Chronicle of a Blood Merchant

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

Xu Sanguan put the ailing Erle to bed at home, told Sanle to look after him, slung a blue floral-print cloth bundle across his back, stuffed two yuan and thirty fen into his front pocket, and set off for the ferry pier.

He was on his way to Shanghai, but before he got there, he would pass through Lin’s Pier, North Marsh, Westbank, Hundred-Mile, Tongyuan, Pine Grove, Big Bridge, Anchang Gate, Jing’an, Huang’s Inn, Tiger’s Head Bridge, Three Ring Cave, Seven-Mile Fort, Yellow Bay, Willow Village, Changning, and New Village. And of these places, only Lin’s Pier, Hundred-Mile, Pine Grove, Huang’s Inn, Seven-Mile Fort, and Changning were county seats. He would go ashore in all six of these towns to sell blood. He would sell his blood all the way to Shanghai.

Around noon that day Xu Sanguan arrived at Lin’s Pier. He walked along the little river that cut through town, between buildings and houses that clustered above the banks with their foundations spilling into the water below. Xu Sanguan unfastened the buttons of his cotton-padded jacket, letting the wintry sunlight shine onto his chest. His time-bronzed skin flushed a deep red in the cold wind. When he saw a set of stone-hewn steps leading down to the water, he went and sat by the river’s edge. A jumble of boats were moored on either side of the river; the steps where he sat offered the only unobstructed access to the stream along the embankment. There must have been a heavy snowfall in Lin’s Pier not long before, for Xu Sanguan saw that the cracks in between the stone steps were filled with veins of unmelted snow that glittered in the sun. Looking across the water at the windows of the houses, Xu Sanguan could tell that the people of Lin’s Pier were eating lunch, because steam had fogged their windows opaque.

He took a bowl out from his bundle, skimmed it below the water’s surface, and drew a bowlful. The water from around Lin’s Pier looked a little greenish in the bowl. He took a sip. The bone-piercingly cold water rolled down into his gut, and his body shivered. He wiped his mouth with his hand, then arched his neck to the sky and drank all of the water in a single gulp, clasping himself with his arms to steady the violent shivers that began almost as soon as he had finished. After a little while he felt his stomach slowly regain its usual temperature, so he skimmed another bowlful of water, drank it, and once again steadied himself against a fit of trembling.

The people of Lin’s Pier, sitting by their windows eating steaming bowls of lunch, noticed Xu Sanguan. They opened their windows and stuck their heads outside to gaze at this almost fifty-year-old man sitting at the bottom step of the stone pier, drinking bowl after bowl after bowl of wintry cold river water and shivering violently with each gulp.

And so they said to him, “Who are you? Where are you from?” “I’ve never seen anyone so thirsty in my life.” “Why are you drinking from the river? It’s winter, you’ll get sick that way.” “Come on up here, come up to my house, I’ll give you something to drink. We have boiled water, and we have tea leaves. We’ll make you a pot of tea.”

Xu Sanguan looked up at them and smiled. “I don’t want to bother you, thanks. You’re nice folks, and I wouldn’t want to trouble you. I have to drink a lot of water, so it’ll be less trouble to drink from the river.”

They replied, “We have plenty of water, you can drink all you want. If one pot isn’t enough for you, then you can have two pots or even three for that matter.”

Xu Sanguan stood, bowl in hand and faced the window through which the invitation had been issued. “I don’t want to use up all your tea. Give me a little salt. I’ve already had four bowls of water, but the water’s too cold, and I can hardly drink any more. Give me a little salt, and then I’ll feel like drinking some more water.”

They found this request somewhat odd. “What do you need salt for? If you can’t drink any more, then you won’t be thirsty anymore anyway.”

“I’m not thirsty. I’m not drinking because of thirst.”

Some of them laughed. One of them said, “If you’re not thirsty, why are you drinking so much water? And why drink cold water from the river? If you drink that much river water, you’ll get a stomachache for sure.”

Xu Sanguan looked up at them. “You seem like nice folks, so I’ll tell you. I’m drinking so much water so that I can sell my blood.”

“Selling blood?” they asked. “Why do you have to drink water to sell blood?”

“The more you drink, the more blood there’ll be. If you drink enough water, you can sell two bowls of blood.”

As he spoke, Xu Sanguan tapped the rim of his bowl and laughed, his wrinkled face folding into a smile.

“But why do you want to sell your blood?”

Xu Sanguan replied, “Yile’s sick. I mean, he’s seriously ill. It’s hepatitis. They’ve already taken him to a big hospital in Shanghai—”

“Who’s Yile?” someone interrupted.

“My son,” Xu Sanguan said. “He’s seriously ill, and only the big hospital in Shanghai can save him. I don’t have any money, so I have to sell my blood. If I can sell blood all the way to Shanghai, I might be able to make enough to pay the medical bill by the time I get there.”

At this point Xu Sanguan began to cry. He smiled wordlessly as tears rolled down his face. Xu Sanguan’s speech had left them speechless, and they could only gaze back at him. Finally, Xu Sanguan lifted his arm toward them. “You seem like kind-hearted folks. Do you think you could give me some salt?”

They all nodded. After a little while one of them brought him some salt wrapped in a piece of paper, while someone else gave him three pots full of hot tea. Xu Sanguan, looking toward the salt and the hot tea, said, “So much salt. I can’t use all of it. Tell you the truth, what with the tea, I don’t think I’ll need any salt after all.”

They said, “If you can’t use the salt now, take it with you, and you can use it next time you sell blood. Have some tea now before it gets cold.”

Xu Sanguan nodded, put the packet of salt in his pocket, sat back down on the stone steps, skimmed half a bowl of river water, picked up one of the teapots they had proffered, and poured it into the bowl. Then he drank this concoction in one gulp and wiped his mouth.

“That tea really tastes good.” Xu Sanguan drank three more bowls of tea.

They exclaimed, “You really know how to drink!”

Xu Sanguan smiled bashfully. “I’m really just forcing it down.” He glanced at the three teapots on the steps. “I have to leave now, but I don’t know who these teapots belong to. Who should I give them back to?”

They said, “You go on. We’ll collect them ourselves.”

Xu Sanguan nodded and looked around at the people in the windows and the people standing next to him on the steps, and he bowed in their direction. “You’ve all been so good to me, and I have nothing to give you in return, except my respects.”

Soon afterward, Xu Sanguan arrived at the Lin’s Pier County Hospital. In the blood donation room at the end of the clinic corridor sat a man about the same age as Blood Chief Li. He sat beside a desk, one arm draped across the tabletop, staring across the hall into a bathroom without a door.

When Xu Sanguan saw that his white coat was every bit as filthy as Blood Chief Li’s, he said, “You must be the blood chief around here. Your white coat’s all black in front and around the sleeves. The front’s like that because you’re always sitting in front of a desk, and the sleeves are dirty because you rest your arms on top of the desk. You’re just like our Blood Chief Li. And the back of your coat’s black too, because you sit on a stool all day long.”

