Chapter 7

Chapter 7: A limited truth

Zhang Ke took a taxi back to Xiangshan Forest Park, picked up the developed photographs and film from the photo shop, then took another ride back into the city. By the time he got home, it was completely dark.

Zhang Zhixing sat on the sofa, his face grim. "Where have you been all day?"

Standing in the doorway, Zhang Ke thought, No wonder Dad's angry. Ever since Ye Xinming had passed on Tang Xueqian's message telling him to go away for a while, his father had been torn between leaving and staying. News of his great-uncle's death should have reached them from their hometown that afternoon, giving his father an excuse to leave Haizhou. Yet he had chosen this moment to disappear. No wonder his father was seething.

"Your great-uncle passed away today. We're all going back to Dongshe to arrange his funeral. You've been out all day-where have you been?" Liang Gezhen stood behind her husband. She had waited for most of the day, and he had not even come home for lunch. She had called every classmate's home and had almost gone to the police.

Zhang Ke pursed his lips in the doorway. Looking at his father's grim face, he said, "Why are we leaving Haizhou? Aren't you going to do anything about Uncle Tang?"

"What about your Uncle Tang?" Zhang Zhixing was baffled by his words. "Why are you saying these strange things the moment you come home?"

Zhang Ke had no time to uncover the truth bit by bit like some guessing game, nor could he worry about whether these were things his sixteen-year-old self should say. "Hasn't Uncle Tang been isolated for investigation? Dad, you're afraid the provincial inspection team will ask to investigate you next. Everyone else says Uncle Tang has a problem, but you insist he doesn't, so they won't tolerate you. But if you go against your conscience and sling mud at Uncle Tang, it'll haunt you for the rest of your life. What can you do? It would be best to get away from this trouble spot. Even without Secretary Ye's message, you would have gone to Dongshe to lie low..."

"Who taught you to say that?" Zhang Zhixing reacted like a cat whose tail had been stepped on. He had never imagined such words could come from his sixteen-year-old son.

"Who taught me? All the things that have happened in our family over the years, all the people who've come and gone-after seeing enough, I naturally understood. Did I need someone to teach me?" Zhang Ke could no longer worry about how shocking his words were. He had to sting his father awake in one stroke. "Great-uncle passed away today, but isn't the funeral on the third day? What will your cousins think if we rush back in such a hurry?"

Seeing his father's face turn livid, Zhang Ke slipped into his room before he could erupt, lest he lose control and use him as a human punching bag. He wondered what effect his words would have on his father, pressing his ear against the door to listen to the conversation outside.

"Little Ke has a point. Aren't those exactly the concerns that have kept you wavering all these days?"

"Are those things a child his age would say?"

"Why wouldn't he? He takes after you-quick-witted and mature for his age. He's always been quiet, though, so nobody knows what he's thinking."

"You know I followed Tang Xueqian from the teachers' college into the municipal government. If I sling mud at him, he'll never wash it off. I'm afraid someone who knows about our connection has put Little Ke up to saying this nonsense."

"If you can't trust your own son, who can you trust? He may be quiet, but he's no fool. He's sixteen already. Who could put him up to anything? If you're worried, just call him out and ask him..."

"Go get him..."

"Nobody told me what to say." Having heard this from behind the door, Zhang Ke came out of his room himself and handed his father the photograph of Tang Xueqian and Xu Si. "Aren't people saying Uncle Tang is having that kind of relationship with this woman?"

Zhang Zhixing nearly jumped. His hands trembled as he took the photograph, and he stared at his son in disbelief. "Where did you get this photograph?"

"Never mind where I got it. The provincial inspection team will soon see photographs like it too," Zhang Ke said calmly. "If the bribery charge against Uncle Tang is substantiated, won't people think you left Haizhou at this particular moment to deliberately avoid the provincial investigation team...?"

