Yu Hua - Chronicle of a Blood Merchant

Xu Sanguan shook his head. “I don’t know.”

“My period.”

“Period?”

“Women get a period every month. Don’t you know that?”

“I think I’ve heard something like that.”

“What I’m saying is when I get my period, I can’t do any work, I can’t let myself get tired out, I can’t touch any cold water, because as soon as I touch cold water or I get tired out, my stomach hurts and I get a fever.”

The obstetrician said, “You’re already bawling like a baby, and the hard part is still to come.”

Xu Yulan lay supine on the delivery table, legs splayed in the air, arms fastened to each side of the bed as the doctor stood to one side urging her to “push harder!” Furious with pain, she cursed with each contraction. “Xu Sanguan! You son of a bitch. . Where are you hiding?. . You turtle’s egg!. . You ought to be shot!. . Oh, you’re happy all right!. . The pain is killing me, and you’re ecstatic!. . Xu Sanguan, where are you?. . Come help me push!. . I can’t do it anymore. . Get in here, Xu Sanguan!. . Doctor, has the baby come out yet?”

“Push harder,” the doctor said. “You have a long way to go.”

“Oh mother!. . Xu Sanguan. . it’s all your fault. . Men are all animals!. . Only out for themselves. . They have their fun and leave us with the dirty work. . A woman’s fate is cruel. . It hurts!. . It’s killing me!. . I’ve carried this thing around for nine months already. . It hurts!. . Where are you?. . Xu Sanguan!. . Doctor, has the baby come out yet?”

“Push harder,” the doctor said. “The head’s out.”

“The head is out. . I’m pushing, I’m pushing. . I can’t do it anymore. . Xu Sanguan, help me!. . Xu Sanguan, I’m going to die. . I’m dying. .”

THE OBSTETRICIAN SAID, “You’re screaming and carrying on like it was the first time.”

Xu Yulan was covered with sweat, gasping for air, shouting between each moan. “Aiya, aiya. . It hurts. . hurts!. . Xu Sanguan. . You’ve done it to me again. . Aiya, aiya. . I hate you!. . It hurts. . hurts!. . If I make it through this. . aiya. . I’ll never let you sleep with me again. . even if it kills me!. . Ouch. . You think that’s funny?. . Even if you get down on your hands and knees and beg me!. . I still won’t let you do it. . I won’t even let you sleep. . aiya. . in the same bed!. . aiya, aiya. . It hurts. . I’m pushing. . harder.”

THE OBSTETRICIAN SAID, “Harder, push harder.”

Xu Yulan pushed as hard as she could, until her back arched up off the table, and she shouted, “Xu Sanguan! You con artist! You turtle’s egg! You ought to be shot!. . Xu Sanguan. . black-hearted son of a bitch. . I hope you get pockmarks all over your head!”

“Why are you screaming?” the nurse said. “It’s all over.”

“The baby’s come out?” Xu Yulan propped herself up. “So soon?”

IN FIVE YEARS’ TIME Xu Yulan gave birth to three sons. Xu Sanguan called his sons Yile (First Joy), Erle (Second Joy), and Sanle (Third Joy).

One day when Sanle was one year and three months old, Xu Yulan grabbed hold of Xu Sanguan’s ear and asked, “When I was giving birth, you were standing outside and enjoying a good laugh, right?”

“I didn’t laugh,” Xu Sanguan said. “I was just chuckling, that’s all. I never laughed aloud.”

“Aiya!” Xu Yulan called out. “That’s why you called the kids Yile, Erle, and Sanle. Because each of the three times I went through all that pain, you were outside enjoying yourself.”

People in town who knew Xu Sanguan noticed that Erle had Xu Sanguan’s nose, and Sanle had Xu Sanguan’s eyes, but Yile’s face didn’t look like Xu Sanguan’s at all. They began to discuss their suspicions in private, saying among themselves that Yile didn’t look like Xu Sanguan at all, that Yile’s mouth looked a lot like Xu Yulan’s mouth, but the rest of his face didn’t look like hers either. They said to themselves, it seems that Xu Yulan is the child’s mother, but is Xu Sanguan really his father? Who planted the seed? Could it have been He Xiaoyong? The shape of Yile’s eyes, his nose, even those big ears of his made him look more and more like He Xiaoyong every day.

