Yu Hua - Brothers

Song Gang said, "I'm afraid I'll infect you."

Baldy Li said, "I'm not afraid."

Baldy Li told Song Gang to sit down on the couch, and he sat down beside him and said, "So you have finally fucking come to see me."

Song Gang looked about Baldy Li's enormous office and said in wonder, "If Mama were still alive, how delighted she would be to see you in this office."

Baldy Li felt a pang of tenderness. Placing his hand on Song Gang's shoulder, he asked, "Song Gang, what's happened to your health? I've been so busy the past few years, I haven't had a chance to look after you. After hearing that you were injured, I wanted to come and see you, but I got busy with other matters and forgot."

Song Gang smiled sadly and described to Baldy Li how he had hurt his back working on the docks and then ruined his lungs working at the concrete factory. After hearing this, Baldy Li leapt up from the couch and started cursing him, "You fucking idiot. Why do you go everywhere looking for a job when you could have just come to me? You fucking idiot, look at what you've done to yourself. Now your back and lungs are both ruined. You fucking idiot, why didn't you come to ask for my help?"

Baldy Li's curses warmed Song Gang's heart, making him feel that they were indeed still brothers. Song Gang laughed and said, "Well, now I've come."

"Now it's too late," Baldy Li said, exasperated. "You are already disabled."

Song Gang nodded and then asked with embarrassment, "Can you give me a job?"

Baldy Li sighed and nodded his head. He sat down again next to Song Gang and patted his shoulder, saying, "First you must recover your health. I'll have someone send you to the best hospital in Shanghai for treatment. We need to get you cured."

Song Gang shook his head. "I didn't come to you for medical treatment. I came because I need a job."

"Fuck," Baldy Li cursed, then said, "Okay, why don't you come take a vice president position in my office? If you want to come to work, you can, but if you prefer, you can just stay at home and rest. The important thing is for you to get well."

Song Gang shook his head and said, "I can't do that job."

"You fucking bastard," Baldy Li cursed again. "What can you do?"

"Everyone calls me Chief Sub," Song Gang replied in a self-mocking tone and then laughed. "I can only do jobs like cleaning up, sorting letters and newspapers, et cetera I am incapable of doing anything else. I don't have the ability—"

"You good-for-nothing fucking bastard. When Lin Hong married you, she must have been blind." Baldy Li shook his head. "How could I, Baldy Li, ask my brother to do those kinds of things…"

After cursing for a while, Baldy Li realized that it was useless to continue reprimanding Song Gang and said, "Why don't you go on home? I still have a gaggle of reporters waiting for me. We'll discuss your situation later."

Song Gang put his face mask back on and felt content as he emerged from Baldy Li's office. Even though Baldy Li had repeatedly called him a fucking bastard, the more Baldy Li cursed him, the happier Song Gang became. When he returned home, he took off his mask, sat down on the couch, and delightedly said to Lin Hong, "Baldy Li is still the same as ever. He called me a fucking bastard over and over again, saying that I was good for nothing and that you must have been blind to have married me."

At first Lin Hong was also happy, but soon she became confused. She asked him, "Did Baldy Li give you a job?"

"He told me to get well first," Song Gang replied.

Lin Hong asked skeptically, "So he didn't give you a job?"

"He wanted to make me a vice president, but I didn't agree," Song Gang replied.

"Why not?"

"Because I'm not qualified," he explained.

Lin Hong began crying again. She wiped her tears and couldn't help saying, "You are truly hopeless."

Song Gang began to feel uneasy and said softly, "He told me to first recover my health."

"But where are we going to get the money to pay for your medical care?" Lin Hong began crying brokenheartedly

At this point there was a knock on the door. Lin Hong wiped her tears, opened the door a crack, and saw the CFO from Baldy Li's company waiting outside. He gestured for her to come out. Lin Hong stared for a second, then wiped her eyes and followed him out. She walked about thirty yards down the street with him, whereupon he stopped and handed her a bankbook. He explained that the account was in Lin Hong's name and contained one hundred thousand yuan, which Baldy Li was giving Lin Hong and Song Gang to cover their living and medical expenses. He added that Baldy Li was worried that Song Gang wouldn't accept the money and therefore was giving it to Lin Hong instead. He asked Lin Hong to keep it a secret from Song Gang. As he was about to leave the CFO said to Lin Hong, "Boss Li says Song Gang's illness is quite serious, so you should take him to the hospital as soon as possible. Boss Li says that you need not worry about money, and that from now on he'll deposit another one hundred thousand yuan into this account every six months. And if that isn't enough, just let us know. Boss Li says that he will make sure you are taken care of."

With the bankbook in her hand, Lin Hong stood there staring blankly. How much money was one hundred thousand yuan? She had never before even thought of this number. She noticed various passersby staring at the bankbook and jumped in alarm before collecting herself. She quickly hurried home, but as she was about to go inside she abruptly changed her mind. Baldy Li's CFO had instructed her not to tell Song Gang, and therefore she turned around and went to the bank and withdrew about two thousand yuan, deciding to take Song Gang to the hospital the very next day. Then she slowly headed home, with memories of the grinning Baldy Li flooding her mind. She decided that Baldy Li was actually a very good man and that she had been wrong to have despised him.

LESS THAN two months after Writer Liu first enjoyed his moment of fame, he noticed that he had become passé. It seemed as if no one noticed him anymore, and the royalty checks also stopped arriving. He became indignant, feeling that he had single-handedly created Baldy Li's current supercelebrity status, while he himself, by contrast, had been promptly forgotten. Without exception, all of the reporters who arrived in town wanted to talk to Baldy Li and none even deigned to glance at Writer Liu. Once he pulled aside several reporters in the street and told them that he was the one who had written the original article about Baldy Li. They grunted but then hurried on to interview Baldy Li, afraid that if they arrived late, they would miss their turn for the day.

Finding himself once again without an income or an audience, Writer Liu wandered the streets wearing a wrinkled suit, with a straggly beard, and disheveled hair. His black shoes were so coated in dust that they had become gray. Since the out-of-towners ignored him, he turned instead to the townspeople themselves. He'd pull a local aside and prattle on endlessly, describing how Baldy Li had achieved his fame as the result of his own tremendous contributions. Writer Liu's rants would always conclude with the same phrase: "I have expended all my efforts embroidering someone else's wedding gown."

Writer Liu's rantings soon spread all over town until finally they reached the ears of Baldy Li. Saying, "I want to teach him some manners," he had his underlings go and fetch Writer Liu.

When Baldy Li's underlings found Writer Liu, he was standing in the middle of the street munching on an apple. They walked over and told him that Baldy Li wanted to see him. Liu was so excited that he started to choke on his apple. He bent over, his face completely red, and then, coughing and thumping his chest, he followed Baldy Li's two underlings. He continued thumping his chest all the way to the entrance of Baldy Li's headquarters, whereupon he finally succeeded in coughing up the piece of apple that had gotten lodged in his throat. Panting and wiping his tears as if he had just returned from the dead, Writer Liu told the underlings, "I know why Boss Li wants to see me. I've been waiting for his call. I know what kind of person Boss Li is. When Boss Li drinks water, he doesn't forget the person who brought it from the well."