Yu Hua - Chronicle of a Blood Merchant

Blood Chief Li smiled. “You came a month ago, so I remembered who you were. Don’t think I’m getting old. My memory’s still sharp. If I see something or hear about something, doesn’t matter how trivial, I always remember.”

Xu Sanguan smiled and nodded. “Your memory is really good. Mine is terrible nowadays. Even about the most important things. I’ll go to sleep and wake up having forgotten all about whatever it was that happened the day before.”

Blood Chief Li, warmed by these words, leaned contentedly back in his chair. “You’re quite a few years younger than me, but it sounds like your memory isn’t nearly as good as mine.”

Xu Sanguan said, “How could I compare with you?”

Blood Chief Li said, “Well, you have a point there. My memory’s certainly better than yours. To tell you the truth, there’re a lot of twenty- and thirty-year-olds who can’t compare with me.”

Xu Sanguan watched as his face broke into a delighted grin and then asked, “Then will you let me sell blood?”

“Nothing doing.” Blood Chief Li’s smile disappeared immediately. “Are you trying to kill yourself? You need to rest for at least three months after each and every time you sell blood. You’re not permitted to sell blood until three months after the previous time.”

Xu Sanguan, left at a loss, stood silent for a moment. Then he said, “I really need the money. Our Erle’s brigade chief—”

Blood Chief Li cut him short. “Everyone who comes to see me really needs the money.”

Xu Sanguan said, “But I’m begging you—”

Blood Chief Li cut him short. “Don’t beg me. Everybody who comes here begs me.”

Xu Sanguan began again. “I’m begging you. Our Erle’s brigade chief is coming over for dinner, and all we have left is two yuan —”

Blood Chief Li waved his hand. “Don’t waste your breath. I’m not going to listen to you anyway. Come back in two months.”

Xu Sanguan began to cry. “If I come back in two months, the damage will already be done. Erle’s life will be ruined. What’s going to happen to him if we offend his brigade chief?”

“Who’s Erle?” Blood Chief Li asked.

“My son,” Xu Sanguan replied.

“Ohhhh.” Blood Chief Li nodded.

It seemed to Xu Sanguan that Blood Chief Li’s expression had softened, so he wiped his tears and continued. “If you let me sell just this one time, I guarantee this will never happen again. Please — just this once.”

“Nothing doing.” Blood Chief Li shook his head. “This is for your own good. Who would have to bear the responsibility if you ended up selling away your life?”

Xu Sanguan said, “I would take full responsibility.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Blood Chief Li asked. “If you were dead, you would be in no position to take any kind of responsibility. And I would be following you down the road to hell. You know why? It’s called medical malpractice. The higher-ups would be down here in a second flat.”

Blood Chief Li, noticing that Xu Sanguan’s legs were trembling, paused to ask, “Why are you shaking like that?”

Xu Sanguan said, “I really have to take a piss.”

At that moment someone walked into the room, an empty carrying pole slung over one shoulder and a live chicken in the other hand. As soon as he walked into the room, he called out to Xu Sanguan, who failed to recognize him at first. “Xu Sanguan, don’t you recognize me anymore? I’m Genlong.”

Xu Sanguan realized that it was indeed Genlong. “Genlong, you look completely different. How did you get so old all of a sudden? Your hair’s gone completely gray. I thought you were still only forty.”

Genlong said, “Life’s harder down in the country, so we folks look a little older than people in town. And you’ve got some gray yourself, you know. You look a lot different than you used to, but I could still tell it was you.”

Genlong handed the chicken to Blood Chief Li. “This is a laying hen. She laid an egg with a double yolk just this morning.”

Blood Chief Li accepted the gift, beaming so widely that his eyes seemed to disappear into the creases fanning across his face: “Aiyo! You’re too good to me, Genlong, you’re just too kind.”

Genlong addressed Xu Sanguan. “So you’re here to sell blood too? What a coincidence, running into you like this again. It’s been, what, ten years now?”

Xu Sanguan said to Genlong, “Genlong, help me out. See if you can get Blood Chief Li to let me sell some blood.”

Genlong turned to look inquiringly over at Blood Chief Li.

Blood Chief Li said, “It’s not that I don’t want to let him sell some blood. But he already sold some just a month ago.”

Genlong nodded and explained to Xu Sanguan, “You need to rest for three months after every time you sell.”

Xu Sanguan said, “Genlong, I’m begging you. Ask him on my behalf. I’m really desperate for the money. I’m doing this for the sake of my son.”

When Genlong heard him out, he turned again toward Blood Chief Li. “I’m begging you too. Do it as a favor to me. Let him sell some blood. Just this once.”

Blood Chief Li slapped his desktop. “If it was anyone else but Genlong, I’d never allow it. But of all my friends, Genlong has the most pull around here. If Genlong asks for a favor, well, Genlong gets what he wants.”

After Xu Sanguan and Genlong sold their blood, they went together to the hospital lavatory to clear the urine from their bellies. Then they went to the Victory Restaurant, sat at a window by the river, and ordered fried pork livers and yellow rice wine. After they ordered, Xu Sanguan asked, “Ah Fang’s doing fine, right? How come he didn’t come today?”

Genlong said, “Ah Fang’s in bad shape.”

Xu Sanguan was badly startled. “What happened to him?”

“His bladder burst,” Genlong said. “We usually drink a lot of water before we sell blood, but that one time he simply drank too much and his bladder burst. We didn’t even get far enough that day to sell any blood. Before we even got to the hospital, Ah Fang said his stomach was hurting. I told him to rest for a little while by the side of the road. We went over to the front steps of the movie theater. But as soon as he sat down, he started screaming with pain. It scared me so much I didn’t even realize what was going on. After a while he just fainted. Luckily, we were right near the hospital. I didn’t find out that his bladder had burst until I brought him to the hospital.”

Xu Sanguan asked, “But he pulled through, didn’t he?”

“Oh, he’s alive,” Genlong said. “But he’s in bad shape. He’ll never be able to sell blood again.”

Genlong asked Xu Sanguan, “But how are you doing?”

Xu Sanguan shook his head. “Two of my sons got sent down to the countryside. Sanle’s the only one who’s doing well — he’s working at the machine tools factory. It’s really hard on the other two. All the kids whose parents have any kind of pull spent just a year or two down there before they got transferred back to town. But what do I have to offer? You know just as well as I do that I’m just a cart-pusher at the silk factory. I don’t have any pull at all. We’ll just have to see if the two of them can help themselves out. If they’re lucky, and they get on well with the brigade chief, there’s a chance they could be reassigned to a job in town sooner rather than later.”

Genlong said to Xu Sanguan, “Why didn’t you have them sent down to our production brigade? Ah Fang’s the production brigade chief. He’s still the brigade chief now, even in the shape he’s in. If your sons were in our production brigade, we could have looked after them. And when it came time to issue transfers, of course, they’d be the first to go home.”