The Explosion Chronicles (25 page)

“Kong Mingliang … do you still want to be appointed county mayor? If I were to jump from here, then even if Explosion were to be designated a county you still would have no chance of ever being appointed county mayor!”

Zhu Ying looked at the men who were rushing toward her and shouted,

“Just stand right there! If you take another step, I’ll jump… . Right now, I want you to tell me something: Do you still want to divorce me? If you so much as utter the word
divorce,
I swear to God I’ll jump—and if I jump, that will make you a murderer. In that case, not only will you never become county mayor, you won’t even be able to hold on to your current position as town mayor!”

Zhu Ying screamed,

“No one come near me! If anyone takes another step toward me, I’ll jump… . Everyone, stand still … don’t move. Kong Mingliang, I’m asking you a question: Do you still want to get divorced?

“… And if you don’t get divorced now, will you want to get divorced after you are promoted to county mayor?

“… And if you don’t get divorced when you are county mayor, will you want to get divorced after you are promoted to city mayor?

“… And if you don’t get divorced when you are city mayor, will you want to get divorced after you are promoted to provincial governor?

“… Everyone, listen closely. All of you cadres from the town government, did you all hear what the mayor just said? Now, I have one question: Why did you shut down Otherwordly Delights but let Peach Blossom Spring continue operating? What is your relationship to Cheng Qing, the owner of Peach Blossom Spring? Is she your mistress, your concubine, or your whore? You must tell me now what she is to you. If you tell me, then I’ll get down; but if you don’t, I’ll jump. Actually, from up here I can see Cheng Qing’s whorehouse. Hers has become an exclusive business, and beginning at around dusk all of those officials, rich men, and foreigners with dicks as large as sticks—they all drive to Peach Blossom Spring… . Right now, the Peach Blossom Spring courtyard is so crowded that cars can’t even park in front. The street in front of the courtyard is full of the cars and bicycles of men inside Peach Blossom Spring… . Cheng Qing’s business is amazingly good, and many of my own girls end up going to work for her! Kong Mingliang, you’re my husband, and I’m the one who helped you become village chief and town mayor. But did you not help destroy and shut down my business, while enabling that whore’s business to thrive? Kong Mingliang, you listen carefully! As my husband, you must immediately send someone over to shut down Peach Blossom
Spring, just as someone did to Otherworldly Delights. I want Cheng Qing to weep because she has lost her business!

“… So, are you going to destroy her business?

“… I’ll ask you one last time, will you or will you not destroy her whorehouse?”

Zhu Ying gripped the window frame as she shouted, but when her arms and legs began to tire, she shifted her position. As she was doing so, she glanced at the crowded meeting room, and saw that everyone was terrified and covered in sweat. Outside the room waiting to get in, there was an additional crowd of town government cadres and others who had come to watch the excitement. There was a sea of faces in the hallway, as people craned their necks and watched with their mouths open, and because they were standing on tiptoe, their pants were hiked up, revealing their bright red ankles. Zhu Ying peered down at them, then looked back at Kong Mingliang standing in front. She saw that he no longer had the solemnity of a town mayor, and instead appeared terrified and had broken into a cold sweat, a look of embarrassment plastered on his face. He didn’t seem to know where to put his hand, as if he half wanted to reach out to the window but at the same time was afraid to. When she hopped down from the ledge, he started to reach out to her but immediately pulled back, leaving his hand suspended in midair. She knew she had succeeded in using her reputation as his wife to bring him down. So she turned and shouted three orders to him and everyone else in the room:

“Send someone to destroy Cheng Qing’s Peach Blossom Spring!

“… Not only as county mayor, even when you become provincial governor you’ll still need to do what I say!

“… As long as you do what I say, then I’ll cook for you and wash your clothes, bear you a son, and raise your family.”

The sky turned dark.

With a thunderous roar, darkness fell.

