Yu Hua - Brothers

Poet Zhao told the Liu Town crowds that formerly, which is to say eleven or twelve years earlier, he had repeatedly given Baldy Li the taste of his heel, whereupon Baldy Li had wailed and stumbled about, sometimes halfway across the street. Poet Zhao declared that Baldy Li was human scum. He told how at fourteen Baldy Li had peeked at women's bottoms in the public toilet, and how after he, Poet Zhao, had nabbed him, Baldy Li had secretly nursed a grievance against him, waiting for a chance to exact revenge. As Poet Zhao recalled that day of glory when he paraded Baldy Li down the street, his face began to warm and his voice became loud and clear. When some in the crowd repeated that Baldy Li was planning to beat Zhao until the poet became a laborer, Poet Zhao's complexion turned pale again. So angry that his voice quavered, he said, "I'll beat him up first, you just watch. I'll first take this laborer and beat him into an intellectual, beat him until he never curses again, until he treats people politely, until he respects the elderly and loves the young, until he is refined and cultivated."

Some of the townspeople laughed. "If you continue beating him like this, won't you beat him into a Poet Li?" asked one.

Poet Zhao was momentarily confounded, then muttered, "I might as well beat him into a Poet Li."

Poet Zhao had spoken boldly while out on the street, but once he got home he started to feel apprehensive. Now agitated and fearful, he calculated that if he and Baldy Li were indeed to duke it out, his height would probably give him only a slight advantage, and he couldn't even be certain of that. He worried that Baldy Li was so impulsive that he wouldn't know how to keep his beatings in moderation. Remembering how Baldy Li had struck Writer Liu in the face twenty-eight times and left him suffering from delusional paranoia, it occurred to Zhao that if Baldy Li were to strike him in the face twenty-eight times, he might end up not just filled with temporary delusions but permanently retarded. After realizing this, Poet Zhao started doing everything in his power to avoid having to leave the house. If there was something for which he absolutely had to go out, he would first carefully reconnoiter the unfamiliar terrain like a military scout; if he caught the slightest whiff of Baldy Li, he would immediately duck and cower in the nearest alley.

After his beating, Writer Liu spent two full days in the hospital and then rested at home for another month. As for Baldy Li, apart from being summoned by Tao Qing to the Civil Affairs Bureau office for a reprimand, he was off the hook. When people asked Baldy Li why he wanted to beat the intellectual Writer Liu until he turned back into the laborer Success Liu, Baldy Li would immediately answer with a grin, "I didn't beat him. It was Li Kui who beat him."

Song Gang was deeply troubled by the fact that Baldy Li had beaten someone to the point that he had to be hospitalized. Though everything Liu had said and done that day infuriated Song Gang, he nevertheless felt that it was not right for Baldy Li to beat him so badly. Song Gang wanted to go visit Writer Liu but was afraid that Baldy Li would disapprove. When he saw that Writer Liu had almost recovered and would soon return to work at the metal factory, Song Gang decided that he could not put the visit off any longer. Stammeringly he suggested, "We should go pay a visit to Writer Liu."

Baldy Li waved him off. "If someone is to go, it should be you. I'm not going."

Song Gang continued to hem and haw, saying that if you beat someone up, you should take them something. Baldy Li didn't know where Song Gang was going with this, and asked, "What are you trying to say with all that muttering?"

Song Gang had no alternative but to tell Baldy Li the truth, which was that he wanted to buy a few apples to take to Writer Liu. When Baldy Li heard the word apple, his mouth immediately began to water, and he told Song Gang that he himself had never eaten an apple. He added, "Is this not letting that laborer off lightly?"

Song Gang did not reply but just lowered his head and sat at the table. Baldy Li recognized that Song Gang was distressed and therefore patted his shoulder and said, "Okay, go buy some apples and pay him a visit."

Song Gang smiled with gratitude, and Baldy Li shook his head, saying, "I don't care about a few apples. I'm just afraid that, after all the effort I expended in bringing out his inner laborer, a few apples might encourage his intellectual pretentiousness to return."

Song Gang bought five apples from a fruit stall. He then returned home and picked out the biggest and freshest to leave for Baldy Li, placing the remaining four apples in an old book bag. Song Gang arrived at Writer Liu's house carrying the bag. By that time Writer Liu had recuperated and was sitting in his courtyard chatting with neighbors. Hearing that Song Gang was at the door, Liu sent someone to ask what he wanted while he hurried back to bed.

Cautiously entering Writer Liu's room, where Liu was lying in bed with his eyes shut, Song Gang walked to the front of the bed. Liu opened his eyes to glance at him, then quickly shut them again. Song Gang stood in front of Liu's bed for a while and eventually softly said, "I'm sorry."

Writer Liu opened his eyes but quickly closed them again. Song Gang stood there a while longer, then opened his book bag and took out the four apples. When Liu saw the four apples on the table, he smiled and said to Song Gang, "You are truly courteous."

As Writer Liu was saying this he took an apple, wiped it on the bed-sheet, then hurriedly took a bite. Liu's eyes narrowed to small slits in delight, and he crunched down melodiously, chewed melodiously, and swallowed the apple in a melodious manner. As Baldy Li had expected, after Writer Liu took a bite of the apple he immediately recovered his intellectual airs and began animatedly discussing literature with Song Gang as if nothing had transpired between them.

HALF A YEAR passed, and not only did Baldy Li not find an opportunity to beat Poet Zhao's laborer identity back into him; he even pretty much forgot all about his promise to do so. Instead, he found himself increasingly busy, having been appointed director of Liu Town s Good Works Factory. When he first arrived, two cripples served as the factory's director and deputy director, but within half a year both of them were obediently following Baldy Li's orders.

Thus Baldy Li became Factory Director Li, even though he was still only twenty years old. Originally, when the factory had only two cripples, three idiots, four blind men, and five deaf men working for it, it would lose money hand over fist, and therefore year after year it was necessary to ask Tao Qing to bail them out. Tao Qing had built the factory for the sole purpose of providing its fourteen handicapped workers with a way of making a living. The factory, however, did not make a profit — he constantly had to make up for its losses out of his own pocket. Tao Qing hired Baldy Li because Baldy Li's mother had kowtowed to him so vigorously that she bloodied her forehead. What he didn't expect was that during Baldy Li's first year at the factory he would manage to turn the entire place around. Baldy Li not only brought in enough money to pay the salaries of the fourteen employees but also earned a profit of 57,224 yuan. The second year he was even more impressive, earning Tao Qing a profit of more than 150,000 yuan, or 10,000 yuan per employee. When the county governor saw Tao Qing, he was full of smiles, saying that Tao was the richest Civil Affairs Bureau director in all of China. He then privately asked that Tao Qing use some of the Good Works Factory's profits to plug a hole in the county's public finance deficit.