Ocean of Words

by Ha Jin

The news came at three o’clock that Lev had been caught. Rejoining our company, our platoon took a truck to the Divisional Headquarters to wait for him. Everybody was talking about how to handle Lev once we had him in our hands again.

  It turned out that Lev had never known what city he was in, nor had he been able to tell in what direction Russia was. All night he ran inland, but he covered only thirty li. He had been totally spoiled by us. Contrary to our fears, he simply couldn’t eat anything in the fields. He had eaten too much of the delicate food and the best candies, and had smoked too many of the expensive cigarettes, so for a whole night he didn’t eat anything, no matter how hungry he was. By noon he couldn’t endure the hunger anymore; he got out of the cornfield where he had hidden himself, went over to an old peasant who was passing by, and asked him for food and cigarettes. The old man knew who he was, brought him home, and gave him a pipe, then told his wife to cook. In the meantime his daughter ran to the office of their production brigade to tell the militia. When the militiamen arrived, Lev was eating scallion cake, scrambled eggs, and bean sprouts. They surrounded the house but didn’t disturb him. Then a jeep from Chaoyang County’s Military Department came and picked him up.

  Now we were ready to receive him. The militia, the police, and the people on the streets all knew we had recaptured the “Russian agent.” Standing in two lines at the entrance of the Divisional Headquarters, we kept the militiamen and the people away from the front sentry post. Some of them carried guns and many held carrying poles and spades. They declared they wanted to teach the “Russian agent” an unforgettable lesson. Everyone was angry, having not slept for a night and having trudged around for twenty hours. Besides, so many crops had been trampled. Even some policemen said they wanted to beat the Big Nose too.

  Our squad was told to accompany him back to the Eastern Airport. From now on, all the privileges Lev had enjoyed were taken away, and his daily meal expenses would be the same as ours. He was to eat with us.

  Here came the jeep. The moment it stopped, Lev got out with a pair of handcuffs on his wrists. Some people were rushing to him. Lev could tell they wanted to beat him, so he hurried to us but then paused, probably noticing us all fully armed. We hated him — because of him we were notorious now, and every one of us would have to do self-criticism for several days.

  Seeing the few men around him holding only carrying poles, we didn’t seriously intervene but merely shouted, “Don’t beat him. Don’t use force.” We thought a few strokes wouldn’t hurt him much and would give him enough of a warning not to escape again.

  “Ouch!” Lev slumped down and started screaming. His body spun around on the gravel road and fell into the roadside ditch. There he lay on his back, and the green uniform on him turned mottled. His arms circled his head, wriggling to loosen the handcuffs, while his legs stretched motionless.

  “Halt, halt!” We all ran over and pushed the wild people away. We had not expected they would beat him as if they wanted to kill him. A young man was still struggling along in the crowd, waving a carrying pole in the air and crying, “Let me go! I’ll get even with him, the Russian Tartar.” He was the one who had broken Lev’s right leg. We caught him, together with his pole, and brought him into the headquarters. Later we came to know that his elder brother, a platoon leader in the militia, had been shot by a carbine going off accidentally that morning.

  Meanwhile Lev was moved into the Office of Mail and Information. He smelled like a goat, and his body was quivering on the cement floor. He was moaning in a choked voice and kept his eyes closed, as if he were a dumb animal that couldn’t speak a human word, although Interpreter Jiao was standing by. Some parts of his clothes were soaked with sweat. Squad Leader Shi held up Lev’s neck and raised a glass of cold water to his mouth. Lev drank it up without opening his eyes. It seemed he didn’t care whether we gave him water or poison.

  Doctor Cai came with an ambulance. We carried Lev out and put him into the van. Immediately the siren started and the ambulance sped to the Twenty-third Field Hospital.

  That night we packed up and returned from the airport to our billet in the Company Headquarters. It was the last time we saw Lev, whose identity was clarified after his escape, since he had no one to meet and even fled toward Beijing to get back to Russia.

  We were told two months later that he was returned to his country in exchange for a defector from the Fourth Regiment. Though we knew who Lev Petrovich was now, I guess, it would not be easy for him to prove who he was to the Russians. They would suspect him of being either a traitor or a Chinese agent. Lucky for him, he had a broken leg.