The final rays of sunlight came down like a window curtain, casting the world into darkness. Afterward, lights appeared in the town, in the factory, and in the distant mines. Everything began to glow brightly, including the stones in the riverbed, the electricity poles lining the streets, and the crops and weeds in the fields outside town. It seemed almost as if the dark night was even brighter than daytime. As Zhu Ying was leaving the town hall building with her husband, there was no one in the streets who didn’t recognize her. Everyone who saw her nodded and greeted her, and said that she looked even younger than before, her skin was better, and even in her thirties she looked as though she were still in her twenties.

2. VICTORY

I.

Coincidentally, the day Zhu Ying gave birth happened to be the same day Explosion was officially redesignated from a town to a county, and her husband was promoted from town mayor to county mayor. That was the nineteenth day of the third month of the following year, just as the entire world was waking up from its hibernation. The ceremony celebrating Explosion’s redesignation as a county was held in the location where the authorities planned to build a sports stadium, and there were so many people in attendance that the shoes they lost in the bustle were enough to fill five trucks. Each night, the trucks hauled the shoes back from the meeting site to a local shoe factory, where they were cleaned, repaired, matched up, then shipped to shoe stores in different cities. In this way, one of Explosion’s shoe factories was able to double its profits overnight. That day, everyone drank so much soda and bottled water that the taps of several local
beverage companies ran dry, and it took more than a hundred sanitation workers, working continuously for three days and three nights, to collect all of the discarded bottles to send back to the factory for recycling. So many fireworks were used that several fireworks factories were rescued from bankruptcy, and so many slogans were posted on the walls that several paper companies ran out of paper. Explosion held a celebration that ran nonstop for several days, and with this the county’s economy, culture, and politics improved.

The day Zhu Ying gave birth happened to be the same day the town hospital was redesignated as a county hospital. On that day, the hospital discharged all of its patients, and the entire hospital was cleaned so that the mayor’s wife could come to give birth. There was a six-wheeled float parked in front of the building, every hallway was full of fresh flowers and bouquets, and the maternity room and bathroom were scented with French perfume. The hospital had purchased an expensive piece of equipment for the express purpose of confirming whether or not Zhu Ying’s fetus was in the correct position, and later paid an enormous sum for a Japanese-produced ultrasound machine. The birth was personally overseen by the director of the hospital, and the director of the maternity ward—a woman in her fifties—had prepared eight different contingency plans to address potential complications, and had even prepared blood plasma for a potential transfusion. But when Zhu Ying was transferred to the maternity ward, no sooner had she lain down on the sterilized sheets and said a few words to the hospital director than the baby immediately popped out.

The hospital director had asked, “How do you feel?”

Zhu Ying had replied, “The perfume in the hospital is very pungent.”

The hospital director then said, “You should prepare for excruciating pain.”

Appearing unsettled, Zhu Ying had asked. “What’s wrong with my belly? What’s wrong with my belly?” She then screamed loudly, “Why has it collapsed like a mountain?”

The hospital director and the director of the obstetrics ward lifted the sheets and Zhu Ying’s hospital gown, and saw that her cervix was already as large as a city gate, and after the baby passed through, it silently fell into a pool of blood and amniotic fluid.

News of the successful birth was immediately sent to the office of the county mayor, which had just removed the town government signs and replaced them with county government ones. Kong Mingliang, exhausted from having spent the day attending events celebrating Explosion’s redesignation from town to county, had just sat down in his leather office chair and his staff had just brought him some tea and placed it on his desk, when the hospital director excitedly ran in and told the mayor, “Your wife’s cervix was fully dilated, and the birth went smoothly. It’s a boy, who weighs eight pounds eight ounces.” When the hospital director finished saying this, the mayor stared at him intently. “Is it really a boy?” The hospital director said solemnly, “It is indeed a boy, eight pounds eight ounces—which is a very auspicious number.” Then, the ballpoint pen on the governor’s desk burst into bloom, and a variety of colorful plants and flowers suddenly appeared on his papers. Even the wooden armrest and back of the couch in front of him started budding with new growth. There was a fresh aroma of spring plants, which slowly circulated through the office. Looking at those plants and flowers, Kong Mingliang broke into a broad smile. He looked at the hospital director’s joyful expression and quietly asked, “Did you say that my wife’s cervix was very dilated?” The hospital director nodded and replied, “She is built to have babies. If the mayor wants to have another child, I’d be happy to pull together the medical documentation permitting her to have a second child and send it over.” Then, the county mayor
stood up and shook the director’s hand, and said, “Go back and tell my wife that our child will be named Victory. The plan to have the town redesignated as a county has achieved victory, and our child will also be called Victory. Tell her that after I’ve finished with some county business, I’ll come to see her and the baby.”

