“Plenty!” Sun Lanfen was outraged. “Let me tell you one thing, and one thing only. Have you heard what people say now? A heroic father gives birth to a treasure; a reactionary father gives birth to a wretch. If Ermei is a loser, then you’re the loser who produced her.” She thrust a finger in Mr Dong’s face. Shi Wangcai tried to intervene but she brushed him aside. “I’m going to suggest the school detain you as well.”
Mr Dong squatted down and buried his head in his hands. His choked voice spilled out between his fingers. “I’m sorry, Mrs Sun. Pingshun has finally found some happiness … Ermei’s so scatterbrained and I’m scared …” He stopped suddenly and looked up. “Is Ermei okay?” He seemed to have just woken up to what had happened.
“She’s fine now. Everything will be fine eventually.” Shi Wangcai helped Mr Dong get up. “She’s in her room. Go cook something warm for her.” He turned to Sun Lanfen. “Come on, let’s get some rest ourselves.”
Sun Lanfen was doomed to get no rest that day. During the school lunch break, Xu Yongcai fell into the men’s toilet at No. 10.
Most of the public toilets in residential compounds consisted of a concrete slab with a few rectangular holes in it, laid over a one-metre-deep concrete ditch. The men’s toilet contained three holes and one of them was cut too wide. Sun Lanfen fished Xu Yongcai out with a long hoe then led him to the water tap. To make sure that no faeces were splashed around the area where people took drinking water or washed vegetables, she made the boy squat inside the drain and rinsed him for half an hour with cold water. Scrubbing the filth off him she muttered, “Do you fancy eating shit? Or were you trying to be a hero?”
Although it was a warm day, Xu Yongcai soon began to shiver. Sun Lanfen wrapped him in an old sheet and took him to her place.
“You still smell like hell,” she said, as she prepared a big tub of hot water, lining up a bar of soap, a clean towel and some of her son’s old clothes alongside it. “Strip off and get in the tub!” She sat on a small stool by the tub and leaned over to wash the boy’s hair and inside his ears. Then she boiled more hot water so he could soak a little longer. “Don’t get out until you’ve got rid of all the smell. Disgusting!” Meanwhile, she washed his clothes and made him a big bowl of noodle soup. When he was finally dressed in fresh, clean clothes she sat him down to enjoy the soup while she emptied the water, washed the tub, mopped the floor. Finally she sat down herself.
“Why are you so hopeless?” she said as she sank into her cushioned armchair. “I asked your parents to give you a key so you could have your lunch break at home and you have to take a swim in the toilet. Is that my reward?”
Xu Yongcai stopped wolfing down the soup. He put his chopsticks down on the table.
“Hey, hey, what’s going on?” Sun Lanfen saw him wiping his eyes and got annoyed. “I’m the one who should cry. All morning, I’ve been attending to the sick and the dumb. Do I owe anyone any favours?”
The boy started sobbing. Struggling out of her chair, Sun Lanfen went to him and held his thin shoulders. “Come on! Your Aunt Sun has a sharp tongue but a tofu heart. I didn’t mean that …”
The boy turned around and hugged Sun Lanfen, crying: “Why aren’t you my mother? I wouldn’t do anything wrong then!”
Sun Lanfen’s eyes misted over. She rubbed his head. “You poor thing. Look, I’ve bought a new transistor radio. Let’s turn it on.” She turned the radio on and on came a new song:
Heaven is vast and earth is broad,
But neither as vast and broad as our party’s loving-kindness.
Father is dear and mother is close,
But neither as dear and close as Chairman Mao.
Xu Yongcai seemed to lose himself in the song at first, but when it repeated, he cried hysterically: “No! No more! I can’t bear it. I didn’t mean it. I’m so sorry!”
Sun Lanfen angled her body to peep through some lighter patches of the stained glass on the Shi family’s front door. It was not yet four o’clock in the afternoon. She did not want to wake Shi Wangcai up but she could not wait any longer.
She saw a shape moving inside so she gave a light knock. Shi Wangcai opened the door straight away.
“Thank heaven you’re up. I need to talk to you.” She refused his offer of tea and asked to have a word in their back room.
“What’s the matter?” Shi Wangcai followed her past Shi Ding’s bedroom and into his workshop.
“Something very serious … What’s all this? Are you making something?” She gestured to the mess in the workshop. There were pieces of timber, tools and planks everywhere.
“I’m helping Professor Ruan fix her cellar.”
“You’re still doing work for her? Is Guiru happy about that?” Sun Lanfen remembered the complaint in Lin Guiru’s voice.
“You know, I like to fiddle with this kind of thing,” Shi Wangcai said evasively.
“What about Guiru, though?” Sun Lanfen persisted.
“What about her?” Shi Wangcai looked at Sun Lanfen with a wry smile. “Do you think she cares about this now?”
Sun Lanfen looked away from his stare and sighed softly before continuing, “Old Shi, I think something’s terribly wrong with Xu Yongcai, the boy from the doctor couple in the outer yard.”
“Are they abusing the child again?”
“No, but that may be the cause of the problem.” She told Shi Wangcai what had happened at lunchtime. “‘I didn’t mean it. I’m so sorry’ he kept saying to me when we heard the song.”
“It might just mean he was sorry to have tumbled into the toilet and caused you this trouble,” Shi Wangcai offered. He was so intent on what Sun Lanfen was telling him that he failed to notice a noise at the front door.
Sun Lanfen sat herself down on a stool and drew a deep breath. “Old Shi, this is confidential, but I trust you. What the reactionary slogan said was: ‘Father is not dear and mother is not close, so how can I see if Chairman Mao is nice?’ We were briefed about it at the leadership meeting.”
Shi Wangcai pulled up another stool and sat down. They both fell silent. After a long while, he said, “It’s childish nonsense but …”
“Stupid! Stupid!!!” Sun Lanfen gnashed her teeth and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. “The boy’s arms are so thin. A lot of bruises on his back. I tell you, Old Shi, I’d rather die than seek treatment from them –” She choked up and cursed through her tears: “Doctors? What doctors? A bastard and a bitch!”
Shi Wangcai composed himself and stood up. “Look, don’t worry, Mrs Sun. The boy made himself filthy and humiliated himself. That’s why he broke down and I believe that’s all there is to it.”
Sun Lanfen stood up: “You think so?” Seeing his firm nod, she agreed. “You’re right. That’s it. I knew I wouldn’t waste my time coming to talk to you.” She placed both hands in the small of her back and stretched back, showing her relief. “This day’s really worn me out. I need a lie-down before preparing dinner.”
Shi Wangcai saw Sun Lanfen to the door. As he turned away, he found Shi Ding standing at the kitchen door. “When did you come back? I didn’t hear you.”
“Just now, Dad.” Shi Ding replied. He stood there, fixing his eyes on his father. “What’s wrong with Xu Yongcai? Why is Aunt Sun so worried about him?”
“Oh,