Chapter 46 – Fu Zhiqing Is the Most Difficult to Mess With

Shi Wei was quickly restrained. At first, he was shocked, then his face turned pale as he struggled and shouted, “I’m innocent!” The Revolutionary Committee had seen plenty of scenes like this. Without a word, they grabbed his head and gave him a good beating. Just as they had expected, he quickly became “obedient.”

The other educated youths were all frightened. As soon as the Revolutionary Committee said to follow them to the brigade office, they obediently fell in line.

Yang Qingqing, her face deathly pale, walked at the very end.

The Revolutionary Committee also confiscated a letter Shi Wei hadn’t yet mailed to his family. Comparing both, it wasn’t 100% confirmed that the old notebook and the writing in Fu Mingze’s textbook were Shi Wei’s notes, but it was nearly identical—about ninety percent match.

Of course, Shi Wei denied everything, especially that old notebook. He insisted he’d never even seen it before—how could it possibly be his? But the creepy part was, the handwriting in that notebook really resembled his. In fact, it looked even more like his handwriting than the writing in Fu Mingze’s textbook.

Because the notes in Fu Mingze’s textbook were secretly written by Shi Wei. But in order to deflect suspicion, he’d been very careful when writing them, even trying to imitate Fu Mingze’s handwriting.

But good handwriting is hard to fake. Fu Mingze’s writing was exceptionally neat, and Shi Wei simply couldn’t pull it off.

As a result, the writing ended up looking neither like Fu Mingze’s nor particularly like Shi Wei’s.

The problem was, one page from the old notebook had the exact same content as the page in Fu Mingze’s textbook. With this as evidence, the Revolutionary Committee naturally concluded both were written by Shi Wei.

Spreading reactionary remarks could lead to getting shot.

Only now did Shi Wei start to truly feel terrified. He broke down and screamed, “It wasn’t me! I didn’t write any of that! I’m a pure and red-blooded proletarian! Someone is trying to frame me—it must be! Someone’s setting me up!”

He turned toward Fu Mingze and pointed at him furiously. “It’s you! Was it you who set me up?! Fu Mingze, you’re trying to get me killed, aren’t you?! How can you be so vicious?!”

He turned to the Revolutionary Committee members. “It’s him! I’m sure it’s him! He wrote all that—it has nothing to do with me! He’s framing me!”

Fu Mingze remained calm and asked coldly, “I’ve never had any personal conflict with you. Why would I frame you?”

Shi Wei had probably gone mad from the breakdown. He twisted around and roared at Fu Mingze, “What do you mean no conflict?! Of course we had conflict! Yang Qingqing wanted to blackmail you at the stream, and I agreed to help her! I nearly pushed you in, but you kicked me, and I ended up falling in myself! You definitely realized I was going to push you, so you kicked me on purpose! You did it on purpose! I knew it! You bastard, you got me entangled with someone like Yang Qingqing…”

He was beaten so badly by the Revolutionary Committee that his face was bruised and swollen, looking more and more hideous. The educated youths nearby shrank back in fear.

Fu Mingze’s expression didn’t change as he asked evenly, “So that’s your motive for framing me? You thought I kicked you on purpose that day, so you held a grudge and wrote reactionary slogans in my textbook to frame me?”

Shi Wei looked completely insane. He raised his voice and shouted, “It was Yang Qingqing! If you wanted revenge, why didn’t you go after her?! She’s the one who stole your soap! She’s the one who tried to scam you at the stream! She’s the one who wrote the report letter! She’s insane! When she first got here, she saw you carrying a stack of ration coupons and said you must be pretending to be poor! I told her she was crazy, but she didn’t believe me. She kept staring at you, and said no matter what, she’d get into a relationship with you first! But you didn’t fall for it, hahaha! Then she hated you and wanted to destroy you!”

The educated youths standing near Yang Qingqing immediately took several steps back.

Stealing soap, trying to scam people at the stream, and when that failed, writing a report letter? That was terrifying!

Improper relationships between men and women, bourgeois behavior—just those alone could ruin someone. But to also write reactionary slogans in someone’s textbook? That was clearly an attempt to get someone killed!

Yes, with the old notebook as supporting evidence, everyone had already believed the reactionary remarks in Fu Mingze’s textbook were written by Shi Wei. Now, after this explosive confession, everyone was completely certain.

It was them. The two of them!

