Chronicle of a Blood Merchant

by Yu Hua

  Xu Sanguan, paying her no mind, drank two more bowls of well water. Then, clasping his stomach with both hands, he stood carefully up from the table and took a few mincing steps forward. He paused for another moment by the doorway before stepping into the lane.

  Xu Sanguan went to the hospital to see Blood Chief Li. “I’ve come to sell blood again,” he said to him.

  Blood Chief Li was by this time already well into his sixties. His hair had gone completely white, and his back was hunched. He sat at his desk smoking cigarettes, coughing, and spitting a seemingly incessant flow of phlegm onto the floor. As he spat, his cotton-soled shoes would slide back and forth across the floor in a futile effort to wipe the floor clean of phlegm. He looked at Xu Sanguan for a moment and said, “You just sold me some blood the day before yesterday.”

  Xu Sanguan said, “I was here a month ago to sell blood.”

  Blood Chief Li smiled. “You came a month ago, so I remembered who you were. Don’t think I’m getting old. My memory’s still sharp. If I see something or hear about something, doesn’t matter how trivial, I always remember.”

  Xu Sanguan smiled and nodded. “Your memory is really good. Mine is terrible nowadays. Even about the most important things. I’ll go to sleep and wake up having forgotten all about whatever it was that happened the day before.”

  Blood Chief Li, warmed by these words, leaned contentedly back in his chair. “You’re quite a few years younger than me, but it sounds like your memory isn’t nearly as good as mine.”

  Xu Sanguan said, “How could I compare with you?”

  Blood Chief Li said, “Well, you have a point there. My memory’s certainly better than yours. To tell you the truth, there’re a lot of twenty- and thirty-year-olds who can’t compare with me.”

  Xu Sanguan watched as his face broke into a delighted grin and then asked, “Then will you let me sell blood?”

  “Nothing doing.” Blood Chief Li’s smile disappeared immediately. “Are you trying to kill yourself? You need to rest for at least three months after each and every time you sell blood. You’re not permitted to sell blood until three months after the previous time.”

  Xu Sanguan, left at a loss, stood silent for a moment. Then he said, “I really need the money. Our Erle’s brigade chief—”

  Blood Chief Li cut him short. “Everyone who comes to see me really needs the money.”

  Xu Sanguan said, “But I’m begging you—”

  Blood Chief Li cut him short. “Don’t beg me. Everybody who comes here begs me.”

  Xu Sanguan began again. “I’m begging you. Our Erle’s brigade chief is coming over for dinner, and all we have left is two yuan—”

  Blood Chief Li waved his hand. “Don’t waste your breath. I’m not going to listen to you anyway. Come back in two months.”

  Xu Sanguan began to cry. “If I come back in two months, the damage will already be done. Erle’s life will be ruined. What’s going to happen to him if we offend his brigade chief?”

  “Who’s Erle?” Blood Chief Li asked.

  “My son,” Xu Sanguan replied.

  “Ohhhh.” Blood Chief Li nodded.

  It seemed to Xu Sanguan that Blood Chief Li’s expression had softened, so he wiped his tears and continued. “If you let me sell just this one time, I guarantee this will never happen again. Please—just this once.”

  “Nothing doing.” Blood Chief Li shook his head. “This is for your own good. Who would have to bear the responsibility if you ended up selling away your life?”

  Xu Sanguan said, “I would take full responsibility.”

  “What the hell are you talking about?” Blood Chief Li asked. “If you were dead, you would be in no position to take any kind of responsibility. And I would be following you down the road to hell. You know why? It’s called medical malpractice. The higher-ups would be down here in a second flat.”

  Blood Chief Li, noticing that Xu Sanguan’s legs were trembling, paused to ask, “Why are you shaking like that?”

  Xu Sanguan said, “I really have to take a piss.”

  At that moment someone walked into the room, an empty carrying pole slung over one shoulder and a live chicken in the other hand. As soon as he walked into the room, he called out to Xu Sanguan, who failed to recognize him at first. “Xu Sanguan, don’t you recognize me anymore? I’m Genlong.”

  Xu Sanguan realized that it was indeed Genlong. “Genlong, you look completely different. How did you get so old all of a sudden? Your hair’s gone completely gray. I thought you were still only forty.”

