The cow was already busily munching straw, so Fourth Aunt moved up and felt her belly. Another three months and it would be time to calf.
“Well?” Fourth Uncle asked her when she returned to the kang.
“It’s still the middle of the night,” she replied. “Get some more sleep. I fed the cow while I was up.”
“I’m awake now,” he said, “so I might as well get on the road. Yesterday was a wasted trip, so I want to get there early today. It’s fifteen miles to town, and the way that cow plods along, it’ll be light out by the time we get there.”
“Are there really that many people selling garlic?”
“Believe me, there are. The streets are jammed with farmers, trucks, oxcarts, horsecarts, tractors, bicycles, even motorbikes. The line runs from the cold-storage warehouse all the way to the railroad tracks. Garlic, nothing but garlic. They say the warehouse will be full in another day or two.”
“These are bad times. It’s getting harder to sell anything.”
“Wake the boys and have them load the wagon and hitch up the cow,” Fourth Uncle said. “I’m in no mood to do it. That tramp Jinju has me so upset the slightest thing gets my heart acting up.”
“Do you know that your sons are talking about dividing up the family property and going their own way?”
Tm not blind. Number Two’s afraid his brother will ruin his own marriage prospects. Number One sees how determined Jinju is to be with Gao Ma, and with the marriage contract now a worthless piece of paper, he figures hell take what he can get and live a bachelor’s life. Damned ingrates, that’s what they are!” Fourth Uncle was beside himself. “Once I sell this garlic crop we can add on three rooms, then divide everything up.”
“Will Jinju stay with us?”
“She can get her ass out!”
“Where’s Gao Ma going to get the ten thousand yuan we demanded?”
“He homesteaded four acres of land this year along with the two he already had, and planted it all with garlic. I passed his field the other day, and I can tell you he’s going to have a bumper crop, six thousand pounds at least, which he’ll sell for five thousand yuan. I’ll take that and tell him he can give me the other half next year. The little tramp’s getting off cheap, but I won’t let her raise some bastard kid here at home.”
“After she’s gone and We have Gao Ma’s money, she’ll really suffer.”
“Are you starting to feel sorry for her?” He tapped his pipe on the kang. “I don’t care if the little slut starves.”
He turned and went out to the cow shed, where Fourth Aunt heard him tap on the west-wing window. “Number One, Number Two-time to get up, load the garlic.” She got down off the kang, lit the lamp, and hung it beside the door, then poured a ladleful of water from the vat into the pot.
“What’s that for?” Fourth Uncle asked her when he returned.
“To make some broth,” she replied. “You’ll be walking half the night.”
“Don’t worry about me,” he snapped back. “I’m not going to walk. I’ll ride the whole way. Go water the cow if you want to make yourself useful.”
The brothers emerged from their room and stood in the middle of the yard, shivering in the cold night air and not saying a word.
Meanwhile Fourth Aunt dumped three ladlefuls of water into a basin, spread a layer of bran husks over the top, and stirred it with a poker. Then she carried it outside and laid it on the path as Fourth Uncle led the cow out of the shed. But it just stood there smacking its lips stupidly without taking a sip.
“Drink, drink,” she urged the animal. “Drink some water.”
The cow stood there without moving, a heated stench rising from its hide. The parakeets were at it again, their squawks rising like shifting clouds. The half-moon, a bit higher in the sky now, flooded the yard with golden rays. The stars had lost some of their glitter.
“Throw in some more bran husks,” Fourth Uncle said.
Fourth Aunt did as she was told.
“Come on, girl,” he said, patting the cow gently. “Drink up.”
The cow lowered her head, snorted into the basin, then began lapping up the water.
“What are you standing around for?” Fourth Uncle snapped at his sons. “Hitch up the wagon and load the garlic!”
After fetching the wagon bed, they rolled out the wheels and axles and assembled the vehicle. There were too many thieves in the village to leave it outside the gate. All the garlic had been stacked in bundles by the southern wall, under sheets of plastic.
“Sprinkle some water on it to keep it from drying out,” Fourth Uncle said. His eldest son did as he was told.
“Why not take Number Two along?” his wife asked him.
“No,” he said curtly.
“Stubborn ass,” she groused. “At least get something decent to eat in town, since I don’t have anything to send with you.”
“I thought there was still half a grainy flatcake,” Fourth Uncle said.
“That’s all you’ve eaten for days.”
“Get it for me.” He led the cow out the gate and hitched it to the wagon. Then he walked back into the yard, threw a tattered coat over his shoulders, stuffed the cold flatcake down the front of his shirt, picked up a switch, and headed out the gate.
“The older you are, the more mule-headed you get,” she complained. “I don’t know what else to call someone who won’t let his own son help him sell his harvest.”
“He’s afraid I’ll skim off all the profits,” Number Two said sarcastically.
“Father’s just thinking about our well-being,” his elder brother rebuked him.
“Who asked him to?” Number Two grumbled on his way inside to go back to bed.
Fourth Aunt heaved a sigh as she stood in the yard listening to the creaking axles of the wagon slowly taper off in the murky darkness. Gao Zhileng’s parakeets set up a frenzy of squawks, and poor Fourth Aunt was a bundle of nerves as she faltered in the yard, which was now draped in dull yellow moonlight.
The cell door swung open and the policemen removed Number Forty-six’s handcuffs. She took a couple of jerky steps before flopping onto her cot, where she lay as if dead.
“Officers,” Fourth Aunt implored as they were closing the door, “please let me go home. My husband’s fifth-week memorial service is coming up…”
The clanging door was her only answer.
CHAPTER 10
County Boss Zhong, put your hand over your heart and think:
As government protector, where is the kindness in your soul?
If you are a benighted official, go home and stay in bed;
If you are an upright steward, take charge and do some good….
– from a lament by Zhang Kou, sung standing on the steps of the government office after a glut in garlic had driven thousands of villagers to seek aid from the county administrator, who refused to get out of bed
1.
Jinju had nearly made it to Gao Ma’s yard when, with an anguished yelp, she collapsed. The fetus raised his fists and thundered, “Let me out! God damn it, let me out of here!”
“Gao Ma… come here… help me… come mind your son.
She crawled across the yard, then stood up by holding on to the door jamb. Four bare walls, a rusted pot, puddles of black water, and some rats that jumped out from behind the pot were all she saw inside. It looked as if a bull had been turned loose, and a sense of impending doom gripped her. As the child in her belly struck out with fists and feet, she wailed, “Gao Ma… Gao Ma…”
The baby punched her. “Stop shouting! Gao Ma’s a fugitive, a criminal! How did I wind up with parents like you?” He kicked her, sending shivers up her spine; again she yelped, and everything turned black. As she fell, she banged her head against the one table not smashed by her brothers.