Brothers

by Yu Hua

  Song Gang would blush and, out of habit, look around for Wandering Zhou, only to find himself surrounded by strange faces. Now he had to answer the questions Zhou would normally have answered on his behalf. He nodded uneasily and, lowering his head in shame, would say softly, "Uh-huh."

  His shame moved many of the women and made them think that this man looked honest and reliable. Therefore, even without Wandering Zhou's clever talk and ingratiating manner, Song Gang continued to sell vial after vial of the cream. The male passersby were not as tactful as the women, and when they saw Song Gang's breasts, they would respond as if they were drugged, their eyes glued to Song Gang's chest as if they were staring through a microscope.

  Song Gang didn't know, as he wandered through Hainan, that the silicone implants had begun to harden. He just knew that the breasts were beginning to feel as hard as stones. At the same time, his lung disease staged a comeback. Before he quit taking his medicine, he had stopped coughing, but now, exhausted from traveling continuously, he often felt that he was suffocating and would wake up coughing in the middle of the night. Song Gang was worried not so much about his body as about the future. He saw the box of bust-enhancing cream become emptier and emptier, until finally there were only five vials left. He was disconsolate, because he didn't know what he would sell after the Boobs cream was gone. Without Zhou, Song Gang was adrift, like a leaf fluttering aimlessly after leaving the tree. It was then that he came to understand what solitude was, the only thing keeping him company being the photograph of himself and Lin Hong. He carried it with him wherever he went, but he couldn't bring himself to actually look at it. He wanted desperately to go home but hadn't yet earned enough money to provide for Lin Hong for the rest of her life. Therefore, he had no choice but to continue wandering aimlessly, like a solitary leaf.

  Song Gang was standing in the marketplace of some small town, trying to sell the final five vials of bust-enhancing cream. A fifty-year-old man was shouting himself hoarse hawking cutlery. This man had more than ten kinds of knives spread out on the ground, including kitchen knives, cleavers, fruit knives and paring knives, as well as bayonets, throwing knives, and daggers. Holding a cleaver in his hand, he cried out, "This is forged from tungsten steel and can cut through carbon steel, cold-pressed steel, stainless steel, cast steel, and titanium alloy. Every cleaver here is guaranteed to draw blood without a single nick in the blade."

  As he spoke the man knelt down and demonstrated, with one blow slicing through a thick metal wire. After he stood up, he lifted the cleaver and walked around, asking the onlookers to inspect the blade to see if it had gotten chipped. After all the onlookers confirmed that it was not chipped, he squatted down again, rolled up his pants, and then began using the blade to shave off his leg hair as though he were shaving his beard. He then stood up with a fistful of leg hair in his hand and walked around, letting the onlookers get a good look.

  "Do you see?" he cried out. "This is a legendary precious blade, which can slice through steel as through clay and shaves hair as if with a mere breath." Then he explained, "What is tungsten steel? It is the world's hardest and most precious metal and is used not only for blades but also for expensive watches. Tungsten-steel watches are even more valuable than gold ones. The two Swiss ‘Ni brands and the Chinese Yibo brand are all tungsten-steel watches."

  "What do you mean by the two Swiss ‘Ni brands and the Chinese Yibo brand?" the onlookers asked in confusion.

  "The two Swiss ‘Ni brands are Genie and Rossini, both of which are known around the world." He added, "Yibo watches are China's own famous brand."

  That afternoon Song Gang sold three vials of Boobs cream. He stood at a distant point in the market and couldn't see the knife seller's face, though he heard his hoarse shouts for three hours straight. Song Gang estimated that, at most, the man had sold five or six knives before placing his unsold merchandise into a canvas bag and walking toward Song Gang, his knives rattling over his shoulder. As he was passing Song Gang the enormous pair of breasts caught his attention. He peered down, glanced up at Song Gang, then with a look of utter astonishment said, "You are obviously a man…"

  Song Gang was already used to this sort of remark, so he merely smiled and looked at the man, then looked away. He suddenly felt that this man looked very familiar, but when he turned back, the man laughed and walked away. After he'd walked about ten yards, the knife seller stopped, turned around, and looked at Song Gang more carefully, then tentatively asked, "Song Gang?"

