The Dragon's Village: An Autobiographical Novel of Revolutionary China Read Online Free PDF Page B

Communists? They are horrible people. Did you see the latest pictures in the
Morning Post
? The terrible things they are doing! Everybody is organized—men, women, and children. Endless meetings and demonstrations. My father says that when the Communists come in, that will be the end of polite society. I don’t want to see that day. I can’t wait to leave.”
    I suddenly hated to see her diamond earrings glittering and splintering iridescent light into my eyes. I wanted to do something she would never dare, to really outdo her. The words came tumbling out, as they too often did with me, before I had really thought out what I wanted to say.
    â€œSuppose I wanted to find out if they are really as awful as you think?”
    â€œHow?” she asked, intrigued, but still with a dazzling smile, hardly understanding what I meant.
    â€œI may stay on for a while—how about that? You know, to see what happens.”
    â€œYou must be out of your mind,” she exclaimed in genuine astonishment. I got some satisfaction from shocking her out of her complacency. I had found a game in which she couldn’t compete with me. She and the other girls would run away like rabbits from the revolution, but not me.
    Lily pouted silently for a while. When she had drunk up her wine, she rose and said to me, “It’s time to go. I hope that whatever you do, you’ll take your aunt and uncle into consideration. They love you. And who knows, you may change your mind.” We crossed the room to join the others.
    â€œAh, yes, it’s time to go home. My son Bob will be getting worried,” said Madame Lu, getting up from her seat.“Tonight it’s a little too quiet here. Is something going to happen?”
    â€œDon’t worry. They won’t fight here,” said Mr. Li. “It’s just a show. Our handsome general is already shipping his soldiers off to Taiwan. They’re throwing in the sponge.”
    â€œWhat are your plans now?” Madame Lu asked him.
    â€œWe have a month or so left to decide. No good leaving a decision till the last minute,” he answered matter-of-factly.
    â€œIt seems that most of us are doing the same thing,” added my aunt. “It’s hard to decide to move away for good. It’s a tragedy.”
    â€œYes, a tragedy. But thank God this fighting is coming to an end. This endless fighting and killing! Civil war has been going on for nearly twenty years!” said the banker.
    When we opened the front door to the quiet spring evening outside we could hear muffled thuds that sounded like distant thunder. It was the first time we had heard distinct and systematic gunfire. The chattering of farewells ceased as we strained to listen. For a moment we were all silent. Finally the banker threw up his arms as if to say, “It’s all in the lap of the Gods.” Then he seized Lily by the arm and rushed her off saying, “I’ll drive you home. It’s not safe.”
    Her diamond earrings caught the light of a street lamp and flashed. She giggled at something he said as he bundled her into his big black car.

3   
I Choose My Future
    Events moved with lightning speed in the next few weeks. The fall of Hangzhou on May 3 cut the railway to the South, leaving only a hazardous roadway link by land. Airplanes and ships leaving the city were packed as the well-to-do rushed to evacuate. The poor and bewildered piled their few belongings onto carts and rickshaws and pedicabs and scattered into the surrounding countryside to await the end of the crisis. The really poor, with nothing to lose, simply closed their doors and sat inside their hovels. The foreigners who had dominated the city for a century sold what they could and left the rest in a mass exit. At one point gunfire drew near enough to rattle the windows in our living room.
    In ones and twos and small groups, Guomindang soldiers straggled into the city where they threw away