VILLAGERS WHO HAD gone to town to sell straw sandals announced upon their return: ‘Gaomi hasbeen occupied by the Japanese. There’s a Rising Sun at the entrance!’
The panic-stricken villagers could only wait for the calamity1 they knew was coming. But notall of them suffered from racing2 hearts and crawling flesh: two among them went about theirbusiness totally unconcerned, never varying their routine. Who were they? One was Old Geng,the other a onetime musician who loved to sing Peking opera – Pocky Cheng.
‘What are you afraid of?’ Pocky Cheng asked everyone he met. ‘We’re still common folk, nomatter who’s in charge. We don’t refuse to give the government its grain, and we always pay ourtaxes. We lie down when we’re told, and we kneel when they order us. So who’d dare punish us?
Who, I ask you?’
His advice calmed many of the people, who began sleeping, eating, and working again. But itdidn’t take long for the evil wind of Japanese savagery3 to blow their way: they fed human heartsto police dogs; they raped4 sixty-year-old women; they hung rows of human heads from electricpoles in town. Even with the unflappable examples of Pocky Cheng and Old Geng, rumours5 ofbrutality were hard for the people to put aside, especially in their dreams.
Pocky Cheng walked around happy all the time. News that the Japanese were on their way tosack the village created a glut6 in dogshit in and around the village. Apparently7 the farmers whonormally fought over it had grown lazy, for now it lay there waiting for him to come and claim it.
He, too, walked out of the village as the roosters were crowing for the third time, running intoOld Geng with his shotgun slung8 over his back. They greeted each other and parted ways. By thetime the eastern sky had turned red, the pile of dogshit in Pocky Cheng’s basket was like a littlemountain peak. He laid it down, stood on the southern edge of the village wall, and breathed inthe cool, sweet morning air, until his throat itched9. He cleared it loudly, then raised his voice tothe rosy10 morning clouds and began to sing: ‘I am a thirsty grainstalk drinking up the morningdew –’
A shot rang out.
His battered11, wingless felt hat sailed into the air. Tucking in his neck, he jumped into the ditchbeneath the wall like a shot, bumping his head with a resounding12 thud against the frozen ground.
Not sure if he was dead or alive, he tried moving his arms and legs. They were working, butbarely. His crotch was all sticky. Fear raced through his heart. I’ve been hit, he thought. He satup and stuck his hand down his pants. With his heart in his mouth, he pulled out his hand,expecting it to be all red. But it was covered with something yellow, and his nostrils13 twitchedfrom the odour of rotten seedlings14. He tried to rub the stuff off on the side of the ditch, but itstuck to his skin. He heard a shout from beyond the ditch: ‘Stand up!’
He looked up to see a man in his thirties with a flat, chiselled15 face, yellow skin, and a long,jutting chin. He was wearing a chestnut16-coloured wool cap and brandishing17 a black pistol! Aforest of yellow-clad legs was aligned18 behind him, the calves19 wrapped in wide, crisscrossed clothleggings. His eyes travelled slowly upward past protruding20 hips21, stopping at dozens of alienfaces, all adorned22 with the smug smile of a man taking a comfortable shit. A Rising Sun flagdrooped under the bright-red sunrise; onion-green rays glinted off a line of bayonets. PockyCheng’s stomach lurched, and his nervous guts23 relinquished24 their contents.
‘Get up here!’ Chestnut Wool Cap barked out angrily.
Pocky Cheng climbed out of the ditch. Not knowing what to say, he just bowed repeatedly.
Chestnut Wool Cap was twitching25 right under his nose. ‘Are there Nationalist troops in thevillage?’ he asked.
Pocky Cheng looked at him blankly.
