‘It's not medicine, it's chocolate,’ I corrected her, displaying some of the knowledge I'd acquired while scavenging with Mother. ‘Eat it. It's nutritious and it's packed with calories. All the athletes eat it.’
The look of approval on Lao Lan's face filled me with pride. But I knew a lot more than that. Scavenging is life's encyclopedia. Picking up junk and sorting it into categories is the same as reading a book of facts. The older I got, the more I grew to appreciate the wealth of knowledge I'd acquired during those years; they constituted my elementary, middle and high school, and yielded endless benefits.
Jiaojiao refused to eat another bite of chocolate, so Lao Lan returned to the cabinet and brought out a tray of hazelnuts, almonds, pistachios and walnuts, which he set down on a tea table by the sofa. Then he knelt in front of us, picked up a small hammer and cracked open a walnut and a hazelnut, carefully scooping out the meat and laying it in front of my sister.
‘You'll spoil them, Village Head,’ complained Mother.
‘Yang Yuzhen,’ Lao Lan said, ignoring her comment, ‘you're a lucky woman.’
‘Lucky?’ Mother remarked. ‘You can't be lucky with a face like a monkey.’
Lao Lan looked at Mother. ‘Anyone who can denigrate herself,’ he said with a smile, ‘deserves my respect.’
‘Village Head,’ Mother said, blushing, ‘this has been a wonderful New Year's for my family, thanks to you, and we're here to deliver our holiday greetings. Xiaotong, Jiaojiao, get down on your knees and kowtow to his honour.’
‘No, no, no…’ Lao Lan jumped to his feet, waving his large hands. ‘Yang Yuzhen, only you could think of such an elaborate courtesy, one I hardly deserve. Have you taken a good look at the children you're bringing up?’ He bent to pat us on the head. ‘You have a true Golden Boy and Jade Girl here. Nothing can stop them from enjoying a wonderful future. As for us, no matter how hard we struggle, we'll always be loaches at the bottom of a ditch. Not a dragon among us. But them, they're different. I may not know my horses but I do know my people.’ He reached out, cupped our chins and looked closely into our faces. He then glanced up at our parents: ‘I want you to take a good look at these remarkable faces. I guarantee that these two will make you proud.’
‘They don't deserve such a compliment, Village Head,’ Mother demurred. ‘They're only a couple of children who hardly understand a thing.’
‘Village Head,’ Father added, ‘dragons beget dragons, and phoenixes beget their kind. With a dieh like me—’
‘That's no way to talk!’ Lao Lan interrupted. ‘Lao Luo, we peasants have muddled along for decades, until even we have no respect for ourselves. Ten years ago, I walked into a restaurant in town and didn't know how to order a single thing off the menu. The waiter, an impatient man, tapped the edge of the table with his ballpoint pen and said, “What do you peasants know about ordering food? Here's my recommendation: order a meat and vegetable stew. It's cheap and it's filling.” “Stew?” I said. “You mean leftovers you toss in the pot and heat up?” One of of my companions urged me to obey but I refused. “What do you think we are, a bunch of pigs, only good for eating other people's trash?” Whether or not he liked it, I wanted some specialities of the house, so I ordered a “Green Dragon Lying in Snow” and “Fried Pork with Celery Sprouts”. But when they arrived from the kitchen, Green Dragon Lying in Snow was nothing but a cucumber in a bed of sugar sprinkles. So I complained to the waiter. He simply rolled his eyes and said, “That's Green Dragon Lying in Snow,” and then turned to leave, but not before I heard him swear: “Hick turtles!” That made me so mad that smoke nearly came out of my ears, but I swallowed my anger. I also made a vow that, before too long, this country turtle would control the lives of those city tortoises!’
Lao Lan took two Zhonghua cigarettes from his tin case, tossed one to Father and lit the other for himself, striking a dignified pose with each puff.
‘Back in those days…’ Father stammered in his attempts to stay in the conversation, ‘…that's the way things were…’
‘So, you see, Lao Luo,’ Lao Lan said sombrely, ‘it's important to go out and make money. In times like these, a man with money is the patriarch—a man without it is a grandchild. With it, you stand straight and tall—without it, you have no backbone. Being the head of this little village doesn't mean a thing to me. Have you checked out the Lan clan lineage? With those who got official titles, even the lowest was at least a circuit intendant. I'm not content with what we once were. I want to lead people onto a path to riches. Not only that, I want to make this a rich village. We already have paved roads and streetlights and we've repaired the bridge. Next, we need to build a school, a pre-school and a retirement home. Of course, I have personal reasons for wanting a school, but it's more than that. I'm committed to restoring the Lan manor to its original grandeur and then opening it to the public as a tourist attraction, the proceeds all going to the village, of course. Lao Luo, a long friendship has existed between our families. Your grandfather, a beggar who stood outside our gate cursing all day long, became one of my grandfather's best friends. When my third uncle and his family fled to the Nationalist area during the Civil War, it was your grandfather who took them in his wagon. That's an act of friendship we Lans will not dare forget. So, my good brother, there's no reason for you and me not to join forces and do important things. I have big plans and the confidence to see them through!’ Lao Lan paused for another puff: ‘Lao Luo, I know you disapprove of how the butchers inject water into animal carcasses. But you need to look beyond our village. Where will you find another village in the county, in the province, in the whole country, where water isn't injected into the meat? If everyone else does it but we don't, we'll not only fail to earn a living but also wind up in the red. If no one else did it, we wouldn't either, of course. We live in an age that scholars characterize as that of the primitive accumulation of capital. Just what does that mean? Simply that people will make money by any means necessary, and that everyone's money is tainted by the blood of others. Once this phase has passed, moral behaviour will again be in fashion. But during times of immoral behaviour, if we persist in being moral we might as well starve to death. Lao Luo, there's much more to discuss, so you and I will sit down one day and have a good long talk. Oh, what's wrong with me! I forgot to pour tea. You'll have some, won't you?’