Chapter Five: Visitors to the Provincial Capital (Part Two)

Before Teng Deming transferred to the provincial bank, he had spent nearly twenty years working within the Songyang branch network of Prosperity Commercial Bank.

In Zhang Maolin’s recollection, from the moment Teng Deming took office as deputy president of the provincial bank, the smile seemed to vanish from his face overnight. Even when he occasionally returned to his old home in Songyang to inspect and arrange work, his expression was invariably dark—sometimes so grim it seemed a black wind were blowing across it.

Zhang Maolin remembered clearly that, on the eve of the 1995 year-end settlement, Teng Deming led a special provincial-bank credit investigation team to conduct business on-site at the Songyang City Branch. At a meeting held in the Songzhou Sub-branch to hear a report, Teng’s face was so forbidding and his words so cutting that he frightened the newly appointed female deputy director into a state of extreme tension and incoherence. As a result, while reporting a set of financial figures concerning “interest income and interest expenses,” she accidentally reversed the two items.

Teng Deming, an expert in credit operations, spotted the error at once and flew into a thunderous rage. He harshly berated her for not understanding the business or the facts, and even suggested that she might have deliberately fabricated figures and deceived her superiors. On the spot, he ordered the newly appointed deputy director to submit a written self-criticism, accusing her of falsely reporting key financial indicators and deliberately laying a trap of fraud concerning the sub-branch’s operating results.

After being subjected to Teng Deming’s severe reprimand, the recently appointed deputy director was overcome with shame and humiliation. In a state of profound anguish, she drank poison that very night in an attempt to take her own life. Although doctors managed to save her, the poison had already penetrated her organs and bones, damaging her autonomic nervous system beyond complete recovery. She was left permanently disabled, and her career came to an end.

Later, Zhang Maolin went especially to the provincial bank to explain the matter to Teng Deming and put forward his views. Teng immediately darkened his face and demanded, “Are you speaking to me on behalf of the city branch, Zhang Maolin, or were you entrusted by her personally?”

Zhang Maolin replied, “Neither. As secretary of discipline inspection at the Songyang City Branch, I have a responsibility and an obligation to tell you what I myself think, Deputy Director Teng. For a woman to rise to a section-level post while working at the grassroots is no easy matter. We cannot lightly punish her like this. She had only recently been promoted and had never dealt with a senior leader from the provincial bank. She was simply too nervous to control herself and misspoke. How can that so easily be deemed deception of a superior?”

Hearing Zhang Maolin’s unequivocal response, Teng Deming immediately turned hostile and slammed his hand on the table.

“Listen carefully, Zhang Maolin. If it weren’t for the many years of friendship between fellow townsmen, if it weren’t for the fact that we once shared the same pot and stirred it with the same ladle at Songyang Prosperity Commercial Bank, then on the strength of what you’ve said today, I could dismiss you too in a fit of anger. No discussion!”

Faced with Teng Deming’s overbearing manner, Zhang Maolin could no longer contain himself. Sparks flew from his head, and he leapt up as though propelled three feet into the air.

“If you’ve taken things this far, Director Teng, then I’ll go straight to Tan Yiwu, the president of the provincial bank, and demand an explanation! If we people of Songyang are in the wrong, then you needn’t order my dismissal. I, Zhang Maolin, will resign on my own at once!”

Not long afterward, the head office in the capital forwarded Zhang Maolin’s real-name appeal to the headquarters of Prosperity Commercial Bank in H Province, together with its written instructions for handling the matter. In the end, the dismissed female deputy director was reappointed as chairwoman of the sub-branch’s labor union. Because of her health, she could no longer take charge of much actual work and was treated merely as receiving deputy-section-level benefits.

From then on, Zhang Maolin acquired a reputation throughout the provincial Prosperity Commercial Bank system as a man who had “appealed directly to the emperor.”

…

Many years later, Zhang Maolin happened to learn that the female deputy director was a distant maternal cousin of Tao Kan.

Once, while Zhang Maolin and Tao Kan were talking privately about the matter, Tao Kan stamped his feet and pounded his chest as he cursed Teng Deming.

“That old bastard is the perfect example of someone who forgets his roots! He’s completely forgotten how my father once looked after him. He’s become a blind bear standing at attention—one hand covering the sky—and a knife stuck into a bull’s prick. He’s outrageously full of himself!”

As Tao Kan continued his furious stamping and chest-beating tirade, Zhang Maolin merely smiled inwardly and said nothing.

…

Seeing the somewhat wooden expression on Zhang Maolin’s face, Teng Deming smiled and slowly guided him down onto the sofa.

With scarcely any warning, the moment Zhang Maolin sat down, he caught a violently pungent scent of perfume. The sudden odor seemed to seal his airways shut. His face flushed crimson as he hurriedly pulled an emergency mask from his coat pocket and dashed toward the window, taking three steps in the time of two.

Teng Deming stared blankly at his retreating back. Then, as though suddenly realizing something, he slapped his forehead.

“Oh, right, it’s my fault. I forgot you have asthma! My fault, my fault…”

He immediately picked up the telephone.

