by Zhou Daxin
Shallot patted her back and sighed: “How did this get so serious? Who told the police?”
“Maybe someone decided to report and sue us.” Nuannuan choked. “I was so blind to trust that man! Kaitian asked me if we should buy those weedkiller, and I said yes without even thinking about it! I hate myself!”
“Crying won’t solve the problem. You have to do something about it,” said Shallot. “I’m afraid you have to go to the village heads. The Party Secretary was too old to help, lying in his bed all day. You have to go to Zhan Shideng. He’s the Leader, he’ll be able to get Kaitian out.”
Nuannuan nodded and wiped her tears. She passed Dangen to her mother-in-law and said: “Dad, Mom, stay at home. I’ll go beg the Leader to help.”
On the way to Zhan Shideng’s house, Nuannuan paused and hesitated several times, feeling embarrassed about refusing to marry his little brother. But what else can she do? She must go beg for his help …
Chapter 10
The Leader’s house was a two-floored building, the best-looking house in Chu Wang Village. When Nuannuan arrived, the Leader was sitting on a chair on his balcony, gazing into the village in the dark night with a cigarette. Nuannuan greeted his wife and followed her instructions to walk upstairs in quiet steps. Zhan Shideng seemed to be deep in thought; he did not move. Nuannuan stood aside for a while and saw the whole village from the balcony: the houses, small and big; the small pier by the side of the Red Lake; the winding road leading to Juxiang Street; the lake reflecting a pale light from the moon; the silhouette of the mountains hiding in the night … the whole village. Under the pale moonlight, Nuannuan saw Zhan Shideng’s big round wood chair with a shed shaped like an umbrella on top. The chair amazed her, too. She heard before that the Leader was a carpenter before he took office. He must have made the chair himself.
“Mr. Leader.” Nuannuan called out.
Zhan Shideng turned his head slowly. His sight seemed bad, and it took him the time a man needs to find a bag of tobacco to see Nuannuan: “Kaitian’s wife! What happened?”
Nuannuan burst into tears and choked on her voice: “Something bad happened to my family, I beg Mr. Leader to help.”
“What happened?” Zhan Shideng stood up, his figure seemed tall and reliable in the moonlight.
Nuannuan spoke fast about the incident, her chest rose and fell as she sobbed. Her full breasts were shaking up and down, too. Zhan Shideng listened with his eyes narrowed, yet he kept a gaze at Nuannuan’s breasts.
“Mr. Leader, you are the only one I have.”
“The police really took Kaitian away?” Zhan Shideng seemed surprised.
“It’s real! They rode two motorcycles over!”
“How could that be? They can’t arrest him before an investigation!”
“Mr. Leader, you have to help us. Kaitian was tricked! How can he harm anyone in the village? He did not break any law!”
Zhan Shideng sighed and spoke in a voice without emotion: “Kaitian did make a mistake with the weedkiller. He caused a big loss to the village, to the people he sees everyday. Of course they are angry! Does he still want to live here? He would be so stupid to use such a way to make money!”
“Mr. Leader, we are victims, too! You know Kaitian. He is not a liar! I was there, too. The liar told us the weedkiller was imported from America, and the price was so good! We didn’t think over it, so …” Nuannuan tried to defend her husband in a low voice.
“What do you want from me, then?” Zhan Shideng narrowed his eyes and looked at Nuannuan.
“If you can go talk to the heads of the town police station and ask them to release Kaitian …”
Zhan Shideng did not listen to her pleading. He exhaled quietly.
“Please, Mr. Leader, go to the police station, Kaitian is innocent …”
“If the police came down, then what he did is illegal. I’m only a village committee’s leader, I cannot deal with illegal things.”
“But you are the Leader, they all trust you.” Nuannuan begged in a softer voice. “We’ll think of ways to compensate those who bought our weedkiller.”
“I’m afraid that it’s not as easy!” Zhan Shideng narrowed his eyes further more.
“Mr. Leader, you are the best person to solve this. Everyone knows you in the town office. Please, save Kaitian.” Nuannuan could not hold back anymore, tears running down her face.
