“What did he mean?”
“He said he wanted to bring something from the earth and give it back to our country. It would show the world our strength.”
“Your family’s?”
Wu drank from his jar, then said, “Family pride, country pride, same thing.”
“Pride brings loss, humility receives blessings,” Hulan recited in response.
“We are humble, but we are not so blessed,” Wu countered.
“You speak then of our homeland.”
“For centuries our China has been invaded by the foreign element. They have come up our great river. They have stolen from us. Now, even outside our borders, they insult and betray us. The bombing of the embassy—”
“Uncle Wu,” she interrupted him, “you know much, yet you are far removed from the course of the world.”
“The river’s course is all that matters.”
Hulan suddenly shifted direction. “Where will you move when the dam is finished?”
“We have been given instructions to move to Xinjiang. They have offered us extra money, but we will not leave.”
“Your son felt this too?”
“Huadong said we would not have to go. He would stop the dam.”
“Your son was educated?”
Wu cleared his throat and spit on the floor. “We are peasants for countless generations. Our blood has been part of this land since Da Yu’s dragons cleared the river.”
“As we are speaking frankly,” Hulan said, though to David the whole conversation seemed to be spoken in riddles, “I must ask why you stay.”
“It is our home.”
“But your land is no good,” Hulan stated the obvious.
“This has been so since before my grandfather’s time, but I have heard stories of great crops that once grew outside our door. This is what Da Yu created for us when he drained the flood. The land is the treasure. That does not change.”
“You contradict yourself.”
“The land is the treasure,” Wu repeated. “It is shi tu.”
David thought about those words. Living earth? That was hardly what lay outside the door. Scorched, desolate, barren, were the words that came to mind when David thought about the land from here to the dig.
“My grandfather’s grandfather told him this,” Wu went on. “My grandfather told me, and now I tell my grandson.”
“Let’s go back to your son. If he was not educated, how did he plan to stop the dam?”
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know or you won’t say?” Hulan pressed.
“He went away sometimes. When he returned he would say that outside corruption would be turned to justice.”
“Did he go to the dam?”
“Maybe to Shanghai—”