CHAPTER III

For the last few days the Land Reform Workers' Corps had been busy with Fang Ping, Wen K'u, Visiting the Poor and Asking about their Pains. In small units of two or three they paid visits from door to door. To catch the men at home they had to work until late in the evening, trying to engage the farmers in conversation and pumping them to make them T'u K'u Simi, Disgorge Bitter Fluid. Once every day the Reform Corps met in the village school for Collective Reporting, sorting out the material gathered that day and discussing it.
"The People still have scruples. They dare not speak out," Chang Li said. "They're scared of the revenge of the Remnant Feudal Forces."
The Corps tried to find out whether it was the, land­lords that they were afraid of or the village despots. The few landlords in Han Chia Tau had very little land for rent and could not live on their income from the land. They generally had some member of the family who was in business or who taught school in town, sending money home regularly to help things out. There' were a few local huen-huen, gangsters, but none of them was powerful enough to be called a despot. Go Forward Pao, had been a ne'er-do-well before. But since he had mended his ways after he became Progressive and had, further­more, been made the Party Secretary of the Branch Office, nobody was inclined to speak ill of him. The two men who had been chia chang block leaders — during the Japanese occupation had been appointed against their will. Their job had been mostly to take up collections to provide for food and supplies for the Japanese army or the army of the puppet government, whichever happened to be passing through the district. They had to, make up the deficit out of their own pockets and had to sell their land to do it, later even their houses- One of them had been appointed after his predecessor had gone half crazy with grief. If anything, the villagers were sorry for them.
The most common grievance the students heard was that after the harvest last year when the whole country­side competed in paying tax ahead of the final date, the village kan-Pu had been too keen on winning the Red Flag.They had kept after everybody, threatening that those who delayed the payment would have to help build roads. When that didn't work too well, there had been arrests and beatings. Han Teh-lu, classified as a Poor Farmer, had been so badgered that he had broken down and cried four times. Many of the farmers had been forced to sell their seeds before their crops were ready for harvesting.
Some accused the kan-pu of discrimination in tsau fu-tan, calculating the Individual Share of the Burden.
Then there were several people who claimed that they had lost over half of their crops last year through floods and bugs. They had already reported themselves as famine cases, which according to government proclamations, were entitled to a tax reduction. But the kan-puhad talked and talked to them, refusing to let them alone until they had agreed to "voluntarily ask for exemption from tax reduction."
The members. of the Corps had been excited and enthusiastic during the Extraction of Bitter Fluid. But when it came to Collective Reporting, they were some­what at a loss. All they had collected here were complaints against the kan-pu. Nothing really serious. But no mention at all was made of the landlords.
"The hatred of the farmers here for the landlord is not deep," Liu concluded.
"If their hatred for the landlord is not deep, it's be­cause their Political Awareness is not high," Chang Li said. "That's. why they don't resent the fact that they've been exploited. And you people just look at it from the surface and decide arbitrarily that their hatred for the landlord is not deep. That just reflects on the extent of your understanding of The Policy-"
So the entire Corps went under the most thorough discussion and self-examination.
Go Forward Pao made a suggestion to the Corps. that they might dine on Struggle Rice cooked in big pots every day at lunchtime. The members of the Corps would eat together with the kan-pu and. militiamen so they could all keep in touch. "As it is now, we have to look all over the place whenever we want to get hold of any­body," Pao said. "The rice is there, ready at hand. It's the Fruit of the Struggle that we collected this spring during the Extermination of Bandits and Gangsters. It's been in the safekeeping of the Farmers' Association."
"That's the People's property," Liu Ch'uen said at once. "We shouldn't be the ones to enjoy it."
Su Nan, who seldom spoke, also said, "We're supposed to Share in Three Things when we come to the country." She meant "share the food, the living quarters and the labor of the farmers." "We aren't helping in the fields because there isn't time. If on top of this we are eating better tham other people. It would be a bit too much. The' family I'm boarding with belongs to the Destitute Farmer class. They're living on bean husks and rice husks.
She was not the only one boarding with Destitute Farmers- Some of them were naturally anxious for a change of diet. "To save time we are not helping in farm-work. It saves time too to eat Struggle Rice together, with everybody at hand," they argued. "There is a time limit to this Land Reform, you know: It's most important to complete it as soon as possible."
Opinions differed. They broke into a hubbub-
"You comrades are here to help The People to get up a Struggle," Go Forward Pao said. "What if you eat a few meals off The People — it's as it should be."
"Then does that mean that if we don't eat, we won't help, and there'll be no Struggle?" said Su Nan-
Chang Li gave her his support. "It's true that it won't look good if we eat too well. Got to Consider the Effect."
The talk of Struggle Rice was shelved. But then it turned out that nobody had paid attention to the ventila­tion in the storeroom of the Farmers' Association, so the grain had turned warm and was beginning to redden after a particularly hot summer. Part of it had begun to sprout- So there was really no reason why some of it shouldn't be taken out and disposed of.
