Old Town (20 page)

He had heard the news that Old Town had been bombed. He didn’t know whether his family was dead or alive, but he continued to send letters to Second Sister. Even if only one out of a hundred letters reached her, it would be worth the effort. Day in and day out, he sat in the lonely medical aid station writing letters, telling his beloved Second Sister of his indecision about leaving.
Maybe God has not bestowed upon me the grace to “govern the state and bring peace to the earth.” I ought to pay attention to my own moral growth, guard my own home, and just be a good husband and father
. Occasionally he would insert a cartoon in his letter, a sketch of Old Town and the three children that he missed so much. He would draw a scene of his return to the old Lin residence: Baoqing, raising his little head and gazing at his returning father with unknowing eyes, “Uncle, who are you?”
²⁰
The Baoqing in this cartoon was how he remembered the child from three years ago.

Commander Hu then took a fourth wife and threw a big wedding banquet. Theatrical troupes performed for three whole days and three nights. Young Li came running over, excitedly called the doctor to watch the performances, but the doctor burst out in a fury and slammed the table, shouting, “And you
still
feel like seeing plays!” Young Li had never seen the doctor so angry, and just stood there, afraid to move. He felt so unfairly treated he wanted to cry. The doctor came forward, sat him down, and apologized. “Young Li, you know our Old Town has been bombed. Even Old Town is no longer peaceful and tranquil. With the world war as grim as it is, to hold a wedding banquet for a concubine is a real sin! And if we joined in all the revelry, that would be a sin too. Lately, all I’ve been thinking about is whether or not to go home.” Young Li’s eyes brightened, and he said, “Then let’s go home! I’ll go with you! I know the road leading to Anhui. And it would be easiest for us to get away during these two days.” The doctor rested his head in his hands and muttered, “Let me think about this.”

Young Li knew that when confronting such a heavy decision, the doctor needed to calm his heart and pray, so he quietly withdrew from the room. He had just reached the street corner when he saw the town’s mute carrying a blood-soaked body on his shoulders. The fellow rushed toward him, crying for Dr. Lin in his strange
yi-yi ya-ya
voice. In the few villages near division headquarters everyone knew that the doctor surnamed Lin was a Living Buddha, someone who worked miraculous cures and would always help anyone in need. Young Li turned right around and rushed back to the medical aid station to assist Dr. Lin with the bloody person the mute had picked up on the road. It was a young woman who was hemorrhaging from a miscarriage. When he had finished treating her, the doctor recognized her as Second Wife’s serving maid, a girl only sixteen years old. It was all too obvious. This was surely the evil doings of Commander Hu. Second Wife had taken a red-hot steel needle, stabbed the girl in the stomach to kill the fetus, and then had driven her out of the house. Because of the shortage of medicine, in the end the doctor could not save her.

What more reason was needed for going? With finality, the doctor addressed Jesus:
Oh Lord, if you agree with my going, then open the road for me. If not, then let the sentries shoot me dead.

That evening, with lustrous stars filling the whole sky, the doctor and Young Li walked out of the camp, their hearts at ease. Along their way, they passed any number of sentries, but not one of those fellows blocked their path.

2.

D
URING THE
W
AR
of Resistance, China was a cake cut into pieces. Some of these had fallen into Japanese hands. Others were the “red bases” of the Communist Party and areas still under the Nationalist government. Still others were the roosts of collaborationist “Han traitors” and local bandits. The doctor’s road home would pass through all the pieces of this cake. He had to become like a chameleon, so that only by constantly shifting his protective coloring would he not recklessly court death. But the doctor had barely the slightest inkling of the dangers that might possibly befall him. During these years in the army, he had been cut off from the larger events of the world. If anything, he now sought all the more refuge in his books.

The pair of deserters made good time on foot for about ten miles. It would now soon be daybreak. Off in the distance in the rays of the pale morning light could be seen a little town still deep in slumber. Young Li joyfully stripped off his uniform and flung the pieces high in the air. “So long, Commander Hu!” he shouted.

The doctor sat down right where he was, his thoughts flying back to Old Town. Now should be the season when litchis were brought to the markets. He squinted and faintly caught the clean scent of this fruit. He saw Ah Shui bringing his fresh litchis. Second Sister was loading the fruit into a wooden bucket, and the children were jostling each other as they picked out the biggest ones, peeling them, and plopping them into their daddy’s mouth.
Oh, can such beautiful times have only been a dream?

Young Li pushed and shoved the doctor. But the doctor didn’t want to open his eyes. “Right now I’m eating litchis! My little girl has peeled a big, sweet one. It tastes so nice!”

Young Li had no mind for dwelling on the litchis of home with the doctor. “We’ve got to think of a way to get hold of two sets of ordinary folks’ clothing. Otherwise, if people see we are deserters, we’ll get caught and turned in.”

