Yu Hua - Brothers

Even at this tender age Baldy Li was already a live-life-while-you-can kind of guy. Once he had finished all the White Rabbit candies, his interest in the bench returned. Amid the din of Song Gang's sobbing, he climbed up on the bench again and started wiggling. This time he knew exactly what he was doing. He put his weight on his weenie, wiggling directly there. He wiggled until he was once again breathing heavily and red in the face.

From this point on Baldy Li and Song Gang were inseparable. Baldy Li liked having this older brother, because only after acquiring a brother was he able to start living his life of free roaming. Before, when Li Lan left for work at the silk factory, she would lock him in the house and make him spend day after day there. Song Fanping, however, would tie a key around Song Gang's neck, allowing the boys to wind freely through the streets and alleys of Liu. Song Fanping and Li Lan had worried that the boys would end up fighting each other every day, never expecting that the two would end up becoming so close. They would always be covered in scrapes and bruises from accidents but never showed any trace of having been in a fight. Only once did they come back with swollen lips and bloody noses, but those were a result of fighting with some other family's kids.

After discovering the marvels of his body on the bench, Baldy Li started rubbing his weenie like an addict. He and Song Gang would be strolling down the street, and he would suddenly stop in his tracks and announce, "I need to take a few rubs."

Then he would hump a big wooden electrical pole. Listening to the buzz of the electricity, he would rub his body up and down until he was beet red and panting heavily. After he finished, he would sigh with contentment and tell Song Gang, "That feels so good."

Song Gang was in awe of Baldy Li's expression but was also mystified. He often asked Baldy Li, "Why can't I feel good?"

Baldy Li was mystified too and would shake his head in confusion. "Yeah, why doesn't it feel good?"

A few times as the boys were crossing the bridge, Baldy Li would suddenly be struck with his cravings. He would lie right down on the bridge and start rubbing as if he were on the bench at home. Beneath him was the town creek, and tugboats would pass underneath, whistles blowing. When the whistles blew, Baldy Li would become even more excited. One time he felt so good he started squealing with delight.

Once three middle-school students happened to walk by — the same three who had fought Song Fanping on the day of his wedding. They stood next to the bridge watching Baldy Li curiously and asked, "Hey, kid, what'cha doing?"

Baldy Li flipped himself over and answered, panting, "When I rub like this, my weenie gets hard and it feels good."

The students were dumbfounded by his response. Baldy Li proceeded to coach them, explaining that you could also hug the wooden electrical pole, but you were more likely to get tired standing up, so it was better to do it lying down. He concluded, "When you go home, you could just rub yourself on a bench."

The students started howling in amazement, "This kid has hit puberty!"

At that point Baldy Li had an epiphany: He finally understood why his rubbing felt so good while Song Gang's didn't. After the middle-school students walked off, he said to himself, So I've hit puberty.

Then he smugly told Song Gang, "Your father and me — we've hit puberty, but you haven't yet."

While Baldy Li and Song Gang were roaming the streets, they would often go to the west side of town, where things were busiest. The blacksmith, tailor, knife sharpener, and dentist's shops were all there, and a popsicle vendor named Wang walked up and down the street, banging on his icebox and hawking his goods.

One day as usual, the boys first stood in front of the tailor s shop and watched as Liu Town s legendary Tailor Zhang took a leather tape measure and measured a woman's neck, chest, and hips. His hands were all over the woman, but instead of getting angry, she merely giggled.

After watching Tailor Zhang for a while, the boys went over to watch the Guan father and son in the knife sharpeners shop. Old Scissors Guan was then in his forties, and Little Scissors Guan was fifteen. The two of them sat on low stools around a wooden basin filled with water. There were two whetting stones in the basin, and as the two sharpened their knives they made a scraping sound like a heavy rain.

The boys then went over to check out the shop of the town s dentist, Tooth-Yanker Yu. Yanker Yu didn't actually have a shop — he sat on the street at a table under an oilcloth umbrella. On the left side of the table was a row of tooth extractors of different sizes, and on the right were a few dozen extracted teeth, used to attract customers. Behind the table was a stool, and beside it was a rattan recliner. When a customer came by, he would lie down on the recliner, and Yanker Yu would sit on the stool. When there were no customers, Yanker Yu would lie down on the rattan chair himself. Once, as Yanker Yu was just getting comfortable he saw Baldy Li out of the corner of his eye and reflexively leapt up and started aiming for Baldy Li's mouth with an extractor. Only when Baldy Li screamed in terror did Yanker Yu realize he had mistaken the boy for a customer. He grabbed Baldy Li and tossed him out. "Damn you, with your baby teeth. Scram!"

Blacksmith Tongs shop was the kids’ favorite destination. Blacksmith Tong had his own cart, which was hugely impressive — much more so than owning a truck nowadays. Every week Blacksmith Tong would go to the junkyard and bring back scrap metal. Baldy Li and Song Gang liked to watch him pound the metal, turning scrap copper into mirror frames and iron into scythes and hoes. The flying sparks made the kids squeal with excitement, and Song Gang asked Blacksmith Tong, "Are the stars in the sky also made out of metal?"

"Yup," answered Blacksmith Tong, "I pounded ‘em myself."

Song Gang held Blacksmith Tong in the highest regard. He marveled to his brother that all the stars in the sky turned out to have been forged in Blacksmith Tongs shop and then launched into the sky! Baldy Li didn't believe this and said that Blacksmith Tong was bullshitting them, that all the sparks from Blacksmith Tongs pounding ended up as ashes right outside his door.

Even though Baldy Li knew that Blacksmith Tong was full of it, he still liked to watch him work. After learning from the middle-school students the scientific explanation for his love of rubbing, he felt justified in lying down on the bench in the blacksmiths shop. Previously, he would sit there alongside Song Gang and watch Blacksmith Tong, but now he took the bench for himself and made Song Gang stand to one side. Baldy Li spread his hands and shrugged. "Sorry, I need the space. I've hit puberty."

While watching the sparks fly off the anvil, Baldy Li wiggled and panted heavily, crying out along with Song Gang, "Stars, stars, so many stars …"

Back then Blacksmith Tong was still a young fellow in his twenties who hadn't yet married the woman with the fat buttocks. Thickset, with tongs in his left hand and a hammer in his right, he watched Baldy Li while pounding his metal. He knew what the boy was up to and marveled that such a little bastard would be getting off. He suddenly lost his concentration and almost smashed his own hand. Spooked, he threw away the tongs and cursed as he put down his hammer, asking Baldy Li, who was panting away on the bench, "Hey, how old are you?"

Baldy Li panted, "Almost eight."

"Damn," Blacksmith Tong swore. "You little bastard, you're not even eight and you already have a sex drive."

That was how Baldy Li learned what a sex drive was. He felt that Blacksmith Tong explained things better even than the three middle-schoolers. Blacksmith Tong was, after all, far older than they. Baldy Li no longer announced that he had hit puberty but, rather, used this new term. He smugly announced to Song Gang, "You don't have a sex drive yet, but your father does, and so do I."