Chapter Three Hundred and Sixty-Three: The Puppet Show and Ideological Work (Part 1)

Wu Mu then met with the “ten-person groups” from the other four student teams and listened to their reports. He then began to write a report on the ideological trends of the students according to the standard format given to him by Zhao Manxiongski.

According to Zhao Manxiongski’s regulations, the ideological materials of the students were to be reported once a week. That evening, Zhao Manxiong instructed him:

“There is instability in the ideological trends of the students. We must strengthen ideological and political education.”

“This, how do we strengthen it?” Wu Mu thought that he was dealing with secret police, and that he should use the “iron fist of the proletariat” to carry out ideological transformation. He had no idea how to conduct “education.”

“How about we ask the General Staff’s Political Department…”

“The military cannot interfere in this matter.” Zhao Manxiong was very clear that Wei Aiwen, the director of the General Staff’s Political Department, was a leading figure of the “80s Party.” Unlike ordinary militaristic fanatics, this person was quite cunning and had the potential for military intervention in politics. Letting him handle political education would be like opening the door for him to infiltrate.

“We’ll do it ourselves. Wei Aiwen’s methods are nothing more than recalling past bitterness and thinking of present sweetness.” Zhao Manxiongski thought that this was not difficult. Almost all the students came from poor backgrounds, and everyone had a history of blood and tears. It would definitely create an atmosphere to hold a grievance meeting, but relying on such gratitude alone was not enough—this world was never short of ungrateful people and opportunists. They also had to be made to feel fear. Yes, to feel fear!

Fear can erupt into powerful hatred. The more fear, the crazier one becomes. From this point of view, you can find all kinds of reasons and causes for most political purges, but the sense of fear is always present. It is precisely a fear of the “enemy” and potential hostile elements “making a comeback” that makes political purges cruel and merciless, not only to be eliminated politically, but also to be eliminated physically, and finally even to the point of liquidating their families.

And this group of native students, each with a tragic life story, had just lived a few stable days. What they feared most was that such days would be interrupted and they would be thrown back into the terrible life of the past.

Not only should they recall past bitterness and think of present sweetness, but they should also be made to see clearly that their fate was tied to the Transmigrator Group, a relationship of mutual prosperity and mutual loss. The failure of the Transmigrator Group would mean their own destruction, and using all means to defend the Transmigrator Group was to defend themselves.

“I’ll think of a way to do this. You go and sort out the wavering elements,” Zhao Manxiongski gave the order.

“This, don’t you want to look at their materials?”

“You are in charge of the student team,” Zhao Manxiongski put on an appearance of complete delegation of power. “You will make the assessment, and you will decide how to deal with it.”

After Wu Mu went out, Zhao Manxiongski called Ding Ding. Ding Ding was a well-informed person and was very clear about the weight of this newly appointed first deputy director. He couldn’t help but be polite on the phone.

“I’ve come to ask for your help,” Zhao Manxiong said.

Wu Mu returned to his office and ordered all the personnel files of the “wavering elements” and “suspicious elements” mentioned in the report to be brought for review.

The table was soon piled with about ten files. Wu Mu thought this was too much! There were only forty-five students in this training class, and five had already been eliminated. Now there were a quarter of them who were “problematic.” Thinking of this, he couldn’t help but sigh. It seemed that being a secret policeman was not that easy.

He flipped through the materials one by one, and analyzed them against the weekly informant materials to determine who was “unreliable” and who “needed further observation.”

The problems of most people were not serious, including Yao Yulan. Wu Mu wrote “further observation” on their handling decisions. Only on Yang Cao’s material did he have a difficult time.

Yang Cao was indeed suspicious. According to her file, she was not taken in as a refugee, but fainted on the steps of the Zichéngjì one day and was taken in by the shop’s staff. According to the material, she had not eaten for several days at that time, and had many scars on her body, and no personal belongings.

She was then sent to the refugee camp and then transferred to Lingao. In the political review at the quarantine camp, she confessed that she was from Yangzhou and was sold to a theater troupe at the age of eleven to sing. Later, she traveled with the troupe to Guangdong and fled because she could not bear the abuse of the troupe leader.

According to the investigation materials, Yang Cao could indeed sing, so it was probably true that she was from a theater troupe. As for the other contents, according to the report of the quarantine camp’s health clinic, she did have many old scars on her body, and her “hymen was oldly ruptured,” so it should be true that she had been abused for a long time.

As for the other contents, the General Political Security Bureau could not verify them. After a second cross-examination, the confessions were compared—she said basically the same thing. In the refugee camp, Yang Cao was also well-behaved and there were no suspicious points, so when she came out, the political assessment standard was III C—controllable use, third level.