Big mud stoves were built in the courtyard of the school to cook lunch for everybody connected with the Land Reform. It was whispered among the members of the Corps that Go Forward Pao and the chairman of the Farmers' Association were smuggling large quantities of rice and flour out of the granary, secretly selling them in town and charging it all to the daily consumption of Struggle Rice. Other kan-pu had talked because they were kept out of it. Chang Li must have also' heard of this. But Pao had already worked himself into Chang's good graces. So the matter went no further-
With the work of Fang Ping, Wen K'u coming to an end, the Corps was busy writing a Collective Report to the district government. Everybody helped with the copying- The part assigned to Su Nan seemed specially long. She hadn't finished copying yet when everybody left the school office. A red candle stood on a tall pale yellow mud can­dlestick. A lithograph portrait of Sun Yat-sen faced a colored print of Mao's portrait on the peeling whitewash­ed walls. Slogans written on two strips. of white paper flanked each of the portraits like the traditional antithet­ical scrolls. The brass nails on a scarlet waist-drum strung high on one wall gleamed In the candlelight. Pasted in tidy rows under the drum were the schoolchildren's essays written on flimsy green-checked paper. The faint stench of sticky Chinese ink filled the room.
Chang Li came, saying, "Let's give it a Shock Attack. I'll help you copy, we'll get it done tonight so we can send this off early in the morning. Let's. see how far you've got."
He bent down to look, standing behind her, fanning himself with his cap, half for her benefit. The flame of the candle jumped in the breeze. It jumped again and again with each stroke of his cap. Su Nan kept her eyes fixed on the sheet of paper in front of her but the shifting of light and shadow across it made her feel a bit dizzy.
Trying not to show her annoyance, she put down her pen,. gave him half of the rough draft and pushed the candle-- stick a little toward the other side of the table. But instead of going over to sit on the other side, Chang: remained leaning against a corner of the table. He stood the sheets of manuscript on the table and tapped them to, make them a tidy stack.
"I've been watching you, Comrade Su. You're doing fine. And at today's meeting what you said shows a high degree of Thought Element. You carry on," he said smiling, patting her on the shoulder. "When we go back to Peking I'll Reflect it Upward. It ought to pave the way to your admittance into the Party."
His hand rested on her shoulder. Su Nan went on. copying as if not noticing it, but she swiveled around a little as she was turning over a sheet of paper and his hand came off. "I'm willing to learn," she said smiling,. "But I don't think I have in any way given an outstanding demonstration."
"To ask to be outstanding is still a petit-bourgeois way of looking at it." As he spoke he had already taken her left hand which was resting on the paper. But she wrig­gled out of his grasp. The shadows of her lowered eye­lashes fell in long thin spidery lines over the deepening crimson of her cheeks.
"You've grown thin, hey? How is it that you happen to be quartered in a Destitute Farmer's house?" Chang- bent down to look into her half averted face. His mouth was close to the candle so that the flame was now trem­bling with every word he breathed. "How about moving you to a Midding Farmer's house? You need a change."'
"There's really no need for that- When we volunteer­ed to come down here, we didn't expect to have a good time."
"Youth is always stubborn." He laughed, blowing the thin orange flame away from him. "Never mind. The Organization will take care of this. The Organization always feels concerned about workers who show promise-"
"But really, Comrade Chang, what we've gone through is nothing, as hardships go:"
"You should go step by step when learning to stand hardships. No sense in ruining your health. After all, • 'Your body is your capital in the Revolution'," he quoted. His hand was again on hers, fondling her wrist, sliding up her forearm. "You have gone thin," he said.
This time she pulled away abruptly and stood up-
go and get some people to help copy this. It'll be much faster," she said to the door as she hurried toward it, flushed and unsmiling.
"Tell the school janitor to go and get them." He came :after her, shouting on the dark porch, "Lao Han! Lao Han!"
There was no answer. Empty rooms reverberated with the echoing "Han! . . - Han!" She got really frightened a t the sound.
"No, I'll go myself. I've got to go anyhow — haven't had my supper yet-" She almost ran out of the pitch-dark courtyard.
At the village she rounded up several co-workers and sent them to the temple while she stayed for supper. The others had almost finished copying by the time she came back to the temple with another girl she had recruited. Chang was as affable and jovial as ever. When the work was done they lit lanterns and returned to the village together.
But the next day at noon when they were having Struggle Rice, Chang strolled toward Su Nan, his rice bowl in hand- "Comrade Su, this kind of tso-fung is not so good. Mind the effect on people-"
Su Nan was speechless with surprise, thinking that he was referring to what happened between them the evening before. Surely he wouldn't have the guts — or the face — to tell everybody about it?
"Fish the fly out and- be done with it. But no., you're throwing away the whole bowl of rice gruel." Chang; pointed with his chopsticks at the rice bowl she had abandoned on the table. "Wasting the People's Blood and Sweat. I seem to remember you were the first to object to eating Struggle Rice, on the ground that it's a waste. Now that's a very good example of the most typical fault of the intelligentsia — "Hao kao, wu yuen Fond of the Lofty, Aim at the Remote."
"Comrade Chang, you're being too Unscientific," Su Nan said furiously. "Flies carry germs — even primary school students ought to know that."
"The fly has been cooked; it's dead; the germs are all killed- This is not hygiene you're talking of — just the' petit-bourgeois obsession with cleanliness."