A Japanese soldier waved a bloodstained bayonet in front of Pocky Cheng’s chest and face. Heheard his stomach growl26 and felt his intestines27 writhe28 and twist slowly; at any other moment, hewould have welcomed the intensely pleasant sensation of a bowel29 movement. The Japanesesoldier shouted something and swung the bayonet, slicing Pocky Cheng’s padded jacket downthe middle and freeing the cotton wadding inside. The sharp pain of parted skin and slicedmuscles leaped from his rib30 cage. He doubled over, all the foul31 liquids in his body seeming topour out at once.
He looked imploringly32 into the enraged33 Japanese face and began to wail34.
Chestnut Wool Cap drove the barrel of his pistol into his forehead. ‘Stop blubbering! Thecommander asked you a question! What village is this? Is it Saltwater Gap?’
He nodded, trying hard to control his sobs35.
‘Is there a man in the village who makes straw sandals?’ Chestnut Wool Cap softened36 his tonea little.
Ignoring his pain, he eagerly and ingratiatingly replied, ‘Yes yes yes.’
‘Did he take his straw sandals to market day in Gaomi yesterday?’
‘Yes yes yes,’ he jabbered37. Warm blood had slithered down from his chest to his belly38.
‘How about pickles40?’
‘I don’t know?.?.?. don’t think so.?.?.?.’
Chestnut Wool Cap slapped him across the mouth and shouted: ‘Tell me! I want to know aboutpickles!’
‘Yes yes yes, your honour,’ he muttered obsequiously41. ‘Commander, every family has pickles,you can find them in every pickle39 vat42 in the village.’
‘Stop acting43 like a fucking idiot. I want to know if there’s somebody called Pickles!’ ChestnutWool Cap slapped him across the face, over and over.
‘Yes?.?.?. no?.?.?. yes?.?.?. no?.?.?. Your honour?.?.?. don’t hit me . . . Please don’t hit me?.?.?. yourhonour?.?.?.’ he mumbled44, reeling from the slaps.
The Japanese said something. Chestnut Wool Cap swept the hat off his head and bowed, thenturned back, the smile on his face gone in an instant. He shoved Pocky Cheng and said with ascowl, ‘We want to see all the sandal makers45 in the village. You lead the way.’
Concerned about the dung basket he’d left on the wall, Pocky Cheng instinctively46 cocked hishead in that direction. A bayonet that shone like snow flashed past his cheek. Quickly concludingthat his life was worth more than a dung basket and spade, he turned his head back and set out forthe village on his bandy legs. Dozens of Japs fell in behind him, their leather boots crunchingacross the frost-covered grass. A few grey dogs barked tentatively.
I’m really in a fix this time, Pocky Cheng was thinking. No one else went out to collectdogshit, no one but me, and I ran into some real dogshit luck. The fact that the Japanese didn’tappreciate his good-citizen attitude frustrated47 him. He led them quickly to each of the sandalmakers’ cellars. Whoever Pickle was, he was sure in one now. Pocky Cheng looked off into thedistance towards his house, where green smoke curled into the sky from the solitary48 kitchenchimney. It was the most intense longing49 for home he’d ever known. As soon as he was finishedhe’d go there, change into clean pants, and have his wife rub some lime into the bayonet woundon his chest. The great woodwind player of Northeast Gaomi Township had never been in such amess. Oh, how he longed for his lovely wife, who had grumbled50 about his pocked face at first,but, resigned at last, had decided51 that if you marry a chicken you share the coop; marry a dog andyou share the kennel52.
