’ Mrs Cao said.

  Autumn Cloud nodded to back up this piece of information.

  Madam Fan’s husband was unconcerned. ‘Serves them right. They should have found another job. Set up in business. Have to move with the times. What about the Four Modernisations? What about the Open Door Policy? What about the Socialist Market Economy? Don’t they know the world has changed?.’

  Autumn Cloud nodded. Yes, yes, serve them right. Have to move with the times.

  She was still losing money when Peach, Madam Fan’s daughter, ran in. Peach looked white, she was so white that she looked unhealthy.

  ‘Mrs Li come quickly,’ Peach gasped.

  Mrs Cao scowled at Peach because she was on a winning streak.

  ‘Mrs Li come quickly,’ Peach gasped again, then giggled and put her hand over her mouth. ‘There are bad words hanging out of your windows!’

  Autumn Cloud went as quickly as she could, but her left leg was stiff and it didn’t like to hurry. She went down the steps and followed Peach out of the door. Peach pointed up.

  ‘Look Mrs Li.’

  Autumn Cloud looked up.

  The Party Officials are Screwing Our Daughters hung from the bathroom window.

  The Fifth Modernisation‌–‌Democracy was draped over the balcony railings.

  Fuck the Communist Party wafted gently on the breeze.

  ‘Oh heavens!’ she gasped, and held her left hand. ‘Oh heavens!’ she said again, and her left hand began to shake.

  The community gathered in Old Zhu’s house to discuss what to do. Old Zhu held up a torn banner that he had managed to pull off the Li family’s balcony. He held it up:

  The Mercedes Benz Stops Nightly at the Red Light District.

  ‘What does it mean?’ Peach asked.

  Old Zhu cleared his throat. ‘It means Party Secretary Li is sick,’ he said. Everyone nodded.

  ‘What can we do about this?’ Madam Fan asked, moving forward into the centre of the room.

  ‘Yes, we don’t want trouble.’

  Faces turned to Autumn Cloud who sat in the corner, small and shaking like a frightened child in the arms of Old Zhu’s white-haired wife. They hoped for a reaction from her, but she gave none. She just sat and shivered. Old Zhu’s wife smoothed her hair back from her face.

  ‘So what will we do?’ Madam Fan asked.

  Everyone turned to Old Zhu. He was the most senior person there. It was his decision. They looked to his white hair and gap-toothed mouth for the words of guidance.

  ‘He’s locked the door,’ Peach put in.

  Old Zhu nodded at this piece of intelligence and everyone watched him think. Autumn Cloud shivered in the corner, as Old Zhu’s wife held her close and wiped away the sweat from her forehead.

  ‘Party Secretary Li has been upset by the factory closing,’ Old Zhu said at last. People held their breaths as they waited for more. Old Zhu scratched his head.

  ‘He has worked all his life to build the Motherland. He was a shining light to all of us‌–‌we learnt from his example.’ Someone cleared their throat. ‘All his life he has been an exemplary Party Member. And Autumn Cloud was a model worker too.’ People turned to offer sympathetic looks to Autumn Cloud but she didn’t hear or see anything in the room. ‘We have to help him. We must help him understand that the closure of the factory is good for the country. We must help build the Socialist Market Economy!’

  Party Secretary Li hunched over his desk and looked into his cup of tea. A single jasmine flower swirled slowly on its surface, round and round. He could hear the crowd of voices outside his doorway. They were discussing what to do. Old Zhu was there, all of the neighbours as well. They discussed between themselves for a while, and then they resumed banging on his door. The thunder of all their fists on the metal door boomed through the flat; then there was a moment of stillness, like gentle rain.

  ‘Comrade!’ Old Zhu called. ‘Comrade!’

  Party Secretary Li didn’t answer. He was out of paper, but he still had the bed sheets.

  ‘Comrade Li! We have a doctor here.’

  ‘Neighbour Li!’ another voice called.

  ‘Brother-in-law Li!’ So they’d got Autumn Cloud’s sister here as well.

  ‘It’s no use,’ Old Zhu told the conference that evening. ‘We will have to call his family. Where are his children?’

  ‘Does she know?’ Madam Fan asked, pointing to Autumn Cloud.

  ‘Where are your children?’ Madam Fan�
�s husband shouted into her left ear. ‘Your children!’ Madam Fan shouted into her right ear. Old Zhu took her hand, and looked her in the face. ‘Comrade. Autumn Cloud, where are your children. We are trying to help you. Where are your children? Your children? Children.’

  They’d given up on getting an answer, and some of them had actually left to go home when Autumn Cloud spoke.

  ‘Seven, six, five, two, two, eight, eight, eight.’

  ‘Can you say that again?’ someone asked.

  Autumn Cloud repeated. ‘Seven, six, five, two, two, eight, eight, eight.’ Old Zhu reached for a pen and wrote down her words.

  ‘It must be a telephone number.’

  ‘Yes but where?’ Madam Fan said. ‘It’s not a Shaoyang number. Her children aren’t in Shaoyang. They’ve gone south.’

  ‘We’ll try every city in China,’ Old Zhu declared with confidence. He smiled as he announced, ‘We’ll save the duck by stealing her eggs!’

  As the residents of Shaoyang Number Two Space Rocket Factory gossiped about the scandal of the Li family, Old Zhu sat on the phone and diligently tracked down each of Party Secretary Li’s four children. Two were in Guangzhou, one was working in a factory in Shanghai, and the fourth was a teacher in a nearby middle school. He confided to each of them that their father was seriously ill, and that their mother had had a relapse. They all packed immediately and set off on the long journey home.

  Each banner Party Secretary Li hung from his window the residents of Shaoyang Number Two Space Rocket Factory had torn down by using long poles and canes with hooks on the ends. His neighbours had even managed to tear the flapping white blankets off the railings while he was trying to stop anyone getting the banner that hung from the bathroom window. But Party Secretary Li was too old and wise for all of them; he still had one sheet left. It was enough for his final protest.