Chronicle of a Blood Merchant

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

One day a few years later Yile came back to town from the countryside. He was as skinny as a twig, his face was grayish yellow, and he held a broken old basket in his hands, filled with a bundle of leafy vegetables. This was his present for his parents. He hadn’t come home for a visit for over six months, and when he knocked on the front door, Xu Sanguan and Xu Yulan stared at him for a moment before realizing that this was actually their son.

Yile’s pallid and wasted look brought them up short with surprise, because he hadn’t looked nearly so bad last time he came home. Granted, he had been thinner and darker than when he had first left home, but he had been in good spirits, and when he left, he had carried a crock that could fit nearly a hundred pounds of rice away with him on his back. He walked away with his back bent against the weight, his feet sounding out hollowly against the pavement as he went. He didn’t have a rice crock in the countryside, so he had been storing his rice in a cardboard box, but when the weather turned humid, the bottom of the box rotted away, turning the rice at the bottom a yellowish-green color.

After he came back home, Xu Sanguan said to Xu Yulan, “Do you think Yile might be sick? When he’s not lying down, he just sits around the house. He’s not eating much either, and it seems like he’s stooping all the time.”

Xu Yulan put her hand on Yile’s forehead to see if he was running a fever.

“He’s not sick. If he was sick, he’d be running a fever. I think he just doesn’t want to go back down to the countryside. It’s too hard on him down there. Let him stay in town for a few more days and rest up. After he’s rested for a few days, I’m sure he’ll start to feel better.”

Yile stayed in town for ten days. During the daytime he always sat by the window, with his arms draped over the windowsill and his chin resting on his arms, looking outside at the lane. Usually, he stared at the walls of the houses across the way. The walls were nearly a hundred years old, and green weeds grew from the cracks between the bricks, fluttering in the breeze. Sometimes a few women who lived in the area would stop beneath his window and chatter for a while. When they said something interesting, Yile would smile and move his arms into a more comfortable position.

By that time Sanle had already become a regular worker at the machine tools factory and had a bed at the factory dormitory. They lived five to a room, but Sanle was happy to stay at the factory, because he could be with people his own age. When Yile came home, Sanle would come by every day after dinner and spend some time with the family. Whenever Sanle came over, Yile was lying in bed. Sanle said to him, “Yile, the more other people sleep, the fatter they get. The more you sleep, the skinnier you seem to be.”

The only times Yile became the least bit animated was when Sanle came home. He would smile and talk with him, and there were even a few times when they went out together for a walk. But after Sanle left, Yile would once again lie down in bed or sit motionlessly by the window, as if he had been glued in place.

Xu Yulan, seeing that Yile kept hanging around the house and seemed not to have the slightest intention of going back down to the countryside, said to him, “Yile, when are you planning to go back? You’ve been home for ten days already.”

Yile said, “I don’t have any energy now. It wouldn’t do any good for me to go back now, because I just don’t have the energy to work in the fields. Let me stay for a few more days, okay?”

Xu Yulan replied, “Yile, it’s not that I want to make you go back. But think about it. Of the people who were sent down with you, quite a few have already gotten their transfers and been allowed to come back to town. There are even four people who came back up from the countryside working at Sanle’s factory. You have to work hard and get on your brigade chief’s good side. That way you can come back to town for good.”

Xu Sanguan agreed. “Your mom is right. We don’t want to kick you out. If it were up to us, you could stay here your whole life if you wanted, and we’d be happy to have you. But as things stand now, you’d better go back and get to work. If you stay at home too long, people in your brigade will get to talking, and your brigade chief will be that much less likely to give you a transfer. Yile, go back down for now, and after a year or two of hard work, you can earn your way home for good.”

Yile shook his head. “I really don’t have the energy. If I went back now, I just couldn’t work very hard anyway.”

Xu Sanguan said, “You know, energy isn’t like money. The more you use money, the less you have. But the more energy you put out, the more you’ll have. If all you do is hang around the house all day, it’s no wonder you don’t feel very energetic. But if you go back and work every day, sweat a little every day, your energy will come back, and pretty soon you’ll feel stronger and stronger.”

