by Zhou Daxin
Nuannuan at first thought that they were receiving another group of discrete VIPs. Nevertheless, she was highly surprised when the boat disembarked: all the guests were foreigners. Nuannuan did not know what to do: our Chu Wang Village is attracting foreign visitors?! Xue Chuanxin stepped up in a calm manner. He spoke English: “Hello!”
A tall man in the group walked over and nodded at Nuannuan. He said to her in Chinese: “Dear lady, how do you do?”
Nuannuan answered with a blush: “How do you do?”
The news of foreign visitors in Chu Wang Village spread fast. People in the village all came over to see the foreigners, including some seniors with their walking canes. By the side of the road from the pier to Shang Xin Yuan, village people filled every space. It was the first time that Chu Wang Village had foreign visitors, so everyone was curious and excited.
Nuannuan learnt later that their new guests were European lecturers in several universities in the provincial city. They were invited by Five Continents Travel Group to visit the Great Wall of Chu. The next day, when leading them on a tour in the hill, Nuannuan was worried that they could not understand anything about Chu. However, after several lines she made about the construction and engineering techniques of the wall, one of the guests, a Mr. Hart, spoke up in Chinese with a slight accent: “Chu’s techniques in construction were not as impressive as those in bronze manufacturing, silk weaving and lacquer decoration.”
Nuannuan did not expect a foreigner to acquire such detailed knowledge about Chu. Later on, she asked him with a smile: “What else do you know about Chu?”
Hart answered solemnly: “I know of the religion and customs of Chu. They believed that they were descendants of the God of Sun and the God of Fire. Therefore, they adored red clothing, worshiped towards the East, and paid much respect to witchery. I am also familiar with its history: the State of Chu lasted for more than 500 years, between the rise of Chu Xiao’ao and the defeat of King Huai, many outstanding figures were nurtured in Chu, the most famous being Qu Yuan under the reign of King Huai. But during Qu Yuan’s time, Chu had already been in decline. I have read Qu Yuan’s long poem Heavenly Questions.”
Nuannuan could only understand half of what he talked about. She had grown a certain respect for the man. At the same time, she felt embarrassed as the descendant of Chu: she did not even know half as much as the foreigner knew of her ancestors. She felt the necessity to read more, otherwise, if other visitors were to ask her about the history of Chu or the poetry of Qu Yuan, she would be more embarrassed without a good answer. Before the foreign visitors left, Nuannuan went to the bookstore on Juxiang Street and bought A Brief History of China and Digest of Qu Yuan’s Chu Ci.
The success of Shang Xin Yuan shortly after its opening was beyond Nuannuan’s expectations. In less than a month, they had achieved an income close to 300,000 yuan. Nuannuan did some calculation and realized that it would take less than a year for her family and Five Continents Travel Group to earn their initial investment back. The next year they would be making profits. The business was so different from running Chu Di Ju with the help of a professional company. Nuannuan felt quite fortunate to have found the cooperation with Five Continents and the leadership of Xue Chuanxin, a man with a true gift in business. Thinking of the bright future of her business, Nuannuan could not hold back her happy laughter: Finally, we Kuangs have found a way of getting rich, and Dangen would not grow up with the difficulties we had, if only we keep working like this. In the following days, Nuannuan even started walking with a spring in her step.
Chapter 41
It was raining. The raindrops, blown into an angle by the breeze, were making a gentle sound when falling on top of the tiles, leaves and the road, and they fell like rice falling into a jar through the filter. There were four guests in Shang Xin Yuan. Nuannuan was anxious because they could not visit the tourist sites in that weather. She could not leave them trapped in their rooms since the hill, the temple, the lake and the fields would not be as nice in the rain. To her comfort, the guests asked to see the Red Lake in the rain after breakfast. Nuannuan hurried to find four umbrellas for them and took them to the lake herself.
