Actually, he was taking a walk in the fields simply because that's what farmers did when they were worried about something. It was an old habit. He was worried for the safety of the young people who had left, and he felt especially uneasy when he thought about Suopo. Suopo was a rash young man who didn't know his own limits, and worse, he was exactly the kind of person who would lead his companions blindly into danger without thinking.
Kelsang had once been an activist, just like Suopo, but that was a dozen or more years ago. It wasn't long after the Communist Party liberated him from his unfree status as a serf. Like Suopo, his first official post was that of People's Militia platoon leader. After that, he was made leader of an advanced co-operative. Then, after the communes were established, he took his current post of production team leader. The Communist Party helped people like him at the bottom of the social hierarchy to remake themselves. In doing so, the Party created a counter to the old tribal headmen of the feudal system. But now, in elevating young people like Suopo, the Party was creating a counter to itself. That was what Kelsang didn't understand.
Maybe it's just that they'll always prefer the young people, he thought. Could that be it? New laughter came out of his mouth, taking him unaware. This time, he was laughing because of the confusion in his heart, and because of the loss he felt.
He understood that, in circumstances like these, Suopo and his young followers had never needed him to worry about them in the first place.
Nonetheless, he was a leader brought up on the teachings of the Communist Party, so of course he was always going to worry about Ji village's ability to emerge from the other side of this disaster intact.
Kelsang was under no illusions regarding his intelligence—he knew better than anyone that he was far from a clever man. But, he also knew that he had the skills to command the support of all different kinds of people. There were two people he'd always relied on in all matters relating to the forest around Ji village. One of these people was the chief of the commune police substation, Old Wei; the other was the wizard Dorje, who knew how to recognise the winds that blew among these mountains. As it stood now, Old Wei had been overthrown and branded a counter-revolutionary, while Dorje was an escaped convict, confined to a hiding place in the mountains. Kelsang decided to go pay Dorje a visit. In times like these, just having something to do, something achievable, goes a long way to calming a person down.
There was no fire in Ji village yet, but the air felt scorched and parched. Kelsang's throat was parched too; on his way down the road he made frequent stops to drink great gulps of water from the stream. As he knelt in the wet, soft mud by the water, his buttocks sticking up into the air high above the rest of his body, the clear, cool water gurgling into and through his body, he found himself thinking strange thoughts, for no apparent reason. He was imagining himself emerging from the forest. He was holding his hunting rifle. In fact, he was aiming it—his target was a bear that was busily bent over the stream drinking.
Was there liquor mixed in with the stream water? Kelsang certainly felt a little drunk. He found himself suddenly unsure whether he was a hunter, or a bear.
Feeling uneasy about where his thoughts were leading him, he jumped to his feet and got back on the road, at least until the dried out air made him feel like his lungs were in danger of combusting. He was forced to stoop down by the stream again. While he drank, his sharp hunter's ears told him that the forest pressing close on all sides was full of restless animals dashing back and forth. They weren't looking for food, or for mates; they were behaving in this way because they were just as worried as the people who lived in these mountains, if not more so. Animals have always had a keener sense for impending natural disaster than humans.
Further down the road, in the mid-river hot springs, Dorje was washing himself and applying medicinal herbs to his wounds. When he finished, he lay down in his dry mountain cave. He wasn't going to go the bother of getting up, not even for the leader of the production team who, it would seem, had come to pay him a visit. With a mocking smile on his lips, he said:
"Well, don't you look sick with worry! Is the sky about to fall on our heads?"
As a rule, Dorje's display of arrogance made Kelsang feel uncomfortable, but today, seeing that the fugitive wizard still held on to his habitual big-headedness was as refreshing to him as a mouthful of cool stream water.
"Actually, I feel alright now, Dorje. It's a relief to see you can still talk like that."
Dorje was feeling far from sentimental:
"The grass is growing well in the pastures again, isn't that great? The commune's cows and sheep are fat, the credit is all yours, and the guilt is all mine. You're afraid that if I die, there won't be anyone to take the blame when there's another good deed needs doing, aren't you?" Dorje replied.
"I know the credit is all yours," Kelsang reassured him, "and so does everyone else in Ji village. Even Old Wei and the other leaders higher up know."
Dorje sat up suddenly, the arrogance vanished from his face:
"Old Wei? Old Wei has been overthrown! And what about me? You know they want to shoot me?!"
He flopped dejectedly back down on the ground.
"You'll be next," Dorje continued, "I'm sure you won't last longer than a few more days as production team leader."
"That may be, but today, I am still leader of the production team, officially appointed by the People's Government!"
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