Brothers

CHAPTER 1

BALDY LI, our Liu Towns premier tycoon, had a fantastic plan of spending twenty million U.S. dollars to purchase a ride on a Russian Federation space shuttle for a tour of outer space. Perched atop his famously gold-plated toilet seat, he would close his eyes and imagine himself already floating in orbit, surrounded by the unfathomably frigid depths of space. He would look down at the glorious planet stretched out beneath him, only to choke up on realizing that he had no family left down on Earth.

Baldy Li used to have a brother named Song Gang, who was a year older and a whole head taller and with whom he shared everything. Loyal, stubborn Song Gang had died three years earlier, reduced to a pile of ashes. When Baldy Li remembered the small wooden urn containing his brothers remains, he had a million mixed emotions. The ashes from even a sapling, he thought, would outweigh those from Song Gangs bones.

Back when Baldy Li's mother was still alive, she always liked to speak to him about Song Gang as being a chip off the old block. She would emphasize how honest and kind he was, just like his father, and remark that father and son were like two melons from the same vine. When she talked about Baldy Li, she didn't say this sort of thing but would emphatically shake her head. She said that Baldy Li and his father were completely different sorts of people, on completely different paths. It was not until Baldy Li's fourteenth year, when he was nabbed for peeping at five women's bottoms in a public pit toilet, that his mother drastically reversed her earlier opinion of her son. Only then did she finally understand that Baldy Li and his father were in fact two melons from the same vine after all. Baldy Li remembered clearly how his mother had averted her eyes and turned away from him, muttering bitterly as she wiped away her tears, "A chip off the old block."

Baldy Li had never met his birth father, since on the day he was born his father left this earth in a fit of stink. His mother told him that his father had drowned, but Baldy Li asked, "How? Did he drown in the stream, in the pond, or in a well?" His mother didn't respond. It was only later, after Baldy Li had been caught peeping and had become stinkingly notorious throughout Liu Town — only then did he learn that he really was another rotten melon off the same damn vine as his father. And it was only then that he learned that his father had also been peeping at women's butts in a latrine when he accidentally fell into the cesspool and drowned.

Everyone in Liu Town — men and women, young and old — laughed when they heard about Baldy Li and couldn't stop repeating, "A chip off the old block." As sure as a tree grows leaves, if you were from Liu Town, you would have the phrase on your lips; even toddlers who had just learned to speak were gurgling it. People pointed at Baldy Li, whispering to each other and covering their mouths and snickering, but Baldy Li would maintain an innocent expression as he continued on his way. Inside, however, he would be chuckling because now — at that time he was almost fifteen — he finally knew what it was to be aman.

Nowadays the world is filled with women's bare butts shaking hither and thither, on television and in the movies, on VCRs and DVDs, in advertisements and magazines, on the sides of ballpoint pens and cigarette lighters. These include all sorts of butts: imported butts, domestic butts; white, yellow, black, and brown; big, small, fat, and thin; smooth and coarse, young and old, fake and real — every shape and size in a bedazzling variety. Nowadays women's bare butts aren't worth much, since they can be found virtually everywhere. But back then things were different. It used to be that women's bottoms were considered a rare and precious commodity that you couldn't trade for gold or silver or pearls. To see one, you had to go peeping in the public toilet — which is why you had a little hoodlum like Baldy Li being caught in the act, and a big hoodlum like his father losing his life for the sake of a glimpse.

Public toilets back then were different from today. Nowadays you wouldn't be able to spy on a woman's butt in a toilet even if you had a periscope, but back then there was only a flimsy partition between the men's and women's sections, below which there was a shared cesspool. On the other side of the partition the sounds of women peeing and shitting seemed disconcertingly close. So instead of squatting down where you should, you could poke your head under the partition, suspending yourself above the muck below by tightly gripping the boards with your hands and your legs. With the nauseating stench bringing tears to your eyes and maggots crawling all around, you could bend over like a competitive swimmer at the starting block about to dive into the pool, and the deeper you bent over, the more butt you would be able to see.

That time Baldy Li snared five butts with a single glance: a puny one, a fat one, two bony ones, and a just-right one, all lined up in a neat row, like slabs of meat in a butcher shop. The fat butt was like a fresh rump of pork, the two bony ones were like beef jerky, while the puny butt wasn't even worth mentioning. The butt that Baldy Li fancied was the just-right one, which lay directly in his line of sight. It was the roundest of the five, so round it seemed to curl up, with taut skin revealing the faint outlines of a tailbone. His heart pounding, he wanted to glimpse the pubic area on the other side of the tailbone, so he continued to lean down, his head burrowing deeper under the partition. But just as he was about to catch a glimpse of her pubic region, he was suddenly nabbed.

A man named Victory Zhao, one of the two Men of Talent in Liu Town, happened to enter the latrine at that very moment. He spotted someone's head and torso burrowing under the partition and immediately understood what was going on. He therefore grabbed Baldy Li by the scruff of his neck, plucking him up as one would a carrot.

At that time Victory Zhao was in his twenties and had published a four-line poem in our provincial culture center's mimeographed magazine, thereby earning himself the moniker Poet Zhao. After seizing Baldy Li, Zhao flushed bright red. He dragged the fourteen-year-old outside and started lecturing him nonstop, without, however, failing to be poetic: "So, rather than gazing at the glittering sea of sprouted greens in the fields or the fishes cavorting in the lake or the beautiful tufts of clouds in the blue sky, you choose instead to go snooping around in the toilet…"

Poet Zhao went on in this vein for more than ten minutes, and yet there was still no movement from the women's side of the latrine. Eventually Zhao became anxious, ran to the door, and yelled for the women to come out. Forgetting that he was an elegant man of letters, he shouted rather crudely, "Stop your pissing and shitting. You've been spied upon, and you don't even realize it. Get your butts out here."

The owners of the five butts finally dashed out, shrieking and weeping. The weeper was the puny butt not worth mentioning. A little girl eleven or twelve years old, she covered her face with her hands and was crying so hard she trembled, as if Baldy Li hadn't peeped at her but, rather, had raped her. Baldy Li, still standing there in Poet Zhao's grip, watched the weeping little butt and thought, What's all this crying over your underdeveloped little butt? I only took a look because there wasn't much else I could do.

A pretty seventeen-year-old was the last to emerge. Blushing furiously, she took a quick look at Baldy Li and hurried away. Poet Zhao cried out for her not to leave, to come back and demand justice. Instead, she simply hurried away even faster. Baldy Li watched the swaying of her rear end as she walked, and knew that the butt so round it curled up had to be hers.

Once the round butt disappeared into the distance and the weeping little butt also left, one of the bony butts started screeching at Baldy Li, spraying his face with spittle. Then she wiped her mouth and walked off as well. Baldy Li watched her walk away and noticed that her butt was so flat that, now that she had her pants on, you couldn't even make it out.

The remaining three — an animated Poet Zhao, a pork-rump butt, and the other jerky-flat butt — then grabbed Baldy Li and hauled him to the police station. They marched him through the little town of less than fifty thousand, and along the way the town's other Man of Talent, Success Liu, joined their ranks.

Like Poet Zhao, Success Liu was in his twenties and had had something published in the culture center's magazine. His publication was a story, its words crammed onto two pages. Compared with Zhao's four lines of verse, Success Liu's two pages were far more impressive, thereby earning him the nickname Writer Liu. Liu didn't lose out to Poet Zhao in terms of monikers, and he certainly couldn't lose out to him in other areas either. Writer Liu was on his way to buy rice when he saw Poet Zhao strutting toward him with a captive Baldy Li, and Liu immediately decided that he couldn't let Poet Zhao have all the glory to himself. Writer Liu hollered to Poet Zhao as he approached, "I'm here to help you!"

Poet Zhao and Writer Liu were close writing comrades, and Writer Liu had once searched high and low for the perfect encomia for Poet Zhao's four lines of poetry. Poet Zhao of course had responded in kind and found even more flowery praise for Writer Liu's two pages of text. Poet Zhao was originally walking behind Baldy Li, with the miscreant in his grip, but now that Writer Liu hustled up to them, Poet Zhao shifted to the left and offered Writer Liu the position to the right. Liu Towns two Men of Talent flanked Baldy Li, proclaiming that they were taking him to the police station. There was actually a station just around the corner, but they didn't want to take him there; instead, they marched him to one much farther away. On their way, they paraded down the main streets, trying to maximize their moment of glory. As they escorted Baldy Li through the streets they remarked enviously, "Just look at you, with two important men like us escorting you. You really are a lucky guy"

Poet Zhao added, "Its as if you were being escorted by Li Bai and Du Fu…"

It seemed to Writer Liu that Poet Zhao's analogy was not quite apt, since Li Bai and Du Fu were, of course, both poets, while Liu himself wrote fiction. So he corrected Zhao, saying, "It's as if Li Bai and Cao Xueqin were escorting you…"

Baldy Li had initially ignored their banter, but when he heard Liu Town's two Men of Talent compare themselves to Li Bai and Cao Xueqin, he couldn't help but laugh. "Hey, even I know that Li Bai was from the Tang dynasty while Cao was from the Qing dynasty," he said. "So how can a Tang guy be hanging out with a Qing guy?"

The crowds that had gathered alongside the street burst into loud guffaws. They said that Baldy Li was absolutely correct, that Liu Town's two Men of Talent might indeed be full of talent, but their knowledge of history wasn't a match even for this little Peeping Tom. The two Men of Talent blushed furiously, and Poet Zhao, straightening his neck, added, "It's just an analogy."

"Or we could use another analogy," offered Writer Liu. "Given that it's a poet and a novelist escorting you, we should say we are Guo Moruo and Lu Xun."

The crowd expressed their approval. Even Baldy Li nodded and said, "That's more like it."

Poet Zhao and Writer Liu didn't dare say any more on the subject of literature. Instead, they grabbed Baldy Li's collar and denounced his hooligan behavior to one and all while continuing to march sternly ahead. Along the way, Baldy Li saw a great many people tittering at him, including some he knew and others he didn't. Poet Zhao and Writer Liu took time to explain to everyone they met what had happened, appearing even more polished than talk-show hosts. And those two women who had had their butts peeped at by Baldy Li were like the special guests on their talk shows, looking alternately furious and aggrieved as they responded to Poet Zhao and Writer Liu's recounting of events. As the women walked along, the one with a fat butt suddenly screeched, having noticed her own husband among the spectators, and started sobbing as she complained loudly, "He saw my bottom and god knows what else! Whip him!"

Everyone laughed and turned to look at the husband, who was standing there motionless, flushed and frowning. Poet Zhao and Writer Liu stopped Baldy Li and, gripping his clothes, dragged him up to the unfortunate husband, as if presenting a meat bone to a dog. The fat woman continued to wail, urging her husband to beat Baldy Li up: "My bottom is for your eyes only, but now this hooligan has seen it, too. What am I going to do? Whip him! Scratch out his eyes! Why are you just standing there? Aren't you ashamed?"

All the spectators burst out laughing, and even Baldy Li tittered. He was thinking that this man was losing face, not on Baldy Li's account but, rather, because of this wife of his. The wife started shrieking again, saying, "Look at him, he even has the gall to laugh! He took advantage of me, and he's happy about it! Why won't you beat him? He's humiliated you, and you still won't take action?"

This man was Liu Town's famous Blacksmith Tong. When Baldy Li was a young boy, he would often go to Tongs shop to watch him work, and admire the sparks shooting off hammered metal. Now Tong was so furious that his complexion became darker than molten steel. He slapped Baldy Li across the face as if he were striking metal, slamming the teenager to the ground and knocking out two of his teeth, thereby filling his eyes with shooting stars and making his ears buzz for the next 180 days. This slap upside the head made Baldy Li feel that he had paid heavily for his transgression, and he swore to himself that if he ever encountered the blacksmith's wife's butt again, he would keep his eyes tightly shut and wouldn't take a single look, even if he were offered all the gold and silver in the world.

After Baldy Li was smacked, Poet Zhao and Writer Liu continued to parade him through the streets with a black eye and a bloody nose. They circled Liu Town's streets over and over again, walking right past the police station three times. By the end, even the police were standing outside their front door watching the show, but Poet Zhao and Writer Liu still refused to turn Baldy Li over to them. Zhao, Liu, and the remaining two women paraded Baldy Li around town until eventually the fresh pork-rump butt didn't want to follow anymore and the dried-jerky one also lost interest. After the two of them went home, Poet Zhao and Writer Liu took Baldy Li through the town one last time, until their own legs and backs were sore and their throats dry. Only then did they deliver him to the police.

At the station, all five policemen rushed up and started questioning Baldy Li at once. After ascertaining the five women's names, they started asking about each of them in detail, skipping over the little butt. They didn't appear to be following police procedure at all but, rather, seemed more intent on getting the lowdown on the various butts. When Baldy Li started explaining how he had peeped at the just-right, not-fat-not-skinny, so-round-it-curled-up butt, the policemen looked as though they were listening to a spine-tingler. This round-bottomed maiden, named Lin Hong, was a well-known beauty of Liu Town, and the policemen had often checked out her pretty little ass as she walked down the street. There were plenty of men who had examined her rear end with clothes on — but only Baldy Li had seen it in the flesh. The policemen realized that Baldy Li's arrest presented them with a golden opportunity and therefore asked him about her bottom over and over again. Whenever he started describing the taut skin and slight rise of her tailbone, the policemen's eyes all lit up like lightbulbs, but when he noted that he didn't see much more, their eyes immediately dimmed as if the electricity had suddenly been cut. Their faces full of disappointment and frustration, the men pounded the table and shouted, "A full confession brings leniency, and holding back will only result in severe punishment! Now think carefully: What else did you see?"

With his heart in his throat, Baldy Li recounted how he had lowered himself a bit farther, trying to glimpse Lin Hong's pubic area. His voice dropped to a whisper, and his listeners all held their breath. It was as if Baldy Li were back to his ghost story, but just as the ghost was about to appear, the story abruptly ended. Baldy Li explained that just as he had been on the verge of seeing Lin Hong's pubic area, Poet Zhao had grabbed him by the collar and pulled him up, and as a result he hadn't seen anything at all. Baldy Li said regretfully, "I missed it by just a hair…"

When Baldy Li stopped, the five policemen at first couldn't catch their breath and continued staring at him. Only when they realized that his lips had stopped moving did they finally understand that this was yet another story without an ending. They all had peculiar expressions, looking like five starving dogs who had just seen a freshly roasted duck fly out of their reach. One of them blamed Poet Zhao, saying, "This Zhao fellow — shouldn't he have been sitting at home writing poetry? What was he doing in the latrine?"

Once the policemen realized that they couldn't get anything more out of Baldy Li, they agreed to let him go home with his mother. Baldy Li told them his mother's name was Li Lan and that she worked at the silk factory. A policeman walked out the main door of the station and started yelling out to people on the street, asking if any of them knew Li Lan: "You know, the one who works at the silk factory." After hollering for five minutes or so, the officer finally found someone who was on his way to the factory. The passerby asked the policeman why he was looking for Li Lan, to which the policeman replied, "Just tell her to come to the station to pick up her hooligan son."

Baldy Li stayed at the police station all afternoon, like a lost item waiting to be reclaimed. He sat on the long bench, watching the sunlight streaming in through the open front entrance. At first the ray of light on the cement floor was as wide as the door frame but then it became narrower and narrower, and eventually it disappeared altogether. Baldy Li didn't realize that he had already become famous and that everyone who walked by the station would come in to take a look at him — men and women, all tittering as they strained to see the guy who peeped at women's butts in the public toilet. When no one happened to be gawking at him, one policeman after another would walk over, still hoping against hope, and slam his fist down on the table, asking sternly, "Think carefully, is there anything you forgot to report?"

It was night by the time Baldy Li's mother finally showed up at the station. She hadn't come earlier because she was afraid of people in the street pointing and talking about her. Fourteen years earlier Baldy Li's father had brought her excruciating shame, and now her son had exacerbated her humiliation. Therefore, she waited until after dark, then put on a head scarf and a surgical mask and crept to the station. When she entered the front door, she took one look at her son and immediately averted her eyes. Cowering in front of the lone remaining policeman, she explained in a trembling voice who she was. The policeman, who was supposed to have already gone off duty, blew a gasket, shouting, "Do you realize what fucking time it is? It's already eight o'clock and I haven't even eaten yet, and furthermore I was supposed to see a movie tonight. I had to push and shove at the ticket booth just to get a ticket, and now what the hell am I going to be able to see? Even if I took a plane to the theater, I'd only get to see The End’ flash on the screen." Throughout this tirade, Baldy Li's mother stood there cowering in front of the policeman, nodding at every curse, until finally he said, "Stop nodding your goddamn head and get the fuck out of my sight. I'm going to lock up."

Outside the police station, Baldy Li's mother walked silently, head bowed, along the dark side of the main street. He followed behind her, strutting and swinging his arms blithely, as if she had been the one caught in the latrine and not he. When they got home, Baldy Li's mother walked into her room without saying a word, shut the door, and didn't make another sound. Late that night, in his half-asleep state, Baldy Li thought he sensed her walk up to his bed and, as on other nights, replace the blanket he had kicked off. Li Lan didn't speak to her son for several days, until finally one rainy night she tearfully uttered a single phrase: "Chip off the old block." She sat in the shadow of the dim light and recounted to Baldy Li in an even dimmer voice how his father had drowned while peeping at women's butts in the public latrine. At the time, she had felt so ashamed that she had considered hanging herself, but she had resolved to live on only thanks to her newborn s tears. She said that if she had known then that he would turn out the same as his father, she would have gone ahead and killed herself.

CHAPTER 2

BALDY LI'S peeping ruined his good name but at the same time guaranteed that everyone in Liu Town would know that name for years to come. Out on the street, women shied away from him — even little girls and old ladies avoided him. Baldy Li was indignant, thinking that though he had spent less than two minutes trying to catch a glimpse of some naked bottoms, he was being treated as if he were a serial rapist. But, at the very least, he had gotten to see Lin Hongs bare bottom. Lin Hong was the preeminent beauty of Liu Town, and all the towns men — including old men, young men, and even little boys — stared at her with googly eyes and drooling mouths. Some even got so worked up that blood started running from their noses. It was impossible to calculate how many of these men were lying in bed at night masturbating as they fantasized about two or three key parts of Lin Hongs figure. These poor saps were overjoyed if they had the good fortune to run into her once a week, but even then they'd only see her face, neck, and hands. In summer, they might have a bit more luck and glimpse her sandaled feet and her calves peeking out from under her skirt but not an inch more. Only Baldy Li had seen her bare bottom, and this aroused the envy and admiration of all the men of Liu Town, leading them to conclude that Baldy Li must have done something spectacularly virtuous in a past life to have earned his present-day erotic karma.

Baldy Li became a celebrity. Though women hid from him, the men would invariably greet him with warm and knowing smiles, throwing an arm over his shoulder when they ran into him in the street. When they were sure that no one was within earshot, they would quietly ask, "So, kid, what did you see?"

Baldy Li would answer in a ringing voice, "I saw naked butts!"

The man in question would then flinch and grip Baldy Li's shoulder, saying, "Damn, lower your voice." Then, after looking around once more, he would whisper, "Hey, so what's Lin Hong's like?"

Even at this tender age, Baldy Li fully appreciated his own worth. He understood that though his reputation reeked, it reeked like an expensive dish of stinky tofu — which is to say, it might stink to high heaven, but damn, it sure tasted good. He knew that out of the five butts he saw in the public toilet, four of them were completely worthless while the fifth — Lin Hongs — was a priceless, five-star view. The reason Baldy Li would later become Liu Town s premier tycoon was that he was a born entrepreneur. At age fourteen he started using Lin Hongs butt to do business, knowing instinctively how to drive a hard bargain and adjust for inflation. The moment he saw those lecherous men grinning at him, grabbing his shoulder and slapping him on the back, he knew they were after one thing and one thing only, and that was the secret of Lin Hongs butt. When the five policemen at the station had tried to extract that same secret from him during his questioning, Baldy Li had told them everything, not daring to hold anything back. But after that initial interrogation, he wised up and resolved to stop providing free lunches. From then on, whenever he encountered one of these insincerely buddy-buddy fellows, Baldy Li remained tight-lipped and wouldn't sketch even the shadow of a single pubic hair. Instead, he would only utter the single word Buttocks, and those men who had come forward to unlock the mysteries of Lin Hongs butt would go away empty-handed.

Writer Liu, who was originally a lathe worker at the metal factory, earned the favor of the factory head thanks to his ability to whip up a fancy phrase and talk up a storm, and as a result was promoted to sales manager. He already had an average-looking girlfriend, but as soon as he received his promotion and had his story published, he decided that his girlfriend was no longer good enough for him. He therefore started having designs on Lin Hong, since she represented the ultimate fantasy of all Liu Towns men, unmarried and married alike. Writer Liu tried to dump his girlfriend, but she absolutely refused to be let go of. She went and stood outside the police station and started wailing that she had been bedded by Writer Liu, tearfully holding out all ten fingers. Everyone assumed that she meant that Writer Liu had slept with her ten times; they therefore were flabbergasted when they realized she was counting by tens, meaning that the two of them had slept together more than a hundred times. After this performance, Liu didn't dare dump her. In those days, if a man and a woman slept together, they had to get married, so the factory director summoned Writer Liu and chewed him out, telling him that he had two choices: He could marry his girlfriend and keep his job or dump her and settle for cleaning toilets. Weighing these two options, Writer Liu concluded that his career trumped romance and so crawled back to his girlfriend, apologizing abjectly. Soon the two of them were as good as ever, taking strolls together, going to movies, ordering furniture, and even making preparations for their wedding.

Whenever Poet Zhao happened upon someone, he expressed deep sympathy over Writer Liu's travails, feeling that Liu had handed over his life to a shameless hussy. Lust had gotten the better of him and had ruined his life. He would conclude, "This is an example of the proverbial single misstep leading to regret of a thousand ages."

The townspeople did not agree with Poet Zhao's choice of literary allusion here and retorted, "How was this a single misstep? He bedded her a hundred times, so at the very least that would make it a hundred missteps."

Poet Zhao was left momentarily speechless, so he tried a different literary nugget, intoning, "Even the mightiest hero still falls at the hands of a beauty."

The crowds still begged to differ, asking, "How is he a hero? And she certainly is no beauty."

Poet Zhao had to nod in agreement, thinking that it is indeed true that The People see all. If Writer Liu couldn't even survive a non-beauty, what could he survive? So Poet Zhao no longer expressed his sympathy and regret at his compatriot's downfall. With a dismissive wave, he sniffed, "Well, he could never amount to much."

Even though Writer Liu was in the thick of his wedding preparations, he was still dreaming of greener pastures. Every night before going to bed he would get all worked up fantasizing about each and every detail of Lin Hong's body, hoping at least to be united with her in his dreams. Though it was Writer Liu who, along with Poet Zhao, had paraded Baldy Li through the streets of Liu Town, he was rather awed by the fact that Baldy Li had glimpsed Lin Hong's naked behind. In order to increase the authenticity and realism of his fantasized couplings with Lin Hong, Writer Liu urgently wanted to know the remaining mysteries of her body. So now every time he saw Baldy Li, he greeted him like an old friend. However, he was sorely disappointed by Baldy Li's refusal to utter more than the single word Buttocks. One day Writer Liu good-naturedly slapped the back of Baldy Li's head and asked, "Can't you spit anything else out of that mouth of yours?"

Baldy Li asked, "Like what?"

Writer Liu replied, "The word buttocks is a bit too abstract. Can you give me something more concrete …?"

Baldy Li asked in a ringing voice, "How do you make buttocks concrete?"

"Hey, hey, stop hollering!" Writer Liu looked about him, then continued, gesturing wildly: "For instance, how big or little the butt was, how plump or bony…"

Baldy Li reflected on the five bottoms he had seen in the latrine and then announced delightedly, "You're right! Butts do vary in size and shape."

But then he became tight-lipped again. Writer Liu thought that he needed further guidance, so he patiently prompted: "Buttocks are like faces. Everyone's face is different; some have moles and some don't. So how was Lin Hong's?"

Baldy Li thought carefully, then replied, "Lin Hong doesn't have a mole on her face."

"I know that she doesn't have a mole on her face," Writer Liu said. "But I'm not asking about her face. What was her butt like?"

Even at this tender age Baldy Li had already mastered his poker face. He quietly asked Writer Liu, "So what will you give me in return?"

Writer Liu had no choice but to try to bribe him. Reasoning that Baldy Li was still a kid, he had brought along a few pieces of hard candy. Baldy Li gnawed on the candy and gestured for Writer Liu to lower his head. Then, with considerable gusto, he launched into a detailed description of the worthless little butt. Writer Liu asked dubiously, "That's Lin Hongs butt?"

"Nope," Baldy Li replied. "That was the puniest one."

"You little bastard," Writer Liu cursed. "I'm asking about Lin Hong's butt."

Baldy Li shook his head. "I can't bear to talk about it."

"Damn." Writer Liu continued to curse. "She's not your mom, and neither is she your older sister."

Baldy Li decided that he had a point. "You're right, she's not my mom, nor my sister…" But then he shook his head again and added, "But she is my dream lover, so I can't bear to talk about it."

"What kind of dream could you have, you little bastard?" Writer Liu asked impatiently. "So what would it take for you to be able to bear talking about it?"

Baldy Li frowned and pondered for a long time. "Why don't you treat me to a bowl of noodles? Then perhaps I could bear it."

Writer Liu hesitated, then gritted his teeth and agreed. "Okay."

Swallowing hard, Baldy Li went in for the kill. "I don't want a nine-cent bowl of unseasoned noodles. What I want is a thirty-five-cent bowl of house-special noodles — the kind with fish, meat, and shrimp flavors mixed together."

"Three-flavored house-special noodles?" Writer Liu bellowed. "You little bastard. Even I can't afford to have house-special noodles more than a few times a year. If I can't bear to buy them for myself, why would I be willing to buy you a bowl? Keep on dreaming, kid."

Baldy Li nodded earnestly. "Yeah, if you can't even bear to buy house-special noodles for yourself, how could you possibly treat me to some?"

"Damn right." Writer Liu was very pleased with Baldy Li's attitude. "So you'll have a bowl of plain noodles."

Baldy Li swallowed and said with an air of regret, "But for unseasoned noodles, I don't think I could bear to part with my secret."

Writer Liu gnashed his teeth in fury. He wanted nothing more than to smack Baldy Li in his face until it was a bloody pulp. But in the end he agreed to treat Baldy Li to a bowl of house-special noodles. He cursed again, adding, "Okay, here's your house-special noodles. Now give me all the details."

Blacksmith Tong also came to hear about Lin Hong's butt. After discovering that Baldy Li had glimpsed Tongs own wife's plump butt, Tong had given him a good thrashing. But Blacksmith Tong was also a "greener pastures" sort of guy, and each night as he went to bed with his plump wife in his arms, he closed his eyes and fantasized about Lin Hong's slender figure. Unlike Writer Liu, Tong went straight to the point. When he spotted Baldy Li in the street, he blocked the boy with his massive figure and peered down, saying, "Hey, kid, you remember me?"

Baldy Li looked up. "I'd recognize you even if you were a pile of ashes."

Blacksmith Tong glowered. "So you wish me dead, kid?"

"No, no, no," Baldy Li quickly answered, thinking that he had to avoid those big hammer fists at all costs. He pried his mouth wide open with his hands, showing Blacksmith Tong. "You see, you see? I'm short two teeth because of you."

Then Baldy Li pointed to his left ear. "It's like a beehive in there with all the buzzing."

Blacksmith Tong laughed and proclaimed for the benefit of the passersby "Well, since you're just a kid, I'll treat you to a bowl of noodles to make up for it."

Blacksmith Tong strutted toward the People's Restaurant, with Baldy Li closely following, hands behind his back. Baldy Li thought to himself that Chairman Mao was right when he said that there is no such thing as unmerited love or hatred. So if Blacksmith Tong suddenly wanted to treat him to a bowl of noodles, it must be because he wanted to find out about Lin Hong's butt. Baldy Li scurried forward and quietly asked him, "So you're treating me to a bowl of noodles to find out about buttocks. Right?"

Tong laughed and nodded. "You're a smart kid."

Baldy Li said, "But you already have some ass at home…"

"You know how men are," Tong confided. "They're always peering into the pot even when they're eating out of the bowl."

Tong walked into the People's Restaurant with the air of a big spender, but the moment he sat down he became a cheapskate and only bought Baldy Li a bowl of plain noodles. Baldy Li hmmphed to himself but didn't say anything. Once the bowl was on the table, he dove in with his chopsticks and slurped away until he was covered in sweat and his nose was running. Blacksmith Tong watched as Baldy Li's snot ran down to the edge of his lips and was sucked back up, again and again. After watching four rounds of this, Tong suddenly noticed that half the noodles had already disappeared, and he became impatient with Baldy Li's reticence. He said, "Hey, hey, don't just sit there and eat. Time to talk."

Baldy Li stopped slurping, wiped away his sweat, looked about, and then started to speak in a low voice. He described not Lin Hong's bottom but, instead, a plump one. When Baldy Li was done, Blacksmith Tong looked at him suspiciously. "How come that sounds a lot like my wife's?"

"It is your wife's butt," Baldy Li replied earnestly.

Blacksmith Tong flew into a rage and raised his hand, bellowing, "I'm going to whup you good, you little bastard!"

Baldy Li quickly leapt up to avoid Tongs huge palm. At that moment, everyone in the restaurant turned around to look at them, so Blacksmith Tong had to convert his whupping gesture into a wave. He pointed to Baldy Li and said, "Sit back down."

Baldy Li smiled and nodded at the other patrons in the restaurant, calculating that as long as they were paying attention, Blacksmith Tong wouldn't dare beat him. He sat down again across from Blacksmith Tong, who glowered at him. "So come on, hurry up with Lin Hongs…"

Baldy Li looked around and, seeing that everyone was still watching him, smiled in relief and continued in a low voice. "Every butt has its price. A bowl of plain noodles will buy you your own wife's butt, but Lin Hong's calls for a bowl of house-special noodles."

Blacksmith Tong was so furious that for a long time he couldn't even muster up a response. Seeing Baldy Li nonchalantly returning to his noodles, Blacksmith Tong snatched the bowl out of his hands and spat out, "I'll eat them myself."

Baldly Li turned around to look at the other patrons in the restaurant, who seemed perplexed by this transfer of noodles. Baldy Li smiled and explained, "It's like this: First he treated me to half a bowl of noodles, then I treated him back with the remaining half a bowl."

From that point on, Baldy Li's asking price was public knowledge: one bowl of house-special noodles for the secrets of Lin Hong's butt. In the six months while Baldy Li's ears were still ringing, he was treated to fifty-six bowls of house-special noodles, systematically eating his way into his fifteenth year and gradually transforming his skinny, sallow body into a ruddy, plump one. He thought that being able to eat so many house-special noodles was truly a case of bad luck begetting good. At that point, Baldy Li had no idea of the vast fortune he would subsequently amass and no inkling that he would ultimately grow bored with even the most extravagant feasts. Back then Baldy Li was still a poor lad and felt that having a bowl of house-special noodles was like taking a stroll in paradise — a stroll that he took fifty-six times during that half year.

Baldy Li's designs on a bowl of house-special noodles didn't always go smoothly, and sometimes he would attain it only after a certain amount of struggle. Countless people hoping to learn the secrets of Lin Hong's butt would try to get by with just plain noodles, but Baldy Li wouldn't fall for it and would patiently bargain until he got what he was after. As a result, each of these clients looked at him with new respect, remarking that this fifteen-year-old little bastard was sharper and drove a harder bargain than a fifty-year-old seasoned salesman.

Across from Blacksmith Tongs shop was a scissor sharpener's shop belonging to Old Scissors Guan and his son, Little Scissors Guan, who began learning his craft from his father when he was fourteen. Now in his twenties, Little Scissors Guan had neither wife nor girlfriend but had long admired Lin Hong; therefore he too wanted to learn the secrets of her bottom. He waved at Baldy Li and suggested that his good times were almost over, since Lin Hong would soon have a boyfriend, after which no one would have to treat Baldy Li to any more noodles. Therefore Baldy Li should take what he could and make do with the bowl of plain noodles, because soon he would be lucky to get even a bowl of broth.

Baldy Li was perplexed and asked, "Why is that?"

Little Scissors Guan explained: "Just think about it. Once Lin Hong has a boyfriend, certainly hell know more about her posterior than you. So everyone will go to him to find out about it, and then who'll pay any more attention to you?"

At first Baldy Li thought this made a lot of sense, but upon further reflection he noticed the fault in Little Scissors Guan s logic and asked with a chuckle, "But would Lin Hongs boyfriend tell you these details?"

Baldy Li then raised his head, closed his eyes, and said dreamily, "If one day I were to become her boyfriend, I certainly wouldn't tell anyone anything…"

He then turned to Little Scissors Guan and said shamelessly, "So you should seize the moment and treat me to a bowl of house-special noodles before I do become Lin Hong's boyfriend."

Though Baldy Li never yielded an inch on his asking price, he was a man of his word, so once he did get treated to a bowl, he never held back a single detail about the secrets of Lin Hong's butt. As a result, he enjoyed a steady stream of customers and almost more business than he could handle. There were even repeat customers, including one particularly forgetful person who came back three times.

When Baldy Li described the shape of Lin Hong's buttocks, his audience listened rapt with attention, their mouths hanging open, not even aware that they were drooling. But when he finished, they would look thoughtful and say, "It sounds a bit off."

Thanks to Baldy Li's detailed descriptions, these men understood that the Lin Hong they fantasized over every night was in fact a bit different from the actual person.

Poet Zhao also tracked down Baldy Li. One of the fifty-six bowls of house-special noodles that Baldy Li received was from Poet Zhao. As Baldy Li enthusiastically gulped it down, he remarked that this bowl of noodles, for some reason, was tastier than the others. Beaming with satisfaction, he patted his chest and said to Poet Zhao, "There's only one person in all of China who has eaten more house-special noodles than I."

Poet Zhao asked, "Who would that be?"

"Chairman Mao," answered Baldy Li solemnly. "Of course, our venerable Chairman Mao can eat whatever he wants. Besides him, there's no one who can match me."

Poet Zhao had often gone to peep at women's butts in the same latrine where he caught Baldy Li, but after a whole year of surveillance he hadn't caught a single glimpse of Lin Hong's. Baldy Li had merely been poaching on Zhao's turf, but he had managed to snag a prime butt his first time out. If Baldy Li hadn't beaten him to it that day, Zhao would have been the first person to glimpse Lin Hong's butt. Poet Zhao felt that Baldy Li must be truly blessed to have lucked out this way. That day Poet Zhao had been planning to peep, but when he nabbed Baldy Li, his face flushed with excitement, Zhao suddenly lost interest in butts and directed all his attention to Baldy Li.

Now Poet Zhao, not wanting to be left out of the loop, planned to learn the secret of Lin Hong's butt from Baldy Li. But Zhao wasn't even willing to treat him to a bowl of plain noodles, much less house-special noodles. Though Poet Zhao was the one who had paraded Baldy Li through the streets and wrecked his reputation, he had also single-handedly made Baldy Li the recipient of over fifty bowls of house-special noodles. Baldy Li's increasingly ruddy complexion was all thanks to him, so Zhao felt that Baldy Li should express his gratitude. Poet Zhao took out the provincial cultural center's magazine, with pictures of Li Bai and Du Fu on the cover, and flipped to the page containing his magnum opus. When Baldy Li reached out to take the magazine, Poet Zhao tensed up as if he were being mugged and immediately whacked Baldy Li's hand away. He wouldn't let Baldy Li handle his magazine, telling him that his hands were too dirty, and therefore Zhao insisted on holding it as Baldy Li read.

Instead of reading the poem, Baldy Li merely counted the characters and exclaimed, "So few? There are just four lines, with seven characters to a line — that makes only twenty-eight characters."

Poet Zhao was extremely annoyed and said, "There may be only twenty-eight characters, but each of them is a pearl!"

Baldy Li said he understood Poet Zhao's love for his own work. Speaking like an old-timer, he commented, "There are two things that one always prizes: ones own writing and someone else's wife."

Poet Zhao answered dismissively, "What would you know, at your age!"

Then Poet Zhao got to the point. He said that he was writing a story about a youth who was nabbed while peeping at women's bottoms in the public latrine, and he wanted Baldy Li's help with a few of the interior psychological descriptions. Baldy Li asked, "What sort of descriptions?"

Poet Zhao prompted, "What was your state of mind when you caught your first glimpse of a woman's bottom? For instance, when you saw Lin Hong's …?"

Baldy Li suddenly understood. "So that's what you're after, Lin Hong's butt? That'll be one bowl of house-special noodles."

"Rubbish," Poet Zhao answered indignantly. "Do I seem like that sort of person? Let me tell you, I'm not Writer Liu. I'm Poet Zhao! I've already dedicated myself to the altar of literature. I've already made a vow that until I publish in one of the nation's top literary journals, first, I won't look for a girlfriend; second, I won't get married; and third, I won't have children."

Baldy Li thought the logic of Poet Zhao's statement seemed a bit off and asked him to repeat his vow. Poet Zhao thought that his words had moved Baldy Li, so he repeated himself, emoting heavily. Baldy Li finally figured out the problem and remarked smugly, "Your reasoning makes no sense. If you don't find a girlfriend, how could you get married or have children? So really you just need the first vow, because the other two are redundant."

Poet Zhao was speechless. After opening his mouth several times, he finally spat out, "You have no understanding of literature. Just forget it, and tell me about your state of mind."

Baldy Li held up a finger. "One bowl of house-special noodles."

Poet Zhao couldn't believe anyone could be so shameless. After gritting his teeth for a while, he finally smiled and resumed his entreaties. "Think about it. You are the protagonist of my novel. Once my novel is published and becomes famous, won't you be famous, too?"

Poet Zhao saw that Baldy Li was listening earnestly, so he continued. "And won't you have me to thank for your future fame?"

Baldy Li cackled, "So you're going to make me a villain, but I should be grateful?"

Poet Zhao was taken aback. He thought to himself, This little Baldy Li is sharp. No wonder everyone says this fifteen-year-old bastard is a tougher nut to crack than some old farts. Zhao tried his best to continue smiling. "At the conclusion of the novel, the youth sees the error of his ways."

Baldy Li had zero interest in Poet Zhao's novel. He held up one finger and said firmly, "I don't care if it's my state of mind or Lin Hong's butt. My price is one bowl of house-special noodles."

"How hard it is to reason with a barbarian!" Poet Zhao looked up into the sky and heaved a great sigh. With panged reluctance he gave in. "It's a deal."

Poet Zhao and Baldy Li arrived at the People's Restaurant. As Baldy Li slurped away at the noodles Poet Zhao was paying for, he started to describe what he had been thinking when he saw the women's butts, recalling how he had trembled all over. Poet Zhao asked, "You mean your body was trembling, or your heart?"

"Oh, my heart was trembling, too."

Poet Zhao thought that this was a marvelous description and hurried to write it down in his notebook. Baldy Li, wiping away the sweat and snot generated from eating the noodles, paused awhile, then continued. "Then I stopped trembling."

Poet Zhao didn't understand. "What do you mean, you stopped trembling?"

"I just stopped, that's all," Baldy Li explained. "Once I saw Lin Hong's butt, I was completely mesmerized. I couldn't see or feel anything— only her butt and the desire to see it more clearly. I couldn't hear anything around me. Otherwise how could I have not heard you come in?"

"You have a point there." Poet Zhao's eyes glistened. "When silence trumps sound, that's really the pinnacle of art!"

As Baldy Li continued, describing Lin Hong's taut skin and the slight protrusion of her tailbone, Poet Zhao's breathing thickened. Baldy Li described how he'd tried to lower his body just a little more to be able to see Lin Hong's pubic area. Poet Zhao's face filled with tension, as if he, like the policemen at the station before him, were waiting breathlessly for the climax of a ghost story. Suddenly he noticed that Baldy Li's lips had stopped moving. He asked anxiously, "And then?"

"And then nothing," Baldy Li answered angrily.

"Why nothing?" Poet Zhao was still lost in the reverie of Baldy Li's words.

Baldy Li banged the table and said, "Because at this critical juncture, you, you fucking pulled me up!"

Poet Zhao shook his head again and again. "If only I had gone in ten minutes later."

"Ten minutes?" Baldy Li grumbled. "If you had arrived ten seconds later, even that would have been enough, you bastard."

CHAPTER 3

BALDY LI'S real name was Li Guang. In order to reduce haircutting expenses, his mother always told the barber to shave him bald. Even after his hair grew out like a wild bush, the nickname stuck. When Baldy Li grew up, he reasoned that since everyone would always know him as Baldy, he would shave his head to live up to his nickname. Back then Baldy Li was not yet Liu Town s premier tycoon but, rather, one of its poorer citizens, and he discovered that maintaining a bona fide bald head was no simple matter — it actually cost twice as much as growing his hair out. He bragged about how it cost a lot to be a bona fide poor person! His brother, Song Gang, got his hair cut only once a month, but Baldy Li had to go at least twice a month to have the barber run his bright, shiny blade again and again over his pate, as if he were shaving someone's face. Only when his head was as smooth as a piece of silk and shinier than the blade itself, and only then did he live up to the name Baldy Li.

Baldy Li's mother, Li Lan, passed away when he was fifteen. He said she was afraid of losing face, while he and his father were shameless bastards who couldn't care less. Raising a single finger, Baldy Li would say that, while there might be a handful of women in the world whose husbands were murderers and whose sons turned out to be murderers as well, there was probably only one woman who had the misfortune of having both husband and son caught spying on women's butts in the public latrine — and that would be his mother.

In those days countless men spied in the public latrine, but nothing ever happened to them. When Baldy Li tried it, however, he was caught and paraded down the street; and when Baldy Li's father did it, he fell into the cesspool and drowned. Baldy Li felt that his father must have had the most boneheaded bad luck imaginable to have kicked the bucket for a glimpse of ass. Even if someone were to, as the proverb has it, pick up a sesame seed only to lose a watermelon, he would still get a better deal than Baldy Li's father had. Meanwhile, Baldy Li felt that he himself was the second-unluckiest person in the world. But at least he didn't lose his life in the process, and furthermore, he had

managed to turn a profit with those fifty-six bowls of house-special noodles. As they say, as long as you own the mountain, there's no need to worry about firewood. Baldy Li's mother, however, had neither a mountain nor firewood, and in the end all the fathers and sons bad luck fell on her innocent shoulders, making her truly the worlds unluckiest woman.

Baldy Li didn't know how many butts his father saw that time, but according to his own experience, he figured that his father must have crouched down too low. He must have wanted to see the women's pubic hair and therefore lowered his body farther and farther down, until his legs were almost suspended in midair while the entire weight of his body rested on his hands. His hands would have tightly gripped the wooden slats, over which untold numbers of butts had once squatted, polishing them smooth and slick. This unlucky man may very well have glimpsed the pubic hair that he had dreamed about, his eyes bugging out like birds’ eggs. The nauseating stench of the cesspool would have made his eyes tear up and become unbearably itchy, but at that moment he certainly wouldn't have dared to blink. Excitement and trepidation would have made his hands slick with sweat, and that sweat would have made the boards he was grasping even more slippery.

Just at that moment, a man more than six feet tall had rushed into the toilet, frantically unbuttoning his pants with one hand. All he saw when he entered were two legs sticking straight up in the air, making him scream as if he had seen a ghost. This scream scared the living daylights out of Baldy Li's father, making him lose his grip and fall headfirst into the thick, viscous goo below. In seconds, the excrement filled his mouth and nose and then his lungs, and that was how Baldy Li's father drowned.

The man who let out the cry was Song Gang's father, Song Fanping, who later became Baldy Li's stepfather. As Baldy Li's birth father fell into the cesspool, his future stepfather watched in shock. It appeared to Song Fanping that the pair of legs had disappeared in the blink of an eye. Beads of cold sweat covered his forehead as he contemplated the possibility that he might have seen a ghost in broad daylight. At that moment, a shriek was heard from the women's side of the toilet: Baldy Li's father had hit the cesspool like a cannonball, and now the women's backsides were all covered in shit. They jumped up, startled, and when they looked down, they saw that there was a man lying in the cesspool below.

Utter chaos ensued. The women cried out repeatedly, like summer cicadas, attracting a curious crowd. One of the women ran out of the toilet without remembering to pull her pants up, but when she saw the men in the crowd staring at her lecherously, she let out another scream and ran back in. The women with their backsides covered in shit discovered that they didn't have enough toilet paper to clean themselves off and started begging the crowd to gather some leaves for them. Three men immediately climbed up a wutong tree and collected at least half of its broad leaves, then asked a young woman to take them inside.

In the men's section, at the other end, crowds of men stood around engaged in animated discussion. They peered down through the eleven toilet holes at Baldy Li's father, debating whether he was dead or alive and how to retrieve him. Someone suggested using a bamboo pole, but someone else pointed out that while bamboo might suffice for lifting a chicken, for a grown man they would need a metal rod. The question was where they would find a rod long enough.

At that moment, as everyone was standing around chattering, Baldy Li's future stepfather, Song Fanping, walked up to the cesspool opening where the sanitation workers siphon off the waste and proceeded to jump right in. Is this why Li Lan would come to love this man so deeply? Buried in human waste up to his chest, he held up his arms and slowly dragged himself through the muck. Maggots crawled up to his neck and face, but he still moved forward with his arms over his head. Only when the maggots climbed up to his mouth, eyes, nose, and ears did he reach down to sweep them off.

Song Fanping moved through the cesspool, picked up Baldy Li's father, and slowly made his way back out again. He lifted Baldy Li's father out of the pit and then climbed out himself.

The crowds around the latrine quickly moved away. When they saw Baldy Li's father and Song Fanping, both covered in shit and maggots, they felt their skin prickle with revulsion. They held their noses and covered their mouths, complaining incessantly. After Song Fanping climbed out, he squatted near Baldy Li's father's body and held his finger under the man's nose, then felt his chest. Eventually he stood up and announced to the crowd, "He's dead."

At that point, the tall and muscular Song Fanping hoisted Baldy Li's father onto his back and walked away. The sight of the two of them caused an even greater commotion than Baldy Li's parade would years later: a live man walking down the street with a dead man, both of them completely covered in excrement, with filth sloughing off them, leaving behind a stream of stench extending several blocks. About two thousand people came to watch the spectacle; of these, a hundred or so yelled that their shoes had been stepped on, a dozen women shrieked that they were being felt up, and a few men cursed that their cigarettes had been picked from their pockets. It was through this sea of humanity that Baldy Li's once and future fathers both arrived at his doorstep.

Baldy Li at this point was still in his mothers belly. She had heard the tragic news and was standing in the doorway with her huge belly, supporting herself by leaning against the door frame. She saw her husband being lowered from a mans back and placed, motionless, on the ground. Her dead husband looked like a stranger lying there. To those who saw her, Li Lan s eyes appeared utterly vacant. This sudden blow left her dazed, and she seemed not to grasp what she was seeing or even understand where she was.

After placing Baldy Li's father down, Song Fanping proceeded to the well, where he lifted pail after pail of water to rinse himself. It was May, and the icy well water ran down his neck onto his clothes, making him shudder uncontrollably. After he finished rinsing himself off, he turned to take a look at Li Lan, whose blank gaze convinced him to stay a little longer. He used the well water to rinse off Baldy Li's father, turning the body over several times, then stood up and looked at Li Lan, whose wooden expression made him shake his head. Song Fanping lifted Baldy Li's father and walked to the door, but Li Lan still stood there motionless, so he had to carry the corpse in sideways.

Song Fanping saw that the pillowcases, bedspread, and blankets in the inner room were all embroidered with a big red Double Happiness character, indicating newlyweds. He hesitated for a moment, but in the end he didn't place Baldy Li's father's wet corpse on the ground but, rather, on the newlyweds’ bed. When he turned to leave, Li Lan was still standing motionless and leaning against the door frame. Song Fanping saw the people outside, all looking as if they were watching a show, and in a low voice he urged Li Lan to come inside and close the door. She acted as if she hadn't heard him. Eventually Song Fanping had no choice but to walk out, dripping wet, into the crowd. When the people saw him coming toward them, they immediately opened up a path, as if he were still covered in shit. In the resulting commotion, it seemed that there were more people who lost their shoes and more women's butts that got felt up. The icy well water made Song Fanping sneeze repeatedly as he walked out of the narrow alley and into the street. The crowds returned, continuing to watch the pitiful Li Lan.

