13.  Lovable Peasant Uncle

     It was a Sunday, the day for break. I put on my new cotton padded coat, with an extra-large overalls over it and an empty bag on my back, I came to ask deputy company commander for leave. I pretended to go to Shinlon town for a haircut. Deputy commander reminded me to come back early, while I was telling myself never to come back at all, because I had made up my mind to escape again.

    On my way there were old timer you-mins strolling down the winding path to Shinlon.  Being a new comer, I had only a few acquaintances in my Company, even fewer in the other Companies. Nonetheless I still maintained a distance from them, for I was afraid of unforeseen happenings to destroy my plan. It seemed that the more you were afraid of, the more it was to come. Right close to the street entrance of the town, I ran into an early-come-back old timer of my company. Probably he sensed something abnormal with me, perceiving I was escaping, as he asked with a forced smile: “Flying away?” At this moment any explanation or denying would only make things worse, so I took the worst risk by bringing out all my food coupon for the whole month to him: “Please do me a favor not to report on me.”  At my word, he took over the coupons and strode away.

       I had planned very carefully beforehand about my escape route. I knew it was unsafe to wait for the train at Shinlon station, so I took the way heading to another railway station at Wansheng.

      After several incidents, my money left was only enough to buy a ticket to Chongqing. With neither money nor introducing letter, I had no means to secure a hotel’s accommodation, I could only see what would happen.

      Wansheng was a coalmine town. When I walked into the famous Nantong coalmine area, I saw the pavement of street was dyed black, and the workers’ faces were stained black. The train from Wansheng to Chongqing was mainly for shipping coal, with very few passenger cars. I estimated the time I got to the railway station would be 9:00 pm. I knew nothing of the time-table for the train. To hang around a railway station at night would cause suspicion. I had to find out a way to stay for the night.

     Twilight was closing in, peasants were home coming after work. I saw an old uncle strolling in front of me with a hoe on his shoulder. I hastened my step to catch up and strolled abreast of him. On the way we chatted happily, telling stories and asking questions, soon he pointed to a thatched house not far away from the road telling me: “That’s my home.” I took the opportunity by saying: “It’s getting dark. I can’t get to Wansheng anyway. How about I take a rest at your home, I love to listen to your stories.” A clever remark, he didn’t refuse.

     The old peasant had a son and a daughter.  His son was a youngster of seventeen, and the daughter only around nine. Their thatched house was neat and spacious, with strings of tobacco hanging down the eaves, and pumpkins piling up in the corner. His wife was working in the kitchen, the rest of us were sitting around the table talking about odds and ends happened today. I took the chance of telling them my story, that I was a worker in Chongqing coming to visit my brother at Shinlon, who worked for the local department store. By chance he had been out of town on an errand. After waiting several days my days of leave was up.  I had to be back on time but I had used up all my money. Now I was in difficulty and if he was kind enough to let me stay for the night I’d give my cotton padded coat to his son.

     By saying so, I took off the coat and handed it to the peasant uncle while he examined it closely with the shrewdness of a peasant. It was evidently a brand new one. Now he handed it to his son who brought it into the kitchen for his mother to have a look. Thus I bid good-bye to my newly acquired new coat.

     Food for supper was rice gruel mixed with sweet potato, rice only accounted about ten percent. I noticed that in my bowl, the percentage of rice was much higher than that of theirs. This must be the only means to show the host’s hospitality. I knew the sincerity and kindness of Chinese peasants. I also knew the young man, possibly for the first time in all his life had owned a new cotton padded coat like this. In those years, the cloth ration for the whole family was not enough to make one padded coat.

     Before going to bed, the old peasant came to me, handing me a bunch of tobacco leaf weighing about one kilogram. In the ‘Nature Calamity’ years, price of all agriculture produce was high, and this bunch of tobacco could raise the money for my ten days’ expenses. I tried to refuse but the old uncle was unhappy, saying: “If you don’t take it, then take back your coat.” So I paid him my gratitude and put it into my empty bag. Old uncle smiled kindly and lit the cigar he just made from his tobacco asking me: “According to regulation of our village, we have to report any one coming from outside. Not long before we had caught an escaped you-min. By the way, who on earth are you”?  I intentionally showed calm and asking with a smile: “What do you see of me, looking like a you-min?”  He answered with an ambiguity of a diplomat: “Oh, well, well.” It had been proved afterwards that he had never reported.

     Early next morning, I bid farewell to my host. My timid and overcautious host naturally wished the unexpected guest with origin uncertain to leave as early as possible. He saw me off at the door. While I was turning at the corner of the house, suddenly a big sweet potato about half kilo was handed out from behind the wall. I took it over and squinted to see his son disappearing from the corner. The reticent youngster was yet reluctant to put on his new precious coat. It was after all the unexpected luxury he had dreamt of. He could only scheme a way like this without being noticed by his father to express his gratitude. This unforeseen detail added another highlight to the portrait of my beloved peasants.

      I turned and waved my fare well to him. Thank you, my beloved brother.

1.                        This Time an Elder Sister

     At about ten o’clock, I finally arrived at Wansheng, the place I had a longing for.

     It could be seen that Wansheng should have been a thriving town in normal years. There were spacious streets lined by different big shops on either side, but ‘Nature Calamity’ like a hurricane destroyed her prosperity. All left was desolation and depression. Now in my bag there were tobacco worth over 30 yuans plus a big sweet potato, which meant I was a ‘middle class’ at this time.

