Soon, the “first” meaningful Mid-Autumn Festival came after Liu Chengyin

    started working in Chu County.

    His wife, Su Hua, especially took half a day off from school①    and went to Xianghe Village. She wanted to bring her parents-in-law to the town so that the whole family could have a reunion during the festival. Last year, when Liu Chengyin had just been transferred to Chu County, he had to quickly settle in with his small family and get familiar with the county while taking on his new role as the leader. So he had no mood to enjoy the real first Mid-Autumn Festival. At that time, Su Hua had already decided that the next year’s Mid-Autumn Festival must be celebrated well with the whole family.

    First of all, she did this to make her parents-in-law happy. In the past, she and her husband worked in Qingjiang, hundreds of miles away. It was rare for her parents-in-law to visit,and even when they did, it was only for a day or two. They would always say that they were feeling somewhat insecure of their home, their chickens, their pigs, their vegetable plot, and their crops. But now that she and her husband were working in Chu County, they were closer to her parents-in-law, making it much far easier for them to visit and stay.

    Another reason for Su Hua’s action was to make her husband, Liu Chengyin, happy. After all, Liu Chengyin was well known in Xianghe Village for being filial. Every year during the Lunar New Year, he would take his wife and children back to his hometown in Xianghe to celebrate with his parents. This was easy, like downhill, as men must be back from a longer voyage for the holiday. However, every year during Pure Brightness Day, Liu Chengyin would return to his hometown to sacrifice his grandfather, too, for whom, though he had passed away, Liu Chengyin still made an effort to come back every year, no matter how busy he was. In all these years,he had never missed a visit. Sometimes, when Su Hua was unable to come along for some reason, even though Liu Chengyin would feel a bit unhappy; after all, as a leader, he could preach a homily on it. He believed that it was the most important to dog his heels and curtsy and then to kowtow to his grandfather. Grandfather gone, but parents there, though not older enough, yet still in the wane, and to set them up was his favorite. Su Hua noticed that her husband was becoming more and more attentive to his parents lately.

    Su Hua took the initiative to bring her parents-in-law from the countryside into the town for Mid-Autumn Festival, for which Liu Chengyin was swooning with inner joy. However, he was not used to celebrating Mid-Autumn Festival. Scheduled full that day, he promised to come back for dinner and have a nice reunion meal with his family, since his wife had arranged everything so thoughtfully. After explaining this to his wife, he left the house, pushing his black Forever Bicycle with a large black leather bag hanging from the handlebars.

    This left an important task on the shoulders of the keeper, Old Chen: taking little Liu Yong to kindergarten. Although Su Hua was usually the one responsible for picking up and dropping off their son, there were always exceptions. Of sure certainty, Old Chen occasionally helped out, and Su Hua trusted him with this.

    Old Chen, shy of his sixty, had been working in the county committee office as a keeper for many years. Of a small nose, small eyes, small stature, with the tenuity of a few hairs, Lord knew what was below the commonness of his visage could attain, an ungainly sprat in the county committee organization——who, under low opinion of none, for he was running wide open to anybody——he had a bunch of keys hanging from his waist, free access to every office, from the office of Liu Chengyin, the top leader of the county committee, to every keeper’s office. He was usually the first to arrive and last to leave his office. Because his job here was to serve the leaders, sometimes, when Liu Chengyin encountered special situations, he might come earlier and leave later. Old Chen knew that he could not let Secretary Liu come and not be able to drink a cup of tea in time; so he naturally came earlier to clean up Secretary Liu’s office and create a terse but refreshful environment for him to start his daily work. If Secretary Liu left late, old Chen would have to wait to exert a sparing action on where there was no one to help Secretary Liu when he sang out to something. At this time, Mr. Chen definitely couldn’t leave.

