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    <s id="1:1">Later I saw Chen Qingyang again.</s>
    <s id="1:2">We registered for a room at a hotel, went in together, and then I helped her take off her coat.</s>
    <s id="1:3">Chen Qingyang said, Wang Er has become civilized.</s>
    <s id="1:4">It meant I had changed a lot.</s>
    <s id="1:5">In the old days, I did not just look ferocious, but also acted ferociously.</s>
    <s id="1:6">Chen Qingyang and I committed the crime one more time in the hotel.</s>
    <s id="1:7">The room was well heated, and the windows were glazed with tea-colored panes.</s>
    <s id="1:8">I sat on the sofa, and she sat in the bed.</s>
    <s id="1:9">We chatted for a while, and then the criminal atmosphere began to build.</s>
    <s id="1:10">I said, Didn't you want me to see how they sag now?</s>
    <s id="1:11">Let me take a look!</s>
    <s id="1:12">So she got to her feet and took off her sweater—she had on a flowery shirt underneath.</s>
    <s id="1:13">Then she sat back and said, It's still early.</s>
    <s id="1:14">After a while, the attendant brought us boiling water.</s>
    <s id="1:15">They had keys, so they just came in without even knocking on the door.</s>
    <s id="1:16">I asked, What would the attendant say if he came in right in the middle of things?</s>
    <s id="1:17">She said she had never gotten caught in the act, but she had heard that the attendant would slam the door shut and curse, Motherfuckers!</s>
    <s id="1:18">Disgusting!</s>
    <s id="1:19">Before Chen Qingyang and I escaped into the mountains, I cooked pig feed for a while.</s>
    <s id="1:20">At the time I had to tend the fire, chop the pig feed (the so-called pig feed consisted of things like sweet potato vine and water hyacinth), and add chaff and water to the wok all by myself.</s>
    <s id="1:21">As I bustled around doing several things at once, the military deputy stood beside me, talking his head off.</s>
    <s id="1:22">He went on nagging about how bad I was, and how bad Chen Qingyang was, even asking me to pass the message to my "stinking whore" Chen Qingyang.</s>
    <s id="1:23">All of a sudden, I flew into a fury.</s>
    <s id="1:24">I grabbed a machete and slashed at a bottle gourd used for storing pumpkin seeds that hung on the beam, cutting it in half.</s>
    <s id="1:25">Frightened, the military deputy leaped out of the room.</s>
    <s id="1:26">If he had kept scolding, I would have cut his head off.</s>
    <s id="1:27">I appeared especially ferocious, because I didn't speak.</s>
    <s id="1:28">Later, in the public security office, I didn't talk much either, even when they were tying me up.</s>
    <s id="1:29">So my hands often turned dark blue.</s>
    <s id="1:30">Chen Qingyang talked all the time.</s>
    <s id="1:31">She would say something like this: Big sister, it hurts! or, Big sister, can you tuck a handkerchief under the rope?</s>
    <s id="1:32">There is a handkerchief holding my hair.</s>
    <s id="1:33">She cooperated at every point, which was why she suffered much less than I did.</s>
    <s id="1:34">We were different in every way.</s>
    <s id="1:35">Chen Qingyang said that back then I wasn't very civilized.</s>
    <s id="1:36">When we went back to the public security office, people untied us.</s>
    <s id="1:37">The rope left lines of smudge on her shirt, which was because the rope was stored in a kitchen shed and picked up ash from the bottom of woks and bits of firewood.</s>
    <s id="1:38">She tried to flick the ashes off with her stiff fingers, but could only do the front, not the back.</s>
    <s id="1:39">By the time she wanted to ask me to help her, I had already strode out of the room.</s>
    <s id="1:40">She followed out the door, but I had gone pretty far.</s>
    <s id="1:41">I walked very fast, never looking back.</s>
    <s id="1:42">Because of these things, she didn't love me at all; she didn't even like me.</s>
    <s id="1:43">According to the leaders, what we did on the back slope was not considered a primary offense—except the time that she looked like a koala bear.</s>
    <s id="1:44">For example, the thing we did while cultivating the wilderness was just a secondary offense.</s>
    <s id="1:45">So I didn't finish my confession.</s>
    <s id="1:46">There was actually something more.</s>
