6. Arrested for Digging the Gold

In the beginning of 1951, the government used an excuse that the region of West Lake was demarcated as a military zone to force the House of God in Hangzhou to move to another place. They gave us two weeks to evacuate completely. When I came to the mountain, my mother had given me some gold jewelry and asked me to bury it in the ground. Since we were leaving, I had to ask a brother to help me to dig it out. Therefore, when everyone was studying the Bible in the big chapel on the summit, two of us took the chance of digging it out. However, the place where I had buried the gold was used to build a bathroom, and so it was covered with wooden boards. Thus, when we dug, there was a great cracking noise. Just when I saw the two bottles of gold jewelry, unexpectedly a group of the Liberation Army swarmed in to catch me. They took the principal, the Lord's servant, and me to the office of Public Security. They interrogated me all day long by threatening and coaxing. I realized that I stirred up big trouble, and I was so scared that I lost my mind. The warden told me: "You are so young that you are deceived by people. So long as you say that this gold was given by foreigners to your school for being a special agent, then you will be released immediately." I replied, "It is my mother's gold." The other one was a party cadre who was very stern. He had an accent of northern provinces, and he threatened me by all means. He yelled: "The old man whom you called Uncle Chang, did he know it?" "He did not know!" I replied immediately. I thought that I had gotten him into big trouble because of this family matter. How could I tell them that he knew? I relied on lying to deal with them, which was just like hatching the eggs of vipers and spinning a spider's web. I not only could not cover myself, but the situation was getting worse and worse. The people around me were as ferocious beasts. More and more they questioned me as if they wanted to tear me to pieces. As the sun went down, and it was dark; the warden took me to jail. There was no wall for my jail room, but just wooden bars like a bird cage. One could see through everything inside. There were many male criminals living in the next jail room. I was the only one in my jail room. It was cold winter of December, so I begged the warden to give Uncle Chang a blanket. I said: "Finally, you will find out this gold belongs to my mother, and it has nothing to do with Uncle Chang. He is of old age. If he gets sick because of coldness, I will be guilty of it." After a while, the warden also gave me ragged wadding and told me: "Do not worry, I have given a blanket to the old man, and this one is for you." At this moment, this dirty and ragged wadding was truly a priceless treasure to me. After he locked the iron gate and left, I sat down on the spot, leaned against the pillar, and covered myself with that wadding. It must have been the grace of God that I felt so warm. It felt as if there had been a stove next to me. The more bitter the environment is, the closer the Lord is. When my heart fainted, there was only one thought: Be faithful in intercession. Just try to think how many people fall in distress, and they do not know how to pray. How much they need people to intercede for them! Pretty soon I dozed off and fell asleep.