Yile continued to shake his head. “It’s been more than six months since I last came home. Erle got to come back home twice already in that time, and I didn’t get to come at all. Can’t you let me stay a little longer?”

“Nothing doing,” Xu Yulan said. “You’re going back tomorrow.”

Yile went back to the countryside after ten days at home. The morning he was to leave, Xu Yulan came home as soon as she was finished frying dough. She brought two pieces of fried dough home for Yile. “Eat them while they’re hot. You can leave after you’ve eaten.”

Yile sat listlessly by the window looking at the fried dough and shook his head. “I don’t feel like eating. I don’t feel like eating anything. I just don’t have any appetite.”

Then he stood up, folded the change of clothes he had brought back with him from the countryside, and stuffed them into an old book bag, which he proceeded to sling over his shoulder. “I’m leaving.”

Xu Sanguan said, “Eat the fried dough before you go.”

Yile shook his head. “I just don’t feel like eating anything right now.”

Xu Yulan said, “You have to eat something. You have a long way to go today.”

Xu Yulan told Yile to wait a moment and went into the kitchen to hard-boil a couple of eggs. When they were done, she wrapped them in a handkerchief and handed them to him. “Yile, take these with you. You can eat them if you get hungry on the way.”

Yile, still holding the eggs in his hand, walked out the front door. Xu Sanguan and Xu Yulan went to the front door to watch him go. Xu Sanguan saw that he was walking with his head bowed, moving slowly and carefully down the lane and almost leaning against the wall for support as he went. He was so thin, his shoulder bones stuck sharply out from his shirt, and the clothes that had once been a little too small for him now hung so loosely around his frame that it seemed there was no body underneath. When Yile reached the telephone pole, Xu Sanguan saw him lift his hand to his face and wipe his eyes. Xu Sanguan wondered if he was crying. He said to Xu Yulan, “I’m going to go see him off.”

When Xu Sanguan caught up to him, he saw that Yile really was crying. He said to him, “Your mom and I can’t do anything about it either. We just want you to do well down there so you can get a transfer and come back as soon as possible.”

With his father walking by his side, Yile stopped wiping the tears on his face. He shifted the book bag, which was slipping off his shoulder, across his back. “I know.”

The two walked ahead without exchanging any more words. Xu Sanguan walked faster than Yile and had to stop every few steps to wait for him to catch up before he continued down the street. When they came to the front entrance to the hospital, Xu Sanguan said, “Yile, wait here for a little while.” He walked into the hospital.

Yile stood outside the door waiting, but after a few minutes he sat down on a pile of bricks, his book bag dangling again from his shoulder, the two hard-boiled eggs still held in one hand. He started to feel like eating a little something, so he took one of the eggs, tapped it lightly against a brick, peeled off the shell, and put it in his mouth. He slowly chewed on the egg, eyes fixed on the hospital’s front entrance. He ate very slowly, but by the time he had finished one egg, Xu Sanguan still hadn’t emerged from the door of the hospital. He turned his eyes away from the door, put his book bag on his knees, folded his arms on top of the book bag, and then cradled his head with his arms.

After a few more moments Xu Sanguan returned. “Let’s go.”

They walked west until they reached the ferry pier. Xu Sanguan told Yile to sit down in the waiting room and went off to buy his ferry ticket. When he was finished, he sat down next to Yile to wait for the boat, which was due to depart in half an hour. The room was crowded with people, the majority of whom were peasants who had come up to town early that morning to sell produce and were now on their way home. They had piled their carrying poles on the floor and sat holding their baskets, now emptied of produce, in their hands, smoking cheap cigarettes, and cheerfully chatting among themselves.

Xu Sanguan pulled thirty yuan from his front pocket and stuffed it into Yile’s hand. “Take this.”

Yile, taken aback by the sight of his father suddenly handing him so much money, asked, “Dad, that’s for me?”

Xu Sanguan said, “Take it. Now. Put it somewhere safe.”

