The train
arrives during the night. One can hear vague noise, the bustle of the station.
The doors of the carriage stay closed. Cao Yu is cold. She wakes up slowly. She
feels completely stiff. Her whole body hurts. The other girls have taken care
of her. They hoped to arrive more quickly. But the train began to slow down and
sometimes stopped. Shouts are heard outside. Cao Yu was able to eat a little.
Weina tenderly watches over her. The other girls are doing their best, knowing
there are probably some ribs fractured, if not broken. She has trouble
breathing. If she does not move too much, it’s just as well. They hear voices
getting closer to the train. Engine sounds, like trucks.
Suddenly, they
realize that someone is unlocking the outer panels of the wagon. A ray of light
enters, and then everything is open. Everyone in the car gets up. There are
soldiers outside, guns with fixed bayonets. Some are carrying assault rifles.
Outside the sun is shining. Cao Yu is half asleep. Weina helps her to get up;
she does her coat up properly. An order comes from outside:
"Get out!
Line up in two rows in front of the carriage!"
The occupants
obey immediately. They jump down. When
it’s Cao Yu’s turn, she realizes that the ground is so far. A guard sees that
she has difficulty and approaches to help. Not a good idea. The officer
commanding the detachment yells:
"Stop
helping the counter-revolutionary vermin. She gets down by herself."
Weina helps Cao
Yu but cannot prevent her from falling, which makes a few soldiers laugh.
Eventually, all the occupants are out and they stay in front of the wagons.
They see that the train has many carriages but that apart from theirs only one
other wagon is filled with deportees. Weina is watching the occupants of the
other car closely. They are mostly older people, fifty or so of them. All are
women. One can recognize Tibetan nuns in their robes but for the others it is
difficult to know who they are and why they’ve been deported. Some appear to
have a hard time standing as if they had been beaten. One of them is in
particularly bad shape. She must be at least eighty years old. Weina realizes
that Cao Yu is watching them. She pulls her by the arm and whispers:
"Do not
care too much about these people. They are certainly political or religious
prisoners, maybe both!"
"But why
are they here?"
"Hush,
Weina says, I'll tell you later. Now it is better not to talk!"
A guard sees
them talking and shouts:
"Hey, the
two whores, it’s forbidden to speak. What are you up to? Answer!"
"Excuse me
Comrades, my friend is cold and I told her to close her coat properly. That's
all!"
"Well, it's
ok this time. Until we arrive at the Centre, do not say a word. You're going to
ride in trucks. ACTION!"
He shows them
two covered trucks that have just arrived. The guards surround them and push
them roughly to the rear of the truck. Close to the truck, they still have to
climb up. Wei Na and another girl push Cao Yu into the truck and then get up
themselves. The truck has two side panels and a rear one that is raised when
all the girls are up. There are no benches and everyone has to sit on the
floor. It's terribly uncomfortable especially as everything is so cold.
When the
soldiers have finished with the first car, they take care of the second group.
Boarding them is also quick. However, many people fail to get up. The soldiers
push them brutally on to the truck bed and close the side panel from the
bottom. Then they lower the tarpaulins on both trucks and the occupants are immersed
in semi-darkness. At least it protects them from the wind. Once this is done,
the two train carriages used to transport the deportees are closed again. A
guard waves to the train driver who gets under way, enters the station of
Lanzhou and then continues his way south.
Two soldiers
raise the cover of each truck, get up and settle next to the prisoners. Those
who are in the truck with Cao Yu and the group of prostitutes are young, very
young even. One girl tries to strike up a conversation but she is immediately
rebuffed. They close the back tarpaulin of the truck again and beckon the girls
to squeeze together a little more so they can make themselves comfortable. The
trucks do not start. There are about twenty soldiers outside. The commanding
officer gets in at the front of the first truck.
Another does the
same in the second truck. Suddenly the sound of a third vehicle can be heard
which stops nearby.
The driver keeps
the engine running. The girls hear screams, orders and the remaining soldiers
climb into the truck that have just arrived. Once this is done, the three
vehicles set off. None of the prisoners knows exactly where they are.
As they did not enter
the station, they could not hear any announcement or perhaps read a sign. Some
try to communicate again with the two young guards, but they make the girls
quickly aware that it is better not to insist. The truck rolls over a field
filled with potholes and sloughs. Everyone is shaken. As there is nothing to
cling to, except the rails for those in the bottom or sides, it is very
difficult. At one point, they feel the truck driving onto a paved road. One of
the girls near the soldiers manages to read the time on one of their watches.
