Sleepyhead wiped his eyes with the back of his hand, squeezed a gob of snot with his fingers, and flung it away; it landed on the tent. Scowling in disgust, the VIP took out a white handkerchief to clean his glasses. “Qin Two,” Sleepyhead continued, “you’re an elitist. Back when Sima Ku was going to school, he stuffed a toad down your chamber pot and climbed up on the roof to sing a bad song about you. Did you smack him? Yell at him? Give him a nickname? No, no, and no!”
“This is wonderful!” Pandi said excitedly. “Zhang Decheng has brought a serious problem out into the open. Why didn’t Qin Two have the guts to punish Sima Ku? Because of Sima Ku’s wealthy family. And where did their wealth come from? They ate buns made of white flour, but never worked a field of wheat. They wore silk, but never raised a silkworm. They were drunk every day, but never distilled a drop of liquor. Fellow villagers, these rich landlords have fed on our blood, sweat, and tears. Redistributing their land and wealth is simply taking back what’s rightfully ours.”
The VIP applauded lightly to show his appreciation for Pandi’s impassioned speech. All the county and district officials, as well as the armed guards, joined in the applause.
Sleepyhead wasn’t finished. “Sima Ku is only one man, but he had four wives, while I have none. Is that fair?”
The VIP frowned.
Lu Liren said, “We don’t need to go into that, Zhang Decheng.”
“No?” Sleepyhead argued. “That’s the source of my bitterness. I may be Sleepyhead, but I’m a man, aren’t I? I’ve got a man’s tool hanging between my legs…”
Lu Liren walked up to Sleepyhead to stop the performance and raised his voice to drown out Sleepyhead’s monologue. “Fellow villagers,” he said, “Zhang Decheng’s words may be a little coarse for our ears, but his meaning is clear and undeniable. Why can some men take four, five, or more wives, while somebody like Zhang Decheng here can’t even find one?”
Debates broke out below the stage, and many eyes turned to Mother, whose face darkened; but there was no sign of anger or hate in her eyes, which were as serene as a placid lake in autumn.
Pandi nudged Sleepyhead. “You can go back down now.”
He took a couple of steps and was about to climb down off the stage when he was reminded of something. He turned and walked up to Zhao Six, grabbed him by the ear, and gave him a resounding slap. “You son of a bitch,” he growled. “Today’s your day too. You probably forgot the time you used the authority you received from Sima Ku to mistreat me!”
Zhao twisted his neck and drove his head into Sleepyhead’s belly. With a yelp, Sleepyhead fell to the ground and rolled off the stage.
The mute rushed up and kicked Zhao Six to the ground. Then he stepped down on Zhao’s neck, twisting the poor man’s face out of shape. He was gasping for breath, but even then he cried out like a man possessed, “You’ll never get me to admit a thing, never! Where’s your conscience? Your crimes are unspeakable…”
Lu Liren bent down to ask the VIP what to do. The man banged his red inkstone on the table, the sign for Lu Liren to read from a slip of paper: “Rich peasant Zhao Six has lived by exploiting others. During the war against Japan, he fed their fellow travelers. When Sima Ku governed the area, he supplied food to bandit soldiers. Now that land reform is underway, he has spread ugly rumors in open defiance of the People’s Government. If a die-hard element like him is not killed, the people’s anger will never be quelled. In the name of the Northeast Gaomi County People’s Government, I hereby sentence Zhao Six to death, judgment to be carried out at once!”
Two of the soldiers picked up Zhao Six and dragged him off like a dead dog. When they reached the weedy edge of the pond, the men backed away to let the mute step up and put a bullet in the back of Zhao’s head. His body lurched into the water. With the smoking gun still in his hand, the mute walked back onto the stage.
The terrified prisoners on stage began banging their heads on the ground. By then they’d all soiled themselves. “Spare me, spare me…” The cooking oil shop proprietress, Old Jin, crawled on her knees up to Lu Liren and wrapped her arms around his legs. “County Head Lu,” she sobbed, “spare me. I’ll give everything to the villagers – my oil, my sesame seeds, all my family property, I won’t keep anything, not even a chicken-feed trough – just don’t take my life. I’ll never do business that exploits people again…” Lu Liren tried to break free of her grasp, but she held on for dear life until an official came up and pried her fingers away. She then crawled toward the VIP. “Take care of her!” Lu Liren commanded. The mute raised his pistol and struck her in the temple. Her eyes rolled up into her head as she fell backward, her single breast pointing at the gloomy sky.
“Who else wants to pour out their bitterness?” Pandi shouted down at the crowd.
Someone began to wail. It was the blind man, Xu Xian’er, who propped himself up on a yellow bamboo staff.
“Lift him up onto the stage,” Pandi said.
No one did. So he made his way toward the stage by tapping his staff on the ground; people jumped out of his way. Then two officials hopped down and hoisted him up onto the stage.
Filled with hatred, Xu Xian’er banged the ground with his staff, punching holes in the loose dirt.
“Speak your piece, Uncle Xu,” said Pandi.
“Commander,” Xu Xian’er said, “can you really exact revenge for me?”
“Don’t worry. You see what we did for Zhang Decheng just now.”
“Then Fll say it,” he said, “I’ll say it. That bastard Sima Ku drove my wife to her grave, and my mother died of anger because of it. He owes me two lives.” Tears fell from his blind eyes.
“Take your time, uncle,” Lu Liren said.
“In the fifteenth year of the Republic, 1926, my mother spent thirty silver dollars to get me a wife, the daughter of a beggar woman in West Village. She sold a cow and a pig, plus two pecks of wheat, and all she got was thirty silver dollars. Everyone said my wife was pretty, but that word – pretty – spelled disaster. Sima Ku was only sixteen or seventeen at the time, but even at that age he was no good. Since his family had money and power, he made a habit of coming over to my house to sing and play his two-stringed huqin. Then one day he took my wife to see a local opera, and after he brought her home, he had his way with her. My wife swallowed opium and died, which upset my mother so much she hanged herself… Sima Ku, you owe me two lives! I want the government to right the wrong for me…”
He fell to his knees.
A district official came over to pull him to his feet, but he said, “I won’t get up if you won’t avenge me…”
“Uncle,” Lu Liren said, “Sima Ku will not escape the net of justice, and when we catch him, we will redress this injustice.”
“Sima Ku is a sparrow hawk, the king of the skies,” the blind man said. “You’ll never catch him. So I ask the government to repay one life with another. Execute his son and daughter. Commander, I know you’re related to Sima Ku, but if you are a true dispenser of justice, you’ll honor my request. If you let personal feelings get in the way, then Xu the blind man will go home and hang himself, so Sima won’t be able to get to me when he returns.”