Yile looked down at the money. “Dad, I’ll just take ten yuan, all right?”

Xu Sanguan said, “Take all of it. I earned it selling blood just now. Take all of it. Some of it’s for Erle too. Erle’s far away from town, but he’s pretty close to where you are, so you can give him ten or fifteen the next time he comes to see you. Tell him to use it wisely. You two are far away from home, so we can’t look after you. You two brothers have to take good care of each other.”

Yile nodded and took the money.

Xu Sanguan continued, “Don’t waste this money on unnecessary things. Be careful with it, and spend it wisely. If you feel tired, but you don’t have any appetite, buy yourself something good to eat to give yourself strength. And when Spring Festival comes around, buy two packs of cigarettes and a bottle of liquor and give them to the chief of your production brigade. That way, when the time comes, you’ll be able to come back to town much sooner. Got that? Use it wisely. The best steel is for the blade and not the handle.”

It was time for Yile to get on the boat, so Xu Sanguan stood and escorted Yile over to the gate where they collected the tickets. He watched him board the ferry, then shouted, “Yile, remember what I told you. The best steel is for the blade, not the handle.”

Yile turned back toward Xu Sanguan and nodded his head. Then he ducked his head and walked through the low door into the cabin.

Xu Sanguan was left standing by the gate. He stood by the gate until the ferry began to move down the river, and only then did he turn to make his way home.

LESS THAN A MONTH after Yile went back to the countryside, the chief of Erle’s production brigade came to town. He was well over fifty years old, bearded, and when he smoked cigarettes, he liked to attach the butt he had just smoked to the tip of a fresh cigarette in order to conserve tobacco. In the half hour that he spent at Xu Sanguan’s house, he smoked four cigarettes, starting three of them with the end of the cigarette that had just preceded it. After he had ground the fourth cigarette out on the floor and placed the butt in his pocket, he stood and told them that he had plans to eat lunch somewhere else, but that he would be back for dinner at Xu Sanguan’s place.

As soon as Erle’s brigade chief left, Xu Yulan sat down on the doorstep and began to wipe tears from her eyes. As she rubbed her face, she said, “It’s the end of the month, and all we have left in the house is two yuan. How can you have someone over to dinner on just two yuan? When you have company, you have to serve them fish and meat, and you need to supply wine and cigarettes as well. All you can get for two yuan is a pound of meat and half a fish. What am I going to do? ‘Even the cleverest maid is in trouble when there’s no rice in the larder,’ so how am I supposed to have someone for dinner when there’s no money to feed him? And this is no ordinary guest. This is Erle’s brigade chief. If there isn’t very much to eat, Erle’s brigade chief won’t be pleased, and if Erle’s brigade chief isn’t pleased, it’s going to be tough on Erle. Not only will he lose all hope for a transfer back to town, but he’ll also have a harder time of it in the production brigade. It’s the brigade chief who’s coming to dinner, and we have to wine him and dine him and give him some nice presents as well. How can I manage with just two yuan?” Xu Yulan swung around to face Xu Sanguan inside the room. “Xu Sanguan, I’m going to have to ask you to sell some blood.”

Xu Sanguan sat for a moment nodding his head, and then said to her, “Go get me a bucketful of water from the well. I’ll need to drink water before I sell blood.”

Xu Yulan said, “There’s water in that cup over there. Drink the water in the cup.”

Xu Sanguan said, “There isn’t enough water in the cup. I have to drink a lot of water.”

Xu Yulan said, “There’s water in the Thermos too.”

Xu Sanguan said, “The water in the Thermos is too hot. I asked you to get me some water from the well. Now I want you to do it.”

Xu Yulan nodded her assent, stood, and rushed to the well. When she returned, Xu Sanguan told her to put the bucket on the table and asked her to bring him a bowl. He proceeded to down bowl after bowl of water. After the fifth bowlful, Xu Yulan began to worry that he’d hurt himself. “Stop drinking. I’m afraid you’ll hurt yourself.”

