The Explosion Chronicles (42 page)

Seeing the group of squirrels run away, Mingliang felt a surge of joy. The city government garden was now as quiet as a reflection on the surface of a pool of water, except that there was the sound of the footsteps of the squirrels running through the field and the forest, together with the faint sound of cars in the city and of clouds
floating overhead. Standing in that quietness, Mingliang suddenly had an urge to pee on the ground, like a boy. He chuckled, looked around, then stood on one of the benches, as though suspended in midair, and proceeded to unzip his pants and pee onto the ground.

He peed out a city mayor’s piss.

He regretted that earlier that morning someone had already escorted him to the restroom. He wanted his pee to be golden-colored, the way it had been when he was village chief and town mayor, but ever since he became city mayor his doctor made sure that he didn’t have a hint of illness, and even his pee was perfectly clear. He gazed down at this clear pee as it arced through the air and landed in the grass. His pee disturbed only a cricket, which came out and sat in the sun on leaves of grass, shaking the water off its wings.

Mingliang looked at that old cricket. He suddenly pouted and, like an overgrown child, said, “Tell the others to come out.” The cricket hopped down from the blade of grass. “Tell all of the bugs and all of the sparrows to come out …” Mingliang shouted again. “Spring has arrived, so all of you should show yourselves!

“… I am Mayor Kong, and all of you should show yourselves!

“… I am Mayor Kong, and all of you should show yourselves!”

Quickly, from behind a rockery in a corner of the corridor, in the middle of a cluster of bamboo plants, he entered the main room of his five-suite courtyard, where several dozen secretaries, gardeners, electricians, plumbers, security guards, and other workers suddenly stood up. Everyone stared in alarm at Mingliang, who was simply standing, and no one could understand what was happening. The workers weren’t sure whether they should rush toward him or wait until they had figured out what he was doing before deciding whether they should go or not. Therefore, they remained frozen in their original positions, with a look of terror on their faces. By this point the sun had almost reached its apex and was radiating bright yellow light. The warmth
of the fifth lunar month was like the beginning of summer, and the walls of the surrounding buildings were lazily lounging about, as though they were a group of men squatting in the sun. Only after they heard the mayor shouting angrily did they express any surprise or excitement. Some magpies flew over, alighting on the tree branches and chirping excitedly. In no time, the garden’s sparrows had also returned and landed on the grass and the tree branches, chirping up a storm. The squirrels also came running back from where they had been hiding in the depths of the forest and were scurrying up and down the trees in front of Mingliang, their fluffy tails even wider than their bodies. The crickets were also summoned back by the mayor’s fury and the warmth of the sun, and thousands upon thousands of them were standing or lying down on individual blades of grass. Some of them extended their wings and began to chirp, whereupon hundreds or even thousands of crickets began to chirp in unison. The entire city government building courtyard was full of the happy chirping of crickets and singing of sparrows. Mingliang couldn’t see the grasshoppers, but their singing was interwoven with the chirping of the crickets, as though they were sopranos leading a chorus.

Butterflies also playfully flew around on that noisy spring day.

Those secretaries and other workers all retreated. Kong Mingliang now stood on a stone in the middle of the garden and was moved by what he saw around him. He had a smile on his face, but tears kept running down his cheeks. Explosion was his. The entire world was his. Even the insects and sparrows listened to him. With a smile, he swallowed his tears, then repeatedly gestured for the secretaries, security guards, and workers to retreat even farther to where he wouldn’t be able to see them, and regardless of what he might say, they shouldn’t come back out again. Next, he hopped down from that stone, looked at the sparrows and insects that were flying around him, then sat in the grass like a child and watched the large
black crickets crawling over his feet and legs. He then watched a pair of green grasshoppers singing together as they sat on the chrysanthemum blossoms in front of him, together with a pair of orioles that sang as they flew around. The scent of grass and flowers flowed into his nostrils and through his body like a warm stream, making him feel more relaxed and at ease than he had ever felt before. He knew that not only was this two-thousand-
mu
municipal garden all his, the city government building and all of Explosion also belonged to him. “I’m the mayor, don’t you know?” he quietly asked the black cricket sitting on the end of his shoe. “Explosion will soon be redesignated as a provincial-level metropolis, don’t you know?” As he asked this, he saw that the crickets and grasshoppers sitting on the blades of grass, together with the magpies perched in the trees and along the roof of the corridor, all suddenly grew quiet and stared at him with a contented expression. He then very gently and very slowly shook his foot, until the crickets and grasshoppers perched on his shoes and legs got off. Then he stood up, straightened his clothes, cleared his throat, and said to all of the insects assembled before him,

“You should retire. I want some peace and quiet.”