  Genlong said, “Life’s harder down in the country, so we folks look a little older than people in town. And you’ve got some gray yourself, you know. You look a lot different than you used to, but I could still tell it was you.”

  Genlong handed the chicken to Blood Chief Li. “This is a laying hen. She laid an egg with a double yolk just this morning.”

  Blood Chief Li accepted the gift, beaming so widely that his eyes seemed to disappear into the creases fanning across his face: “Aiyo! You’re too good to me, Genlong, you’re just too kind.”

  Genlong addressed Xu Sanguan. “So you’re here to sell blood too? What a coincidence, running into you like this again. It’s been, what, ten years now?”

  Xu Sanguan said to Genlong, “Genlong, help me out. See if you can get Blood Chief Li to let me sell some blood.”

  Genlong turned to look inquiringly over at Blood Chief Li.

  Blood Chief Li said, “It’s not that I don’t want to let him sell some blood. But he already sold some just a month ago.”

  Genlong nodded and explained to Xu Sanguan, “You need to rest for three months after every time you sell.”

  Xu Sanguan said, “Genlong, I’m begging you. Ask him on my behalf. I’m really desperate for the money. I’m doing this for the sake of my son.”

  When Genlong heard him out, he turned again toward Blood Chief Li. “I’m begging you too. Do it as a favor to me. Let him sell some blood. Just this once.”

  Blood Chief Li slapped his desktop. “If it was anyone else but Genlong, I’d never allow it. But of all my friends, Genlong has the most pull around here. If Genlong asks for a favor, well, Genlong gets what he wants.”

  After Xu Sanguan and Genlong sold their blood, they went together to the hospital lavatory to clear the urine from their bellies. Then they went to the Victory Restaurant, sat at a window by the river, and ordered fried pork livers and yellow rice wine. After they ordered, Xu Sanguan asked, “Ah Fang’s doing fine, right? How come he didn’t come today?”

  Genlong said, “Ah Fang’s in bad shape.”

  Xu Sanguan was badly startled. “What happened to him?”

  “His bladder burst,” Genlong said. “We usually drink a lot of water before we sell blood, but that one time he simply drank too much and his bladder burst. We didn’t even get far enough that day to sell any blood. Before we even got to the hospital, Ah Fang said his stomach was hurting. I told him to rest for a little while by the side of the road. We went over to the front steps of the movie theater. But as soon as he sat down, he started screaming with pain. It scared me so much I didn’t even realize what was going on. After a while he just fainted. Luckily, we were right near the hospital. I didn’t find out that his bladder had burst until I brought him to the hospital.”

  Xu Sanguan asked, “But he pulled through, didn’t he?”

  “Oh, he’s alive,” Genlong said. “But he’s in bad shape. He’ll never be able to sell blood again.”

  Genlong asked Xu Sanguan, “But how are you doing?”

  Xu Sanguan shook his head. “Two of my sons got sent down to the countryside. Sanle’s the only one who’s doing well—he’s working at the machine tools factory. It’s really hard on the other two. All the kids whose parents have any kind of pull spent just a year or two down there before they got transferred back to town. But what do I have to offer? You know just as well as I do that I’m just a cart-pusher at the silk factory. I don’t have
any pull at all. We’ll just have to see if the two of them can help themselves out. If they’re lucky, and they get on well with the brigade chief, there’s a chance they could be reassigned to a job in town sooner rather than later.”

  Genlong said to Xu Sanguan, “Why didn’t you have them sent down to our production brigade? Ah Fang’s the production brigade chief. He’s still the brigade chief now, even in the shape he’s in. If your sons were in our production brigade, we could have looked after them. And when it came time to issue transfers, of course, they’d be the first to go home.”

  Genlong paused and lifted a hand to his forehead. “Why am I feeling so dizzy?”

  “You’re right.” Xu Sanguan eyes widened. “How come I never thought of that?”

  He watched as Genlong bent forward and rested his forehead against the tabletop. “Genlong, are you all right?”

  “I’m fine. It’s just that I feel a little dizzy.”

  Xu Sanguan’s thoughts turned once again to his own problems. He sighed. “If I had only thought of that earlier. Now I suppose it’s just too late.”

