120 Expectation

 

“What do you mean?” I turned around to ask Chief Zhou. He stood still and took out a lighter to light the cigarette. Then as he walked forward, he elaborated, “Yesterday night, after we got back from the village, I burned the midnight oil doing some digging because I knew we would be coming back to First Drain Village today. I gave the village head a call.” We nodded, and perked up our ears.

Chief Zhou puffed out a smoke ring into the air, “I told him that we’re coming today and had him be prepared. Especially I requested that the first person who discovered the body to stay at home and wait for us. Then as we chatted, just like we do now, we talked about Ol’ Xia who came to fetch us yesterday night.” Chief Zhou glanced at Ol’ Xia at the front, seeing his lack of reaction, he continued, “This Ol’ Xia is 42 this year. He comes from a long lineage of village butchers. Since his grandfather’s generation, their family has been the village’s butcher.” Then Chief Zhou found himself unable to stop.

Way back then, the Republic of China (ROC) just came into power, and Ol’ Xia’s grandfather was assigned to a meat packing factory to work and became a proud butcher. At the time, Ol’ Xia’s grandfather was 20 and he stayed at that job for life. Ol’ Xia’s father grew up following his father’s example. When he was only 10, he followed his father to the factory, to learn the craft. Cutting through flesh, weighing meats, blood-letting, skinning, he became familiarized with these processes. After Ol’ Xia’s grandfather retired from the factory, his father naturally took over. At the factory, no one was more familiar with this job than Ol’ Xia’s father and he soon became a known butcher at the factory. Then Ol’ Xia had the same childhood that his father had.

The difference was when his father was 40, the national factory had a restructuring and everyone was let go. Even though Ol’ Xia’s father was an expert butcher, he was unable to escape the fate of unemployment. Ol’ Xia’s mother suggested for her husband to use some capital to open a private abattoir and his father agreed. By then, most butchers had either retired or switched lanes but Ol’ Xia’s father was different, he really had passion for this job. His suppliers told Ol’ Xia’s father that they could provide him with pre-butchered stock but Ol’ Xia’s father insisted on butchering the livestock himself. So every night Ol’ Xia would see his father grinding the cleaver in the dark and slaughtering the animals as the day broke.

When Ol’ Xia was 20, his father finally handed the abattoir over to him. The butcher’s knife that had been used for 2 generations was passed down to Ol’ Xia. Ol’ Xia was not a studying material so he naturally inherited the family business.

We listened to Ol’ Xia’s background from Chief Zhou while Ol’ Xia continued to move silently ahead. Talking behind people’s back was not a good thing, especially when said person was not far away from you. The first cigarette was over. The 3 of us lit another. As the smoke curled into the sky and the snow fell to the ground, Chief Zhou continued to tell us about Ol’ Xia, “When he was 30, something happened, something that changed Ol’ Xia’s life forever…”

When he was 25, his parents arranged a marriage for Ol’ Xia. 3 years later, Ol’ Xia had a child and the family of 2 became a family of 3. But it didn’t end with a happy ending.

Before we got to the end, we had to return to 2 generations ago. Due to China’s political system, a job at the meat packing factory was considered a government job, it was a job that could be expected to last for life, so many people didn’t really treat their jobs that seriously, like the government workers that you would encounter today. An He was such an employee and he was also Ol’ Xia’s grandfather’s neighbour. In other words, An Family and Xia Family were family friends. However, if Ol’ Xia’s grandfather knew what would happen later, he would have broken off the friendship back then.

Just like how people from 10 years ago wouldn’t believe the existence of the iPhone, people back then didn’t expect ROC to fall and for CCP (Chinese Communist Party) to replace it with People’s Republic of China (PRC) as well. An He’s son and Ol’ Xia’s father grew up together, they were friends. Both of them inherited their fathers’ posts at the meat packing factory and history appeared to repeat itself, one was incredibly hardworking; and the other slacked off whenever there was an opportunity. At the time, no one cared because job security was a guarantee and the relationship of the 2 families continued to improve. This was a friendship that crossed 2 generations. Therefore, it seemed fated that Ol’ Xia and An He’s grandson became friends too. But that year, the factory closed.

Everyone suddenly became unemployed. Even though everyone had the same salary, Ol’ Xia’s father had been saving his money while Ol’ An’s father squandered every cheque that he had. After all, no one expected the permanent job would be lost with the fall of the government overnight. Therefore Ol’ An’s father kept borrowing money from Ol’ Xia’s father. They had lived through the biggest political upset in their country together, and Ol’ Xia’s father was a good man. Ol’ Xia’s father’s business coincided with the economic reforms of the 90s and his abattoir flourished. He often lent Ol’ An’s father thousands of RMB and never asked for them back.