  THE FELLOW TOWNSMEN

  After lunch I was lying on the bed and reading a novel, The Boundless Snow and Forest. Scribe Hsu Fang came in and said, “Instructor Chen, there’s a man outside from your hometown. He wants to see you.”

  “Really, who is he? Are you sure he is my fellow townsman?” I got up and put the book on the bedside table.

  “Yes, he said he wanted to see you.”

  I went out to the drill ground. The sun was scorching. The barracks were quiet since the men of my company were taking a nap.

  Hmm, Chu Tian, of course he was my townsman. Although he wore civvies, I recognized him at first sight. If he had shed his skin and flesh, I could have identified his bones. Strange to say, he was carrying on his back a sleeping child, from whose gaping mouth was dripping a thread of saliva. He smiled at me awkwardly, his bony face stretching sideways and his cupped ears sticking out of unkempt hair.

  “Why do you want to see me?” I asked, wondering how he had fallen into such a state. How did he come to be like a beggar, wearing blue rags and reeking of ram urine? He reminded me of a pig in a muddy pen.

  “Chen Jun, I — I wouldn’t trouble you, if I had a way out. My boy is sick, pneumonia, so we came to you for help.” His thick nose twitched.

  “Why me? Aren’t you a doctor yourself?”

  “I don’t know anybody here but you. Please forget the hard feelings between us for the moment. He’s dying. Save the child, please!”

  What could I do? I led him into my room in the Company Headquarters and then sent for the medic, Ren Ming. The boy seemed very sick and hardly made any noise.

  Ren told me we had plenty of penicillin. Being a doctor himself, Chu sterilized a syringe with a cotton ball and injected a large dose into his son’s rump. He lay the boy on my bed. “There, there, have a good sleep.” He covered him with a dirty jacket.

  Damn, allowed into my room, he took my bed.

  Chu turned to me. “The pneumonia was caused by measles. But as long as we have penicillin, I can cure him.” He sighed. “We’ve traveled for over a month, sometime sleeping in train stations at night and sometimes in the open air. I’m lucky that I haven’t fallen ill myself. He’s too young to stand this kind of life.”

  I didn’t make any comment, but his last few sentences aroused my interest. Scribe Hsu Fang brought in a thermos bottle and three mugs. He placed them on my desk and went out.

  “I have a lot of things to do this afternoon,” I said, ready to leave. “You can stay here with the boy.”

  As I was walking out, Chu stood up. The rascal, at least he didn’t forget to be respectful here.

  I don’t know why I didn’t tell him to go away, to get out of my face. I hated him. He had been engaged to my elder sister for three years and then jilted her because he had been promoted to officer’s rank in the army. Certainly girls in Beijing were more attractive, with whiter faces and softer bodies, certainly he was no longer the country boy he had been, but it was immoral for him to throw away his fiancée simply because his status had improved. My sister wept for days, saying she could not go out and face others. I remembered that I had wanted to go to Chu Village, which is six li from ours, and ask his parents to give a good reason for his breach, but my mother stopped me, saying there was no use. The Chus were too powerful for us to quarrel with.

  I hated his guts! But what should I do now? In t
he presence of my men, I could not be rude to him, especially after the sentry, the medic, the orderly, and the scribe had all seen the sick boy. Though reluctant to treat him as a fellow townsman, I told the mess squad to prepare a guest dinner for two. In the soldiers’ eyes, it would be shameful to let your fellow townsman eat an ordinary meal. It seemed he wouldn’t leave in hours, and I had to pay out of my own pocket for the dinner. Of course I didn’t mind feeding him, but only with horse droppings.

  How had he come to be living the life of a vagrant? What a dandy he had been six years before, when he returned home for the Spring Festival from Beijing, where he served as a doctor in the army’s Central Hospital. Both his wife, a pharmacist, and he wore shiny leather shoes and brand-new green overcoats. When they walked on the street, children would follow them, whistling and shouting, “Big officers. Turn back. Big officers.” At that time, I was merely a squad leader, and he didn’t bother to nod his head when we passed each other in our town. Now look at him — even the dogs in his home village would growl at such a tramp.

