“No one. She just…”
The woman screamed and pointed across the courtyard as two of the people wearing red armbands began beating a man wearing white robes — a priest, by the look of him. The police stood by, doing nothing.
Several people had their phones out. They were taking videos. Some in the crowd were yelling to stop, but it wasn’t clear whom they were commanding — the police or the Christian group.
More police vehicles arrived, and the crowd spread out. Two cracks and then tear gas canisters plummeted from the sky. Lin Yu ran away from the scene, coughing, his eyes burning.
He arrived at work a few minutes later, out of breath and wondering what he had just seen. He went to the bathroom and washed his eyes out in the sink. Then he went to the shop and began speaking with the girl who was working the shift before him.
He told her what he had seen.
“I was just reading about it.” She pointed to her phone.
“You were reading about it? Already?”
He looked over her shoulder. She was on her social network feed. There were hundreds of comments on it, streaming in real time. Images, videos.
“It says that the church priest was breaking the law. I’m not surprised. Those Christian churches are criminal organizations, most of them. They’re money-making schemes. Passing around baskets for all those poor gullible people to give away their money. I heard in school that a lot of other governments will send missionaries here to try and hurt our own government leaders. They don’t like how successful China has become, so they try to infect us with their religious groups.”
Lin Yu said, “I don’t know. I knew a man who was Christian. He worked in one of the shops here. He wasn’t so bad.”
“No way. They’re all crazy if you ask me. The Islamists and the Christians. Anyone who thinks that some magic god is real and tells people to kill everyone in the train station with knives should be thrown in prison. If you ask me, I’m thankful that our police got rid of that church. I don’t want people like that in our city.”
Lin Yu knew she was referring to the Kunming Railway Station attack in 2014. Six men and two women with connections to a Uyghur Muslim group had stormed into a train station and begun attacking people with knives and cleavers. They had killed thirty-one people and wounded 143.
“I need to go. Bye.”
Lin Yu waved and hopped onto his stool behind the counter. He thumbed through his social network feed and saw news articles on the priest who had been arrested. The article made no mention of the fact that the church had been shut down or the cross removed. It also made no mention of any tear gas or other arrests. It just said that the priest was a criminal and had been arrested.
Then Lin Yu saw that he had an email from the military recruiter. It was a confirmation of his appointment the next day. He looked up and down the hallway outside. It was empty. He would be lucky if he got any sales over the next six hours. He sighed. He decided that he would go to the military physical examination the next day. What could be the harm?
Lin Yu had never felt less human than he’d felt this morning at the military physical exam. The pretty woman recruiter had been nowhere to be seen. The military men who helped to corral the recruits like cattle were not smiling. They were stern and tough looking.
“What is your name, recruit?”
“Lin Yu.”
“That’s Lin Yu, Sergeant!”
“Lin Yu, Sergeant,” he muttered.
“Here are your papers. Memorize this number — this is your serial number — and go follow this line until you get to the room that says ‘Immunizations.’ Wait there and someone will tell you what to do.” The sergeant looked at him expectantly.
“Yes, Sergeant?”
“Go.”
He hurried off down the hall, following a series of arrows that were painted on the floor. He didn’t need this. He didn’t want to be yelled at. Boredom in his shop was better than being yelled at. He decided that he would complete the physical — asking to leave would probably not be received well — and then go home. He would never call them again. He wouldn’t return any emails. Screw that stupid aptitude test.
“Hey, you. You have your papers?”
A man wearing a white medical coat looked at him through a window.
“Yes. Here.” He handed the thin envelope through the window.
The man looked at them and placed a stamp on the papers. Then he said, “Come on back.”
Before Lin Yu knew it, he was rubbing his arm after getting four different shots. Four. They hadn’t even answered him when he’d asked what they were for. They’d just stuck him and told him to keep moving. He kept going through different rooms and seeing different nurses and doctors. Some of them examined his hearing, some examined his eyesight. Others asked him to jump up as high as he could, measuring the highest place on a wall that he could reach. Others asked him stupid questions about whether he was happy or ever had thoughts of hurting people.
In each room were more exams, and his folder got thicker and thicker throughout the day. Finally, he went through a pair of double doors to the side of the building that he hadn’t been to yet.
The sergeant was there. “Lin Yu, go stand on that yellow dot over in the corner.” He looked around and saw that there were about twenty dots painted on the concrete floor. He went over to his. More recruits came in behind him, and before he knew it, all twenty yellow dots had people standing on them.
They were cattle. Being checked out for any medical problems. The sergeant was yelling at one of them for not standing up straight. Lin Yu rolled his eyes and then caught himself. He kept a plain expression on his face. Better not to draw the attention of this dim-witted sergeant. He didn’t care what they were paying; he didn’t want anything to do with this mess.
“Alright, recruits, I’m going to send the first row out this door. You’ll get your haircuts next. After that you will get bags of clothing. Then you will be getting on a bus. Everyone understand?”
“Haircuts?” one of the boys in the front said. “I’m not getting a—”
Wham. The kid never saw it coming. The sergeant punched him right in the gut with tremendous force. Everyone stood up a little straighter, and the only sound was the wheezing of the poor guy who’d been hit. He was now on his knees, holding his stomach. Lin Yu’s eyes were now wide.
“Everyone understand?” the sergeant repeated.
“Yes, Sergeant,” the group replied in unison.
“Louder, recruits.”
“Yes, Sergeant!”
Lin Yu’s pulse was pounding now. Had there been a mistake? Did they think that he had volunteered for this? He had only signed a paper to get the physical examination. Not for anything else.
“First row, move.”
Lin Yu was in the first row. He turned and entered the next room. There were six empty barber chairs, each with a man holding clippers standing behind them. Lin Yu sat down and was immediately covered by a smock. A click and then the dull buzz of the hair clippers. The feel of it shearing his scalp. Cold and hard. Fast and merciless. Clumps of black hair falling away to the floor.
“All done.”
It was the quickest haircut he had ever received. He stared in the mirror, looking shocked at the bald person who was staring back.
“Move, recruits,” said the sergeant from the door.
The next room had several other sergeants, each one louder and more ferocious than the last. They were handing out bags of clothing and supplies. Before Lin Yu knew it, he was lugging three heavy bags and one shoe box up the stairs of a bus.
The bus’s engine was running. The candidates were all filing in, sheared heads and heavy canvas bags being stuffed into the seats. A recruit sat down next to him. It was the boy who’d been punched in the stomach. A tear rolled down his cheek.