Nuannuan rarely had the time, and wasn’t often in the mood to simply watch the lake in silence in the rain. When she actually stood beside it, she realized why the Red Lake in the rain was worth the visitors’ attention: thousands of raindrops were rushing into the lake, making various patterns and waves on the surface, similar to the sight of fish competing for food; the lake became vague, hidden behind the mist of water with one or two occasional boats, the shape of which became vague as well, rendering an illusory sense that one gets when looking in the moonlight; several birds detained by the rain were flying against the wind on top of the water, looking anxious and helpless. The four guests slowly walked alongside the lake with their umbrellas. They were talking about something. Walking behind them, Nuannuan was worried that they would be disappointed by the lake in the rain. Luckily, she heard their laughter as they talked about a poetry competition under the title of The Red Lake in the Rain. Nuannuan was happy to hear that.
Before midday, Xue Chuanxin had someone fetch Nuannuan. He said to her: “Now we should start the second project.”
Nuannuan did not understand. She asked: “The second project?”
Xue Chuanxin smiled: “Have you forgotten about the shack we built earlier?” He pointed at the Farewell Shack in front of Shang Xin Yuan.
Nuannuan started to remember about what they had discussed. She asked again: “What shall we do?”
“The first step, we will decide what will be on display in the Farewell Shack. I have thought about it, and I think we should make a sacrificial table with wood planks. The style must be simple and archaic. We will put several replicates of the excavated Chu Ding, chime bells and potteries. In addition, there will be a lit incense burner and several wax goods made in the shapes of food used for sacrifice.”
“Consider it done.” Nuannuan nodded.
“The next step is to decide on the performance. I have thought about it, too. There will be four acts: Act 1 “Arrival of the Boats”, King Wen of Chu, also known as King Zi, rides the boats with his queen and his stewards; and the boats will arrive in a line with a background music of bugles and bamboo whistles. Boats in the time of Chu were not grand or extravagant, but we must make them with an imposing manner, so the decoration must look as “Chu” as possible so that the visitors will find it unique. Act 2 “Disembark”, King Zi steps out of the boats in the music of Chu and walks towards the Farewell Shack with his queen, his stewards following them. The group must also look majestic to impress the visitors. Act 3 “Ceremony”, King Zi walks into the Farewell Shack with his queen to offer incense and kneel down. All of his stewards will kneel too. King Zi will be quietly speaking words of the ceremony and cast the solemn ambience of the farewell ceremony. Act 4 “Departure”, King Zi will start walking back towards the lake with his queen and stewards; he looks back with every step he takes. After they are on board again, they will again kneel down on the boats and farewell their birthplace. The ships will slowly start to leave at that moment. The visitors must feel the sorrow of goodbye.”
Nuannuan looked at Xue Chuanxin in amazement and said: “You and your intricate plan! You are as professional as a movie director. Ok, we will do as you said.”
“The third step, we must decide the cast members of the performance. Again I have thought about it. This performance requires no lines, so people need nothing but put on clothes in the style of Chu and make movements according to the script. So there is no need to hire professional actors. We shall hire people in your village, boys and girls, men and women. Young men can play the soldiers and generals, and older men can be the king’s advisors. Young women can play the queen and the consorts while the older ones can be their servants. How about this: we shall not pay them too much for every performance, but they will still get some extra income by doing this. The performance will not
last more than one hour, so they can arrange their other work well. Also, we will not put on a daily performance; once a week is enough. You will choose the cast members!”
Nuannuan asked: “How many in total?”
“80. The more people, the more grandeur the performance will look!”
“Ok.”
“The next step, we prepare the clothes, props and ships for the performance. You will choose the cast members and I will take care of the rest.”
