The mute swung into action. He looked particularly menacing in the light of all those torches. His skin was nearly black, and glossy, as if covered with badger fat. Ah-ao – ah-ao ah-ao. Eyes of a wolf, nose of a boar, ears of an ape, face of a tiger. He roared, raised his thick, powerful arms, clenched his fists, and struck a martial pose. He kicked the body of the now dead soldier alongside the path, then turned to the three prisoners. One after the other, he drove his fist into their faces, each punch accompanied by an Ah-ao! Then he went back and did it all over again. Ah-ao! Ah-ao! Ah-ao! Each punch more devastating than the one before. The last one sent the man with his head pushed down crumpling to the ground. Commissar called a halt to his frenzy: “Speechless Sun, you are not to hit our prisoners!” The mute just grinned and pointed to Shangguan Laidi, then to himself. He walked up to Laidi, grabbing her bony shoulder with his left hand and gesturing to the crowd with his right. The Bird Fairy was looking at the torches, absorbed by their light. Laidi raised her left hand and gave the mute a resounding slap on his right cheek. The mute released her shoulder and rubbed his cheek, looking puzzled, as if not knowing where the blow had come from. First Sister then raised her right hand and gave him another resounding slap on his left cheek, this one harder than the first. The mute rocked on his heels, while First Sister stumbled backward, recoiling from the slap. Her lovely brow arched, her phoenix-like eyes widened, as she said through clenched teeth, “You bastard, you ravaged my little sister!”
“Take her away!” Commander Lu ordered. “She’s not only a turncoat, but a savage as well!”
Soldiers rushed up and grabbed First Sister by the arms. “How stupid can you get, Mother?” she shouted. “Third Sister is a phoenix, yet you married her to that mute!”
Just then a soldier rushed up and announced breathlessly, “Commander, Commissar, Commander Sha’s troops have reached Shalingzi Township.”
“Stay calm, men. I want each company commander to follow our original plan and start laying land mines.”
Commissar Jiang said, “Aunty, for your and the children’s protection, come with us to battalion headquarters.”
“No,” Mother said, shaking her head. “If we’re going to die, it will be on our own kang.”
Commissar Jiang waved a squad of soldiers over next to Mother and another squad into the house. “Dear Lord,” Mother shouted, “open your eyes and see what’s happening.”
Our family was locked into a wing of the Sima house, with sentries at the door. Gas lanterns in the adjoining room were lit, and someone inside was shouting. Beyond the village, the popping of gunshots was endless.
Commissar Jiang walked unhurriedly into our quarters carrying a lamp with a glass shade. The black smoke choked him and made our eyes water. After putting the lamp down on the table, he said, “Why are you all standing? Please, sit, have a seat.” He pointed to chairs lined against the wall. “Aunty,” he said, “this is quite an extravagant place your second son-in-law owns.” He sat down, resting his hands on his knees, and flashed us a sardonic grin. First Sister sat across a table from Commissar Jiang and said with a pout, “Commissar Jiang, inviting a deity in is one thing. Getting rid of it is quite another!” Jiang laughed. “Given all the trouble it took to get the deity here, why would I want to get rid of it?” “Mother,” First Sister said, “go ahead, sit down. They won’t do anything to you.”
“We don’t plan to do anything to any of you,” Commissar Jiang said with a smile. “Please, aunty, have a seat.”
Still cradling Zaohua, Mother sat in a chair in the corner. Eighth Sister and I, who were holding on to Mother’s clothes, stood next to her. The young Sima heir leaned his head against Sixth Sister’s shoulder, a ribbon of drool running down his chin. Sixth Sister was so sleepy she rocked back and forth. Mother grabbed her by the arm and told her to sit down. She opened her eyes, looked around, and immediately started to snore. Commissar Jiang took out a cigarette and tapped the end against his thumbnail. Then he searched his pockets, looking for a match. He didn’t find one, and First Sister found that worth celebrating. He walked over to the lamp, stuck the cigarette in his mouth, leaned over the flame, closed his eyes, and began puffing. The flame danced, the tip of the cigarette turned red and glowed. He straightened up, took the lit cigarette out of his mouth, and squeezed his lips shut; two streams of dense smoke snaked out of his nostrils. The thud of explosions somewhere beyond the village rattled the windows. The glow of fires lit up the night sky. Every few seconds we heard the cries or shouts of men out there, sometimes clear as a bell. Commissar Jiang smiled through it all, staring at Laidi as if throwing down a challenge.
Laidi fidgeted in her seat as if she was sitting on needles, making the legs of her chair creak and groan. The blood had drained from her face and her hands shook as she gripped the arms of the chair.
“Commander Sha’s cavalry troops have entered our minefield,” Commissar Jiang said sympathetically. “What a pity, all those fine horses.”
“You… you’re all living in a dream world…” First Sister stood up with her hands on the arms of the chair, but fell back into it as an even denser series of explosions split the air.
Commissar Jiang stood up and rapped leisurely on the wooden lattice separating the room from the main house and said, as if to himself, “Korean pine, all of it. I wonder how many trees were cut down just to build the Sima manor.” He raised his head to look at First Sister. “How many would you say? Support beams, crossbeams, doors and windows, flooring, walls, tables and chairs and benches…” She squirmed in her chair. “I’d say at least one whole forest!” Commissar Jiang remarked, a note of distress in his voice, as if a forest lay before him, reduced to stumps and scattered branches. “Sooner or later, these accounts will be settled,” he said dejectedly, putting the denuded forest behind him, as he walked up to First Sister and stood, legs spread, his right hand on his hip, wrist at a sharp angle. “Of course,” he said, “as we see it, Sha Yueliang is not someone dead set on being a turncoat. He was once a glorious anti-Japanese resistance fighter, and if he renounces his recent past, we are more than willing to call him comrade. Mrs. Sha, he’ll soon be our prisoner, and it will be your job to make him see the light.”
First Sister slumped against the back of the chair. “You’ll never catch him!” she said in a high-pitched voice. “Make no mistake about that! His Jeep can outrun a horse any day!”
“Well, let’s hope so,” Commissar Jiang said as he dropped his angled arm and brought his legs together. He took out a cigarette and offered it to Laidi, who shrank away from it. He brought it even closer. Laidi looked up at the mysterious smile on Commissar Jiang’s face and reached out with a trembling hand, taking the cigarette in two nicotine-stained fingers. Commissar Jiang raised his own lit cigarette to his mouth and blew the ashes off the tip, turning it bright red. He then held the lit end out for Laidi. She looked into his face again. He was still smiling. Laidi seemed flustered as she put the cigarette to her lips and touched the tip to the lit end of Jiang’s cigarette. We heard what sounded like her lips smacking. Mother was staring woodenly at the wall, Sixth Sister and young master Sima were half asleep, Sha Zaohua wasn’t making a sound. A cloud of smoke rose in front of First Sister’s face. She raised her head and leaned back, her chest sagging. The fingers holding her cigarette were wet, like loaches just scooped out of the water. The fiery tip of her cigarette burned its way quickly toward her mouth. Her hair was a mess, deep lines spoked out from the corners of her mouth, and there were dark circles under her eyes. Slowly the smile on Commissar Jiang’s face disappeared, like water on a piece of hot metal, shrinking in on itself, until it was a bright dot the size of a needlepoint, before disappearing with a brief sizzle. The smile on Commissar Jiang’s face retreated up toward his nose and vanished with a brief snap. He flipped away his cigarette, which had nearly burned down all the way to his fingers, ground it out with the tip of his shoe, and strode out of the room.