Yan Lianke - The Four Books

The Child left the headquarters.

Then he quickly left town.

The Child was displeased. The sky was filled with white light. They had agreed that if the Theologian could not reach the county seat in time, then he would meet the Child in town. But the Theologian never arrived. The sky was vast, and the great earth was supporting his feet. In all, the Child had spent half a month in the provincial seat, including the time it took to get there and back. In the county seat, the railroad station was full of iron, steel ingots, and iron dregs that they had not had time to send off. But in town, the headquarters courtyard was empty, and was not piled high with round and flat ingots as it had been before. In the distance, there was column after column of smoke. Outside the town, and in other villages, the smoke was bathed in white light. The Child walked back. The sky was vast, and the great earth was supporting his feet. He was alone, but his heart felt more open than before. All of the trees had been chopped down, and the entire land was filled with a naked light. The sunlight rained down as though through a rip in the sky. Although it was winter, it was nevertheless still very warm.

The snow had already been washed away, and the entire land was smooth and silent, displaying a silvery and golden light.

With the great earth supporting his feet, the Child returned.

In the ninety-ninth, everyone would be out in the wasteland managing the fires in the furnaces, as if holding up the sky. The Child approached, and the earth continued to support his feet. For half a month, it was as if he had disappeared from the face of the earth. But in the provincial seat, all of the higher-ups had caressed the Child’s head. By noon, the sunlight had begun to rain down. The Child was completely covered in sweat. He was also extremely thirsty, and only with considerable difficulty was he able to find some snow in a ravine. He sucked on the snow to stanch his thirst. He then took a shortcut home, carrying the yellow canvas travel bag they had given him in the provincial seat, which was just like the bags the professors brought back from the city. But what was different was that there was a large pentagonal star on one side of the Child’s bag, while on the other side were printed the words “Provincial Model Congress on Heroic Steel Smelting.” This line of characters was curved in the shape of a crescent, and below it there was a single character, in red: loyalty . Coincidentally, the star was the same shape as the steel ingot the Child had submitted, and the loyalty character was the same one that had appeared on the other ingot. The loyalty ingot had been sent to represent the province at the capital, while the pentagonal star was left behind in the province’s memorial hall.

The Child carried his travel bag, wondering what had happened in the provincial seat.

He took a shortcut to where the Child and the Theologian had stumbled upon that strange hill half a month earlier. The sky was still filled with bright light — a white light that carried a tint of gold. It was a warm white, and in the open expanse of winter there was no breeze, just silence. In that silence, the Child sat on the strange hill and rested for a while, by which point there was no more light in the sky and no more sound of angels singing. That afternoon, as the sun was about to set, the Child went down to the riverside. From there he could see the ninety-ninth from a distance. There was a row of steel-smelting furnaces along the river, and everyone was standing on the riverbank. There was no light in the sky, and everyone was silent. The Child watched them for a while, without saying a word.

No one came forward to greet him, and no one even waved.

There was no light in the sky. The Child knew that something was going to happen. He felt agitated, and his face tensed up. He switched his bag over to his other hand, and walked into the silence.

The silence swept toward him.

2. Old Course , pp. 340–47 (excerpt)

The residents of the ninety-ninth were silent for a while, like a pool of stagnant water next to a pond.

The Child’s tent had burned down. When the fire broke out the day before, the tent began burning furiously, with flames leaping into the sky. Everyone grabbed buckets to carry water from the river. But it was several hundred meters from the tent to the river and back, and by the time they were able to bring any water, the tent and all of its contents — including its roomful of red blossoms, red stars, and certificates, as well as the Child’s quilt and chest full of certificates — had been reduced to ashes. The tent was made from new oilcloth canvas, which embraced the flame as though it were an old lover. The canvas produced a yellowish black smell of burning oil, and the quilt emitted a black smell of burning cotton. Those certificates, red stars, and red blossoms generated a peculiar burning odor that no one had ever smelled before, as they disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

It was not clear how the fire had started. Perhaps someone had lit it intentionally, or maybe someone had accidentally tossed a glowing cigarette butt that had ignited the grass next to the Child’s tent, and then burned down the tent itself. By this point the Child should have already returned from the provincial seat. Once he returned, a group of residents were supposed to receive permission to go home. Those residents who had already accumulated a hundred and ten or twenty blossoms were particularly anxious for the Child to return and award them enough blossoms to bring their total up to a hundred and twenty-five. Five small blossoms could be exchanged for one medium-sized one, and five medium-sized blossoms could be exchanged for a fist-sized pentagonal star. A hundred and twenty-five small blossoms, accordingly, could be exchanged for five pentagonal stars. With these five stars, someone could be free, and the world would become an open expanse. Even those residents who had only just accumulated a hundred blossoms and therefore still had a way to go before they could get to a hundred and twenty-five, even they hoped that the Child would be in a good mood from being selected to represent the province at the national capital at the end of the year, and consequently would be willing to issue them ten, twenty, even thirty blossoms. This way, they would be able to go home for New Year’s. The earth and sky were an open expanse. Before leaving the riverside, the Child had said that even if they didn’t have enough blossoms to be freed altogether, as long as they had ninety or a hundred they would be permitted to return home for New Year’s, at least for a visit.

Everyone was anxious with expectation. Those who already had at least hundred and twenty blossoms began preparing their bags as soon as the Child left, while those with a hundred or so also started preparing their things in anticipation of being permitted to return home for New Year’s. They were all hoping that the Child would come back from the provincial seat as soon as possible, and that he would be permitted to represent the entire province at the capital the next spring. They hoped he would be able to present their steel as a model for the nation, while also taking the opportunity to tour the capital and become worldly. But the day before the Child was scheduled to return, his tent burned to the ground. The tent and tent poles burned up, as did the certificates and red blossoms, together with all of the glittering red blossoms that the residents of Re-Ed had posted inside. Everything was reduced to ashes in the blink of an eye. The fire had begun the previous evening. After idly hanging around for a few days, everyone returned to their own rooms in their thatched huts, either to sleep or to play cards or chess. Those who were preparing to leave checked their bags one more time, to make sure they hadn’t forgotten to pack something they would need, or hadn’t accidentally packed something they definitely wouldn’t need. It was at this point, just as the sun was setting over the river, that someone on the embankment suddenly shouted,