Zhang Zhixing broke into a cold sweat. He had thought only of escape these past few days, without considering the deeper implications. It had taken his sixteen-year-old son to point them out. Having moved in these circles for seven or eight years, he knew their rules all too well. Even if he had done nothing wrong, there was no guarantee others would not sling mud at him. The deputy secretary-general's position might not be prominent, but there were still people eyeing it.

But were these things a sixteen-year-old child would say? Liang Gezhen, on the other hand, wanted nothing more than for her son to be the most outstanding, intelligent boy in the world. She saw nothing particularly unusual and even thought her husband was overreacting. Still, she found it strange that this photograph had ended up in her son's hands. "Where did this photograph come from?" she asked.

Zhang Ke knew his words and actions would shock his father deeply, but failing to explain everything now would cost them time. "You've been with Uncle Tang for so many years, Dad. Why does he still distrust you enough to have Secretary Ye tell you to leave Haizhou and lie low?"

"What else do you know?" Zhang Zhixing did not understand why his son had suddenly said these inexplicable things, but they did put a finger on his own doubts. He had never been able to see through it or work it out. Everyone in the municipal government knew he had followed Tang Xueqian there. They all avoided him, gloating over his misfortune, and he could get no information.

Seeing his father sit up straight, Zhang Ke knew he was beginning to take his words seriously.

Of course, Zhang Ke was not foolish enough to say he knew what would happen five years later. Even to reveal the truth, he needed to invent an explanation his father would believe. He had already worked one out on the way home. "This woman," he said, pointing to Xu Si in the photograph, "I saw her on the far side of Xiangshan not long ago. She was outside a villa with a man. But it wasn't Uncle Tang. It was someone nobody would ever suspect..."

"Who?"

"Never mind who for now." Zhang Ke still wanted to get his story straight first. "Yesterday, when I heard Mom say Uncle Tang was having that kind of relationship with this woman, I found it strange. So I went to look around the far side of Xiangshan early this morning, and sure enough, I saw that man at the villa again..."

Zhang Ke took out the photographs he had taken outside the red-brick villa at the northern foot of the mountain that day. "I rented a camera at the entrance to the forest park. They turned out pretty well. Take a look-who does this look like?"

The first photograph showed the black Nissan driving into the red-brick villa. The second showed Ding Xiangshan bending down to get into the Nissan. Although it was not his number-one official car, it had municipal Party committee plates. The red Corolla was parked beside it. Ding Xiangshan's head was not in the shot, but Zhang Ke believed his father would recognize him at a glance. The third photograph showed the red Corolla leaving the red-brick villa. That same red Corolla appeared in the background of the photograph of Tang Xueqian and Xu Si. Although the light in the woods had been dim and he had not used a flash, the photographs had turned out quite well. The time each had been taken appeared in the lower right corner.

Zhang Ke believed that even if he stuffed two eggs into his father's mouth right then, his father would not notice.

"After taking the photographs, I went to the photo shop south of the mountain to get the film developed. I didn't expect to run into this woman picking up photographs there too. Among the photographs she collected was one of her with Uncle Tang. I took one while she wasn't paying attention." Zhang Ke picked up the photograph of Tang Xueqian and Xu Si. "This one..."

His father was no fool; Zhang Ke believed he would soon work out how everything fit together. Rubbing his hands together, he asked his mother, "Is there anything to eat? I'm starving..."

"How did you know to take these photographs?" Liang Gezhen put an arm around her son's shoulders and steered him into the kitchen. "Don't disturb your father... With you still out, neither of us felt like eating. Come help me cook some noodles. We'll add a couple of eggs and make do..."

"Little Ke..." Zhang Ke had only just reached the kitchen with his mother when his father called to him from the living room. "Tell me exactly what you saw today."

Zhang Ke did not know how deeply Xu Si was involved. He feared he would have to find another way to deal with that, so he could not reveal everything that had happened between them. He only recounted the events of the morning.