"But I saw it fall into the gruel. Look, its legs are. still moving-" She snatched up her bowl and held the fly up with her chopsticks to show him.
"So what? The farmers would have eaten up every­thing just the same- What makes you think your life more valuable than a farmer's?"
All the kan-pu and. militiamen stood around watching curiously. Chang began to feel that it was unwise as well as unseemly to prolong the argument- He was not used to dealing with women and must have been more hurt and upset than he had realized.
"We're all comrades together," he dropped, his voice' and said smiling. "If anybody gives you his opinion,. he means well, he's helping you to make Progress. Your way of taking criticism is not so good, Comrade Su. We' ought to bring it up for discussion in the unit meeting."
Liu was very angry at the injustice, but he was just the least bit surprised at the way Su Nan had quickly lost her temper and had immediately started to Shout back at Chang.
She also regretted it. She ought to have known better. Even if she had exposed him, telling about his attitude toward her the previous evening, she wouldn't get any support from the Organization. All she'd have done would be to ruin her own future.
During the unit meeting that day, everybody had to take turns commenting on her behavior. A few co-work­ers, Liu among them, tried to shield her with mild criticism. But they were cried down and accused of Small Circle-ism. The young men and girls of the Corps had learned a lot since they came down to the country. They had their own futures to think of and could not afford to pass by this opportunity to win distinction and get a good fitness report out of Chang. They attacked Su Nan with gusto, calling her "feudal," "capitalistic," "hsiao- chieh, young lady," "poisoned by Western Imperialistic Thought-" The onslaught ended only when Su Nan had finally cas­tigated herself to everybody's satisfaction, outdoing all of them in name-calling- But the subject was brought up again the next day when somebody pointed out at a meet­ing, "Comrade Su Nan has been seen going out alone into the fields, where she cried for half an hour. So it would seem that she's only pretending to accept criticism. At heart she still resents it."
After some Pause Su Nan said in a halting voice, "Yes, I did cry. Because I felt so moved. Everybody was so concerned about me, so enthusiastic in helping me to make Progress." Tears stood in her eyes.
The matter was finally dropped.
The members of the Corps sat in at the daily meeting of the kan-pu at the co-operative store. The purpose of these "secret" meetings was Brewing Objects for the Struggle. One day there was a sudden shout during the meeting. "Spies! There're spies!"
"It's Han T'ing-pang, the landlord!"
"Sure, it's him! I saw him peeking at the door!"
Several kan-pu rushed out and came back with Han T'ing
pang, his arms pinned behind him. The militiaman posted outside the co-operative was scolded for allowing him to snoop around.
Han was sallow and lanky. His slightly grizzled hair was Darted in the middle and hung over his steel-rimmed glasses. He wore blue canvas shoes under his long gown of wrinkled white glass cloth.
"What are you doing here, Han T'ing-pang?" Pao thundered at him.
"I came to see the department heads. But when I saw that you comrades were having a meeting, I didn't dare come in. Didn't dare come in." Han kept nodding and smiling, making innumerable little bows as he spoke.
"What have you got to say?" Chang Li asked.
"I want to give land to the government-" Han tried to reach for his pocket. A kan-pu took a small cloth package from him and presented it to Chang Li.
Chang chuckled as he opened the package. "It's been said that the landlords have three tricks when they give away land: 'Give what's bad; give what's farthest from the village; give very little'."
Go Forward Pao leaned over to look at the land deeds. "Sure, he's trying to cheat with that rocky patch he has way over on the other side of the woods. And this piece of 'watery land' has been absolutely useless ever since the creek changed its course."
"Anyhow, it's against our principles to take it. This land will have to be returned to his tenants. He has no right to give away what doesn't belong to him." Chang wrapped, the papers in the piece of white cloth and tossed it to the ground at Han's feet.
"Now get out! Get out!' Pao said. "He's Just here to eavesdrop. I know these people — they'd give anything to find out what's going on."
Still protesting with little bows and smiles, Han was hustled out of the room and the meeting continued. Chang wanted to know Han's background and past history. It seemed that he had inherited about forty acres of land and had gone to high school in town- Relatives had help­ed him to find clerical jobs in Peking and Tsinan but he never could keep them because he didn't know how to get on with people. Every now and then he would go up to Peking for a short visit with his father-in-law. After one or two months of fruitless job-hunting he would be back again in the country. He had been scared by the talk of Land Reform and had made an attempt to escape to Peking, leaving his wife and children behind. That was half a month ago, when the village gate was already being watched. He had been stopped by the sentry and brought to the Village Public Office. After some questioning he had been released but from then on several watchmen were assigned to guard his front and back doors,.
Go Forward Pao asked at the meeting if it would be against the rules to arrest him at once. Further delay might give him another opportunity to escape. There was also the danger that he might hide or destroy his land deeds. The decision was made that his tenants should go and settle their accounts with him and, ask him for the land deeds that ought to be theirs.
