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

they would have beaten her back into the fire.
    LIAO: What a lawless mob.
    ZHANG: What are you talking about?
    LIAO: I'm talking about the people who killed your wife.
    ZHANG: They did it because they were afraid of leprosy. They had no other choice. The fire lasted for over two hours. No matter how emaciated the person is, it takes that long to melt a human body.
    LIAO: Were you sad? Did you cry?
    ZHANG: No. Some villagers told me that they saw the tail of the evil dragon coiling around the flames.
    LIAO: Do you believe what they said?
    ZHANG: Yes, I do. After Xu Meiying's death, I continued to use the quilt she had made. One night I had a nightmare in which a snake as thick and round as a big rice bowl wrapped itself around my body. I couldn't breathe. So I raised my berry hoe and kept hacking at it until my arms were sore and there was blood all over. When I woke up, I found myself on the floor. I had fallen out of the bed. It was so spooky. I didn't dare go back to sleep. The next day I dragged the quilt out into the field and set fire to it. Guess what? The flames shot up as if it were soaked in oil. It smelled like burned flesh. The dragon must have been hiding in there. After the quilt was burned, I buried the ashes. Since then, my house has been ghost-free.
    LIAO: Did you collect your wife's remains and bury her?
    ZHANG: Xu Meiying's elder brother collected her bones and buried them near the White Sand Hill. But that was not the end of the ceremony. I had to host a banquet to thank the villagers who had helped.
    LIAO: They burned your wife and you had to feed them as a gesture of gratitude. Didn't you find that ridiculous?
    ZHANG: What they had done was for my own good. I had no complaints against them for eating my food. I couldn't shortchange them. I wanted everyone at the banquet to eat until their stomachs could no longer take any food. As long as they were happy, I was happy. I gave them the food and they did the cooking. The village chief led a couple of guys into my house, took a pig from the pen, and slaughtered it. They also grabbed the dried meat that was hanging under the eaves. They put a pot on top of the stove and began to boil the meat, even before the smoke from my wife's body was gone. They made a huge pot of rice. It was quite festive. Soon it was dark. Villagers, with torches lit, carried big rice bowls and gathered near my house, waiting for the banquet to begin. There were about thirty households in the village. Each family sent its breadwinner to the banquet. I ended up spending all my savings, and it was still not enough—I had to borrow some more. I didn't have enough rice to feed that many people. The village chief pitched in. He said I could pay him back after the fall harvest.
    LIAO: Burning a live person to death is a violation of the law. Did you report it to the police?
    ZHANG: Why? They were helping me out.
    LIAO: You still believe that?
    ZHANG: Yes. Everyone in the village thinks that too.
    LIAO: Things have changed a lot in other parts of China. I don't see any changes here.
    ZHANG: Oh, there are quite a lot of changes here. They built a road some years ago and now it's been widened. People are allowed to do business. Everyone is busy making money. I raise pigs, dogs, and chickens. I'm too old to farm so I leased my land to other people. My current wife and I don't need a lot. So we're OK.
    LIAO: How long have you been with your new wife?
    ZHANG: About five years. She used to live on the other side of the mountain. None of her children wanted to take care of her. Someone brought her over to me for companionship.
    LIAO: Does she know about Xu Meiying?
    ZHANG: She's never asked and I'm not going to tell her. I don't think she wants to hear it. For years I haven't been able to talk with anyone in the region. Now that she is here, I have someone to talk with.
    LIAO: Do you still think about Xu Meiying?
    ZHANG: Oh, well . . . I have to blame the evil dragon. Not long after she was gone, her