Although they had thrown away their barracks caps and rank insignia along the way, all it would take was one look to tell they were soldiers.

They followed little paths between the fields and entered a tiny village where twenty dwellings clustered, each one poorer than the last. In the whole village, there wasn’t one extra set of clothing. Two brothers sharing one pair of trousers was nothing remarkable here. The doctor almost forgot the reason they had entered this hamlet. It was as if he were an envoy dispatched to help the needy and the distressed here. He gave a little money to each of the families so that the old people and the children who were sick could see a doctor. After staying for two days, Young Li borrowed some tattered rags and went into the market town and bought two sets of old clothes.

They discarded everything that people might associate with the army. Among these was the leather bag that Division Commander Zhang had left behind. When Young Li turned the bag upside down and gave it a few good smacks, the lining came loose and out fell several pieces of gold bullion the size of rubber erasers that schoolchildren used. The two men just gaped.

Division Commander Zhang had said he had a few gold pieces, but the doctor hadn’t taken this seriously and when they left that war-ravaged town, he gave the little widow an amount of money, the equivalent of two months’ pay. Had he discovered this gold at the time, he would have given the entire lot to her. Now they were sitting on the brick
kang
of some yokel’s home. The gleam of the gold pieces lying on the grimy cotton batten was very captivating to the eye. Young Li said, “Mr. Lin, Division Commander Zhang was very fond of you, so these should go to you.” The doctor shook his head, “They should go to the little widow. Division Commander Zhang certainly had this in mind at that time.”

“Let’s just take them now and when the war ends, we’ll both come back up north to find her,” said Young Li, and he bound the gold pieces into his waistband.

One of the locals wordlessly led them out of the village. In his hand was a vegetable leaf of some kind and when they arrived at the road, he said to the doctor, “Sir, you’re so fair and clean looking, it’s going to make people suspicious. Women in the cities and towns rub the juice of this leaf on their faces to avoid bad things happening to them.”

Young Li said, “Quite right, and if anyone asks, just say you’re my older brother, and I am taking you to a doctor.”

The doctor lowered his head in submission and let the fellow apply this makeup on his face.

Half a month later, they had meandered to Wuhu.
²¹
They didn’t go into the city, for on the way there they had flagged down a long-distance bus headed for Nanjing.
²²
Exhausted by the journey and unshaven for days, the doctor really did look like a person at death’s door from some terrible sickness. On the Wuhu-Nanjing road, the bus encountered three different bandit gangs, but they lost only the bit of money specially prepared for such occurrences. Each time, Young Li wept and wailed that this was the money he needed to save his brother’s life. Afterward, all in all, he couldn’t help feeling secretly pleased at such a brilliant performance.

When they saw Nanjing’s ash-gray city walls, the most difficult and dangerous part of the journey had been completed. Now that they were in Nanjing, Shanghai wasn’t too far away. And from Shanghai’s Sixteen Wharf Landing they would board a ship, and that would be about the same as putting one foot on the threshold of the Old Town gate. Then, going home to eat litchis would no longer be just a dream! The doctor, much affected by these thoughts, gripped Young Li’s hand. Young Li felt the doctor’s hand trembling and softy asked him, “Sir, are you really sick?” The doctor’s eyes reddened, and in a choking voice, he replied, “We’re almost home.”

Young Li absentmindedly looked out the bus window. Under the city gate, the scene was all in tumult, like a farmers’ market. He could faintly make out women’s high-pitched cries and shouts, and from all sides speeding vehicles were getting bogged down and jammed up along the side of the road. Their bus also slowed down. He had a presentiment of something bad about to happen, but he didn’t dare tell the doctor.

Their battered and travel-worn bus came to a stop. The doctor and Young Li followed along in the flow of people to the city gate. Many people were holding aloft small cards that had faded yellow. Young Li asked a man beside him what these were. The man was astonished that these two fellows didn’t know about “Loyal Citizen” identity cards and said in a lowered voice, “Get out of here fast! Even people with cards are searched and questioned. Without cards you’ll be taken for communists from up north of the river.” Young Li had no time to relate this to the doctor for Japanese soldiers with rifles locked and loaded were already standing in front of them. He quickly made a show of searching through his pockets for the document, turning not only his own pockets inside out, but also the doctor’s. He shook open their bundle from which fell two pieces of old clothing and several dried buns. Then, smacking his chest and stamping his feet, he cried out, “The cards are gone! Someone’s stolen them!”

