A group of villagers, who were standing on the wayside and gossiping, looked at them with disdain. The group moved on quietly, pretending not to hear the foul abuses hurled at them. To protest would mean more trouble. Mei Fung was walking at the back of the group. Her face was shadowed by deep lifelessness. Liang came close to her.

‘I want to say something,’ Liang said gently.

Mei Fung looked up at him, but said nothing.

‘Don’t be sad. It’s of no use.’

Mei Fung’s eyes filled with tears, as she answered, ‘What do I do?’

‘Look ahead. Everything will work out.’

‘There is nothing to look forward to, Liang ako,’ she said.

‘Yes, there is. I am there. You haven’t seen me. Just look at me, Mei Fung.’

Mei Fung stopped and looked at him in surprise. Then moving forward she said slowly, ‘Are you pitying me?’

‘What is that?’

‘Feeling sorry for me, you –’

‘Haigui, Haigui,’ screamed a group of boys waiting near a tree.

Some of the workers stopped to look round at them.

‘Hey, you foreign devils!’ they shouted again.

The faces of the young boys hardened, as they looked at each other. The others were scared.

‘Don’t answer back. Let them say what they like. Come on, let’s keep going,’ Tung Chin’s father said.

‘Hey, foreign devils, how long are you going to stay in our country?’

‘They’ll stay. Where will they go? Haven’t they been chased away like dogs?’

‘We don’t get enough rice, and they feast on fish! Meat! Cigarettes!’

‘Bloody beggars! Our government is feeding beggars. They have come like shameless people and occupied our land. They don’t work. They sit and eat. They rub mud on their bodies to show that they work. And, despite that, they receive wages. But we don’t.’

‘Why have you come to our country? Go. Go back from wherever you have come.’

‘They are the burden of our country! Crowd of beggars! You dirty half Chinese.’

The faces of the young men reddened. Ignoring the caution of the elders, they turned, agitated, went chasing after the hecklers and in a moment, were engaged in a brawl.

The children began to cry. The seniors pulled them back. They went past the yells and screams, curses and abuses of the local young men. They were just a few minutes away from their barracks.

At that moment, inside the school in the barracks, the students were talking among themselves. The classes were over. Chow Chi Yong, Liang Ching Wan and Pramila Gogoi were also talking. After the school hours, the children were kept back for some time since some teachers came from outside to take classes. They taught the children about Mao’s ideals and gave lessons on communism. Everything that they were taught would be interpreted and explained at length. The most enthusiastic of them was the Calcutta teacher Liang Ching Wan.