Chapter 120

Deng Hanyu dropped us off in Chunshan County and bowed with deep apologies, saying he had to attend the town's corporate New Year gathering and couldn't be absent.

After Deng Hanyu became mayor of Chengguan Town, there was an unwritten rule that all enterprises in the town, regardless of size, had to gather at the town government on the fifth day of the Lunar New Year for a group greeting.

After doing this for two years, the county-run enterprises located in Chengguan Town also had to participate. This year was the fourth year, and it had become a grand affair. This gathering had several layers of meaning: first, the town party committee and government leaders would express their regards to the enterprises and ask about the difficulties in their development; next, each enterprise had to submit a development report on the day of the gathering, which Deng Hanyu called a "determination letter"; the final agenda was to decide which village's dragon lantern team would be allowed to enter the town after the tenth day, which enterprises should open their doors to welcome them, and which could keep their doors closed and ignore them. It was even detailed down to how much of a red envelope each village's dragon lantern team would receive.

I had heard of this rule a few years ago. Unfortunately, our Suxi Township, although it had the largest dragon lantern team, was too far away, and getting a red envelope from the enterprises under Deng Hanyu's command was almost harder than ascending to heaven.

Everyone knew that Suxi Township's dragon lantern team didn't go to the county seat. In Chunshan County's twenty-four townships, each township had one or two dragon lantern teams that went to the county seat for the New Year celebrations. That added up to thirty or forty teams. Large teams had three to five hundred people, and small ones had a hundred or so, beating gongs and drums, performing plays, holding dragon and fish lanterns, and dancing with silk dragons, moving in a grand and winding procession.

Passing by a house, every family would burn incense and candles, set off firecrackers, and open their doors. Those holding the dragon and fish lanterns, performing plays, or carrying colorful flags would slowly pass by the doorway. Those dancing with the silk dragon would inevitably enter the host's main hall, circle the Eight Immortals table placed in the middle of the room, turn back to have the dragon head scoop up water, kowtow three times, and then leave amidst the sound of firecrackers and gongs.

If the host was hospitable, they would place candies, pastries, and the most common rural snack, fried rice, outside the door, along with several large buckets of rice wine mixed with water. If the dragon lantern team members were thirsty, they would take a large bowl, scoop up a ladleful, and gulp it down, instantly washing away their fatigue. This was called the "road-blocking cup."

The family that set up the "road-blocking cup" must have had a happy event, such as a student passing a high-level exam or a flourishing family business. If a family had an elderly person pass away before the New Year, the dragon lantern team would lower their flags and drums and pass by quietly.

As for the scale of the dragon lantern team, Suxi Township was truly the first in Chunshan County. Originally, it started as one team for the whole township, with a hundred people from each village. Suxi Township had ten administrative villages. Excluding the Yao village, which was far away and had a different way of celebrating the Yao New Year, each team had at least a thousand people. Adding the children and old men who came to watch the fun, the team was often over two thousand people, almost the entire township turning out. After a few years, the dragon lantern team split up, but the largest team was still the one formed by Laoyingzui Village and Yuetang Village.

Suxi Township's dragon lantern team didn't go to the county seat, but they had to go to the Suxi Township government. Every year after the tenth, the large square in front of the township government would be packed with people, and every village with a dragon lantern team would swarm there like a pilgrimage.

In those years, Secretary Liu Quan would bring the township cadres who were at home, holding red envelopes in their hands, smiling from ear to ear, and encouraging the silk dragon to dance. As long as the firecrackers didn't stop, the dragon dancers didn't dare stop. As a result, the shouting, firecrackers, and cheering would rise one after another, making it very lively. Usually, Liu Quan would take the initiative to stop setting off firecrackers, which was called "admitting defeat" in New Year dragon dancing. If the host ran out of firecrackers, they couldn't blame the dragon dancers, so they would joke around and happily lead the team away.

Enough digression, back to the main story.

Deng Hanyu drove away, leaving a pile of gifts scattered at our feet. Checking the time, I knew Sun Demao's minibus wouldn't come for another two hours, so I took out my phone and called Huang Qishan.

Huang Qishan hemmed and hawed for a long time, saying he couldn't get away, and then said he would send a secretary from his office to bring me to his office to rest, so I wouldn't have to stand outside and let the cold wind ruin my health.

I declined his kindness! With so many things, if I went to the county government office building, people would think I was giving gifts to leaders in broad daylight.

Actually, when I called Huang Qishan, my underlying intention was to find out if Huang Weiwei had already arrived. Chunshan County was a place you could walk across in the time it took to take a leak; Huang Qishan's excuse for not being able to get away didn't exist, especially since work hadn't officially started and leaders wouldn't be looking for him for anything. The only explanation was that Huang Weiwei had already arrived.

Xue Bing stretched her neck to look down the road; I could fully understand her eagerness to go home. I comforted her, "Old Sun's car will be here soon, just wait a bit."