Xu Sanguan, paying her no mind, drank two more bowls of well water. Then, clasping his stomach with both hands, he stood carefully up from the table and took a few mincing steps forward. He paused for another moment by the doorway before stepping into the lane.

Xu Sanguan went to the hospital to see Blood Chief Li. “I’ve come to sell blood again,” he said to him.

Blood Chief Li was by this time already well into his sixties. His hair had gone completely white, and his back was hunched. He sat at his desk smoking cigarettes, coughing, and spitting a seemingly incessant flow of phlegm onto the floor. As he spat, his cotton-soled shoes would slide back and forth across the floor in a futile effort to wipe the floor clean of phlegm. He looked at Xu Sanguan for a moment and said, “You just sold me some blood the day before yesterday.”

Xu Sanguan said, “I was here a month ago to sell blood.”

Blood Chief Li smiled. “You came a month ago, so I remembered who you were. Don’t think I’m getting old. My memory’s still sharp. If I see something or hear about something, doesn’t matter how trivial, I always remember.”

Xu Sanguan smiled and nodded. “Your memory is really good. Mine is terrible nowadays. Even about the most important things. I’ll go to sleep and wake up having forgotten all about whatever it was that happened the day before.”

Blood Chief Li, warmed by these words, leaned contentedly back in his chair. “You’re quite a few years younger than me, but it sounds like your memory isn’t nearly as good as mine.”

Xu Sanguan said, “How could I compare with you?”

Blood Chief Li said, “Well, you have a point there. My memory’s certainly better than yours. To tell you the truth, there’re a lot of twenty- and thirty-year-olds who can’t compare with me.”

Xu Sanguan watched as his face broke into a delighted grin and then asked, “Then will you let me sell blood?”

“Nothing doing.” Blood Chief Li’s smile disappeared immediately. “Are you trying to kill yourself? You need to rest for at least three months after each and every time you sell blood. You’re not permitted to sell blood until three months after the previous time.”

Xu Sanguan, left at a loss, stood silent for a moment. Then he said, “I really need the money. Our Erle’s brigade chief—”

Blood Chief Li cut him short. “Everyone who comes to see me really needs the money.”

Xu Sanguan said, “But I’m begging you—”

Blood Chief Li cut him short. “Don’t beg me. Everybody who comes here begs me.”

Xu Sanguan began again. “I’m begging you. Our Erle’s brigade chief is coming over for dinner, and all we have left is two yuan—”

Blood Chief Li waved his hand. “Don’t waste your breath. I’m not going to listen to you anyway. Come back in two months.”

Xu Sanguan began to cry. “If I come back in two months, the damage will already be done. Erle’s life will be ruined. What’s going to happen to him if we offend his brigade chief?”

“Who’s Erle?” Blood Chief Li asked.

“My son,” Xu Sanguan replied.

“Ohhhh.” Blood Chief Li nodded.

It seemed to Xu Sanguan that Blood Chief Li’s expression had softened, so he wiped his tears and continued. “If you let me sell just this one time, I guarantee this will never happen again. Please — just this once.”

“Nothing doing.” Blood Chief Li shook his head. “This is for your own good. Who would have to bear the responsibility if you ended up selling away your life?”

Xu Sanguan said, “I would take full responsibility.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Blood Chief Li asked. “If you were dead, you would be in no position to take any kind of responsibility. And I would be following you down the road to hell. You know why? It’s called medical malpractice. The higher-ups would be down here in a second flat.”

Blood Chief Li, noticing that Xu Sanguan’s legs were trembling, paused to ask, “Why are you shaking like that?”

Xu Sanguan said, “I really have to take a piss.”

At that moment someone walked into the room, an empty carrying pole slung over one shoulder and a live chicken in the other hand. As soon as he walked into the room, he called out to Xu Sanguan, who failed to recognize him at first. “Xu Sanguan, don’t you recognize me anymore? I’m Genlong.”

Xu Sanguan realized that it was indeed Genlong. “Genlong, you look completely different. How did you get so old all of a sudden? Your hair’s gone completely gray. I thought you were still only forty.”