Li Lan slowly slid down the door frame, her wooden expression suddenly transforming into one of anguish. She lay on the floor, legs spread and fingers digging into the ground. Beads of sweat covered her forehead, and her eyes opened wide to take in the crowds of people around her. Someone noticed that there was blood coming from between her legs and screamed, "Look, look, she's bleeding!"

A woman who had had a child recognized what was happening and shouted, "She's giving birth!"

CHAPTER 4

BALDY LI'S birth marked the beginning of Li Lan s migraines. For as long as Baldy Li could remember, his mother wore a scarf wrapped around her head, like a peasant woman in the fields. The dull, steady ache and the sudden onslaughts of sharp pain caused her to weep all year long. She often rapped her head with her knuckles, and her knocks grew ever crisper and louder, like the steady drum of a temple clanger.

After losing her husband, Baldy Li's mother then lost her mind. But as she gradually recovered she felt no pain or fury, just shame. Baldy Li's grandmother came from the countryside to help take care of them. During Li Lan s three-month maternity leave from the silk factory, she never once left the house. She didn't even want to stand near the window for fear of being seen by someone. After the third month, Li Lan finally had to return to work. Trembling all over, her face pale, she opened the front door and stepped out as if she were about to jump into a vat of boiling oil. But she had no choice and so timidly walked into the street, her lead lowered to her chest. While hugging the sides of the buildings as closely as she could, she felt that the stares of people on the street were like needles stabbing her all over her body. An acquaintance called out her name, and she reacted as if she had been shot, nearly falling to the ground. Heaven knows how she managed to walk into the silk factory. How she managed to work the silk shearing machines all day. And how she managed to walk down the street to return home. From that point on she became mute, and even in her sealed-off house she scarcely spoke, even with her own mother and son.

The infant Baldy Li also became the object of the town's derision, and whenever his grandmother carried him outside, people would point and stare at him and say horrible things. They said that Baldy Li belonged to that man who drowned in the latrine while peeping at women's butts. Their comments were completely illogical, seeming to implicate the baby in the episode. They would say that this little rascal was just like his father, often dropping the "just like" and saying instead that the two of them were actually identical. This made Baldy Li's grandmother turn both pale and livid and left her unwilling to take him out again. Occasionally she would carry him to the window to let him get a bit of sunlight, but if anyone passed by outside, she would quickly move away. As a result, Baldy Li's once cherubic face became gaunt and sallow from spending day after day in a dark room.

After her husband died so shamefully, Li Lan never again lifted her head to look at anyone and never cried out — the head-splitting pain of her migraines audible only through the anguished grinding of her teeth and her soft groans as she slept. Whenever she held her son in her arms and saw his pale face and thin limbs, she would weep abjectly. Even so, she lacked the courage to walk outside with him during the daytime.

After more than a year, Li Lan finally took Baldy Li outside on a clear moonlit night. Her lowered head tight against her son's face, she walked quickly along the sides of the buildings. Only after having made sure that there were no other footsteps did she slow down and lift her head to look at the clear moon in the sky, enjoying the cool night breeze. She liked standing on the deserted bridge, gazing into the water and the steady waves of moonlight reflected on its surface. When she lifted her head, she saw that the trees by the river were still, as if they were asleep, their tips painted with moonlight and swaying slightly like the water. There were also the fireflies leaping and darting in the dark night, like an undulating melody.

Li Lan held her son on her right side and with her left hand pointed out the water under the bridge, the trees by the river, the moon in the sky, the dancing fireflies, explaining to him, "This is a river, this is a tree, this is the moon, these are fireflies…"

Then she sighed contentedly. "The night is so beautiful."

From that point on, sunlight-deprived Baldy Li would bathe in the moon's rays every night, wandering the streets while all the other children in town were sound asleep. Late one night, without realizing it, Li Lan walked until they reached the edge of town, to the south gate, where the fields under the moonlight seemed to extend forever. She let out a soft gasp. Now that she had become familiar with the peaceful silence of the houses and streets in moonlight, she was caught by surprise at the majestic beauty of the wide open fields under the same moonlight. In her arms Baldy Li also became excited, reached his arms toward the wide expanse of field, and uttered a mouselike eek.

Many years later, when Baldy Li would become Liu Towns premier tycoon and decide to take a tour of outer space, he would close his eyes and imagine himself high in orbit peering down at the earth below, whereupon this impression from his infancy would miraculously return. When he imagined the beauty and majesty of Earth, it was the same as the sight of the endless fields under the moonlight, the time his mother first took him down to the south gate. The infant Baldy Li's gaze passed over the scene like a Russian space shuttle.

So it was under the cool, bright moonlight that Baldy Li learned from his mother what a street was, what a house was, what a sky was, and what a field was. Baldy Li was not yet two, and he gazed out with wonder at this cool, bright world.

Once when Li Lan was walking in the moonlight with him, she ran into Song Fanping. As Li Lan walked with her son in her arms along the deserted street, she saw a family chatting and walking in the other direction. This was Song Fanpings family, and the tall Song Fanping was leading his son, Song Gang, who was a year older than Baldy Li. His wife was holding a basket in her hand, and their voices rang clearly through the quiet night sky. Upon hearing Song Fanpings voice, Li Lan suddenly lifted her head, recognizing instantly who this tall man was — he was the man who had carried her husband back to her, all the while covered in filth. At the time Li Lan had merely leaned dazedly against the door frame, but she had always remembered the sound of the man's voice and how he used the well water to rinse down not only himself but also her dead husband. So now she lifted her head, her eyes perhaps flashing when she saw him. Then, when she saw him pause and say something to his wife in a low voice, Li Lan lowered her head again and scurried away.

Li Lan ran into Song Fanping twice during those late-night strolls with Baldy Li. Once he was with his entire family, and the other time he was alone. The second time Song Fanping suddenly used his large figure to block the mother and son's path. His big, rough hands touched the child's upturned face, and he said to Li Lan, "This child is too thin. You should let him get more sunlight, since there are vitamins in sunlight."

Poor Li Lan didn't even dare to lift her head to look at him. She trembled as she held Baldy Li, and Baldy Li was jostled in her arms as if by an earthquake. Song Fanping smiled and walked away, brushing past them. This particular night Li Lan didn't linger to enjoy the moonlight, instead hurrying home with Baldy Li. The grinding noise from her teeth sounded different than usual, because perhaps this time it didn't come from her migraines.

When Baldy Li was three, his grandmother left her daughter and grandson and returned to her hometown. By this point, Baldy Li had learned to walk but was still very thin, even thinner than he had been as a baby. Li Lan s migraines had their good and bad days, but she had developed a slight stoop from walking around with a perpetually bowed head. After his grandmother left, Baldy Li started having the opportunity to walk in broad daylight. When Li Lan went to the market, she would take him along. She walked quickly with her head lowered, and Baldy Li would stumble along behind her, holding on to the hem of her clothes. By that time no one pointed them out anymore — in fact, no one even looked at them — yet Li Lan still felt the public s gaze like daggers in her back.

Every other month Baldy Li's frail mother went to the rice store to buy forty jin of rice. These would be Baldy Li's happiest times, because when she hoisted the forty-jin sack of rice on her back, he no longer needed to hurry and stumble after her. She panted as she walked with her sack of rice — by that point even her breath began to sound like the grinding of her teeth. She would walk and pause, walk and pause, and Baldy Li would have time to take a look around.

One autumn day around noon, the tall Song Fanping walked up to them, and just as Li Lan lowered the sack down to wipe the sweat from her face, she saw a strong hand suddenly lift the sack of rice from the ground. Startled, she looked up to see this man smiling at her, and saying, "Let me carry this home for you."

Song Fanping carried the forty-jin sack as easily as if he were carrying an empty basket. With his left hand he scooped up Baldy Li and hoisted him onto his shoulders, telling the boy to hold on to his forehead. Baldy Li had never seen the world from this height. He was always lifting his head to look up — this was the first time he had ever been able to look down at the passersby in the street. He couldn't stop giggling as he sat on Song Fanping's shoulders.

This well-built man carried Li Lan's rice sack with her son on his shoulders and spoke in a ringing voice as they walked down the street. Li Lan walked alongside him, her head lowered, pale and drenched in cold sweat. She felt that everyone was laughing and staring at her, and she wished she could simply disappear into a crack in the ground. Song Fanping asked questions as they walked, but Li Lan would merely nod or shake her head, her teeth still making that grinding sound.

They finally arrived at her front door. Song Fanping placed Baldy Li on the ground and emptied the cloth sack into the rice barrel. He glanced at the bed, made up with the same coverlet and sheets that he had seen three years earlier. The Double Happiness character on them had faded, its embroidery frayed. As he was about to leave, the man told Li Lan his name was Song Fanping and he was a teacher at the middle school, adding that if they ever needed help with anything, she should let him know. After he left, Li Lan let her son play outside by himself for the first time and locked herself in her room, doing who knows what. She didn't open the door again until after dark, by which time Baldy Li had fallen asleep leaning against the door.

Baldy Li remembered how, when he was five, Song Fanpings wife died of an illness. After Li Lan heard the news, she stood at the window for a long time, her teeth chattering, until the sun had set and the moon had risen. Then she took her son by the hand, and together they walked silently under the night moon to Song Fanpings house. Li Lan didn't dare enter his home; instead she stood behind a tree watching as people sat and walked around under the dim light inside. A coffin sat in the middle of the room. Baldy Li held on to the hem of his mother's clothes and listened to her chattering teeth. When he lifted his head to look at the moon and stars, he saw that his mother was crying and wiping away her tears with her hand. He asked her, "Mama, are you crying?"

Li Lan nodded and told her son that someone in their savior's family had died. Li Lan stood there a little longer, then took Baldy Li by the hand again and walked silently home.

When Li Lan came home from the silk factory the next evening, she sat at the table making paper coins. She made a great pile of paper coins and paper ingots, stringing them onto two strands of white thread. Baldy Li sat by and watched with great interest as his mother first cut the paper into squares and then folded the paper ingots one by one. She wrote GOLD on some of them and SILVER on the others. She took a "gold" ingot and explained to Baldy Li that at one time this would have been enough to buy a mansion. Baldy Li pointed at a "silver" ingot and asked her what you could buy with this. Li Lan replied that you could also buy a mansion, but perhaps a smaller one. Baldy Li looked out at the "gold" and "silver" ingots piled up on the table and calculated how many mansions you could buy with all of them. Having just learned his numbers, he counted the ingots one by one; but he knew how to count to only ten, so every time he reached ten, he would have to go back to one again. As the pile of ingots on the table grew he worked up a headful of sweat but still couldn't come up with a total. Nevertheless, he continued struggling until his counting even brought a smile to his mothers face.

Once Li Lan had a huge pile of paper ingots, she started making paper coins. First she cut circles out of the paper, then cut little holes out of the centers. Finally, she carefully drew lines on the paper circles and wrote a line of characters on each. Baldy Li felt that making a paper coin was much harder than making a paper ingot, so he wondered how many houses you could buy with a paper coin? Could you buy an entire row of houses? His mother dangled a long string threaded with paper coins and said, "You could probably buy only a piece of clothing with this." Baldy Li fretted over this until he had worked up another headful of sweat trying to figure out how clothing could cost more than a mansion. Li Lan explained that even ten strands of coins would not come close to equaling one ingot. Hearing this, Baldy Li was confounded yet again. If ten strands of coins couldn't equal one ingot, then why was his mother going to such efforts to make coins? Li Lan said that this money was not to be spent in this world but, rather, in the next; it was travel money for the deceased. Baldy Li shuddered at the word deceased, and shuddered again when he glanced at the darkness outside. He asked his mother which dead person this money was for. Li Lan put down what she was working on and replied, "It's for our savior's family."

On the day Song Fanping's wife was to be buried, Li Lan placed the strands of paper money and ingots into a basket. Then, holding the basket in one hand and Baldy Li's hand in the other, she stood waiting on the street. That morning was the first time Baldy Li could remember his mother lifting her head in public. As she stood there waiting for the funeral procession, some of her acquaintances passed by and peered into her basket. One of them even lifted out the strands of ingots and coins and complimented her on her craftsmanship, then asked, "Did someone else in your family die?"

Li Lan bowed her head and softly answered, "No, not in my family…"

There were only a dozen or so mourners in the funeral procession. The coffin had been placed on a cart, which creaked and rattled over the cobblestone road. Baldy Li observed that the dozen or so men and women in the procession all had white cloths tied around their heads and waists, and they wept as they walked by. The only person he recognized was Song Fanping, from whose shoulders he had once looked down at the whole world.

Song Fanping walked alongside Song Gang. As they walked past the Lis they paused, and Song Fanping turned to nod to Li Lan. Song Gang imitated his father and nodded to Baldy Li. Li Lan then took Baldy Li by the hand and followed along at the end of the funeral procession, which marched slowly down the stone paved roads out of Liu Town and onto the dirt road in the countryside.

Baldy Li and his mother followed those weeping people for a very long time, until they eventually arrived at an open grave. As the coffin was lowered into the ground the soft weeping became loud wails. Li Lan stood with her basket and Baldy Li to one side and watched while the mourners shoveled the dirt into the grave until it became a mound. The wailing once again became soft weeping, whereupon Song Fanping turned around, came toward Li Lan and Baldy Li, and gazed at Li Lan through tear-filled eyes as he took the basket from her hands. He then returned to the grave and placed the paper ingots and coins on top of the fresh grave and lit them with a match. Once the paper money started burning brightly, the weeping broke out again. Baldy Li saw that his mother was also weeping, as though her heart were broken, as she remembered her own misfortunes.

Then they all walked a very long way until they finally got back to town. Li Lan was still carrying her basket and holding her sons hand, following behind everyone. Song Fanping, up front, repeatedly turned around to look at the mother and son. When they neared Li Lan s alley, Song Fanping paused and waited for Li Lan and Baldy Li to walk up. He spoke to Li Lan in a low voice, inviting them to come to his house for a tofu meal in memory of the deceased. This was a custom of the town.

Li Lan shook her head hesitantly, then walked with Baldy Li down their alley and into their home. After having walked for almost the whole day, Baldy Li fell asleep the moment his head hit the pillow. Li Lan sat alone, staring out the window. At dusk someone knocked at the door. Waking from her reverie, Li Lan went to open the door and found Song Fanping standing outside.

His sudden appearance startled Li Lan. She didn't notice the basket in his hand, and even forgot to ask him to come in. Out of habit, she lowered her head. When Song Fanping took food out of the basket and handed it to her, she saw that he had brought them the tofu meal. She timidly accepted the dishes that Song Fanping placed in her hands and deftly poured the food into her own bowls. She quickly rinsed out the dishes, but when she returned them to Song Fanping, her hands began to shake again. Song Fanping put his plates in his basket and turned to leave, and once again Li Lan bowed her head. Only when Song Fan-pings footsteps could no longer be heard did she realize that she hadn't even asked him in. By the time she lifted her head, Song Fanping had disappeared from sight.

CHAPTER 5

BALDY LI didn't really know how Song Gangs father got together with his mother. By the time he learned that this man's name was Song Fanping, he was about seven.

One summer evening, Li Lan led Baldy Li to the barbershop, where he was shaved to the proper degree of baldness. Then she took him to the basketball court across from the movie theater. This was the only lighted court in Liu Town, and everyone called it the Light Court. That evening, Liu Town was playing a neighboring town, and more than a thousand men and women shuffled in in their slippers to form concentric circles around the court, looking like mounds of dirt around a giant ditch. The men were smoking, and the women were cracking watermelon seeds. The nearby trees were full of screaming children, while foul-mouthed men crowded the wall behind. There wasn't a spare spot along the entire wall as the people below struggled to climb up and the people on top kept kicking them back down.

It was here that the two boys spoke to each other for the first time. Song Gang was wearing a white sleeveless shirt and blue shorts, had a runny nose, and was holding on to Li Lan s clothes. Li Lan caressed the top of his head, his face, and his slender neck, looking as though she wanted to eat him up. Then she pulled the two kids together and chattered on and on, but it was so noisy the boys couldn't make out a thing she was saying. Watermelon seeds and cigarette smoke were flying everywhere, and a fight had broken out over by the wall, where one of the tree branches had snapped and dumped two kids to the ground. Li Lan was still chattering at them, and finally they were able to make out what she was saying.

Li Lan pointed at Song Gang and said to Baldy Li, "This is your older brother. His name is Song Gang."

Baldy Li nodded to the boy and repeated, "Song Gang."

Li Lan then pointed at Baldy Li and said to Song Gang, "This is your younger brother. His name is Baldy Li."

When Song Gang heard Baldy Li's nickname, he broke out into peals of laughter as he stared at the younger boys shiny bald head. "Your name is Baldy Li? That's hilarious!"

But suddenly Song Gang started to bawl as a man burned his arm with his cigarette. When Baldy Li saw Song Gang bawling, he was amused and almost laughed out loud, until another mans cigarette burned him on the neck and he started bawling as well.

At that point the game began. Under the brilliant lights of the court and amid the cyclones of sound, Song Fanping shone. Li Lan was astounded by his height, strength, jumps, and skills. She yelled until she was hoarse and her eyes were bloodshot. Every time Song Fanping made a basket, he would run past them, his arms extended as if he were flying. Once he even dunked the ball. In his entire life he managed to dunk only once, and this was that time. For the thousand spectators crowded around the court, this was also the first and only time they witnessed a dunk. The deafening roar suddenly died away, and people stood slack-jawed, looking at one another as if trying to confirm what they had just witnessed. Then the waves of human voices roared back all around the court. It hadn't been this loud even back when the Japanese invaded.

Stunned by his own dunk, Song Fanping stood frozen for a moment under the net. After he realized what he had accomplished, he ran toward Li Lan and the kids, flushed and wide-eyed. He spread his arms and lifted Song Gang and Baldy Li high into the sky, then he ran with them toward the basket and would have joyfully tossed them in if they hadn't been crying so loudly. Fortunately, he eventually recalled that they weren't basketballs and, chuckling, ran back and set them down. Still lost in the moment, he then lifted Li Lan. In front of a thousand people, he lifted her up as waves of laughter washed over them. Every variety of laugh could be heard: bellows, titters, shrieks, chuckles, guffaws, cackles, dry and wet laughs.

In those days, to see a man embracing a woman was tantamount to watching an adult film today. After Song Fanping put Li Lan down, he ran with arms extended back into the game. Now that she had starred in her adult film, Li Lan was perceived in a completely different light, and for the rest of the game half the spectators watched the match while the other half stared at her curiously. They recalled the man who had died while peeping at women's naked bottoms, and they pointed out that she had been his wife. Li Lan, meanwhile, was lost in her own happiness. Tears in her eyes, lips trembling, she no longer cared what anyone else said.

After the game, Song Fanping removed his sweat-soaked jersey and Li Lan held it up to her breast, as if it were something precious. The four of them then walked over to a soda shop. By the time they were seated, the sweat from Song Fanping's jersey had soaked through Li Lan's white blouse, but she was blissfully unaware that her breasts were now completely visible. Song Fanping ordered two bowls of mung bean ice and two bottles of soda. Baldy Li and Song Gang both dug in. Song Fanping opened the cold bottles of soda and passed one to Li Lan as he gulped down the other. Li Lan didn't drink hers but instead pushed it back to Song Fanping, who paused for a second, then picked it up and gulped it down, too. The two of them sat gazing at each other, no longer paying any attention to their children. Song Fanping couldn't help staring at Li Lan's breasts, and she kept looking at his bare chest — his wide shoulders and cut muscles making her blush.

Baldy Li and Song Gang didn't pay attention to them either. This was the first summer the two kids had enjoyed this sort of icy treat. Previously, the chilliest thing they had tasted was a bowlful of well water, but now they were eating an icy mung bean treat, with sugar sprinkled on top like snowflakes. They lifted their bowls, and the mere chill of the bowls was more pleasurable than drinking well water. With the sugar on top dissolving like melting snow, each spoonful was sheer ecstasy. After the first few bites, their mouths became revved-up engines that couldn't be shut down. They slurped mouthful after mouthful of the ice-cold treat, freezing their tongues and lips. They would pause and let their mouths open as if they had been scalded, and then would start up again, rolling the icy mung beans around on the tips of their tongues. Eventually they finished their bowls and licked them clean, then continued licking, savoring the lingering chill of the bowl. They licked until their bowls were warmer than their tongues, and only then did they reluctantly put them down. They raised their heads, looked at Song Fanping and Li Lan, and asked, "Could we come back again tomorrow?"

Song Fanping and Li Lan answered in unison, "Sure!"

CHAPTER 6

BALDY LI and Song Gang didn't realize that their parents were getting married in a few days. Li Lan bought two pounds of hard candy from Shanghai, roasted a big pot of fava nuts and another of watermelon seeds, and then poured everything into a barrel and mixed it together. When she was done, she gave a handful of the mixture to Baldy Li, who spread it out on the table and counted: only 12 fava nuts, 18 watermelon seeds, and 2 pieces of hard candy.

On the day of the wedding, Li Lan got up before dawn. She put on her new blouse, her new pants, and a pair of shiny new plastic sandals. She sat on the edge of the bed and watched the darkness outside her window dissipate as the rosy dawn light shone in. Her teeth were chattering. This time, though, it wasn't because of a migraine but, rather, because she was breathless and flushed at the prospect of another wedding. Li Lan hated the darkness with all her heart, and as the dawn arrived, she became more and more worked up, making her teeth chatter louder and louder and waking Baldy Li from his dreams three times. The third time he woke up, Li Lan didn't let him go back to sleep but told him to hurry up and get out of bed, brush his teeth, wash his face, and put on his new shirt, shorts, and plastic sandals. As she knelt in front of Baldy Li to fasten his sandals she heard the rumbling of a cart outside her door. She leapt up and dove to open the door and found Song Fanping, who was pulling the cart, standing there beaming, and Song Gang, who was seated on top, laughing and calling out, "Baldy Li!"

Song Gang chuckled and said to his father, "That name is hilarious."

Li Lan s neighbors gathered around them. They watched with surprise as Song Fanping and Li Lan loaded the cart with assorted housewares. Among the neighbors were three middle-school students. One, Sun Wei, had a headful of long hair, while the other two were Liu Town's future Men of Talent, though back then they were only a couple of students named Success Liu and Victory Zhao. After becoming Writer Liu and Poet Zhao, they would parade the Peeping Tom Baldy Li through the streets of Liu. These three students crowded curiously around the cart. They nudged one another, chuckling, and leered at Li Lan, saying, "Are you getting married again?"

Li Lan, blushing bright red, went over to her neighbors and started passing out handfuls of fava nuts, watermelon seeds, and hard candy. Song Fanping also left the cart and followed behind Li Lan, handing out cigarettes to the men in the neighborhood. The neighbors munched on nuts, seeds, and candy and laughed as they watched Song Fanping and Li Lan load her possessions onto the cart.

Then they started pulling the cart along the summer streets. This was a cobblestone street, and when the wheels of the cart rolled over them, the stones would shift and the wooden electrical poles would creak. The cart was full to the brim with clothes and blankets from Li Lan's house, as well as tables and chairs, washbasins, pots and knives, and spoons and chopsticks. Baldy Li's mother and Song Gangs father walked in front, and the tagalong children followed behind.

Li Lan grabbed two handfuls of nuts, seeds, and candy and stuffed them into Baldy Li's and Song Gang's hands. The boys followed behind with their hands full of treats. Their mouths were watering in anticipation, but since they didn't have a third hand to open the candy wrappers and crack the seeds, their mouths remained empty.

A few hens and roosters trailed the two boys. Clucking as they fought over the nuts and seeds that slipped through fingers, they passed through the boys’ legs and flapped their wings, trying to reach the treats. As the boys tried to avoid them, they dropped more and more of the nuts and seeds in the process.

Song Fanping pulled the cart and Li Lan held the wooden barrel and walked along the increasingly crowded streets. The two of them were beaming. Many people who knew them stopped in their tracks and looked curiously at this couple and the two boys trailed by chickens. They pointed and asked, "What is this?"

Periodically, Song Fanping would put down his cart and hand out cigarettes to the men, while Li Lan distributed handfuls of nuts and candy to the women and children. Flushed and beaming, they explained in tremulous voices that they were getting married, to which everyone nodded and said, "Ohhh." They looked at Song Fanping and Li Lan, then at Song Gang and Baldy Li, and chuckled: "Getting married. Ohhh, getting married…"

Song Fanping and Li Lan walked along, smiling and telling the passersby about their wedding as everyone along the street smoked their auspicious wedding cigarettes, chewed their auspicious candy gnawed on their auspicious nuts, and cracked their auspicious melon seeds. But Baldy Li and Song Gang didn't even get an auspicious fart, so busy were they protecting the treats in their hands while being chased by the chickens. Their mouths watered as they watched everyone else eat, but they could do nothing but gulp down their own drool.

All along the street, people pointed at Baldy Li and Song Gang, debating which of the kids would be considered the proverbial excess baggage in the new family. After much discussion, they eventually concluded, "Both of them are excess baggage."

Then they said to Song Fanping and Li Lan, "You two make a real good match."

Finally, the newly melded family arrived at Song Fanpings house, and with that the wedding parade reached its destination. Song Fanping moved the stuff on the cart into the house while Li Lan stood at the door with her wooden barrel, passing out handfuls of treats to the neighbors. Not much was left in the barrel, and Li Lan s handfuls became progressively smaller.

Baldy Li and Song Gang both rushed inside and dumped all the treats in their hands onto the bed. The fava nuts and melon seeds were all soggy with sweat, but the boys were so famished that they immediately stuffed their mouths full of nuts, seeds, and candy until their cheeks were round like buttocks. Finally, unable to move a muscle, they discovered that they couldn't eat another bite. From the living room, Song Fanping called out for the boys. A crowd had gathered outside, and now that they had examined the second-time-around newly-weds, they wanted to examine the two sons.

Baldy Li and Song Gang rushed outside, their mouths stuffed so full that their eyes squinted and their cheeks puffed out, making everyone burst out laughing. "What treasures do you have in there?"

The boys first shook and then nodded their heads, but they couldn't utter a word. One man said, "Don't think that just because their mouths are as full as balloons they won't be able to stuff more in."

The man walked into Song Fanpings house and rummaged around until he found two white porcelain teacup lids. Then he made Baldy Li and Song Gang latch onto the nibs on their lids as if they were nipples. The kids did indeed manage to latch on, prompting everyone to burst out laughing again. They laughed until their bodies shook, producing tears, snot, saliva, and even an occasional fart, remarking on how it looked like the boys were latching onto Li Lan s nipples. Li Lan blushed furiously as she turned to look at her new husband. Appearing completely discomfited, Song Fanping walked up to the two boys, removed the lids from their lips, and suggested, "Why don't you go back inside?"

Baldy Li and Song Gang returned to the room and climbed up once again onto the bed. They exchanged despairing glances — their mouths were full of treats, but they couldn't swallow. Baldy Li was the first to think this through and quickly started to dig out a bit at a time from his mouth. Song Gang followed his lead. They spread out the newly extracted nuts, seeds, and hard candy on the bedsheet. The treats were gummy and sticky and glistened like snot, and they made an absolute mess of their parents’ bed. Having had their jaws propped open for too long, the boys now found that they couldn't shut them. They stared at each other's cavelike mouth, both at a complete loss. Meanwhile, they could hear Song Fanping and Li Lan outside calling for them again.

Li Lan's old neighbors had brought along their children and had walked through the alleys looking for Song Fanping's home. When they showed up, Li Lan felt a wave of pleasure that lasted only as long as a sneeze and then immediately fell into disappointment. It turned out that the neighbors weren't here to congratulate them on their marriage but, rather, to look for their missing chickens. The birds had trailed Baldy Li and Song Gang through the streets, but after that no one had any idea where they had gone. The neighbors started making a ruckus, cursing at Li Lan and Song Fanping: "What about our chickens? Where are our goddamn chickens?"

The newlyweds had no idea what they were talking about. "What chickens?"

"Our chickens…"

In a hubbub, they tried to describe what their chickens looked like. They said that lots of people had seen the chickens follow Baldy Li and Song Gang into the street. Song Fanping was perplexed. "Chickens aren't dogs. Why would they follow people into the street?"

The neighbors insisted that lots of people had seen Baldy Li and Song Gang dropping a trail of seeds and nuts, and the chickens had followed behind them and ended up in the street. Song Fanping and Li Lan called out to the boys and asked them, "Chickens? Did you see any chickens?"

Their jaws still locked open, the boys could only shake their heads.

The chicken search party consisted of a trio of men, a trio of women, and a trio of middle-school students, as well as a couple of boys slightly older than Baldy Li and Song Gang. The eleven of them surrounded Song Gang and Baldy Li, clucking at them angrily, "Where are our chickens? Did they follow you?"

Baldy Li and Song Gang nodded, and the mob turned back to Song Fanping and Li Lan. "See! The little bastards admit it."

They turned again to Baldy Li and Song Gang. "Where are our goddamn chickens?"

The boys shook their heads, which angered the mob. "You little bastards, you just nodded, now you're shaking your heads…"

The crowd insisted that roosters and hens were not fleas and ticks, and therefore they had to be somewhere in plain sight. They walked into Song Fanping's house, searching, opening cabinets, looking under the bed and into pots. The long-haired middle-school student, Sun Wei, even started sniffing Baldy Li and Song Gangs open mouths to see if he could detect any chicken on their breath. Sun Wei sniffed for a while but couldn't decide, so he called Victory Zhao over. Victory Zhao also sniffed for a while but couldn't tell either, so he asked Success Liu to come take a whiff. Success Liu smelled for a while and also concluded, "I don't think so."

After failing to find so much as a single feather, the search party came back outside, cursing and swearing. Song Fanping was no longer beaming with pride but, rather, had turned steely-faced. His bride was pale with terror and tugged at his clothes to hold him back, afraid that her new husband would start a fight. Song Fanping had been suffering silently, and even when these people barged out of his house saying all sorts of foul things, he still restrained himself, just glaring at them with firmly set eyes.

The search party started looking around the outside of the house. A few of them even took turns peering into the well, but they didn't see any hens and roosters, just the reflections of their own faces. The three middle-school students clambered up the tree like monkeys to see if the roosters and hens were hidden on the roof. They didn't find any chickens, though they did see a few sparrows.

Unable to find anything, the search party continued uttering proanities, fwhereupon one suggested, "Maybe they fell into the toilet and drowned while sneaking a peek at women's butts."

"Chickens also look at women's butts?"

"Roosters."

The men guffawed and the women tittered. By this point Li Lan was shaking all over. She no longer dared to even hold on to Song Fanping's clothes, feeling that she was bringing her own misfortunes onto her new husband. Song Fanping couldn't bear another word, and these people were still chattering as they walked away, "How about the hens?"

"The hens wait till the roosters drown and then remarry."

Song Fanping pointed to the man who was talking and bellowed, "Get back here!"

All of them turned back. Three men plus three middle-school students, three women and two boys. Song Fanping saw that they had stopped in their tracks, and he yelled again, "Get back here!"

All of them started cackling. The three men and three middle-school students walked up to Song Fanping and surrounded him, while the three women took the two boys and stood to one side, as if watching a good show. They knew they had him outnumbered and sneeringly asked him, "Do you want to treat us to a wedding banquet?" Song Fanping retorted, "No banquet, just my fist." He then pointed to the man in the middle and demanded, "Repeat what you just said."

The man sneered, "What did I say?"

Song Fanping hesitated, then said, "You were saying something about a hen…"

The person said, "Oh!" as he remembered, then asked, "You want me to repeat that?"

Song Fanping said, "If you dare say it again, I'll smash your mouth."

The man looked at his companions and the three students. "And what if I don't?"

Song Fanping, stunned for a moment, eventually sighed. "Get out of here."

The group started laughing. The three middle-school students blocked Song Fanping and chanted in unison, "After the rooster drowns, the hen remarries?"

Song Fanping raised his fist, then lowered it again. He shook his head at the three students and pushed them out of his way. He was going back in when the first man said, "What does the hen remarry? Another rooster!"

Song Fanping turned around and punched him. His punch was swift and devastating, and the man promptly toppled over like an old blanket being tossed aside. Baldy Li and Song Gangs mouths suddenly both snapped shut.

When the man got up off the ground, his mouth was full of blood, and he spat out a mouthful mixed with saliva and snot. After Song Fanping threw his punch, he leapt out of the circle the group had formed around him. When they came at him, Song Fanping crouched down and kicked his right leg straight out. Baldy Li and Song Gang at that moment learned what a "sweeping leg kick" was; Song Fanping knocked down the three men with his one leg and made the three students stumble over one another.

When they got up to leap at him again, Song Fanping shot out his left leg, catching one man in the stomach. The man fell back to the ground with a howl and also dragged down the two men behind him. The men and middle-school students stared at one another in astonishment, trying to absorb what had just happened.

Song Fanping stood facing them with clenched fists. One of the men started hollering that they were going to surround him. The six of them immediately crowded around and started pummeling him. The moment he rushed out of the circle, he would be trapped in the middle again. It became a mêlée. No one could see what they were doing anymore. Sometimes the men seemed squashed together like steamed buns, and at other points they scattered like popped corn.

The two boys, who were about three or four years older than Baldy Li and Song Gang, then took the opportunity to grab the brothers and slap their cheeks, kick their shins, and spit in their faces. At first Baldy Li and Song Gang didn't give an inch and tried to slap, kick, and spit back. But they were short and couldn't reach the faces or the legs of their tormentors, and furthermore they had less spittle to spit out. After a few rounds, Baldy Li and Song Gang realized they were done for and started wailing.

Song Fanping heard their cries, but he was fighting one against six and couldn't get over to help. Baldy Li and Song Gang had to hide behind Li Lan, who at this point was crying even harder than they were. She appealed to Song Fanping's neighbors and to the passersby who had gathered around to watch the show, begging them to help her new husband. She appealed to them one after another, as Baldy Li and Song Gang clutched at her clothing. The two older boys followed behind, continuing to slap, kick, and spit. Baldy Li and Song Gang wailed for Li Lan to help them as Li Lan begged the spectators to help her husband.

Eventually, a few of the neighbors and spectators rushed up and separated Song Fanping and his six tormentors, pulling them off to either side as they themselves stood in the middle. Song Fanping's eyes were swollen, blood was dripping from his mouth and nose, and his clothing was in tatters. The other six were equally bad off, though at least their clothes were still intact.

The peacemakers started to work on both fronts. They reasoned with Song Fanping, explaining that anyone would naturally be upset if they had lost their chickens, and when people are upset they can't help but say ugly things. They also reasoned with the tormentors, explaining that today was not just any day but, rather, was Songs and Li's wedding day, and that they should take that into consideration. The peacemakers pushed Song Fanping into his house and the others back into the street, urging them, "Forget it, forget it. It's easier to make friends than enemies. Song Fanping, go back to your house, and everyone else go home."

Though he was bruised and battered, Song Fanping proudly held his ground, while the others were equally unwilling to leave. They felt that they had strength in numbers and were not about to give in. They said this wasn't over and insisted on getting something before they left: "At the very least we need compensation and apologies."

Eventually, it occurred to one of the peacemakers to propose to the tormentors that they each accept a cigarette from Song Fanping. According to the code of the time, to offer a cigarette after a fight was to admit defeat. The others considered this and agreed that it would be a good way of saving face. They said, "Fine, then we'll let him off the hook."

The peacemaker then walked up to Song Fanping. He didn't say the cigarettes were for admitting defeat but, rather, suggested that Song should pass out some auspicious wedding cigarettes. Song Fanping knew what cigarettes would signify and shook his head. "No cigarettes. All they'll get is my fist."

After saying this, Song Fanping looked over at Li Lan s tear-swollen eyes and at Song Gang and Baldy Li's faces covered with their own tears and other peoples spit. Suddenly he was filled with sadness. He stood for a while, then walked into the house, his head bowed. When he returned, he had a pack of cigarettes. Ripping it open, he walked over to the three men and three middle-school students and took out one cigarette after another, handing one to each of them. After he was finished and turned to walk away, the men called out, "Not so fast! Light them for us."

Song Fanping's sadness was immediately transformed into fury. He threw the cigarettes to the ground and was about to turn back and hurl himself into battle again when Li Lan leapt up and restrained him. She pleaded with him, "Let me do it. Let me go light them."

Li Lan went over to the men. She initially stood there wiping her eyes, then lit the match and used it to light the cigarettes dangling from their mouths. The middle-schooler named Sun Wei took a drag and then deliberately blew smoke into her face.

Song Fanping saw this, but this time he didn't fly into a rage. Instead, he simply lowered his head and walked into the house. Baldy Li saw that his stepfather was weeping as he walked in. This was the first time that Baldy Li saw Song Fanping cry.

After Li Lan lit their cigarettes, she placed the matches back in her pocket and walked over to Baldy Li and Song Gang. She used the corner of her blouse to wipe the tears and spittle off the boys’ faces. Taking them both by the hand, she walked inside, then closed the door behind them.

Though he usually didn't smoke, Song Fanping sat on a bench in the corner of the main room and smoked five cigarettes in a row. His coughing sounded like retching, and he spit blood-tinged saliva and phlegm all over the ground. This terrified the boys as they sat huddled on the bed, their legs trembling as they dangled off the edge of the bed. Li Lan covered her face with her hands and stood by the door. She was still weeping, her tears leaking through her fingers. After he finished smoking the five cigarettes, Song Fanping finally stood up. He removed his tattered clothes, wiped the blood off his face, and then with his sandaled foot he smudged the bloody spittle on the ground and proceeded into the inner room.

After a while Song Fanping emerged looking like a new man. He was wearing a clean white shirt, and although his face was bruised and swollen, he was smiling. He thrust out his fists toward Baldy Li and Song Gang and said, "Guess what I have?"

Both boys shook their heads. Song Fanping opened his hands, and when he had spread his fingers, they saw two hard candies in his palms. They laughed with delight as Song Fanping unwrapped the candies and placed them into their mouths. How sweet they were! The boys had been wanting to sweeten their mouths since this morning, but only now that the sun was almost setting were they finally able to savor the sweetness.

Song Fanping walked up to Li Lan, a smile on his swollen face. He patted her back, caressed her hair, and leaned over and whispered in her ear for a long time. Baldy Li and Song Gang sat on the bed eating the sweet hard candy. They didn't know what Song Fanping said to her, but after a while they saw that Li Lan was smiling, too.

That night the four of them sat together. Song Fanping cooked a fish and stir-fried a plateful of greens, and Li Lan brought out of her bag a bowl of braised pork that she had cooked earlier. Song Fanping got a bottle of yellow rice wine, pouring a cup for himself and another for Li Lan. Li Lan protested that she didn't drink, but Song Fanping replied that he didn't either and that after today no one would drink, but tonight they had to. "This is our auspicious wedding wine."

Song Fanping lifted his wine cup and waited for Li Lan to lift hers. He tapped his cup against hers, and she smiled bashfully. Song Fanping downed the yellow wine in one gulp, and the wounds in his mouth caused his face to contort in pain. He fanned his open mouth as if he had eaten a very hot chili pepper, then told Li Lan to drink up. She also drained her cup, and he waited until she put it down before setting his down as well.

Baldy Li and Song Gang sat next to each other on a long bench, their heads barely reaching the table. They rested their chins on the table-top, level with their parents’ elbows. Song Fanping and Li Lan piled the boys’ rice bowls high with meat, fish, and greens. Baldy Li took a bite of meat, a bite of fish, and a bite of greens and rice, then decided he didn't want any more. He turned to look at Song Gang next to him and said softly, "Candy."

Song Gang was relishing his mouthful of fish and meat, but when he heard Baldy Li, he decided he didn't want any more either. He also said softly, "Candy."

The children were already acquainted with the wonderful taste of fish and meat and enjoyed them a few times a year. But what they wanted now was candy. The sweetness in their mouths had disappeared quickly, so now they started to repeat over and over — first softly, then loudly, and finally at the top of their voices — the single word: "Candy, candy, candy …"

Li Lan explained that there wasn't any more, that she had already passed out all that she had. Song Fanping chuckled and asked the boys what kind of candy they wanted. The boys took up the wrappers on the table and said together, "This kind."

Song Fanping made a big show of reaching into his pockets, asking the boys, "So you want some hard candy?"

They nodded vigorously and craned their necks to peer into his pockets. But Song Fanping shook his head and said, "There isn't any more."

Both kids were so disappointed they almost wept, whereupon Song Fanping said, "There isn't any more hard candy, but there is soft candy."

The boys’ eyes opened wide. They had never heard of something called soft candy. They saw Song Fanping stand up, feeling through all his pockets as if looking for the soft candy, and their hearts pounded with excitement. He emptied each pocket in turn, saying, "Where's the candy?"

When Song Fanping emptied his last pocket and there was still nothing, the boys both burst into tears. Slapping his forehead, Song Fanping exclaimed, "Now I remember!"

Song Fanping turned and tiptoed into the inner room, as carefully as if he were about to go catch a flea, making Li Lan giggle. When his bruised and swollen face reemerged, Baldy Li and Song Gang saw that he was carrying a bag of milk candy in his hand.

The boys cried out in surprise. This was the first time they had tasted soft candy — chewy, cream-flavored candy. The wrapper had a picture of a big white bunny, and the name was White Rabbit. Song Fanping explained that his sister in Shanghai had sent these as their wedding present. He let Li Lan have one and took another for himself. Then he gave Baldy Li and Song Gang five each.

The two kids placed the milk candy in their mouths, slowly licking, chewing, and swallowing their saliva, which was now sweetened with candy and tasted like cream. Baldy Li put some rice into his mouth and chewed it along with the candy, and Song Gang did the same. The rice was now as sweet and creamy as candy. Now the grains of rice in their mouths also became White Rabbits. As he savored every bite, Song Gang cried out affectionately, "Baldy Li, Baldy Li."

Baldy Li also cried out, "Song Gang, Song Gang…"

Song Fanping and Li Lan smiled contentedly. Looking over at Baldy Li's shiny pate, Song Fanping commented to Li Lan, "We really should call him by his name, not his nickname." Song Fanping scratched his head. "I only know him as Baldy Li, I don't even know his real name."

He asked Li Lan, "What is Baldy Li's name?"

Li Lan couldn't help but smile. "You just said not to call him by his nickname, but you just did."

Song Fanping raised both hands in surrender. "So from this day forward, what should we call him if we don't want to use his nickname?"

Li Lan burst out, "Baldy Li's name is—"

She covered her mouth before she finished, realizing that she had used his nickname. She couldn't help giggling. "His name is Li Guang."

"Li Guang." Song Fanping nodded. "Now I know."

Then Song Fanping turned to the two boys and said, "Song Gang, Baldy Li, I have something to say to you—"

Song Fanping saw that Li Lan was suppressing a giggle and asked carefully, "Did I call him by his nickname again?"

Still smiling, Li Lan nodded. Song Fanping scratched his head and said, "Well, okay, let's use the nickname then. It's impossible not to call him Baldy Li."

He burst out laughing and turned to the two boys again. Once his laughter had subsided, he said, "From this day forward, you will be brothers. You must treat each other like your own blood, look out for each other, and stick together in sickness and in health, in happiness and in misfortune. You must study hard and strive to improve…"

Song Fanping and Li Lan became husband and wife, and Song Gang and Baldy Li became brothers. Two families became one. Baldy Li and Song Gang slept in the outer room, and Li Lan and Song Fanping slept in the inner room. That night, the children lay in bed cradling their White Rabbit wrappers, sniffing the remaining traces of creamy sweetness and thinking about how they would encounter more White Rabbits in their dreams. Before he fell asleep, Baldy Li kept hearing the creaking of the bed inside and heard his mother sigh and moan, sometimes even bursting into a wail. But Baldy Li felt that this night his mothers cries sounded different from before, as though she weren't really crying. In the creek outside the window, a small boat floated by, and the rhythmic stirring of the oars echoed Baldy Li's mother's voice from the inner room.

CHAPTER 7

SONG FANPING was a happy man. Although his face was covered in bruises and it hurt to smile, he would still laugh heartily. On the second day of his marriage he made a big show of washing Li Lan s hair outside the house. His face was swollen like one of those pigs’ heads hanging in the window of a butcher shop, but he paid no heed to the snickers of his neighbors. He poured well water into a face pail and helped Li Lan wet her hair. Then he applied soap and started to massage her scalp like a professional barber, until her entire head was covered in soapsuds. Finally, he brought another pail of well water to rinse her hair out, then used a towel to dry it and a wooden comb to comb it through, refusing to let her do anything herself. When Li Lan looked up, she saw that there was a crowd of a dozen or more adults and children gathered around her. She flushed bright red but also beamed with happiness.

Song Fanping announced that he wanted to take a stroll. Li Lan s hair was still dripping, and she looked hesitantly at Song Fanpings swollen face. He knew what she was thinking and assured her that his face was just fine. He turned to lock up the house, then took Baldy Li and Song Gang by the hand and walked ahead, leaving Li Lan with no choice but to follow.

The four of them walked down the street hand in hand. Passersby watched them and tittered, knowing that this was a second marriage for both of them, and that the groom had gotten into a fight with six people the day of his wedding. They simply couldn't believe that this bruised and swollen groom was now sauntering down the street, beaming with contentment. Whenever he saw someone he knew, he would greet them and happily introduce Li Lan: "This is my wife." Then he would point at the children: "And these are my sons."

Everyone looked very pleased, but their pleasure came from different sources. Song Fanpings was that of a groom, while the crowd's pleasure derived from the freak show they felt they were witnessing. Li Lan knew what their snickers meant and what they were saying as they pointed at her family, and therefore she lowered her head. Song Fanping also knew what the snickers meant but nevertheless told Li Lan, "Lift your head."

The family strolled down two main streets. When they walked past the soda shop, the children looked longingly inside, but their parents dragged them along until they arrived at the photography studio. Song Fanping stopped and announced that he wanted to take a family portrait, having completely forgotten about his swollen face. Li Lan suggested that they could come back later, but Song Fanping had already walked inside. He turned back and saw Li Lan standing with the boys outside the door, so he enthusiastically waved them inside. But Li Lan held on to the boys and refused to go in.

When Song Fanping explained to the photographer that he wanted to take a family portrait, the man looked at him with astonishment. It was then that Song Fanping realized that today might not be a good day to have his picture taken. Cocking his head, he saw his face reflected in the studio s mirror and said to the photographer, "Well, perhaps not today, then. My wife says we can come back later."

Song Fanping walked happily out of the studio, still chuckling to himself. His happiness infected Li Lan, and both of them chuckled as they continued their stroll, until soon Baldy Li and Song Gang were giggling too, though they had no idea why.

The newly remarried Li Lan was aglow with happiness. For the past seven years, ever since her first husband drowned in the public latrine, she had endured a life worse than death. Her hair had become tangled like a bird s nest, but now she resumed the girlish braids of her youth and even tied two red bows at the ends. Her complexion was suddenly blooming as if she had eaten ginseng, her migraines disappeared, and she started humming again. Her newly remarried husbands gestures became expansive with pleasure. When he walked about the house, his steps would ring, and when he pissed against the wall outside, the urine would splatter like a thunderstorm.

This newly remarried couple stuck together like honey throughout their honeymoon. Whenever they had a free moment, they retreated to the inner room and shut the door tight. Baldy Li and Song Gang could only imagine what was going on inside. They heard loud smacking sounds and were firmly convinced that their parents were hiding inside to eat from that bag of White Rabbits. The sounds could be heard not only throughout the day but late into the night. Before it was even dark, the two of them would force Baldy Li and Song Gang to go to bed and then would lock themselves in their room, their lips smacking away. Neighborhood children were still running around outside, but Baldy Li and Song Gang were forced to go to bed. Listening to the smacking sounds, they would fall asleep with tears in their eyes and drool on their lips. The next morning they would wake up and find that their tears had dried up but their saliva was still flowing.

Baldy Li and Song Gang became insanely gluttonous. One day after finishing lunch, when their parents started smacking lips again in the inner room, Baldy Li stood by the door and peeked inside, with Song Gang right behind him, eager for an update. Baldy Li saw through the crack in the door that there were two pairs of legs on the bed, with Song Fanpings on top gripping Li Lans below, and he whispered to Song Gang, "They're eating on the bed."

Baldy Li shifted to the other crack in the door. He saw that Song Fanpings body was on top of Li Lans, his hands encircling her waist. He whispered, "They're eating while hugging."

From the third crack in the door Baldy Li saw that that Song Fan-ping and Li Lan were kissing passionately. Baldy Li initially giggled, thinking they looked funny, but then he quickly became mesmerized by what he saw. Song Gang, standing behind him, nudged him several times, but Baldy Li didn't notice. Song Gang whispered to him again and again, "Hey, hey, what are they eating?"

Baldy Li, in the midst of watching, turned around and said mysteriously, "They're not eating candy. They're eating lips."

