The Explosion Chronicles (47 page)

3. MEGALOPOLIS (3)

I.

From dusk until dawn, Zhu Ying spent the entire night calling all of the girls who managed to snare someone in the capital, telling them that they must find a way to make sure that the experts and professors would vote in Explosion’s favor in the morning. She placed so many calls that she broke two landline phones and three cell phones, and used up several telephone cables.

The next afternoon at one, the results of the second round of voting were announced, and the result was the same as it had been that time when Kong Mingliang and Zhu Ying were both running for village chief. There were 820 votes in favor of Explosion becoming a new provincial-level metropolis like Beijing and Shanghai, and only 410 votes in favor of that famous city on China’s southern coast. After the news reached Explosion, the entire city erupted with joy. Every resident went on and on about this glory. In order to celebrate Explosion’s promotion, the city’s streets and alleys were filled with parades and people chanting. Schools, factories, and companies all declared a holiday, and even all of the city’s foreigners were out in the streets with Chinese flags, drinking beer, and discussing how China was one of the world’s miracles and how Explosion was one of China’s miracles. The small minority of residents and youngsters who either did not want Explosion to be promoted or did not think it would be, were spat upon by the others, and those who tried to keep offering reasons why Explosion should not be promoted were beaten by the others. Accordingly, for those who ended up losing
a tooth or breaking an arm, those few days were not terribly fresh and exciting.

In the city’s east side, a teacher was even killed over this.

In the southern part of the city, there was a young scholar who asked, “If the city is promoted to a provincial-level metropolis, will ordinary citizens like ourselves no longer be able to lead regular lives?” This question incited an animated debate, during which someone struck him over the head with a club, and he closed his mouth forever, never again expressing a skeptical opinion.

All of the trees along the streets and alleys—including willows and French toon trees—would normally have just started to turn green at the beginning of the sixth lunar month, but at that time they were blooming as though it were midsummer. In the past, pagoda trees would bloom for about a week in the fourth month, after which they would start bearing fruit, but this year the pagoda trees, apricot trees, walnut trees, and elms started flowering again in the sixth month, blanketing the city’s streets and alleys in an ocean of blooms. Moreover, during this season, white pagoda blossoms were blooming large and red, while each petal of the red peach blossoms was golden yellow. The largest of these flowers could reach the size of a large bowl or a basket, and if placed on the side of the road or out in the countryside, they could go for an entire month without dropping a single petal. Elm leaves piled up on the tree branches like coins, so heavy that the branches bent over under their weight. The apricots and walnuts, which normally would not ripen until the eighth or ninth month, were already being sold in the streets. All of the flowers began blooming significantly earlier, larger, and longer than usual. All of the seasonal fruits began to mature at lightning speed as soon as they heard that Explosion had received two-thirds of the available votes for promotion and would therefore become a provincial-level metropolis. The apple trees almost didn’t have a
chance to bloom before they immediately began bearing fruit, and a few days later stores started selling apricots as large as apples—and cherries, mangoes, and pears soon followed.

Grapes were as large as walnuts, and were as bright and translucent as dragon fruit.

Every day the streets of Explosion were full of spring freshness and the scent of summer and autumn fruit. There were more magpies and orioles than in the past. It was if all of the orioles in the world had descended on Explosion. Sometimes flocks of pigeons would fly over Explosion, casting a dark shadow over the earth as though a rain cloud were overhead.

