Authors: Yan Lianke
The deputy county chief would say, “Don’t forget that our country is the only one that has any interest in purchasing Lenin’s remains.”
His counterpart would reply, “That’s not necessarily true.”
The deputy chief would say, “It is true that there are other countries willing to buy the remains, but you need to consider their poverty and whether or not they would be able to actually pay the enormous price you are demanding.”
His counterpart would say, “If we can’t sell the remains, then we won’t.”
“If you don’t sell the remains, then you won’t even have enough money to maintain them. You don’t even have funds to repair the mausoleum, or to pay the salaries of your managers.” He would add, “If you don’t sell the corpse, then you’ll have no choice but to watch it deteriorate day after day, as it becomes deformed to the point of becoming completely unrecognizable.”
The deputy chief would be sitting in one of the rooms adjacent to the mausoleum. Eventually, he would take what the Russians had said to heart and agree on a price that the delegation felt was the lowest they could get, and that their counterparts felt was the highest
they
could get. Once they had all agreed on a price, they would begin drawing up a contract.
Of course, there were many things that needed to be done before the contract could be signed. The managers of the mausoleum would have to write their superiors a report, and their superiors would have to write
their
superiors a report, and so forth, until finally a report would be sent to the country’s highest, highest levels of government. Everything would have to go through multiple rounds of discussion and study. And then, nothing. Perhaps the Russian leaders who participated in these discussions would turn down the proposal for undisclosed reasons, refusing to allow China’s Shuanghuai county to purchase Lenin’s corpse. Perhaps they would feel that if Lenin were to go to China, it would amount to his going to a foreign land. In order for the nation to save face, and in order to have an explanation they might offer, perhaps they might agree to lease the corpse for a thirty- or fifty-year period, or even just ten or twenty years. Once they agreed on an appropriate time frame, they would specify that the corpse would need to be returned in its original condition. Chief Liu had already anticipated all of these additional stipulations, and instructed his deputy chief on how to proceed. He said that as long as they could bring the corpse back as quickly as possible, he would approve any conditions that his deputy chief was able to negotiate.
Chief Liu said, “Just think—the sooner you bring the corpse back, the sooner the county can start earning tons of money.”
There was nothing to worry about. They simply
had
to bring Lenin’s corpse back, irrespective of the cost. They had considered everything they needed to consider, and done everything they needed to do. Although the delegation had started out in the
wuyin
Year of the Tiger, 1998, by now it would already be the end of the lunar year, or the beginning of the following year by the Western calendar. The new Lenin Mausoleum would already be complete, and Liven’s two special-skills troupes would have already returned from Wenzhou in the south to pass the winter in the Balou mountains. Seven or eight days would have already elapsed from the date they had originally agreed Liven would be released from the jurisdiction of Shuanghuai county.
In theory, once the delegation returned from abroad Chief Liu should have sent the document certifying that the village of Liven had been released from the jurisdiction of Shuanghuai, and distributed the document to every council, office, township, town, and village committee. Then, he should have taken it and personally placed it directly in Grandma Mao Zhi’s hands.
But he did not send the document down, and instead wanted Grandma Mao Zhi and the performance troupe to help him one final time. In the banquet hall where they were holding a welcome dinner for the special-skills troupes, Chief Liu brought over a cup of liquor to Grandma Mao Zhi and, with a plaintive expression, said, “The documents that would completely release Liven from the jurisdiction of Shuanghuai county have been printed out, are ninety-nine percent ready, having been stamped by the county committee and the county government. But before Liven can completely withdraw from society and remove itself from the jurisdiction of Shuanghuai county and Boshuzi township, I must first ask something of you.”
Grandma Mao Zhi stood in the middle of the dining hall of the county’s guest house looking at Chief Liu.
Chief Liu said, “My entire life, I have never begged anyone for anything. This is the first time.”
He said, “Construction of the Lenin Mausoleum is already complete, and the new crystal coffin has already been placed inside. We therefore need to host a ceremony celebrating the completion of the mausoleum, and I would like your special-skills troupes to offer seven days of performances on Spirit Mountain.”
He said, “You have traveled thousands of miles, and you shouldn’t mind taking one more step. If you feel that seven days of performances is too much, then you can do three instead. After you have performed for three days, I will personally read aloud the document certifying Liven’s withdrawal from the jurisdiction of Shuanghuai county.”
He said, “Lenin’s corpse will be shipped back, and before that happens I want to create some momentum for Spirit Mountain. We cannot have momentum without a performance by your special-skills troupe.” He said, “If you perform at Spirit Mountain, if won’t be for nothing. Whoever climbs the mountain to visit the memorial hall will also watch your troupe’s performance, and for each they will have to buy a ticket. For people from the county, the tickets will cost five yuan, and for outsiders they will also cost five yuan. One-third of the proceeds will go to the performance troupe, one-third will go to the Spirit Mountain Office of Recreation Management, and the remainder will go to the county treasury.”
Chief Liu said, “Let’s agree that before the first performance I will go to the memorial hall to cut the ceremonial ribbon, and then I will proceed to the district seat to attend a meeting. After the full-day meeting, I will return, and immediately following the third performance, I will read from the stage the document announcing Liven’s withdrawal from society, so that the entire county will know. From that point on, you will have officially withdrawn from society, and will no longer fall under the jurisdiction of Shuanghuai, Boshuzi, or any other county or township in the country.”
In this way, things were decided. At dawn the next day, Grandma Mao Zhi and the residents of Liven sat on the troupe’s fully loaded truck and rode to Spirit Mountain to perform for the ceremony celebrating the completion of the Lenin Memorial Hall.