“Front desk? Open another room for me, one facing the sun with good natural light. Yes, open it now—the sooner the better. And remember: no perfume whatsoever, and don’t put in any strong-smelling flowers or plants.”

…

Half an hour later, Zhang Maolin, whose breathing and composure had gradually settled, sat opposite Teng Deming in another room, one free of perfume, both men calm and collected.

By then, winter sunlight had passed through the enormous floor-to-ceiling windows and spilled fully into the room. Sitting with his back to the light, Zhang Maolin soon felt warmth spread through his body, and his breathing became easier. He took the initiative and asked,

“Director Teng, if I’m not mistaken, you came back to your old home this time because of Wen Lu’s affair, didn’t you?”

This was the third time Zhang Maolin had spoken of his own accord since meeting Teng Deming. He normally disliked initiating conversations with Teng, but in the present atmosphere he was deeply unwilling to waste time sitting around meaninglessly. Even less did he want to listen to Teng ramble on like a wandering folk ballad, leaping from one subject to another without purpose.

Teng Deming continued to smile broadly.

“Heh-heh. In this life, the one who truly understands me is certainly Brother Maolin. That’s right. My mission on this trip is singular, my purpose unique, and my intentions completely focused. That is why this visit to Songyang has been unusually quiet. First, I’m not holding meetings and droning on. Second, I’m not running around making inspections. Third, I’m not wasting words meeting the family of the person involved. Those specific follow-up tasks can be handled directly by the designated departments later on. I came to Songyang in keeping with the principle of traveling light, so the fewer people I have to deal with, the better. Even among your leadership team, only you and Director Wei Xin know about my itinerary. With your intelligence and learning, I’m sure you understood my purpose long ago, didn’t you?”

Teng Deming pressed his lips together in a smile.

Zhang Maolin hurriedly waved his hands and said calmly, “You flatter me, Director. I was merely guessing blindly, nothing more. I’ve never liked speculating about other people. For one thing, I don’t want to waste the mental effort; for another, both my intelligence and emotional quotient are below the baseline, so whatever I guess is usually as unrelated as a donkey’s lips to a horse’s mouth, leaving me open to ridicule. I only thought about this matter on the drive here. So it would be best if you simply told me your purpose directly.”

“What do you mean, directly or indirectly? It’s just the two of us brothers chatting today. There isn’t even an ant in this room. What are you being so sensitive about?”

As he spoke, Teng Deming took a box of soft-pack Zhonghua cigarettes from his exquisite Louis Vuitton briefcase. Just as the long nail on his little finger touched the sealing thread around the pack, he suddenly withdrew his hand and said awkwardly,

“Look at my terrible memory. How could I do this in front of you? Asthma can’t tolerate smoke. Heh-heh. Well, I’ll take advantage of your company today and observe World No Tobacco Day for once.”

Zhang Maolin replied calmly,

“I’m very sorry. My old ailment causes trouble for everyone wherever I go. Actually, I used to be hopelessly addicted to tobacco and alcohol; neither my wife nor my children could restrain me. In the end, it was this asthma that brought me to heel. Giving up those pleasures myself would have been one thing, but now I restrict other people’s freedom as well. The person who suffers most is my driver, Tao Kan. As long as I’m in the car, he can forget about indulging in that habit. If he really can’t stand it, he has to pull over halfway and get out. No matter how dreadful the weather is, he has to endure that peculiar misery. To be honest, I often feel guilty about it.”

“That’s perfectly normal,” Teng Deming said. “As the saying goes, not even the Son of Heaven can ignore a sick person. Your compassion, like that of your old father, is the very embodiment of mercy. Besides, a discipline-inspection secretary may wear a stern face in public, but in the end he ought to possess a charitable heart. Only then can he leave wrongdoers a way out. Especially here in Songyang, where everyone works beneath the watchful eyes of their fellow townspeople, it is not necessarily a bad thing for a discipline-inspection secretary to leave a tiny bit of room in the way he applies policy. As the old saying goes, spare someone where you can. That is not dereliction of duty; it is an art of leadership. If a discipline-inspection secretary spends every day obsessed with investigating people and stirring up trouble, then he certainly isn’t an outstanding discipline-inspection secretary.

“As for our Prosperity Commercial Bank, exposing problems is certainly important at any time, but development and stability are even more important. When those two things reach a crossroads, which should yield to which? This is absolutely not as simple as following the traffic light up ahead. It is a serious political question. Don’t you agree, Brother? Heh-heh-heh.”

As Teng Deming made this speech, a succession of wildly varied hand gestures accompanied nearly every sentence. Zhang Maolin could not understand how much these ceaseless motions, sweeping up and down and left and right, actually enhanced the effect of the speech. In his eyes, Teng’s exaggerated gestures were quite sufficient to conduct an entire symphony orchestra.

Zhang Maolin raised his head and was about to speak, but Teng Deming quickly waved him off, clearly indicating that he still had more to say.

