Yu Hua - Brothers

Baldy Li decided that Lin Hong had a point, so he turned off the lamp, unfastened his belt, and threw the entire contraption under the bed, saying, "Now it's dark. We are now a pair of virgins."

The two hugged in the darkness, and after they caressed each other for a while, Baldy Li inserted himself. Lin Hong uttered a cry, and this cry was one of genuine pain. When Baldy Li heard it, he trembled with excitement. In all the times he and Lin Hong had done it, this was the first time he had heard her cry out like this. She then started to moan— a moan of agony, but also of ecstasy. Her entire body was bathed in sweat, and her ecstasy was gradually catching up with her agony. Her body had never before experienced this sort of stimulation as she felt her intense agony propelling her sense of ecstasy, like a rocket propelling the space shuttle. Then her orgasm exploded like a tsunami, the wave of pleasure that swept over her making her tremble from head to toe. She cried out hoarsely, "That hurts…"

By that point, Baldy Li felt that he had gone back in time twenty years. Despite having been on the meat market for so long, he had also never experienced such intense thrill. Their bodies mutually stimulated each other, and as Lin Hong clasped Baldy Li, Baldy Li clapsed her back. As Lin Hong's body started to tremble, so did Baldy Li's. As Lin Hong's orgasm approached, her entire body started to shudder, and Baldy Li felt that he had his arms around an earthquake. At that point his own orgasm came screaming out.

Afterward, the two lay motionless on the bed, their hearts pounding, Lin Hong breathing feebly and Baldy Li gasping for air. Both had experienced mind-blowing orgasms, which had taken them to unprecedented peaks of pleasure. Now it was as if they were fluttering down from the peak of Mount Everest, surrounded by white snow on all sides. Both of them felt that their bodies were like paper fluttering back down to earth.

THAT EVENING, after Lin Hong experienced her unprecedented orgasm, she closed her eyes and lay in bed utterly exhausted. Then, like a lamb to the slaughter, she allowed Baldy Li to vigorously do it a second, a third, and even a fourth time. In Baldy Li's bed Lin Hong experienced over and over again a feeling of narrowly escaping death. The third time she didn't agree and said exhaustedly that they had made a pact to do it no more than twice a day. Baldy Li boldly said that today he considered himself a male virgin who was tasting the flavor of woman for the first time, like a dog falling into a pile of shit and eating to its heart's content. Therefore, how could a mere two times suffice? Lin Hong had no choice but to lie there numbly and allow him to do it a third time, after which he wanted to do it yet again. She almost cried, but he told her that this would be the last time the two of them would ever make love, because after this, he would return her to Song Gang.

When Deputy Liu called at two in the morning, Baldy Li was in the process of having sex with Lin Hong that fourth time, and she was enduring the agony of doing it with this beastlike man. When Baldy Li's cell phone rang, he continued to thrust as he checked the phone. Noticing that it was Deputy Liu's number, he cursed and didn't answer. After a while the phone rang again, and Baldy Li cursed again but still didn't answer. Then the cell started ringing continuously, and Baldy Li, absolutely furious, flipped it open and screamed, "I'm fucking in the middle of something!" Baldy Li then heard what Deputy Liu was trying to say and cried out like a bomb exploding, "What?"

In a state of shock, Baldy Li jumped off the bed, then stood there like an idiot, naked, holding his cell phone, with his mouth hanging open. Every time Deputy Liu said something, Baldy Li would shudder. When Liu finished and hung up the phone, Baldy Li still stood there with the phone to his ear, completely immobile, as if he had lost his mind. After a while he dropped the phone to the floor and was then startled when it started to ring. When he recovered his senses, he began to curse himself tearfully, saying, "I should fucking die. I don't deserve to die well, and if I'm not run over by a car, I should be burned to death. If I'm not burned to death, I should drown in freezing water or be run over by a car… I'm such a bastard…"

Lin Hong was bone tired. She vaguely perceived that Baldy Li was on top of her, then answered a telephone call. Like a spring, this telephone call catapulted Baldy Li right off her. Then there was no sound, after which Baldy Li started shaking his fist and cursing himself as he pounded his head. Lin Hong opened her eyes but couldn't understand what was happening. She nervously sat up and saw that Baldy Li's phone had fallen to the floor while he himself was crying as though his heart were broken, wiping at his tears with both fists like a child. Lin Hong had a vague feeling and asked uneasily, "Did something happen?"

With tears streaming down his face, Baldy Li told her, "Song Gang is dead. That bastard killed himself by lying across the train tracks."

Her mouth hanging open, Lin Hong stared at Baldy Li in terror. Looking as if Baldy Li had just raped her, she leapt off the bed and quickly got dressed. Then she didn't know what to do next. She had a look of absolute bafflement on her face, as though a doctor had informed her that she was terminally ill. After a while, tears began to stream down her face. She bit her lip but couldn't stop the flow of tears. She noticed that Baldy Li was standing there naked and suddenly felt a wave of revulsion sweep over her. She spat at him, "Why don't you die?"

"You whore." Baldy Li finally found an enemy on whom to vent his fury. He thundered, "Song Gang's corpse has been lying at your front door for more than three hours, waiting for you to open the door! But you're out whoring around!"

"If I am a filthy whore," Lin Hong said furiously, "then what does that make you? You are a fucking bastard!"

"If I am a fucking bastard," Baldy Li responded, equally furiously, "then you are a fucking dirty slut!"

"If I am a dirty slut," Lin Hong said with bitter fury, "then you are worse than a beast."

"If I am worse than a beast" — Baldy Li's eyes glinted bright red— "then what the fuck are you? You fucking killed your own husband!"

"If I killed my own husband," Lin Hong screamed, "then you killed your own brother!"

After she said this, Baldy Li again began to cry. Suddenly pathetic, he walked toward Lin Hong with his arms extended, exclaiming sorrowfully, "We both killed Song Gang, and therefore neither of us deserves to die well."

Lin Hong pushed away Baldy Li's hand and shouted with disgust, "Get away from me!"

She walked out of Baldy Li's bedroom and down the stairs. When she arrived in the living room, she noticed that Baldy Li, still buck-naked, was following her. When she opened the front door, a naked Baldy Li followed her out. Lin Hong then stopped and said, "Don't follow me!"

"Who is fucking following you?" the naked Baldy Li asked as he walked up to her. "I'm going to see Song Gang!"

"Stop!" Lin Hong cried. "You have no face to go see Song Gang."

"If I have no face to go see Song Gang," Baldy Li said as he sorrowfully came to a halt and then turned around and thrust a finger in Lin Hong's direction, "you, whore, also have no face to go see him."

"I may not have any face to see him" — Lin Hong nodded somberly, as if agreeing with Baldy Li—"but he is this whore's husband."

Baldy Li cried, "He is my brother."

He cried as he beat his breast and stamped his feet, whereupon he suddenly realized that he was completely naked. He stood there, not knowing what to do. When Lin Hong walked up from behind, he bashfully covered his crotch with his hands. She felt a jolt of pity and said softly, "You should go home."