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1
calamity
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| n.灾害，祸患，不幸事件 | |
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racing
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| n.竞赛，赛马；adj.竞赛用的，赛马用的 | |
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savagery
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| n.野性 | |
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raped
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| v.以暴力夺取，强夺( rape的过去式和过去分词 )；强奸 | |
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rumours
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| n.传闻( rumour的名词复数 )；风闻；谣言；谣传 | |
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glut
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| n.存货过多，供过于求；v.狼吞虎咽 | |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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slung
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| 抛( sling的过去式和过去分词 )； 吊挂； 遣送； 押往 | |
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itched
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| v.发痒( itch的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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rosy
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| adj.美好的，乐观的，玫瑰色的 | |
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battered
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| adj.磨损的；v.连续猛击；磨损 | |
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resounding
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| adj. 响亮的 | |
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nostrils
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| 鼻孔( nostril的名词复数 ) | |
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seedlings
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| n.刚出芽的幼苗( seedling的名词复数 ) | |
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chiselled
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| adj.凿过的，凿光的； （文章等）精心雕琢的v.凿，雕，镌( chisel的过去式 ) | |
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chestnut
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| n.栗树，栗子 | |
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brandishing
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| v.挥舞( brandish的现在分词 )；炫耀 | |
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aligned
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| adj.对齐的，均衡的 | |
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calves
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| n.(calf的复数)笨拙的男子，腓；腿肚子( calf的名词复数 )；牛犊；腓；小腿肚v.生小牛( calve的第三人称单数 )；（冰川）崩解；生（小牛等），产（犊）；使（冰川）崩解 | |
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protruding
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| v.（使某物）伸出，（使某物）突出( protrude的现在分词 )；凸 | |
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hips
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| abbr.high impact polystyrene 高冲击强度聚苯乙烯，耐冲性聚苯乙烯n.臀部( hip的名词复数 )；[建筑学]屋脊；臀围（尺寸）；臀部…的 | |
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adorned
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| [计]被修饰的 | |
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guts
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| v.狼吞虎咽，贪婪地吃，飞碟游戏（比赛双方每组5人，相距15码，互相掷接飞碟）；毁坏（建筑物等）的内部( gut的第三人称单数 )；取出…的内脏n.勇气( gut的名词复数 )；内脏；消化道的下段；肠 | |
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relinquished
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| 交出，让给( relinquish的过去式和过去分词 )； 放弃 | |
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twitching
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| n.颤搐 | |
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growl
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| v.（狗等）嗥叫，（炮等）轰鸣；n.嗥叫，轰鸣 | |
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intestines
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| n.肠( intestine的名词复数 ) | |
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writhe
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| vt.挣扎，痛苦地扭曲；vi.扭曲，翻腾，受苦；n.翻腾，苦恼 | |
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bowel
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| n.肠(尤指人肠)；内部，深处 | |
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rib
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| n.肋骨，肋状物 | |
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foul
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| adj.污秽的；邪恶的；v.弄脏；妨害；犯规；n.犯规 | |
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imploringly
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| adv. 恳求地, 哀求地 | |
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enraged
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| 使暴怒( enrage的过去式和过去分词 )； 歜； 激愤 | |
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wail
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| vt./vi.大声哀号，恸哭；呼啸，尖啸 | |
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sobs
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| 啜泣（声），呜咽（声）( sob的名词复数 ) | |
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softened
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| （使）变软( soften的过去式和过去分词 )； 缓解打击； 缓和； 安慰 | |
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jabbered
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| v.急切而含混不清地说( jabber的过去式和过去分词 )；急促兴奋地说话 | |
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belly
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| n.肚子，腹部；(像肚子一样)鼓起的部分，膛 | |
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pickle
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| n.腌汁，泡菜；v.腌，泡 | |
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pickles
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| n.腌菜( pickle的名词复数 )；处于困境；遇到麻烦；菜酱 | |
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obsequiously
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vat
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| n.(=value added tax)增值税，大桶 | |
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acting
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| n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的 | |
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mumbled
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| 含糊地说某事，叽咕，咕哝( mumble的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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makers
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| n.制造者，制造商（maker的复数形式） | |
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instinctively
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| adv.本能地 | |
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47
frustrated
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| adj.挫败的，失意的，泄气的v.使不成功( frustrate的过去式和过去分词 )；挫败；使受挫折；令人沮丧 | |
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48
solitary
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| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
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49
longing
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| n.（for）渴望 | |
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50
grumbled
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| 抱怨( grumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 发牢骚； 咕哝； 发哼声 | |
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51
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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52
kennel
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| n.狗舍，狗窝 | |
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