Han had five tenants altogether. The Farmers' Asso­ciation summoned them and taught them a fiery little speech which they were to deliver when they demanded the deeds. They were all ready to go, but by that time one of them had disappeared. Another went to find him. One by one they all slipped away. The kan - pu waited and waited. Finally Chang, Pao and Sun had to go themselves to look for them. The men were all working in the fields,
"What you doing here? What's happened to all of you?" Sun yelled at one of the men, jumping high with exasperation- "You're to go to Han T'ing-pang! Denounce him and get the land deeds back!"
The man felt the top and back of his shaved skull and smiled at him conciliatorily. "Yes, Comrade Sun — but it's very embarrassing After all, old tenant, old landlord. My family has been renting land from his family for' generations back."
Pao and Sun swore, "These blockheads! Ssu tau -ha dead set on being backward. You can't do a thing with them. 'You can't help slush to climb walls'."
"Don't be so impatient," Chang said. "In this work there're bound to be times when you bump your head against a nail."
The tenants were again summoned to the co-opera­tive. After a lot more explanations and. coaching, they finally went to Han T'ing-pang's house- They obtained the land deeds from him with the greatest ease, without having to go through the process of dramatic accusations, and settling of accounts, tracing Exploitations three gen­erations back. The Farmers' Association was highly dis­satisfied with the performance- In the next kan-pu meet­ing Sun Fu-kwei spoke up with his customary bluntness, "I've always said it's no use. Never will get them to kick up a row. We don't even have one Big Landlord, while' the Poor Farmers and hired men come up to a hundred and sixty odd families. How much land can each expect to, get? What have they got to fight for?"
Go Forward Pao also said, "Each family won't get as, much as one acre of land. And right in front of their eye's they see the Rich Farmers and Middling Farmers with their ten or twenty acres, absolutely untouched. If we're going to divide the land, let's take it all and divide it if you ask me. Guess nobody will mind getting two acres of land to play around with. See if The People don't rise at that. You just watch!"
After an uneasy silence there were some whisperings among the Land Reform Workers. Then Liu said aloud, "This is against The Policy."
Somebody added in a more moderate tone, "Perhaps it's not advisable to have too many Objects for the Struggle."
"We ought to limit the Area of Attack," Su Nan said.
Chang made a quick decision- It appeared to Liu that this might not be the first time that he had heard of the proposal. "We can't just hug the regulations tight and close our eyes to all other factors," he said. "In different localities there's a great deal of difference in the propor­tion of population to the amount of arable land. So it's impossible to go by set rules in classifying people accord­ing to the amount of land they own. The classifications made in the past could have been incorrect. If there are any such cases, let's bring them up for rediscussion."
Most of the kan - pu didn't quite get it but after he had it explained to them, they grew lively, with everybody talking at once, naming many people who could be classifi­ed as landlords.
Even Hsia Fung-ch'ueng, the shy and inarticulate Propaganda Officer of the Party Branch Office, spoke up excitedly, "There's Han Ch'ong-sau. As the old saying goes, 'One able-bodied young man; three acres of good watery land' — amounts to a lot, you know. He even got himself a wife last year." Hsia himself could not afford to get married though it was more than a year since he became a kan - pu. He never got much out of it. Being rather slow-witted he was aldays kept Out of things by Pao and Sun.
The Chairman of the Women's Association also opened her mouth for the first time. "The wife's got a new pad.-
ded jacket too. Some real fancy cotton print."
Amid eager chatter, a list of names was drawn up. Tang Yu-hai's name was among the first three. Although Tang had no tenants and could not afford a regular hired man, there were several day laborers who had worked for him during the busy seasons. The Farmers' Association summoned these men and mobilized them to Struggle" against Tang.
The men were all timid and-. quite speechless before the authorities. Except for Fung T'ien-yiu, who was one of the best stilt walkers for miles around and had a com­manding presence, his ruddy long face theatrically black browed. He alone spoke up, with considerable hesitation, "I dare not lie in front of you comrades. I don't know about Tang, but when I worked for him, I ate what he ate. And there's never been any trouble when it comes to getting paid."
"Ai-yah, wake up, old Fung! Are you too dumb to know when you're being exploited?" Pao said- "Just think, if he doesn't exploit poor people, where did he get all his land from?
"That's because his whole family has been working hard all these years. Men, women or children, they all go down to the fields to work- When his dad was alive he worked in the fields when he was well past seventy."
"Don't be so silly, old Fung. You're defending those who ride on poor people's necks and turning against your own brothers in poverty. Your elbows turn outward, eh?"
"It isn't that, Comrade Pao. A man can't do without a conscience. Old Tang hasn't treated me badly, consider­ing. That year when my dad died, even my own grand­uncles and grandaunts refused to help, and it was he who Lent me money to buy the coffin."
"So that's it!" Chang Li broke in. "He's bought your heart with this bit of hsiao ung, hsiao kwei, petty favor, petty boon."
"Don't be so foolish," Pao said- "What's this petty favor, compared to what you're really entitled to, if you .settle your accounts with him? I won't be surprised if he has to give you half of his land."
Pao was quick to notice a slight nervous movement in Fung's face that might mean a flicker of interest- "Now think it over, Fung T'ien-yiu," he said heartily, slapping him on the shoulder. Don't be so dead-brained. It would seem that you'd rather die than be well off."
Chang slapped him on the other shoulder. "Today is the day that your luck changes."