    The first thing old Chen did when he went to duty was to open the doors and windows of the County Committee leaders’ offices one by one, sweep the floors, wipe the tables and chairs, and tidy up the offices. He would sort out the newspapers scattered on the table and place them neatly on the bookshelves. He also arranged the books and magazines originally scattered, some of which were placedby him in the bookcases and some on the leaders’ desks——and suchlike——from east to west: the office of the County Committee Secretary Liu, several deputy secretaries’ offices, as well as the office of the director and deputy director of the County Committee Office, and finally the conference room of the Standing Committee of the County. Of course, there were more offices than these within the County Committee agency. For example, the offices of the chiefs, deputy chiefs, and keepers: they had to clean their offices by themselves. Old Chen was only responsible for the leaders’ offices. When he finished organizing all the affairs in the leaders’ offices, he would put the empty

    hot water bottles collected from these offices on a small trailer and push it out of the backdoor of the County Committee Office to the nearby canteen to get boiling water.

    It was said that when Chu County had been first liberated, old Chen followed the county committee secretary as an intelligencer. The secretary saw that he was obligingly efficient, didn’t speak out of turn, and was disciplined and pleased with it. One day, the county committee secretary asked a question, “Little Chen, do you think Communist Party is good or the Nationalist Party is good?” At that time, old Chen was still a brock, and no one called him “old Chen” yet.

    The county committee secretary was a member of the New Fourth Army and had led troops to attack Chu County. After the county was taken, there was no suitable candidate for the county committee secretary, so they had this regiment commander of the New Fourth Army take the position. This county committee secretary from the New Fourth Army had high demands for the political consciousness of his staff. Old Chen, just out of his home recently, didn’t even know how to write his own name. All he knew was to serve the leaders labouriously as a tough egg, and never to talk back. How could he have thought anything about the Communist Party and the Nationalist Party?

    In a conscientious thought, little Chen confidently told the county committee secretary, “These two sons of bitches! Neither is good at all!” Faced with this answer, the secretary, at a loss whether to cry or laugh, reached out and slapped little Chen on the head, saying, “You fool, you have no political consciousness.”

    The county committee secretary originally thought the young man following him was good and wanted to step him up. However, the trial was sour. How could the intelligencer of the county committee secretary be a rattlehead who couldn’t even distinguish between friends and foes? As a result, not only did little Chen not get promoted, also lost his job as the intelligencer, who, by one word of the secretary, was changed into a keeper for logistics work in the county party office. He became a sweet, deplorable gag——sweet for his being too fuzzy; how could he not distinguish between the Communist Party and the Nationalist Party? And deplorable for him because the county committee secretary had seen his potential, yet he should have missed this first starter up higher to another. Once this step is taken, he could have good prospects. People always said that misfortune may be a blessing in disguise, but for little Chen, it was a case of blessing turning into misfortune. How could people not feel sorry for him?

    Little Chen didn’t feel particularly regretful about anything, but felt a bit embarrassed that he couldn’t answer the questions asked by the county committee secretary. Little Chen didn’t think there was anything wrong with the transition from an intelligencer to a keeper at first, but before he realized it, several decades had already passed in the blink of an eye. Those familiar with it knew that since Liu Chengyin became the county committee secretary, old Chen has worked for five County Committee Secretaries. The former little Chen had now become old Chen.

    Such an honest hardworking old Chen had actually made a slip.

    Liu Yong’s mom went to pick up his grandpa and grandma in Xianghe Village early in the morning, and his dad went to work. At this time, little Yong was alone at home waiting for old Chen to come and take him to the government-run kindergarten. Liu Yong knew that old Chen lived nearby and it wouldn’t take much time to get to Liu Yong’s house; it was only a few steps away.

    Before leaving, mom helped Liu Yong pack his schoolbag and reminded him not to be naughty and to wait for old Chen at home, who would be there soon. Dad encouraged Liu Yong to behave well at the kindergarten today and try to bring home a little red flower, so they could all have a happy Mid-Autumn Festival with grandpa and grandma.

    Liu Yong listened carefully to his parents’ words and was excited that grandpa and grandma would celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival with him. Every time they came to town, they would bring a lot of sweet potatoes, yams, pumpkins, and other vegetables grown themselves. After cooking, they were soft, sweet, and tasty. Liu Yong had already decided that he would behave well today and bring back a little red flower as his dad had said, to give to grandpa and grandma and make them happy. He knew that the teachers at the government-run kindergarten had high expectations of the children and that the little red flower was not something that anyone could get just by a hope of it.