  Company Commander Yee was away with the Third Platoon in the Southern Mountains helping the peasants with their harvest, so I didn’t invite anybody to dinner and sat alone with Chu in my room. The boy, still sleeping, was better, his temperature three degrees lower. Chu kept glancing at the pork ribs and the fried tofu on the table.

  “Help yourself.” I filled my own bowl with rice. I didn’t share a cup of liquor with him. A good meal was more than enough.

  He swallowed a large piece of tofu and took a mouthful of rice. “Oh, thank you, Brother Chen. I haven’t had such food for five weeks.”

  Shut up! Who’s your brother?

  “Brother Chen.” He started again, showing his big yellow teeth. “I’ll never forget this. Oh, so delicious!” His lips were oily.

  I didn’t say a word, just ate. He sensed my resentment and kept quiet.

  After two bowls, I asked him casually, “What’s happened to you?”

  He gave out a sigh, still chewing on a rib. “It’s hard to explain in a few words.”

  “Tell me about it.”

  As I was making tea, he began his story. “Two months ago, at a cadre meeting, the commissar of our hospital asked us to make criticisms. Everybody was supposed to say something. When it was my turn, I stood up and spoke on behalf of the Senior Officer Ward, because I was the acting director.”

  “What did you say?” I put a mug of tea before him.

  “Thanks. I said, ‘Seven nurses in my ward complained to me that a few senior leaders had made a pass at them. One general ripped Nurse Wen’s skirt last week. I don’t want to mention his name here. This sort of thing happens again and again in our ward. Those senior officers are older revolutionaries, who should be a model for us of the younger generation. On top of that, they all have grandchildren. It’s a shame for them to behave like that.” ’ He picked a tea leaf from the mug and took a sip.

  I wanted to laugh. What a blockhead. But I asked, “Then what happened?”

  “At the meeting, the commissar said he would look into this matter. Everything seemed all right. But a week later, all of a sudden, the walls at the front of the hospital were covered with big-character posters, calling me names and accusing me of spreading counterrevolutionary views. I was scared. This was a matter of life and death. I had seen with my own eyes Marshal Chen Yi being roughed up by the Red Guards. I was nobody; if I fell into the hands of the revolutionary masses in our hospital, it would be my end. Two days later, when we were eating lunch, our neighbor Mrs. Liu hurried in and said, ‘Young Chu, run, quick! They’re coming for you.’ Then we heard footsteps thumping in the stairwell. It was impossible to escape through the door now. My wife is a coolheaded woman. She said. ‘Take our child with you; they won’t leave him alone.’ So I carried this boy on my back and climbed across to the Lius’ balcony. I heard them yelling at my wife in our home, and I sneaked out through the Lius’ apartment. I went to the railroad station directly and took a train, which happened to come to the Northeast. That’s why we’re here now.”

  “You are lucky.” I didn’t know why I said that. “Do you have any relatives here?”

  “No, I don’t know anybody but you. We just roam around, sometimes taking a train and sometimes walking. In Changchun City I saw a notice with my picture on it. It said I was a counterrevolutionary criminal and must be brought to justice. I’m sorry, I don’t mean to get you involved —”

  Orderly Meng Hai came in and set about clearing the table. I gave Chu a Glory cigarette, which he lit and drew at as if sucking his mother’s breast. The child woke up. I told Meng to leave a bowl of food. Seeing meat and rice, the boy seemed to forget his illness and started bolting the food down. “Daddy, zo goot,” he mumbled with his mouth full. I noticed that, unlike his father, the boy had the round eyes which were typical among the Chus.

  “Eat slowly, Dundun.” Chu touched his son’s forehead, then said to me, “He’s much better. The medicine works.”

  As soon as the orderly went out, Chu resumed, “I really don’t want to get you into trouble, but we can’t go to a hospital, you know. We won’t stay long. I’m grateful, Chen Jun.”

  “You can’t stay here for long. This is not a safe place either. Fortunately, the company commander is not home tonight.”