The hospital director left.

After the director left, the mayor called in the office manager and told him to immediately draw up a directive to send out. “Fuck, not only did a lowly hospital director see my wife, he even dared say that her cervix was very dilated… . I want a directive terminating his position to be drawn up immediately!” The office manager immediately drew up the document, printed it, and attached the county government seal as well as the county mayor’s own personal seal, thereby terminating the hospital director’s position. He then transferred the director of obstetrics to oversee the hospital’s trash collection and grounds maintenance. In the same document, he also announced to all of the residents of the county that the mayor’s family had a baby boy, whose name was Victory Kong.

II.

The postpartum month of rest is every woman’s vacation. During this period, Zhu Ying needed only to reach out her hand and someone would bring her some clothes, and she needed only to open her mouth and someone would bring her some food. Everyone was so busy that the household was like a city street where no one even has time to sit down and relax.

Zhu Ying was putting her son to sleep when she heard someone knocking at the front door. She went downstairs, and in the courtyard she saw that the trees and the courtyard wall were covered by a dense flock of magpies singing loudly, as though a waterfall had suddenly appeared in that space. Staring at all of those magpies, she asked,
“Aren’t you concerned that you’ll wake up my son?”

The magpies perched in the trees, on the house, and along the courtyard wall immediately stopped singing.

She then gestured toward the sky and said, “Go on, begone!”

The magpies immediately flew away. So as not to wake up the baby sleeping inside, they muffled the sound of their wings flapping, like tree leaves falling to the ground. Once the birds had disappeared, the courtyard was silent again. Zhu Ying went to the gate and saw five or six nannies waiting with their luggage, each of them holding a letter of introduction. Some of them had been recommended by various county departments, including the county’s business bureau and the county’s agriculture bureau. The youngest one, who had just given birth herself, had been sent over by Yang Baoqing, the director of the county’s propaganda department.

“I need only one nanny,” Zhu Ying said, looking them over.

They all replied, “Then keep me!”

They proceeded to argue right there in the entranceway, each of them afraid that if, after having been sent over by her department, she was not allowed to serve as Zhu Ying’s nanny and have the privilege of looking after the mayor’s son, the department’s director would curse her. Therefore, they all boasted about their skills and why they were each uniquely suited to being nannies—each of them claiming that
she
was the most qualified. After they had argued like this for a long time, Zhu Ying finally took their respective letters of introduction and recommendation, looked them over, then said that she wanted her son to drink human milk, not cow or goat milk. She added that she herself didn’t have enough milk and asked which of the prospective nannies did.

In the end, Zhu Ying selected the twenty-year-old who had just given birth, as well as an older woman who was very skilled at cooking. One of them would be responsible for looking after Zhu Ying’s
son, while the other would be responsible for Zhu Ying’s meals and clothing, so that Zhu Ying herself would be left entirely idle. On the third day, Zhu Ying realized that Kong Mingliang had not yet come to see their son. On the fifth day, she spent the entire day thinking one thought, which was that no matter how busy the mayor might be, he should still see his son! She called him, but it was Cheng Qing who answered the phone, and as soon as she heard Zhu Ying’s voice she immediately hung up. Zhu Ying called again, and at first no one answered, and when eventually someone did answer, it was Cheng Qing again, who asked,

“Don’t you have enough nannies working for you?

“… Mayor Kong belongs to the people of the entire county, and he is not just your husband.