Nuannuan was relieved to hear those words …
People in the village did not sign up for the performance of Shang Xin Yuan when they first heard about the job opportunity. However, after they found out about the 10 yuan per person who acted in one performance, many were eager to try: 10 yuan can buy one jin of pork, quite enough for a good meal of dumplings. Later on, Xue Chuanxin had the security guards in Shang Xin Yuan put up a rehearsal and showed people that the job required no more than putting up clothes, caps and swords of a general’s or a soldier’s, and walk between the lake and the shack; nothing difficult at all. After that, people started signing up. The first ones to sign up were young people who were already working in Chu Di Ju and Shang Xin Yuan. Following them were the mid-aged men and women in the village. Chu Wang Village seemed busier as the hiring and role distribution started. Shallot went to Nuannuan, looking embarrassed. She said to her: “Could you perhaps put Changlin in a small role so that he can earn 10 yuan himself?”
Nuannuan knew of Changlin’s limp arm and his struggle to do any work. But she could not refuse. She bowed her head and thought for a while before she asked Shallot: “Can he row a boat with one arm?”
Shallot responded: “He does everything with one arm.”
Nuannuan said: “Then he will be rowing King Zi’s boat.”
After several days of auditions and planning, the cast members were finally chosen. But who would play King Zi? Nuannuan could not make the decision. Xue Chuanxin said to her: “It will be best if Kaitian will play the role. He is the leader, people will listen to his instructions as the king.”
Nuannuan thought about it and consented. She told Kaitian about the role at the dinner table.
Half a month had passed when all clothes and props were prepared in the provincial city. When Xue Chuanxin came back to Chu Wang Village with the goods, he also brought back a TV-series director. The boats, on the other hand, were bought from another village closer to the lake. The decorations were changed into the style of Chu afterwards. Despite their modest size, the boats looked quite prestigious when put together. The morning after all preparations were ready, after breakfast, Xue Chuanxin asked Nuannuan to gather all cast members in front of Shang Xin Yuan, so that the director could give each the clothes and teach everyone to put them on. The scene was quite interesting; with 80 people all dressed as people of Chu. They looked at each other and burst into laughter. The birds in the trees were driven away by the laughter.
Later on, the director started the rehearsal with the aid of Xue Chuanxin and Nuannuan. Thanks to Nuannuan’s precaution that no payment would be made if anyone was to loaf on the rehearsal or work against the director, everyone paid good attention. The performance was not difficult, so the show was quite fine after three run-throughs. The director was pleased and said: “We will do a couple of rehearsals like this and the show will be presentable next week.”
Coincidentally, two groups of visitors from Wuhan and Shanxi respectively had arrived at Shang Xin Yuan. There were also some other guests staying in Chu Di Ju. Wishing to extend their stay by one more day, Nuannuan suggested to Xue Chuanxin that the performance of Farewell premier on the day of the guests’ departure so that they could offer some opinions and ideas. Xue Chuanxin agreed after a discussion with the director.
The night before the premier, Nuannuan had all staffs noticing the guests about the “wonderful situational show, Farewell in the time of Chu”. Some guests left after breakfast, with no interest in the performance. The next morning, before the boats started to let people on board, according to the director’s instructions, Nuannuan waved the yellow flag tied to a long bamboo pole in front of Shang Xin Yuan. At that moment, a line of “Chu boats” emerged from a bed of reeds close to the riverbank in the shape of a long snake. People dressed up and stood on each boat decorated in the style of Chu, with men playing an instrument made of either pottery or horns, making a touching music sounded quite like weeping. Some others played the bamboo whistles. In no time the weeping music and the sound of the whistles filled the air and greatly attracted the attention of the visitors. Those who were ready to get on board with their luggage all ran close to see the show. With the sound of music, the Chu boats disembarked. 30 soldiers, with bronze swords in their hands, swiftly jumped on the pier and ran towards the Farewell Shack in two lines at a fast speed. In a blink of eye, the soldiers had formed two rows, with the exact same distance between each other, by the sides of the road. Suddenly the weeping music and the whistling noise stopped. Taking its place, the beautiful music of Chu played from the loudspeakers on top of several trees. At the same time, “King Zi”, with his queen and stewards, began to step out of their boats and walked slowly towards the shack. Advisors and stewards, in their various clothes, had attracted praising words from the crowd; the majestic group with their solemn movement had also made all visitors open their eyes wide in awe and curiosity. In front of the Farewell Shack, King Zi and his followers knelt down towards the North. “My mother, my ancestors: thy son, thy descendants, had to move to a new capital today; though my body will be on another soil, this soul will stay with thee; one day this body will return and offer the sacrifice again to thee …” in the loudspeaker, the voice of King Zi sounded sorrowful …
The visitors and other people from the village found the performance highly interesting. As the group finished the ceremony and started towards the boats, loud applause burst out in the crowd.
