Chapter 15

The look on Zhao Wanwan's face changed with it.

Before she could take it in, two men with red cloth round their arms came out behind her and had hold of her.

The man who had taken the mushroom saw she was held and looked her up and down. "Talk. Who sent you here? Who's behind you?"

Zhao Wanwan had never faced anything like it. Her head was porridge. Everything she knew about this era was half-understood. Wasn't this a book? Why was it so real? Then, hearing the question, it came to her that she was only a child here, and the blame couldn't land on her.

"I, my dad. My dad's outside. He sent me in. I don't know anything about it, he told me what to do." It all came out in one breath.

Then she added where exactly Zhao Fangsong was waiting, and what he looked like.

The man signalled to one of his people and waited quietly.

When they brought Zhao Fangsong in he couldn't stand. His legs had gone and he was already crying.

The man looked at him and shook his head in distaste. He had hoped for somebody important, something to take back and get credit for. Still, a catch was a catch. He waved a hand and they started packing up.

Yue Chuan was at the brigade office in a meeting when the news reached him. He had been praised again at the commune, since Baijia Village had done well either side of New Year, and the pleasure of it hadn't worn off yet. He sent the ordinary members of the meeting away.

That left the brigade secretary and the women's director.

The brigade secretary was the senior man by generation. He had been a soldier and he carried some weight with people. Yue Chuan and the rest called him uncle. His name was Qin Shan and he was past fifty.

"Uncle Qin, what do we do? The commune wants me to bring a letter and collect them. They haven't said yet what the punishment will be." Yue Chuan finished and sighed.

Qin Shan had seen more of the world, though this was hard to call. "You follow whatever procedure there is. There's nothing else we can do." He drew on his cigarette and looked at the women's director.

"Sister Qiu, I'll have to trouble you to go over to the Zhao house and find out exactly what happened. Self-criticism where it's needed. Whether they get labelled bad elements is for the commune to say."

The women's director was Qiu Haiyue, a little older than Qin Shan. Her husband had died young and she had raised three children on her own, and her thinking was sound.

"Right, don't worry, secretary. I'll go now." Qiu Haiyue did things at a gallop. She was on her feet as she spoke. The Zhaos didn't look to her like a family who would go in for speculating. Nobody in that house had much character, but they were timid, and timid people don't cause much trouble. She wouldn't have expected this of them, and with Zhao Wanwan involved too. Wanwan was such a good child, hard-working and steady and capable.

Qin Shan nodded.

Qiu Haiyue left.

The meeting was over.

Qin Shan and Yue Chuan walked out behind her, Yue Chuan pushing his big black bicycle.

"I didn't say it in there. When you go over, put it well. If they can avoid being labelled bad elements, let them. The Zhaos have never done anything much wrong, and we're all one village. If they're labelled, the whole family, young and old, has no way to live." Qin Shan sighed over it. He couldn't think what had got into them.

Yue Chuan nodded, which was his agreement. Even without Qin Shan saying it he would have pushed for it. He was the brigade leader. Wasn't he supposed to stand up for his village?

He took the papers with him, got on the bicycle and rode to the commune.

The commune secretary was waiting for him in person.

One look and Yue Chuan knew this was serious.

"Secretary Liu, why are you here yourself? I've brought the papers, all of them, I promise you." He tried a smile to get past it.

Secretary Liu brought his hand down flat on the desk. "Yue Chuan, I'm not joking with you. Do you know how serious this is? One slip and it isn't only you, I'll be disciplined too."

The smile went off Yue Chuan's face.

"Secretary Liu, I've examined my own failings here. When I get back I'll push the message much harder on this."

Secretary Liu sighed. "Yue Chuan, it isn't that I want a go at you. The thing itself is wrong. It's a crime." Then he looked down and said no more.

That told Yue Chuan there was room in it. "Secretary Liu, Zhao Fangsong has always kept the law. Nobody in that family has any nerve. There'll be a reason behind this. And they're poor peasants."

Secretary Liu knew all that. The papers were in front of him.

"You've been lucky this time. The county has other things to watch just now. I explained it properly and handed the material in, and it's settled. But a wrong is a wrong and there's a penalty for it. Zhao Fangsong gets fifteen days' detention. His daughter you can take home now."

Yue Chuan said yes. As long as they weren't labelled, it would do.

"Thank you, Secretary Liu. I'll go and fetch her now."

Secretary Liu had no more patience for him and waved him out.

Yue Chuan rode a long way again to the county, handed in the papers and signed, and then they brought Zhao Wanwan out.

"Wanwan, come here. Uncle's taking you home." He took her hand, and when she wouldn't answer he thought the fright had stunned her. "Don't you worry about it. This is a grown-up's doing, not yours. Your dad will be held here fifteen days and then he can come home."

Zhao Wanwan nodded vaguely. What she was thinking was, why did it go so easily the first time and not this time? It worked for the heroine. Why not for her? Where was the fault in it? It must be that the heroine hadn't appeared yet, so there was no luck for her to take. So she would wait for the heroine to appear, and then make her disappear, and then she could be the heroine herself.

Yue Chuan saw the child still weighed down with something and sighed again, deeply. The grown-ups make a mess of it and the children pay. When he got back he really would have Auntie Qiu talk to that family.

Auntie Qiu was at the Zhao house already. When she had finished telling them, Yu Lili nearly went down, then came to herself and started crying.

Wang Fen was breathing in great gusts of temper. If anyone was to be arrested it should be Zhao Wanwan. It had nothing to do with her son.

"Auntie Qiu, I'm going to see the brigade leader. The whole idea was Zhao Wanwan's. It's got nothing to do with our Fangsong."

Qiu Haiyue frowned and pulled her back. "Comrade Wang Fen, what's the matter with you? The brigade leader has gone to the commune with the papers. And I have something to say to you. How can you push this onto a child? She isn't a boy, but that's no reason to do her an injustice." The whole village knew Wang Fen had gone mad wanting a grandson, and didn't count her three granddaughters as people at all.