Yu Hua - Brothers

Baldy Li and Song Gang shrieked with excitement, which startled Song Fanping so much that he covered their mouths with his hands. The look of terror on his face also frightened them. When he saw their alarm, Song Fanping immediately lowered his hands and laughed as he pointed up to the ceiling. "Your screams almost blew the roof off!"

Baldy Li and Song Gang thought that was a hoot. This time they covered their own mouths as they laughed nonstop.

THE NEXT DAY, as they were about to set off for the seaside, a dozen or so people from Song Fanpings school sauntered in, all wearing red armbands. Baldy Li and Song Gang didn't realize that they were here to search the house, thinking instead that Song Fanpings pals had come to check on him. The boys found themselves stirred by the sight of so many red-armbanders, all full of bravado, filling up their house. Exhilarated, they wove back and forth through the crowds as if navigating a forest. Then a loud boom! made them shudder with terror, and they watched in horror as their dressers and bureaus were upended, their clothes and things strewn all over the ground. The red-armbanders picked through the family's possessions like scavengers, rummaging through everything looking for Song Fanpings land deeds. Song Fanping was born into the landowning class, so these people were convinced that he must be hiding land deeds, merely waiting for a regime change to take them out again. The red-armbanders flipped over the bed planks and pried up the floorboards while Baldy Li and Song Gang hid behind Song Fanping. They saw that Song Fanping still had a smile on his face, but couldn't understand why he would be pleased. These people turned Song Fanpings home into a scrap heap without finding any land deeds. They eventually filed out of the house one by one as Song Fanping, still with a smile on his face, followed them out as if seeing off guests. At one point he even asked them, "Won't you have a cup of tea before setting off?"

One of them responded, "No need."

Song Fanping stood, smiling, at the door, and only when they had left the alley did he turn to go back into the house. As soon as he got inside and sat down, his smile immediately vanished, like a light switching off. Song Fanping sat there, his face the color of iron, and for the longest time he didn't move a muscle. The two boys walked over and timidly asked him, "Are we going to the seaside?"

Song Fanping started as if woken from a deep sleep and bellowed, "Let's go!"

He looked at the sun shining outside and said, "With such good weather, of course we're going."

Song Fanping righted the armoire, repositioned the bed planks, and nailed down the displaced floorboards. Baldy Li and Song Gang followed behind him, placing the clothes back into the bureau and the knickknacks back into the drawers. It was as if the light had been turned back on, and Song Fanping was once again smiling. As he tidied the house he talked and chuckled nonstop with the kids. By noon they were finally done cleaning up, leaving the house even tidier than before. They used towels to wipe the sweat off their faces and handkerchiefs to dust off their clothes. Then they combed their hair in front of the mirror and were finally ready to leave for the seaside.

When they opened their door, they found seven or eight red-armband-wearing middle-school students standing outside, including the three who had stolen Baldy Li's and Song Gang's Mao badges. When Baldy Li and Song Gang saw the three of them, they started clamoring excitedly, and Song Gang said to his father, "Papa, they're the ones who took away our Mao badges. Go teach them a lesson."

Baldy Li shouted at the middle-schoolers, "Give them back! Give us our badges back!"

The three middle-schoolers pushed the children away, chuckling. The one with the long hair, Sun Wei, said to Song Fanping, "We're Red Guards, and we're here to search your home!"

Smiling, Song Fanping welcomed them in. "Come in, come in."

Baldy Li and Song Gang were baffled by Song Fanping's obsequious manner. The Red Guards swarmed in and again threw the house into tumult. The bureau that had just been righted was upended once again, the just-tidied bed plank was again flipped over, the floorboards that just been nailed back down were pried up again, and the clothes they had just folded were once again strewn all over the floor. When the previous group, from Song Fanping's school, came, they had primarily rifled through Song Fanping's books and papers, looking for his hidden land deeds. But these Red Guards were like bulls in a china shop, shattering pots and pans on the floor, snapping chopsticks in half, and searching the house as they stuffed things into their own pockets, periodically stopping to compare what they had each pocketed.

These Red Guards shattered, snapped, and looted Song Fanping's home all afternoon. Only after they saw that there wasn't much left to shatter or to grab, and all their pockets were stuffed full, did they finally depart, whistling happily. Long-haired Sun Wei turned around and said to Song Fanping, "Hey come out here."

On the day of Song Fanping and Li Lan s wedding, Sun Wei, Victory Zhao, Success Liu, and their fathers had been roundly beaten by Song Fanping. With his sweeping leg kick he had swatted them down. Now, a year later, these middle-schoolers wanted their revenge. They had Song Fanping stand in the empty lot in front of the house so that they could show off their own sweeping kicks. Song Fanping stood there stalwartly, like an iron tower. The three middle-schoolers started with their warm-up exercises, squatting down and sweeping their right legs out. Even after a few tries, not one of their kicks looked like the real thing. If they didn't lose their balance and end up sitting on the ground, they would drag their foot and scrape up a cloud of dust. The other two middle-schoolers would shake their heads. "Doesn't look like a sweeping leg kick to us."

"What does it look like, then?"

"I don't know, but certainly not a sweeping leg kick."

Sun Wei asked Song Fanping, who was standing there with his head bowed, "Hey, so did that look like a sweeping leg kick?"

"It did," Song Fanping replied. "But you haven't quite gotten the knack of it."

Sun Wei said to Song Fanping, "Now, spit it out. What's the secret?"

So Song Fanping became their coach, instructing them to watch carefully. He adroitly demonstrated the kick a few times, and the students whistled and exclaimed, "Now, that's a proper sweeping leg kick." Then he broke down his movements, explaining that the sweeping leg kick actually had three steps — squat, sweep, and straighten— and that the steps had to be done in one continuous motion. He explained that the body's center of gravity had to be shifted to the front, because that gave the sweep force, and that you could use your hands for support. Then Song Fanping had them practice, stopping them at various points and demonstrating the proper form. Finally, he announced that they had mastered the form but were still not swift enough. "Only when you do it swiftly will the kick not break down into its separate components. But you can't learn to be fast in a day or two. Go home and practice every day, and when others can see only one move, you've mastered it."

All afternoon Song Fanping used both explanations and demonstrations to teach the three middle-schoolers the proper execution of a sweeping leg kick. When the students finally felt they had gotten it, they ordered Song Fanping to stand still and get a taste of their newly mastered kicks. He stood with his legs slightly apart.

The first one up was Victory Zhao, who proceeded to practice the move in front of Song Fanping, earning a round of applause from the gathering crowd: "Way to go!" But when Zhao squatted down and swept his leg over, his foot caught on Song Fanpings leg. Song Fanping remained motionless, while Zhao found himself sprawled on the ground with a mouthful of dirt, eliciting a round of laughter.