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that.” Then he looked to everyone else and announced, “Aiya . . . This is something that I noticed and reported. No one should compete with me.”
    He gestured for everyone to quiet down, then carefully proceeded forward. By this point it was already late summer or early fall, and the locust and elm trees, together with the wild thornbushes growing around them, rose from the riverbank like a cloud of smoke. The bushes were originally black, but because the tree leaves had started to turn color and fall to the ground, the dense shrubs appeared lighter than before. There was a thick smell of vegetation, combined with a scent of decaying autumn leaves. Each thornbush stood as tall as one or two men, and together they resembled a crowd of people attending a meeting. Everyone followed the Technician. When he moved quickly they also moved quickly, and when he moved slowly they did as well. When they were finally standing near that clump of thornbushes, the Technician stopped and lifted his foot, indicating that he wanted everyone to take off their shoes as he had done. They removed their shoes and, holding them in their hands, followed him barefoot.
    Then they approached closer.
    Catlike, they circled around the thornbush that was as big as several rooms. But when they entered it, they didn’t see anything at all—there was only a patch of flattened grass in the middle, including a spot that looked like a bed where someone had slept and left an impression. The Technician stood in front of that bed of straw and, with a look of keen disappointment, kicked at it and cursed, “Damn!”
    All of the professors, instructors, and other scholars cursed with him.
    They gazed into the distance, and saw that two plows and two groups of people from the second and third brigades, who were sowing wheat in the setting sun, were trudging back and forth like a couple herds of mules or oxen.
    5. Old Course , pp. 29–32 (excerpt)
    The Technician remained uneasy until nightfall, his frustration at not having seized the adulterers in the thornbush etched clearly on his face, like a brick suspended in midair. For the longest time, he kept his head bowed as he pulled the rope. The plow shook, as though it were trying to leap out of the field.
    The next day, when he was still plowing the same field, he would periodically run over to the thornbush to pee. He would always sneak up to the bush and carefully reach in, hoping that he would once again encounter the scene he had witnessed the previous day.
    Each time, however, he returned empty-handed.
    A middle-aged professor asked him, “What in the world was it that you saw?”
    He didn’t respond.
    The professor became agitated. “Do you think I don’t know? Wasn’t it a couple fornicating?”
    The Technician opened his eyes wide and said, “I saw it first.”
    “Where did you see it? Did you catch them? Do you have any evidence?” The professor laughed coldly and said, “If you discovered a couple fornicating in the bushes, others can surely find other couples in other bushes.” As he was saying this, he strode deliberately toward a clump of bushes, but after walking a few steps he turned and called out, “I want to make a discovery and report it, so that I’ll be able to return home for New Year’s!”
    Everyone suddenly dispersed, heading in search of bushes and leaving their plows and wheat seeds behind. No one worked anymore, and instead they all spread out toward bushes, ditches, and ravines—as though they were looking for somewhere to pee or take a shit, while in reality they were trying to catch adulterers. They were hoping to find a Re-Ed couple rolling around on the ground naked or embracing each other. At this point, the Technician appeared as expected, suddenly standing in front of that couple, and exclaimed in surprise, “Heavens—we came here for labor reform, yet the two of you have the balls to engage in this sort of lascivious behavior!” He then ordered the couple to