  “I understand. We’ll leave tomorrow morning. Could you do me a favor, my good brother?”

  “What?”

  “Please give me a syringe and some penicillin.”

  “I’ll see what I can do.”

  Nothing could be easy between him and me. Now he was in my hands, and I would not give him a pleasant time. My mother hadn’t been able to raise her head before the villagers when he broke the engagement. My sister could have eaten him alive.

  That night I told the medic to wrap up the medicine and a syringe, but this didn’t mean I would let Chu go as he pleased. In fact, lying in the company commander’s bed, I was thinking if I should report Chu to the Divisional Political Department. Who knew whether what he had told me was true or not? He might have been a true reactionary. This was an opportunity to show my loyalty to the Party and also get even with the Chus. Two weeks before, I had heard that the Political Department was considering promoting me to vice chief of the Divisional Officer Section. A company political instructor about to be promoted directly to a rank equal to a battalion commander’s, do you think I would just sit waiting for the big pie to fall into my mouth? No, I had to do something. What was more appropriate than turning in a counterrevolutionary?

  How about the child? I wouldn’t care a damn. The boy was a seed of the Chus and should share his father’s fate. I wouldn’t mind if they were both captured. Tomorrow the first thing I was going to do was call the Divisional Political Department.

  I went to sleep with the plan in my head.

  But the next morning I began to change my mind. One thing I had not taken into account was that, if they came to arrest Chu, they might not be able to take the child with them, because Chu would surely ask me to take care of the little monster. Probably he’d beg me to have the boy sent back to our hometown, to Chu Village. How could I refuse my fellow townsman in the presence of the officers and soldiers? The child could be anything but a reactionary. I had to figure out a proper way to handle this.

  After breakfast they were ready to leave. I had no time to think out an adequate solution, which could please the higher-ups and at the same time keep myself free from blame for Chu’s arrest. It seemed there was no chance of making the job clean. I went on scratching my scalp but could not come up with an idea.

  Finally, when I followed them out with the medical package under my arm, I said to myself, All right, let the rascal slip through your fingers just this once. There will be another time.

  At the entrance of our building, I gave him the medicine. His eyes turned watery when he saw it. “My good Brother Chen, you are our benefactor. We will never forget you. Come down, Dundun, kowtow to Uncl
e Chen.” He put the dirty boy on the ground.

  “No, it’s not necessary.” I picked the small monkey up and handed him back to his father. I didn’t want him to make a show in front of Orderly Meng and Scribe Hsu. Then, Heaven knows what muddled my brain at that moment, I took two ten-yuan bills out of my wallet and handed them to Chu.

  He accepted the money and said with tears in his eyes: “Our savior, as long as we live, we’ll remember this!” He turned around and walked away with the child on his back. The chilly breeze was lifting their rumpled hair from behind, while dried leaves were scuttling about ahead of them.

  I am not sure why I did that. Perhaps I wanted to show my men that I was generous, or perhaps I wanted that scoundrel to remain grateful.

  MY BEST SOLDIER

  I couldn’t believe it when I saw that the photo sent over by the Regimental Political Department was Liu Fu’s. How clumsy he looked in it: a submachine gun slanted before his chest; above his army fur hat, in the right corner, stretched a line of Chinese characters, DEFEND MY MOTHERLAND; his smile was still a country boy’s, lacking the sternness of a soldier’s face. He had been in my platoon for only about ten months. How could he, a new soldier, become a secret customer of Little White Fairy in Hutou Town so soon?

  Our political instructor, the Party secretary of our company, interrupted my thought. “I’ve talked with him, and he admitted he had gone to that woman six times this year.”

  “Six times?” Again I was surprised. “He is new. How could he get to know her so quick?”

  “I asked the same question.” Instructor Chang tapped his cigarette lightly over an ashtray and raised his head, looking across the small room in which we were sitting. He wanted to make sure that the orderly was not in the next room. “I think there must have been a pimp, but Liu Fu insisted he got to know the Fairy by himself when he had his hair cut in her barbershop. Obviously he is a novice in this business. No old hand would leave his picture with that weasel.”