Zhan Shideng lit another cigarette and took a deep smoke.
“Mr. Leader, Kaitian belongs to your village. You can’t leave him be!”
“In Chu Wang Village, I won’t leave any house’s business when bad things happen. Alright, I’ll go tomorrow and try to talk to someone.” Zhan Shideng threw the cigarette on the floor and stepped it hard with his feet. He slowly spoke to Nuannuan: “If I went through tomorrow, of course it’s good. But if not, you can’t blame it on me. What he did was illegal!”
“Of course. I thank you, Mr. Leader.” Nuannuan bowed down …
Chapter 11
The Leader’s attitude gave Nuannuan some relief. She knew words alone could not help solve a problem, so the next morning she went to buy two cartons of cigarettes and two bottles of wine. She put them in a bag and waited in front of Zhan Shideng’s house. Seeing Zhan Shideng coming out with his bike, Nuannuan stepped up and hung the bag on his bike handles: “Mr. Leader, take these. You can’t simply talk. If you need to go out for a meal, do it and I’ll send you the money when you are back.”
Zhan Shideng sighed: “You shouldn’t have spent money on this. Alright, I’ll bring them as a present for the policemen.”
Zhan Shideng went straight into the police station on Juxiang Street, where the town government was. The policemen knew village leaders very well, so they gave him a warm greeting: “Here’s Leader Zhan!”
Zhan Shideng took his time to take a carton of cigarettes out of Nuannuan’s bag and said: “I came here today to reward your hard work. You arrested Kuang Kaitian, the liar that sabotaged farmers with fake weedkiller, you helped us all in Chu Wang Village. Everyone in my village is grateful so they bought these cigarettes and wine, and asked me to send them to you. We thank The People’s Police!”
He took out everything from the bag. The head officer felt a little embarrassed: “Leader Zhan, don’t do this. It is our job to catch bad guys. You shouldn’t say thank you to us.”
Zhan Shideng pretended to be unhappy: “This is no bribery. Just presents from our people. If you reject them, you are upsetting them!”
The head officer waved his hand and had a policeman put away the presents. He led Zhan Shideng into his office.
The head officer offered Zhan Shideng some tea and said: “Leader Zhan, we did the investigation as soon as we received your call. We now have all evidence pointing to Kuang Kaitian’s purposeful sabotage of farmlands. He himself also confessed about selling fake weedkiller. Normally we would send the case to the district attorney. But there is one thing that’s not clear: he insisted that he bought the weedkiller from someone else without knowing the harm. But when we ask him to give us the information of the seller, he gave us nothing. So we think he may be a victim, too. That’s why I haven’t decided yet.”
Zhan Shideng drank the tea, swallowed slowly and said: “I have a lot of experience with these criminals, and each of them has a forked tongue. Once caught, they’ll tell every lie to get out. Kuang Kaitian has always been an ass in the village. There is nothing he dares not do. You must punish him.”
“There are two ways to deal with the situation.” The head officer looked at Zhan Shideng. “We can make him write a guarantee, promising no further crime and compensation for those who he harmed, then we’ll let him go; Or, we will keep him in custody to find evidence of his deliberate crime, by then we can charge him. What do you think?”
Zhan Shideng jumped on his feet: “Head officer! You cannot let this bad guy go! I’m here today to give you a heads-up: people who bought weedkiller from Kuang Kaitian are still overwhelmed by anger, and
they are talking about petitioning! They want nothing but a harsh punishment on Kuang Kaitian. I was the one who persuaded them to stay at home. If they know that he is released, they will storm in here with sickles and axes!”
The head officer got nervous hearing his words: “You must talk sense into them. I cannot afford an angry crowd in the town hall. I’ll make sure to advance the investigation and I won’t let any bad guy go …”
At midday, Zhan Shideng walked into the most famous restaurant on Juxiang Street, the Eight Immortals, and ordered four dishes for himself: braised chicken with brown sauce, beef with soy sauce, fried lake prawns, and fish head soup from the Red Lake. In addition, he ordered a bottle of the Crouching Dragon, a special yellow rice wine. He drank very slowly and did not leave on his bike until sunset.