  He saw Genlong shut his eyes. “But even if I had thought of having them sent there, it might not have done any good. We couldn’t very well tell the authorities where we wanted them assigned.”

  When he realized that Genlong hadn’t responded, he leaned over and gave him a prod. When his motion still didn’t produce any response, he called his name: “Genlong, Genlong.”

  When Genlong still didn’t move, Xu Sanguan started to feel frightened. He looked around to see that the restaurant was packed with other people. The noise of talking and eating was deafening, and cigarette smoke and cooking steam cast a gray pall over the room. Waiters were squeezing through the crowd, carrying platters of food. Xu Sanguan prodded Genlong once more, and when there wasn’t any response, he shouted to the waiters, “Come help! I think Genlong’s dead.”

  The restaurant went suddenly quiet. The waiters hastily squeezed their way over to the table. One of them shook Genlong by the shoulders, while the other rubbed his face. The waiter rubbing his face said, “He’s not dead. His face is still warm.”

  Another waiter appeared, lifted Genlong’s face from the table, and told the assembled onlookers, “Looks to me like he’s almost dead.”

  Xu Sanguan asked, “What do we do now?”

  Someone said, “Take him to the hospital.”

  After they had taken him to the hospital, the doctor said he had suffered a cerebral hemorrhage. When they asked him what a cerebral hemorrhage was, the doctor told them that one of the blood vessels in his head had burst. Another doctor standing to one side added, “Wasn’t just one blood vessel, from the looks of it.”

  Xu Sanguan sat on a chair in the hospital corridor for three hours and did not stand up until Genlong’s woman Guihua arrived. He hadn’t seen Guihua for more than twenty years, and the Guihua standing in front of him bore no resemblance at all to the young woman he remembered. This Guihua looked as strong as a man. It was already late autumn, but Guihua had come to town in bare feet, with her pants legs rolled up around her knees. And since she had come directly to the hospital when she heard the news, without stopping to wash up at home, her feet were coated with mud from the fields. Her eyes were red and swollen. Xu Sanguan thought to himself that she must have been crying the whole way into town.

  After Genlong’s woman arrived, Xu Sanguan left the hospital and went home. As he walked home, a feeling of emptiness washed over him. His body felt terribly heavy, as if he were carrying a hundred-pound sack of rice, and his legs trembled with every step forward. The doctor said Genlong had suffered a cerebral hemorrhage, but Xu Sanguan knew better. Genlong had gotten sick because he had sold too much blood. Xu Sanguan told himself, The doctor must not have known that Genlong had just sold some blood. Otherwise he wouldn’t have said that it was a cerebral hemorrhage.

  As soon as Xu Sanguan arrived home, Xu Yulan screamed, “Where have you been? You had me worried to death! Erle’s brigade chief is coming over for dinner, and you just disappear! Did you sell blood?”

  Xu Sanguan nodded. “I sold blood. But Genlong’s dying.”

  Xu Yulan stuck out her hand. “Where’s the money?”

  Xu Sanguan gave her the money. She hastily counted the notes, and only when she was finished did she register what Xu Sanguan had just said. “Who did you say is dying?”

  “Genlong.” Xu Sanguan sat down on a stool. “The man who went to sell blood with me. The Genlong from my grandpa’s village.”

  Xu Yulan didn’t know who Genlong was and didn’t know why he was about to die. She slipped the money into her inside pocket, and before Xu Sanguan could finish his sentence, she bounded out of the door to the market to buy meat, fish, cigarettes, and liquor.

  Xu Sanguan, left alone in the house, sat for a while in his chair, but he soon felt so fatigued that he lay down in bed. He thought to himself, If I’m feeling so tired from just sitting in my chair, maybe I’m about to die too. Just as the thought crossed his mind, he felt his chest constrict. After a moment or two of this suffocating feeling, he felt dizzy. He remembered that Genlong’s illness had begun with a spell of dizziness. Genlong had put his head down on the table, and when he had called to him, he didn’t answer.

  Xu Sanguan was still lying in bed when Xu Yulan came back from the store. When she saw that he was in bed, she said, “You stay where you are. You’re still weak from selling blood. Just stay put, and I’ll take care of everything. You can rest until the brigade chief shows up.”

