Frog

  It’s not too late to come to your senses, I said.

  What the hell does that mean? she spat angrily. Come to my senses? I’ve just been venting to a member of my own family, a little private bitching. Your aunt is a steadfastly loyal Communist who did not waver when she was being brutalised during the Cultural Revolution, so why would she now? No, family planning is absolutely essential. If we let people have all the babies they want, that’s thirty million a year, three hundred million a decade. At that rate, in fifty years the Chinese population alone would flatten the earth. So we must lower the birth rate, no matter what it costs. That will be China’s greatest contribution to humanity.

  I understand what you’re saying, Gugu, I said, but my immediate problem is, Renmei has run off . . .

  She can run but she can’t hide. Where could she go? She’s hiding in your father-in-law’s house.

  Renmei has a stubborn streak, and if she’s pushed too far, I’m afraid she might do something stupid . . .

  You can stop worrying. I’ve come up with a plan. I’ve fought it out with women like her for decades, and I know exactly how they think. They’re all talk, and she won’t kill herself. She likes living too much. It’s the quiet ones who might hang themselves or take poison. In all my years working with family planning, the women who kill themselves do so for some other reason, so you have nothing to worry about.

  Then what do I do? I said, still troubled. I can’t truss her up like a pig and drag her to the hospital.

  We may have to get tough with her, Gugu said, especially since it’s your wife. Being my nephew is your bad luck, because if I let her go ahead, how am I going to deal with the masses? They’d be on me as soon as I opened my mouth.

  I have no choice but to do as you say, I said. Should I bring members of my unit to help out?

  I’ve already sent your unit a telegram.

  Was it you who sent the first telegram?

  Yes, it was me.

  Since you knew early on that she was pregnant, why didn’t you take care of it then?

  I didn’t know till I returned from attending two months of meetings in the county capital. That bastard Yuan Sai, she sputtered, all he ever gives me is trouble. Fortunately, someone reported him. That will save us trouble later on.

  Will he be punished?

  If I had my way, they’d shoot him! she said angrily.

  I doubt that Renmei was the only one.

  We have a handle on this. There’s your wife, the wife of Wang Qi at Wang Clan hamlet, the wife of Jin Niu in Sun Family Village, and Wang Dan, Chen Bi’s wife – she’s the farthest along. There are another dozen or so in other counties, but they’re not our concern. We’ll start with your wife, and then the rest, one after the other. No one will get away.

  What if they leave the province?

  Gugu sneered. Even the magical monkey Sun Wukong could not escape from the Buddha’s palm.

  I’m in the army, Gugu, so Renmei should have the procedure. But Wang Dan and Chen Bi are farmers, and their first child was a girl. According to policy, they can have a second. She’s so tiny that getting pregnant is always hard . . .

  Gugu cut me off with a taunt: You haven’t taken care of your own problem, so what are you doing speaking up for them? The policy is that they can have a second child, but only after the first child’s eighth birthday. How old is their daughter, Chen Er?

  It’s only a matter of a few years, I said.

  How glib that sounds, Gugu said sombrely. Just a few years early, but what if everyone was just a few years early? This would be a terrible precedent, it’d make a mess of things. Forget about other people. You’ve got problems of your own.

  9

  Gugu led a special family-planning team into our village. Her second-in-command was the deputy commander of the armed police bureau. In addition to Little Lion, the team consisted of half a dozen brawny militiamen. They arrived in a van equipped with a loudspeaker and a powerful caterpillar tractor.

  But before the team entered the village, I knocked on my father-in-law’s gate for the second time. This time he allowed me in.

  You were in the army too, I said to him. There we do as we’re told. Disobeying an order is not an option.

  He mulled over what I said as he smoked a cigarette. If you knew she couldn’t have another child, he said finally, then why let her get pregnant? How is she supposed to have an abortion so late in her pregnancy? What if she doesn’t get through it? She’s my daughter, the only one I have.

  Don’t blame me for this.

  Then who should I blame?

  If you’re looking for someone to blame, look no further than that bastard Yuan Sai. He’s already under arrest.

  I’m telling you now that if anything happens to my daughter, I’ll come looking for you and will put these old bones on the line.

  My aunt says there’s no problem. She says they’ve even done it at seven months.

  Your aunt isn’t a human being, she’s a demon! my mother-in-law jumped in. How many lives has she destroyed over the past few years? Her hands are covered in blood, and when she dies the King of Hell is going to chop her into pieces.

  What good does saying things like that do? my father-in-law said. This is men’s business.

  How can it be men’s business? she asked shrilly. They want to push our daughter down to the gates of Hell. How is that men’s business?

  I’m not going to argue with you, Mother, I said. Tell Renmei to come out here. I need to talk to her.

  Why are you looking for her here? She’s a member of your family now and that’s where she lives. What have you done to her? Give her back to me!

