The Liberation Army caught the bandits Huang Gouwa in the upper part and Li Changfu in the lower part of Flower River, changed the Village Office Board to the Board of the District People's Government, then announced the liberation of Flower River. Next, they started to deal with the landlords. The Wangs were actual landlords or tyrants as they had the most land and exploited and oppressed the majority of the people on Avenue Three. The Dengs had a lot of land and employed long-term and casual laborers, so they could also be considered landlords.
It suddenly turned dark in the world of the Wangs and the Dengs, which meant the end rather than rain. New China had been established several months before Flower River was liberated. The people of Flower River had improved their knowledge in spite of living in such a closed place, so they knew that the Wangs and the Dengs would no longer enjoy good times. Joyous about the downfall of the landlords, they got together to discuss who would be caught in a more serious situation. Deng Erpin had come back, so most people thought the Dengs would be better off. But as Deng Erpin had joined the Liberation Army and was now a land reform cadre, some people thought it might be better for the Dengs. Deng Dajiao had been expecting the return of his little son, but finally heard the news that Deng Erpin had become a land reform cadre, which was a joke among the people. They wanted to know how Deng Dajiao and Deng Erpin would deal with the situation.
Deng Dajiao naturally had mixed feelings. He finally welcomed his son Erpin home only to find that he had joined the Liberation Army and become a land reform cadre on Avenue Three. Surprisingly, Erpin did not go back to his family home until he finished everything at the District People's Government. He then went home, not to visit his father but to persuade him to hand over the title deeds.
"You're a fucking wild dog now!" Deng Dajiao roared. He felt less and less joy, and finally no pleasure at all but only sadness. In his more than fifty years he had never seen a son like Deng Erpin, who forced his father to hand over all his property to others. The old father had dreamed of being an outstanding man whose family was rich generation after generation, but he never thought that this dream would be shattered by his own son. He didn't realize that the world had changed, so he believed his son was a traitor. If he had known that the world had changed, only then could he have seen that the changes in the world led to the changes in his son.
"The whole nation has been liberated. This is the reality. It's useless to curse me," Deng Erpin said.
"Our family's dozens of mu of land was accumulated over many generations. Aren't you afraid of being struck by lightning?" Deng Dajiao cried, and spat a mouthful of saliva into his son's face; he would have tried to bite Deng Erpin if he hadn't felt so sick. Each piece of the Dengs' land was stamped with the character "Deng". He was illiterate, but he knew that character. In his mind, he would have handed over the land to Deng Erpin and then to Deng Erpin's sons. All that land would only belong to the Dengs, permanently and forever. But now, Deng Erpin wanted to divide their land among others and give it new names. He said, "You don't deserve the family name Deng!"
Deng Erpin replied, "It doesn't matter whether I'll be struck by lightning or whether I deserve the family name. I just don't want you to suffer such hardships." It was natural for his father to get angry, and he also understood his father's anger and mood as a landlord. However, he would not make any concession nor ever betray his beliefs. In the face of his father who had different beliefs from his, he had no choice but to treat him as a reactionary. When he was young, his father told him that he would stand out. His father raised such expectations on the basis of the Dengs'land and just hoped that he could carry forward the Deng family property and accumulate more land for the Dengs in the future. Now Deng Erpin thought that he had made progress in the opposite direction. Though he behaved modestly in front of his father when they met each other, he gazed at something beyond his father which clearly showed his overwhelming desire to follow a different path. Deng Erpin said, "If you refuse to hand over the land, you'll be treated as a bully who must be suppressed or even shot."
"Shoot me? Come on then. Just shoot me!" Deng Dajiao shouted, wildly irritated. He offered himself to his son to be beaten and said that Deng Erpin would not be a man if he failed to beat him.
Deng Erpin sighed and said, "Father, think it over. We do things according to the policies. I want to help our family within the scope of my principles. I would not have come back if I were the man you see me as now. The reason I applied to come back for the land reform work of Flower River was that I wanted to help minimize your suffering. We work on confiscating the land of landlords and then distributing the collected land to farmers, so you have to hand it over to me whether you're willing to or not. I knew you regard the land as your life and would be unwilling to hand it over, so I was worried that you might take a beating. The landlords who are not involved in any murder case only need to hand over their land, while those who are involved in such cases will be seriously investigated ..."
