by Yu Hua
This was the first time since his Peeping Tom incident that Li Lan asked Baldy Li to accompany her in public. Though her son had shamed her as much as her first husband had, and though she could never forgive her first husband even after he had lost his life, her son was different. After all, they were of the same flesh.
As Li Lan and Baldy Li walked down the street toward the bathhouse, she suddenly noticed that he was taller than she, which brought a smile to her face and she held his arm a little more tightly. By then, even the act of walking left her exhausted, and every twenty or so yards she had to find a tree to lean against. As they walked Baldy Li waved and greeted all those who knew him, then explained to her who they were. Li Lan was shocked to discover that this fifteen-year-old son of hers seemed to know far more people than she ever had.
It was about a third of a mile from their home to the bathhouse, but it took Li Lan more than an hour to cover the distance. Each time she rested against a tree, Baldy Li would wait patiently to one side, describing to her what was going on in town. All of this was news to Li Lan, and she suddenly regarded Baldy Li with a newfound respect. She briefly felt happy but then thought to herself, If only Baldy Li were as upright a young man as Song Gang, then he really could make a good life for himself. Then she reminded herself, My son is a demon.
After arriving at the front door of the bathhouse, Li Lan leaned against the wall and rested a bit more. She took Baldy Li's hand and asked him not to leave but to wait for her outside. Baldy Li nodded as he watched his mother walk in. She walked as if she were an old lady, but her hair, which had not been washed for seven years, was black and shiny.
Baldy Li stood outside the bathhouse for what seemed like an eternity. First his legs ached, then even his toes. He saw a stream of people exiting the bathhouse, their cheeks ruddy and their hair wet. Some of them remembered to taunt him as Little Buttpeeper, while others addressed him as King of Butts. Baldy Li didn't even deign to look the former in the eye but greeted the latter with warm smiles, since these were noodle clients, and Baldy Li believed that customers always came first.
Blacksmith Tong also emerged from the bathhouse. When he saw Baldy Li standing there, he cursed him, "Little Bastard Buttpeeper." He also pointed at the bathhouse, saying, "Why don't you go peep in there? There are so many butts you wouldn't know where to begin."
Baldy Li sniffed. "What would you know? When there are so many butts, how could you concentrate? You don't even know where to focus."
He held up five fingers and, with an authoritative air, lectured Blacksmith Tong: "You can't look at more than five butts at once, and at a bare minimum you need at least two. This is because with any more than five you would get confused, but with only one you wouldn't have anything to compare it to."
Hearing this, Blacksmith Tong seemed to have an epiphany. With a worshipful tone he said to Baldy Li, "You Little Bastard Buttpeeper— you've really got talent. I'll have to treat you to house-special noodles sometime."
Baldy Li put up his hand modestly and corrected Blacksmith Tong, "Please call me King of Butts."
This time Blacksmith Tong went along with the correction and affirmed, "You really are the King of Butts."
So Liu Town's King of Butts, Baldy Li, waited outside the bathhouse for his mother for more than three hours. He alternated between wild impatience and anxious concern, wondering, Did she pass out in there? After three hours had passed, a woman with a head full of gray hair walked out slowly behind a group of young women. Baldy Li was so busy checking out the wet-haired young women that he didn't even notice the elderly woman coming toward him. The gray-haired woman paused in front of him and said, "Baldy Li."
Baldy Li was stunned and simply couldn't believe that this woman was his mother. When Li Lan went in, her hair was still black, but now she stood before him with it completely gray. In memory of Song Fan-ping, she had not washed her hair for seven years, and with this washing she had washed all the black right out.
For the first time Baldy Li realized that his mother had aged and now looked like a granny. She gripped his arm and laboriously made her way home. When acquaintances along the way caught sight of Li Lan, they would invariably be stunned, examining her up close and gasping, "Li Lan? Are you Li Lan?"
Li Lan nodded. Exhausted, she answered, "Yes, it's me."