    <s id="1:47">A hot wind blew really hard at the time and Chen Qingyang slept soundly with her arms under her head.</s>
    <s id="1:48">I unbuttoned all the buttons on her shirt so she was half naked.</s>
    <s id="1:49">It looked like she had done it herself.</s>
    <s id="1:50">The sky was so blue and bright that you could even see blue light in the shadows.</s>
    <s id="1:51">All of a sudden, I felt tenderness in my heart, so I bent over her reddened body.</s>
    <s id="1:52">I'd forgotten what I did then.</s>
    <s id="1:53">When I mentioned this to Chen Qingyang, I thought she'd have forgotten.</s>
    <s id="1:54">But she said, "I remember, I remember.</s>
    <s id="1:55">I was already awake by that time.</s>
    <s id="1:56">You kissed my belly button, right?</s>
    <s id="1:57">I was just on the edge—I almost fell in love with you at that moment."</s>
    <s id="1:58">Chen Qingyang said that she had just awakened in time to see my tousled head on her belly, and then she felt a gentle touch on her navel.</s>
    <s id="1:59">For a moment she could hardly restrain herself, but she still pretended to sleep, waiting to see what else I would do.</s>
    <s id="1:60">But I didn't do anything.</s>
    <s id="1:61">I raised my head and looked around.</s>
    <s id="1:62">And then I walked away.</s>
    <s id="1:63">My confession says that on that night, we left the back slope and set off for the crime scene.</s>
    <s id="1:64">We carried pots and pans on our backs and planned to settle down on the mountain in the south.</s>
    <s id="1:65">Over there the soil was so much richer that the grasses on both sides of the road stood as tall as people, unlike the back slope of the fifteenth team where they were about half a foot.</s>
    <s id="1:66">The moon shone that night.</s>
    <s id="1:67">We even walked on the road for a while.</s>
    <s id="1:68">By the time fog rose at daybreak, we had walked twelve miles and went up to the mountain in the south.</s>
    <s id="1:69">To be more specific, we arrived at the grassland to the south of Zhang Feng village and the forest wasn't far off.</s>
    <s id="1:70">We camped under a huge green tree, picking up two pieces of cow dung to start a fire, and spread a plastic sheet on the ground.</s>
    <s id="1:71">Then we took off all our clothes (the clothes were drenched by then), cuddled into each other, wrapped ourselves in three blankets, and then fell asleep.</s>
    <s id="1:72">We woke up frozen after an hour.</s>
    <s id="1:73">The three layers of blankets were all soaked, and the dung fire had died out, too.</s>
    <s id="1:74">Dewdrops fell from the trees in a downpour, and even the drops floating in the air were as big as mung beans.</s>
    <s id="1:75">This was in January, the coldest days of the dry season.</s>
    <s id="1:76">The shady side of the mountain could be that damp.</s>
    <s id="1:77">Chen Qingyang said when she woke up she heard my teeth chattering like a machine gun by her ear.</s>
    <s id="1:78">The upper teeth were clicking against the lower more than once a second.</s>
    <s id="1:79">I already had a temperature.</s>
    <s id="1:80">Once I caught a cold, it would be hard to recover unless I got a shot.</s>
    <s id="1:81">So she sat up and said, Enough.</s>
    <s id="1:82">Both of us will get sick this way.</s>
    <s id="1:83">Hurry, we have to do the thing.</s>
    <s id="1:84">Not wanting to move, I said, Hold on for a bit.</s>
    <s id="1:85">The sun is coming out soon.</s>
    <s id="1:86">After a few minutes I said, Do you think I have energy to do it now?</s>
    <s id="1:87">That was the situation prior to the offense.</s>
    <s id="1:88">The offense went as follows:</s>
    <s id="1:89">Chen Qingyang rode my body, up and down; behind her back was a broad expanse of white fog.</s>
    <s id="1:90">It didn't feel that cold anymore, and the sound of buffalo bells floated all around.</s>
    <s id="1:91">Since Thai people here didn't pen their buffaloes, they would ramble at daybreak.</s>
    <s id="1:92">Hung with wooden bells, the buffaloes would make clunking sounds as they walked.</s>
    <s id="1:93">A hulk suddenly turned up beside us, with dewdrops dangling from a hairy ear.</s>
    <s id="1:94">It was a white buffalo, who turned its head and stared at us with one of its eyes.</s>
