Fat Years - Chan Koonchung [78]
Little Xi didn’t, however, have the urge to believe in religion. All her life she had been a faithful disciple of materialism and atheism and she could not change her mind. Her reason made her resist the claims of theistic religion.
The only person in the fellowship with whom she could have a high-level discussion was Gao Shengchan, but as the main preacher for all four fellowships, he couldn’t stay in Warm Springs all the time. So Little Xi decided that wherever Gao Shengchan went, she would go with him, listen to his preaching, and ask him further questions.
There was something else about the fellowship that Little Xi was only vaguely aware of. Those humble and devout disciples of Christ also exhibited a mild form of dogmatic self-satisfaction—we alone know the truth—that made her feel somewhat uneasy. Although Gao Shengchan was very enthusiastic when he preached the gospel, in everyday life he seemed to carry a great load of care and a certain melancholy; he also had to cope with his lameness, and Little Xi felt it was very easy to communicate with him. She decided to get closer to him.
Little Xi had no romantic notions, but Gao Shengchan certainly did and was even thinking that it was about time for him to take a wife. But Little Xi was not yet a Christian, and all those posts she put on the Internet under the name of maizibusi might cause trouble.
It was at this stage in their relationship that the Zhang Family Village incident occurred.
Many peasant families in Zhang Family Village were members of the Christian fellowship. A short while earlier the township government, in collusion with a business interest group, had violated their rights and enclosed their land. When the other brothers and sisters in the fellowship discussed this situation, Little Xi was particularly enthusiastic. She explained many legal concepts to them and urged them to defend their legal rights. When everybody learned that she had studied law, they greatly admired her knowledge. They planned out a three-part strategy. First, they would go to the county court and file a suit against the township government; second, they would stage a protest demonstration in front of the township-government headquarters; and third, they would make a real-time record of the demonstration and put all the evidence of the township government’s corruption on the Internet for wider distribution. This last move was because Little Xi told them, “The Internet is the people’s Central Discipline Committee and virtual Public Security authorities.” But some were worried that if they acted this way, the church would be drawn into the peasants’ rights defense movement, with hard-to-predict consequences.
Gao Shengchan talked to Li Tiejun about these developments and asked Li to dissuade the fellowship members from broadening the scope of the Zhang Family Village incident. Who would have imagined that Li Tiejun would turn around and criticize Gao Shengchan? “Old Gao,” he said, “when I have something to say, I say it. Everybody now believes that you and Little Xi are a couple. But she’s become Big Sister Gao—she’s the outside, and you’re the inside. This maizibusi woman is speaking on your behalf!”
A love that passeth all understanding
As they entered Henan Province, Fang Caodi began to recount the many coincidences that had occurred in his life. “Lao Chen, do you believe in coincidence?” he asked.
Lao Chen thought that as a writer of fiction he had to rely on coincidence, but in real life he felt that the value of coincidence was overestimated. He didn’t need to answer Fang Caodi very often because Fang would just keep on talking anyway. Fang had not stopped talking since they had left Beijing that morning. So in answer to this particular question, Lao Chen just shrugged.
“I knew I didn’t have to ask you,” said Fang Caodi. “As a writer, you must believe in coincidence. You know