    “Yes, think about how to behave today to satisfy the teacher and earn the little red flower that all the kids want. Just listen to the teacher and keep in order, and

    more, attend the lecture, answer the teacher’s questions actively, help other kids, and more in good deeds.” Liu Yong was brainstorming when he heard a a rat-a-tat on the gate.

    “Grandpa Chen!” Liu Yong thought it was the keeper, old Chen, at first. He walked out of the house and was about to open the gate when he heard a few honks from outside.

    These honks confused Liu Yong like a blindman’s buff, that couldn’t figure out what was happening outside the gate. He cautiously opened the crevice gate, and rubbernecked outside. Younger child as he was, and only for infant home, he stood quite alert.

    Of course, these were what parents ever taught. After arriving in Chu County, there were always those who solicited help or sought personal connections to get closer to the county committee secretary Liu Chengyin. Even though they had only spoken in starts to Liu Chengyin, they would always run to his house and offer stuff like this or that, for which Liu Chengyin was in melancholy. Liu Chengyin, none of a presentee! This was a code of etiquette and formality established in his home for many years as a leader, that must not get fresh since he was the Deputy Party Secretary in Qingjiang, and now that he had come to Chu County as the top leader, he emphasized it even more strictly.

    His wife, Su Hua, functioning in tandem with her husband, suited Liu Chengyin, for which Liu Chengyin was strong-willed outside. As the saying went, gifts blinded the eyes. Especially for him, who had not been the county committee secretary of Chu County for very long, if he kept receiving gifts from this or that, now and then, how could he carry out his work? How could he open up the work situation in Chu County according to the requirements of the superiors? How could he handle problems fair in his work? And when the interests of the common people were violated, how could he speak up for them? As an official, if he didn’t work for the people, he might as well go home and sell potatoes. Even a seventh-rank civic gewgaw in the feudal era had such thoughts, let alone him, Liu Chengyin, a county committee secretary who had been educated and trained by the Communist Party for

    many years.

    His wife understood and strictly followed this bottom line set by Liu Chengyin. However, it was much more difficult for their son, little Liu Yong. Indeed, Liu Chengyin couldn’t expect his son, who had just started attending kindergarten, to understand his ideas about how to be an official. But the problem was that sometimes little Liu Yong would be left alone at home after Liu Chengyin started working in Chu County. As the county committee secretary of over a million people, Liu Chengyin’s work schedule was unpredictable and the eight-hour workday simply won’t work for him. While Su Hua was not particularly busy working at the county teacher training school, there were inevitably some special occasions, such as occasional overtime, meetings, and early departures or late returns. Fortunately, they had the help of old Chen to shuttle their son to and from nursery school. However, old Chen couldn’t solve another problem: what should little Liu Yong do if someone came to the gate with gifts while he was alone at home?

    For this matter, Liu Chengyin and his wife had really put in a lot of effort. They started by educating their son about home security and, vigilant against evil counselors, who, decidedly, was brought home what they meant to be thieves and burglars. They instructed little Liu Yong to lock the gate and doors and windows when he was home alone and let no thieves in. Hearing a rap on the gate, he should not open it easily. Sometimes, when bad guys knew that only a child was in the home, they would rush in to spoil the goods. Moreover, the couple even demonstrated in person, leaving little Liu Yong alone at home and then knocking on the gate from outside, teaching him how to judge, how to ask questions, and whether to open the gate.

    And now, facing the rat-a-tat on the gate and the honkings of the goose outside the courtyard gate, little Liu Yong used the set of anti-thief methods that his parents had taught him. He didn’t open the courtyard gate immediately but quietly opened a crack and looked outside. He saw a man standing outside the gate, holding a basket in one hand and a large white goose in the other. Little Liu Yong’s first reaction was that he was a stranger. He quickly slammed the courtyard gate.

    “Who are you? Why knock?” Liu Yong shouted through the gate.

    “I am……” before the stranger had a chance to open his mouth, old Chen’s shout stroke his ear from outside, “Little Yong, it’s me, Grandpa Chen. Take you to school.”

    “Grandpa Chen, Grandpa Chen, you’re here!” Liu Yong knew enough about old Chen’s voice, and the gate was laid open immediately.