CHAPTER 25
UIPON RETURNING HOME, Li Lan examined herself carefully in the mirror. She too was shocked by the suddenness of her aging and was struck by a sense of foreboding, a feeling that, after checking into the hospital, she would never return home. Though she had washed all the foulness from her hair, she didn't immediately go to the hospital but instead stayed home for a few more days. During that time, she would either lie in bed or sit at the table, gazing at Baldy Li with concern and sighing, saying, "What will become of you?"
Li Lan began to deal with her personal effects, but what worried her most was Baldy Li—what would happen to him after she died? She worried that he would not come to a good end. If at fourteen he was already peeping at women's bottoms in the toilet, who knew what horrible things he would be into by the time he turned eighteen? She worried that he would end up in jail one day.
Li Lan decided to arrange everything as best she could for him before entering the hospital. Clutching their family registry to her chest, she had Baldy Li take her to the local Civil Affairs Bureau. As she entered she keenly felt herself marked as both a landlord's wife and a hoodlum's mother. She hung her head in shame as she tiptoed nervously into the office, asking, "Who's in charge of orphans?"
Baldy Li helped Li Lan into a room, where they saw a man in his thirties reading a newspaper at his desk. Baldy Li recognized him right away—this was the man who had helped lug Song Fanping's body back from the bus depot seven years earlier. Baldy Li pointed at him excitedly, exclaiming, "It's you! You're Tao Qing."
Li Lan yanked Baldy Li's sleeve, trying to curb her son's rudeness. She bowed deeply, inquiring obsequiously, "Would you happen to be Comrade Tao?"
Tao Qing nodded and put down his paper. He took a careful look at Baldy Li and seemed to remember him. Li Lan was standing at the door, not daring to step inside, and said with a trembling voice, "Comrade Tao, I have something to inquire."
Tao Qing smiled. "Please come inside."
Li Lan shifted uneasily. "My class background is not good."
Tao Qing continued smiling. "Come inside."
As he spoke he pulled a chair over and invited Li Lan to sit down. Li Lan fearfully stepped in but didn't dare to sit down. Tao Qing gestured at the chair. "Please sit down first."
Hesitantly Li Lan sat down. She respectfully handed Tao Qing her family registry. Pointing to Baldy Li, she explained, "This is my son. His name is in the registry."
Tao Qing flipped through the booklet. "I see that. How can I help you?"
Li Lan smiled bitterly and proceeded. "I have uremia, and my days are numbered. When I'm gone, my son will be left orphaned. Will he be able to receive any aid?"
Tao Qing stared at Li Lan in astonishment. He looked at Baldy Li and nodded. "Yes, he would. He'd qualify for eight yuan a month, plus twenty jin's worth of grain, oil, and cloth ration coupons every season. And he'd receive aid until he starts work."
Li Lan explained uneasily, "My class background is bad. I'm a landlord's wife…"
Tao Qing smiled and handed the registry back to Li Lan. "I understand your situation. Don't worry, just leave things to me. Your son can come look me up."
Li Lan finally let out a sigh of relief. Her happiness brought a bit of color to her cheeks. Tao Qing chuckled as he continued to look at Baldy Li, saying, "So you're Baldy Li. You're quite famous. What's the other one's name?"
Baldy Li knew that he was asking about Song Gang and was just about to answer when Li Lan stood up uneasily. She knew that when Tao Qing said Baldy Li was famous, he was referring to the Peeping Tom incident in the toilet, so she uttered a few quick words of thanks and immediately asked Baldy Li to help
her out. Only after they had left the room and the Civil Affairs building did Li Lan feel she could pause and rest. Taking labored breaths, she sighed and said, "That Comrade Tao is a good man."
That was when Baldy Li told her that Tao Qing was the man who had brought Song Fanping's body back from the bus depot. When Li Lan heard this she immediately flushed bright red and, no longer needing Baldy Li's assistance, hurried back to Tao Qing's office, saying, "You are our savior. Let me kowtow to you."
Li Lan threw her body to the ground to kowtow, slamming her forehead to the ground and breaking into heartrending sobs. Startled, Tao Qing stood up and only gradually understood through Li Lan s barely coherent words why she was kneeling in front of him. He quickly reached out to raise her up, but Li Lan knelt down again to kowtow twice more. Tao Qing had to cajole her for a long time like a child before she would allow herself to be helped up. He helped her all the way to the front of the Civil Affairs building, and as they parted Tao Qing gave her a thumbs-up sign and said quietly, "Song Fanping— what a man."
