Yu Hua - Chronicle of a Blood Merchant

Yile would say, “I’m thinking about my mom and dad.”

When this story about Yile made its way back to town, Xu Sanguan and Xu Yulan both cried.

By that time Erle had also graduated from school. Soon he too would move away, carrying only a bed mat, a Thermos, and a washbasin, as he and yet another column of students marched under the red flag on their way to their new homes in the countryside.

Xu Yulan said to Erle before he left, “Erle, when you get to the countryside and things get really rough, just climb up a hill and think about your mom and dad, and remember us.”

One day Chairman Mao sat on the sofa in his study and said, “You may keep one child by your side.” And so it was that Sanle stayed by his parents’ side, graduated from high school at age eighteen, and started work at the machine tools factory in town.

One day a few years later Yile came back to town from the countryside. He was as skinny as a twig, his face was grayish yellow, and he held a broken old basket in his hands, filled with a bundle of leafy vegetables. This was his present for his parents. He hadn’t come home for a visit for over six months, and when he knocked on the front door, Xu Sanguan and Xu Yulan stared at him for a moment before realizing that this was actually their son.

Yile’s pallid and wasted look brought them up short with surprise, because he hadn’t looked nearly so bad last time he came home. Granted, he had been thinner and darker than when he had first left home, but he had been in good spirits, and when he left, he had carried a crock that could fit nearly a hundred pounds of rice away with him on his back. He walked away with his back bent against the weight, his feet sounding out hollowly against the pavement as he went. He didn’t have a rice crock in the countryside, so he had been storing his rice in a cardboard box, but when the weather turned humid, the bottom of the box rotted away, turning the rice at the bottom a yellowish-green color.

After he came back home, Xu Sanguan said to Xu Yulan, “Do you think Yile might be sick? When he’s not lying down, he just sits around the house. He’s not eating much either, and it seems like he’s stooping all the time.”

Xu Yulan put her hand on Yile’s forehead to see if he was running a fever.

“He’s not sick. If he was sick, he’d be running a fever. I think he just doesn’t want to go back down to the countryside. It’s too hard on him down there. Let him stay in town for a few more days and rest up. After he’s rested for a few days, I’m sure he’ll start to feel better.”

Yile stayed in town for ten days. During the daytime he always sat by the window, with his arms draped over the windowsill and his chin resting on his arms, looking outside at the lane. Usually, he stared at the walls of the houses across the way. The walls were nearly a hundred years old, and green weeds grew from the cracks between the bricks, fluttering in the breeze. Sometimes a few women who lived in the area would stop beneath his window and chatter for a while. When they said something interesting, Yile would smile and move his arms into a more comfortable position.

By that time Sanle had already become a regular worker at the machine tools factory and had a bed at the factory dormitory. They lived five to a room, but Sanle was happy to stay at the factory, because he could be with people his own age. When Yile came home, Sanle would come by every day after dinner and spend some time with the family. Whenever Sanle came over, Yile was lying in bed. Sanle said to him, “Yile, the more other people sleep, the fatter they get. The more you sleep, the skinnier you seem to be.”

The only times Yile became the least bit animated was when Sanle came home. He would smile and talk with him, and there were even a few times when they went out together for a walk. But after Sanle left, Yile would once again lie down in bed or sit motionlessly by the window, as if he had been glued in place.

Xu Yulan, seeing that Yile kept hanging around the house and seemed not to have the slightest intention of going back down to the countryside, said to him, “Yile, when are you planning to go back? You’ve been home for ten days already.”

Yile said, “I don’t have any energy now. It wouldn’t do any good for me to go back now, because I just don’t have the energy to work in the fields. Let me stay for a few more days, okay?”

Xu Yulan replied, “Yile, it’s not that I want to make you go back. But think about it. Of the people who were sent down with you, quite a few have already gotten their transfers and been allowed to come back to town. There are even four people who came back up from the countryside working at Sanle’s factory. You have to work hard and get on your brigade chief’s good side. That way you can come back to town for good.”

Xu Sanguan agreed. “Your mom is right. We don’t want to kick you out. If it were up to us, you could stay here your whole life if you wanted, and we’d be happy to have you. But as things stand now, you’d better go back and get to work. If you stay at home too long, people in your brigade will get to talking, and your brigade chief will be that much less likely to give you a transfer. Yile, go back down for now, and after a year or two of hard work, you can earn your way home for good.”

Yile shook his head. “I really don’t have the energy. If I went back now, I just couldn’t work very hard anyway.”

Xu Sanguan said, “You know, energy isn’t like money. The more you use money, the less you have. But the more energy you put out, the more you’ll have. If all you do is hang around the house all day, it’s no wonder you don’t feel very energetic. But if you go back and work every day, sweat a little every day, your energy will come back, and pretty soon you’ll feel stronger and stronger.”

Yile continued to shake his head. “It’s been more than six months since I last came home. Erle got to come back home twice already in that time, and I didn’t get to come at all. Can’t you let me stay a little longer?”

“Nothing doing,” Xu Yulan said. “You’re going back tomorrow.”

Yile went back to the countryside after ten days at home. The morning he was to leave, Xu Yulan came home as soon as she was finished frying dough. She brought two pieces of fried dough home for Yile. “Eat them while they’re hot. You can leave after you’ve eaten.”

Yile sat listlessly by the window looking at the fried dough and shook his head. “I don’t feel like eating. I don’t feel like eating anything. I just don’t have any appetite.”

Then he stood up, folded the change of clothes he had brought back with him from the countryside, and stuffed them into an old book bag, which he proceeded to sling over his shoulder. “I’m leaving.”

Xu Sanguan said, “Eat the fried dough before you go.”

Yile shook his head. “I just don’t feel like eating anything right now.”

Xu Yulan said, “You have to eat something. You have a long way to go today.”

Xu Yulan told Yile to wait a moment and went into the kitchen to hard-boil a couple of eggs. When they were done, she wrapped them in a handkerchief and handed them to him. “Yile, take these with you. You can eat them if you get hungry on the way.”

Yile, still holding the eggs in his hand, walked out the front door. Xu Sanguan and Xu Yulan went to the front door to watch him go. Xu Sanguan saw that he was walking with his head bowed, moving slowly and carefully down the lane and almost leaning against the wall for support as he went. He was so thin, his shoulder bones stuck sharply out from his shirt, and the clothes that had once been a little too small for him now hung so loosely around his frame that it seemed there was no body underneath. When Yile reached the telephone pole, Xu Sanguan saw him lift his hand to his face and wipe his eyes. Xu Sanguan wondered if he was crying. He said to Xu Yulan, “I’m going to go see him off.”