Chapter 52 The Working Group

A week later, another twenty-five people arrived. Wang Hongbing brought a woman in her forties to Caiyun's home.

Standing outside the door, Wang Hongbing called out, "Is Caiyun at home?"

"I am. Is something the matter?" Caiyun answered, coming out.

"This is Comrade Li Zhitong, the deputy leader of the county committee's 'Four Cleans' work team. She will be staying at your house," Wang Hongbing introduced.

"Hello! I'm sorry to intrude," Li Zhitong nodded at Caiyun.

"You know our conditions are terrible. How can we let a leader stay here?" Caiyun said to Wang Hongbing.

"This is arranged by our work team. Higher authorities require us to eat, live, and work alongside the masses, and we must stay in the homes of poor peasants who are politically reliable and facing the greatest financial hardship. So we have no choice but to impose on you."

"The county work team has assigned three comrades to work in our production team. The other two are male comrades and are staying at Mute's house," Wang Hongbing told Caiyun.

Unable to refuse further, Caiyun agreed. Together with Team Leader Li, she tidied up the small room and settled Li in, while the family of four squeezed onto a single bed once again.

Li Zhitong put down the bedding she had brought with her and carefully inspected Caiyun's living quarters.

Aside from the sleeping bed, a water vat, and a few small horse-stool-style benches, this low-eaved, mud-brick and thatched cottage had virtually no furniture.

In the northeast corner of the main room were two small grain bins woven from reed mats, containing corn and sorghum. On top of the corn rested some dried sweet potato slices, while the sorghum was piled with cotton-padded jackets, trousers, and other clothing, alongside an old burlap sack filled with rice.

The southeast corner held various farming and fishing tools. Hanging on the wall above were coir rain capes, bamboo rain hats, straw hats, and fishing nets. The southwest corner featured the cooking stove and water vat, both with wooden lids. In the northwest corner stood a cotton-spinning wheel, above which hung a bamboo basket and several strings of dried chili peppers from the roof beams, the basket containing some small dried fish.

The horse carved into the main door in the center of the room caught Team Leader Li's attention. After Caiyun offered an explanation, Li made no comment. A back door was set into the eastern side of the north wall; chinks in the door planks let in daylight, and the latch was missing, replaced instead by a wire and an iron rod.

A single bed was placed centrally between the north and south walls of the west wing. Near the head of the bed on the north side stood a wooden square stool, upon which rested a very worn wooden chest.

Mugwort and golden corn cobs hung beneath the eaves on both sides of the front door. In the back yard stood a haystack, beside which was a raised earthen platform holding a dark-brown ceramic jar filled with pickled chili peppers, carrot strips, flat beans, cowpeas, and Jerusalem artichokes. A number of eel traps lay scattered in a disorderly fashion on the ground nearby.

After observing all this, Li Zhitong felt that the family was indeed impoverished and could be considered as the anchor for the "Four Cleans" movement.

That evening, when Li Zhitong returned from a meeting for supper, she noticed some new furniture in Caiyun's home and asked the homeowner, "Caiyun, did you borrow this table and long bench?"

Caiyun replied, "No, Team Leader Wang sent people to bring them over, saying they'll take them back after you leave."

"That won't do. Have him move all of it away right now."

"It's no use me saying anything. You'll have to tell him yourself."

"Very well."

Dinner was a thin broken-rice porridge. Because Team Leader Li was present, Caiyun had added some dried sweet potato slices to the porridge and made a few corn cakes. On the stove ledge sat a small bowl containing some pickled vegetables.

Caiyun said to Team Leader Li, "This is all we have in our family—nothing good to eat. We are wronging you."

Team Leader Li replied, "What are you saying? I'm a rural person myself and have lived through such bitter times."

After dinner, Team Leader Li chatted with Caiyun far into the night. She learned that generations of Old Chen's family had been poor peasants; the late Chen Facai and his parents had all done work for the New Fourth Army and the Liberation Army. Caiyun's parents had both been killed by Japanese devils, leaving her an orphan who fled here with fellow villagers. Feeling that Caiyun's family was politically reliable, she concluded that this household was an ideal choice for the movement's anchor.

The next day, in accordance with Team Leader Li's request, Wang Hongbing sent people to remove all the previously delivered tables and benches. He also sought out Team Leader Wu to report the issue of Zhang Caiyun engaging in speculation and profiteering, arguing that it was inappropriate for the work team to stay at her house.

After investigation and discussion, the work team concluded that Zhang Caiyun's selling of grain to the state should be encouraged, the vegetables sold at the market were grown in her private plot, the salted fish were live fish caught and pickled by her son Youqiang, and the chickens were raised by the family herself. Her actions constituted legitimate country-fair trade rather than speculation and profiteering, and it was decided that Team Leader Li would continue to lodge at Caiyun's house.

