Su Tong - The Boat to Redemption

I jumped at the chance. But in order to avoid getting held up by Gimpy Gu in the reception area, I told Sun Ximing and the others to wait by the gate while I circled round and entered through a ground-floor toilet window.

I’d been in every office in the building, and knew them all well. I immediately ran upstairs to the fourth floor, only to discover that we’d chosen a bad day to come, since all the officials were out on their weekly voluntary-work day. The doors were locked, and by rights I should have gone back downstairs to tell the others. But, inexplicably, I forgot what I was there to do and stopped in front of Zhao Chuntang’s door. It had once been my father’s office. A sign that read ‘IDLERS KEEP OUT’, in my father’s hand, had once decorated the familiar glass door, and I’d become so used to seeing it that I’d ignored it. A sign saying the same thing was still there, but now in Zhao Chuntang’s hand, and the familiar words disgusted me. I pushed the door, but it didn’t open. The lock jangled. Keep out! Keep out! The sound of those words rattling around in my head ignited a destructive desire.

‘Fuck you and your keep outs! Change those words, change them or else!’ Hanging on the wall was a blackboard with an emergency announcement, ordering all officials to go down to the construction site for manual labour. I picked up a piece of chalk, wiped out the words ‘KEEP OUT’ on the sign and replaced them with ‘PLEASE ENTER’. That took the edge off my indignation, but I was still far from being satisfied or mollified. The image of those profound words scrawled on the wall of the public toilet on People’s Avenue came to mind. I still wasn’t sure what they meant. I couldn’t get my head around the ‘alien’ accusation, but I was sure it was a condemnation of Zhao Chuntang. So, chalk in hand, I scribbled the words ‘ZHAO CHUNTANG IS AN ALIEN CLASS ELEMENT’ on the fourth-floor corridor wall.

I threw down the chalk and ran to the second floor, where I stopped to calm myself down, just as a commotion broke out downstairs. Gimpy Gu had come out of his room and hobbled towards the delegation, railing at them, ‘Don’t you boat people know anything? These are critical times, and you’re not helping things by bringing in a stray kid. There’s nobody here to take her from you. All the officials are down at the construction site.’

Wouldn’t you know it, on my way downstairs Gimpy Gu stopped me. ‘What are you up to? Why were you upstairs when everybody else is downstairs? What were you doing up there?’

I ignored him and waved to the delegation. ‘It’s the day they do their voluntary work,’ I said. ‘Let’s go down to the construction site.’

Stung by Gimpy Gu’s criticism, the boat people turned and left the General Affairs Building, grumbling about their treatment. Desheng’s wife handed Huixian to her husband and told him to hold her up in the air so the people at the piers could see her. ‘That way they’ll know we’re coming to turn her in, not to make trouble.’

‘She’s high enough already,’ said Desheng, who had the girl on his shoulders. ‘They can’t see her, anyway, since they’re all working. They’re not paying us any attention.’

‘Isn’t it strange,’ Desheng’s wife complained, ‘how many officials are out there worrying about land and cement, and how many more are concerned with all those tools, but there’s no one to give a damn about this little girl?’

I knew that the best way to find someone in authority in that crowd of workers was to look for a red flag. I saw one that said ‘PUBLIC SERVANT SHOCK TROOPS’, and that is where I headed, along with Sun Ximing and the others, only to find that Xiaogai had got there ahead of us. He was resting on his haunches under the flag, register in hand, and reading from it to someone down in the trench. Reporting on us. We looked down to see who it was. As I guessed, it was Zhao Chuntang. He was wearing a hard hat and knee-high rubber boots and had a whistle around his neck as he supervised the work group digging the trench.

One of the women in our group leaned over and shouted, ‘Secretary Zhao, this girl turned up at our fleet, so we’re bringing her to you!’

Xiaogai jumped up and pointed angrily at her. ‘You’ve got a nerve coming here to cause trouble! Who kicked Baldy in the balls? They’re all swollen, and if he suffers a permanent injury, you’ll pay. I’ve told Secretary Zhao how you came ashore to cause trouble on the pretext of bringing over a child. There’s a new trend in class struggle, you know!’

Everyone began talking at once, insisting they hadn’t attacked Baldy Chen. Six-Fingers stepped up to the edge of the trench. ‘Don’t listen to him. Look at my face. See how puffy it is? Who did that? Scabby Five did it. Bringing the child ashore is part of the new trend in class struggle, but can you say the same about a security group that uses its truncheons on the heads of the revolutionary masses?’

Everyone on the ground and in the trench turned to look at Zhao and see his reaction. I watched as he waved three times. The first wave was a more or less polite sign to the people to move on. But the delegation stood its ground. There was an angry edge to the second wave, implying that they were ill informed and were interfering with the work under way. Still they stayed put.

‘Don’t listen to Wang Xiaogai’s false accusations,’ Desheng’s wife said. ‘We’re not worthy of any new trend, and we’re not here to make trouble. We brought this little girl ashore, a living, breathing child we can’t abandon and we can’t keep. How can we go home before the authorities have taken responsibility for her?’

At that Zhao Chuntang stuck his shovel in the mud and had a hushed discussion with an official named Four-Eyes Zhang. Then he turned back and waved for the third time, a gesture we found a bit strange. ‘Come down here, Sun Ximing,’ Four-Eyes explained. ‘We want to talk to you.’

Sun was about to take the little girl down into the trench, but one of the women snatched her out of his hands. ‘You go on down if you want to,’ she said, ‘but she stays here.’

‘Quieten down, you women,’ Four-Eyes said, ‘and keep out of this. Bring the girl down and let Secretary Zhao see her before he decides what to do.’

So Sun Ximing took Huixian by the hand to go down into the trench, but she baulked at the sight of it. ‘It’s muddy down there,’ she said. ‘My clothes will get dirty.’

‘Those people are all officials,’ Sun said to reassure her. ‘They’re rich and powerful, so you don’t have to worry if you get dirty. They’ll buy you some new clothes.’

So she went down and, with a pout, sized up the people around her. Suddenly her eyes lit up and she ran to Leng Qiuyun, Director of the local Women’s Federation. ‘Mama!’ she shouted. ‘Mama!’ Everyone froze and stared at the happy little girl. Director Leng, momentarily stunned, threw down her tool and stepped aside just as Huixian stopped, realizing her mistake, and, with disappointment in her eyes, looked up at us. Then she turned back to Director Leng. ‘Where’s my mother?’ she said. ‘You people tricked me!’ She stamped her foot in anger. ‘She isn’t here, and she isn’t there. I want you to tell me where my mama is!’

The officials all laid down their tools and gaped curiously at Huixian, especially Director Leng, who had regained her composure and took Huixian by the hand. She clicked her tongue. ‘My,’ she exclaimed, ‘what a pretty little girl, and so clever. I’d love it if you were my little girl.’

Zhao Chuntang rested his foot on the blade of his shovel, pushing it in deeper and deeper. He looked at Huixian closely, like a post-office clerk examining a misaddressed package. Finally he laughed softly, reached out and grabbed her pigtail. ‘Where’d you come from, little girl?’