  Song Gang then asked in surprise, "Are you Little Scissors Guan?"

  In this way, two Liu Town sojourners met up in a distant province. Little Guan walked up to Song Gang and looked him over as though he were inspecting a knife blade. He looked at Song Gang's face, then at his fake breasts. He seemed to want to say something but then stopped himself and instead looked up at Song Gang's face and said, "Song Gang, you have aged."

  "You have also aged," Song Gang said.

  "It's been more than ten years." Little Guan laughed bitterly. "I haven't seen anyone from Liu Town for more than ten years. I never expected that I would run into you here. How long have you been away?"

  "Over a year," Song Gang said sadly.

  "Why did you leave?" Little Guan shook his head. "What did you come to do?"

  "I sell health products," Song Gang stammered.

  Little Guan reached for the last two vials of Boobs cream and looked at them, then couldn't help but look at Song Gangs breasts. Song Gang blushed and said softly, "These are fake."

  Little Guan nodded. He pulled Song Gangs arm, inviting him to come sit for a while at the place where he was staying. Song Gang put the remaining two vials of Boobs cream into his pocket, then walked a long way with Little Guan. By dusk they had arrived at an area full of itinerant workers on the edge of the city. Little Guan led Song Gang along a muddy road lined with decrepit shacks. The shacks all had clothes hanging out in front, with women cooking on coal stoves in the doorways and men standing around smoking, chatting lazily with one another. Children were running around crazily each dirty from head to toe. Little Guan told Song Gang that he would generally stay in a place for about a month before moving on, because if he stayed any longer, it became difficult to continue selling his cutlery. He explained that he was now about to move again. Little Guan brought Song Gang to a dilapidated shack, where a dark-skinned woman in her forties was standing in the doorway hanging up clothes. Little Guan called out to her, "We're leaving tomorrow, so why are you washing clothes?"

  The woman turned around and replied tartly, "It's precisely because we are leaving tomorrow that I need to wash clothes today."

  Little Guan replied angrily, "We're taking the bus early tomorrow morning. What will we do if the clothes aren't dry yet?"

  The woman replied confidently, "Then you can go first and I'll wait behind for the clothes."

  "Fuck," Little Guan said, "I must have been blind when I married you."

  "I was blind to have married you," she replied.

  Little Guan angrily turned to Song Gang and explained, "This is my wife."

  Song Gang nodded and smiled at the woman, and she looked quizzically at Song Gang's enormous breasts. Little Guan pointed to Song Gang and said, "This is Song Gang, from my hometown."

  Little Guan noticed his wife staring at Song Gang's breasts and said unhappily, "What are you looking at? These are fake, he needed them for business."

  Little Guan's wife nodded, then smiled at Song Gang. Little Guan led Song Gang into a hundred-square-foot room containing a bed, a cabinet, a table, and four chairs. Little Guan took out the knives he was carrying and placed them in a corner, then invited Song Gang to sit down. He then sat himself and called out to his wife, "Quick, fix us some food."

  The woman yelled back, "Can't you see that I'm hanging out clothes?"

  "Fuck," Little Guan cursed, then continued to call out, "Song Gang and I haven't seen each other for more than ten years. Quick, go buy us a bottle of baijiu liquor, a
chicken, and a fish."

  "Quick, go!" the woman snorted. "Are you going to come hang out the clothes?"

  Little Guan pounded the table with his fist. Noticing Song Gang's uneasy expression, he shook his head, saying, "Miserable wench."

  After the woman finished hanging the clothes, she took her apron from the window ledge, then turned to Little Guan and cursed, "You're the miserable wench."

  "Fuck." Little Guan watched his wife walk away, then turned and said to Song Gang, "Don't mind her."