Genlong said, “Life’s harder down in the country, so we folks look a little older than people in town. And you’ve got some gray yourself, you know. You look a lot different than you used to, but I could still tell it was you.”

Genlong handed the chicken to Blood Chief Li. “This is a laying hen. She laid an egg with a double yolk just this morning.”

Blood Chief Li accepted the gift, beaming so widely that his eyes seemed to disappear into the creases fanning across his face: “Aiyo! You’re too good to me, Genlong, you’re just too kind.”

Genlong addressed Xu Sanguan. “So you’re here to sell blood too? What a coincidence, running into you like this again. It’s been, what, ten years now?”

Xu Sanguan said to Genlong, “Genlong, help me out. See if you can get Blood Chief Li to let me sell some blood.”

Genlong turned to look inquiringly over at Blood Chief Li.

Blood Chief Li said, “It’s not that I don’t want to let him sell some blood. But he already sold some just a month ago.”

Genlong nodded and explained to Xu Sanguan, “You need to rest for three months after every time you sell.”

Xu Sanguan said, “Genlong, I’m begging you. Ask him on my behalf. I’m really desperate for the money. I’m doing this for the sake of my son.”

When Genlong heard him out, he turned again toward Blood Chief Li. “I’m begging you too. Do it as a favor to me. Let him sell some blood. Just this once.”

Blood Chief Li slapped his desktop. “If it was anyone else but Genlong, I’d never allow it. But of all my friends, Genlong has the most pull around here. If Genlong asks for a favor, well, Genlong gets what he wants.”

After Xu Sanguan and Genlong sold their blood, they went together to the hospital lavatory to clear the urine from their bellies. Then they went to the Victory Restaurant, sat at a window by the river, and ordered fried pork livers and yellow rice wine. After they ordered, Xu Sanguan asked, “Ah Fang’s doing fine, right? How come he didn’t come today?”

Genlong said, “Ah Fang’s in bad shape.”

Xu Sanguan was badly startled. “What happened to him?”

“His bladder burst,” Genlong said. “We usually drink a lot of water before we sell blood, but that one time he simply drank too much and his bladder burst. We didn’t even get far enough that day to sell any blood. Before we even got to the hospital, Ah Fang said his stomach was hurting. I told him to rest for a little while by the side of the road. We went over to the front steps of the movie theater. But as soon as he sat down, he started screaming with pain. It scared me so much I didn’t even realize what was going on. After a while he just fainted. Luckily, we were right near the hospital. I didn’t find out that his bladder had burst until I brought him to the hospital.”

Xu Sanguan asked, “But he pulled through, didn’t he?”

“Oh, he’s alive,” Genlong said. “But he’s in bad shape. He’ll never be able to sell blood again.”

Genlong asked Xu Sanguan, “But how are you doing?”

Xu Sanguan shook his head. “Two of my sons got sent down to the countryside. Sanle’s the only one who’s doing well — he’s working at the machine tools factory. It’s really hard on the other two. All the kids whose parents have any kind of pull spent just a year or two down there before they got transferred back to town. But what do I have to offer? You know just as well as I do that I’m just a cart-pusher at the silk factory. I don’t have any pull at all. We’ll just have to see if the two of them can help themselves out. If they’re lucky, and they get on well with the brigade chief, there’s a chance they could be reassigned to a job in town sooner rather than later.”

Genlong said to Xu Sanguan, “Why didn’t you have them sent down to our production brigade? Ah Fang’s the production brigade chief. He’s still the brigade chief now, even in the shape he’s in. If your sons were in our production brigade, we could have looked after them. And when it came time to issue transfers, of course, they’d be the first to go home.”

Genlong paused and lifted a hand to his forehead. “Why am I feeling so dizzy?”

“You’re right.” Xu Sanguan eyes widened. “How come I never thought of that?”

He watched as Genlong bent forward and rested his forehead against the tabletop. “Genlong, are you all right?”

“I’m fine. It’s just that I feel a little dizzy.”

Xu Sanguan’s thoughts turned once again to his own problems. He sighed. “If I had only thought of that earlier. Now I suppose it’s just too late.”