Song Gang was confused. "Who's eating whose lips?"

Baldy Li answered mysteriously, "Your father is eating my mother's, and my mother is eating your father's."

Song Gang was startled, imagining Song Fanping and Li Lan gnawing away at each other like two wild beasts. The door to the inner room suddenly opened, and Song Fanping and Li Lan stood in the doorway staring at the boys in astonishment. When Song Gang saw that their lips were still attached to their faces, he was immensely relieved. He pointed at Baldy Li and said, "He tricked me. He said that you were eating each other's lips."

Song Fanping and Li Lan grinned, blushing, and then left to return to work without another word. After they left, Baldy Li, in order to prove that he was no liar, had Song Gang sit on the bed, as upright as if he were sitting in a movie theater seat. Baldy Li then placed a bench in front of Song Gang, and, lying prone on the bench, he raised his head and pointed down at the bench and explained, "Now, this is my mother."

Then he pointed at himself and said, "And I'm your dad."

After transforming the bench into Li Lan and himself into Song Fanping, he started demonstrating what lip eating was. Baldy Li pressed down tightly against the bench and hugged it to himself. He started slobbering all over the bench and wiggling against it. As he kissed and wiggled, he explained to Song Gang, "Just like this. They were just like this."

Song Gang didn't get why Baldy Li had to wiggle his body and asked, "Why do you have to move around so much?"

"That's what your dad was doing."

Song Gang giggled. "You look funny."

Baldy Li replied, "Well, your dad looked funny."

Baldy Li wiggled faster and faster on the bench. His face started turning red and his breath quickened. Song Gang became alarmed and jumped off the bed. He pushed at Baldy Li and asked, "Hey, hey, are you okay?"

Baldy Li's wiggling body slowed down. When he got up, he pointed to his crotch with a look of delight. "When you wiggle like this, your weenie gets hard and it feels good."

With great camaraderie, Baldy Li wanted Song Gang to get on the bench and try it out. Looking skeptical, Song Gang lay on the bench but saw that it was all shiny with Baldy Li's drool and snot. He sat up and shook his head. "Look, it's all your snivel."

Ashamed, Baldy Li hurriedly wiped down the bench with his sleeve and had Song Gang climb back on. Song Gang lay down but immediately got back up again, complaining, "It smells like your snot."

Baldy Li was deeply apologetic. He wanted Song Gang to share in his newfound pleasure, so he eagerly helped him lie down facing the other end of the bench. Baldy Li directed him like a coach, telling him how to wiggle and correcting his movements. When he finally felt that Song Gang's wiggling was beginning to resemble Song Fanping's, he sat down on the bed and wiped his brow, asking smugly, "Feel good? Is your weenie hard?"

Song Gang's response was a huge disappointment. He declared it to be no fun at all and added, "The bench is so hard. It just rubbed my weenie and hurt."

Baldy Li looked at Song Gang, mystified. "How could it feel bad?"

Then he helpfully placed two pillows on the bench. Still worried that it wouldn't be soft enough, he went and fetched Song Fanping and Li Lan's pillows from the inner room and also placed them on top. Smiling encouragingly, he offered Song Gang the bench. "Now it'll definitely feel good."

Song Gang didn't want to disappoint him, so he lay on the pillows and started wiggling again under Baldy Li's coaching. After a few wiggles he got up again, complaining that it still felt uncomfortable. It felt like there were little pebbles in the pillow, rubbing his weenie until it hurt.

Then, a miracle: The children discovered the remainder of the bag of White Rabbit candy, which their parents had hidden inside the pillowcase. They had turned over every cabinet in the house looking for it but could not find a single trace. They had crawled under the bed and ended up covered in dust and had burrowed under the bedspread until they were short of breath, but still hadn't managed to find the White Rabbits. It was like looking for a needle in a haystack. But just as they felt they had looked everywhere and were on the verge of giving up, the White Rabbits suddenly appeared in the pillowcase, as if by magic.

The two boys started howling like starved dogs and poured the entire bag onto the bed. Baldy Li stuffed three candies into his mouth at once, and Song Gong got in two at least. Laughing as they ate, they no longer licked or sucked but, rather, chewed with abandon, since there was plenty more. The wanted to stuff their mouths full of this exquisite sweetness and creaminess, which slid into their stomachs and spilled out through their nostrils.

The children swept through the bag like a tornado. Out of the original thirty-seven candies, there were now only four left. Song Gang suddenly got scared and burst into tears. Wiping his face, he asked what they were going to do when their parents came home and saw that they had eaten it all? Song Gang's question gave Baldy Li a start — then he proceeded to stuff the remaining four candies in his mouth without a second thought. Song Gang watched as Baldy Li ate the candy and wailed, "Why aren't you scared?"

After polishing off the candies, Baldy Li wiped his lips and said, "Now I'm scared!"

The two boys sat in a stupor. They looked at the thirty-seven candy wrappers scattered like fall leaves all over the bed. Song Gang could not stop crying, worried that he and Baldy Li would be severely punished when Song Fanping and Li Lan discovered this. Song Fanping would beat them until they were black and blue, until they looked like he had on his wedding day. Song Gangs weeping scared Baldy Li, too. He shuddered repeatedly, then came up with an idea. He suggested that they find pebbles about the size of the candies and wrap them up with the candy wrappers. Song Gang stopped crying and smiled, then followed Baldy Li off the bed and out of the house. They looked under the tree, by the well, in the street, even in the corner where Song Fanping usually peed until they had amassed a pile of little pebbles. Cupping them in their hands, they brought them back to the bed and wrapped each in a candy wrapper, then put them back in the bag. Then they put this bag of thirty-seven oddly shaped fake milk candies back inside the pillowcase and placed the pillow back on the bed.

Once they had accomplished all this, Song Gang began to worry again. He resumed sobbing and sniffed, "They'll still find out."

Baldy Li didn't cry. He grinned, shook his head at Song Gang, and said to comfort him, "They don't know yet."

Even at this tender age Baldy Li was already a live-life-while-you-can kind of guy. Once he had finished all the White Rabbit candies, his interest in the bench returned. Amid the din of Song Gang's sobbing, he climbed up on the bench again and started wiggling. This time he knew exactly what he was doing. He put his weight on his weenie, wiggling directly there. He wiggled until he was once again breathing heavily and red in the face.

From this point on Baldy Li and Song Gang were inseparable. Baldy Li liked having this older brother, because only after acquiring a brother was he able to start living his life of free roaming. Before, when Li Lan left for work at the silk factory, she would lock him in the house and make him spend day after day there. Song Fanping, however, would tie a key around Song Gang's neck, allowing the boys to wind freely through the streets and alleys of Liu. Song Fanping and Li Lan had worried that the boys would end up fighting each other every day, never expecting that the two would end up becoming so close. They would always be covered in scrapes and bruises from accidents but never showed any trace of having been in a fight. Only once did they come back with swollen lips and bloody noses, but those were a result of fighting with some other family's kids.

After discovering the marvels of his body on the bench, Baldy Li started rubbing his weenie like an addict. He and Song Gang would be strolling down the street, and he would suddenly stop in his tracks and announce, "I need to take a few rubs."

Then he would hump a big wooden electrical pole. Listening to the buzz of the electricity, he would rub his body up and down until he was beet red and panting heavily. After he finished, he would sigh with contentment and tell Song Gang, "That feels so good."

Song Gang was in awe of Baldy Li's expression but was also mystified. He often asked Baldy Li, "Why can't I feel good?"

Baldy Li was mystified too and would shake his head in confusion. "Yeah, why doesn't it feel good?"

A few times as the boys were crossing the bridge, Baldy Li would suddenly be struck with his cravings. He would lie right down on the bridge and start rubbing as if he were on the bench at home. Beneath him was the town creek, and tugboats would pass underneath, whistles blowing. When the whistles blew, Baldy Li would become even more excited. One time he felt so good he started squealing with delight.

Once three middle-school students happened to walk by — the same three who had fought Song Fanping on the day of his wedding. They stood next to the bridge watching Baldy Li curiously and asked, "Hey, kid, what'cha doing?"

Baldy Li flipped himself over and answered, panting, "When I rub like this, my weenie gets hard and it feels good."

The students were dumbfounded by his response. Baldy Li proceeded to coach them, explaining that you could also hug the wooden electrical pole, but you were more likely to get tired standing up, so it was better to do it lying down. He concluded, "When you go home, you could just rub yourself on a bench."

The students started howling in amazement, "This kid has hit puberty!"

At that point Baldy Li had an epiphany: He finally understood why his rubbing felt so good while Song Gang's didn't. After the middle-school students walked off, he said to himself, So I've hit puberty.

Then he smugly told Song Gang, "Your father and me — we've hit puberty, but you haven't yet."

While Baldy Li and Song Gang were roaming the streets, they would often go to the west side of town, where things were busiest. The blacksmith, tailor, knife sharpener, and dentist's shops were all there, and a popsicle vendor named Wang walked up and down the street, banging on his icebox and hawking his goods.

One day as usual, the boys first stood in front of the tailor s shop and watched as Liu Town s legendary Tailor Zhang took a leather tape measure and measured a woman's neck, chest, and hips. His hands were all over the woman, but instead of getting angry, she merely giggled.

After watching Tailor Zhang for a while, the boys went over to watch the Guan father and son in the knife sharpeners shop. Old Scissors Guan was then in his forties, and Little Scissors Guan was fifteen. The two of them sat on low stools around a wooden basin filled with water. There were two whetting stones in the basin, and as the two sharpened their knives they made a scraping sound like a heavy rain.

The boys then went over to check out the shop of the town s dentist, Tooth-Yanker Yu. Yanker Yu didn't actually have a shop — he sat on the street at a table under an oilcloth umbrella. On the left side of the table was a row of tooth extractors of different sizes, and on the right were a few dozen extracted teeth, used to attract customers. Behind the table was a stool, and beside it was a rattan recliner. When a customer came by, he would lie down on the recliner, and Yanker Yu would sit on the stool. When there were no customers, Yanker Yu would lie down on the rattan chair himself. Once, as Yanker Yu was just getting comfortable he saw Baldy Li out of the corner of his eye and reflexively leapt up and started aiming for Baldy Li's mouth with an extractor. Only when Baldy Li screamed in terror did Yanker Yu realize he had mistaken the boy for a customer. He grabbed Baldy Li and tossed him out. "Damn you, with your baby teeth. Scram!"

Blacksmith Tongs shop was the kids’ favorite destination. Blacksmith Tong had his own cart, which was hugely impressive — much more so than owning a truck nowadays. Every week Blacksmith Tong would go to the junkyard and bring back scrap metal. Baldy Li and Song Gang liked to watch him pound the metal, turning scrap copper into mirror frames and iron into scythes and hoes. The flying sparks made the kids squeal with excitement, and Song Gang asked Blacksmith Tong, "Are the stars in the sky also made out of metal?"

"Yup," answered Blacksmith Tong, "I pounded ‘em myself."

Song Gang held Blacksmith Tong in the highest regard. He marveled to his brother that all the stars in the sky turned out to have been forged in Blacksmith Tongs shop and then launched into the sky! Baldy Li didn't believe this and said that Blacksmith Tong was bullshitting them, that all the sparks from Blacksmith Tongs pounding ended up as ashes right outside his door.

Even though Baldy Li knew that Blacksmith Tong was full of it, he still liked to watch him work. After learning from the middle-school students the scientific explanation for his love of rubbing, he felt justified in lying down on the bench in the blacksmiths shop. Previously, he would sit there alongside Song Gang and watch Blacksmith Tong, but now he took the bench for himself and made Song Gang stand to one side. Baldy Li spread his hands and shrugged. "Sorry, I need the space. I've hit puberty."

While watching the sparks fly off the anvil, Baldy Li wiggled and panted heavily, crying out along with Song Gang, "Stars, stars, so many stars …"

Back then Blacksmith Tong was still a young fellow in his twenties who hadn't yet married the woman with the fat buttocks. Thickset, with tongs in his left hand and a hammer in his right, he watched Baldy Li while pounding his metal. He knew what the boy was up to and marveled that such a little bastard would be getting off. He suddenly lost his concentration and almost smashed his own hand. Spooked, he threw away the tongs and cursed as he put down his hammer, asking Baldy Li, who was panting away on the bench, "Hey, how old are you?"

Baldy Li panted, "Almost eight."

"Damn," Blacksmith Tong swore. "You little bastard, you're not even eight and you already have a sex drive."

That was how Baldy Li learned what a sex drive was. He felt that Blacksmith Tong explained things better even than the three middle-schoolers. Blacksmith Tong was, after all, far older than they. Baldy Li no longer announced that he had hit puberty but, rather, used this new term. He smugly announced to Song Gang, "You don't have a sex drive yet, but your father does, and so do I."

Baldy Li refined his technique of rubbing the wooden electrical poles. Once he had rubbed himself until he was red in the face, he would start climbing up the pole. When he reached the top, he would then slide back down again. When he reached the bottom, he would sigh with contentment and say to Song Gang, "It feels so good!"

One time, just as he had climbed to the top of the pole he saw the three middle-school students walking toward him and hurriedly slid down. This time he didn't bother telling Song Gang how good it felt, because he called out to the three students, correcting them, "You got it all wrong. Its not because I've hit puberty that my weenie gets all hard from the rubbing. It's that I feel my sex drive coming on."

CHAPTER 8

AFTER THEIR tempestuous honeymoon, Song Fanping and Li Lan s life became a slow stream of contentment. They left the house together to go to work, then came back together at the end of the day. The school where Song Fanping taught was close to home, so after work he would walk to the bridge and wait for three minutes until Li Lan arrived. Smiling, they would walk home shoulder to shoulder. They bought groceries together, cooked together, washed clothes together, slept together, and woke up together. There was hardly any time when they were apart.

After a year, Li Lan s migraines returned. The bliss of newlywed life had temporarily suppressed this old problem of hers, but now it was as if the pain had been accruing interest — when it struck again, it was more agonizing than before. Li Lan would no longer just whimper; instead, tears of pain would gush from her eyes. With a white cloth wound tightly around her head, she would rap her temples with her fingers all day like a monk striking his prayer counter. The knocking could be heard throughout the house.

Song Fanping became seriously sleep deprived. Often in the middle of the night he would be awakened by Li Lan s cries of pain. He would get up and bring a pail of water from the well, then soak a towel in the icy water, wring it, and place it on her forehead. This provided Li Lan with some relief. Song Fanping attended to her as though she were a patient running a high fever, getting up several times a night to bring her cool washcloths. However, he was convinced that she should enter a hospital and get treatment. He was completely dismissive of area doctors, so he sat at the dining table and wrote his elder sister in Shanghai. He would write a similar letter almost every week, urging her to help find a suitable hospital there. He peppered his letters with countless phrases like extremely urgent and dire emergency, and each time he would conclude with a string of exclamation points.

Two months later his sister finally wrote back, announcing that she had located a hospital but would need a referral from a local clinic. This news further increased Li Lan s awe of her husbands abilities. Song Fanping requested a half days leave from school and accompanied Li Lan to the silk factory at the end of her lunch break. He wanted to talk to her factory director and ask his permission for Li Lan to go to Shanghai to treat her migraines. Li Lan was the sort who did not even dare ask for a single day off, and therefore, after leading Song Fanping to the directors office, she told her husband that she didn't dare go in and pleaded with him to go in alone. Smiling, Song Fanping nodded and, as he walked in, told her to wait outside for the good news.

Song Fanpings earth-shattering dunk had made him a legend in Liu Town. As he introduced himself the director interrupted, saying, "No need, no need, I know who you are. You're the dunker." Then the two began chatting like old pals. They talked for more than an hour — so long that it seemed as though Song Fanping had forgotten that his wife was waiting outside. Li Lan was entranced by this conversation, and even much later, whenever she thought of her husband, she would sigh and think, He had such a gift for gab!

Song Fanping walked out with the director, who not only agreed to let Li Lan go to Shanghai to see a doctor but repeatedly told her, "Don't worry about anything after you get to Shanghai. Just get better. If you encounter any difficulties, let us know, and the factory will solve them for you."

Song Fanping then took his impressive gift of gab and worked the same magic at the hospital. He and a young doctor there chatted about everything from astronomy to geography, jumping from one topic to another and somehow finding agreement on everything. The two chatted until their spittle flew and their faces were flushed while Li Lan sat to one side, dumbfounded, forgetting even the pain of her migraines. She gazed upon Song Fanping with delight, having had no idea that the man she had lived with for the past year had such talents. After giving them the referral, the young doctor followed them all the way to the front door, gripping Song Fanpings hand and saying he had finally met his equal. He said they had to find time to get a jug of wine and some snacks and shoot the breeze all night long.

All the way home Li Lan was filled with joy. She would gently tug at Song Fanpings hand, and when he looked over at her, he saw that her eyes were blazing like hot furnaces. When they got home, Li Lan pulled him into the inner room and shut the door. She gripped him tightly, her head on his broad chest and tears of happiness soaking his shirt.

After her first husband had drowned in the latrine, this timid woman had become accustomed to living in shame, all alone. Now Song Fan-ping was giving her a happiness that she could not have dreamed of. She had someone to depend on, and what a wonderful mountain of support he was! She felt that she no longer had to walk with her head down. Song Fanping allowed her to raise her head proudly and face the world.

Song Fanping didn't understand why Li Lan had become so emotional. Laughing, he pushed her aside, asking what was the matter. Li Lan shook her head and didn't say a word. She just held on tightly, not loosening her grip until they heard Baldy Li and Song Gang hollering outside, "We're hungry! We're hungry!" Song Fanping asked her why was she crying, but she bashfully turned away and walked quickly out of their room.

Li Lan took the bus to Shanghai the next afternoon. The whole family put on clean clothes and set off at noon. Song Fanping was carrying a gray travel bag that he had bought in Shanghai during his first marriage. On one side of the bag was the word SHANGHAI in dark red. A year earlier, on the day after their wedding, Song Fanping had wanted to get a family portrait, but since his face was swollen at the time, they didn't take the photo. He had forgotten all about it, but now that Li Lan was going away to Shanghai to get treatment, he thought again of getting the portrait, so they set off for the photography studio.

When they arrived there, Song Fanping again exceeded his wife's estimation of him. He seemed to know everything, directing the photographer to adjust the lights until no shadows would be cast on any of their faces. The photographer followed his orders, shifting the lights about and nodding at his directions. After the photographer had finished setting up the lights, Song Fanping went over to the camera to take a look and then had him adjust the lights a bit more. Then he directed the boys on how to tilt their heads and how to smile. He had Baldy Li and Song Gang sit in the middle, with Li Lan next to Song Gang and himself next to Baldy Li. He told them to watch the photographer's raised hand, then even did the counting himself: "One, two, three, smile!"

The photographer clicked the shutter, and their bright smiles were preserved in a black-and-white photo. After paying, Song Fanping carefully folded the blue receipt and placed it in his wallet. He turned to the boys and told them that they would be able to see the photo in a weeks time. Then he took up the gray travel bag and led his wife and children to the bus depot.

In the waiting room, they sat in a row. Song Fanping described over and over again to Li Lan what his sister looked like. He told her that his sister would be waiting by the left exit of the Shanghai bus depot and that he had asked her to be holding a copy of Liberation Daily. As he chattered on, a man came by hawking sugarcane, leading Baldy Li and Song Gang to look up to their parents pleadingly.

Li Lan was usually so frugal that she was loathe to spend even a cent to feed herself. But thinking that she was about to leave the boys for a while, she bought an entire sugarcane stalk for them. The children watched as the man shaved off the outer layers of the stalk and chopped it into four segments, then didn't hear a single thing their parents said after that, so absorbed were they in gnawing on the sugarcane.

When it came time to board the bus, Song Fanpings gift of gab was again displayed in all its splendor. He persuaded the ticket collector to allow the entire family to accompany Li Lan onto the bus. Once aboard, Song Fanping had Li Lan sit in her seat and then placed the gray travel bag on the luggage rack. He even asked a young man to help Li Lan get it down once they reached Shanghai. Song Fanping then got off with Baldy Li and Song Gang, and they stood together under Li Lans window. Li Lan lingered over their three figures, nodding at everything Song Fanping said. Finally he asked her not to forget to bring the boys something when she came back. Their mouths full of sugarcane, Baldy Li and Song Gang immediately hollered out, "White Rabbit candy!"

Their parents assured the boys that there were still some White Rabbits left at home. Baldy Li and Song Gang were so terrified, they stopped chewing on the sugarcane, but fortunately just then the bus started up. As it was leaving the station, a tearful Li Lan turned to look at them once more. Song Fanping waved at her, smiling, not knowing that this would be the last time he would ever see his wife. His last impression of Li Lan was of her in profile, wiping away her tears. Baldy Li and Song Gang remembered only the billowing dust as the bus pulled away.

CHAPTER 9

AFTER LI LAN left for Shanghai, the Cultural Revolution arrived in Liu Town. Song Fanping left the house early for school and returned late. Baldy Li and Song Gang also left early and came home late, spending the whole day wandering the streets, now filled with crowds of spectators. Every day there would be parading troops, and more and more red sashes appeared on people s arms, Mao badges on their chests, and copies of Mao's Little Red Book in their hands. More and more people walked along the main streets singing and barking like a pack of dogs, yelling revolutionary slogans and singing revolutionary songs. Layer upon layer of big-character posters thickened the walls, and when a breeze blew, the posters rustled like leaves on a tree. Some people started appearing with paper dunce caps on their heads or big wooden placards around their necks. There were even people who clanged on pots and pans, shouting, "Down with ourselves!" as they walked along. Baldy Li and Song Gang knew that these dunce-cap-wearing, placard-sporting, pot-clanging folk were what everyone called class enemies. Anyone could reach over and slap their faces, kick them in the stomach, throw snot at them, or piss on them. They were tormented but didn't dare say a word and were afraid to look up. Some passersby demanded that these class enemies slap their own faces and yell out slogans condemning themselves, and after they were done with themselves they should curse their ancestors. This was an unforgettable summer for Baldy Li and Song Gang. They didn't understand that the Cultural Revolution had arrived or that the world had changed around them; they only knew that now Liu Town had become as festive and rowdy as if every day were a holiday.

Baldy Li and Song Gang wandered through town like a couple of stray dogs. They followed one brigade after another, repeatedly yelling "Long live!" after one and "Take down!" after another. They shouted until their tongues were parched and their throats were raw and swollen. Meanwhile, Baldy Li seized the opportunity to violate each of the town's wooden electrical poles several times over. Whenever this barely eight-year-old boy happened upon a pole, he would pleasure himself until he was red in the face, all the while enthusiastically watching the parading crowds on the street. While his body rubbed up and down and his little fists pumped up and down, he wouldn't stop yelling, "Long live!" and "Take Down!"

When passersby happened to spot Baldy Li humping a pole, they would snicker to each other. They knew what he was up to, and though they didn't say anything aloud, they would be laughing secretly inside. There were, of course, those who didn't get it. When the woman who had started a snack shop next to the bus depot walked by and saw Baldy Li vigorously rubbing away, she asked him with surprise, "What are you doing, kid?"

Baldy Li glanced over at this woman, whom everyone called Mama Su, but didn't answer. Preoccupied with trying to hump the pole and shout slogans at the same time, he was simply too busy to respond. At that moment, the three middle-schoolers walked by. They pointed at him humping the pole, then up at the wires overhead, and exclaimed, "The kid is generating electricity."

Everyone who heard them broke out into guffaws. Song Gang, who was standing to one side, was also giggling away, though he didn't quite know why. Baldy Li was displeased, so he stopped his rubbing, wiped the sweat from his brow, and said dismissively, "You wouldn't understand."

Then he turned proudly to Mama Su and announced, "I'm feeling my sex drive."

Mama Su turned pale. She shook her head and muttered, "Bad karma, bad karma…"

At that moment, the longest parade in the history of Liu Town wound its way over. All the way down the street, red flags as numerous as the hairs on a cow flapped in the wind. The large flags were as big as sheets, and the small ones were as tiny as handkerchiefs. Flagstaff clanged against flagstaff, and flag knocked against flag, whipping this way and that in the wind.

Liu Town's Blacksmith Tong raised his hammer, shouting that he wanted to be a righteous revolutionary blacksmith, smashing the beastly legs of the revolution's enemies until they were as flat as sickles, until they were reduced to scrap metal.

Liu Town's Yanker Yu raised his tooth extractor, shouting that he was going to be a judicious revolutionary dentist, pulling out all the good teeth of the revolution's enemies and all the bad ones of his class brothers and sisters.

Liu Town s Tailor Zhang hung his leather measuring tape around his neck, shouting that he wanted to be a clear-eyed revolutionary tailor, making the most beautiful clothes in the world for his class brothers and sisters and the lousiest funeral clothes for the revolutions enemies. No! He would make the lousiest corpse shrouds for the revolutions enemies.

Liu Town s Popsicle Wang hoisted his icebox onto his back, shouting that he would be a never-melting revolutionary popsicle—"Popsicles for sale! Popsicles only for class brothers and sisters and not for the revolution's enemies!" Popsicle Wangs business was red-hot, since each popsicle he sold was like a revolutionary certificate—"Come quick, come quick. All those who buy my popsicles are class brothers and sisters. Those who won't buy them are class enemies."

Liu Town s two Scissors Guan, father and son, both raised their scissors, shouting that they were going to be sharp revolutionary scissors and cut off the dicks of the class enemy. Old Scissors Guan was not yet finished, but Little Scissors Guan couldn't hold in his pee any longer and dashed out of the parade to relieve himself against the wall, shouting "Snip snip snip" and "Dick dick dick" even as he unfastened his pants.

Tall, strong Song Fanping marched at the very front of the parade. He held a giant flag with both arms stretched straight out. This red flag was as wide as a couple of bedsheets, perhaps with a few pillowcases added in. As it flapped in the wind, undulating like cascading waves, it made Song Fanping look as though he were hoisting a sheer wall of water above his shoulders. His white shirt was soaked through with sweat, his shoulder and arm muscles twitched like little squirrels, his bright red face was covered in freely flowing rivulets of sweat, and his eyes shone like bolts of lightning. Spotting Baldy Li and Song Gang, Song Fanping yelled out, "Sons, come over here!"

At that moment Baldy Li was hugging the electrical pole and curiously asking various passersby why Mama Su had cursed him as having "bad karma." When he heard Song Fanping's cry, he immediately abandoned the pole and ran over with Song Gang. They both grabbed Song Fanping's white shirt, and he lowered the flagstaff to allow them to hold on as well. In this way, Baldy Li and Song Gang held Liu Town's largest red flag and walked at the front of Liu Town's longest parade. Song Fanping strode forward with giant steps, and the two kids scurried along to keep up with him. Many little children drooling with envy and admiration ran alongside them clustered on one side of the street. The three cocky middle-schoolers also followed along, similarly crowded to the side. Baldy Li and Song Gang followed Song Fanping like two puppies keeping up with an elephant, their lungs, throats, and eyes all on fire from exertion. When they reached a bridge, Song Fanping finally paused, as did the rest of the procession.

Clumps of people crowded the streets and alleys below the bridge, with everyone looking up at Song Fanping. All the flags on the bridge, large and small, were unfurled. Song Fanping lifted the giant red flag over his head and began waving it back and forth, making it crackle like fireworks as it flapped in the wind. With their eyes Baldy Li and Song Gang tracked the path of this giant flag as it billowed left to right, flipped over, then back again. It flew over the entire bridge, and the wind from the flag blew the boys’ hair back and forth. As Song Fanping waved the flag, the crowd below started to roar. Baldy Li and Song Gang saw waves of fists and heard their slogans booming like cannons.

Baldy Li started to howl, as if he were humping a pole. Flushed and hoarse, he said to Song Gang, "I feel my sex drive."

He saw that Song Gang was also flushed and hoarse and was shouting at the top of his lungs with his eyes closed. Baldy Li was delighted and, nudging Song Gang, asked, "Do you feel your sex drive, too?"

This was Song Fanping's most glorious day. After the parade, the marchers returned to their homes, but he continued walking down the main street, leading Baldy Li and Song Gang by the hand. Many people called out his name, to which he grunted in reply. Some even walked up to shake his hand. Baldy Li and Song Gang strutted with pride, feeling that everyone in town knew Song Fanping. They kept asking him enthusiastically who that man was who just called out to him and who the person was who just shook his hand. They kept on walking, farther and farther away from home. The two kids asked Song Fanping where they were going, and he replied in a ringing voice, "We're going to the restaurant for a meal."

They arrived at the People's Restaurant. The meal ticket collector, busboys, and customers all waved at them, smiling. Song Fanping waved back with his large hand, looking like Chairman Mao atop the Gate of Heavenly Peace. They sat at a table by the window as the staff encircled them and the other customers brought their dishes over and sat with them. Even the cooks in the kitchen caught wind of the news and, all covered in grease, came out to see. Everyone chattered about things ranging from the greatness of Chairman Mao and the origins of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution to couples’ squabbles and children's illnesses. Song Fanping had waved the largest red flag in Liu Town's history and had become the most important personage in town history. He sat up straight, his giant hands spread out on the table, and each time he answered a question, he would begin with, "As Chairman Mao taught us …"

His responses consisted entirely of Chairman Mao's words, without a single additional word of his own. They made his listeners’ heads bob up and down like woodpeckers, repeatedly saying "Ah, ah" as though they had toothaches. By this point Baldy Li and Song Gang were so hungry that their chests were flat against their backs and even their farts consisted of just fresh air, but they remained silent and gazed admiringly at Song Fanping. They felt that his voice was Chairman Mao's, and even his flying spittle was Chairman Mao's.

Baldy Li and Song Gang sat at the People's Restaurant for who knows how long. They didn't notice when the sun set or when the lights were turned on. Finally, the boys got to eat a bowl of steaming hot plain noodles. The greasy chef bowed down to them and asked, "Is the noodle broth good?"

The children answered in unison, "It's great!"

The chef grinned with pride and explained, "This is meat broth. Everyone else got only plain water, but I gave you meat broth."

After returning home that night, Song Fanping led the boys to the well to wash up. The three of them stripped down to their shorts and scrubbed their bodies with soap. Then Song Fanping drew a pail of water from the well and rinsed off the boys, then himself. Various neighbors sitting on their front stoops fanned themselves and chatted with him, discussing how magnificent the parade had been and how awe-inspiring he had looked waving the red flag. Song Fanping, exhausted from talking, gained a second wind, and his voice rang out once again. When Baldy Li and Song Gang returned to their rooms, they went to bed, but Song Fanping sat under the light and beamed as he wrote to Li Lan. Baldy Li gave Song Gang a look before falling asleep and giggled, saying that his father was red in the neck from all his writing. Song Fanping wrote for a very long time, describing all the events of the day.

When the boys woke up the next day, Song Fanping was standing at the foot of their bed. Still beaming, he stretched out his hands to the children, and they found two red Chairman Mao badges glowing in his palms. He said that these were for them and that they should wear them right over their hearts. Then he took another badge and pinned it to his own chest. Holding a copy of Chairman Mao's quotations, his face as red and bright as the badge, he stepped proudly outside. Baldy Li and Song Gang heard a neighbor ask him, "Will you be waving the red flag again today?"

Song Fanping answered, "Absolutely!"

Baldy Li and Song Gang put their ears to each others chests in order to make sure to pin their Mao badges right over each others beating hearts. Song Gangs badge had Mao perched atop the Gate of Heavenly Peace, while Baldy Li's Mao was standing on the surface of a giant ocean. After eating breakfast, the boys were greeted by the morning sun as they walked outside, and flags as large as sheets and as small as handkerchiefs again filled the streets.

Everyone who had been parading the previous day had happily returned, and the people who had been putting up big-character posters were again busy slapping glue onto the walls. Blacksmith Tong was again raising his hammer and shouting that he was going to smash the class enemy's beastly legs. Yanker Yu was again raising his tooth extractor and shouting that he was going to yank all the class enemy's good teeth. Popsicle Wang was again walking around with an icebox on his back, banging on it as he marched and shouting that he would sell popsicles only to class brothers and sisters. Tailor Zhang once again had his measuring tape around his neck and was shouting that he wanted to make the most tattered funeral clothes for the class enemy, then corrected himself and hastily changed it to a corpse shroud. Old Scissors Guan was again waving his scissors, snipping at the class enemy's imaginary dicks. Little Scissors Guan, who had pissed against the wall the previous day, was once again unfastening his pants. Of all the people who had previously spat, coughed, sneezed, farted, and argued, not a single one was missing this time around.

The middle-schoolers Sun Wei, Victory Zhao, and Success Liu also walked over. Looking at the Chairman Mao badges pinned to the brothers’ chests, they cackled like smarmy Japanese collaborators in a World War II movie, making Baldy Li's and Song Gang's hearts skip a beat. Long-haired Sun Wei pointed to an electrical pole and asked Baldy Li, "Hey, kid, where s your sex drive?"

Baldy Li knew they were up to no good. He pulled Song Gang over for cover and shook his head. "Nope, not right now."

Sun Wei grabbed him and pushed him toward the pole, giggling: "Show us some sex drive."

Baldy Li struggled and said, "But I have no sex drive now."

Victory Zhao and Success Liu laughed, grabbed hold of Song Gang, and pushed him toward the pole as well, saying, "You show us some sex drive, too."

With an innocent expression, Song Gang explained, "I don't have any sex drive. Really, I never have."

The three middle-schoolers pushed Baldy Li and Song Gang up to the pole and pinched the boys’ noses, ears, and cheeks as though they were steamed buns, until they squealed with pain. Finally, the middle-schoolers snatched off Baldy Li's and Song Gang's Chairman Mao badges and took off. Song Gang sobbed so hard that his mouth filled with tears and snot, which he swallowed then sobbed some more. He told everyone who walked by how his and Baldy Li's Mao badges had been stolen, and pointed in the direction of the students’ vanishing figures. Over and over, Song Gang described the Mao badges: "Chairman Mao's face is red, a red face perched atop Tiananmen Square. The other one is a red face floating over the ocean's waves…"

Baldy Li didn't cry but pointed in the direction the middle-schoolers had gone. With a look of righteous indignation, he complained to everyone who walked by, "I have no sex drive now, and they were forcing me to squeeze some out for them."

Everyone who walked by couldn't stop laughing. As Baldy Li watched Song Gang cry so hard that he shook, he became depressed as well. Wiping at his tears, he thought of how his Mao badge had been stolen by the three middle-schoolers. Song Gang pointed to his chest: "We only just put on the Mao badges this morning."

Baldy Li also pointed to his chest, saying, "My heart is still pounding inside, but there's no longer a Chairman Mao on the outside."

The boys were alone and helpless. They thought of Song Fanping, their tall, strong father, who could take down several men with a single sweep of his leg. They were convinced that Song Fanping would teach those middle-schoolers a lesson and retrieve their Mao badges, that he would grab the students by their collars and toss them into the air like little chicks, until they squawked with fear and their legs flailed about.

Song Gang said to Baldy Li, "Let's go, let's go find Papa."

By that time it was noon. The boys’ stomachs were empty as they walked hand in hand down the street. Whenever someone came between them, forcing them apart, they would immediately grab each others hands again. They went to look for the parading troops, to see if the man at the head of the line waving the red flag was Song Fanping. Then they went to the gathering place to see if the man standing in front giving a speech was Song Fanping. They walked to many, many places, asked many, many people, greeted many uncles and aunties, grandpas and grandmas, but still couldn't find Song Fanping. The boys came to the bridge where the day before Song Fanping had made the whole town holler in delight with his flag waving. Now there was no red flag, only a few people standing with their heads bowed. They were wearing tall dunce hats and big wooden placards. The boys knew that these were class enemies. They stood in front of these class enemies and spotted a few people wearing the rebels’ red armbands pacing back and forth on the bridge. Song Gang asked, "Have you seen my father?"

Someone with a red armband asked, "Who is your father?"

"My father is Song Fanping," Song Gang replied. "The Song Fanping who was waving the red flag here yesterday."

Baldy Li added, "He is a very famous man. When he goes to eat noodles, they serve them to him with meat broth."

Song Fanping's voice rose from behind the two children: "Sons, I'm here."

The boys turned around and saw Song Fanping. He was wearing a tall paper hat and had a wooden placard around his neck, on which was written The boys couldn't read what this said, but they certainly understood the red X’s scrawled across each word. Song Fanping's body blocked the sunlight like a wooden door. The two boys stood in his shade and looked up at him. His eyes were swollen from being punched, his lips bleeding from being slapped. He smiled as he looked at Baldy Li and Song Gang, though his smile appeared tight and frozen. The children couldn't understand what had happened: Yesterday he was standing on this bridge, an awesome figure, but today he had been reduced to this. Song Gang asked timidly, "Papa, why are you standing here?"

Song Fanping asked in a low voice, "Sons, are you hungry?"

Both boys nodded. Song Fanping found twenty cents in his pants pocket and gave it to them to buy something to eat. The man who was wearing the red armband yelled at him, "No talking! Lower your mutt-head."

Song Fanping obediently lowered his head, but Baldy Li and Song Gang were so startled they jumped back a few steps. The man with the red armband continued to yell, and amid the din Song Fanping snuck a peek at the boys. Seeing that he was smiling, they regained their confidence and returned to his side. They told him that their Chairman Mao badges had been taken away by those three bastard middle-schoolers. Song Gang asked him, "Could you get them back?"

Song Fanping nodded. "I could."

Baldy Li asked, "Could you beat them up?"

Song Fanping nodded again. "I could."

The boys started chuckling. The man with the red armband walked over and slapped Song Fanping twice on the face. He shouted angrily, "I told you not to speak. Why the fuck are you still talking?"

A trail of blood flowed down from Song Fanping's lips as he urged the boys, "Get out of here."

Baldy Li and Song Gang slipped away quickly. They went under the bridge, then, trembling all over, scurried away. They kept turning back to look at Song Fanping atop the bridge. His head was flopped over, as if it were merely dangling from his neck. The boys made their way to the crowded, noisy street, walked into a snack shop and bought two steamed buns, then stood outside eating them. In the distance they could see that Song Fanping was almost bent over at the waist, and it was clear that todays Song Fanping was not the one from yesterday. Song Gang lowered his head and started to weep silently, then raised his two clenched fists to his eyes like binoculars and wiped away his tears. Baldy Li didn't cry. Instead, he kept thinking about his badge with Chairman Mao atop the ocean, fearing that he would never get it back. While Song Gang wept, Baldy Li walked over to an electrical pole and humped it perfunctorily a few times. Then he returned to Song Gang and dejectedly told him, "I've lost my sex drive."

It was dark by the time Song Fanping returned home. His footsteps were as heavy as if he were dragging along two prosthetic limbs. Without a word he walked into the inner room and lay on the bed for two hours without moving; in the outer room Baldy Li and Song Gang couldn't hear a sound. The cold moonlight shone in through the window. The children became alarmed and went into the inner room. First Song Gang crawled onto the bed, then Baldy Li joined him, and together they sat at Song Fanpings feet. After a long time had passed, Song Fanping suddenly sat up and said, "Oh, I fell asleep."

Then the light came on and laughter began. Song Fanping heated up the stove and started to make dinner with Song Gang and Baldy Li at his side, learning how to cook. Song Fanping taught them how to rinse the rice and vegetables, light the coal, and cook the rice. As he stir-fried the vegetables, Song Fanping told Baldy Li to add oil and Song Gang to sprinkle in some salt. He also held their hands as they took turns stir-frying. Each of them took three turns, and after nine rounds, the greens were finally ready. The three of them sat around the table and ate. Though it was just a plate of greens, they all worked up a sweat eating. After Song Fanping finished dinner, he told the boys that though he had not taken them to the ocean since their mother had left for Shanghai, if it wasn't stormy the next day, he would take them to see the waves, to see the sky above the waves, as well as the seagulls flying between the sky and the sea.

Baldy Li and Song Gang shrieked with excitement, which startled Song Fanping so much that he covered their mouths with his hands. The look of terror on his face also frightened them. When he saw their alarm, Song Fanping immediately lowered his hands and laughed as he pointed up to the ceiling. "Your screams almost blew the roof off!"

Baldy Li and Song Gang thought that was a hoot. This time they covered their own mouths as they laughed nonstop.

CHAPTER 10

THE NEXT DAY, as they were about to set off for the seaside, a dozen or so people from Song Fanpings school sauntered in, all wearing red armbands. Baldy Li and Song Gang didn't realize that they were here to search the house, thinking instead that Song Fanpings pals had come to check on him. The boys found themselves stirred by the sight of so many red-armbanders, all full of bravado, filling up their house. Exhilarated, they wove back and forth through the crowds as if navigating a forest. Then a loud boom! made them shudder with terror, and they watched in horror as their dressers and bureaus were upended, their clothes and things strewn all over the ground. The red-armbanders picked through the family's possessions like scavengers, rummaging through everything looking for Song Fanpings land deeds. Song Fanping was born into the landowning class, so these people were convinced that he must be hiding land deeds, merely waiting for a regime change to take them out again. The red-armbanders flipped over the bed planks and pried up the floorboards while Baldy Li and Song Gang hid behind Song Fanping. They saw that Song Fanping still had a smile on his face, but couldn't understand why he would be pleased. These people turned Song Fanpings home into a scrap heap without finding any land deeds. They eventually filed out of the house one by one as Song Fanping, still with a smile on his face, followed them out as if seeing off guests. At one point he even asked them, "Won't you have a cup of tea before setting off?"

One of them responded, "No need."

Song Fanping stood, smiling, at the door, and only when they had left the alley did he turn to go back into the house. As soon as he got inside and sat down, his smile immediately vanished, like a light switching off. Song Fanping sat there, his face the color of iron, and for the longest time he didn't move a muscle. The two boys walked over and timidly asked him, "Are we going to the seaside?"

Song Fanping started as if woken from a deep sleep and bellowed, "Let's go!"

He looked at the sun shining outside and said, "With such good weather, of course we're going."

Song Fanping righted the armoire, repositioned the bed planks, and nailed down the displaced floorboards. Baldy Li and Song Gang followed behind him, placing the clothes back into the bureau and the knickknacks back into the drawers. It was as if the light had been turned back on, and Song Fanping was once again smiling. As he tidied the house he talked and chuckled nonstop with the kids. By noon they were finally done cleaning up, leaving the house even tidier than before. They used towels to wipe the sweat off their faces and handkerchiefs to dust off their clothes. Then they combed their hair in front of the mirror and were finally ready to leave for the seaside.

When they opened their door, they found seven or eight red-armband-wearing middle-school students standing outside, including the three who had stolen Baldy Li's and Song Gang's Mao badges. When Baldy Li and Song Gang saw the three of them, they started clamoring excitedly, and Song Gang said to his father, "Papa, they're the ones who took away our Mao badges. Go teach them a lesson."

Baldy Li shouted at the middle-schoolers, "Give them back! Give us our badges back!"

The three middle-schoolers pushed the children away, chuckling. The one with the long hair, Sun Wei, said to Song Fanping, "We're Red Guards, and we're here to search your home!"

Smiling, Song Fanping welcomed them in. "Come in, come in."

Baldy Li and Song Gang were baffled by Song Fanping's obsequious manner. The Red Guards swarmed in and again threw the house into tumult. The bureau that had just been righted was upended once again, the just-tidied bed plank was again flipped over, the floorboards that just been nailed back down were pried up again, and the clothes they had just folded were once again strewn all over the floor. When the previous group, from Song Fanping's school, came, they had primarily rifled through Song Fanping's books and papers, looking for his hidden land deeds. But these Red Guards were like bulls in a china shop, shattering pots and pans on the floor, snapping chopsticks in half, and searching the house as they stuffed things into their own pockets, periodically stopping to compare what they had each pocketed.

These Red Guards shattered, snapped, and looted Song Fanping's home all afternoon. Only after they saw that there wasn't much left to shatter or to grab, and all their pockets were stuffed full, did they finally depart, whistling happily. Long-haired Sun Wei turned around and said to Song Fanping, "Hey come out here."

On the day of Song Fanping and Li Lan s wedding, Sun Wei, Victory Zhao, Success Liu, and their fathers had been roundly beaten by Song Fanping. With his sweeping leg kick he had swatted them down. Now, a year later, these middle-schoolers wanted their revenge. They had Song Fanping stand in the empty lot in front of the house so that they could show off their own sweeping kicks. Song Fanping stood there stalwartly, like an iron tower. The three middle-schoolers started with their warm-up exercises, squatting down and sweeping their right legs out. Even after a few tries, not one of their kicks looked like the real thing. If they didn't lose their balance and end up sitting on the ground, they would drag their foot and scrape up a cloud of dust. The other two middle-schoolers would shake their heads. "Doesn't look like a sweeping leg kick to us."

"What does it look like, then?"

"I don't know, but certainly not a sweeping leg kick."

Sun Wei asked Song Fanping, who was standing there with his head bowed, "Hey, so did that look like a sweeping leg kick?"

"It did," Song Fanping replied. "But you haven't quite gotten the knack of it."

Sun Wei said to Song Fanping, "Now, spit it out. What's the secret?"

So Song Fanping became their coach, instructing them to watch carefully. He adroitly demonstrated the kick a few times, and the students whistled and exclaimed, "Now, that's a proper sweeping leg kick." Then he broke down his movements, explaining that the sweeping leg kick actually had three steps — squat, sweep, and straighten— and that the steps had to be done in one continuous motion. He explained that the body's center of gravity had to be shifted to the front, because that gave the sweep force, and that you could use your hands for support. Then Song Fanping had them practice, stopping them at various points and demonstrating the proper form. Finally, he announced that they had mastered the form but were still not swift enough. "Only when you do it swiftly will the kick not break down into its separate components. But you can't learn to be fast in a day or two. Go home and practice every day, and when others can see only one move, you've mastered it."

All afternoon Song Fanping used both explanations and demonstrations to teach the three middle-schoolers the proper execution of a sweeping leg kick. When the students finally felt they had gotten it, they ordered Song Fanping to stand still and get a taste of their newly mastered kicks. He stood with his legs slightly apart.

The first one up was Victory Zhao, who proceeded to practice the move in front of Song Fanping, earning a round of applause from the gathering crowd: "Way to go!" But when Zhao squatted down and swept his leg over, his foot caught on Song Fanpings leg. Song Fanping remained motionless, while Zhao found himself sprawled on the ground with a mouthful of dirt, eliciting a round of laughter.

Next up was Success Liu. He looked over Song Fanping and his strong figure and worried that he too would end up with a mouthful of dirt. But when he noticed that Song Fanping had his legs apart, he grinned and said he knew how to deal with him. So he told Song Fanping to stand with his legs together, saying that was how he was going to flatten him. When he squatted down, he still worried that he would end up with a mouthful of dirt, so he didn't immediately thrust his leg out. Instead he aimed his foot full-force onto Song Fanpings shin. Song Fanping shook from the pain but didn't fall down. The spectators all cheered Song Fanping: "Right on!"

Third up was long-haired Sun Wei. He went behind Song Fanping and then backed up a good forty feet, as if he were about to do a long jump. Running all the way, he aimed his foot at the back of Song Fan-ping's knee and then kicked. Song Fanping immediately fell to his knees, and Sun Wei cheered for himself, "Way to go!" Then he boasted to his mates, "Look at my kung-fu."

The other students disagreed. "That's not a sweeping leg kick."

"Why not?" Sun Wei kicked Song Fanping, who was kneeling on the ground. "Tell me, was that a sweeping leg kick?"

Song Fanping nodded and answered in a low voice, "Yes, it was."

Laid down by the variant sweeping leg kick, Song Fanping watched as the middle-schoolers left, whistling off-key. He waited until they were far off before standing up. He saw his son, Song Gang, head bowed and wiping away tears, and he saw Baldy Li, his adopted son, eyes wide with terror. The boys didn't know what to do: In their minds, Song Fanping had been invincible, but now he was being bullied like a little chick. Song Fanping dusted the dirt off his pants and beckoned the boys as if nothing had happened, "You two, come over here!"

Song Gang, wiping his eyes, and Baldy Li, scratching his head, walked over unsteadily. Song Fanping laughingly asked them, "Would you like to learn the sweeping leg kick?"

The children were startled by his offer. Song Fanping looked around, then knelt down next to them and confided, "You know why they couldn't sweep me down? Because I didn't tell them the final step. The final step I was saving for you two."

Baldy Li and Song Gang suddenly forgot everything that had happened and started shrieking excitedly, as they had the night before. Song Fanping nervously clamped his hands over their mouths. The boys looked up and exclaimed together, "There's no roof to raise here."

Song Fanping nervously looked around again. "It's not a question of raising the roof. We just wouldn't want other people to learn the secret of the kick."

