Your Grandpa Betrayed My Grandpa

When I was little and my father lost patience with me, he would say, “If I’d acted the way you’re doing now,your grandpa would’ve beaten me into the ground.” Even though my father had already beaten me into the ground many times, he still believed that, compared with my grandfather,he was the pinnacle of kindness.

My father said my grandfather was called Wang Jiwen.When he was young, he was peerlessly strong.Once, when he was ploughing for his landlord, the water buffalo wouldn’t listen to his commands, so in a fit of anger he held it down in the paddy until it suffocated.The landlord tried to chase him down and kill him, so he joined the revolutionary army.He became a division commander and died far from home.

Back then, a wooden board stood in one corner of our family altar.On it were six characters written with a calligraphy brush, which read, “Honor and glory to the families of revolutionary martyrs.”When my father finished telling my grandfather’s life story, he would take out a cloth and wipe the dust from the board, his face full of devotion.

Even though my father always outlined my grandfather’s life in just a few sentences, I never grew tired of hearing about him.I was most interested in how my grandfather ultimately died.I would pester my father, asking:

“How did grandpa die?”

“He was carrying two wounded soldiers during the Long March.He would set one down, and then go back for the other one, so it was like doing the Long March twice.In the end, he just dropped dead from exhaustion.”

What bothered me was that my father gave a different answer each time:

“How did grandpa die?”

“He killed a hundred Japanese devils in one go.Then another snuck up on him from behind and stabbed him to death with a bayonet.”

“How did grandpa die?”

“He was cornered by the Japanese devils and jumped off a cliff.”

As I learned more and more about history, I figured out he was simply blathering nonsense.For instance, he sometimes replied:

“Your grandpa ran under the enemy’s bunker with an explosive pack, but there was no place to put it down.In desperation, he ignited the fuse and raised it above his head.”

“Who are you kidding? That was Dong Cunrui.”

“You grandpa went and blocked a machine gun slit…”

“That was Huang Jiguang.”

“Your grandpa caught fire…”

“Qiu Shaoyun!”

At last, there came the day when my father told me the truth.

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That day, I was once again pestering my father with questions when we bumped into Lao Qin from next door.He strolled right past us, laughing and shaking his head.My father and Lao Qin had never been on good terms.They often quarreled.The previous day, they’d had a fight over the ownership of a hen.Both sides were yelling: “Don’t hold me, I’m gonna kill him!” In reality, others did try to stop them at first, but after they’d been at it for too long, everybody got tired and went home.Thus, the two of them were left yelling in vain: “Don’t hold me, I’m going to kill him!” In the end,they yelled themselves hoarse and went home to sleep.

“Didn’t you always want to know how your grandfather died?”Watching Lao Qin’s retreating figure,my father was suddenly serious.“Your grandfather was actually sent to his death by Lao Qin’s father, Lao LaoQin.The Japanese devils came to our village in pursuit of the Eighth Route Army, and your grandfather hid in a cave on the back side of the mountain.A turncoat translatorofficial found Lao Lao Qin sowing seed in the field and asked where Wang Jiwen went.Lao Lao Qin just flicked his eyes toward the back of the mountain.That was how the devils pulled your grandfather from the cave and shot him dead.”

That sounded very credible to me.I decided to ignore Lao Qin from then on.But Lao Qin’s daughter, Xiao Hong, was harder to handle.

Xiao Hong was my classmate.She often copied my homework, and said that as long as I let her keep copying, she would marry me when we grew up.Even though Xiao Hong was a tomboy and often ran around with the boys, I had the vague sense that she was rather attractive, and perhaps could consider marrying her.But after I learned the truth,Xiao Hong became my class enemy.I decided I would never let her copy my homework again.

“Come on, just let me copy it.I’ll give you a marble,” she pleaded.

“No.”

“I’ll give you 1.5 marbles, and next time I copy I’ll give you another 1.5,so you can have three in all.”

“No.”

“And why not?”

“Because your grandpa betrayed my grandpa.”

“That’s bullshit! My grandpa was Qin Jiwei, a general in the People’s Liberation Army.How could he have betrayed your grandpa?”

“No, you’re bullshitting! Your grandfather is a traitor who sold out our country!”

Done with listening, Xiao Hong grabbed the exercise book and swung it at my head.I gave chase in order to hit her back.

Xiao Hong sprinted past the edge of the village and onto the narrow paths through the fields.Following the contours of the hill paddies,she jumped up and down between terraces.She was an early bloomer and stronger than me.I followed behind her, but though I did my best,I couldn’t catch up.When I stopped to catch my breath, she would also stop to catch her breath; when I broke into a sprint, she also broke into a sprint.