  Hear that, Renmei? I said loudly. I had a talk with Gugu yesterday. I told her I planned to give up my Party membership and my commission and take up farming again so you can have the child. She told me I can’t do that. That business with Yuan Sai has shaken things up all the way up to the provincial government, and county authorities gave her an order that all illegal pregnancies in her area had to be terminated.

  We won’t allow it! my mother-in-law shrieked as she flung a basin full of dirty water at me. What kind of society are we living in? Tell that slut of an aunt to come here and we’ll have it out once and for all! She can’t have babies, and seeing others have them makes her mad. She’s jealous.

  I left the house, drenched in filthy water.

  When the work team van stopped outside my in-laws’ house, every able-bodied villager showed up, including Xiao Shangchun, who’d suffered a stroke, and hobbled up, aided by a cane. Impassioned speech spewed from the loudspeaker: Family planning is a high priority, it impacts the nation’s future and that of the people . . . it is essential for a country capable of implementing the four modernisations to control and improve the quality of its population . . . those with illegal pregnancies must not trust to luck to slip through the net . . . the people’s eyes are bright. You can hide in caves or deep in a forest, but you will not get away . . . anyone who attacks family-planning personnel will be punished as counter-revolutionaries . . . anyone who subverts family planning by whatever means will be severely punished under Party and state law . . .

  Gugu took the lead, followed by the deputy bureau chief, with Little Lion bringing up the rear. My father-in-law’s door was shut tight. A couplet pasted on the gate read: Our rivers and mountains have prospered for millennia/Eternal spring graces the fatherland. Gugu turned and said to the crowd behind her, Without family planning, the face of the nation will change, the fatherland will collapse. Then where will we find prosperity for the millennia? Where will we seek an eternal spring? Gugu rapped the metal knocker and shouted in her characteristically raspy voice, Wang Renmei, did you really think you could fool me by hiding in the potato cellar by the pigpen? The county Party committee and the army have been alerted to your case, and you have set a bad example. There are two paths you can take from here: you can come out of there on your own and go with me to the health centre to terminate your pr
egnancy. Since you are so far along, we will accompany you, and our most experienced doctor will perform the procedure. Or you can be defiant, in which case the tractor will pull down the houses of your parents’ neighbours on all sides, then pull down your parents’ house. Your father will have to cover all your neighbours’ losses. Even after that, we will still terminate your pregnancy. If it were someone else, I would treat her with kindness, but not you. Have you heard me, Wang Renmei? How about you, Wang Jinshan and Wu Xiuzhi? Gugu made a point of calling Renmei’s parents by name.

  Nothing stirred on the other side of the gate for a long moment. Then a young rooster crowed. My mother-in-law’s voice was next: Wan Xin, you black-hearted, inhumane monster . . . a bad death awaits you . . . after you die, you’ll have to climb a mountain of knives and boil in hot oil, your skin will be peeled, your eyes will be gouged out, and you’ll burn from head to toe.

  With a snicker, Gugu turned to the deputy militia chief. Go ahead, she said.

  He had his men drag a long, thick cable up to the gate of the neighbour to the east and wrap it around an old scholar tree. With his hand on his cane, Xiao Shangchun bounded out of the crowd and jabbered at the top of his lungs: That’s our family’s tree! He tried to hit my aunt with his cane, but lost his balance in the attempt. So, this is your tree, Gugu said coldly. My apologies, but you seem to have chosen you neighbour poorly.

  You’re all local bandits . . . a bunch of Guomindang operatives . . .

  The Guomindang curses us as ‘Commie bandits’, Gugu said with a cruel smile. Calling us local bandits shows you’re not in the same league as the Guomindang.

  I’m going to sue you people . . . my son works in the State Council.

  Go ahead and sue, all the way to the top if you can manage.

  Xiao Shangchun threw down his cane and wrapped his arms around the scholar tree. You can’t pull my tree down, he said tearfully. Yuan Sai said that this tree carries the lifeblood of my family; if it flourishes, so does my family . . .

  Gugu laughed. I wonder if Yuan Sai calculated when he’d be arrested.

  You’ll have to kill me first, Xiao bawled.

  Xiao Shangchun, Gugu said sternly, what’s happened to the ferocity you displayed when you were beating and making life miserable for people during the Cultural Revolution? Look at you, crying and snivelling like an old woman.

  You can’t fool me, I know you’re exploiting your public office for personal gain . . . plotting revenge against me . . . it’s your niece with the illegal pregnancy, so how can you pull down my tree . . .

  Not just your tree, Gugu said. When it’s down, we’re going to pull down your gate arch, and then your house. Crying out here won’t do you any good. You should go see Wang Jinshan. Gugu took the bullhorn from Little Lion and directed it at the crowd. All you neighbours of Wang Jinshan, listen carefully. In accordance with special regulations issued by the commune family-planning committee, since Wang Jinshan is shielding his daughter, who is maintaining an illegal pregnancy in defiance of the government, and insulting authorised workers, we will now pull down the houses of his neighbours on all sides. You can go to Wang Jinshan to recoup your losses. If you do not want your houses to be destroyed, now is the time to persuade him to have his daughter come out.

