The director whispers to Tadpole, who nudges Little Lion and indicates she should hand the baby to Gao Mengjiu.
GAO MENGJIU: (softly as he looks down at the baby) A fine baby for sure. No wonder the two families are fighting over him. Hear me, Chen Mei, Little Lion, I cannot decide to whom the child belongs, so I must ask you to try to take him from me. Whoever wrests the child from my hands gets him. A messy case deserves a messy resolution. (holds the child over his head) Now!
Both Chen Mei and Little Lion rush up and grab hold of the baby, who begins to cry. Chen Mei wrests him away and holds him to her breast.
GAO MENGJIU: Yamen clerks, take the child away from Chen Mei and arrest her.
The clerks take the baby from Chen Mei and hand him to Gao.
GAO MENGJIU: Audacious Chen Mei, you falsely claimed that the baby was yours, yet you did not hesitate to wrest him out of my hands, something a real mother would not do. When Little Lion heard the baby cry, her motherly instincts would not let her do anything to harm her child, and she let go. Magistrate Bao settled a similar case centuries ago. The one who let go was the true mother. With this precedent, I award the child to Little Lion. For trying to take another’s child and lying in court, I ought to sentence Chen Mei to twenty lashes with a shoe sole. But in view of your disability, I mercifully withhold punishment. Leave this court!
Gao Mengjiu hands the baby to Little Lion.
Chen Mei shouts and struggles, but is stopped by the clerks.
CHEN BI: Gao Mengjiu, you are a muddled judge.
LI SHOU: (nudges Chen) Let it be, old friend. I have already talked with Tadpole and Yuan Sai, who have agreed to give Chen Mei a hundred thousand yuan.
Curtain
Act IX
Gugu’s yard, same scene as Acts II and IV.
Hao Dashou and Qin He are still making clay dolls.
Tadpole, manuscript in hand, stands to the side.
TADPOLE: (intones loudly) If someone were to ask me to name Northeast Gaomi Township’s predominant colour, without hesitation I would respond: Green!
HAO DASHOU: (grumbles) What about red? Red sorghum, radishes, the red sun, red jackets, red peppers, apples…
QIN HE: Yellow earth, droppings, teeth, yellow weasels, everything yellow but gold.
TADPOLE: If someone were to ask me to name Northeast Gaomi Township’s predominant sound, I would proudly respond: the croak of frogs.
HAO DASHOU: What’s there to be proud about?
QIN HE: The cry of a baby is worth being proud about.
TADPOLE: The croak of a frog, like the heavy lowing of a young cow, like the sad bleating of a young goat, like the crisp sound of a hen when she lays an egg, like the loud and mournful sound of a newborn infant…
HAO DASHOU: How about a barking dog, a mewing cat, a braying donkey?
TADPOLE: (angrily) Are you two messing with me?
QIN HE: In my view, your play is messing with you.
GUGU: (coldly) Did I really say the things you just read?
TADPOLE: The Gugu in the play said them.
GUGU: Is the Gugu in the play me? Or isn’t it?
TADPOLE: It is and it isn’t.
GUGU: What does that mean?
TADPOLE: It’s a common principle in art. Like the dolls they make, modelled after real life but enhanced by their imagination and creativity.
GUGU: Are you really planning to stage your play? Aren’t you afraid of the trouble it could cause, since you’ve used people’s real names?
TADPOLE: This is just a draft, Gugu. In the final version I’ll use all foreigners’ names. Gugu will become Aunt Maria, Hao Dashou will be Henry, Qin He will be Allende, Chen Mei will be Tonia, Chen Bi will be Figaro… even Northeast Gaomi Township will become the town of Macondo.
HAO DASHOU: Henry? Interesting name.
QIN HE: I think I should be Rodin or Michelangelo, since their work resembles mine.
GUGU: Tadpole, play-acting is play-acting, reality is reality. I think that you — no, I have to include myself — we all treated Chen Mei badly. My insomnia has returned in recent days. All those crippled frogs that damned little devil brought out come to disturb me at night. Not only can I feel their chilled, slimy skin, but I can even smell their cold stench…
HAO DASHOU: Those are illusions brought on by your nervous condition, nothing but illusions.
TADPOLE: I understand how you feel, Gugu, and the way we dealt with this has weighed heavily on me. But I don’t know how else to deal with it. No matter how you look at it, Chen Mei was insane, a madwoman with a hideous, disfigured face, and giving the baby to her would have violated our responsibility to the child. Not only that, I was the child’s biological father, albeit a reluctant one. If his mother had gone off the tracks emotionally and could not even care for herself, then the father would have had to assume child-raising duties. Even the People’s Supreme Court would have made that determination. Am I right or not?
GUGU: Maybe she would have been fine if we’d given her the baby. Miracles can happen when you put a woman and child together.
TADPOLE: We couldn’t take the chance, not with the child’s wellbeing in the balance. People with mental problems are capable of anything.
GUGU: People with mental problems can still love children.
TADPOLE: But her love could have harmed the child. Gugu, don’t beat yourself up this way. We’ve already done everything compassion and humanity dictate. We gave her twice her original fee and got her admitted into a hospital for treatment. Even Chen Bi was not short-changed. If one day her mental health is restored, and the child is old enough, when the time is right, we’ll reveal all this to him — even if that will be painful for him.
GUGU: I want you all to know that I’ve been thinking about death a lot recently.
TADPOLE: I don’t want to hear such crazy talk, Gugu. You’re barely seventy years old. Though it’s an exaggeration to say you are the noonday sun, it’s not flattery to say that you’re the sun at two or three in the afternoon, a long way from darkness. Besides, the people of Northeast Gaomi Township cannot live without you.
GUGU: I didn’t say I wanted to die, not as long as I’m in good health, have a good appetite, and can sleep at night. Who would? But sleep has become a problem. Everyone else is sound asleep in the middle of the night, everyone but me and that owl in the tree. The owl stays awake to hunt mice. What about me?
TADPOLE: You can take a sleeping pill. Lots of important people are troubled by insomnia, and that’s how they deal with it.
GUGU: Sleeping pills don’t work with me any more.