"A friend has set up a girl for me, and, if I don't show up, the whole thing will fizzle out. People are doing hard labor everywhere, so, if I get myself a wife, I'll just set up a home!"
He had to say something that would appeal to Officer Song's village background.
"Quite right. But think about it properly, because, once you go, your Beijing resident permit will be revoked!"
Officer Song had stopped talking as a bureaucrat. He took a book of forms from his drawer, told him to fill it out, then shouted toward the inside room, "Little Liu, he needs a letter with an official stamp!
Hurry up and type the letter!"
The young telephone operator and typist emerged gracefully. The rubber bands tight against the back of her head made her freshly combed hair stand out in two bunches. She unlocked a drawer and took out the stamp, then, sitting on the stool in front of the type-writer, began striking one character at a time on the heavy keyboard. As Officer Song checked the letter, he hastened to ingratiate himself, "I'm the first person to graduate under Officer Song!"
"This damn place is all alkaline soil, and nothing will grow except wind and sand. It's not like my old home, where whatever you plant grows, so, it's not, in fact, a matter of it being hard labor everywhere!"
Officer Song eventually put a red stamp on the official letter. Many years later, he met a person who had worked with him in the cadre school and learned that, not long after he fled the place, this kindly Officer Song was caught without his trousers. They happened to shine a torch into the wheat field, and there he was, doing it with the telephone operator. They sent him back to the army. It was Officer Song's fate that his career in the army would be stunted, just like the wheat growing in that poor soil.
On the way back, he heard in the distance the chugging of a tractor plowing the soil and shouted out, "Hey, Tang!"
Tang, who used to ride a motorbike as a traffic officer in Beijing, had lost his job and now worked on the farm in the machinery squad, riding a tractor. He ran across the soft, loose soil and caught up with the tractor.
"Hey!" Tang raised an arm to greet him.
"I need your help." He was running alongside the tractor.
"In these turbulent times, when the clay Buddha statue is crossing the river, it's hard even for Buddha to protect himself. What is it? Be quick and don't let anyone see me talking to you, I've heard you're being investigated in your company."
"It's all right now! I've graduated!"
Tang stopped the motor. He climbed up onto the driver's platform and flashed his official letter with a red stamp in front of Tang.
"Right, let's have a smoke!"
"It's all thanks to the kindness of Officer Song," he said.
"You've managed to escape from the sea of suffering, so hurry up and get away."
"Can you help get my luggage to the county railway station at five o'clock tomorrow morning?"
"I'll get a truck. After all, you do have Officer Song's permission."
"Don't mention it to anyone, who knows what dangers are still lurking."
"I'll definitely be there with a truck. If there are any questions, I'll tell them to see Officer Song!"
"Remember, tomorrow morning, at five o'clock sharp!" He jumped down from the driver's platform.
"I'll sound the horn on the road near your dormitory, and you can get on board. Leave it to me, I won't let you down!" Tang said, beating his chest.
The tractor chug-chug-chugged into the distance. He took his time walking the remaining two or so kilometers as he worked out how to deal with this last night, and how to move his luggage and those heavy boxes of books with utmost speed from the dormitory onto the truck at dawn. He waited until dark, dawdled through the dinner period, and only showed up in the dormitory when people had started crowding around the well to draw water for a wash. He also had a wash, and, at the same time, collected all of his things. Before the lights went out and people had to be in bed, he called on the company Party secretary to present his documents for settling permanently in a farming village. The secretary, who had been newly appointed by the Army Control Commission, was sitting on a bench with his shoes off, washing his feet. Once again with an air of jest, he reverently announced to the room full of people, "Officer Song has approved my graduation, so I have come to bid farewell to all you comrades. This does not mean we will not meet again, but just that I am one step ahead. I'm going to be a real peasant, so that I can thoroughly reform myself!"
He also put on a dejected look, as if he had a heavy heart, to show that the road ahead was not, in fact, wonderful. That joker really didn't have time to react and couldn't make out whether or not it was a special punishment he had been given, so he simply said let's see about it tomorrow.
Tomorrow? he thought. By the time that joker goes to the cadre-school headquarters, and by the time they make telephone contact with the Army Control Commission in Beijing, he'll have fled.
When he got back to the dormitory, the lights were out. He made his way through the dark and lay down on his bed, fully clothed. In the middle of the night, he put on a night-light, and, from time to time, glanced at the barely visible hands of his watch. He guessed it was almost daybreak and got up, keeping close to the wall as he put on his shoes. He did not immediately roll up his bedding, because it would wake everyone too soon, and that dog in charge of spying on his movements would probably report to the company Party secretary.
No one knew he was leaving before dawn, and, holding his breath, he waited in the dark, listening intently for the sound of the truck horn. It was fifty or sixty meters from the dormitory to the road, and it would not be very loud. He felt ringing in his ears and opened his eyes wide, so that he would be able to hear with better precision. As soon as he heard the horn, he would have to bundle up his bedding and wake up a couple of people to help him carry those wooden boxes next to the wall.
Just before daybreak, a horn sounded clearly two times. He sprang to his feet, quietly opened the door, and raced up to the road.
"Tang, you can really be counted on!"
Tang had the truck lights on, and raised an arm to signal him. He immediately ran back and woke the two men who slept on either side of him in the communal bed.
"Are you leaving right now?" They crawled to their feet, not fully awake.
"Yes, I've got a train to catch," he quickly rolled up his bedding.
A few minutes later, he leaped into the truck and waved to the vague forms of the two men who had helped him. Good-bye to the May Seventh Cadre School, this labor farm.
41
His head was a total blank. Outside the train window was a vast and desolate gray-yellow plain, trees with bare branches flashed past. He had not slept all night, but was tired, not sleepy. Looking mindlessly out of the window, he still did not dare to believe that he had escaped, just like that. The train passed the big bridge over the Yellow River, and the fields began to show signs of grayish-green: the wheat, after the winter, was starting to turn green. Two or three hours on, after stopping at several stations, the trees flashing past had turned green-gray, and, in the branches of a bare tree, some tender green leaves had appeared. Then lush green new willow leaves could be seen trembling in the wind, bringing tidings of early spring. The thought "You have been saved" welled up in his heart.