Yu Hua - Brothers

Lin Hong grunted in response and whispered back, "Baldy Li meant well…"

Song Gang felt even more uneasy, and he asked her in a hoarse voice, "Did I say something wrong?"

"No, you didn't say anything wrong." Lin Hong wrapped her arms around Song Gang and pressed her cheek against his back. Song Gang finally relaxed and let out a long sigh. He heard her say, "No matter how much money he now has, it's from collecting scrap. What's so great about that? At the end of the day, we still have our state-issued jobs, and if he doesn't have one, things will be very difficult for him down the road."

After being rebuffed at Song Gang's, Baldy Li thought back to his fourteen loyal minions at the Good Works Factory. He went to the Civil Affairs Bureau to look for Director Tao Qing, who was about to become county governor, although he himself didn't know it yet. Tao Qing was in the process of agonizing over what to do with the Good Works Factory, which was bleeding money year after year, when Baldy Li walked in and announced that he wanted to purchase it. Tao Qing stared at him in astonishment, not knowing whether or not Baldy Li was for real. Baldy Li explained emotionally that, although those fourteen handicapped workers were not his relatives, they were nevertheless closer than kin. Tao Qing was secretly elated: The Good Works Factory had become the Civil Affairs Bureau's biggest burden — they couldn't even give it away — but now here was Baldy Li wanting to spend good money to buy it. The two of them immediately reached an agreement and shook on it. After buying the Good Works Factory, Baldy Li proceeded to renovate it and transform it into the Liu Town Economic Research Center, even changing the nameplate on the door. Within a few days he decided that the word center was too ordinary, and since he had just been to Japan, he altered the nameplate to say Liu Town Economic Research Business Corporation. He then issued each of his fourteen loyal minions a letter of appointment, appointing the crippled factory director to the position of corporation director and the deputy factory director to the position of deputy corporation director. The remaining twelve workers he appointed as senior researchers, allowing each of them to enjoy a salary equivalent to that of a university professor. When the two cripples accepted their letters of appointment, they were both extremely excited, knowing that Baldy Li would now provide for them for life. However, they tearfully asked him, "Director Li, what will we study?"

"You can study chess," Baldy Li said. "What else are you capable of studying?"

"Okay." They nodded, then asked, "And what about the twelve senior researchers?"

"The twelve senior researchers?" Baldy Li thought for a moment and then said, "The four blind men will study light and the five deaf men will study sound. But about the three idiots? Fuck, let them study evolution."

After providing for his fourteen loyal minions, Baldy Li hired two horticulturists from the province to reseed the area outside the county government building, plant some flowers, and even build a fountain. The entranceway became a scenic spot, and every evening and weekend the townspeople would bring the young and elderly, sighing at the beautiful scenery. When the senior leaders came for their inspection, they saw that in place of the mountains of scrap there were now green grass, fresh flowers, and a fountain. They couldn't resist pausing for a while in the entranceway to express their admiration. The county officials were ecstatic, and the Nakasone suit-wearing county governor personally paid a call to Baldy Li, thanking him on behalf of the county government as well as the entire province. Baldy Li not only didn't gloat or trumpet his successes; he even took the governor's hand and apologized repeatedly to the governor himself, the county government, and the people of the entire province, saying that he should never have left those mountains of scrap in the entranceway. Paying for the new landscaping, he explained, was simply his way of making amends.

Baldy Li became a favorite of the county officials, and soon he was appointed as representative to the provincial Peoples Congress. Half a year later, when the county governorship was handed over to the Takeshita suit-wearing Tao Qing, Baldy Li's status was elevated even higher, as he was appointed representative to the Standing Committee of the provincial Peoples Congress. Even after making his fortune, however, Baldy Li continued to wear his tattered clothes, even when attending the provincial People s Congress — looking like a beggar who had wandered up to the platform. County Governor Tao Qing couldn't bear it any longer and while addressing the assembly, publicly beseeched Baldy Li to take care of his appearance. As soon as Tao uttered his request, Baldy Li, who had just finished giving his comments, returned to the stage. The representatives thought he was about to announce that he wouldn't wear tattered clothes anymore, but he surprised everyone by explaining instead why he dressed this way: Back when he had no money, he had to struggle arduously, and now that he had money, he had to struggle more arduously. Pointing to his tattered clothing, he said, "This is inspired, on the one hand, by the Spring and Autumn Period story of King Gou Jian of Yue, who slept on sticks and ate bitter food; and, more recently, by how the poor and middle-class peasants during the Cultural Revolution contrasted their past misery with their present happiness."

At the end of the year, Baldy Li called Yanker Yu and Popsicle Wang to his office at Li's Salvage and Recycling Company, announcing that profits and dividends from the past year had not been bad at all. Yanker Yu had two shares for his two thousand yuan investment and Popsicle Wang had one share for his thousand yuan, meaning that Yanker Yu would receive dividends of twenty thousand yuan and Popsicle Wang ten thousand yuan. At the time there didn't yet exist one-hundred-yuan bills, the largest bill being only ten yuan. Therefore, Baldy Li pushed twenty thick piles of bills toward Yanker Yu and ten thick piles toward Popsicle Wang. The two of them looked at each other, unable to believe their good fortune. Baldy Li leaned back in his chair as if he were watching a movie, laughing at them.

Yanker Yu and Popsicle Wang counted to themselves, calculating that in less than a year their initial investment had yielded a return of 1,000 percent. Yu and Wang laughed idiotically, and Yanker Yu mumbled to himself, "Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that a two-thousand-yuan investment would yield twenty thousand yuan in profits."

"Its not profit," Baldy Li corrected him. "These are dividend payments. You two are my shareholders, and from now on you will receive dividend payments every year."

Popsicle Wang asked as if in a dream, "I'll receive another ten thousand yuan every year?"

"Not necessarily," Baldy Li answered. "Next year you might receive fifty thousand yuan."

Popsicle Wang seemed as if he were about to have a seizure, almost falling out of his chair. Yanker Yu asked in astonishment, "And will I receive a hundred thousand yuan?"

"Of course," Baldy Li nodded. "If Popsicle Wang receives fifty thousand yuan, you will receive a hundred thousand yuan."

Yu and Wang again looked skeptical. They glanced at each other and wondered how there could ever be such a good deal. Popsicle Wang asked Yanker Yu carefully, "Is this for real?"

Yanker Yu nodded but then shook his head and said, "I don't know."

Baldy Li laughed out loud and said, "You can pinch yourselves, and if it hurts, then you'll know it's real."

They quickly pinched themselves, and then Yanker Yu asked Popsicle Wang, "Did it hurt?"

Popsicle Wang shook his head nervously. "No, it didn't."

Yanker Yu also became nervous. "I didn't feel it either."