The boys understood. Silently they learned the technique from Song Fanping. First they stood behind him and imitated his moves, then he turned and instructed them. After half an hour he announced that they had learned the move and could now start practicing. Song Fanping stood still and let Baldy Li try out his move. Baldy Li walked up to him, squatted down, and swept his leg out. With just a gentle sweep, Song Fanping ended up flat on the ground. He got up and told Song Gang to try, and with another gentle sweep he was back on the ground. Song Fanping rubbed his bottom and groaned. He marveled at the two boys. "Your kick is too lethal! It's simply unbeatable."

Then the boys enthusiastically followed Song Fanping inside to once again clean up the house. Having mastered their unbeatable kicks, they were pumped with energy. They helped Song Fanping right the armoire and reposition the bed planks, and learned to nail down the displaced floorboards. They picked up the shards of broken bowls and snapped chopsticks and threw them into the trash heap outside. They dashed in and out, covered in sweat, but then abruptly remembered they hadn't eaten anything all day. Suddenly limp with hunger, the boys climbed into bed and fell asleep the moment they shut their eyes.

After who knows how long, Song Fanping woke them up and told them that dinner was ready. The light in the room was on. Baldy Li and Song Gang sat up in bed, rubbing their eyes, and Song Fanping carried them one after the other to the dinner table. They saw that there was just a bowl of greens and three bowls of rice, these being the only four bowls that had survived the Red Guards’ rampage. They took up their chipped bowls and then realized that there were no chopsticks. All the chopsticks had been snapped in two by the Red Guards. The children held their steaming bowls of rice and eyed the glistening bowl of greens, asking themselves, How are we going to eat without chopsticks?

Song Fanping forgot that there were no chopsticks in the house and got up to fetch some before remembering. He stood there for a while, his powerful back motionless as the dim light threw a shadow of his head as big as their washbasin onto the wall. Eventually he turned back toward the boys with an enigmatic smile and asked them mysteriously, "Have you ever seen the kind of chopsticks the ancients used?"

Baldy Li and Song Gang shook their heads and asked curiously, "What kind of chopsticks did they use?"

Song Fanping smiled as he walked to the door. "Just wait awhile, I'll show you."

Baldy Li and Song Gang saw him tiptoe outside and carefully close the door behind him, as if he were about to enter the land of the lost. After he left, the boys looked at each other. They had no idea how Song Fanping was going to retrieve chopsticks from the ancients, but they nevertheless felt that their father was truly amazing. After a while the door opened and Song Fanping returned, smiling, his hands behind his back.

The children asked him, "So you managed to get the ancients’ chopsticks?"

Song Fanping nodded. He walked over to the table and sat down, then thrust out his hands and gave Baldy Li and Song Gang each a pair of chopsticks. The boys took up the chopsticks of the ancients and examined them. They were about the same length as regular chopsticks, though they were of different thicknesses, were slightly curved, and had some knots on them. Baldy Li was the first to exclaim, "But these are twigs!"

Song Gang asked Song Fanping, "Why are the ancients’ chopsticks like twigs?"

"The ancients’ chopsticks were twigs," Song Fanping explained. "Because in ancient times there were no chopsticks, so the ancients used twigs."

The boys finally understood: In ancient times people used twigs to scoop up rice. Baldy Li and Song Gang started to dig into their meal with the freshly cut twigs, and when they ate, there was a bitter green taste to their food. Using their ancients’ chopsticks, they ate ravenously until their faces were covered in sweat. Only after they had eaten their fill and belched loudly did they notice that it was dark outside, and only then did they remember they had been planning to go to the seaside. There hadn't been any strong winds or rainstorms, and the sun had been so bright you couldn't even open your eyes, but they couldn't go. The boys immediately fell into a funk. Song Fanping asked if they liked their ancients’ chopsticks, and they nodded.

Song Gang then explained mournfully, "We won't make it to the seaside today."

Song Fanping smiled. "Who said we won't?"

Baldy Li said, "The sun has already gone down."

Song Fanping replied, "The sun's gone, but there's still the moon."

They had been ready to go to the seaside when the sun was high in the sky, but they didn't set off on their way until the moon was shining brightly. The children grasped Song Fanping's hands, one on each side, and walked for a very long time along the moonlit road. When they arrived at the seaside, it was high tide. They walked along the beach, where there wasn't a soul in sight, just the cool wind and the roar of the waves. The waves rushed in, creating a long line of white froth along the endless sea. At times this whiteness would turn to gray, and sometimes it would be even darker. From a distance they could glimpse both light and dark, and the moon would appear and disappear behind the clouds. This was the first time the boys had seen the ocean in the moonlight, mysterious and protean. They started screaming ecstatically, but this time Song Fanping didn't cover their mouths. Instead, his large hands caressed the tops of their heads as he let them shout to their hearts’ content. He himself seemed lost in thought, staring out at the dark sea.

After they sat down on the shore, the children started feeling terrified by the night sea. There was only the sound of the wind and waves; the moonlight appeared and disappeared; and the darkness of the sea seemed to expand and contract. Baldy Li and Song Gang held Song Fanping tightly, and he hugged them close. They sat at the sea for a long, long time, until the boys fell asleep. With one on his shoulders and the other in his arms, Song Fanping made his way home.

CHAPTER 11

STRUGGLE SESSIONS became increasingly common in Liu Town, and the middle-school yard bustled like a temple festival from daybreak to nightfall. Song Fanping had to carry that placard with him when he left home every morning and hang it from his neck once he reached the school gate. He stood at the gate, head bowed, and only after all the people coming to the struggle sessions had entered did he remove the placard and start sweeping the street in front of the school. When each struggle session ended, he would walk back to the entrance, put on his placard, and stand there with his head bowed. People poured out, kicking, abusing, and spitting at him, and though he was jostled from side to side he didn't utter a word. Then another struggle session would begin. Song Fanping had to wait until darkness fell — and make certain that there was no one left in the schoolyard — before he could take his placard and broom and head home.

Baldy Li and Song Gang would hear the sound of his heavy steps as Song Fanping walked into the house, his face lined with fatigue. He would always sit silently on his stool for a while, then he would get up, splash his face with well water, and use a rag to wipe down the dust, footprints, and children's spittle off his placard. Throughout all this, Baldy Li and Song Gang didn't dare say a word. They waited patiently, knowing that once Song Fanping washed his face and wiped the placard clean, he would become cheerful again and talk to them about many cheerful things.

Baldy Li and Song Gang didn't recognize the characters on the placard, but they knew these were the words that had brought Song Fanping all his misfortune. Before they appeared, Song Fanping was exultantly waving a red flag atop the bridge; but after they appeared, even little children spat and pissed on him. One day the boys finally had to ask him, "What do these characters mean?"

Song Fanping had just finished wiping clean his placard. Taken aback, he paused for a while. Then he smiled and said to them, "Next fall you'll start school, so I'll teach you how to read, starting with these characters."

This was Baldy Li and Song Gang's first lesson. Song Fanping taught them to sit with their backs straight and their hands in front of them. Then he hung the placard on the wall and brought over one of the chopsticks of the ancients. He prepared for almost half an hour before beginning the lesson, filling them with anxious anticipation.

Finally he stood in front of the big wooden placard and coughed solemnly to clear his throat. "Now we'll begin our lesson. First let me announce two rules. First, no squirming about. Second, raise your hand if you wish to speak."

He raised an ancient's chopstick and pointed at the first character on the placard. "This character is pronounced di. Think, what does di mean? Which of you wants to guess?"

Song Fanping first pointed at the ground, then stomped his foot, all the while winking at th e boys. Baldy Li beat Song Gang to it, pointing downward and shouting, "I know!"

"Hold on," Song Fanping interrupted. "If you wish to speak, you must raise your hand."

With his hand raised, Baldy Li blurted, "Di means land,’ which is what is below us, what we're standing on."

"That's correct," Song Fanping said. "You're very clever."

Then Song Fanping pointed at the second character in landlord. He said, "This character is even harder. It's pronounced ‘zhu.’ Think: Where have you heard this word before?"

Baldy Li shot his hand up before Song Gang again. This time Song Fanping didn't let him answer. He said, "You answered last time; now it's Song Gang's turn. Song Gang, think, where have you heard this character zhu used before?"

Song Gang timidly responded, "Is it the same zhu that appears at the beginning of chairman, as in ‘Chairman Mao?'"

"Correct!" Song Fanping said. "You're very clever."

At this Baldy Li exclaimed, "He didn't raise his hand."

Song Fanping said to Song Gang, "He's right, you didn't raise your hand, but you can raise it now."

Song Gang quickly raised his hand. He asked anxiously, "Is it too late to raise my hand?"

Song Fanping laughed. "Of course not."

On this day the boys learned five characters. They first learned land, then the zhu character in "Chairman Mao." They finally understood what the placard said: It was that Song Fanping was the chairman of the land.

Song Fanping and his placard had to travel together every day. He took the placard with him in the morning and came back with it in the evening, just like those women who brought their grocery bags to work and back. Baldy Li and Song Gang still roamed freely exploring the entire town. They had been absolutely everywhere, even visiting places where only ducks, chickens, cats, and dogs went. The streets were still overgrown with red flags and dotted with people as numerous as the hairs on a cow, who dispersed at the end of every day like an audience at the end of a movie. Gradually, more and more people appeared wearing dunce hats and bearing wooden placards. Initially, Song Fanping had been the only one sweeping the streets in front of the middle school, but he was joined a few days later by two other teachers. They stood next to Song Fanping, all three in a row, wearing placards around their necks. One of the two teachers was a bespectacled, scrawny old man, whose placard bore the word LAND-LORD, just like Song Fan-pings. This made Baldy Li and Song Gang very excited. They said to him, "So you're also a Chairman Mao of the land."

The children's words caused the teacher to tremble. His face turned as white as a corpse, and he said to them, "I'm a landlord, I'm a bad man. Please hit me, please yell at me, please criticize me."

Baldy Li and Song Gang often spotted Sun Wei, Victory Zhao, and Success Liu practicing their sweeping leg kicks. The three middle-schoolers spent just about every day under a wutong tree by the side of the road, hugging the tree while practicing their kicks around its trunk. Sun Wei could actually circle the entire tree while kicking continuously. His movements resembled a theater troupe performer's as his long hair blew in the breeze. Victory Zhao and Success Liu could kick only about halfway around the tree before landing on their butts or dropping their raised legs midkick. Therefore, Sun Wei became their coach. Running his fingers through his hair, he would repeat what Song Fanping had taught them: "Quicker, quicker. Only when your moves are swift can you perform the three moves as one."

Baldy Li and Song Gang strutted past. They knew that these three were still missing a move, since only they knew the real sweeping leg kick. Song Fanping hadn't taught the others the real deal, having saved the most important part for the two of them. So they would walk back and forth hand in hand, watching the middle-schoolers and giggling.

The students were so absorbed in their kicks that they didn't notice that the two snot-faced little boys were secretly laughing at them. The long-haired Sun Wei started to practice circling the tree twice without stopping. Once he was going so fast he lost control, and his entire body went flying.

Baldy Li and Song Gang couldn't contain their laughter. The middle-schoolers stalked over to them, glaring. Sun Wei, covered with dust and dirt, got up, walked over to them, and spat out, "What the fuck are you laughing at?"

Baldy Li and Song Gang weren't at all scared of him. Song Gang raised his head. "We're laughing at your sweeping leg kick."

"Heh." Long-haired Sun Wei looked back at his mates oddly, saying, "How dare he laugh at my kick?"

Song Gang scoffed to Baldy Li, "His sweeping leg kick?"

Baldy Li chuckled and also scoffed, "His sweeping leg kick?"

Baldy Li's and Song Gang's cocky attitude astonished the older boys, who exclaimed, "Fuck!"

Song Gang said evenly, "Let me tell you guys. There's a move my father didn't teach you, but he taught it to us."

"Fuck!" the students retorted. Sun Wei added, "So you're saying that you also know the sweeping leg kick?"

Song Gang pointed at Baldy Li. "We both know it."

The three middle-schoolers burst out laughing. They looked over Baldy Li and Song Gang. "You know the sweeping leg kick? You're still as short as our dicks."

Long-haired Sun Wei said to Song Gang, "So sweep for me."

Song Gang said, "You stand steady first."

Sun Wei looked even more astonished. He turned to Victory Zhao and Success Liu. "He wants me to stand steady? Fuck, he thinks he can sweep me off my feet?"

Amid their snorts and laughter, Sun Wei stood in front of Song Gang. First he stood with his legs apart, then he brought them together again, and finally he ended up perched on one leg. He asked Song Gang, "So how do you want me to stand?"

Song Gang pointed to the ground. "Stand on both legs."

Sun Wei grinned and lowered his leg. Song Gang turned to Baldy Li. "You want to kick first? Or shall I?"

Baldy Li wasn't so sure of himself, so he said to Song Gang, "You go first."

Song Gang backed up a few steps and made a running start to sweep-kick Sun Wei's leg like a bunny rabbit kicking a dog. Long-haired Sun Wei just stood there smirking while Song Gang bounced to the ground like a rubber ball. Song Gang got up again, unable to understand what had happened, and looked over uncertainly at Baldy Li. At this point Baldy Li realized the truth about his and Song Gang's sweeping leg kicks, but Song Gang was still completely in the dark. The three middle-schoolers roared, and their laughter caused Baldy Li's insides to tremble. With a smile, Sun Wei swept out his leg and flipped Song Gang over. He said to Baldy Li, "See, now that's a sweeping leg kick."

The revolutionary crowds in Liu Town saw the three middle-schoolers kicking the two little preschoolers and scolded them furiously, saying that they were oppressing the weak, just like the military in the old society. Victory Zhao and Success Liu didn't dare reply, but long-haired Sun Wei argued, "They are landlord Song Fanping's sons. They are little landlords."

The revolutionary masses were silenced. They watched as Baldy Li and Song Gang again and again fell to the ground until both of them simply lay there, unable to get up. Sun Wei, Victory Zhao, and Success Liu were drenched in sweat and breathing heavily, but they gathered around Baldy Li and Song Gang, laughing and shouting at them to stand up again. The brothers had nothing left in them. They couldn't stand up, so they lay on the ground, saying, "We're just fine lying here."

Once they said this, they immediately realized how to escape the middle-schoolers’ sweeping leg kicks, which was simply to stay lying on the ground. No matter how the older boys kicked them, cursed them, and threatened them, they steadfastly refused to get up. Finally the three middle-schoolers resorted to trickery, saying, "If you get up, we won't kick you anymore."

Baldy Li and Song Gang didn't fall for this and continued lying in the street. Sun Wei pointed at an electrical pole, trying to lure Baldy Li up. "Hey, kid, go over to the pole and vent some of your sex drive."

Baldy Li shook his head. "I don't have any sex drive now."

Victory Zhao and Success Liu also encouraged him. "If you go and rub a few times, you'll get your sex drive."

Baldy Li continued shaking his head. "No rubbing for me today. You go and get some sex drive for yourselves."

"Fuck," said the middle-schoolers. "These two little fucking cowards."

Long-haired Sun Wei commanded, "Pull those two little cowards up, then kick them down again."

Just as Victory Zhao and Success Liu were about to pull the boys up, the stout-hearted revolutionary Blacksmith Tong arrived and roared, "Stop!"

Blacksmith Tongs roar made the three middle-schoolers tremble. Sun Wei mumbled, "They're little landlords."

"What little landlords?" Blacksmith Tong pointed at Baldy Li and Song Gang. "They are the blossoms of our nation."

Sun Wei looked over Blacksmith Tongs thick arms and torso and didn't say anything more. Tong pointed at the three middle-schoolers and said, "You are also the blossoms of our nation."

The middle-schoolers peered at one another and began to cackle. They continued cackling as they walked off. Blacksmith Tong looked first at them, then at Baldy Li and Song Gang on the ground, and sauntered away, proclaiming, "You are all the blossoms of our nation."

Baldy Li and Song Gang struggled to their feet. Bruised and battered, they looked at each other. Song Gang simply couldn't understand why he wasn't able to sweep long-haired Sun Wei to the ground. He asked Baldy Li what had gone wrong. Didn't he use the crucial move? Baldy Li huffed, "That move doesn't exist. Your father was bullshitting us."

Song Gang shook his swollen face. "He's our father. Fathers don't lie to sons."

Baldy Li hollered, "He's your dad, not mine."

The two of them stood there, shouting at each other. Finally Song Gang wiped the tears from his face and blew his nose. He said, "Let's go ask Papa."

Baldy Li and Song Gang came to the front entrance of the middle school. A struggle session was getting out. Song Fanping stood with his placard hanging from his neck, along with two others, as a group of students who had just walked out surrounded them and shouted slogans condemning them. A few people wearing red armbands were also saying something. The two boys didn't know that these people, after getting out of the big struggle session inside, were holding another small rally here. The boys squeezed through the crowd and went right up to Song Fanping. Song Gang tugged at his father's sleeve, asking, "Papa, you taught us the most important move in the sweeping leg kick, didn't you?"

Song Fanping stood bowed and motionless. Song Gang started crying pitifully. He pushed at his father. "Papa, tell Baldy Li you taught us…"

Song Fanping remained silent. Baldy Li started yelling, "You lied to us. You didn't teach us how to do the sweeping leg kick. You lied to us about the characters on the wooden placard. They mean landlord,’ but you told us they meant ‘Chairman Mao of the land.'"

At that moment Baldy Li had no way of knowing what a terrible fate his words would bring down on Song Fanping, and he was stunned by what followed. When the people heard Baldy Li's words, they were initially flabbergasted, then they proceeded to strike, kick, and pummel Song Fanping until he was barely breathing. They roared as they stomped and kicked him on the ground, demanding that he confess how he had wickedly attacked "our great leader, our great teacher, our great general, our great helmsman — Chairman Mao."

Baldy Li had never seen anyone pummeled like this before. Song Fanping's face was completely covered in blood, and even his hair was soaked red. He lay there as countless adults and children stomped on him, his body like a platform as countless people stepped over him. His face didn't flinch, but his eyes did — twitching to the side so that he could glimpse Baldy Li and Song Gang. When he looked at Baldy Li, it was as if he was saying something with his gaze, a gaze that terrified Baldy Li. After a while Baldy Li was squeezed out of the circle and could no longer see Song Fanping's eyes. He only saw Song Gang wailing as he tried to force his way back into the circle. There were more and more spectators, and Song Gang was pushed farther and farther away. Finally he opened his mouth, but no sound came out. He walked next to Baldy Li, his face full of tears and snot, his mouth opening and closing as if he was yelling at Baldy Li, but Baldy Li couldn't hear a thing. After Song Gang yelled silently for a while, he punched Baldy Li and Baldy Li punched him right back. The two boys took turns punching each other, as if taking turns dealing out a deck of cards. Altogether, they punched each more than thirty-six times.

CHAPTER 12

AFTER SONG FANPING had been beaten to a pulp, he was taken away and locked up in a room in a large warehouse. The following week, Song Gang and Baldy Li stopped speaking to each other. Song Gang, in any event, couldn't speak at all; he had yelled so hard that day and his throat had become so red and swollen that now, when he tried to speak, no sound came out. Baldy Li knew that it was his revelation that had sent Song Fanping to that prisonlike warehouse, and when he lay down to sleep at night, all he could think about was Song Fanping being kicked and stomped as Song Fanping's eyes anxiously sought out his and Song Gangs. Baldy Li trembled but refused to cede an inch. He mocked Song Gang for having a mouth that was good only for farting.

Baldy Li was now on his own. He roamed the streets alone, sat under trees alone, squatted by the river and drank alone, talked to himself as he stood on the street looking, waiting, hoping for another child his age to wander over. Covered in sweat and scorched by the sun, he saw around him only parading people and parading flags. Children his age were all led by their mothers’ hands as they were pulled past him one after another. No one spoke to him or even deigned to look at him. Only when some passerby accidentally bumped into him or spat on his foot, only then might someone realize he was there. Only the three middle-schoolers showed any interest in him, and each time they saw him they would wave eagerly and call out, "Hey, kid, come show us some of your sex drive."

They waved at him as they enthusiastically walked over. He knew that what they really wanted was to practice their sweeping leg kicks. They wanted to kick him until he shat in his pants and his face swelled up. Baldy Li therefore ran for his life, and the three middle-schoolers ran after him, laughing and saying, "Hey, kid, don't run. We won't kick you."

That summer, in order to get away from the middle-schoolers’ kicks, Baldy Li often ran until he collapsed. His eight-year-old legs sore and shaking, his eight-year-old lungs burning for oxygen, his eight-year-old heart pounding wildly, his eight-year-old self ran until he almost died. Finally Baldy Li limped into the alley where Blacksmith Tong, Tailor Zhang, Scissors Guan, and Yanker Yu resided.

Now, of course, they were known as Revolutionary Blacksmith, Revolutionary Tailor, Revolutionary Scissors, and Revolutionary Tooth-Yanker. When a customer brought a bolt of fabric to Tailor Zhang's shop, Zhang would first grill him, asking him about his class background. If he was a poor peasant, Tailor Zhang would greet him with a smile; if he was a middle peasant, Zhang would reluctantly take the fabric; and if he was a landlord, Zhang would immediately raise his fist and shout revolutionary slogans until his ashen-faced landlord customer ran out of the shop with his fabric. Even as he disappeared down the alley, Tailor Zhang would stand at his shop door, declaiming to his departing landlord client, "I will make you the shabbiest funeral garb, no, just a sheet for wrapping your corpse."

The two Scissors Guan were even more revolutionarily enlightened than Tailor Zhang. They didn't take any money from their peasant customers, they took extra from the middle-peasant ones, while the landlord customers had no choice but to scamper away. As the landlords fled, the two Scissors Guan would raise their loudly snapping scissors and stand outside their shop yelling that they were going to snip off their landlord dicks. Scissors Guan yelled, "We're going to snip you into a cockless landlady."

Yanker Yu, meanwhile, was a revolutionary opportunist. He would ask about class background when a patient came to see him but just as often would wait until he had first opened the customer's mouth to get a clear look at his cavities. He worried that if he found he had a landlord on his hands, he would lose both the customer and the money; but if he didn't interrogate his prospective patients, he couldn't be considered a revolutionary dentist. He wanted both money and revolution, and therefore often only when he had his extractor firmly around a client's rotten tooth would he seize the moment to demand in a ringing voice, "Tell me! What's your class background?"

The customer, mouth stuffed with dental implements, would mumble unintelligibly. Yanker Yu would make a big show of bending over to listen, then loudly proclaim, "A poor peasant? Good! I will pull out your rotten tooth."

By the time he finished this declaration, Yu would be done extracting the tooth. He would then immediately thrust a cotton wad into his patients mouth and tell him to clamp down tightly to stanch the bleeding. With his jaw clamped and his mouth stuffed, the customer, even if he had admitted to being a landlord, would be forcefully remade into a poor peasant. With a flourish, Yanker Yu would show his customer the rotten tooth. "See that? This is a poor peasants rotten tooth. If you had been a landlord, then it would have been a perfectly healthy tooth that I would have extracted."

Then Yanker Yu would display a firm stance of clear separation of boundaries between revolution and profit, saying, "Chairman Mao teaches us that a revolution is not a dinner party. Since I extracted one revolutionary tooth, I must therefore collect ten cents of revolutionary money."

Revolutionary Blacksmith Tong never inquired about his customers’ class backgrounds, convinced that he was so ideologically righteous that a class enemy would never dare to enter his shop. Tong thumped his chest and proclaimed, "Only hardworking, poor peasants would come to my shop to buy sickles and hammers; lazy landlords only know how to exploit others and wouldn't know the first thing about hammers and sickles."

The tides of revolution came roaring through town, and soon Blacksmith Tong, Tailor Zhang, and the two Scissors Guan engaged heartily and solely in revolutionary activity. With a revolutionary red armband around his bare arm, Blacksmith Tong no longer hammered out sickles and hoes but, rather, spearheads for red-tasseled spears. As soon as he finished hammering out a spearhead he would send it to the blade-sharpening shop across from his own. The two Scissors Guan now also wore revolutionary armbands on their bare arms, and they were no longer sharpening scissors but sat at their low stools sharpening spearheads, their legs apart and rivulets of sweat running down their backs. Once the two Scissors Guan sharpened the spearhead, they would send it to Tailor Zhang's store next door. Tailor Zhang was wearing an undershirt, but his arms were bare, and he too wore a revolutionary armband. He no longer made clothes; instead he now only made red flags, red armbands, and the silk tassels that hung from the spears. The Cultural Revolution was remaking Liu Town into a revolutionary battlefield, another Jing Gang Mountain — by now the town was already transformed into a scene from Chairman Mao's verse: "flags waving at the bottom of the mountain, with drums ringing from above."

Yanker Yu's arm was also adorned with a red revolutionary armband, which Tailor Zhang had given him. Yanker Yu watched Tong, Guan, and Zhang working as if in a single production line, producing red-tasseled spears, while Yu was left out in the cold. Red-tasseled spears had no teeth, so he couldn't pull or fill them, and certainly couldn't fit them with dentures. All Yanker Yu could do was lie back in his rattan recliner and wait for the call of the revolution.

In Baldy Li's wanderings, he would watch Tong, Guan, and Zhang busy producing red-tasseled spears as if they were a munitions factory. When he tired of watching, he would wander over to Yanker Yu's oilcloth umbrella. Now that he no longer had Song Gang constantly by his side, Baldy Li was often lonely and bored. Wherever he went, he brought his yawns with him, and when Yanker Yu saw him, he would be infected by these yawns.

Alongside the row of extracted rotten teeth that Yanker Yu used to display on his table, he now very progressively displayed a dozen or so perfectly good teeth to demonstrate his class stand to everyone. He even wanted to demonstrate it to the eight-year-old Baldy Li, so he raised himself up from his rattan recliner and, pointing to the teeth, explained, "These are the healthy teeth that I've extracted from class enemies." He then pointed to the several dozen rotten teeth on the table and explained, "These are the rotten teeth that I've extracted from the mouths of my class brothers and sisters."

Baldy Li nodded without enthusiasm. He looked over the healthy teeth of class enemies and the rotten teeth of class brothers and sisters and didn't find any of them very interesting. He then sat down on Yanker Yu's stool next to the recliner and continued yawning. Yanker Yu had passed a listless morning on his recliner, and now that he finally had Baldy Li visiting, they matched each other yawn for yawn.

Yanker Yu sat up. Looking over at the electrical pole across the street, he patted Baldy Li's head and asked, "Aren't you going to go hump that pole?"

"I already did," Baldy Li replied.

"Go hump it again," Yanker Yu encouraged him.

"Nah," explained Baldy Li. "I've humped every pole in this town at least several times."

"Oh, my mother!" Yanker Yu exclaimed. "If this were ancient times, you'd be the emperor with your own harem, but now you're a serial rapist about to be jailed and executed."

When Baldy Li, who was midyawn, heard the phrase "jailed and executed," he was so startled that he swallowed the rest of the yawn and opened his eyes wide. "I'll be jailed and executed for humping electrical poles?"

"Of course." Yanker Yu pointed to the pole and asked Baldy Li, "Do you regard them as class enemies or as class sisters?"

Still wide-eyed, Baldy Li didn't understand. Yanker Yu enthusiastically continued, "If you think of the poles as class enemies, then humping them would be like criticizing them. But if you treat the poles as class sisters, you would need to register for a marriage license. If you don't register and get married, you're a rapist. Now that you've humped every pole in the town, it's as if you've molested every class sister in town. So why wouldn't they jail and execute you?"

After hearing Yanker Yu's explanation, Baldy Li was relieved of his worries over execution and imprisonment, and his wide-open eyes relaxed to narrow slits. Yanker Yu patted Baldy Li on the head and asked, "Now do you get it? Now do you understand what having a class stand is?"

"Yup." Baldy Li nodded.

"So tell me," Yanker Yu continued, "do you think of them as class enemies? Or class sisters?"

Baldy Li blinked a few times. "What if I think of them as class electrical poles?"

Yanker Yu was stunned into silence. Then he burst out laughing. "You little bastard."

After Baldy Li spent half an hour at Yanker Yu's, Yu was amused but Baldy Li was still bored, so he got up and went back to Blacksmith Tongs shop. Baldy Li sat on Tongs long bench with his back against the wall and his head half cocked, watching Blacksmith Tong energetically hammering out a red-tasseled spear. The blacksmith held the spear with his tongs in his left hand and wielded his iron hammer with his right as sparks flew all over the shop. The red revolutionary armband on Blacksmith Tongs left arm kept slipping down, and he would raise his tongs-wielding left hand to slide the armband back up, waving the spearhead in his tongs through the air. As he hammered away Blacksmith Tong looked over at Baldy Li, remembering how the little fellow used to climb onto the long bench and rub back and forth but now would just lean against it dejectedly like a diseased chicken squatting in a corner. Blacksmith Tong couldn't help but ask him, "Hey you're not going to have sexual relations with the bench?"

"Sexual relations?" Baldy Li cackled a few times, thinking that it was a funny phrase. But he shook his head and laughed bitterly. "I've lost my sex drive."

Now it was Blacksmith Tongs turn to cackle. He said, "This little bastard is impotent."

Baldy Li laughed along. He asked Blacksmith Tong, "What does impotent mean?"

Tong laid down his hammer and wiped his face with the towel draped around his neck. "Loosen your pants and look at your weenie," he said.

Baldy Li loosened his pants and took a look. Blacksmith Tong asked, "So is it soft?"

Baldy Li nodded. "Its as soft as dough."

"That's called impotence." Blacksmith Tong hung the towel back around his neck and, squinting, explained: "When your weenie is hard like a little cannon about to fire, that means you have a sex drive. But when it's soft as dough, then you're impotent."

Baldy Li let out an "oh." As if discovering a new continent, he exclaimed, "So I'm impotent."

By this time Baldy Li was already notorious. In Liu, there were quite a few loafers loitering in the streets who would sometimes raise their fists, shout a few slogans, and follow behind some parading troupe, or sometimes they would lean idly against the wutong trees, yawning nonstop. These loafers were all acquainted with Baldy Li, and whenever they saw him, they would get excited and start chuckling, calling out to one another, "That pole-humping fellow is here."

But Baldy Li was no longer his old self. Song Fanping had been locked in the warehouse, and Song Gang, who had lost his voice, was no longer speaking to him. Alone and constantly hungry, Baldy Li walked dejectedly along the main streets, having lost all interest in the wooden poles lining the streets. The loafers, however, remained very interested in him. Keeping an eye on the parade making its way down the street, they blocked his path and pointed at the wooden poles along the street, whispering, "Hey, kid, haven't seen you hump the poles for a while."

Baldy Li shook his head and answered in a ringing voice, "I no longer have sexual relations with them."

These loafers shook with laughter and surrounded Baldy Li to prevent him from getting away. They waited until the crowds had passed, then asked him again, "So why don't you have sexual relations anymore?"

With a practiced air Baldy Li unfastened his pants and instructed them to look at his penis. He said, "See that? See my weenie?"

Knocking their heads together, they looked down Baldy Li's pants, and when they nodded, their heads knocked together again. Holding their heads, they answered that they'd seen it, and Baldy Li continued, "So is it as hard as a little cannon? Or is it as soft as dough?"

These people didn't know what Baldy Li was getting at, so they nodded, "Soft, definitely soft, like dough."

"So that's why I no longer engage in sexual relations," explained Baldy Li.

Then he waved his hands like a famous knight errant bidding farewell to his fighting days, and parted the crowd. After a few steps he turned back. Sounding as if he had seen the sorrow of the ages, he said with a sigh, "I'm impotent."

Buoyed by the crowd's laughter, Baldy Li regained his spirit. He raised his head and strutted off. And when he walked past a wooden electrical pole, he gave it a kick, as if proclaiming that he had fully ended his relationship with all such poles.

CHAPTER 13

BALDY LI didn't have a cent to his name as he roamed the streets. When he was thirsty, he drank from the river. When he was hungry, he could only swallow his saliva and head home. By that point his home was like a shattered vase. The armoire had been pushed over, but he and Song Gang didn't have the strength to lift it back up; the floor was strewn with clothes, but the children were too lazy to pick them up. Since Song Fanping had been taken away and locked up in that warehouse, crowds came to search their house twice more. Each time Baldy Li immediately ducked out, leaving Song Gang to deal with them on his own. He was sure that when Song Gang rasped to them, they would lose their tempers and smack him on the head.

During those days, Song Gang never left the house and instead started cooking like a chef. Song Fanping had once taught the boys how to cook, and while Baldy Li had completely forgotten everything, Song Gang remembered his lessons. When Baldy Li returned home dejected, his stomach growling, he'd find that Song Gang had prepared dinner, had set out their rice bowls and those two pairs of chopsticks of the ancients, and was sitting at the table waiting for him. When he saw Baldy Li walk in swallowing his saliva, Song Gang would start his rasping. Baldy Li knew that he was saying, "You're finally home." The moment Baldy Li stepped inside, he would grab his rice bowl and gulp everything down.

Baldy Li had no idea how Song Gang passed his days — how every day he would stand at the stove and light a match in order to ignite the strip of cotton, and how each day he'd have to pull the cotton out a little farther as it burned shorter and shorter. He worked himself up into a huge sweat, his hands coated in charcoal and his fingernails black, only to serve Baldy Li a pot of half-cooked rice. Baldy Li ate the rice as if he were chewing on kernels, crunching and gnawing until his stomach hurt. The vegetables that Song Gang stir-fried tasted extraordinarily foul. When Song Fanping made them, they were glistening and green, but Song Gang's always came out yellow and wilted, like pickled cabbage. Moreover, the greens would be speckled with black, charcoal-like specks and would always be either too salty or too bland. Baldy Li had stopped speaking to Song Gang, but he would lose his temper at mealtimes, complaining bitterly, "The rice is still raw, and the greens are wilted. You are a landlords son."

Song Gang would turn beet red and rasp a string of unintelligible words. Baldy Li said, "Stop rasping, you sound like a mosquito farting or a dung beetle crapping."

By the time Song Gang regained his voice, he had learned how to cook the rice evenly. The children had long finished the last of the greens that Song Fanping had left behind for them and had almost emptied the rice barrel. Song Gang put the well-cooked rice in a bowl and placed a bottle of soy sauce next to it. When he saw Baldy Li come in, he exclaimed with surprise, "This time its fully cooked!"

Song Gang had indeed succeeded in cooking the rice so that each grain was round and glistening. This was the best bowl of rice Baldy Li could remember ever having eaten, and though later in life he would have many far better bowls of rice, he always felt that they could not equal the one Song Gang made on this occasion. Baldy Li thought this was a case of blind luck on Song Gangs part, sheer accident that he had produced such a perfect pot of rice. After several days of half-cooked rice, they finally sat down to enjoy the real thing. They didn't have any greens, but they did have soy sauce. The boys poured the soy sauce on top of the steaming hot rice and stirred it in. The rice glistened as if lacquered with red and black paint, and the fragrance of soy sauce mingled with the steaming hot rice, filling the entire room.

By this point it was dark. The children ate their fill of this delicious, oily concoction. Moonlight shone through the window, and a breeze slid past the rooftop. Song Gang started speaking in his raspy voice, his mouth full of soy-sauce rice: "When do you think Papa will come home?"

Tears began to stream down his face even before he finished speaking. He put down his bowl and bent over, sobbing, as he continued swallowing bites of rice. Then he wiped his eyes and began wailing, his raspy voice sounding like a weak siren, a long wail followed by a short one, until his entire body shook.

Baldy Li also lowered his head, feeling terrible. He wanted to say something to Song Gang, but in the end he kept silent, merely telling himself, He is a landlord's son.

After fixing such an extraordinary pot of rice, the next day Song Gang once again prepared a half-cooked one. The moment Baldy Li saw the dull specks of grain in the bowl, he knew it was over, that they had to eat raw rice again. Song Gang had been seated at the table, engaged in a science experiment. He had carefully sprinkled some salt in one bowl of rice, then carefully poured a bit of soy sauce in the other. He had then tasted each bowl, one after the other. By the time Baldy Li got home, Song Gang had obtained his results. He happily announced to Baldy Li that rice sprinkled with salt was much tastier than the raw rice mixed with soy sauce, and that the salt should be sprinkled on after each bite. By the time the salt dissolved into the rice, it would have lost some of its flavor.

Baldy Li shouted furiously at Song Gang, "I want cooked rice, I don't want raw rice."

Song Gang looked up and told him the bad news: "We're out of charcoal. The fire went out halfway through."

Baldy Li's anger faded as he had no choice but to sit down and eat the half-raw rice. No charcoal meant no fire. Baldy Li thought to himself that it would be great if only Song Gang could piss out some coal or fart out some flames. Song Gang instructed Baldy Li to sprinkle some salt on the rice and then immediately gulp it down. Baldy Li tried this, and his eyes lit up. Chewing the salt crystals and the rice kernels together produced a nice, crisp taste, and each time Baldy Li bit down on a salt crystal, a burst of flavor would fill his mouth. Baldy Li understood why Song Gang told him to eat the raw rice before the salt melted; it was like rubbing sticks together to make a fire, as the saltiness burst forth at the instant of crunching. Once the salt dissolved, the savoriness disappeared and only a stale taste of salt remained. For the first time Baldy Li found that half-raw rice wasn't half bad. But then Song Gang told him the other bad news: "Now we're out of rice, too."

Come evening, the two boys were still eating the half-cooked rice sprinkled with salt left over from lunch. The next morning they got up after the sun woke them shining on their bare bottoms. After getting out of bed, they ran to a corner outside and took a piss, then fetched a pail of well water and washed their faces. Only then did they remember that they didn't even have a fart left to eat. Baldy Li sat on the front step for a while. He wanted to see how Song Gang was going to figure out how to get something to eat. Song Gang rummaged first through the toppled armoire and then through the clothes on the floor, but he couldn't come up with a single thing to eat. Song Gang could only swallow his saliva and consider it breakfast.

There wasn't much for Baldy Li to do but to swallow his own saliva and continue roaming the streets and alleyways like a stray dog. At first he still had some spring in his step, but by noon he was like a deflated balloon. Eventually the hungry eight-year-old Baldy Li was transformed into a decrepit eighty-year-old. Even if he ignored his faintness and dizziness or the weakness of his limbs, there were the endless hiccups coming from his completely empty stomach. Baldy Li sat under a wutong tree beside the street for a very long time, tilting his head and watching the people walk past. He saw someone walk by him eating a meat bun, saw the meat juice on that person's lips, and even saw with his own eyes that person licking away the juice with his tongue. Then there was the woman who walked by eating watermelon seeds and spitting the shells right into his hair. But what infuriated Baldy Li the most was a stray dog, since even it was carrying a bone in its mouth.

Baldy Li had no idea how he made it home that evening. He only knew that he was starving. He didn't expect to find any food at home and only wanted to lie down in bed. But when he reached the front door, he suddenly spotted Song Gang sitting at the table, eating. At that moment Baldy Li was ecstatic, and though he was faint with hunger he propelled himself forward.

It was in vain. When he approached, Baldy Li realized that Song Gang had in front of him only a bowl of clear water; putting a bit of salt on his tongue, he let it slowly melt, then chased it with a sip of water, followed by a sip of soy sauce. He puffed his cheeks as if he were savoring this, and only after the taste of soy sauce had fully marinated his tongue did he take another sip of water.

Song Gang used his last bit of energy to eat his salt and soy sauce and drink his water. He was so hungry he had no desire to say anything to Baldy Li, merely pointed at the other bowl of water on the table. Baldy Li knew that this bowl had been prepared for him, and he sat down at the table. Though he was greatly disappointed, he followed Song Gang's lead. A dab of salt and soy sauce and a sip of water was better than nothing at all. Though in truth this lunch consisted of nothing, it made Baldy Li feel that at least he had eaten something. He felt a little better and lay down on the bed, muttering to himself that he wanted to see what there was to eat in his dreams. With a lick of his lips he fell asleep.

Sure enough, the moment he started dreaming he dove headfirst into a giant steamer. Hot steam poured from its sides, and several cooks dressed in white grunted "Hey-ho, hey-ho" as they labored to lift off the giant steamers lid. Baldy Li could see that there were as many steamed meat buns inside as there were people at the struggle sessions in the schoolyard, and each of the buns was oozing meat juices. The cooks put the steamer lid back on, saying that the buns weren't done yet. Baldy Li argued that they were definitely done, the juices were already oozing out of the buns, but the cooks ignored him. He could only stand to one side and wait and wait, until the meat juices were already seeping out of the steamer, whereupon the cooks finally exclaimed, "They're done!" With another series of "Hey-ho, hey-hos" they lifted the lid and said, "Have one!" Baldy Li felt like a diver as he thrust his head into the steamer and scooped up a whole armful of meat buns. And just as he was about to bite into a juice-seeping bun, he woke up.

Song Gang, who had shaken him awake, pushed Baldy Li and cried out hoarsely, "I found it! I found it!"

The meat bun vanished without a trace after Song Gang's poking and prodding, and Baldy Li was so upset he started wailing. Wiping his tears, he kicked Song Gang while yelling, "Buns, buns, buns!" But Baldy Li immediately broke into a smile when he saw that Song Gang was waving grain ration tickets and money, of which Baldy Li could make out two five-yuan bills.

Song Gang chattered excitedly about how he came to find the money and ration tickets that Song Fanping had left them. Baldy Li couldn't understand a single word, his head being already stuffed to the brim with the thought of succulent meat buns. Suddenly getting a second wind, Baldy Li leapt off the bed and said to Song Gang, "Let's go! Let's go buy some buns!"

Song Gang shook his head. "I should first go ask Papa. If he says yes, then we can go buy them."

Baldy Li replied, "By the time we find your father, we'll have starved to death!"

Song Gang shook his head again and said, "We won't starve to death. We'll find him real soon."

They had money and grain rations, and they almost had buns — but now this idiot Song Gang wanted to go ask his goddamn father's permission! Baldy Li was so impatient he started stomping his feet. He eyed the money and tickets in Song Gang's hand and was about to make a leap for them when Song Gang, realizing that Baldy Li was about to snatch them, quickly stuffed everything into his pocket. The two ended up in a tangle and fell to the ground. Song Gang tightly covered his pockets with both hands, and Baldy Li tried to unlock his fingers to get to the pocket. Neither child had eaten anything all day, and both were weak with hunger. They fought for a while and then stopped to catch their breath, their mouths open as they huffed and panted. Then they resumed their grappling and panting. Finally, Song Gang got up off the floor and was about to dash out, but Baldy Li crawled up and blocked the door. Both boys were so tired they couldn't even stand straight. With Baldy Li at the door, they faced each other and panted, taking the opportunity to rest for a while. Then Song Gang turned to go into the kitchen, and Baldy Li heard him gulping down a ladleful of water from the cistern. A sated Song Gang walked up to Baldy Li, hoarsely yelling at him, "I'm all set to go again!"

Song Gang shoved Baldy Li aside and ran out the door, going to look for their landlord father. Baldy Li lay on the floor like a dead pig, then crawled and sat at the entrance like a sick dog. His hunger made him let out a few wails, but crying made him feel even hungrier, so he immediately stopped. Baldy Li could hear the sound of the wind blowing through the tree branches and could see the sunlight shining on his toes. He thought to himself, If I could munch the rays of sunlight like stir-fried pork and drink the wind like a bowl of meat broth, then I'd be set. Baldy Li sat leaning against the door frame for a while, then he got up to go to the kitchen and gulped his fill of water from the cistern. He now felt he had a bit of strength back, so he shut the door and walked into the street.

That afternoon Baldy Li paced the streets with his last remaining shreds of energy. He didn't find anything to eat, but he did run into the three middle-school students. Baldy Li was leaning against a wutong tree when he heard a few titters and someone calling out to him, "Hey, kid."

By the time Baldy Li lifted his head, they had already surrounded him. One look at their gleeful faces and Baldy Li knew that they were planning to practice their sweeping kicks again. This time he was simply unable to run away and told them, "I haven't eaten all day."

Long-haired Sun Wei said, "Let's feed you a few kicks, then."

Baldy Li pleaded with them, "No more sweeping kicks today. I'll eat them tomorrow."

"Nope," all three replied. "You have to eat them today and tomorrow."

Baldy Li pointed at the electrical pole not far off in the distance and continued to beg. "Don't feed me any more kicks. Why don't you let me go have sexual relations with that pole?"

The three middle-schoolers burst out laughing, and Sun Wei replied, "First you have some kicks, and when you've gotten your fill, go have relations with that pole."

Baldy Li wiped his tears. The three middle-schoolers politely deferred to one another, generously wanting to offer up the opportunity to make the first kick.

At this point Song Gang appeared. He ran from the opposite side of the street, buns in his hands, and plopped himself down right beside Baldy Li, dragging him to the ground. When both kids were seated on the ground, Song Gang, his head covered in sweat, handed Baldy Li a steaming hot meat bun. Baldy Li took it and stuffed it into his mouth. With his first bite the meat juices oozed out of the corner of his lips. Baldy Li choked before he could even finish the first bite, and he sat there motionless, his neck extended. Song Gang patted him on the back while smugly saying to the three middle-schoolers, "We're already sitting on the ground. How are you going to sweep us down?"

"Fuck." The middle-schoolers looked at one another, then repeated, "Fuck."

The three had no idea how to sweep-kick Baldy Li and Song Gang when they were already on the ground. They discussed dragging the two kids to their feet, but Song Gang warned them, "We'll scream for help. People from the street will all come over."

"Fuck that." Long-haired Sun Wei said, "If you had guts, you'd stand up."

Song Gang replied, "If you had guts, you'd sweep-kick us up."

The students eyed Baldy Li and Song Gang helplessly. Cursing, they looked at one another and watched Baldy Li eat his meat bun. After wolfing down the bun, Baldy Li regained some of his energy, and he seconded Song Gang, adding, "We're very comfortable sitting down here, even more comfortable than we would be in our own beds."

The three middle-schoolers each muttered "Motherfucker," and then Sun Wei changed his tactics. He grinned at them warmly and said to Baldy Li, "Hey, kid, why don't you get up? We promise not to sweep-kick you. Go ahead and have sexual relations with that electrical pole."

Baldy Li giggled and licked the remaining meat juice from his lips. He licked until he was lolling his head about and replied, "I no longer have sexual relations with electrical poles. You want to do it, go ahead. I'm impotent now, don't you know?"

The three middle-schoolers didn't know what impotent meant. They looked at one another curiously. Victory Zhao couldn't help but ask Baldy Li, "What's impotent?"

Baldy Li smugly explained, "Just unfasten your trousers and look at your …"

Victory Zhao touched his crotch and looked at Baldy Li with alarm. Baldy Li asked, "So take a look. Is your dick hard like a little metal cannon? Or is it soft and mushy like dough?"

Victory Zhao felt his dick through his pants. He retorted, "Do I need to look? Of course it's soft and mushy like dough right now."

Upon hearing that, Baldy Li exclaimed with delight, "So you're impotent, too!"

The three middle-schoolers now understood what impotent meant. Sun Wei and Success Liu broke out in guffaws, and Sun Wei said to Victory Zhao, "You're such an idiot. You didn't even know what impotent meant."

Victory Zhao felt that he had lost face, so he kicked Baldy Li. "You little bastard, you're the one who's impotent. When I get up in the morning I'm harder than an iron cannon."

Baldy Li eagerly provided Victory Zhao with guidance: "So you're not impotent in the morning, just in the afternoon."

"Bullshit," Victory Zhao replied. "All year around, twenty-four hours a day — I'm never impotent."

"Bullshit." Baldy Li pointed at the nearby wooden pole. "Go prove it with that electrical pole over there."

"Electrical pole?" Victory Zhao snorted. He said, "Only a little bastard like you would hump a wooden pole. If I'm going to have sexual relations, I'll do it with your mother."

Baldy Li dismissed him. "My mother wouldn't let you guys get near her."

Then he pointed to Song Gang standing next to him and boasted, "My mom only does it with his dad."

Sun Wei and Success Liu doubled over with laughter. Victory Zhao let out a string of curses, but the three middle-schoolers knew that the two little bastards wouldn't stand up until hell froze over. The three discussed how they were going to teach the little bastards a lesson and how maybe they should first lift them up, then sweep them back down. Baldy Li remembered how Blacksmith Tong had saved them last time, so he smilingly announced, "Blacksmith Tong is here."

The middle-schoolers turned to look down the street but saw no sign of Blacksmith Tong. So the three of them kicked Baldy Li and Song Gang each three times, making them cry out in pain, and then walked off, feeling they had finally got the advantage of things.

Baldy Li had managed to escape being sweep-kicked and even had had a meat bun. The sad thing was that he couldn't recall the taste of the bun at all. He remembered only that he had choked four times and that Song Gang had slapped him on the back. Song Gang said later that when Baldy Li was choking, his neck was stretched as long as a goose s.