    <s id="1:95">A white buffalo's horn can be used to make a knife handle, glittering and crystal clear, very pretty.</s>
    <s id="1:96">But its texture is brittle, easy to crack.</s>
    <s id="1:97">I used to have a dagger with a white-horn handle that didn't have any cracks, which was very unusual.</s>
    <s id="1:98">The blade was also made of excellent materials.</s>
    <s id="1:99">Unfortunately public security confiscated it.</s>
    <s id="1:100">I asked them to return it to me after my case was cleared.</s>
    <s id="1:101">They said they couldn't find it.</s>
    <s id="1:102">They didn't return my hunting gun either.</s>
    <s id="1:103">Old Guo from the public security section promised shamelessly to buy it, but he only wanted to pay fifty yuan.</s>
    <s id="1:104">In the end I got nothing back, not my gun or my knife.</s>
    <s id="1:105">Chen Qingyang and I chatted for a long time before we committed our crime in the hotel room.</s>
    <s id="1:106">Finally, she took off her shirt, but still wore her skirt and leather boots.</s>
    <s id="1:107">I went over to sit next to her and moved her hair back; some of it had turned gray.</s>
    <s id="1:108">Chen Qingyang had permed her hair.</s>
    <s id="1:109">She said she used to have excellent hair and didn't want to perm it.</s>
    <s id="1:110">Now it didn't matter anymore.</s>
    <s id="1:111">As the assistant head of the hospital, she was very busy and couldn't even find time to wash her hair every day.</s>
    <s id="1:112">Other than that, the corners of her eyes and her neck had begun to crease.</s>
    <s id="1:113">She said her daughter suggested that she have plastic surgery, but she couldn't find time to do it.</s>
    <s id="1:114">At last she said, OK, now take a look at them.</s>
    <s id="1:115">So she started to undo her bra.</s>
    <s id="1:116">I wanted to help her, but I couldn't.</s>
    <s id="1:117">The clasp was in the front, but I reached around to her back.</s>
    <s id="1:118">She said, Looks like you haven't learned what it takes to be bad.</s>
    <s id="1:119">And then she turned to let me see her breasts.</s>
    <s id="1:120">I looked carefully at them for a while, and gave her my opinion.</s>
    <s id="1:121">For some reason, her face blushed a little.</s>
    <s id="1:122">She said, Well, you've seen them.</s>
    <s id="1:123">What else do you want to do?</s>
    <s id="1:124">As she said this, she began to put her bra back on.</s>
    <s id="1:125">I said, What's the hurry?</s>
    <s id="1:126">Leave them out.</s>
    <s id="1:127">She said, What?</s>
    <s id="1:128">Still want to study my anatomy?</s>
    <s id="1:129">I said, Of course.</s>
    <s id="1:130">But let's not rush.</s>
    <s id="1:131">We can talk a little longer.</s>
    <s id="1:132">The color in her face deepened.</s>
    <s id="1:133">She said, Wang Er, you'll never learn how to be good.</s>
    <s id="1:134">You'll always be a bastard!</s>
    <s id="1:135">When I was detained in the public security section, Luo Xiaosi came to see me.</s>
    <s id="1:136">He leaned on the windowsill and found me tied up like a package.</s>
    <s id="1:137">Believing that my case was very serious and I might be shot soon, he tossed a box of cigarettes in from the window and said, Brother Er, just a little gift.</s>
    <s id="1:138">Then he burst into tears.</s>
    <s id="1:139">Luo Xiaosi was a sentimental man, easily touched.</s>
    <s id="1:140">I asked him to light a cigarette and hand it to me through the window.</s>
    <s id="1:141">He did as I asked, almost dislocating his shoulder to reach me.</s>
    <s id="1:142">After that he asked me what else he could do for me.</s>
    <s id="1:143">I said nothing else.</s>
    <s id="1:144">I also said, Don't bring a crowd to see me.</s>
    <s id="1:145">He promised he wouldn't.</s>
    <s id="1:146">After he was gone, a gang of boys climbed up to the window ledge to see me.</s>
    <s id="1:147">Right then the cigarette smoke choked me, and with one eye open and the other closed I looked terrible.</s>
    <s id="1:148">The leader of the boys couldn't help crying out: Hooligan!</s>
    <s id="1:149">I answered back, Your father and mother are hooligans!</s>
    <s id="1:150">If they're not hooligans, where did a little hooligan like you come from?</s>
    <s id="1:151">The boy grabbed some dirt and flung it at me.</s>
