She was a stubborn girl who was very worried about losing face. Although she had felt a moment of adoration for this short captain who had come to the school to give a speech, that was her private situation. It was hidden in her heart. Now in an instant she had become an object of discussion for the whole school, the target of their ridicule. Nicknames like "Little bullet" and "Big Mare" , as well as rumours not fit for the ears, came at her. And some of them said that the couple had held hands in the little wood next to the school, or that they had already done "it" . She was so shy that the tiny bit of adoration remaining in her heart was quickly blown away by the rumours. She felt she had lost all face in front of her classmates, and couldn't stay at the school any longer. That very night, in a rage, shielded from many pairs of eyes by two girlfriends, she packed up her things and went home.
This preposterous event happened on Saturday afternoon, and by the evening it had been spread round the whole of Yingping city. Yingping folks are very imaginative. By the time this unbelievable story had been passed from the east of the city to the garrison in the west, it had become the story of an army officer secretly spying on a bathing schoolgirl.
Unfortunately, a teacher at the school, newly arrived from the South, was the wife of the political commissar of the local artillery. Quite naturally, a little bird told its story in the commissar's ear that night. Add to this the way the whole town was seething with the story of "an officer spying on a bathing schoolgirl" . The commissar flew into a rage, and called an emergency meeting that night to restore the reputation of the local troops. Then, just like that, he ordered Cai Guoyin locked up.
That year Guoyin was thirty-two. He had been a soldier for sixteen years, been in battle for eight. He had rendered meritorious service. When the brigade had sorted out the causes of the situation, they locked him up for three days and then set him free. But on the afternoon of the next Saturday, he was outside the old headmaster's door again, asking, "What's going on then?"
"Have some water," said the old headmaster, "Have some water. I've talked to my wife, and she's going to introduce you to a girl from the cotton factory. She's of good character, good height. And as a woman she's quite …"
"Work," said Guoyin, "Talk about the work."
"My wife wants you to know the girl is willing to meet. Would you be able to find some time for a meeting?"
"Didn't you say you had to work? What is really going on? Tell me everything."
"Ah, well now … have some water. Please drink."
"Tell me about the 'work'."
The old headmaster forced a smile. "Captain Cai. Leave it now. She's already gone, left school."
The Captain was startled. "Left school?"
"Left school, yes."
"So she's not your responsibility anymore?"
"No. Not anymore."
"Okay, fine," said the Captain, and then turned to leave. After two steps, he looked back again.
"Tell me her home address."
The first time Captain Cai Guoyin came into Wuliang, he was driving a Jeep, and he had ten boxes of sweets in his hand.
When that green Jeep rode into Wuliang, all the women of the village stuck out their necks and jumped down from their stone rollers, sighing at each other, running to and fro, and repeating over and over: "A bigshot! A bigshot!"
Fifty-seven years later, I am not at all certain. Would he have come, if he had known what a complex village background Wu Yuhua had? If he had known he would become an old pomegranate with a curly beard?
But as if possessed, he held stubbornly to his will, and didn't listen to any advice. He parked his Jeep on the threshing floor and once again became the centre of attention, this time of the whole village.
It was the first time a Jeep had driven into Wuliang. The women stared in utter amazement at the "iron man" in green: first at the tracks of the Jeep's tires, which could carve out flowers on the ground; then at the car lights, which some said were bigger than a bull's balls. Then they looked at the man in uniform. They barely looked at the man himself, but rather at the national emblem on his cap, the one rank bar and three "kidney beans" on his shoulder, and the riding boots on his feet. Some said that those boots went thump, thump when he walked because they had springs in them. Then they noticed the ten boxes of sweets in his hand, and his strange Northeast accent with so many extra 'nnn's everywhere. All of it greatly excited the women of Wuliang. But what they didn't know was that the Jeep he rode was lent him by the county garrison (his old comrade-in-arms was head of the county armed forces), or that he got the boots on his feet when he headed south from the Northeast, as a gift from a drunken old Russian. They only knew a "bigshot" had come a-courting.
So a man ran like the wind to send the message.
And a great crowd of women swarmed around Old Cai (he soon got this nickname), and headed for Wu Yuhua's house.
But when he reached her front wall, he found that the courtyard and the house gates were both locked. Even with sweets in his hand, Cai Guoyin was once more left out in the cold.
Wuliang was the least xenophobic village in the world. Years back, when an old scruffy-haired needle vendor from out of the village visited, the women gathered round to offer him tea for an entire morning. That was to say nothing of their reaction when such an unusual figure appeared in their midst. Wuliang had never been short of enthusiastic souls. The yellow mud walls of Wu Yuhua's house were not high, and the women could scramble over each other's bottoms to get in. More than a dozen women climbed the walls and went to knock on the Wus' door. They took it in turns to bash on the door knocker and call out Wu Yuhua's childhood nickname. "Little Hua, open the door, it's your Aunt!" "Open up, it's me, Granny Ju'er!" and some called out her mother's pet name. "Huan, open up! Are you a star? Cos you're proud enough already!"