Yu Hua - Brothers

Lin Hong walked to the cabinet, took out several pieces of clothing, and put them in a travel bag. She proceeded to the door, then turned around to look at Song Gang, who was standing there trembling with terror. She hesitated a second but still opened the front door. Song Gang suddenly knelt down and begged her tearfully, "Lin Hong, please don't go."

Her first impulse was to rush over and hug him, but she restrained herself and said in a gentle voice, "I'm going back to my parents’ house for a few days. You should stay here and think things over and decide whether you want to be with me or with Baldy Li."

"I don't need to think about it," Song Gang replied with tears running down his face. "I want to be with you."

Lin Hong held her face and cried, asking, "And what about Baldy Li?"

Song Gang stood up and said resolutely, "I will go tell him that I want to sever our relationship. I'll go right now."

Lin Hong couldn't resist running over to him. The two embraced tightly in the doorway, then Lin Hong leaned close to him and asked quietly, "Do you want me to go with you?"

Song Gang nodded emphatically. "Let's go together."

With rekindled love, they wiped each other's tears, then left the house together. Out of habit, Lin Hong walked over to their bicycle, but Song Gang shook his head and said he didn't want to ride, because he wanted to think carefully as he walked about what he would tell Baldy Li. Lin Hong looked at him in surprise, but he merely held up his hand and walked on. She obediently followed, and the two of them proceeded out the alley and toward the main road. Lin Hong walked arm in arm with Song Gang, repeatedly looking up at him and seeing an unprecedented look of determination on his face. She suddenly felt that her husband was immensely strong, and this was the first time since their marriage that she'd had this feeling. In the past Song Gang had always acceded to her wishes, but she felt that from now on she would always listen to him.

Under the final rays of the setting sun, they arrived at the gate to the government building, where they saw Baldy Li rummaging through his scrap. Lin Hong tugged Song Gangs arm and asked, "Have you decided what you are going to say to him?"

"Yes." Song Gang nodded. "I want to return that comment to him."

Lin Hong didn't understand. "Which comment?"

Song Gang didn't answer but, rather, brushed off Lin Hong's hand and walked straight toward Baldy Li. Lin Hong paused and watched his tall and impressive figure as he approached the short and squat Baldy Li, then heard Song Gang say with a deep voice, "Baldy Li, I have something to say to you."

From Song Gang's tone, Baldy Li sensed that something was wrong, combined with the fact that Lin Hong was standing behind him. He looked suspiciously at Song Gang and then at Lin Hong. Song Gang took the handless watch out of his pocket and handed it back to Baldy Li. Realizing that Song Gang's intentions were not good, Baldy Li accepted the watch, wiped it carefully, and put it on his own wrist, then asked, "What do you want to say to me?"

Song Gang softened his tone and earnestly told his brother, "Baldy Li, now that my father and your mother are gone, we are no longer brothers—"

Baldy Li nodded and interrupted him. "You are right. Because your father was not my birth father and my mother was not your birth mother, we therefore are not biological brothers—"

"Therefore," Song Gang interrupted Baldy Li in turn, "I won't come asking you for anything, and I ask that you not come asking me for anything. From now on, we will go our separate ways—"

"What you are saying," Baldy Li interrupted again, "is that we should completely sever our relationship?"

"That's right." Song Gang nodded emphatically, then threw down his trump card: "It is time that you gave up all hope."

Lin Hong opened both arms to embrace Song Gang as he walked back to her. He also hugged her, and the two of them walked away arm in arm. Baldy Li scratched his head as he watched them depart, not understanding what Song Gang meant by "It is time that you gave up all hope." He muttered to himself, "I should fucking give up hope of what?"

Song Gang and Lin Hong remained arm in arm as they walked down the street and into their little alley. When they got home, Song Gang suddenly grew silent and sat without saying a word. Lin Hong saw his somber expression and knew that he was feeling anguished. Given the amount of history he and Baldy Li shared, it was inevitable that they would remain in each others thoughts. She therefore didn't scold him, thinking to herself that he would be better in a few days. Lin Hong was confident that the longer she and Song Gang lived together, the more his and Baldy Li's shared history would recede into the distance.

After he went to bed that night, Song Gang remained depressed and kept sighing. Lin Hong gently patted him and lifted her head slightly, whereupon Song Gang, out of habit, reached around and hugged her. She snuggled up to him, telling him not to worry and to go to sleep. Lin Hong herself then drifted off, though Song Gang remained awake for a long time. That night he dreamed he was crying, and his tears rolled down onto Lin Hong's face. She woke in surprise and turned on the light, waking Song Gang as well. Lin Hong saw that his face was covered in tears and speculated that perhaps he had dreamed of his stepmother. She then turned off the light and patted him comfortingly, asking, "Were you dreaming about your mother again?" This time she deliberately didn't say stepmother.

Song Gang shook his head in the dark and carefully recalled his dream. Then he wiped the tears from his face and said, "I dreamed that we got divorced."

BALDY LI continued his sit-in in front of the county government building, but as his scrap accumulated into a small mountain he no longer had time for sitting. Instead he spent all his time scurrying back and forth, sorting his scraps into different categories, then using a variety of market channels to sell them throughout the country. He did spend two hours sitting cross-legged on the ground, working on the foreign watch, painstakingly adding three pieces of wire of different lengths, then proudly putting it on his left wrist. Before, he would always use his right hand to point and gesture, but now that he had his new foreign watch he began using his left hand instead. Whenever anyone walked by, his left hand would start waving warmly of its own accord. Soon many of the townspeople had seen his watch, and several of them crowded around to inspect it, asking curiously, "Why do the hands look like wires?"

Baldy Li replied irritably, "All watch hands look like wires."

The townspeople then spotted another flaw. "The watch has the wrong time."

"Of course the time is wrong," Baldy Li replied proudly. "This watch keeps Greenwich Mean Time, while you keep Beijing time. That is the difference."

Baldy Li happily wore his Greenwich Mean Time foreign watch for about half a year, whereupon one day he suddenly switched to a new, domestic Diamond brand watch. When everyone saw this, they exclaimed, "You've switched watches?"

"Yes, I switched back to Beijing time." Baldy Li shook his shiny new watch as he added, "Greenwich Mean Time has its advantages, but in the end it is not appropriate for Chinese sensibilities, and therefore I switched back to Beijing time."

Everyone asked enviously where he had salvaged this shiny new Diamond watch. Baldy Li grew angry and pulled a receipt from his pocket and showed them. "I bought it myself."

The townspeople were astounded. How was it possible for a mere scrap collector to buy himself a Diamond watch? Baldy Li opened his tattered coat in front of everyone and pulled out the wallet tied to his waist. He then unzipped it, revealing a thick wad of bills, and said, "Look at this, look at this neat pile of bills."