    <s id="1:152">After I was released, I went to see the boy's father and said: Today I was in the public security office.</s>
    <s id="1:153">I was hog-tied.</s>
    <s id="1:154">Your son is young, but he has great ambition.</s>
    <s id="1:155">He took the opportunity to fling dirt at me.</s>
    <s id="1:156">After hearing this, the man grabbed his son and beat the shit out of the little bastard.</s>
    <s id="1:157">I didn't leave until I witnessed the whole episode.</s>
    <s id="1:158">When Chen Qingyang heard this, she commented, Wang Er, you're a bastard!</s>
    <s id="1:159">Actually I'm not always a bastard.</s>
    <s id="1:160">Now that I have a wife and family, I have learned a lot about how to be good.</s>
    <s id="1:161">After finishing the cigarette, I drew her to me, fondled her breasts skillfully for a while, and then wanted to take off her skirt.</s>
    <s id="1:162">She said, No rush.</s>
    <s id="1:163">Let's talk a little more.</s>
    <s id="1:164">Give me a cigarette too.</s>
    <s id="1:165">So I lit a cigarette, took a drag, and handed it to her.</s>
    <s id="1:166">Chen Qingyang said on Mount Zhang Feng, when she rode up and down on my body, she looked far and near, and saw nothing but gray, watery fog floating in the air.</s>
    <s id="1:167">All of a sudden, she felt very alone, very lonely.</s>
    <s id="1:168">Even though a part of me was rubbing inside her body, she still felt sad and lonely.</s>
    <s id="1:169">After a while I came back to life and said: Let's switch.</s>
    <s id="1:170">Here we go.</s>
    <s id="1:171">So I rolled over onto her body.</s>
    <s id="1:172">She said, That time, you were a bigger bastard than ever.</s>
    <s id="1:173">When Chen Qingyang said I was a bigger bastard than ever, she meant that I suddenly noticed her feet were cute and pretty.</s>
    <s id="1:174">I said, Old Chen, I've decided to be a foot fetishist.</s>
    <s id="1:175">Then I raised her legs and started to kiss the soles of her feet.</s>
    <s id="1:176">Chen Qingyang lay on the grass with her arms spread out and her hands grabbing the grass, and then she turned her head aside, her hair covering her face, and moaned.</s>
    <s id="1:177">In my confession I wrote: I let go of her legs and parted the hair on her face.</s>
    <s id="1:178">She struggled violently to break free, tears rolling down from her eyes, but she didn't slap me.</s>
    <s id="1:179">There were two unhealthy red spots on her cheeks.</s>
    <s id="1:180">After a while, she no longer struggled and said, You bastard!</s>
    <s id="1:181">What are you going to do with me?</s>
    <s id="1:182">I said, What's wrong?</s>
    <s id="1:183">She smiled and said, Nothing.</s>
    <s id="1:184">Keep going.</s>
    <s id="1:185">So I raised her legs again.</s>
    <s id="1:186">She lay like that motionless, her arms spread out, teeth biting her lower lip without uttering a sound.</s>
    <s id="1:187">If I looked at her again, she smiled back.</s>
    <s id="1:188">I remember her face was extremely pale, and her hair was especially dark.</s>
    <s id="1:189">That's how the whole thing went.</s>
    <s id="1:190">Chen Qingyang said when she lay in the cold rain that time, she felt the chill penetrate every pore.</s>
    <s id="1:191">She felt an endless flow of sorrow.</s>
    <s id="1:192">Just then a huge surge of orgasm sliced through her body.</s>
    <s id="1:193">Cold fog and icy rain both seeped into her body.</s>
    <s id="1:194">For a moment she wanted to die.</s>
    <s id="1:195">She couldn't stand it; she wanted to cry out.</s>
    <s id="1:196">But at the sight of me she changed her mind.</s>
    <s id="1:197">There was no man in this world who could make her scream in front of him.</s>
    <s id="1:198">She felt disconnected from everyone.</s>
    <s id="1:199">Chen Qingyang told me later that she was deeply troubled every time I made love to her.</s>
    <s id="1:200">In the depth of her heart, she wanted to cry out, hug me, and kiss me passionately, but she couldn't bring herself to do it.</s>
    <s id="1:201">She didn't want to love other people, not even one.</s>
    <s id="1:202">But still, when I kissed the soles of her feet that time, a sharp feeling still bored its way into her heart.</s>
    <s id="1:203">When Chen Qingyang and I made love on Mount Zhang Feng, an old buffalo alongside us watched.</s>
