Yu Hua - Brothers

The three middle-schoolers each muttered "Motherfucker," and then Sun Wei changed his tactics. He grinned at them warmly and said to Baldy Li, "Hey, kid, why don't you get up? We promise not to sweep-kick you. Go ahead and have sexual relations with that electrical pole."

Baldy Li giggled and licked the remaining meat juice from his lips. He licked until he was lolling his head about and replied, "I no longer have sexual relations with electrical poles. You want to do it, go ahead. I'm impotent now, don't you know?"

The three middle-schoolers didn't know what impotent meant. They looked at one another curiously. Victory Zhao couldn't help but ask Baldy Li, "What's impotent?"

Baldy Li smugly explained, "Just unfasten your trousers and look at your …"

Victory Zhao touched his crotch and looked at Baldy Li with alarm. Baldy Li asked, "So take a look. Is your dick hard like a little metal cannon? Or is it soft and mushy like dough?"

Victory Zhao felt his dick through his pants. He retorted, "Do I need to look? Of course it's soft and mushy like dough right now."

Upon hearing that, Baldy Li exclaimed with delight, "So you're impotent, too!"

The three middle-schoolers now understood what impotent meant. Sun Wei and Success Liu broke out in guffaws, and Sun Wei said to Victory Zhao, "You're such an idiot. You didn't even know what impotent meant."

Victory Zhao felt that he had lost face, so he kicked Baldy Li. "You little bastard, you're the one who's impotent. When I get up in the morning I'm harder than an iron cannon."

Baldy Li eagerly provided Victory Zhao with guidance: "So you're not impotent in the morning, just in the afternoon."

"Bullshit," Victory Zhao replied. "All year around, twenty-four hours a day — I'm never impotent."

"Bullshit." Baldy Li pointed at the nearby wooden pole. "Go prove it with that electrical pole over there."

"Electrical pole?" Victory Zhao snorted. He said, "Only a little bastard like you would hump a wooden pole. If I'm going to have sexual relations, I'll do it with your mother."

Baldy Li dismissed him. "My mother wouldn't let you guys get near her."

Then he pointed to Song Gang standing next to him and boasted, "My mom only does it with his dad."

Sun Wei and Success Liu doubled over with laughter. Victory Zhao let out a string of curses, but the three middle-schoolers knew that the two little bastards wouldn't stand up until hell froze over. The three discussed how they were going to teach the little bastards a lesson and how maybe they should first lift them up, then sweep them back down. Baldy Li remembered how Blacksmith Tong had saved them last time, so he smilingly announced, "Blacksmith Tong is here."

The middle-schoolers turned to look down the street but saw no sign of Blacksmith Tong. So the three of them kicked Baldy Li and Song Gang each three times, making them cry out in pain, and then walked off, feeling they had finally got the advantage of things.

Baldy Li had managed to escape being sweep-kicked and even had had a meat bun. The sad thing was that he couldn't recall the taste of the bun at all. He remembered only that he had choked four times and that Song Gang had slapped him on the back. Song Gang said later that when Baldy Li was choking, his neck was stretched as long as a goose s.

Baldy Li and Song Gang were pals again. The brothers faced each other and grinned and laughed for about a minute, then they walked hand in hand down the main street. Song Gang said he had found his father, who was living in a warehouse. A bunch of people were locked up in that warehouse, some crying and others shouting. Baldy Li asked why they were crying and shouting. Song Gang replied that it seemed like people were fighting inside.

That afternoon Song Gang held Baldy Li's hand and walked down three streets, over two bridges, and through a small alley, until they finally reached the warehouse holding landlords and capitalists, modern-day and old-time counterrevolutionaries, together with all other class enemies. Baldy Li spotted long-haired Sun Wei's father— he was wearing a red armband and standing in front of the warehouse smoking. When he saw Song Gang, he asked, "How come you're here again?"

Song Gang pointed at Baldy Li. "This is my brother, Baldy Li. He wants to see our father."

Sun Wei's father looked Baldy Li over, and asked, "Where's your mother?"

Baldy Li replied, "She's in Shanghai seeing a doctor."

Sun Wei's father tossed his cigarette butt onto the ground and stomped it out. He pushed open the warehouse door and shouted inside, "Song Fanping! Song Fanping, get out here!"

When the door opened, Baldy Li spied a man inside who was on the ground, cradling his head in his hands while another man whipped him with a belt. The man on the ground was completely silent, but the man whipping him was wailing, as if he were the one being whipped. This sight gave Baldy Li the shivers, and Song Gang turned pale. They were both so shocked they didn't notice Song Fanping, who had walked out the front door. Song Fanping walked up to the boys and asked, "So you've had your meat buns?"

Baldy Li looked up to see Song Fanping's tall figure before him. His shirt was covered in bloodstains, and his face was swollen and bruised, and Baldy Li could tell that this was the result of his having been beaten half to death. Song Fanping squatted down to take a look at Baldy Li, reaching out to caress his head. "Baldy Li, you still have meat juice on your lips."

Baldy Li bowed his head and let out a few sorrowful tears. He regretted his own revelation. He thought, If I hadn't said those things in front of the school gate, Song Fanping wouldn't be here getting tortured. When he thought about how kind Song Fanping had been to him, Baldy Li started sobbing. "I was wrong."

Song Fanping wiped away Baldy Li's tears with his thumb and teased him, "You haven't sucked the snot into your eyes, have you?"

Baldy Li broke out into a chuckle. The crying and shouting and cursing in the warehouse became louder and louder, rumbling ceaselessly from the door's cracks. There were also sounds of moaning, almost like frogs’ croaking. Baldy Li became alarmed. He and Song Gang stood by Song Fanping and shivered. Song Fanping acted as if he hadn't heard anything and chatted happily with the boys, though his left arm dangled awkwardly by his side. Baldy Li and Song Gang didn't know that his arm had been beaten until it was dislocated. They thought that it looked odd, as if he had a prosthetic limb. They asked him what was wrong, and he explained, "It's tired, so I'm letting it rest for a few days."

Song Fanping always filled Baldy Li and Song Gang with wonder. They felt that he had all sorts of mysterious powers and hidden talents, that he could even let his arm dangle and rest for a few days.

To satisfy Baldy Li and Song Gang's curiosity, Song Fanping became their coach right in front of this giant warehouse filled with wails and screams, teaching them how to let their forearms rest for a bit. He told the boys to first lower one shoulder until it was sloping down, and then to let their arm relax and hang down. He told them they couldn't use any force on the sloping arm; they had to pretend that it wasn't there. He pointed to his solar plexus, saying, "Don't think about this arm anymore." Once he felt that Baldy Li and Song Gang had gotten the gist of it, he told them to line up and march back and forth in front of the warehouse with their sloped shoulders and dangling arms while he chanted, "One-two, one-two." Baldy Li and Song Gang noticed that with every step they took, their dangling arm would swing back and forth. The boys were delighted, pointing excitedly to each Bother;s arm.

Song Fanping asked them, "So are your arms dangling?"