  Then he urgently asked Song Gang after many of their mutual acquaintances from Liu Town, including Baldy Li, Yanker Yu, Popsicle Wang, Blacksmith Tong, Tailor Zhang, and Mama Su. Song Gang slowly told Little Guan about each of them, inserting bits of his own story. As Song Gang was speaking Little Guan's wife came back with the liquor and fish and placed them on the table. Then she put on her apron and began cooking on the coal stove just outside the door. Little Guan opened the bottle but noticed that they didn't have any glasses, so he shouted, "What about glasses? Quick, bring us some fucking glasses."

  "Don't you have hands?" Little Guan's wife hollered from outside. "Get them yourself."

  "Fuck that."

  Little Guan cursed as he stood up and went to find two shot glasses for the baijiu. He drank a swallow and wiped his mouth, then noticed that Song Gang hadn't picked up his glass. Little Guan said, "Drink."

  Song Gang shook his head and said, "I can't drink."

  "Drink!" Little Guan ordered.

  As he was saying this he lifted his own cup and waited for Song Gang. Therefore, Song Gang had no choice but to pick up his glass and toast Little Guan, then take a little sip. As the strong baijiu went down his throat Song Gang started to cough. This was the first time he had ever drunk baijiu. Little Guan ended up downing seven shots, and Song Gang three. As the two drank and chatted, their conversation gushed forth like a river. When Little Guan heard about Baldy Li's vast fortune, how Yanker Yu and Popsicle Wang had gotten rich along with him, how Blacksmith Tong had gotten rich independently, and how Tailor Zhang and Mama Su were also getting along increasingly well, Little Guan, who had endured countless hardships, did not have any complaints or envy but calmly nodded and smiled. Then Song Gang carefully brought up Old Scissors Guan, saying he hadn't seen him for a long time, but he had heard that the old man was sick and bedridden. When Little Guan heard this, his eyes filled with tears. He recalled how, when he had excitedly left Liu Town, his father had followed behind him with his cane, hollering. Little Guan wiped away his tears and said, "Let's not speak of that. I'm too ashamed to go back and face him."

  Song Gang described how he had lost his job, looked everywhere for work, ruined his lungs, and subsequently left Liu Town with a certain Wandering Zhou to seek his fortune. Now, however, Zhou had returned to Liu Town but Song Gang was still wandering aimlessly through distant provinces while Lin Hong waited in Liu Town for him to return. Profoundly moved by Song Gang's account, Little Guan sighed repeatedly and muttered to himself, "I know how hard it can be to leave home. I myself have been away for more than ten years, and if I had known that it would be like this, I certainly would never have left."

  Song Gang lowered his head and also muttered to himself, "If I had known it would be like this, I would never have left either."

  "This is fate," said Little Guan. "Neither of us was fated to have wealth." He looked at Song Gang sympathetically. "My father would often say: If you are fated to have only fifteen ounces of rice in this life, then even if you go away to seek your fortune, you still won't end up with a full pound."

  Song Gang drank a sip of baijtu and coughed fiercely. Little Guan took a big gulp of the liquor and waited for Song Gang's coughing fit to subside. He then urged Song Gang, "You should go home. Lin Hong is back in Liu Town waiting for you."

  Little Guan told Song Gang that during the first two years he spent wandering abroad, not a day went by that he didn't yearn to return home, but he lacked the courage. Four or five years later, he found that it had become impossible for him to do so. He said, "You've only been away for a year, so you are still able to go back. After a few years, your very desire to return will die."

  As the two sat drinking and recounting their difficulties, Little Guan s wife cooked dinner. She hurriedly wolfed down her share, then began to pack, repeatedly walking in and out of the room but completely uninterested in what the men were saying. After she had neatly arranged all the belongings in a corner, it was well past eleven o'clock. Without saying a word, she lay down in bed, pulled up the covers, and went to sleep. Song Gang then got up and bid Little Guan farewell, noting that it was quite late and he needed to go back to his room at the hotel. Little Guan wouldn't let him leave, saying plaintively, "I haven't seen anyone from Liu Town for more than ten years and have no idea when I'll get another chance."

