Yu Hua - Brothers

Song Gang was awake by four the next morning, and when he opened his door, he saw that the sky was still full of stars. Remembering that he was about to see Baldy Li, he hurriedly shut the door and set off for the village entrance. When he got there, he stood for a while in the moonlight, gazing back at the village where he had spent the past ten years and down at Song Fanping and Li Lan s graves as well as the old landlords freshly dug one. Then he set out on the desolate road under the moonlight, heading toward the sleeping town of Liu. Song Gang bid farewell to his grandfather, upon whom he had depended for the preceding ten years, and left to resume his life with Baldy Li.

At dawn Song Gang entered Liu Town through the southern gate. Completely covered in dust from the road, he was finally returning home. He was carrying the same travel bag that Li Lan had taken with her to Shanghai when she sought medical treatment there; the same bag she had when, traveling back from Shanghai, she received news of Song Fanpings death; and the bag into which she had stuffed the bundle containing the soil soaked with Song Fanpings blood. And when Song Gang went to the countryside to live with his grandfather, this was the bag that Li Lan used to pack Song Gangs clothing and the White Rabbit candies. Now Song Gang was carrying the bag back again, though all that it now held was a few pieces of old clothing. This constituted the extent of Song Gangs possessions.

Having left Liu Town as a child, Song Gang was returning home a handsome young man. But when he arrived, Baldy Li was not home, because, knowing that Song Gang was returning that day, he had also woken up at four and set off before dawn to have the locksmith make Song Gang a new key. He naturally hadn't expected that Song Gang would set off in the middle of the night and be waiting at their doorstep by dawn. Song Gang stood there with his travel bag for more than two hours while Baldy Li stood on the main street waiting for the locksmith to open his shop. Song Gang was now as tall as his father had been, though not as well built. Instead, he was pale and lean, with a shirt too short and sleeves and pants legs lengthened with patches from different colored fabrics. Song Gang stood patiently in front of the door to their house, waiting for Baldy Li to return home. He passed the travel bag back and forth from one hand to the other, careful not to place it on the ground so that it wouldn't get dirty.

On his way back to the house, Baldy Li spotted Song Gang from far away: this tall brother of his, holding a travel bag and standing blankly at the front door. Baldy Li snuck up on Song Gang from behind and kicked him in the rear. Song Gang staggered for a moment and then heard Baldy Li's laughter. The two brothers proceeded to chase each other around in front of the house for a full half hour, raising a huge cloud of dust in the process. Baldy Li alternated between kicking his feet and swinging his leg as Song Gang hopped and jumped out of the way — all the while holding onto his travel bag. They continued scuffling, Baldy Li attacking like a spear and Song Gang defending himself like a shield. Eventually the brothers collapsed into a hysterical heap, laughing until tears flowed from their eyes and snot from their noses, then both of them doubled up coughing. Finally Baldy Li, gasping for breath, took out the new key and handed it to Song Gang, saying, "Open the door."

Baldy Li and Song Gang were like weeds that, despite having been trampled underfoot, had continued to grow vigorously. Not a single factory was willing to hire the infamous Baldy Li upon his graduation from middle school. However, by that time the Cultural Revolution had concluded; Deng Xiaoping's Reform and Opening Up Campaign had just begun; and their old benefactor, Tao Qing, was now the deputy director of the county's Civil Affairs Bureau. Tao Qing — recalling Song Fanping's abject death in front of the railway station and how Li Lan, in her gratitude for his help, had kowtowed with such force that her forehead was reduced to a bloody pulp — decided to give Baldy Li a hand up in life. He arranged to have him assigned to the Good Works Factory, which employed only charity cases and which happened to be administered by the Civil Affairs Bureau. Besides Baldy Li, the Good Works Factory had fourteen other employees: two cripples, three idiots, four blind men, and five deaf men. Song Gang's legal place of residence was still Liu Town, so upon his return he was assigned to work in the metal factory, where Success Liu-cum-Writer Liu was now section chief for supplies and marketing.

The two brothers collected their first months wages on the same day. Song Gang got home first, since the metal factory was closer. Firmly grasping the eighteen yuan in his pocket, he stood in the doorway waiting. When Baldy Li arrived, his wages grasped tightly in his sweat-covered palms, Song Gang asked excitedly, "Did you receive yours?"

Baldy Li nodded. He saw Song Gangs delighted expression and asked, "How about you?"

Song Gang also nodded. The two walked into the room and quickly shut the door and pulled the curtains, as if afraid of thieves. Then they both began to laugh hysterically as they laid out their wages on the bed: thirty-six yuan in all, each of the bills damp with sweat from their palms. The two sat on the bed and counted the thirty-six yuan over and over again. Baldy Li's eyes lit up while Song Gangs crinkled into narrow slits. Song Gang by this point was very nearsighted and had to bring the money right up to his nose to see it. Baldy Li suggested that they pool their earnings and that Song Gang be in charge of them. Song Gang felt that since he was the elder, it was indeed appropriate that he should assume that responsibility. Therefore, he collected the bills on the bed one at a time, arranged them in a neat pile, and let Baldy Li count them one last time. Then Song Gang also counted the pile of bills a final time before sighing contentedly. "I've never seen so much money before."

While speaking, Song Gang stood up on the bed and bumped his head on the ceiling. He then bent over and unbuttoned his pants, revealing underwear stitched together from old scraps. There was a small pocket sewn on the inside of his underwear, and it was in this pocket that Song Gang carefully stashed their combined earnings. Baldy Li complimented Song Gang on the pocket and asked who had made it for him. Song Gang replied that he had stitched it himself, adding that he had also cut the pattern and sewn the underwear. Baldy Li expressed his admiration and asked, "Are you a man or a woman?"

Song Gang laughed. "I also know how to knit a sweater."

After the brothers received their first month's wages, the first thing they did was go to the People's Restaurant for a steaming bowl of plain noodles in broth. At first Baldy Li wanted to order the house-special noodles, but Song Gang argued that they should wait until they were living more comfortably before pampering themselves like that. Baldy Li acknowledged that Song Gang had a point, and since this time the money was coming out of his own pocket rather than that of someone trying to buy the secrets to Lin Hongs bottom, he readily agreed to have just the plain noodles. Song Gang walked up to the cashier, unfastened his pants, and, as the woman at the register watched, proceeded to fumble around inside. Baldy Li immediately burst into peals of laughter while the middle-aged clerk, who seemed altogether too familiar with this sort of scene, waited impassively for Song Gang to fish out the money. He finally succeeded in extracting a one-yuan bill from his underwear pocket and handed it over to the clerk, then stood there patiently holding up his pants while waiting for her to give him change. Two bowls of plain noodles cost eighteen cents, and after he received his eighty-two cents in change, Song Gang meticulously folded up the money, starting with the larger bills and proceeding to the smaller ones, and then placed everything, including the two pennies, back in the secret pocket in his underwear. Then he tied his pants back on and accompanied Baldy Li to an empty table.