Many visitors missed their boats and had to stay for an extra day.
The performance was a big success.
Chapter 42
The show Farewell had become one of Chu Wang Village’s most attractive tourist activities. Praise travelled fast, and people in various counties and cities all knew of the show in Chu Wang Village. A lot of visitors came just to see the show. More and more tourists swarmed into the village. Though they agreed on one performance every week, Nuannuan and Xue Chuanxin had to change the performance into once every three days because of the enthusiastic requirement of the visitors. The cast members were more than happy about the change because they could earn more money from more shows. It was not difficult for them to finish working in the farm beforehand. Moreover, the job was also quite interesting. People were excited about putting on the performance.
At first, Kaitian was reluctant to join the show. However, as time went by, he became more and more active. During the first performances, Nuannuan had to push him into the set. He was not comfortable as an actor; sometimes he might even refuse to go with the excuse of meetings in the village committee. After a couple of performances, he became more and more interested. On the days of the show, he would put on the clothes of King Zi early and waited for the others to arrive at the venue. There were actually some meetings in the village committee, but he would arrange the schedule well so that the meetings would hold on days without the show. He was quite serious about the job: he did not only pay much attention to his own acting; he would be upset by other people if one of them were not performing to a certain standard. He would scold them: “If you decide to do it, do it well.”
Kaitian’s performance greatly satisfied Nuannuan, Xue Chuanxin and the director. The director asked him how he felt about playing the king. He thought for a while and answered: “It just feels so good. To have so many people surrounding you, paying respect to you without the gut to say no to you. All of them, they are your subjects. You can do whatever you like to them. That feels good, nice.”
One day during sunset, the head of each
family were gathered by the village committee to discuss the donation for the construction of an elementary school nearby. Nuannuan walked past the committee office on her way home from Shang Xin Yuan, so she stopped to listen. Most people had agreed to donate 120 yuan per household if there was a child going to school. Some others proposed 100 yuan and 130 yuan each household. In the end, Kaitian spoke out: “Listen to me, we will go with 166 yuan per family. This is an auspicious number!”
The crowd fell silent for a while. Then, two men stood up and said: “Mr. Leader, 166 yuan is a little too much for us. The extra 30 yuan means a lot to us!”
Nuannuan thought Kaitian would explain his intentions of deciding on 166 Yuan. On the contrary, he simply glared at the two men and asked in a cold voice: “Who makes the decision in this village of Chu Wang Village? You or me?!”
The two men could not answer. The crowd dared not speak, seeing Kaitian’s angry face and cold attitude. Nuannuan looked at Kaitian. She felt as if she was looking at a stranger.
One afternoon after several days, Nuannuan was finishing cooking at home when she saw Kaitian ride a brand-new motorcycle into the courtyard. She was surprised. “Whose new motorcycle is this?” asked Nuannuan as she stepped forwards to touch the motorcycle’s shining paint.
“Mine!”
Nuannuan was more surprised: “Yours? When did you buy it?”
“I was the only one riding a bike to the meetings in the town office. Chief secretaries and leaders from other villages all rode motorcycles. I was embarrassed to show up like that! So I had a discussion with the chief secretary and we bought two of these: one for him, one for me.”
“With the money of the village committee?”
