Yu Hua - Brothers

Song Fanping's left hand dangled there uselessly, so he accepted Baldy Li's bowl of shrimp with his right. He didn't eat any, however, but instead politely passed it along to those red-armbanded people. He then accepted Song Gang's wine and also extended it to them. They were all still busy munching on the shrimp, so he waited politely with the bowl of wine. There were as many hands on the shrimp as branches on a tree, and in the blink of an eye they were all gone. The red-armbanders then noticed Song Fanping standing to the side waiting politely with the bowl of wine, and so took the wine and passed it around, each one of them downing a big gulp and finishing it off in no time.

Baldy Li and Song Gang wiped at their tears. Their shrimp and wine had been for Song Fanping, but he didn't get a taste of either. Song Gang said, "We were imagining how you would laugh while enjoying our shrimp and wine."

Song Fanping knelt down and, without a word, wiped away their tears. When he smiled, the boys noticed that he too had tears streaming from his eyes.

After finishing the shrimp and wine, the red-armbanders kicked at Song Fanping and bellowed, "Get up, scram! Get back in the warehouse!"

Song Fanping wiped away his tears and patted first Baldy Li's face, then Song Gang's, and said gently, "Now go on home."

Song Fanping stood up, no longer crying. He smiled contentedly at the red-armbanders, then walked heroically toward the front gate. When he reached the gate he turned around and, his dislocated left elbow still dangling at his side, waved to Baldy Li and Song Gang with his right hand. With that wave he looked so confident and magnanimous, like Chairman Mao waving at the parading masses from atop Tiananmen Square.

YEARS LATER, whenever Baldy Li spoke of his stepfather, he only had one thing to say. Raising his thumb, he would sigh and say, "What a real man."

In that warehouse that was in fact a prison, Song Fanping suffered every torment and abuse imaginable. Yet he never uttered a word of complaint, even as his dislocated left arm became increasingly swollen. He also never stopped writing Li Lan. He had written his first letter on the day of his flag-waving atop the bridge. This was the most glorious moment of his life, so his letter was filled with passion and energy. This was the first time Li Lan, sitting in a hospital bed in Shanghai, had ever received a letter from a man, and what a letter it was! Reading it made her feel as though she had been given a shot of adrenaline. Baldy Li's biological father, who had drowned in the public latrine, had never written her, and for him the height of romance consisted of knocking on her window in the middle of the night, hoping to lure her out to the fields for a romp. So when she received her first letter from Song Fanping, she blushed bright red. And as Song Fanping's letters continued coming one after another, her pulse would race each time she received a new one.

By this point, Song Fanping had been thoroughly beaten down, but in order for Li Lan to feel at ease while receiving her treatment in Shanghai, he continued filling his letters with passion and energy. He didn't tell her what had actually happened but instead described how things were getting better and better, so she believed that he was riding the crest of the red waves of the Cultural Revolution. Even after Song Fanping had his left elbow dislocated, he nevertheless continued, using his right hand to embroider his glorious exploits for her, and Baldy Li and Song Gang would mail the letters off for him. The boys would come to the front gate of the warehouse, and long-haired Sun Wei's father would hand them the letters, which they would then take to the post office. When Song Fanping mailed his own letters, he always pasted the stamp in the top right corner of the envelope. But when Baldy Li and Song Gang mailed them, they didn't know where to put the stamp. Once they saw someone else place it on the back of the envelope, so Baldy Li did the same. The next time, when it was Song Gangs turn, he saw that someone had pasted it over the opening, and did the same.

By that point Li Lan was no longer able to continue her treatment in peace. There were struggle sessions every day at the hospital, and one after another every doctor she knew was brought down. Anxious and worried, she was desperate to get home. But Song Fanping tried to dissuade her, urging her to stay in Shanghai to treat her migraines. Each day Li Lan spent in Shanghai seemed like an eternity, and she had read Song Fanpings letters over so many times she knew them by heart— they were her only source of solace during this period.

She also examined the envelopes many times and noticed that from a certain day onward, the placement of the stamps kept shifting. One time it would be on the back of the envelope, and the next it would be over the opening. And every time she received a letter with a stamp on the back, she told herself that on the next letter the stamp would be over the opening.

Baldy Li and Song Gang took turns placing the stamp on the envelopes and putting the letters in the mailbox. They never went out of turn. This was the source of Li Lan s uneasiness, and this uneasiness increased daily. She started to imagine all sorts of scenarios and to suffer from insomnia, and her migraines became more severe. Li Lan, who typically listened to Song Fanping in all things, for the first time wrote him a firm letter. She told him that because of the Cultural Revolution there were no longer any doctors around, and therefore she had resolved to return home.

When Li Lan had taken the bus to Shanghai to get treatment, Song Fanping had told her that after she was cured, he would come in person to pick her up. To assuage her uneasiness, Li Lan decided to test the waters by asking Song Fanping whether he could come meet her now.

This time Li Lan had to wait more than half a month for a response. Song Fanping had just been whipped with a belt for more than an hour, but even in his imprisonment this good man was determined to keep his word, so without hesitation he promised his wife that he would go to Shanghai to pick her up. He even set a date and asked her to wait for him at noon at the front gate of the hospital.

This was the last letter Song Fanping wrote to his wife. It allowed Li Lan to weep tears of relief. And once it was dark, she was able to fall into a deep slumber.

That night Song Fanping escaped from the warehouse. He waited until Sun Wei's father was in the toilet, then quietly slipped out the front gate. By the time he reached home, it was about one in the morning, and Baldy Li and Song Gang had long since fallen asleep. They felt a hand caressing them and a light shining on them. Song Gang woke up first and rubbed his eyes. When he saw Song Fanping sitting by the bed, he let out a cry of delight. Then Baldy Li also woke up, rubbing his eyes. Song Fanping told the boys, "Li Lan is coming home." His wife, their mother, was coming home. Song Fanping said that he was going to catch the first bus to Shanghai to pick her up, and then they would take the afternoon bus back. Song Fanping pointed at the pitch-black darkness outside, saying, "By the time the sun sets tomorrow, well be home."

Baldy Li and Song Gang bounced on the bed like two overjoyed monkeys. With a wave, Song Fanping told them to quiet down, pointing in the direction of the neighbors on either side and reminding the boys not to wake them up. Baldy Li and Song Gang immediately covered their mouths and crept down from their bed. Song Fanping looked around at the overturned armoire and the clothes strewn all over the floor. Frowning, he said to the boys, "What if your mother comes home and finds the place looking like a dump and decides to return to Shanghai?"