Enigma of China

TWELVE

Chief Inspector Chen went to the bureau the next morning as usual.

Being a special consultant to the Zhou case didn’t absolve him of his responsibility for the Special Case Squad. He was still the head of the squad, though Detective Yu was, effectively, in charge.

After taking a quick look at an internal report, Chen put it down with a lingering bitter taste in his mouth. It was about a dissident artist named Ai, who was said to be stirring up trouble with some of his postmodern exhibitions, which consisted of distorted nude figures done in an absurdist fashion. Chen decided not to take it on as a potential case for the squad. Not because he knew anything about Ai’s work but because he didn’t think it was justifiable to open an investigation of an artist like Ai simply for the sake of “a harmonious society.”

There was a message from Party Secretary Li about a routine meeting around noon, but Chen chose not to return the call.

Instead, he kept brooding over the suspicious circumstances of Wei’s death. An abandoned brown SUV had been found in Nanhui. It had been stolen from a paper company several days ago. The abandoned SUV added to the possibility of its having been a premeditated assault, but at the same time, it was also a dead end. Despite his hunch that Wei’s death was connected to his investigation into Zhou’s death, Chen knew better than to discuss it around the bureau, not even with Detective Yu. The chief inspector felt utterly abysmal about not helping more with Wei’s work. He had a splitting headache coming on.

Then he remembered that Lianping had given him the address of her blog. Taking a break from thinking about Wei, he turned to his computer and typed in the address.

What she had posted there seemed to be quite different from her articles in the newspaper. The title of a recent piece immediately grabbed his attention: “The Death of Xinghua.”

Xinghua was a poet and translator of Shakespeare who died during the Cultural Revolution. He was little known among the younger generation, so Chen wondered why she chose to write about him.

A first-class poet and scholar, Xinghua translated Shakespeare’s Henry IV, edited and annotated the complete translation. That’s about all that people would learn about him if they happened to turn one or two pages in the Complete Works of Shakespeare. What could be more tragic than a forgotten tragedy!

As early as the Anti-Japanese War in the forties, Professor Shediek at Southwest United University considered Xinghua one of his most promising students, as gifted as Harold Bloom. Xinghua soon made a name for himself with his poems and translations, but his career was abruptly cut short. In 1957, he was labeled a rightist during the nationwide antirightist movement. He was condemned and persecuted in the subsequent political movements, and he died in his midforties at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution. When an article about him appeared in the official newspaper in the late seventies, the circumstances of his final days were not mentioned at all, as if he had simply died a natural death.

I happened to get in touch with his widow, who told me about all that he had suffered toward the end of his life. At the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, he was subjected to the most humiliating mass criticism and punishment. His home was ransacked by Red Guards, and his almost completed translation of The Divine Comedy was burned on the street. That summer, he was forced to work in the rice paddy field from six in the morning to eight in the evening for “ideological transformation through hard labor.” Xinghua was sweating all over, thirsty, and hungry, but he wasn’t allowed any water or food; toward the end of the day, he had no choice but to wet his lips with a handful of water scooped up from a dirty creek. At the sight of that, a Red Guard rushed over and fiercely pushed his head into the contaminated water, holding it under for several minutes, while another Red Guard kicked him violently in the side. Soon Xinghua fell sick with a swollen belly and fainted in the field. Less than two hours later, he died there of acute diarrhea. The Red Guards insisted, however, that he had committed suicide, and required that an autopsy be performed. Why? Because suicide was said to be another crime-a deliberate act against the efforts of the Party and people to save him. Xinghua’s family begged, but to no avail. His body was cut open; fortunately, the autopsy report proved that he had died of having swallowed contaminated water, and his family was spared the posthumous label of counterrevolutionary.

But why did the details of his tragic death never come out in the official media? Why were the Red Guards never punished? It is said that the Red Guard who pushed Xinghua’s head into the creek was from the family of a high-ranking cadre, and the one who kicked Xinghua became a high-ranking Party cadre himself. It was said that they simply, passionately believed in Mao, and with Mao’s portrait still hung high on the gate of Tiananmen Square, what really could be done? Although the Cultural Revolution was officially declared a well-meant mistake by Mao, there is still an unofficial rule that all writing about the Cultural Revolution should be “contained.” In other words, vague, short, euphemistic, and as little as possible.

After all, who remembers Xinghua?

It’s by chance that I came across a poem by Xinghua. A stanza of it reads:

Trying to grasp a blade of grass, a piece of wood, to secure / the present moment, to avoid the flight of time, / to hold on, to fix oneself, / but in the distant mountains, autumn spreads out at the peaks, / storing infinite joy and sorrow. / After failure comes a stroke of luck.