"The world nowadays is the poor man's world. The man who's poor always has the last word, just as if he's three generations older than everybody else," Pao said. "You just go and make a row, and ask for the back wages that he must owe you. Don't worry, the Government is right behind you-"
Fung hung his head and said nothing. But the other men with him started to mumble something about Tang: having given them less wages than was their due.
"You hear? You hear?" Pao said to Fung. "They're' talking. You're the only one who still defends him, con­tent to be his kou rui tze, dog's leg."
"Must have been bribed," Chang said. "What did he give you?"
Fung cried out, "No, nothing! Whoever took anything, from him, may his right hand rot if he took it with his right hand, may his left hand rot if he took it with his left hand!"
"Then why don't you speak the truth?"
They pressed him further and Fung finally admitted haltingly that the money Tang lent him was nieng wong chai, a loan from the king of hell." A high rate of corn -pound interest had been charged. So in recent years he had never got paid when he carried water for Tang, pad­ded loose earth over his land, repaired ditches and ground wheat and wheat-stalks for him.
Liu had been watching with smouldering indignation- "Twice he had written a short note on a slip of paper, passing it to Chang. Each time Chang had crumpled it into a ball after glancing at it and stuffed it into his pocket, and had gone on with the questioning and promp­ting- Liu reminded himself that he could not speak out strongly for Tang since he was staying in Tang's house .and could very well be accused of having been bought or 'softened u,-). But in the end he could not stand it any more. "Comrade Chang," he said, "I don't hold. with mobilizing The Masses in this manner. It doesn't encourage them to tell the truth."
"What do you mean?" Chang looked at him coldly. 'We're always talking of mobilizing The People, but when The People have really Risen, you don't think we're going to get frightened and try to gag them, are we? I tell you, nowadays nobody can gag The People when they 'choose to speak."
Liu was about to speak again but Chang cut him short, `Comrade Liu, it seems that you have taken the wrong Class Route. You're due for some Self-Examination. Think it over by yourself first. We'll discuss your problem some other day."
His last words were clearly a threat. Liu fell silent, and after that nobody else dared say anything-
When the meeting had ended and they were on their way back to the village, Su Nan caught no with Liu and whispered, "Really, it's too undemocratic."
At first Liu did not speak. Then he suddenly burst out furiously, "You saw what happened today. Anybody who so much as opened his mouth must be the landlord's kou tui tze."
"All right, all right, that's enough," another young man in the Corps whispered as he brushed past them. "If anybody should hear, they'll say we're Holding a Small Meeting-"
Su Nan hurried away without another word.
Liu lagged behind the others. He dreaded going back to the Tangs. If he should behave as if nothing had hap­pened, he'd feel too hypocritical. But of course it was out of the question to tell them anything. On top of breaking the discipline of the Corps he would be committing the most serious crime of Sabotaging the Land Reform, punishable by death. Besides, what good would it do to warn them? The Tangs could not get away from the village and even if they could, they had nowhere to go.
Liu walked slowly, taking the long way home past the ditch to the west of the village. The tall old willow by the ditch stood golden in the setting sun- The days were quiet now without the cicadas.
Somebody was squatting on the stone slab across the narrow ditch, washing clothes- Liu took no notice of the flowered purple blouse and pants and did not realize that it was Erh Nu until he had come quite close- And then he was too stunned to turn round, but went on walking toward her.
He stood on the bank, only a few steps away from her, but he did not look at her. Instead he looked clown into the thickly flowing water, specked with pale bits of straw. Long wisps of yellow mud trailed sluggishly in the cur‑
rent, like half-beaten egg-yolk floating in the egg-white. Erh Nu had seen his reflection in the water. She pretended not to notice, waiting for him to address her. But for what seemed to be a long time, he just stood a little way from her looking downward, saying nothing. At first she felt surprised, then she started to blush. With the passing of each mute second she got redder and redder. The short rod she was pounding clothes with continued to rise and fall with mechanical rhythm. Then she gave a
1" little scream. The rod had slipped out of her hand and
f-: was bobbing and pivoting very fast in the water, a slim cylindrical fish that was both stupid and incredibly agile as it swam swiftly downstream.
She made no movement to retrieve it but her cry had Wakened Liu. He stepped off the bank, wading after it. Though the water was shallow, there was a strong current and his movements were too abrupt. He almost lost his balance but he managed to get hold of the rod.
When he staggered back and climbed up to shore, Erh Nu was standing sheepishly on the stone slab, at a loss for words- Seeing the water trickle down from his trouser legs in a hundred shining threads, she just ex‑
- claimed, "Ai-yah, look at that! Look at that!" by way of apology. She didn't seem to notice that the water in the lumped up wet clothes she held in her arms, was also
 dripping onto her feet.
"It doesn't matter." Liu handed the rod back to her and bent down to wring out his trouser legs- The wet cloth had turned a deep grey.
"Look at that!" Like all northern country people Erh Niu had a horror of getting wet, probably through a very limited, acquaintance with rain or any other kind of water. "And there's nothing to change into. I just washed your other suit."
"It doesn't matter. It'll get dry soon." He nodded and turned to go. "I'll go home first, then."
