Volume One, Chapter Two: The Tape Recorder

“Third Brother, why don’t you want to study anymore?” Zhang Shengli lifted his slippers, turning to ask Zhang Weidong.

“I’m just not cut out for schooling. What’s the point? It’s just wasting the family’s money!” Zhang Weidong, kneeling beneath the eaves, stiffened his neck and declared, “Rather than wasting money, it’s better to quit early!”

“You’re only sixteen. What will you do if you don’t study?” Zhang Shengli furrowed his brow.

“I want to go to Boji Ditch and earn money with a side job!” Zhang Weidong turned his head to look away.

“What? A side job?” The whole family was stunned.

“Boy, you’re just a child. Do you know how tough doing odd jobs is?” Zhang Yongtai pointed at Zhang Weidong with the family cane, shouting, “I work at the coal mine in Boji Ditch, shoveling coal for others, wielding an iron spade as big as a basin, eating half-cooked noodle soup with bits of pork belly, sleeping in a dugout with over a dozen men. After a day’s work, I’m covered in coal dust, black as a living ghost, and there’s nowhere to wash. Can you endure that kind of hardship?”

“As long as I don’t have to go to school, no matter how tough or tiring it is, I won’t be afraid!” Zhang Weidong shouted, neck rigid.

“You…” Zhang Yongtai’s eyes bulged with rage, raising the family cane for another blow.

“All you know is how to beat people. Even if you beat me to death, I’m not made for books. What’s the use?” Zhang Weidong was not only unconcerned by his father’s punishment, he even showed contempt.

Each time he was beaten, no matter how hard his father struck, Zhang Weidong knelt on the ground with his neck stiff, never dodging or flinching, allowing his father to beat him until his anger subsided. Even if he was bruised and battered all over, he wouldn’t utter a sound.

“I…” Zhang Yongtai was stunned, unable to bring himself to swing the cane.

When the punished no longer fears punishment, the act itself loses its meaning…

“Third Brother, you’re only sixteen, still a child. At least finish a few more years, complete primary school, then when you’re eighteen, you can go with your father to take up odd jobs,” his mother Wang Taoxiang came over, wiping her tears.

“I may be sixteen, but I’m stronger than most eighteen-year-olds!” Zhang Weidong laughed, “Last time at the market in Qinghu Township, I single-handedly beat four twenty-year-old lads till they were howling!”

“Just listen to him, boasting about fighting and brawling!” Zhang Yongtai, infuriated once more, raised the cane again.

“No matter what you say, I won’t study even if you beat me to death!” Zhang Weidong shouted, head held high. “Teacher Xia is making me repeat a grade again this year. Xiao Wuzi’s already moved up to sixth grade, and I’m still stuck in fifth. I can’t bear the shame! Besides, I’m just a farmer’s boy. What’s a primary school diploma worth? What’s the point of studying?”

“Fine! Since you’re so eager for hardship, I’ll let you have your way. But don’t blame your mother and father for being hard-hearted in the future!” Zhang Yongtai said, his face stiff.

“Even if I die from hardship and exhaustion, I won’t blame you!” Zhang Weidong replied stubbornly, head turned to the side.

“Good! There’ll come a day when you cry!” Zhang Yongtai turned and said, “Xiao Wuzi, go to your godfather’s house and ask your sister Ying to lend us the tape recorder. We’ll record Third Brother’s words so he can’t take them back later!”

“Alright!” Zhang Xuewen replied and dashed off to the other end of the village to borrow the tape recorder from godfather Li Yuanzheng’s house.

In the remote northwest countryside of 1988, a tape recorder was a rare commodity—only wealthy families could afford one. In Yangcao Village, few households owned one.

Li Yuanzheng had impeccable family roots, joined the army at eighteen, and after retiring, was assigned to the Qinghu Township Post and Telecommunications Office, riding his “Happiness 250” motorcycle to deliver newspapers and letters to each village team.

His eldest daughter, Li Ying, had suffered a strange illness as a child, crying day and night. No treatment worked, so someone quietly consulted a fortune-teller, who said she needed a godfather born in the Year of the Tiger for protection.

According to northwest rural custom, if a child was sickly, a godfather could protect them and cure their ailments. Generally, the godfather was chosen from a distant family, and the two households would become kin, visiting on festivals, exchanging gifts for weddings and funerals, living in harmony. If the godfather was chosen from the same village, sharing one pot and ladle, the two families would often fall out, never speaking again.