Xue Bing smiled faintly, smoothed her hair blown by the wind, wrapped her arms tightly, and her eyes still involuntarily glanced at the cars on the road.

Chunshan County had a parking lot where buses from all townships in the county stopped. The place where we stood was the only way for the bus from Suxi Township to pass, and Suxi Township only had one minibus, belonging to Sun Demao's family, which was bought at Zhu Shizhen's urging.

A week after Sun Demao's family started running the bus, the County Transportation Bureau sent a few road administration officers to stop their bus, saying it didn't have a route license and was an illegal operation, and that they had to pay a fine. Sun Demao's father ran to the county himself and lay down at the gate of the county government, refusing to leave and demanding to see the county magistrate. Liu Qimeng had no choice but to call Guo Wei and me to go and try to invite the old man back, but we were scolded by him. He said that when Suxi Township was building the road, his son Sun Demao was the first to contribute a hundred thousand yuan in sponsorship. Now that the road was built, his family bought a bus to make things convenient for the fellow villagers, so why were they impounding the car and fining them? Did the Communist Party like to burn bridges after crossing them?

The old man wouldn't come back, and the bus couldn't run. The villagers, who had just enjoyed the opportunity to go to the county seat and back in one day, suddenly lost it, and rumors started to spread. They said the new secretary was young and inexperienced, and couldn't get things done. A perfectly good thing had turned sour in his hands, so they started missing the days when Liu Quan was secretary, saying that although there were no cars or roads back then, going to the county seat was like going to take an exam, but at least having a car wouldn't make people feel like their necks were being strangled and they couldn't breathe.

Guo Wei got anxious and dragged me to find Guan Peishan. We got a word from Guan Peishan saying that Suxi Township needed support, which solved the problem of getting the route license for free, and there was no fine.

Two hours passed, and we still didn't see Old Sun's car. I started to get anxious too. Standing in the wind for two hours, my whole body was freezing cold, and even my "little brother" was shrinking into the withered grass, not daring to show itself at all.

Just then, a rented tricycle came by, and the driver, shrinking his head, asked us lecherously where we were going.

If we took the drafty tricycle back to Suxi, we would both freeze into icicles. I thought about it and decided not to return to Suxi Township, but to stay in the county seat for one night. When I told Xue Bing this idea, she happened to be so cold that her nose was red, so she helplessly followed my plan. We took the gifts onto the tricycle and went to the county reception house to open a room.

Because of the New Year, the reception house didn't have all its staff on duty; there was no hot water, and not even the air conditioning's heat was working. We went to a small restaurant on the street, ate a bowl of hot and spicy rice noodles, returned to the reception house, and fell asleep as soon as we hit the bed.

Just as I closed my eyes, Huang Weiwei's call came in, asking if I had returned to Suxi Township.

I said, "No car to go back, staying at the reception house."

She sounded very surprised on the other end, paused, and asked, "Which reception house?"

I said, "Chunshan County only has this one reception house; all other places for people to stay have been renamed as hotels."

Huang Weiwei laughed and reminded me, "Now that you're in the county, aren't you going to pay New Year visits to the secretary and the county magistrate?"

I said, "I want to go back to the township first and come back to pay visits in a couple of days."

Huang Weiwei said, "There are rules for New Year visits; you can't wait until the New Year is over to pay them."

I didn't speak, looking at Xue Bing, who was holding my body and pretending to sleep beside me, and tucked the quilt in for her.

"I'm in Chunshan," she said. "Huang Qishan is here with me, and Guo Wei will be coming later too."

I said "Oh," not wanting to talk.

"Aren't you coming over to sit with us?" she asked, sounding a bit impatient.

I said, "No, you guys sit. I want to rest; I've been in the car all day and I'm exhausted."

Huang Weiwei's voice rose, and she said, "I drove here myself! You're the only one who's tired? If I had known you were such a deadbeat, I wouldn't have come to Chunshan. You think I enjoy looking at other people's faces?"

I smiled and said, "Whose face are you looking at?"

Huang Weiwei suddenly lowered her voice and said to me, "Tonight you're coming with me to pay a New Year visit to Secretary Guan's house. Let me tell you, it's my mother's idea. You figure it out yourself."

I nodded submissively. I couldn't figure it out for a long time. Chen Yazhi wanted Huang Weiwei to pay a visit, so why drag me into it? Secretary Guan and County Magistrate Liu lived in the same compound; should I go to the secretary's house first or the county magistrate's?

"I'm also at the reception house, on the fourth floor." She hung up. I stared at the receiver, unable to speak for a long time.

Xue Bing mumbled, "Who was that?"

I patted her back and said, "County cadres, Secretary Huang and the others, they invited me to go drinking tonight."

Xue Bing said lazily, "Come back early." She closed her eyes again and slowly drifted into a dream.