Chapter 42: The Collapse of Faith

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Knowing that the sisters’ story was questionable, Liu Weidong could not be bothered to explain. Revealing too much would only arouse more suspicion.

After dinner, as they walked home, Liu Weidong glanced at Lou Yanru and asked, “Does your mother know that your book is going to be serialized in the newspaper?”

Lou Yanru nodded. “She found out the last time we went to see Dad. But she was furious. She thinks the Liu Qian in the novel is supposed to be her, and that you deliberately made her look bad.”

At that, Lou Yanru shot Liu Weidong an angry glare.

Liu Weidong gave a sheepish laugh. “It’s only a work of fiction. Why does your mother insist on identifying herself with one of the characters? Feng Qingyun even married Xiao Nan in the novel. Didn’t she interrogate your father and ask whether he really had someone else outside?”

“You’re awful…”

Lou Yanru chased after him, pinching and hitting him in outrage.

Once they got home, they returned to the tedious business of working through practice questions. With the college entrance examination fast approaching, even Lou Yanhua no longer dared slack off. She kept flipping through her textbooks in search of answers.

Liu Weidong, meanwhile, sat at the table and continued writing. Beneath the dim yellow light, the little house was filled with quiet peace.

Early the next morning, Liu Weidong deliberately left the house with the sisters and stopped at a newsstand to check the Riverside Daily. Sure enough, on the second page he found Lou Yanru’s exclusive interview, “Phoenixes in Flight—Lou Qing, a Young Female Writer from the Depths of Mount Daqing,” accompanied by a photograph of Lou Yanru.

In pursuit of an artistic effect, the photographer had taken the picture in profile against the light. The gentle curves of Lou Yanru’s face had become a delicate silhouette in the backlighting.

Grinning from ear to ear, Liu Weidong bought the newspaper and took it straight home, where he pasted it onto the wall.

His efforts to turn his wife into a literary young woman were beginning to bear fruit. With the novel as a foundation, getting into a teachers’ college ought to be effortless. He had made her dream of attending university a reality. All that remained was to start a business.

Keep going!

At first, Liu Weidong had intended to ask Manager Wang about selling the ginseng and antiques, but after thinking it over, he abandoned the idea. Chasing after someone was no way to do business; it would be improper to keep pressing him.

The planting would have to wait until Wang Jianguo finished cutting the trees and received payment. The machinery factory was still waiting for its parts, too. Liu Weidong suddenly realized that he had actually become idle.

He sat down at the table and continued working on his writing. The novel and the film intertwined with each other, and he had taken special care to avoid overly sensitive dialogue, writing instead in a restrained and subtle style. It suited a female author even better.

By noon, Liu Weidong’s arms were sore with exhaustion. He stretched, picked up his briefcase, mounted his bicycle, and rode out of the courtyard.

At the state-owned grocery store, he bought pork head meat, white liquor, and twisted pastries. He also bought a pack of Great Production cigarettes, then cycled toward Red Star Farm.

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The distance from the city to Red Star Farm was more than twenty li. By the time Liu Weidong reached the farm, it was already half past two in the afternoon.

The sentry post at the cadre school entrance had been removed. Although the great iron gates were still closed, the guards’ attitude was clearly much better than last time.

As luck would have it, the same guard who had brought Liu Weidong inside before was on duty again.

“Not bad, this son-in-law of yours. It hasn’t even been half a month, and you’re already here to see your father-in-law again. This time you don’t need to go to the visitors’ room. Lou Nan is herding cattle by the river. Just go over and find him yourself. Don’t stay too long.”

Liu Weidong hurriedly slipped two packs of cigarettes into the guard’s pocket, then ran toward the river.

Red Star Farm was much like a production brigade. Its main business was farming. Before he even reached the riverbank, he could already see several cattle grazing on the mudflats.

Liu Weidong did not call out, because he had already spotted Lou Nan.

Wearing a straw hat, Lou Nan sat on a large rock beside the river. He held a notebook and was writing something with intense concentration. Even when Liu Weidong came up behind him, he did not notice.

