It was two o’clock in the middle of the night. Along the dirt road leading out to the commune, several torches crackled and spat sparks.
Militia Captain Wang Weidong took the lead, clutching one end of a thick hemp rope. Bound to the other end was Zhao Dazhuang, who dragged behind like a dead dog. Two young militiamen flanked him, gripping his arms and practically hauling him forward.
Su Jianguo brought up the rear, still toting the broad-backed firewood chopping cleaver. The blade caught and threw off the flickering torchlight.
“Uncle Su, I was wrong… Please spare me this once…” Zhao Dazhuang whimpered the entire way. His eyes were swollen shut like walnuts, and the agonizing throb in his lower half sent cold sweat bursting across his skin with every single step. He knew now that he had kicked an iron plate he could never break.
Su Jianguo didn’t offer a word in response, his stride remaining steady, long, and unyielding.
By two in the morning, the small party was hammering on the heavy wooden doors of the commune police station.
The duty officer emerged draped in a uniform jacket, but the sight of the tableau outside instantly chased away any lingering sleepiness. “Old Su? In the middle of the night—did a murder happen?”
With a heavy thud, Su Jianguo tossed the cleaver down onto the ground, the metal ringing dully against the stone. “Chief Li, I’m here tonight to clear a public pest out of the commune. This man scaled a wall in the middle of the night, forced his way into a home, and attempted to violate a woman, while boasting about seizing the brigade leader’s post. Caught red-handed, dead to rights. Handle it as you see fit.”
Stepping forward, Chief Li swept a flashlight beam across Zhao Dazhuang’s bruised, battered face. A suffocating wall of heavy alcohol reek mixed with pungent medicinal wine hit the air, topped off by an unmistakable stench of urine.
“Zhao Dazhuang?” Recognizing the familiar face of a frequent visitor to the station, Chief Li’s expression hardened instantly. “Drag him into the interrogation room.”
Less than half an hour later, the commune party secretary was roused as well, rushing down to the police station with a heavy military greatcoat thrown over his shoulders.
After being briefed on the details, the party secretary slammed his palm down onto the desk with a crack that made the enamel teacup rattle on its saucer. “Breaking the law right in broad daylight—or rather, right under its nose! The nature of this offense is utterly vile! Don’t you worry, Comrade Su, our commune will never tolerate a cancer like this that sabotages production and construction and threatens the safety of our women comrades!”
Inside the interrogation room, Zhao Dazhuang was cuffed securely to a cast-iron radiator pipe.
With his notepad open, Chief Li stared at him with cold, dispassionate eyes. “Talk. Who put you up to this?”
“I honestly don’t know…” Zhao Dazhuang sobbed, snot and tears streaming together down his face. “I was just dozing off under the big locust tree at the village entrance this afternoon, and I overheard two people talking behind the trunk. It was a woman. She said the brigade leader cared about saving face above all else, and if someone defiled Su Nianqiu, he’d have to swallow the shame and take on a son-in-law to cover it up. The liquor had gone to my head, so I believed it…”
“A woman? Which woman? What did her accent sound like?”
Desperately racking his brain, Zhao Dazhuang stammered, “Her voice sounded soft and delicate, not rough like our local speech. It had a bit of… a bit of a city accent! Right! She was an educated youth!”
Chief Li’s pen stopped scratching across the paper. Outside the one-way observation glass, Su Jianguo’s gaze remained as sharp and cold as a blade.
As dawn broke, the loudspeaker of the Red Flag Production Brigade blared to life with a shrill, jarring screech.
“Attention all commune members! Attention all commune members! We are now broadcasting an emergency notice from the commune.”
Villagers sitting down to their morning meals instantly dropped their chopsticks and pricked up their ears.
“Last night, our village member Zhao Dazhuang scaled a wall and sneaked into the residence of the brigade leader with the intent of committing a hooligan crime, and was apprehended on the spot. Following a round-the-clock interrogation by the commune party committee and the police station, Zhao Dazhuang has confessed in full. In view of the exceptionally vile nature of his actions and the severe damage he inflicted on public morale, it has been decided that Zhao Dazhuang shall be sentenced to twenty years of hard labor at the No. 7 Farm in the Northwest, to be escorted and transferred into custody this very day. Let this serve as a severe warning to all commune members to abide by the law and maintain discipline!”
The broadcast repeated the notice three times back-to-back.
The entire Red Flag Brigade fell completely silent for a full minute before erupting into an explosive wave of chatter.
“Twenty years! His whole life is completely down the drain!”
“Serves him right! Let him go eat sand out in the Northwest!”
“The brigade leader isn’t playing games this time. Nobody better ever cross that Su family girl again.”
Over at the educated youth dormitories.
Holding an enamel mug, Chen Xiaoman was just pouring herself a drink when the words twenty years of hard labor blasted out from the loudspeaker. Her fingers suddenly lost all strength.
Clang—
The mug slipped from her grip, shattering against the concrete floor and splashing hot water all over the legs of her trousers.
A female roommate turned to look at her, puzzled. “Xiaoman, what’s wrong with you? Why are you as pale as a ghost?”
Biting down hard on her lower lip, Chen Xiaoman forced a stiff, unnatural smile onto her face. “I… I’m fine. Just butterfingers. That Zhao Dazhuang is terrifying, though—I can’t believe he’d actually pull something like that.”
Squatting down to pick up the mug, her hands shook so badly she couldn’t even grip the handle. Zhao Dazhuang’s been caught—is he going to drag her down with him? She had deliberately gone to linger behind the big locust tree yesterday afternoon to chat, knowing full well Zhao Dazhuang regularly slept there.
“Don’t scare yourself,” her roommate comforted her. “It’s a good thing a hoodlum like that got hauled away. Though, honestly, Su Nianqiu is terrifying in her own right. I heard she practically crippled Zhao Dazhuang with a bamboo pole last night. You really don’t want to mess with a woman like that.”
Crippled.
Cold sweat soaked clean through the shirt on Chen Xiaoman’s back. She remembered the strange, knowing look Su Nianqiu had thrown her way yesterday inside the Su family yard, and a surge of panic seized her chest.
Could Su Nianqiu have known it was her all along?
Clutching her stomach, Chen Xiaoman collapsed back onto her cot. “I… my stomach hurts. Help me ask for leave today, I’m not going out to the fields.”
Back at the Su family courtyard.
Su Nianqiu sat on the threshold of the central hall, peeling a hard-boiled egg. The final echoes of the radio broadcast drifted clearly into her ears. She took a bite of the egg white, chewing it slowly and thoughtfully.
Emerging from the kitchen with a steaming bowl of cornmeal porridge, Li Xiulan set it down on the table. “Eat up, Qiuer. Your dad didn’t sleep a wink all night, he just went back to lie down in the inner room.”
“Mom, did Zhao’s family come causing a fuss?” Su Nianqiu asked.
With a cold huff, Li Xiulan replied, “They wouldn’t dare if you gave them a hundred extra guts. Zhao Dazhuang’s mother tried howling at the village entrance this morning, but the militia captain scared her straight by telling her that making trouble now meant shielding a counter-revolutionary, and that shut her right up. Now the whole bunch of them are bolted inside with the doors closed out of pure shame.”
Su Nianqiu nodded softly. The matter was settled. By making an example out of the chicken to frighten the monkeys, the vicious undercurrents targeting her in the village had finally been nipped firmly in the bud.