Golden Peacock - Second Collection of Short Stories

Ko Zaw Heik's boxing skills

The village of Dwin Nge in Katha District is a small village on the left bank of the Ayeyarwady River, but in 1927-28, it suddenly became famous for its sapphire mining. Stone merchants, stone brokers, stone miners, and coolies from Shwebo, Katha, and Mogok came to the area to do business, and it became a very busy village overnight. In fact, the place where the stones were found was not Dwin Nge. It was in the vicinity of a small village called Yen Nya Oo, about four or five miles away from the village. Stone miners from all over the place built huts near Yen Nya Oo village, stayed there, and worked. Whoever “won” a stone sold it for thirty thousand. The news that a stone worth fifty thousand tons had been found and was not yet sold because the price was not right spread from one place to another along the upper and lower reaches of the river.

- Like flies swarming to a bad place, people who wanted to get rich quickly flocked to that place to try their luck, and it grew day by day, week by week, month by month. To tell the truth, if there was one person who "won", there would be hundreds of thousands of people who would have lost all their money and returned home.

The work of digging a quarry is not unlike that of a lottery. However, since people come with the hope that if they dig, they will find someone, even if they don't find him, so every time ten people leave, twenty more people come. So, as long as someone is digging a quarry, once a month, once every two months, and so on, there is always a shortage of quarrymen. Only when no one has been heard of digging a quarry for four or five months does the number of people stop coming and dry up.

After getting to know each other, Ko Zaw Heik and I were thinking about which places to visit. When we heard about the small cave, we decided to go down there because we wanted to try our luck and we wanted to go to a place we had never been to before.

After staying for a day at the small mine hut, we continued on to the village of Yenya-U, where we hired coolies to work as quarrymen, and, like everyone else, we obtained a license to mine a piece of land.

Although Ye Nya Oo village is just a small village, due to the high volume of stone mining, many people come to visit, so card players, chicken dealers, alcoholics, liars, scoundrels, swindlers, and other people are so numerous that they cannot keep up with the village. The nine-meter circles are also played day and night, and I heard that some of them lost the nine hundred shillings they earned by selling stones in the morning before sunset. I heard that some money-lenders even opened red and four-knock gin circles to play.

We were still looking at the rider with a surprised expression on our faces. In an instant, the horse, neighing and nibbling, passed us by and moved towards Yen Nya U village, leaving us, who were watching, with only a dusty trail behind us.

Me: "Are you surprised that I know the man on the horse?"

Hey.. “You don’t know him?” - Me.. “I don’t know, I only know a few people from this area.”

Hey.. “This man is not from this area. He is originally from Mandalay. He is the son of the landowner U Kyaw Ho. He is called Maung Maung Latt, the former minister. He is a councilor from Katha region.”

Me..“Ah. . .but. I’ve heard of it. So what else is the minister going to do in this area?”

Hey.. "When an election is approaching, the most important thing for an MP is to go around their own constituency and campaign for votes."

After that, we turned back towards the village. When we reached the house, I was writing letters to my friends, while Zaw Heik was walking around. After finishing writing, Zaw Heik had not yet returned, so I went out to the Chinese shop to have a cup of tea.

Awein's shop sells various kinds of alcohol on one side and various fried snacks such as fried noodles and fried lotus root on the other side, as well as tea and coffee, so it is always crowded. As I was about to enter the food section, I saw Lak Ko Sein on the other side of the alcohol section, so I called him over to us and we had tea and chatted.

The dining room and the bar are separated by just a wall, but you can see from one side to the other.

Sein.. “Have you heard the latest news?” Me.. “What’s the big deal?”

When I turned around, a very strong, burly, red-faced man entered the shop and started banging on the table with a large stick. At that moment, Ko Sein touched my thigh with his hand and said, “Be careful, this is a red bulldog. He has been in prison for ten years for killing a man. He is also a very aggressive dog. I think it would be better if we ran away.” But we sat there, waiting to hear what Maung Maung Latt would say.

Maung Maung Latt sat there, looking puzzled, and Bony said, “Hey, teacher, didn’t you hear me? Please try a bowl for me.” Then Maung Maung Latt turned to Bony and asked, “Hey, teacher, who are you talking to?” Bony frowned and said, “You’re so thick that you can’t tell what I’m talking about? Order me a bowl of noodles.”

Lat .. “Do you want to eat?”

Red.. "It's hard. I said I wanted to eat."

Lat..“If you want to eat, please order it yourself.”

Red..(The red face is getting redder) "Wait, do you know who I am?"

Lat.. "I don't know, I don't want to know."

Red..“I am Bonnie the bulldog.”

Lat.. “Aye, I see it looks like a bulldog.”

At that moment, the coolies who had just finished their noodles couldn't eat and were just staring at the plate in front of them. The red bulldog approached Maung Maung Latt with a shy face, but Maung Maung Latt continued to drink his coffee without losing his composure.

Ni.. “If you don’t want to serve me even a cup of noodles, I will serve you. What would you like to eat? Order it.” –

Lat.. "It's fine. I don't want to eat anything."

Ni.. "Eat. I have money," he said, and, as usual among the common people, he took out three or four pieces of money and showed them.