Looking over Lou Nan’s shoulder, Liu Weidong could see that he was writing a report on promoting agricultural mechanization.

“Dad…”

Liu Weidong called softly. Lou Nan jumped and quickly stuffed the notebook into his pocket. When he turned and saw Liu Weidong, he let out a long breath of relief.

“It’s you, Weidong? How did you manage to make no sound at all? You scared me half to death.”

“Dad, I saw that you were writing a report on mechanized cooperatives. Why did you come up with that idea? If everyone used tractors to plow the fields, wouldn’t the commune members have nothing to do? How would work points be calculated?”

Lou Nan adjusted the frame of his glasses, and a gleam flashed through his eyes.

“Weidong, the true purpose of liberating the productive forces is to create more surplus value. Land is lifeless, but people are not. If the countryside wants to develop, diversified economic activity is the only way forward.”

Liu Weidong took the pork head meat and white liquor from his bag.

“Dad, people have to move with government policy. Once the Third Plenary Session is held at the end of the year, national policy will undergo earth-shaking changes. The household contract responsibility system will be introduced, and the land will be assigned to the farmers. So what you’re working on…”

Lou Nan frowned. “Isn’t that just the Three Freedoms and One Contract, which was so harshly criticized back then? Are you saying that land policy will eventually move in that direction?”

Liu Weidong nodded. “At least judging from the current situation, the household contract responsibility system is the only way to solve the abuses of the communal pot and fully mobilize the farmers’ enthusiasm, so that those who till the land will have land of their own.”

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“However, once the household contract responsibility system is implemented, what farmers care about most will certainly be their own small plot of land. By then, the phrase ‘contracted production’ may…”

Lou Nan lifted the bottle and took a large swallow. The liquor was so harsh that tears sprang into his eyes.

“Weidong, even as a mere hypothesis, your idea is worth deep consideration. From the days when every mountain and river was painted red during the movement to the policy shifts of today, the changes have come too quickly. They are difficult for people to adapt to.

“Although I was one of the victims of that movement, my original commitment to the country has never changed. I’ve spent more than two years shut away on this farm, and I don’t really understand how the outside world has changed. I need to change myself and catch up with the times as quickly as possible.”

From Lou Nan’s eyes, Liu Weidong read a trace of bitterness and helplessness.

He sat with his father-in-law for an hour, saying little and mostly listening as Lou Nan spoke drunkenly and vented his grievances. Liu Weidong knew very well that the faith in Lou Nan’s heart had collapsed.

By the time Liu Weidong left, Lou Nan had fallen asleep, lying on the Ox- Reclining Stone. Of the bottle of Jiangcheng Mei that Liu Weidong had brought him, Lou Nan had drunk only half. The rest had been spilled across the grass.

As he cycled home, Liu Weidong’s emotions were tangled.

Many years later, people would have different opinions about this era. But there was one thing Liu Weidong understood clearly: this age would rapidly raise the productive forces and lead ordinary people, in great strides, into a new era. It would also create capitalists.

That outcome was something Lou Nan and his generation could never accept.

A gentleman loves wealth but acquires it honorably. In his previous life, some people became rich overnight, while others were ruined just as quickly. Those who grew wealthy without compassion or conscience mostly went on to become famous entrepreneurs and prominent figures in society.

But the reckoning came suddenly in the end. The property market collapsed, e-commerce displaced the real economy, corruption was purged, and capital fled overseas. Quite a few tycoons he knew had met with disaster.

How could he develop rapidly after his rebirth while keeping his enterprise clean and above reproach? Liu Weidong had been racking his brains over the question for a long time. Now, at last, he had begun to see a possible answer.

By the time he cycled back to the city, darkness was nearly falling. The roads were crowded with pedestrians and bicycles. Liu Weidong simply left his bicycle by the river and watched the sun sink over the long waterway, the sky ablaze with clouds of rosy light.

At that hour, cars were forbidden on Songjiang Road. An army of bicycles had packed the street so tightly that not even a drop of water could pass through. Such a multitude of bicycles crammed together was something the countryside could never have seen. Perhaps this was the vast difference between the city and the countryside.

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