Eventually Ol’ Xia’s mother started to have words about it. After all, the An family was practically leeching off them then. When Ol’ Xia married, Ol’ An was still rolling around the society. Like Ol’ Xia, he was not a study material but unlike Ol’ Xia, he hadn’t really trained any sellable skill. His life was already planned out before he was born, he would take over his father’s post and earn his paycheck just lazying around at work. Ol’ Xia’s father was saddened to see his childhood friend’s son end up like this so he lent him around 50000 RMB, hoping the young man would make something of himself, perhaps start a small business. However, like his father, Ol’ An was not used to hard work, he soon spent all that money on entertainment and drink.

After that, Ol’ Xia’s father gave Ol’ An a few more loans until Ol’ Xia’s father passed away. Now that the family account fell into Ol’ Xia’s hands, his mother forbad him from borrowing money to Ol’ An anymore. Ol’ Xia’s mother was not as soft-hearted as her husband, she knew borrowing money to Ol’ An was like trying to fill an abyss, it would never be enough. Over the decades, they had borrowed An Family at least 500000 RMB, which was more than what was expected of them. Furthermore, Ol’ Xia and his wife had a new child on the way and they would need more money for themselves. After all, which parents wouldn’t want the best for their children?

Therefore, Ol’ Xia went behind his mother’s back and loaned Ol’ An one last time for 100000 RMB. Ol’ An held the money and promised that he would make use of them wisely. He would start a business with them. That was the plan but in Ol’ An’s 30 years of living, he had not attempted anything like that before. It didn’t take long for the 100000 RMB to waste away. Ol’ An ended up with nothing. In contrast, Ol’ Xia’s abattoir business was getting so big that he was planning to open a franchise. That year, Ol’ Xia was 28 and he had a 3 years old child. Ol’ Xia moved out from the compound allotted by the meat packing factory into a new house. It was 300 cubic metres wide. He was not particularly rich but what he had was enough for Ol’ Xia and his family to have a comfortable life. They didn’t have to worry about food and could even afford to go on holidays every year.

The Xia family people were already honest and down to earth. When they were young, as they walked through the village, people would say that Ol’ An had a bright spirit about him and he was destined for great things; while Ol’ An was too introverted and shy to succeed. However reality proved them all wrong. Ol’ An might be the cleverer one but Ol’ Xia was the real success.

After the latest failure, Ol’ An found Ol’ Xia again, hoping to get another 100000 RMB loan. This time Ol’ Xia rejected Ol’ An.

That night, Ol’ An stood at Ol’ Xia’s front door and scolded, “When your father is still alive, do you dare to treat us An family like this? Fine, forget all about your childhood friend simply because you’re rich now! If not for your money, do you think I’ll spend time with you? Are you still a human? You’re so rich, what’s 100000 RMB to you?” Ol’ Xia and his family ignored him. From then on, Ol’ An went everywhere slandering Ol’ Xia’s name, claiming that he had seen Ol’ Xia out there with a few mistresses; claiming that he valued money over generations-long friendship. Ol’ An even went after Ol’ Xia’s young daughter, saying that the bitch would grow up to be a prostitute. Every curse that Ol’ An knew, he directed them at Xia Family.

When you lent a hand to someone when they were at their lowest, they would appreciate your help for life, but if you continued to help them even after they no longer needed it, they would come to expect your aid and when you stopped, they would hate you for taking away the kindness which they saw as their right to claim. Since Ol’ An was 10, An family had been relying on Xia family for everything, but 20 years later, Ol’ Xia stopped that tradition. Ol’ An saw the loans from Xia Family was something to be expected, Xia Family was duty-bound to help An Family. In his mind, since Ol’ Xia was so rich, why shouldn’t he share his wealth with his childhood friend?

But this time, Ol’ Xia stuck firmly to his decision. Ol’ An remembered this offense. He looked through the yellow calendar and picked out a good date, it was supposedly not auspicious for ancestral worship. Then he made a decision.

By now, we were already halfway through our journey. The snow was still falling. Chief Zhou stopped the story to grumble about the horrible weather.

“What happened next?” Guan Zhenglin urged.

Chief Zhou decided to build some tension by asking, “Guess what was the decision that Ol’ An made that day.”

“What?” The two asked.

“Well, guess.”

I frowned and answered, “It should be related to the origin of his burns…”