Another story in which the
protagonist’s suspicious behavior almost leads to conviction—because he acts
guilty and shows it.
A friend has asked him to take a
package with him to his home on the train. The friend is an enemy of the
government. Naturally, the protagonist suspects that the package contains
material of an incriminating nature.
And now an agent of the government is
checking packages. When the train reaches its destination, the protagonist
leaps into a rickshaw and directs the attendant to take devious ways to his
home. Once there he runs inside, waiting for the agent to follow with a pistol
in his hands.
The “incriminating” material is an
obituary of the friend’s grandmother, signed by her grandson.
Rating: *** out of *****.
About the Author:
“One of the major story writers in modern China, Ye Shengtao was born in 1894
in the province of Jiangsu. He completed high school but his family could not
afford to send him to college and he started working as a teacher. He taught on
the elementary, high school and college levels, and after establishing a
connection with a publishing house, a new career blossomed. He has edited
several magazines including Short Story Monthly. As editor, he gave many now
famous writers their first break. His own works are well-received, several
collections of short stories have been published. (His books were banned by the
‘gang of four’ but are now again available.” Ye Shengtao is a modest, kindly
person who freely praises other writers’ work. He writes in the vernacular, not
in classical Chinese; his work is fluent.”
Short Story International
#30. Ed. Sylvia Tankel. February 1982. Pp.25-31.
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