Chasing and resting this way, we ran severallito the neighboring village.The light was rapidly fading.Exhausted and dismayed, I let out a wild howl—aughhh! I don’t know if it was my sudden abandon that shook her, but she stumbled and fell to the ground.I closed the distance with a large stride and swung a leg over her,pinning her down.I snatched up a hard lump of clay from the field and lifted it overhead.Xiao Hong hurriedly raised her hands to protect her head.

“Are you going to say it or not? If you don’t, I’ll smash you to death!”

“Say what?”

“Say that your grandpa betrayed my grandpa!”

“Your grandpa betrayed my grandpa!”

“No, I want you to say, my grandpa betrayed your grandpa.”

“But I’m saying your grandpa betrayed my grandpa.”

“Stop messing with me! If you don’t say it I’m really gonna smash your face in!”

“Alright alright! My grandpa betrayed your grandpa.”

I tossed aside the clump of mud and stood up, ready to start walking back.Who knew that Xiao Hong would pick up the clod and hurl it at the back of my head? It connected, and blood came trickling down my neck.Clutching my head and crying, I ran home.

My father didn’t approve of my valiant defense of my grandfather’s honor.Quite the opposite: The next day at dawn, when I was barely awake,he cornered me and barked, “Kneel down!”

“Why?”

“I said, kneel down!” Fixing me with a glare, he said, “If your grandfather were still alive, he would’ve long since beaten your head bloody.”

“But my head is already bleeding.”

“A little girl smashed your skull, and you still have the face to say that?”

When he saw that I wasn’t going to kneel, he rushed over and swept my legs out from under me with a single kick.

I didn’t give in, struggling back to my feet.Once again, he swept my legs out from under me.

“For what? How did Wang Jiwen produce a useless coward like you?” I spat through clenched teeth.

My father exploded in fury.He grabbed a nearby stool and swung it toward my head, shrugging off my mother’s attempts to stop him.So I ended up with another wound on mygauze-wrapped head.My mother couldn’t restrain her anger and got into a huge argument with my father.

“How dare he use Wang Jiwen’s name!” My father shouted.

“So what if he did?” My mother retorted.

Finally my mother took the board that said “Honor and glory to the family of revolutionary martyrs” and tossed it into the cooking fire.

My father actually started crying.I had never seen him cry.As he cried,he started taking off his shoe to thrash my mother, but a neighbor intervened to stop him.“Don’t hold me, I’m gonna kill her!” His voice was hoarse and raspy.

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After that, I never bothered my father with questions about my grandfather again.And my father more or less stopped bringing him up.Xiao Hong still copied my homework,but she never mentioned marriage again.Just like that, more than a decade flashed by.

Not so long ago, I had dinner with a group of friends.One of them introduced himself as Wang Jiwen.At first, the name only sounded familiar,but when I got back to my apartment,I recalled that my grandfather was also called Wang Jiwen.I suddenly realized that I could look online to see if such a person existed.Baidu asked me, “Did you mean to search 王吉文?” When I opened that Baidu page, I found to my astonishment that this commander of the East China Field Army’s Third Column, Eighth Division, was born in our village! I rushed to call my father.

“Was grandfather really Wang Jiwen?” My hands were trembling in excitement.

“You’ve only just found out?” My father snapped.

“But grandfather’s headstone says王吉聞, wouldn’t it be 文, as in‘literature,’ instead?”

“That’s because back when I was putting up the headstone, I thought there weren’t enough strokes in 文 and it wouldn’t look good, so I changed it.”

“If that’s how it is, why didn’t you change it to 璺, as in the phrase‘getting to the bottom of things?’”

“That’s enough! Stop showing off the fact that you’ve read a few books.Why are you asking all of a sudden?”

“No reason, just curious.”

“You’re almost 30, can’t you take things seriously for a change?”

“It said online that Wang Jiwen died in Jinan during the War of Liberation.How could he be buried in our village?”

“I don’t know, from my earliest recollection your grandmother would take us to sweep that grave each year during the Tomb-Sweeping Festival.There wasn’t a headstone back then,just a mound.Aiya, this stuff is older than the hills, why the hell are you still asking? Have you gotten a raise yet?”

I was disheartened by my father’s indifference.It’s a pity that my grandmother died of illness when I was 3, or I could’ve asked her.After I hung up, I felt a great sense of loss,as if the grandfather I had barely managed to revive had died again before my eyes.

Just then I saw Xiao Hong’s profile picture light up on QQ.I sent her a message:Your grandpa betrayed my grandpa.I wanted to see if she still remembered the events of our childhood.

“What are you going on about?”

“Oh, it’s nothing,” I rushed to explain.“It’s the title of a short story,I just sent it to the wrong person.”

“Ha, still writing those stories?Maybe you’ll win the Nobel Prize in Literature one of these days,” Xiao Hong teased.“You sure are busy now; you didn’t even show up when I asked you to my wedding.How are you doing in Beijing? What’s your salary now?”