Yu Hua - Chronicle of a Blood Merchant

Xu Sanguan said, “Can you be a little quieter? If you didn’t shout like that, no one would ever know.”

Xu Yulan continued every bit as loudly as before. “My dad used to tell me when I was little that your blood is passed down from your ancestors. You can sell fried dough, sell a house, sell off your land, but you can never ever sell your blood. Better to sell your body than sell your blood! At least your body belongs to you. But selling your blood is like selling your ancestors. Xu Sanguan, you’ve sold your ancestors!”

Xu Sanguan said, “Keep quiet. What are you trying to say anyway?”

A tear rolled down Xu Yulan’s face. “I would never have imagined you’d sell your blood. You can sell anything you like, as long as it isn’t blood. Sell the bed, sell the house, sell whatever you like. But why did you have to go and sell your blood?”

Xu Sanguan said, “Keep quiet. Why did I sell my blood? I sold my blood so I could keep on playing the cuckold.”

Xu Yulan sobbed. “I heard what you just said. I know what you mean. I know you’re mocking me. I know deep down you really hate me. Why else would you say something like that?” She weepingly made her way to the door.

Xu Sanguan growled from behind her, “Come back here, you bitch. You’re going to the doorstep again. You’re gonna start screaming and yelling and making a scene again.”

But instead of sitting down on the doorstep, Xu Yulan walked right past the threshold, turned, and made her way down the lane and onto the street. She walked all the way down to the end of the street, veered down another lane, and arrived at He Xiaoyong’s doorstep.

Standing in front of He Xiaoyong’s open front door, she patted down her clothes, combed out her hair with her fingers, and raised her voice loud enough for the whole neighborhood to hear.

“You’re all neighbors of He Xiaoyong. All of you know He Xiaoyong. You all know that he’s a rotten, black-hearted son of a bitch. You all know that he won’t take in his only son. You all know that because I sinned in my past life, He Xiaoyong screwed me over in this one. You’ve heard the story already, so I don’t have to tell it to you again today. I came today to tell you about something else. What you don’t know and what I just found out today is that I must have burned a lot of incense in my past life too. That’s why I got to marry Xu Sanguan. What you don’t know is just how good a man Xu Sanguan really is. I could talk for days on end about how good Xu Sanguan is, but I won’t. What I will tell you is that Xu Sanguan sold his own blood. He did it for Yile, for our family. He went to the hospital today to sell his own blood. Think about it. You can die from selling blood. And even if you don’t die, you’ll still get dizzy, your vision will blur, and you’ll feel weak from head to toe. But Xu Sanguan didn’t care about all of that. He risked his life for me, for Yile, for our whole family.”

He Xiaoyong’s skinny wife appeared at the door and sneered, “If Xu Sanguan’s so great, how come you want to steal my man?”

When Xu Yulan saw He Xiaoyong’s woman, she sneered, “Now here’s a woman who must have done a lot of bad things in her last life. She’s being paid back for it in this life, let me tell you, and the punishment is that she can’t bear any sons, only daughters. Once her daughters are grown up, they’ll belong to other people’s families, and her own family line will be broken.”

He Xiaoyong’s woman strode out from the door and slapped her thighs for emphasis as she railed at her nemesis, “And here’s a woman who’s so shameless that she’ll even boast about stealing someone else’s seed!”

Xu Yulan countered, “Of course I do! Any woman who’s had three sons in a row has a right to brag!”

He Xiaoyong’s woman shouted, “Three sons by two different dads! Do you want to brag about that too?”

“Whether your daughters really have the same dad remains to be seen.”

“Only someone like you! Only a slut like you could have had so many men.”

“So you’re not a slut? You know what’s inside your pants? A department store, that’s what! Anybody can go inside!”

“If I’ve got a department store in my pants, you have a public toilet!”

SOMEONE CAME to Xu Sanguan and said, “Xu Sanguan, quick! Go bring your woman home. She’s arguing with He Xiaoyong’s woman, and the more they argue, the raunchier it gets. You better go quick, or you’ll have no face left at all by the time they’re through.”

Another person rushed in the door. “Xu Sanguan! Your woman’s fighting with He Xiaoyong’s woman. They’re pulling each other’s hair and spitting and even biting.”

The last person to come through the door was Blacksmith Fang. Blacksmith Fang said, “Xu Sanguan, I was just walking by He Xiaoyong’s place. There’s a big crowd there, thirty people at the very least, and they’re all laughing at your woman. Your woman and He Xiaoyong’s woman are screaming and cursing and fighting, and believe me it’s not pretty. Everyone’s laughing and enjoying the show, and I even heard some of them saying that Xu Sanguan’s been selling blood just so he can keep getting cuckolded.”

Xu Sanguan said, “Do I care? Let her do what she wants.”

As he spoke, he sat down on the stool by the table, then glanced up toward Blacksmith Fang standing at the threshold.

“She’s like a broken pot that’s not afraid of shattering, and I’m a dead pig who no longer minds that the water’s coming to a boil.”

Xu Sanguan was thinking of Lin Fenfang. Lin Fenfang, whose braids had once reached to her waist, had married a man who wore glasses, given birth to a boy and a girl, and proceeded to get fat. She grew fatter and fatter with each passing year, and in the end she cut her braids and wore her hair in a bob that was level with her ears.

Xu Sanguan had watched as her neck got shorter and shorter, seen her shoulders thicken, looked on as the contours of her waistline softened and swelled, observed her fingers grow stubby with excess flesh. Yet he still held all the best silk cocoons in reserve for her even now.

These days Lin Fenfang was usually to be seen walking through town carrying a shopping basket. Sometimes it was full of oil, salt, soy sauce, and vinegar. Sometimes it was loaded with fresh vegetables. Sometimes you might see a chunk of fatty pork or a pair of dead carp sticking out from amid the vegetables. When her basket was full of dirty clothes, she would head over to the riverbank, a little wooden stool dangling from one hand because she had grown too heavy to squat, and if she squatted by the riverbank her legs would eventually start to tremble under her weight. She would sit on the stool by the river, remove her shoes and socks, roll up her pants legs, and finally bring her plump feet to rest in the water. Only then would she take the clothes out from the basket and begin to do her wash.

When Lin Fenfang walked down the street with her basket, her body swayed with each step because of her weight, and even the slowest pedestrians were always able to pass her by. She always walked cheerfully behind the rest, and everybody else knew that she was Lin Fenfang from the silk factory, the fattest woman in town, the woman who would gain weight even if she only ate rice, who could put on pounds just by drinking water.

Xu Yulan usually saw Lin Fenfang when she went to buy vegetables in the morning. She would see her carrying her basket and moving from stall to stall, bargaining with each of the vendors, then slowly bending down and carefully sorting through the produce to select the best greens, cabbage, celery, or whatever else. Xu Yulan sometimes said to Yile, Erle, or Sanle, “You know Lin Fenfang at the silk factory? She uses fabric for two just for one new dress for herself.”