  My father-in-law’s neighbours erupted in a chorus of shouts.

  Carry out the order, Gugu said to the deputy militia chief.

  The caterpillar tractor roared into action, making the ground beneath our feet tremble.

  The steel beast began to move, slowly picking up the slack in the cable, which sang out as it tautened. The leaves on the tree started to flutter.

  Xiao Shangchun ran as fast as his limping leg would take him up to my father-in-law’s gate, where he pounded like a madman. Wang Jinshan, you and your fucking ancestors are the scourge of your neighbours. You will not die well!

  In his anxiety, his garbled speech inexplicably turned clear.

  The only sounds on the other side of the gate were the heartbreaking howls of my mother-in-law.

  Gugu raised her arm for the sake of the deputy militia chief and then made a chopping motion.

  Step on it! the man shouted to the driver.

  The roar of the tractor thudded against eardrums, the cable stretched taut enough to cut into the bark of the tree, from which sap oozed. Inch by inch the tractor moved ahead, sending blue smoke spurting into the sky from the vertical exhaust pipe up front. The driver, who was wearing blue canvas overalls, a white towel around his neck and a duckbill cap, kept looking back, biting his lip under a black moustache. He had the look of a model worker. The tree creaked as it began to list, such a sad sound. The cable had bitten deeply into the trunk, white wood showing as chunks of the bark broke off.

  Get your arse out here, Wang Jinshan! Xiao Shangchun was pounding on the gate with his fists, hitting it with his knees, and butting it with his head. Now even my mother-in-law’s sobs had stopped.

  The tree leaned, farther and farther, its canopy of leaves fluttering to the ground.

  Xiao Shangchun staggered over to the tree. My tree . . . my family’s bloodline tree . . .

  Roots were moving just below the surface.

  Xiao Shangchun struggled back to my father-in-law’s gate. Wang Jinshan, you son of a bitch, we’ve been neighbours, good ones, for decades, almost becoming relatives, and now you want to destroy us.

  The roots were now exposed, like light yellow pythons, moaning as they felt the air. Some snapped in two, others grew longer and longer, all those underground pythons . . . The leafy umbrella swept the ground like a gigantic broom, willowy branches splintered as they bent down and raised eddies of dirt. The bystanders sniffed the air, which carried the smells of fresh soil and tree sap.

  Wang Jinshan, I’ll split my head open at your door, damn you! Xiao banged his head against the gate. We heard nothing, not because his head produced no sound, but because it was swallowed up by the roar of the tractor.

  The tree was dragged a dozen metres away from Xiao Shangchun’s house, leaving a gaping hole with torn roots where it had once stood. Children were already digging to find young cicadas.

  My aunt announced through the battery-operated bullhorn, Next we will pull down Xiao Shangchun’s gate arch.

  People carried Xiao over to the side, where they pinched the spot beneath his nose and massaged his chest.

  Neighbours of Wang Jinshan, take notice – Gugu spoke calmly – go to your homes to gather up your valuables. After we pull down Xiao Shangchun’s house, we’re coming for yours. I know this seems unreasonable, but lesser reason must give way to greater reason. And what is that? Family planning, controlling our population growth. I’m not afraid to be the villain, someone has to be. I know you all want me to die and go straight to Hell. Well, we Communists don’t believe in such places, and materialists have nothing to fear. And I wouldn’t be afraid even if there were such a place. Who would go to Hell if not me? Remove the cable from the tree and affix it to Xiao Shangchun’s gate arch!

  All my father-in-law’s neighbours rushed in and began kicking and pounding on his gate. They threw bricks and tiles into his yard. Someone even brought over some dry corn stalks to stand up under the eaves. Wang Jinshan, he yelled, if you don’t come out, we’ll set your house on fire!

  Finally the gate opened. Standing there was neither my father-in-law nor my mother-in-law; it was my wife. Her hair was a mess, she was covered in mud and dirt, and she had on only one shoe – the left. She’d obviously just crawled out of the cellar.

  Gugu, she said as she walked up to my aunt, isn’t it enough that I go with you?

  I always knew that my nephew’s wife had a profound understanding of right and wrong, Gugu said with a smile.

  I have to give you credit, Renmei said. If you were a man, you could command an army.

  Just like you, Gugu said. When you broke the marriage contract with the Xiao family back then, I knew you were an exceptional woman.

  Renm
ei, I said, this has been hard on you.

  Let me see your hand, Xiaopao, she said.

  I reached out my hand, not knowing what she wanted with it.

  She grabbed it and took a bite out of my wrist.

  I didn’t pull my hand back.

  Dark blood seeped from two rows of teeth marks on my wrist.

  She spat on the ground. You’re making me bleed, she said spitefully, so I did the same to you.

  I offered her my other hand.

  She pushed it away. I don’t want it, you taste like a smelly dog!

  Xiao Shangchun had come to and was pounding the ground and bawling like an old woman: Wang Renmei, Wan Xiaopao, you owe me a tree . . . you have to pay me!