Xu Sanguan sold his blood at the Lin’s Pier County Hospital, then ate a plate of fried pork livers and drank two shots of yellow rice wine at the restaurant in town. Then he began to walk through the streets of Lin’s Pier. The cold winter wind chilled his face, slipped down his collar, and down his neck. He began to feel the chill. Wrapped in the cotton-padded jacket, he felt his body suddenly go cold. He knew it was because he had sold his blood, because he had sold all the warmth in his body. He felt the wind slide down his chest and to his belly, and his stomach muscles contracted from the cold. He grasped hold of his collar, pulling it forward so that it would wrap around his neck. He looked as if he were pulling his body down the road with his collar.

Bright sunlight played across the road that ran through Lin’s Pier. Xu Sanguan’s shivering body moved through the sun’s rays. He walked past one street and came to another, where he caught sight of a few young men leaning against an old sunlight-bathed wall, squinting as they absorbed the warmth, hands stuffed snugly inside their sleeves. They were talking among themselves, shouting, laughing. Xu Sanguan stood for a moment in front of them, then moved into their midst, standing against the wall and squinting his eyes against the bright sun.

Xu Sanguan saw them turn to look at him, so he said, “It’s warm here, and there’s not so much wind.”

They nodded and watched him huddle against the wall, hands still tightly clasped around his collar. They whispered, “Look at his hands.” “He’s holding his collar so tight it looks like someone’s trying to strangle him.” “Or like he’s being throttled with a rope. What do you think?”

Xu Sanguan, overhearing this comment, smiled in their direction. “It’s just that I’m afraid the wind will come in through my collar.” He released one side of the collar and pointed toward his neck with his free hand. “This is like a window in a house. You wouldn’t leave a window open during the winter, would you? If you left the windows open, everybody inside would freeze to death.”

They erupted into laughter at this explanation. Then someone said, “Well, I’ve never seen anyone as afraid of the cold as you. And we all heard your teeth chattering even though you’re wearing such a thick coat. Look at us. None of us are wearing a padded coat, and our collars are all open.”

Xu Sanguan said, “Just a minute ago my collar was open too. Just a minute ago I drank eight bowls of water from the river.”

They said, “You think you might be running a fever?”

Xu Sanguan replied, “I don’t have a fever.”

They said, “Oh no? Then why are you talking nonsense?”

Xu Sanguan said, “I’m not talking nonsense.”

They said, “You’re definitely running a fever. You’re feeling unusually cold, right?”

Xu Sanguan nodded. “That’s right.”

“Then you’re feverish,” they said. “People feel cold when they’re running a fever. Feel your forehead. I’ll bet it’s really hot.”

Xu Sanguan smiled as he looked back toward them. “I’m not running a fever, I’m just cold, that’s all. It’s because I just sold—”

They interrupted, “If you’re feeling cold, it’s got to be because you have a high fever. Feel your forehead.”

Xu Sanguan smiled but didn’t lift his arm to feel his forehead.

They continued to urge, “Go ahead, feel your forehead. You’ll know right away if you have a fever or not. It’s not like it’s such a big chore. Just lift up your arm.”

Xu Sanguan lifted his hand to his forehead as they looked on.

“It’s hot, isn’t it?”

Xu Sanguan shook his head, “I don’t know. I really can’t tell because my forehead’s the same temperature as my hand.”

“I’ll try then.” One of them walked over and placed his hand on Xu Sanguan’s forehead. He turned to the others and said, “His forehead’s really cold.”

Someone else said, “You just took your hand out of your pocket, it’s probably too warm to tell. Try putting your own forehead next to his instead.” So he pressed his own forehead against Xu Sanguan’s, waited for a moment, turned back toward them, and slowly rubbed his hand across his own forehead. “Maybe I’m the one running a fever. My forehead’s a lot warmer than his.” Then he added, “You try.”

One after another they walked over and pressed their foreheads against Xu Sanguan’s forehead, until they were compelled to agree with what he had said in the first place. “You’re right. You’re not running a fever. We’re the ones who’re running fevers.”

They stood around him in a circle, laughing. When they were finished laughing, someone started to whistle. Then a few more of them started to whistle, and they moved away together, whistling. Xu Sanguan watched them go until he couldn’t see them anymore and the sound of their whistling faded to silence. Then he laughed quietly to himself as he sat down on a rock at the base of the wall, his body surrounded by the sunlight. He felt a little warmer than he had a moment before. His hands had started to go numb from the cold, so he released his collar and stuck his fingers into his pockets.

XU SANGUAN took a river ferry to North Marsh, and from North Marsh he went on to Westbank, where he took another boat to Hundred-Mile. It had been three days since he had left home, and three days since he had sold blood at Lin’s Pier. Now he planned to go to the hospital at Hundred-Mile and sell blood. In Hundred-Mile he walked down the street that ran along the river. The street was lined with muddy piles of melting snow, and when the wind blew into his face, his skin felt as dry and taut as the preserved fish hanging from the eaves of the houses along the way. He held his drinking bowl in one hand and the little packet of salt inside the wide sleeves of his padded jacket. He ate the salt crystals as he walked, and whenever his mouth began to pucker from the saltiness, he would climb down the stone steps to the river, skim the surface, and drink a couple of bowls of icy water. Then he continued down the road, eating fresh pinches of salt as he went.

That afternoon, just after he emerged into the street from selling blood at the Hundred-Mile hospital, and just before he managed to cross over to a restaurant on the opposite side of the street to eat a plate of fried pork livers and drink two shots of yellow rice wine, he discovered that he could no longer walk. His limbs shook like bare tree branches in a violent wind, whipping back and forth until it seemed that they would snap, and he clasped onto his body with his hands in an effort to stop the trembling. Then his legs buckled underneath him, and he tumbled to the pavement.

Someone on the street walked toward him to ask what was wrong, but Xu Sanguan was shivering so violently that the man couldn’t make out what he had said in reply. Someone else suggested that they take him to the hospital: “Lucky for him it’s just a few steps away.” Another man hoisted him up on his back and began to carry him toward the hospital door.

But with that Xu Sanguan’s voice grew more clear. “No, no, no, no,” he repeated over and over again. “I don’t want to go. I don’t want to go to the hospital.”

They said, “You’re ill, you’re seriously ill, I’ve never seen anyone in my life shake as hard as you’re shaking right now. We have to get you to the hospital.”

But still he repeated, “No, no, no, no.”

So they asked him, “Then tell us what’s wrong with you. Did you come down with something just now, or is it some kind of chronic illness? If it just hit you all of a sudden, we should definitely get you to the hospital.”

They saw his lips tremble and his mouth move, but none of them could tell exactly what he was trying to say to them. Someone asked, “What’s he trying to tell us?”