This time he walked fast because the wet trousers clung icily to his legs and the wind was a bit cold after sundown. The mud at the bottom of the ditch had stuck to his rubber soles, making a thick padding through which he felt the ground giving way softly under his feet at every stem. It gave him an uncomfortably befogged feeling.
Inside the village wall he came across two other members of the Corps in the lane.
"What's the matter with you?" they asked in astonish­ment. "Fallen into the creek?"
He nodded vaguely. If he told them that he had been helping a girl to get back her rod for pounding clothes, they would be sure to make fun of him.
"How did you fall into the creek?"
"My feet slipped," he said briefly- "Lucky the water isn't deep."
"Such a joke!" One of the young men giggled and whispered, "If anybody around here should go jumping into the river, it ought to be the landlords instead of you, the land-reformer-"
Liu had to join in the laughter.
When he came back to the Tangs' house, Tang's wife also exclaimed as soon as she saw him, "What happened?"
He was going to tell her, but then he thought of her habitual dread of any man in uniform paying special attention to her daughter. There was no point in getting her into a state. "I slipped and fell into the ditch," he said.
"Ai-yah, you didn't get hurt anywhere, did you?" she said. "Quick, go and dry yourself before the stove. You'll catch cold."
Tang Yu-hai came back from work. He put down his hoe, went and lifted the cover off the water jar and drank from the half-gourd dipper. He dipped again and this time he held the water in his mouth and spat it on his grimy hands, rubbing them together.

1. He didn't seem to be paying much attention when his wife told him about Liu falling into the ditch. He took his time washing his hands with a few mouthfuls of water, then wiped them across his sleeveless white blouse, leaving long yellow mud streaks.

 His wife in turn grew silent. Liu shuffled his feet uneasily, standing before the stove. The water in one of his rubber shoes gave an embarrassing little squeak.
Tang took his long pipe from a niche-like recess in the' mud wall- He stuck his pipe into the stove to light it, then he dragged a bench over and sat down to smoke, hunched forward and staring vacantly before him.
He'd had an argument with his wife today. There were a lot of rumours in the village these few days and many Rich Farmers and Middling Farmers were feeling jittery and trying to give their land to the government. Tang's wife had tried to persuade him to offer half of his land to the government. He had said nothing.
"What else can we do?" she had said. "You feel pained — don't: I feel pained? Bought it acre by acre, and now, handing it out in a huge big piece."
At this she had started to cry and said, "Ai! Not that I'm blaming you, but really — it's not worth it. All your life you've stinted on food, and stinted on clothes. All you want is to buy land. And last spring, to buy that piece of land from the Kungs, you had to borrow all that grain — two hundred catties. You haven't paid that back yet and look what's happened now!"
Sighing and nagging in an even strain, she had brought out the little wooden box where they kept the land deeds and again the tears had streamed down her face. "In the old days we just wrapped them up with a piece of rag. Then later when we'd got more of them we wrapped them with mulberry-bark paper and then made a little cloth parcel. Then you made this box and I said even then, `What for? We're n like those rich people with their special blackwood box for land deeds.' I wouldn't be sur­prised if it's, this box that's brought us bad luck — not that I'm blaming you
He had just sat there without speaking. When she had sorted out the land deeds and had again put pressure on him to go to the co-operative store and offer them to the government, he had simply stood up, taken his hoe and carrying it on one shoulder had gone down to the field to work.
Now it was evening and everybody was home. His wife was thinking that as long as Liu was here, they might as well try to worm some information out of him. So she said to her husband after a longish silence, "Ai!
Such a lot of things are being said in the village these days. Really, you don't know who to believe. But what I say is: "Don't you worry, Erb Nu t'a tieh. It's got nothing to do with us. We've slaved hard all our lives and have nothing to show for it except those few acres of land. It's scarcely been three days since we started to eat full meals. Whoever they're going to Struggle with, it wont be us, I tell you. Who do you think you are?"
Though she was addressing her husband, her eyes rested on Liu. Liu remained standing before the stove with his back turned to her-
"Didn't Comrade Liu tell you not to worry?" the woman said to her husband. "He said it's got nothing to do with us."
She meant to engage her husband in conversation and maybe start an argument, forcing Liu to comment on the subject. However, such subtleties were well over Tang's head. Even when she coughed and winked- at him he failed to take notice. He just sat smoking in silence.
When she had gone on talking alone for some time, she had to stop.
Erh Nu brought her washing home. Tang's wife was kneading flour. Affecting an air of solicitude but obviously regarding it as a diverting piece of news, she told her daughter about Liu falling into the ditch. Erh Nu could not help letting out a giggle as she turned to glance at Liu. He was in no mood for secret jokes but he had to return her smile as their eyes met. It was probably the conscious­ness of having a secret between them that made her quick­ly turn her head the other direction and give way to half smothered giggles.
"What are you laughing at?" Tang, who had been sitting hunched up smoking all this time, suddenly raised. his head and demanded loudly.
"Nothing." Now she was spluttering with laughter.. Liu began to feel worried-
"Silly child!" Tang glared at her- He was afraid that Liu would feel offended at being made such a figure of fun.. Frowning deeply, he lifted his long pipe and knocked her on the head with the little brass bowl at the end of it.