“By the way, let’s talk about your asthma. After the Spring Festival, I’ll speak to the provincial bank’s Party and labor personnel department and see whether we can have it classified as a work-related injury. I heard long ago that you developed this asthma when you were director of a sub-branch. You caught a severe cold while leading a team into the countryside to collect loans, but continued working despite your illness. Because treatment was delayed, it left you with this chronic condition…”

Teng Deming’s considerate words were so attentive that Zhang Maolin was almost overwhelmed by the honor. They even stirred a certain panic and unease in him. He knew very well that ever since he had arrived at Songyang Guesthouse and met Teng Deming, the man’s successive rounds of all-encompassing persuasion had been conspicuously circling around the subject without ever approaching it. It reminded him of the long opening spiel delivered by a street-corner snake-oil salesman—talking about the heavens and the earth, above and below, left and right, while never getting anywhere near the point.

Listening to Teng Deming’s warm, reassuring monologue, Zhang Maolin instead felt profoundly uncomfortable. Unsure what expression he was wearing, he said with some indifference,

“Director Teng, don’t you think we should talk about Wen Lu?”

As Zhang Maolin said this, he distinctly noticed the muscles on the left side of Teng Deming’s face twitch.

“Oh?”

Teng Deming raised his head slightly. The lazy, seemingly self-satisfied look in his eyes instantly became solemn and razor-sharp. Yet the benevolent smile remained on his face.

Of all the things Zhang Maolin normally least wished to look at—and least dared to trust—was that smile of Teng Deming’s.

In Zhang Maolin’s memory, for every year Teng Deming had been away from Songyang, the smile on his face had been absent for nearly the same length of time. Eventually, Zhang Maolin became firmly convinced that after leaving Songyang, especially after being promoted to deputy president of the provincial bank, something unusual must have happened inside Teng’s body. It had seriously damaged the nerves in his face, leaving him with the perpetually disgruntled expression of a man who could neither eat nor drink in peace.

Yet Teng Deming’s performance today left Zhang Maolin utterly baffled.

Teng Deming could actually smile! And when he did, the smile seemed increasingly elegant, yet at the same time made his true intentions even more impossible to discern.

To Zhang Maolin, when Teng Deming’s smile opened fully, his gaping mouth resembled the entrance to a bottomless cavern. Behind those rows of interlocking teeth lay something like a dark well, and every word Teng spoke seemed to shoot out of it like a sharp steel nail, each one striking precisely into the flesh of whoever sat before him. The two large gold teeth at the positions of Teng’s canine teeth were especially disturbing to Zhang Maolin. They produced an inexplicable irritation, leaving his own mouth tingling, numb, and strangely sour.

Teng Deming continued.

“Brother, although we often see each other at work, we rarely have a chance to sit down like this and speak heart to heart. As a fellow son of Songyang, I had originally planned to do something meaningful for the people of our hometown over the years—helping their children find jobs, supporting employee education, allocating expense quotas, giving preferential treatment under credit policies, and so on. Sometimes I’ve managed to make a little effort when the opportunity arose, but more often than not I’ve felt painfully powerless.

“Though we are both deputy directors, the truth is that, in many respects, life as a deputy at the provincial bank is less comfortable than life as a deputy at your city branch. To outsiders, my position may appear glorious at every turn, but deep down I am constantly torn. The higher a person climbs, the more obstacles he encounters—and the more hidden pits lie in his path. Much of the time, the room left for maneuver is reduced to almost nothing. Sometimes you aren’t even granted the right to choose.

“Really, where is there any true fairness in this world? When you receive what you want and are satisfied, you call the distribution fair. When you don’t, you complain, grumble, and speak harshly. Take this unexpected incident involving Wen Lu. Most people at the provincial bank have expressed regret and sympathy, because Wen Lu’s contributions to the business over the years are there for all to see. For a section-level cadre to achieve so much is no easy thing. Therefore, several provincial-bank leaders—especially President Tan Yiwu, our top leader—have explicitly demanded that Wen Lu’s family be properly comforted and cared for. They must feel the warmth of the Prosperity Commercial Bank family. We absolutely cannot allow the tea to grow cold once the guest has departed.

“But, but… who could have imagined that a new situation would arise these past two days? In Wen Lu’s office, they discovered certificates of deposit and passbooks containing a considerable sum of money…”

Teng Deming stopped speaking, lifted the milky-white stoneware teacup he had brought himself, and began noisily sipping water.

Seeing that Zhang Maolin offered no response, Teng continued.

“Given the profitability of your Songyang City Branch, Wen Lu’s salary as a middle-ranking cadre could never possibly account for the amounts in those two accounts. So perhaps he had other sources of income besides his wages? Yet from what I know, Wen Lu was always discreet, honest, and cautious. Perhaps he deliberately concealed some unexpected windfall—an inheritance from his ancestors, profits from the securities market, lottery winnings, and so forth. All those possibilities are theoretically valid assumptions, wouldn’t you say? What do you think of the matter, Maolin? Go ahead and tell me.”

At last, Teng Deming finished his sermon.

He slowly removed the warm, lustrous red-agate bracelet from his left wrist and began turning it over in his hand.

The gesture conveyed a clear message to Zhang Maolin: I have made my own position perfectly clear. Now it is your turn to speak.