Chronicle of a Blood Merchant

CHAPTER FIVE

People in town who knew Xu Sanguan noticed that Erle had Xu Sanguan’s nose, and Sanle had Xu Sanguan’s eyes, but Yile’s face didn’t look like Xu Sanguan’s at all. They began to discuss their suspicions in private, saying among themselves that Yile didn’t look like Xu Sanguan at all, that Yile’s mouth looked a lot like Xu Yulan’s mouth, but the rest of his face didn’t look like hers either. They said to themselves, it seems that Xu Yulan is the child’s mother, but is Xu Sanguan really his father? Who planted the seed? Could it have been He Xiaoyong? The shape of Yile’s eyes, his nose, even those big ears of his made him look more and more like He Xiaoyong every day.

When these rumors reached Xu Sanguan’s ears, he called Yile before him and began to carefully inspect his face. Yile was only nine years old at the time. After Xu Sanguan looked him over for several minutes, he was still unable to make up his mind, so he went to fetch the family mirror.

It was the mirror he had bought when they got married. Xu Yulan had always kept it on the windowsill, and when she awoke in the morning, she would stand by the window, glance at the trees outside, and then gaze at herself in the mirror as she combed her hair and rubbed a layer of intensely fragrant Snowflower cream over her face. Later Yile had gotten taller, tall enough that he could reach up and grab the mirror on the sill. The mirror was still sitting on the sill when Sanle grew tall enough to reach up and knock it over. The biggest fragment was a triangle the size of an egg. Xu Yulan had picked this triangular piece off the floor and propped it right back on the windowsill.

Xu Sanguan held the triangular shard of mirror in his hand. He held it in front of his eyes and looked at himself. Then he looked at Yile’s eyes. They didn’t seem too different from his own. He held the mirror up to his own nose. Then he looked at Yile’s nose. They didn’t seem all that different either. Xu Sanguan thought to himself, They say he doesn’t look like me, but I think he looks a little like me.

Yile watched his father staring woodenly toward him. “Dad, you keep looking at yourself and then looking at me. What are you looking at?”

Xu Sanguan said, “I’m trying to see if you look like me or not.”

“I heard some people saying,” Yile reported, “that I look like someone named He Xiaoyong who works at the machine tools factory.”

Xu Sanguan said, “Yile, go get Erle and Sanle for me.”

Xu Sanguan’s three sons came inside. He asked them to sit in a row on the bed, then sat down on a stool opposite them. He scrutinized Yile’s, Erle’s, and Sanle’s features in turn. This first inspection being inconclusive, he went back down the line, inspecting Sanle, Erle, and finally Yile.

The three brothers giggled, and when Xu Sanguan saw them laughing, he realized that they looked more alike that way. “Keep laughing,” he said as his own body started to sway, “laugh as hard as you can.”

When his sons saw the funny way he was rocking back and forth on the stool, they burst into loud guffaws. Xu Sanguan began to laugh along with them. “The more you kids laugh, the more you look alike.”

Xu Sanguan said to himself, They say Yile doesn’t look like me, but Yile looks just like Erle and Sanle. If he can’t look like me, at least he looks like his brothers. No one ever said Erle and Sanle don’t look like my sons. Doesn’t matter if Yile doesn’t look like me, as long as he looks like his little brothers.

Xu Sanguan said to his sons, “Yile has heard of He Xiaoyong over at the machine tools factory. How about you, Erle? Sanle? Don’t worry about it if you haven’t. He’s the one Yile was talking about, lives on Old Post Office Lane on the west side, always wears a duck’s bill cap. Now listen closely. His name is He Xiaoyong. Got it? Let me hear Erle and Sanle say it back to me. . Okay, good. Now listen to me again. He Xiaoyong is a bad man. Understand? Why is he a bad man? Let me tell you. A long time ago, before any of you were around, before your mother gave birth to you, He Xiaoyong was always hanging around your grandpa’s place. And what was he doing there? He was drinking with your grandpa because back then your mom wasn’t married to me yet. He’d go there every day, and every other day he’d bring a bottle of wine for your grandpa. But later on, after your mom had married me, he kept on going there almost every day. But he never brought any more wine for your grandpa. Instead, he ended up drinking more than ten bottles of your grandpa’s wine. So one day, when your grandpa saw He Xiaoyong coming, he stood up and told him that he had stopped drinking. After that He Xiaoyong never dared to show his face at your grandpa’s again.”

XU SANGUAN heard the rumors over and over again. He thought to himself, These people keep talking and talking, and once they get started, it never stops. Could it actually be true? He approached Xu Yulan and asked, “Have you heard what they’re saying?”

Xu Yulan knew exactly what he was talking about. She set down the clothes she had been washing, lifted her apron to wipe the soap suds from her hands, and stepped out the front door. Finally she sat squarely down on the doorstep and began to wail, “What did I do in my past life to deserve this?”

The sound of Xu Yulan weeping on the doorstep brought her sons running home. They gathered around her, looking on with fright as their mother’s cries grew louder and louder.

Xu Yulan wiped a handful of tears from her face and flicked them down to the ground as if she had just wiped her nose. Then she rocked back and forth as she wailed, “What did I do in my past life to deserve this? They say my three sons have two different fathers. How can that be? I’m not a widow, I’ve only been married one time, and I’ve never fooled around with someone else’s man. What did I do to deserve this? It’s clear they just have one dad, but people keep saying there’re two.”