  Song Gang sat back down, and the two continued to exchange accounts of the sufferings they had each endured. After coming to Hainan Island, Little Guan had, like Song Gang, worked the docks. After a year he went on to Canton and Fujian, where he worked as a construction worker for several years. He was traveling with five contractors, but at the end of the year, when it was time to hand out wages, all five disappeared without a trace. It was then that he started his current job selling cutlery. Little Guan smiled bitterly, noting that back in Liu Town he had sharpened blades for a living and now he sold them— it seemed he was fated to keep coming back to blades. Later they began to laugh happily as they reminisced about their childhoods. Little Guan began to cheer up, then turned and looked at his sleeping wife with a grateful expression. He said that, though he still hadn't found his fortune, at the very least he had had some luck in love, and found himself a good woman. He said, "I would never have found such a good woman back in Liu Town."

  Then Little Guan described their wedding. It had taken place thirteen years earlier. Little Guan had first seen his future wife when he was in Fujian selling cutlery. She was squatting by the side of the river, wiping away her tears as she washed her clothes. This sight broke Little Guan's heart, and he stood watching her for a long time without her noticing. He eventually let out a long sigh, but she didn't hear him, engrossed in her own sorrow. Finally he turned and walked away.

  His years of solitary existence had left Little Guan feeling lonely and desolate, and he couldn't get her sorrowful image out of his mind. After he had walked several li, he suddenly turned and headed back to the riverbank. She was still squatting there, wiping away her tears and washing clothes. Little Guan walked down the steps to the riverbank and sat down beside her. The two began to talk, and Little Guan learned that her parents had both passed away and her husband had run off with another woman. She also got to know Little Guan, about his solemn pledge as he left Liu Town and how miserable he had been, encountering obstacles at every turn. They were both far from home and immediately felt as though they had known each other for a long time. Little Guan told her earnestly, "Come with me. I'll take care of you."

  By this point she had finished washing her clothes and was about to get up, but when she heard Little Guan say this, she plopped back down again. She stared vacantly at the river for a while before finally gathering up the clothes and proceeding up the steps. Little Guan followed her all the way home and watched as she hung the clothes out on the line. He repeated, "Come away with me."

  She stared at him blankly and said the first thing that came to her mind: "My clothes aren't dry yet."

  Little Guan nodded and said, "I'll return when your clothes are dry."

  He then turned around and left. That night he stayed in that small town in Fujian, and the next morning when he arrived at her front door, she was standing there with a large suitcase, waiting. Little Guan realized that she had agreed to leave with him, so he simply walked up to her and asked, "Are your clothes dry?"

  "They are dry," she said, nodding.

  "Let's go," Little Guan replied with a wave.

  Pulling her suitcase along, s
he followed Little Guan as they left the province, and at that point she began a different but equally hard life on the road.

  By the time Little Guan finished recounting the story of his marriage, the sun had started to come up. His wife woke up and got out of bed and did not appear at all surprised to see the two of them still talking. She simply turned off the lights and left the house. After a while she returned with ten piping-hot steamed buns, and as Little Guan and Song Gang ate breakfast she collected the clothes outside, folded them on the bed, and packed them in the large suitcase. She then took a steamed bun and ate it as she surveyed the room to see if she had forgotten anything. Little Guan ate four buns in one gulp, while Song Gang ate only one before announcing that he was full. Little Guans wife then put the remaining four buns back in the bag and carefully placed it in a backpack. Then, hoisting the large backpack on her back, carrying a travel bag in her right hand, and pulling her suitcase with her left, she walked out the door and waited for Little Guan to come out. He emerged carrying his bag of knives and pulling a large suitcase. As he walked by Song Gang, Little Guan patted him on the shoulder and said, "Song Gang, go back! Listen to me and go back to Liu Town, because in a few years you will no longer be able to return."