    As soon as old Chen entered, the stranger outside the gate with a basket of eggs and a large white goose followed closely behind, wanting to come in as well.

    “No entry allowed!” Liu Yong blocked the stranger at the gate.

    “Whee…… I am……” The stranger made to speak and then stopped, making Liu Yong feel that he was not a goodfellow, so his guard went up immediately again.

    “Little Yong, here’s what it is. Your mother goes to the country to pick up your grandparents today and has no time to go to the market to buy groceries. Before she left, she asked me to buy a goose and a few jin of eggs. It’s Mid-Autumn Festival, and your mother wants to cook a few more dishes tonight. Afraid it delays your school time, so I asked a friend from the market to help deliver what your mother needed.” Old Chen explained to Liu Yong as he took the goose and eggs from his friend and walked towards Liu Yong’s house. The large white goose “gaggle, gaggle……”, as it was delivered between the two of them.

    “Ah, that’s how it is! I thought someone made dad a present. Grandpa Chen, dad and mom told me I’ll be punished if I accept gifts from others.” By then, Liu Yong was relieved and let out a sigh of relief. He no longer cared about the noisy big white goose, picked up his small school bag, and went to the government-run kindergarten with grandpa Chen.

    Tonight, Liu Chengyin’s home was quite alive with the hurry.

    Originally scheduled to visit a factory, Liu Chengyin looked at his watch and realized it was almost time to finish work. He turned to his secretary, little Jin, “Call Director Zhou, tell him not to wait any longer. We’ll go see him tomorrow morning.” These days, Liu Chengyin, accompanied by his assistant, Jin Aiguo, had been inspecting the county’s key enterprises in the urban area, getting into the swing of things; and most importantly, whether the targets set by the county had been accomplished and if there are any gaps. If gapped, what measures had been taken to make them up? As the county committee secretary, he must be well understood. It should be noted that none of the directors of these key county-owned enterprises was recalcitrant to. However, no matter how they had schemed this way or that, there was always one bottom line for Liu Chengyin to uphold——the three major targets of production, sales, and taxes for each key county-owned enterprise must be completed. Of course, exceeding the targets was even better, as more was always better.

    After Jin Aiguo made a call to Zhou Jinmin, the director of the fertilizer plant, and arranged to visit the plant tomorrow, Liu Chengyin ever committed the rarity of not back to his office, but rode his bike directly home.

    Jin Aiguo knew that whenever Liu Chengyin went to the countryside or inspected enterprises and departments, he would always return to his office before finishing the daily work. Jin Aiguo didn’t know that this was a habit that Liu Chengyin had developed over many years as a leading cadre. He wanted to check if there were any important documents or letters on his desk at the end of the day that needed to be handled. There usually weren’t any important documents because the county’s confidential office was specifically responsible for that. Besides, the office director would also promptly report to him if there were any. However, there were some important complaint letters that, if not handled carefully, could fall into a submissive position. If the superiors’ memorandum came down, it might be too late to handle them till tomorrow, which would register rankly.

    When Liu Chengyin pushed his bike through the gate, there was already laughter and occasional goose honkings coming from the courtyard. The first to greet him was his popsy son. “Daddy back, daddy back!” Liu Yong jumped up and down and ran towards Liu Chengyin as he entered the gate.

    “Dad, Mom, you’re here!” Liu Chengyin parked his Black Forever Bicycle against the wall and turned to greet his parents who were cracking melon seeds and chatting in the living room. Before his parents, Liu spoke not in a refined accent of mandarin, only natural by Xianghe’s local speechways.

    “You’re back. Only two more dishes, braised pork with taro, and braised chicken with water chestnuts. Dine once cooked.” Su Hua came out of the small kitchen in the courtyard when she heard her husband’s voice. She took the black leather bag from his hand and put it in their room.

    “When you arrive?” Liu Chengyin sat down next to his parents, holding his little heart’s hand. Liu Chunyu and Yang Xuehua, sitting on the sofa, were about to stand up when they saw their son, who was now the county committee secretary,come in. However, they were stopped by their grandson’s tug. “Grandpa and grandma, pleasesit.”