"Get out!" Deng Dajiao yelled suddenly. His face turned orange like a ripe pumpkin. Deng Erpin walked away. Watching his son go, Deng Dajiao plopped down on the ground. Now he was sure that his world had been overturned; a huge crack was absorbing him into the dark center of the earth and the dust flying through the sky filled his nose and lungs. He, Deng Dajiao, was finished.
"I'm finished. What can I hope for?" he thought.
His eldest son Deng Yipin had died without a child no longer than half a year after marrying Peony. He expected Deng Erpin to marry Peony on his return to perpetuate the Deng family and carry forward its legacy. The greatest ambitions of people like Deng Dajiao are to maintain their land holdings and perpetuate their bloodlines. Peony had become involved with the tenant farmer Zhang Wafang before Deng Erpin came back, but this was not a big deal because Erpin was alive, so Deng Dajiao still had the hope of regaining what he had lost.
However, Deng Erpin played a huge trick on him. Deng Dajiao never played tricks on others, and no one ever made fun of him. At last, his own son had made a fool of him, violating this rule.
What else could he do except jump in the river?
However, Deng Dajiao's death didn't restore anything. The land reform could not be changed or stopped because of his death, since the world did not belong to Deng Dajiao. And Deng Erpin didn't give up anything due to his father's death. He was as enthusiastic in dividing his land as he was when dividing the Wangs' land. Peony didn't leave Zhang Wafang and go to Deng Erpin, although she called Deng Dajiao "Dad" when he was dying. Peony looked down on Deng Erpin. She held views on him that were highly consistent with those of Deng Dajiao. In fact, she thought Deng Erpin was lower than a wild dog. Wild dogs will eat their fathers when they're hungry, but they will struggle to protect their own territories. Deng Erpin not only ate his father, but also divided the Deng family's land among other people gladly, as though the land had not been handed down from his ancestors or had nothing to do with him.
No one ever really expected such results ...
Deng Erpin went to Wang Tu's home with two land reform cadres the same age as him, but they were stopped outside by Zhu Daxiu and his servants. Considering that they had grown up beside the same river, Deng Erping wanted to explain it to Zhu Daxiu kindly, but Zhu Daxiu unexpectedly refused to hear Deng Erpin's explanation. Deng Erping wanted to negotiate with him, but he refused to listen and only held his gun. Deng Erpin had no choice but to retreat. When he came back again accompanied by dozens of young soldiers, Zhu Daxiu was still unwilling to speak with him. This time, Deng Erpin didn't say anything but directly ordered the soldiers to port arms. He originally wanted to scare Zhu Daxiu, as he only hoped to promote the land reform work. But surprisingly, Zhu Daxiu was so self-righteous that he shot at them. The dozens of soldiers returned fire. As a result, they finally stopped after being utterly defeated by Deng Erpin.
Zhu Daxiu's recklessness made it clear that Wang Tu was indeed a bully landlord. Regardless of the evil things he and Wu Xianggui had done, it was unforgivable that he had actually ordered his servants to shoot at the land reform cadres, killing a Liberation Army soldier in the process.
Zhu Daxiu was taken away by Deng Erpin on the spot, leaving Wu Xianggui and Wang Tu looking at each other in consternation in the house. As Deng Erpin dragged him away, Zhu Daxiu shouted that he had only obeyed the orders of Wu Xianggui. He knew he was finished when his hands were tied behind his back by two Liberation Army soldiers. He cried out loud that he was wronged; he only obeyed his aunt's orders; it was his aunt who ordered him to do all those evil things. Everyone was surprised. If he understood that his actions were wrong, then what was he thinking when he did such things?
Wang Tu was finished. Deng Dajiao jumped in the river when he found he had no chance, and Wang Tu wondered if he should do the same. Wang Tu was totally changed. He was as dull as a corpse. He originally thought that he was a man, but now he found that he was wrong because he even lacked the courage to jump in the river, and he dared not kill himself in any case. Wang Tu was not old enough to think about fate almost every day. He had never considered death before, so he looked more frightened than the others. Wang Tu completely fell apart. He no longer played chess on the street, nor walked his dog by the riverside, nor looked at White Peony or the other girls, and even Red Apricot could not change his mind.
