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Authors: Yan Lianke
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prosperity. Furthermore, Zhu Ying had exerted considerable effort on behalf of this model village, and now Mayor Hu wanted to return to Explosionto host another enrichment conference and to erect a commendatory monument in Zhu Ying’s honor.
II.
A year earlier, after the speed of the trains increased, the residents of Explosion could no longer go to the railroad tracks to unload goods, and as a result the town’s growth had ground to a halt. Town Mayor Hu and Village Chief Kong Mingliang became so anxious that they couldn’t eat or sleep, and in the end the mayor clenched his teeth and stamped his feet and ordered several large trucks to wait in the road just outside Explosion. At the same time, Mayor Hu and Chief Kong held a mobilization meeting in the village, where they announced that representatives from the city had come to Explosion to hire workers, and that all able-bodied men and women in the village between the ages of eighteen and forty—as long as they were able to walk or crawl and were willing to go into the city to work, and earn between three and five thousand yuan a month—could immediately pack their suitcases and their bedding and board the trucks at the base of the mountain.
All of the village’s young people went to investigate.
After everyone departed, the village was left as empty as a wheat field after the harvest.
Those trucks full of villagers from Explosion and the neighboring villages of Liu Gully and Zhang Peak were sent by the mayor and the village chief to a city several hundred
li
away, where the villagers were deposited on a corner next to the train station. The trucks then parked in a quiet area, and the town mayor and the village chief both got out and proceeded to give every villager a blank letter of introduction with official stamps from both the town and the corresponding village. They said, “You are welcome to fill these out as you wish, and whatever kind of work you want, you are welcome to go find it.” Thevillage men went to work in construction, while the women went to work in restaurants as waitresses and dishwashers. Regardless of whether they were working for Zhu Ying as female or male prostitutes, or were using their tongues to polish people’s shoes or lick their asses, they were not under any circumstances permitted to return home to the village. The town levied a fine of three thousand yuan on anyone who returned to the village after staying in the city for less than six months, a fine of four thousand yuan on those who stayed for less than three months, and a fine of five thousand yuan on those who stayed less than one. Anyone who dared buy a ticket back to the village would be not only fined, but also treated like someone who had more children than permitted under the One-Child Policy.
Following the announcement, the mayor and Kong Mingliang boarded a truck and rode back to the village. Afterward, the residents of Explosion were like drops of water that fall into the ocean and disappear. Occasionally, there would be an incident, which usually involved the villagers orchestrating a theft and then being arrested. Given that there were too many detainees to fit in the jail, the police would drive them back to their hometown, whereupon Mayor Hu would have to take the policeman out to dinner and fete him with alcohol; as he was leaving, he would give him some local specialties.
The policeman said, “Fuck! Your village really does specialize in producing thieves!”
Mayor Hu slapped the face of each thief.
The policeman said, “If we arrest them again we’ll have to enforce the punishment.”
Mayor Hu put the gifts in the police car.
After the car drove away, only the mayor and several dozen thieves were left behind. Mayor Hu looked over and asked them,
“What did you steal?”
“Manhole covers and steel pipes.”
“What else?”
“Television sets from the city dwellers.”
The mayor walked right up to the eldest of the thieves and said, “You
II.
A year earlier, after the speed of the trains increased, the residents of Explosion could no longer go to the railroad tracks to unload goods, and as a result the town’s growth had ground to a halt. Town Mayor Hu and Village Chief Kong Mingliang became so anxious that they couldn’t eat or sleep, and in the end the mayor clenched his teeth and stamped his feet and ordered several large trucks to wait in the road just outside Explosion. At the same time, Mayor Hu and Chief Kong held a mobilization meeting in the village, where they announced that representatives from the city had come to Explosion to hire workers, and that all able-bodied men and women in the village between the ages of eighteen and forty—as long as they were able to walk or crawl and were willing to go into the city to work, and earn between three and five thousand yuan a month—could immediately pack their suitcases and their bedding and board the trucks at the base of the mountain.
All of the village’s young people went to investigate.
After everyone departed, the village was left as empty as a wheat field after the harvest.
Those trucks full of villagers from Explosion and the neighboring villages of Liu Gully and Zhang Peak were sent by the mayor and the village chief to a city several hundred
li
away, where the villagers were deposited on a corner next to the train station. The trucks then parked in a quiet area, and the town mayor and the village chief both got out and proceeded to give every villager a blank letter of introduction with official stamps from both the town and the corresponding village. They said, “You are welcome to fill these out as you wish, and whatever kind of work you want, you are welcome to go find it.” Thevillage men went to work in construction, while the women went to work in restaurants as waitresses and dishwashers. Regardless of whether they were working for Zhu Ying as female or male prostitutes, or were using their tongues to polish people’s shoes or lick their asses, they were not under any circumstances permitted to return home to the village. The town levied a fine of three thousand yuan on anyone who returned to the village after staying in the city for less than six months, a fine of four thousand yuan on those who stayed for less than three months, and a fine of five thousand yuan on those who stayed less than one. Anyone who dared buy a ticket back to the village would be not only fined, but also treated like someone who had more children than permitted under the One-Child Policy.
Following the announcement, the mayor and Kong Mingliang boarded a truck and rode back to the village. Afterward, the residents of Explosion were like drops of water that fall into the ocean and disappear. Occasionally, there would be an incident, which usually involved the villagers orchestrating a theft and then being arrested. Given that there were too many detainees to fit in the jail, the police would drive them back to their hometown, whereupon Mayor Hu would have to take the policeman out to dinner and fete him with alcohol; as he was leaving, he would give him some local specialties.
The policeman said, “Fuck! Your village really does specialize in producing thieves!”
Mayor Hu slapped the face of each thief.
The policeman said, “If we arrest them again we’ll have to enforce the punishment.”
Mayor Hu put the gifts in the police car.
After the car drove away, only the mayor and several dozen thieves were left behind. Mayor Hu looked over and asked them,
“What did you steal?”
“Manhole covers and steel pipes.”
“What else?”
“Television sets from the city dwellers.”
The mayor walked right up to the eldest of the thieves and said, “You
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