Baldy Li and Song Gang were pals again. The brothers faced each other and grinned and laughed for about a minute, then they walked hand in hand down the main street. Song Gang said he had found his father, who was living in a warehouse. A bunch of people were locked up in that warehouse, some crying and others shouting. Baldy Li asked why they were crying and shouting. Song Gang replied that it seemed like people were fighting inside.

That afternoon Song Gang held Baldy Li's hand and walked down three streets, over two bridges, and through a small alley, until they finally reached the warehouse holding landlords and capitalists, modern-day and old-time counterrevolutionaries, together with all other class enemies. Baldy Li spotted long-haired Sun Wei's father— he was wearing a red armband and standing in front of the warehouse smoking. When he saw Song Gang, he asked, "How come you're here again?"

Song Gang pointed at Baldy Li. "This is my brother, Baldy Li. He wants to see our father."

Sun Wei's father looked Baldy Li over, and asked, "Where's your mother?"

Baldy Li replied, "She's in Shanghai seeing a doctor."

Sun Wei's father tossed his cigarette butt onto the ground and stomped it out. He pushed open the warehouse door and shouted inside, "Song Fanping! Song Fanping, get out here!"

When the door opened, Baldy Li spied a man inside who was on the ground, cradling his head in his hands while another man whipped him with a belt. The man on the ground was completely silent, but the man whipping him was wailing, as if he were the one being whipped. This sight gave Baldy Li the shivers, and Song Gang turned pale. They were both so shocked they didn't notice Song Fanping, who had walked out the front door. Song Fanping walked up to the boys and asked, "So you've had your meat buns?"

Baldy Li looked up to see Song Fanping's tall figure before him. His shirt was covered in bloodstains, and his face was swollen and bruised, and Baldy Li could tell that this was the result of his having been beaten half to death. Song Fanping squatted down to take a look at Baldy Li, reaching out to caress his head. "Baldy Li, you still have meat juice on your lips."

Baldy Li bowed his head and let out a few sorrowful tears. He regretted his own revelation. He thought, If I hadn't said those things in front of the school gate, Song Fanping wouldn't be here getting tortured. When he thought about how kind Song Fanping had been to him, Baldy Li started sobbing. "I was wrong."

Song Fanping wiped away Baldy Li's tears with his thumb and teased him, "You haven't sucked the snot into your eyes, have you?"

Baldy Li broke out into a chuckle. The crying and shouting and cursing in the warehouse became louder and louder, rumbling ceaselessly from the door's cracks. There were also sounds of moaning, almost like frogs’ croaking. Baldy Li became alarmed. He and Song Gang stood by Song Fanping and shivered. Song Fanping acted as if he hadn't heard anything and chatted happily with the boys, though his left arm dangled awkwardly by his side. Baldy Li and Song Gang didn't know that his arm had been beaten until it was dislocated. They thought that it looked odd, as if he had a prosthetic limb. They asked him what was wrong, and he explained, "It's tired, so I'm letting it rest for a few days."

Song Fanping always filled Baldy Li and Song Gang with wonder. They felt that he had all sorts of mysterious powers and hidden talents, that he could even let his arm dangle and rest for a few days.

To satisfy Baldy Li and Song Gang's curiosity, Song Fanping became their coach right in front of this giant warehouse filled with wails and screams, teaching them how to let their forearms rest for a bit. He told the boys to first lower one shoulder until it was sloping down, and then to let their arm relax and hang down. He told them they couldn't use any force on the sloping arm; they had to pretend that it wasn't there. He pointed to his solar plexus, saying, "Don't think about this arm anymore." Once he felt that Baldy Li and Song Gang had gotten the gist of it, he told them to line up and march back and forth in front of the warehouse with their sloped shoulders and dangling arms while he chanted, "One-two, one-two." Baldy Li and Song Gang noticed that with every step they took, their dangling arm would swing back and forth. The boys were delighted, pointing excitedly to each Bother;s arm.

Song Fanping asked them, "So are your arms dangling?"

Baldy Li and Song Gang answered in unison, "They are!"

Long-haired Sun Wei's father watched them, laughing uncontrollably. First he chuckled, then he guffawed, and finally he laughed until he was squatting and clutching his stomach. He eventually stood up, clutching his belly, and said to Song Fanping, "Okay, you should go back in."

Song Fanping walked back to the warehouse, but before entering, he turned and told the boys, "Now go home and practice."

That afternoon Baldy Li and Song Gang completely forgot about the horrible sounds coming from inside the warehouse, as well as Song Fanpings bruised, swollen face. They only remembered Song Fanping instructing them to continue practicing. All the way home they enthusiastically practiced sloping their shoulders and dangling their arms. Once they got home, they lay in bed and draped their arms over the side. They discovered that it was much easier dangling their arms over the side of the bed than walking with a sloped shoulder, the only drawback being that after a while their arms would go to sleep.

CHAPTER 14

BALDY LI and Song Gang continued their parentless existence, and got by quite well. They would go together to the rice store, where they would fit their rice sack over the rubber chute and watch the rice cascade down. Then they would bang the chute opening with loud, crisp slaps until the store clerks yelled at them and a hand reached out from behind the counter to knock them on the head.

With their basket in hand, they went together to buy groceries. While selecting the greens, they would stealthily rip off the outer leaves until only the tenderest inner leaves were left, causing the old lady selling vegetables to tear up with annoyance. She cursed them over and over, calling them turtles’ eggs, little bastards who would come to a bad end; saying that they would choke on a breath and get water stuck in their teeth, and end up without an asshole to crap with or a penis to piss out of.

Baldy Li and Song Gang scrimped and saved and, like monks, ate only vegetables. After a while they began to really crave meat, so they went to the river to catch shrimp. By the time they reached the river, they realized that they had no idea how to cook them. At that point they hadn't caught sight of even a shadow of a shrimp, but already they were licking their lips and discussing how they were going to cook them. Would they panfry them? Stir-fry them? Or boil them? In the end, they made a detour to the warehouse to consult with Song Fan-ping. When they reached the warehouse gate, they slanted their shoulders and let their elbows dangle. Song Fanping came outside to tell them that stir-frying, panfrying, and boiling would all be fine, but just to make sure that the shrimp had turned pink before eating them. Song Fanping explained, "They're done when they're as pink as the tip of your tongue."

Song Fanping told the boys that the shrimp would be swimming in the shallows. He told them to roll their pants legs up to their knees, warning, "Once the water reaches your pants, then you shouldn't go any farther. There are no shrimp in the depths, only snakes."

Baldy Li and Song Gang shuddered. They didn't realize that Song Fanping, worried that they would drown if they ventured into the deep water, was deliberately scaring them. The boys nodded and promised that they would stay in the places where the river water remained below their knees. As they set off, shoulders slanted and elbows dangling, Song Fanping called out to them again, telling them to go home and get a bamboo basket. They asked, "What for?" Song Fanping replied, "What do you net fish with?"

The boys stopped and pondered this. Song Gang replied, "A fishing rod."

"That's for rod fishing," Song Fanping explained. "For netting fish you need a fishnet, and you need a bamboo basket to catch shrimp."

With his left elbow dangling, Song Fanping cocked his right elbow as if he were holding a bamboo basket, and bending down right in front of the warehouse, he started teaching them how to use a basket to net shrimp. He said that while standing in the river they should be as alert as sentries, placing the basket in the water at an angle, and once shrimp swam in of their own accord, the boys should immediately lift the basket. He stood up, concluding, "So this is how you catch shrimp."

Song Fanping asked them whether they got it. Baldy Li and Song Gang glanced at each other and nodded. Song Fanping said that he would teach them one more time, but when he bent down again, they immediately pointed out his error. Baldy Li said, "You haven't rolled up your pants legs."

Song Fanping chuckled. He bent down again and rolled up both pants legs, then once again demonstrated how to catch shrimp. This time both boys answered in unison, "We got it."

Baldy Li and Song Gang arrived at the river, rolled up their pants, and waded in. The water rushed by below their knees. They placed the basket in the water at an angle, just as Song Fanping had done in front of the warehouse, and waited for the shrimp to swim in. They waited in the river under the summer sun for an entire afternoon, until they were covered in sweat. They were startled to discover that the shrimp in the river skipped as they swam, unlike the fish with their tails wagging. The shrimp skipped, hopped, and swam into the boys’ basket, up to five swimming in at once. The boys were so delighted they started yelping but then immediately covered their mouths when they noticed that they had scared away the little river shrimp, making it necessary for them to change location. Only when the boys sat on the grass by the riverbank counting the shrimp under the glow of the setting sun did they realize they had netted sixty-seven of the little guys.

On this particular evening, the boys’ expressions, their intonation, and their gait — all were the spitting image of those red-armbanders parading around Liu Town. Baldy Li and Song Gang strutted through town with their bamboo basket and their sixty-seven shrimp. Someone spotted the shrimp in their basket and couldn't help harrumphing, saying that these two little bastards really had something going. When Baldy Li heard this, he felt smug, this being the first time he liked being called a bastard. He said to Song Gang, "These little bastards have something going."

After they got home, Baldy Li told Song Gang, "Let's boil those sixty-seven little bastard shrimp."

As the water in the pot started to boil, Baldy Li excitedly pointed out to Song Gang, "Hear that? Do you hear those sixty-seven little bastard shrimp bouncing around in there?"

When there were no more sounds coming from the pot, the boys lifted the lid and saw that the shrimp inside had all turned pink. Remembering what Song Fanping had told them about when the shrimp were done, Song Gang stuck out his tongue for Baldy Li and asked if the shrimp were as pink as his tongue. Baldy Li replied, "They're even pinker."

Baldy Li also stuck out his tongue to show Song Gang. Song Gang said, "They're pinker than your tongue, too."

Together they cried, "Let's eat! Let's eat these little bastard shrimp."

This was the first time they had eaten shrimp that they themselves had caught and cooked. They had forgotten to put salt in the pot, and after taking in a few bland bites, they decided that the taste was somewhat off. Song Gang then had a flash of culinary inspiration and proceeded to pour some soy sauce into a bowl, then dipped the shrimp into the soy sauce before eating them. Baldy Li grinned from ear to ear as he ate, proclaiming that the meat on these little bastard shrimp was dozens of times tastier than those little bastard meat buns. At that moment the boys had no awareness of anything other than the shrimp they were eating. After they finished, they sat there savoring the dish, not having fully emerged from their gustatory ecstasy. Only when Song Gang let out a belch, followed by Baldy Li, did they realize that they had finished off all sixty-seven little river shrimp. The boys wiped their mouths and agreed dreamily, "Let's eat shrimp tomorrow."

In the days that followed, Baldy Li and Song Gang lost all interest in wandering the main streets. They now loved the creek with a passion. They left at dawn every day with their basket to catch shrimp, walking a long, long way down the riverbank and then back again. Their legs were as pale as corpses and swollen from all the soaking, while their faces glowed red like overfed capitalists. Completely on their own, they learned to boil, panfry, and stir-fry the shrimp. They discovered that stir-frying shrimp required soy sauce, but that salt worked better with deep-frying. When good fortune came rushing in, there was no damming it. Once the boys netted more than a hundred shrimp. They fried and fried the shrimp until they had turned black, but when they ate them, they were delighted to discover that the blackened shells were crisp and delicious, with a taste completely distinct from that of the shrimp meat. When they were halfway through and still had more than forty shrimp left, Song Gang suddenly stopped eating and suggested, "Lets take these to Papa."

Baldy Li agreed, "Yes!"

They gathered the remaining fried shrimp into a bowl, and as they were walking out the door Song Gang said that they should get Papa two ounces of yellow rice wine. Song Gang imagined that Song Fan-ping would be so delighted to be drinking wine and eating shrimp that he would laugh with delight. Song Gang opened his mouth and cackled, demonstrating how his father would laugh. Baldy Li said Song Gang hadn't gotten it right and sounded like he was screaming for help. Then Baldy Li showed how he thought Song Fanping would sound— his mouth would be so crammed with shrimp and wine that he would barely be able to get a sound out and instead would just emit a few gurgles of laughter. Song Gang replied that Baldy Li's version wasn't right either, that it sounded more like a yawn.

They brought an empty bowl and went to the store to buy two ounces of wine. The wine vendor caught sight of the shrimp in their other bowl and took a few greedy sniffs. He said that the shrimp smelled so good he could only imagine how tasty they would be. Baldy Li and Song Gang chuckled and confirmed—"Yup, they were even tastier than they smelled." As they turned to leave they could hear the wine vendor swallowing his saliva.

It was dusk, and with Song Gang holding the bowl of wine and Baldy Li carrying the bowl of fried shrimp, the two boys carefully made their way to Song Fanping's warehouse. There they once again ran into the three sweep-kicking middle-schoolers, who walked toward them hollering, "Hey kids!"

Oh no, they thought. If it weren't for the wine and shrimp, they would have already taken off. But now, their hands full with bowls, they could only plop themselves on the ground. Three pairs of sweep-kicking legs encircled them. Baldy Li and Song Gang, still cupping their bowls, looked up at the three middle-schoolers. Song Gang said, not without satisfaction, "We're already sitting on the ground."

Baldy Li thought that they would respond, "Stand up if you have balls." So he jumped the gun and added, "Sweep-kick us up if you have the balls." But the three middle-schoolers hadn't said a word, instead focusing all their attention on the contents of Baldy Li's bowl. Sun Wei, Victory Zhao, and Success Liu all squatted down next to Baldy Li, and Sun Wei took a deep sniff and said, "Smells real good, even better than shrimp from the restaurant."

Victory Zhao added, "Damn. They even have wine to go with it."

Baldy Li's hands started trembling as he realized that they were going to grab his fried shrimp. Sure enough, they said, "Hey, kid. Give us a taste."

Three pairs of hands simultaneously dipped into Baldy Li's bowl. Baldy Li ducked and protected his bowl, hurriedly reminding them, "Blacksmith Tongs already told you, we are the young blossoms of our homeland."

When they heard Blacksmith Tongs name, the middle-schoolers yanked back their hands. After looking around and making sure that Blacksmith Tong was nowhere to be seen and that no one else was paying them any heed, they reached over again. Baldy Li opened his mouth and prepared to bite down on any invading digits when Song Gang suddenly shouted, "Shrimp for sale! Shrimp for sale!"

As he yelled out Song Gang nudged Baldy Li with his elbow. When Baldy Li saw that Song Gang's hawking had attracted some passersby he too began shouting, "Shrimp for sale! Fragrant fried shrimp!"

A crowd instantly gathered and stared curiously at Baldy Li and Song Gang. The three middle-schoolers were squeezed off to the sides and stood there cursing Song Gang's dad, Baldy Li's mom, as well as all of their ancestors, before finally wiping their lips and going away.

Someone asked Baldy Li and Song Gang, "How much for the shrimp?"

Song Gang replied, "One yuan a shrimp."

"What?" the man exclaimed. "Do you think you are selling gold?"

"Just smell." Song Gang let Baldy Li hold up the bowl. "These are fried shrimp."

Baldy Li raised the bowl over his head. The crowd all caught a whiff of the shrimp and someone said, "They do smell good. But it should really be two shrimp for a cent."

Someone else added, "With one yuan you could buy a golden shrimp. These two little bastards are real profiteers."

Song Gang stood up, retorting, "You can't eat a golden shrimp."

Baldy Li also stood up and said, "Plus, golden shrimp aren't tasty."

Seeing that the three middle-schoolers were no longer around, Baldy Li and Song Gang breathed a sigh of relief and extricated themselves from the crowd of people. Holding their bowls, the boys swaggered away and proceeded down the street and over the bridge until they reached the front gate of the warehouse. The warehouse was still being guarded by the father of long-haired Sun Wei — who had just missed an opportunity to eat Baldy Li's shrimp. Sun Wei's father saw the two boys walking toward him and chuckled, "Hey, you're not dangling your elbows anymore?"

The two boys answered, "Can't dangle ‘em. We're carrying bowls." Sun Wei's father caught a whiff of the shrimp. He walked over to peer down at the bowls, then grabbed a shrimp and started munching on it. He asked, "Who cooked these?"

Baldy Li answered, "We did."

Astonished, he said, "You little bastards, you're top chefs."

As he said this he reached into the shrimp bowl again, but Baldy Li quickly dodged. So Sun Wei's father simply thrust out both hands, demanding both the shrimp and the wine. The children backed away, dodging his grasp. After cursing "Fuck that!" he walked back to the warehouse door and kicked it open, bellowing, "Song Fanping! Get out here. Your sons brought you stuff to eat and drink!"

He lingered on the words stuff to eat and drink, and soon five or six people wearing red armbands rushed out. Looking all about as they hurried over, they asked, "What's there to eat? What's there to drink?"

Their nostrils flared as they sniffed, and they said, "How fragrant, even more fragrant than lard." They had been eating carrots and greens day in and day out, and tasted pork at most once a month. Now that they caught sight of the fried shrimp in Baldy Li's hands, they felt so ravenous that claws seemed to emerge from their mouths. They surrounded the two children like a high wall encircling two saplings. A din of "Lemme try it!" filled the air, and a stream of saliva rained down on Baldy Li and Song Gangs faces. Frightened, the boys cradled their bowls and yelled, "Help! Help!"

Song Fanping walked out with his dangling arm. The boys spotted their savior and cried out, "Papa, come quickly!"

Song Fanping walked over to the boys, and Baldy Li and Song Gang hid behind him. Relieved, they raised their bowls of shrimp and wine and offered them to him. Song Gang said, "Papa, we made you fried shrimp, and we got you two ounces of rice wine to go with it."

Song Fanping's left hand dangled there uselessly, so he accepted Baldy Li's bowl of shrimp with his right. He didn't eat any, however, but instead politely passed it along to those red-armbanded people. He then accepted Song Gang's wine and also extended it to them. They were all still busy munching on the shrimp, so he waited politely with the bowl of wine. There were as many hands on the shrimp as branches on a tree, and in the blink of an eye they were all gone. The red-armbanders then noticed Song Fanping standing to the side waiting politely with the bowl of wine, and so took the wine and passed it around, each one of them downing a big gulp and finishing it off in no time.

Baldy Li and Song Gang wiped at their tears. Their shrimp and wine had been for Song Fanping, but he didn't get a taste of either. Song Gang said, "We were imagining how you would laugh while enjoying our shrimp and wine."

Song Fanping knelt down and, without a word, wiped away their tears. When he smiled, the boys noticed that he too had tears streaming from his eyes.

After finishing the shrimp and wine, the red-armbanders kicked at Song Fanping and bellowed, "Get up, scram! Get back in the warehouse!"

Song Fanping wiped away his tears and patted first Baldy Li's face, then Song Gang's, and said gently, "Now go on home."

Song Fanping stood up, no longer crying. He smiled contentedly at the red-armbanders, then walked heroically toward the front gate. When he reached the gate he turned around and, his dislocated left elbow still dangling at his side, waved to Baldy Li and Song Gang with his right hand. With that wave he looked so confident and magnanimous, like Chairman Mao waving at the parading masses from atop Tiananmen Square.

CHAPTER 15

YEARS LATER, whenever Baldy Li spoke of his stepfather, he only had one thing to say. Raising his thumb, he would sigh and say, "What a real man."

In that warehouse that was in fact a prison, Song Fanping suffered every torment and abuse imaginable. Yet he never uttered a word of complaint, even as his dislocated left arm became increasingly swollen. He also never stopped writing Li Lan. He had written his first letter on the day of his flag-waving atop the bridge. This was the most glorious moment of his life, so his letter was filled with passion and energy. This was the first time Li Lan, sitting in a hospital bed in Shanghai, had ever received a letter from a man, and what a letter it was! Reading it made her feel as though she had been given a shot of adrenaline. Baldy Li's biological father, who had drowned in the public latrine, had never written her, and for him the height of romance consisted of knocking on her window in the middle of the night, hoping to lure her out to the fields for a romp. So when she received her first letter from Song Fanping, she blushed bright red. And as Song Fanping's letters continued coming one after another, her pulse would race each time she received a new one.

By this point, Song Fanping had been thoroughly beaten down, but in order for Li Lan to feel at ease while receiving her treatment in Shanghai, he continued filling his letters with passion and energy. He didn't tell her what had actually happened but instead described how things were getting better and better, so she believed that he was riding the crest of the red waves of the Cultural Revolution. Even after Song Fanping had his left elbow dislocated, he nevertheless continued, using his right hand to embroider his glorious exploits for her, and Baldy Li and Song Gang would mail the letters off for him. The boys would come to the front gate of the warehouse, and long-haired Sun Wei's father would hand them the letters, which they would then take to the post office. When Song Fanping mailed his own letters, he always pasted the stamp in the top right corner of the envelope. But when Baldy Li and Song Gang mailed them, they didn't know where to put the stamp. Once they saw someone else place it on the back of the envelope, so Baldy Li did the same. The next time, when it was Song Gangs turn, he saw that someone had pasted it over the opening, and did the same.

By that point Li Lan was no longer able to continue her treatment in peace. There were struggle sessions every day at the hospital, and one after another every doctor she knew was brought down. Anxious and worried, she was desperate to get home. But Song Fanping tried to dissuade her, urging her to stay in Shanghai to treat her migraines. Each day Li Lan spent in Shanghai seemed like an eternity, and she had read Song Fanpings letters over so many times she knew them by heart— they were her only source of solace during this period.

She also examined the envelopes many times and noticed that from a certain day onward, the placement of the stamps kept shifting. One time it would be on the back of the envelope, and the next it would be over the opening. And every time she received a letter with a stamp on the back, she told herself that on the next letter the stamp would be over the opening.

Baldy Li and Song Gang took turns placing the stamp on the envelopes and putting the letters in the mailbox. They never went out of turn. This was the source of Li Lan s uneasiness, and this uneasiness increased daily. She started to imagine all sorts of scenarios and to suffer from insomnia, and her migraines became more severe. Li Lan, who typically listened to Song Fanping in all things, for the first time wrote him a firm letter. She told him that because of the Cultural Revolution there were no longer any doctors around, and therefore she had resolved to return home.

When Li Lan had taken the bus to Shanghai to get treatment, Song Fanping had told her that after she was cured, he would come in person to pick her up. To assuage her uneasiness, Li Lan decided to test the waters by asking Song Fanping whether he could come meet her now.

This time Li Lan had to wait more than half a month for a response. Song Fanping had just been whipped with a belt for more than an hour, but even in his imprisonment this good man was determined to keep his word, so without hesitation he promised his wife that he would go to Shanghai to pick her up. He even set a date and asked her to wait for him at noon at the front gate of the hospital.

This was the last letter Song Fanping wrote to his wife. It allowed Li Lan to weep tears of relief. And once it was dark, she was able to fall into a deep slumber.

That night Song Fanping escaped from the warehouse. He waited until Sun Wei's father was in the toilet, then quietly slipped out the front gate. By the time he reached home, it was about one in the morning, and Baldy Li and Song Gang had long since fallen asleep. They felt a hand caressing them and a light shining on them. Song Gang woke up first and rubbed his eyes. When he saw Song Fanping sitting by the bed, he let out a cry of delight. Then Baldy Li also woke up, rubbing his eyes. Song Fanping told the boys, "Li Lan is coming home." His wife, their mother, was coming home. Song Fanping said that he was going to catch the first bus to Shanghai to pick her up, and then they would take the afternoon bus back. Song Fanping pointed at the pitch-black darkness outside, saying, "By the time the sun sets tomorrow, well be home."

Baldy Li and Song Gang bounced on the bed like two overjoyed monkeys. With a wave, Song Fanping told them to quiet down, pointing in the direction of the neighbors on either side and reminding the boys not to wake them up. Baldy Li and Song Gang immediately covered their mouths and crept down from their bed. Song Fanping looked around at the overturned armoire and the clothes strewn all over the floor. Frowning, he said to the boys, "What if your mother comes home and finds the place looking like a dump and decides to return to Shanghai?"

Baldy Li and Song Gang thought it over and exclaimed, "Cleanup time!"

"Right!" agreed Song Fanping.

Song Fanping walked over to the overturned armoire, squatted down, and raised it with his right arm, then transferred the weight on his shoulder. When he stood up, the armoire was righted. Baldy Li and Song Fanping watched in astonishment. Song Fanping raised up such a huge armoire with just one arm — he hadn't even needed his left arm, which was still dangling there. The boys followed behind Song Fanping or, rather, they followed behind his right arm and tidied up the rest of the house. They helped his right arm pick up all the clothes on the ground; when his right arm swept, they held the dustpan; when his right arm mopped the floor, they took up some rags and wiped down the dust from the tables and chairs. By the time they finished tidying up the house, they heard the cocks crow and saw that the sky had turned as pale as a fish's belly. The boys then sat on the front stoop, watching Song Fanping raise a bucket of well water to bathe himself. As Song Fanping walked back into the house they watched him change into a clean set of clothes using just his right arm. He put on a red sleeveless shirt that had a row of characters across the chest. They couldn't read what it said, but Song Fanping explained that this was his old college basketball uniform. He also put on a pair of beige plastic sandals. These were a present from Li Lan, and he had worn them only once before, on his wedding day.

The boys noticed that Song Fanping's left elbow had thickened, and his left hand was puffy, as if he were wearing a cotton glove. They didn't understand that it was swollen, so they asked him why his left hand was now fatter than his right. Song Fanping replied that it was because his left hand had been resting all this time. "It's just been eating and lazing about, so it's gotten chubby."

Baldy Li and Song Gang now felt that their father was really a deity. He could do all his chores with one arm and let the other one rest to the point that it even grew fat. They asked him, "When will you let your right arm grow fat?"

Song Fanping chuckled. "Oh, it will."

As the sun rose Song Fanping, who had spent a sleepless night, let out a few yawns. He told the boys to get to bed, but they shook their heads and remained seated on the stoop. So Song Fanping simply stepped over them. He was off to catch the early bus in order to meet his wife in Shanghai. As his tall figure passed over the boys’ heads they noticed that the morning sun had bathed the room in a red glow. The house was gleaming in its cleanliness, like a newly polished mirror, leading the boys to exclaim, "It's so clean!"

Song Gang turned around and hailed his departing father, "Papa! Come back!"

Song Fanping walked back, his footsteps ringing. Song Gang asked him, "What will Mama say when she sees the place so clean?"

Song Fanping replied, "She'll say, ‘I'm not going back to Shanghai.'"

Baldy Li and Song Gang both giggled, and Song Fanping also let out a loud chuckle. He walked toward the morning sun, his feet hitting the ground like hammers paving a road. Once he was a dozen yards away, Baldy Li and Song Gang saw him pause, reach for his dangling left hand, and place it into his pants pocket. He then continued walking forward, his left arm no longer dangling. With one hand in his pocket and the other swinging freely, he looked like a dashing movie star walking into the rising sun.

CHAPTER 16

WHEN SONG FANPING arrived at the bus depot on the east side of town, he saw a man with a red armband and a wooden bat standing on the platform. When the man saw Song Fanping coming down the bridge, he immediately turned and shouted into the depot waiting room, and five armband-wearing men instantly swarmed out. Song Fanping knew they were there to seize him, but after a moments hesitation, he walked right up to them. At first he wanted to show them Li Lans letter, but then he decided to forget it. The armband-wearing men stood on the platform, each holding a wooden bat. Song Fanping removed his left hand from his pocket and walked up to the platform, about to explain that he wasn't running away but, rather, was going to Shanghai to pick up his wife. Several bats rained down on him, and he instinctively raised his right arm to shield himself. A bat smashed down on his right elbow, and he felt a bone-shattering pain. Yet he still waved his right arm to block the bats beating down on him. He walked into the waiting room and up to the ticket window. His right elbow, which he had used to block the wooden bats, felt as if it were about to explode in pain. His shoulders had also suffered countless blows, and one of his ears had been half ripped off. Despite the bats raining down on him and trailing him like a cloud of dust, he finally made it to the ticket counter, where he saw that the eyes of the female ticket seller were bugged out in fear. Miraculously, his dislocated left elbow now rose to block the bats as he thrust his right hand into his pocket and found his bus fare, which he then pushed through the ticket window, telling the ticket seller, "One ticket to Shanghai."

The ticket seller toppled over, passing out in fright. This new development suddenly flummoxed Song Fanping, and his dislocated left arm also dropped. He forgot that his arm had been shielding him from the blows, and in an instant a flurry of bats smashed down on his head. Bleeding and broken, Song Fanping collapsed against the wall as six wooden bats crazily smashed down on him, until one after another they shattered. They were then followed by the red-armbanders’ twelve feet, which stomped and kicked him for more than ten minutes, until finally he lay there motionless. Only then did the six men, all out of breath from their exertions, pause to rub their arms and legs and wipe the sweat from their faces. They walked over to the bench under the ceiling fan, completely wiped out. Cocking their heads, they looked at Song Fanping slumped over by the wall and cursed, "Fuck."

It was around daybreak that these red-armbanders from the warehouse that was actually a prison had noticed that Song Fanping was missing. They had immediately split into two groups, with one guarding the bus depot and the other assigned to the docks. The red-armbanders’ savage beating of Song Fanping that day terrified everyone, and those who had been in the waiting room all ran outside to the platform. Children wailed and women stood with their mouths hanging open in terror. Everyone stood outside the waiting room door peering in, no one daring to go back inside. Only when the tickets for the Shanghai bus were being collected did people carefully reenter, looking with trepidation at the six red-armbanders resting under the ceiling fan.

Barely conscious, Song Fanping seemed to make out the call to board. Miraculously he managed to rouse himself, standing up by leaning against the wall. He wiped at the blood on his face and hobbled toward the ticket collection window. The row of waiting passengers all gasped. When the six red-armbanders who had been resting under the ceiling fan saw that Song Fanping had gotten up and was making his way to the gate, they looked at each other in astonishment, letting out snorts of disbelief. One of them yelled, "Don't let him get away!"

They took up their splintered bats and rushed up to him, swinging with abandon. This time Song Fanping began to resist. He struck back with his right fist as he made his way to the gate. Terrified, the ticket counter slammed the metal gate shut and ran away. Song Fanping found that he had nowhere to go, so he had no choice but to strike back. By this point he was barely conscious, and the red-armbanders encircled him and pummeled him until he was covered in blood. They chased him from the waiting room to the steps outside. He resisted with all his might, but when he reached the steps, he collapsed. The red-armbanders stood in a circle around him, kicking wildly, and even bayoneting him with their splintered wooden bats. One of the wooden spikes pierced his abdomen, and his entire body convulsed. As the red-armbander pulled the spike out, Song Fanping's body tensed up as blood gushed from his gut, staining the ground red. Then he fell still.

The six red-armbanders were also drained. First they panted heavily as they squatted there, but when they realized they were under the blazing sun, they walked over to the spot under the tree and leaned against the trunk as they wiped their sweat with their shirts. They were convinced that this time Song Fanping wouldn't be able to get up again. But when the long-distance bus started pulling out of the station, he somehow managed to rouse himself and stand up, taking a few unsteady steps. He waved at the departing bus, mumbling, "I … haven't… boarded … yet."

The men rushed up to him again and struck him to the ground. Song Fanping no longer resisted but, rather, began to beg. At this moment, Song Fanping, who never admitted defeat, wanted so badly to live. He mustered up what remained of his strength and knelt. Spitting blood while holding back the blood gushing from his abdomen, he wept as he begged them to spare him. Even his tears flowed red. He took out Li Lan's letter from his pocket and managed to use his disabled left hand to open it, trying to prove that he wasn't running away. Not a single hand reached out to take the letter. He only received more and more kicks, and two more bat fragments pierced his body. As the spikes were yanked out blood gushed from his body as though it were a perforated wineskin.

There were some in Liu Town who personally witnessed this savage assault. Mama Su, whose snack shop was right next to the bus depot, wept a river of tears while she watched. Sounds came from her mouth, though it was hard to make out whether they were sobs or sighs.

Song Fanping was barely breathing. The six red-armbanders discovered they were hungry, so they temporarily left him aside and walked toward Mama Sus snack shop. The men felt as drained as if they had spent a day working on the docks, and when they sat down in the shop, they couldn't muster up the energy to speak. With her head lowered, Mama Su returned to her shop and sat behind the counter, silently watching these six red-armbanders, who were worse than beasts. Once they caught their breath, they asked her for soy milk, buns, and fritters, which they then ate with savage delight.

By then the five red-armbanders who had been guarding the docks arrived. When they learned that Song Fanping had been caught at the depot, they ran over enthusiastically, all drenched in sweat. They aimed their wooden bats at the motionless Song Fanping and beat him wildly until all their bats were broken as well. Then they kicked, trampled, and pummeled him. When the initial six red-armbanders finished their meal and went out of the store, these next five came in to have their breakfast. In all, eleven armband-wearing men took turns tormenting Song Fanping, who by now was no longer moving. Still they kicked at him. At last Mama Su could bear it no longer and said, "He's probably already dead."

Only then did the red-armbanders stop kicking. Wiping at their sweat, they made their victorious exit. All eleven of them had injured themselves from the kicking, so they hobbled as they left. Mama Su watched them limp away, thinking, They are not human! She said to herself, How can people be this vicious?

CHAPTER 17

MEANWHILE, BALDY LI and Song Gang were home asleep, dreaming of Li Lan s return. When they woke up, they were ecstatic to find that it was almost noon. Although Song Fanping had said that he wouldn't be home until the sun set behind the mountain, the boys couldn't wait a moment longer. At noon they headed toward the bus depot, wanting to be there when the bus carrying Song Fanping and Li Lan pulled into the station. The two boys stepped outside, their left hands thrust in their pockets and their right arms dangling at their sides, in imitation of Song Fanping's cocky gait. Trying hard to look like movie heroes, they walked with a deliberate swagger but came off looking more like simpering villains or Japanese toadies.

Baldy Li and Song Gang spotted Song Fanping the moment they stepped off the bridge. A bloody, mangled body lay across the empty lot in front of the bus depot. A few people stopped as they walked past, peering down and muttering to one another. The two children walked by him as well, not realizing who it was. He lay sprawled on the ground, one arm folded under his body and the other twisted on top; one of his legs stuck straight out and the other was curled up beneath him. Flies buzzed and swarmed all around him. His face, his limbs, his hands and feet — every bloodied bit of flesh was covered in flies. The two children were repulsed and terrified by the sight. Song Gang asked someone wearing a straw hat, "Who is this? Is he dead?"

The man shook his head, saying that he didn't know, and then walked over to a shady tree nearby and began to fan himself with his straw hat. Baldy Li and Song Gang walked up the steps of the station and into the main hall. Though they had stood outside for only a brief while, they felt that they had been parched dry by the fierce summer sun. Two large fans, whirling loudly, hung from the ceiling of the main hall, and everyone inside was gathered under them buzzing in conversation like so many flies. Baldy Li and Song Gang tried hovering at the edges of each group of people, but the breeze from the ceiling fans dissipated before reaching them. It turned out that every spot where a breeze could be felt had been occupied. So they walked up to the ticket window and stood on their tiptoes to peer in. They saw a ticket seller sitting inside, struck dumb and still reeling from the horrors of the morning. Jolted back suddenly by the sound of the boys’ conversation, she focused her eyes on them and screeched, "What are you looking at?"

Baldy Li and Song Gang quickly ducked down and crept away. They walked up to the ticket checker s counter. The metal gate of the ticket counter was ajar, so the boys looked inside. Not a single bus was there, only a ticket checker holding his jar of tea. Rushing toward them, he also roared, "What do you want?"

Baldy Li and Song Gang ran away from the ticket counter and listlessly circled the main hall a few times. At this point Popsicle Wang appeared at the main entrance, carrying a small stool in one hand and an icebox full of popsicles on his back. He set his stool down at the stations entranceway, sat down, and started to bang his icebox with a block of wood, shouting, "Popsicles! Popsicles! Popsicles for our working-class brothers and sisters…"

The two boys went up to him and stood there watching him and gulping down their saliva. He kept banging his wood block while keeping a wary eye on the boys. Baldy Li and Song Gang once again caught sight of the body outside, still lying in the same position. Song Gang pointed at him and asked Popsicle Wang, "Who is that?"

Popsicle Wang glanced sideways at the boys but didn't respond. Song Gang persisted, "Is he dead?"

Popsicle Wang snarled at them, "If you don't have any money, then scram. Stop standing here trying to swallow your saliva."

Startled, Baldy Li and Song Gang gripped each other's arms and ran down the station steps until they once again found themselves outside under the fierce summer sun. As they walked past Song Fanping's fly-covered body again, Song Gang suddenly stopped in his tracks and pointed at Song Fanping's beige-colored sandals. "He's wearing Papa's sandals."

Song Gang then noticed Song Fanping's red shirt. "He's wearing Papa's shirt."

The boys stood there, looking at each other. After a while Baldy Li spoke, suggesting that this wasn't Papa's shirt, because his had a row of yellow characters on it. Song Gang nodded, then shook his head, saying that the yellow characters were on the front. The children squatted down, waving away flies and tugging at Song Fanping's shirt. A few yellow characters emerged from their tugging. Song Gang stood up and burst into tears. Sobbing, he asked Baldy Li, "Is this Papa?"

Baldy Li couldn't help sobbing, too. "I don't know."

The two children stood there, weeping and looking about. No one came over. They squatted down again, shooing away the swarms of flies from Song Fanping's face, wanting to take a closer look. Was this Song Fanping? His face was smeared with blood and dirt, so they couldn't really tell. They felt that it looked a little bit like Song Fanping, but they couldn't be sure. Was it him? They got up from the ground and decided that they should ask someone.

First they walked to the spot under the tree where two men were smoking. They pointed at Song Fanping, asking, "Is that our father?"

The two men smoking under the tree froze, then shook their heads. "Don't you know your own father?"

The children walked up the station steps to Popsicle Wang. Wiping away his tears, Song Gang asked him, "Is that our father on the ground over there?"

Popsicle Wang slapped the wood block against his icebox, staring. "Scram!"

Baldy Li complained, "But we're not drooling anymore."

Popsicle Wang replied, "Scram anyway!"

Weeping, Baldy Li and Song Gang walked hand in hand into the main hall and asked the people clustered under the two ceiling fans, "Do any of you know? Is that our father lying on the ground outside?"

Their pathetic questions elicited a roar of laughter. People commented that they couldn't believe there could be such fools as these two, who didn't even know their own father and had to ask others. Grinning, one of the people waved the children over. "Hey, kids, come over here."

The boys walked up to the man, who looked down at them and asked, "Do you know who my father is?"

The children shook their heads, and the man asked again, "Then who would know who my father is?"

The children thought this over and replied, "You would."

"Go away, then." The man dismissed them with a wave of his hand. "Go identify your own father."

Weeping and still grasping each other's hands, the children walked out of the station and down the steps and approached Song Fanping's prone body. Song Gang sobbed, "We do know our own father. But this man's face is covered in blood, so we really can't make it out."

The boys went into the snack shop next to the station. Inside there was only Mama Su, wiping the tables. They were a little fearful and stood at the door, hesitating. Song Gang whispered, "We'd like to ask you something but don't want you to get angry."

Mama Su saw two weeping boys standing at her door, took a look at Baldy Li and Song Gang's clothes, and asked, "You're not beggars, are you?"

"No." Song Gang pointed at Song Fanping lying on the ground outside. "We'd just like to ask you, is that our father?"

Mama Su put down the rag she was holding. She now recognized Baldy Li. This was the little hoodlum who had been going around rubbing himself on all the wooden electrical poles, exclaiming that he was in heat. Mama Su gave Baldy Li a look and then asked Song Gang, "What is your father's name?"

Song Gang replied, "His name is Song Fanping."

The children then heard her gasp and wail, saying something like "Oh God," "Dear mother," or "My ancestors!" When she paused to catch her breath, she panted to Song Gang, "He's been lying there for more than half a day. I thought that everyone in his family was dead."

The two children didn't know what she was talking about. Song Gang persisted, "Is he our father?"

Mama Su wiped at the sweat on her forehead. "His name was Song Fanping."

Song Gang immediately started howling, turning to Baldy Li. "I just knew he was Papa. That's why I started crying the moment I saw him."

Baldy Li also burst into tears. "That's why I started crying, too."

The children began to screech and wail in the summer heat. They once again approached Song Fanping's body, their sharp wails scaring off even the swarms of flies. Song Gang knelt down to the ground, as did Baldy Li. They leaned in close to take a good look at Song Fanping. The sun had dried up the blood on his face. Song Gang peeled off the caked-up blood and finally saw his own father clearly. He turned and clutched Baldy Li's hand. "This is Papa."

Nodding, Baldy Li wailed, "This is Papa…"

The two children knelt on the ground in front of the bus depot and wept loudly. Their mouths agape, they sobbed toward the sky, their wails ascending into the heavens. But like broken wings their cries would suddenly plummet to earth as the children wept open-mouthed, soundless, tears and snivel having closed up their throats. With great effort they swallowed all of it down, and again their wailing exploded. They tugged at Song Fanping's body and wept, "Papa, Papa, Papa …"

Song Fanping gave no response, and the children were at a loss as to what to do. Baldy Li wailed to Song Gang, "He was still fine this morning. Why is he deaf and dumb now?"

Song Gang looked toward the crowds that had gathered around them and cried, "Save my father!"

Snot and tears flowed down the children's faces. Song Gang wiped some from his face and hurled it away, accidentally hitting the pants leg of one of the spectators, who immediately grabbed Song Gang by the collar and started swearing at him. Baldy Li wiped the mucus from his face and splashed the mans sandals. The man then grabbed Baldy Li by the hair and, with one boy in each hand, thrust both of them to the ground, demanding that they use their shirts to clean up the mess they had made. Still weeping, Baldy Li and Song Gang began to use their hands to wipe up the man's pants and sandals but ended up smearing him with even more tears and snot. The man, initially furious, became merely annoyed, and said, "Quit it! Damn. Just stop wiping."

But Baldy Li and Song Gang held on to the man's legs, as if they had finally found a savior and were clinging to him for dear life. As the man backed away the boys hung on, crawling forward on their knees. They begged him, "Save our father! Please, save our father!"

The man pushed them away and raised his foot to kick them off of him, but they still clung on. After dragging the children a dozen yards, he found them still clutching him, beseeching. The man, now out of breath, stood there wiping away his sweat. He complained to the crowd, "Look at this! My pants, my sandals, my socks. What the fuck is this?"

Mama Su from the snack shop walked over and stood in front of the gathered crowd. The wailing of the children had reddened her eyes. "They're just kids."

Furious, the man responded, "What do you mean kids? They're two little fucking demons."

"Then do a good deed," Mama Su responded, "and help these two little demons collect their father's body."

"What?" the man roared. "You want me to carry that filthy, stinking corpse?"

Wiping her eyes, Mama Su replied, "I didn't say you needed to carry the body yourself. I have a cart here that I can lend you."

Mama Su went back to her snack shop and returned with a cart. On behalf of the two children, she begged the bystanders to help lift Song Fanping onto the cart. The crowd started dispersing, and Mama Su, losing her temper, singled out a few of them for the task: "You, you, you, and you."

Mama Su pointed at Song Fanping lying on the ground. "No matter whether this was a good man or not, now that he's dead, we have to bury him. We can't just leave him lying here."

Finally four people walked out of the crowd and squatted down, grabbing hold of Song Fanping's arms and legs. Shouting "One, two, three," they hoisted him up. All four were red in the face from the exertion, remarking that the dead man was as heavy and cumbersome as an elephant. They placed Song Fanping next to the cart, and, with another "One, two, three," they heaved him onto it, as it creaked under the weight of his large frame. The men dusted off their hands. One of them raised his to his nose, sniffed, and told Mama Su, "We want to go wash our hands in your shop."

"Then go." She nodded. She turned to the man who was still being grasped by Baldy Li and Song Gang. "Do some good, and take their father home for them."

Looking down at Baldy Li and Song Gang, he grimaced. "Looks like I've got to haul the dead man away."

He yelled at Baldy Li and Song Gang, "Let the fuck go of me!"

Only then did Baldy Li and Song Gang finally loosen their grips. They got up from the ground and followed the man to the front of the cart. Hoisting the end of the cart, the man barked at them, "Quick! Where's home?"

Song Gang furiously shook his head. He pleaded, "Take him to the hospital."

"Fuck." The man threw down the cart. "He's already dead. What fucking hospital would we go to?"

Song Gang didn't believe him and turned to Mama Su. "Is my father dead?"

Mama Su nodded. "He's dead. Go home, child."

This time Song Gang no longer wailed but, rather, bowed his head and quietly wept. Baldy Li also bowed his head and wept as they heard Mama Su tell the man pulling the cart, "You will be rewarded in the next life."

The man took up the cart and walked on ahead, snarling, "Fucking reward, yeah. Eighteen generations of my descendants are now going to be cursed along with me, is more like it."

So that was the afternoon Baldy Li and Song Gang held each others hands and walked home, weeping, with a bloodied and battered Song Fanping lying on the cart behind them. The children wept until their hearts broke. They stumbled along, weeping and sobbing, until they choked up, but after a while their wails exploded again like grenades. Their wailing overpowered the revolutionary singing and slogan-shouting on the streets. Like the flies that had earlier swarmed around Song Fanping, the parading crowds and assorted idlers all came swarming up to them, crowding around the cart as it trudged forward. The man pulling the cart scolded Baldy Li and Song Gang, "Quit your crying! You've brought the whole damn town over. Now everyone is watching me pull this corpse."

A good number of people came over to ask who it was lying there dead on the cart. At least forty or fifty people approached the man pulling the cart, putting him in an even fouler mood. At first he responded that the dead man was named Song Fanping and was a teacher at the middle school. But as more and more spectators continued to inquire, he got tired of explaining and instead told them to use their eyes and figure it out for themselves: Whoever is crying nonstop must be the relatives of the deceased. After a while he felt that even saying this much was too exhausting, so when another person asked him, he simply said, "Don't know."

The man was drenched in sweat from pulling the cart under the fierce sun. Plus, he was pulling a cart with a dead man, and on top of that his lips were parched from answering so many questions. He was, therefore, seething when an acquaintance came up and asked him, "Hey, which of your relatives has died?"

The man pulling the cart exploded: "You're the one with the dead relative!"

The acquaintance was stunned. "What?"

He yelled again, "You're the one with the dead relative!"

Now the acquaintance's face turned black. Without a word he stripped off his shirt, revealing all his muscles, and raised his right hand to point at the man pulling the cart. "What the fuck did you say? Say it again and I'll have you lying on the cart, too."

He added, quite pleased with himself, "I'll turn this flatbed into a double bed."

The man pulling the cart threw it down and retorted, "Well, it'd be a double bed for your bedroom!"

He walked right up to the other man and screamed in his face, "You fucking listen well this time — I said every last person in your family is lying there dead!"

The other man threw a fist right into the cart pullers mouth. The cart puller staggered back a few steps, and just as he managed to steady himself, the other man followed with a kick that landed him onto the ground. He then leapt on top of the cart puller and started punching him in the face.

Baldy Li and Song Gang were still wailing as they trudged along, but when they turned around, they saw that the cart puller was crushed under another man and getting pummeled. Song Gang immediately pounced on the two men, followed by Baldy Li. The boys attacked like two wild dogs, biting the other mans legs and shoulders. The man started howling, kicking his legs and flailing his arms to throw off the two boys. When he got up, the boys pounced on him again. Song Gang had the man's elbow between his teeth, Baldy Li bit down on his waist, and together they ripped his clothes and tore his flesh. The man grabbed the boys by their hair and punched their faces, but they clung on like death itself and refused to let go. They landed wild bites all over his body, reducing this man, who was as big and strong as Song Fan-ping had been, to a squealing mess, like a pig at slaughter. The mêlée ended when the cart puller got up and went over to pull Baldy Li and Song Gang back, saying, "That's enough."

Only then did Baldy Li and Song Gang loosen their jaws. The other man, soaked in blood, was petrified by the boys’ attack, and he stood there, staring like an idiot, as they went on their way.

They continued their journey, the boys covered in wounds and the man's face drenched in blood. People kept approaching them, though the two boys didn't dare cry anymore and the cart puller no longer said a word. As they walked the two children kept turning back to take careful looks at the man pulling the cart. When they saw that blood was mingling with the sweat dripping down his face, Song Gang pulled his shirt off over his head and passed it to him, saying, "Uncle, please wipe your sweat."

The cart puller shook his head. "No need."

Song Gang walked alongside him for a bit, holding his shirt in his hands. Then he asked, "Uncle, are you thirsty?"

The cart puller continued in silence, with his head down. Song Gang asked, "Uncle, I have money. I'll go buy you a popsicle."