“We can’t tell. It doesn’t matter anyway. Let’s just bring him to the hospital.”

With this, his speech once again grew more distinct: “I’m not sick.”

His words were clear enough, but someone else asked, “He says he’s not sick, but if he weren’t sick, why would he be shaking like that?”

He said, “I’m cold.”

This too was distinct enough to be understood. They said, “He says he’s cold. You think he might have the hot-and-colds? If he has the hot-and-colds, it’s no use going to the hospital anyway. Maybe we should just take him to an inn instead. He doesn’t talk like he’s from anywhere around here.”

When Xu Sanguan heard them say they would take him to an inn, he fell silent and simply let them convey him to the nearest available place. They set him down in a dormitory room with four beds and piled all four of the quilts on top of him. Despite being smothered under four quilts, Xu Sanguan’s body continued to tremble. They stood over him and asked, “Feeling any warmer?”

Xu Sanguan shook his head. His head, protruding from underneath the quilts, seemed very far away.

When they saw his head shake, they said, “If you still feel cold even under four quilts, it must be the hot-and-colds. Once you get a case of the hot-and-colds, you feel cold whether you have four quilts or ten, because the cold is on the inside and not on the outside. You’ll feel better if you have something to eat.”

They looked on as the quilts themselves began to quiver. After a little while Xu Sanguan extended one hand from underneath the quilts, clasping a ten-fen note. “I’d like to eat some noodles.”

They went to buy him a bowl of noodles and then propped him up in bed to eat. Having swallowed the noodles, Xu Sanguan felt his body regain a little of its warmth. And after a moment he was able to speak more clearly, so he told them he didn’t really need to use all four of the quilts. “I’m begging you. Take two of them away. I can hardly breathe.”

That night Xu Sanguan shared the room with a man who arrived after dark. Well into his sixties, he was wearing a tattered cotton-padded jacket, and his dark, ruddy face was cracked and seamed by the winter wind. He walked into the room cradling two little piglets in his hands. Xu Sanguan watched as he laid the piglets out on top of the bed. The piglets began to cry. The sound was sharp and thin at the same time. The piglets lay draped across the bed, their feet bound together with string.

The man said to them, “Sleep, sleep now, it’s time to go to sleep.” As he spoke, he covered their little bodies with a quilt, then borrowed under the covers at the other end of the bed.

After he had lain down, he noticed Xu Sanguan looking at him. “It gets awfully cold in the middle of the night. I’d rather let them sleep with me than risk that they freeze to death during the night.”

He saw Xu Sanguan nod in reply and let out a friendly chuckle. He told Xu Sanguan that he was from the country outside of North Marsh, that he had two daughters who were already married and three sons who were still single. He had two grandsons too. He had come to Hundred-Mile to sell the piglets. “Prices are higher here in Hundred-Mile, so I can make a little more money.” Finally he added, “I’m sixty-four years old this year.”

“I would never have guessed it,” Xu Sanguan said. “Sixty-four and still going strong.”

With this, the other man chuckled again. “My eyes are still good, I can still hear pretty well, and there’s nothing in particular the matter with me. It’s just that I’m not as strong as I once was. I still work in the fields every day, and I can do just as much work as any of my three sons, but I’m not as strong as I once was. When I get tired, my back starts to hurt.”

When he noticed that Xu Sanguan was lying underneath two quilts, he asked, “Are you sick or something? You’ve got two quilts, but you’re still shivering like a leaf.”

Xu Sanguan said, “I’m not sick, I’m just cold, that’s all.”

“There’s another quilt over there. Want me to put it on top of you?”

Xu Sanguan shook his head, “No, I’m already feeling much better. I was really cold after I sold blood this afternoon, but I’m much better now.”

“You sold blood today?” he continued. “I sold blood once too. When my youngest was ten, he had an operation and needed to have a blood transfusion, so I sold my own blood to the hospital, and they gave it to my youngest. After I sold the blood, I felt really weak.”

Xu Sanguan nodded. “If you sell just once or twice, you feel weak. If you keep on selling blood, all the warmth in your body escapes, and you just can’t get warm.”

As he spoke, he poked his hand out from under the quilts and pointed his finger toward the other man.

“I’ve sold blood three times in three months, two bowls each time. That’s four hundred milliliters, as they would say in the hospital. I already sold all my strength. All I had left was my warmth. But the other day I sold blood in Lin’s Pier, and today I sold two bowls here in Hundred-Mile, so now even the little warmth that I had left is gone.”

When he finished speaking, he breathed heavily from the exertion.

The old man from the countryside around North Marsh said, “If you keep on selling blood like this, won’t you end up selling them your life along with it?”

Xu Sanguan said, “In a few more days I’m going to sell some more in Pine Grove.”

The old man said, “First you sold your strength. Now you’ve sold your warmth. What’s left but your life?”

“If that’s what it takes, I’m willing.” Xu Sanguan explained, “My son has hepatitis. He’s in a hospital in Shanghai. I have to find enough money to pay for his treatment. If I stopped selling blood for even a few months, there would be no way to pay his hospital bill.”

He paused to catch his breath.

“I’m almost fifty now, and I’ve had a taste of pretty much everything life has to offer. Even if I were to go, it wouldn’t really be much of a loss. But my son’s only twenty-one, and he hasn’t really lived yet. He hasn’t gotten himself a woman, hasn’t known what it is to be a man. If he were to go now, it would be too unfair.”

The old man nodded repeatedly as he listened to Xu Sanguan’s speech. “You’re right, you know. When you’ve lived to be our age, you’ve pretty much learned all there is to know about what it is to be a man.” The two pigs began to squeal. The old man said, “I bumped them just now when I moved my feet.”

Xu Sanguan was still shivering under the covers.

The old man continued, “You look like a city person. I know you city people like to keep clean, but we don’t care as much about all that down in the country. What I’m trying to say is. .” He paused for a moment. “What I’m trying to say is that if you don’t mind too much, I’ll put the pigs in bed with you. They’ll help keep you warm.”

“Why should I mind? That’s awfully kind of you. Why don’t you put one of them over here? One should be enough.”

The old man stood, hoisted one of the piglets, and set it down by Xu Sanguan’s feet. The piglet had already fallen asleep and seemed not to notice its passage from one bed to the other. But when Xu Sanguan pressed his icy feet against its side, the piglet suddenly squealed and curled itself into a quivering ball under the quilts.

The old man asked apologetically, “Think you’ll still be able to sleep?”

“My feet are too cold. Woke the little creature up.”

The old man said, “Pigs are just animals after all. It’d be better if you had someone to share the bed with you.”

“I can feel his warmth. I’m feeling a lot warmer already.”

FOUR DAYS LATER Xu Sanguan arrived in Pine Grove. By this time his face was gaunt and yellow with fatigue, his limbs were weak, his head felt dizzy, his vision was blurred, and his ears had begun to ring. His bones ached, and when he swung his legs forward to walk, they seemed to flutter underneath him.

