Yu Hua - Brothers

Baldy Li and Song Gang became insanely gluttonous. One day after finishing lunch, when their parents started smacking lips again in the inner room, Baldy Li stood by the door and peeked inside, with Song Gang right behind him, eager for an update. Baldy Li saw through the crack in the door that there were two pairs of legs on the bed, with Song Fanpings on top gripping Li Lans below, and he whispered to Song Gang, "They're eating on the bed."

Baldy Li shifted to the other crack in the door. He saw that Song Fanpings body was on top of Li Lans, his hands encircling her waist. He whispered, "They're eating while hugging."

From the third crack in the door Baldy Li saw that that Song Fan-ping and Li Lan were kissing passionately. Baldy Li initially giggled, thinking they looked funny, but then he quickly became mesmerized by what he saw. Song Gang, standing behind him, nudged him several times, but Baldy Li didn't notice. Song Gang whispered to him again and again, "Hey, hey, what are they eating?"

Baldy Li, in the midst of watching, turned around and said mysteriously, "They're not eating candy. They're eating lips."

Song Gang was confused. "Who's eating whose lips?"

Baldy Li answered mysteriously, "Your father is eating my mother's, and my mother is eating your father's."

Song Gang was startled, imagining Song Fanping and Li Lan gnawing away at each other like two wild beasts. The door to the inner room suddenly opened, and Song Fanping and Li Lan stood in the doorway staring at the boys in astonishment. When Song Gang saw that their lips were still attached to their faces, he was immensely relieved. He pointed at Baldy Li and said, "He tricked me. He said that you were eating each other's lips."

Song Fanping and Li Lan grinned, blushing, and then left to return to work without another word. After they left, Baldy Li, in order to prove that he was no liar, had Song Gang sit on the bed, as upright as if he were sitting in a movie theater seat. Baldy Li then placed a bench in front of Song Gang, and, lying prone on the bench, he raised his head and pointed down at the bench and explained, "Now, this is my mother."

Then he pointed at himself and said, "And I'm your dad."

After transforming the bench into Li Lan and himself into Song Fanping, he started demonstrating what lip eating was. Baldy Li pressed down tightly against the bench and hugged it to himself. He started slobbering all over the bench and wiggling against it. As he kissed and wiggled, he explained to Song Gang, "Just like this. They were just like this."

Song Gang didn't get why Baldy Li had to wiggle his body and asked, "Why do you have to move around so much?"

"That's what your dad was doing."

Song Gang giggled. "You look funny."

Baldy Li replied, "Well, your dad looked funny."

Baldy Li wiggled faster and faster on the bench. His face started turning red and his breath quickened. Song Gang became alarmed and jumped off the bed. He pushed at Baldy Li and asked, "Hey, hey, are you okay?"

Baldy Li's wiggling body slowed down. When he got up, he pointed to his crotch with a look of delight. "When you wiggle like this, your weenie gets hard and it feels good."

With great camaraderie, Baldy Li wanted Song Gang to get on the bench and try it out. Looking skeptical, Song Gang lay on the bench but saw that it was all shiny with Baldy Li's drool and snot. He sat up and shook his head. "Look, it's all your snivel."

Ashamed, Baldy Li hurriedly wiped down the bench with his sleeve and had Song Gang climb back on. Song Gang lay down but immediately got back up again, complaining, "It smells like your snot."

Baldy Li was deeply apologetic. He wanted Song Gang to share in his newfound pleasure, so he eagerly helped him lie down facing the other end of the bench. Baldy Li directed him like a coach, telling him how to wiggle and correcting his movements. When he finally felt that Song Gang's wiggling was beginning to resemble Song Fanping's, he sat down on the bed and wiped his brow, asking smugly, "Feel good? Is your weenie hard?"

Song Gang's response was a huge disappointment. He declared it to be no fun at all and added, "The bench is so hard. It just rubbed my weenie and hurt."

Baldy Li looked at Song Gang, mystified. "How could it feel bad?"

Then he helpfully placed two pillows on the bench. Still worried that it wouldn't be soft enough, he went and fetched Song Fanping and Li Lan's pillows from the inner room and also placed them on top. Smiling encouragingly, he offered Song Gang the bench. "Now it'll definitely feel good."

Song Gang didn't want to disappoint him, so he lay on the pillows and started wiggling again under Baldy Li's coaching. After a few wiggles he got up again, complaining that it still felt uncomfortable. It felt like there were little pebbles in the pillow, rubbing his weenie until it hurt.

Then, a miracle: The children discovered the remainder of the bag of White Rabbit candy, which their parents had hidden inside the pillowcase. They had turned over every cabinet in the house looking for it but could not find a single trace. They had crawled under the bed and ended up covered in dust and had burrowed under the bedspread until they were short of breath, but still hadn't managed to find the White Rabbits. It was like looking for a needle in a haystack. But just as they felt they had looked everywhere and were on the verge of giving up, the White Rabbits suddenly appeared in the pillowcase, as if by magic.

The two boys started howling like starved dogs and poured the entire bag onto the bed. Baldy Li stuffed three candies into his mouth at once, and Song Gong got in two at least. Laughing as they ate, they no longer licked or sucked but, rather, chewed with abandon, since there was plenty more. The wanted to stuff their mouths full of this exquisite sweetness and creaminess, which slid into their stomachs and spilled out through their nostrils.

The children swept through the bag like a tornado. Out of the original thirty-seven candies, there were now only four left. Song Gang suddenly got scared and burst into tears. Wiping his face, he asked what they were going to do when their parents came home and saw that they had eaten it all? Song Gang's question gave Baldy Li a start — then he proceeded to stuff the remaining four candies in his mouth without a second thought. Song Gang watched as Baldy Li ate the candy and wailed, "Why aren't you scared?"

After polishing off the candies, Baldy Li wiped his lips and said, "Now I'm scared!"

The two boys sat in a stupor. They looked at the thirty-seven candy wrappers scattered like fall leaves all over the bed. Song Gang could not stop crying, worried that he and Baldy Li would be severely punished when Song Fanping and Li Lan discovered this. Song Fanping would beat them until they were black and blue, until they looked like he had on his wedding day. Song Gangs weeping scared Baldy Li, too. He shuddered repeatedly, then came up with an idea. He suggested that they find pebbles about the size of the candies and wrap them up with the candy wrappers. Song Gang stopped crying and smiled, then followed Baldy Li off the bed and out of the house. They looked under the tree, by the well, in the street, even in the corner where Song Fanping usually peed until they had amassed a pile of little pebbles. Cupping them in their hands, they brought them back to the bed and wrapped each in a candy wrapper, then put them back in the bag. Then they put this bag of thirty-seven oddly shaped fake milk candies back inside the pillowcase and placed the pillow back on the bed.

Once they had accomplished all this, Song Gang began to worry again. He resumed sobbing and sniffed, "They'll still find out."

Baldy Li didn't cry. He grinned, shook his head at Song Gang, and said to comfort him, "They don't know yet."