He saw Nuannuan waiting in front of the village from afar. A smug smile flashed in his eyes. But immediately he put on a disappointed face and slowly rode towards Nuannuan.
“Mr. Leader, you must be tired.” Nuannuan walked to him, full of hope. “They must have agreed to let him go!”
He jumped off the bike and sighed. Then he spoke with sympathy: “Nuannuan, you have to be strong. It was not good at all. I pled the head in the police station for a long time, but he insisted that Kaitian committed a serious crime of sabotaging agricultural production. They would not let him go. Moreover, Kaitian will face a serious punishment. You must not be too sad. Maybe Kaitian is destined to suffer this.”
Nuannuan’s face went pale. She sobbed: “How serious is the punishment?”
“They’ll probably make him serve some years. But don’t worry, what he did would give him 5 years at the most. Kaitian will be home after a couple of years.”
Nuannuan started crying. She never thought of Kaitian being locked away. A couple of years, what suffering! Even if he got released afterwards, he’d become an ex-con, how can he live?
“Mr. Leader, is there any other way at all?” Nuannuan was still sobbing.
“I don’t have anything to offer. I met the Chief of the Township today and I talked to him. But he said the same thing, a serious punishment. What can I do? Nowadays it’s all about the law, and whenever the law is broken, things get difficult! If you ask me, you should not worry and take good care of your baby and your in-laws at home. When Kaitian gets released, you’ll have your life back. Aren’t you two still young? Everybody has his own trouble, it’s nothing! Be strong and deal with it.”
“No, no …” Nuannuan ran away, her hands covering her crying face.
Zhan Shideng was humming a happy tune when he walked home. He asked his wife to make some snacks for his drinking as soon as he entered the house. His wife sniffed and mumbled: “You still stink of alcohol, yet you are drinking again!”
“Why not? Today is the best day to drink!” Zhan Shideng cried in excitement. “I want a celebration. I want to celebrate the misery of those that dared go against the Zhan’s! I will let everyone in Chu Wang Village know, that whoever crosses me will end up in pain! …”
Chapter 12
Again, Nuannuan did not sleep. The first half of the night she was crying in remorse: she shouldn’t have encouraged Kaitian to buy the weedkiller! When it got closer to dawn, she was still striving to figure out a solution. What to do? Who should she beg to help Kaitian? Nuannuan thought of everyone she knew, but they were either peasants or fishers, none would be capable of handling something like this. Maybe she should go to town, maybe she would meet a kind official that listen to her and let Kaitian go.
Nuannuan made up her mind. In the morning, she handed Dangen to her mother-in-law. Then she got changed and took some money, ready to go. Her mother-in-law knew she was going to town to seek help, so she followed her to the door and said in tears: “Only speak soft words, and never pick a fight. We cannot lose you, too.”
Shallot heard about Nuannuan’s plan. She gave her three cartons of the Golden Leaf cigarettes: “Changlin got these good cigarettes as a reward of his pork sales last time. I don’t let him touch them. You should have them with you today and offer them to the officials …”
Nuannuan had been to Juxiang Street many times, but she never paid attention to the police station. She had to ask several people to finally find the location. But when she arrived and stopped several policemen from walking out to ask about Kaitian, they either said they did not know anything, or told her because the case had not been solved yet, she could not meet him. So she turned to the town government in hope of finding the Chief of Township. He was, after all, the Chief, and the police station was under him. Maybe he could make them release Kaitian.
Though Nuannuan used to live in Beijing, it was the first time she went to the town government, and since she was there to beg for help, she felt very nervous. As a result, her steps were hesitated. The guard noticed that and stopped her: “What? What do you want?”
“I need to see the Chief.” Nuannuan answered in scare.
“Why?”
“I have an unjust case to appeal.”
“The Chief is not here, go away.” The guard waved his hand.
“Big brother, please, I really have something important to talk to the Chief.” Nuannuan took out the Golden Leaf from Shallot and offered him a cigarette.
The man pushed her hands away: “I don’t want it! Go away now!”
