Li Lan began to deal with her personal effects, but what worried her most was Baldy Li — what would happen to him after she died? She worried that he would not come to a good end. If at fourteen he was already peeping at women's bottoms in the toilet, who knew what horrible things he would be into by the time he turned eighteen? She worried that he would end up in jail one day.
Li Lan decided to arrange everything as best she could for him before entering the hospital. Clutching their family registry to her chest, she had Baldy Li take her to the local Civil Affairs Bureau. As she entered she keenly felt herself marked as both a landlord's wife and a hoodlum's mother. She hung her head in shame as she tiptoed nervously into the office, asking, "Who's in charge of orphans?"
Baldy Li helped Li Lan into a room, where they saw a man in his thirties reading a newspaper at his desk. Baldy Li recognized him right away — this was the man who had helped lug Song Fanping's body back from the bus depot seven years earlier. Baldy Li pointed at him excitedly, exclaiming, "It's you! You're Tao Qing."
Li Lan yanked Baldy Li's sleeve, trying to curb her son's rudeness. She bowed deeply, inquiring obsequiously, "Would you happen to be Comrade Tao?"
Tao Qing nodded and put down his paper. He took a careful look at Baldy Li and seemed to remember him. Li Lan was standing at the door, not daring to step inside, and said with a trembling voice, "Comrade Tao, I have something to inquire."
Tao Qing smiled. "Please come inside."
Li Lan shifted uneasily. "My class background is not good."
Tao Qing continued smiling. "Come inside."
As he spoke he pulled a chair over and invited Li Lan to sit down. Li Lan fearfully stepped in but didn't dare to sit down. Tao Qing gestured at the chair. "Please sit down first."
Hesitantly Li Lan sat down. She respectfully handed Tao Qing her family registry. Pointing to Baldy Li, she explained, "This is my son. His name is in the registry."
Tao Qing flipped through the booklet. "I see that. How can I help you?"
Li Lan smiled bitterly and proceeded. "I have uremia, and my days are numbered. When I'm gone, my son will be left orphaned. Will he be able to receive any aid?"
Tao Qing stared at Li Lan in astonishment. He looked at Baldy Li and nodded. "Yes, he would. He'd qualify for eight yuan a month, plus twenty jin's worth of grain, oil, and cloth ration coupons every season. And he'd receive aid until he starts work."
Li Lan explained uneasily, "My class background is bad. I'm a landlord's wife…"
Tao Qing smiled and handed the registry back to Li Lan. "I understand your situation. Don't worry, just leave things to me. Your son can come look me up."
Li Lan finally let out a sigh of relief. Her happiness brought a bit of color to her cheeks. Tao Qing chuckled as he continued to look at Baldy Li, saying, "So you're Baldy Li. You're quite famous. What's the other one's name?"
Baldy Li knew that he was asking about Song Gang and was just about to answer when Li Lan stood up uneasily. She knew that when Tao Qing said Baldy Li was famous, he was referring to the Peeping Tom incident in the toilet, so she uttered a few quick words of thanks and immediately asked Baldy Li to help her out. Only after they had left the room and the Civil Affairs building did Li Lan feel she could pause and rest. Taking labored breaths, she sighed and said, "That Comrade Tao is a good man."
That was when Baldy Li told her that Tao Qing was the man who had brought Song Fanping's body back from the bus depot. When Li Lan heard this she immediately flushed bright red and, no longer needing Baldy Li's assistance, hurried back to Tao Qing's office, saying, "You are our savior. Let me kowtow to you."
Li Lan threw her body to the ground to kowtow, slamming her forehead to the ground and breaking into heartrending sobs. Startled, Tao Qing stood up and only gradually understood through Li Lan s barely coherent words why she was kneeling in front of him. He quickly reached out to raise her up, but Li Lan knelt down again to kowtow twice more. Tao Qing had to cajole her for a long time like a child before she would allow herself to be helped up. He helped her all the way to the front of the Civil Affairs building, and as they parted Tao Qing gave her a thumbs-up sign and said quietly, "Song Fanping— what a man."
Li Lan was so overcome she started trembling all over. After Tao Qing walked off, Li Lan was still wiping her tears and joyfully repeating to Baldy Li, "Did you hear that? Did you hear what Comrade Tao just said?"
After leaving the Civil Affairs Bureau, Li Lan proceeded to the coffin store. Her forehead still bleeding, she had to pause every few steps, and every time she stopped she couldn't help repeating Tao Qing's words, "Song Fanping — what a man."
With great pride she gestured in front of her and told Baldy Li, "Everyone in Liu Town thinks that about him. They just don't dare to say it out loud."
They slowly made their way to the coffin store. When they finally arrived, Li Lan sat on the front stoop, panting and wiping at the blood on her forehead. She smiled and announced to the people inside, "I'm here."
Everyone in the coffin store recognized her and asked, "Who are you buying a coffin for this time?"
Embarrassed, Li Lan replied, "For myself."
Initially startled, they all broke out laughing and said, "We've never had a living person buying a coffin for himself before."
Li Lan also smiled. "Yes, I've never heard of it either."
Pointing to Baldy Li, she continued, "My son is still young and wouldn't know what kind of coffin to get, so I thought that I'd reserve one and he can come pick it up later."
Everyone in the coffin store knew of the notorious Baldy Li. Cackling, they looked at him as he stood diffidently by the door, then remarked to Li Lan, "Well, he's not that young."
Li Lan lowered her head. She knew why they were cackling. Li Lan selected the cheapest coffin, one that cost only eight yuan. It was the same kind of unvarnished, thin-planked coffin that she had bought Song Fanping. Her hands trembling, she fished out her money wrapped in a handkerchief and paid them four yuan, with the remainder to be paid when the coffin was picked up.
After going to the Civil Affairs Bureau to take care of Baldy Li's orphan aid and then purchasing a coffin at the coffin store, Li Lan felt that the two biggest burdens she had been shouldering were now taken care of. She could check into the hospital the following day, but by her reckoning it was only six days until the Qingming holiday, when they would pay their respects to the dead. She shook her head, telling herself that on Qingming she wanted to go visit Song Fan-pings grave in the countryside, and then she would check into the hospital.
Li Lan slowly dragged her body, which felt increasingly like a deadweight, to Liu Towns bookstore. At the stationery counter she purchased a packet of white paper, then she slowly made her way home, resting repeatedly along the way. Sitting at the table, she started to make paper ingots and coins. On every Qingming festival since Song Fanping passed away, Li Lan had cut out a basketful of paper ingots and coins and then would set off on the long journey to the countryside to burn them at his grave.
By this point Li Lan was so ill she barely had any strength left. After each ingot, she had to rest for a while. Her hand trembled as she struggled to draw lines on the coins or write out the characters GOLD and SILVER on the ingots. It took her four whole days to finish what she ordinarily would have completed in an afternoon. She then placed the paper ingots in the basket and carefully rested the paper coins strung together with white thread on top of them. Smiling, she let out a long sigh, followed by some tears, sensing that this was probably the last time she would be able to visit Song Fanping's grave.