They tried to scam Fu Mingze. When it didn’t work, they bore a grudge and wanted to ruin him!

Oh god, all this just because Yang Qingqing thought Fu Mingze was hiding a stack of coupons.

If that’s not mental illness, what is? With how poor Fu Mingze looked, if he really had a pile of coupons, he would’ve already exchanged them for cash! But the truth was, he didn’t have any at all!

Everyone lived together, so they more or less knew. Fu Mingze was just a clean freak who liked buying soap more frequently. The soap coupons were given to him by Zheng Jiamin—sometimes even directly gifted. Otherwise, he barely spent any money and never received any from his family. He was visibly the poorest person in the entire educated youth camp.

Yang Qingqing definitely had mental issues—no doubt about it!

Years later, when these educated youths recalled this day, they would all pound their chests and sigh, “Yang Qingqing really was kind of crazy.” But at this moment, no one believed such an outrageous suspicion.

Since all the educated youths had stepped back, Yang Qingqing now stood in an empty circle. Her face was ashen as she glared at Shi Wei and shouted, “You’re spouting nonsense! You bastard! You did all of this—it has nothing to do with me! Don’t try to drag me down with you!”

Deputy Director Wu looked at her. “You’re Yang Qingqing?”

She glanced at the junior cadre behind her.

“Verify her handwriting,” he said.

Not long after, the junior cadre brought over some of Yang Qingqing’s letters from the educated youth camp. Sure enough, the report letter had been written by her.

Still, Yang Qingqing had strong nerves. At this point, she didn’t even bother denying it. “As an educated youth, reporting suspicious individuals to the Revolutionary Committee—is that wrong? Fu Mingze and Wang Qiutong were always exchanging looks—I suspected they were having an improper relationship. What’s wrong with that? Fu Mingze keeps buying soap and doing laundry every day—wasting production resources. Reporting him for bourgeois behavior—is that wrong? His textbook had reactionary remarks. Reporting it to the organization—how could that be wrong?!”

Wang Qiutong immediately stepped out and yelled, “If your brain is sick, go see a doctor! You’re the one constantly staring at Fu Mingze! Uh—”

She caught Fu Mingze’s sharp glance and instantly adjusted her tone with perfect awareness: “No, I mean—you’re the one with impure intentions, always fixated on Fu Zhiqing, and now trying to smear me! I have a purely revolutionary comrade relationship with Fu Zhiqing, the same as with every other educated youth! What you’re saying is slander!”

Zhang Zhiqiang, who considered it his duty as the leader of the educated youth camp to speak during such a major incident, cleared his throat heavily and said, “Report to Deputy Director Wu and Deputy Director Sun—I’m Zhang Zhiqiang, the leader of the educated youth camp. I can testify that there’s no improper relationship between Comrade Wang and Comrade Fu. We eat and live together every day, so I’m clear on that. They haven’t even spoken more than a few words to each other.”

When it came to relationships, Wang Qiutong was clearly closer to Zheng Jiamin.

Of course, Zhang Zhiqiang wasn’t stupid either; he knew better than to say anything that might complicate matters further at this point.

The other educated youths exchanged looks, then hesitantly spoke up in agreement:
“Yes, we can vouch for that. Comrade Wang and Comrade Fu don’t usually have much contact.”

Zhou Mancang glanced at Shi Wei, who was still muttering, “It was Yang Qingqing, it was all Yang Qingqing. Damn it, that woman said if I helped her, she’d give me money. She still hasn’t paid me!” Then he looked at Yang Qingqing, who kept shouting that she hadn’t done anything wrong. He tossed the cigarette he’d been smoking—down to just a stub—on the ground and stomped on it hard.
He said, “Deputy Director Wu, Deputy Director Sun, the matter is more or less clear now. Comrade Fu has been wrongly accused. The rumors about inappropriate conduct between men and women were false, and the so-called reactionary speech was a setup too. As for the soap—buying an extra bar of soap doesn’t exactly qualify as petty bourgeois behavior, does it? Why don’t we just leave it at that?”

Before Deputy Director Wu could speak, Deputy Director Sun adjusted his glasses and spoke first.
“Captain Zhou, I disagree. Building socialism means we must start with the smallest things—from every needle and thread, every brick and tile. If you use an extra bar of soap this year, and I use one tomorrow, and everyone refuses to practice thrift and starts wasting things recklessly, when will we ever succeed in building socialism? This isn’t just about a bar of soap; it’s a matter of ideology and conduct!”

