The New Road Goes Through

Opotiki News, Volume II, Issue 251, 27 October 1939, Page 8 (Supplement)

The New Road Goes Through

• . - ' _ : f;/ ~-|U CHEN kept a .hotwater shop on the corner of the street of the North Gate, where J the alley of the Hwang family intersects it. As everyone knows, that was one of ; the chief places in the * whole length of that street. Not only did the great silk shops fling their banners of orange silk, but down the alley of the Hwangs' lived other great families. A* score of times a day the clerks idling about the dim shops sent the tea-coolie for pots of scaldr ing water to brew the tea that they sipped the whole day through. A score of times a day the ladies of the alley, gambling delicately as a pastime in one another’s houses, sent . their slaves to get water from Lu Chen. It was a thriving business, and had been a thriving business even in his grandfather’s time, when an emperor had lived but a few miles away, and that very street had ended in a prince’s pleasure grounds. . From his father Lu Chen had received the shop, together, with a rice sack full of silver dollars. The rice sack had been emptied to pay for his wedding] but gradually it had been filled jagain to pay for the schooling and then the wedding of his son. ]No\v, after this last emptying, it wasja fifth full again, and Lu Chen’s grandchild ran about the. shop, terrifying the old man with his venturesome spirit and his curiosity regarding the great copper cauldrons built into the earthejn ovens. • ;

“ When I was a child/’ Lu Chen proclaimed at least daily to his small grandson, “.I never ran near the cauldrons. 1 obeyed my grandfather, and did not cterrtally run about like a small chicken.”

Of this the grandson understood nothing’. He was as yet too young to speak clearly, but he was able to understand that he was the centre of his grandfather’s heart, and he continued to stagger about near the ovens tinder the old man’s agitated eye. He had become accustomed,; of course, to being lifted suddenly by the collar of his small coat and to dangling in the air while his grandfather set him in the inner room.

“ I cannot understand this child of yours,” remarked Lu Chen to his tall young son. “ When will you teach him obedience?” L Old and Young in Conflict. , Lu Chen’s son. who had been inclined to idleness and discontent since finishing his fourth year at the Government middle school, shrugged his shoulders and said: “ We do not so worship obedience these days.” I Lu Chen glanced at him sharply. He wouid never acknowledge that his son was at all idle. Even at night, when he lay within the curtains of his bamboo bed beside bis wife, he would nbt acknowledge it. __ •/ Sometimes she said: “The bpy has not enough to do. The shop is small, and there is really only one man’s work. If you would only rest now —are you not fifty years old? —and allow our son to manage the business, it would be better. He is twenty years old, and he feels no responsihilityyjor his rice nor for the rice of wife and the child. You do everything. Why did you send him to school if he is to be idle?” ... Lu Chen threw back the thick blue cotton-stuffed quilt. This talk of giving up his w.ork ‘in the shop always stifled him. The real reason why he had allowed his son to continue in school . year aftcr year was that he might have the shop to himself. “ That big cauldron,” he muttered, “is never so bright as I could wish. I have said to him a dozen times: ‘Take the asTi from the oven and wet it a little and smear it upon the copper, and, when it is dried—’ but he will do it.” . “ -Because you are never ..satishe docs,” said his* wife. She was a large, stout-bodied woman. Lu Chen’s small, dried figure scarcely lifted the quilt at all-in comparison with the mound of her flesh .beneath it. ■; t “He will not do it as *1 cony mand him,” he said in a loud

voice. )} “ You are never satisfied,” she replied calmly. * ,/ ' 1 This calmness of Tiers irritated him more than any anger. He sat upright and stared down at her placid face. Through the coarse linen curtains the light of the

bean-oil lamp shone with a t vague flicker; he could see her drowsy eyes and her full, expressionless lips.

PEARL S. BUCK

the gods of progress

*“ I do as my father taught me,” he said shrilly. , “ Ah, well,” she' murmured. “ Let us sleep. What does it matter?” .

