Fat Years - Chan Koonchung [95]
“Mr. He,” began Lao Chen, “have some water and take a couple of aspirins.” Zhang Dou brought a glass of water, but He Dongsheng didn’t respond.
“Mr. He,” said Lao Chen, “if we wanted to harm you, we wouldn’t bother to trick you into drinking poisoned water, would we?
“Do you have any imported bottled water?” asked He Dongsheng without looking up.
Lao Chen and the others shook their heads.
“Oh …” He Dongsheng heaved a long sigh and then motioned to Zhang Dou to put the glass to his mouth and let him drink. He quickly gulped down the entire glass of water.
Lao Chen waited until he’d finished drinking and then said, “Mr. He, you are an intelligent man, so let’s be perfectly frank with each other—let’s say whatever we want to say, all right?”
“Why?” asked He Dongsheng through gritted teeth.
“You mean,” said Lao Chen, “you want to know why we invited you here, or, more correctly, why we have brought you here against your will and tied you up? It’s very simple. Because we have some questions we want to ask you.”
He Dongsheng laughed sarcastically.
“Truly, it’s that simple.” Lao Chen was calm. “You can’t believe what’s happening. But just answer a few simple questions, and we’ll let you go.”
“Nonsense!” He Dongsheng was angry, but he spoke as though talking weakly to himself.
“I know what you’re thinking,” said Lao Chen. “You think we will not let you go because I’ve already let you see who I am. Actually, even if I hadn’t revealed my face, I think you would have thought of a few names, including mine. Of course, you can foresee that if something happened to you, your people would definitely investigate me, and sooner or later, in order to avoid a complete mental and physical collapse, I would confess everything. Then death would be the only option for these friends of mine.”
He Dongsheng had begun to pay attention.
“We want to live, too,” Lao Chen continued, “and we can only live if you live.”
“So,” said He Dongsheng, “if you want to live, then let me go immediately.”
“Don’t be so hasty,” said Lao Chen. “If we just casually let you go, you wouldn’t just shrug your shoulders and act as though nothing had happened; you would turn around and send somebody to arrest us. So even if we let you go this very minute, we have already committed a capital offense. It would be hard for us to escape execution; and even if you spoke up for us and we avoided the death sentence, we still wouldn’t escape being punished for a major crime. No, we don’t need your forgiveness now, and we’re not asking you for an extrajudicial favor.”
“Then what the hell do you want?” asked He Dongsheng.
“We just want you to understand that we are all now in a ‘live together or die together’ situation. Live, and we all live, or die, and we all die—and the choice is up to you. Do you want to hear my explanation?”
“Let’s hear it!”
“First, let me explain the die-together part,” said Lao Chen. “Consider for a moment that our camera and sound recorder are all set up and connected to the Internet and to our cell phones; all we have to do is press a button and they will all start broadcasting. If we do this, the whole world will know that you have been kidnapped. No doubt you would soon be rescued and we would be up shit creek, but how do you think your precious Communist Party would treat you after that? How would the Party interpret this absurd situation? No matter how any of us explained it to the Party, who among them would believe our unbelievable reason for kidnapping you? All our interrogators would wonder about the ‘genuine’ reasons behind your