Radish

Chapter Three

A thundershower struck that night. When the workers showed up the next morning, they saw that the rocks had been washed clean and the sandy ground levelled. Water in the trough was twice as high as the day before; the few remaining clouds were reflected in the brilliant blue water. There was a sudden chill in the air; the autumn wind bored through the bridge openings and, together with the rustling of the sea of jute plants, chilled people from the inside out. The old blacksmith’s padded jacket, shiny as armour, was missing its buttons, and he could only close it by drawing together the lapels and securing them with a red plastic-wrapped electric cord. Hei-hai, still wearing only a pair of shorts, was bare-chested and barefoot, but he didn’t seem to suffer from the cold. A red plastic-wrapped electric cord also held up his shorts, in place of the cloth sash he’d either lost or put away. His hair had grown wild and was now two inches long, every strand standing up like the spines of a hedgehog. The workers looked at him with pity and admiration as he walked over the rocky ground, with its pooled rainwater, in bare feet.

‘Aren’t you cold?’ the old blacksmith asked.

Hei-hai gave a confused look, as if he hadn’t understood the question.

‘I asked you if you’re cold,’ the blacksmith repeated, raising his voice a bit. The look of confusion disappeared as Hei-hai lowered his head and began lighting the forge. He lightly pumped the bellows with his left hand, holding the coal shovel in his right, and stared at the burning stalks of wheat. The old blacksmith took his greasy jacket off the bed and draped it over Hei-hai’s back. The boy squirmed with obvious discomfort. As soon as the blacksmith walked off, Hei-hai took off the jacket and laid it back on the bed. With a shake of his head, the old man crouched down to smoke.

‘No wonder you like to stay close to the forge,’ the young blacksmith said with a bored yawn. ‘That’s how you keep warm. Shit, you might be little, but you’re cunning as hell.’

A whistle sounded at the worksite. Deputy Director Liu called everyone together. The workers gathered in front of the floodgate, facing the sun, the men standing with their arms folded, the women stitching shoe soles. Hei-hai stole an uneasy look at the seam above the seventh bridge pylon. The weather’s turning cold, Director Liu said, so we’re going to have to put in overtime and pour concrete for the foundation before the freeze sets in. Starting today, overtime will be from seven to ten at night. You’ll earn half a jin of grain and twenty cents each day. No one complained, though there were as many different expressions as there were faces — more than two hundred of them. Hei-hai watched the mason’s pale face turn red and then purple, while the woman’s ruddy face blanched, first grey, then white.

That night three gas lamps illuminated the worksite. One lit the areas where the masons worked, a second the area where the women broke rocks. Most of them had children and plenty of housework at home, so they gave up the half a jin of grain and twenty cents. No more than a dozen young women stayed to work under the artificial light. Since their homes were far from the worksite, they gathered their courage and slept squeezed together under one of the arched openings, after sealing both ends with flashboards, leaving a narrow opening in front through which they climbed in and out. Juzi sometimes slept with the other women, at other times she went to the village (a cousin whose husband had a temporary job in the county town and didn’t always come home at night had invited her to sleep there).

The third lamp threw its light on an old man, a young one, and a boy near the forge. The sound of steel on rock rang from the masons’ worksite, where chisels gave off sparks as they chewed up rock. The men worked hard. The mason took off his jacket; his red athletic shirt shone like a lit torch. The younger women sat around their gas lamp, their minds filled with pleasant fancies. At times they laughed out loud, and at times they whispered among themselves amid the intermittent cracks of breaking rock. The sound of the flowing river filled gaps between the noises they made. Juzi lay down her hammer, stood up, and stole toward the river. She cast a long shadow on the sandy ground. ‘Watch out some hot-blooded bachelor doesn’t grab you,’ a woman behind her called out. She walked quickly out of the circle of light. Each ray appeared to her as a bright white ball with thorns stretching toward her, but falling short. The tips of the thorns were red, and soft. Later she walked back toward the light; she had a sudden desire to see what Hei-hai was doing. Avoiding the lamplight, she stepped into the shadow of the first bridge pylon.

There she spotted him, moving like a little sprite, the radiant light spreading across his bare back like a coat of glaze. His skin resembled smooth rubber, elastic yet tough, durable and impenetrable. He appeared to have put on weight, for now there was something between his skin and his ribs. And no wonder, since she brought him lunch from the kitchen every day. He went home to sleep at night, but seldom to eat, and some nights he didn’t go back at all — one morning she saw him emerge from under the bridge with straw in his hair.

