Chapter 45: The Backstory

“Brother Hua, after we finish drinking, let’s go smash that Recycling Station in West City again, how about it?”

Being pushed around by a country bumpkin in the Cinema last time really annoyed these young men who thought they were big shots in the County Town. They spent several days wandering all over the County Town looking for that country guy.

Yesterday, they happened to run into that hillbilly again, gave him a beating, and later chased him to his Recycling Station to wreck it. But earlier, the police had come knocking, which made the brothers’ bad temper flare up again.

“Not today. We’re not going anywhere. There are people in the county who don’t even give face to my uncle,” Dai Xiaohua shook his head. He looked rough, but he was actually quite shrewd.

Even though they beat up Feng Kuang and smashed his Recycling Station yesterday, there were no witnesses. The police couldn’t touch him. But if they caused trouble again today, the police would definitely be on their tail.

“That guy just got lucky…”

Hearing Dai Xiaohua’s words, the young men started shouting: “Listen to Brother Hua. We’ll deal with that guy another day. We’ll make sure his Recycling Station can’t stay open…”

“Right, brothers. I’ve come to realize that if you want people to respect you in the future, you need money. Don’t look down on us now. Once we have money, everyone will call us boss…”

Dai Xiaohua filled a bowl with wine and stood up. “As long as you brothers stick with me, I promise within two years, everyone will ride a motorcycle and have a girl on their arm…”

Unlike the unemployed young men around him, Dai Xiaohua had contracted the scrap collection station in East City. After a few months of operating it, he saw the amazing profits involved.

Compared to the honest and law-abiding Feng Kuang, Dai Xiaohua was plenty smart. He just didn’t use his smarts for good; he kept thinking up crooked schemes.

While wrecking Feng Kuang’s Recycling Station, an idea popped into Dai Xiaohua’s head. He wanted to bring all the waste pickers in the entire County Town together and have them sell their scrap only to him. After all, anyone who got into this business could see the profits.

But Dai Xiaohua didn’t want to pay the waste pickers higher prices than the state-run stations. He wanted to push the prices even lower so he could make bigger profits.

However, getting those waste pickers to willingly sell their stuff to him was absolutely impossible. That’s why Dai Xiaohua gathered so many young men. He wanted to turn them into his enforcers, to fight his battles for him in the future.

One could say that Dai Xiaohua’s actions were something many unemployed people or released convicts in cities during that era were doing. Even they themselves, and the law enforcement at the time, didn’t realize this behavior was the budding form of organized crime racketeering.

The lucky ones, after amassing a lot of wealth, washed their hands clean and moved into other industries, becoming some of the first to get rich in that era. The unlucky ones failed and vanished under the rolling wheels of history.

“Brother Hua, say no more. My life is yours from now on.”

“Exactly. No one really cares about us anyway. We’ll listen to Brother Hua from now on.”

“Brother Hua, don’t worry. We’re like bricks in the revolution, ready to be moved wherever needed…”

After Dai Xiaohua’s speech, the eyes of the seven or eight young men at the table turned red. They downed the wine in their bowls and thumped their chests, pledging their loyalty.

You have to understand, most of these young men were second or third sons at home. They couldn’t take over their parents’ jobs. They were stuck at home unemployed, their pockets often emptier than their faces. What they lacked most was money.

These young men weren’t really bad people. In a way, they were even quite simple. A Hong Kong/Taiwan gunfight movie could get their blood pumping, and a meal with drinks from Dai Xiaohua could make them feel incredibly grateful.

…

“Uncle Ye, any news? Anything about our Recycling Station getting smashed?”

Hearing the bicycle bell in the yard, Feng Kuang ran out of the house. Before Ye Dongping could even properly park his bike, Feng Kuang anxiously asked the question.

Three days had passed since Feng Kuang was beaten and the Recycling Station was wrecked. The old officer from the East City Police Station had come by, but he brought bad news.

Based on the clues provided by Feng Kuang and Ye Tian, the Police Station people found Dai Xiaohua the next day. However, the person involved flatly denied the beating. He even got a certain county leader to testify that he was a guest at the leader’s house at the time.

Which carried more weight—Feng Kuang’s word alone or the leader’s testimony—went without saying. Moreover, that old officer subtly hinted to Ye Dongping and Feng Kuang that this Dai Xiaohua was no ordinary person.

To be more precise, Dai Xiaohua’s uncle was a big shot in this small County Town.

Dai Xiaohua’s uncle was named Dai Rongcheng. He used to be a worker at the county textile mill. Because he had a clean background—several generations of poor peasants—and because he was bold and careful, he rose up suddenly during those chaotic times and actually ended up as the director of the County Revolutionary Committee.

But getting that position came at a cost. Dai Rongcheng’s own younger brother died in a factional fight, leaving behind two children: Dai Xiaohua and his brother.

Unlike many people of that era, although Dai Rongcheng also persecuted some veteran cadres, his methods were more cunning. He let others play the bad cop, while he played the good cop. This made many veteran cadres who didn’t know the truth think he was actually protecting them.

This led to a result where, when social order returned to normal and those veteran cadres were reinstated, Dai Rongcheng didn’t fade into obscurity like most others. Instead, he transformed himself and became a leading official in the county.

Not only that, during the major crackdown on social order in ’83, Dai Rongcheng even went so far as to sacrifice family for justice. He personally sent his own nephew, who had committed robbery, to the execution ground.

Many people knew that the ’83 crackdown was, in some ways, an overcorrection. Many minor crimes got harsh sentences, and some moderately serious crimes received the death penalty.

Dai Rongcheng could have helped his nephew escape punishment, or at least avoid the death penalty. But he did the opposite, which showed his ruthless side.

Dai Rongcheng had no sons, only two daughters. People had old-fashioned ideas back then about needing someone to “break the funeral bowl” after death. So, he was actually very good to Dai Xiaohua.

Dai Xiaohua was a wolf cub who recognized only the hand that fed him. He completely ignored that his father’s and brother’s deaths were related to this very uncle. He stayed very close to Dai Rongcheng, almost as if he was formally adopted by him.

Dai Rongcheng cared about this only nephew. Afraid he would loaf around society all day and stir up big trouble, he found a way to help him contract a scrap collection station in the county.

Although the signs of privilege weren’t so obvious in this era, these invisible class divisions always existed. Just like in this assault case, after Dai Rongcheng provided testimony, no one bothered Dai Xiaohua about it again.