Team Leader Li, along with two colleagues and Caiyun, built two mud-brick long platforms against the middle of the north wall in the main room. They laid a long wooden board across them, creating a makeshift long counter where small items could be placed.

Feeling that the small room where Team Leader Li stayed was too dim, Caiyun asked them to cut a window into the north wall.

Starting from that day, Li Zhitong and the other two team members participated in the production team's labor by day, and spent their evenings sinking roots, forging ties with the masses, and visiting the poor to understand their hardships.

Caiyun felt that with Team Leader Li living here, the lack of a table in the house was very inconvenient, so she went to Fa Fu and had him make a small square table.

A few days later, Caiyun learned that the Wangjiayu "Four Cleans" work team had a total of twenty-eight members. The team leader, surnamed Wu and addressed as Team Leader Wu, was a deputy bureau chief from another county, forty-five years old, and very spirited; he had visited Caiyun's home once before. Deputy Team Leader Li was a commune deputy party secretary from this county and was forty-two years old.

Wangjiayu Brigade had eleven production teams and a population of 1,422. Wangjiayu Production Team had forty-six households and 218 people, making it a relatively large production team in the entire brigade. Among the eleven teams, its geographical location was central, and the terrain was elevated. Whenever severe floods occurred, this place was relatively safe; hence, the brigade headquarters, the primary school, and the supply-and-marketing cooperative were all established here, with the co-op located on the west side of the back households near the primary school.

One evening, the production team held a general meeting of all commune members. The work team's leader, deputy leader, and the other two stationed comrades all attended.

The meeting was chaired by Team Leader Li, and the two work team comrades led everyone in studying documents such as the "First Ten Articles," "Later Ten Articles," and "Twenty-three Articles" of the "Four Cleans" movement.

Team Leader Wu first lectured on the "Later Ten Articles" of the "Four Cleans" movement—namely, the *Provisions of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party on Certain Specific Policies Concerning the Socialist Education Movement in the Rural Areas (Revised Draft)*. He then spoke to everyone about the great significance, purpose, and tasks of the "Four Cleans" movement.

Team Leader Li put forward specific requirements for the production team cadres: to use the movement to promote production, handle autumn harvest, autumn sowing, and year-end distribution well, and called on everyone to actively cooperate with the work team's efforts to ensure the smooth progress of the "Four Cleans" movement.

After the meeting adjourned, Team Leader Li handed the *Wangjiayu Production Team Household Basic Information Registration Form* provided by Wang Hongbing to Caiyun and asked, "Take a look and see if the information registered on this form is accurate."

Caiyun repeatedly examined all the items registered on the form, including each household's political background, economic status, class origin, and population size, and told Team Leader Li, "I think it is basically truthful, and I haven't noticed any obvious problems."

"What do the commune members usually discuss or react to regarding the team's cadres?"

"Nothing."

"What do you think of the team's cadres? Especially Team Captain Wang Hongbing."

"He's all right, I suppose."

"Right now, we are just trying to understand the situation. We hope you will say whatever is on your mind and not have any misgivings."

"What is the main purpose of this movement?"

"Didn't Team Leader Wu talk about that at the meeting?"

"I didn't quite understand."

"The main tasks of this 'Four Cleans' movement are to 'cleanse politics, cleanse economy, cleanse organization, and cleanse ideology.' The focus of cleansing the economy is to 'cleanse work points, cleanse accounts, cleanse storehouses, and cleanse property and goods,' to resolve the 'four uncleans' problems among cadres, help them wash their hands and take a bath, put down their burdens, travel light, and jointly wage the struggle against the enemy. The core focus of the movement is to rectify those power-holders within the Party who are taking the capitalist road."

One afternoon, when Team Leader Li returned from a meeting of the commune's "Four Cleans" work team, she bought a pound of pork and some tofu. Having lived at Caiyun's house for some time, she felt a genuine craving for meat; ordinarily, aside from the fish, shrimp, and swamp eels caught by Youqiang, she practically never ate meat.

After dinner, she handed Caiyun twelve yuan and thirty catties of grain coupons, saying it was her monthly board money. After Caiyun declined repeatedly for a long time, Team Leader Li insisted that this was discipline and had to be handed over, leaving Caiyun with no choice but to accept.

Although Caiyun's family was poor, they paid close attention to hygiene and were virtually free of lice. This greatly pleased Li Zhitong. The two comrades staying at Mute's house were not so fortunate; many lice had crawled into their flannel undershirts, and they were frequently woken up by bites at night, unable to sleep. With no other choice, they would get up to catch lice, and when they had free time during the day, feeling itchy all over, they would catch lice facing the sun.

They often saw old peasant men and women crushing lice with their teeth, making a distinct cracking sound, and some young people—especially children—had many white specks in their hair, which were actually louse eggs that would soon hatch into small lice.

Team Leader Li and her colleagues frequently used their visits to instruct villagers on how to pay attention to hygiene and prevent and treat lice, but the villagers seemed indifferent, saying they were used to it.