Life and Death are Wearing Me Out

You were so shy, panting so alluringly, and I could tell that you were a daughter from a refined family, a girl who could embroider a double lotus and recite the “Thousand Poets’ Verses” . . .
    A crowd of people, hooting and hollering, surged into the Ximen compound and snapped me out of my dream. There would be no good times for me, no conjugal bliss. They brought me back from my half human-half donkey existence. I was once again a donkey from head to tail. The people all wore scowls of arrogance as they barged into the western rooms and emerged with Lan Lian in custody; they stuck a white paper flag in his collar behind his neck. Though he tried to resist, it took little effort to subdue him. And when he tried to complain, they said, We’ve been ordered to inform you that you can farm your own land if that’s what you want, but smelting steel and building a reservoir are national projects requiring the participation of all citizens. We overlooked you when we built the reservoir, but you’re not getting out of work this time. Two men dragged him bodily out of the compound and another came to lead me out of my lean-to, a fellow with considerable experience in dealing with domestic animals: sidling up next to me, he grabbed hold of the bit and jerked it up into my mouth at the slightest sign of resistance, causing unbearable pain and making it hard for me to breathe.
    My master’s wife ran out in an attempt to stop him from leading me away.
    “You can take my husband out to work, that’s fine by me,” she said, “and I’ll smash rocks and smelt steel if you want. But you cannot take my donkey with you.”
    With a display of anger and impatience, the man said:
    “What do you take us for, madam citizen, puppet soldiers out to confiscate people’s livestock? We’re core members of the People’s Commune Militia, and we’re following orders, just doing our job. We’re taking your donkey on loan. You’ll get him back when we’re finished with him.”
    “I’ll go in his place!” Yingchun said.
    “Sorry, but those aren’t our orders and we’re not authorized to improvise.”
    Lan Lian broke loose from the men holding him.
    “There’s no call for you to treat me like this,” he said. “Building a reservoir and smelting steel are national projects, so of course I’ll go without complaint. Tell me what to do, and I’ll do it. But I have one request. Let my donkey go with me.”
    “That’s something we’re not authorized to permit. Take up your request with our superiors.”
    So the man led me out cautiously, ready for anything, whereas Lan Lian was escorted out of the compound and the village as if he were an army deserter, past the onetime district offices and all the way over to the People’s Commune, which, as it turned out, was where the red-nosed blacksmith and his apprentice had fitted me with my first set of iron shoes at their furnace. As we were passing the Ximen ancestral cemetery, some middle-school students under the supervision of their teachers were digging up graves and removing headstones; a woman in white mourning attire came flying out of the caretaker’s hut and ran straight for the students, throwing herself onto the back of one of them, her hands around his neck. But a brick flew over and hit her in the back of the head. Her face was ghostly white, as if covered with quicklime. Her earsplitting shrieks angered me. Flames brighter than molten steel licked up out of my heart, and I heard human speech tear from my throat:
    “Stop! I, Ximen Nao, demand that you stop digging up my ancestral graves! And don’t you dare strike my wife!”
    I reared up, ignoring the lip-splitting pain from the bit, lifting the man beside me up into the air and then flinging him into the mud alongside the road. As a donkey, I could have treated what I was seeing with indifference. But as a man, I could not allow anyone to dig up my ancestral graves or strike my wife. I charged into the crowd of students and bit one of their teachers on the head, then knocked down a student who was bent over to scoop out dirt. The students fled, their teachers lay on the ground. I watched Ximen Bai roll around, and cast one last glance at the open graves before turning and racing into the dark confines of a pine forest.

10

Favored with a Glorious Task, I Garry a County Chief
Meeting Up with a Tragic Mishap, I Break
a Front Hoof
    My anger slowly subsided after two days of running wild across Northeast Gaomi