Yan Lianke - The Four Books

“ Loyalty has a good meaning. Your star shape also has a good meaning, but it is too broad. Loyalty is more concrete. Even though their steel was not as good as yours, their meaning was better, and therefore it was more appropriate to send to Beijing.”

The Child became agitated, and the corners of his eyes grew moist.

“What exactly does loyalty mean?”

The higher-up again caressed his head, and replied, “Go back and ask your fellow criminals. Each and every one of them knows what loyalty means. Each of them had to be re-educated precisely because they lacked loyalty.”

The Child decided to go find the provincial governor. The higher-up who had met with the Child was good, kind, and truly loved the Child. He therefore gave the Child instructions on how to find the governor, and advised him on what he should pay attention to. The Child then went to find the governor. When he reached the eighth floor of a building, he proceeded to the sixth door. As he knocked, his heart pounded madly.

Inside, someone asked, “Who is it?”

“I am the Child who smelted the star-shaped steel ingot. ”

The governor opened the door, a look of surprise on his face. “What do you want? Come in, come. come sit down.”

The governor’s office was unexpectedly spacious and imposing. It had two large rooms and a big mahogany desk. On the desk there were some newspapers, documents, and other assorted objects. There was a telephone on the windowsill. The walls were white, and on one there was a map of China and a map of the world, together with a portrait of that very highest of higher-ups. There was also a sofa, and a bed. The office was not, however, as luxurious as the Child would have expected. The Child realized that this was only because the governor didn’t want it to be too ostentatious. He was the provincial governor, the highest higher-up in the region, and all he had to do was give the word and the entire province would start smelting steel. With another word, they would chop down every tree in the province. So, would it have been any trouble for him to give the word to make these two rooms more luxurious?

“Please sit. How may I help you?”

The Child looked around, then proceeded to sit down. The sofa was as soft as his own bed, but the Child had already expected it and wasn’t surprised.

“I want to take the train to Beijing, to visit the capital,” the Child said very deliberately, his hands between his knees. “I’m the one who discovered the black sand and invented the black sand steel-smelting technique. I had the ninety-ninth spend the entire winter smelting more than three hundred tons of steel, and I also used black sand to smelt the star-shaped steel ingot. That star ingot resonates if you strike it. But if you strike that other loyalty ingot, it sounds like you’re tapping wood. That other piece of steel is completely worthless, and is as honeycombed as a rotten radish.”

As the Child was speaking, he gazed up at the governor’s face with a pathetic and helpless expression. The governor was kind and generous, and loved the Child. He looked at the Child’s face, and when their eyes met the governor realized he couldn’t bring himself to hurt him. The governor laughed, his gentle and loving expression like the ocean at sunset.

“You want to visit the capital?” the governor, said stroking the Child’s head and patting his shoulder. “If all you want to do is go to Beijing to walk around and see Tiananmen Square and the Summer Palace, that’s easily accomplished.” The governor poured a glass of water and handed it to the Child. He smiled warmly and said, “I’ll take responsibility for arranging your visit to Beijing when you go. If this time you cannot represent the province by delivering steel to the capital, I promise that next time you’ll receive an even greater honor. I’ll ask Beijing’s central higher-up to personally issue you a red blossom and a certificate.”

The Child was content, and felt that the entire room and the entire sky were filled with bright light. As he was about to leave, he said, “Please issue me a rifle as well. There are wild animals in that wasteland along the Yellow River, not to mention other criminals. In order to deal with them, it would be best if I had a gun.”

The Child added, “If I had a gun, I could intimidate them into producing more. which would allow us to report higher levels of steel production. I could scare them into chopping down more trees and smelting more steel.”

The governor laughed as he looked at the Child, and asked, “How many jin per mu of grain did you report?

The Child said, “Fifteen hundred.”

Astonished, the governor stared speechlessly at the Child. After gazing at him for a long time, his expression eventually began to harden. Eventually, there was the sound of a car outside and the governor asked the Child, “Is everyone in your district a former professor?” Without waiting for the Child’s response, he added, “Professors are cultured and skilled. If I give you a real gun, I don’t want you to produce fifteen hundred jin per mu . Could you instead direct those scholars under your command to create an experimental field that would yield ten thousand jin per mu ?” The governor brought a stool over and placed it in front of the Child, allowing him to gaze closely into the Child’s eyes. “If you can direct them to create an experimental ten-thousand- jin- per- mu field, in which the wheat is as big as ears of corn, and the grains are as large as grains of corn, I will not only take you to the capital to see Tiananmen Square, walk along Chang’an Avenue, climb the Great Wall, and visit the Summer Palace; I will even take you to Zhongnanhai. Do you know about Zhongnanhai? The nation’s highest higher-ups are all at Zhongnanhai. They work, eat, and sleep there. Even foreign presidents are not necessarily permitted to enter Zhongnanhai when they come to China. But as long as you are able to create a ten-thousand- jin experimental field in which the ears of wheat are even thicker than ears of corn, I’ll not only take you to Beijing, I’ll arrange to have you live in Zhongnanhai, where you can take photographs of yourself with the highest of the nation’s higher-ups.”

The Child’s eyes opened wide, and he saw that the entire room was full of light. He saw countless angels floating in the air, and heard beautiful music and hymns.

1. Heaven’s Child , pp. 305–11 (excerpt)

It was under a sky filled with white light that the Child returned.

The Theologian had wanted to pick up the Child from the county seat, but he didn’t. The Child got off the bus at the station, and waited there for a long time, yet there was no trace of the Theologian. The Child was displeased. He then walked alone from the county seat back to the town, and reported to the headquarters what had transpired at the provincial seat. He said that the governor had personally received him, but in the end had selected the loyalty steel ingot to represent the province at the capital. He said the governor had assured him that as soon as he was able to produce a ten-thousand- jin -per- mu field, he would not only have the Child represent the province at the next steel-presenting ceremony at the capital, but furthermore would arrange for him to stay at Zhongnanhai. He also promised that the government’s highest higher-ups would come and have their pictures taken with him.

The Child was very excited, but the higher-ups from the headquarters were displeased.

None of them caressed the Child’s head or patted his shoulder, and instead they just asked him whether or not he had already eaten at the headquarters. The Child shook his head. The higher-ups said he had to go to another district to investigate their steel-smelting activities, so he told the Child he should leave immediately.