by Yu Hua
Song Gang used his last bit of energy to eat his salt and soy sauce and drink his water. He was so hungry he had no desire to say anything to Baldy Li, merely pointed at the other bowl of water on the table. Baldy Li knew that this bowl had been prepared for him, and he sat down at the table. Though he was greatly disappointed, he followed Song Gang's lead. A dab of salt and soy sauce and a sip of water was better than nothing at all. Though in truth this lunch consisted of nothing, it made Baldy Li feel that at least he had eaten something. He felt a little better and lay down on the bed, muttering to himself that he wanted to see what there was to eat in his dreams. With a lick of his lips he fell asleep.
Sure enough, the moment he started dreaming he dove headfirst into a giant steamer. Hot steam poured from its sides, and several cooks dressed in white grunted "Hey-ho, hey-ho" as they labored to lift off the giant steamers lid. Baldy Li could see that there were as many steamed meat buns inside as there were people at the struggle sessions in the schoolyard, and each of the buns was oozing meat juices. The cooks put the steamer lid back on, saying that the buns weren't done yet. Baldy Li argued that they were definitely done, the juices were already oozing out of the buns, but the cooks ignored him. He could only stand to one side and wait and wait, until the meat juices were already seeping out of the steamer, whereupon the cooks finally exclaimed, "They're done!" With another series of "Hey-ho, hey-hos" they lifted the lid and said, "Have one!" Baldy Li felt like a diver as he thrust his head into the steamer and scooped up a whole armful of meat buns. And just as he was about to bite into a juice-seeping bun, he woke up.
Song Gang, who had shaken him awake, pushed Baldy Li and cried out hoarsely, "I found it! I found it!"
The meat bun vanished without a trace after Song Gang's poking and prodding, and Baldy Li was so upset he started wailing. Wiping his tears, he kicked Song Gang while yelling, "Buns, buns, buns!" But Baldy Li immediately broke into a smile when he saw that Song Gang was waving grain ration tickets and money, of which Baldy Li could make out two five-yuan bills.
Song Gang chattered excitedly about how he came to find the money and ration tickets that Song Fanping had left them. Baldy Li couldn't understand a single word, his head being already stuffed to the brim with the thought of succulent meat buns. Suddenly getting a second wind, Baldy Li leapt off the bed and said to Song Gang, "Let's go! Let's go buy some buns!"
Song Gang shook his head. "I should first go ask Papa. If he says yes, then we can go buy them."
Baldy Li replied, "By the time we find your father, we'll have starved to death!"
Song Gang shook his head again and said, "We won't starve to death. We'll find him real soon."
They had money and grain rations, and they almost had buns—but now this idiot Song Gang wanted to go ask his goddamn father's permission! Baldy Li was so impatient he started stomping his feet. He eyed the money and tickets in Song Gang's hand and was about to make a leap for them when Song Gang, realizing that Baldy Li was about to snatch them, quickly stuffed everything into his pocket. The two ended up in a tangle and fell to the ground. Song Gang tightly covered his pockets with both hands, and Baldy Li tried to unlock his fingers to get to the pocket. Neither child had eaten anything all day, and both were weak with hunger. They fought for a while and then stopped to catch their breath, their mouths open as they huffed and panted. Then they resumed their grappling and panting. Finally, Song Gang got up off the floor and was about to dash out, but Baldy Li crawled up and blocked the door. Both boys were so tired they couldn't even stand straight. With Baldy Li at the door, they faced each other and panted, taking the opportunity to rest for a while. Then Song Gang turned to go into the kitchen, and Baldy Li heard him gulping down a ladleful of water from the cistern. A sated Song Gang walked up to Baldy Li, hoarsely yelling at him, "I'm all set to go again!"
Song Gang shoved Baldy Li aside and ran out the door, going to look for their landlord father. Baldy Li lay on the floor like a dead pig, then crawled and sat at the entrance like a sick dog. His hunger made him let out a few wails, but crying made him feel even hungrier, so he immediately stopped. Baldy Li could hear the sound of the wind blowing through the tree branches and could see the sunlight shining on his toes. He thought to himself, If I could munch the rays of sunlight like stir-fried pork and drink the wind like a bowl of meat broth, then I'd be set. Baldy Li sat leaning against the door frame for a while, then he got up to go to the kitchen and gulped his fill of water from the cistern. He now felt he had a bit of strength back, so he shut the door and walked into the street.