  Erle’s brigade chief arrived around dusk. He was greeted by a table heavily laden with food.

  “So much food! Why, the table’s almost overflowing. You’re really much too polite. And such fine liquor as well!”

  When he caught sight of Xu Sanguan, he continued, “You look thin. You look thinner than when I saw you this afternoon.”

  Xu Sanguan’s heart sank with these words, but he forced himself to smile. “Yes, I’ve lost weight. Have a seat, chief.”

  “I’ve seen people lose weight over the course of six months or a year. But this is the first time I’ve ever seen someone lose so much weight in one day.” The brigade chief sat down at the table. When he noticed that there was a new carton of cigarettes on the table, he cried out in spite of himself, “And you bought a whole carton of cigarettes? I couldn’t possibly smoke so much in one night!”

  Xu Yulan said, “Brigade chief, this carton of cigarettes is for you. You can take whatever you don’t finish home with you.”

  Erle’s brigade chief nodded cheerfully and just as cheerfully picked up the bottle of spirits and twisted open the cap with his right hand. He filled his own cup with liquor and was about to pour some for Xu Sanguan when Xu Sanguan hastily lifted his cup from the table. “I don’t drink.”

  Erle’s brigade chief said, “That may be so, but you’re going to drink with me tonight. I don’t like to drink alone. It’s no fun that way.”

  Xu Yulan said, “Xu Sanguan, you better have a drink or two with the brigade chief.”

  Xu Sanguan had no choice but to pass the cup over to Erle’s brigade chief, who filled it to the brim, handed it back to him, and declared, “Now then! Bottoms up!”

  Xu Sanguan said, “I’ll just have a sip.”

  “That won’t do,” the brigade chief said. “You’ve got to down it all in one gulp. This is a test of our friendship. Friends drink when they’re together. Acquaintances merely sip.”

  Xu Sanguan drank the whole cup in one gulp. His body immediately began to feel warm, just as if someone had struck a match in his belly, and he felt his strength beginning to seep back into his body, and with it a sense of relaxation. He picked up a piece of meat with his chopsticks and put it in his mouth.

  Xu Yulan said to Erle’s brigade chief, “Brigade chief, every time Erle comes home, he tells us what a good man you are, how kind, how easy you are to get along with, and how well you look after him.”

  Xu Sanguan,
thinking of the bitterness with which Erle cursed his brigade chief whenever he came home, picked up where Xu Yulan left off. “He tells us that everyone really appreciates how well you take care of them.”

  Erle’s brigade chief gestured toward Xu Sanguan, “Well, it’s all true.” He lifted his cup. “Bottoms up!”

  Xu Sanguan, forced to follow his lead, downed his liquor in one gulp.

  Erle’s brigade chief wiped his mouth. “I don’t mean to brag, but you won’t find a better brigade chief for at least a hundred miles around. I always apply the same principle in whatever I happen to be doing. My watchword is that if everything’s aboveboard, no one’s going to rock the boat.”

  Xu Sanguan began to feel dizzy, and he remembered Genlong, and that Genlong was in the hospital. When he thought about how serious Genlong’s condition was, he began to feel that he would be in the hospital himself before too long. His head spun faster and faster, and his heart was racing and thudding inside his chest. His legs seemed to be trembling as well. And within a few seconds the trembling had spread to his shoulders.

  Erle’s brigade chief said to Xu Sanguan, “Why are you shaking like that?”

  Xu Sanguan said, “I’m cold. I feel cold.”

  “You’ll warm up after a few more drinks.” He lifted up his cup. “Bottoms up!”

  Xu Sanguan shook his head. “I really shouldn’t have any more.” As he spoke, he thought to himself, One more, and I’m a dead man.

  Erle’s brigade chief lifted Xu Sanguan’s cup and forced it into his hands. “Come on now, all in one gulp!”

  Xu Sanguan shook his head. “I really can’t drink any more. I’m in pretty bad shape. I’ll pass out. The blood vessels in my head will burst.”

  Erle’s brigade chief pounded the tabletop. “So what? That’s what drinking is all about. You’ve got to drink, even if it kills you. You know why? Because it’s better to harm yourself than to hurt a friend’s feelings. If you really think of me as a friend, you’ll drink this cup.”