At daybreak the sky was still overcast; the sun showed no sign of poking its head out.
Zhu Shiqing finished packing. On any other occasion he would have put on his Zhongshan suit, done himself up properly, and gone to show off a little to Uncle.
But this time that wouldn't do. Zhu Shiqing dressed in simple plain clothes, and even locked in a drawer the notebook that never left his side.
Zhu Shiqing and Sun Beifeng had a special way of meeting.
Sun Beifeng had made a point of telling him this before the New Year: if he ever had something urgent and needed to find Uncle, he had to go and wait at the West City Ferry in Nanjing before full daylight. It was the road Uncle took every day on his way out.
Zhu Shiqing spurred his horse toward Nanjing, meaning to enter by Zhonghua Gate first and then head for the West City Ferry. Along the way, a fine rain began to drift down.
Sun Beifeng was not like other men. As a government man, he never wore a Zhongshan suit, had no office, and never attended gatherings or celebrations. He was like a shadow, forever clinging to that vast machinery of state.
Zhu Shiqing reached the ferry. The place was called Xiaguan: Mufu Mountain to the north, Qingliang Mountain to the south, the natural barrier of the Yangtze at its back. It was Nanjing's water gateway; all waterborne transport had to come through here.
He had not waited long when a man came toward him—straw hat on his head, small in build, head thrust forward, an oil-paper umbrella tucked under his arm. At first glance he could not make out the man's face, but Zhu Shiqing caught sight of the pipe. It was certainly Uncle.
"Uncle Sun, keeping well?"
Zhu Shiqing went up to him beaming and drew close; by now he was nearly half a head taller than Sun Beifeng.
Sun Beifeng paused in surprise, tilted his head up to look, and it really was that little brat Zhu Shiqing. A stir went through him, though his face stayed flat. "Well now, what wind blew you here, boy?"
"Uncle Sun, are you—on a job?"
"Cut the nonsense." Sun Beifeng handed him the umbrella from under his arm and pointed to a stone pavilion by the dock. "You little wretch, you don't come to see your old uncle for days on end, and now you turn up—something's gone wrong, hasn't it?"
Zhu Shiqing gave a chuckle, opened the umbrella, and with his other hand took Sun Beifeng's arm. The two of them strolled over and sat down in the pavilion.
"I won't hide it from you, Uncle Sun. Jiangning County has landed itself in trouble this time, and I wanted to see whether you might have some way to deal with it."
Sun Beifeng waved a hand and settled onto the seat, the corner of his mouth ticking up. "Your Jiangning—after all these years, a calm spell would be the real marvel. Say nothing of the rest: I do read the annual reports. All empty flourishes. The words don't match the facts."
Zhu Shiqing realized the jab was aimed at him and could only smile wryly. "You're needling me, Uncle Sun."
Sun Beifeng laughed, then turned serious at once. "What happened?"
"The day before yesterday I went into the city with Magistrate Diao for a meeting. The central government has lately been carrying out acceptance inspections of the national defense projects in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai, and Guangdong..."
"You dared touch even that?" Sun Beifeng cut him off before he was halfway through. He raised his face, his eyes clamped hard on Zhu Shiqing. "Jiuru, do you know what the situation is now? How many people would love to make something out of this?"
"Not us—them," Zhu Shiqing said in his own defense. "They want me to come and learn from you, to see whether some countermeasure can be found."
"Boy, you've been used as a gun. What does this business have to do with you? You come here to find them a way out—you'd do better to find a good place for yourself." Sun Beifeng's expression eased; he looked entirely at ease, carrying the smug air of a man pulling strings from behind the scenes.
Zhu Shiqing was thrown. "Uncle Sun, what do you mean by that? Yesterday I went to see the site myself. All I can say is it's a wreck. Even setting aside the corner-cutting, the amount actually completed falls far short. If they really do investigate, I'm afraid I won't escape either—I bear some responsibility, one way or another. Even if nothing else is pinned on me, if it comes down to concealing it and failing to report, I'm afraid it would reflect badly on you, Uncle Sun."
Sun Beifeng narrowed his eyes. "Now that's more like human speech—you're thinking of your old uncle. National defense projects are a big matter; that goes without saying. But in officialdom there's no such thing as an absolutely big matter. You're one little clerk. If the government can't even tolerate the likes of you, then would every local official found with problems have to have his whole clan wiped out?"
There was some sense in that. Zhu Shiqing realized he had fallen into their trap the night before. All he'd heard was them saying that several county magistrates over in Zhejiang had been knocked off. Hell—a magistrate knocked off is just a magistrate knocked off. A magistrate like Diao Yuxiu, knocked off, would be a boon to the country and the people.
"Uncle Sun, hearing you say that, I understand. I can also see that those people are on good terms with you."
"Only that boy Xu Gang spent some time under me. The rest I've merely crossed paths with in the course of work. As for claiming ties—with a Fatty Diao in that state of his, I can't even get a smoke down when I see him."
"Then if they're dragging me down with them, what am I to do?"
Sun Beifeng took his pipe in his mouth and pulled hard at it, thoroughly content, and explained: "For the government to bother itself with the likes of you—you're not important enough."
When it came to reading the times and which way the wind blew, Sun Beifeng knew every trick of the trade; otherwise he would never have been able to seize the opening presented by the founding of the Nanjing government and remake himself into what he was today.
At those words Zhu Shiqing had a sudden awakening. Recalling all that had gone before, he already had his answer in his heart.
The acceptance inspection of the national defense projects—that mine had been buried there all along. Everyone understood that on some day in the twenty-sixth year of the Republic, sooner or later, there would come a day of inspection. The reason they could all sit at ease in their high halls was simply that they were betting on two things: first, that the higher-ups would start something and never see it through; second, that the inspection officers would go along with the way things stood.
In truth, there was no need to gamble. Almost no one could manage to bind every ordinary act of his life by party discipline and state law. The ancients spoke of being watchful over oneself in solitude—meaning that a man keeps to his principles even when no one is watching. That is a very high standard. For most people, to obey the law and observe propriety in front of others is already no small feat.
How would men like Diao Yuxiu see everyone else? The militia under them took money to do things and skimmed a cut at every level; the senior inspectors from above demanded food, drink, gifts, and bribes, and once the money was enough they'd wave a job through. Over the years, Diao Yuxiu naturally could not believe anyone could rise from the mud unstained—and that conviction had never once failed him.
On that premise, everyone's money-grubbing grew more brazen and their nerve fattened, and so a black chain of profit took shape: some paid, some took, some were in charge of putting up a respectable front, and some were in charge of cleaning up afterwards.
"So this time the higher-ups are after people?" Zhu Shiqing pondered a moment, then gave Sun Beifeng an answer that satisfied him.
He'd got it. He'd got it.
Sun Beifeng's smile did not fade. The yellowed creases of his face merged with the yellow-brown of his pipe; he said nothing, just took another smacking pull and blew a faceful of smoke at Zhu Shiqing. Then the two of them looked at each other and smiled.
Just as Zhu Shiqing had said, beneath the drizzling rain a storm was already sweeping down on the Jiangnan region. Everyone on this land was bound up with that storm; no one could stand apart from it.
Chapter 6