He then shouted to the sparrows, magpies, and gray orioles,

“You should leave. I want some peace and quiet.”

He then shouted at the squirrel in front of him, as well as at the hedgehog and the badger that had run into the garden from somewhere, and said, “Get out of my way. I want to try to establish a construction headquarters here for building the subway and the airport. I want to personally oversee the process of constructing the subway and airport in less than a week. Within ten days, the largest airplanes in the world will be taking off from and landing in the new Explosion airport. I will arrange for national cadres to take the first flight into Explosion, and then take the subway from the airport directly to the hotels that I will construct for them.” The mayor
shouted to the sky and the earth, “All animals, birds, and insects should leave now. This entire courtyard is going to be demolished!” As he was shouting, the rest of the garden fell silent, reverting back to its original state. A large flock of sparrows and magpies flew away, leaving behind only a handful standing around. It was unclear where the squirrels, crickets, and grasshoppers had gone, as they left behind only a soft humming noise. A silence covered the land. An emptiness also covered the land. There was no one else in the garden other than Mingliang. The sun, which was now directly overhead, had gone from yellow to fiery red. Mingliang’s forehead and back were covered in sweat, which made him feel even warmer and cozier, as though his chilled body was gradually being immersed in warm water.

From this empty garden, Mingliang glanced at the quiet buildings around him, then began walking toward the pond in the distance. About three hundred meters from the red corridor, beyond the man-made garden, there was a pond and an uncultivated field. The pond was several dozen
mu
in size and was about three feet deep. The reeds were almost half as tall as a person, and there were also waterbirds, fish, and snakes. Even though he lived there, this was the first time Mingliang had come out here. At that point the workers were in the process of planting some grass around the pond, but when Mingliang said to leave, they left the pond the way it was. There was also a wilderness area, but Mingliang wanted to build a headquarters for his airport and subway construction projects, so that a building could arise from the embankment like a flock of birds or locusts suddenly taking flight. The building would be like one he had seen in Beijing, which looked like an oversize goose egg. He had already decided how the building would be furnished, so that it would resemble the ministry office building he had seen in Beijing. Inside, the walls would be covered in milky white wallpaper, which would emit a jade-like glow. Having already planned this out in his
imagination, Mingliang picked an empty area next to the pond and then stood there. Facing the sun, he looked through the pond reeds, and after he had decided on the proposed location for his building, he slowly closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and said to himself,

“I am Mayor Kong of Explosion. I am going to build a structure here.”

He added, “I want to start building now, and since I am the mayor, what I say goes!”

Then he asked, “Is it necessary for me to send a directive? Isn’t it enough for me to stand here myself? Do all of you not recognize that I’m the mayor?”

As he was saying this, he closed his eyes even tighter, waiting for the ground beneath his feet to start trembling. There would be an explosion like a burst of wind or a volcano exploding, and the water plants and mud would go flying in every direction. He would open his eyes, and in front of him there would be an enormous egg-shaped building.

The mayor was waiting for this moment.

He had already prepared himself so that after the earthshaking burst of wind arrived, he would be thrown to the ground, where his head would be smashed open, his clothes would be in tatters, and when he stood up his face and entire body would be covered in mud. But as long as a building could appear out of nowhere, he wouldn’t need to discuss his plans for the airport and the subways with Mingyao. Instead, he would be able to build Explosion’s new airport and subway all by himself. “Explosion is mine. I am Mayor Kong, who single-handedly made Explosion what it is today. If I can’t build an airport and a subway in a week, then who can?” As Mingliang asked himself this and waited for the earthshaking movement to arrive, in front of his tightly closed eyes there appeared a cluster of dancing gold stars, even as the ground began to tremble beneath his feet.
He thought that the earthshaking tornado was about to arrive, that he would surely be blown away, and he instinctively clenched his teeth and gripped the ground tightly with his toes. He leaned into the wind, but as he waited and waited, he noticed that the ground under his feet stopped trembling and the stars in front of his eyes began to disappear.

