At noon, Liu Taiyang rode out from Hei-hai and the mason’s village on a black bicycle. Standing in front of the floodgate, he blew his whistle to stop work and announced that the field kitchen was up, but only available to those who lived farther than five li. Everyone hurriedly gathered up their tools. The young woman stood up. So did the boy.
‘How far away do you live, Hei-hai?’
Hei-hai ignored her, turning his head this way and that, as if searching for something. Juzi’s head followed, and when his stopped swivelling, so did hers. Looking straight ahead, her eyes met the lively eyes of the mason, and they held the look for nearly a minute.
‘Time to eat, Hei-hai,’ the mason said. ‘Let’s go home. Don’t give me that look, it won’t do you any good. We live a couple of li from here, and we’re not lucky enough to eat in the kitchen.’
‘You two are from the same village?’ she asked the mason.
Stuttering with excitement, he pointed toward his village, telling her that he and Hei-hai lived just across the bridge. They chatted cordially, about ordinary things. He knew she lived in the village up ahead, so she could eat in the kitchen and sleep under the bridge. She was willing to eat in the kitchen, but not to sleep under the bridge. The autumn winds were too cold. She lowered her voice and asked if Hei-hai was a mute. Absolutely not, he assured her, adding that he was very intelligent, and at the age of four or five had been a real chatterbox, his crisp voice, like a bean in a bamboo tube, hardly ever stopped. But over time he spoke less and less, and often froze like a statue; no one had any idea what he was thinking. Look at his eyes, so black you can’t see the bottom. The woman remarked that he did seem smart, and for some reason she’d taken a liking to him, almost like a kid brother. The mason said that’s because you’re a good person with a kind heart.
The three of them – mason, woman, Hei-hai – lagged behind, the man and woman talking fervently, as if hoping to drag out the walk. Hei-hai followed, lifting his legs high and stepping lightly, his expression and movements like those of a small tomcat patrolling the base of a wall. Liu Taiyang, who had been delayed in the grove of river locusts, caught up with them on his creaky bicycle when they reached the bridge, which was so narrow he had to get off and walk.
‘What are you hanging around here for? How’d you do this morning, you dark little monkey? Hey, what happened to your paw?’
‘Smashed his finger with the hammer.’
‘Shit! Mason, go see your team leader and have him send somebody else. I won’t be responsible if the kid kills himself.’
‘It’s a work injury,’ the woman complained. ‘You can’t do that.’
‘You and I have known each other for years, Director Liu,’ the mason said. ‘What’s one kid for a big project like this? And what can he do in the production team with that hand?’
‘Damn you, you skinny little monkey.’ Director Liu mulled it over. ‘I’ll give you a new job. You can pump a bellows for the blacksmiths, how’s that? Think you can handle it?’
The boy sent pleading looks to the mason and the woman.
‘You can do that, can’t you, Hei-hai?’ he asked.
She pitched in with an encouraging nod.
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Copyright
Penguin Books is part of the Penguin Random House group of companies whose addresses can be found at global.penguinrandomhouse.com
This paperback edition published by Penguin Group (Australia) in association with Penguin (Beijing) Ltd, 2015
Text copyright © Yan Lianke, 2015
Translated from the Chinese by Carlos Rojas
Originally published in Chinese as Ba Lou Tian Ge by Beiyue Literature & Art Publishing House, Beijing
The moral right of the author has been asserted.
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
Cover design by Di Suo © Penguin Group (China)
ISBN: 978-1-76014-280-3