He pumped the bellows so smoothly it was as if it were moving his hands rather than the other way around. His body rocked back and forth, his head looking like a watermelon floating on a lazy river. Bright glints in his black eyes bobbed up and down, like dancing fireflies.

The young blacksmith stood in his customary pose next to the chisels, holding his sledge in both hands, head cocked to the side, his good eye staring straight ahead, like a contemplative rooster.

The old blacksmith removed a heated chisel from the forge; Hei-hai took a ruined one and laid it in its place. The heated chisels were white tinged with green. The old blacksmith laid the chisel on the anvil and tapped the side of the anvil with his ball-peen hammer. The younger man lazily raised his sledge, twirled it in the air, as if it were a jute stalk, and let it fall gently onto the hot steel, sending sparks of molten steel flying in all directions. They burst into smaller sparks as they hit the wall. Some landed on Hei-hai’s slightly bulging belly, bouncing off softly and tracing lovely arcs of light before falling to the ground. As the sparks met his belly and fell to the ground, their friction with the air created heat and sound. After the first strike with his sledge, the young blacksmith flexed his muscles, as if he’d been suddenly awakened, and began to move faster. Juzi saw strange shadows dancing on the rocky wall and heard the clang, clang, clang of metal on metal. The blacksmith’s ability to shape steel was exceptional, and the hammer in the old man’s hand had nothing to do but tap the anvil. The young man knew precisely where to aim. The old master turned chisels on the anvil, his eyes and thoughts lighting on the spots to strike, and the young man’s sledge landed there an instant later, sometimes anticipating the older man.

Juzi was awestruck by the young man’s skill, though she also kept an eye on the boy and the old blacksmith. Hei-hai stood numbly by when the hammering was at its most impressive (eyes shut, breathing in time with the bellows); that was also a sad moment for the old blacksmith, as if each swing of the young man’s sledge was aimed not at the chisels but at his dignity.

When the chisel was shaped, the old man turned to quench it in the bucket. He cast a meaningful glance at the younger man, the corners of his mouth turning down disdainfully. The younger man watched his master’s every move. The woman saw the older blacksmith test the water with his hand, then raise the chisel to examine it before bending over, shrimp-like, looking closely at the water in the bucket, and tentatively dipping in the tip. The water sizzled and sent a fine steam into the air, where it enveloped the old man’s red nose. After a moment, he again raised the chisel to his eyes, as if preparing to thread a needle, as if a wonderful design were painted there. He was obviously happy with what he saw, as the wrinkles on his face filled with pleasure. He nodded, seemingly having received the response he’d hoped for, then buried the chisel in the water. Steam billowed, a mushroom cloud that filled the bridge opening, turning the gaslight red and the other objects into a shifting blur. All returned to normal when the steam dissipated: Hei-hai still dreamily pumped the bellows; the young blacksmith remained in his customary contemplative rooster pose; and the old blacksmith — his date-like face, black enamel eyes, and arms with scars like dung beetles — had not moved.

The old blacksmith picked up a second chisel, and everything began again, right up to the moment when he was about to quench it — then something changed. After testing the water, he added cold water, and looked satisfied. Just as he was about to put the chisel in, the young blacksmith bounded over to the bucket and stuck his right hand in. Without a second thought, the old man thrust the chisel against the younger man’s right forearm. The smell of burning flesh surged from under the bridge, straight into the woman’s nostrils.

The young blacksmith screeched in pain, straightened up, and, with a nasty grin, shouted, ‘It’s been three years, Master!’

The old man dropped the chisel into the bucket, roiling the water inside and once again filling the opening with steam. Juzi could not see their faces in the mist, but she heard the old man say: ‘Remember this!’

She ran off before the mist cleared, clamping her hand over her mouth to keep down the bitter juices churning in her stomach. As she sat before the rock pile, one of the women teased her: ‘You’ve been gone a long time, Juzi. Out with that boy in the jute field?’ Juzi did not respond, letting the ridicule pass. She pinched her throat with two fingers to keep from making a sound.

The whistle to stop work blew. Juzi had been caught up in her thoughts for three hours. ‘Thinking about a man, Juzi? Let’s go,’ they called to her. But she sat there watching figures move in the hazy light.

‘Juzi.’ The young mason was standing behind her. ‘Your cousin asked me to give you a message. She wants you to spend the night at her place. I’ll go with you, all right?’

‘Go? Who are you talking to?’

‘I’m talking to you. What’s the matter? Are you sick?’

‘Is who sick?’

