• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

By Root 1272 0

his mother worked as a cook in a Protestant church. On Sunday mornings she would take him to the church service because afterward they were given a bag of white flour donated by the people of the United States. His mother would usually doze through the service, but he liked to listen to the pastor’s sermon. Once the pastor quoted from what Jesus had said about a single grain of wheat: “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it will be alone, but if it dies, it will bring forth much fruit.” In other words, a grain of wheat that falls into the ground does not really die—mai zi bu si. Had Little Xi changed her Internet name to maizibusi, “The grain does not die”? And yet he couldn’t remember her ever being remotely religious.

Lao Chen looked up the four characters mai zi bu si on the net and several literary and religious links came up. For example, a book on Zhang Ailing and her banal “boudoir realism” titled The Grain Fallen on the Ground Does Not Die by a Harvard professor, Wang Dewei, and a Chinese translation, Maizi busi, of André Gide’s 1924 autobiographical novel Si le grain ne meurt. Lao Chen looked at a dozen or so Web sites, but didn’t find any that appeared to be by Little Xi. He didn’t have the patience to look at any more. His promise to Big Sister Song that he would try to save Little Xi was beginning to weigh on his shoulders like Jesus’s cross. Then again, no matter how heavyhearted he felt, life must go on—so he went out in search of his customary Starbucks Lychee Black Dragon Latte.

What Lao Chen didn’t expect was that Fang Caodi, who once used to be Fang Lijun, had been waiting for him on Xindong Road for almost two hours. Fang Caodi had run into him there before, taken his card, and sent him an e-mail, but Lao Chen had not responded. This time, Fang decided to wait for him at the same spot and feign another chance encounter.

By now, Fang Caodi could almost tell by a person’s appearance whether he or she was a “nonforgetter,” like he and Zhang Dou were. The last time he’d met Lao Chen, his leisurely, contented expression certainly didn’t put him in their camp. But Fang Caodi had always thought that Lao Chen was an intelligent guy, and Fang hardly ever changed his opinion of anyone. He was especially happy today to see Lao Chen coming out of the Happiness Village Number Two compound with a frown and an extremely worried look on his face.

“Master Chen,” Fang called as he took off his baseball cap and began walking toward him. “It’s me, Fang Caodi.” He patted his bald head as if to refresh Lao Chen’s memory.

“Master Chen, you look great today,” Fang said.

“Old Fang, I’m not really in the mood for talking today,” said Lao Chen.

“Not feeling good today, Lao Chen?” said Fang. “That’s okay. How could you feel good? A whole month is missing.”

“I really have things to do, Old Fang,” said Lao Chen. “I’ll talk to you some other time.”

“Where’re you going, Master Chen?”

Lao Chen thought for a minute. He couldn’t say he was off for coffee at Starbucks. “I’m going to the Sanlian Bookstore.”

“I’ll drive you, Master Chen,” Fang Caodi immediately offered. He opened the passenger door of his Jeep Cherokee as if to say, “Get in.”

“That’s okay, there’s really no need.” Lao Chen was still trying to avoid him. “I’ll take a taxi. You must have things to do.”

“No, I don’t,” said Fang. “I came especially to talk to you, Master Chen.”

Lao Chen got into the car resignedly.

“Master Chen …” Fang Caodi started as he drove off.

“Stop calling me Master Chen!” Lao Chen interrupted, irritated. “The Bible says that when the world is full of masters, then the end of our days is in sight.”

“That’s not a laughing matter,” said Fang seriously. “If I can’t call you Master Chen, then I’ll just call you Lao Chen, okay?”

“What did you want to talk about, anyway?” Lao Chen said, exasperated. “Come on, out with it!”

“A whole month is missing, Lao Chen,” said Fang, “and what are we going to do about it? We have to get it back.”

“If it’s missing, it’s missing.” Lao Chen was getting really annoyed with this theme.