Yu Hua - Brothers

In the days that followed, Baldy Li and Song Gang lost all interest in wandering the main streets. They now loved the creek with a passion. They left at dawn every day with their basket to catch shrimp, walking a long, long way down the riverbank and then back again. Their legs were as pale as corpses and swollen from all the soaking, while their faces glowed red like overfed capitalists. Completely on their own, they learned to boil, panfry, and stir-fry the shrimp. They discovered that stir-frying shrimp required soy sauce, but that salt worked better with deep-frying. When good fortune came rushing in, there was no damming it. Once the boys netted more than a hundred shrimp. They fried and fried the shrimp until they had turned black, but when they ate them, they were delighted to discover that the blackened shells were crisp and delicious, with a taste completely distinct from that of the shrimp meat. When they were halfway through and still had more than forty shrimp left, Song Gang suddenly stopped eating and suggested, "Lets take these to Papa."

Baldy Li agreed, "Yes!"

They gathered the remaining fried shrimp into a bowl, and as they were walking out the door Song Gang said that they should get Papa two ounces of yellow rice wine. Song Gang imagined that Song Fan-ping would be so delighted to be drinking wine and eating shrimp that he would laugh with delight. Song Gang opened his mouth and cackled, demonstrating how his father would laugh. Baldy Li said Song Gang hadn't gotten it right and sounded like he was screaming for help. Then Baldy Li showed how he thought Song Fanping would sound— his mouth would be so crammed with shrimp and wine that he would barely be able to get a sound out and instead would just emit a few gurgles of laughter. Song Gang replied that Baldy Li's version wasn't right either, that it sounded more like a yawn.

They brought an empty bowl and went to the store to buy two ounces of wine. The wine vendor caught sight of the shrimp in their other bowl and took a few greedy sniffs. He said that the shrimp smelled so good he could only imagine how tasty they would be. Baldy Li and Song Gang chuckled and confirmed—"Yup, they were even tastier than they smelled." As they turned to leave they could hear the wine vendor swallowing his saliva.

It was dusk, and with Song Gang holding the bowl of wine and Baldy Li carrying the bowl of fried shrimp, the two boys carefully made their way to Song Fanping's warehouse. There they once again ran into the three sweep-kicking middle-schoolers, who walked toward them hollering, "Hey kids!"

Oh no, they thought. If it weren't for the wine and shrimp, they would have already taken off. But now, their hands full with bowls, they could only plop themselves on the ground. Three pairs of sweep-kicking legs encircled them. Baldy Li and Song Gang, still cupping their bowls, looked up at the three middle-schoolers. Song Gang said, not without satisfaction, "We're already sitting on the ground."

Baldy Li thought that they would respond, "Stand up if you have balls." So he jumped the gun and added, "Sweep-kick us up if you have the balls." But the three middle-schoolers hadn't said a word, instead focusing all their attention on the contents of Baldy Li's bowl. Sun Wei, Victory Zhao, and Success Liu all squatted down next to Baldy Li, and Sun Wei took a deep sniff and said, "Smells real good, even better than shrimp from the restaurant."

Victory Zhao added, "Damn. They even have wine to go with it."

Baldy Li's hands started trembling as he realized that they were going to grab his fried shrimp. Sure enough, they said, "Hey, kid. Give us a taste."

Three pairs of hands simultaneously dipped into Baldy Li's bowl. Baldy Li ducked and protected his bowl, hurriedly reminding them, "Blacksmith Tongs already told you, we are the young blossoms of our homeland."

When they heard Blacksmith Tongs name, the middle-schoolers yanked back their hands. After looking around and making sure that Blacksmith Tong was nowhere to be seen and that no one else was paying them any heed, they reached over again. Baldy Li opened his mouth and prepared to bite down on any invading digits when Song Gang suddenly shouted, "Shrimp for sale! Shrimp for sale!"

As he yelled out Song Gang nudged Baldy Li with his elbow. When Baldy Li saw that Song Gang's hawking had attracted some passersby he too began shouting, "Shrimp for sale! Fragrant fried shrimp!"

A crowd instantly gathered and stared curiously at Baldy Li and Song Gang. The three middle-schoolers were squeezed off to the sides and stood there cursing Song Gang's dad, Baldy Li's mom, as well as all of their ancestors, before finally wiping their lips and going away.

Someone asked Baldy Li and Song Gang, "How much for the shrimp?"

Song Gang replied, "One yuan a shrimp."

"What?" the man exclaimed. "Do you think you are selling gold?"

"Just smell." Song Gang let Baldy Li hold up the bowl. "These are fried shrimp."

Baldy Li raised the bowl over his head. The crowd all caught a whiff of the shrimp and someone said, "They do smell good. But it should really be two shrimp for a cent."

Someone else added, "With one yuan you could buy a golden shrimp. These two little bastards are real profiteers."

Song Gang stood up, retorting, "You can't eat a golden shrimp."

Baldy Li also stood up and said, "Plus, golden shrimp aren't tasty."

Seeing that the three middle-schoolers were no longer around, Baldy Li and Song Gang breathed a sigh of relief and extricated themselves from the crowd of people. Holding their bowls, the boys swaggered away and proceeded down the street and over the bridge until they reached the front gate of the warehouse. The warehouse was still being guarded by the father of long-haired Sun Wei — who had just missed an opportunity to eat Baldy Li's shrimp. Sun Wei's father saw the two boys walking toward him and chuckled, "Hey, you're not dangling your elbows anymore?"

The two boys answered, "Can't dangle ‘em. We're carrying bowls." Sun Wei's father caught a whiff of the shrimp. He walked over to peer down at the bowls, then grabbed a shrimp and started munching on it. He asked, "Who cooked these?"

Baldy Li answered, "We did."

Astonished, he said, "You little bastards, you're top chefs."

As he said this he reached into the shrimp bowl again, but Baldy Li quickly dodged. So Sun Wei's father simply thrust out both hands, demanding both the shrimp and the wine. The children backed away, dodging his grasp. After cursing "Fuck that!" he walked back to the warehouse door and kicked it open, bellowing, "Song Fanping! Get out here. Your sons brought you stuff to eat and drink!"

He lingered on the words stuff to eat and drink, and soon five or six people wearing red armbands rushed out. Looking all about as they hurried over, they asked, "What's there to eat? What's there to drink?"

Their nostrils flared as they sniffed, and they said, "How fragrant, even more fragrant than lard." They had been eating carrots and greens day in and day out, and tasted pork at most once a month. Now that they caught sight of the fried shrimp in Baldy Li's hands, they felt so ravenous that claws seemed to emerge from their mouths. They surrounded the two children like a high wall encircling two saplings. A din of "Lemme try it!" filled the air, and a stream of saliva rained down on Baldy Li and Song Gangs faces. Frightened, the boys cradled their bowls and yelled, "Help! Help!"

Song Fanping walked out with his dangling arm. The boys spotted their savior and cried out, "Papa, come quickly!"

Song Fanping walked over to the boys, and Baldy Li and Song Gang hid behind him. Relieved, they raised their bowls of shrimp and wine and offered them to him. Song Gang said, "Papa, we made you fried shrimp, and we got you two ounces of rice wine to go with it."