‘I’m talking about you.’

‘Well, don’t.’

‘Shall we go?’

‘OK.’

The water passed noisily under the bridge. Juzi stopped. The mason was only a step away from her. Turning to look, she saw light emerge from the opening at the westernmost pylon. The other two gaslights had been extinguished. She began walking toward the floodgate.

‘Looking for Hei-hai?’

‘I want to see him.’

‘Let’s go together. The little bastard. Be careful, don’t fall off the bridge.’

Juzi sensed that the mason was close; she could hear his heartbeat. They walked and walked, and as her head tilted to the side, it came to rest on his powerful shoulder. She leaned back and was immediately embraced by a muscular arm. He reached over, cupped the little mound of her breast with his big hand, and stroked it. Her heart beat frantically beneath that breast, like a fluttering pigeon. They walked steadily toward the floodgate. When they entered the circle of light, she removed his hand from her breast and, sensibly, he let his arm drop.

‘Hei-hai!’ she shouted.

‘Hei-hai!’ he echoed her.

The young blacksmith looked at both of them with his good eye; his cheek twitched. The old blacksmith was sitting on his bed, holding his pipe in both hands, as if it were a pistol. He glanced at Juzi — dark red — and then the mason — pale yellow — and said in a weary but kindly tone, ‘Sit down and wait, he’ll be right back.’

Empty water bucket in hand, Hei-hai climbed up the levee.

When the workday had ended earlier that day, the young blacksmith had stretched lazily and said, ‘I’m famished. Hei-hai, take a bucket to the north field. Dig up some sweet potatoes and pick some radishes for a late-night snack.’

Sleepy-eyed, Hei-hai looked at the old blacksmith, who was sitting on his bed, looking like a defeated rooster with its feathers ruffled.

‘What are you gawking at, you little son of a bitch?’ the young one demanded, straightening up and stretching his neck. ‘Do as I tell you.’ His good eye swept across his master, collapsed on his bed. Pain shot through the burn on his arm, but the pleasure that arm had brought him overcame the pain, and the temperature was just right, absolutely wonderful.

Hei-hai shuffled off with his empty bucket. As he emerged from the bridge opening it was as if he’d fallen into a well with a thump; he was enshrouded in such utter darkness that hazy lights flared in his eyes. He crouched down fearfully and shut them. When he opened them again, the sky had changed — now starlight fell warmly upon him and on the dark grey ground all around.

On the levee, branches of the river locusts stretched and intertwined. He reached up to part them with one hand, then hunched his shoulders and walked up the slope. His hand brushed against the full, ripe seedpods on the damp tips of branches; the pungent scent of the branches assailed him. His foot bumped into something soft and warm, and he heard a chirp. Before he realised that it was a bamboo partridge, the bird had flapped its way out of the brush and landed in a jute field like a dark stone. Feeling somewhat guilty, he touched the spot where the bird had been resting with his foot. It was dry, a clump of dry grass that still retained the bird’s warmth. From where he stood on the levee he heard the woman and the mason shout his name. He banged on the side of his bucket, and the shouts stopped. He heard the river rushing forward brightly, and the screech of an owl on a tree somewhere in the village. His stepmother was afraid of two things: thunder and the screech of an owl. He wished there were thunder every day, and a screeching owl at his stepmother’s window every night. The dew on the river locusts wetted his arms, which he wiped dry on his shorts as he crossed the levee road and started down the other side. By then he’d gotten used to the dark and could see clearly, could even distinguish the subtle difference between the brown of the soil at his feet and the purple of the sweet potato leaves. He crouched down, pulled up one of the sweet potatoes and tossed it into his bucket, where it rattled around. He dug some more, until he felt something drop off his finger, and heard it bounce off a sweet potato leaf. Feeling his left hand with the right, he discovered that the damaged fingernail had fallen off. By now his bucket was heavy, so he stood up and headed north. When he reached the radish field, he picked six in a row, twisted off the leafy tops, threw them to the ground and tossed the radishes into his bucket.

‘What have you done with Hei-hai?’ the mason demanded of the young blacksmith.

‘What are you worried about? He’s not your son, is he?’

‘Where is he?’ Juzi asked, boring her eyes into the blacksmith’s.

‘Just hold on.’ he said amiably. ‘He’s out scrounging sweet potatoes. Stick around; we’ll bake some when he gets back.’

‘You sent him out to steal?’

‘What do you mean, steal? It’s not stealing if he doesn’t take them home,’ the blacksmith explained.