The cart puller shook his head again, saying, "No need. When I'm thirsty, I just swallow my saliva."

Wordlessly the three of them headed home. For some time now Baldy Li and Song Gang had held back their tears. Song Gang would continually turn back solicitously to ask after the cart puller, but every time he did so, he would see his dead father and start weeping again. Baldy Li too was infected by his tears, though neither child dared sob out loud for fear of being scolded by the cart puller. Therefore they muffled their cries by covering their mouths, and no sound came from the cart puller behind them either. When they were almost home, they heard him speak again, his voice suddenly kind: "Stop crying, you're making my eyes red."

A dozen or so people had followed them all the way to their front door. They all stood by, but when the cart puller looked at them and asked if they could help lift Song Fanping, they remained silent. The cart puller didn't speak to them again and let Baldy Li and Song Gang help him. He told the boys to hold down the handles of the cart so that it would not tilt up on one end. Then he reached under Song Fanping's armpits and dragged the body off the cart, into the house, and onto the bed in the inner room. The cart puller was half a head shorter than Song Fanping, and dragging him was like dragging an overgrown tree. The cart puller's head drooped from exhaustion, and he wheezed like an accordion. After he had dragged Song Fanping onto the bed, the man walked out and sat down on a bench for a very long time, head bent and breathing hard. Baldy Li and Song Gang stood to one side, not daring to say a word. After he caught his breath, the man looked about him and saw people still standing outside the door. He asked Baldy Li and Song Gang, "Who else do you have?"

The children replied that they still had a mother, who was about to return from Shanghai. The man nodded and said that he felt better knowing that. He waved the boys over right in front of him, patted them on the shoulders, and asked, "You've heard of Red Flag Alley?"

The children nodded and said that they had. He continued, "I live at the front of the alley. My surnames Tao, and my full name is Tao Qing. If you need anything, come over to Red Flag Alley to look for me."

He stood up and walked to the door. The spectators outside immediately stepped aside, afraid of brushing against the man who had just embraced a dead man. Song Gang and Baldy Li followed him outside. When Tao lifted the cart, Song Gang said in imitation of Mama Su, "You will be rewarded in the next life."

The man nodded and left. Baldy Li and Song Gang saw him lift his hand to wipe his eyes.

That afternoon Baldy Li and Song Gang stayed at the dead Song Fanpings side. Song Fanpings flesh was shredded and streaked with dried blood, and the children were terrified by his appearance. His body was motionless, his gaping mouth was motionless, his eyes were wide open, and the pupils within were two dull little pebbles without a hint of light. Baldy Li and Song Gang had wept, wailed, and even bit, and now they started to tremble.

The brothers could see the heads and bodies of people hovering outside their window and hear the buzz of their conversation. Those people were discussing what kind of man Song Fanping was and how he had died. When someone mentioned how pitiful these two kids were, Song Gang let out a few sobs, followed by Baldy Li, and then both boys continued to gaze out fearfully. They also heard the buzz of the countless flies that had descended onto Song Fanpings corpse. The flies multiplied, swarming around the room like flurries of black snowflakes, to the point that their buzzing even drowned out the talk outside. Flies began to bite Baldy Li and Song Gang, as well as the people outside peering in — the children could hear the slapping of hands on limbs, faces, and chests. The spectators cursed as they left, having been driven away by the flies.

The light in the room began to glow red. The two children walked outside their house, and seeing that the sun was going down, they remembered that Song Fanping had promised he and Li Lan would be home by sunset. Baldy Li and Song Gang held each others hand and headed once again for the bus depot. When they passed the snack shop next to the station, they saw Mama Su seated inside. Song Gang explained to her, "We're here to wait for our mother. She's returning from Shanghai."

The two children walked to the part of the station where the buses pulled in. They stood on tiptoe and craned their necks in the direction of the highway. At the far edge of the horizon, beyond the fields, a cloud of dust was rolling in. They could make out that it was a bus headed their way and could hear the blare of the bus s horn. Song Gang turned to Baldy Li and said, "Mamas back."

Song Gangs face was drenched in tears, while Baldy Li's had flowed down his neck. The bus moved toward them in a cloud of dust that enveloped and blinded them. Once the dust had dispersed, they saw passengers carrying bags and suitcases emerging from the depot. First a handful of people, then an entire line filed past the two boys, but Baldy Li and Song Gang did not see Li Lan. They waited until the last person emerged from the depot, but they still did not see their mother walk out the door.

Song Gang timidly approached the last passenger. "Is this the bus from Shanghai?"

The man nodded. He looked at the boys’ tear-streaked faces and asked, "Whose children are you? Why are you standing here?"

His questions brought forth a torrent of tears from both Baldy Li and Song Gang. Startled, he grabbed his luggage and hurried away, repeatedly glancing back curiously at the two children. The boys cried after him, "We are Song Fanping's kids. Song Fanping is dead. Now we're waiting for Li Lan to come home. Li Lan is our mother…"

Without waiting for the children to finish, the man had already walked far away. Baldy Li and Song Gang continued to wait at the entrance to the station, thinking that perhaps Li Lan would be on the next bus. They stood there for a long time, until the big wooden door of the main hall was shuttered and the heavy metal gate of the bus depot was locked up. They still stood there, waiting for their mother to come home from Shanghai.

Night fell, and Mama Su from the snack shop walked over to them. She stuffed two meat buns in their hands, saying, "Eat them while they're hot."

The boys ate the buns and heard Mama Su tell them, "There are no more buses coming in today, and the door of the station has already been shut. Run home now; you can come back tomorrow."

The children trusted Mama Su. They nodded, eating their buns and wiping away their tears, and then went home. As they were leaving they heard Mama Su say with a sigh, "Poor children…"

Song Gang stopped, turned to Mama Su, and said, "You will be rewarded in the next life."

CHAPTER 18

AT THE CRACK of dawn, Li Lan was waiting at the front gate of the hospital. Though in his letter Song Fanping had said that he would not reach Shanghai until noon, after two months’ absence the fierce wave of longing that Li Lan felt for him led her to wake up before dawn and sit on her bed, waiting for daybreak. A roommate, who had awakened in the middle of the night from postoperative pain, was so startled by the sight of the motionless, ghostlike Li Lan that she let out a scream that almost ripped open her new stitches. When she realized that it was Li Lan sitting on the bed, the patient resumed her moans of pain. Li Lan felt deeply sorry. After gently muttering a string of apologies, she picked up her travel bag, walked out of the room, and made her way to the hospitals front gate. The street was dark and empty, and the solitary Li Lan stood there with her solitary travel bag — two silent, dark shadows cast on the hospital gate. This time it was the guards turn to be startled. The old guard with the enlarged prostate gland had awakened needing to pee and walked outside. When he saw the two dark shadows, he shuddered and wet himself, hollering, "Who's there?"

Li Lan told him who she was, what her room number was, that she was leaving today, and that her husband was coming to pick her up. Still unnerved, the old guard pointed at the other dark shadow and demanded, "Who's that?"

Li Lan lifted her bag. "It's a travel bag."

Only then did the old man relax. He circled behind the shack and pissed out the remaining urine, all the while complaining, "Scared me to death, made me fucking wet my pants…"

When Li Lan heard his complaints, she remorsefully lifted her travel bag and walked through the gate and down the street to the corner. She stood next to a big wooden electrical pole and listened to the humming of the current while gazing back at the darkened gate. At this moment Li Lan suddenly felt at peace. While sitting on her bed in the room, she had felt she was waiting for daybreak; but now as she stood at the street corner she felt she was waiting for Song Fanping. In her imagination she could already see his tall, strong figure walking over, filled with passion.

Li Lan — standing there the whole time, her small, frail figure motionless in the dark — was a frightful sight. A few men walking down the street didn't notice her until they were only a few yards away. Seeing her, they jumped in surprise and immediately crossed to the other side of the street, all the while casting backward glances at her. Another man bumped into her as he was rounding the corner and was so startled he trembled all over, but then he feigned calm as he walked around her. As he walked away his shoulders were still ashudder, leading Li Lan to let out a soft chuckle. It was this eerie sound, emanating as if from a female ghost, that thoroughly undid the man, who then took off in a wild sprint.

Only when rays of sunlight illuminated the entire street did Li Lan stop resembling a ghost. She still stood at the street corner, but now she was becoming human. As the street grew busier Li Lan took up her bag and walked back to the hospitals front gate. Now her waiting had officially begun.

The entire morning, Li Lans face was red with emotion. Along the street in front of her there was a sea of red flags and a din of slogans and chants. The parading crowds seemed interminable, heating up the already scorching summer day. The front-gate guard now recognized Li Lan and spent all the morning curiously observing this woman who had frightened him into wetting his pants. He saw that she sought out each member of the parading crowds — which is to say, every person who walked by — with a look of great anticipation. Li Lans excitement was like a little stream flowing into the river, her eyes anxiously searching for Song Fanping amid the crowds. The guard watched her as she stood there for a long, long time, examining the crowds and wondering why no one had come to pick her up yet. So he walked over to her and asked, "When is your husband coming?"

Li Lan turned to answer. "At noon."

When the guard heard this, he returned to his post in disbelief. Glancing up at the clock on his wall, he saw that it was not yet 10 A.M. He thought to himself, There really are all sorts of people in this world! This woman's been standing here waiting since before dawn for a man who is supposed to arrive at noon. The guard regarded Li Lan again curiously, thinking, So, how long has this woman gone without a man? He couldn't resist going up to her and asking, "How long have you been parted from your husband?" Li Lan told him that it had been more than two months. The guard chuckled to himself: So just two months and she's champing at the bit like this. She might look all frail and shriveled, but obviously in her bones she is quite the wanton hussy.

By this time Li Lan had been waiting there for more than six hours. She had not had a drop to drink nor a bite to eat, but her face was still beaming with emotion. As noon approached, her excitement reached a fever pitch, her gaze like a nail piercing the bodies of each of the men walking by. Several times when she saw someone with a figure similar to Song Fanpings, she stood on her toes and waved as her eyes filled with tears. Though the joy was always short-lived, she remained undaunted.

Noon came and went, and Song Fanping never appeared. But Song Fanpings sister hurried over. Drenched in sweat, she emerged from a crowded bus and rushed to the hospitals front gate. When she spotted Li Lan, she excitedly shouted, "Aiya, you're still here."

Song Fanpings sister mopped her brow and prattled on. She said that all the way there she had been so worried she wouldn't make it in time that she had almost taken a bus directly to the depot, but it was a good thing she hadn't. As she spoke she handed Li Lan a bag of White Rabbit milk candies, saying that they were for the kids. Li Lan took the candy and placed it in her bag. She didn't say a single word, only smiled and nodded, all the while glancing out at the streams of people. Song Fanpings sister started watching the men on the street along with her but felt perplexed by her brother's absence and, pointing at her watch, said, "He should be here, it's almost one P.M."

The two women stood at the front gate of the hospital for about half an hour. Song Fanpings sister said that she couldn't wait any longer and had to rush back to work. Before leaving, she comforted Li Lan, speculating that Song Fanping must have gotten stuck in traffic. She noted that it took three transfers from the bus depot to the hospital, and since the streets were filled with demonstrators, traffic was a mess. As a result, it was hard for a person to squeeze through, let alone an entire bus. Song Fanpings sister hurried away but immediately rushed back to tell Li Lan, "If you don't make the afternoon bus, just come stay at my place."

Li Lan continued waiting at the hospital gate. She believed what Song Fanpings sister said, that Song Fanping was probably stuck in traffic, and she continued to watch the men on the street with passion and anticipation. She became increasingly fatigued. Faint with hunger, she sat down on the steps of the guardroom, her body leaning against the door frame; but her head was still held high, and her eyes were still watching intently. The old man in the guardroom glanced at the clock on the wall and said, "You've been here since before dawn, and now its already past two. I haven't seen you eat or drink anything all day. Won't you go get yourself something?"

Li Lan smiled. "I'm fine."

The old man continued, "Go buy something to eat. There's a snack shop about twenty yards from here, just down to the right."

Li Lan shook her head. "What if he comes while I'm gone?"

The old man said, "I'll keep an eye out for him. Tell me, what does he look like?"

Li Lan thought for a bit, then shook her head. "I'd better stay here and wait for him myself."

The two of them fell silent. The old man returned to his post, where there was always someone at the window asking about something or other. Li Lan continued to sit on the steps, watching everyone who passed by. Finally, the old man got up and walked over to Li Lan, saying, "Let me get you something to eat."

Li Lan started. The old man repeated himself and extended Li Lan his hand. She now understood and hurriedly reached into her pockets for money and grain coupons. The old man asked her, "What would you like? Steamed buns? With meat or bean filling? How about a bowl of wonton soup?"

Li Lan handed over her money and grain coupons. "Two plain buns would be fine."

The old man took the money. "You're so frugal."

He walked away from the gate, then turned around. "Don't let anyone into the guardroom. Everything inside belongs to the nation."

Li Lan nodded. "I know."

At about half past three in the afternoon, Li Lan finally had something to eat. She slowly ripped off chunk after chunk of bun and placed them in her mouth, methodically chewing and swallowing. She hadn't had any water all day, so eating was difficult, like gulping down bitter medicine. When the old man saw this, he handed her his teacup. Li Lan raised the tea-stained cup and slowly sipped from it. She finished one bun, then wrapped up the other one and placed it in her travel bag. After having the bun, Li Lan felt herself regaining some of her strength. She stood up and said to the old man in the guardroom, "The bus he was taking would have arrived in Shanghai by eleven A.M. Even if he were walking, he should have been here by now."

The old man agreed. "Even if he were crawling, he still should have gotten here by now."

Li Lan surmised that Song Fanping must have taken the afternoon bus. She wondered if some important matter had delayed him. She felt that she should go to the bus depot herself, since the afternoon bus got into Shanghai at 5 P.M. Li Lan gave the old man a careful description of Song Fanping, adding that if Song did arrive, to please tell him that she had gone to the bus depot. The old man told her not to worry, that he would ask every tall man who came by whether he was Song Fanping.

Li Lan took up her travel bag and walked out the hospital gate. She stood for a while at the bus stop, but then returned to the guard window. When the old man saw her, he asked, "How come you're back?"

Li Lan replied, "I forgot to mention something."

The old man asked, "What?"

Li Lan looked into his eyes and said solemnly, "Thank you, you are a good man."

Small and frail, Li Lan carried her heavy travel bag and squeezed onto the bus. She swayed along with the crowd inside and was dizzied by the foul stench of armpits and feet and mouths. Then she squeezed off the bus, only to squeeze onto another one, finally arriving at the depot after three bus transfers. By then it was almost five. She stood at the stations exit, rays of sunset bathing her in a reddish glow as she watched bus after bus pull into the station and group after group of travelers emerge from the platform. Her face was once again red with excitement and her spirits were high, because she knew that when one of the passengers emerged a head taller than the rest, that man would be Song Fanping. So she set her gaze at the tops of the travelers’ heads, still firmly believing that Song Fanping would walk out through the exit. The very possibility of an accident had not even crossed her mind.

At this moment Baldy Li and Song Gang were waiting for her at the bus depot back in Liu Town. As the gates of the Liu Town bus depot were closing, the gates of the Shanghai depot were also shut. As Baldy Li and Song Gang made their way home, eating the buns that Mama Su had given them, Li Lan was still waiting by the exit at the Shanghai bus depot. The sky began to darken, but Li Lan still did not see Song Fanping's tall figure. When the heavy metal gates of the bus depot were shut, she felt as if her brain had been drained of all content, and she just stood there, barely conscious.

Li Lan passed the night outside the door of the waiting room. She considered going to stay with Song Fanping s sister, but Song Fanping s sister hadn't given her the address, since neither of them expected that Song Fanping would fail to arrive in Shanghai. The sister assumed that as long as Song Fanping himself knew the address, that would be enough. Therefore Li Lan slept on the ground like a homeless beggar. Mosquitoes stung her throughout this summer night, but she did not notice as she drifted fitfully in and out of sleep.

In the latter half of the night a crazy woman came to keep Li Lan company. First the woman sat by her side, carefully examining her, cackling all the while. Li Lan, wakened by her eerie laugh, let out a gasp when she made out the filthy face and figure of the crazy woman by the glow of the streetlight. In response, the crazy woman let out a shriller, louder cry, as if Li Lan had frightened her. Then she sat down as if nothing had happened and continued gazing at Li Lan, cackling.

Li Lan was still recovering from her initial fright when the crazy woman started to hum a tune. As she hummed she also muttered, her voice popping like a machine gun. Li Lan was no longer scared. Though she could not make out what the crazy woman was saying, the continual din of a human voice actually put her at ease. With a faint smile, Li Lan fell back to sleep.

After some time had passed, Li Lan in her dreams heard the sounds of palms slapping. She raised her sleep-heavy lids to see the crazy woman, sitting by her side, flapping her arms to shoo away the mosquitoes, and sometimes slapping at them. The crazy woman repeatedly slapped her hands together, then carefully scraped the mosquitoes from her palms and put them in her mouth, chuckling as she gulped them down. Her actions reminded Li Lan of the steamed bun in her bag, so she sat up, took out the bun, and broke off half for the crazy woman.

Li Lan extended the bun almost directly to the woman's face, but she ignored it. She cackled as she slapped at the mosquitoes and placed them into her mouth. Her raised arm tiring, Li Lan was about to put it down when the woman suddenly snatched away the half bun. Then the woman immediately stood up and walked down the waiting room's steps, moaning and muttering and acting as if she was looking for something. She took a few steps south, then a few steps north, and finally raised the bun in her hand and proceeded east. As the crazy woman walked farther away, Li Lan was finally able to make out what she was saying: "Brother, brother …"

Li Lan was now alone again under the dim streetlight. She sat and slowly ate her bun, feeling hollow inside. As she finished, the streetlight suddenly went out, and when she looked up, she saw the first rays of daybreak. It was at that moment that her tears finally gushed forth.

Li Lan boarded the early bus. As the bus pulled out of the station she turned around, still scanning the streets outside in hopes of catching sight of Song Fanping. Only when the bus left Shanghai and the landscape outside her window had turned into fields did Li Lan close her eyes. She rested her head on the window frame and dozed off despite the bumpiness of the drive. During that three-hour journey, Li Lan repeatedly drifted in and out of sleep, and images of those envelopes floated into her mind. Why were the stamps always placed in different spots? Her earlier suspicions resurfaced and grew stronger and stronger. She knew that Song Fanping was a man of his word, and if he said that he would come pick her up in Shanghai, then he would do so at all costs. If he hadn't come, then something must have happened. This train of thought caused her heart to shudder. As the bus neared Liu Town and the landscape outside her window grew increasingly familiar, Li Lan's uneasy premonitions grew stronger and stronger. By now she was convinced that something terrible must have happened. Her whole body shook as she buried her face in her hands, and she didn't dare think more concretely. She felt that she was falling apart as tears streamed from her eyes.

When the bus pulled into the Liu Town depot, Li Lan, carrying her gray travel bag with SHANGHAI printed on the side, was the last to emerge. She followed behind the crowds, her limbs feeling as heavy as lead. Every step took her closer to bad news. When she dragged herself outside of the station, only to be greeted by two wailing boys who were as filthy as if they had been fished from a garbage dump, Li Lan knew that her terrible premonitions had proven true. Her eyes grew dark, and she dropped the travel bag to the ground. The two filthy boys were Baldy Li and Song Gang, and they were wailing, "Papa's dead!"

CHAPTER 19

LI LAN stood motionless as Baldy Li and Song Gang wailed over and over again, "Papas dead!" She stood planted on the spot, as if her soul had left her body. In this moment of brilliant noon sunshine, she could see only darkness. It was as if she suddenly became both blind and deaf. Li Lan stood there, rigid and corpselike, for more than ten minutes before everything finally came back into focus and she could again make out the two boys crying and wailing in front of her. She could now clearly see the bus depot, the men and women walking by, and Baldy Li and Song Gang. The boys’ faces were covered in snot and tears, and they tugged at her clothes, crying, "Papas dead."

Li Lan nodded her head lightly. "I know."

She looked down at her travel bag. When she bent to pick it up, she suddenly keeled over, bringing down with her Baldy Li and Song Gang. She helped the boys up and got up herself by leaning on the bag, but when she bent down once again to pick it up, her legs again gave out from under her and she knelt down on the ground, trembling all over. Baldy Li and Song Gang watched her, terrified, and reached down to nudge her, calling out over and over again, "Mama, Mama …"

Li Lan got up by leaning on the boys’ shoulders. She let out a long sigh, then picked up her travel bag and stumbled forward. The noon sun was making her dizzy, making her wobble unsteadily. The empty lot in front of the bus depot was still streaked with Song Fanping's blood, and a few dozen dead flies dotted the blood-darkened earth. Song Gang pointed at the blood and told Li Lan, "This is where Papa died."

The children had stopped weeping, but when Song Gang said this, he again burst into tears, and Baldy Li couldn't help but cry as well. Li Lan's travel bag again dropped to the ground. She looked down at the blood that had already turned dark, then looked around, and finally looked at the two boys, her gaze blurring as her eyes filled with tears. She knelt down, opened her bag, and took out a piece of clothing to spread on the ground. Then she carefully brushed off the flies and scooped up the dark crimson dirt into the shirt, kneeling there until she had gathered every last speck of dirt that had been stained by the blood. Even then she continued to kneel, sifting the dirt through her fingers as if she were searching for gold, still looking for the last traces of Song Fanpings blood.

She knelt there for a very long time. A large crowd gathered around, watching and discussing her. Some knew her and others did not; some of them spoke of Song Fanping, about how he had been beaten to death. The details they mentioned were ones Baldy Li and Song Gang had not known about: how the men smashed wooden bats over Song Fanpings head and kicked him in the chest, and how they stabbed his abdomen with the splintered bats. With every sentence Baldy Li and Song Gang shrieked and wept. Li Lan heard too, and her body shuddered with each new revelation. She raised her head a few times, but each time she glimpsed those who were speaking, she would lower her head again and continue gathering up Song Fanpings traces. Finally Mama Su walked over from her snack shop to scold the bystanders, saying, "Stop talking! How can you talk about these things in front of his wife and kids? And you call yourself human!"

Then she turned to Li Lan. "Why don't you take the kids home?"

Li Lan nodded. She knotted the shirt filled with dark crimson earth and placed it in her bag. It was already afternoon. Li Lan walked ahead with her heavy travel bag, and Baldy Li and Song Gang walked hand in hand behind her. The boys saw that her shoulder sloped from the weight.

All the way home Li Lan did not weep or wail but only stumbled forward. She paused to rest a few times, due to the weight of her bag, whereupon she would look back on the two boys without saying a word. They no longer wept or spoke. When an acquaintance called out her name, she would only nod her head slightly.

Li Lan walked silently back to her home. As she entered, the sight of Song Fanpings badly mutilated body on their bed caused her to keel over, but she immediately got back up. She still didn't cry but only stood shaking her head. She reached out to gently touch Song Fan-ping's face but then pulled her hand away in a panic, as if worried that she was hurting him. Her hand hung in the air for a moment before she started to comb a few dead flies out of his matted hair. With her right hand she slowly removed all the dead flies from Song Fanpings corpse and placed them in the palm of her left. All afternoon Li Lan stood by the bed, picking flies from the body. Several neighbors looked in from the window, and a couple of them came in to speak with her. Li Lan remained silent, only nodding or shaking her head in response to their questions. After they left, she closed the windows and door, and it wasn't until nightfall, when she was satisfied that there were no more flies on Song Fanpings body, that she finally sat down on the bed and looked out at the reflection of the sunset on their window.

Baldy Li and Song Gang had not eaten anything all day. They stood by Li Lan sobbing, but it was a very long time before Li Lan realized they were there. She turned to them and said in a low voice, "Don't cry. Don't let others hear us cry."

The boys immediately covered their mouths. Baldy Li added timidly, "We are hungry."

As if suddenly waking from a dream, Li Lan gave them money and grain coupons and told them to go buy themselves something to eat. When the boys left, they saw that she was once again sitting dully by the bed. They bought three buns, and Baldy Li and Song Gang ate theirs as they walked home. They found Li Lan still sitting on the edge of the bed, and when they handed her the third bun, she merely stared at it and asked distractedly, "What is this?"

Baldy Li and Song Gang replied, "A bun."

Li Lan nodded, appearing to understand, and then took a bite out of the bun and slowly chewed. Baldy Li and Song Gang watched her until she finished the bun. Then she said, "Let's go to sleep."

That night, as the boys lay dreaming, they sensed that someone kept walking in and out of the house, and they could also make out the sounds of pouring water. It was Li Lan, going again and again to draw water from the well. She carefully cleaned Song Fanpings corpse and changed him into clean clothes. The children did not know how the small, frail Li Lan managed to change the clothes on Song Fanpings massive body, or whether she got any sleep. The next day, after Li Lan left, Baldy Li and Song Gang discovered that Song Fanping was as neat and tidy as a groom. Even the sheets beneath him had been changed, though his scrubbed face was a mass of green and purple blotches.

Song Fanpings corpse lay on the near side of the bed. The pillow on the far side had a few strands of Li Lan's hair, and a few more were dangling from Song Fanpings neck. Li Lan must have spent the night cradled on Song Fanpings chest. This was to be the last night she spent with Song Fanping. The bloodied clothes and sheets were soaking in the wooden tub under the bed, and floating on top of the water were a few flies that had wedged themselves in the crevices of his clothing.

All night Li Lan had wept. As she wiped down Song Fanpings body, she shuddered over his bruises and wounds. Several times she almost burst out into terrible wails, but each time she managed to swallow her sobs and would bravely rouse herself, though the effort almost made her faint. Her lips bled from biting down on them. No one could imagine how she survived that night, how she reined herself in and managed not to go insane. Afterward, she lay down on the bed and placed her head on Song Fanpings chest, falling into a state that was not so much sleep as a long, pitch-black unconsciousness. Only when the sun s rays pierced the room did she rouse herself once again from the terrible pit of her pain.

Li Lan, her eyes bloodshot and puffy, left the house to go to the coffin shop, bringing with her all the money that she had in the house. She wanted to buy her husband the best coffin, but she didn't have enough money. She was only able to afford an unvarnished one made of thin wood planks, and even then only the shortest of the four. She returned shortly before noon, followed by four men carrying the thin-plank coffin on their backs. They set the coffin down next to Baldy Li and Song Gangs bed. The boys looked with fear and horror at the coffin as the four sweat-drenched men wiped themselves with their towels and fanned themselves with their straw hats. Looking about, they asked loudly, "Where is the corpse? Where is it?"

Silently, Li Lan opened the door to the inside room. The men's leader walked into the room and spotted Song Fanping on the bed. He waved for his men to follow him in. They stood by the bed quietly discussing matters for a while, then abruptly grabbed Song Fanping by the arms and legs. The leader bellowed, "Lift him up!" and the four men lifted Song Fanping, their faces as red as pig's liver. They carried Song Fanping through the door and then attempted to place him in the coffin. When Song's torso was positioned in the coffin, his feet still dangled out. The men panted noisily, trying to catch their breath. They asked Li Lan, "How much did Song Fanping weigh when he was alive?"

Li Lan was leaning against the door frame as she replied in a low voice that her husband probably weighed 180 pounds or so. All the men had looks of "Aha!" The man in charge explained, "No wonder he was so heavy. When people die, they weigh twice as much. That was probably three hundred and sixty pounds right there. No wonder I almost sprained my back!"

The men from the coffin shop then began an animated discussion about how to wedge Song Fanpings feet into the coffin. The corpse was too long, and the coffin too short. The four of them struggled for more than an hour. Song Fanpings head was already squashed and crooked, but still they could not manage to squeeze his two feet in. They discussed placing him on his side, in a fetal position, saying that then they could manage to fit all of him in.

But Li Lan balked at this. She felt that the dead should be buried faceup, since they would want to look up at the living. "You can't lay him on his side. If he's on his side, he won't be able to see us."

The man in charge retorted, "With the coffin lid and all the dirt, he wouldn't be able to see even if he were lying faceup. Hugging his knees, he'd be in the same position as he was when he was born, and furthermore it would make coming back for the next go-round easier."

Li Lan shook her head. She still wanted to say something, but the four men had already bent over and, with much grunting and huffing, rolled Song Fanping onto his side. Then they discovered that the coffin was too narrow, and Song Fanpings body was too wide and too thick. Plus his legs were too long, so even in a fetal position they couldn't fit all of him in. The men shook their heads. Lifting their shirts to wipe the sweat that had flowed from their faces down onto their chests, they complained, "What kind of fucking coffin is this? A foot-washing basin is more like it."

Li Lan lowered her head in shame. The men rested for a while, then continued discussing their options. The man in charge said to Li Lan, "There's only one way: We have to smash his knees to fold his calves over. Then he'll fit."

Li Lan turned deathly pale and shook her head over and over again. Trembling, she said, "No, no…"

"Well, there's nothing else we can do."

The men got up and started collecting their levers and ropes, shrugging their shoulders and waving their hands. As they walked outside Li Lan followed them, pleading pitifully, "Is there nothing else you can do?"

They turned back, saying, "No — well, you can see for yourself."

The four men from the coffin shop carried their tools and walked into the alleyway. Li Lan trailed behind them, pleading pitifully, "Is there really no other way?"

They replied firmly, "No."

As the men walked out of the alley the man in charge paused and turned to Li Lan. "Just think. Who leaves a dead mans feet outside of the coffin? No matter what, it's still better than having his feet dangling out."

Li Lan lowered her head and said brokenheartedly "Whatever you say."

The four men returned to the house, and Li Lan pitifully trailed in after them. Silently, she shook her head, walked up to the coffin, and gazed for a while at Song Fanping inside. She then bent down, reaching both hands into the coffin, and carefully rolled up Song Fanpings pants legs. As she did so she once again saw all the bruises on his calves. Trembling all over, she rolled Song Fanpings pants above his knees. When she looked up, her eyes met those of Baldy Li and Song Gang, and she quickly looked away. She led the boys by the hand and walked into the inner room. She shut the door behind her, sat down on the bed, and closed her eyes. Baldy Li and Song Gang sat on either side of her, her arms hugging their shoulders tight.

From the outside room the man in charge yelled, "Lets start smashing!"

Li Lan s body jerked as if she were being electrocuted, and Baldy Li and Song Gangs bodies jolted in response. By this time a crowd had gathered outside the house, including neighbors and passersby as well as others attracted by the commotion. A mass of them crowded the door, and a few even tumbled into the house. They excitedly discussed how the men from the coffin shop were shattering Song Fanpings knees. Li Lan and the children hadn't realized how they were going to smash his knees, but now they heard them talking about bricks, which then shattered, and how they used the back of a cleaver. There was so much of a din outside that they couldn't make out clearly what everyone was saying. They could only hear people whooping and hollering, as well as the sounds of smashing, dull thuds, and occasional sharp snaps — that was the sound of bone crunching.

Baldy Li and Song Gang couldn't stop trembling. Their bodies shook until they sounded like branches being whipped in a thunderstorm. They were shocked by their own bodies — what would make them shake so hard? It was only later that they realized that it was Li Lan's arms that were shaking and her body that was vibrating like an engine.

The four men outside finally managed to shatter Song Fanpings kneecaps. The man in charge said, "Pick out those bits of brick from inside the coffin." After a while he added, "Roll down the pants legs, and stuff the calves in." Finally he knocked at their door and said to Li Lan, "Come take a last look. We're about to close the coffin."

Trembling, Li Lan stood up; trembling, she opened the door; trembling, she walked out. With unimaginable difficulty she approached the coffin, where she saw her husbands broken calves placed atop his thighs, as if they were someone else's. She teetered a few times but didn't collapse. She didn't see Song Fanping's shattered knees, since they had already placed his calves in his pants legs, but she saw the broken shards of bone and the bits of flesh that had stuck to the sides of the coffin. Li Lan grasped the coffin with both hands and looked with infinite longing at Song Fanping. Despite his contorted visage, she could still make out his former liveliness, his smile, and recall the way in which he would turn around and wave. Now he walked alone along an empty road, in a landscape devoid of mortals — the love of Li Lan's life was rushing down to the netherworld.

From where they were sitting on the bed, Baldy Li and Song Gang could hear Li Lan's voice tremble as she said, "You can close it now."

CHAPTER 20

BALDY LI and Song Gang never understood how Li Lan managed to be so strong, from the time she emerged from the longdistance bus depot and saw Baldy Li and Song Gang wailing, to when she knelt on the ground gathering up the blood-soaked earth, to witnessing Song Fanpings battered corpse, to buying a thin-planked coffin, to letting the four men from the coffin shop smash up Song Fanpings knees. Through all that she never once cried out loud. As they listened to Song Fanpings legs being smashed, several times Baldy Li and Song Gang opened their mouths and were about to cry out, but then they remembered Li Lan had told them that they shouldn't cry and promptly shut them again.

That night Li Lan prepared a tofu dinner, as was the custom of Liu Town. She cooked a giant pot of tofu and placed it in the center of the table, along with a bowl of greens. As night fell they lit their lamp and the three of them sat at the table, with Song Fanpings coffin just to the side. On top of his coffin was a small kerosene lamp, meant to illuminate Song Fanpings way to the netherworld.

Li Lan did not say a single word the entire afternoon. Baldy Li and Song Gang also didn't dare speak, so the house remained ghostly and silent. Only when Li Lan started to cook did the children hear some clattering and see the steam rising from the pot. This was the first time Li Lan had cooked at home since returning from Shanghai. Her tears streamed down as she stood in front of the kerosene stove, but not once did she raise her hand to wipe them away. As she placed the giant bowls of tofu and greens on the table Baldy Li and Song Gang saw that her tears were still gushing forth, and she continued weeping as she filled their bowls with rice. Then she turned to get the chopsticks with a dreamlike expression on her face. Weeping, she sat on the bench and stared down in confusion at the sticks in her hands. Song Gang whispered, "Those are the chopsticks of the ancients."

Through her tears she looked at the boys, and they told her the story of the chopsticks. At last she raised her hand, wiped the tears from her face, and then handed Baldy Li and Song Gang the chopsticks of the ancients. Softly she said, "These chopsticks of the ancients are wonderful."

When she said this, she turned and smiled slightly at the coffin. Her smile was as warm and familiar as if Song Fanping had been sitting right there watching her. Then she took up her rice bowl and her tears flowed anew. Sobbing, she ate soundlessly. Baldy Li saw that Song Gangs tears were also flowing into his rice bowl, and so he couldn't help crying, too. The three of them wept and ate in silence.

The morning after their tofu dinner, Li Lan solemnly washed her face and combed her hair. After she had tidied herself up, she took Baldy Li and Song Gangs hands and walked proudly outside. She led the two children through the streets awash in Cultural Revolution flags and slogans, walking as though they were alone on the street. She ignored all the people pointing at her. First she went to the fabric store, and while everyone else was buying red cloth to make flags and armbands, Li Lan instead purchased some black sash and white cloth. The clerks regarded her with curiosity. Someone recognized her as Song Fanping's wife and walked up to her, fists raised, shouting, "Down with counterrevolutionaries!" With equanimity she paid with her last bit of cash, rolled up the sash and cloth, and walked out of the store hugging the fabric close to her chest.

Grasping on to Li Lan s shirt, Baldy Li and Song Gang followed her into the photography studio. As she received the photograph her hands would not stop trembling; she hugged the photograph close to her chest, along with the black sash and white cloth, and continued her proud journey down the main street. At that moment she had forgotten that Baldy Li and Song Gang were following. Her head was filled with images of Song Fanping, instructing the photographer on how to position the lights and when to press the shutter, and all four of them happily walking out of the studio toward the bus depot. It was at the depot that she last waved goodbye to Song Fanping, and this was the final image she had of him. By the time she had returned from Shanghai, Song Fanping was no longer.

Li Lan pressed on, resisting the urge to take the family portrait out of the envelope she held in her trembling hands. She forced herself to walk proudly until she reached the bridge, where the parading masses blocked her way. She, of course, didn't know that Song Fanping had once stood here, gloriously waving a giant red flag, but once she stopped, she could not control herself any longer and removed the photograph. The first thing she noticed was Song Fanpings open smile, and before she could make out the other three smiling faces, she had collapsed. For three days she had borne this horrible tragedy with dignity and reserve, but now Song Fanpings smile in the photograph completely undid her.

Baldy Li and Song Gang were still holding on to her shirttails when suddenly she disappeared. Standing before them was a man with an astonished expression. The boys then noticed that Li Lan had fallen to the ground, and they cried as they squatted, nudging her. She, however, merely lay there with her eyes closed, unresponsive. Baldy Li and Song Gang burst out in terrified wails as more and more people gathered around. The two boys knelt beside Li Lan, believing that they were now all alone in this world. Weeping, they begged the bystanders to save their mother, not realizing that she had merely fainted. They sobbed as they asked, "Why has Mama fallen down?"

Everyone was talking at the same time, then one suggested, "Flip up her eyelids. Are her pupils dilated?"

Baldy Li and Song Gang rushed to flip open her eyelids. They looked at her eyes but didn't know exactly which were her pupils. Looking up, they answered, "They're very large."

This man said, "If her pupils are dilated, she's probably dead."

When the boys heard this, they clutched each other and cried even louder. Another man bent down, saying, "Stop crying, stop crying. You kids don't even know what pupils are. Feel for her pulse. If you can feel her pulse, then you know she isn't dead."

Baldy Li and Song Gang immediately stopped crying and asked anxiously, "Where do we find her pulse?"

The man extended his left hand and used his right to point it out, "Right here, on the wrist."

Baldy Li and Song Gang each grabbed one of Li Lan's hands and started feeling her wrists. The man asked them, "Do you feel anything?"

Baldy Li shook his head. "Nothing."

Baldy Li looked nervously at Song Gang, who also shook his head. "Nothing."

The man stood back up, concluding, "Then she probably is dead."

Baldy Li and Song Gang now felt that they had lost all hope. They opened their mouths and wailed. After a while they paused, then burst out again. Song Gang sobbed, "Papas dead. Now Mamas dead, too."

At that point, Blacksmith Tong appeared on the scene. He squeezed in through the crowd and squatted down, shaking the two boys and telling them to stop their crying. He said, "What dilated pupils or beating pulse? That's for the doctor to decide. You kids don't know a thing. Listen to me: Put your ear against her chest — do you hear thumping inside?"

Song Gang wiped away his snot and placed his head against Li Lan s chest. After listening for a while, he raised his head and nervously said to Baldy Li, "I think I hear thumping."

Baldy Li also hurriedly wiped away his tears and snot and listened for a while. He also heard her heart beating. He nodded to Song Gang, "I hear it, too."

Blacksmith Tong stood up and scolded the two men who had spoken earlier, "You two don't know crap. You only know how to frighten children."

Then Blacksmith Tong told Baldy Li and Song Gang, "She's not dead. She just fainted. Why don't you let her lie there for a while? She'll come to eventually."

Baldy Li and Song Gang immediately broke into wide grins. Wiping at his tears, Song Gang raised his face to Blacksmith Tong and said, "Blacksmith Tong, you will be rewarded in the next life."

Blacksmith Tong was very pleased with Song Gang's words. He smiled. "Now, that's true."

Baldy Li and Song Gang sat quietly by Li Lan's side. Song Gang picked up the photograph that had fallen to the ground, took a look for himself, and then showed it to Baldy Li before carefully placing it back into the envelope. More and more people gathered on the bridge, and many of them squeezed over to take a look at the boys. After inquiring about them from others, they then squeezed out of the crowd again. The two boys sat there patiently. From time to time they stole a look at each other and smiled. After a very long time had passed, Li Lan finally got up. The boys were so happy they shouted to the bystanders, "Mama's woken up!"

Li Lan had no idea what had just happened, only that she was crawling up from the ground. Embarrassed, she carefully dusted herself off and once again gathered the photograph and the black sash and white cloth to her chest. She didn't say a word the entire way home. Baldy Li and Song Gang didn't dare to say anything either, but they were bursting with emotion. They held on tightly to Li Lans clothes — having regained their mother after believing that they had lost her, they were filled with happiness. From time to time they would crane their necks to look at Li Lans front, at her back, and exchange tiny smiles.

CHAPTER 21

THE FOURTH DAY AFTER Song Fanpings death, an elderly peasant pulling an old, battered cart arrived at Li Lan s front door. Standing outside the door, his shirt and pants covered in patches, the old man didn't say a word, and merely wept as he looked in at the coffin. He was Song Fanpings father, Song Gangs grandfather. He had once owned a few hundred mu of farmland, but after Liberation it had all been redistributed to the other peasants in the village. This old landlord — who was now poorer than the poorest "poor peasant" and no longer owned anything other than his landlord status — had come to take his landlord son home.

The previous night Li Lan had packed up Song Gangs things. Baldy Li and Song Gang sat on the bed and silently watched her remove her own belongings from the gray travel bag with the SHANGHAI logo, including the wrapped bundle of bloodstained earth and a bag of White Rabbit candies. She then placed Song Gangs clothes into the travel bag and also stuffed in the entire bag of milk candies. When she turned around to see Baldy Li's eyes filled with anticipation, she took out the bag of candy and grabbed a handful for him. She also handed a few to Song Gang and stuffed the remainder back into the travel bag. Baldy Li and Song Gang sucked on their candies, not knowing what the next day would bring. Even when Song Gang's landlord grandfather appeared at their door the following morning, they still didn't understand that they were about to be separated.

On this morning, their arms were wrapped in black sash and their waists belted with white cloth. Song Fanpings coffin was loaded onto the battered pullcart, and his travel bag was placed next to it. The old landlord lowered his gray head and pulled the cart. Li Lan followed behind, holding Baldy Li and Song Gang by the hand.

For as long as Baldy Li could remember, he had never seen Li Lan look so proud. Baldy Li's birth father had brought her nothing but hate and shame, but Song Fanping had given her love and respect. Her head held high, Li Lan set forth as though she were a member of the Red Detachment of Women. The old landlord pulling the cart, mean-while, was bent over as though he were in the middle of a struggle session. As he pulled he repeatedly raised his hand to wipe at his tears. They came face-to-face with two parading troupes. The revolutionary crowds ceased their slogans, lowered their small red flags, and discussed among themselves as they watched these four people with their cart and coffin. A man wearing a red armband walked up to ask Li Lan, "Who's in the coffin?"

Li Lan answered proudly and calmly, "My husband."

"Who's your husband?"

"Song Fanping. He was a teacher at the Liu Town Middle School."

"How did he die?"

"He was beaten to death."

"Why?"

"He was a landlord."

When Li Lan said that, Baldy Li and Song Gang both trembled, and the old landlord was so frightened he did not dare to wipe his tears. She had proclaimed it with such clarity that the parading revolutionaries all stopped in their tracks. They were shocked that such a frail little woman would dare talk like this. The man wearing the red armband pointed at Li Lan. "Your husband was a landlord. So you're a landlord's wife?"

Li Lan nodded firmly. "Yes."

The man turned back to the revolutionary crowds. "See that! Such shamelessness …"

As he finished speaking he turned back and slapped Li Lan across the face. Her head wobbled and blood trickled from her lips, but she smiled proudly and continued to look the man in the eye. The armband-wearing man gave her another slap. Her head wobbled again, but she still smiled proudly as she gazed at him, asking, "Had enough?"

Li Lan's words stunned him for a moment. With the oddest of expressions he looked at her, then back at the crowd. She said, "If you've had enough, then I'll be leaving."

"Fuck," the armband-wearing man cursed. He slapped her twice more, then spat. "Beat it!"

Blood trickling from her lips, Li Lan smiled as she grasped Baldy Li and Song Gang's hands and continued walking. The revolutionary crowd on the street regarded her with astonishment. Smiling, she walked forward, telling them, "Today is the day of my husband's burial."

Tears gushed from her eyes as she spoke. Baldy Li and Song Gang also began to sob, as did the old landlord up ahead. Li Lan scolded Baldy Li and Song Gang, "Don't cry."

In a ringing voice she admonished them, "Don't cry in front of other people."

The two boys covered their mouths. They stopped their sobbing but not their tears. Li Lan had forbidden them to cry, but her own face was covered with tears. She smiled through them and continued walking.

They walked out the south gate, over a creaky wooden bridge, and could make out the chirping of cicadas. They realized that they had already reached the dirt road leading to the countryside. By then it was noon, and as far as the eye could reach there were fields, interspersed with the occasional curl of rising smoke. The summer fields were empty and bare. It was as if they were the only four people on earth, aside from Song Fanping, who was lying in the coffin. His elderly father finally let himself sob out loud, his back bent like an old ox plowing the earth as he dragged along his dead son. He shook all over as he walked; even his sobs shook. His weeping ignited Song Gang and Baldy Li's wails, and the boys started sobbing loudly through their fingers. They had covered their mouths with their hands, but their sobs now burst from their noses; they used their hands to hold their noses, but then the sobs would burst from their lips. The two boys timidly looked up at Li Lan, who said, "Go ahead and cry."

After she spoke, Li Lan was the first to break out crying. This was the first time that Baldy Li and Song Gang heard her piercing wails. She wept without restraint, as if she wanted to rip out her throat with her sobs. Song Gang dropped his hands and also began to sob out loud, and Baldy Li immediately followed suit. The four of them sobbed loudly as they walked, no longer worrying about being seen. Amid the vast fields and under the distant sky they wept together, as a family. As if she were gazing into the sky, Li Lan raised her face and sobbed; Song Fanping's elderly father bent over and wept, soaking the earth with his tears. Baldy Li and Song Gang repeatedly wiped away their tears, splashing them onto Song Fanping's coffin. They cried wholeheartedly, their howls sounding like a series of land mines, startling the sparrows from the trees lining the sides of the road.

The four walked and wept for a very long time, until Song Fanping's elderly father could walk no farther. He put the cart down and knelt on the ground. He had wept until his back hurt, and he could no longer move. They stopped, and gradually their crying abated. Li Lan wiped away her tears and said that she would pull the cart. Song Fanpings father refused, saying that he would accompany his son on his last journey.

Afterward they no longer wept but walked on silently. There was only the sound of the carts creaking wheels. They arrived at the village where Song Fanping was born. A few shabbily clad relatives stood at the village gate. They had already dug the grave under an elm tree at the edge of the village and stood there with their shovels. As Song Fanpings coffin was lowered into the grave and a few relatives covered it with dirt, his father knelt nearby, picking out the rocks. Li Lan knelt down and did the same. After the grave was filled and covered with a mound of earth, the two of them slowly stood up.

They all then made their way to the fathers thatched hut. Inside there was a single bed, a battered armoire, and a worn table. The relatives sat around the table and ate, and Baldy Li and Song Gang joined in the meal of pickled vegetables and rice. Song Fanpings aged father sat on a low stool in a corner of the room and wiped at his tears, not eating a single bite. Li Lan didn't eat either. She removed Song Gangs clothes from the travel bag, folded them neatly, and placed them inside the old battered armoire. Baldy Li saw that she also placed the bag of White Rabbit candies inside the armoire. After she was done, she didn't know what else to do, so she stood by the armoire and watched the two boys.

This was an afternoon of silence. After the relatives finished eating and left, the four of them sat wordlessly inside the hut. Baldy Li caught sight of the trees and pond outside the house. He also spied sparrows singing in the trees and swallows flying from the beams. Song Gang saw these things, too. The boys very much wanted to go outside to look around, but they didn't dare to; instead they sat on the bench stealing glances at the sad figures of Li Lan and Song Fanpings father. Finally Li Lan spoke. She said that they ought to be going if they hoped to make it back to town before dark. Rising with difficulty, Song Fanpings father made his way to the battered armoire and took out a small can. He grabbed a handful of fava nuts and stuffed them into Baldy Li's pocket.

Once again they returned to the edge of the village. A few leaves had fallen on the mound that was Song Fanpings grave. Li Lan went over and picked them off, throwing them to one side. She did not cry, and the boys heard her softly say to the grave, "Once the boys grow up, I'll come keep you company."

Li Lan turned, walked up to Song Gang, and squatted down to caress his face as he caressed hers. Li Lan hugged him tight and couldn't help bursting into tears. "Son, take good care of Grandpa. Grandpa is old now, so he wants you to stay by his side. Mama will come to see you often…"

Song Gang didn't understand what Li Lan was talking about. He nodded, then looked over at Baldy Li. Li Lan wept with Song Gang in her arms, then wiped her tears and stood up. Looking over at Song Fanping's father, her lips moved as if to say something but no sounds came out. Finally she took Baldy Li's hand.