When the blood chief at the Pine Grove Hospital saw Xu Sanguan standing in front of him, he waved him away before Xu Sanguan had even finished a sentence. “Go take a piss. Your face is so yellow, it looks gray, you can hardly get out a word before you start to pant, and you expect me to buy some of your blood? I’d say you better go get yourself a blood transfusion instead.”

Xu Sanguan left the hospital and sat down in a sunny corner sheltered from the wind. He sat for nearly two hours with the sun’s rays shining into his face and across his body. When his face grew hot from the sun, he stood up and went back to the blood donation room at the hospital.

The blood chief saw him walk in but didn’t recognize him as the same man who had come in earlier. “You’re all skin and bones. A nice gust of wind, and you’d be flat on the ground. But you do have good color. Your face is nice and ruddy. How much blood do you want to sell?”

“Two bowls,” Xu Sanguan replied, pulling a bowl out from his sleeve to show him.

The blood chief said, “You can fit about ten ounces of rice in two bowls like that. How much blood that works out to, I don’t know.”

“Four hundred milliliters,” Xu Sanguan offered.

“Go to the end of the hall and have the nurse in the clinic take your blood.”

A nurse wearing a white face mask drew four hundred milliliters of blood from Xu Sanguan’s arm and then watched as he slowly steadied himself and stood to leave. As soon as he had managed to stand up, though, he tumbled to the floor. The nurse cried out in alarm, and they carried him to the emergency room. The doctor on duty in the emergency room laid him out on a gurney and began to examine him. He rubbed his temples, held his hand against the arteries on his wrist, lifted his eyelids, and then checked his blood pressure. When he saw that Xu Sanguan’s blood pressure had fallen to sixty over forty, he said, “He needs a blood transfusion.”

And so it was that the four hundred milliliters of blood Xu Sanguan had just sold to the hospital found its way back into Xu Sanguan’s bloodstream. Only after the doctor supplemented this first transfusion with an additional three hundred milliliters of someone else’s blood did Xu Sanguan’s blood pressure return to one hundred over sixty.

When Xu Sanguan came to and discovered to his fright that he was laid up in the hospital, he immediately slid out of bed and made his way toward the exit. But they stopped him before he could get away and told him that although his blood pressure had returned to normal, he needed to stay an extra day for further observation because the doctors hadn’t yet been able to determine the reason for his illness.

“I’m not sick! I just sold too much blood.”

He told the doctor that he had sold blood a week ago at Lin’s Pier and again three days later in Hundred-Mile.

The doctor gazed at him aghast and, after a moment of silence, spat out a question. “So you’re suicidal?”

“No, no, I’m not suicidal. It’s my son—”

The doctor cut him short with an abrupt wave of his hand. “Get out of here.”

The hospital in Pine Grove charged Xu Sanguan for seven hundred milliliters of blood, plus emergency treatment, which amounted to roughly the same sum he had earned from his last two blood-selling transactions.

Xu Sanguan went to find the doctor who had accused him of being suicidal and complained, “I sold you four hundred milliliters of blood, and you sold me seven hundred milliliters. Let’s forget about the blood that you gave back to me for now. But I never asked for someone else’s blood. Let me give those three hundred milliliters back to you.”

The doctor said, “What in the world are you trying to say?”

“I want you to take back three hundred milliliters of blood.”

The doctor said, “You’re sick.”

Xu Sanguan said, “I’m not sick. It’s just that I sold too much blood and got cold. You sold me seven hundred milliliters of blood. That’s about four bowls. And now I don’t feel cold anymore. In fact, I feel kind of hot, too hot, really. So I want to return three hundred milliliters to you.”

The doctor pointed one finger at his own head. “I meant that you are mentally ill.”

Xu Sanguan said, “I’m not mentally ill. I just want you to take back the blood that isn’t mine.” He looked around at the people who had gathered in a circle to listen and pleaded, “People should be even-handed when it comes to doing business. When I sold you my blood, everything was aboveboard. So how come you never even asked me how much blood I wanted back?”

The doctor said, “We saved your life! You were in shock. If we had waited to tell you what we were going to do, you’d be dead by now.”

Xu Sanguan nodded. “I know you were trying to save my life. And it’s not like I want you to take back all seven hundred milliliters. All I want you to do is take back the three hundred milliliters that don’t belong to me. I’m almost fifty years old now, and I’ve never taken anything that doesn’t belong to me.”

When he looked back toward the doctor, he realized that he had already left and that the people standing around him had broken into a gale of laughter. He realized they were making fun of him, then fell silent, stood for a moment, turned, and left the hospital.

It was almost dusk. Xu Sanguan walked through the streets of Pine Grove for a long time, until he came to the banks of the river. He walked until the railing by the water blocked his path forward. He stopped and watched as the setting sun dyed the river red. A tugboat approached from far in the distance, its wood-burning engine chugging noisily as it moved down the waterway. Xu Sanguan watched it pass, watched as the waves rippling from from its stern slapped noisily against the stone piles along the embankment.

He stood for a while until he began to feel the chill. Then he squatted down next to the trunk of a tree. After he had squatted for a while, he extracted all his money from inside the lining of his jacket and began to count. The total was thirty-seven yuan and forty fen. He had sold blood three times but had only two bowls’ worth of blood money to show for it. He carefully folded the bills and put them back in his inside pocket. He felt wronged. Tears welled up in his eyes, and a cold wind blew the tears down to the ground, so that by the time he tried to wipe his eyes, they were already dry. He sat for a little while longer and then got up and continued to walk. He thought to himself that it was still a long way to Shanghai. He knew he would still have to pass through Big Bridge, Anchang Gate, Jing’an, Huang’s Inn, Tiger’s Head Bridge, Three Ring Cave, Seven-Mile Fort, Yellow Bay, Willow Village, Changning, and New Village before he got there.

Xu Sanguan decided that he could no longer afford to take passenger ferries. He figured that it would cost him three yuan and sixty fen to get to Shanghai from Pine Grove by boat. Since he had sold blood twice to no avail, he couldn’t spend his money so carelessly anymore. And that was how he decided to hitch a ride on a concrete river barge loaded with silk cocoons manned by two brothers called Laixi and Laishun.

Xu Sanguan had caught sight of them as he stood on the stone steps by the river. Laixi was standing at the prow brandishing a bamboo pole used for pushing the boat down the river, while Laishun stood at the stern waving a long oar. Xu Sanguan waved and asked where they were headed. They said they were going to Seven-Mile Fort. There was a silk factory in Seven-Mile Fort to which they would deliver their cargo of cocoons.

Xu Sanguan said to them, “We’re going in the same direction. I’m going to Shanghai. Do you think you could give me a lift to Seven-Mile Fort?” By the time he explained himself, the barge had already glided past him.

