Free The Explosion Chronicles by Yan Lianke Page B

concrete. There was a fresh smell of cement in the air. When the sun was directly overhead, the town’s cadres either stood in the sun or sat on their cotton shoes, staring intently at the mayor’s face and watching his mouth open and close as he spoke. He said,
    “Tell me, who here is Zhu Ying’s equal? Does anyone know? When Zhu Ying first arrived in Guangzhou, she was merely an assistant in a hair salon, but now she has opened an amusement park in the provincial capital, which is large enough to accommodate nine hundred men and women bathing at the same time. Every day she earns enough money to buy several sedans or even build a small house!
    “How can we not erect a stele for her?” the mayor asked. “Not only did she help her family build a new house, she also helped the families of a hundred other young women construct new tile-roofed houses and other buildings.” He added, “She not only helped the families of these young women construct new tile-roofed houses and buildings, she also helped provide Liu Gully and Zhang Peak with electricity, running water, and a paved road. Where did all this money come from? It was donated by Zhu Ying and the other women! It was all donated from the money earned by these hundred-odd young women working for Zhu Ying.
    “There is also something else.” The mayor paused, gazing down at the cadres, then he cleared his throat and said, “Zhu Ying said that next spring she is going to repave the cement road leading from the town to the village. She is going to convert the dirt road into a national-standard paved road. Do you know how much it will cost to repave this road?”
    The mayor shouted, “It will cost millions!”
    He added, “As mayor, I have no way of rewarding Zhu Ying other than to erect this stele in her honor.”
    Accordingly, an enormous stone stele as big as a wall was erected, and everyone in attendance saw the basket-size characters inscribed on its front:
    TO GET RICH, LEARN FROM EXPLOSION
    TAKE ZHU YING AS A MODEL
    His listeners began applauding the erection of the stele, applauding so hard that their palms were soon covered in blood.
    4. KONG DONGDE AND HIS SONS
    I.
    As everyone was appealing for spring to return, the paulownia tree sprouted its pink blossoms and the apricot tree sprouted its jade-white blossoms. When spring finally did in fact arrive, Kong Dongde saw that all of the graves in the village square were covered in winter jasmine—but while at this time of year they normally would be bursting into green and sprouting flowers, these particular plants were neither green nor flowering. The willows along the river and next to the well were also no longer producing new growth. There was no lingering winter chill, and each day was warmer than the last, as people removed their padded clothing. Once you passed the Qingming holiday and began approaching the fifth solar term, spring should have started to arrive. But this year, even though it was already the beginning of the third lunar month, the spring greenery was still not willing to emerge.
    One morning, Kong Dongde thought about the spring, then took a couple of mynah birds he had raised and hung their cage from the willow tree next to Zhu Qingfang’s grave in the middle of the village square. Then, like city residents who go to the parks in the morning to do their daily exercises, he proceeded to exercise in the open area in the square in front of the graves. He didn’t really want to exercise, but it was just that the preceding few years had convinced him that life was good, and he had now entered a period of calm and refinement. During the first half of Kong Dongde’s life Zhu Qingfang had always forced him to crouch in submission; now Kong Dongde was smiling happily while Zhu Qingfang was buried six feet under.
    So, every day after getting up, Kong Dongde would take those two mynah birds and hang their cage in front of Zhu Qingfang’s grave, and then he would exercise right there in the