Erh Nu cuddled up to him, rubbing her head hard. against his shoulder. She seemedt to be specially fond of her father today, so full of affection for him that she did' not know what to do. about it.
"The bigger you grow, the sillier you get," Tang grumbled as he caressed her hair- Then he sighed for no reason.
It pained Liu to see them so happy together. Soon it was suppertime- After supper Tang's wife washed the bowls and chopsticks in a wooden bucket. After wiping the table Erh Nu went out to the courtyard and took. Liu's uniform off the wash line — the suit she had washed today- It was already half dry. She spread it on the table and smoothed her palm slowly across it, pressing down hard so that the blue-grey cloth looked almost like' it had been ironed.
Liu went and got a spare lamp and lit it by tilting it against the oil lamp hung above the stove. He went back. to his own room, taking the lamp with him. He thought he would sleep early to avoid talking with, the Tangs. He was just going to lie down on the k'ang when Tang's wife shouted, "Somebody to see you, Comrade Liu!"
"Who is it?" He came out buttoning his jacket.
He never expected to see Su Nan standing in the middle of the room- She had her hands in her coat pockets and was slapping herself idly, puffing out and deflating the pockets in turn. The dim lamplight length­ened the shadowy deep cut of her eyelids and accentuated the porcelain thin rim of her pink lips-
"Have you people finished supper?" she asked- "We've just eaten," Liu said smiling- "Please sit down."
"This comrade here — what's your honorable name?" Tang's wife said conversationally.
"My name is Su. Is this your young miss?" Su Nan asked Tang's wife, putting her hand on Erh Nu's shoulder.
"Yes, this is our slave girl," Tang's wife answered-
Erh Nu bowed her head still lower as she continued to smooth Liu's uniform with her palms, working with greater concentration than ever.
"What's your name?" Su Nan stopped to look at her- Erh Nu smiled faintly but she kept her eyes riveted on the clothes spread flat over the table. A flushed, stub­born look had come on her face.
"Name of Erh Nu," her mother answered for her- 'Already seventeen this year, and still an absolute idiot," she said smiling.
"You're just saying that out of modesty," Su Nan said. 'I've seen her around. Liveliest girl in the village." She suddenly noticed Liu's shoes, covered with yellow mud. "Why, where have you been today?" she said in surprise. "You've waded in water?"
"Just now on my way back I was walking along the ditch and I slipped and fell inside and got all wet," Liu explained. As he spoke, somehow his eyes strayed toward Erh Nu as if in guilt. This was the second time that Erh Nu had heard the story. This time she was far from amus­ed. From what could be seen of her lowered face, her cheeks  were puffed out with pique and her eyes were dark and unhappy.
Liu thought it was so unreasonable of her- What made. her think that he was afraid of telling Su Nan the truth? He had just told her mother the same thing- He couldn't very well go back on his story in front of everybody. But though he reasoned thus to himself, he felt unaccountably ashamed and apologetic.
Su Nan went to the door that led to the inner room and peeped in. "Is this your room?" she said smiling. "Yes, come in and have a look."
As soon as she entered she took a folded sheet of letter paper out of her pocket and handed it to him after unfold­ing it. "I wrote a letter," she whispered. "If you agree to what I say there, sign your name at the bottom. I hope to get as many signatures as possible."
Liu needled the lamp wick into giving more light and ran his eyes hurriedly over the letter. Then he read it a second time just to gain time. His only comforting thought was that hers was the only signature at the bottom. Per-- haps she hadn't shown it to anybody else yet.
"Of course I agree," he said. "But I don't think you should send this letter.
Su Nan smiled. "Sure, I know you can't write letters, to Chairman Mao just like that. It's an Unorganized and Undisciplined Action."
"And furthermore, nothing will ever come of it," Liu said. "We are not. Party members, we have no connection with the Organization. What we say just won't be taken seriously."
Leaning against the table she drew her forefinger back. and forth across the tiny flame of the lamp, quickly so that the finger never got burned. She kept at it with childish absorption. But finally she raised her head and looked at him. "But the way they're, running things around here! I don't think Chairman Mao knows."
Liu did not speak. After a while he said, "Chairman Mao himself has said, 'To correct a wrong, you must go further than what is just'."
"Still, you can't just struggle against anybody, with no standard, no principle!" Sudden anger made her raise her voice a little,.
Liu stopped her with a, slight shake of his head. He glanced back at the door over his shoulder and whis­pered, "Let's go out for a walk. We can talk outside."
She took her letter back, folded it and stuffed it into her pocket. As they came out of the room Erh Nu was squatting in front of the stove, poking at the ashes. Tang and his wife sat across the table, smoking and sewing re­spectively, both looking tense. Obviously they thought Su Nan's coming had something to do with them, it being too late for ordinary social visits- And she had pointed­ly got Liu to go into the other room where they had held a whispered consultation. And now she was going away with him.
