“I hope so. Your dad would be happy!”
“Of course he would. But I wouldn’t!”
“Why not?” Sun Lanfen put down her needle and thread and looked at the girl over her reading glasses.
“You’ve seen the changes we’ve made in our house. Before, I had the whole inner room and now I have to sleep in a space that’s only big enough for a coffin. Why? Because my brother has got a girlfriend. If they get married, imagine, after eating all the wedding candies, they’ll have a baby. By then, I’ll probably have to sleep on the landing outside.” Ermei curled her lips in contempt.
“What did you say? Eat candies and then have a baby! What’s all that nonsense?”
“Come on, Aunt Sun, I know all about it.”
“What do you know?”
Ermei lowered her voice. “On the wedding day, the bride and groom have to eat lots of candy so they can have babies. That’s why those candies are called happy candies. That’s also why parents don’t let their children have too many candies.”
“What nonsense! Where did you … ha, ha, ha!” Sun Lanfen was laughing so hard she could not finish.
“I’m serious, Aunt Sun.” Ermei was annoyed. “Think about it. Why do we have a special ration for wedding candies? To guarantee married couples can have babies! Chairman Mao says: ‘People, only people, are the most valuable resource in the world.’”
“Yeah, yeah. My goodness!” Sun Lanfen tried hard to stop laughing. “Do you study biology at school?”
“Of course we do. Our teacher has told us how to protect our eyes so as to tell true from false and how to keep our bodies strong to fight against class enemies.”
“What about the differences between men and women? Have you learned that?”
“Oh, yuk! At the beginning of this semester, our teacher tried to explain girls’ periods. That made us angry because he’s a man! So we booed him to make him go away. Our monitor told the principal, ‘We don’t want any dirty lessons!’”
The door suddenly swung open and Shi Ding dashed in. “What dirty lessons? Did I miss something?”
“Hey, hey! Can’t you knock first?” Sun Lanfen stood up to shut the door behind him.
“Sorry, Aunt Sun. I’ll remember next time.” Shi Ding sat down next to Ermei and grinned cheekily.
“How come you’re so late? You forgot about me, didn’t you. You promised to tell me a Monkey King story every day. Where have you been?”
“I’ve done something very important,” Shi Ding said mysteriously, looking around. “Didn’t Wang Lixin come?”
“No. Tell me, what important thing did you do?”
“I told you that I’d clear your name, didn’t I? Well, guess what? I found out who wrote the slogan!”
“Really? I won’t need to be detained any more! Wow, Aunt Sun, isn’t that wonderful!”
Sun Lanfen hurried back with an empty teacup. “How did you find out?”
“I can’t believe this! Don’t you even want to know who did it?” Shi Ding felt his discovery had been undermined. “Such a big thing, to dig out an insidious enemy!”
“Fine. Okay then, who did it?” Sun Lanfen asked.
Sensing her impatience, Shi Ding assumed a more serious tone as he reported to the chairman of the Neighbourhood Revolutionary Committee. “This afternoon our school ordered the senior students to help the primary children do self-criticism and I was with Grade Three.” He paused and looked up into Sun Lanfen’s face. “Well, I bluffed and he confessed.”
“Who? Who is ‘he’?” Ermei asked.
“Xu Yongcai, the devil from the outer yard,” Sun Lanfen snapped.
“So Aunt Sun, you knew already!” Ermei was surprised.
“Where’s my tea? I went specially to get it. My brain’s gone. Damn it!” Sun Lanfen cursed and dumped her empty teacup on the desk. “Of course I knew. We’ve been watching him for quite a while. But Shi Ding, are you sure there’s no mistake?”
“I can swear to Chairman Mao!”
“How did you find out?”
“I asked everyone to sing ‘Heaven is vast and earth is broad’. The little reactionary began to cry, non-stop. The policeman was irritated so I offered to take him outside.”
“What did you do to him?”
“I tried to be nice. I told him I felt very sorry that his parents were so mean. I said that to compare Chairman Mao’s love to that of his mum and dad was wrong and if I were in his situation, I’d do something crazy like damaging furniture or setting fire to the house. Then guess what happened next?”
Shi Ding was getting excited. He stood up, stretched out both his hands, as if reaching for support, and then drew them back and covered his face. Pretending to sob, he started impersonating Xu Yongcai: “‘Why? Why didn’t I know you earlier? Everything you suggested is better than what I did.’”
Shi Ding straightened up and looked concerned. “Come on! Nothing could be worse than destroying your own home.”
Then he drew in his shoulders, lowered his head, and said in a choked voice, “Unfortunately there is – saying bad things about Chairman Mao.” Shi Ding collected himself. “That’s how I got him. It’s exactly as Chairman Mao taught us, capturing snakes by enticing them out of holes.”
“Unbelievable! Like a detective story.” Ermei applauded. “What happened after that?”
Shi Ding put his hands together to mime handcuffs. “He was taken to the police station straight away. Your name has been cleared and our school’s name has been cleared!”
Sun Lanfen’s face sagged with weariness. She walked away again to fetch her long-overdue cup of tea. Before she got to the kitchen table, she turned. “Who gave you the idea of singing that song?” She stared at Shi Ding.
“Well, I, you see …” Shi Ding was clearly embarrassed at his earlier eavesdropping. “I just used my brains. His parents were very mean to him.”
Just then Wang Lixin charged into the room. “Aunt Sun, my mum’s having another asthma attack. She … she can’t breathe.” He was so distressed he did not even acknowledge his classmates.
Sun Lanfen dashed off with Wang Lixin.
The room was suddenly quiet. The loud snores of Aunt Sun’s husband drifted over from the bedroom. Both Shi Ding and Ermei felt a little embarrassed.
“Wang Lixin is really good to his mother. Have you ever seen her? I’ve never been inside his house,” Ermei commented.
“Oh, his father doesn’t like visitors. I know why,” Shi Ding whispered. “Because his wife looks very old and ugly.”
“Hey! You’re terrible! I’ll tell Wang Lixin what you said.”
“But it’s true! She looks a hundred years old. You won’t tell him, will you?”
“I was just teasing you. I know she’s old, and sick too. My dad said that the reason Wang Lixin’s father is carrying on with your mother is simply because … I’m sorry.” Ermei quickly changed the subject. “Tell me please. What’s the trick in singing that song?”
Shi Ding was stung by Ermei’s hint of scandal, but he chose not to say anything. The relationship between his mother and Wang Tong was troubling, but his father seemed to be taking it calmly. If anything was going on, Dad would know. So