When Xu Sanguan realized Xu Yulan had gone to the doorstep to cry, his ears buzzed with anger and he shouted at her, “Get back in here! Don’t sit on the doorstep. What the hell are you crying about? What are you saying? You’re hopeless! What’s the use of crying about it? What’s the use of screaming like that? Get back inside!”

One by one their neighbors gathered around the doorstep. “Xu Yulan, why are you crying? Not enough grain coupons again? Has Xu Sanguan been bullying you?” “Hey, Xu Sanguan! Where’s Xu Sanguan?” “I thought I heard him say something just a second ago.” “Xu Yulan, what are you crying about? Did you lose something?” “You owe someone money?” “Did something happen to one of the boys?”

Erle said, “You’ve got it all wrong. My mom’s crying because Yile looks like He Xiaoyong.”

They said, “Oh, so that’s what it’s all about.”

Yile said, “Erle, go back inside. Don’t stand out here.”

Erle said, “I’m not going anywhere.”

Sanle said, “I’m not going either.”

Yile said, “Mom, don’t cry. Go on inside.”

Xu Sanguan stood inside the door gnashing his teeth in frustration. This woman, he was thinking to himself, is a stupid fool. You’re not supposed to air your dirty laundry, and here she is sitting on the doorstep crying for the whole world to hear, and there’s no telling what kind of idiocy she’ll come up with next. Xu Sanguan gnashed his teeth as he listened to Xu Yulan’s tearful litany.

“What did I do in my past life to deserve this? I’m not a widow, I’ve never remarried, and I’ve never fooled around with another man. I’ve given birth to three sons. What did I do to deserve this? Why did I have to meet He Xiaoyong? Oh, he’s just fine, it’s not a problem for him, but what am I supposed to do? Yile looks more and more like him. There was only that one time, and I never let him do it again, but still Yile looks more and more like him.”

What? Just that one time? Xu Sanguan’s blood rushed to his head, and he kicked open the bedroom door and shouted to Xu Yulan on the doorstep, “Get the fuck back in here!”

Xu Sanguan’s shout scared the living daylights out of everyone standing around outside, and Xu Yulan suddenly stopped crying and yelling and turned her head to look inside at Xu Sanguan.

Xu Sanguan advanced to the doorway and dragged Xu Yulan inside, shouting toward the neighbors as he turned, “Get out of here!” As he tried to shut the door, his sons clamored to come inside, so he shouted to them, “Get out of here!”

He shut the door, dragged Xu Yulan to the bedroom, closed the bedroom door, knocked her down onto the bed with a slap across the face, and screamed, “You let He Xiaoyong sleep with you?”

Xu Yulan, sobbing, rubbed her face with her hand.

Xu Sanguan screamed once again. “Tell me!”

Xu Yulan sobbed. “He slept with me.”

“How many times?”

“Just once.”

Xu Sanguan pulled Xu Yulan up from the bed and slapped her once again across the face. “You whore! I thought you said you’ve never fooled around with another man!”

“I’ve never fooled around with another man,” Xu Yulan said. “He Xiaoyong did it. He pressed me up against the wall, then he dragged me into bed—”

“I’ve heard enough!” Xu Sanguan shouted, but immediately thought better of it. “So why didn’t you push him away, bite him, kick him?”

“I pushed him, and I kicked him,” Xu Yulan said. “He pressed me against the wall, and then he grabbed my tits—”

“That’s enough!”

As he shouted, he slapped her again, first to the right and then to the left. But when he was finished slapping her, he still wanted to know more.

“So after he grabbed your tits, you just let him do it?”

Xu Yulan held her face in her hands and covered her eyes.

“Tell me!”

“I can’t.” Xu Yulan shook her head. “As soon as I say anything, you’ll slap me again. You hit me so hard I can’t see, and my teeth hurt, and my face feels like it’s on fire.”

“Tell me! After he grabbed your tits?”

“After he grabbed my tits, I didn’t have any strength left in my body.”

“So you got into bed with him?”

“I was completely worn out. He carried me over to the bed—”

“Enough!” As he shouted, he aimed a kick at her thigh. Xu Yulan was left speechless with pain. Xu Sanguan said, “Was it at our house? On our bed?”

After a moment Xu Yulan replied, “It was at my dad’s place.”

Xu Sanguan suddenly felt tired. He sat down on a stool and was overcome by sadness. “Nine years. I was happy for nine years, but Yile isn’t really my son. I was happy for no reason. I’ve wasted nine years raising that boy, and it turns out that after all he really belongs to someone else.”

Something else occurred to Xu Sanguan, so he sprang up from the stool and shouted, “He Xiaoyong was your first?”

“No,” Xu Yulan said. “You were the first man I ever slept with.”

“No, I remember now. He Xiaoyong must have been your first. I wanted to turn on the lamp, but you wouldn’t let me. Now I know it was because you were afraid I’d find out that you’d already slept with He Xiaoyong.”

“I didn’t let you turn on the lamp,” Xu Yulan cried, “because I was too embarrassed.”

“He Xiaoyong must have been first. If he wasn’t first, why doesn’t Erle look like him? Why doesn’t Sanle look like him? No, it’s Yile who looks like that bastard, and he was our first child. My woman did it for the very first time with another man. And that’s why my first son belongs to someone else. How can I go on living? I’m ruined. I’ll never be able to hold up my head again.”

“Xu Sanguan, think about it,” Xu Yulan said. “Didn’t you see some blood on our first night?”

“So what if I did? You whore. You were ‘on vacation’ that day.”

“Oh, for the love of heaven.”