The Explosion Chronicles (39 page)

Upon returning home, Minghui first leaned the shards of moonlight against the table legs. Then, after locking the outer gate, he took one shard after another, each of which was a different size and shape, and placed them all erect on the table, arranging them into a square.
He brought over the largest square-shaped shard and placed it on top of the others. In this way, on this snowy night, he was able to cover his almanac with a tiny house made of moonlight. Minghui stood quietly next to this moon house, looking at the opened almanac lying peacefully in its home. The humidity of the snowy night gradually moistened the page discussing Second Brother together with the following page describing the events of the fourth day of the third month. The walls and ceiling of the cool, dry moon house absorbed the moisture and steam emitted by the pages as they dried. The moon gradually moved from directly overhead toward the western part of the sky, and while during the first half of the night the moon was in its waxing phase, in the second half of the night it entered its waning phase. When it transitioned from a round full moon into its waning phase, Minghui saw that a corner of the page describing Second Brother had begun to separate from the page beneath it. He carefully moved aside the shard of moonlight directly in front of him, then reached into the moon house with both hands and carefully lifted the page for the third day of the third month until he was able to separate the entire page from the one beneath it.

He saw that what had previously been merely a dark smudge of ink was slowly clearing up, and eventually he was able to discern the two characters for
Zhu
and
Ying.
The
Zhu
character appeared very clearly, while the
Ying
one was somewhat indistinct, though the right-hand portion of the latter character appeared as clear as though an autumn leaf had fallen on the page. When Minghui discovered that he could discern the characters for
Zhu
and
Ying
within that smudge of ink, his hands froze as he realized that the almanac wanted him to do something involving Second Brother and Second Sister-in-Law. Minghui was elated, as though he had finally succeeded in solving a riddle. His hands started trembling, to the point that he almost knocked down the moon house he had just built.

1. ZHU YING

The day after the snowfall, before Minghui went to see Mingliang, he first went to see his sister-in-law Zhu Ying. She was in her courtyard in front of a large pile of snow she had swept up. In the snow she had drawn a picture of Second Brother with her finger, and over his belly she had written the word
Die!
However, her entire house—inside and outside, on the walls and ceilings, upstairs and downstairs—was still covered with photographs and newspaper clippings about Mingliang, and beneath them there still appeared countless phrases like
Mine till death do us part!
But over these phrases, Zhu Ying had used a thick red marker to draw the sort of red X that one normally would see on a poster announcing someone had been sentenced to death. Every inch of wall in the house was covered with postings and writing, and in addition to the earlier photographs of Mingliang that had already been there, now there were new ones from the national and provincial papers of him giving speeches and
shaking people’s hands. The phrases such as
He is mine!
and the red
X
’s were like fireworks on a holiday. Minghui stared at these red
X
’s and realized that Zhu Ying’s hatred of Mingliang had already driven her insane. This made Minghui even more convinced that he needed to go see Mingliang.

Minghui stood in front of Zhu Ying’s house and looked around, but on this occasion, unlike his previous visit, he did not see the girls Zhu Ying was training in preparation for Explosion’s transformation into a city or even a provincial-level metropolis or even a province. Instead, he stood directly in front of Zhu Ying in her living room and gently said,

“I’m going to see Second Brother.

“… Second Brother hasn’t been home in years, has he?”

Zhu Ying bit her lower lip as she thought for a moment, then said very deliberately, “There is no need to see him. His business is about to collapse, and once it does he will be begging to come home—to come back to me. But when the time comes, even if he is literally dying at my feet, I won’t necessarily rescue him, as I did before.”

As Zhu Ying said this she smiled coldly, but behind that smile she was secretly beginning to cry. Without waiting for the tears to appear, she quickly wiped her eyes with her hand, then invited Minghui to sit on the couch beside her as she pulled out an exquisitely decorated small wooden box. She opened the box and took out a leather pouch. Clenching her jaws, Zhu Ying removed from the pouch a collection of photographs of her son Victory, beginning with the day of his birth and continuing through his first month celebration to his first birthday to his enrollment in nursery school. The photographs were wrapped in paper consisting of a series of documents and directives specifying that Zhu Ying was not permitted to visit Mingliang in the city government without Mingliang’s express permission, so as not to interfere with the work he was doing on behalf of Explosion’s
development. The earliest of those documents was dated three days after Mingliang was appointed city mayor, while the most recent one was from the preceding month. Upon looking at these photographs of his nephew, Minghui proceeded to examine each of the documents and noticed that their language became progressively sharper, to the point that the final document concluded with the line, “If you return again to city hall to disrupt the mayor and the government’s work, you will receive either a certificate of divorce or a letter assigning you to reside in a mental asylum in perpetuity.”

