Chapter 128
Perhaps it would have been better if she hadn’t agreed to him that day; Qiao Wei often thought about that later.
If a person still has worries, holding onto a single breath, they can hold on.
He had found someone to entrust with things, felt at ease, and no longer wanted to hold on.
This matter was reported to Department Head Huang. Department Head Huang frowned and asked about the specific situation.
Then he made a decision: they were not allowed to engage in struggle sessions every day. Even if they were enemies of the people, they couldn’t eat the people’s free meals every day; they had to be made to work.
Thus, Meng Zuoyi and the people in the backyard of the Health Bureau were each given a large broom, and every day they carried their brooms to sweep the streets of the county town.
This actually spared them the suffering of being paraded through the streets twice a day, morning and afternoon.
Department Head Huang stipulated that they were only allowed to be paraded through the streets once a week.
Meng Zuoyi said to Qiao Wei, who had come to see him, “He is truly worried that I might die too.”
He scoffed, “Unnecessary. Even if he hangs himself up, I wouldn’t hang myself up.”
It was already November by now, and the weather was starting to get cold.
The Agriculture Bureau next door sent sweet potatoes to their neighbor, the Library.
Library Director Qiao really did take the Library staff to roast sweet potatoes under the veranda, and the aroma was overflowing.
As they were roasting them, it actually started to snow. The snow had come so early this year; it fit the occasion perfectly.
Yan Xiang finished eating the sweet potato while sitting in his mother’s arms, feeling content.
He listened to the uncles and aunts talking about events on the streets, about how middle school students weren’t attending classes and were burning their textbooks and such.
Library Director Qiao kept staring blankly at the swirling, fine snow.
When she had finished her daze, she suddenly stood up, set the child aside, and went back to her office.
Everyone looked at each other in dismay.
Qiao Wei fiddled around in her office for two hours, came up with a list, and handed it to everyone: “Start working today; pick out all the books in these categories.”
Librarian Zheng Ai sighed, “Are we really burning them?”
“Don’t worry about so much,” Qiao Wei said. “Just pick them out for now and have them ready.”
Everyone spent several days picking out the books in the categories Qiao Wei had selected. Yan Xiang also put in a lot of effort.
On New Year’s Day, a group of young boys and girls suddenly burst into the Library, clamoring, “Bring out the books! Whatever should be burned, burn it!”
The youths were high-spirited, feeling that what they were doing was absolutely correct and that adults shouldn’t even think about stopping them—who would dare!
They were triumphant, looking around left and right.
Indeed, the Library staff didn’t dare to stop them, but Qiao Wei dared.
“Don’t you dare mess things up!” She stepped out and flared up. “The books in the Library are all categorized and tidied up every day. I’d like to see who dares to touch one!”
Her aura was too imposing; the brats couldn’t help but shrink back a little.
But soon the leading boy stiffened his neck. “We are here to inspect. Those bad ones…”
“They’ve all been picked out!” Qiao Wei interrupted him, waved her hand, and said, “Follow me!”
She turned and walked away. The brats looked at each other and followed her.
Qiao Wei led them to the middle of several bookshelves. “See? The ones piled on the floor between the bookshelves are the ones we’ve already picked out. They’re already sorted; you don’t need to go to the trouble.”
The leading boy went over to take a look. There were piles and piles of books, and on them were stuck slips of paper: Incorrect Ideology.
The words were written with a red brush, and at a glance, they looked extremely critical.
The leading boy couldn’t find any faults, so he nodded pretentiously and praised, “Not bad.”
He turned around and said, “Then let’s, um… move these books out and burn them.”
This time, Qiao Wei didn’t stop them. She just crossed her arms and watched these youths huffing and puffing as they moved the books outside.
Paper and water are both things that seem light in terms of perception, but in reality, they have immense density and are incredibly heavy.
The group of brats was sweating from exhaustion, but they hadn’t moved many; there were still plenty inside.
Everyone’s backs couldn’t take it anymore. A girl said, “Wang Daliang, is this enough? Why don’t we burn these first?”
