The Explosion Chronicles (27 page)

“Squad Leader, there is no need to say anything … Toast!”

Several bottles of wine knocked together in midair, as the wine disappeared.

The soldiers drank again until they were even tipsier, and again several bottles knocked against one another. Holding the bottles in midair as if they were holding grenades to swear an oath, they said, “Commander, what do you need for us to do? Just say the word.” Kong Mingyao replied that there wasn’t anything he needed, and instead told them all to go back to their rooms and collect their medals of merit and certificates of commendation. He then told them to hang these certificates and medals on his chest, so that he could have some pictures taken. They therefore all went back to collect them. Shortly afterward, Kong Mingyao’s chest was adorned with ten third-level gold badges and four second-level ones, while in his hand he had a pile of red certificates as thick as a book. Standing on the military review platform, he took countless photographs. His fellow soldiers asked him what he wanted to do, to which he replied that half of the soldiers would be a red army and the other half would be a blue army, and they would both follow his instructions and undertake a practice battle.

Everyone drank another half bottle of
baijiu.
Then the soldiers deposited their beer and
baijiu
bottles in the forest, and when they reemerged they stood on either side of the sentry post, with Kong Mingyao in the middle holding different colored flags. When Mingyao raised the red flag, the red forces would advance and the blue ones would retreat, and when he raised the blue flag, the blue forces
would advance and the red ones would retreat. When he raised the yellow flag, soldiers from both sides would crawl forward on their arms and knees and hide in the grass. When he held the red and blue flags in front of his chest, the two armies would face off and begin fighting—punching and kicking one other. Those who fell gritted their teeth and continued crawling forward, while those who were injured grabbed clumps of earth and placed them on their wounds, and then resumed the fight. They continued fighting until Mingyao finally lifted the yellow flag. At this point, both armies finally called off the fighting and all the soldiers returned to the pile of bottles in the middle of the forest, wiping the blood from their faces and shaking the dirt from their bodies. One said, “Squad Leader, your commands are even more professional than the captain’s.” Another said, “Squad Leader, if you never become a hero or a general in this lifetime, it will truly be a pity and a waste of your talent.” After they praised him and drank the remaining wine, the call to assemble sounded. As they were about to hurry back to base, they saw that Kong Mingliang was still sitting under a tree as though he had not heard the call.

Everyone paused and looked at him.

“Squad Leader, we will do as you say. If you tell us to go back, we will go; but if you tell us to stay here, we will stay.”

“And if you are reprimanded because you don’t return to the base?” Mingyao asked.

“That is fine,” they replied.

“And if they give you demerits?”

“That is fine too,” they replied.

“And if they kick you out of the army?”

“That is fine as well!” they replied.

Kong Mingyao broke off some tree branches and used them to cover up that pile of empty bottles. Then he quickly organized more than a dozen soldiers by height, and after they formed a line he
shouted, “Attention! … At ease! … Turn left! … Run! …” Then, he and the entire squadron ran in the opposite direction from the base.

They headed toward an isolated point on the moat surrounding the local market town, to a bridge from which people would frequently jump to their deaths.

III.

On that particular day, Mingyao and his squadron, all covered in sweat, ran from their barracks to the moat’s northern bridge. There, the railing on the old bridge had broken and part of the town wall had collapsed, with the remainder resembling a mouth missing half of its teeth. After a few days of rain, the grass growing from the crevices in the town wall would cover the entire wall. The river was several meters deep and was so full of plants that it resembled the smoke emerging from the town’s chimneys. People from the town rarely came here, and consequently this was the best place in the entire province to commit suicide. Also, since no one erected any office buildings or residential buildings here, this became the best place to either commit suicide or rescue someone attempting to do so.

At around two in the afternoon—after Mingyao brought his squadron over, but before his soldiers had time to stop and wipe the sweat from their brows—they saw a young woman with disheveled hair standing on the bridge. She had a distressed expression, as though trying to decide whether to live or to die. Just as Mingyao and the others arrived, the woman jumped into the water. The soldiers shouted, “Squad Leader, come quick! Squad Leader, come quick!” Mingyao immediately began unbuttoning his clothes and taking off his shoes. The soldiers exclaimed, “There isn’t enough time… . If you get undressed, you’ll be too late!” Therefore, Kong Mingyao simply kicked off his shoes as he ran, then leaped in the same direction as
the woman had jumped. With a beautiful swan dive, he entered the river cleanly, like a fish.

Several other soldiers quickly followed him into the water.

In short order, the woman was rescued.

It turned out that the woman had tried to kill herself over a broken heart. As the crowd of onlookers grew, the woman’s parents and boyfriend rushed over and thanked Kong Mingyao and his squad. The soldiers politely excused themselves and departed without even leaving their names.

When the weather turned colder, the army began the process of helping older soldiers retire. Thousands of people traveled from the provincial seat into the army barracks. They were beating drums and waving flags, and each of them was carrying a letter of recognition or commendation. When they arrived at the entrance to the barracks, they raised their fists and shouted, “Let’s learn from Comrade Kong Mingyao! … Let’s learn from Comrade Kong Mingyao!” It turned out that over a period of several months, Kong Mingyao had anonymously rescued a total of seventeen people—an average of four people every month, though there was one month when he rescued no fewer than seven people from the stone bridge of the old river. Some of the people he rescued were trying to commit suicide on account of a broken heart, while others had gone bankrupt and wanted to use their death to repay their debts. There was even a mother who had taken her child to play on the bridge, but then accidentally pushed the child into the water—but no sooner had she called for help than Kong Mingyao dived into the water to rescue the child. There were also three people who wanted to kill themselves by lying across train tracks, but just as the train was approaching Kong Mingyao happened to be passing by and, heedless of his own safety, proceeded to rescue them. Not only were those young people granted a new life, the train was able to arrive
on time at its destination, thereby allowing it to meet its Reform Construction goals.

