When they questioned Ah Q, he answered quite frankly, “Because I wanted to revolt.” They gradually fell into conversation with him, and one of them told him that the successful provincial candidate wanted to dun him for the rent owed by his grandfather the other did not know why he was there. The two other men also seemed to be villagers. The rest of the room consisted of three blank walls, and when he looked round carefully he saw two other men in a corner of the room.Īlthough Ah Q was feeling rather uneasy, he was by no means too depressed, because the room where he slept in the Tutelary God’s Temple was in no way superior to this. No sooner had he stumbled inside than the door, made of wooden bars to form a grating, closed upon his heels. It was already midday by the time they reached town, and Ah Q found himself carried to a dilapidated yamen where, after taking five or six turnings, he was pushed into a small room. But not until he had been carried out of the temple to somewhere near the machine-gun did he begin to sober up. With their co-operation from within, the others rushed in and dragged Ah Q out. Only then did two militiamen summon up courage to jump over the wall and enter.
The captain grew impatient and offered a reward of twenty thousand cash. For a long time nothing stirred in the temple. A squad of soldiers, a squad of militia, a squad of police and five secret servicemen made their way quietly to Weichuang, and, after posting a machine-gun opposite the entrance, under cover of darkness they surrounded the Tutelary God’s Temple. But four days later Ah Q was suddenly dragged into town in the middle of the night. After the Chao family was robbed most of the people in Weichuang felt pleased yet fearful, and Ah Q was no exception.