He' panted a moment and lay down. '

“You care nothing for the shop,” he said at last. It was the gravest accusation he could think of.

But she did not answer. She was asleep, and with her loud, tranquil breathing filled the recesses of the curtains.

The next morning he arose very early and himself scoured the inside of the two cauldrons until they reflected his lean brown face. He would have liked to let them remain empty until his son awoke, and so show him how they could be made to look. But he dared not, since the slaves and servants came early for hot water for their mistresses’ baths. He filled the cauldrons, therefore, with water from the earthen jars, and lighted the fires beneath them. Soon the steam was bubbling up from under the water-soaked wooden covers. He had filled and refilled the cauldrons three times before his son sauntered in, rubbing his eyes, his blue cotton gown half buttoned around him, and his hair on end. Lu Chen gave him a sharp look.

“ When I was young-,” he said, “ I arose early and scoured the cauldrons and lighted the fires beneath them and my father slept.”

“ These are the days of the revolution,” said the young man lightly. Lu Chen snorted. “ These arc the days of disobedient sons and of idle young men,” he said. “What will your son be, seeing that you do not vet earn your rice?” But the young man only smiled and, buttoning his coat slowly, went to the cauldron nearest him and dipped into a basin water wherewith to wash.

.Lu Chen watched him, his face quivering. “It is only for you that I value the shop,” he said at last. “Tt is that the business may go to you and the child after you. This hot-water shop has stood here sixty years. It is well known. All my father’s life and my life and your life have come from it—and now the child’s.” “ There is talk of the new road now,” said the young man, wringing a steaming cloth from the water and wiping his face. That was the first time Lu Chen heard of the new road. It meant nothing to him then. His son was always away, always full of talk of new things, ever since the revolution had come into the city. What the revolution was, Lu Chen did not clearly perceive. There had certainly been days when his business was very poor, and when the great shops had been closed for fear of looting, and when the families he regularly supplied had moved away to Shanghai. His business then had been reduced to the petty filling of tin tea-kettles for the poorer people, who haggled over a copper penny. People said it was the revolution, and he had become anxious and cursed it in his heart. Then suddenly soldiers were everywhere, and they bought water most recklessly. That was when he began filling up the rice-sack again. That was the revolution, too. He was mightily puzzled, but he no longer cursed it. Then the great shops opened and the old families came back and soldiers drifted away again, and things were much as they had been, except that prices were high, so that he could raise the price of water, too, and was relieved. . “ These revolutions,” he said to his son one morning, “ wliar are they about? You have been to school —do you know ? It lias been a great stir. I am glad it is oven” At that the son raised his eyebrows. “Over?” he repeated. “ It is only begun. Wait. This city will be-.the capital of the country,: and then everything will be greatly changed.” The old man shook his head. “ Change ? There is never great change. Emperors and kings and presidents or what-not, people must drink tea-and must bathg--these go on forever.”

writes a stirring tale of an old Chinese water man who denes

Fate Knocking at his Door.

Well, but this new road? On the very day his, son had-men-tioned it, that impudent young slave-girl from the third alley down had turned up the corner of her lip at him and said: “I hear talk frpm bur master of a great new road sixty feet wide. What then of your cauldrons, Lu Chen ?-'