Zhou Mancang wanted to say, Bullshit. A bar of soap is just a bar of soap. Without it, socialism can’t be built?
But he also knew these people from the Revolutionary Committee weren’t the kind to reason with. If they wanted to find fault with you, it wouldn’t stop at a bar of soap. Like Deputy Director Sun said, even a needle or a thread would be enough for them to blow things out of proportion.

Zhou Mancang furrowed his brow and sighed silently.

At least the rumors about inappropriate conduct and reactionary speech had been cleared. Compared to those, a charge of petty bourgeois behavior was still relatively mild.

“Then how about this—we’ll hold a meeting in the brigade and let Comrade Fu give a self-criticism speech in front of everyone,” Zhou Mancang suggested.

Deputy Director Sun shook his head. “Someone reported it, so we can’t treat this lightly. He’ll have to be brought back to the commune first.”

Fu Mingze looked at him and said, “Deputy Director Sun, I bought that bar of soap because—”

Suddenly, Shen Mo’er, who had been standing quietly with the other educated youths, interrupted.
“Comrade Fu, you bought that bar of soap for me, didn’t you? Why haven’t you given it to me yet?”

Fu Mingze, who had remained calm all along, suddenly turned to look at Shen Mo’er, frowning deeply and signaling with his eyes for her to stop talking. Shen Mo’er met his gaze, then stepped forward and spoke:
“Deputy Director Wu, Deputy Director Sun, I’m a member of Yangliu Brigade and also a teacher at the brigade elementary school. My name is Shen Mo’er. I previously asked Comrade Fu to help me buy a bar of soap. I suppose he forgot to give it to me afterward. He was simply doing a good deed. Accusing him of petty bourgeois behavior is clearly slander.”

Deputy Director Wu looked at Shen Mo’er, smiled slightly, and asked an unexpected question:
“You’re the art teacher at the Yangliu Brigade Elementary School?”

Shen Mo’er was momentarily stunned, then nodded. “Yes, I am.”

Deputy Director Wu nodded and said no more.

Deputy Director Sun stared coldly at Shen Mo’er for a while and asked, “The commune isn’t far. Why didn’t you go buy it yourself?”

Shen Mo’er looked directly at him and replied calmly, “As you said, it’s just a bar of soap. Is it really worth making a special trip to the commune? Perhaps you’ve heard—we have two children from our brigade going to the provincial capital to compete in an art contest. This matter concerns the honor of our brigade, the commune, and even the county. I’m their teacher, and in order to focus on giving them extra lessons and improving their art skills, I haven’t gone to the commune recently. If I need anything, I just ask someone to help bring it back.”

Deputy Director Sun narrowed his eyes and glanced at Fu Mingze. “Then why didn’t Comrade Fu say so earlier?”

Shen Mo’er smiled. “Today, there were accusations flying—improper relationships, petty bourgeois behavior, spreading reactionary remarks—each charge more serious than the last. Comrade Fu is an honest man. He probably didn’t want to drag me into it.”

She paused, then added, “But as a teacher of the people, I have to lead by example and tell the truth. Otherwise, how could I stand in front of a classroom and educate others?”

Deputy Director Sun clearly wasn’t satisfied and was about to ask more questions when Deputy Director Wu, who had been quiet, suddenly spoke up:
“Deputy Director Sun, the commune and the county both place great importance on the art competition. It is indeed necessary to create a good educational environment for Comrade Shen Mo’er. Since Comrade Fu was only helping someone bring back an item, this isn’t a case of petty bourgeois behavior. Let’s close the matter here.”

Deputy Director Sun hesitated, then asked, “Fine… but what about the rest of these educated youths?” He still wanted to bring them all back for further questioning.

Deputy Director Wu replied, “The purpose of sending educated youth to the countryside is to support rural development. I believe most of them are good. We just need to deal with the few bad apples among them.”

Deputy Director Sun looked at her and understood what she meant.

This incident involved the educated youth. If things escalated, and they started making trouble afterward, it would be hard to handle.

“Take those two away,” he finally said, pointing at Shi Wei and Yang Qingqing.

Shi Wei immediately jumped up and tried to run out of the brigade office, but he only made it a few steps before Revolutionary Committee members pinned him down. One of them slapped him hard several times, then twisted his arms behind his back and shouted, “Behave yourself!”