Wu Mu studied her few pages of materials back and forth several times, but he really couldn’t see anything suspicious. If there was anything most suspicious, it was that she fainted on the steps of the Zichéngjì, but it was hard to say that there was a problem with that.

The only thing that could not be explained was why she knew about the Jinyiwei and the Dongchang. Wu Mu thought, of course, people in theater troupes traveled all over the country and had seen a lot. They were different from farmers who rarely left their hometowns. It was not surprising that she knew about it…

At this moment, he suddenly realized: why was he making excuses for the suspect? He secretly cursed himself. He couldn’t feel sympathy for her just because the suspect was a young woman with a good figure.

If he was strict, the safest way to deal with her was to expel her directly. But when Wu Mu saw her report card, he felt it was a pity. Yang Cao’s grades had been improving rapidly recently, and it was obvious that she had made great efforts. Was it too serious to be expelled just for saying a few words? Now was the time when people were needed. Eliminating one person meant that all the training he had received was wasted.

After thinking it over and over, Wu Mu still wrote “further observation” on her handling opinion. After writing it, he considered for a while and added a sentence, “key observation.”

A few days later, the Lingao Puppet Troupe came to the short-term training class to perform, which caused a sensation. There were too few entertainment projects in the local area—if the transmigrator members had things like movies to watch, the natives had almost nothing. The newly established Lingao Puppet Troupe had already become a hit and was the most popular performance group in the county. Although there were only a few plays in their repertoire, and they were all “propaganda plays” like “The Storm of the South China Sea,” which were hastily made and very rough by modern standards, they relied on modern stage design and performance techniques heavily plagiarized from modern Minnan glove puppetry to create an unprecedented sensation, so much so that the performance schedule was already booked for more than half a year. The trainees of the short-term training class were suffering from the torture of training. They were very excited to hear that they could see the famous puppet show in the county.

Lu Cheng was also dragged along by the excited Yao Yulan—she originally didn’t want to go. She was having a hard time with her studies recently. It was rare to have a day off from class. She wanted to sleep in the dormitory and rest, but Yao Yulan insisted on dragging her along and vividly described how beautiful the puppet show was. She had already seen a performance at the commune.

Lu Cheng, out of politeness and curiosity about the puppet show that she described so vividly, went to see it with her.

The performance was held in a large classroom that could seat about a hundred people. It was packed, and the audience was whispering everywhere. In addition to the trainees of the political security short-term training class, the young students of the political security class also came. The cafeteria outside the classroom also set up a stall selling kvass and other snacks.

Everyone was very excited and could not keep quiet for a long time. A puppet stage had been set up on the original podium, which was very beautifully and exquisitely made. Lu Cheng had seen puppet shows performed by wandering grass-roots troupes: ragged curtains, a stage frame made of a few bamboo poles, everything was very simple and could not be compared at all. Just take this velvet curtain, not to mention that the puppet show troupes didn’t have it, even the slightly worse theater troupes couldn’t afford it.

Yao Yulan went to buy two cups of peach-flavored kvass. Lu Cheng listened to her chattering about how beautiful the puppet show was while drinking.

With a “clang” of the gong, the whole room fell silent. The curtains were also drawn, and the room became dark. At this time, a beam of light hit the curtain, and the red velvet curtain slowly opened to both sides. The audience had already let out the first sigh of surprise. The scene was too beautiful!

The scenery pieces, made by professional artists in the Transmigrator Group, were rich in color and accurate in perspective, looking very realistic. It was a pastoral scene, with green mountains and farmland in the distance, and a stream, a wooden bridge, and a few houses in the foreground. Using special effects, there was even the effect of water flowing in the stream. A soft and cheerful music floated in the air, and the recorder also produced the sound effects of breeze, birdsong, and flowing water.

These very simple special effects were absolutely sensational at the time. The trainees present were almost all stunned. Lu Cheng stared blankly, forgetting to drink her kvass. Yao Yulan poked her and whispered, “What do you think? You came to the right place, right?”

Lu Cheng could no longer express her surprise in words. She tried several times to find the source of those sounds in the semi-dark environment.

“Stop looking, it’s from the chiefs’ music boxes,” Yao Yulan said proudly.

“Music box?”

“It’s a box that can make all kinds of sounds, as well as beautiful songs and tunes.”

“Don’t talk!” Someone was dissatisfied with their conversation, and the two of them fell silent. After a while, Yao Yulan whispered again, “This play is not ‘The Storm of the South China Sea.’ The opening of ‘The Storm of the South China Sea’ is not like this—”