"Why Ding Xiangshan?"

Hearing his father murmur Ding Xiangshan's name to himself, Zhang Ke knew he had guessed part of the truth.

The province had received a report and sent down an inspection team before obtaining any substantive evidence. The investigation had targeted Tang Xueqian directly, isolating him for questioning. At that very moment, so many things unfavorable to Tang Xueqian had emerged in Haizhou. Some powerful figure had to be at work behind it all. His father knew this too; he simply did not know who it was or why they were doing it.

"Just what is Uncle Tang's relationship with this woman? That photograph looks pretty suggestive."

"I don't know either." Zhang Zhixing sighed. "You're still young. You don't understand much about things between men and women. Some things... I'm afraid even Tang Xueqian himself couldn't explain them clearly..."

"I know. If Uncle Tang really understood, these photographs wouldn't exist..."

"Oh... Where did you learn all this?" Zhang Zhixing reached over and rubbed the back of Zhang Ke's head. "Children these days really are hard to figure out."

Zhang Ke chuckled. Seeing that the grimness his father had worn when he first came home was gone, he knew his father still would not discuss his doubts with him. It would not be too late to give him little reminders as events unfolded. Perhaps his father had already grasped the key issue.

Liang Gezhen brought out the cooked noodles. Zhang Zhixing picked up his bowl and devoured its contents in a few swift mouthfuls.

Zhang Ke could not stand the heat and had eaten less than a third of his noodles when his father reached over with his chopsticks to take some from his bowl. He quickly jumped up and dodged away. "I haven't eaten all day! This bowl isn't even enough for me..."

"When you first came home, he looked ready to eat you alive." Liang Gezhen pushed noodles from her bowl into her husband's. "Now he's scrambling for food with you like a chicken. You two eat first. I'll cook some more..."

"No." Zhang Zhixing stopped his wife. "Go out and buy something to eat. Get something good, and preferably let the people in the compound see you coming back with it. These past few days, they've all treated me like a beaten dog, waiting to enjoy my downfall. Whether or not there's a turn for the better in Tang Xueqian's case, I can't give them what they want now..."

"Why worry about wounded pride at a time like this?" Liang Gezhen was puzzled.

"Mom, this isn't about pride. Everyone's happy to kick a dog when it's down..." Zhang Ke said from the side. "The worse things are going, the more important it is not to let people look down on you. Especially in this compound-who here isn't waiting for a chance to trample someone else or take a swing at them?"

"Heh..." Zhang Zhixing laughed and raised his chopsticks to tap his son's head. "Who are you calling a dog?" Then he urged his wife, "Even Little Ke understands better than you. Go on, hurry..."

Seeing that her husband seemed to have put his worries entirely aside, Liang Gezhen felt reassured enough to ask, "Have you worked it all out?"

"Little Ke reminded me of something. If Tang Xueqian can trust Ye Xinming, why can't he trust me? If Tang Xueqian really has done something shameful, his personal secretary, Ye Xinming, would know more about it than anyone. Ye Xinming's message from Tang Xueqian could be a trap. I can't jump into it blind..."

"Then what will you do? What good can these few photographs do?"

"Perhaps none at all. Perhaps a great deal..." Zhang Zhixing answered vaguely. "Don't they want me to leave Haizhou? Once I get to Dongshe tomorrow, I'll know whether these photographs can do any good."

Unable to hold back any longer, Liang Gezhen asked, "What? You're still going back to Dongshe?"

"Of course I am. I've already asked Zhou Fuming for leave. I can't just decide not to go-that would be worse. Besides, everyone is avoiding me like the plague. Staying in the city wouldn't do much good anyway." Zhang Zhixing had been drinking, and his cheeks were flushed. "But we're not all going. I'll take Little Ke to Dongshe. You stay here and see how things develop. Even hearsay will give us some news. We'll arrange to call each other several times a day, and if anything happens, it'll be easy to come back."