‘Then why didn’t you do it?’

‘I’m his mentor.’

‘That’s horseshit!’

‘So what if it is?’ the blacksmith said as his eye lit up. ‘Where the hell did you go for sweet potatoes, Hei-hai?’ he shouted out of the bridge opening. ‘Albania?’

Hei-hai, his shoulders askew, staggered in carrying his bucket with both hands. He was covered with mud, as if he’d rolled around in the dirt.

‘Hey, my boy,’ the blacksmith complained loudly, ‘I sent you out for a few. Who told you to bring back a bucketful? Take the radishes over to the pond to wash off the mud.’

‘No,’ Juzi said. ‘Quit giving him orders. You bake the potatoes while I go wash the radishes.’

The blacksmith stacked the sweet potatoes next to the forge and calmly lit a fire. Juzi returned with the radishes and laid them out on a dry rock. One dropped to the ground, where it rolled to the mason’s feet, quickly getting coated in iron filings. He leaned over to pick it up.

‘Here, I’ll go wash it again.’

‘No need. Five large radishes is plenty,’ the mason said as he laid the errant radish on the anvil.

Hei-hai walked up and took the bellows handle from the blacksmith. The blacksmith glanced at the woman before saying to him, ‘You need a rest, you little shit. Do your palms get itchy when you’re not doing something? Take the bellows, just don’t say I didn’t warn you. Take it slow, the slower the better. Otherwise you’ll burn them.’

The mason and the woman sat against the western wall of the bridge opening, while the young blacksmith sat behind Hei-hai. The old blacksmith sat on his bed on the north side, looking south; the tobacco in his pipe had burned out, but he still held the bowl in both hands, resting his elbows on his knees.

The night deepened. Hei-hai continued gently working the bellows, the emerging air sounding like a sleeping baby’s breathing. The sound of flowing water grew clearer, as if it had both shape and colour, that it could be smelled and seen. Barely visible shadows on the levee looked like small animals chasing each other. The sound of their claws in the sand as minute as fine animal hair pierced the bright river music like long, thin, silver threads. Jute plants near the floodgate brushed against each other, creating a sustained rustle. Only one gas lamp remained lit on the worksite. After a moment of confusion, the light-seeking insects that had surrounded the other two lamps swarmed toward the forge. In their frantic search for light, they peppered the glass shade of the remaining lamp with their bodies. The mason went to the lamp and pumped it with a clacking sound. A single cricket forced its way in through a crack in the lamp glass and knocked over the asbestos mantle, casting the bridge into darkness. It took them all a moment to make out faces. The air from Hei-hai’s bellows made the fire in the forge ripple like soft red silk. The bridge opening was filled with the scent of baked sweet potatoes, which the young blacksmith turned over with his tongs. The aroma thickened. At last, their hands full of radish and sweet potato, they ate. Steam rose from the peeled sweet potatoes. Then one bite cold, one bite hot, one bite devoured, one bite savoured — chomp, slurp — beads of sweat on nose tips. The young blacksmith ate one radish and two sweet potatoes more than the others. The old blacksmith did not eat; he sat rigid as a statue.

‘Are you going home, Hei-hai?’ asked the woman.

Hei-hai licked the bits of sweet potatoes stuck to his lips. His belly bulged.

‘Will your stepmother leave the door open for you?’ the mason asked. ‘You can sleep here on the wheat stalks if you want.’

Hei-hai coughed and flung a piece of potato skin into the forge, and then made it curl with a pump of his bellows. A burnt smell permeated the opening.

‘What was that for, you little bastard?’ the young blacksmith said. ‘Why bother going home? I’ll adopt you as son and apprentice. We’ll roam the world together. I guarantee you’ll eat good food and drink strong liquor!’

Before his voice had faded away, the strains of a melancholy song filled the bridge opening, raising goose pimples of joy on the mason’s skin. He had heard the words of this song or aria only days before.

For love of your sword, your learning, your youthful virility

I followed you across the earth, wracked by storm and hunger, enduring countless hardships…

The old man rested his back against the flashboard, where wind from the jute field blew through the cracks above him. Strands of white hair fluttered along with the dancing coal flame in the forge. Deep feeling played on his face; his narrow jaw muscles squirmed, his eyes were like burning coals.