He saw Genlong shut his eyes. “But even if I had thought of having them sent there, it might not have done any good. We couldn’t very well tell the authorities where we wanted them assigned.”

When he realized that Genlong hadn’t responded, he leaned over and gave him a prod. When his motion still didn’t produce any response, he called his name: “Genlong, Genlong.”

When Genlong still didn’t move, Xu Sanguan started to feel frightened. He looked around to see that the restaurant was packed with other people. The noise of talking and eating was deafening, and cigarette smoke and cooking steam cast a gray pall over the room. Waiters were squeezing through the crowd, carrying platters of food. Xu Sanguan prodded Genlong once more, and when there wasn’t any response, he shouted to the waiters, “Come help! I think Genlong’s dead.”

The restaurant went suddenly quiet. The waiters hastily squeezed their way over to the table. One of them shook Genlong by the shoulders, while the other rubbed his face. The waiter rubbing his face said, “He’s not dead. His face is still warm.”

Another waiter appeared, lifted Genlong’s face from the table, and told the assembled onlookers, “Looks to me like he’s almost dead.”

Xu Sanguan asked, “What do we do now?”

Someone said, “Take him to the hospital.”

After they had taken him to the hospital, the doctor said he had suffered a cerebral hemorrhage. When they asked him what a cerebral hemorrhage was, the doctor told them that one of the blood vessels in his head had burst. Another doctor standing to one side added, “Wasn’t just one blood vessel, from the looks of it.”

Xu Sanguan sat on a chair in the hospital corridor for three hours and did not stand up until Genlong’s woman Guihua arrived. He hadn’t seen Guihua for more than twenty years, and the Guihua standing in front of him bore no resemblance at all to the young woman he remembered. This Guihua looked as strong as a man. It was already late autumn, but Guihua had come to town in bare feet, with her pants legs rolled up around her knees. And since she had come directly to the hospital when she heard the news, without stopping to wash up at home, her feet were coated with mud from the fields. Her eyes were red and swollen. Xu Sanguan thought to himself that she must have been crying the whole way into town.

After Genlong’s woman arrived, Xu Sanguan left the hospital and went home. As he walked home, a feeling of emptiness washed over him. His body felt terribly heavy, as if he were carrying a hundred-pound sack of rice, and his legs trembled with every step forward. The doctor said Genlong had suffered a cerebral hemorrhage, but Xu Sanguan knew better. Genlong had gotten sick because he had sold too much blood. Xu Sanguan told himself, The doctor must not have known that Genlong had just sold some blood. Otherwise he wouldn’t have said that it was a cerebral hemorrhage.

As soon as Xu Sanguan arrived home, Xu Yulan screamed, “Where have you been? You had me worried to death! Erle’s brigade chief is coming over for dinner, and you just disappear! Did you sell blood?”

Xu Sanguan nodded. “I sold blood. But Genlong’s dying.”

Xu Yulan stuck out her hand. “Where’s the money?”

Xu Sanguan gave her the money. She hastily counted the notes, and only when she was finished did she register what Xu Sanguan had just said. “Who did you say is dying?”

“Genlong.” Xu Sanguan sat down on a stool. “The man who went to sell blood with me. The Genlong from my grandpa’s village.”

Xu Yulan didn’t know who Genlong was and didn’t know why he was about to die. She slipped the money into her inside pocket, and before Xu Sanguan could finish his sentence, she bounded out of the door to the market to buy meat, fish, cigarettes, and liquor.

Xu Sanguan, left alone in the house, sat for a while in his chair, but he soon felt so fatigued that he lay down in bed. He thought to himself, If I’m feeling so tired from just sitting in my chair, maybe I’m about to die too. Just as the thought crossed his mind, he felt his chest constrict. After a moment or two of this suffocating feeling, he felt dizzy. He remembered that Genlong’s illness had begun with a spell of dizziness. Genlong had put his head down on the table, and when he had called to him, he didn’t answer.

