Black Gold 1983

After leaving the Phoenix Mountain Mine, Renye waited by the roadside for more than half an hour before finally flagging down a passing bus heading towards Wangtaipu. There weren't many people on the bus, so he found a window seat and took out the few sheets of paper with copied information to read again.

Gu Guihua was born in 1941 in Qinshui County. She started working in 1961 as a warehouse keeper in the Electromechanical Department of Fenghuangshan Mine. In 1967, she was transferred to Wangtaipu Mine.

He stared at the three characters "Wangtaipu Mine" for a long time. He knew Wangtaipu Mine; it was an old mine under the Jincheng Mining Bureau, built even earlier than Hongxing Mine, and started production in the 1950s. It wasn't large, and production had been decreasing in recent years. Many of the miners had left or been transferred, leaving very few.

The car bumped along for nearly an hour before stopping on the edge of a town. The driver said they had arrived at Wangtaipu. Renye got out of the car and looked around. It was a small town with a main street lined with shops selling general merchandise on both sides. Further ahead, he could see the mine's derrick, rusty and standing there like an old skeleton under the hazy sky.

Wangtaipu Mine was much smaller and older than Fenghuangshan Mine. The mine headquarters was a two-story building, the yellow paint on the exterior walls had almost completely faded, revealing the gray-black cement underneath. Several old trucks were parked in the yard, their cargo beds piled with scrap metal. An old man squatted in the corner, basking in the sun, his eyes half-closed, as if he were asleep.

Renye walked over and squatted down: "Master, I have something to ask you."

The old man opened his eyes, glanced at him, and then closed them again.

Renye handed him the cigarette. The old man then opened his eyes again, took the cigarette, smelled it under his nose, and tucked it behind his ear.

"Who are you asking about?"

"Gu Guihua. She was transferred from Fenghuangshan Mine in 1966 or 1967 and worked at your mine."

The old man's eyes widened suddenly. He looked at Renye, scrutinizing him from head to toe several times, his gaze filled with an inexplicable wariness.

"Who are you? Why are you asking her?"

Renye used the same excuse he had used at the Phoenix Mountain Mine: "I am her nephew. My elders asked me to come and inquire about my aunt's experiences at the mine back then."

The old man didn't reply. He took the cigarette off his ear, squeezed it, and then put it back. He stood up, dusted off his trousers, took a step towards the mining department building, then stopped and turned back to look at Renye.

"Come with me."

Renye followed him into the mining department building. The old man stopped in front of an office with a sign that read "Administration Section," knocked twice, and went inside without waiting for a response.

A middle-aged man in his forties, wearing black-rimmed glasses, sat in the office, several forms spread out in front of him, calculating on an abacus. Seeing the old man enter, he looked up: "Old Sun, what's up?"

The old man gestured towards Renye with his lip: "This person is inquiring about Gu Guihua."

The middle-aged man's hand paused on the abacus, and he looked up at Renye. His gaze wasn't as wary as the old man's; it was more of a scrutiny, as if he were assessing the newcomer's importance.

"Who are you to her?"

"nephew."

"Which nephew?"

Renye's heart tightened; he knew he had given himself away. Nephews can be categorized as biological, cousin, or maternal. Although Wangtaipu Mine was small, personnel files were still managed, and a casual remark wouldn't stand up to scrutiny.

"I am Han Tianfang," he said. "Gu Guihua is my mother."

The middle-aged man paused, pushed his glasses up, and stared at Renye for several seconds. Renye knew he had taken a gamble: he was betting that the people at Wangtaipu Mine didn't recognize Han Tianfang, and that Gu Guihua had mentioned her son's name when she was at Wangtaipu Mine.

"Are you Gu Guihua's son?" The middle-aged man's tone changed; it wasn't suspicion, but surprise.

"Yes."

The middle-aged man was silent for a moment, then stood up from his chair, walked to the filing cabinet, opened the bottom drawer, rummaged through it for a while, pulled out a brown paper file folder, dusted it off, and placed it on the table.

"Gu Guihua worked at the mine for less than a year before taking a leave of absence without pay. Her personnel file has been sitting here ever since; no one has come to retrieve it or inquire about it." He pushed the file folder over. "Take a look."

Renye opened the file folder. There weren't many things inside: an employee registration form, several pay slips, and a leave-without-of-absence application.

