Yu Hua - Brothers

BALDY LI and Lin Hong rode into Liu Town in the white Mercedes just before dusk, driving right into Baldy Li's mansion. Lin Hong had had her hymen surgically reconstructed, and Baldy Li had done a lot of business in Beijing and the northeast. When they got out of the car, it was as if they were making a triumphant return. As soon as they walked into the living room, Baldy Li's phone rang. It was Deputy Liu telling him that dinner was prepared, and that he could come eat whenever he wished. Baldy Li closed his cell phone and said, "That bastard definitely thinks of everything."

Baldy Li and Lin Hong deposited their luggage in the living room, then glided into the dining room. By that point, night had fallen, so Baldy Li turned on the chandelier. He saw that the dinner was laid out and that a bouquet of roses had been placed in the middle of the table. A bottle of French red wine was sitting in a stainless-steel ice bucket. The bottle had been opened and the cork reinserted. Baldy Li and Lin Hong sat down across from each other. Baldy Li was very satisfied with Deputy Liu, telling Lin Hong, "That bastard has arranged everything very romantically."

Lin Hong glanced over at the dinner and the roses and began to giggle, remarking that it was as if they were foreigners sitting down to a meal. Like a foreign gentleman, Baldy Li took the wine out of the ice bucket, and after removing the cork, he poured a little into his glass. Then he put down the bottle, raised his glass, swished it around, sniffed it, and drank a sip. He said approvingly, "This wine is not bad at all."

After he got up, he placed his left hand on his back and used his right hand to elegantly fill Lin Hong's glass. At the sight of the uncouth, foul-mouthed Baldy Li acting with such refinement, Lin Hong couldn't help laughing. This being the first time Lin Hong had seen such elegance, she asked Baldy Li, "Where did you learn this?"

"From TV," Baldy Li replied graciously, then lifted his glass and waited for Lin Hong to lift hers and toast with him. She took a tiny sip of her wine, then put her glass down. Baldy Li, by contrast, immediately downed his entire glass, as if he were engaged in a drinking competition. He was an old dog who couldn't be taught new tricks, and he called out to Lin Hong, "Eat quickly, then go wash up. When you're done, go to the bed and wait for me."

At that moment, Song Gang was sitting in Wanderless Zhou's Snack Shop eating straw-embedded buns for the first time in his life. The piping-hot juice was scalding the inside of his mouth, but he couldn't feel a thing. By the time he walked out of the snack shop and headed toward the railroad tracks to the east of town, Baldy Li had wolfed down his dinner and was urging Lin Hong to finish hers. Thus was life: Someone who was walking toward death might linger over the setting sun's glorious rays, while two others who were hedonistically pursuing pleasure might be completely oblivious to the beauty of the sunset.

The setting sun finally vanished, and a heavy night sky enveloped Liu Town. As Song Gang lay down on the railroad tracks under the faint light of the moon, Lin Hong was sitting on the bed with her pants off, waiting for Baldy Li to emerge from the bathroom. He dawdled for a long time, and just as he turned on the faucet Deputy Liu called again. Liu had figured that Baldy Li would have gone to the restroom and conscientiously told him that in the cabinet there were two new instruments for inspecting hymens. Baldy Li warmly called Deputy Liu a bastard, and after he washed up, he hurriedly dried himself off, then opened the cabinet to see what kind of instruments they were. Surprised to discover miner's implements, Baldy Li stared in astonishment, then once again affectionately called Deputy Liu a bastard.

Lin Hong heard Baldy Li mumbling in the bathroom but didn't know what he was saying. When he finally emerged, she stared at him in astonishment. He had his pants off but was wearing a miner's hat with a lamp. Around his waist he had a leather belt with a battery in back, and a cord ran like a Qing dynasty queue from the hat down to the belt. Noticing Lin Hong staring in astonishment, Baldy Li turned on the lamp on the miner's hat, and a beam of light suddenly shone directly on her crotch. He announced proudly that this time he wanted to appreciate her hymen. Looking like a miner crawling into a cave, Baldy Li chortled as he crawled into bed. Lin Hong finally reacted and let out a huge laugh, never having imagined that Baldy Li would have accoutered himself in this way. She laughed so hard that she couldn't catch her breath and began to cough. Baldy Li was very displeased by her reaction and lifted his head so that his light shone on her chest, then asked, "In what way is this supposed to resemble a virgin?"

Lin Hong was laughing so hard tears came to her eyes, and she said, "You're killing me. I'm going to die laughing…"

Baldy Li angrily sat down next to her, with his searchlight shining on the wall. He waited for her to finish, then exclaimed, "Damn it, you look like a slut. In what way do you resemble a virgin?"

After Lin Hong covered her mouth to smother her last few guffaws, she adopted a serious demeanor and asked Baldy Li, "How should a virgin act?"

Baldy Li instructed her: "The first time you see a naked man, you should cover your face."

Lin Hong laughed under her breath, then covered her face with both hands but still kept her legs spread wide. Baldy Li was not pleased and said, "Only sluts would spread their legs upon seeing a naked man. What kind of virgin would do that?"

Lin Hong locked her legs together and asked, "How's this?"

Baldy Li continued to instruct her: "You should also cover that area with your hands and not let the man see."

Lin Hong replied unhappily, "First you ask me to cover my face with my hands, and then you tell me to cover that area. Does it look to you like I have four hands?"

Baldy Li thought that Lin Hong had a point. He sought her advice, asking, "What were you like when you did it with Song Gang for the first time?"

Lin Hong replied, "It was under the covers, with the light off."

Baldy Li quickly got out of bed and turned off the lights, making the spotlight on his head appear to shine even brighter, so bright that Lin Hong couldn't keep her eyes open. Lin Hong told him to turn the miner's light off, but he refused, saying that if he did, he wouldn't be able to see her hymen. He then asked her, "How did Song Gang look at your hymen?"

Lin Hong replied, "He didn't look. He was too embarrassed."

"That idiot," Baldy Li said. "I want to look. It would be a waste not to."

Baldy Li then crawled between Lin Hong's thighs, wanting to peer at her hymen. She used both hands to cover herself, not letting him see. He struggled to pull her hands away, but she twisted herself to the side. When he managed to straighten her butt, she once again covered herself with both hands. After several rounds Baldy Li still had not succeeded in seeing anything and complained, "Let me fucking see!"

Lin Hong replied, "But you told me to cover myself with my hands."

"Fuck," Baldy Li said. "Its true that you should cover yourself, but you should resist and acquiesce at the same time."

"Okay," Lin Hong said. "I'll both resist and acquiesce."

After Baldy Li struggled a couple more times, Lin Hong removed her hands and squealed as she flailed her limbs, parting her legs reluctantly. Baldy Li was very pleased and said, "Good! Excellent performance!"

Baldy Li peered in with the miners lamp, and Lin Hong again pretended to be embarrassed and covered herself with her hands. Baldy Li happily called out his approval, "That's great! Really realistic."

At this point Lin Hong became displeased, asking, "In what way do you resemble a man doing it for the first time? With that ridiculous lamp, you look like an old whoremonger. Men, when they do it the first time, should also be somewhat shy. Song Gang, for instance, was very shy."