Li Lan was so overcome she started trembling all over. After Tao Qing walked off, Li Lan was still wiping her tears and joyfully repeating to Baldy Li, "Did you hear that? Did you hear what Comrade Tao just said?"
After leaving the Civil Affairs Bureau, Li Lan proceeded to the coffin store. Her forehead still bleeding, she had to pause every few steps, and every time she stopped she couldn't help repeating Tao Qing's words, "Song Fanping—what a man."
With great pride she gestured in front of her and told Baldy Li, "Everyone in Liu Town thinks that about him. They just don't dare to say it out loud."
They slowly made their way to the coffin store. When they finally arrived, Li Lan sat on the front stoop, panting and wiping at the blood on her forehead. She smiled and announced to the people inside, "I'm here."
Everyone in the coffin store recognized her and asked, "Who are you buying a coffin for this time?"
Embarrassed, Li Lan replied, "For myself."
Initially startled, they all broke out laughing and said, "We've never had a living person buying a coffin for himself before."
Li Lan also smiled. "Yes, I've never heard of it either."
Pointing to Baldy Li, she continued, "My son is still young and wouldn't know what kind of coffin to get, so I thought that I'd reserve one and he can come pick it up later."
Everyone in the coffin store knew of the notorious Baldy Li. Cackling, they looked at him as he stood diffidently by the door, then remarked to Li Lan, "Well, he's not that young."
Li Lan lowered her head. She knew why they were cackling. Li Lan selected the cheapest coffin, one that cost only eight yuan. It was the same kind of unvarnished, thin-planked coffin that she had bought Song Fanping. Her hands trembling, she fished out her money wrapped in a handkerchief and paid them four yuan, with the remainder to be paid when the coffin was picked up.
After going to the Civil Affairs Bureau to take care of Baldy Li's orphan aid and then purchasing a coffin at the coffin store, Li Lan felt that the two biggest burdens she had been shouldering were now taken care of. She could check into the hospital the following day, but by her reckoning it was only six days until the Qingming holiday, when they would pay their respects to the dead. She shook her head, telling herself that on Qingming she wanted to go visit Song Fan-pings grave in the countryside, and then she would check into the hospital.
Li Lan slowly dragged her body, which felt increasingly like a deadweight, to Liu Towns bookstore. At the stationery counter she purchased a packet of white paper, then she slowly made her way home, resting repeatedly along the way. Sitting at the table, she started to make paper ingots and coins. On every Qingming festival since Song Fanping passed away, Li Lan had cut out a basketful of paper ingots and coins and then would set off on the long journey to the countryside to burn them at his grave.
By this point Li Lan was so ill she barely had any strength left. After each ingot, she had to rest for a while. Her hand trembled as she struggled to draw lines on the coins or write out the characters GOLD and SILVER on the ingots. It took her four whole days to finish what she ordinarily would have completed in an afternoon. She then placed the paper ingots in the basket and carefully rested the paper coins strung together with white thread on top of them. Smiling, she let out a long sigh, followed by some tears, sensing that this was probably the last time she would be able to visit Song Fanping's grave.
That night she called Baldy Li to her bedside and examined him carefully. She was comforted to see that her son looked nothing like that man named Liu Shanfeng. Her breathing labored, she told him, "The day after tomorrow is Qingming. I'd like to go visit the grave, but I don't have the energy to make it that far."
"Ma, don't you worry," Baldy Li replied. "I'll carry you."
Li Lan smiled and shook her head, then mentioned her other son. "Why don't you go to the countryside tomorrow and bring Song Gang back? The two of you can take turns carrying me."
"No need to fetch Song Gang." Baldy Li firmly shook his head. "I can carry you by myself."
"No," Li Lan said. "The road is too long; you would exhaust yourself trying to carry me alone."
"If we get tired, well rest under a tree." Baldy Li waved dismissively "We'll just sit and rest."
Li Lan still shook her head. "Go fetch Song Gang."