Wang Daliang was the leading boy. His arms were also aching terribly. He rubbed his arms and said, “Alright, let’s burn these first.”
Excitement appeared on the faces of the young boys and girls.
The part they liked most was the book-burning!
It was winter and windy. Wang Daliang had finally managed to shield the wind and strike a match. Just as he was about to light it, Qiao Wei suddenly stepped forward in a flash and shouted, “Stop!”
Wang Daliang was so startled that he shivered, and the match went out. He said angrily, “What are you doing? You scared me!”
Qiao Wei said, “I should be asking you what you’re doing!”
Wang Daliang glared, “Burning books!”
Qiao Wei retorted, “Just burn them like this?”
“Of course! What else?” Wang Daliang’s tone was provocative. Deep down, he vaguely hoped that this formidable Library Director would stand up and stop them. Ha, that would prove she was a reactionary, and they could overthrow her! Struggle against her!
Who knew, Qiao Wei pointed at the tip of his nose and criticized him sternly, “How many years has the New China been established? How many years have the Chinese people been eating their fill? And you’re just throwing away the Party’s fine tradition of hard work, plain living, and frugality, right? The Party raised you for nothing! Your parents taught you for nothing! Is that it!”
Wang Daliang: “…”
Wang Daliang and his classmates were all stunned.
Qiao Wei pointed at the books piled in the courtyard. “These are books! Books are made of paper! Paper is made of wood! This can be burned!”
She waved her arm. “So many books, so much fuel, and you’re just burning them directly? Isn’t that wasteful? What kind of families are you all from? Cadre families? How much fuel allowance does your parents’ workplace give each month that you dare to be this wasteful? This is fuel! Listen, I’ll say it again: this is paper, paper is wood, and wood is fuel. These—are all fuel! Do you understand?”
Wang Daliang and his classmates: “…”
They shook their heads in unison, not daring to speak.
The young but very authoritative Library Director rolled her eyes in exasperation.
She put her hands on her hips. “It’s already winter now. Every household needs to light stoves, and cooking requires starting a fire. Don’t you need kindling? Don’t you need to add fuel to the fire? Have none of you ever burned paper? This is such useful fuel. For starting and controlling a fire, it’s much better than dry grass. Once you throw it into the stove, you don’t need to work the bellows; the fire will start in minutes. Understand?”
The brats timidly but firmly… shook their heads.
They didn’t understand.
Library Director Qiao seemed so angry she couldn’t speak, and she just kept pinching the bridge of her nose.
“You, what’s your name? Wang Da-Pee?” She pointed at the leading boy.
Pfft, laughter erupted!
Wang Daliang’s face turned beet red. “Wang Daliang! Liang! The ‘Liang’ from ‘how loud the singing is’!”
“Fine, Wang Daliang, you’re the leader, right?”
Wang Daliang puffed out his chest. “Yes!”
“Then you are responsible.” Qiao Wei began to assign tasks. “Contact the neighborhood committee and have these books transported over to be given to the residents for firewood. Distribute them household by household, per capita.”
A girl’s eyes lit up. “This is good! We get to burn the books and it’s not wasteful!”
Everyone was from respectable working-class families; they weren’t corrupt or wealthy. Since it was so cold in winter, having more things to burn at home was naturally good. Otherwise, if their parents or grandparents were stingy and reluctant to light the stove, everyone would be the ones suffering from the cold.
Wang Daliang stiffened his neck and said, “Your arrangement is pretty good. Let’s do that.”
He had already calculated in his mind: first, they would divide them up, transport them to their respective homes, and heat their own homes first.
Hehehe, Mom will even praise me.
Thinking quite nicely, Qiao Wei asked, “Librarian Zheng Ai, which is the nearest residential street to us?”
Librarian Zheng Ai played along, “It’s Simin Street.”
“Good, then for the first batch, you deliver them to the Simin Street area and distribute them to the residents.” Qiao Wei made the final decision.
