Yu Hua - Brothers

"I have." Baldy Li pointed to himself. "I have returned to be factory director!"

As soon as Baldy Li said this, the four blind men started applauding, followed by the three idiots and then the five deaf men. Only the two cripples didn't applaud; they had lifted their hands to applaud as well, but when they noticed Tao Qing's expression, they put them down and didn't dare continue.

With a stern face, Tao ordered, "Don't applaud."

The four blind men's applause immediately died down, but the three idiots were enjoying themselves so much that they didn't notice what Tao Qing had said. Seeing the blind men suddenly hesitate, two of the deaf men stopped applauding while the other three continued. Sensing that all was not well, Baldy Li turned around and raised and lowered his arms as if he were conducting a symphony, and immediately the applause stopped. Pleased, he turned to Tao Qing and said, "They have stopped applauding."

Tao Qing nodded solemnly and told Baldy Li that it had been very wrong of him to walk away from his position, and as a result the Civil Affairs Bureau had fired him. Therefore, it was not possible for him to return to his job at the factory. Looking at the fourteen handicapped factory workers all standing in an orderly fashion in the courtyard, he added, "Although the Good Works Factory is a—"

Tao Qing stopped himself and didn't utter the word handicapped. Instead he merely said, "The Good Works Factory is a government work unit and is not your home. It is not up to you to decide when you want to come and go."

"Well put," said Baldy Li, nodding. He then added, "The Good Works Factory is a government work unit and is not my home. However, I regard the factory as my home, and that is why I have returned!"

"That won't be possible," Tao Qing retorted. "You have not shown respect for our organizations or leaders—"

Tao hadn't yet finished speaking when one of the blind men laughed and said, "Director Li left without saying anything — that showed a lack of respect for leaders. However, Bureau Director Tao s inability to understand our needs demonstrates a lack of respect for the masses."

Baldy Li chuckled when he heard this, but noticing that Tao Qing was furious, he stopped. Tao was about to start cursing but swallowed his anger when he looked at the handicapped workers. He wanted the cripples to take everyone away, but they were hiding at the back of the crowd. Tao Qing realized he couldn't count on them, so instead he told Baldy Li, "Take everyone away."

Baldy Li immediately instructed the handicapped workers, "Let's go!"

He and his fourteen loyal minions left the courtyard of the Civil Affairs Bureau as Baldy Li explained that it was not yet the end of the workday and therefore everyone should go back to the factory. Seeing his loyal minions obediently walking away, he suddenly felt bad. He consoled them by proclaiming loudly, "My words are like flowing water and, once out, cannot be gathered back. You can be assured that I will definitely return to serve as your factory director."

When the four blind men heard Baldy Li's promise, they stopped, held their canes between their legs, and started applauding. The two cripples, three idiots, and five deaf men stopped and applauded as well. Baldy Li watched them turn around as if they were about to walk back toward him once again and thought, These folks are even more sentimental than Song Gang. He quickly waved at them and strode away without looking back.

Over the next several days, Baldy Li paid visits to the county's party secretary, the director of the county's Organization Bureau, as well as various other county officials — fifteen people in all — and earnestly declared his determination to return as director of the Good Works Factory. The party secretary and the county Organization Bureau director had him thrown out without even giving him a chance to finish. Then Baldy Li adopted a different tack: He latched on to the thirteen other officials and pathetically went on and on. When they heard him, they all immediately doused his hopes with an abrupt "No way," saying that the nation has its own structure, and once people leave, they can't be permitted to return. What fucking structure? Baldy Li asked himself. These bastards from the county government all drink congratulatory drinks but refuse to drink forfeit shots. He grew increasingly angry and vowed to make them all drink forfeit shots; therefore, he decided to stage a sit-in. Each morning Baldy Li planted himself in the entranceway to the county government building and remained there until everyone got off work at the end of the day, whereupon he would walk home with the county government officials.

While Baldy Li was sitting cross-legged in the middle of the entranceway, he had the expression of a solitary guard heroically trying to prevent thousands of enemies from getting through. At first none of the townspeople could figure out what he was up to, so he explained, "I am staging a sit-in."

Everyone laughed and said that he, sitting there impressively, didn't look as if he were staging a sit-in but, rather, as if he were a knight-errant in a martial arts movie, trying to avenge some wrong. Some of the townspeople suggested that he should look pitiful for his sit-in, so it would be better if he were to break an arm or a leg. If he were able to secure the sympathy of both party and people, he would surely be permitted to resume his position as the Good Works Factory director. When Baldy Li heard their suggestions, he shook his head and said, "It wouldn't be of any use."

He gestured at the county government building behind him and said that he had already whipped out his most pathos-ridden speech for the fifteen — one more than the fourteen handicapped workers at the Good Works Factory, mind you — bastards working inside those offices. He had scraped and begged, he had flattered and repented, and in the end it didn't count for squat. So there was nothing left for him to do but to hold his sit-down strike, and he would continue sitting here until the end of time if that was what it took. When the crowds heard his bold proclamation, they shouted their support and asked him what it would take for him to end his sit-in. He held up two fingers and said that there were only two options: "One, that I be allowed to return as the director of the Good Works Factory, or two, I die sitting here."

Baldy Li, still in his tattered clothing, didn't have anything to eat or drink, and therefore he would pick up whatever odds and ends he could find, including canned goods, bottles of mineral water, newspapers, and cardboard boxes, which he then piled up in the entrance-way The government employees on their way to work knew that Baldy Li collected scrap, so they all brought him their old newspapers, boxes, et cetera Baldy Li then made the space next to the entranceway into a recycling center. Therefore, whenever he saw someone walking by with a newspaper, he would call out and ask if he could have it when they were done. Similarly, when people walked by with drinks, he would ask for their empty bottles. Sometimes he would see people wearing old clothes and would suggest, "It is really quite a loss of face for someone of your position to be wearing such tattered clothing. How about if you take it off and give it to me?"

Baldy Li had wanted to return to the Good Works Factory but didn't succeed and instead went into the scrap business. The townspeople started calling him Scrap Collector Li. At first he collected scrap in order to feed himself, never imagining that this would make him famous; he was soon known far and wide as the Scrap King of Liu, equaling his childhood reputation as Liu's King of Butts. Whenever the townspeople had something to throw out, they would ask him to come retrieve it. While he was still staging his sit-in, about which he was exceedingly conscientious, he would tell them that he couldn't go retrieve it at that moment, but he would commit their address to memory, and he'd promise, "I'll come for it when I get off work."