"No need," Baldy Li replied. "I'll think of something."
Baldy Li yawned and said he was going to the outer room to go to bed. At the door he turned to Li Lan and said, "Ma, don't you worry. I guarantee that I'll get you comfortably to the countryside, and then bring you comfortably back to town."
Baldy Li, who by now was fifteen, lay down in his bed. Within five minutes he had come up with a plan, and so he closed his eyes and immediately started snoring.
It wasn't until afternoon the next day that Baldy Li leisurely made his way out of the house. First he went to the hospital, where he paced the halls as if he were a visitor coming to see a relative; the moment he noticed that no one was at the nurse's station, he ducked right in. Once inside, he took his time, selecting from among a dozen or more used IV bottles, raising each of them to see which had the most glucose left. Once he had made his selection, he swiftly hid it under his shirt, ducked back out of the nurse's station, and left the hospital.
Baldy Li paraded down the street with his swiped bottle. From time to time he dangled it in front of his eyes, trying to figure out exactly how much glucose was left inside. He guessed that there was probably half an ounce, but in order to be sure, he walked into a soy sauce store and asked the vendor how much liquid he thought there was inside. The soy sauce vendor was of course an old hand at this sort of thing. He gave the bottle a couple of twirls and announced that between half an ounce and an ounce was left. Pleased with this estimate, Baldy Li took back the bottle and said, "This is pure nutrition."
Baldy Li walked smugly with his glucose into Blacksmith Tongs shop. Baldy Li knew that Blacksmith Tong had his own pullcart, and he was hoping to borrow it for a day to take Li Lan to the countryside. Baldy Li stood at the door of the shop and watched Blacksmith Tong raining down sweat while working a piece of metal. After a while Baldy Li waved at him benevolently, as if on an inspection visit, and said, "Take a rest, take a rest."
Blacksmith Tong put down his hammer and wiped his sweat-drenched face with a towel. He watched as Baldy Li sauntered into his shop and comfortably took a seat on the long bench he used to sexually exploit. Blacksmith Tong growled, "You little bastard. What do you want?"
Baldy Li chuckled. "I'm here to collect my debts."
"Fuck," spat Blacksmith Tong, as he whipped his towel in the air. "And what debt would that be, you little bastard?"
Baldy Li continued chuckling. He reminded Blacksmith Tong, "Remember what you said to me two weeks ago in front of the bathhouse."
"What did I say?" Blacksmith Tong honestly couldn't remember.
Baldy Li pointed to himself. "You said that I, Baldy Li, was tr
uly something, and that someday you were going to treat me to a bowl of house-special noodles."
Blacksmith Tong remembered now. He hung his towel back around his neck and growled, "Yeah, so I did say that. What are you going to do about it?"
Baldy Li decided to shift to flattery. He said, "Who doesn't know your stature in this town? When you, Blacksmith Tong, say ‘Jump,’ everyone asks, ‘How high?’ You would never go back on your word, would you?"
"You really are a little bastard," Blacksmith Tong said, laughing. He couldn't maintain his bullying tone any longer, but he did find a loophole. Smugly, he said, "It's true I said I'd treat you to a bowl of house-special noodles someday. But someday—that could be any day. I certainly don't know when."
"You got me!" Baldy Li showed his admiration by giving him a thumbs-up but then immediately cut to the chase. "How about this: I won't have you treat me to a bowl of house-special noodles, but if you lend me your cart for a day, we'll call it even."
Blacksmith Tong had no idea where Baldy Li was going with this. He asked, "So why do you want to borrow my pullcart?"
"Aiya!" sighed Baldy Li. He explained to Blacksmith Tong, "My mother wants to go sweep my father's grave in the countryside. You know how sick she is. She certainly couldn't make it by walking, so that's why I want to borrow your pullcart."
As he spoke he put the IV drip bottle down on the bench. Blacksmith Tong pointed at it and asked, "What's that for?"
"This is a military canteen," proclaimed Baldy Li. He explained, "The road to the country is long and the sun will be strong, so what happens when my mother gets thirsty? I'm going to fill this bottle with water and nurse her along the way with it. That's what this military canteen is for."