    <s id="1:204">Later it lowed and ran away, leaving the two of us alone there.</s>
    <s id="1:205">After a long while, the sky gradually lightened and the fog began to disappear from above us.</s>
    <s id="1:206">Chen Qingyang's body glistened with dew.</s>
    <s id="1:207">I let go of her and rose to my feet, to find that we were actually not far from the village.</s>
    <s id="1:208">So I said, Let's go.</s>
    <s id="1:209">We left that place and never went back.</s>
    <s id="1:210">In my confession, I admitted that Chen Qingyang and I had committed crimes on numerous occasions on Grandpa Liu's back mountain.</s>
    <s id="1:211">This was because Grandpa Liu's fields had already been cultivated and didn't need much work.</s>
    <s id="1:212">So our life was relatively easy there.</s>
    <s id="1:213">And since we didn't have to worry about food and shelter, we thought more about sex.</s>
    <s id="1:214">There was nobody else on that part of the mountain, and Grandpa Liu lay on his deathbed.</s>
    <s id="1:215">The mountain was either rainy or foggy.</s>
    <s id="1:216">Chen Qingyang fastened my belt around her waist, with a knife dangling from it.</s>
    <s id="1:217">She wore high boots, and nothing else.</s>
    <s id="1:218">Chen Qingyang told me later that she had made only one friend in her life, and that was me.</s>
    <s id="1:219">She said all that happened came about because I talked about great friendship in my small house by the river.</s>
    <s id="1:220">A person had to accomplish a few things in life and this was one of them.</s>
    <s id="1:221">After that she didn't have deep relationships with other people.</s>
    <s id="1:222">It's no fun doing the same things over and over.</s>
    <s id="1:223">I've had a feeling about this all along.</s>
    <s id="1:224">So whenever I asked her for sex, I would say, Old pal, how about strengthening our great friendship now?</s>
    <s id="1:225">Married couples have a code of ethics to strengthen, and we don't have that, so we can only strengthen our friendship.</s>
    <s id="1:226">She said, No problem.</s>
    <s id="1:227">How do you want to strengthen it, from the front or from the back?</s>
    <s id="1:228">I said, From the back.</s>
    <s id="1:229">We were at the edge of the field then.</s>
    <s id="1:230">Because it was from the back, we had to spread two palm-bark rain capes on the ground.</s>
    <s id="1:231">She knelt on her hands and knees, like a horse, and said, You'd better hurry.</s>
    <s id="1:232">It's time to give Grandpa Liu a shot.</s>
    <s id="1:233">I wrote all these things in my confessions, but the leaders wanted me to confess in response to the following:</s>
    <s id="1:234">1. Who is Comrade Strain-thing Eh-thics?</s>
    <s id="1:235">2. What does "strengthening the great friendship" mean?</s>
    <s id="1:236">3. What is strengthening it from the back?</s>
    <s id="1:237">And what is strengthening it from the front?</s>
    <s id="1:238">After I cleared things up, the leaders told me not to play word games.</s>
    <s id="1:239">Whatever my crimes were, they said, I needed to confess them.</s>
    <s id="1:240">While we were strengthening our great friendship on the mountain, white breath puffed from our mouths.</s>
    <s id="1:241">It was not that cold, but very humid.</s>
    <s id="1:242">You could grab a handful of air and wring water out of it.</s>
    <s id="1:243">Worms wriggled next to our palm-bark rain capes.</s>
    <s id="1:244">That piece of land was really rich.</s>
    <s id="1:245">Later on, before the corn fully ripened, we picked the ears and ground the kernels in a mortar.</s>
    <s id="1:246">The Jingpos in the mountains prepared corn cakes that way, and they weren't bad at all.</s>
    <s id="1:247">Storing them in cold water could preserve them for a long time.</s>
    <s id="1:248">As Chen Qingyang crouched on her hands and knees in the cold rain, her breasts felt like cool apples.</s>
    <s id="1:249">Her skin all over was as smooth as a piece of burnished marble.</s>
    <s id="1:250">After a while I pulled my little Buddha out and ejaculated onto the field.</s>
    <s id="1:251">She looked back at this with a surprised and fearful expression.</s>
    <s id="1:252">I told her that it would fertilize the land.</s>
    <s id="1:253">She said, I know.</s>