It is a sad poem. Not only because one’s self has to be maintained by grasping a blade of grass or a piece of wood, but contrary to the heartrending wish in the last line, no stroke of luck came to the poet in the end.

Chen lit a cigarette, waving out the match forcefully. It wasn’t perhaps one of the blogs that would appeal to a large number of people. Most of them had probably never heard of Xinghua. The number of hits on the page spoke to that. But Lianping nonetheless did her research and wrote emotionally. It wasn’t just about one man’s suffering during the Cultural Revolution, it was also about today’s society.

Chen liked the poem quoted at the end of the article.

Now, what about his own luck as a policeman? Chen picked up the phone and called Jiang at the hotel.

At his insistence, Jiang confirmed one thing. The original post that landed Zhou in trouble appeared in a Web forum managed by a man named Melong, though Jiang appeared to be surprised that Chen had learned this through his own channels.

Chen then called Lianping.

“I want to thank you for your blog post on Xinghua. It’s a good piece. It’s a pity few remember him today.”

“I majored in English too. Don’t forget that.”

“So you must know a lot about blogs and blogging.”

“They aren’t difficult, but blogs aren’t uncensored. Web sites have to take a piece down the moment they get a notice from the netcops. Fortunately or unfortunately, Xinghua isn’t a name on their radar.”

“By the way, you mentioned someone named Melong yesterday. Do you post on his forum?”

“He runs a popular forum, and he’s asked me to write for him, but I choose not to. His forum is a bit too controversial, if you know what I mean.”

“So you know him well?”

“No, not well. I’ve only met him three or four times. But he’s clever and resourceful, a real computer wizard. That’s how he was able to start his Web forum single-handedly.”

“Is there anything else you can tell me about him?”

“Not offhand, but let me make some phone calls.”

“That would be great. Thank you in advance, Lianping.” Chen then said his good-byes.

Afterward, Chen tried to talk to Detective Yu, but Yu was out of the bureau with some other officers. Chen left a note for his longtime partner, saying that their squad shouldn’t take on any new cases during his absence. It was a rather unusual request. Yu was more than competent, but what could the squad possibly do with a case like the one on the artist Ai?

The time for the department meeting drew near, but Chen wasn’t in any mood for it. He decided instead to skip it and sneak out of the bureau. Being a special consultant at least gave him an excuse.

He didn’t request the services of a bureau car. On the corner of Yan’an and Sichuan Roads, he boarded bus 71, which was crowded, as always. The bus crawled along patiently in heavy traffic. Chen paid little attention to the changing scene outside, lost in a tangle of thoughts. Instead of getting off at the stop on Shanxi Road, he remained on the bus, standing, holding on to a strap overhead. The bus was heading toward East China Hospital, where his mother was.

She’d been there for weeks, recuperating from a minor stroke. His failure to take proper care of her was unforgivable, he couldn’t help telling himself again. He was sweating profusely, bumping up against an ovenlike, overweight woman as the bus lurched down the street.

He hadn’t visited his mother in several days, though on the phone she’d repeatedly assured him that everything was all right.

East China Hospital was located on West Yan’an Road, in a large compound enclosed by high red walls. It was a hospital for high-ranking Party cadres, with the most advanced equipment, utmost security, and privacy. It was accessible only to those of a certain rank-a rank higher than that of chief inspector.

His mother’s private ward was on the second floor of the European-style building. At the carpeted landing of the staircase, an elderly man in a white shirt and green army pants nodded to Chen formally. It was a gesture out of an old movie. Chen didn’t recognize him, but he nodded back.

Chen’s mother wasn’t in this hospital because of his position, which by itself was far from enough, he reflected as he knocked gently on the door. It stood ajar, with the afternoon sunlight peeping in through the windowpanes across the corridor. There was no response. He waited a moment or two before he pushed open the door. She was alone in the room, taking an early nap.

Quietly, he drew a chair to the bedside, gazed at her sleeping face, and touched her hand.

Who says that the splendor / of a grass blade can ever prove / to be enough to return / the generous, radiant warmth / of the ever-returning spring sunlight?

These were the celebrated lines by Men Jiao, an eighth-century Tang dynasty poet, comparing his mother’s love for him to the warmth of the ever-returning spring sunlight. Chen was lost in memories…

A young nurse walked down the corridor, stopped, and poked her head in without entering or saying anything. She smiled and left, moving out of sight like a pleasant breeze in the early summer.

The room appeared bright and clean, with a window overlooking the well-kept garden in the back. It was much nicer than the old, overcrowded neighborhood in which she still lived. She might as well stay here a little longer.