One day there was a strange weather phenomenon at Flower River, with sunshine on the east bank but heavy rain on the west bank. The sky was clear over the east bank but stormy over the west. Flower River divided the world into two parts. Seeing such a rare phenomenon, the children were extremely excited. They ran over the bridge to rush into the rain, then ran back into the sun. Wang Guo was even more excited. He stood at the boundary of the rain and sun so he could enjoy the sun on the left side of his body and the rain on the right side. Wang Guo was only ten years old. He was too young to share the worries of his parents, so when they thought that everything was in ruins, he could play games and use his ingenuity to the full.
Word spread that the bully tyrant Wang Tu was to be taken to the county. Three Liberation Army soldiers came in trench coats. When they entered the yard, Red Apricot was about to go looking for Wang Guo. For several days, White Peony had neither spoken nor managed anything. She had to give serious consideration to which road she should choose, as must all people who stand at a crossroads. Wang Tu was going to come to an end, which meant that the mansion she had built with abundant efforts was about to collapse, and Red Apricot and she who had earned a rich and worry-free life through her painstaking planning would have to earn a living in its ashes. She had to reconsider their lives, just as she did when their parents suddenly died.
White Peony could not attend to her child. When it rained heavily and the child was not at home, Red Apricot always undertook as many of White Peony's duties as she could.
Red Apricot's mind had been captured by the Liberation Army before she stepped out of the door. At that time, she didn't realize the connection between the Army and imminent events. She felt that her soul had been stolen, and she became unable to control herself. In a trance, she thought about Wang He for a moment. In Red Apricot's mind, Wang He was also a soldier in a uniform who looked just as handsome. She only knew this, but couldn't tell the difference between the two kinds of soldiers.
Then she saw the handsome Liberation Army soldiers bring Wang Tu out.
Wang Tu had neither a raincoat nor an umbrella. His hands were tied behind his back, so he couldn't have held an umbrella. However, no one considered giving him a bamboo hat, not even his family members. The soldiers thought it was unnecessary for him to wear a bamboo hat. When he entered the rain, Wang Tu pulled his head as it poured down his neck. Wu Xianggui suddenly cried out like a clap of thunder. Wang Tu was so scared that he turned pale. He thought it was really thunder. Wu Xianggui followed them and continued crying out. She clearly knew that this could be the last time she ever saw Wang Tu. She was very sorrowful. In her sorrow, she could not see that Wang Tu was standing in the heavy rain. Wu Xianggui was old but her tears were unexpectedly abundant, as though she had accumulated tears all her life and now they all poured from her eyes.
White Peony didn't come out. She just stood at the window and watched everything calmly through the lattice. Wang Tu turned around and looked at her. She saw the rainwater on his face but she didn't think of giving him an umbrella. The man who was being taken away seemed to have nothing to do with her, like she didn't even know him. He had once meant worry-free dependence for her whole life, but now he had fallen and was unlikely to be supported, so she became indifferent to him.
Red Apricot thought of taking him an umbrella.
When Wang Tu was taken out of the gate, Red Apricot went after him with an umbrella, but didn't manage to get it to him because the shadows of the soldiers in raincoats scared her off. However, she still followed them. She stared at Wang Tu's shadow, seeing the effect in which his coat was entirely soaked by rainwater and then brightened by sunshine. Wang Tu was taken through the rain on the west bank and into the sunshine on the east bank. After seeing him, the children playing on the bridge shouted together,"Wang Guo, that's your father!" Wang Guo said, "I know". Wang Guo saw that his father was bound and followed by several Liberation Army soldiers with serious expressions, but the children were not serious. When they saw sopping wet Wang Tu looking like a zongzi fresh from the pan with his hands tied behind his back, they burst their sides with laughter. Wang Tu stopped for a while in front of Wang Guo. He was as embarrassed as a dying and drowning dog. Wang Guo turned his eyes away and left hatefully. He didn't want to see his father. Besides, he was annoyed by his friends' laughter. It never occurred to Wang Tu that his son would ever show him his anger and contempt. He looked back and forth at a loss until his gaze fell upon Red Apricot, who didn't turn her face away like his son, and who had no anger or contempt in her eyes. She just looked at him quietly and waved her hand under the umbrella, but she didn't give him the umbrella because it was no longer needed.