He first looked at the employee registration form. The content was similar to the one from Fenghuangshan Mine, but there was an additional column: marital status. It read "widowed". Spouse's name: Han Changgen, deceased.

He looked at the application for leave without pay, dated March 1968. The handwriting on the application was neat and beautiful, exactly the same as the handwriting on the back of Han Tianfang's photograph. The content was: "Due to personal reasons, I hereby apply for leave without pay. I hope this will be approved." Signed: Gu Guihua.

Renye's gaze lingered on the words "personal reasons." In those days, a woman taking unpaid leave of absence was usually doing so to get married, have a child, or move with a man. Gu Guihua was widowed, so marriage wasn't an issue for her. She had a child, and if she were to move with someone—

"Where did she go after she took unpaid leave?" Renye asked.

The middle-aged man shook his head: "I don't know. It's not written in the files. In those days, many people were transferred away, and no one had time to track them down one by one."

Renye read the leave-without-pay application several times, then turned to the last page and saw the approval opinion. It read: "Approved." Below were the approver's signature and the date. The signature was in illegible, illegible handwriting.

He closed the file folder and handed it back to the middle-aged man.

"May I make a copy of these materials?"

The middle-aged man hesitated for a moment, then nodded.

Renye took out the ballpoint pen and letter paper again and copied down the information on the employee registration form, the full text of the leave-without-pay application, and the signatures of the approval opinions word for word.

When he finished copying, Old Sun was still squatting at the door, basking in the sun, with the cigarette tucked behind his ear, but he hadn't smoked it.

Renye walked up to him and squatted down.

"Master, how many years have you worked at Wangtaipu Mine?"

"It's been over twenty years."

"Do you remember who Gu Guihua was closest to when she was at the mine?"

Old Sun didn't answer immediately. He took the cigarette off his ear, lit it, took a drag, and the smoke spread across his face, obscuring his expression.

"I don't remember very well," he said.

Renye knew he was lying again, but he didn't press the matter. He took out the remaining half pack of cigarettes from his pocket, stuffed it into Old Sun's hand, and stood up and left.

As he walked out of the mining building, Renye stopped and stood in the courtyard, taking one last look at the rusty mine shaft. The wind blew in from the direction of the shaft, carrying the smell of coal dust.

Gu Guihua only stayed at Wangtaipu Mine for less than a year before taking a leave of absence without pay. Then where did she go? Where did she take Han Tianfang?

Han Tianfang said that he later followed Gu Guihua to remarry Han Changhe. At that time, Han Changhe had been transferred from Fenghuangshan Mine to Hongxing Mine. In other words, after Gu Guihua took a leave of absence without pay, she went with Han Changhe.

But Han Changhe did not marry her.

He hid her in a place where no one could find her.

Renye held the unlit cigarette in his mouth and walked out along the main street of the town. When he reached the entrance of the town, he saw an old woman selling groceries sitting on the steps by the roadside, with several bundles of scallions and a pile of radishes in front of her.

He squatted down, bought two radishes, and as the old lady was giving him his change, he casually asked, "Auntie, how many years have you lived here?"

"I've lived here for most of my life." The old lady spoke with a lisp, but she was full of energy.

"Do you remember, a few years ago there was a woman with a child who worked in the mines, her surname was Gu, and her name was Gu Guihua?"

The old woman paused for a moment, looked up at Renye, and something glimmered in her cloudy old eyes before disappearing again.

"Why did you ask her that?"

"I am her son."

The old lady scrutinized him for a while, then shook her head: "You're not her son. I've seen her son before. He used to come here with her to buy candy when he was little. He was a sturdy kid, and his face was wider than yours."

Renye's heart skipped a beat. The old lady knew Gu Guihua and had also met Han Tianfang.

"Auntie, could you tell me about her?"

The old woman put down the radish in her hand, patted the dirt off her hands, and looked at the gray sky in the distance, as if she were recalling something from a long time ago.

"Guihua has had a hard life," the old woman said. "When she came to Wangtaipu, she had a child with her. The child was still young, could walk, but couldn't talk much, and would hide when he saw people."

"She worked alone at the mine, leaving her child at the mine's daycare during the day and picking her up after work. Back then, conditions at the mine were poor; the daycare only had two rooms, with more than a dozen children crammed together, and one nanny looking after them. Every time she came to pick up her child, her eyes were red, as if she had been crying."

