Yu Hua - Brothers

With this, Baldy Li lifted his head and looked around for the setting sun, ultimately pointing at it through the tree leaves, and proclaimed, "That is my watch." Noticing Song Gang's confusion, he added, "Not the tree, the sun."

Song Gang laughed, and Baldy Li said, "Don't laugh. Go quickly, Lin Hong is waiting for you."

Song Gang mounted the bicycle, and, with his feet still on the ground, he turned and asked Baldy Li, "Have you been all right this past month?"

"Great!" Baldy Li urged Song Gang forward. "Go quickly."

Song Gang asked again, "Have you been eating well?"

"What have I eaten?" Baldy Li squinted his eyes as he pondered. Then he shook his head and said, "I can't remember. At any rate, I didn't starve to death."

Song Gang wanted to say more, but Baldy Li impatiently shooed him on his way. "Song Gang, you are simply too much like an old lady."

Saying this, he began to push Song Gang from behind, pushing him five or six yards until Song Gang finally began pedaling on his own accord. Baldy Li watched as Song Gang rode away, then walked back to the middle of the gate. Just as he was sitting down, however, he remembered that all the county government workers had already gone home. Somewhat at a loss, Baldy Li cursed, "Damn it."

After Song Gang picked up Lin Hong and took her home, he hesitated a long time, but in the end he decided not to take out the watch Baldy Li had given him, preferring to tell her about it later. He didn't have money or grain coupons in his pocket, but he still had his lunch. He and Lin Hong would always make a little extra at dinnertime and put the leftovers in a couple of containers to serve as their lunch the next day. During the period Song Gang was avoiding Baldy Li, he would only occasionally wonder how Baldy Li was doing. But once he saw Baldy Li again, he couldn't help thinking of his brother all the time. Song Gang was quite moved at the thought of Baldy Li treasuring this handless foreign watch and holding on to it ten full days just to give it to him. At lunchtime the next day, Song Gang remembered Baldy Li and therefore biked over to the government building with his lunch box. Baldy Li was in the process of rummaging through the scrap heap and consequently didn't notice when Song Gang rode up behind him. Song Gang rang his bicycle bell, causing Baldy Li to jump with surprise and turn around. When he saw the lunch box Song Gang was holding in his hand, Baldy Li smiled and said, "Song Gang, you knew I was hungry!"

Baldy Li took the lunch box Song Gang was handing him and hurriedly opened it, and he saw that the food inside hadn't even been touched. He paused and asked, "Song Gang, you haven't eaten any?"

Song Gang smiled. "You go ahead. I'm not hungry."

"No." Baldy Li handed the lunch box back to Song Gang. "Let's eat together."

Baldy Li got a pile of old newspapers from the scrap heap and spread them out for Song Gang to sit on while he plopped himself down directly on the ground. The brothers sat side by side in front of the scrap heap. Baldy Li once again took the lunch box Song Gang was holding and used a chopstick to draw a trench down the middle, telling Song Gang, "This line is the thirty-eighth parallel: To the north is North Korea, and to the south is South Korea."

He stuffed the lunch box into Song Gang's hands, saying, "You go first."

Song Gang pushed it back, replying, "No, you go first."

"If I ask you to go first, you should go first," Baldy Li said, annoyed.

Song Gang didn't push the lunch box back again but, rather, started to eat. Baldy Li leaned over and peered into the box, saying, "You are eating your way into South Korean territory."

Song Gang chuckled. He was a slow and meticulous eater, and Baldy Li started to salivate waiting for him to finish. Hearing Baldy Li swallowing his saliva, Song Gang stopped and handed the box to Baldy Li. "You eat now."

"You go ahead and finish," said Baldy Li, pushing the box back. "But could you hurry it up? You even eat like an old woman."

Song Gang hurriedly stuffed the rest of the food into his mouth, Baldy Li then took the lunch box and inhaled his half of the food. He was finished before Song Gang had a chance to gulp down the food still in his mouth. Baldy Li affectionately patted him on the back, helping him to swallow. When he was finally done, Song Gang wiped his mouth and then wiped the tears from his eyes, suddenly remembering his conversation with Li Lan right before she died.

When he noticed Song Gang crying, Baldy Li was startled and asked, "Song Gang, what's wrong?"

Song Gang said, "I just remembered Mother…"

Baldy Li froze as Song Gang continued, "She was concerned about you and asked that I look after you. I promised her that, even if I had only a single bowl of rice left, I would give it to you. She shook her head and said if there was only one bowl of rice left, we should share it."

Song Gang pointed to the empty bowl on the ground and said, "And that's what we're doing."

The brothers both returned to that earlier, painful period. Sitting in front of the mountain of scraps, they wiped away their tears and recalled how, as children, they had walked hand in hand down from the bridge in front of the bus depot, where they found Song Fanping lying dead on that hot summer day; and how they had stood hand in hand in the exit of the bus depot until nightfall, waiting for Li Lan to return from Shanghai. The final scene was of the two brothers pulling a cart with Li Lan's coffin to the countryside, returning their mother to their father.

Then Baldy Li wiped away his tears and told Song Gang, "Our childhood was simply too bitter."

Song Gang also wiped away his tears, nodded, and said, "We were bullied by everyone."

"Now things are better." Baldy Li laughed. "Now no one dares bully us."

"No, they're still not better," Song Gang replied.

"How are things not better?" Baldy Li asked, turning around to look at Song Gang. "You are married to Lin Hong, isn't that good? You can't recognize good fortune because you are living in it."

"I was speaking of you," Song Gang said.

"What about me?" Baldy Li looked back at his mountain of scraps. "I'm not doing badly."

"Not badly? You don't even have a job."

"Who says I don't have a job? Sitting here in protest is my job."

Song Gang shook his head and asked anxiously, "What will you do afterward?"

"Don't worry," Baldy Li replied. "Things will naturally work themselves out."

Song Gang still shook his head. "I'm worried sick about you."

"What are you worried about? I'm the one doing the pissing, and I'm not worried. Why should you worry if you are only the one carrying the chamber pot?"

Song Gang sighed and didn't say anything more. Baldy Li excitedly asked him about the foreign watch, whether Song Gang had gotten it fixed yet or not. Song Gang abruptly picked up the lunch box from the ground, stood up, and announced that he had to go back to the factory. He then mounted his bicycle and rode away, holding his lunch box in one hand. Baldy Li watched him ride away, shouting out, "Song Gang, you can even ride a bicycle with one hand?"

Song Gang glanced back and laughed. "What's so great about that? I can ride with no hands."

He extended his arms, as if he were soaring through the air. Astounded, Baldy Li ran after him, shouting, "Song Gang, you're really amazing!"

For the next month, every day at noon Song Gang would take his lunch box to Baldy Li and the two of them would sit in front of the pile of scraps, chatting and laughing as they divided and ate the food. Song Gang didn't dare let Lin Hong know about these rendezvous, so though he was famished every night, he was always careful not to rouse her suspicions by eating more than usual, even to the point of eating less than he normally would. Lin Hong noticed that Song Gang seemed to have lost his appetite and asked anxiously whether he had been feeling all right. He stammered that it was true he had lost his appetite, but that he hadn't lost his vigor. He reassured her that he was perfectly fine.