Life and Death are Wearing Me Out

soldiers, and I knew that the half starved Mount Yimeng pigs would be chomping and chewing in no time; their days of ease and comfort were under way.
    “Here he is,” the crowd roared, “he’ll save the day.”
    “Jinlong,” Hong Taiyue said, “be careful. That’s a crazed animal down there. I don’t want to see it injured, and I certainly don’t want you to be hurt. You’re both too valuable to the Ximen Village Brigade.”
    Jinlong bent down and looked under the vehicle, then picked up a piece of broken tile and threw it in. In my mind’s eye I could see Diao Xiaosan crunch the tile into pieces, an angry, bone-chilling glare spewing from his tiny eyes. Jinlong stood up, the hint of a smile on his cheeks. It was a look I knew well, one that meant he had a plan, and it was almost always an intriguing plan. He whispered something to Hong Taiyue, as if keeping a secret from Diao Xiaosan. There was no need for that, since, as far as I knew, no pig in the world, except me, understood human language.
    Hong smiled, thumped Jinlong on the shoulder, and said: “Only you could come up with something like that!” After about as long as it takes to smoke half a cigarette, Ximen Baofeng came running over with a couple of snow-white steamed buns that had been soaked in liquid, the redolence of liquor heavy in the air, and I knew what Jinlong had in mind. He’d get Diao Xiaosan drunk. If I’d been Diao, I wouldn’t have fallen for it. But he was, after all, a pig, and he lacked the intelligence to match his wildness. Jinlong tossed the liquor-soaked buns under the vehicle. Don’t eat those, brother, I muttered to myself. You’ll fall into human hands if you do. He ate them. How did I know? By the triumphant grins on Jinlong and Hong Taiyue’s faces.
    Jinlong crawled under the vehicle and dragged the loopy Diao Xiaosan out with ease. He dumped the grunting drunk into a new pen separated from mine by a wall. Our pens were reserved for single occupants, specifically stud animals; obviously, Diao Xiaosan would be expected to sire litters of new pigs, which seemed absurd to me. I was a husky, long-bodied animal with a nice pink hide, a short snout, and fat ears — in other words, a handsome pig. Selecting me for stud purposes made perfect sense. But you’ve already been informed of Diao Xiaosan’s appearance and lack of grace. What kind of progeny could an inferior animal like that produce? Years later I came to realize that Jinlong and Hong Taiyue’s decision had been the right one. Back in the 1970s, when everything was in short supply, pork was hard to come by, and the people longed for meat that would melt in their mouths. But now, with the standard of living so high, the jaded people had lost their taste for domesticated ones. Diao Xiaosan’s offspring could be sold as game animals. But we’ll come to that later.
    Needless to say, as a pig with extraordinary intelligence, my first concern was self-protection. So when I saw them carrying Diao Xiaosan my way, I knew what they had in mind. I quickly and quietly sprawled atop a pile of dry grass and leaves in a corner of the wall to pretend I was asleep. I heard the racket in the pen next to mine, including Diao Xiaosan’s snores and praise for me from Hong Taiyue and Jinlong. I watched them by opening my eyes just a crack. The sun was high in the sky, lighting up their faces with a golden sheen.

24

Brigade Members Light a Bonfire to
Celebrate Good News
Pig King Steals Knowledge and
Listens to Fine Words
    Uncle, or should I say, Brother, Big-head Lan Qiansui said to me in the accent of a Beijing hoodlum, from here on let’s recall together that glorious late autumn, and the most glorious day in that glorious late autumn. The leaves in the apricot grove were red as cinnabar under a cloudless sky, as, for the first and last time in the history of Gaomi County, in support of the pig-raising program, an on-site conference was held at the Ximen Village Apricot Garden Pig Farm. It was heralded as an event of great creativity, a report to which the provincial newspaper devoted considerable space. County and commune cadres associated with this on-site conference were promoted in its wake, and in the area’s historical chronicles it constituted a glorious page for Ximen Village.
    In planning for the on-site conference, members of the production brigade, under the leadership of Hong Taiyue, the direction of Jinlong, and the guidance of Guo Baohu, vice chairman of