Will the Boat Sink the Water?: The Life of China's Peasants by Chen Guidi, Wu Chuntao Page B

scythe lying on the floor. The accountant held Zhang Guiyu by the waist while son number seven sprang forward with the club to hit him. Zhang Guiyu managed to struggle out of the accountant’s grip and, seeing that they were out for his blood, picked up a brick on the floor. Wei Surong picked up a kitchen knife lying
    on the stove top, ready to defend herself.
    The two sides faced each other; the situation was explosive. The commotion alarmed the neighbors. The two sons of
    Deputy Village Chief Zhang, seeing that they were outnum-bered, snuck out of the house.
    But Deputy Village Chief Zhang was not about to give up. He walked toward the back of the house, throwing a challenge to Zhang Guiyu: “Come on, meet me over there, if you have the balls!”
    Zhang Guiyu, an upstanding man who had never taken a challenge lying down, was certainly not going to cave in to a village cadre’s bullying. He followed Zhang to the back of the house, saying, “You know it is the township’s order for a general audit. The people chose me. Am I to blame? You’d better put a lock on that mouth of yours. I am going to check your books and dig out the problems! And what can you do about it?”
    Deputy Village Chief Zhang had secretly signaled son num-ber seven to go home for reinforcements. Now he came back with his two brothers, son number one, Zhang Jiachi, and son
    the village tyrant

    number six, Zhang Chaowei, both of them carrying hidden weapons. Son number six started hitting Zhang Giuyu the moment he arrived, while son number five struck the brick out of Zhang Guiyu’s hand. Seeing that the disarmed Zhang Guiyu was not giving up and still fighting, son number six took out a dagger he had stuck in his rubber boots and a meat cleaver that was hidden under his jacket. Brandishing these weapons, he struck Zhang Guiyu on the head and stabbed him in the chest. Taken by surprise, Zhang Guiyu fell heavily to the ground, without uttering a sound.
    By then other members of the work group, Zhang Hongchuan and Zhang Guimao, both rushed over, honoring their previous agreement to stick together in an emergency. They were shocked when they saw Zhang Guiyu lying on the ground covered in his own blood, and cursed Deputy Village Chief Zhang and screamed for a doctor.
    By now, Deputy Village Chief Zhang had completely lost his senses. Seeing Zhang Hongchuan and Zhang Guimao at the scene, he said with a sinister smile, “Damn it, you are just on time. I’ve been waiting for you!” Turning to son number one, he shouted, “Kill! Kill! Twelve bastards trying to check my books, kill them all!”
    Son number five, who happened to be standing closest to Zhang Hongchuan, sprang on him immediately, stabbing him in the chest, the abdomen, and the hips. Zhang Hongchuan stopped breathing before he could put up any resistance.
    Just as son number five was attacking Zhang Hongchuan, Deputy Village Chief Zhang himself pinned the other village representative, Zhang Guimao, tightly from the back and cursed him: “Fuck your mother! Going around raising complaints against me? Trying to audit my books? Come on and get your fill of auditing!” Though restrained from behind, Zhang Guimao was tall and muscular and still managed to grapple with the deputy village chief. The latter, finding himself no
    will the boat sink the water ?

    match for his victim, called to son number seven, “Leyi, come and put him down!” Son number seven raised the meat cleaver in his hand and crashed it down on Zhang Guimao’s skull. Meanwhile, son number one, who had become delirious at the scene of the carnage, now joined his brother; he straddled Zhang Guimao and stabbed him three times in the back with the butcher’s knife. According to forensic evidence gathered later, Zhang Guimao’s skull was cracked by five blows to the head, and his left lung was pierced.
    Meanwhile Zhang Guiyu, in whose home the attack had first started, was groaning in pain and about to breathe his last. Son