After finishing her telephone calls, Zhu Ying took a quick nap, and upon waking up she learned the result of the vote. At that point, her husband had already left her side, having gone to the city government to begin preparing for the additional work and glory that Explosion’s promotion would yield. Zhu Ying felt a surge of post-excitement loneliness, and in order to break out of it and join in the festivities, she got out of bed and washed her face, then left the house and began wandering aimlessly through the streets. When she passed the entrance to a school, she saw that the pushcart in front of the school that used to sell pencils and notebooks was now selling only the flowers and flags that everyone was waving. Furthermore, next to the flags, the stand was covered with dripping wet roses, which normally didn’t bloom until late summer or fall, and each blossom and flag could sell for the price of a student’s entire semester’s tuition. When she turned around to look at the flower pond in front of the school, she saw that in the middle of the pond the evergreen tree (which normally didn’t need to be trimmed or pruned) had suddenly grown as tall as a house, and its branches were full of delicate lilac blossoms that were emitting a pungent smell of osmanthus. Many people who walked under the tree would break into fits of
sneezing on account of the fragrance, and it was at this point that she truly believed Explosion was going to become a major city—all thanks to her husband’s efforts. Then she hurriedly left the school, occasionally breaking into a run. She herself was not sure why she was rushing. She quickly proceeded forward until she reached the Explosion memorial, but when she turned at the intersection, she picked the wrong road, and it was not until she saw the Kong family mansion, which had been designated a first-class cultural relic, that she finally realized what she had been hurrying to see. She wanted to find someone in the Kong family to talk to.

When she reached the door to the mansion, the sun was already hovering over the buildings in the eastern side of the city, and in the sunlight, the shadows cast by trees, people, and buildings all looked twice as large as the originals. An old man out walking his dog came over. Zhu Ying looked at him and realized that he was the same Second Dog who, years earlier, had spat the most at her father. She was astonished to see that he was already so old. She stood there in surprise, then asked him,

“Don’t you recognize me?”

The old man slowed down.

“I am Zhu Ying.”

The old man stood there thinking for a while, then without a word he turned and hobbled down a different alley. After he left, there was only the yellow dog, whose name Zhu Ying couldn’t remember, still standing there looking at her. The dog barked a few times to express its enthusiasm and curiosity, then followed him. Zhu Ying watched as the old man and the dog walked away; then she pushed open the gates to the Kong family mansion, which she had rarely entered. She immediately saw Minghui sitting in a sunny area of the courtyard, leaning against a small table. On that table, there was an oil stove with a small aluminum pot. Over the pot, there was a large
slab of glass, on which sat the old almanac with the stuck-together pages, and on top of the almanac there was another glass slab. The steam came up from the stove below and the sun shone down from above, though the steam could not pass through the glass to reach the book. This way, the humidity could finally separate the stuck-together pages of the old almanac. Minghui sat there attentively, staring at the oil stove and at the humidity accumulating between the two glass slabs. After he heard Zhu Ying push open the gate, he looked up and turned to the doorway, then turned back to those final pages of the almanac that were still in the process of being separated—as though he had not heard the gate open and had not seen Zhu Ying.

“Your brother has succeeded. With my help, he has succeeded in making Explosion a provincial-level metropolis.” Zhu Ying stood in front of the table, her excited voice sounding like firecrackers. “Everyone is out celebrating. Don’t you want to go see?”

Minghui looked up again.

“Along the street, all of the trees are blooming with different-colored flowers. Don’t you want to go see?”

Minghui looked down again at the stove and reduced the heat a bit.

“I hear that in the next few days Beijing will issue a directive stating that Explosion is being promoted to the status of a provincial-level metropolis. Your Kong family should definitely celebrate your brother’s achievement.”

Minghui removed the slab of glass from the almanac, used a paper napkin to wipe away the condensation from the glass, and then began to carefully peel back a moistened page. Throughout this entire process, the only thing he said to Zhu Ying was a mumbled “Wait a moment,” after which he didn’t even look at her. While holding down the almanac with his left hand, he used the thumb and index finger of his right hand to lift a corner of that top page, as slowly as
though he had not only all night, but even an entire season or entire year to complete this task. In the process, he forgot all about Zhu Ying and forgot that there was someone standing in front of him.

After standing there for a little while, Zhu Ying finally left. Before she left, however, she said,

“Minghui, in the entire Kong family, you are the only good one, but you are also the only slow-witted one. You know?”