The smooth yellow mud walls looked clean and dismal in the frosty blue moonlight. They walked along the dirt path between earthen houses which had not changed much for the last two thousand years. The moon was so bright that cocks mistook it for dawn and crowed, cracked and quavering, all over the countryside. Some houses they passed were too run-down to have doors. Across the deep blackness of the courtyard, a faint glimmer of unearthly dark yellow light showed through the rounded, humped mud house, exactly like a burial mound peopled with ghosts. Sometimes there was the sound of children crying feebly. It was like those old stories of post-mortem child bearing which told of live babies dug out of graves.
It was impossible to talk stumbling along the uneven ground, one after the other. They finally stood still and turned toward each other.
"I want you to promise me not to mail that letter," he said. When she did not answer, he said, "Did you show it to anybody else?"
"No."
"I'm glad 'you didn't." His relief was mingled with and all but drowned by a delirious flush of happiness at the thought that she had come to him first, out of all the people. It was difficult to keep talking in a worried tone. "Really, right now we have no status whatever. Within the Corps we're regarded as The Masses. We can't save anybody even if we ruin ourselves doing it."
"I know," she said after a pause.
"For instance, that day — picking on you for no reason — it was really too ridiculous. I was furious, but I thought it's no, use getting into direct conflict with him. There's nothing we can do at present except to be patient."
Su Nan sighed shorty. "Let's go back. If somebody should see us there'll be more talk of Small Circle-ism."
"I'll walk you home."
On the way back the dogs suddenly started barking and there was a regular stomping of feet marching in step. The house lights went out quickly one by one. Liu and the girl stopped under the eaves, of a house and peered out at the small band of militiamen moving past the lane ahead, with lanterns lighting their way. The ones that walked in front held rifles and wore cartridge belts. After them came some men with their arms tied behind them. At the rear, they could see the white towels on the militiamen's heads bobbing in the moonlight.
"Looks as if they're making arrests," Su Nan whis­pered.
"We better wait here for a while," Liu whispered. The barking of dogs had spread to the east end of the
village- Liu and the girl tried to guess which house the militiamen were entering-
The dark blue vault of northern sky dimmed into a powdery misty pallor toward the center where the moon was. The full white moon looked down coldly as it had
done during all the past dynasties. Like a mirror it never remembered faces.
Liu wished that he and Su Nan had met in some other age. It couldn't have been worse than now, when he never
even dared to speak to her. A few years earlier would have made all the difference.
"Is your home in Peking?" he asked- "Yes, I've always lived there-"
"It's funny we've never met. I've lived there all my life just like you."
A long, low chair-like stone structure for pounding grain stood under the eaves of the house. Su Nan sat on
it, leaning forward against the handbag. Liu wanted very much to touch her hair., But he was, afraid that she might think that he was taking advantage of the situation. He
would be abusing her trust and friendship and it would spoil everything.
Not much could be seen of her in the dark. He stood at her back, the toe of one of his canvas shoes kicking
soundlessly at the low stone slab. He was still painfully hovering on the brink of the irrevocable gesture when she turned her head very slightly so that her backward glance barely brushed past him. But she must have known. Abruptly she hunched forward, pressing her cheek against
her hands on the handbar as if overcome by sudden shyness.
Then Liu put his hand on her hair and when she twisted away from him, he held her hand over the hand<> bar. After a moment he said, "I wonder where we'll be
sent to when we Obey The Distribution."
"I don't know. What did you put down, when you
filled in the forms?"
"I said I'd prefer to work in north China or eastern
China. But that doesn't mean anything."
"Yes, they might still send you anywhere. They say
it's best not to emphasize personal preferences."
"Maybe we'll meet again in Sinkiang."
"Yes, who knows?"
"There're worse places than Sinkiang."
Su Nan said half laughing, "I heard that in Kangsu there's so little water, you have to cook rice with the water
you've washed your face with."
They both talked fast, lightly and nervously, laughing
a little, well aware that whatever they said was just camouflage over the fact that he was holding her hand- But she suddenly turned rigid and pointed wordlessly
at a large ball-like black shadow under the wall at the next corner, some distance away. It could be a squatting man.
Startled, Liu called out loudly, "Who's that there?"
No answer.
"Who is it?" he shouted again, striding toward, it.
"Sentry," the militiaman said curtly and spat on the ground.
"Let's go back- It's getting late," Su Nan said.
In silence he walked after her past the squatting sentry. When they had turned the corner they happened to look up and saw another black shadow squatting on the roof of a house. That must be another sentry. They said nothing for the rest of the way to the house Su Nan was quartered in.
She went in. He was walking home alone when he again heard the regular footsteps, coming from behind and getting nearer, it seemed,. The dogs in the neighbor hood were again barking loudly. The barking sounded colt and desolate, with a curious feeling of distance derived from the vast empty silence of the night. The village was so dead quiet, Liu could hear from far off the desultory talk among the militiamen. The rhythmic thumps of the footfalls, the faint sound of the voices and the short, scat­tered barks of the dogs rose and fell, humming in his ears, so that he began to suspect that he had heard nothing, it was just the blood pounding in his ears.
The yellow dirt path, drained colorless in the moon­light, stretched straight ahead. He stumbled on and on between the pale thick walls, as if in a dream, half lost in heavy sleep.
The marching steps were always behind him. He even had a crazy idea that if he should make the wrong turn, they would follow him blindly and would never find their way to the Tangs' house.