When the village headman returns, he turns out to be in an extremely bad mood due to the fact that the town doctor messed up his tooth. It hurts so bad that he can hardly talk. He asks Luo to fix it because he is the son of a dentist, but Luo is forced to refuse because he is not experienced and has no equipment. Soon afterwards, the Seamstress' father, the tailor, comes to the narrator's and Luo's village for his annual visit. He asks to stay with the narrator and Luo, most likely in order to get to know more about his daughter's friends.
All of the villagers are very excited to see the tailor, and throughout the day the boys' little wooden house is crowded with visitors, women and men alike. Evetually, however, the tailor bids them good evening, and the three are left alone. Before going to bed, the tailor requests that the narrator tells a story. Leaving the usual behind, the narrator settles for the French story of Monte Cristo. The tailor is entranced, and the long novel takes nine nights for the narrator to relate.
However, on the third night they are interrupted. The village headman arrives, and accuses the narrator of spreading reactionary trash, saying he's going to take him to the Public Security Office. Terrified, Luo tries to stop him. Almost immediately, the headman says that if Luo will fix his tooth, then he will not report the narrator to Public Security. So, in a very dangerous and painfull operation, Luo, the narrator and the tailor use a sewing machine to fix the headman's tooth. Towards the end of the procedure, the narrator finds himself pedaling the machine slower and slower, so as to cause the headman as much pain as possible, as some form of revenge. He states "I had turned into a sadist - an out-and-out sadist" (Sijie, 134).
The headman pretty much seems like he was planning to use any opportunity to make Luo fix his tooth. It must have really hurt! I definitely think that as soon as he realised the narrator was telling this story, he devised his evil plan to make Luo do what he wanted. I was almost relieved to find this out, because at first it seemed like the headman was just being extra, extra mean by taking the narrator to Public Security. I knew that the headman was not the nicest guy, and definitely not in a good mood, but i just didn't expect that out of him. Then when I realized that he actually just wanted his tooth put right, I knew that he had never wanted to report the narrator to begin with.
This event also made me realize that the headman represents everything that the main characters despise: re-educators, Communists, and anyone who tries to make them unhappy. The headman is the antagonist. To the boys, he is the reason they are so miserable. He makes them work, gives them rules to follow, punishes them, and "re-educates" them. So when the narrator tries to cause the headman pain, he is really lashing out at Communism, and anyone who sent him to Phoenix mountain in the first place.