She passes the information through the truck discreetly. It is ten o'clock in
the morning. The three trucks cross a city, Lanzhou probably because Weina got
some information the day before, but without being certain.
However, one of
the girls tells her that she has already been to Gansu and it seems like it,
including the bitter cold. They hear noises of the city, the din of the
streets. Then the truck travels faster and they know they are out of town. Some
time elapses. The two soldiers are drowsy. One girl looks back at the time. It
is now 11:00. Suddenly, the truck slows and then stops. They hear a metallic
door open; the truck enters the enclosure of a building. It drives a little and
then enters what seems like a courtyard. The truck stops. They hear the other
trucks doing the same and then all the engines are stopped.
The two guards
are startled. They lower the tailgate, raise the back cover which they attach
with straps and then jump from the truck. They beckon the prisoners to do the
same and to line up in two rows in the yard.
Somehow, the
girls manage to get down. It’s high, particularly for Cao Yu with her multiple
wounds and bruises that are far from being healed. With the help of Weina and
two other girls, she finds herself on the floor and gets into position. The
second truck is emptied. From the third, the soldiers fall out quickly and in
good order in the courtyard in front of both groups of prisoners.
They are
actually inside a sort of roughly rectangular fortress. Everything is
surrounded by thick, high walls; about five or six meters. Barbed wire adorns
the walls. There are small watchtowers every fifty yards; kinds of viewpoints
that are not all in concrete. Inside the towers, armed guards keep watch. Some
towers are equipped with floodlights. The prison is big. It contains several
sets of buildings.
Xiao Cao tries
to estimate the scale of the buildings. It's hard, but at a rough guess,
probably four or five hundred meters long and two or three hundred meters wide.
There is no inner enclosure as in many prisons. The officers in charge seem to
be waiting for something or someone. A small platform is installed.
Fortunately, there is no wind. A pale sun appears and warms the prisoners. Cao
Yu hopes it will not last too long because she begins to feel all the pain of
her body once more. She wonders again where she is. She feels things are going
too fast. What will become of her? What will they do to her? She watches the
people around them. All seem resigned to their fate.
How could it be
otherwise? They must also be cold but some try to seem cheerful.
She looks around
her again. Their group includes twenty people, all quite young. Maybe some are
a little older. The other group is smaller. She tries to count them, but she
fails to focus enough. Probably a dozen. Three Buddhist nuns, easily
recognizable, but for others she does not know. All are old ladies. The one
that had so much difficulty getting off the train and to get up in the truck is
more or less helped by another woman. All these women exude suffering, but
beyond that first impression a certain inner strength seems to emanate from
them.
Cao Yu suddenly
feels completely useless. What has she got to do with all these people? She
isn’t political. She participated in several demonstrations in June, but so
many people did. She resents Cosmos. He was always reckless. He was everywhere.
And the name Cosmos with which he calls himself, as if that could mislead an
experienced police officer. Through what he said, she guessed he was working at
the Beijing Review. During the protests he influenced Wang Jun. She begins to
feel ill again. She would like to sit down.
Time does not
pass quickly. The soldiers have grounded arms. They are not well organized.
Their clothes not very clean either. They are nothing like those seen on guard
around Zhongnanhai in Beijing or other buildings.
Some have a wild
look, however. When leaving the train, she was frightened by their appearance.
They are not very well dressed, but certainly not operetta soldiers. Their
bayonets make her shiver. She suddenly imagines herself on the ground with a
soldier on her. No, she tells herself, it is not possible. The soldiers of the
People’s Liberation Army do not behave like that. They are respectful and only
use revolutionary violence against the enemies of the people.
Her thoughts
lead her back to what happened during her arrest. Where is Wang Jun? Perhaps
they killed him? She will probably be questioned and she will say that this is
a misunderstanding, a mistake; she is a student and has been arrested by
mistake. She realizes that she is no longer living in the same world and tears
start running down her cheeks. A soldier looks at her. He sees her tears. He
nudges his neighbor and both stare at her. They laugh. Weina sees their game
and gives them a furious glance. This makes them laugh even more. The officer
is alerted. He moves toward them. All three exchange a few words. The officer
looks at Cao Yu. He approaches:
"Why are
you crying? You feel ashamed? What is your name?"
