3 Sin and Sinners

 

5 years ago, deep inside a mountain village. This was the poorest place one could find in China, the percentage of single male at this place was as high as 70 percent and most of the females came from outside. There was a constant emigration of female villagers because the place was too poor and they felt like they could find better chances at life in the city. According to rumor, the villagers once encountered a creature in the back mountain which had the body of a pig but the head of a human. Thus the rumors began that it was because some of the bachelors got too desperate of company that they were forced to turn to their bred pigs. In reality though, due to the different structure of the two species’ reproductive systems, that would have been impossible. However, this was a backwards village and they were definitely not privy to that knowledge.

Once the rumors started to gain a life of its own, the village head had to do something about it because some of the male villagers were caught with their pants down in the pigsty. The village head came up with a solution. Each of the family would pool some money to buy women from the human traffickers. The traffickers told them that they would only supply the villagers with the most qualified women. They were university students from the big cities. After you had finished your husbandry duties with them, you could even get them to provide you with free education. The village head was very happy about this. “That is perfect, they’ll fit the roles of teachers for the children they shall bear.”

50000 RMB to trade for 3 young university female students, meaning around 16000 RMB each. These hapless young women were walking down the streets when they were pulled into idling vans. They were out shopping or going to meet with their friends when they were captured and brought to this village. The 3 girls cried for mercy, they said that they would give each of the villagers 50000 RMB as long as the villagers let them go. That way they could go and purchase more women for the village.

Some of the villagers believed them while the others did not. In the end, they went to the village head and the latter said, “They’re clearly bluffing. We have 13 single men at the village and if they’re going to pay each of them 50000 RMB, how much money that’ll be?! Even the richest man in the country can only earn 50000 RMB in a month. These girls have gone to university so how can they be so dumb?” The villagers were instantly persuaded by the village head. After all, they had cleared every savings they had just to compile that 50000 RMB for the human traffickers.

Just like that, the 3 girls were forced to be the wives of every man in the village. They did not need to work because it was their job to be worked over. They had tried to escape but it was futile. There were 13 men lining up to have a go with them, so how could they have escaped? Several months later, one of the girls couldn’t suffer this humiliating life anymore. While no one was paying attention, she rammed her head into the wall and died. This life was worth 16000 RMB for the village. Furthermore, this dead girl had not even given them a single child. Thus, the security on the remaining two girls tightened even further. They were kept with the pigs because the pigsty had mud walls and running into them wouldn’t cause fatal injury.

Lee Chunzhuang was an honest, hardworking farmer. Every villager had contributed their part to purchase the girls and he was no exception. Therefore, these 2 remaining girls were technically his wives as well. Lee Chunzhuang spent most of his time watching over the 2 girls, to prevent them from escaping or committing suicide. Of the two, he favored one of them. Her name was Zhang Xutong. Zhang Xutong told Lee Chunzhuang that the world beyond the village was magical, there were many impressive things. For example, there was a rectangular object that you could use to talk to someone at the eastern end of the village while you were at the western end of the village. Lee Chunzhuang laughed. He countered, “My voice is loud enough that no matter where I am, everyone in the village can hear me!”

Not long after that, Zhang Xutong became pregnant. Zhang Xutong told Lee Chunzhuang that it was his child. Lee Chunzhuang chuckled blithely but then Zhang Xutong told him, if he did not bring her to safety, the other men would eventually cause the baby to die in her stomach. Lee Chunzhuang believed him because it had happened before. The other girl, Zhang Hui was raped when she was pregnant and it caused a stillbirth. Zhang Xutong pledged her undying love to Lee Chunzhuang, she would not live with any other man. She persuaded Lee Chunzhuang to go to the city with her. She had a house there, they could stay there together. Lee Chunzhuang was slowly convinced, after all, having a wife and sharing a wife were two completely different experiences.

Lee Chunzhuang eventually made his move. On the day he was tasked to guard over the girls, Lee Chunzhuang told Zhang Xutong that it was time for them to escape. Zhang Hui who was there pleaded for them to take her as well. Zhang Xutong considered it for a while and then told Lee Chunzhuang, “We mustn’t take her, it’s already too dangerous for us to leave on our own. Having another person will only increase our risk of being spotted. Furthermore, if two of the wives escaped, who would stay to serve the rest of the village men?”

Lee Chunzhuang agreed with Zhang Xutong. His wife was thinking of him and the village. Lee Chunzhuang used a towel to tie up Zhang Hui’s mouth and to bind her limbs so that she could not foil their escape. The last thing Zhang Hui ever said was, “Zhang Xutong, curse you. You’ll have a horrible death!”

No one expected that the honest and hardworking Lee Chunzhuang would be audacious enough to escape with Zhang Xutong. When they discovered the bound Zhang Hui, the couple had already escaped from the village. They travelled by taking rides from kind strangers.

This was the first time Lee Chunzhuang had been to the city. It was his first time taking the train. On the train, Zhang Xutong bought a packet of instant noodle for Lee Chunzhuang. Then she excused herself to use the toilet. That was Lee Chunzhuang’s first time having instant noodles and he wanted to eat that for the rest of his life. And then he realized Zhang Xutong did not return. And he spent the next 3 years not encountering Zhang Xutong anymore.

