Yu Hua - Brothers

Baldy Li and Song Gang thought it over and exclaimed, "Cleanup time!"

"Right!" agreed Song Fanping.

Song Fanping walked over to the overturned armoire, squatted down, and raised it with his right arm, then transferred the weight on his shoulder. When he stood up, the armoire was righted. Baldy Li and Song Fanping watched in astonishment. Song Fanping raised up such a huge armoire with just one arm — he hadn't even needed his left arm, which was still dangling there. The boys followed behind Song Fanping or, rather, they followed behind his right arm and tidied up the rest of the house. They helped his right arm pick up all the clothes on the ground; when his right arm swept, they held the dustpan; when his right arm mopped the floor, they took up some rags and wiped down the dust from the tables and chairs. By the time they finished tidying up the house, they heard the cocks crow and saw that the sky had turned as pale as a fish's belly. The boys then sat on the front stoop, watching Song Fanping raise a bucket of well water to bathe himself. As Song Fanping walked back into the house they watched him change into a clean set of clothes using just his right arm. He put on a red sleeveless shirt that had a row of characters across the chest. They couldn't read what it said, but Song Fanping explained that this was his old college basketball uniform. He also put on a pair of beige plastic sandals. These were a present from Li Lan, and he had worn them only once before, on his wedding day.

The boys noticed that Song Fanping's left elbow had thickened, and his left hand was puffy, as if he were wearing a cotton glove. They didn't understand that it was swollen, so they asked him why his left hand was now fatter than his right. Song Fanping replied that it was because his left hand had been resting all this time. "It's just been eating and lazing about, so it's gotten chubby."

Baldy Li and Song Gang now felt that their father was really a deity. He could do all his chores with one arm and let the other one rest to the point that it even grew fat. They asked him, "When will you let your right arm grow fat?"

Song Fanping chuckled. "Oh, it will."

As the sun rose Song Fanping, who had spent a sleepless night, let out a few yawns. He told the boys to get to bed, but they shook their heads and remained seated on the stoop. So Song Fanping simply stepped over them. He was off to catch the early bus in order to meet his wife in Shanghai. As his tall figure passed over the boys’ heads they noticed that the morning sun had bathed the room in a red glow. The house was gleaming in its cleanliness, like a newly polished mirror, leading the boys to exclaim, "It's so clean!"

Song Gang turned around and hailed his departing father, "Papa! Come back!"

Song Fanping walked back, his footsteps ringing. Song Gang asked him, "What will Mama say when she sees the place so clean?"

Song Fanping replied, "She'll say, ‘I'm not going back to Shanghai.'"

Baldy Li and Song Gang both giggled, and Song Fanping also let out a loud chuckle. He walked toward the morning sun, his feet hitting the ground like hammers paving a road. Once he was a dozen yards away, Baldy Li and Song Gang saw him pause, reach for his dangling left hand, and place it into his pants pocket. He then continued walking forward, his left arm no longer dangling. With one hand in his pocket and the other swinging freely, he looked like a dashing movie star walking into the rising sun.

WHEN SONG FANPING arrived at the bus depot on the east side of town, he saw a man with a red armband and a wooden bat standing on the platform. When the man saw Song Fanping coming down the bridge, he immediately turned and shouted into the depot waiting room, and five armband-wearing men instantly swarmed out. Song Fanping knew they were there to seize him, but after a moments hesitation, he walked right up to them. At first he wanted to show them Li Lans letter, but then he decided to forget it. The armband-wearing men stood on the platform, each holding a wooden bat. Song Fanping removed his left hand from his pocket and walked up to the platform, about to explain that he wasn't running away but, rather, was going to Shanghai to pick up his wife. Several bats rained down on him, and he instinctively raised his right arm to shield himself. A bat smashed down on his right elbow, and he felt a bone-shattering pain. Yet he still waved his right arm to block the bats beating down on him. He walked into the waiting room and up to the ticket window. His right elbow, which he had used to block the wooden bats, felt as if it were about to explode in pain. His shoulders had also suffered countless blows, and one of his ears had been half ripped off. Despite the bats raining down on him and trailing him like a cloud of dust, he finally made it to the ticket counter, where he saw that the eyes of the female ticket seller were bugged out in fear. Miraculously, his dislocated left elbow now rose to block the bats as he thrust his right hand into his pocket and found his bus fare, which he then pushed through the ticket window, telling the ticket seller, "One ticket to Shanghai."

The ticket seller toppled over, passing out in fright. This new development suddenly flummoxed Song Fanping, and his dislocated left arm also dropped. He forgot that his arm had been shielding him from the blows, and in an instant a flurry of bats smashed down on his head. Bleeding and broken, Song Fanping collapsed against the wall as six wooden bats crazily smashed down on him, until one after another they shattered. They were then followed by the red-armbanders’ twelve feet, which stomped and kicked him for more than ten minutes, until finally he lay there motionless. Only then did the six men, all out of breath from their exertions, pause to rub their arms and legs and wipe the sweat from their faces. They walked over to the bench under the ceiling fan, completely wiped out. Cocking their heads, they looked at Song Fanping slumped over by the wall and cursed, "Fuck."

It was around daybreak that these red-armbanders from the warehouse that was actually a prison had noticed that Song Fanping was missing. They had immediately split into two groups, with one guarding the bus depot and the other assigned to the docks. The red-armbanders’ savage beating of Song Fanping that day terrified everyone, and those who had been in the waiting room all ran outside to the platform. Children wailed and women stood with their mouths hanging open in terror. Everyone stood outside the waiting room door peering in, no one daring to go back inside. Only when the tickets for the Shanghai bus were being collected did people carefully reenter, looking with trepidation at the six red-armbanders resting under the ceiling fan.

Barely conscious, Song Fanping seemed to make out the call to board. Miraculously he managed to rouse himself, standing up by leaning against the wall. He wiped at the blood on his face and hobbled toward the ticket collection window. The row of waiting passengers all gasped. When the six red-armbanders who had been resting under the ceiling fan saw that Song Fanping had gotten up and was making his way to the gate, they looked at each other in astonishment, letting out snorts of disbelief. One of them yelled, "Don't let him get away!"

They took up their splintered bats and rushed up to him, swinging with abandon. This time Song Fanping began to resist. He struck back with his right fist as he made his way to the gate. Terrified, the ticket counter slammed the metal gate shut and ran away. Song Fanping found that he had nowhere to go, so he had no choice but to strike back. By this point he was barely conscious, and the red-armbanders encircled him and pummeled him until he was covered in blood. They chased him from the waiting room to the steps outside. He resisted with all his might, but when he reached the steps, he collapsed. The red-armbanders stood in a circle around him, kicking wildly, and even bayoneting him with their splintered wooden bats. One of the wooden spikes pierced his abdomen, and his entire body convulsed. As the red-armbander pulled the spike out, Song Fanping's body tensed up as blood gushed from his gut, staining the ground red. Then he fell still.