Yu Hua - Brothers

Lin Hong grew increasingly worried, frequently sighing and sometimes even cursing. Though her sighs and curses actually weren't directed toward Song Gang — rather, they were because she was reminded of the disgusting Director Liu — Song Gang assumed that they were because of him. Therefore, every day when he returned home, he bowed his head and became increasingly silent. Even though he earned very little money, he nevertheless gave it all to Lin Hong. What made him feel worse was that when he handed her the tiny sum of money that represented the culmination of his efforts, she would always shake her head, turn away in disappointment, and say quietly, "Why don't you just keep it?" This comment pierced Song Gang's heart like a dagger.

Two years after he twisted his back, Song Gang was finally able to find a permanent job, at the concrete factory. He would be able to work year-round, and if he wanted, he could even work overtime on weekends. With this, a smile returned to his face, and he regained the confidence he used to have while riding his Eternity bicycle. After finding his new job, Song Gang didn't return home but went directly to the gate of the knitting factory, waiting there for Lin Hong to get out. As the other women rushed out on their new bicycles, motorized bicycles, and mopeds, Lin Hong fell behind, pushing the antiquated Eternity bicycle out the front gate. When she emerged, a flushed Song Gang greeted her, announcing, "I have a job!"

Seeing Song Gang's excited appearance, Lin Hong felt a twinge of sadness. She let him ride the bicycle while she sat behind him as she used to, hugging his waist with both arms and pressing her cheek into his back. That night she noticed that Song Gang had aged a lot: His forehead and eyes were now full of wrinkles, and his thick hair was now sparse. She felt bad for him, and while lying in bed, she massaged his back for a long time. That night they hugged each other tight as though it were their wedding night.

Those days Song Gang worked especially hard, afraid that he would be fired again. His job at the factory was one that no one was willing to do: pouring the cement powder into bags. Even with a face mask, he would still inhale tremendous amounts of cement dust, and within two years his lungs were completely ruined. Lin Hong wept many bitter tears over this. Once again Song Gang lost his job, but he didn't go to the hospital for treatment because he couldn't bring himself to spend the money.

Song Gang again assumed the position of Liu Towns chief sub. After his lungs were ruined, he wouldn't sleep in the matrimonial bed anymore, afraid that Lin Hong would catch his illness. He asked to sleep on the couch, but Lin Hong refused, saying that if Song Gang wasn't willing to sleep in the bed with her, then she would be the one who would sleep on the couch. As a result, Song Gang had no choice but to sleep at Lin Hong's feet. On the days that he had a job, he would leave wearing a face mask in order not to pass his lung disease on to others. Song Gang was the only person in Liu who wore a face mask all year long, even during the hot summer, and even the town's youngest children recognized him instantly when they saw him slowly walking down the street, hailing him: "The chief sub has arrived."

BALDY LI had put Song Gang out of his mind. He held up two fingers, saying that during the day he raked in the money while at night he raked in the women. He said that he was insanely busy and apart from money and women he didn't know anything about anything. Baldy Li never did get married, and slept with so many women that even he couldn't keep count. When someone asked him exactly how many women he had slept with, Baldy Li pondered for a while, calculated, and finally responded, not without regret, "Not as many as I have workers."

Baldy Li not only slept with the local women; he also slept with women from all over the country, from Hong Kong, Taiwan, and other overseas Chinese communities, including more than a dozen foreign women. He slept with all sorts of women — tall and short ones, fat and thin ones, beautiful and ugly ones, young and old ones. Everyone said that Baldy Li was very broad-minded: that as long someone was female he wouldn't reject her, and if a sow was led to his bed, he would probably sleep with it as well. Some of the women slept with him on the sly and also accepted money from him on the sly, while others would sleep with him and then take his money and brag openly. They bragged not about the fact that they had slept with him but, rather, about how fabulous and amazing he was in bed. They said that he was an animal in the sack, like a machine gun firing endless rounds, and that he would screw you until your legs went into spasms and you could barely walk the next day, leaving you amazed that you made it off the bed alive.

The salacious rumors concerning Baldy Li were more numerous than explosions on a battlefield. Some of the women he slept with had their eyes on his wealth. The first to make a move was a young woman in her twenties who had come from the countryside to find work in Liu Town. She brought her newborn baby to Baldy Li's office and asked him happily what they should name it. Baldy Li stared at her blankly but couldn't place her. He asked skeptically, "What the fuck does this have to do with me?"

The young woman started bawling, asking how a father could fail to recognize his own son. Baldy Li looked at her and pondered for a moment, but for the life of him he couldn't remember ever having been with her. He asked, "Did you really sleep with me?"

"How could you even ask that?" The woman brought the baby over for Baldy Li to take a look. Still bawling, she said, "Just look, he has your eyebrows, and your eyes, your nose, your mouth, your forehead, your chin…"

Baldy Li glanced at the baby and decided that, other than looking like a baby, it really didn't look like anyone in particular. The woman then pulled down its diaper, saying, "Even his penis looks just like yours."

Baldy Li was furious that this woman would have the gall to speak of his enormous member and this baby's tiny, soybean-size penis in the same breath. As he howled in fury several of his assistants helped usher the hysterical woman out the door.

This young woman then started demonstrating outside the main gate of Baldy Li's company headquarters. Every day she would sit there, holding her baby, sobbing as she told everyone who would listen how Baldy Li's sense of compassion had been snatched by a dog, eaten by a wolf, chewed by a tiger, and shat out by a lion. Several days later, another woman arrived with a baby, claiming that it was Baldy Li's daughter. She tearfully recounted how Baldy Li had tricked her into bed and had gotten her pregnant. Crying even more tragically than the first, she sobbed that when she gave birth, Baldy Li didn't even come to see her. Then a third woman arrived, with a four- or five-year-old boy in tow. She was calmer than the previous two and didn't cry as she sternly accused Baldy Li of going back on his word — claiming that it was only after he had sworn they would marry and live happily ever after that she had agreed to go to bed with him. She pointed to her son and said that, based on his age, he would be Baldy Li's firstborn and heir. As soon as she finished, a fourth woman appeared with a seven- or eight-year-old boy and insisted that her son was Baldy Li's firstborn and rightful heir.

Women claiming to have slept with Baldy Li kept arriving with their children, until finally there were more than thirty of them, all crowded into the street in front of Baldy Li's company headquarters. Day in and day out, they would cry and complain about Baldy Li's philandering. They chattered noisily amongst themselves, transforming the street in front of Baldy Li's headquarters into a small marketplace. They would get into spectacular fights jockeying for position, spitting and pulling one another's hair, scratching one another's faces, and clawing at one another's clothes. From dawn till dusk, the street was full of women's curses and babies’ cries.