With a look of shock and horror, Minghui read though all of those documents line by line. The winter sunlight shone in through the window, shining down on his body like a sheet of ice and chilling him to the bone. To warm himself, he wanted to embrace Zhu Ying or drape his body over the stove.

“Sister-in-Law, did you try to see Second Brother again last month?

“… Did you go see him several times, only to have him refuse you?

“… Is he in fact a person, or rather a cold-blooded beast?”

Biting her lower lip, Zhu Ying took those documents back from Minghui, carefully folding them as before. Then, with a bitter laugh, she handed him the most recent photograph of his nephew and said,

“Perhaps you could go see him. After all, the two of you are brothers.

“… If you see him, please do one thing on my behalf: Have him look at this photograph and ask him whether or not his son resembles him.

“… Does his son resemble him or not? That’s all I need to know.”

After Minghui left Zhu Ying’s house, the sky over Explosion was finally sunny and warm. The thick clouds and fog had been
washed away by a heavy snowfall that blanketed the earth, so that now the sky was left thoroughly cleansed and appeared brand-new. As Zhu Ying was walking Minghui out, she choked a bit on that new freshness. They walked out one after the other, then came to a stop under the apple tree that, several years earlier, had been transformed into a pear tree. They both stared silently at that apple-pear tree, though now it appeared that it was no longer a pear tree. The tree’s bark had been maroon-colored and was covered in wrinkles, but now the bark glowed brightly and was completely green, as though it were about to become a walnut tree. Perhaps, in spring, it would indeed become a walnut tree. Seeing that the tree branches were no longer curled like chicken fingers but were rather long and straight, Minghui said to Zhu Ying,

“Pears symbolize departure, while walnuts symbolize union. After I visit Second Brother this time, you’ll definitely be successfully reunited with him.”

Zhu Ying laughed softly as the flush faded from her cheek. “He won’t look back. I’ve already decided to ruin your second brother, and even if his life were threatened, I still wouldn’t help him.” Then she caressed Minghui’s head, hesitated a moment, and added, “In the Kong family, you are the only good and upright one. I trust you. Do you want to know where your second brother will fail?”

Minghui stood there staring at his sister-in-law, with no idea of what she was talking about. After looking at him for a moment, Zhu Ying took his hand, turned around, and walked away. She quickly passed through the courtyard and the living room, and went upstairs. From her pocket she produced a key and unlocked the door to a room. She then went inside, opened the window, and let in a ray of sunlight. Finally, she pulled in Minghui, who had followed behind and was in the doorway, and gaping in astonishment.

The room was oriented toward the south, was about twenty square meters in size, and didn’t have a single piece of furniture. Instead, it consisted of just four snowy-white walls, each of which was full of countless photographs of naked girls. Some of the girls had shoulder-length hair, while others wore their hair longer. All of the photographs were in color, and they were all full-frontal images. Each of them had been enlarged to one foot and two inches, and each of them had a name and number written in the lower right-hand corner. Several of the girls were wearing bras and lacy panties, but most of them were completely naked except for a peony or rose placed strategically between their legs. The photographs were arranged in a row, so that all of those girls’ eyebrows, smiles, breasts, and genitals were neatly aligned. The wall was filled with flirtatious faces, each of them smiling happily like a flower on a snowy day. This series of pert breasts and strategically placed peonies and roses made Minghui break out in a cold sweat.

“Can you hate and curse me?” Zhu Ying asked him with an odd smile. “These are all top students from the women’s vocational school, and they can make your brother return and kneel down before me. They can reduce all of the men in the world to the status of mere animals, and make them belong to me—to women.

“… All of this was prepared so that Explosion could become a provincial-level metropolis.” Zhu Ying paused for a moment, then quickly resumed. “In no time, Explosion will become as large as Beijing and Shanghai, and I had thought that when the city was redesignated as a provincial-level metropolis your brother would definitely return and ask me for these girls to send to Beijing as gifts. But now that he has your third brother to help him, he won’t come back to see me. He won’t use them and also won’t ask for my help, and as a result he’ll fail at their hands.

“… You are the person I trust the most, so I’m begging you not to tell your brother about any of this.” Zhu Ying paused to grind her teeth, as a sallow smile appeared on her face. “You’ve been good to me, but I have nothing with which to repay you. Why don’t you see which of these girls you like, and I’ll summon her for you.” She gestured toward a beautiful girl with the number 1949, and asked, “How about her? She’s one I prepared for a certain bureau director in Beijing.” Seeing that Minghui was not looking at that girl, Zhu Ying finally smiled and said solemnly, “If you don’t want one, that’s fine. If you don’t want one, that merely reassures me that in this world there is still one good person and that I still have a reason to continue living.”