Yang Qingqing was trembling all over with fear.
“I did nothing wrong! You can’t arrest me! I’m an educated youth supporting rural development! I’ve seen the leader in the capital! I’m the most loyal revolutionary youth of the Leader! Aaah—let me go! You can’t do this to me!”

“You? The most loyal revolutionary youth of the Leader? Then what are we?!” one of the Revolutionary Committee members sneered, grabbed her by the hair, and dragged her out.

Deputy Director Sun held his chin high as he left. Deputy Director Wu, however, nodded at Zhou Mancang before following more slowly.

It wasn’t until the Revolutionary Committee people had all left and the shouting of Shi Wei and Yang Qingqing could no longer be heard that everyone finally let out the breath they’d been holding.

That was terrifying! many were screaming inwardly.

In this day and age, the one thing everyone feared most was being targeted by the Revolutionary Committee. If Deputy Director Wu hadn’t stepped in, Deputy Director Sun had clearly been intending to take them all away.

Everyone suddenly felt like they’d just survived a major disaster.

Zheng Jiamin, who had been hiding in a corner the whole time, suddenly rushed over to Fu Mingze, slapped him on the shoulder, and said,
“That scared the life out of me.”

Fu Mingze ignored him. He frowned and looked at Shen Mo’er, as if wanting to say something. But when he noticed the others watching them with curiosity, he said instead:
“Comrade Shen Mo’er, I, Zheng Jiamin, and… Comrade Wang, we’d like to come to your place to talk.”

Zhou Mancang waved his hand. “Go, go, hurry up and hand over the things you brought. Make sure the money and tickets are counted properly. And the rest of you, disperse, disperse—go back and tidy up, those who need to get to work, go quickly.”

A group of people filed out of the brigade office in an orderly line.

Outside, the road was already packed with villagers who had heard the rumors and come to see what was going on. Seeing Zhou Qingguo walking at the front carrying his little daughter, someone asked, “Qingguo, what’s going on? Why did the Revolutionary Committee take away Comrade Yang and Comrade Shi?”

“They were caught hugging and cuddling by the stream, and after all this time they still haven’t gotten married. Maybe the Revolutionary Committee found out about it? I said from the start, things would go wrong if they kept doing that without getting married.”

“But I heard Comrade Shi yelling about how ‘it’s all her fault, she wanted to kill Fu Mingze,’ and Comrade Yang was screaming back about ‘rebellion is justified, reporting is not wrong.’ Doesn’t sound like a marriage issue at all?”

…

Seeing the situation, Shen Mo’er quickly signaled Fu Mingze and the others with her eyes, then turned and walked toward the backyard of the brigade office.

If she circled around through the backyard and exited from the back gate of her house, then looped around to the front entrance, she could avoid getting stopped and interrogated by the villagers.

Before long, she arrived outside the room where the landlord’s widow and her son lived. Shen Mo’er noticed that the door was slightly ajar, and through the narrow crack, she could vaguely see someone peeking out.

After thinking for a moment, Shen Mo’er stepped closer and said quietly, “It’s about the educated youths. It has nothing to do with anyone else.” With that, she quickly walked away.

Soon after, the sound of the wooden door gently closing came from behind.

Shen Mo’er quietly sighed.

These past two years had been a little better, but in the early years of the movement, that mother and son had suffered a great deal. Hearing that people from the Revolutionary Committee were here likely frightened them terribly.

Although she lived next door to them, Shen Mo’er actually saw them very rarely. She hadn’t even run into them while fetching water, likely because they only came out at night when it was quiet.

But she had seen the young landlord boy carrying manure during work shifts, and more than once witnessed the village kids throwing dirt clods at him, calling him a “little landlord bastard.”

She had scolded those brats a few times, and although they verbally agreed not to throw dirt anymore, they turned around and threw weeds at him instead.

Shen Mo’er truly didn’t understand. Even if his family had done wrong in the past—even if his father or grandfather had oppressed poor farmers—what could a fourteen- or fifteen-year-old child possibly have done? He wasn’t even born yet when his family was landlords.

As they walked to the other side, passing by the dilapidated cowshed piled high with weeds and junk, Shen Mo’er noticed that, like the landlord widow’s house, the cowshed’s usually shut, barely functioning wooden door was also slightly open. An old man with graying hair was peeking through the gap.