His glance then fell on the presents heaped on the nightstand. Most of them were expensive. Swallow nests, ginseng, organic tree ears, royal jelly… To his astonishment, he also saw a bottle of hajie lizard essence, supposedly bu or nutritious to the yang, according to traditional Chinese medical theory. But he wondered if it could be beneficial to an old woman in her present condition. These gifts were probably from Overseas Chinese Lu or Mr. Gu, both of whom were prosperous entrepreneurs and were making a point of showering her with expensive presents. They hadn’t even bothered to tell him that they had visited.

In the amazing drama of China’s economic reform, it had been only a matter of years before the two had become billionaires. Had Chen listened to Lu’s advice back when Lu was just starting his restaurant chain business, Chen could have become one as well.

But he, too, was successful as a Party official, though he tried not to see himself as one like Zhou. There was no denying, however, that he enjoyed some of the same “gray privileges” the others did.

One of those gray benefits was a large discount on the hospital bill. His mother’s arm had been broken by a Red Guard during the Cultural Revolution. No compensation had been offered at the time. All these years later, however, she was suddenly classified overnight as “handicapped,” a status that entitled her to more medical benefits, in accordance with a new regulation. Not to mention the fact that she’d been allowed to stay here during her recovery and had been provided with a single room.

Ironically, in order for him to be a filial son, he had to be a loyal Party official, supporting the government that had injured her.

His mother stirred, opening her eyes with a surprised smile at the sight of him sitting by the bed. She looked ashen, shrunken, but she managed to reach out an emaciated hand.

“You didn’t have to come to visit. This hospital is much better than a nursing home.”

“How was lunch today?”

“Good. They served well-cooked soft noodles with sliced pork and green cabbage.”

She gestured at a menu on the table. Unlike other hospitals, there seemed to be quite a variety from which to choose here. It was almost like a small fancy restaurant. Her choice of dish was probably due to her teeth. She’d lost several of them, but she refused to bother with the ordeal of dental treatment at her age.

He got up to mix a cup of green tea and American ginseng essence for her.

“Our relatives and friends all say good things about you,” she said affectionately. “I’ve long given up trying to figure things out in China today. It’s all too much of an enigma for me, but I know that you always try to do the right thing.”

“But I haven’t been taking good care of you. When you get out of the hospital, please come and stay with me. Nowadays it’s quite common for people to hire a live-in aide.”

“No, I’m fine. I’m a contented woman. If I left the world today, I would go with my eyes closed in peace, except for one thing I’m still concerned about. You know what I’m talking about.”

That happened to be one thing about which he had nothing to tell her. Chief Inspector Chen remained single. Confucius said, “There are three most unfilial things in the world, and to go without descendants is the worst.”

“White Cloud came by the other day,” she went on. “A really nice girl.”

“I haven’t seen her for a while.”

He was to blame, he admitted to himself, for the distance between White Cloud and himself. The shadow of her dancing in the private karaoke room seemed to always accompany her, or perhaps it was nothing more than the shadow swirling in his mind.

The water flows along, the cloud drifts away, and the spring is gone. / It’s a different world.

He tried to straighten up the things on her nightstand here, as if the effort could somehow make him feel less lousy. He was interrupted by a noise at the door.

“Hello, Chief Inspector Chen. Nurse Liang Xia told me that you were here today. You should have told me you were coming.”

Chen looked up to see Dr. Hou striding into the room, beaming from ear to ear. Hou Zidong, the head of the hospital, was wearing a white smock over a black suit with a red tie.

“Dr. Hou, I want to thank you for everything you’ve been doing for my mother. You’re a busy man, I understand, so I didn’t call you.”

“Auntie has been doing well. No need to worry. We’ll make sure that it’s just like home here.”

“Dr. Hou has done a fantastic job, as I have told you many times,” she said, looking at Chen with a light of pride flashing in her eyes.

Chen understood. It was all because of a “case” Chen had helped with in the late eighties. The “suspect” in question was none other than Hou, a young doctor newly assigned to a neighborhood hospital. While in college, Hou had been involved in a so-called foreign liaison case. According to an inside control file, Hou had visited an American medical expert staying at the Jinjiang Hotel and had signed his name in the hotel register book several times. The American was alleged to have connections to the CIA. So Hou was put on a blacklist without knowing it. After Hou’s graduation, there was an international medical conference in New York, and the head of the Chinese delegation picked Hou as a qualified candidate-someone with several English papers published in the field, whose presence could help to “contribute to China’s image.” But for Hou to join the delegation, it was necessary to investigate his involvement with the American. Chen was assigned to listen to the recordings of the phone conversations between Hou and the alleged American spy. As it turned out, they talked about nothing but their common interests in the medical field. In one phone call, Hou did urge the American to be more careful, but judging from the context, he was referring to the American’s drinking problem. It was ridiculous to put Hou on a blacklist because of that, Chen concluded. He transcribed and translated the taped conversations carefully, submitted a detailed analysis to the higher authoritities, and proposed that Hou’s name be cleared.