Lu Chen’s arm was bare to the elbow, and wrinkled and reddened by the continued steam from the water. lie scarcely felt the heat. But now, as the slave-girl spoke, he dipped his bamboo dipper more deeply into the water and grunted. His hand trembled and slopped a little water over the edge of the cauldron into the hot coals of the fire. A hiss rose from them. He did not speak, but made a pretence of stirring up the fire. He was not going to speak to that silly creature. Yet, after she had gone, he remembered that she was a slave in the house of Ling, and that, since the eldest son of Ling was an official, there might indeed be talk of the road. He gazed about on the gray brick walls of his little shop in a sort of terror. They were darkened with smoke and dampness, and had cracks that he could remember even from childhood. .Sixty feet wide? Why, it would mean the whole shop ripped away. “ I will ask such a price that they cannot buy it,” he thought. “ Such a price—” he cast about in himself for a sum enormous enough to stagger a Government. “ I will ask ten thousand dollars.” He was happy then. Who would pay ten thousand dollars for this twelve square feet of space and the two cauldrons? Where was so much money in the world? Why, when his father had been a young man, the Prince Mingyuan had built a palace for that. He laughed a little, and was more lenient with his son, and forgot the new road, and daily preserved the life of the child from the cauldrons. Everything was as before.

One morning michvav to noon he sat down to rest and drink a little tea. He always brewed his own tea after the fifth emptying of the cauldrons, just before he began to fill them again for' the noon call. Tn this interval,, when people had bought for the mornii\g*tca and the hour had not yet approached for the mid-day meal, lie could enjoy a little leisure. He took the grandchild on his knee and let him drink also, and smiled to sec him grasp the bowl in two hands and drink, staring gravely over the rim. All at once there was a sharp rap like a sword-cut at the door. Lu Chen set the child down carefully and moved the teapot out of his reach. Then he went to the door and drew back the wooden bar. A man stood there in a grey cotton uniform, lie was a young officer of some sort, with an arrogant eye, but he scarcely looked at Lu Chen. “ Sir,” said Lu Chen, a little timidly, since the young officer carried a gun and a belt stuffed with cartridges. But he was in-, terrupted. “ The new road passes your shop. What is your name, old man?” The officer rapidly consulted a sheet of paper drawn from his pocket. “ Ah, yes, Lu. Thirty feet off your house. Fifteen days from to-day your shop must be gone. Else we will tear it down for you.” He folded the paper carelessly and put it back into his pocket. Then he turned to go away. At his heels were three soldiers, and they turned also and fell into step. Lu Chen could not speak. He swallowed, but his throat was dry. No sound came forth. One of the soldiers glanced back at him, a curious, pitying glance. That pity suddenly re--■"“1 eased the knot in Lu Chen’s throat. " “Ten thousand dollars,” he called hoarsely after the young officer. The officer halted instantly and wheeled about. “What is that?” he said sharply.' ; >f “The price of the shop is ten thousand dollars,” faltered Lu Chen. The young officer grasped his gun, and Lu Chen shrank in alarm behind the door and closed it. But the young man walked back and thrust the gun so suddenly against the door that Lu

Chen staggered and bumped into the child, who began to cry. Every time in the child’s whole life that lie had cried, Lu Chen had rushed to him. But now he did not even hear. lie was gazing fixedly lit the young officer, murmuring over * and . over, unconsciously, “ Ten thousand dollars, ten thousand dollars.”

The officer stared at him and then broke into a chilly laughter. “It is your contribution, then, to the new capital,” he said, and, shouting a sharp command, he went a\yay. ]

Contribution? What contribution? The child lay on the earthern floor, Availing. 'He was used to lying wherever he had fallen, since someone always picked him up, but now no.one came. Lu Chen stood looking out through the door after the young man’s figure. His heart lagged in his body so that he could scarcely draw his breath. Give up his shop, his life? What was all this talk of a new capital ? It was none of his business. He turned and, seeing the child, dazedly picked him up and put him on his feet. Then, with the child in his arms, he sat down. Why, the shop was the child’s. No one could take it away. Anger rose up in him and relieved him then, since it drove out his fear. He never would give up the shop—never. He would sit there in it until they tore the last tile from over his head. He set the child on the floor again, and bustled mightily and filled the cauldron and started roaring fires, so that within the hour the water bubbled and steamed and lifted the wooden covers. He was very sharp with his customers, and when the impudent slave-girl came with her cheeks pink and her black eyes saucy, he skimped her a little on water and would not fill the kettle for all her scolding.

