Yu Hua - Chronicle of a Blood Merchant

The two brothers realized that Xu Sanguan was talking sense, so they brought the barge to a halt against the banks and let him climb aboard.

Xu Sanguan didn’t know how to row, and almost as soon as he took the oar from Laishun, it slid out of his hands and into the water. Laixi hurriedly brought the boat to a halt with his bamboo pole, while Laishun bent over the stern and fished the oar from the water when it floated up on the current.

Having retrieved the oar, Laishun pointed at Xu Sanguan and yelled, “You said you could help row, but all you know how to do is drop the damned oar in the river. What else did you say just now? You said you could do this and help us with that, which is the only reason we let you on in the first place. So that’s what you call rowing? I wonder what else can you do?”

“I said I could eat with you, because it’s cheaper for three to eat than two.”

“I have no fucking doubt that you can eat!” Laishun shouted.

Laixi broke into laughter at the prow. “Well, you can cook for me. That’s a start.”

Xu Sanguan went up to the little brick stove on the deck. There was a wok on top of the stove and a bundle of kindling next to it. Xu Sanguan began to cook.

When night came, Laishun and Laixi moored the barge by the bank, opened an iron hatch on the deck, crawled down into the cabin, and wrapped themselves in a single quilt. Noticing that Xu Sanguan was still outside, they called up to him, “Come down and get some sleep.”

Xu Sanguan, seeing that the cabin was even smaller than a single bed, demurred. “I won’t crowd you two. I’ll sleep up here.”

Laixi said, “It’s wintertime. If you sleep outside, you’ll freeze to death.”

Laishun added, “If you freeze to death, we’ll be in trouble too.”

“Come on down,” Laixi continued. “We’re all on the same boat, so we have to take the good and bad together.”

Xu Sanguan knew he was right: it really was very cold outside, and when he remembered that he would have to sell still more blood at Huang’s Inn and could not afford to get sick, he slid down into the cabin and lay down between them. Laixi passed a corner of the quilt to him, and Laishun pulled enough of the fabric in his direction to cover him.

Xu Sanguan said to them, “You two are brothers, but somehow Laixi always sounds nicer than Laishun when he’s saying something.”

The two brothers’ chuckles quickly gave way to snores. Xu Sanguan was squeezed between them, and their shoulders jutted into his shoulders. And after a little while their legs were draped across his legs, and after a while longer their arms were sprawled across his chest. Xu Sanguan lay pressed beneath them, listening to the motion of the water. The sound was extremely clear and distinct. He could even hear the sound of drops of water splashing above the current, and he felt as if he were actually sleeping submerged in the river itself. The sound of the river brushing his ears kept him awake for a long time, so he thought about Yile and wondered how he was doing in the hospital in Shanghai. He thought about Xu Yulan, and he thought about Erle lying sick in bed at home, and he thought about Sanle watching over Erle.

After a few nights in the tiny cabin Xu Sanguan’s bones ached. During the day he sat on deck pounding his back, kneading his shoulders, and swinging his arms back and forth.

When Laixi saw him, he said, “The cabin’s too small. You didn’t sleep well.”

Laishun said, “He’s getting old, and his bones are brittle.”

Xu Sanguan felt old. He knew he was no longer a young man. Laishun’s right, I am getting old. It’s not that the cabin’s too small. When I was young, I could sleep in a crack in the wall and not feel a thing.

The boat continued to move. They passed through Big Bridge, through Anchang Gate, and through Jing’an. The next stop was Huang’s Inn. The sun had been shining for two days, and the snow on the banks of the river was beginning to melt. A few patches of snow still clung to the roofs of the farmhouses they passed on either side of the river. The fields around the houses sat barren and idle, and they only rarely saw people at work in the paddies, but there were quite a few people walking on the road along the river, carrying shoulder poles and baskets and chattering loudly among themselves.

Within a few days Xu Sanguan and the two brothers had become quite friendly with one another. They told Xu Sanguan that transporting their load of cocoons would take them ten days all told. And for their efforts they would receive six yuan, or a mere three yuan each.

Xu Sanguan said to them, “You might as well sell blood then. You can make thirty-five yuan each time.” He continued, “Your blood is like water in a well. It’ll never run dry, no matter how much you draw.”

Xu Sanguan told them everything Ah Fang and Genlong had told him years before. When he was finished, the brothers asked, “But won’t your health go bad after you sell blood?”

“No,” Xu Sanguan replied, “but your legs will probably feel a little weak for a while. It’s a lot like the moment after you’ve finished with a woman.”

The brothers chuckled uneasily.

Noticing their befuddlement, Xu Sanguan asked, “You understand what I’m talking about, right?”

Laixi shook his head, and Laishun said, “Neither of us has ever had a woman, so we don’t know what it feels like when you’re done.”

Xu Sanguan also chuckled. “Well, selling blood is one way to find out.”

Laishun addressed Laixi. “Why don’t we give it a try? We’ll make lots of money, and we’ll find out what it feels like. Why not kill two birds with one stone?”

When they arrived at Huang’s Inn, Laixi and Laishun tied the boat to a wooden mooring on the bank and followed Xu Sanguan to the county hospital to sell blood.

As they walked, Xu Sanguan told them, “There are four kinds of blood. The first kind is O, the second is AB, the third is A, and the fourth is B—”

Laixi broke in, “How do you write those?”

Xu Sanguan said, “They’re foreign letters. I don’t know how to write them either. I only know the first one, O. You draw a circle. My blood type is a circle.”

Xu Sanguan led them through the streets of Huang’s Inn until they found the hospital. Then they went to the stone steps by the river. Xu Sanguan took a bowl from out of his pocket and handed it to Laixi. “Before you sell your blood, you have to drink a lot of water. If you drink a lot of water, you can water down your blood. Think about it. If your blood is watered down, there will be that much more to sell, right?”

Laixi took the bowl and asked, “How much should I drink?”

“Eight bowls.”

“Eight bowls?” Laixi was astonished. “Won’t your stomach burst if you drink eight bowls of water?”

Xu Sanguan replied, “I can drink eight bowls, and I’m almost fifty. Add your ages together, and the two of you still wouldn’t be as old as I am. Can’t you drink as much as an old man?”

Laishun said to Laixi, “If he can drink eight bowls, then we should be able to manage nine or ten.”

“No way,” Xu Sanguan said. “The very most you should drink is eight. Any more than that, and your bladder’ll burst, just like Ah Fang—”

“Who’s Ah Fang?”

“You don’t know him. Drink. Each of us can drink one bowl first, and then we’ll take turns.”

Laixi bent down and skimmed up a bowl of water to drink. As soon as he started, he clasped his chest and exclaimed, “Too damn cold! It’s so cold my stomach’s twitching.”

Laishun said, “Of course winter water is cold. Give me the bowl. I’ll go first.” After one sip, Laishun also called out, “No way! No way. It’s too cold. I can’t take it.”