However, the Li and Zhang families had been close for three generations, knowing each other well, their relationship always good. Li Yuanzheng gave Li Ying to Zhang Yongtai as goddaughter, and the families became kin.

Strangely, after Li Ying was given to Zhang Yongtai, her illness disappeared without treatment.

Over the years, the two families had never quarreled, getting along like one household. As Zhang Shengli and Li Ying grew up, villagers joked that the two families should make their kinship official, letting Li Ying marry Zhang Shengli.

The adults never spoke about it, but in their hearts they had long agreed, waiting only for the two to get a little older before arranging their marriage.

When Zhang Xuewen arrived at the Li household, he found Li Ying and her sister Li Xuan tidying the house and explained his errand to borrow the tape recorder.

“Godfather is really funny, wanting to record Weidong’s words as evidence?” Li Ying smiled, lips pursed.

“Hurry and bring the tape recorder. My third brother is still kneeling in the courtyard, and my father is angry enough to hit him again!” Zhang Xuewen urged anxiously.

Li Ying and Li Xuan fetched the tape recorder and followed Zhang Xuewen back to the Zhang home.

“Yingzi, you do the recording!” Zhang Yongtai instructed Li Ying to press the record button, then called out loudly, “Third Brother, today you yourself refuse to study and insist on taking up odd jobs. In the future, if you suffer or tire, don’t blame your mother and father!”

“I promise I won’t blame you… Stop recording already. If you’re not embarrassed, I am!” Zhang Weidong glanced at Li Ying, his face flushing red as a beet.

“Alright, you can stop studying. After the wheat harvest, you’ll go with me to Boji Ditch and work at the coal mine… Yingzi, give the tape to your godmother for safekeeping.”

Only then did Zhang Yongtai throw aside the family cane and squat on the ground, smoking in silence.

Li Ying removed the tape from the recorder and handed it to Wang Taoxiang. Wang Taoxiang carefully wrapped the tape in a handkerchief, tucked it at the bottom of the bedding cabinet, then went outside saying, “Yingzi, Xuanzi, stay for lunch. I’ll go knead the dough.”

Li Ying and Li Xuan accepted the invitation without fuss and stayed to wait for lunch.

Li Yuanzheng spent his days delivering mail and papers on his motorcycle. His wife, Tian Xiue, was frail and often ill, so their two daughters frequently ate at the Zhang home.

Seeing that things at home had settled, Zhang Shengli pushed his bicycle out and began packing his things, ready to leave.

“Brother Shengli, off to work at the township office so early?” Li Ying came over to help him pack, her big eyes twinkling with a smile.

“Thanks to Third Brother’s commotion, I’m running late. I’d better hurry or I’ll delay the township officers’ meal!” Zhang Shengli laughed.

He had graduated from junior high and been accepted to high school, but the family’s circumstances were poor, with four younger siblings still in school. As the eldest, Zhang Shengli had to drop out and return home.

Godfather Li Yuanzheng, familiar with the township office from delivering mail, found Zhang Shengli a cooking job there. Though it was only a temporary position, it paid a wage, and he could still help at home after work—half a “public servant.”

Zhang Shengli pushed his bike out, and Li Ying followed to see him off. Zhang Xuewen, quick as a monkey, slipped out, jumped onto the crossbar of Zhang Shengli’s bicycle, and grinned, “Big Brother, let me go to the township office with you and see the world!”

The “Forever” brand bicycle was a secondhand purchase the family made for Zhang Shengli’s job, having changed hands countless times. Without a rear rack, Zhang Xuewen jokingly called it the “tailless donkey.”

Lately, whenever Zhang Shengli went out on his bike, Zhang Xuewen would insist on riding the crossbar, clinging like a patch and refusing to be shooed away.

“Get down, stop messing around. What’s a kid like you going to see at the township office?” Zhang Shengli said, annoyed.

“Big Brother, just take me. I’ve never seen what the township office looks like!” Zhang Xuewen pouted, clinging to the crossbar.

He was the youngest in the family, and everyone spoiled him. Zhang Xuewen often acted up, relying on their indulgence.

“Just let him go have some fun,” Li Ying said with a smile. “School starts in a few days, and this little monkey will be back in the classroom again.”

“All right, then. We’re off.” Zhang Shengli turned and smiled at Li Ying, swung his leg over the bicycle, and rode away.