Xu Sanguan ran along the bank of the river in pursuit of the barge. “One more person won’t sink the boat. And I can help you row. Three people rowing is bound to be easier than just two. And I can help out with your food expenses. It’s cheaper for three to eat than two — everyone can eat an extra bowl or two of rice, and you don’t need any more vegetables.”

The two brothers realized that Xu Sanguan was talking sense, so they brought the barge to a halt against the banks and let him climb aboard.

Xu Sanguan didn’t know how to row, and almost as soon as he took the oar from Laishun, it slid out of his hands and into the water. Laixi hurriedly brought the boat to a halt with his bamboo pole, while Laishun bent over the stern and fished the oar from the water when it floated up on the current.

Having retrieved the oar, Laishun pointed at Xu Sanguan and yelled, “You said you could help row, but all you know how to do is drop the damned oar in the river. What else did you say just now? You said you could do this and help us with that, which is the only reason we let you on in the first place. So that’s what you call rowing? I wonder what else can you do?”

“I said I could eat with you, because it’s cheaper for three to eat than two.”

“I have no fucking doubt that you can eat!” Laishun shouted.

Laixi broke into laughter at the prow. “Well, you can cook for me. That’s a start.”

Xu Sanguan went up to the little brick stove on the deck. There was a wok on top of the stove and a bundle of kindling next to it. Xu Sanguan began to cook.

When night came, Laishun and Laixi moored the barge by the bank, opened an iron hatch on the deck, crawled down into the cabin, and wrapped themselves in a single quilt. Noticing that Xu Sanguan was still outside, they called up to him, “Come down and get some sleep.”

Xu Sanguan, seeing that the cabin was even smaller than a single bed, demurred. “I won’t crowd you two. I’ll sleep up here.”

Laixi said, “It’s wintertime. If you sleep outside, you’ll freeze to death.”

Laishun added, “If you freeze to death, we’ll be in trouble too.”

“Come on down,” Laixi continued. “We’re all on the same boat, so we have to take the good and bad together.”

Xu Sanguan knew he was right: it really was very cold outside, and when he remembered that he would have to sell still more blood at Huang’s Inn and could not afford to get sick, he slid down into the cabin and lay down between them. Laixi passed a corner of the quilt to him, and Laishun pulled enough of the fabric in his direction to cover him.

Xu Sanguan said to them, “You two are brothers, but somehow Laixi always sounds nicer than Laishun when he’s saying something.”

The two brothers’ chuckles quickly gave way to snores. Xu Sanguan was squeezed between them, and their shoulders jutted into his shoulders. And after a little while their legs were draped across his legs, and after a while longer their arms were sprawled across his chest. Xu Sanguan lay pressed beneath them, listening to the motion of the water. The sound was extremely clear and distinct. He could even hear the sound of drops of water splashing above the current, and he felt as if he were actually sleeping submerged in the river itself. The sound of the river brushing his ears kept him awake for a long time, so he thought about Yile and wondered how he was doing in the hospital in Shanghai. He thought about Xu Yulan, and he thought about Erle lying sick in bed at home, and he thought about Sanle watching over Erle.

After a few nights in the tiny cabin Xu Sanguan’s bones ached. During the day he sat on deck pounding his back, kneading his shoulders, and swinging his arms back and forth.

When Laixi saw him, he said, “The cabin’s too small. You didn’t sleep well.”

Laishun said, “He’s getting old, and his bones are brittle.”

Xu Sanguan felt old. He knew he was no longer a young man. Laishun’s right, I am getting old. It’s not that the cabin’s too small. When I was young, I could sleep in a crack in the wall and not feel a thing.

The boat continued to move. They passed through Big Bridge, through Anchang Gate, and through Jing’an. The next stop was Huang’s Inn. The sun had been shining for two days, and the snow on the banks of the river was beginning to melt. A few patches of snow still clung to the roofs of the farmhouses they passed on either side of the river. The fields around the houses sat barren and idle, and they only rarely saw people at work in the paddies, but there were quite a few people walking on the road along the river, carrying shoulder poles and baskets and chattering loudly among themselves.

Within a few days Xu Sanguan and the two brothers had become quite friendly with one another. They told Xu Sanguan that transporting their load of cocoons would take them ten days all told. And for their efforts they would receive six yuan, or a mere three yuan each.

Xu Sanguan said to them, “You might as well sell blood then. You can make thirty-five yuan each time.” He continued, “Your blood is like water in a well. It’ll never run dry, no matter how much you draw.”

Xu Sanguan told them everything Ah Fang and Genlong had told him years before. When he was finished, the brothers asked, “But won’t your health go bad after you sell blood?”

“No,” Xu Sanguan replied, “but your legs will probably feel a little weak for a while. It’s a lot like the moment after you’ve finished with a woman.”

The brothers chuckled uneasily.

Noticing their befuddlement, Xu Sanguan asked, “You understand what I’m talking about, right?”

Laixi shook his head, and Laishun said, “Neither of us has ever had a woman, so we don’t know what it feels like when you’re done.”

Xu Sanguan also chuckled. “Well, selling blood is one way to find out.”

Laishun addressed Laixi. “Why don’t we give it a try? We’ll make lots of money, and we’ll find out what it feels like. Why not kill two birds with one stone?”

When they arrived at Huang’s Inn, Laixi and Laishun tied the boat to a wooden mooring on the bank and followed Xu Sanguan to the county hospital to sell blood.

As they walked, Xu Sanguan told them, “There are four kinds of blood. The first kind is O, the second is AB, the third is A, and the fourth is B—”

Laixi broke in, “How do you write those?”

Xu Sanguan said, “They’re foreign letters. I don’t know how to write them either. I only know the first one, O. You draw a circle. My blood type is a circle.”

Xu Sanguan led them through the streets of Huang’s Inn until they found the hospital. Then they went to the stone steps by the river. Xu Sanguan took a bowl from out of his pocket and handed it to Laixi. “Before you sell your blood, you have to drink a lot of water. If you drink a lot of water, you can water down your blood. Think about it. If your blood is watered down, there will be that much more to sell, right?”

Laixi took the bowl and asked, “How much should I drink?”

“Eight bowls.”

“Eight bowls?” Laixi was astonished. “Won’t your stomach burst if you drink eight bowls of water?”

Xu Sanguan replied, “I can drink eight bowls, and I’m almost fifty. Add your ages together, and the two of you still wouldn’t be as old as I am. Can’t you drink as much as an old man?”

Laishun said to Laixi, “If he can drink eight bowls, then we should be able to manage nine or ten.”

“No way,” Xu Sanguan said. “The very most you should drink is eight. Any more than that, and your bladder’ll burst, just like Ah Fang—”

“Who’s Ah Fang?”

“You don’t know him. Drink. Each of us can drink one bowl first, and then we’ll take turns.”