Wang Daliang wasn’t having it; if that happened, his little scheme would fall through. The classmates had the same thoughts and kept giving him winks.
Wang Daliang refused, “We aren’t familiar with Simin Street. What if we send these books over and they don’t burn them, but read them instead? These are poisonous books with incorrect ideologies that will poison everyone’s minds.”
“Is that so… You have a point.” Qiao Wei rubbed her chin, appearing to be lost in thought.
The students were secretly delighted and winked at each other.
Qiao Wei suddenly looked up. “That’s simple. You, you, and you, you, you… you all, together, tear these books up right here. Page by page, and then mix them up. Mix up all the pages from different books; with no connected pages, they can’t be read. If you’re still worried, tear the pages into halves again and mix them up, and then they’ll be completely impossible to read. How simple is that.”
Wang Daliang was dumbfounded.
But he couldn’t think of a reason to refute her for the moment; he moved his lips and swallowed.
Qiao Wei raised an eyebrow. “What? What’s wrong with my method? Or are you saying you don’t actually want to give these books to the residents at all? It couldn’t be that you want to embezzle them for your own homes, could it? Do you want to read them in secret, or do you want to keep them all to burn for yourselves?”
How is this adult like she can read minds?
Everyone averted their eyes.
A group of half-grown brats and green girls—how would they know that children’s little thoughts are all written on their faces? The little glances they exchanged just now, those little thoughts—Qiao Wei saw right through them at a glance.
But of course, they couldn’t admit it. Not only could they not admit it, but they had to do the opposite of what they really wanted to do to prove their innocence.
Wang Daliang stiffened his neck and braced himself. “What kind of people do you take us for! We are all doing this for the country and the people. Isn’t it just tearing up books? Let’s do it now. Come on! Everyone! Start tearing!”
Qiao Wei clapped her hands. “Not bad, not bad. You are the sun of the motherland at eight or nine in the morning; the future of the country depends entirely on you! Librarian Zheng Ai, Little Wu, why are you so lacking in tact? Bring some stools over for the students, let them sit and tear! Don’t tire the students out!”
The Library Director is too wicked.
It’s winter right now, how cold it is.
The Library staff expressionlessly brought the stools over and placed them in the courtyard.
Qiao Wei said, “What time is it? I need to call Secretary Pan of the Revolutionary Committee; we agreed to talk about that matter in the morning.”
“Students, take your time tearing. Once you’re done, we’ll tally the quantity and then contact the neighborhood committee to see the number of households over there.”
“Don’t worry about scarcity, worry about inequality. If it’s distributed unfairly, if some families get more and some get less, that would be terrible. Those people love to take advantage; they will definitely make a scene at your homes.”
“You keep tearing, keep tearing. Once this pile is done, go inside and bring more out. I’m going to make a phone call.”
Library Director Qiao greased the soles of her feet and went into the house.
The Library staff followed suit and all went inside.
Roasting by the stove, drinking hot tea, through the warm glass window, they watched a group of brats freezing their hands and feet in the courtyard while tearing books.
Sure enough, that passionate, bustling energy was soon blown away by the cold wind.
“Oh—my! Snot is running out.” Librarian Zheng Ai held his tea mug and said with disgust.
In the courtyard, a boy tore a page from a book to blow his nose. He crumpled it into a ball and threw it on the ground.
In the room, a chorus of disgust immediately erupted.
Half a mug of hot tea went down, feeling warm and toasty.
“Look, they’re getting slower and slower as they tear,” everyone said.
Nonsense, it’s so cold outside. After tearing books for so long, their hands must be stiff. Wearing gloves is inconvenient.
“Look, they’re stomping their feet. Their feet must be frozen stiff.”
Qiao Wei held a mug of ginger syrup water boiled on the stove, walked to the window, blew on the steam, and took a look outside the window.
The students were jumping in place because of the cold.
Qiao Wei blew on the steam again and took a sip of the hot ginger water.
Little brats, daring to fight against an adult!
