PATHLIGHT NEW CHINESE WRITING No.3 / 2016 Mai Jia Dai Lai Li Yawei Wen Zhen Alai Wang Xiangfu Zhang Huiwen Chen Xianfa Xu Xiaobin Ma Xiaotao Yang Fan Tong Weiger On the Road Photo by Wang Yan Photo by li Feng PATHLIGHT No.3 / 2016 No.3 2016 ISBN 978-7-119-10500-0 © Foreign Languages Press Co. Ltd, Beijing, China, 2016 Published by Foreign Languages Press Co. Ltd. 24 Baiwanzhuang Road, Beijing 100037, China http://www.flp.com.cn E-mail: [email protected] Distributed by China International Book Trading Corporation 35 Chegongzhuang Xilu, Beijing 100044, China P.O. Box 399, Beijing, China Printed in the People’s Republic of China CONTENTS Fiction Mai Jia Two Girls From Fuyang 4 Alai Three Grassworms (Part 2) 18 Xu Xiaobin Queen Bee 46 Dai Lai The Whites of Her Eyes 64 Wang Xiangfu The Whistle 74 Ma Xiaotao Twice Departed 82 Zhang Huiwen Journey 112 Yang Fan Poison 126 Wen Zhen Night Train 138 Tong Weiger Weekend 168 Fu Yuehui To the Snowy Mountains 178 Poetry Li Yawei The Hexi Corridor Cycle (excerpted) 100 Chen Xianfa Early Spring 156 River Surge To Hardwood (In Fourteen Lines) Tremors in Dust Between Expressions Between the Two Amid Eternal Loss The Barren Graveyard Mao Mountain’s Summit Aging Like a Dagger Xuanyuan Shike Overturning the Iron Cart 194 I’ve Always Wanted to Cross This Street Fleeing by Night The Collector Grandpa’s Gift Reduction Haze Relief Sculpture While Timeline & Events 204 Translators 212 麦家 Mai Jia Mai Jia is the pen name of Jiang Benhu. Born into a family with a “bad background” (his father was a rightist and his maternal grandfather a landlord), he joined the army to improve his political status. After a stint writing propaganda, his talents were recognized and he became an author. In 2002 he published his first novel Decoded, which took him eleven years to write but made him famous overnight. His novels since Decoded have all been bestsellers, and his novel The Message was cast as a major motion picture in 2009. Decoded was published in English in 2014, followed by In the Dark in 2015. His short stories have appeared in the Summer 2012 and Spring 2016 editions of Pathlight. 4 PATHLIGHT / No.3 2016 两位富阳姑娘 Two Girls From Fuyang By Mai Jia n the winter of 1971, the army enlisted a batch knew for a fact) and had never even had a boyfriend of new recruits from Fuyang in Zhejiang. The (so she told us). How then had her hymen come to be I planned intake had been a hundred and twenty broken? The answers she had filled in on her forms but it ended up being 128 people. The eight and her verbal responses to questioning were thus extra recruits were all women, a quota the chief of both problematic. This was an even more serious staff had given us by telephone at the last minute. The problem than one of behavioural standards since it women were to serve as switchboard operators. Regu- involved dishonesty to the organisation. Dishonesty lations stipulated that when a new recruit enlisted they to the organisation was tantamount to disloyalty to that were to undergo both a physical and a review of their organisation, and so to the Party and to the People. political background. Since these people had already Whatever way you looked at it, her problem was much undergone rigorous health checks and political exami- more serious than flat feet. Quite frighteningly seri- nation prior to enlistment, in the normal run of things ous, in fact. In those days we were particularly sensi- the review didn’t throw up any significant issues. In tive when it came to questions of this nature, wound this batch of recruits, however, we did find two people up very tightly indeed about it and liable to snap at the with problems, one a man and the other a woman. slightest rumour, never mind a situation like this with The man’s problem was with his feet – fallen arches cast-iron testimony from the army doctor. The doctor and a completely flat sole, what was known colloqui- hadn’t actually written the word “slut” on the physical ally as “duck foot”. People said that with feet like that examination forms, but in her verbal report to her su- you wouldn’t last five kilometres on the march before periors and the explanation we subsequently received they were ripped to shreds and hurting something rot- back from them the word certainly appeared. Slut. ten. Field training usually involved recruits marching It was something of a taboo word and in the normal several dozen kilometres every day, so clearly the man course of events not one you would let pass your lips, was not suited to being a soldier and he would have to but no one was going to pass up the opportunity to be sent home. use it should the chance arise. In fact everyone made determined and repeated use of the word. The woman’s problem was more serious. In broad Slut! terms it was a problem of behavioural standards. More We have a slut. specifically it was a problem with her hymen, which She is a slut! was broken. This was not something that usually hap- As we all know, the army emphasises discipline pened and indeed by and large there was only one and standards, so if a woman soldier – one who hasn’t situation in which a hymen came to be broken. This even been issued her cap badge yet – is found to be woman was only nineteen and unmarried (this we a “slut” she will of course be dealt with in the most PATHLIGHT / No.3 2016 5 _ Mai Jia severe fashion. How was she to be dealt with? The es- and they had wanted to get me involved. The army tablished rule was that she be returned to her place of would have sent someone else to deal with the after- origin – wherever it was you came from, off back there math. But I’d spent the whole journey down complete- you go. The man and the woman were going to be ly smitten by the dream-like southern landscape. It sent back together. Flatfoot was being sent home, so it was winter but everything here was still green – green went without saying The Slut was out too. Who was trees, green grass and green waters. Like a landscape to return them to their place of origin? The Brass as- from a poem. I felt like I’d died and gone to Heaven. signed the job to me. Back then I was a section chief in When we got to the People’s Armed Forces Office the admin division at headquarters. Recruitment and I was told the Fuchun River, famed for its beauty since demobilisations both fell under my remit. That’s how I olden days, was quite close by their compound. I’d came to be accompanying Flatfoot and The Slut back grown up reading the magazine Fuchun River Pictorial to their hometown, Fuyang in Zhejiang. It was only a and the river seemed like some ineradicable part of my few kilometres outside the famous city of Hangzhou. childhood, always in my heart. Now here I was right As a northerner, I found myself completely blown by it, why not go and have a mosey? I even decided away by the beautiful scenery of the south. that if the Office didn’t arrange a trip for me I’d go In the normal run of things my job would simply along the river by myself, but anyway as it turned out be to hand the pair over to their local People’s Armed I only had to drop the slightest hint and their Head Forces Office, explain why they were being rejected of Office was only too delighted to assign someone to (providing any supporting documentation) and that accompany me to the splendours of the Fuchun River. would be me done. The subsequent ongoing process I mean of course this was arranged for the days ahead. of returning the rejects to their old work unit or back That evening I stayed at the county government guest- to their village or respective families was a matter for house. This stood on Guan Mountain which rose right the People’s Armed Forces Office. Not my job. So above the Fuchun River, so that night I was lulled to since I had nothing more to do, at that point I could sleep by soft sounds of the breeze coming up from of course just leave. The fact was, a new recruit who the water. I slept like I was in the perfect happiness of had yet to be issued with their cap badge remained the childhood. responsibility of the People’s Armed Forces Office. So The following morning the person assigned to ac- if something came up it was only right and proper that company me came to the guesthouse to eat breakfast the Office sorted it out. This meant that I only had to with me. The plan was to finish breakfast then catch deliver these two to the People’s Armed Forces Office the nine o’clock ferry. This would take us upriver until then I could be off. It occurred to me later that if I we reached Dongziguan where we would go ashore had left straight after handing them over a lot of what for lunch then take another ferry back downriver.