An ominous sense of foreboding rose in Mingliang’s chest.

Somewhat anxiously, he opened his eyes. As he had feared, he found that everything was exactly as it had been. The city government garden was the same, as was the reed pond in front of him. The waist-high reed plants were still standing in the water, and there were some dragonflies flying around above while mayflies were skimming over the surface of the reddish-black water. Even the grass under his feet was still as it had been, full of tiny yellow flowers. Mingliang felt faint, as though someone had punched him in the stomach and all of his organs were jostling about inside. Staring at a reed in the pond in front of him, he said,

“I am Mayor Kong. Did you hear me when I said I wanted to immediately construct a building here?”

Then, raising his voice, he said, “I am Mayor Kong. Did you hear what I just said?”

Finally, Mingliang watched as his shout skimmed over the surface of the pond, and several waterfowl flew out from behind the reeds. He silently bit his lip and turned pale, and tears started to appear in the corners of his eyes, and then, like a child or an old person, he asked in a tearful voice, “Don’t you want Explosion to become a provincial-level metropolis like Beijing and Shanghai?

“… Don’t you want Explosion to be ruled directly by the central government?”

At this point the secretaries and security guards who had been hiding behind trees, behind walls, and in the corners of the corridor
all emerged. From a distance, they had watched the mayor standing there but were unsure whether to approach him or not. They each had a look of deep frustration.

2. GRAND PROSPECTS

Mingliang went to find his brother Mingyao.

When he left the city government complex, Mingliang felt sorrow creep over his heart. He had not taken his personal secretary, and instead he took only the luxury SUV that Cheng Qing had arranged for him. When Cheng Qing had seen Mingliang, she said, “Mayor Kong, you didn’t sleep well last night.” Mingliang replied, “Why don’t you go with me?” So they got into the car, with him sitting in the back and Cheng Qing sitting in the front. Before the car entered the urban district, they received an urgent phone call saying that if the mayor was going to use Remin Road, it would be closed off by the police, and if he was going to use Gongde Road, then the latter would be cleared of all cars and pedestrians. With his eyes half-closed, Mingliang leaned back in his seat as the car moved forward like a ship through the sea. After they had left the city with its ten million inhabitants, Mingliang and Cheng Qing exchanged a few remarks.

Cheng Qing asked, “Where are we going?”

Mingliang replied, “Explosion’s promotion to a provincial-level metropolis has reached a critical juncture.”

Cheng Qing laughed and said, “Your face is as sallow as a sheet of paper.” She then added, “You’re not so young anymore; you shouldn’t keep such late hours.”

Mingliang looked at the wrinkles that had suddenly appeared on the back of her neck. He reached out to massage her shoulders, and when she turned to him, her face bright, he asked,

“Do you think that, without Mingyao, I can build Asia’s largest airport and a subway line running at least a hundred kilometers in less than a week?”

“Yes.” Then a shadow of disappointment flashed across Cheng Qing’s face, and she said coldly, “We’ll have to see what you arrange for me to do after Explosion becomes a provincial-level metropolis. Can you arrange for me to be the deputy mayor?” The car then left Explosion and headed into the mountain range to the west. This was the mountain ridge where Mingliang had originally planned to build the new airport, and the area had become incredibly vast, as the city of Explosion—which began at the base of the mountains and expanded into the distance—was reduced to a mess of gray and white resembling a realistic painting. The railroad tracks from which the villagers had previously unloaded goods had disappeared, and the old Explosion city that you could still see from there even just two years earlier had also disappeared. Now, there was only a cluster of brand-new buildings in the distance. Mingliang asked the driver to stop in front of a cement path leading to the mountaintop. Then he got out of the car, went into a field next to the path, and stood there—as though trying to get out of Cheng Qing’s sight to relieve himself. When he reached a barren slope, he glanced behind him and continued walking away, until he reached a flat area on the hillside. He stood in the middle of that field full of wormwood, white grass, and wild jujube. After looking around, he faced a mountain rising up in the distance, then took out a folded document full of all sorts of red stamps, and after showing it to the wilderness, he closed his eyes and said,