     In retrospect, I recalled why old uncle talking to me about you-min; seemingly, I had raised his suspicion, but why? I was neatly dressed and behaved decently. Probably the only drawback which sold me out was my hairstyle. I mentioned before my haircut was done by the you-min barber pretender in Chongqing post in deal with the inspection. It was entirely a mess. They’d simply cut off excessive hair on all sides without any trimming but left my top hair untouched. This made it looking like the so-called lid on a chamber pot. You could never find any normal people with such a hairstyle. I had to have it redone, since this was originally the ‘legitimate reason’ of my leave from the Reform Farm. 

     A barber shop was not difficult to find. My presence with my hair style at once caused a laughter from the barber. I had to find out an explanation otherwise the laughter would soon turn to revolutionary vigilance, and any disastrous consequence could happen. I resorted to my quick wit and got an improvisation. I lied that we had a work-study program in our school, so we teachers’ heads had to serve as the test items for students to learn to cut hair. This was how weird my hair looked. Another ‘legitimate reason’.

     From the time table at the railway station, I knew the next train leaving for Chongqing would be at 4:30 am, much too long to wait. I pondered that either to saunter into the lifeless street or to sit in the empty railway station for such a long time was not applicable, if I did not intend to become the target of the revolutionary people. Since I had no luggage with me, why not just stroll along to the next station to save a little money.

     So decided, I walked along casually. Around four o’clock in the afternoon, I saw in front of me a woman carrying a basket on her back slogging with difficulty apparently resulting from her heavy burden. Just after I passed her a short distance, she called me, so I slowed down. She told me she’d been back from her parents’. She could walk no more for carrying too much, and that if I could help her with the basket she’d give me a kilo of millet as reward. At this request I thought I was indeed under a lucky star again. A kilo of millet would serve two big meals for me. What a great treat! A thirty kilo basket was nothing to a fellow through three years’ test of hard labor like me.  I took over her basket and walked alongside with her. In our chatting she said her home was close to the railroad. I took the chance asking her for a night’s accommodation before I got the early morning train, to which she consented easily.

     Her home was in fact half way on a big mountain. By the time we arrived, it was way after sunset. Standing on her doorstep I could see the railroad wriggling down the mountain, maybe this was what she meant by “close to the railroad”. For a guy young and sinewy like me, climbing the steep mountain with a load of 30 kilo basket still made me all wet. She was telling everyone: “Without comrade Li, I just could not make it.”

     Her husband was a miner at Nantong coalmine, two daughters aged ten or so were home. They were so happy to see mom back with lots of fine food. Neighbors were also coming in to say hello plus satisfying the curiosity of looking into an unexpected stranger. After a spell of noise and excitement, the hostess served me with a food steamer full of steaming hot pumpkin and corn powder mixture. It was a delicious meal. I had had nothing but the gift sweet potato for the whole day. After carrying the basket up hills I was already like a hungry hound, so I devoured the mixture with relish to the full extent of my stomach. After supper, my hostess paid me the millet as offered and promised a 3:00 am wake up call.  I got to the appointed bed and soon went to sleep in a mosquito net.

     “Comrade Li!” “Comrade Li!” The calling waked me and I found the hostess together with her two daughters were sleeping on the bed next to mine. I hurried up and dressed but had doubt in mind how this woman could sleep with a male stranger in the same bedroom only arm’s length apart. However, this was not the right time for me to explore local folkway. I had to speed up to catch the early morning train.

2.                        Again I Had Nothing Left

          It was pitchy dark. The hostess lit a torch for me, which helped me a lot in descending the rugged mountain path. In about half an hour’s blundering, while the torch had long quenched, I finally caught sight of the rails.

          I was making my way to Puhou railway station just ahead of me. From far away I saw a lantern swaying toward me. It turned out to be a road-inspecting worker. I asked him if there was time enough to catch the train, he gave me a negative response. At that I quickened my pace, but only in several minutes, I heard sound of the train coming from behind. I started to run at the top of my speed. In no time the train with its whirling sound and high speed, surpassed me like a whirlwind. I kept running with my last hope. With a slight unbalance, I fell down to the tracks. My leg was cut with a 4 centimeter wound, with blood trickling down to the sole of my foot. I knew I would never catch the train this time.

          It was about daybreak when I was hobbling on my way toward Puhou. Upon reaching the street entrance, I saw a small hut right at the side of the railroad. A worker about thirty was warming himself by a fire inside. To have a short break also to ease my pain, I stepped inside and found him very nice and easy to get along with. We soon were in a friendly talk. I complained about my vexation for missing the train; he told me the torment of hunger. His wife suffering from edema was bedridden, could do nothing to help while their four year old son was reduced to all bones. ”No one to take care of him,” on saying this, regardless of his being a grown-up male, he started to cry. I tried hard to soothe him, and after a while he calmed down. Seeing the wound on my leg, he asked me to come home with him for a treatment.

          His home was not far, only the word desolate could be used to describe it.  His sick wife was trying to rise up in her bed to greet me, only with great efforts did she succeed. His four-year-old son, as thin as a little monkey, could barely made his voice of greeting audible. No wonder the worker had cried so sadly. He carefully bound up my wound before going back to work. On taking my leave I took out the bag of millet handing it to his wife, which met with their great surprise as well as gratitude. I saw the worker was on the verge of tears again and my eyes were the same, so I hurried out. 

          From my conversation with the worker, I knew it was the Fair day of Puhou today. I planned to buy some food plus sell my tobacco to get some cash for future living expenses. Soon I was in the bustling crowd. Everything went smoothly and my tobacco sold, but when I put the money into my pocket, someone was patting my shoulder asking me to come with him. What a shock, but soon I was relieved because I found out it was to the Revenue Office we were heading. I never had the idea that sale of one kilo of tobacco to be taxed and the tax was so high as to grab most of my money away.  But I had to do so without any argument, because I could not afford any trouble.