    <s id="1:254">And a moment later she asked, Will a little Wang Er grow out of the land?— Does this sound like something a doctor would say?</s>
    <s id="1:255">When the rainy season passed, we dressed like Thais and went to Qingping market.</s>
    <s id="1:256">As I've already written before, I met a classmate in Qingping.</s>
    <s id="1:257">Although I was dressed like a Thai, he still recognized me on sight.</s>
    <s id="1:258">I was too tall to be a Thai.</s>
    <s id="1:259">He said, Hi, brother Er, where have you been?</s>
    <s id="1:260">I said, I'm hopeless at speaking Mandarin.</s>
    <s id="1:261">Despite the fact that I tried very hard to speak in a weird accent, it still sounded like the Beijing dialect.</s>
    <s id="1:262">That one sentence gave me away.</s>
    <s id="1:263">It was her idea to go back to the farm.</s>
    <s id="1:264">Since I myself had decided to go up the mountain, I was determined not to go back.</s>
    <s id="1:265">She'd come to the mountains for the sake of our great friendship, so I couldn't refuse to go down the mountain with her.</s>
    <s id="1:266">Actually, we could have left anytime, but she didn't want to.</s>
    <s id="1:267">She said our current life was fun.</s>
    <s id="1:268">Later Chen Qingyang said life on the mountain was also fun.</s>
    <s id="1:269">When cold mist drifted over the mountain, she would tuck a knife into her belt, put on a pair of rain boots, and enter the drizzle.</s>
    <s id="1:270">But it's no fun doing the same things over and over.</s>
    <s id="1:271">That was why she still wanted to come down the mountain, to put up with the torment of human society.</s>
    <s id="1:272">When Chen Qingyang and I relived our great friendship in the hotel room, we spoke of the time we came down the mountain and reached a junction of roads.</s>
    <s id="1:273">There were four byroads at that place, and each of them led in a single direction.</s>
    <s id="1:274">East, west, south, north didn't really matter.</s>
    <s id="1:275">One led abroad, to an unknown place; one to the interior; one to the farm; and one back to where we came from, and that road also led to Husha.</s>
    <s id="1:276">In Husha there were a lot of Ahcang blacksmiths, who had passed on the skill from generation to generation.</s>
    <s id="1:277">Though I didn't come from a family of smiths, I could have been a blacksmith.</s>
    <s id="1:278">I knew those people very well; they all admired my skill.</s>
    <s id="1:279">Ahcang women were all very pretty, their bodies adorned with many bronze bracelets and necklaces and silver coins.</s>
    <s id="1:280">That kind of dress fascinated Chen Qingyang, and she wanted to go up to the mountains and become one of them.</s>
    <s id="1:281">At the time, the rainy season had just passed, and clouds rose up from every direction.</s>
    <s id="1:282">Threads of sunshine flashed in the sky.</s>
    <s id="1:283">We could have made any choice and set off in any direction.</s>
    <s id="1:284">So I stood at the crossroads for a long time.</s>
    <s id="1:285">Later when I was going back to the interior, waiting for the bus by the road, I also had two choices: I could keep waiting, or return to the farm.</s>
    <s id="1:286">When I walked along one path, I often thought about things that might happen on another path.</s>
    <s id="1:287">Then I would feel confused.</s>
    <s id="1:288">Chen Qingyang once said I was a man of average intelligence but with skillful hands, and very nutty, which all meant something.</s>
    <s id="1:289">Her saying my intelligence was only average, I didn't agree with; her saying I was nutty, I couldn't deny because it's a fact; as to my skillful hands, she probably knew that from her own body.</s>
    <s id="1:290">My hands are indeed very skillful, which wasn't just shown by how I touched women.</s>
    <s id="1:291">My palms are not big, but my fingers are unusually long and able to perform any delicate and complex task.</s>
    <s id="1:292">Those Ahcang blacksmiths on the mountain were better than me at forging blades, but for etching designs on a knife no one could match me.</s>
    <s id="1:293">So, at least twenty blacksmiths invited us to move in with them.</s>
    <s id="1:294">Each suggested that he would forge the blades and I would etch the designs, and we would make a good team.</s>