Xu Sanguan was still lying in bed when Xu Yulan came back from the store. When she saw that he was in bed, she said, “You stay where you are. You’re still weak from selling blood. Just stay put, and I’ll take care of everything. You can rest until the brigade chief shows up.”

Erle’s brigade chief arrived around dusk. He was greeted by a table heavily laden with food.

“So much food! Why, the table’s almost overflowing. You’re really much too polite. And such fine liquor as well!”

When he caught sight of Xu Sanguan, he continued, “You look thin. You look thinner than when I saw you this afternoon.”

Xu Sanguan’s heart sank with these words, but he forced himself to smile. “Yes, I’ve lost weight. Have a seat, chief.”

“I’ve seen people lose weight over the course of six months or a year. But this is the first time I’ve ever seen someone lose so much weight in one day.” The brigade chief sat down at the table. When he noticed that there was a new carton of cigarettes on the table, he cried out in spite of himself, “And you bought a whole carton of cigarettes? I couldn’t possibly smoke so much in one night!”

Xu Yulan said, “Brigade chief, this carton of cigarettes is for you. You can take whatever you don’t finish home with you.”

Erle’s brigade chief nodded cheerfully and just as cheerfully picked up the bottle of spirits and twisted open the cap with his right hand. He filled his own cup with liquor and was about to pour some for Xu Sanguan when Xu Sanguan hastily lifted his cup from the table. “I don’t drink.”

Erle’s brigade chief said, “That may be so, but you’re going to drink with me tonight. I don’t like to drink alone. It’s no fun that way.”

Xu Yulan said, “Xu Sanguan, you better have a drink or two with the brigade chief.”

Xu Sanguan had no choice but to pass the cup over to Erle’s brigade chief, who filled it to the brim, handed it back to him, and declared, “Now then! Bottoms up!”

Xu Sanguan said, “I’ll just have a sip.”

“That won’t do,” the brigade chief said. “You’ve got to down it all in one gulp. This is a test of our friendship. Friends drink when they’re together. Acquaintances merely sip.”

Xu Sanguan drank the whole cup in one gulp. His body immediately began to feel warm, just as if someone had struck a match in his belly, and he felt his strength beginning to seep back into his body, and with it a sense of relaxation. He picked up a piece of meat with his chopsticks and put it in his mouth.

Xu Yulan said to Erle’s brigade chief, “Brigade chief, every time Erle comes home, he tells us what a good man you are, how kind, how easy you are to get along with, and how well you look after him.”

Xu Sanguan, thinking of the bitterness with which Erle cursed his brigade chief whenever he came home, picked up where Xu Yulan left off. “He tells us that everyone really appreciates how well you take care of them.”

Erle’s brigade chief gestured toward Xu Sanguan, “Well, it’s all true.” He lifted his cup. “Bottoms up!”

Xu Sanguan, forced to follow his lead, downed his liquor in one gulp.

Erle’s brigade chief wiped his mouth. “I don’t mean to brag, but you won’t find a better brigade chief for at least a hundred miles around. I always apply the same principle in whatever I happen to be doing. My watchword is that if everything’s aboveboard, no one’s going to rock the boat.”

Xu Sanguan began to feel dizzy, and he remembered Genlong, and that Genlong was in the hospital. When he thought about how serious Genlong’s condition was, he began to feel that he would be in the hospital himself before too long. His head spun faster and faster, and his heart was racing and thudding inside his chest. His legs seemed to be trembling as well. And within a few seconds the trembling had spread to his shoulders.

Erle’s brigade chief said to Xu Sanguan, “Why are you shaking like that?”

Xu Sanguan said, “I’m cold. I feel cold.”

“You’ll warm up after a few more drinks.” He lifted up his cup. “Bottoms up!”

Xu Sanguan shook his head. “I really shouldn’t have any more.” As he spoke, he thought to himself, One more, and I’m a dead man.

Erle’s brigade chief lifted Xu Sanguan’s cup and forced it into his hands. “Come on now, all in one gulp!”

Xu Sanguan shook his head. “I really can’t drink any more. I’m in pretty bad shape. I’ll pass out. The blood vessels in my head will burst.”