Young Li reached the very acme of the acting profession with this performance but it couldn’t change reality. They were pulled out of line by the Japanese and thrust into the clump of people who had been searched and were considered suspicious. All around was face after fear-contorted face. The women were crying loudly. The men were heaving deep sighs and groans. The doctor finally realized that he was facing the worst calamity of all. Most probably here and now outside the city of Nanjing he would “meet his Waterloo.” Suddenly, he very much did not want to die and a strong will to survive that he had never before felt roused within him. He closed his eyes and prayed.
Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus, I beseech you to help your child to pass through this danger and let him return home for just one look at Second Sister
.

Several Japanese soldiers escorted the twenty or thirty “suspect elements” to the outskirts of the city. Young Li and the doctor dropped to the very back. A Japanese soldier holding a rifle was walking beside them. As they were making their way through a grove of trees, Young Li suddenly held up three gold pieces in both his hands in front of the soldier. The soldier took one of them and weighed it in his hand. His eyebrows gave a jump and immediately he grabbed the other two pieces.
A deal!
Greatly excited, Young Li dodged behind a tree, dragging the doctor with him.

The doctor hadn’t seen the transaction carried out between Young Li and the Japanese soldier. He thought that the soldiers would chase after them and mow them down with a volley of fire. The sounds of footsteps grew fainter and fainter and then disappeared. There were only a few birds singing a monotonous tune in the loneliness of this forest. Young Li kept shoving the doctor. “Sir, we’re safe and sound now!” The doctor gazed at him in a kind of a stupor. “Why did the Japanese let us go?”

“Division Commander Zhang’s gold bullion saved us!
Aiyah!
I’m so stupid, giving him three pieces. Actually, one would have been enough to do the deal!” When the doctor finally figured the whole thing out, he wept tears of gratitude.
This clearly was God’s miracle. He deigned to hear my cry of desperation and fulfilled my wish to survive
.

The fright they experienced below the city gate shattered their dream of returning home to Old Town. They had just now cried for joy over their narrow escape, but now they fell right back into pessimism and despair. There was no way into Nanjing, and originally they had planned to take the train from there to Shanghai. But this road was totally blocked. What other road could they take to go south?

From their experiences during the earlier part of their journey, they knew they would have to go into the countryside again. It was safe for them only in those areas of sparse population. Just as in the backcountry of Anhui where they had sought assistance from peasants and country folk, the rural districts here would minimize the dangers they were in. They decided first to find a peasant’s home to stay in, and then make a move as soon as they could. It was now a windy, moonless night. There were a few weakly flickering lights way off in the distance and they thought these must be a village. After walking for about five miles, they heard the sound of water slapping against a riverbank. The glow they had seen came from fishing lights on a river. By this time, the two men had neither eaten nor drunk anything for more than a day, and each felt so hungry it was as if the skin of his belly was stuck to his backbone. Young Li just sat down on the ground and declared, “I can’t take a step more.” Daybreak was almost on them and, once again, moving about recklessly held many disadvantages and few advantages for them. The doctor distractedly walked toward the river’s edge and, standing on the levee, saw fish breaking the surface of the water from time to time. He felt a real envy.
If we could become fish, we could just follow the water downstream all the way to Old Town
.

A small boat anchored next to the riverbank bobbed and swayed on the waves. The doctor was standing less than ten steps away from it. On the boat, a fisherman was just then building a fire and the doctor moved forward to greet him, “Good morning to you, countryman.”

Startled, the fisherman scrutinized this outlander. The doctor asked him where he lived and whether business was good. The fisherman answered these questions with an ambiguous shake of the head.

Hearing voices, Young Li ran up the side of the levee and, smelling the fragrance of the fish soup, straightway made mewing sounds like a cat begging to be fed. The fisherman beckoned them to come on board. Young Li took the doctor by the hand and waded in the waist-deep water to clamber aboard the boat. That pan of mushy, under-seasoned, and overcooked fish broth was as good as old Zhu Yuanzhang’s soup of pearls and jadeite.
²³
The taste of it was something the doctor would never forget as long as he lived.

The fisherman never asked his guests where they had come from or where they were going. As the two deserters sat under the boat’s shelter discussing new plans in the light of changing circumstances, they discovered that the boat had lifted anchor and was speeding toward the middle of the river. Young Li shouted, “Uncle, we don’t know how to swim!” The fisherman worked the scull and said with a smile that curled the sides of his mouth, “Could see that!”

“So may we trouble you to take us back on land in a bit?”

“You looking to die there? The Japanese kill people just like you.”

Young Li and the doctor glanced at each other, wondering what kind of people the fisherman supposed they were. The man had not asked anything about his visitors, but was quite willing to tell them all about himself. He had been born and raised on the little fishing boat. After his parents died, he had led this lonely and solitary life. Young Li had been calling him “Uncle” at every point, only to later find out that this fisherman—with a face filled with all the twists and turns of life and whom he had taken to be fifty or sixty years old—had been on this earth only a bit more than thirty years.