“It will be a good thing for us all when the new road comes and takes away your shop, old robber,” she Tlung: at him when she saw that he would give her no more.

“Nothing can be taken from me,” he shouted after her, and when her mocking laugh came hack to him, he shouted again: “That for the new road.” And he spat.

After a while the door opened and his son came in.

“What of the new road?” he asked indolently, feeling of the teapot to see whether it was still hot. “ Now. then," said Lu Chen. “ You still return for your food, do you ? Where have you been to-day?” “ But it is true of the new road,” said the boy, sipping the half-cold tea. “Quite true. It comes straight past us. The shop —‘ thirty feet off ’ will leave but half of the two bedrooms at the back.” Lit Chen was all at once so angry that he raised his hand and knocked the teapot from his son’s hand, and it fell upon the ground and broke. “ You stand there,” Lu Chen muttered thickly, “you stand there and drink tea —” and, seeing the young man’s astonished face, he began to weep, and walked into the room where he slept, and crawled, into the bed and drew the curtains. t • Still Beyond Belief. In the morning, when he rose, he was still angry with his son. When the young maa'ate his rice, innocently, Lu Chen muttered; “ Yes, you eat and your son eats, but you do not think where the money is to come from.” But for all of this, he did not believe that they would really,take away his shop, and he went on about his work as before. The eleventh day after he was warned by the officer, his wife came to him with unwonted consternation on her face. “It is true that the road is coming,” she said. “If you look up the street you will see a sight. What shall we do?” She began to weep softly, her large face scarcely disturbed.

Lu Clien felt himself quivering. He went to the door and gazed up the street. Always the street had been so narrow> so winding, so darkened with the overhanging shop-signs of varnished wood and coloured . silk, that one could see for only a few feet. But now there was the strange light of the sun shining upon the damp cobbles. A score of feet away all the signs were 'gone", and'men were tearing down

houses. Heaps of age-stained bricks and tiles lay on the street, and caravans of donkeys with baskets across their backs stood waiting to carry them away. The same officer that he had seen was walking about, and behind him followed four angry women, their hair streaming down their backs. They were cursing and wailing, and Lu could hear them say: "We have no life left, no life left—our homes are gone." Lu went into the shop then, and shut the door and barred it. He sat down on the short wooden bench behind the cauldron, his knees shaking, his mind in a maze. Inexorably the road was coming. The child ran out of the inner room and leaned against his knee, but Lu beheld him apathetically. The child, seeing liis % remote gaze, looked roguishly up arid touched the great cauldron with a tentative finger. But Lu, for the first time in his life, did not cry out at him. A dim thought went through his mind. “Burned? It is npthing. You will starve at last.” There was a thunderous knock at the door at that moment, and Lu’s heart leaped. With his whole body taut, he went to remove the bar. It was the officer in a clean new uniform, and behind him stood the -three soldiers. “ Four days," said the officer, “ and your shop must be gone. Tear it down yourself and you will have the materials. Otherwise we will confiscate it." “But the money?” faltered Lu Chen. “Money?” repeated the officer sharply. “The price is ten thousand dollars,” said Lu Chen. The officer gave a sharp, short laugh. “ There is no money,” he replied, each word as clear and cold as steel. “ You are presenting this to the Republic.” Lu Chen looked wildly about. Surely there was some redress. Surely someone would help him. He began to scream out in a broken, shrill voice to the passers on the street. “ Do you see this, sirs? 1 am to be robbed—robbed by the Republic. Who is this Republic? Will it give me food and my wife and my child —” s He felt himself twitched slightly by the coat. The soldier who had looked back at him the other day whispered hurriedly: “Do not anger the officer—it will be worse.” Aloud he said: “Do not complain, old man. In any case, your shop would have to go. 11l the new day that is coming we shall not want hot-water shops. Hot water will come pouring forth from the self-going pipes.”

(To 1)0 continued Next Week)