Yu Hua - Brothers

Next up was Success Liu. He looked over Song Fanping and his strong figure and worried that he too would end up with a mouthful of dirt. But when he noticed that Song Fanping had his legs apart, he grinned and said he knew how to deal with him. So he told Song Fanping to stand with his legs together, saying that was how he was going to flatten him. When he squatted down, he still worried that he would end up with a mouthful of dirt, so he didn't immediately thrust his leg out. Instead he aimed his foot full-force onto Song Fanpings shin. Song Fanping shook from the pain but didn't fall down. The spectators all cheered Song Fanping: "Right on!"

Third up was long-haired Sun Wei. He went behind Song Fanping and then backed up a good forty feet, as if he were about to do a long jump. Running all the way, he aimed his foot at the back of Song Fan-ping's knee and then kicked. Song Fanping immediately fell to his knees, and Sun Wei cheered for himself, "Way to go!" Then he boasted to his mates, "Look at my kung-fu."

The other students disagreed. "That's not a sweeping leg kick."

"Why not?" Sun Wei kicked Song Fanping, who was kneeling on the ground. "Tell me, was that a sweeping leg kick?"

Song Fanping nodded and answered in a low voice, "Yes, it was."

Laid down by the variant sweeping leg kick, Song Fanping watched as the middle-schoolers left, whistling off-key. He waited until they were far off before standing up. He saw his son, Song Gang, head bowed and wiping away tears, and he saw Baldy Li, his adopted son, eyes wide with terror. The boys didn't know what to do: In their minds, Song Fanping had been invincible, but now he was being bullied like a little chick. Song Fanping dusted the dirt off his pants and beckoned the boys as if nothing had happened, "You two, come over here!"

Song Gang, wiping his eyes, and Baldy Li, scratching his head, walked over unsteadily. Song Fanping laughingly asked them, "Would you like to learn the sweeping leg kick?"

The children were startled by his offer. Song Fanping looked around, then knelt down next to them and confided, "You know why they couldn't sweep me down? Because I didn't tell them the final step. The final step I was saving for you two."

Baldy Li and Song Gang suddenly forgot everything that had happened and started shrieking excitedly, as they had the night before. Song Fanping nervously clamped his hands over their mouths. The boys looked up and exclaimed together, "There's no roof to raise here."

Song Fanping nervously looked around again. "It's not a question of raising the roof. We just wouldn't want other people to learn the secret of the kick."

The boys understood. Silently they learned the technique from Song Fanping. First they stood behind him and imitated his moves, then he turned and instructed them. After half an hour he announced that they had learned the move and could now start practicing. Song Fanping stood still and let Baldy Li try out his move. Baldy Li walked up to him, squatted down, and swept his leg out. With just a gentle sweep, Song Fanping ended up flat on the ground. He got up and told Song Gang to try, and with another gentle sweep he was back on the ground. Song Fanping rubbed his bottom and groaned. He marveled at the two boys. "Your kick is too lethal! It's simply unbeatable."

Then the boys enthusiastically followed Song Fanping inside to once again clean up the house. Having mastered their unbeatable kicks, they were pumped with energy. They helped Song Fanping right the armoire and reposition the bed planks, and learned to nail down the displaced floorboards. They picked up the shards of broken bowls and snapped chopsticks and threw them into the trash heap outside. They dashed in and out, covered in sweat, but then abruptly remembered they hadn't eaten anything all day. Suddenly limp with hunger, the boys climbed into bed and fell asleep the moment they shut their eyes.

After who knows how long, Song Fanping woke them up and told them that dinner was ready. The light in the room was on. Baldy Li and Song Gang sat up in bed, rubbing their eyes, and Song Fanping carried them one after the other to the dinner table. They saw that there was just a bowl of greens and three bowls of rice, these being the only four bowls that had survived the Red Guards’ rampage. They took up their chipped bowls and then realized that there were no chopsticks. All the chopsticks had been snapped in two by the Red Guards. The children held their steaming bowls of rice and eyed the glistening bowl of greens, asking themselves, How are we going to eat without chopsticks?

Song Fanping forgot that there were no chopsticks in the house and got up to fetch some before remembering. He stood there for a while, his powerful back motionless as the dim light threw a shadow of his head as big as their washbasin onto the wall. Eventually he turned back toward the boys with an enigmatic smile and asked them mysteriously, "Have you ever seen the kind of chopsticks the ancients used?"

Baldy Li and Song Gang shook their heads and asked curiously, "What kind of chopsticks did they use?"

Song Fanping smiled as he walked to the door. "Just wait awhile, I'll show you."

Baldy Li and Song Gang saw him tiptoe outside and carefully close the door behind him, as if he were about to enter the land of the lost. After he left, the boys looked at each other. They had no idea how Song Fanping was going to retrieve chopsticks from the ancients, but they nevertheless felt that their father was truly amazing. After a while the door opened and Song Fanping returned, smiling, his hands behind his back.

The children asked him, "So you managed to get the ancients’ chopsticks?"

Song Fanping nodded. He walked over to the table and sat down, then thrust out his hands and gave Baldy Li and Song Gang each a pair of chopsticks. The boys took up the chopsticks of the ancients and examined them. They were about the same length as regular chopsticks, though they were of different thicknesses, were slightly curved, and had some knots on them. Baldy Li was the first to exclaim, "But these are twigs!"

Song Gang asked Song Fanping, "Why are the ancients’ chopsticks like twigs?"

"The ancients’ chopsticks were twigs," Song Fanping explained. "Because in ancient times there were no chopsticks, so the ancients used twigs."

The boys finally understood: In ancient times people used twigs to scoop up rice. Baldy Li and Song Gang started to dig into their meal with the freshly cut twigs, and when they ate, there was a bitter green taste to their food. Using their ancients’ chopsticks, they ate ravenously until their faces were covered in sweat. Only after they had eaten their fill and belched loudly did they notice that it was dark outside, and only then did they remember they had been planning to go to the seaside. There hadn't been any strong winds or rainstorms, and the sun had been so bright you couldn't even open your eyes, but they couldn't go. The boys immediately fell into a funk. Song Fanping asked if they liked their ancients’ chopsticks, and they nodded.

Song Gang then explained mournfully, "We won't make it to the seaside today."

Song Fanping smiled. "Who said we won't?"

Baldy Li said, "The sun has already gone down."

Song Fanping replied, "The sun's gone, but there's still the moon."

They had been ready to go to the seaside when the sun was high in the sky, but they didn't set off on their way until the moon was shining brightly. The children grasped Song Fanping's hands, one on each side, and walked for a very long time along the moonlit road. When they arrived at the seaside, it was high tide. They walked along the beach, where there wasn't a soul in sight, just the cool wind and the roar of the waves. The waves rushed in, creating a long line of white froth along the endless sea. At times this whiteness would turn to gray, and sometimes it would be even darker. From a distance they could glimpse both light and dark, and the moon would appear and disappear behind the clouds. This was the first time the boys had seen the ocean in the moonlight, mysterious and protean. They started screaming ecstatically, but this time Song Fanping didn't cover their mouths. Instead, his large hands caressed the tops of their heads as he let them shout to their hearts’ content. He himself seemed lost in thought, staring out at the dark sea.