Laixi bent down and skimmed up a bowl of water to drink. As soon as he started, he clasped his chest and exclaimed, “Too damn cold! It’s so cold my stomach’s twitching.”

Laishun said, “Of course winter water is cold. Give me the bowl. I’ll go first.” After one sip, Laishun also called out, “No way! No way. It’s too cold. I can’t take it.”

Then Xu Sanguan remembered that he had yet to give them any salt. He fished the packet from out of his pocket and passed it to them. “Eat a little salt first. When your mouth gets dry, you’ll be able to drink.”

The brothers took the packet and began to eat the salt. After a while Laixi said he was ready to drink. He skimmed another bowlful of water and took three gulps. Then he started to shiver. “You’re right. When your mouth’s all salty, it’s easier to drink it.”

He drank a few more gulps. When the bowl was dry, he passed it to Laishun and sat trembling with his arms wrapped around his own shoulders. Laishun took a few gulps but managed to finish the bowl only after letting out a long string of curses and exclamations.

Xu Sanguan took the bowl and said to them, “I’ll go first after all. Watch how it’s done.”

The brothers sat on the stone steps and watched as Xu Sanguan tapped a bit of salt into his palm and popped it into his mouth. His mouth twitched. Then he fished up a bowlful of water and drank it in one gulp. He drank two bowls in a row, stopped, poured more salt into his palm, and popped it into his mouth. He repeated these motions until he had swallowed eight bowls of water, never once wiping the water from around his mouth or allowing himself to shiver. Only when he was finished did he finally wipe his mouth, wrap his arms around his shoulders, and shudder with the cold. Then he burped three times. After burping three times, he sneezed three times.

When he finished sneezing, he turned to the brothers and said, “I’ve drunk enough. Your turn.”

Each of the brothers drank five bowls, then declared, “I can’t drink any more. Any more water, and my stomach will freeze solid.”

Xu Sanguan, realizing that “a man can’t get fat from a single bite of food,” let them stop there. That they had been able to drink five bowls of icy river water on their first try was enough. He stood and led them to the hospital.

When they got there, Laixi and Laishun sold their blood first. He was happy to discover that they too had type O blood. “The three of us all have circle type blood.”

After they had sold their blood at the Huang’s Inn County Hospital, Xu Sanguan brought them to a restaurant by the river. He sat in front of the window, and the brothers sat at his flanks. “You can be thrifty at other times, but at a time like this you have to spend a little extra. Do your legs feel weak now that you’ve sold blood?” He saw them nod. “That’s what it feels like after you’ve been with a woman. Your legs go weak. At times like this you have to eat a plate of fried pork livers and two shots of yellow rice wine. The pork livers build up the blood, and the wine gives it life.” As he spoke, he began to tremble.

Laishun said to him, “You’re shaking. When you’re done with a woman, do you shake after your legs go soft?”

Xu Sanguan chuckled and gestured in Laishun’s direction. “I see what you mean. But this time it’s only because I’ve been selling blood the whole way here.” Xu Sanguan crossed two fingers to make the character for ten. “In the last ten days I’ve sold blood four times. If you did it with a woman four times in one day, weak legs and trembling would be just the start of it. You’d start to feel cold chills too.”

Noting that the waiter was winding his way toward their table, he lowered his voice.

“Put your hands on the table. Don’t let them hang underneath the table like people who’ve never been to a restaurant before. You want to look like you always come to places like this, if only for some wine. Straighten up and hold your heads high. You have to do this with style. When you order, make sure to slap the table and speak up. That way they won’t dare cheat you, or skimp on the food, or water down the wine. When the waiter comes over to our table, just follow my lead.”

The waiter came over to the table and asked what they wanted. Xu Sanguan was no longer shivering. Rapping the table for emphasis, he barked, “A plate of fried pork livers and two shots of yellow rice wine.” He waved his right hand back and forth through the air and added, “Warm the wine up for me.”

The waiter took his order and turned to Laishun.

Laishun pounded on the table with his fist until it rocked back and forth. Then he demanded with a shout, “A plate of fried pork livers and two shots of yellow rice wine.”

Laishun forgot what he was supposed to say next. He looked toward Xu Sanguan, but Xu Sanguan merely twisted his head in Laixi’s direction. The waiter had already begun to take Laixi’s order.

Laixi tapped the table with his fingertips, but he used a voice every bit as earsplitting as Laishun’s as he called out to the waiter, “A plate of fried pork livers and two shots of yellow rice wine.”

Laixi also forgot what he was supposed to say next.

The waiter asked, “Should I warm the wine up for you?”

The two brothers turned questioningly toward Xu Sanguan. Xu Sanguan once again waved his right arm back and forth through the air, proclaiming in a magisterial tone, “Of course.”

After the waiter left, Xu Sanguan lowered his voice. “I didn’t tell you to scream. I just wanted you to speak up. What were you shouting about? It’s not like this is a fight or something. And Laishun, next time you should use your fingers, not your fist. Otherwise you might just break the table in two. And don’t ever forget the last part about warming up the wine. As soon as they hear you say the last part, they’ll know that you’re a regular at a restaurant. That’s the main thing.”

After they ate the fried pork livers and drank the wine, they returned to the boat. Laixi untied the rope from its mooring and pushed the boat away from the embankment with the bamboo pole while Laishun stood at the stern rowing with the oar. When they maneuvered the boat beyond the bank and out into the middle of the river, Laishun called out, “On to Tiger’s Head Bridge.”

His body rocked back and forth as he rowed, and the oar sang as it first divided, then danced above the river’s flow. Xu Sanguan sat at the prow of the barge, just behind Laixi, watching the bamboo pole move gracefully through his hands. Whenever they reached a bridge, Laixi would prop the pole against the foundations, ensuring a smooth passage through the passageway beneath the arch.

The afternoon light faded, and the sunlight no longer shone quite as warmly across their faces. As they rowed past Huang’s Inn, a fresh breeze began to blow, and the reeds on either side of the river rustled and sang. As Xu Sanguan sat on the barge’s prow, waves of cold shivered through his body. He wrapped himself in his cotton-padded jacket, his hands grasping his knees so that he curled himself into a kind of ball.

Laishun, still rowing at the stern, shouted at him, “Go down into the cabin. We don’t need you to help out up here anyway. Might as well go take a nap in the cabin.”

Laixi added, “Go on down to the cabin.”

Xu Sanguan, noting the gusto with which the breathless and sweat-drenched Laishun was throwing himself into his rowing, said, “You sold two bowls of blood, but you look so energetic that you’d never know.”

Laishun said, “When we first started out, my legs felt a little weak, but not now. Ask Laixi if his legs are still weak.”

“They were a while ago, but not now.”

Laishun said to Laixi, “When we get to Seven-Mile Fort, let’s sell two more bowls of blood. What do you think?”

