Mo Yan - Frog

Mother got to her feet, began to wail, and went inside.

Father threw down the saw and, with a bent back, walked to the water vat. He picked up the gourd ladle, tipped his head back, and drank, some of the water spilling down his chin to his chest, where it merged with the sawdust. He returned to the plank, picked up the saw, and recommenced sawing with a vengeance.

The Party secretary and cadres went into the house, where they bowed three times to Renmei’s ashes. One of the cadres placed a manila envelope on the stove counter.

Comrade Wan Zu, the Party secretary said, we know that no amount of money can make up for the terrible loss this unfortunate incident has caused you and your family, and this five thousand yuan is merely a token of our respect.

Someone — apparently a clerk — said, Three thousand of this is public money. The additional two thousand was donated by Secretary Wu and several leading cadres.

Take it with you, I said. Please take it back. We don’t need it.

I understand how you feel, the secretary said sadly, it won’t bring her back, but the living have to continue on the revolutionary path. Chairwoman Yang telephoned from Beijing to express her sadness over Comrade Wang’s death, to pass on her condolences to the bereaved family, and to inform you that your leave has been extended two weeks to give you time to take care of the funeral and matters at home before reporting back to work.

Thank you, I said. You may leave now.

The Party secretary and his retinue bowed once more to the funerary container and then walked out, still bent at the waist.

I gazed at their legs and at their backsides, some fleshy, some bony, and my tears flowed again.

A woman’s wails and a man’s profanities emerged from the lane, and I knew that my in-laws were coming.

My father-in-law was carrying a pitchfork. You bastards, he cursed, give me back my daughter!

My mother-in-law was making all sorts of wild gestures and bouncing on her bound feet, looking as if she was about to pounce on my aunt. But she fell before she could get there. She sat there beating the ground with both hands and howling. My poor daughter, why have you left us like that… how are we going to live without you…

The Party secretary stepped forward. We were on our way to your house, he said to my in-laws. What a tragic affair. This has saddened us deeply.

My father-in-law pounded the ground with his pitchfork handle. Come out here, Wan Xiaopao, you son of a bitch, he growled.

I walked up to him with my daughter, whose arms were wrapped around my neck, her face tucked up against my cheek.

Father, I said when I was right in front of him, you can take it out on me.

He raised his pitchfork, but his hands froze above his head. Teardrops dotted the grey stubble on his chin. His legs crumpled and suddenly he was kneeling.

But she was alive… He tossed the pitchfork aside and wept openly. As he knelt in the dirt, he said, She was so alive, but you people had to go and kill her… you evil people, aren’t you afraid of heavenly retribution?

Gugu walked over and stood in front of my father-in-law, where she hung her head and said, Wang family parents, it’s not Xiaopao’s fault. You can blame me. Blame me for not being responsible enough, for not checking carefully to see that women of child-bearing age were properly fitted with intra-uterine devices, for not considering the possibility that the no-good Yuan Sai had the skill to remove an intra-uterine device, and for not sending Renmei to the hospital for the procedure. Now — she looked over at the Party secretary — I am prepared to accept punishment from my superiors.

What’s done is done, the Party secretary said as he turned to my in-laws. We’ll go back to decide the compensation you two deserve. But Dr Wan did nothing wrong. It just happened, a result of your daughter’s unique physical constitution. Even going to the hospital would not have changed the outcome. In addition — the secretary raised his voice for the benefit of the people crowding into the yard and emerging from the lane — family planning is a national policy that cannot be changed because of an unfortunate accident. Women with illegal pregnancies should volunteer to have the pregnancies terminated. Anyone who is considering an illegal pregnancy or planning to circumvent family-planning policy will be severely punished.

It’s your turn! my mother-in-law shrieked as she took a pair of scissors from her pocket and stabbed my aunt in the thigh.

Gugu pressed her hand against the wound to staunch the blood that seeped out between her fingers.

Commune cadres rushed up, pinned my mother-in-law to the ground, and wrenched the scissors out of her hand.

Little Lion crouched down beside Gugu, opened her medical kit and took out a bandage, which she wrapped around Gugu’s leg.

Get on the phone, the Party secretary shouted, and send for an ambulance.

There’s no need for that, Gugu said. Renmei’s mother, I gave your daughter 600 ccs of my blood. Now our blood debt is paid in full.

Gugu’s movements caused the blood to flow more freely than ever.

How could you, old woman! the enraged Party secretary said. You’ll pay for it if anything happens to Chairwoman Wan.

The sight of all that blood must have frightened my mother-in-law. Once again she beat the ground and howled.

This is nothing to worry about, Renmei’s mother, Gugu said. Even if I get tetanus and die, you’re not responsible. I want to thank you for stabbing me. I can now cast off my burden and strengthen my beliefs — she turned to face the people drawn to the commotion and announced — Please pass the word to Chen Bi and Wang Dan to come to the health centre and ask for me. If they don’t — she waved her bloodstained hand in the air — even if she hid in an underground tomb, I’ll go dig her up!

Dear Sugitani Akihito sensei,

It’s New Year’s day, January first. It has been snowing since yesterday evening. The world outside my window is blanketed by white, and children are already out there playing boisterously. A pair of magpies is calling in the poplar tree in front of my house, chittering like they’d been pleasantly surprised.

My heart was heavy after reading your response, knowing that my letter had caused you to lose sleep and suffer physically. Your expression of sympathy has touched me deeply. You cried when you read the part where Renmei died; writing it had the same effect on me. I did not blame Gugu, she did nothing wrong. Even though she’s expressed remorse more frequently in recent years, saying she had blood on her hands, that’s history, and history is all about effects, not what caused them. One gazes upon China’s Great Wall or the Egyptian pyramids without a thought to the blanched bones buried beneath these magnificent edifices. Over the past two decades China has resolved the problem of its population explosion by draconian measures, not only for the sake of the country’s development, but as a contribution to humanity. When all is said and done, we live together on this tiny planet, with its finite resources. Once they’re gone, they’re not coming back, and seen from this perspective, Westerners’ critiques of China’s family-planning policies are unfair.

There have been significant changes in my hometown over the past couple of years. The new Party secretary is a young man in his late thirties with an American PhD, bold vision, and lofty goals. We’ve been told that he plans to develop the area on both sides of the Jiao River, and to that end, construction equipment has begun rumbling into the area. Within a few years, you won’t be able to recognise the place, with all its changes. Much of what you saw when you were here will be gone. Whether these coming changes will work to the area’s advantage or disadvantage is impossible to say.