Further Reading:
1)
Skybrows.
DIAL. Means “eyebrows.” Because one’s eyebrows are above the face, they are called skybrows.
3)
Sun panel.
DIAL. Means “forehead.” The origin of the term is comparable to that of “skybrows.”
C
HAPTER 9:
T
HEY HAVE COUNTLESS SKILLS, AS WELL AS A PURPLE AURA
Originally it had been agreed that the troupe would give three more performances, whereupon Chief Liu would come back and read aloud on stage the document certifying Liven’s withdrawal from society. But only a day after he cut the ceremonial ribbon, Chief Liu abruptly had to go back down the mountain, and afterward there was no trace of him.
It was already the twelfth month of the Western calendar, and the final day of the month had quietly sneaked up on them. While it was still very warm down south, where the trees were green and the flowers blooming, here in the north winter was already approaching. It was unbearably cold in some regions, and while it hadn’t snowed yet, in the early morning the entire mountain was covered in frost, which would freeze into a thin layer of ice. If water vats were left half-filled overnight, by the next morning they would be frozen solid. Similarly, if a wet bucket was left in the kitchen doorway, by morning it would be frozen to the ground and impossible to move, to the point that you would need a brick to dislodge it. If people were worried that the brick might break the bucket, they could instead first light a fire to melt the ice.
The trees also withered; their leaves had fallen off even before the twelfth month arrived. In the mountain and the village, all of the trees were barren. Sparrows could no longer hide amidst the branches, and instead as soon as one made a sound, you could turn around and see it sitting there, then throw a rock and hit its frozen body.
In the Balou mountains, usually the only trace that could be seen of the wild hares, chickens, weasels, and elusive foxes in winter were the openings of their burrows. If you were to roll a stone down the mountain, the clever foxes might remain hidden in their burrows, but the wild hares, chickens, and weasels would all come running out, whereupon the sound of a hunter’s gun would go off behind them.
In both the daytime and the evening, you would see countless hunters going into the fields and proudly walking back to the village with a few wild chickens or hares dangling from the barrels of their rifles.
Occasionally, they might have a fox.
However, in this winter of the
wuyin
Year of the Tiger, these scenes were entirely absent along the mountain ridge. Instead, everyone went up Spirit Mountain to watch the village of Liven’s troupes perform, and to visit that rarely seen Lenin Palace. Crowds of people along the mountain ridge were all walking toward the mountain, and as they crowded in they were all beaming as though they were attending a temple festival. Adults brought their children, and middle-aged people used a cart to haul their elderly parents. People coming from afar brought not only baked and steamed buns, but also bedding, pots, bowls, and chopsticks, so that they could eat and sleep on the road. The sound of people talking along the mountain path, together with the rumbling of their carts and the sound of footsteps that increased steadily from one day to the next, all left the path to the top of the Balou mountains covered in flying dust that came raining down like water. At midday, the weather would warm up, and the sparrows became increasingly animated, following people’s footsteps and calling out, flying from one tree to another as though they were migrating south. The wild hares were startled out of their burrows and ran down to the bottom of the gully, but upon hearing gunshots they returned to their burrows and watched uneasily as the crowds of villagers and city folk surged up the mountain.
All of the villages throughout the Balou mountain region were left empty.
All of the villages outside of the Balou mountain region were also left empty.
Even people in the city took vacations from work and came by train to Spirit Mountain.
First, it was the people from the towns and townships closest to Spirit Mountain who came, including Shuanghuai’s Boshuzi, Lianshuzi, Xiaoliu, Daliu, Yushu, Lishu, and Xinghuaying townships, Gaoliu’s Shihezi, Qingshanzi, Caojiaying, Caoma, and Shisanli Puzi townships, together with Shangyu’s Taoshuzi, Taozi, Xiaohuai, and Lianzi townships. The residents of each of the three surrounding counties all climbed the mountain to watch the performance, visit the mausoleum, and enjoy the scenery. The winter happened to be a period of rest from agricultural work, when people would go in search of entertainment, and it was precisely at this point that the Lenin Memorial Hall was going to hold its opening ceremony and the village of Liven’s special-skills troupes were going to perform on the mountain.
One man who went to visit the mausoleum remarked upon his return, “Heavens, the trees there are already budding, and the memorial hall is even more stunning than a throne room. There is a girl named Huaihua who is even more beautiful than the memorial hall itself.” As for what Huaihua and the throne room really looked like, the man couldn’t say, since in fact he’d never even seen them—though he did see that there was fresh grass and green trees, even in the northern winter. This was very unusual, and it was said that a fairy had appeared in Liven.
A woman who visited the mausoleum returned and said, “Quick, go see for yourselves. It really
is
springtime there. They have already installed the crystal coffin in the memorial hall. There is a girl named Huaihua who is as white as the coffin, which is itself brighter than glass, and, like crystal eyeglasses, if you touch it you will leave your fingerprints. Under a two-inch-thick crystal board, you can see the dust on the bottom of the coffin, and even this dust glows.”
Although she said this, she had not necessarily seen for herself the dust inside the coffin. She had not necessarily touched the coffin herself. Yet, it was only by speaking like this that she could prove she not only had gone to the memorial hall, but had seen the crystal coffin that had been prepared to receive Lenin’s corpse.
Old people who had been carted up the mountain by their children encountered other people on their way back down who said enthusiastically, “Go see, go see. And if you do, then even if you were to die tomorrow, you wouldn’t have lived in vain. Lenin was such an important person that once his corpse arrives, winter will become spring.”