As Zhu Ying walked out of the Kong family mansion, she discovered that the old city was now as still as a pool of stagnant water, while the sky above the new city’s development zone, together with that of the east side and west side, was full of fireworks like falling stars. Staring at that bustling sky and those buildings, Zhu Ying suddenly understood what she had to do. Some of the girls who had gone into the city to snare their targets would be returning later that day, so what she needed to do was to go to the city government and find Mingliang, and have him accompany her to the train station to meet them. They should travel out to the maid-training school in the suburbs to see them. She quickly set off, telling her driver to head toward the city center, to the city government complex that she was now permitted to enter.

II.

On July 1, Beijing officially designated Explosion as one of China’s provincial-level metropolises, and Kong Mingliang was appointed a state-level mayor. As of that day, all of the residents of Explosion, together with the residents of the counties and regions falling under Explosion’s jurisdiction, would be given a week’s vacation to celebrate Explosion’s promotion and transformation. From the city to the rural villages, and from the bricks of the high-rise buildings to the grass of the Balou Mountains, the sound of fireworks could be heard throughout the region. On the trees and walls, there
were red banners and slogans celebrating Explosion’s promotion to the status of a provincial-level metropolis. All of the cinemas and theaters were showing films and performances around the clock, like a row of sugared gourds on a stick. A folk percussion group was performing in the streets day and night, and throughout the celebrations tens of thousands of residents of Explosion didn’t eat or sleep for days. Kong Mingliang, in his new capacity as a state-level mayor, signed a directive ordering that all of the metropolis’s streets and alleys, plants and flowers, bushes and trees be dyed imperial red and imperial yellow. All of the trees and plants were blooming with dark red, light yellow, maroon, and pink flowers. All of the walls were bearing red apples, yellow oranges, orange pomegranates, and purple grapes. Mingliang wrote and signed another directive, whereupon the weather forecast for overcast skies changed to one for clear skies. The rains that ordinarily would have come in July were instead pushed back to August or September. Several of the city’s newspapers printed special issues and special sections, and furthermore every day they printed two editions—thereby covering the development and transformation Explosion had undergone over the preceding few decades. The monthly and bimonthly journals that became weeklies all recorded the miraculous story of how Kong Mingliang had led the people as Explosion was transformed from a small village of only a few hundred into a city with a population of over twenty million. All of the television channels were broadcasting nonstop speeches by the mayor and deputy mayor, together with congratulatory letters from Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Tianjin, and all of China’s provinces. Scores of foreign nations had also either sent congratulatory messages or sent people to deliver congratulatory gifts. But just as the celebrations were reaching their zenith, and even the street-side toilets and trash cans were blooming with flowers and surrounded by people singing and dancing, Mingyao,
who had not been seen for several days, suddenly appeared on the television broadcast that was being streamed around the clock to every household in the city. He was wearing a military uniform. His face was pallid and covered in sweat, but he had an outward appearance of calm. He was standing in front of a microphone and telling the people of Explosion that a month earlier he had rowed a boat, alone, departing from Yantai in Shandong province and heading out to sea. He has passed through China’s Yellow Sea and several archipelagoes, into the Pacific Ocean, and eventually reached the Atlantic. Along the way, he visited Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, North Korea, and India, as well as Vietnam, the Philippines, and Cambodia. Afterward, he went ashore on America’s west coast, and proceeded to New York, Washington, San Francisco, and Salt Lake City. Then, from Miami he rowed a boat to the Port of London. After staying in England for a few days, he proceeded to visit all of the other countries in Europe. He said that he had met with the US president Barack Obama and the UK prime minister David Cameron, Germany’s chancellor Angela Merkel, and France’s new president François Hollande. While meeting with thirty-eight Latin American heads of state, he confirmed that the root of Taiwan’s desire for independence, Japan’s arrogance and presumptuousness, and the fact that even small countries like Vietnam and the Philippines had the audacity to shit on China’s head—all of this was a result of the arrogance and prejudice with which the United States and Europe viewed China. It was that the fucking United States was supporting and encouraging them, while Europe was quietly cheering them on. Mingyao stood solemnly in front of the camera and recited this entire speech without using any notes. After a few minutes his yellow pallor had completely disappeared, and instead he appeared energized. In a fervor, he proceeded to speak nonstop for two hours and twenty minutes, until finally he announced in a hoarse voice,