“Sure. It’s thirty-five yuan, right?”

Xu Sanguan said to them, “You two are still so young. I really can’t keep up with you. I’m getting old. I’m sitting here shivering from head to toe. I’m going down to the cabin to sleep.”

As he spoke, Xu Sanguan opened the cabin hatch, covered himself with the quilt, lay down, and fell asleep. By the time he awoke, it was already dark outside, and the barge was nestled against the riverbank. Emerging from the cabin, he saw the brothers standing by a tree. He watched by the light of the moon as they struggled to break a branch as thick as a man’s arm from the trunk. After they pulled it free, they realized that it was too long, so they snapped it in half with their feet, picked up the thicker of the two halves, and walked back to the side of the boat. Laixi placed one end of the branch in the ground and held it steady as Laishun picked up a rock and began to pound it into the ground. After five strokes, only about six inches of the branch protruded from the soil. Laixi fetched a rope from the deck of the barge and tied it around the branch.

When they noticed that Xu Sanguan was standing on deck, they said, “You’re up.”

Xu Sanguan gazed past them. It was pitch dark, save for a few scattered lights in the distance. “Where are we?”

Laixi replied, “I don’t know where we are, but we’re not in Tiger’s Head Bridge yet.”

They lit the stove, cooked dinner on the moonlit deck, and ate steaming bowls of rice in the cold winter breeze. When Xu Sanguan finished eating, his body began to feel warmer. “I’m warmer now. Even my hands are warm.”

The three men lay down to sleep in the cabin. Xu Sanguan was still in the middle, under their quilt, his body pressed close to their bodies. Though the three men were crowded together, the two brothers were very happy. Having earned thirty-five yuan in a single day for their blood, they suddenly felt that earning money wasn’t nearly as hard as they had once thought. They told Xu Sanguan that they had decided not to work the barge anymore, that when they had finished their work in the fields, they would no longer need to earn whatever extra cash the boat would afford them, because working the barge was too hard and left them too exhausted. If they needed extra money, they would sell their blood instead.

Laixi said, “This selling blood business is really great. Besides the money itself, you also get to eat fried pork livers and drink yellow rice wine. Usually we wouldn’t even think of going to a restaurant and eating such delicious fried pork livers. When we get to Seven-Mile Fort, we’re going to sell blood again.”

“Don’t even think about it. You can’t sell blood again when you get to Seven-Mile Fort.” Xu Sanguan jabbed the air with his fingers for emphasis. “When I was young I was just the same. I thought selling blood was like shaking money from a tree. When I ran out or needed a little extra, I could always give the tree a shake, and the money would come tumbling down. But that’s not how it is at all. I still remember the first time I ever went to sell blood. Two friends of mine showed me how it was done. One was named Ah Fang, and the other was Genlong. Where are they now? Ah Fang’s a wreck, and Genlong died selling blood. Don’t you two even think about selling too much blood. Each time you sell, be sure to rest up for at least three months before you go again, unless you absolutely need the money. If you keep on selling blood, you’ll ruin your health. Remember what I’m telling you now, because I’ve been there and back.”

Xu Sanguan stretched out his arms, gave them each a light slap. “This time out I sold blood at Lin’s Pier, and then I sold some more just three days later at Hundred-Mile. When I went to sell blood four days later at Pine Grove, I passed out. The doctor said I was in shock. That means I was completely out of it. So they gave me a transfusion of seven hundred milliliters of blood. That and the money they charged to save me meant that the first two times I sold blood were a complete waste. I ended up buying blood back instead of selling it. I almost died in Pine Grove.”

Xu Sanguan sighed deeply. “I don’t have any choice in the matter. I have to keep on selling blood because my son’s seriously ill in the hospital in Shanghai, and if I don’t find a way to collect the money, the doctors will stop giving him the shots and medicine that he needs. But my blood’s gotten thinner over the years. I’m not like you two. One bowl of your blood is as good as two of mine. I was planning to sell some more at Seven-Mile Fort and at Changning, but now I don’t dare, because if I sell blood one more time, I’ll probably sell my life along with it.

“I’ve earned about seventy yuan so far. I know that won’t be enough to cure my son. So I guess I’ll just have to find some other way to earn the money when I get to Shanghai.”

Laixi said, “You say one bowl of our blood is as thick as two of yours. Does that mean that one bowl of our blood is worth more than two of yours? We all have round blood, right? When we get to Seven-Mile Fort, why don’t you buy a bowl of our blood? We’ll sell you one bowl of our blood, and that way you’ll be able to sell two bowls to the hospital.”

Xu Sanguan thought this was a good idea, but he replied, “How could I possibly take your blood away from you?”

Laixi replied, “If we don’t sell it to you, we’ll just end up selling it to someone else.”

Laishun added, “It’s better to do business with a friend than a stranger, after all.”

“You need to row the barge. You need to save some strength for yourselves.”

“I have an idea,” Laixi said. “We can conserve our strength. We’ll each sell one bowl to you. If we each sell you one bowl, you’ll be buying two bowls all together. That way when you get to Changning, you’ll be able to sell four bowls.”

Xu Sanguan smiled. “The most you can sell at a time is two bowls.” Then he added, “All right then. I’ll buy just one bowl of your blood, but I’m only doing it on account of my son. Anyway, I can’t afford two bowls of blood. If I buy one bowl of your blood, I’ll be able to sell two when I get to Changning. That means I’ll have earned an extra bowl’s worth of blood money.”

Just as Xu Sanguan finished speaking, the brothers’ snores began to resonate through the cabin. Their legs once more crossed atop his own. They made his back hurt and his waist ache, but he was warm because of the heat of their young bodies. And so he lay there as the wind whistled outside the little cabin, sweeping whorls of dust down from the deck, through the hatch that led to the cabin, and onto his face and shoulders. He could see a few pale stars through the hatch, and though he could not see the moon, he saw the way the moonlight frosted the night sky. He lay for a while looking at the sky, then closed his eyes, listening to the sound of the water beating against the hull, so close that it seemed to be slapping against his own ears.

Five days later they arrived in Seven-Mile Fort. The silk factory at Seven-Mile Fort was about a mile outside of town, so they made straight for the hospital. When they arrived at the front door of the hospital, Xu Sanguan called them back. “Don’t go in yet. Now that we know where the hospital is, we should go to the river.” He added, “Laixi, you haven’t drunk any water yet.”

Laixi said, “I shouldn’t drink anything this time. If I’m going to give you some blood, then I can’t drink any water.”

Xu Sanguan slapped his own head. “As soon as I saw a hospital, all I could think about was drinking water. I almost forgot that this time you’re selling the blood to me—” Xu Sanguan stopped short. “Laixi, I still think you should really drink a little bit of water. They say you should never take advantage of your brother.”

Laishun said, “You aren’t taking advantage of anyone.”