Renye's throat tightened.

"And then?"

"Later, someone came to the mine looking for her." The old woman's voice lowered. "I've seen that person before. He's not tall, has a round face, and looks quite energetic. He came to the mine looking for Guihua several times. Each time he came, the two of them would talk in the dormitory for half a day."

Renye's breathing became rapid.

Do you remember what that person looked like?

The old lady thought for a moment: "Round face, a bit big belly, likes to wear military green cotton-padded jackets, and speaks loudly."

Renye gripped the fabric on his knees tightly.

Han Changhe.

"Not long after that person arrived, Guihua took a leave of absence without pay and left with her child." The old lady sighed. "When she left, she came to say goodbye to me. I asked Guihua where she was going, and she said she was going to find a place to settle down and give her child a home."

The old lady's eyes reddened, but she didn't shed a tear.

"I never saw her again after that. I don't know if she ever found her way home."

Renye stood up, put down the radish he was holding, and placed the money under the radish. Afraid that his voice would sound off if he spoke, he didn't say anything, but simply nodded to the old lady, turned around, and left.

He stopped on the dirt road outside the town, squatted down by the roadside, and lit the cigarette he had been holding for a while.

The smoke dissipated in the wind, like a memory that could not be retained.

Gu Guihua took her child from Phoenix Mountain to Wangtaipu, and then from Wangtaipu to Hongxing Mine, following Han Changhe from one mining area to another, from one temporary residence to another, never having a real home of her own.

She thought she had found someone to rely on, and that by remarrying her husband's cousin with her child, she could finally settle down. But she was wrong. Han Changhe married her, but never treated her as a wife. He hid her in a well, in the darkness, in a place where she could not see the light of day.

Renye finished his cigarette, stood up, and brushed the dirt off his pants.

He glanced at the sky; it was already late, and he wasn't sure if there were still any buses going back to Hongxing Mine. But he didn't plan to spend the night at Phoenix Mountain; he wanted to go back and tell Han Tianfang what had happened.

When Renye arrived at the long-distance bus station, the last bus heading back to the county town had already left. He sat on the steps outside the station for a while. It got completely dark, and one of the station lights came on, a dim, yellowish light that didn't illuminate very far.

He found a small hotel near the station and checked in. It cost eighty cents a night. The room was small, with a wooden bed, a table, a washbasin, and old newspapers pasted on the walls all the way to the ceiling. Renye closed the door, took out the few sheets of paper from his pocket, spread them on the table, took out a cigarette from his pocket, lit one, and sat on the edge of the bed, staring blankly at the papers.

Gu Guihua. Qinshui. 1941. Phoenix Mountain. Wangtaipu. Leave without pay. These words swirled in his mind all night, like water seeping from a well, dripping and dripping, unable to stop.

He remembered what the old woman had said. "Guihua has a hard life." "Her eyes were red when she came to pick up her child." "Not long after that person came, she took unpaid leave and left with her child."

There was no doubt that Gu Guihua had gone with Han Changhe. But where would she live after going to Hongxing Mine with him? She didn't have employee status at Hongxing Mine, so she wouldn't be allocated a dormitory, and the mine wouldn't arrange accommodation for her. Han Changhe had family housing at the mine, but that apartment was reserved for him alone; if someone else moved in, people would question it. In those days, the mine's family housing was strictly managed; the neighbors knew exactly who lived in which household.

So where does Gu Guihua live?

This answer may only be known to one person.

The next morning, Renye took the first bus back to the county town, and then transferred to another bus back to Hongxing Mine. He arrived home at noon; Li Yue'e wasn't there, she had gone to work. Ren Shouyi sat alone in the main room, the tin box in front of him unopened.

Renye closed the door, took the letters out of his pocket, and placed them in front of Ren Shouyi.

Ren Shouyi put on his reading glasses and read the pages one by one. He read very slowly, as if he were recognizing a road he hadn't walked in a long time.

After reading it, he took off his reading glasses and put them on the table.

She is from Qinshui.

"Um."

"I've been to Qinshui," Ren Shouyi said. "It's deep in the Taihang Mountains, and the roads are difficult to travel. You have to cross two ridges to get in from the county town. It's not easy for a woman like her to come from such a place and find work in the mines."

Renye remained silent, waiting for him to continue.