That afternoon Baldy Li paced the streets with his last remaining shreds of energy. He didn't find anything to eat, but he did run into the three middle-school students. Baldy Li was leaning against a wutong tree when he heard a few titters and someone calling out to him, "Hey, kid."
By the time Baldy Li lifted his head, they had already surrounded him. One look at their gleeful faces and Baldy Li knew that they were planning to practice their sweeping kicks again. This time he was simply unable to run away and told them, "I haven't eaten all day."
Long-haired Sun Wei said, "Let's feed you a few kicks, then."
Baldy Li pleaded with them, "No more sweeping kicks today. I'll eat them tomorrow."
"Nope," all three replied. "You have to eat them today and tomorrow."
Baldy Li pointed at the electrical pole not far off in the distance and continued to beg. "Don't feed me any more kicks. Why don't you let me go have sexual relations with that pole?"
The three middle-schoolers burst out laughing, and Sun Wei replied, "First you have some kicks, and when you've gotten your fill, go have relations with that pole."
Baldy Li wiped his tears. The three middle-schoolers politely deferred to one another, generously wanting to offer up the opportunity to make the first kick.
At this point Song Gang appeared. He ran from the opposite side of the street, buns in his hands, and plopped himself down right beside Baldy Li, dragging him to the ground. When both kids were seated on the ground, Song Gang, his head covered in sweat, handed Baldy Li a steaming hot meat bun. Baldy Li took it and stuffed it into his mouth. With his first bite the meat juices oozed out of the corner of his lips. Baldy Li choked before he could even finish the first bite, and he sat there motionless, his neck extended. Song Gang patted him on the back while smugly saying to the three middle-schoolers, "We're already sitting on the ground. How are you going to sweep us down?"
"Fuck." The middle-schoolers looked at one another, then repeated, "Fuck."
The three had no idea how to sweep-kick Baldy Li and Song Gang when they were already on the ground. They discussed dragging the two kids to their feet, but Song Gang warned them, "We'll scream for help. People from the street will all come over."
"Fuck that." Long-haired Sun Wei said, "If you had guts, you'd stand up."
Song Gang replied, "If you had guts, you'd sweep-kick us up."
The students eyed Baldy Li and Song Gang helplessly. Cursing, they looked at one another and watched Baldy Li eat his meat bun. After wolfing down the bun, Baldy Li regained some of his energy, and he seconded Song Gang, adding, "We're very comfortable sitting down here, even more comfortable than we would be in our own beds."
The three middle-schoolers each muttered "Motherfucker," and then Sun Wei changed his tactics. He grinned at them warmly and said to Baldy Li, "Hey, kid, why don't you get up? We promise not to sweep-kick you. Go ahead and have sexual relations with that electrical pole."
Baldy Li giggled and licked the remaining meat juice from his lips. He licked until he was lolling his head about and replied, "I no longer have sexual relations with electrical poles. You want to do it, go ahead. I'm impotent now, don't you know?"
The three middle-schoolers didn't know what impotent meant. They looked at one another curiously. Victory Zhao couldn't help but ask Baldy Li, "What's impotent?"
Baldy Li smugly explained, "Just unfasten your trousers and look at your …"
Victory Zhao felt his dick through his pants. He retorted, "Do I need to look? Of course it's soft and mushy like dough right now."
Upon hearing that, Baldy Li exclaimed with delight, "So you're impotent, too!"
The three middle-schoolers now understood what impotent meant. Sun Wei and Success Liu broke out in guffaws, and Sun Wei said to Victory Zhao, "You're such an idiot. You didn't even know what impotent meant."
Victory Zhao felt that he had lost face, so he kicked Baldy Li. "You little bastard, you're the one who's impotent. When I get up in the morning I'm harder than an iron cannon."
Baldy Li eagerly provided Victory Zhao with guidance: "So you're not impotent in the morning, just in the afternoon."
"Bullshit," Victory Zhao replied. "All year around, twenty-four hours a day—I'm never impotent."