As Minghui retreated from the room, the cold winter air brought him to his senses. It occurred to him that perhaps his sister-in-law had gone mad, and he should follow the almanac’s instructions and quickly summon Mingliang to her side. Only by having Mingliang return to her side could Zhu Ying’s illness be cured, and if he did not return, both the Kong family and Mingliang’s own family would be destroyed, like snow under the hot sun.

2. KONG MINGLIANG

When Explosion had been redesignated as a city, there had been only two sentries stationed at the front of the government building, but now there were six policemen stationed on the sentry stand. Their uniforms were neatly pressed, and the rifles they were holding sparkled bloodred. Originally, the government building gate had been thirty to fifty feet wide, with a pair of stone pillars on either side, but now the entrance was three hundred feet wide, and in the middle there was a new sliding gate. The gate was completely closed, and it would slide open only when a car drove up, while pedestrians
used a separate entrance on the side. The officials going inside were all carrying municipal entry permits, and anyone who lacked this permit would have to go to the police office next door to register.

As Minghui was about to enter the building to visit his brother, he stared in surprise at the new entranceway, and the six sentries all turned to look at him. After he took a step forward, four of the sentries promptly surrounded him and sternly asked him,

“What do you think you’re doing?

“… You say you’re looking for your second brother? Who is your second brother?

“… You want the mayor to be your brother? Don’t you know that
everyone
in Explosion wants the mayor to be his godfather!”

As the sentries said this, they grabbed Minghui’s arm and pushed him into the police office. Inside, there was a burly thirtysomething policeman. He pushed Minghui down into a chair with his gaze, then repeated what the sentries had just said. At this point, Minghui took out a photograph of himself with Mingliang and showed it to the policeman. Then he took out a picture of all four brothers and showed it to him as well. Finally, he took out a family portrait from several years earlier and showed it to him. Upon seeing the third photograph, the policeman, who was a strong fellow, became gentle and compliant, as his oversize uniform hung on his thin frame like a set of barrels on a wooden stand.

When Minghui left this entry room, he was personally escorted by the policeman, who went to open the door for him. As they were leaving, the policeman even walked Minghui down the stairs and remained with him until they were inside the city government’s main building. Holding the photograph of him and his brother, Minghui walked through one doorway and then another, until finally they reached the building’s innermost doorway, where there were two sentries. Not only did these sentries not attempt to stop him,
they even rushed forward to salute him. The sudden sound of their approaching footsteps startled Minghui to the point that he simply stood frozen in the doorway. In shock, he saw the city government’s administrative secretary, Cheng Qing, walk toward him, smiling, as though a firepot in the middle of winter were facing him.

Cheng Qing had gained weight, and her face, which had previously been egg-shaped, was now quite round. When she laughed, that firepot resembled an enormous egg yolk swaying back and forth in midair. She asked, “How many years has it been since we last saw each other? Do you still remember that the mayor is your brother?” She then wiped the smile from her face and asked coldly, “All these years, no one from your family has come to visit the mayor.”

Minghui took the elevator up with her, then proceeded down a hallway. The entire way, Cheng Qing kept going on and on about how the mayor worked day and night on behalf of the citizens of Explosion, working his heart out on behalf of the people. She recounted how one day someone came from Beijing to inspect the city’s infrastructure from the perspective of its potential redesignation as a provincial-level metropolis, and to prepare for the inspection the mayor didn’t sleep for three full months. Exhausted, he became as limp as a scarecrow, and as soon as the inspectors from Beijing departed, the mayor was so drained that a gust of wind could have blown him away. Cheng Qing told Minghui, “It would have been nice if either you or your family had come to see the mayor. If you had, he wouldn’t have become so estranged from your family.” As she was saying this, Cheng Qing arrived at the office of the city government’s administrative secretary. She pushed the door open and sidled in.

Cheng Qing’s office was far more spacious and luxurious than he had imagined. It was as large as five houses, and the desk alone took up half of the entire floor. The folders on the desk were sorted by
color into red, yellow, green, and so forth and arranged in piles. On the other side of the table there were red, black, and blue telephones. In addition, as in all other offices, there was a couch, a television set, a newspaper rack, and a water fountain, together with an array of bonsai plants and flowers in colors ranging from light green to jet-black. Minghui stood in the doorway staring at the office, a look of astonishment on his face. “If you hadn’t given up your position as director of the bureau of development, perhaps you would have such a large office?” Cheng Qing smiled and said, “Do you regret it? Do you still want to return to work?”