    <s id="1:295">If I had moved in then, I probably would have forgotten how to speak Mandarin.</s>
    <s id="1:296">If I had moved in with an Ahcang big brother, I would be etching designs on Husha knives in that dark, deep blacksmith shop now.</s>
    <s id="1:297">In the muddy backyard of his house, there would be a brood of little children, comprised of four combinations:</s>
    <s id="1:298">1. Those produced by Chen Qingyang and me;</s>
    <s id="1:299">2. Those produced by Ahcang big brother and Ahcang big sister;</s>
    <s id="1:300">3. Those produced by Ahcang big sister and me;</s>
    <s id="1:301">4. Those produced by Chen Qingyang and Ahcang big brother.</s>
    <s id="1:302">When Chen Qingyang would come down from the mountain with firewood on her back, she would pull up her clothes, revealing her full and firm breasts, and, without making any distinction, feed one of the babies.</s>
    <s id="1:303">If I had returned to the mountains then, that would have happened.</s>
    <s id="1:304">Chen Qingyang said such things wouldn't happen because they didn't happen.</s>
    <s id="1:305">What really happened was that we returned to the farm, wrote confessions, and went on denouncement trips.</s>
    <s id="1:306">Even though we could have run away at any minute, we never did.</s>
    <s id="1:307">That was what really happened.</s>
    <s id="1:308">When Chen Qingyang said I was of average intelligence, she obviously didn't consider my literary talent.</s>
    <s id="1:309">Everyone loved to read the confessions I wrote.</s>
    <s id="1:310">When I first started writing those things, I was dead set against it.</s>
    <s id="1:311">But as I wrote more, I became obsessed, clearly because the things I wrote all happened.</s>
    <s id="1:312">Things that really happen have incomparable charm.</s>
    <s id="1:313">I wrote down almost every detail in my confessions except the things that happened below:</s>
    <s id="1:314">On the back mountain of the fifteenth team, after making love in our thatched hut, Chen Qingyang and I went to a creek to play in the water.</s>
    <s id="1:315">The water from the mountain had washed away the red soil, exposing the blue clay underneath.</s>
    <s id="1:316">We lay on the blue clay to sun ourselves.</s>
    <s id="1:317">After I recovered my warmth, my little Buddha stood up again.</s>
    <s id="1:318">Since he had been relieved not long before, I was not as eager as a sex maniac.</s>
    <s id="1:319">So I lay on my side behind her, pillowed on her long hair and entered her body from behind.</s>
    <s id="1:320">Later in the hotel room, we relived our great friendship in the same way.</s>
    <s id="1:321">When Chen Qingyang and I lay on our sides on the blue clay, it was getting dark and the wind had cooled a bit.</s>
    <s id="1:322">It felt very peaceful lying together, and sometimes we moved a little.</s>
    <s id="1:323">I've heard that dolphins had two ways of doing it, one for procreation and the other for entertainment, which is to say that dolphins also have the great friendship.</s>
    <s id="1:324">Chen Qingyang and I were connected, just like a pair of dolphins.</s>
    <s id="1:325">When Chen Qingyang and I lay on the blue clay with our eyes closed, we felt like a pair of dolphins swimming in the sea.</s>
    <s id="1:326">It was getting darker and the sunlight gradually reddened.</s>
    <s id="1:327">A cloud came over the horizon, pale as countless dead fish bellies turned up and countless dead fish eyes gaping.</s>
    <s id="1:328">A current of wind slipped down the mountain without a sound, without a breath, and a sadness in the air filled every space between the sky and the earth.</s>
    <s id="1:329">Chen Qingyang shed a lot of tears.</s>
    <s id="1:330">She said the scene depressed her.</s>
    <s id="1:331">I still keep the duplicates of my confessions from back then.</s>
    <s id="1:332">Once, I showed them to a friend who majored in English and American literature.</s>
    <s id="1:333">He said they were all very good, with the charm of Victorian underground novels.</s>
    <s id="1:334">As for the details I had cut out, he said it was a good idea to cut them out, because those details destroyed the unity of the story.</s>
    <s id="1:335">My friend is really erudite.</s>