Although Kong Mingyao would never leave his name after rescuing someone, all those he rescued ended up with him engraved in their memory and searched frantically for this mysterious hero. Eventually, one day, as he was saving a college student who was trying to kill herself because she couldn’t afford to pay her tuition, his army ID card fell out of his pocket and onto the riverbank. In this way, everyone finally learned that his name was Kong Mingyao, that he had been in the army for most of his life, and that he was an enlisted soldier in the eastern provincial infantry battalion. One weekend thousands of ordinary citizens and people who had been rescued all marched up to his barracks and demanded that he be issued a commendation for exemplary service.

In the blink of an eye, the news spread through the entire barracks. The company, battalion, and regiment commanders hurried to the entrance of the barracks to receive letters of commendation from the people assembled outside. They used two enormous cardboard boxes to collect those gifts and letters of commendation. That evening, when the people’s calls on behalf of the formerly anonymous hero Kong Mingyao finally subsided, the provincial governor called up the barracks to say that he wanted to erect a bronze statue of Kong Mingyao at the same bridge where Mingyao rescued seven people from drowning in a single month—which would serve to encourage everyone to learn from Mingyao’s heroic actions, but also to warn others not to take their own lives. The lesson was that those people happened to jump when there was a hero nearby, but what would have occurred if no one had been there to rescue them? Before the governor had even finished his call, the general, from his own phone in front of his war map, had already called the office of Kong Mingyao’s division commander.

“A true hero!” the general exclaimed. “If we were still in wartime, then Kong Mingyao would have been promoted to general at an even younger age than I was.”

The division commander then called up the regiment commander’s office and said, “Call upon the entire regiment to learn from Kong Mingyao. Also, please immediately send me a copy of the announcement of his receipt of a first-class commendation.”

The regiment commander immediately drove to Kong Mingyao’s former barracks, where he summoned Mingyao’s battalion and company commanders, then proceeded to smash a teacup on the floor and exclaimed, “Such an extraordinary individual was sitting under your eyes, and you didn’t even realize it. If an enemy spy had infiltrated the barracks, would you have noticed?”

That night, the company commander once again summoned Kong Mingyao to his room. It was after the call for lights out, and the other soldiers, who had spent the day in a state of feverish excitement, had already gone to sleep. Kong Mingyao had responded to so many greetings and congratulations that his lips were numb.

Following the company commander into his dormitory, Kong Mingyao noticed that the dormitory had changed from when he last saw it a few months earlier. For instance, as soon as he walked in, the map on the wall began making a grinding sound of paper being cut, as countless strips of confetti rained down. In the blink of an eye, the map became a paper-cut image celebrating Explosion’s pursuit of prosperity, while statistical records relating to the military company’s training also became celebratory announcements that the regiment and the division were about to release. The bedding folded neatly on the cot no longer resembled old bricks from the blockhouse or the town wall but rather now resembled a modestly sized garden where countless plants and flowers were growing. There was a smiling, naked woman standing among the
flowers. She waved at Kong Mingyao, then mumbled something he couldn’t quite make out.

Mingyao stood there in the middle of the room.

“This has become a big deal,” said the company commander, who was standing next to him. “Maybe they’ll give you a special commendation and promote you directly from being an enlisted soldier to an officer.”

Mingyao smiled.

“My prophecy has come to pass… . As long as you are willing, you should be promoted to company commander in a few days’ time,” the company commander said with some embarrassment.

Mingyao pulled over a chair and sat down. He let the commander make him a cup of tea and drank it as the commander himself remained standing in front of him, until finally he also took a seat. That evening, Mingyao told the commander many things, to which the commander repeatedly nodded in agreement. They talked from ten at night until four the next morning, and when Mingyao was about to leave he showed the commander the photograph he was holding. As the commander looked at the photograph, the room’s table legs, chair legs, washbasin stand, and rifle stand all started sprouting flowering vines, and the entire room began to resemble a chaotic greenhouse. The flowers’ scent was so strong that for a long time the commander felt he could barely breathe.

2. A HERO’S RETURN

After accepting the special commendation certificate from the higher-ups, Mingyao withdrew from the army and returned home. This was the dead of winter and the barracks were covered in snow, but on that particular day the trees, the walls, and the training field were covered in red, yellow, and purple blossoms. The flags posted
on either side of the road cast a gentle light against the cold sky and the snowy ground, so that every soldier who passed by felt as though he were walking through a spring day. The general had wanted to go in person to the barracks to award Mingyao that certificate of commendation adorned with a bright military flag, five stars, and the national emblem. He also wanted to organize a parade, where he would read the directive from Beijing instructing the soldiers to all learn from Mingyao and follow his example, at which point the cold barracks would be thrown into a fit of fiery excitement. In the parade, Mingyao and the general stood side by side on the observation stand, as one squad after another marched in front of them, like so many embers blowing past. From those squads, they heard thunderous chants that were so loud that the snow fell from the roofs and branches, and the birds were so frightened that their feathers fell off. But after the parade, as the general and Mingyao were speaking to each other in private, Mingyao disappointed the general.

The general said, “You have brought glory to our army. What would you like now?”

Mingyao considered for a moment, then said, “I want to withdraw from the army.”

The general looked at him in surprise and said, “What are you talking about? It has already been decided that you will be promoted.”

Mingyao gazed at the general, as though trying to decide whether or not this was true. Once he decided that the general must be lying, he laughed and said. “I really do want to return home. I want to return and earn some money, because I have discovered that with money, you can accomplish anything.” The general was surprised and gazed regretfully at this underling who was obsessed with fame but was nevertheless not very bright. The general paced back and forth, then paused in front of Mingyao and asked,