Nuannuan did not know how to react. She burst into tears and begged: “Big brother, please, my baby’s dad was taken away by the police. But he’s innocent. Please, I need to see the Chief.”
As she spoke, she forcefully put the cigarette in the guard’s hand. The man looked less impatient and put the cigarette behind his ear. He said in a low voice: “No common people can come inside the government house with a petition. If you really need to see the Chief, wait for him outside the gate. He’ll come out later and I will signal to you so that you can stop him to talk about your business.”
“Thank you, big brother. Thank you.” Nuannuan bowed down at the man.
Nuannuan stood outside the gate of the town government and opened her eyes wide to check everyone that went in and out. In a short while, two men in their middle age walked towards the gate. The guard rendered a soft cough and threw Nuannuan a glance. She hurried up and called: “Mr. Chief, injustice —”
The Chief with a beard paused and asked: “Which village are you from? What injustice?”
Nuannuan hastened to answer: “I’m from Chu Wang Village, and my name is Chu Nuannuan. My baby’s dad is Kuang Kaitian.”
“Kuang Kaitian?” The Chief interrupted her and thought for a while with his hand on his forehead. He frowned and asked: “Kuang Kaitian who sold fake weedkiller and sabotaged fields of his own people?”
“Yes, him. But we only bought the weedkiller from another man. We had no intention to harm —”
“But the leader of your village committee reported that close to a hundred acres of green bean fields in your village were ruined. Your people are peasants themselves, don’t you understand the difficulty of farming? How can you commit such a crime? The case is under investigation by the police station. I can’t help you. Let’s wait for the result. Is that okay with you?”
“Can’t you tell them to let him go first? My baby is still small, and he’s the only labour in the house. My baby’s grandpa is not well. He cannot handle this.”
“I cannot order the police to do anything. They are making the decision based on investigation. Alright, I have affairs to attend to. Good Bye.”
The Chief walked away in a haste.
Nuannuan stood there in desperation. It seemed that all of her effort to see the Chief was spent in vain. Kaitian would not be able to go home. What could she do? Once again, tears fell down Nuannuan’s face.
“Young sister, don’t worry,” the guard lowered his voice as he walked towards her. “What’s the name of your man? What has he done? I’ll call somebody to the police station and ask around for you. Crying will not solve your problem.”
Nuannuan gave him the name and the story. The guard told her: “You stay here, I’m just going back to the room to ask them about it.”
He went inside the porter’s lodge and Nuannuan stood there, waiting in despair. After a meal’s time, the guard went back as he promised and whispered: “Young sister, I asked. At this moment it is not the police. It’s the leader of your village committee. Once he agrees to let your man go, they’ll send him home. So hurry up to beg him!”
“What?” Nuannuan was stunned.
“The police came to the conclusion that your man only did bad things to others because he was tricked. Usually with things like this, if you are willing to compensate the victims, your man would go home. But your leader made it clear that your man shall not be released. And that’s the big trouble here. Understand?”
Nuannuan shivered. She bowed to the guard in gratitude: “Big Brother, you’ve helped me so much! Now that I know what has set my boat off course …”
Nuannuan jumped on her bike and cycled as hard as she could. She almost flew back to Chu Wang Village. When she entered the village, the sun had just set behind the hills, and chicken and ducks were retiring to their cages. She did not go home. Instead, she went straight to the small yard outside the office of the village committee. Zhan Shideng had not left yet. He was smoking a cigarette behind the desk, his eyes narrowed. The Party Secretary had been old and frail so Zhan Shideng became the leader of this office, too.
“I heard that you went to the town today so I sat here all day waiting for you to come back. What’s up? Any good news?” Zhan Shideng pointed to a chair and gestured Nuannuan, who was still panting from the ride, to sit down.
“Mr. Leader, you must not treat Kaitian like this!” Nuannuan did not move.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Zhan Shideng’s face gave no indication of his thoughts. “How should I treat him? Shall I praise him for what he did? Give him a big red flower to wear on his shirt? Take him to have some Lao Baigan liquor?”
