Yu Hua - Brothers

The five former partners laughed in embarrassment, and Blacksmith Tong, again speaking on behalf of everyone, said, "From now on, whenever you want to beat us, you are welcome to do so, and we promise we won't fight back. This promise is good for a year."

The other four repeated, "It's good for a year."

Irritated, Baldy Li retorted, "You are using your own mean ways to judge a gentleman's heart."

The news that Baldy Li had begun repaying his debts quickly spread throughout town, generating great excitement and discussion. Everyone agreed that Baldy Li was simply extraordinary and remarked that if he was able to make himself rich simply by collecting scrap, imagine how rich he could become if he were trading gold. When Baldy Li heard this, he demurred: "The masses are speaking too highly of me. What I'm running here is a nickel-and-dime business — just earning a few bucks to feed myself."

After this expression of modesty Baldy Li couldn't help going on to reflect upon all the ironic reversals of the recent past. When he quit his job at the factory and soared away to try to start a clothing factory, he pretty much lost everything but the shirt on his back. When he decided to return to the Good Works Factory, he was turned away, leaving him no choice but to stage a sit-in protest. When he started collecting scrap simply to feed himself, who knew that it would turn into his stock-in-trade? He then summarized what he had learned, telling the people of Liu, "In business, if you deliberately plant a flower, it might not bloom, but sometimes when you accidentally seed a willow, it ends up providing you with shade."

BALDY LI'S business grew rapidly until finally the county's political leaders found themselves at their wits’ end. With his pile of scrap looming like a mountain over the government building, the leaders reckoned that he had been squatting there for almost four years and had been running his scrap and recycling business for three. At first he had piled his scrap next to the entranceway but now he had four mountains of it on either side and had even hired ten part-timers, who worked the same hours as the government office itself. At first people would see trucks come in only to haul the scrap away, but eventually they also started seeing trucks hauling scrap in — Baldy Li had become a scrap wholesaler with a national network. Everyone stared in astonishment, asking whether Baldy Li was vying for the position of chief of a national Beggars’ Gang. Baldy Li shook his head and said bluntly that he was a businessman and had absolutely no interest in power. He had already helped Liu Town develop into one of the most important scrap and recycling centers in East China, and he explained, "This is only the first step in a Long March. The next step will be all of China, and then the entire world. The day is not far off when Liu Town will become the scrap center of the world. Just think, Liu Town is just what Chairman Mao described when he said, ‘All the beautiful scenery is concentrated here.'"

The county's political leaders had all been poor and therefore did not mind filth or the smell of scrap wafting into their offices. They were worried that higher leaders would come down to observe them and would blanch at the sight of four enormous piles of scrap right outside the government building. The higher leaders would be very angry and say that this didn't at all resemble a government institution but, rather, a trash center. There was nothing the county leaders feared more than not being promoted. If the higher leaders were displeased, it could have a very significant effect on the county leaders’ career paths. Several county leaders were so anxious that they held an emergency meeting to discuss the problem, hoping to preemptively deal with the situation before Baldy Li turned Liu Town into a global trash center. Otherwise, things would become that much more difficult to resolve.

The county leaders agreed to treat cleaning up the mountains of trash as one of the county's public-image projects. They considered two plans. The first was to mobilize the military and civil police to forcibly clean up Baldy Li's mountains. This approach was quickly rejected. As soon as Baldy Li had started earning money from his scrap business, the first thing he had done was to start repaying his debts, thereby increasing his prestige among the masses to the point that it already exceeded that of the county governor himself. The county leaders were afraid that the masses would take advantage of the situation to stir up trouble and vent their pent-up anger. Recognizing that it was dangerous to incur the wrath of the masses, the leaders decided that it was not so hard to deal with a single Baldy Li. Therefore, they turned to their second approach, which was to grant his request to return to the Good Works Factory as director. In this way, they not only would redeem a comrade but furthermore would rid themselves of the those mountains of junk.

Tao Qing, the director of the Civil Affairs Bureau, received the secretary county governor's instructions and went to speak to Baldy Li. Tao Qing had fired Baldy Li four years earlier but now found himself trying to hire him back, a turn of events that greatly vexed Tao Qing. He told himself that he knew what Baldy Li was made of — if you gave him an inch, he'd take a mile. Therefore, Tao decided that it would be important to put Baldy Li firmly in his place before offering him his old job back.

Tao Qing walked over to the foot of the four mountains of scrap, where Baldy Li was busy directing his ten part-time workers. Tao stood behind Baldy Li for a while without his noticing, until finally Tao Qing had no choice but to clear his throat to get Baldy Li's attention. Baldy Li turned and saw his former leader and immediately cried out warmly, "Bureau Director Tao, you've come to visit me!"

With the proper tone of majestic condescension befitting his position, Tao Qing waved and said, "I happened to be in the area and thought I'd drop by."

"Dropping by to see someone still counts as coming to see them," Baldy Li replied happily. Then he called out to the ten part-time workers, "My former leader and superior, Bureau Director Tao, has come to see us. Everyone please give him a warm welcome."

The ten part-time workers put down what they were working on and started up a scattered round of applause. Tao Qing frowned and nodded briefly to them. Baldy Li was dissatisfied and urged under his breath, "Director Tao, won't you say something to them, like ‘Comrades, you are working hard'?"

Tao Qing shook his head and said, "No, I won't say anything."

"Okay, then." Baldy Li nodded, then said to the workers, "You can get back to work. I'm going to take Director Tao to my office."

Baldy Li solicitously invited Tao Qing into his shed, asking him to sit in the only chair while he himself sat on the bed. Surrounded by trash, Tao looked around and saw that the shed had everything anyone might need. As the saying goes, despite its tiny size, a sparrow still has all five organs. Tao Qing also noticed the electric fan and remarked, "You even use an electric fan!"

"I've used it for two summers now," Baldy Li replied proudly. "Next year I won't need it anymore, since I plan to install central air."

Tao Qing felt that Baldy Li was deliberately taunting him and therefore, gesturing to the shed, replied evenly, "An air conditioner wouldn't work well here, would it?"

"Why not?" Baldy Li asked.

"This shed is too drafty" Tao Qing explained. "An air conditioner would waste too much electricity."

"Then I'll just pay a slightly higher electric bill," Baldy Li replied. "With air-conditioning, in summer this shed will become an elite hotel."

Cursing Baldy Li under his breath, Tao Qing stood up and walked out. Baldy Li hurried after him and asked solicitously, "Director Tao, won't you sit a little longer?"