Frog

The worst that can happen is for Wang Renmei to have the child and you give up your career to come home and tend your field. What’s wrong with that? In twenty years, your son will rise high in the world, and you’ll live the enviable, comfortable life of a gentleman farmer. Isn’t that something to look forward to?

I wouldn’t be so upset if she’d told me beforehand, I said, but how am I supposed to swallow this sort of deceit?

No matter what you say, Xiaopao, the child in Wang Renmei’s belly is yours, and whether it lives or dies is up to you.

You’re right there, it is up to me, and I want to remind you that all walls have holes. You need to be careful.

I took the sleeping child from Yuan Sai’s wife and started walking out. As I was saying goodbye to her, she said softly, Let her have the baby, good brother. I’ll help you find a secret place to do it.

A Jeep was parked outside Yuan Sai’s gate. A pair of policemen got out and stormed through the gate. Sesame Twist tried to stop them, but they pushed her out of the way and swooped into the house. Smacking sounds and Yuan Sai’s screams emerged, followed a few minutes later by Yuan Sai himself, handcuffed and wearing his shoes with the backs stepped on, in the custody of the police.

Why are you arresting me? he protested, his head cocked to look at one of his escorts. What did I do?

Knock it off, the policeman ordered. Why are we arresting you? You know better than anybody.

Xiaopao, you have to get me out. I haven’t broken any laws!

A heavy-set woman stepped out of the car.

Gugu!

She removed her hospital mask and said coldly, Come see me at the health centre tomorrow.

8

Let her have the baby, Gugu, I said sadly. I no longer want my Party membership or my commission…

She banged the table with her hand, sending water splashing over the sides of the glass in front of me.

What a misfit you are, Xiaopao! This isn’t just about you. For three years the commune has not had a single case of exceeding the birth quota. Are you going to be the one to ruin our record?

But she’s tried to kill herself more than once, I said with difficulty. What if she goes through with it?

With a cold look, she said, You know local policy where that’s concerned? Don’t hide the bottle if they want to take poison, give them a rope if they want to hang themselves.

That’s cruel!

You think that’s what we want? You don’t need cruelty in the army, and you don’t need it in the cities; you especially don’t need it in foreign countries — all foreign women want is to enjoy themselves. They don’t have children in response to government encouragement, not even if they’re rewarded for having them. But this is rural China and we’re dealing with peasants. We can reason with them, we can talk about policy, we can wear out shoe leather and talk ourselves hoarse, and will they listen to us? No. So what do we do? We have no choice but to control population growth, carry out national policy, and meet our superiors’ goals. So what do we do? Those of us involved with family planning are reviled during the day and are the targets of missiles when we’re out walking at night — even five-year-old children jab our legs with awls. Gugu rolled up a pant leg to show me a large purple scab. See that? A cross-eyed little bastard in Dongfeng Village did that to me a few days ago. You haven’t forgotten what happened with Zhang Quan’s wife, have you? — I shook my head, recalling the incident in the surging river a decade or more before — she jumped into the river and we pulled her out, but Zhang Quan and his fellow villagers insisted that we pushed Geng Xiulian into the river, where she drowned. They wrote a letter, signing it in blood, that went all the way to the State Council, and in the end we were forced to sacrifice Huang Qiuya.