Frog

What’s done is done, the Party secretary said as he turned to my in-laws. We’ll go back to decide the compensation you two deserve. But Dr Wan did nothing wrong. It just happened, a result of your daughter’s unique physical constitution. Even going to the hospital would not have changed the outcome. In addition — the secretary raised his voice for the benefit of the people crowding into the yard and emerging from the lane — family planning is a national policy that cannot be changed because of an unfortunate accident. Women with illegal pregnancies should volunteer to have the pregnancies terminated. Anyone who is considering an illegal pregnancy or planning to circumvent family-planning policy will be severely punished.

It’s your turn! my mother-in-law shrieked as she took a pair of scissors from her pocket and stabbed my aunt in the thigh.

Gugu pressed her hand against the wound to staunch the blood that seeped out between her fingers.

Commune cadres rushed up, pinned my mother-in-law to the ground, and wrenched the scissors out of her hand.

Little Lion crouched down beside Gugu, opened her medical kit and took out a bandage, which she wrapped around Gugu’s leg.

Get on the phone, the Party secretary shouted, and send for an ambulance.

There’s no need for that, Gugu said. Renmei’s mother, I gave your daughter 600 ccs of my blood. Now our blood debt is paid in full.

Gugu’s movements caused the blood to flow more freely than ever.

How could you, old woman! the enraged Party secretary said. You’ll pay for it if anything happens to Chairwoman Wan.

The sight of all that blood must have frightened my mother-in-law. Once again she beat the ground and howled.

This is nothing to worry about, Renmei’s mother, Gugu said. Even if I get tetanus and die, you’re not responsible. I want to thank you for stabbing me. I can now cast off my burden and strengthen my beliefs — she turned to face the people drawn to the commotion and announced — Please pass the word to Chen Bi and Wang Dan to come to the health centre and ask for me. If they don’t — she waved her bloodstained hand in the air — even if she hid in an underground tomb, I’ll go dig her up!

Book Three

~ ~ ~

Dear Sugitani Akihito sensei,

It’s New Year’s day, January first. It has been snowing since yesterday evening. The world outside my window is blanketed by white, and children are already out there playing boisterously. A pair of magpies is calling in the poplar tree in front of my house, chittering like they’d been pleasantly surprised.

My heart was heavy after reading your response, knowing that my letter had caused you to lose sleep and suffer physically. Your expression of sympathy has touched me deeply. You cried when you read the part where Renmei died; writing it had the same effect on me. I did not blame Gugu, she did nothing wrong. Even though she’s expressed remorse more frequently in recent years, saying she had blood on her hands, that’s history, and history is all about effects, not what caused them. One gazes upon China’s Great Wall or the Egyptian pyramids without a thought to the blanched bones buried beneath these magnificent edifices. Over the past two decades China has resolved the problem of its population explosion by draconian measures, not only for the sake of the country’s development, but as a contribution to humanity. When all is said and done, we live together on this tiny planet, with its finite resources. Once they’re gone, they’re not coming back, and seen from this perspective, Westerners’ critiques of China’s family-planning policies are unfair.