When these rumors reached Xu Sanguan’s ears, he called Yile before him and began to carefully inspect his face. Yile was only nine years old at the time. After Xu Sanguan looked him over for several minutes, he was still unable to make up his mind, so he went to fetch the family mirror.

It was the mirror he had bought when they got married. Xu Yulan had always kept it on the windowsill, and when she awoke in the morning, she would stand by the window, glance at the trees outside, and then gaze at herself in the mirror as she combed her hair and rubbed a layer of intensely fragrant Snowflower cream over her face. Later Yile had gotten taller, tall enough that he could reach up and grab the mirror on the sill. The mirror was still sitting on the sill when Sanle grew tall enough to reach up and knock it over. The biggest fragment was a triangle the size of an egg. Xu Yulan had picked this triangular piece off the floor and propped it right back on the windowsill.

Xu Sanguan held the triangular shard of mirror in his hand. He held it in front of his eyes and looked at himself. Then he looked at Yile’s eyes. They didn’t seem too different from his own. He held the mirror up to his own nose. Then he looked at Yile’s nose. They didn’t seem all that different either. Xu Sanguan thought to himself, They say he doesn’t look like me, but I think he looks a little like me.

Yile watched his father staring woodenly toward him. “Dad, you keep looking at yourself and then looking at me. What are you looking at?”

Xu Sanguan said, “I’m trying to see if you look like me or not.”

“I heard some people saying,” Yile reported, “that I look like someone named He Xiaoyong who works at the machine tools factory.”

Xu Sanguan said, “Yile, go get Erle and Sanle for me.”

Xu Sanguan’s three sons came inside. He asked them to sit in a row on the bed, then sat down on a stool opposite them. He scrutinized Yile’s, Erle’s, and Sanle’s features in turn. This first inspection being inconclusive, he went back down the line, inspecting Sanle, Erle, and finally Yile.

The three brothers giggled, and when Xu Sanguan saw them laughing, he realized that they looked more alike that way. “Keep laughing,” he said as his own body started to sway, “laugh as hard as you can.”

When his sons saw the funny way he was rocking back and forth on the stool, they burst into loud guffaws. Xu Sanguan began to laugh along with them. “The more you kids laugh, the more you look alike.”

Xu Sanguan said to himself, They say Yile doesn’t look like me, but Yile looks just like Erle and Sanle. If he can’t look like me, at least he looks like his brothers. No one ever said Erle and Sanle don’t look like my sons. Doesn’t matter if Yile doesn’t look like me, as long as he looks like his little brothers.

Xu Sanguan said to his sons, “Yile has heard of He Xiaoyong over at the machine tools factory. How about you, Erle? Sanle? Don’t worry about it if you haven’t. He’s the one Yile was talking about, lives on Old Post Office Lane on the west side, always wears a duck’s bill cap. Now listen closely. His name is He Xiaoyong. Got it? Let me hear Erle and Sanle say it back to me. . Okay, good. Now listen to me again. He Xiaoyong is a bad man. Understand? Why is he a bad man? Let me tell you. A long time ago, before any of you were around, before your mother gave birth to you, He Xiaoyong was always hanging around your grandpa’s place. And what was he doing there? He was drinking with your grandpa because back then your mom wasn’t married to me yet. He’d go there every day, and every other day he’d bring a bottle of wine for your grandpa. But later on, after your mom had married me, he kept on going there almost every day. But he never brought any more wine for your grandpa. Instead, he ended up drinking more than ten bottles of your grandpa’s wine. So one day, when your grandpa saw He Xiaoyong coming, he stood up and told him that he had stopped drinking. After that He Xiaoyong never dared to show his face at your grandpa’s again.”