Li Lan led Baldy Li down the dirt road. She didn't look back. Her steps were as heavy as two mops dragging across the floor. Even at this moment Baldy Li still didn't realize that he was about to be parted from Song Gang. As Li Lan led him down the road he turned to look back at Song Gang, wondering why he wasn't coming with them. Song Gang's grandfather held Song Gang's hand as Song Gang stood in front of his father's grave, watching in confusion as Baldy Li and Li Lan slowly walked away. He also didn't understand why he had been left behind. As Li Lan and Baldy Li walked farther away he saw that Grandpa was waving farewell to them. Hesitantly he also lifted his hand and waved. Baldy Li kept turning back to look at Song Gang, and when he saw that Song Gang was waving at him, he also started waving.

CHAPTER 22

FROM THAT POINT, Baldy Li was on his own. In those days Li Lan left early and returned late. The silk factory where she used to work had stopped production in order to carry out revolutionary activities, but since Song Fanping had left her with a landlady designation, every day she had to go to the factory to receive criticism. Without Song Gang, Baldy Li no longer had a pal. All day, every day, he wandered the streets, as adrift and aimless as a leaf floating down the river and as pitiful as a scrap of paper blowing in the wind. He didn't know what to do, knowing only to walk about, sit when he was tired, drink from a faucet when he was thirsty, and go home to eat leftovers when he was hungry.

Baldy Li didn't know what was happening in the world as more and more people were forced to parade through the streets wearing dunce caps and wooden placards in the name of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. Mama Su from the snack shop had also been dragged out to be struggled against. They accused her of being a prostitute, on the ground that she had a daughter and no husband. One day Baldy Li glimpsed a red-haired woman standing on a bench on the street. He had never seen someone with red hair, so his curiosity led him over. When he got closer, he saw that her hair was actually stained red with blood. She stood, head lowered, on the bench, a placard hanging around her neck. The woman's daughter — a girl named Missy Su, who was only a few years older than Baldy Li — stood by her mother's side. Only when Baldy Li had walked directly under Mama Su and looked up at her lowered face did he recognize her as the owner of the snack shop.

There was another bench next to Mama Sus, and on it stood longhaired Sun Wei's father. Even this man — who had once brawled with Song Fanping and had stood guard in front of the warehouse wearing his red armband — was now wearing a dunce cap and a wooden placard. Sun Wei's grandfather had owned a rice shop in Liu Town before Liberation. The shop had gone bankrupt during the war, but as the Cultural Revolution struggles delved deeper and deeper, Sun Wei's father was now also dug out as capitalist, and the placard hanging around his neck now was even bigger than the one Song Fanping had worn.

Sun Wei was now as alone as Baldy Li. Once his father was labeled a class enemy, his erstwhile buddies, Victory Zhao and Success Liu, immediately distanced themselves from him. Whenever they ran into Baldy Li, they would leer at him. Baldy Li knew that they wanted to practice their sweep-kicks on him, so he would dash away, or if he couldn't, he would plop himself on the ground, saying, "I'm already down."

Victory Zhao and Success Liu couldn't do much with that, so they gave him a kick, cursing, "That fucking kid…"

They used to call him just "kid," but now they called him "fucking kid." Baldy Li often caught sight of Sun Wei. He frequently wandered the streets by himself, his head cocked, and sometimes he leaned against the bridge railing. No one hailed him, no one patted him on the shoulder, and when Victory Zhao and Success Liu saw him, they would pretend that they didn't recognize him. Only Baldy Li still acted the same as always, and would either run away or plop himself on the ground.

Baldy Li eventually grew tired of running away. Every time he would run until he was out of breath, his lungs burning. He decided that he'd rather just plop himself on the ground, which would not only be more relaxing but would afford him a view of the street. Now whenever he ran into long-haired Sun Wei, he'd sit right down as if he were trying to snatch a good seat. Cocking his head up at Sun Wei, he'd say, "I'm already down. The most you can do is give me a kick."

Sun Wei — who still called Baldy Li "kid" and not "fucking kid" — chuckled and nudged the boy's bottom with his foot. "Hey, kid, why do you plop down whenever you see me?"

Baldy Li answered craftily, "I'm terrified of your sweep-kick."

Long-haired Sun Wei chuckled some more. "Get up, kid, I won't kick you."

Baldy Li shook his head. "I'll get up after you leave."

"Fuck," he said. "I really won't kick you anymore. Get up."

Baldy Li didn't believe him. "I'm quite comfortable sitting right here."

"Fuck," Sun Wei spat out and stalked off. As he walked away he recited a line from Chairman Mao: "I ask, in this boundless land, who is master of his destiny?"

These two lonely fellows would often run into each other on the streets. At first Baldy Li would either keep a safe distance from Sun Wei or he would immediately plant himself on the ground, and each time Sun Wei would chuckle. Baldy Li always guardedly watched Sun Wei's legs to make sure that they wouldn't sneak in a kick. One day at noon Baldy Li finally let down his guard. At this time most people in town were locking up their faucets; in a great thirst, Baldy Li tried faucet after faucet until, on the eighth try, he found one that hadn't been locked up. He turned it on and filled his belly with water and also stuck his head underneath to cool himself off. Just as he finished twisting the faucet shut, someone came from behind him, turned it on again, and drank for a good long time, his mouth sucking on it as if it were a sugarcane. As this person drank he stuck his backside in the air and let out a string of farts, making Baldy Li giggle. When the person finished, he turned to Baldy Li and said, "Hey, kid, what are you laughing at?"

Baldy Li now saw that it was Sun Wei, but he was so busy giggling, momentarily he forgot to sit down. He said to Sun Wei, "Your farts sound like snores."

Sun Wei chuckled as he turned the stream of water down to a trickle. He dabbed some water on his fingers to comb his hair and asked Baldy Li, "Where's that other kid?"

Baldy Li knew he was referring to Song Gang and replied, "He went back to the countryside."

Sun Wei nodded. He turned off the faucet and shook out his long hair, then waved for Baldy Li to follow him. Baldy Li walked a few steps before he suddenly remembered the sweep-kick, whereupon he immediately planted himself on the ground. Sun Wei walked a bit farther before noticing that Baldy Li wasn't following, and when he turned around, he saw that Baldy Li was again seated on the ground. Curious, he asked, "Hey, kid, what are you doing?"

Baldy Li pointed at Sun Wei's legs. "You have sweep-kicking legs."

Sun Wei burst into laughter. "If I had wanted to kick you, I would have already done so."

This struck Baldy Li as logical, but he still didn't fully believe Sun Wei. Cautiously, he suggested, "You just forgot to kick me earlier."

Sun Wei waved his hand, saying, "Nah. Get up, I won't kick you anymore. We're friends now."

The words "We're friends now" thrilled and surprised Baldy Li, and he almost leapt up. Sun Wei indeed didn't sweep-kick him; rather, he placed his hand on Baldy Li's shoulder, and they walked down the street as if they were old pals. With a toss of his long locks, Sun Wei intoned, "I ask, in this boundless land, who is master of his destiny?"

Baldy Li beamed with excitement. Sun Wei, who was seven years older than he, was his friend. Now that Song Fanping had passed away, Baldy Li's new friend was certainly the Number One Sweep-kicker in town. Sun Wei's hair, which usually covered his ears, blew in the breeze, and he recited the Chairman's verses as he ambled along, sometimes adding an "Alas!" at the end of the line for emphasis. Sun Wei's improvements on the originals impressed Baldy Li. He also felt that walking alongside Sun Wei brought him great clout. He was no longer intimidated by anyone, not even the armband-wearing men.

As they ascended the bridge they ran into Victory Zhao and Success Liu, both of whom looked upon Sun Wei walking with the young Baldy Li with great curiosity. Ignoring them, Sun Wei continued with his recitation of Chairman's Mao verse, "I ask, in this boundless land…"

Baldy Li rather overeagerly rushed to complete the couplet: "… who is master of his destiny?"

Victory Zhao and Success Liu whispered to each other, laughing. Sun Wei knew that they were making fun of him, so in a low voice he scolded Baldy Li, "Hey, kid, stop walking next to me. Follow behind."

Baldy Li's swagger instantly dissipated. He no longer had the right to walk shoulder to shoulder with Sun Wei and could only follow behind him like a little lackey, his shoulders slumped and his head drooped. Trailing behind Sun Wei, Baldy Li now understood that the only reason Sun Wei had recruited him as a friend was because he had none left. All the same, he still followed closely behind Sun Wei, since trailing him was better than being on his own.

What Baldy Li didn't expect was that the next day long-haired Sun Wei would come knocking on his door. Baldy Li was just finishing breakfast when he heard Sun Wei reciting Chairman Mao's verse outside the door: "I ask, in this boundless land, who is master of his destiny?"

Overjoyed, Baldy Li opened the door. Sun Wei beckoned him like an old friend. "C'mon, let's go."

The two of them walked for a bit. Baldy Li cautiously followed alongside Sun Wei, relieved not to see any reaction from him. When they reached the end of the alley, Sun Wei suddenly stopped and asked Baldy Li, "Take a look for me. Do I have a rip in my pants?"

Baldy Li crouched down and peered at the seat of Sun Wei's pants but didn't spot anything. He replied, "No rips."

Sun Wei said, "Look more closely."

By this point Baldy Li's nose was almost touching Sun Wei's butt, but he still didn't spot anything. Suddenly Sun Wei let out a loud fart, blasting Baldy Li's face like a gust of wind. Sun Wei guffawed and, walking off, chanted loudly, "I ask, in this boundless land …"

Baldy Li quickly chimed in, "… who is master of his destiny?"

Baldy Li knew that Sun Wei was taunting him, but he didn't care. He only cared that Sun Wei let him walk alongside him, rather than making him trail behind.

For the rest of the summer, Baldy Li and Sun Wei spent all their time together. They loafed about in the streets past sunset, sometimes staying out long after the moon had come up. Sun Wei didn't like deserted areas, preferring the crowded main streets. Like a fly hovering over a pile of dung, Baldy Li trailed him everywhere; and the two wandered the streets, not knowing what else to do. Sun Wei was enamored with his own long hair, and at least twice a day he would walk down the steps to the riverbank and, squatting down, take up some water to style the locks framing his face. He would then admire his blurry image in the river and blow a few smug whistles. Baldy Li eventually figured out why Sun Wei liked to amble up and down the main streets: What he liked were the large glass windows of the stores. Whenever he stopped in front of one and started whistling, Baldy Li knew even without looking that Sun Wei was once again tossing his hair about.

They often ran into Sun Wei's father on the street. On those occasions, Sun Wei would look down and hurry away as if he were worried about being recognized. Sun Wei's father wore a tall dunce cap and swept the streets as Song Fanping had once been made to do. Each morning he would start at one end of the street and sweep his way to the other end, and each afternoon he would sweep his way back. People often lectured him, saying, "Hey there, have you confessed all your mistakes?"

He stuttered in reply, "Yes, yes."

"Did you leave anything out? Think more carefully."

He nodded obsequiously. "Yes, I will."

Sometimes it would be children who would lecture him: "Raise your fist and shout, ‘Down with myself.'"

And he would raise his fist and shout, "Down with myself!"

On those occasions Baldy Li would itch with the desire to yell at him too, but with Sun Wei by his side, he couldn't bring himself to do so. One time Baldy Li really couldn't help himself, and when Sun Wei's father had finished shouting "Down with myself!" Baldy Li said, "Shout it twice."

Sun Wei's father raised his fist twice, shouting, "Down with myself!" Sun Wei stomped on Baldy Li's foot, cursing, "If you're going to fucking kick a dog, you should first see who it belongs to."

But when Sun Wei ran across other dunce-cap-wearing people being struggled against, he would happily throw in a kick himself as he walked past. Baldy Li would follow suit, and the two would be pleased with themselves as if they had just had a bowl of house-special noodles. Sun Wei said to Baldy Li, "Kicking bad guys is as natural as wiping yourself after taking a shit."

Sun Wei's mother had once been a woman with a vicious tongue. On Li Lan and Song Fanping's wedding day, she had been the one who let loose with a string of the foulest curses over a wayward hen. But now that her husband was wearing a dunce cap and a wooden placard, it was as if she had become a different person and was now soft-spoken and obsequious. Baldy Li often appeared at her front door in the morning, and she knew that he was her son's only friend; so whenever she ran into him, she was as affectionate as if she were his mom. If she noticed that Baldy Li's face was dirty, she would fetch a towel to wipe it, and if Baldy Li had a button missing on his shirt, she would have him take it off, then she would sew it back on right then and there. When no one was listening, she would ask after Li Lan. Baldy Li always shook his head and said that he didn't know, whereupon she would sigh and turn away before he could see her cry.

Baldy Li and Sun Wei's friendship didn't last very long. Now in addition to the parading masses, the streets were also full of people wielding scissors and razor blades. Whenever they spotted someone with tailored pants, they would drag him out and shred his pants legs until they were like the ends of a mop; when they saw a long-haired man, they would wrestle him to the ground and chop at his hair until it looked like a roughly weeded patch of grass. Men wearing tailored pants and sporting long hair were obviously bourgeois, and Sun Wei's long hair could not escape this fate. One morning, just as he and Baldy Li reached the main street and spotted Sun Wei's father sweeping at a distance with his head bent, a few men wielding scissors and razors ran toward them. At that moment Sun Wei was still busy reciting, "I ask, in this boundless land, who is master of his destiny?"

Baldy Li heard the clatter of footsteps behind him, and he turned around to see a few red-armbanders rushing at them with scissors and razors in their hands. Baldy Li didn't know what was going on. But when he turned back to look at Sun Wei, he saw that he had already dashed off frantically toward his father, with the red-armbanders close behind.

Usually, when Baldy Li's middle-schooler friend ran into his father on the street, he would walk past, eyes averted. But this time, in order to protect his beloved head of long hair, he ran toward his father, screaming, "Papa, save me!"

Another red-armbander suddenly jumped in front of Sun Wei and kicked him to the ground. When Sun Wei got up to continue running, the group of men tackled him. By this time Baldy Li had caught up and saw that Sun Wei's father was also rushing over. A gust of wind blew the father's dunce cap to the ground, so he ran back to place it on his head and then continued running toward his son.

Several of the stronger red-armbanders pinned Sun Wei to the ground and started pushing the razor across his gorgeous long hair. Sun Wei resisted with all his might; even after his arms were pinned down, he still kicked his feet as if he were swimming. Two red-armbanders sat on him, holding down his legs. Though his body was immobilized, Sun Wei strained to lift his head up, screaming, "Papa, Papa …"

The razor blade in the red-armbander's hand was slashing through Sun Wei's hair and neck like a machete. Between the red-armbander's downward thrusts and Sun Wei's struggles, the razor blade slashed deeply into Sun Wei's neck. Blood gushed all over the blade, but the red-armbander still slashed, ultimately slicing through the jugular vein.

Baldy Li witnessed the horrific scene as blood spurted in a two-yard-long arc like a fountain. The faces of the red-armbanders were sprayed with blood; shocked, they all leapt back like springs. When Sun Wei's father rushed over and saw that his son's neck was spurting blood, he pleaded with the group to spare his boy. As he knelt on the blood-drenched ground his cap fell off, but this time he didn't retrieve it. Instead he cradled his son in his arms as Sun Wei's head flopped over like a dolls. He screamed his sons name, but there was no response. With a look of terror he asked the crowd, "Is my son dead?"

No one answered. The red-armbanders responsible for Sun Wei's death were all mopping the blood from their faces and looking about in a panic, struck dumb by what had just happened. Sun Wei's father bellowed at them, "You! You killed my son!"

As he shouted he rushed at them. They backed away in terror, and he, with his fist clenched, didn't know who to pursue. At this moment four other red-armbanders walked over. When they spotted Sun Wei's father, they scolded him, ordering him back to his sweeping. Sun Wei's father's crazed fists crashed down on them, and the four beat him brutally in return. They rolled around like a pack of wild animals as the crowds hovered, rushing back and forth. Sun Wei's father used his fists, feet, and head, roaring like a crazed beast, and even the four red-armbanders together couldn't manage to take him down. He had once fought Song Fanping, and back then he had been no match for Song; but at this moment Baldy Li was certain that it would be Song Fanping who was no match for Sun Wei's father.

More and more red-armbanders congregated in the street. There were now more than twenty of them, and they encircled Sun Wei's father, taking turns beating him down until he was flat on the ground. Still, they continued to shower him with punches and kicks, and only when he was completely motionless did the red-armbanders pause to catch their breath. When he came to again, they bellowed at him, "Get up. Get going."

Sun Wei's father by now had resumed his former air of diffidence. Wiping at the blood on his lips, he dragged his bruised body up, but not before retrieving his dunce cap, stained with his son's blood. He solemnly placed it back on his head and, as he followed them with his head hung low, he caught sight of Baldy Li. He wept and said, "Go tell my wife our son is dead."

Shaking all over, Baldy Li arrived at Sun Wei's house. It was still morning, so when Sun Wei's mother saw Baldy Li standing by himself at her door, she assumed he had come looking for her son. Curious, she asked, "Didn't you two go out together just now?"

Baldy Li nodded his head. He was trembling so hard he couldn't say a word. When Sun Wei's mother saw the blood on Baldy Li's face, she gasped and asked, "Did you get into a fight?"

Baldy Li swiped his hand across his face. When he saw the blood on his hand, he realized that it was Sun Wei's. Shaking and sobbing, he said, "Sun Wei is dead."

Baldy Li saw the horror creep over Sun Wei's mother's face as she stared at him. He repeated himself and, feeling that she was not registering what he was saying, he added, "On the main street."

Sun Wei's mother stumbled out of her house and to the end of the alley until she reached the main street. Baldy Li followed behind her, stammeringly describing how her son had died and how her husband had battled the red-armbanders. Sun Wei's mother quickened her pace until she was no longer reeling with shock; speed gave her balance, and when she reached the main street, she broke into a run. Baldy Li ran behind for a few steps but then paused as she ran to where her son was lying. Baldy Li saw her fall to the ground, then heard a shattering series of wails, each sob wrenched from her chest as if with a dagger.

From that point on, Sun Wei's mother never stopped weeping. Even after her eyes became red and as puffy as two lightbulbs, her weeping continued unabated. In the days that followed, each morning she would support herself against the walls of the alley and walk to the end, then support herself along the walls of the main street and walk to the spot where her son had died. She would stand there, gazing down at the traces of his blood, and weep unceasingly. Only after the sun had set would she support herself against the walls and stumble home. The next day she would be there once again, sobbing. When acquaintances went over to comfort her, she would turn away, bowing her head deeply.

Her gaze grew unfocused, her clothes shabby, and her hair and face increasingly filthy. Her gait became odder and odder: As she stepped out with her right foot she would swing her right arm forward, and as she stepped out with her left foot she would swing her left arm forward. As they say in Liu Town, she was walking lopsided. She would walk to the spot where her son had died and sit there, her entire body slack as if she was barely conscious, her weeping sounding like the buzz of mosquitoes. Most people thought that she had lost her mind, but when she would accidentally catch someone's eye, she would turn away and stealthily wipe away her tears. Eventually, in order not to let others see her cry, she started sitting with her face against a wutong tree and her back to the street.

There was much talk among the people of Liu. Some concluded that she had gone mad; others noted that she was still capable of feeling shame, so obviously she hadn't gone completely insane. However, even they admitted that, judging by her odd behavior, she at the very least had fallen into a deep depression. One day her shoe fell off, and from that point on she never again wore shoes. Various pieces of clothing also fell by the wayside, and she never replaced them, until finally one day she sat there stark naked. By that time, the traces of her sons blood had been completely washed away by the rain, yet she still stared at the ground, weeping inconsolably When she noticed someone looking at her, she would turn away and lean into the tree trunk, stealthily wiping her tears. Now the people of Liu Town were all in agreement that she had, indeed, gone completely mad.

This pitiful woman no longer knew where home was. At nightfall she stood up and wandered the streets and alleys of Liu Town, looking for her home. Like a ghost she silently paced the streets, often giving the towns residents a good scare. Later she even forgot where her son had died. All day she rushed about frantically like someone trying to catch a train, running from one end of the street to the other calling out her sons name, as if she were calling him home for dinner: "Sun Wei! Sun Wei!"

Then one day she vanished from Liu Town altogether. She was gone for almost half a month before people realized they hadn't seen her for a long time. They asked one another, "How did Sun Wei's mother suddenly disappear?" Sun Wei's former buddies, Victory Zhao and Success Liu, however, knew where she had gone. They stood amid the crowds and pointed north, explaining, "She's gone. She's long gone."

"Gone?" the crowds asked. "Where did she go?"

"She's gone to the countryside."

Victory Zhao and Success Liu were perhaps the last people to see her leave. That afternoon they were pissing on the wooden bridge outside the southern gate when they caught sight of Sun Wei's mother. She had once again been clothed, Mama Su having quietly dressed her in a shirt and slacks one night, but as she walked out the gate she had lost her pants again and was menstruating. The sight of blood trickling down her legs as she walked over the wooden bridge had shocked Victory Zhao and Success Liu into silence.

On the day that his son died, Sun Wei's father was locked into the warehouse that was really a prison cell. He once had guarded Song Fanping here, but now it was his turn; it was said that he slept on what was once Song Fanping's bed. His sons ghastly death had made him temporarily lose his mind and caused him to beat up some armband-wearing rebels. From the first night the red-armbanders locked him inside the warehouse, they started to torture him. They bound his arms and legs and then placed a feral cat down his pants. The pants were fastened tight on either end, so that the cat tried to scratch and bite its way out, causing him to cry out all night in unbearable pain. Everyone else locked in the warehouse shuddered at the sound, and a few of the more cowardly ones even wet their pants.

The next day these red-armbanders switched to a new form of punishment: They had him lie facedown on the ground while they rubbed the soles of his feet with a metal brush. Pained and tickled, he started to thrash his arms and legs as if he were swimming. The red-armbanders watching him broke out into guffaws, asking, "Do you know what this is called?"

Though his entire body was in spasms, Sun Wei's father still had to answer. Through his tears he stammered, "I–I-I don't know…"

A red-armbander smiled. "You know how to swim, don't you?"

Sun Wei's father was now completely out of breath, but still he had to answer. "I do, I do…"

"This is called ‘a duck paddling in water.'" The red-armbanders were laughing so hard they bent over. "Now you're a duck paddling in water."

The third day the red-armbanders had more in store for Sun Wei's father. They lit a cigarette, inserted it upright in the dirt, and commanded him to take his pants off. Even the act of removing his pants made Sun Wei's father grimace in pain, and his teeth knocked together as loudly as Blacksmith Tongs hammer and anvil. The feral cat had shredded the skin on both his legs, and the pants legs had stuck to the bloody wounds. When he took off his pants, he felt as though he were skinning himself as pus and blood trickled down his legs. The red-armbanders then ordered him to sit down on the cigarette, and he tearfully complied. One of them crouched down on the ground to have a closer look; he directed the father's butt this way and that until the lit end of the cigarette was aimed straight at his asshole. Then the man commanded, "Sit down!"

Sun Wei's father sat down on the lit end of the cigarette. He could feel it burning his anus, and he heard a crackling sound. By this point he no longer felt any pain. He only smelled the odor of burning flesh. That red-armbander still commanded, "Sit down! Sit down!"

His bottom reached the ground, and the cigarette was crushed inside his anus. He lay on the ground as if dead while the red-armbanders guffawed, asking him, "Do you know what this is called?"

Completely spent, he shook his head. "I don't know."

"This is called ‘smoking through your asshole.'" The red-armbander threw him a kick for emphasis. "Will you remember that?"

His head lowered, he responded, "I will remember ‘smoking through your asshole.'"

Sun Wei's father was tortured continuously. His legs became swollen, continued to ooze pus, and began to smell increasingly foul. Every time he defecated he was in unbearable agony. He didn't dare wipe himself, since each wipe brought on searing pain. As his feces stuck to his burnt flesh, his anus started to rot. The man was rotting all over, and he was in pain when he stood, when he sat, when he lay down, when he moved, even when he remained motionless.

He was in a state worse than death, and each day brought new tortures. Only deep in the night did he have a moment of peace. As he lay in bed, racked with pain, the only part of him that didn't hurt was his thoughts. He thought over and over again of his son and wife and kept wondering where his son had been buried. He imagined over and over a beautiful landscape of green hills and lakes, and he imagined his son buried somewhere amid this landscape. At times he felt that this beautiful place seemed very familiar; at other times he didn't recognize it at all. Then he would dwell obsessively on how his wife was doing. He imagined her heartbreak at losing their son, thinking of how she would have lost a lot of weight and would be staying at home all day, waiting for his return.

Every day he thought of suicide, and only by thinking constantly of his son and his helpless wife did he manage to survive each new day's torture. He imagined his wife walking to the front gate of the warehouse every day, hoping to see him; so whenever he heard the warehouse gate open, he would anxiously glance outside. Finally he couldn't bear it any longer and knelt down, kowtowing and begging a red-armbander to let his wife see him if she came by. That was when he learned that his wife had gone mad and had been wandering the streets without a stitch of clothing.

The red-armbander cackled and called over a few others. They told him that his wife had long since lost her mind. They stood in front of him, taunting him with a description of his wife's body, saying that she had huge tits but too bad they were droopy, and that she had a thick bush but too bad it was so filthy, with pieces of hay sticking to it…

Sun Wei's father fell to the ground motionless, so heartbroken that he could no longer cry. When night fell and he lay on his bed, racked with pain, he realized that now it even hurt to think. It was as if there were a meat grinder inside his head, grinding his brain into bits. Around two o'clock that morning he had a moment of clarity. This is when he made up his mind to take his life, and the decision instantly cleared the pain in his head, making him completely lucid. He recalled that there was a long iron nail under the bed. About a month earlier he had his first thought of suicide when he discovered this nail, and now his final thought of suicide returned to it. Getting out of bed, he knelt on the ground and searched for a long time until he found it again. Using his shoulders to lift the bed frame, he pulled out one of the bricks propping up the bed and then sat down by the wall. At this moment he no longer felt any of his pains and bruises, as if he had already left them behind. Breathing in deeply twice, he held the nail with his left hand and pointed it down on his skull. With his right hand he raised the brick and thought of his dead son. Smiling, he said softly, "I'm coming."

As his right hand smashed the brick down on the nail, it seemed as if the nail drilled into his skull, but he could still think clearly. He raised his right hand to smash it down a second time. He thought of his wife, who had gone mad, and the thought of how she was now going to be all alone made him weep. Softly he said, "I'm sorry."

The second time he smashed down, the nail drilled farther and seemed to reach his brain. His mind was still active, and his last thought was of the vicious armband-wearing bullies. Suddenly he was filled with hatred and anger, and his eyes bulged as he conjured up those red-armbanders in the dark of the night. Crazily he bellowed, "I'm going to kill you all!"

With all the life that was left in him, he smashed the big metal nail straight into his brain. This time it went in completely, and the brick smashed into smithereens.

Sun Wei's father's final angry roar frightened everyone in the warehouse out of their sleep. Even the red-armbanders were terrified. When they turned on the light, they saw Sun Wei's father slumped against the wall, his eyes staring straight and motionless, and the ground covered with broken shards of brick. At first no one realized that he had killed himself. They didn't know why he was sitting there, and a red-armbander even began to scold him, "Fuck! Get up! Fuck— look how he's staring."

When the red-armbander walked over to kick him, Sun Wei's father's body slid down the wall. Startled, the red-armbander jumped back a few steps and told two other prisoners to go take a look. The two men walked over and squatted near the body. They looked him over and saw all his bruises and wounds but couldn't figure out how he had died. The two men then righted him, and when they lifted him up, they saw that the top of his head was covered in fresh blood. They examined it more closely, feeling around until they finally figured it out: "There's an iron nail here. He drove a nail into his skull."

The unimaginable manner in which Sun Wei's father killed himself rapidly spread throughout Liu Town. When the news reached Li Lan, she was at home — she heard the neighbors talking about it, standing outside her window. Everyone expressed amazement and incredulity: How was it possible to smash a two-inch-long nail into your own skull? They talked about how the nail had been thoroughly embedded in his skull, as if he were making a cabinet, to the point that you couldn't even feel the end of the nail on his scalp. They asked with shuddering voices, "How could he do it? It would be nearly impossible to smash such a nail into someone else's skull, let alone your own." Li Lan listened at the window, and after they walked off, she turned back into the room and smiled sadly to herself. "If a person is determined to die, he'll find a way."

CHAPTER 23

THE STREETS of Liu Town descended into chaos. Almost every day there were beatings among the revolutionary masses. Baldy Li didn't understand why these men, who all wore the same red armbands and waved the same red flags, were beating one another up with fists, flagpoles, and wooden bats, tearing at one another like wild beasts. One time Baldy Li saw them wielding kitchen cleavers and axes, until the electrical poles, the wutong trees, the walls, and the streets were all splattered with their blood.

Li Lan no longer let Baldy Li leave the house, even sealing the window shut so that he wouldn't be able to sneak out. When she left for the silk factory in the morning she would lock him in the house, and the door would remain shut until she returned home in the evening. Thus began Baldy Li's truly solitary childhood. From daybreak to nightfall, his world consisted of two rooms, and so he began his all-out war against the ants and the cockroaches. He would often crouch under the bed with a bowl in his hand and wait for the ants to emerge; when they did, he would first splash them with water and then smush them to death one by one. Once a fat mouse scurried right past his face, and that terrified him so much that he no longer crawled under the bed. Later he began to attack the cockroaches in the armoire, locking himself inside with them in order to trap them. By the light seeping in through a crack in the door, he would chase them and crush them with his shoe. Once he fell asleep inside the armoire and was still dreaming happily when Li Lan got home. Poor Li Lan was so panicked that she hollered for him all over the house and even dashed outside to look down the alley. When he finally emerged, she collapsed to the floor, her face pale and one hand clutching her chest, unable to speak a word.

Just when Baldy Li was at his loneliest, Song Gang made the long journey to come see him. Bringing along five White Rabbits, Song Gang set off in the morning from the village without telling his grandfather. Asking for directions along the way, he arrived at Baldy Li's house around noon and knocked on the window, shouting, "Baldy Li! Baldy Li! Are you in there? It's Song Gang."

Baldy Li was dozing off out of boredom when he heard Song Gangs shouts. Jumping up to the window, he knocked on the glass, shouting,

"Song Gang! Song Gang! I'm in here."

Song Gang responded, "Baldy Li, open the door!"

Baldy Li said, "The doors locked from the outside."

"Open the window."

"The windows been sealed shut."

The two brothers banged on the window and hollered at each other for a long while. The lower panes of the window had been covered over with newspaper, so they couldn't see each other and could only communicate by shouting. Baldy Li then moved a stool over to the window so that he could perch there and look down through the only pane on top that hadn't been papered over. In this way, he finally caught sight of Song Gang, and Song Gang finally caught sight of him. Song Gang was wearing the same set of clothes he had worn to Song Fanping's burial. He looked up and said, "Baldy Li, I've missed you."

Song Gang smiled, a little embarrassed. Baldy Li banged the window with both hands, crying, "Song Gang, I've missed you, too."

Song Gang took out the five White Rabbits from his pocket and lifted them up to show Baldy Li. "See these? I brought them for you."

Baldy Li joyfully shouted, "Song Gang, I see them! Song Gang, you're so good to me."

Baldy Li started drooling immediately, but the window separated him from the candies in Song Gang's hand. He shouted to Song Gang, "Figure out a way to get the candy in here."

Song Gang thought for a moment. "Maybe I can stuff it in through a crack in the door."

Baldy Li hurried down from his perch and went to the door. He saw the candy wrapper pushing through the widest crack on the door but unable to make it in. Song Gang reported, "It won't fit."

Baldy Li anxiously scratched his head. "Think of something else."

Baldy Li heard Song Gang's labored breathing on the other side of the door. After a while he said, "I really can't get it in. Here, take a sniff first."

Song Gang thrust the candy close to the crack in the door. Baldy Li glued his nose to the crack and inhaled as deeply as he could. Finally he caught a whiff of the candy and burst into tears. Song Gang asked from outside, "Baldy Li, why are you crying?"

Through his tears Baldy Li replied, "I can smell the White Rabbits."

Song Gang started giggling. When Baldy Li heard him, he also started giggling, alternating his sobs with his giggles. The two boys then sat on the ground, one inside the house and the other outside, and chatted for a long time. Song Gang told Baldy Li about the countryside: how he had learned to fish, climb trees, plant sprouts, thresh wheat, and pick cotton. Baldy Li told Song Gang about all the things that had happened in town: how long-haired Sun Wei was dead, and how even Mama Su from the snack shop was now wearing a wooden placard. When he described how Sun Wei had died, Song Gang started weeping. "That poor guy"

The boys spoke through the door as if nothing separated them. They chatted all afternoon, but when Song Gang saw that the sun was setting on the alley, he hurriedly stood up and told Baldy Li that he had to get going. It was a long way home, so he had to get on his way. Baldy Li knocked from inside, pleading with Song Gang to stay for a while longer. "Its not dark yet…"

Song Gang rapped back. "But once its dark, I won't be able to find my way."

Before Song Gang left, he hid the White Rabbits under the front stoop, explaining that if he put them on the window ledge someone else might take them. But he came back after taking a few steps, explaining that he was worried that worms under the stoop might eat the candy, so he plucked two wutong leaves, carefully wrapped the candy inside, then put them back under the stoop. He peered through the crack in the wall, took another look at Baldy Li, and said, "Goodbye, Baldy Li."

Sadly Baldy Li asked, "When will you start missing me again?"

Song Gang shook his head. "I don't know."

Baldy Li listened as Song Gang walked off, his nine-year-old footsteps as light as a chick's. Baldy Li kept his eyes glued to the crack in the wall, guarding his milk candies like a hawk. Whenever anyone walked by, Baldy Li's heart would beat wildly, afraid they would flip over the stone stoop. He hoped that dusk would come quickly so that Li Lan would come home and open the door, allowing him to finally get his hands on the White Rabbits.

Song Gang quietly walked to the end of the alley and onto the main street. He looked all about him as he walked, seeing familiar houses and trees, and people fighting, crying, and laughing. Some of the people seemed to know him, and so he smiled at them, but no one paid him any heed. A bit disappointed, he walked down the two main streets, over the wooden bridge, and out the towns southern gate. He lost his way at the first fork in the road after leaving the main gate and merely stood there, not knowing which way to turn. He could see that on one side were fields and houses, while the other side stretched out to the horizon. Song Gang stood at the intersection for a long time until he saw a man walking down the road. He cried out, "Uncle, uncle," and asked the man how to get to his grandfathers village. The man shook his head, saying that he didn't know, and then walked off. Song Gang stood amid the fields under the endless expanse of sky, becoming increasingly terrified. After letting out a few sobs, he wiped his tears and walked back through the southern gate into Liu Town.

Even after Song Gang left, Baldy Li's eyes remained glued to the crack in the door. His eyes were tired and blurry when he suddenly saw Song Gang walking back toward him. Baldy Li thought that Song Gang had started missing him again already and had walked back to see him. He pounded the door happily, shouting, "Song Gang, did you start missing me again?"

Song Gang shook his head. "I'm lost. I don't know the way home and don't know what to do."

Baldy Li chuckled and rapped on the door, comforting Song Gang. "Don't worry. Just wait till Mama gets home. She knows how to get to your house, so she could take you back."

Song Gang decided that Baldy Li had a point, so he nodded and peered at Baldy Li before settling himself back down on the ground. Baldy Li also sat down. The two boys resumed their chatting, their backs against each other, separated by the door. This time it was Song Gang who told Baldy Li all the things that were going on in town, all the people he had seen on the street who were fighting and crying and laughing. As Song Gang spoke he suddenly remembered the White Rabbits, so he hurriedly lifted the stone stoop and retrieved them. He said, "That was close" — the worms had just eaten through the leaf wrappers but fortunately hadn't gotten to the candy. He carefully put the five pieces of candy into his pocket and then placed his hand protectively over it. After a while Song Gang said softly, "Baldy Li, I'm really hungry. I didn't have lunch. Could I have the candies?"

Baldy Li hesitated, unwilling to spare them. Outside Song Gang continued, "I'm starving. Just let me have one."

Baldy Li nodded and said, "Why don't you have four of them. Just save me one."

Song Gang shook his head. "Ill just have one."

Song Gang took one of the candies out of his pocket, examined it, then brought it up to his face and sniffed for a while. Baldy Li didn't hear any chewing, only sniffing, so he asked, "Why does your chewing sound like sniffing?"

Song Gang giggled. "I'm not eating. I'm just sniffing."

Baldy Li asked, "Why aren't you're eating?"

Song Gang swallowed his drool, saying, "I'm not going to eat it. They're all for you. I'll just take a few sniffs."

Right then Li Lan came home. From inside Baldy Li first heard his mother's shout of surprise and delight, then her rapid footsteps; then he heard Song Gang cry out, "Mama!" Li Lan ran up to the house and scooped Song Gang up in her arms, all the while chattering nonstop like a machine gun. Baldy Li, meanwhile, was still locked inside. He banged at the door with all his might, shouting and crying, but it took a while before Li Lan registered his cries and opened the door.

Baldy Li and Song Gang finally saw each other again in person. The two boys grabbed each other's hands and bounced up and down, hooting and hollering, until they both worked up a headful of sweat and the snivel from their noses dribbled into their mouths. They jumped about for more than ten minutes before Song Gang remembered the White Rabbits in his pocket. Wiping the sweat from his forehead, he rooted around for the candies, counting out "one, two, three, four," and "five," as he placed them one by one into Baldy Li's hands. Baldy Li put four of them in his pocket but unwrapped the last one and popped it into his mouth.

Li Lan had suffered through a whole day of struggle sessions at the silk factory and was worn down and weary as she approached home. But the moment she saw Song Gang, her face lit up with excitement. This was the first time since Song Fanping's death that she had been this happy. She exclaimed that she was going to give the two boys a good meal to celebrate Song Gang's visit, and, taking them both by the hand, she set off for the People's Restaurant to get noodles. As they walked along the streets at dusk Baldy Li felt as if he had not been outside for years. He was so joyful that he no longer walked but skipped, and Song Gang did likewise. Li Lan led them with a broad smile, and her happiness infected the boys as they skipped along even more cheerfully.

As they reached the bridge they saw Mama Su from the snack shop standing there with a wooden placard around her neck. Her daughter, Missy Su, stood by her side, clutching her shirttail. Song Gang walked up to Mama Su and asked, "Why would someone as kind as you have to wear a wooden placard?"

Mama Su, her head bowed, did not respond, but Missy Su wiped her tears upon hearing Song Gangs words. Li Lan also stood there with her head bowed, whispering to Baldy Li and giving him a gentle nudge to share a candy with Missy Su. Baldy Li gulped, fished out a White Rabbit from his pocket, and painfully surrendered it to Missy Su, who reached out a tear-dampened palm and accepted it. Mama Su then looked up and smiled at Li Lan, and Li Lan smiled back. Li Lan stood for a while, then tugged at Song Gangs hand. Song Gang knew it was time to go. He said to Mama Su, "Don't worry. You will be rewarded in the next life."

Mama Su responded in a low voice, "You're a good boy. You will also be rewarded."

Mama Su then looked at Baldy Li and Li Lan and added, "You will all be rewarded."

Li Lan led Baldy Li and Song Gang to the People's Restaurant. The boys had not been there for a long time, the last time having been with Song Fanping, right after his flag-waving atop the bridge, when all of them were in heightened spirits. That time, everyone in the restaurant had gathered around as they ate their noodles, and the cook had even served them a special meat broth. Now the restaurant was nearly deserted. Li Lan ordered two bowls of plain noodles for the boys but didn't get anything for herself, explaining that she still had leftovers at home. As Baldy Li and Song Gang slurped down their bowls of steaming hot noodles, their noses were almost dripping into their soup. The noodle soup seemed to be as delicious as before. When the cook who had served them the last time saw that no one was paying attention, he came over and whispered, "I gave you the meat broth."

Li Lan led the two boys by the hand and walked along the street for a very long time. They passed by the basketball court that had once been all lit up. The three of them sat on stones next to the court and gazed out at the vast, empty ball court under the moonlight. Li Lan remembered how this space had once been brilliantly illuminated and how Song Fanping had outshone everyone in that fierce game. She particularly remembered that awesome dunk of his, how the crowds momentarily fell silent, then exploded in gasps and cheers. Li Lan smiled to herself and told the boys, "Now that your father has passed away, there's no one in the world who can dunk a basketball like he could."

Song Gang stayed for two days at Baldy Li's place, but on the third morning his grandfather came, carrying a pumpkin on his back. He declined to come inside, preferring to stand outside, head bowed. Li Lan greeted him warmly, calling him Father and leading him inside by the sleeve. The old landlord blushed and shook his head. There was nothing Li Lan could do to persuade him, so she brought a stool outside and invited him to sit down. The old landlord declined and instead continued to wait patiently for Song Gang to finish his breakfast, moving only to place the pumpkin beside the door. When Song Gang emerged, his grandfather took him by the hand and, bowing slightly to Li Lan, led him away.

Baldy Li ran to the door and sadly watched Song Gang depart. As he walked Song Gang kept looking back sadly at Baldy Li, then he raised his arm above his his head and waved, and Baldy Li waved back.

After this, Song Gang came to town about once a month. He no longer came alone but, rather, accompanied his grandfather when he came to peddle vegetables. The two of them would set out for town before it was light, while Baldy Li was still sound asleep. As they entered through the southern gate Song Gang would run along the dark streets to Baldy Li's house, carrying with him two heads of fresh greens. Quietly leaving the greens at the door, he would run back to the market and sit by his grandfather's side, calling out, "Fresh vegetables!"

Song Gang and his grandfather would often finish with their peddling just as the sun was coming up. His grandfather, with empty baskets, would lead Song Gang by the hand and circle back to Baldy Li's house, where the two of them would stand quietly outside the door, listening for any stirring inside and wondering if mother and son had woken up yet. Li Lan and Baldy Li would invariably still be asleep, the two heads of greens still waiting by the door. So Song Gang and his grandfather would silently take their leave.

During that first year, every time Song Gang came to town he would bring Baldy Li a few White Rabbits, wrapping them in wutong leaves and leaving them under the stone stoop in front of the door. Baldy Li had no idea how many White Rabbits Li Lan had given Song Gang, but during that first year Baldy Li almost always had White Rabbits to look forward to.

After rising and opening the door, Li Lan would spot the dew-misted vegetables waiting outside and call out to Baldy Li, "Song Gangs been here!"

Baldy Li's first action would always be to flip over the stone and retrieve the candy, and then he would dash out into the street. Li Lan knew that Baldy Li wanted to see Song Gang, and therefore she wouldn't try to stop him. After finding no trace of Song Gang at the market, Baldy Li would immediately turn around and run toward the southern gate. A few times the brothers actually caught sight of each other there. Baldy Li would spy Song Gang in the distance, walking behind his grandfather and his baskets, and Baldy Li would shout at the top of his lungs, "Song Gang! Song Gang!"

Hearing him, Song Gang would turn around and shout, "Baldy Li! Baldy Li!"

Baldy Li would stand there, continuing to call out Song Gang's name. As he walked Song Gang would repeatedly look back at Baldy Li, waving and calling out his name. Baldy Li called out until he lost sight of Song Gang, and even then he continued calling out, "Song Gang! Song Gang!"

With every shout, he would hear echoes in the distance: "Gang … Gang … Gang …"

CHAPTER 24

TIME DRIFTED silently and unnoticed past Liu Town, and before anyone realized it seven years had gone by. In Liu Town, a widow was not supposed to wash her hair for a month after her husbands death, and sometimes the custom would be extended to half a year. Li Lan stopped washing her hair altogether following Song Fan-pings death. For seven years she didn't wash it, instead slicking it down with oil. She would neatly comb her black, greasy hair and proudly walk down the main street with the kids of Liu Town trailing behind, taunting, "Landlords wife, Landlords wife …"

Li Lan never shed her proud smile. Though she and Song Fanping had spent only fourteen months together as husband and wife, for Li Lan it meant more than if it had been a lifetime. Seven years of not washing her hair, combined with the layers upon layers of oil she applied, resulted in a foul odor emanating from her head that grew increasingly noxious. At first it was just the house, which would smell like worn socks the moment she returned home; then the odor grew so strong that everyone would smell it as she walked down the street. Everyone in Liu Town now ran away from her. Even the kids who used to call her "Landlords wife" would cover their noses and run away, yelling, "That stinks, stinks …"

Li Lan s hair became her badge of honor. She wanted everyone to think of her always as Song Fanping's wife. After Baldy Li entered school, each time he had to fill out his fathers name, she always made him write "Song Fanping," after which he had to write "landlord" in the Family Class Background box. As a result, Baldy Li was maligned and abused at school, and his classmates all took to calling him Little Landlord. Aside from Li Lan and Song Gang, who would occasionally visit him from the countryside, no one else seemed to know his name was Baldy Li, and in the end even the teachers used his class designation to address him, as in "Little Landlord, stand up and read that passage."

When Baldy Li turned ten, he remembered that he had a birth father — the one who had drowned in the latrine while ogling women's bottoms. Baldy Li resolved to use his birth fathers name so he could escape the bad luck of being called a landlord. When he once again had to fill out a name for the blank under Father, he decided to resist and asked his mother, "What should I write?"

Li Lan, who was in the middle of cooking, was taken aback by Baldy Li's question. She looked at her son in confusion, then answered, "Song Fanping."

Baldy Li lowered his head. "I mean my other dad…"

Li Lan gave him a withering look and replied firmly, "You have no other dad."

Li Lan lived her identity as a landlords wife with pride — it kept Song Fanping alive in her heart. Her pride lasted seven years, until the year Baldy Li turned fourteen. That was the year Baldy Li was caught spying on women in the toilet. Li Lan immediately fell apart, and later, when once again Baldy Li had to fill out a form, she erased Song Fan-pings name and substituted a name that was entirely foreign to Baldy Li — Liu Shanfeng — and also changed the Family Class Background box from "landlord" to "poor peasant." After Li Lan handed the revised form to Baldy Li, she noticed he again erased "Liu Shanfeng" and "poor peasant" and replaced them with "Song Fanping" and "landlord." Fourteen-year-old Baldy Li no longer cared that he was a little landlord. Grumbling as he erased his birth fathers name, he said, "Song Fanping's my dad."

Li Lan stared at her son as if he were a stranger. His words shocked her. When he raised his head to look at her, she immediately looked down, mumbling, "Your birth fathers name was Liu Shanfeng."

"What Liu Shanfeng?" Baldy Li tossed out the words with contempt. "If he were my dad, then Song Gang wouldn't be my brother."

Ever since Baldy Li had become notorious for peeping in the women's toilet, he was no longer called Little Landlord and became known instead as Little Buttpeeper. His birth father, who had long been forgotten, together with his own notorious deed, was now ubiquitous again, like an excavated relic, and referred to by Baldy Li's classmates as Old Buttpeeper. Even the teachers adopted Baldy Li's new nickname, saying, for instance, "Hey, Little Buttpeeper, go clean the toilets."

Li Lan was once again trapped in her shame, just as she had been when her first husband had drowned in the public latrine. All the pride that Song Fanping had granted her suddenly dissipated. She no longer walked down the street with her head held high but instead became as fearful and timid as she had been fourteen years earlier. Now every time she went out she walked with her head bowed and turned toward the wall, feeling as though all eyes were upon her. She no longer wanted to go outside; even when she was home, she locked herself in, sitting on her bed like a bump on a log. Her migraines also returned, and her teeth once again chattered from dawn until dusk.

Baldy Li by this time was busy peddling the secrets of Lin Hongs bottom, and his face glowed with health from having downed countless bowls of house-special noodles, along with an occasional bowl of plain noodles.

Baldy Li strutted down the street like a celebrity, not minding at all being called Little Buttpeeper. The folks who called him that didn't know a thing. As for those who were in the know — folks like Victory Zhao, Success Liu, Little Scissors Guan, and others, basically everyone who had done business with him over the secrets of Lin Hongs bottom — they all called him King of Butts. By this time Victory Zhao was Poet Zhao and Success Liu was Writer Liu, and it was these two Men of Talent who had come up with Baldy Li's new nickname. He was quite satisfied with King of Butts. Gotta tell it like it is, he thought.

The teenage Baldy Li and the two young men Poet Zhao and Writer Liu were best pals for a few months. What they had in common was the study and discussion of Lin Hong's beautiful backside. Liu Town's two Men of Talent racked their brains to come up with myriad literary phrases — graphic, lyrical, descriptive, metaphorical, clinical, and analytical — and they laid them all at Baldy Li's feet for him to choose the ones that most accurately captured the wonders of what he had seen. But once they had exhausted all possible ways of discussing the matter, their friendship with Baldy Li came to a natural conclusion. Several times in the dark of night, the two Men of Talent went to pilfer books from a room that was filled with tomes confiscated during the Cultural Revolution while Baldy Li served as their lookout. Many of the wondrous and poetic phrases that they came up with to describe Lin Hong's bottom were discovered in these stolen books.

