Yu Hua - Brothers

Song Gang carefully reassembled the bicycle, oiled the bearings, wiped his hands with a rag, and took a few turns in front of the house. No longer hearing the creaking sound, he hopped off in satisfaction and lowered the seat. Then he pushed the bicycle over to Lin Hong and asked her to climb on and give it a try. She had finished eating but was holding the bowl of food she had prepared for Song Gang. After he took the bowl from her, she accepted the bicycle. He then sat down where Lin Hong had just been sitting and ate his dinner while watching her climb onto his bicycle under the light of the streetlamps. Lin Hong rode three loops while Song Gang watched, and she announced that it felt fine, that this ten-year-old Eternity bicycle felt just like new. Song Gang, however, noticed a problem and set his bowl and chopsticks down on the stool. After she got down from the bicycle, he lowered the seat even more, then asked her to climb on and try again. Seeing that she was now able to rest both of her feet on the ground at the same time, he nodded with satisfaction and urged her, "When you brake, keep both feet on the ground. That way you won't fall."

MEANWHILE, Song Gang and Lin Hong s house was torn down, and they moved to the first floor of a new building across the street. Mama Su also had to move her snack shop to the building across from Lin Hongs house. Poet Zhao's house was torn down as well, forcing him to move to the second floor of Song Gang and Lin Hongs building. Poet Zhao deliberately positioned his bed directly over theirs, and in the dead of night he would lie there, hoping to hear sounds of their lovemaking. Unable to hear anything, he placed his ear directly against the concrete floor but still couldn't hear anything and wondered how in the world there could be such a deathly silent matrimonial bed. Song Gang and Lin Hong had been married for many years, but they still hadn't had any children. He felt that the problem surely lay with Song Gang and speculated that he must be impotent. He secretly told Writer Liu his theory, adding, "When they go to bed together at night, they are like two guns equipped with silencers."

After Song Gang lost his job, he found a new job as a dockworker down at the wharf, carrying parcels from the ships to the warehouse and vice versa. He was paid by the piece, and therefore the more parcels he moved, the more he was paid. He rushed frantically with the large parcels up and down the hundred-yard path from the wharf to the warehouse — and while everyone else would just carry one, he would always carry two at once. Every day the elders who sat chatting on the side of the road would hear him wheezing like an accordion as he ran back and forth. His clothes completely drenched in sweat, he looked as if he had just climbed out of the river. Even his sneakers were soaked with sweat, making swishing sounds as he hauled the parcels back and forth. The elders would shake their heads and say, "That Song Gang values money more than life itself."

Song Gang's workmates would each make three or four round-trips, then sit on the riverbank steps to rest. There they would drink some water, smoke, and chat for half an hour before finally going back to work. Song Gang, however, would never sit on the steps to rest. Instead, he would make seven or eight trips, until — his face pale and his lips trembling, feeling that he was about to collapse — he would place the last parcel on the ship. Walking down the plank back to shore, he'd see his workmates on the steps waving at him but, feeling he didn't even have the strength to cover the remaining ten yards, he'd fall to the ground as soon as he got off the plank. Therefore, his break would consist of sprawling there, with grass wedged under his collar and river water flowing past his arm, his eyes closed tightly, his chest rising and falling rapidly, and his heart pounding like a fist against his chest cavity.

By resting on the ground like this, Song Gang could recover his strength faster. Every time he lay down, his workmates sitting on the stone steps would laugh at him, calling him a crazy fool. Song Gang was so exhausted he couldn't hear what they were saying. Feeling that the ground was spinning, he'd clench his eyes until he could discern the sunlight through his closed lids and his breathing slowed back down to normal. At that point, having rested for less than ten minutes, he'd hear his workmates calling out his name. He'd slowly climb back up and see them waving to him, holding their water glasses out to him and offering him a cigarette. He'd smile and wave, then walk over to the water faucet on the dock to fill his belly, whereupon he'd take two more parcels and begin rushing back and forth again.

Working on the docks, Song Gang earned twice as much as his fellow workers and four times as much as he had made under the metal factory's iron-rice-bowl system. The first time he gave Lin Hong his salary, she jumped with surprise, astounded that he could have earned so much as a dockworker. Counting it, she said, "You are earning more in a month than you used to earn in four months at the factory."

Song Gang grinned and said, "Actually, losing one's job isn't so bad after all."

Lin Hong realized that he was literally trading his blood and sweat for these earnings and urged him not to work so hard, saying, "We can survive regardless of how much money we have."

Every evening when Song Gang returned home, he'd be so tired he could hardly hold his head up and would fall asleep immediately after dinner. Before, he used to sleep very peacefully, but now he'd sigh and snore up a storm. He'd frequently wake up Lin Hong, who would find herself unable to fall back to sleep. Listening to his irregular snoring and occasional cries, she felt extremely anxious, concerned that he remained exhausted even in his sleep.

By morning, he'd be full of life again, and Lin Hong would feel reassured. He would eat his breakfast with a broad smile on his face and, carrying his lunch box, would march off in the direction of the rising sun. Lin Hong walked by his side, pushing her antiquated Eternity bicycle. The two of them would walk together for about fifty yards, then stop at the corner, where Song Gang would watch as Lin Hong mounted her bicycle, urging her to be careful. She would nod and ride off to the west, while Song Gang headed east toward the wharf.

In the end, Song Gang worked the docks for only two months, because in the third month he sprained his back. He was carrying two large parcels and had just stepped off the plank when someone on the boat called out to him. He turned around too quickly and heard his body make a horrible cracking sound. Realizing that he was injured, Song Gang immediately dropped the parcels, but when he tried to move, he felt an excruciating pain in his back. Holding his lower back with both hands, he smiled painfully as he looked over at his two workmates, who asked in alarm what had happened. Song Gang grimaced. "I think I broke something."

The two workmates immediately threw down their own parcels and helped carry him to the stone steps beside the river, asking him what he had broken. Song Gang pointed to his lower back, explaining that he had heard a cracking sound when he turned around. One of the workmates asked him to lift his hands, and the other asked him to shake his head. Reassured to see that he could do so, they explained that the only bones in his lower back were his vertebrae, and if they were broken, his upper body would have been paralyzed. Song Gang lifted his arms and shook his head again, and then he too felt reassured. Holding his lower back with his right hand, he said, "When I heard the cracking sound, I assumed that it was a bone breaking."

"You merely sprained your back," they told him. "When you sprain something, it sometimes also makes that kind of sound."