Now only Blind Tonghua remained standing next to her grandmother. Grandma Mao Zhi looked to the driver and said, “She is blind.” He replied, “The blind one has to come as well, because that way I know you’ll worry about her.” Tonghua turned to her grandmother and said, “Grandma, I can’t see a thing, and don’t have anything to fear.” She began walking over to the door, and Grandma Mao Zhi led her to the table, then helped guide her onto the chair on the table, so that the people outside could pluck her out through the window as though she were a chicken.
With this, the villagers had done everything they were supposed to, handed over everything they were supposed to, and said everything they were supposed to. They waited for the people outside to open the door. At this point, however, the driver peered in at them with a faint smile. That smile was as sallow as a field of turnip mustard blossoms in the summer, both accommodating and unyielding. He abruptly shouted, “Fuck this. Are you trying to fuck around with us? Did you think we wouldn’t know? Did you think I really believed that you passed over all your money? I saw that many of you still have money hidden on your persons. You have money hidden under the bricks beneath your bedrolls, in the cracks in the wall of the latrine, and under the crystal coffin. You’ve hidden your earnings from the performances everywhere. I’m telling you. .” He suddenly started roaring, opening his mouth as wide as a city gate, “I’m telling you, if you don’t pass all of your money beneath the door, tonight I’ll let my people enjoy Huaihua’s beauty, and before nightfall I’ll let them ravage the bodies of her three nin sisters.”
Having said this, he immediately climbed back down the ladder, like someone sinking below the waves. Soon, there was no trace of him.
The setting sun continued shining in through the windows in the back of the hall, shining onto the villagers’ bodies and faces.
Further Reading:
1) Well water. Refers to cold water that has just been drawn from a well.
3) Rest period. Refers to a midday nap.
CHAPTER 7: THE DOOR IS OPEN.. . THE DOOR IS OPEN..
The sky was almost completely dark.
All of the money had been passed beneath the door. None of them had a single cent left hidden on their persons or in their rooms. First, Paraplegic Woman passed over the money she had earned for the last few performances and sewn into her sleeve, next Deafman Ma passed over the cash he had hidden in the crease of his two-layered metal billfold, and then Mute passed over the bills he had hidden under the bricks beneath his bedroll. Eventually, everyone’s money had been sent outside. By now the sun had set, and not a trace of red remained in the back window. As the villagers were waiting for the door to be opened, the man collecting the money shouted to the people inside,
“Hey! The sun has gone down. You can come out tomorrow. Just spend another night inside with Lenin’s crystal coffin, and tomorrow when you leave we’ll issue each of you your salary for the past six months.”
After he finished speaking, everything became silent again.
Night fell, and a humid atmosphere pervaded every side room in the memorial hall. The person had said that it was dark, and that tomorrow they would discuss leaving, but by this point the villagers were all too exhausted to say anything, or even think about anything. It was as if the question of whether or not the door would be opened, and even whether or not they would be allowed to leave, had become completely immaterial.
The villagers returned to their respective rooms, where they lay down and stared at the ceiling. The moonlight poured in through the windows like water. The snow-white ceiling appeared pale green in the evening light. No one said anything, or asked anything. It was as if they were all extraordinarily tired, and just wanted to lie down and rest and wait silently for whatever was to follow.
They assumed that the rest of the night would pass like this, but shortly after dinnertime the villagers began hearing Tonghua’s, Yuhua’s, and Mothlet’s sharp screams coming from far away, like bloodcurdling wails emanating from the mountain or the gorge. The sound was bitingly cold, and seemed as if it was coming from the dead. It stopped and started, like a chunk of ice flowing down a river on a bitterly cold winter day. Periodically, they could also hear the wholers’ maniacal laughter as they shouted, “Come do them. They are small, so their holes are small, tight and livening.. . Whoever doesn’t do them will regret it the rest of their lives!” These shouts were followed immediately by the nins’ screams and cries. As the villagers heard these sounds, there were so startled, they all sat up in their beds.
Eventually, they all went to Grandma Mao Zhi’s room, and saw that the light in her room was shining bright, as she sat in the corner listening to the cries. Over and over again she slapped her face, as if she were slapping someone else’s face or a wind-dried board. She cursed hoarsely,
“Go die.. .
“Go die.. .
“Go die.. .
“Go die right now.. .
“Go die right now.. .”
Grandma Mao Zhi’s slaps and curses drowned out the wails and struggles of the nins outside, just as the sound of a storm outside might drown out the sound of someone knocking at the door. Grandma Mao Zhi was in her seventies, and the villagers found it nearly unbearable to see someone so elderly beat and curse herself in this way. They rushed over and restrained her.
Paraplegic Woman, who shared a room with Grandma Mao Zhi, came over and grasped her hand, saying repeatedly,
“Auntie, no one is blaming you.. . Auntie, really, no one has uttered a word blaming you.”
The villagers all hurried over and restrained Grandma Mao Zhi until she calmed down. By the time she recovered, the nins’ cries had ceased. The entire world became deathly quiet, and there was only the sound of the moon rays and starlight shining in through the window.
In this way, the night passed.
The villagers remained in their respective rooms, unable to sleep. Without saying a word or moving a muscle, they were waiting for the next day to hurry up and arrive. Only One-Legged Monkey sat restlessly in bed. Eventually, he exclaimed, “Fuck this!” and proceeded to drink the unboiled water the wholers had passed through the window, after which he had diarrhea and spent the entire night running back and forth to the latrine. While doing so, he systematically pried off all of the embossed gold characters from the lid of Chief Liu’s crystal coffin in the pit below Lenin’s. From this point on, he became Liven’s most extraordinary resident.
But as everyone was waiting for daybreak, little Polio Boy got up to do something, and as he passed in front of the memorial hall door, he suddenly cried out,
“It’s open! The door’s open!
“The door’s open! The door’s open!”
Everyone hurriedly got out of bed. The paraplegics, cripples, blind people, and deaf people all rushed toward the door of the memorial hall. A cripple fell to the ground; a woman was pushed into a door frame and started bleeding. Deafman Ma didn’t hear the shouting, but when he saw everyone rushing toward the door, he also ran out of his room, naked. It was true — the two red doors were now wide open. The early morning breeze was blowing in as though it were blowing over directly from the city wall. The sky was still cloudy. There was a glistening layer of water on the limestone kowtow steps in front of the memorial hall, and the pines and cypresses on either side of the hall were like a row of shadows in the darkness. The villagers rushed out like people emerging from prison or a cave, and stood in front of the memorial hall doors rubbing their eyes. Some stretched their arms, as though trying to grasp the sky and hold it tight. Then someone remembered Huaihua and her nin sisters, and said, “Quick, let’s go look for Tonghua, Huaihua, Yuhua, and Mothlet.”