Reborn to Bury the Liar Who Framed Me

I was planting rice by the river when I saw the sent-down girl, Patsy Fox, fall into the water.

Last time around, I didn't hesitate. I jumped straight in and hauled her onto the bank.

She wasn't breathing, so I gave her mouth-to-mouth.

But the first words out of her mouth when she woke were, "Dustin Delgado tried to molest me!"

She cried and said she'd only been walking past the river, that I'd dragged her into the water to take advantage of her.

Nobody believed a young woman would lie about something like her own honor.

In the end, I got seven years.

The university recommendation slot that should have been mine went to Patsy Fox instead.

My second month in prison, my mother couldn't bear the whole village pointing and whispering. She drank pesticide and ended her life.

Years later, Patsy Fox became a respected university professor.

When she came back to the village for an interview, she leaned close to my ear and whispered, smiling:

"I was never unconscious."

"Who told a piece of trash like you to fight me for a university slot?"

When I opened my eyes again, I was back at the day she fell in.

Patsy Fox bobbed in the water, eyes shut, waiting for me to come get her.

I didn't go in. I just grabbed the bronze gong and shouted across the empty fields:

"The sent-down girl fell in the water!"

"I'm a man, it's not proper for me to touch her!"

"Women's affairs director, the girl medic, come quick, someone needs saving!"

1

The clang of the gong quickly reached the people working nearby.

The first to come running were a few of the sent-down girls.

The moment they saw Patsy Fox in the river, their faces went white with fear.

"How did she fall in?"

"Somebody save her!"

I stood on the field ridge with the gong in my hand and didn't move toward the water.

One of the girls got so frantic she shoved me.

"Dustin Delgado, what are you standing there for?"

"You can swim, can't you? Get down there and save her!"

I stepped back, out of reach of her hand.

"I'm a man. It's not proper for me to touch her."

"Whichever of you can swim, you go down and save her."

The moment I said it, every one of them froze.

They looked at each other.

Then, one after another, they shook their heads.

"I can't."

"I can't either."

"There are hidden channels under that river. What if it drags me down too?"

But when they turned back to me, their eyes were righteous again.

"Dustin Delgado, a life is at stake here!"

"You're a grown man. Why are you fussing over something like this?"

"If something happens to Patsy Fox, can you carry that?"

I looked at Patsy Fox bobbing in the middle of the river.

Her eyes were shut, her face deathly pale, as if she really had fainted dead away.

But her fingers were clamped tight around that clump of river weeds by the bank.

Last time, it was exactly this act that fooled me.

So I jumped in without a second thought.

I choked down mouthful after mouthful of muddy water before I dragged her onto the bank.

She lay there with her eyes closed, not moving.

Someone was screaming that she'd stopped breathing.

I didn't have time to think. I bent down and gave her mouth-to-mouth.

But the first words out of her when she woke were, "Dustin Delgado tried to molest me!"

After that day, I went from the good young man who saved a life to the pervert the whole village cursed.

Even as the militia pinned me to the ground, I was still explaining.

"I was saving her."

"She wasn't breathing, so I only—"

Nobody let me finish.

All they saw was Patsy Fox crying so hard she nearly fainted.

She said I'd taken advantage of her while she was out cold.

She said I'd dragged her into the water on purpose to ruin her honor.

And she cried and asked everyone:

"If he wasn't guilty of something, why was it him who found me first?"

"Why was it him who touched me?"

So I got seven years.

My mother knelt outside the commune office over and over, begging them to clear my name.

Her forehead split open. Her knees swelled until she couldn't stand.

People spat on her.

"Your son's a pervert, and you still cry injustice?"

"Anyone who raised a thing like that can't be decent herself."

Some people even dumped manure at our door in the middle of the night.

My mother didn't dare go out to buy grain. She sliced the last of the sweet potatoes at home into thin pieces and stretched them out, bite by bite.

Later, when the production brigade handed out work, no one would team up with her.

When she went to the fields, people threw the hardest clods of dirt her way on purpose.

When she went to the well for water, the women would pick up their basins and walk off, as if she carried something filthy.

Before I got taken, she'd been saving money to get me a wife.

After I got taken, she didn't even own a pair of shoes decent enough to wear out.

My second month in prison, she went to the commune to cry injustice again.

But that day, Patsy Fox was there too.

She hid behind the crowd and sobbed:

"Auntie, stop forcing me like this."

"Do I have to die before you'll admit Dustin Delgado hurt me?"

Everyone crowded in and cursed my mother.

Someone shoved her.

She fell into the mud, beaten black and blue all over.

That night my mother came home and washed the old clothes I'd worn as a child.

Then she tucked the family's only group photo against her chest.

And she drank down that bottle of pesticide.

I never even got to see her one last time.

Thinking of it, the blood in my whole body turned cold.

Juliana Lawrence, the women's affairs director, had come running too.

The moment she saw Patsy Fox in the river, her face changed.

"Dustin, you're a strong swimmer. Get down there, quick."

"Who cares what's proper and what isn't?"

"Save a life, and it counts for more than building a seven-story pagoda."

Beside her, one of the sent-down girls shouted, eyes red:

"If you won't save her, what happens when Patsy Fox dies?"

"A man's got the strength and the swimming. How can you be so cold-blooded?"