Laixi said, “I’m not going to drink any water. If you were in my place, I’m sure you wouldn’t drink any either.”

Xu Sanguan was forced to agree. If he had been in Laixi’s place, he wouldn’t drink any water either. “If I can’t convince you to the contrary, all I can do is let you do what you think best.”

The three men proceeded to the blood donation room inside the hospital. When the blood chief at Seven-Mile Fort Hospital heard them out, he pointed his finger toward Laixi and said, “So you’re selling your blood to me.” He pointed in Xu Sanguan’s direction. “And then you want me to sell it back to him?”

When he saw them nod, he burst into laughter and pointed at his own chair. “I’ve sat in this chair for thirteen years now. I’ve seen thousands of people come to sell their blood. But this is the first time I’ve ever had someone ask to buy and sell blood at the same time.”

Laixi said, “Maybe this is a good omen. Maybe it means you’ll be in luck this year.”

“That’s right,” Xu Sanguan added. “Nothing like this has ever happened anywhere else either. Laixi and I aren’t even from the same town, but we happened to meet on the road. And it just so happens that he wants to sell blood and I want to buy some. It’s one in a million that we ran into each other, and now we’ve been lucky enough to run into you. Maybe the good luck is catching.”

The blood chief of Seven-Mile Fort unwittingly nodded his head. “Certainly is a real coincidence. Who knows? You might be right. Maybe I’ll get lucky too.” Then he shook his head, “Then again, it’s hard to say. Maybe this year will be disastrous. They say that coming across something strange is sometimes inauspicious. You must have heard the old saying. If a bunch of frogs crosses the street in front of you, or it starts to rain bugs, or if your chicken crows at dawn instead of the rooster, it’s sure to be a bad year.”

Xu Sanguan and the brothers discussed these matters with the blood chief of Seven-Mile Fort for well over an hour before he finally consented to Laixi selling his blood to Xu Sanguan. When they finished the transaction, the three men emerged from the hospital gate, and Xu Sanguan said, “Laixi, we’ll take you to a restaurant to eat a plate of fried pork livers and two shots of yellow rice wine.”

Laixi shook his head. “I only sold one bowl of blood today. I can do without eating the pork livers, and I can do without the wine.”

Xu Sanguan said, “Laixi, you can’t be stingy with blood money. You sold blood, not sweat. If it was sweat, you could drink a bowl or two of water to make up for what you lost. But to restore your blood, you need to have the fried pork livers. Eat. Listen to me. I’ve been through all this before.”

Laixi said, “It’s really not a problem. Didn’t you say selling blood is just like sleeping with a woman? If people had to eat fried pork livers every time they did it, where would that leave you?”

Xu Sanguan shook his head. “Selling blood isn’t the same thing as doing it with a woman.”

Laishun said, “It’s the same thing.”

Xu Sanguan said, “What do you know about it?”

Laishun said, “That’s what you told us.”

Xu Sanguan said, “I may have said that, but it wasn’t true.”

Laixi said, “I’m fine now. My legs feel a little rubbery, as if I walked a really long way, but that’s all. If I rest for a little while, they won’t feel rubbery anymore.”

Xu Sanguan said, “Listen to me. You still have to eat the fried pork livers.”

As they spoke, they came to the spot by the riverside where the barge was moored. Laishun jumped on deck, and Laixi, after untying the rope from a wooden post, also hopped aboard.

Laixi, standing on the deck, said to Xu Sanguan, “We have to deliver the cocoons to the factory now, so we can’t take you any farther down river. We live in the Eighth Production Team just outside of Tongyuan. If you’re ever in Tongyuan, come stay with us. We’re friends now.”

As Xu Sanguan stood on the bank watching them push off into the current, he said, “Laishun, take good care of Laixi. Don’t you believe him when he says he’s just fine. He’s running on empty. Don’t let him exhaust himself. Tire yourself out a little instead. Don’t let him push the barge. And if you get tired and can’t row anymore, just stop and rest by the side of the river. Don’t let him switch places with you.”

“I hear you,” Laishun said.

The barge had already moved out toward the middle of the river when Xu Sanguan addressed Laixi. “Laixi, if you really refuse to eat some pork livers, then make sure you get a good night’s sleep. You know the saying: if you can’t get enough to eat, there’s nothing to do but sleep. Sleep helps you recover your strength.”

The brothers rowed away, waving toward him as they moved farther and farther into the distance. Xu Sanguan waved until he could no longer see the boat, then turned to climb the steep stone steps of the embankment back to the street.

That same afternoon Xu Sanguan left Seven-Mile Fort on a ferry to Changning, where he sold four hundred milliliters of blood. He did not ride the boat after Changning because there was a bus from Changning to Shanghai, and although it was much more expensive than the ferry, he wanted to reach Yile as quickly as possible and to see Xu Yulan. He counted the time on his fingers. Fifteen days had gone by since Xu Yulan had departed with Yile for Shanghai, yet he had no way of knowing whether Yile’s illness had taken a turn for the better or worse. He boarded a bus, and as soon as it began to move, his heart began to pound wildly in his chest.

Xu Sanguan left Changning in the morning and arrived in Shanghai the same afternoon. By the time he found the hospital where Yile was being treated, it was already dusk. He walked into the room where Yile had been staying and saw that there were six hospital beds, five of which were occupied by other patients. One of the beds was empty.

He asked, “Where can I find Xu Yile?”

They pointed toward the empty bed and said, “Right there.”

A huge roaring sound filled his head. Suddenly, he remembered Genlong. The morning Genlong had died, he had sprinted back to the hospital, but Genlong’s bed had been empty, and they had told him that Genlong was dead. Maybe Yile is dead too, he thought to himself. He stood transfixed, then began to sob. His sobs were as loud as screams, and his hands repeatedly swept streams of tears away from his face and onto the hospital bed.

A shout rang out behind him. “Xu Sanguan, you’re finally here!”

Xu Sanguan stopped crying and turned to see Xu Yulan helping Yile back into the hospital room. His tears gave way to laughter, and he said to himself, Yile isn’t dead. I thought Yile was dead.

Xu Yulan said, “What the hell are you crying about? Yile’s feeling much better now.”

Yile really did look much better. He could even walk by himself now. When he had settled back into his bed, he looked up at Xu Sanguan, smiled, and called his name: “Dad.”

Xu Sanguan rubbed Yile’s shoulders. “Yile, you’re so much better now. Your color is much better. You don’t look so pale and gray anymore, and your voice is louder, and you seem to be in good spirits, but your shoulders are still much too skinny. Yile, just now I came in and saw your bed was empty, and I thought you were dead.” As he spoke, tears once more streamed from his eyes.

Xu Yulan gave him a little push. “What are you crying about this time, Xu Sanguan?”

Xu Sanguan wiped his tears away. “Just now I was crying because I thought Yile was dead. Now I’m crying because I know he’s alive.”