… A bed shared three years, those heavenly pleasures and so much love, all trodden down like muck. I fanned you on summer nights, I warmed your feet on wintry eves. The fruits of my breast, the furnace in my belly… Yet you, with your high station, your bountiful land, have abandoned me for your wife’s chambers. And I, I am a desolate slave…

Juzi’s heart was in her throat, her mouth half open, her lashes seemingly frozen on her face as she gazed at the old blacksmith’s expressive face and his long neck, on which the Adam’s apple slid up and down like a bead of mercury. The plaintive, brooding melody battered her heart like an autumn rain, but just as she was about to cry, the song turned spirited and expansive, and her heart fluttered like willow branches tossed in the wind. A tingling spread from her spine to the top of her head, and she instinctively leaned against the mason’s shoulder, taking his large, callused hand in hers, her eyes moist with tears as she was enveloped in the old blacksmith’s song, in his mood. His gaunt face burned with radiance, and she saw in it a future for her, much like that in his song.

The mason wrapped his arm around her, and again rested his large hand on her firm breast. The young blacksmith, sitting behind Hei-hai, began to squirm. He heard his master bray like an old donkey; a harsh, ugly sound. But soon he was deaf even to that. He rose up on his haunches and cocked his head; his left eye seemed to rise up with him, its gaze like a claw that scratched and gouged the woman’s face. When the mason had tenderly placed his hand on the woman’s breast, a fire was kindled in the young blacksmith’s gut. Flames flew up into his throat and burst from his nose and mouth. It felt to him as if he were crouching on a taut spring, that if he let go he would shoot into the air to crash against the floodgate’s steel and concrete surface. He held on, grinding his teeth.

Hei-hai grasped the bellows handle with both hands. The fire in the forge had weakened, and a blue and a yellow flame danced on the lumps of coal. Occasionally, the flow of air lifted the tongues of fire high above the forge bed, where they floated in the air before being brought down by human movement below. The boy, oblivious to the others, tried to train one eye on each of the tongues of fire, one yellow and the other blue, but could not manage to split his gaze into two. Disheartened, he moved his gaze from the fire and looked from side to side before fixing it on the anvil crouching in front of the forge like an enormous beast. For the first time, his mouth opened wide, and he released a sigh of emotion (a sound drowned out by the old blacksmith’s song). His eyes, big and bright to begin with, now shone like searchlights as he witnessed a strange and beautiful sight: a soft blue-green light suffused the sleek surface of the anvil, on which rested a golden radish. In shape and size it was like a pear, though it had a long tail, every fibre of which was a strand of golden wool. Glittering and transparent, exquisitely limpid, its golden skin revealed a swirling silvery liquid inside. Its contours were clean and elegant; golden rays spread out from its beautiful curves, some long, some short — the long rays like beards of wheat, the short like eyelashes — and all were gold in colour.

The old blacksmith’s song was pushed far into the distance, like the buzzing of a fly. Hei-hai floated past the bellows, a shadowy figure, and stood in front of the anvil. His hand, coated with coal dust, scarred and burned, trembled as he reached out…

The hand was but inches away from the radish when the young blacksmith raced up and kicked over a water bucket, spilling water on the ground and soaking the old blacksmith’s bedding. He snatched up the radish, his good eye bloodshot. ‘You fucker! Dumb dog! Lousy bitch! What makes you think you can eat a radish? I’ve got a fire in my belly and smoke in my throat, and this is just the thing to quench my thirst!’ He opened his mouth, exposing two rows of blackened teeth, and was about to take a bite when Hei-hai, with a rare burst of speed, stuck his rail-thin arms under the man’s elbows, lifted him off his feet, and then let him slide down. The radish fell to the ground. The blacksmith landed a kick on Hei-hai’s behind, sending the boy into the arms of the woman. The mason reached out to catch him.

The old blacksmith stopped his hoarse singing and slowly stood up. The woman and the mason stood as well. Three pairs of eyes were fixed on the young blacksmith. Hei-hai’s head was reeling, everything was spinning. He shook his head to clear it and saw the blacksmith pick up the radish and put it in his mouth. Hei-hai threw a lump of coal at him. It sailed past his cheek, hit the flashboard and landed on the old blacksmith’s bed.

‘I’ll beat the shit out of you, motherfucker!’ the blacksmith roared.

The mason stepped between them. ‘You’re not going to do anything to the boy,’ he said.

‘Give him back the radish,’ the woman said.

‘Give it back? Hell no!’ The blacksmith ran out from under the bridge and threw the radish as hard as he could. It flew with a whooshing sound; after a long moment came a sound as if a rip had been made in the river’s surface.

A golden rainbow arced in front of Hei-hai’s eyes. He crumpled to the ground between the mason and the woman.