“Comrade Zheng, since Yang maliciously reported and Shi maliciously framed, what do you think the Revolutionary Committee will do to them?” Shen Mo’er suddenly asked.

Zheng Jiamei, who had been named, looked utterly confused. “With the Revolutionary Committee, who knows. Depends on their mood.”

Shen Mo’er nodded. “So this matter has nothing to do with anyone else in the brigade, right?”

Fu Mingze, who had been walking beside her, glanced toward the cracked cowshed door and chimed in cooperatively, “Everything’s already been clarified. That Deputy Director Wu also said that as long as we clear out the harmful few, they won’t bother the village again.”

Shen Mo’er looked at him, smiled, and said, “That’s good.”

The cowshed’s broken wooden door slowly closed.

It wasn’t until they walked into the Shen family’s yard that Zheng Jiamei belatedly realized, “Comrade Shen Mo’er, just now you were speaking for Old Wang in the cowshed, weren’t you? To let him know the Revolutionary Committee won’t be troubling others or him?”

Old Wang was the elderly man living in the cowshed.

Wang Qiutong teased, “Oh wow, you finally figured it out.”

Zheng Jiamei scratched his head. “I just didn’t catch on right away.”

Since he admitted it himself, Wang Qiutong didn’t say much more. She mumbled “idiot” and thumped over to sit under the eaves.

That really was terrifying. She had nearly been labeled as someone with improper male-female relations. Just imagining being paraded around the village in disgrace with Fu Mingze, wearing a pair of old shoes around her neck, made Wang Qiutong break out in cold sweat and feel weak in the knees.

“You all sit. I’ll go get you something to drink.”

Shen Mo’er said as she walked into the kitchen to pour water. Fu Mingze followed her in, picked up the thermos, and while pouring, said, “You were taking a big risk stepping forward like that. What if they came to search your house for that soap? They could have easily accused you of having bourgeois habits.”

“Or, if they found out your father works at the commune, your explanation wouldn’t hold water. Your dad could have just bought the soap himself.”

Shen Mo’er looked at him. “My family has been poor farmers for three generations, and we’re regular members of the village. Usually, if there’s no evidence, they wouldn’t dare search our house. If things really blew up, those people from the committee wouldn’t be able to handle the backlash from all the villagers. Besides, even if they searched, they wouldn’t find anything.”

Her father disliked the smell of soap and had specifically bought a bar of scented soap. To maintain the image of poverty, they had always hidden it carefully.

“As for my dad working at the commune, he’s always busy with work. Not having time to buy things is perfectly normal.”

“It’s still too risky. That Deputy Director Sun clearly isn’t easy to deal with. If he got serious, talking your way out wouldn’t be so simple.” Fu Mingze frowned. He had been genuinely startled when she stood up to speak.

“What if I hadn’t stood up? What would you have said?” Shen Mo’er asked, curious.

“That bar of soap was for killing bugs in the vegetable garden. You can make a one-to-a-hundred soap solution to spray and kill aphids, whiteflies, and other pests,” Fu Mingze replied calmly as he looked at her.

Shen Mo’er: “…”

She really didn’t know enough about this world. She had no idea soap could be used for pest control.

Fu Mingze’s explanation might not be airtight, but it sounded reasonable on the surface. After all, they had been working on some kind of test field lately. And this explanation made it seem like he was doing something good for the country and the people—surely the Revolutionary Committee wouldn’t object to protecting crops?

But thinking back, he had remained calm the entire time, responding to accusations with ease, never panicking. It almost seemed like he had been prepared in advance.

Shen Mo’er stared at Fu Mingze for a moment, then had a flash of insight. She lowered her voice, leaned closer, and asked, “The reactionary statements in that notebook Shi Wei had… did you write them? Did you discover those added lines in the textbook earlier, and decide to go along with it?”

Fu Mingze’s eyes flickered slightly. Seeing how curious and nervous she looked, he chuckled.

“What?! That old notebook wasn’t Shi Wei’s?” Wang Qiutong exclaimed from the kitchen doorway. “You—you—you! Comrade Fu, you wrote it on purpose and hid it under his bed?!”

She knew it! None of the educated youths were to be messed with—especially Fu Mingze.

Oh wait, no. She should exclude Zheng Jiamei, that idiot.