Free The Corpse Walker: Real Life Stories: China From the Bottom Up by Liao Yiwu Page A

soon as she opened the window, I heard a loud scream. I ran in and found her collapsed on the floor. Her eyes were closed and she couldn't say anything. Suddenly she jumped up, screaming like a devil, saying that her head was killing her. Then she lost her eyesight. She also became deaf.
    I was terrified and took her to see many local doctors. I spent all of our savings. I forced her to drink every kind of herb that the doctor had prescribed, but she kept getting worse. Nobody knew what had caused her illness. I almost went crazy. News about her illness started to spread all over the village. The stories became more and more dramatic and weird. Everyone in the village began to believe that my wife's illness was an act of retribution for my killing of two Ma snakes. They said I had upset the dragon, and that it had used its magic power against my family as revenge.
    I invited the local Taoist monk to set up an exorcism. But the spirit of the dragon was too powerful for him. Then someone introduced me to a blind fortune-teller. He asked me to take him around the house. He sniffed here and there and then left without a word. I never heard from him again. I could tell that Xu Meiying wouldn't be able to live long. I went to talk with her older brother, and then he discussed her illness with the village chief. They both insisted that my wife was suffering a relapse of leprosy. Some older folks in the village even told me that her mother had died of leprosy.
    LIAO: I didn't think leprosy was hereditary. Is it?
    ZHANG: How would I know? I had no idea what to do. I was running around like a chicken with its head cut off. When Xu Meiying's elder brother showed up, he wouldn't come into the house. He called me outside, and I saw he'd gathered quite a group of people there, including the village chief. Her brother told me that they had come up with a solution that would be good for me. Then, like a school of fish, the village people came to shake my hand, one after another. They all said the same thing: This will be good for you in the long term.
    LIAO: What were they talking about?
    ZHANG: I had no clue. As a relocated son-in-law, I really didn't have much say in village affairs. If I had tried to argue with them, they would have drowned me with their spit.
    Anyway, the next morning the whole village showed up. They called me outside and asked me to stand apart and not to move. They took the door off, placed Xu Meiying on the door, and carried her away. Her brother told her that they were going to take her to a hospital. She was too weak to respond. He yelled at everyone to step aside, and they carried her out of the courtyard and down to the foot of the mountain. According to tradition, every household in the village contributed a bundle of wood until they formed a big pile. They tied Xu Meiying to the door with ropes and then put her and the door on top of the pile. Someone poured kerosene, making sure the wood was fully soaked. Then they lit the fire.
    LIAO: Did you do anything to stop them?
    ZHANG: Several guys held me back. All I could see was a plume of black smoke shooting up into the sky until it blocked the sun. Then the flames got really strong. I didn't want to look, but curiosity got the best of me. I craned my neck and stood on my toes. All I could see was a wall of fire. Xu Meiying's body was like a piece of skin that began to curl up. Its color kept getting darker and darker.
    LIAO: I can't believe they set her on fire while she was still alive. Didn't she react?
    ZHANG: She was blind and deaf. She hadn't eaten for days and she was probably already in a coma. Even if she had been awake, it would have been only seconds before she died. The flames were so strong that I could feel the heat from several feet away. The pile collapsed and her body sank into the fire. Then all the young guys threw their wooden sticks into the fire.
    LIAO: What wooden sticks?
    ZHANG: In case Xu Meiying tried to jump up and run away. If she had,