"Bullshit." Baldy Li pointed at the nearby wooden pole. "Go prove it with that electrical pole over there."
"Electrical pole?" Victory Zhao snorted. He said, "Only a little bastard like you would hump a wooden pole. If I'm going to have sexual relations, I'll do it with your mother."
Baldy Li dismissed him. "My mother wouldn't let you guys get near her."
Then he pointed to Song Gang standing next to him and boasted, "My mom only does it with his dad."
Sun Wei and Success Liu doubled over with laughter. Victory Zhao let out a string of curses, but the three middle-schoolers knew that the two little bastards wouldn't stand up until hell froze over. The three discussed how they were going to teach the little bastards a lesson and how maybe they should first lift them up, then sweep them back down. Baldy Li remembered how Blacksmith Tong had saved them last time, so he smilingly announced, "Blacksmith Tong is here."
The middle-schoolers turned to look down the street but saw no sign of Blacksmith Tong. So the three of them kicked Baldy Li and Song Gang each three times, making them cry out in pain, and then walked off, feeling they had finally got the advantage of things.
Baldy Li had managed to escape being sweep-kicked and even had had a meat bun. The sad thing was that he couldn't recall the taste of the bun at all. He remembered only that he had choked four times and that Song Gang had slapped him on the back. Song Gang said later that when Baldy Li was choking, his neck was stretched as long as a goose s.
Baldy Li and Song Gang were pals again. The brothers faced each other and grinned and laughed for about a minute, then they walked hand in hand down the main street. Song Gang said he had found his father, who was living in a warehouse. A bunch of people were locked up in that warehouse, some crying and others shouting. Baldy Li asked why they were crying and shouting. Song Gang replied that it seemed like people were fighting inside.
That afternoon Song Gang held Baldy Li's hand and walked down three streets, over two bridges, and through a small alley, until they finally reached the warehouse holding landlords and capitalists, modern-day and old-time counterrevolutionaries, together with all other class enemies. Baldy Li spotted long-haired Sun Wei's father— he was wearing a red armband and standing in front of the warehouse smoking. When he saw Song Gang, he asked, "How come you're here again?"
Song Gang pointed at Baldy Li. "This is my brother, Baldy Li. He wants to see our father."
Sun Wei's father looked Baldy Li over, and asked, "Where's your mother?"
Baldy Li replied, "She's in Shanghai seeing a doctor."
Sun Wei's father tossed his cigarette butt onto the ground and stomped it out. He pushed open the warehouse door and shouted inside, "Song Fanping! Song Fanping, get out here!"
When the door opened, Baldy Li spied a man inside who was on the ground, cradling his head in his hands while another man whipped him with a belt. The man on the ground was completely silent, but the man whipping him was wailing, as if he were the one being whipped. This sight gave Baldy Li the shivers, and Song Gang turned pale. They were both so shocked they didn't notice Song Fanping, who had walked out the front door. Song Fanping walked up to the boys and asked, "So you've had your meat buns?"
Baldy Li looked up to see Song Fanping's tall figure before him. His shirt was covered in bloodstains, and his face was swollen and bruised, and Baldy Li could tell that this was the result of his having been beaten half to death. Song Fanping squatted down to take a look at Baldy Li, reaching out to caress his head. "Baldy Li, you still have meat juice on your lips."
Baldy Li bowed his head and let out a few sorrowful tears. He regretted his own revelation. He thought, If I hadn't said those things in front of the school gate, Song Fanping wouldn't be here getting tortured. When he thought about how kind Song Fanping had been to him, Baldy Li started sobbing. "I was wrong."
Song Fanping wiped away Baldy Li's tears with his thumb and teased him, "You haven't sucked the snot into your eyes, have you?"
Baldy Li broke out into a chuckle. The crying and shouting and cursing in the warehouse became louder and louder, rumbling ceaselessly from the door's cracks. There were also sounds of moaning, almost like frogs’ croaking. Baldy Li became alarmed. He and Song Gang stood by Song Fanping and shivered. Song Fanping acted as if he hadn't heard anything and chatted happily with the boys, though his left arm dangled awkwardly by his side. Baldy Li and Song Gang didn't know that his arm had been beaten until it was dislocated. They thought that it looked odd, as if he had a prosthetic limb. They asked him what was wrong, and he explained, "It's tired, so I'm letting it rest for a few days."