…

Lee Chunzhuang did not hide anything from us. Whenever we pushed, he would reveal everything. Lee Chunzhuang stayed for 3 days at the city, waiting for Zhang Xutong but she was nowhere to be found. He eked out a living by rummaging through the garbage cans and sleeping by the roadside. That was how he got initiated into the homeless lifestyle. In a strange stroke of luck, he realized the trash thrown out by city dwellers was much more delicious than the food he had back at the village.

After he failed to locate Zhang Xutong, and after emptying all the available garbage cans, Lee Chunzhuang sought his way back to the village. When he returned, he was instantly brought to the village tribunal. Everyone scolded and berated him. For his own greed, he had been fooled by Zhang Xutong. Now he had lost them another communal wife. There was only one wife left, how could she alone service all the men?

Lee Chunzhuang cried, it was the first time for him to have shed a tear. However, the villagers refused to forgive Lee Chunzhuang unless he could buy them another wife. But of course, Lee Chunzhuang did not have that money. Therefore, they decided to take punishment on Lee Chunzhuang. Since he had deprived the other village men from enjoying bedroom pleasure then they would take them away from him as well. They tied Lee Chunzhuang up and aimed to cut off his thing.

It was then that Zhang Hui stepped out to stop the mob. Lee Chunzhuang looked at his wife with appreciation. Then Zhang Hui told the crowd, “Let me teach you all something, even if you cut off the penis, the two dangling organs can still produce sperms. To fully take away his manliness, you’ll have to remove everything. Hand me a brand, I’ll sear off everything that he has!” Hate was a strong emotion. Even until the end of time, it would still hang strong. Thus Lee Chunzhuang ended his life as a real man. He was chased out from the village. When he left the mountain, he tripped and broke his legs. Eventually, he replaced one of them with a wooden one. With no skills to support him at the city, he became a real drifter.

“Is Zhang Hui still at the village?” Captain Zhao was silent for a long time before asking the first question he had since he started the interview.

Lee Chunzhuang nodded. He smiled naively. “I believe she is still there. I haven’t been back there for a long time already. I wonder if they have forgiven me.”

Captain Zhao turned around to say, “Mary, arrange a team to head to the village and find Zhang Hui. If she is willing, bring her back home.”

Lee Chunzhuang continued his story. After milling his way around the city for 3 years, he finally came across Zhang Xutong. The chance of that was extremely small. Lee Chunzhuang wanted to reunite with his wife but she moved too fast for a man with a wooden leg to follow. Since that chance encounter, he started to squat around that spot where Zhang Xutong appeared. It was not until yesterday night that he found Zhang Xutong again. This time, he would not let his wife leave him anymore.

Lee Chunzhuang had no idea where Zhang Xutong was going on this late, stormy night. The drifter resisted the pain from his fake limb and tailed his wife. The wind snapped the electric wire and the streetlights snuffed out immediately. He could only rely on the lightning to trace his wife’s movement. However, the rain was too heavy that night. A blinding flash later, Lee Chunzhuang was shocked to discover that Zhang Xutong had disappeared. In that few seconds, she had vanished. How could that be?

He slowly edged ahead. Finally he found Zhang Xutong, or more precisely, he found Zhang Xutong’s body. Zhang Xutong’s body was strung on the iron fence and underneath her body was a wooden board. Atop the board was a chair. Therefore, he stood on the chair to take a better look at Zhang Xutong. The more he looked at her, the angrier he got. It was this woman who had fooled him. His mother taught him that lying was the biggest sin a person could commit, he, Lee Chunzhuang had never lied in his life.

Lee Chunzhuang used his sharp and long nail to slowly cut open the body’s stomach. Zhang Chunzhuang said that she carried his child and he wanted to rescue the child. Lee Chunzhuang was furious to realize that he had been lied to again. There was nothing inside the woman’s stomach. The baby was not there.

Lee Chunzhuang learned from the other drifters that eating a woman’s flesh was very good for a man’s body, the yin to even out the yang. Perhaps by consuming Zhang Xutong, he would become a man again. Therefore, Lee Chunzhuang started to stuff himself with everything he could dig out from his wife’s body. This was all for the sake that he would regain his manliness. The internal organs splattered onto the wooden board. He ate until he could not eat anymore. Of course, there was always space for desserts.

Lee Chunzhuang always heard from the health-conscious city dwellers that you are what you eat. Unfortunately, Lee Chunzhuang took that a bit too literally. He was also taught not to waste anything. He gouged out Zhang Xutong’s eyes and popped them into his mouth.

After the feast, Lee Chunzhuang felt quite empty. He spent most of his life searching for Zhang Xutong but now that he had found her, he couldn’t find anything within his heart to feel for the woman after the hate had left him. He couldn’t care less how Zhang Xutong died and who killed her. Actually he just wanted to know whether Zhang Xutong was lying or not when she said she loved him…

He retraced his steps and returned to his makeshift home. He was soaked so he removed his clothes and went to sleep. Before he woke up, we already found him.

According to Lee Chunzhuang, he had tasted many things in his life. You could find many half-eaten delicacies in trash cans around the city. He had had chicken, duck, fish, pork, beef, rabbit, mutton, venison, he had even tasted abalone and shark fin. These were leftovers that he had fished out from the dumpsters. But the man said that the tastiest thing he ever had in his life was Zhang Xutong’s meat. The woman’s flesh was supple and soft. Especially her pair of eyes, they were rather salty, they reminded him of pickled pig’s brain, a local delicacy from his village.