No longer a suspect, Hou was allowed a spot in the delegation, his speech was well received at the conference, and his luck since then had been incredible. It wasn’t long before he was transferred to East China Hospital, one of the most prestigious in the city, where eventually he became the head of the hospital. About a year ago, Hou had learned of Chen’s help from a high-ranking cadre who stayed at the hospital. The next day Hou came to the bureau, declaring Chen was the “guiren” in his life-the life-changing helper who had come out of nowhere.

“I knew somebody helped, but I didn’t know it was you, Chief Inspector Chen. Ever since then, I’ve always tried to be a conscientious doctor. Do you know why? I wanted to be as conscientious as my guiren. There are so many problems in society today, but there are still a few good Party cadres like you. Now, if there is ever anything I can do for you, just say the word. As in the old saying, for the favor of a drop of water, one has to dig out a fountain in return.”

Dr. Hou kept his word. When Chen’s mother was sick, Hou took it upon himself to handle everything. It was impossible for ordinary people to get into the prestigious East China Hospital, but Hou made an exception for her and arranged a special room, in spite of the fact that she had suffered only a minor stroke. He insisted that she stay for her convalescence as well.

“You’ve really gone out of your way for her, Dr. Hou.”

“For me, it’s as effortless as a wave of my hand. Auntie may stay here as long as she likes. She doesn’t owe the hospital any money. To be frank, we need cash-rich patients like her in our hospital. Lu, one of your buddies, insisted on depositing a large sum against the account of his auntie.”

“Overseas Chinese Lu is impossible,” Chen said with a wry smile, glancing at the presents on the nightstand again. Lu might not be the only one.

Dr. Hou’s cell phone rang. He looked at it without answering it.

“I’ve got another meeting. I have to go. But don’t worry, Chief Inspector Chen. I’ll come by regularly.”

Chen’s mother sat up and watched the doctor walk out of the room, then turned to her son.

“You go back to your work too. People don’t speak so highly of the police, but my son is conscientious, I know. That comforts me more than anything else. Good things do not go unrewarded. It’s karma.”

Chen nodded.

“Oh, before I forget, there is a gift card from another of your buddies. Mr. Gu. You know how to deal with it, I think.”

He picked up the gift card and frowned at the amount. Twenty thousand yuan.

The money meant nothing to Gu, who was a business tycoon. He’d helped Chen in an earlier investigation, and Chen had also proved helpful to Gu. Gu had since claimed to be a friend of the chief inspector, and he, too, called Chen’s mother his “auntie.”

The expensive gift card would have been acceptable for a real auntie, but as it was, it was just another way for Gu to grease the connection. Still, it was considerate of Gu. What made it difficult for Chen was that the gift card came not to him but to his mother. It wouldn’t be that easy for him to return it.

“I’ll take care of it, Mother,” Chen said, putting the card in his pocket.

His cell phone rang. It was Detective Yu. Chen excused himself and stepped out into the hall.

Yu called to fill Chen in on the meeting that had just finished in the bureau. Among other things, Party Secretary Li had been surprisingly adamant in refusing to acknowledge that Detective Wei’s death happened while he was on duty. Wei was killed during the investigation, but no one knew what he was doing there at that particular intersection, at that particular moment. Li claimed that Wei might have been there for himself, checking out some evening courses at a night school around the corner.

To Chen, the change in Li’s attitude was not too surprising. Initially, Li must have been shocked and saddened, like everybody else in the bureau. Wei was a veteran cop, having worked hard in the bureau for years. But the prospect of pursuing his death as a possible murder case could further complicate the Zhou situation. In the final analysis, any more speculation concerning the Zhou case wasn’t seen as in the Party’s interest.

“His wife is sick and jobless at home, and his son is still in middle school,” Yu concluded on a somber note.

Chen got his point. If Wei had died in an accident, there wouldn’t be any bureau compensation for his family.

Walking back into the room with the phone in his hand, Chen felt even more guilty. Had he attended the meeting, at least he could have tried to speak up for Wei, though he wondered whether that would have made any difference. Probably nothing would, unless it was proved that Wei was doing his duty, investigating around the corner near Wenhui Office Building, when he was killed.

But what was Wei doing there?

“I have to leave, Mother,” he said. “Something has come up at the bureau. I’ll come back soon.”