    <s id="1:336">I was very young when I wrote the confessions and didn't have any learning (I still don't have much learning), or any idea what Victorian underground novels were.</s>
    <s id="1:337">What I had in my mind was that I shouldn't be an instigator.</s>
    <s id="1:338">Many people would read my confessions.</s>
    <s id="1:339">If after reading them they couldn't help screwing damaged goods, that wasn't so bad; but if they learned the other thing, that would be really bad.</s>
    <s id="1:340">I also left out the facts that follow, for the same reason mentioned above.</s>
    <s id="1:341">We had committed many errors and deserved execution.</s>
    <s id="1:342">But the leaders decided to save us, making me write confessions.</s>
    <s id="1:343">How forgiving of them!</s>
    <s id="1:344">So I made up my mind that I would only write about how bad we were.</s>
    <s id="1:345">When we lived on Grandpa Liu's back slope, Chen Qingyang made a Thai skirt for herself, disguising herself as a Thai woman so she could go to Qingping on market days.</s>
    <s id="1:346">But after putting the skirt on she could barely walk.</s>
    <s id="1:347">South of Qingping, we ran into a river.</s>
    <s id="1:348">The mountain water was ice-cold, and green as marinated mustard.</s>
    <s id="1:349">The water reached to my waist, and the current was very swift.</s>
    <s id="1:350">I walked over to her, hoisted her onto my shoulder, went right across the river, and then put her down.</s>
    <s id="1:351">Her waist was exactly the width of my shoulder.</s>
    <s id="1:352">I remember her face turning deep red then.</s>
    <s id="1:353">I said, I could carry you to Qingping and back, faster than your swishy walking.</s>
    <s id="1:354">She said, Go take a crap.</s>
    <s id="1:355">A Thai skirt is like a cloth sheath.</s>
    <s id="1:356">The hem is only about a foot around.</s>
    <s id="1:357">People who know how to wear them can do all kinds of things with them on, including peeing on the street without squatting down.</s>
    <s id="1:358">Chen Qingyang said she could never learn that trick.</s>
    <s id="1:359">After conducting an observation for a while in Qingping market, she drew the conclusion that if she wanted to disguise herself like someone, she would rather be an Ahcang woman.</s>
    <s id="1:360">On the way back, the mountain road was all uphill, and she was exhausted, too.</s>
    <s id="1:361">So whenever we needed to jump over a ditch or cross a ridge, she would find a stump, gracefully mount it, and let me carry her.</s>
    <s id="1:362">So on the way home I carried her on my shoulder climbing the hills.</s>
    <s id="1:363">The dry season had just arrived, white clouds coasted through the sky, and the sun gave brilliant light.</s>
    <s id="1:364">But in the mountains it would drizzle from time to time.</s>
    <s id="1:365">The red clay was very slippery.</s>
    <s id="1:366">Walking on slabs of red mud was like learning to skate for the first time.</s>
    <s id="1:367">So with my right hand locked around her thighs and my left hand carrying the rifle, not to mention the basket on my back, I could hardly manage the slippery incline.</s>
    <s id="1:368">All of a sudden, I slipped to the left, and was about to fall into the valley.</s>
    <s id="1:369">Fortunately I had a rifle, which I used to hold me up.</s>
    <s id="1:370">I tensed my whole body and struggled to keep us from going over.</s>
    <s id="1:371">But the idiot picked that moment to give me trouble, flopping around on my back and demanding that I put her down.</s>
    <s id="1:372">We almost lost our lives that time.</s>
    <s id="1:373">As soon as I caught my breath, I switched the rifle to my right hand, raised my left hand, and slapped her bottom really hard.</s>
    <s id="1:374">Through the layer of thin cloth, it felt unusually smooth.</s>
    <s id="1:375">Her bottom was very round.</s>
    <s id="1:376">Fuck, I felt terrific.</s>
    <s id="1:377">She immediately behaved herself after getting spanked.</s>
    <s id="1:378">She became very submissive, not saying another word.</s>
    <s id="1:379">Of course, it was wrong to slap her bottom, but I thought this kind of thing might not be what other damaged goods and their lovers get into.</s>
    <s id="1:380">So the incident seemed beside the point and I didn't write about it.</s>
  </p>
</text>