Erle’s brigade chief pounded the tabletop. “So what? That’s what drinking is all about. You’ve got to drink, even if it kills you. You know why? Because it’s better to harm yourself than to hurt a friend’s feelings. If you really think of me as a friend, you’ll drink this cup.”

Xu Yulan said, “Go on, Xu Sanguan. The brigade chief is right. It’s better to harm yourself than to hurt a friend’s feelings.”

Xu Sanguan knew what Xu Yulan meant but could not say aloud. He had to do it for Erle’s sake. Xu Sanguan decided to drink. He would drink for Erle’s sake. He would drink so that Erle could be transferred back to town. He gulped down the liquor.

When this third cup of liquor slid down his throat, his stomach began to pitch like the high seas in the midst of a storm. He knew he was going to vomit. He rushed out the front door, let out a moan, and began to retch. His stomach quivered as he expelled the liquor, and the pain was so sharp that he couldn’t stand up straight. When he was finished vomiting, he knelt on the ground for a minute before slowly rising to his feet. He wiped his mouth and, with tears still streaming down his face, returned to his seat.

As soon as Xu Sanguan returned, the brigade chief poured him another glassful of liquor. “Drink! Better to overdo it than hurt a friend’s feelings. Have another drink.”

Xu Sanguan repeated to himself, Do it for Erle. Even if it kills you. Drink. He took the cup into his hands and drained it in a gulp.

Xu Yulan, seeing the state he was in, grew frightened. “Xu Sanguan, I think you’ve had enough. Something might happen to you.”

Erle’s brigade chief cut her off with a wave of his hand. “Nonsense! Nothing’s going to happen to him.” He poured another glass and handed it to Xu Sanguan. “The most I ever drank at one go was two quarts of liquor. I couldn’t drink any more after the first quart, so I stuck my finger down my throat and vomited it all up. Once I had cleared my stomach out, I was ready for another quart.”

Discovering that the first bottle of spirits was already empty, he said to Xu Yulan, “Go buy another bottle.”

That night the brigade chief drank until he too began to feel intoxicated. He stood and walked unsteadily to the front door. Then he turned to one side and began to pee into the street. When he had finished peeing, he swung slowly around, gazed blearily toward Xu Sanguan and Xu Yulan, and announced, “That’s all for tonight. We can drink some more next time I come by.”

After Erle’s brigade chief left, Xu Yulan helped Xu Sanguan to bed, removing his shoes and his shirt and covering him with the quilt. After she tucked him in, she went to clear the table.

Xu Sanguan lay with his eyes shut, disturbed only by the occasional hiccup. After a few minutes his hiccups slowly turned into snores.

He slept until late the next morning. When he awoke, his whole body ached. Xu Yulan had already gone to fry dough. Xu Sanguan slowly picked himself out of bed. His head ached so badly, he thought it might split. He sat by the table and drank a glass of water. Then he remembered Genlong. How was Genlong doing? He had to go to the hospital and find out.

When he arrived at the hospital, the bed Genlong had been lying in the day before was empty. Pleasantly surprised that Genlong had been discharged from the hospital so soon, he asked the other patients in the ward, “Where’s Genlong?”

“Who’s Genlong?” came the reply.

“The man who came in yesterday with a cerebral hemorrhage.”

“He died.”

Genlong dead? Xu Sanguan stood with his mouth hanging open, gazing at the empty bed. There weren’t even any sheets on the bed, just a burlap mattress cover. There was a bloodstain on the burlap that had been there for so long, it had begun to turn black.

Xu Sanguan emerged from the hospital and sat on a pile of bricks outside the door. The winter wind sent chills through his body. He stuffed his hands inside his sleeves and hunched his shoulders so that his collar would shield his neck. He sat and remembered Genlong. And Ah Fang. He remembered the first time the two men had taken him to sell blood. He remembered how they had taught him to drink water before selling blood, and how they had taken him to eat fried pork livers and drink yellow rice wine afterward. He remembered Genlong, and when he was finished remembering, he sat and cried.