Blacksmith Tong was the only one among those in the know who did not refer to Baldy Li as King of Butts. He had wanted to use a cheap bowl of plain noodles to obtain Baldy Li's secrets, but the boy had not fallen for it. Therefore, Blacksmith Tong, out a bowl of noodles and with nothing to show for it, would curse Baldy Li every time he saw him: "Little Bastard Buttpeeper."

Baldy Li took absolutely no offense, instead reasoning with him, "You might as well call me King of Butts like everyone else."

Sometimes Baldy Li would run into Lin Hong on the street. She was eighteen then, and at the height of her beauty. All the men stared slack-jawed as she walked by, but only Baldy Li had the guts to greet her enthusiastically, as if she were an old flame of his. "Lin Hong, its been a long time! What have you been up to?"

Lin Hong blushed in fury and shame. She couldn't believe that this little fifteen-year-old Peeping Tom of a hoodlum was actually sidling up to her. Completely ignoring the shocked and mocking glances of the passersby, Baldy Li continued warmly, "How is everyone in your family?"

Lin Hong said through gritted teeth, "Just go away!"

Hearing this, Baldy Li looked behind him and waved off the people around them as if she had been speaking to someone else. Then he volunteered his protective services to Lin Hong, who by this point was furious to the point of tears. He asked, "Where are you headed? I'll escort you."

Lin Hong couldn't bear another moment of this and screamed loudly, "Go away! Jerk!"

Baldy Li again looked behind him, whereupon Lin Hong pointed directly at him. "I'm telling you to go away!"

Amid the laughter of the crowds, Baldy Li watched as Lin Hong walked off. Smacking his lips regretfully, he told the onlookers, "She's still mad at me."

Then he shook his head and sighed ruefully. "I shouldn't have taken that wrong turn in life."

Reports of Baldy Li's various misdeeds trickled down to Li Lan's ears, causing her to bow her head even farther. She had borne her first husband's scandal, and now she had to bear her son's notoriety. She, whose face had once been bathed in tears daily, now had no more left to shed. But she didn't say a word to Baldy Li about his doings, because she knew that she had no control over him. Often she would be awakened in the middle of the night by her migraines and would lie there, wondering what was to become of Baldy Li. She spent one sleepless night after another asking in distress, "Dear God, why did I have to give birth to such a demon?"

As Li Lans spirit collapsed, her health also faltered. Her migraines became more and more severe, and then her kidneys started failing. While Baldy Li was enjoying his meals of house-special noodles and fattening himself up, Li Lan was no longer going to work, having taken a long sick leave to rest at home. Her complexion had become waxy and sallow, and when she went for her daily shots at the clinic, the doctors and nurses could smell the sour, foul odor emanating from her even through their surgical masks. They turned their heads away as they spoke with her or gave her shots. Her illness eventually worsened to the point where she tried to check into the hospital. They told her, "Go wash your hair before checking in."

Li Lan hung her head in shame the entire way home and spent the next couple of days holed up in misery. During that time she thought of nothing but Song Fanping, his smile and his words; she felt that washing her hair would be a betrayal of him, the love of her life. Ultimately she concluded that she did not have much longer to live and would soon be going to the netherworld to be reunited with Song Fanping, and perhaps even he might be bothered by the foulness of her hair. So one Sunday afternoon she placed a set of clean clothes in a basket and pulled Baldy Li aside just as he was leaving the house. After hesitating for a moment, she said, "I don't think I will be getting better, so I'd like to clean myself before dying."

This was the first time since his Peeping Tom incident that Li Lan asked Baldy Li to accompany her in public. Though her son had shamed her as much as her first husband had, and though she could never forgive her first husband even after he had lost his life, her son was different. After all, they were of the same flesh.

As Li Lan and Baldy Li walked down the street toward the bathhouse, she suddenly noticed that he was taller than she, which brought a smile to her face and she held his arm a little more tightly. By then, even the act of walking left her exhausted, and every twenty or so yards she had to find a tree to lean against. As they walked Baldy Li waved and greeted all those who knew him, then explained to her who they were. Li Lan was shocked to discover that this fifteen-year-old son of hers seemed to know far more people than she ever had.

It was about a third of a mile from their home to the bathhouse, but it took Li Lan more than an hour to cover the distance. Each time she rested against a tree, Baldy Li would wait patiently to one side, describing to her what was going on in town. All of this was news to Li Lan, and she suddenly regarded Baldy Li with a newfound respect. She briefly felt happy but then thought to herself, If only Baldy Li were as upright a young man as Song Gang, then he really could make a good life for himself. Then she reminded herself, My son is a demon.

After arriving at the front door of the bathhouse, Li Lan leaned against the wall and rested a bit more. She took Baldy Li's hand and asked him not to leave but to wait for her outside. Baldy Li nodded as he watched his mother walk in. She walked as if she were an old lady, but her hair, which had not been washed for seven years, was black and shiny.

Baldy Li stood outside the bathhouse for what seemed like an eternity. First his legs ached, then even his toes. He saw a stream of people exiting the bathhouse, their cheeks ruddy and their hair wet. Some of them remembered to taunt him as Little Buttpeeper, while others addressed him as King of Butts. Baldy Li didn't even deign to look the former in the eye but greeted the latter with warm smiles, since these were noodle clients, and Baldy Li believed that customers always came first.

Blacksmith Tong also emerged from the bathhouse. When he saw Baldy Li standing there, he cursed him, "Little Bastard Buttpeeper." He also pointed at the bathhouse, saying, "Why don't you go peep in there? There are so many butts you wouldn't know where to begin."

Baldy Li sniffed. "What would you know? When there are so many butts, how could you concentrate? You don't even know where to focus."

He held up five fingers and, with an authoritative air, lectured Blacksmith Tong: "You can't look at more than five butts at once, and at a bare minimum you need at least two. This is because with any more than five you would get confused, but with only one you wouldn't have anything to compare it to."

Hearing this, Blacksmith Tong seemed to have an epiphany. With a worshipful tone he said to Baldy Li, "You Little Bastard Buttpeeper— you've really got talent. I'll have to treat you to house-special noodles sometime."

Baldy Li put up his hand modestly and corrected Blacksmith Tong, "Please call me King of Butts."

This time Blacksmith Tong went along with the correction and affirmed, "You really are the King of Butts."

So Liu Town's King of Butts, Baldy Li, waited outside the bathhouse for his mother for more than three hours. He alternated between wild impatience and anxious concern, wondering, Did she pass out in there? After three hours had passed, a woman with a head full of gray hair walked out slowly behind a group of young women. Baldy Li was so busy checking out the wet-haired young women that he didn't even notice the elderly woman coming toward him. The gray-haired woman paused in front of him and said, "Baldy Li."

Baldy Li was stunned and simply couldn't believe that this woman was his mother. When Li Lan went in, her hair was still black, but now she stood before him with it completely gray. In memory of Song Fan-ping, she had not washed her hair for seven years, and with this washing she had washed all the black right out.

For the first time Baldy Li realized that his mother had aged and now looked like a granny. She gripped his arm and laboriously made her way home. When acquaintances along the way caught sight of Li Lan, they would invariably be stunned, examining her up close and gasping, "Li Lan? Are you Li Lan?"

Li Lan nodded. Exhausted, she answered, "Yes, it's me."

CHAPTER 25

UIPON RETURNING HOME, Li Lan examined herself carefully in the mirror. She too was shocked by the suddenness of her aging and was struck by a sense of foreboding, a feeling that, after checking into the hospital, she would never return home. Though she had washed all the foulness from her hair, she didn't immediately go to the hospital but instead stayed home for a few more days. During that time, she would either lie in bed or sit at the table, gazing at Baldy Li with concern and sighing, saying, "What will become of you?"

Li Lan began to deal with her personal effects, but what worried her most was Baldy Li — what would happen to him after she died? She worried that he would not come to a good end. If at fourteen he was already peeping at women's bottoms in the toilet, who knew what horrible things he would be into by the time he turned eighteen? She worried that he would end up in jail one day.

Li Lan decided to arrange everything as best she could for him before entering the hospital. Clutching their family registry to her chest, she had Baldy Li take her to the local Civil Affairs Bureau. As she entered she keenly felt herself marked as both a landlord's wife and a hoodlum's mother. She hung her head in shame as she tiptoed nervously into the office, asking, "Who's in charge of orphans?"

Baldy Li helped Li Lan into a room, where they saw a man in his thirties reading a newspaper at his desk. Baldy Li recognized him right away — this was the man who had helped lug Song Fanping's body back from the bus depot seven years earlier. Baldy Li pointed at him excitedly, exclaiming, "It's you! You're Tao Qing."

Li Lan yanked Baldy Li's sleeve, trying to curb her son's rudeness. She bowed deeply, inquiring obsequiously, "Would you happen to be Comrade Tao?"

Tao Qing nodded and put down his paper. He took a careful look at Baldy Li and seemed to remember him. Li Lan was standing at the door, not daring to step inside, and said with a trembling voice, "Comrade Tao, I have something to inquire."

Tao Qing smiled. "Please come inside."

Li Lan shifted uneasily. "My class background is not good."

Tao Qing continued smiling. "Come inside."

As he spoke he pulled a chair over and invited Li Lan to sit down. Li Lan fearfully stepped in but didn't dare to sit down. Tao Qing gestured at the chair. "Please sit down first."

Hesitantly Li Lan sat down. She respectfully handed Tao Qing her family registry. Pointing to Baldy Li, she explained, "This is my son. His name is in the registry."

Tao Qing flipped through the booklet. "I see that. How can I help you?"

Li Lan smiled bitterly and proceeded. "I have uremia, and my days are numbered. When I'm gone, my son will be left orphaned. Will he be able to receive any aid?"

Tao Qing stared at Li Lan in astonishment. He looked at Baldy Li and nodded. "Yes, he would. He'd qualify for eight yuan a month, plus twenty jin's worth of grain, oil, and cloth ration coupons every season. And he'd receive aid until he starts work."

Li Lan explained uneasily, "My class background is bad. I'm a landlord's wife…"

Tao Qing smiled and handed the registry back to Li Lan. "I understand your situation. Don't worry, just leave things to me. Your son can come look me up."

Li Lan finally let out a sigh of relief. Her happiness brought a bit of color to her cheeks. Tao Qing chuckled as he continued to look at Baldy Li, saying, "So you're Baldy Li. You're quite famous. What's the other one's name?"

Baldy Li knew that he was asking about Song Gang and was just about to answer when Li Lan stood up uneasily. She knew that when Tao Qing said Baldy Li was famous, he was referring to the Peeping Tom incident in the toilet, so she uttered a few quick words of thanks and immediately asked Baldy Li to help her out. Only after they had left the room and the Civil Affairs building did Li Lan feel she could pause and rest. Taking labored breaths, she sighed and said, "That Comrade Tao is a good man."

That was when Baldy Li told her that Tao Qing was the man who had brought Song Fanping's body back from the bus depot. When Li Lan heard this she immediately flushed bright red and, no longer needing Baldy Li's assistance, hurried back to Tao Qing's office, saying, "You are our savior. Let me kowtow to you."

Li Lan threw her body to the ground to kowtow, slamming her forehead to the ground and breaking into heartrending sobs. Startled, Tao Qing stood up and only gradually understood through Li Lan s barely coherent words why she was kneeling in front of him. He quickly reached out to raise her up, but Li Lan knelt down again to kowtow twice more. Tao Qing had to cajole her for a long time like a child before she would allow herself to be helped up. He helped her all the way to the front of the Civil Affairs building, and as they parted Tao Qing gave her a thumbs-up sign and said quietly, "Song Fanping— what a man."

Li Lan was so overcome she started trembling all over. After Tao Qing walked off, Li Lan was still wiping her tears and joyfully repeating to Baldy Li, "Did you hear that? Did you hear what Comrade Tao just said?"

After leaving the Civil Affairs Bureau, Li Lan proceeded to the coffin store. Her forehead still bleeding, she had to pause every few steps, and every time she stopped she couldn't help repeating Tao Qing's words, "Song Fanping — what a man."

With great pride she gestured in front of her and told Baldy Li, "Everyone in Liu Town thinks that about him. They just don't dare to say it out loud."

They slowly made their way to the coffin store. When they finally arrived, Li Lan sat on the front stoop, panting and wiping at the blood on her forehead. She smiled and announced to the people inside, "I'm here."

Everyone in the coffin store recognized her and asked, "Who are you buying a coffin for this time?"

Embarrassed, Li Lan replied, "For myself."

Initially startled, they all broke out laughing and said, "We've never had a living person buying a coffin for himself before."

Li Lan also smiled. "Yes, I've never heard of it either."

Pointing to Baldy Li, she continued, "My son is still young and wouldn't know what kind of coffin to get, so I thought that I'd reserve one and he can come pick it up later."

Everyone in the coffin store knew of the notorious Baldy Li. Cackling, they looked at him as he stood diffidently by the door, then remarked to Li Lan, "Well, he's not that young."

Li Lan lowered her head. She knew why they were cackling. Li Lan selected the cheapest coffin, one that cost only eight yuan. It was the same kind of unvarnished, thin-planked coffin that she had bought Song Fanping. Her hands trembling, she fished out her money wrapped in a handkerchief and paid them four yuan, with the remainder to be paid when the coffin was picked up.

After going to the Civil Affairs Bureau to take care of Baldy Li's orphan aid and then purchasing a coffin at the coffin store, Li Lan felt that the two biggest burdens she had been shouldering were now taken care of. She could check into the hospital the following day, but by her reckoning it was only six days until the Qingming holiday, when they would pay their respects to the dead. She shook her head, telling herself that on Qingming she wanted to go visit Song Fan-pings grave in the countryside, and then she would check into the hospital.

Li Lan slowly dragged her body, which felt increasingly like a deadweight, to Liu Towns bookstore. At the stationery counter she purchased a packet of white paper, then she slowly made her way home, resting repeatedly along the way. Sitting at the table, she started to make paper ingots and coins. On every Qingming festival since Song Fanping passed away, Li Lan had cut out a basketful of paper ingots and coins and then would set off on the long journey to the countryside to burn them at his grave.

By this point Li Lan was so ill she barely had any strength left. After each ingot, she had to rest for a while. Her hand trembled as she struggled to draw lines on the coins or write out the characters GOLD and SILVER on the ingots. It took her four whole days to finish what she ordinarily would have completed in an afternoon. She then placed the paper ingots in the basket and carefully rested the paper coins strung together with white thread on top of them. Smiling, she let out a long sigh, followed by some tears, sensing that this was probably the last time she would be able to visit Song Fanping's grave.

That night she called Baldy Li to her bedside and examined him carefully. She was comforted to see that her son looked nothing like that man named Liu Shanfeng. Her breathing labored, she told him, "The day after tomorrow is Qingming. I'd like to go visit the grave, but I don't have the energy to make it that far."

"Ma, don't you worry," Baldy Li replied. "I'll carry you."

Li Lan smiled and shook her head, then mentioned her other son. "Why don't you go to the countryside tomorrow and bring Song Gang back? The two of you can take turns carrying me."

"No need to fetch Song Gang." Baldy Li firmly shook his head. "I can carry you by myself."

"No," Li Lan said. "The road is too long; you would exhaust yourself trying to carry me alone."

"If we get tired, well rest under a tree." Baldy Li waved dismissively "We'll just sit and rest."

Li Lan still shook her head. "Go fetch Song Gang."

"No need," Baldy Li replied. "I'll think of something."

Baldy Li yawned and said he was going to the outer room to go to bed. At the door he turned to Li Lan and said, "Ma, don't you worry. I guarantee that I'll get you comfortably to the countryside, and then bring you comfortably back to town."

Baldy Li, who by now was fifteen, lay down in his bed. Within five minutes he had come up with a plan, and so he closed his eyes and immediately started snoring.

It wasn't until afternoon the next day that Baldy Li leisurely made his way out of the house. First he went to the hospital, where he paced the halls as if he were a visitor coming to see a relative; the moment he noticed that no one was at the nurse's station, he ducked right in. Once inside, he took his time, selecting from among a dozen or more used IV bottles, raising each of them to see which had the most glucose left. Once he had made his selection, he swiftly hid it under his shirt, ducked back out of the nurse's station, and left the hospital.

Baldy Li paraded down the street with his swiped bottle. From time to time he dangled it in front of his eyes, trying to figure out exactly how much glucose was left inside. He guessed that there was probably half an ounce, but in order to be sure, he walked into a soy sauce store and asked the vendor how much liquid he thought there was inside. The soy sauce vendor was of course an old hand at this sort of thing. He gave the bottle a couple of twirls and announced that between half an ounce and an ounce was left. Pleased with this estimate, Baldy Li took back the bottle and said, "This is pure nutrition."

Baldy Li walked smugly with his glucose into Blacksmith Tongs shop. Baldy Li knew that Blacksmith Tong had his own pullcart, and he was hoping to borrow it for a day to take Li Lan to the countryside. Baldy Li stood at the door of the shop and watched Blacksmith Tong raining down sweat while working a piece of metal. After a while Baldy Li waved at him benevolently, as if on an inspection visit, and said, "Take a rest, take a rest."

Blacksmith Tong put down his hammer and wiped his sweat-drenched face with a towel. He watched as Baldy Li sauntered into his shop and comfortably took a seat on the long bench he used to sexually exploit. Blacksmith Tong growled, "You little bastard. What do you want?"

Baldy Li chuckled. "I'm here to collect my debts."

"Fuck," spat Blacksmith Tong, as he whipped his towel in the air. "And what debt would that be, you little bastard?"

Baldy Li continued chuckling. He reminded Blacksmith Tong, "Remember what you said to me two weeks ago in front of the bathhouse."

"What did I say?" Blacksmith Tong honestly couldn't remember.

Baldy Li pointed to himself. "You said that I, Baldy Li, was truly something, and that someday you were going to treat me to a bowl of house-special noodles."

Blacksmith Tong remembered now. He hung his towel back around his neck and growled, "Yeah, so I did say that. What are you going to do about it?"

Baldy Li decided to shift to flattery. He said, "Who doesn't know your stature in this town? When you, Blacksmith Tong, say ‘Jump,’ everyone asks, ‘How high?’ You would never go back on your word, would you?"

"You really are a little bastard," Blacksmith Tong said, laughing. He couldn't maintain his bullying tone any longer, but he did find a loophole. Smugly, he said, "It's true I said I'd treat you to a bowl of house-special noodles someday. But someday — that could be any day. I certainly don't know when."

"You got me!" Baldy Li showed his admiration by giving him a thumbs-up but then immediately cut to the chase. "How about this: I won't have you treat me to a bowl of house-special noodles, but if you lend me your cart for a day, we'll call it even."

Blacksmith Tong had no idea where Baldy Li was going with this. He asked, "So why do you want to borrow my pullcart?"

"Aiya!" sighed Baldy Li. He explained to Blacksmith Tong, "My mother wants to go sweep my father's grave in the countryside. You know how sick she is. She certainly couldn't make it by walking, so that's why I want to borrow your pullcart."

As he spoke he put the IV drip bottle down on the bench. Blacksmith Tong pointed at it and asked, "What's that for?"

"This is a military canteen," proclaimed Baldy Li. He explained, "The road to the country is long and the sun will be strong, so what happens when my mother gets thirsty? I'm going to fill this bottle with water and nurse her along the way with it. That's what this military canteen is for."

Blacksmith Tong said, "Oh," and added, "I would have never pegged you, little bastard, for a filial son."

Baldy Li smiled modestly. He gave the drip bottle a few swirls and observed, "There's somewhere between half an ounce and an ounce of glucose nutrition in there."

Blacksmith Tong said generously, "Well, seeing that you're being such a filial son, I'll lend you the cart."

Baldy Li thanked him repeatedly. He then patted the long bench and waved Blacksmith Tong to sit down next to him. Baldy Li said mysteriously, "I won't just borrow your pullcart with nothing in return. Good deeds are to be repaid in kind, as they say."

Blacksmith Tong didn't understand. "What do you mean, repaid in kind?"

Baldy Li whispered, "Lin Hong's butt…"

"Oh!" Now everything became clear.

Intrigued, Blacksmith Tong sat next to Baldy Li as the latter began to divulge the secrets of Lin Hong's butt with the most florid of descriptions. Just as he was getting to the most exciting part, Baldy Li's lips ceased moving. Blacksmith Tong waited patiently for him to start up again, but when he did he no longer spoke of Lin Hong's bottom but, rather, of how Poet Zhao nabbed him at that critical moment. Blacksmith Tong was crushed. He stood up, rubbing his hands and pacing about back and forth, then broke out in curses: "That bastard Poet Zhao…"

Though he had gained only the faintest glimpse of Lin Hong's bottom, Blacksmith Tong was still filled with goodwill toward Baldy Li. When he lent Baldy Li his pullcart, he told him, "Whenever you need the cart, just give me a holler and take it away."

Baldy Li stashed his pilfered glucose drip in his pocket and pulled Blacksmith Tongs cart up to Yanker Yu's stand. He now had his eyes on Yanker Yu's rattan recliner. He planned to tie the recliner onto Blacksmith Tongs cart so that Li Lan could ride lying down all the way to the countryside.

When Baldy Li walked up, Yanker Yu was himself stretched out on the chair, napping. Baldy Li set the pullcart down with a resounding thump. Yanker Yu woke up with a start, but when he opened his eyes and saw it was merely Baldy Li with a pullcart and that neither of them was a customer, he promptly shut his eyes again. Baldy Li inspected everything with the air of a visiting officer. Hands clasped behind his back, he examined the dental tools and teeth displayed on the table.

It was already the tail end of the Cultural Revolution, and the revolution was no longer a roaring tide but more like a trickling stream. Yanker Yu no longer had to display his class loyalty with an exhibit of mistakenly extracted healthy teeth; on the contrary, they now threatened to hurt his reputation as a dentist. Tacking to the political winds, Yanker Yu had hidden away his healthy-teeth display behind his cash. He figured that after flowing west for a while the river might begin flowing east again, and the revolutionary stream could again turn into a tide, so he might as well save the healthy-teeth display for another cycle.

Baldy Li examined the table for a while but didn't spot any healthy teeth. He rapped the table and loudly asked, "What about the healthy teeth? Where are the healthy teeth?"

"What healthy teeth?" Yanker Yu opened his eyes in annoyance.

"Those healthy teeth you pulled." Baldy Li pointed at the table, "They used to be sitting right here."

"Shut your trap," Yanker Yu said angrily. Sitting up, he insisted, "I've never pulled a single healthy tooth. I only pull them out when they're rotten."

Baldy Li hadn't expected Yanker Yu to get so riled up, so he immediately smiled ingratiatingly, changing course as smoothly as Yanker Yu had. Baldy Li slapped his forehead, saying, "Yes, yes, you have certainly never extracted a good tooth. I must have remembered wrong."

As he spoke Baldy Li pulled up a stool next to the recliner and started to flatter Yanker Yu just as he had done with Blacksmith Tong, saying, "You, Yanker Yu, are the premier tooth extractor within a hundred miles. You could pull a rotten tooth out with your eyes closed."

Yanker Yu's fury transformed into satisfaction, and he smiled. "Now, that's the truth."

Feeling that Yanker Yu was now ripe for the plucking, Baldy Li began, "So you have been here for some twenty years. You must have seen all the young ladies in Liu Town, right?"

"Young ladies?" Yanker Yu bragged, "I've seen them all — even the not-so-young ones. Throughout Liu Town, I know right away whenever a young lady gets married or an old lady gets buried."

"So, in your opinion," prodded Baldy Li, "who is the prettiest young lady in Liu Town?"

"Lin Hong," Yanker Yu replied without hesitation. "Without question, it would be Lin Hong."

"So" — Baldy Li chuckled—"who among all the men in Liu Town has seen Lin Hongs bare butt?"

"You, of course." Yanker Yu pointed at Baldy Li and laughed heartily. "You little bastard."

Baldy Li nodded and then leaned in closer and whispered, "So would you like to hear about it?"

Yanker Yu's laughing face immediately became solemn. He sat up from his recliner and peered about the alley. When he saw that no one was around, he whispered to Baldy Li, "Tell me!"

Yanker Yu s eyes glittered, and his mouth hung wide open as if he were waiting for a dumpling to drop down from heaven. But Baldy Li, a master of calculation, chose this very moment to fall silent. What the men in Liu Town said about him was true: This fifteen-year-old little bastard played a better game than a career card shark in his fifties. Yanker Yu saw Baldy Li's lips sealed tightly shut and anxiously prodded, "Well, go on!"

Very deliberately, Baldy Li ran his hand over Yanker Yus rattan recliner. The corners of his mouth turned up slightly as he said, "Loan me this chair for a day, and I'll map out every millimeter of Lin Hong's bottom for you."

When Yanker Yu heard that Baldy Li wanted to borrow the recliner, he immediately shook his head. "I can't do that. How can I pull teeth without this recliner for customers to lie down on?"

Baldy Li reasoned with him patiently, "You'd still have your stool. Given your world-renowned skills, they could be standing up and you'd still manage."

Yanker Yu cackled a couple times as he did a quick mental calculation of the pros and cons of the arrangement. Perhaps losing the recliner for a day in exchange for the secrets of the beautiful Lin Hong's bottom would not be such a bad deal at all. He nodded in agreement, then raised a finger, saying, "Okay, but just for one day."

Baldy Li already had his lips up to Yanker Yu's ear as he launched into a vivid narration. Having worked through fifty-six bowls of housespecial noodles, and with the literary embellishments from Poet Zhao and Writer Liu, Baldy Li by now had a story burnished to a high sheen. Lin Hongs bottom could not have been made more bewitchingly captivating. Yanker Yu listened, rapt with emotion. He tensed up as if listening to the thrilling climax of a ghost story, then Baldy Li's lips suddenly stopped moving. He gazed over at Yanker Yu's oilcloth umbrella, and Yu became so anxious he cried out, "Go on!"

Baldy Li smacked his lips and pointed at the umbrella. "I want to borrow the umbrella for a day, too."

"You're asking for too much," replied Yanker Yu angrily. "First you borrow my recliner and now my umbrella — all I'll have left is this table. My stand will look as bare as a newly plucked chicken."

Baldy Li shook his head. "Perhaps you'd be bare tomorrow, but you'd have your feathers back the very next day."

Yanker Yu burned with anxious curiosity. He felt as if he had been reading a serialized novel and had just reached a cliff-hanger, so he couldn't do anything but agree to loan out his umbrella as well. Baldy Li went on for a few more sentences on Lin Hong's bottom, but what Yanker Yu heard next was all about Poet Zhao's hand. Dumbfounded, he took a little while to recover enough to ask, "What happened? How did Lin Hong's bottom turn into Poet Zhao's hand?"

"I can't help it." Baldy Li sighed. "That bastard Poet Zhao ruined my moment, and yours, too."

Now Yanker Yu fell into a blind rage, all of it directed toward Poet Zhao. Gritting his teeth, he snarled, "That bastard Zhao, I swear I'm going to pull out one of his good teeth."

With Blacksmith Tongs pullcart and Yanker Yu's recliner and umbrella in tow, Baldy Li then stopped by the warehouse of the town's department store. There he sweet-talked and peddled the secrets of Lin Hong's bottom yet again and managed to borrow a pile of rope. Now his mission was accomplished and, whistling a revolutionary tune and pulling the cart noisily behind him down the main street, he returned home victorious.

By this point it was dark and Li Lan had already gone to bed. In anticipation of the long road ahead the next day, she had eaten and retired early. Ever since Baldy Li had become notorious all over Liu Town, Li Lan had felt that she had completely lost control of this son of hers. He often returned home late at night, and she could do nothing but sigh.

When Baldy Li arrived home, he saw that the lights were out, so he knew his mother had gone to bed. He set the cart down lightly and crept into the house, where he turned on the light and sat at the table to wolf down the dinner his mother had set out for him. Then he got to work. By the light of the rooms lamp and the moon outside, he first placed the recliner on top of the pullcart, securing it tightly with the rope. There was an opening for a cup in the chairs armrest, so Baldy Li stuck the umbrella handle through it and then used the rope to fasten it securely in place.

By that point it was well past midnight, but Baldy Li did another careful inspection of the rig, reinforcing various parts with rope. When he was finally done, he circled the cart twice more, his hands behind his back. He couldn't stop grinning. He felt that the cart, chair, and umbrella were as firmly bound together as arms and legs on a torso. Satisfied, he let out a huge yawn and went in to go to bed. Once he was lying down, though, Baldy Li discovered that he couldn't fall asleep, so worried was he that someone would steal his masterpiece. So he grabbed his blanket and went outside. He crawled up onto Blacksmith Tongs cart and lay down on Yanker Yu's recliner. Now feeling secure, he started snoring the moment he shut his eyes.

Li Lan woke up at daybreak to find Baldy Li's bed empty and his blanket missing. Unable to figure out what had happened, she shook her head and opened the front door, then gasped when she saw the odd contraption sitting outside with her son sleeping on top.

Li Lan's gasp woke Baldy Li from his dreams. Seeing his mother's astonished expression, he rubbed his eyes, climbed down from the cart, and proudly explained that the pullcart belonged to Blacksmith Tong, the recliner and the oilcloth umbrella were Yanker Yu's, and the hemp rope binding it all together was borrowed from the department store's warehouse. Baldy Li exclaimed, "Ma, now you can travel in comfort!"

Li Lan regarded her demon of a son and wondered, How in the world could a fifteen-year-old pull off a feat like this? She felt that she really didn't know him at all, this son who seemed to be able to whip something out of his bag of tricks every other day.

Mother and son had breakfast, and Baldy Li then lifted their hot-water thermos and carefully poured water into the glucose bottle. "There's somewhere between half an ounce and an ounce of nutritious glucose in here," he told Li Lan, adding that it was in case she got thirsty on the road.

Baldy Li thoughtfully placed his neatly folded blanket over the chair, explaining that it was going to be a bumpy ride but the padding should do the trick. With his left foot holding down one of the pullcart's handles, he gently helped Li Lan climb onto the cart and lie down on the chair. She cradled the basket with the paper ingots and coins and looked up at the oilcloth umbrella over her head, realizing that it was to keep the sun and rain off her. Baldy Li then handed her the bottle with the hot water and glucose mixture. As Li Lan accepted the bottle tears rushed down her face. Baldy Li saw that she was weeping and asked, astonished, "Ma, what's wrong?"

"Nothing at all." Li Lan dabbed at her eyes, then smiled. "Son, lets get going."

That morning Li Lan took a ride on the most luxurious pullcart Liu Town had ever seen. The cart wound its way down the main street with Baldy Li at the fore. The crowds stared, mouths open in astonishment. They simply couldn't believe their eyes; never in their wildest dreams having imagined such a contraption. Someone called out to Baldy Li, asking him how he had managed to put this thing together.

"This thing?" Baldy Li smugly replied. "This thing is my mom's exclusive-use cart."

Everyone was befuddled. "What's an exclusive-use cart?"

"You've never heard of an exclusive-use cart?" Baldy Li asked, then continued proudly: "The jet that Chairman Mao flies in is his exclusive-use jet, the train compartment that Chairman Mao travels in is his exclusive-use compartment, and the car that Chairman Mao rides in is his exclusive-use sedan. Why? Because no one else can use them. My mom's cart is her exclusive-use cart. Why? Because no one else can ride in it."

Everyone broke out into knowing laughter, and even Li Lan couldn't help but laugh out loud. With myriad emotions Li Lan watched as her son proudly pulled her exclusive-use cart through the streets. This son, who had once shamed her as deeply as her first husband, Liu Shan-feng, now filled her with a pride akin to what she had felt with Song Fanping.

The women in Liu Town thought that Li Lan's cart resembled a wedding sedan. Giggling nonstop, they called out to Li Lan, "Are you getting married off today?"

"No, no," Li Lan replied, blushing. "I'm going down to the countryside to sweep my husband's grave."

Baldy Li pulled Li Lan's exclusive-use cart out the southern gate. When she heard the creaking of the wheels, Li Lan guessed that they had just gone over the wooden bridge and were now bumping along down the dirt road. She could smell the country air as a fresh spring breeze wafted past her; she raised herself, holding on to the umbrella pole, and looked out to a field of golden greens glistening in the sun. She watched the winding paths that framed each paddy, the various details of houses and trees at a distance, the ducks flying over the nearby pond and their reflection in the water, together with the sparrows flying by the road. This was the last trip that Li Lan would take along this dirt road; despite its bumpiness, she fully enjoyed the beautiful spring day while riding along on the cart.

Li Lan looked down at her son pulling the cart with all his strength. Baldy Li was now bent over and constantly wiping the sweat from his brows. Feeling sorry for him, she urged him to take a rest, but Baldy Li shook his head and replied that he wasn't tired. Li Lan tried to get him to pause and drink from the drip bottle, but he again shook his head. "That glucose water is nutrition for you."

When she saw how good her son was to her, Li Lan wept tears of joy. Sobbing, she said, "Good son, please, I'm begging you, take a rest and have some water."

Just then Baldy Li caught sight of Song Gang in the distance, standing at the entrance to the village. He saw that Song Gang's grandfather was seated on the ground and leaning against the tree. Every year at Qingming, Song Gang and his grandfather would wait at the village entrance for their arrival. Song Gang spotted a very odd cart coming toward him, but he didn't dream that it would be Baldy Li pulling Li Lan. When Baldy Li saw Song Gang, his bent-over body straightened out a bit and he broke into a run, jostling Li Lan back and forth. Baldy Li yelled out at the top of his lungs, "Song Gang! Song Gang!"

When Song Gang heard Baldy Li's cries, he ran toward them, arms waving, and shouting, "Baldy Li! Baldy Li!"

CHAPTER 26

UPON RETURNING from her trip to Song Fanping's grave, Li Lan lay down on her bed to think things over. She felt that she had completed all the necessary preparations, and so the next day she could check into the hospital without worries. As she had expected, her illness became much graver once she arrived in the hospital, and it became clear that she would never check out again. Within two months, she was reduced to voiding her bladder through a catheter, ran an unabated high fever, and spent most of her days asleep.

As Li Lan s condition deteriorated Baldy Li stopped going to school and instead began spending every day at her bedside. Deep into the night, each time Li Lan woke from her stupor she would see her son asleep next to her, head leaning against the bed railing. Weeping, she would muster the energy to urge him to go home and rest.

When Li Lan felt that the end was approaching, she began to desperately miss her other son. She asked Baldy Li to lean over, and, with a voice as weak and soft as a mosquito's buzz, she asked him again and again to bring Song Gang back from the countryside.

The road to the countryside was long, and it would take at least half a day to get there and back. Baldy Li set off to fetch Song Gang but, worried about his mother in the hospital needing his care, paused at the wooden bridge outside the southern gate. He waited on the bridge for two hours, and whenever he spotted a peasant leaving through the gate, he would ask him what village he was from. He asked more than a dozen people but didn't find anyone from Song Gang's village. Finally an old man with a hog approached. By that point Baldy Li had pretty much given up hope and was preparing to run like a marathoner all the way to the countryside. When the old man replied that he was from Song Gang's village, Baldy Li leapt down from the bridge railing and almost gave the man a hug. Shouting, he asked the man to send word to Song Gang urging him to rush to town. "It's an emergency. Tell him to come find Baldy Li."

It was dawn by the time Song Gang arrived. Baldy Li had spent another night at the hospital and had just gotten home and fallen asleep when Song Gang knocked on the door. Drowsily, Baldy Li opened the door, and Song Gang, who by this time was a head taller than he, nervously asked, "What's going on?"

Baldy Li rubbed his eyes. "Mama doesn't have much longer and wants to see you. Quick, go to the hospital."

Song Gang burst into tears, and Baldy Li said, "Don't cry now, just get going. I'll sleep a bit more and then come join you."

Song Gang turned around and rushed off to the hospital. Baldy Li shut the door behind him and went back to sleep. He had planned to nap only for a short while, but his accumulated exhaustion got the better of him and he slept until noon. By the time he arrived at the hospital, he was astonished by the sight that greeted his eyes: Li Lan was actually sitting up, and her voice sounded much stronger than it had been the day before. Song Gang was sitting on the edge of the bed, telling her about events in the village. Baldy Li wondered whether it was the sight of Song Gang that made her instantly better. He didn't realize that she was temporarily in remission, enjoying a sudden burst of energy at the end of her life's journey. She even smiled when she spotted Baldy Li entering the room, saying, "You've lost so much weight."

Li Lan told them that she missed her own home very much. She explained to the doctor that she was feeling much better today, and since both her sons were now with her, she would like to go home and take a look. The doctor, aware that she was nearing the end, agreed that she might as well go home but warned Baldy Li and Song Gang that she shouldn't stay out for more than a couple of hours.

Song Gang carried Li Lan on his back and walked out of the hospital. As they walked down the street Li Lan looked about at the people and houses with the astonishment of a newborn. A few acquaintances even called out to her, asking whether she was feeling better. Li Lan seemed extremely happy as she answered, "Yes, much better." When they walked past the basketball court, Li Lan thought again of Song Fanping. With her hands clasped around Song Gang's shoulders, she was the picture of contentment. She said, "Song Gang, you look more and more like your father every day."

Once they reached home, Li Lan gazed fondly at the table, the chairs, and the armoire; at the walls, the windows, the cobweb in the corner of the room, and the layer of dust on the desk — her eyes soaking up everything as if they were sponges. As she sat down on one of the chairs, with Song Gang supporting her from behind, she asked Baldy Li to bring her a rag. She started to carefully wipe the dust off the table, saying, "Its so nice to be home."

Then, feeling tired, she asked Baldy Li and Song Gang to help her lie down on the bed. She closed her eyes as if asleep, but after a while she opened them again and had Baldy Li and Song Gang sit together at her bedside. In a frail voice she then told them, "I'm about to die."

Song Gang started sobbing, and Baldy Li also lowered his head and wiped at his eyes. Li Lan said, "Don't cry, don't cry, my sons…"

Song Gang nodded obediently and stopped his sobbing. Baldy Li also raised his head. Li Lan continued, "I've already reserved a coffin. Please bury me next to your papa. I promised him that I was going to wait till you were grown up to go find him, but I'm afraid I can't hold on any longer."

Song Gang burst out into loud sobs, and the sound of his weeping brought Baldy Li's head down again. Li Lan repeated, "Don't cry, don't cry."

Song Gang wiped his eyes and muffled his sobs, but Baldy Li still had his head buried in his chest. Li Lan smiled, saying, "I've cleansed myself already, so no need to bathe me after I'm gone. Just put me in a clean set of clothes. Don't give me a sweater, though, because the knots in the yarn would trip me on my way to the netherworld. Dress me in cotton instead."

Exhausted, she closed her eyes and rested. A dozen minutes passed before she opened her eyes again and told her sons, "I just heard your father call out to me."

Li Lan smiled contentedly. She asked Song Gang to pull out a wooden chest from under the bed and remove the bundle inside. Baldy Li and Song Gang unwrapped the bundle and saw that it contained the bag of soil stained with Song Fanping's blood, a handkerchief wrapped around the three pairs of ancients’ chopsticks, and three copies of their family portrait. Li Lan said that two of the copies were for Baldy Li and Song Gang; since they would marry and start their own families, she wanted to make sure that each had his own copy. The third she wanted to take with her to the netherworld to show Song Fanping, noting, "He never had a chance to see the portrait."

She also wanted to take with her the pairs of ancients’ chopsticks, as well as the dirt stained with Song Fanping's blood. She instructed, "Once I'm set in the coffin, spread the bloody dirt all over my body."

As she spoke she asked her sons to help her up so that she could reach her hand into the soil. Seven years had passed, and the bloodstained dirt had turned completely black. She felt around, saying, "It feels very cozy inside."

Li Lan smiled contentedly. "I'm about to see your father, so I'm very happy. Seven years — he's been waiting for me for seven years. I have so many stories to tell him, stories about Song Gang and about Baldy Li— it would take me days and days just to get through them all."

When she looked again at Baldy Li and Song Gang, she wept. "But what will become of you? You are fifteen and sixteen years old — I really can't bear to part with you. My sons, you really have to take good care of yourselves. You are brothers and must look after each other."

As Li Lan finished speaking she closed her eyes and seemed to doze off for a bit. When she opened her eyes again, she asked Baldy Li to go and buy a few buns. Having diverted Baldy Li, she then held Song Gang's hand and told him her final wishes: "Song Gang, Baldy Li is your little brother. You must take care of him all your life. I'm not worried about you, but I am worried about him. If he takes the straight path, he will make something of himself; but if he goes the other way, I'm worried that he will end up in jail. You have to watch out for him and not let him go the wrong way. Song Gang, promise me that, no matter what Baldy Li might do, you will take care of him."

Song Gang nodded as he wiped at his tears. "Mama, don't you worry. I'll take care of Baldy Li for as long as I live. Even if I have one bowl of rice left, I'll let him have it, and if I have just one shirt left, I'll give it to him."

Weeping, Li Lan shook her head. "If there is one bowl of rice left, the two of you should split it; and if there's one shirt left, you should take turns wearing it."

This was the last day of Li Lan's life. She slept on the family bed until dusk, and when she woke up she heard Baldy Li and Song Gang whispering to each other. Rays from the setting sun shone into the room, warming it with reds and oranges. The sound of Baldy Li and Song Gang talking to each other convinced Li Lan of their intimacy. She smiled, then softly said that it was time to return to the hospital.

Song Gang carried Li Lan out the front door. As Baldy Li followed them out, she remarked, "It's good to be home."

Baldy Li and Song Gang remained with Li Lan at the hospital. Her spirits seemed to revive somewhat. She would doze for a while, then stay awake for a while. Every time she woke up and spotted her sons sitting at her bedside whispering away, she would urge them once again to return home and get some sleep.

Baldy Li and Song Gang stayed in the hospital until one in the morning and then walked home along the deserted streets. Baldy Li knew that Song Gang had become very interested in reading, so he told him about a room in Red Flag Alley that contained all the items confiscated during the early days of the Cultural Revolution. They had everything there: books, paintings, toys, stuff that you couldn't even imagine. Baldy Li told Song Gang that Victory Zhao and Success Liu had raided the place a few times, and every time they made off with lots of good books. Baldy Li explained, "Do you know how Victory Zhao became Poet Zhao, and Success Liu, Writer Liu? Its because they stole these books and read them that now they can write books themselves."

Baldy Li and Song Gang crept up to the room. They had planned on breaking the windows and climbing in, but when they got there, they saw that the window had no panes left. After they crept in, they realized that someone had long ago cleaned the place out, leaving only a few empty cabinets. They searched every corner of the room, every nook of every cabinet, but managed to find only a single red high-heeled shoe. Thinking they had found something special, they stashed it under their clothing, crept out through the window, and ran. When they reached a completely deserted streetlamp, Baldy Li and Song Gang stopped and studied the item for a good long while. They had never seen a high-heeled shoe before, nor even a red shoe, and asked each other, "What is this thing?"

The brothers went back and forth on whether it was indeed a shoe. They wondered if it might be a toy boat. In the end they concluded that it was a toy — not a toy boat but a toy shoe. Baldy Li and Song Gang happily carried the red high-heeled shoe back with them to their home, then sat on the bed examining it for a bit longer. They still agreed that the high-heel was a toy but of a sort that they had never seen before. Then they hid it under the bed.

By the time Baldy Li and Song Gang woke up the next day, the sun was shining on their bottoms. They rushed to the hospital, but Li Lan s bed was empty. As they were standing there in a panic, looking all about them and not knowing what to do, a nurse walked in and informed them that Li Lan was dead and laid out in the morgue.

Song Gang immediately burst into loud wails. Sobbing, he walked down the hospitals aisles toward the morgue. Baldy Li initially didn't cry as he followed Song Gang in a daze, but when he saw his mother lying stiffly on a concrete cot in the morgue, he burst out into wails too, crying even louder than Song Gang.

Li Lan's eyes were still open. She had wanted so badly to see her sons before dying, but the last glimmer of light disappeared from her gaze without her getting a final glimpse of her beloved sons.

Song Gang knelt on the floor in front of the concrete cot and wept until he shook all over, while Baldy Li, standing at the foot of the bed, wept and trembled like a sapling in the wind. Together they wept, calling out for their mama. It was not until this moment that Baldy Li truly understood that he was now an orphan and that he and Song Gang were all they each had left in this world.

Song Gang then hoisted Li Lan s body onto his back. With Baldy Li following behind, the three of them went home. Song Gang wept continuously as he carried Li Lan down the street while Baldy Li also repeatedly wiped his eyes. The two of them no longer howled, instead sobbed silently. As they reached the basketball court Song Gang cried out loud again, saying to Baldy Li, "Yesterday when we reached here, Mama was still talking to me."

Song Gang wept so hard he could not take another step. Baldy Li urged him to let him carry their mother, but Song Gang shook his head, explaining, "You're my younger brother. I have to take care of you."

Sobbing, the two youths made their way with the corpse down the streets of Liu Town. The body kept sliding down Song Gangs back, so Baldy Li propped it up from behind. Song Gang repeatedly stopped to bend down so that Baldy Li could gently hoist the body back up. Eventually Song Gang was doubled over with the effort, with Baldy Li trotting alongside helping to support the body. The two young men carefully tended to Li Lan s corpse as if she were merely asleep and they were afraid of hurting her. When people saw them, they were all heartbroken. When Mama Su and Missy Su saw them, tears trickled down Mama Sus face as she said to her daughter, "Li Lan was such a good woman. Its such a pity that she's now gone and left her good sons behind."

Two days later the two youths reappeared in the streets, this time pulling Blacksmith Tongs cart. Atop the cart was Li Lan in the coffin that she had selected herself. Inside the coffin was a portrait of their family, three pairs of ancients’ chopsticks, and dirt that had once been soaked through with Song Fanping's blood. Song Gang walked in front, pulling the cart, while Baldy Li followed, guiding it from behind. The two worried that the coffin might slip off the cart, so they both squatted down in order to roll the cart horizontally. Song Gangs body was bent over like a bow, as was Baldy Li's. Heads bowed, they walked in silence as the wheels creaked along the stone slabs on the street.

Seven years earlier another pullcart holding another coffin had passed down this same street, and the body lying inside had been Song Fanpings. At that time, it had been the old landlord pulling in front and Li Lan and the two children pushing from behind. This time the two boys were young men, and it was Li Lan who was lying in the coffin.

They walked out the southern gate and onto the dirt road leading into the country. Seven years earlier, this was the spot where Li Lan had said, "Go ahead and cry," and where all four of them had erupted in sobs, their wailing startling even the sparrows in the trees. Now the boys were again pulling a cart carrying a thin-planked coffin, and the fields were just as wide, the skies just as vast, but this time there were only two of them, and they had no tears left. With their backs bent, one in front and one in back, one pulling and one pushing, they were positioned lower than the coffin on the cart. From a distance they didn't resemble two people so much as an oversize cart.

The two young men escorted their mother to the village where Song Fanping was born and raised. Song Fanping had been waiting in his grave by the village entrance for seven years, and now his wife was finally here to keep him company. The old landlord waited at his son's grave, his entire weight resting on a tree branch serving as a cane; he looked frail and weak, as if he were also taking his last breaths and would have collapsed to the ground without the branch. The old landlord was so poor he couldn't even afford a cane, so Song Gang had fashioned this one by whittling down a tree branch. There was a grave already dug next to Song Fanpings, thanks once again to the poor relatives who stood there leaning on their shovels, wearing clothes just as tattered as they had been seven years earlier.

Once Li Lan s coffin was lowered into the grave, the old landlord, his face covered in tears, could no longer hold himself up. Song Gang helped lift him to a seated position. The old landlord leaned against a tree and watched as dirt was shoveled into the grave, sobbing over and over, "It was my son's good fortune to marry such a good woman. It was my son's good fortune to marry such a good woman. It was my son's good fortune …"

Li Lan s mound was now piled as high as Song Fanping's grave. The old landlord wept as he spoke of what a good daughter-in-law he had had: He said that Li Lan came every Qingming festival to sweep the grave, and every New Years she came to pay her respects to him. Song Gang asked Baldy Li to help his grandfather up and carry him back home. Baldy Li walked off with the old landlord on his back, and the poor relatives followed behind, carrying their shovels. Song Gang watched them walk away. Once he was alone, he knelt in front of Li Lan s grave and promised her, "Mama, don't you worry. Even if I only have one bowl of rice left, I'll give it to Baldy Li to eat, and even if I have only a single piece of clothing, I'll give it to Baldy Li to wear."