    “Hoy hoy, propriety over my little Liu Yong,” Liu Chunyu laughed gleefully, hugging his sweet grandson. He then turned to his son and said, “We came soon as we finished lunch. It costed Su Hua quite a bit to take a taxi.” In their eyes, taking a taxi was quite expensive, and stingy, even though their son was now the county committee secretary. Liu Chunyu had been a farmer most of his life, tempered to sparingness.

    “Little money. Parents wanted to wait for the ‘tuk-tuk’①   (a common three- wheeled motor vehicle in rural areas with a tin roof and poor safety performance), but I didn’t think it was safe. Besides, they brought so many taros, yams, and a few small chickens, and there would be no room to place all of them in a ‘tuk- tuk’.” Su Hua knew exactly how she should behave as a daughter-in-law at this hour. Moreover, her parents-in-laws always brought a lot of farm produce whenever they came to the city, and her husband, son, and herself all loved to eat them. As a daughter-in-law, she was sublimely satisfied with such parents-in-laws.

    “They all grew in the plot of land, not worth much. As you like to eat, your dad and I purvey ‘em. We are not too old to tend the land. Besides, our little Yong even got a little red flower at kindergarten, you know? Stamped so well, how could grandpa and grandma not want to bring a few taros and yams for him?” The grandma brought it into a praise about her grandson’s good behaviour in front of Liu Chengyin.

    “Grandma, grandma, a chick.” Little Liu Yong shot from grandpa’s arms to grandma’s. Yang Xuehua kissed her grandson’s cheeks repeatedly, “Fine, more chicks. My little Yong is such a little foodie!”

    “O ho,oho—” The family in merry spleen.

    Su Hua suddenly stepped out of the living room and said to her husband, “Oops, I was too distracted to talk and forgot two main dishes in the pot.”

    “Tame, tame. What sort of it, we take it.” Liu Chengyin looked at the merrily grooved parents in smile, felt a sense of warmth and happiness. At such a moment, it didn’t matter what they ate, as long as the family was together.

    After dinner, Liu Chunyu set up a small table in the yard and instructed Su Hua to put out the prepared mooncakes, apples, and other treats and light an incense stick.

    “Yong, come on, let’s worship the Moon Goddess.” Led by grandpa, the family stood in front of the table with their hands clasped, saluting the moon. It was quite novel for little Liu Yong to worship Moon Goddess for the first time.

    “Grandpa, grandpa, are we worshiping Chang’e in the Moon?” In kindergarten, Liu Yong had heard about the story of “Chang’e Flying to the Moon” from his teacher.

    “Of course we should pay our respects to Chang’e, but there are not only Chang’e on the moon. There’s also Wu Gang, who’s always chopping down the osmanthus trees, and the Jade Rabbit always by Chang’e’s side. We should also worship them,” Su Hua patiently tutored her son. Suddenly, a long and noisy goose “honk” interrupted them. Only then did Liu Chengyin notice a big white goose tied up in the corner of the courtyard. “So many things? Sweet potatoes, taros, roosters, and even a big goose. Little Yong did get a small red flower, but so marred too,” Liu Chengyin blamed yet sported secretly. Before leaving home today, he just casually reminded his son to behave well in kindergarten and make his grandparents happy. He didn’t expect the little guy to really bring back a small red flower.

    “O, pity, we can’t take all the credit for ourselves. This big goose’s not what we brought. We do have two big white geese, but kept to lay big eggs for our little Yong. I can’t bear to send them out,” Yang Xuehua explained. Liu Chengyin was puzzled by her words and asked his wife, “What’s going on?” This question changed the joyful, relaxed atmosphere of the house. Su Hua hesitated to answer her husband, gently tugging at his sleeve and whispering, “I’ll tell you tomorrow after mom and dad leave.” Liu Chengyin took this smile off his face spontaneously, “What have we here? So complicated and hard telling me where that big goose’s from?”