Song Fanping always filled Baldy Li and Song Gang with wonder. They felt that he had all sorts of mysterious powers and hidden talents, that he could even let his arm dangle and rest for a few days.
To satisfy Baldy Li and Song Gang's curiosity, Song Fanping became their coach right in front of this giant warehouse filled with wails and screams, teaching them how to let their forearms rest for a bit. He told the boys to first lower one shoulder until it was sloping down, and then to let their arm relax and hang down. He told them they couldn't use any force on the sloping arm; they had to pretend that it wasn't there. He pointed to his solar plexus, saying, "Don't think about this arm anymore." Once he felt that Baldy Li and Song Gang had gotten the gist of it, he told them to line up and march back and forth in front of the warehouse with their sloped shoulders and dangling arms while he chanted, "One-two, one-two." Baldy Li and Song Gang noticed that with every step they took, their dangling arm would swing back and forth. The boys were delighted, pointing excitedly to each Bother;s arm.
Song Fanping asked them, "So are your arms dangling?"
Baldy Li and Song Gang answered in unison, "They are!"
Long-haired Sun Wei's father watched them, laughing uncontrollably. First he chuckled, then he guffawed, and finally he laughed until he was squatting and clutching his stomach. He eventually stood up, clutching his belly, and said to Song Fanping, "Okay, you should go back in."
Song Fanping walked back to the warehouse, but before entering, he turned and told the boys, "Now go home and practice."
That afternoon Baldy Li and Song Gang completely forgot about the horrible sounds coming from inside the warehouse, as well as Song Fanpings bruised, swollen face. They only remembered Song Fanping instructing them to continue practicing. All the way home they enthusiastically practiced sloping their shoulders and dangling their arms. Once they got home, they lay in bed and draped their arms over the side. They discovered that it was much easier dangling their arms over the side of the bed than walking with a sloped shoulder, the only drawback being that after a while their arms would go to sleep.
CHAPTER 14
BALDY LI and Song Gang continued their parentless existence, and got by quite well. They would go together to the rice store, where they would fit their rice sack over the rubber chute and watch the rice cascade down. Then they would bang the chute opening with loud, crisp slaps
until the store clerks yelled at them and a hand reached out from behind the counter to knock them on the head.
With their basket in hand, they went together to buy groceries. While selecting the greens, they would stealthily rip off the outer leaves until only the tenderest inner leaves were left, causing the old lady selling vegetables to tear up with annoyance. She cursed them over and over, calling them turtles’ eggs, little bastards who would come to a bad end; saying that they would choke on a breath and get water stuck in their teeth, and end up without an asshole to crap with or a penis to piss out of.
Baldy Li and Song Gang scrimped and saved and, like monks, ate only vegetables. After a while they began to really crave meat, so they went to the river to catch shrimp. By the time they reached the river, they realized that they had no idea how to cook them. At that point they hadn't caught sight of even a shadow of a shrimp, but already they were licking their lips and discussing how they were going to cook them. Would they panfry them? Stir-fry them? Or boil them? In the end, they made a detour to the warehouse to consult with Song Fan-ping. When they reached the warehouse gate, they slanted their shoulders and let their elbows dangle. Song Fanping came outside to tell them that stir-frying, panfrying, and boiling would all be fine, but just to make sure that the shrimp had turned pink before eating them. Song Fanping explained, "They're done when they're as pink as the tip of your tongue."
Song Fanping told the boys that the shrimp would be swimming in the shallows. He told them to roll their pants legs up to their knees, warning, "Once the water reaches your pants, then you shouldn't go any farther. There are no shrimp in the depths, only snakes."
Baldy Li and Song Gang shuddered. They didn't realize that Song Fanping, worried that they would drown if they ventured into the deep water, was deliberately scaring them. The boys nodded and promised that they would stay in the places where the river water remained below their knees. As they set off, shoulders slanted and elbows dangling, Song Fanping called out to them again, telling them to go home and get a bamboo basket. They asked, "What for?" Song Fanping replied, "What do you net fish with?"