Wang Tu was pushed to move ahead. Red Apricot continued following. She followed him to give him the umbrella, but later she met his eyes. She was sure there was some supplication there, like a drowning person begging for a rope to be thrown from the bank. Red Apricot could not give him a rope, but she wanted to comfort him. After several steps, she shouted, "Wait!" They stopped. A soldier turned around and asked, "What?" She couldn't explain the reason, so she caught Wang Tu's eye hurriedly and continued on while looking at him. They understood each other just through eye contact.
Red Apricot said, "Do you want to have sex with me again?"
Wang Tu said, "I'm scared to death."
"Come on. Let's take this last chance. Let's do it so you won't need to do it again even if you have no wife for the next ten years in another world."
"We have no chance. I'm going to be shot."
The Liberation Army soldiers did not allow them to look at each other for a long time. They forced Wang Tu to walk faster.
Wang Tu could only walk straight ahead. His sight was like a rope with the other end held by Red Apricot.
Red Apricot felt that Wang Tu's sight was growing into some kind of mushroom in her heart, which spread under the sunshine on the east bank.
She asked, "Will you come back?"
A soldier answered for Wang Tu, "He will. Generally, public trials are held locally."
"Then is there any chance for him to go home?"
"Probably not. When he comes back, he'll be executed by firing squad."
"Then let him fulfill his last wish before he leaves. He should burn incense on the cemetery hill before he leaves."
"You're so annoying. Why should he burn incense before he dies?"
"It's because he's going to die that he must go to the cemetery hill. He won't have another chance to do that after this."
"Don't play tricks," the soldier said suspiciously.
"You have guns. No one dares to play any tricks."
The soldier glanced at the gun in his hand and then at Wang Tu. The soaked landlord looked pitiful. At that moment, anything that could lengthen the distance between him and death was a gift. Red Apricot pointed at the cemetery hill of the Wangs not far away and said, "Look, it's just a short walk. It's quite close."
The soldiers looked at each other, deliberated and then unexpectedly agreed.
Red Apricot led the way, followed by Wang Tu and the soldiers. When they arrived at the cemetery hill, Red Apricot didn't let the soldiers in. The Wangs' cemetery hill had walls and a single gate. She said, "You stay here so he can't escape." But the soldiers still followed Wang Tu. They had no reason not to. Red Apricot hadn't intended to ask Wang Tu to burn incense, so they stopped when they got to an empty tomb. Red Apricot said to the soldiers, "To be honest, we didn't mean to burn incense. We just wanted to have sex one more time before he dies." She hoped to make the soldiers understand that it was not proper to continue following them. However, they didn't believe her. They just thought she wanted to create a chance for Wang Tu to escape. One of them said, "If you're not going to burn incense, then he's leaving now!"
Red Apricot said quickly, "He's going to die. Why can't you be merciful?"
"Is this a kind of mercy?"
"I can have sex with you in return. At any time."
The soldier became more serious. One of them even removed the safety catch on his gun. The sound scared Wang Tu and made him tremble. Red Apricot didn't know much about guns so she was not afraid of the sound. She said to the soldiers, "We'll be here in this tomb. If you want to watch us, then watch us. If not, then step aside."
The young soldiers had never encountered such a situation before. They looked at each other and moved a few steps back, pointing at the pair with their guns to make sure Wang Tu could not escape even if he really wanted to run away.
Wang Tu couldn't move his legs, so Red Apricot dragged him into the empty tomb. Its construction had been ordered by Wu Xianggui for herself and Wang Tu. There were two coffin chambers, one for him and one for her. They were husband and wife by his first marriage, so they were supposed be together in the next life. Both chambers were empty. Red Apricot asked Wang Tu to lie there with her.
"Come on," she said.
With his legs trembling like jelly, Wang Tu said, "No, I can't."
"You can. Think about me. Think about how we did it the last two times."
As Wang Tu was tied up, Red Apricot helped him take off his clothes. He seemed very scared to be naked before the Liberation Army soldiers and their guns. He said, "Hey! I can't!" Red Apricot looked into his eyes and understood that he really couldn't. He was nearly crying. A man who had always been so proud in front of women was now incapable.
He said, "Let me go. Let me go with them." He seemed to want to die as soon as possible out of embarrassment. Red Apricot thoughtfully let him go. Wang Tu moved a few steps away. Above the empty tomb lay the tomb of his parents. He knelt down there and burst into tears.