    He vaguely realized that the big white goose in the yard must have been a gift from someone else. This was absolutely not allowed to happen in his home! As his wife, Su Hua should have known better. Over the years, she had been very supportive of her husband’s work in keeping well with him for refusing gifts. This made Liu Chengyin, as a leading cadre, speak confidently, stand tall with a straight back, able to carry out his work smoothly, without being affected by any abnormal factors. Of course, there were still abnormal factors unavoidable completely, especially after Liu Chengyin was transferred to be the top leader of his hometown. There were quite a few people coming to seek favors, but this didn’t change Liu Chengyin’s principle of being fair in his work. His private understanding of his wife made the abnormal factors from the family become zero. This made Liu Chengyin, as a husband, deeply grateful to his wife from the bottom of his heart.

    To be honest, in this world, who’s lost the degree of personal associations or the shared interests and hobbies? Who could guarantee to be free of twists and turns, rendered by a hand?As the wife of the county committee secretary, Su Hua had more good ones closer around her. Su Hua was well aware of this, but she neither opened up her arms and made friends to form a first lady diplomatic circle, nor did she put on the airs of a county committee secretary’s wife and keep a wide berth to them, but with much tact. From what Liu Chengyin had known all along, his wife, of a really fine performance, had never given him any scabrous problem. But what about this big white goose before him? Liu Chengyin didn’t want to be driven slaphappy and chose not but go. So, he said to his wife, “Mom and dad are not strangers. Just straighten it out.”

    The parents could tell from their son’s tone that he was a bit annoyed over it, and lost the mood to worship the Moon Goddess with his grandson. They urged their daughter-in-law, “Su Hua, don’t stew up Chengyin. Just tell him the whole story, so he prejudges it.”

    When mom, dad, grandpa, and grandma started a remark to and fro about the big white goose, little Liu Yong was spooked behind his mother and dared not even look at his father. Mom had already got Liu Yong’s ears beaten back for the goose when she was back from Xianghe village. It turned out that Mom had never asked old Chen to help buy eggs or a goose at the market. No wonder the man they bumped into outside the gate that morning looked uneasy and stuttered when he spoke. “He was a gift-giver! Fortunately, I didn’t open the gate right away, or he would have easily come in. Ah, it’s all Grandpa Chen’s fault. He and the gift-giver teamed up to deceive me, never expected it. How pulling! Ears beaten back by Mom could stand, but dad, hardly squeezed through.”

    All night long, little Liu Yong was scrupling to father’s finding out the big white goose. Because a shirty dad was fair flaysome, and sometimes even into smart blows. Fortunately, today his grandpa and grandma were at home, so even if Liu Chengyin found out about the goose and got really angry, he wouldn’t beat Liu Yong. Even if he wanted to, grandpa and grandma wouldn’t let him. They doted on him too much to standby and watch him beaten. It looked like little Liu Yong was just about to make it through the night, but that stupid goose suddenly started honking by the wall! Now that his dad had spotted it, Liu Yong could only hide behind his mother, waiting to be sent for it in a fit of temper.

    Then, Su Hua started to tell the whole story, from how she found out about the eggs and white goose, how she asked and expostulated with her son to the answers given by her son, to her husband in detail.

    “Dad, dad, it’s not all my fault. It was Grandpa Chen. He said he bought it for mom.” Stuck up by grandpa and grandma, little Liu Yong was still rightened stiff. After mom recounted them at great length about the big white goose, he quickly explained to his father. Poor little Liu Yong’s shaky voice was almost snitching.

    “Well, dad knows now. This matter is not your fault, little Yong. It was Grandpa Chen who deceived you. Grandpa Chen was wrong.” Liu Chengyin pulled his son behind Su Hua unto himself and strained to his breast, wiping the tears from his tail of the eye. “Dry eye, I’m boldened. Let’s eat mooncakes together with grandpa and grandma.”

    Surprisingly, dad never cursed or smote at him, rather a suprises to little Liu Yong, also amid the merriment. So, he turned back into a lively little rabbit, bouncing around from grandpa to grandma’s arms and then to his mother’s side. The house spirited up once more.

    At this point, Liu Chengyin called his active son over. “Little Yong, tomorrow,  dad will take a day off for you at kindergarten. Can you help dad with something?” As soon as Liu Chengyin finished speaking, the whole family was bewildered,  including little Liu Yong, who tilted his little head and asked, “Dad,what is it?”

    “You’ll find out tomorrow.” Liu Chengyin stringed his son along.