Brothers

by Yu Hua

  At that point, Song Gang was sitting at home, having already had dinner. Baldy Li, sitting at the table with him, studied him suspiciously, since Song Gang was grinning idiotically as though he had swallowed the wrong medication. Baldy Li softly called out his name, "Song Gang, Song Gang …"

  Song Gang didn't respond, and Baldy Li suddenly pounded the table, shouting, "Song Gang, what's wrong?"

  Song Gang finally recovered his demeanor, and in a normal tone of voice asked Baldy Li, "What did you say?"

  Baldy Li looked at Song Gang and said, "Why, when you laugh, do you sound like one of the idiots who work for me at the Good Works Factory?"

  Song Gang was disconcerted by Baldy Li's confused look. He avoided Baldy Li's gaze, bowed his head, and hesitated for a moment. Then he lifted his head and stammered, "What would you do if it turned out Lin Hong likes someone else?"

  "I'd slaughter them," Baldy Li replied without hesitation.

  Song Gang paused and then continued, "Who would you slaughter, that man or Lin Hong?"

  "Of course I'd slaughter the man." Baldy Li waved his hand and then wiped his mouth. "Lin Hong I would spare; I want to keep her around as my wife."

  Song Gang was deeply shaken but continued, asking, "And if I happened to be the one whom Lin Hong liked, what would you do?"

  Baldy Li laughed out loud and struck the table with both hands, saying firmly, "That's inconceivable."

  Seeing Baldy Li's confident expression, Song Gang's heart sank. Facing this brother of his, with whom he shared everything, Song Gang felt that he could not hide the truth any longer. He drew a deep breath, as if he had fallen into a distant memory, and then related with great difficulty the entire encounter on the bridge. When he concluded, Baldy Li stared at him with eyes as wide as saucers as he gradually calmed down. When Song Gang finally finished his tortured confession, he sighed and began watching Baldy Li nervously. Song Gang was waiting for Baldy Li to roar with fury.

  What Song Gang didn't expect, however, was that Baldy Li would look at him calmly, blink his eyes, and then narrow them to thin slits. Baldy Li looked at Song Gang suspiciously. "What exactly did Lin Hong tell you?"

  Song Gang replied, "She said she likes me."

  "Inconceivable." Baldy Li stood up and told Song Gang, "Lin Hong can't possibly like you."

  Song Gang blushed and said, "Why is that not possible?"

  Baldy Li sat on the table and peered imperiously down at Song Gang. "With so many men in Liu Town pursuing her, and each of them being far better than you, how could Lin Hong possibly have fallen for you? You are an orphan, with no mother or father."

  Song Gang rebutted, "You are also an orphan."

  "I might be an orphan"—Baldy Li nodded, then patted his chest— "but I am also a factory director."

  Song Gang continued to argue, "But maybe Lin Hong doesn't care about all that."

  "How could she not care?" Baldy Li shook his head and said to Song Gang, "Lin Hong is better than a celestial immortal, while you are just a poor lad. The two of you … it's simply inconceivable."

  Song Gang recalled a beautiful legend, observing, "The seventh celestial maiden fell for the common mortal Dong Yong."

  "That's just a legend; it isn't real." Baldy Li suddenly noticed something and gazed carefully at Song Gang, asking, "Do you like Lin Hong?"

  Song Gang blushed again. Baldy Li bounded down from the table, stood in front of Song Gang, and said, "I'm telling you, you can't like Lin Hong."

  Song Gang replied unhappily, "Why can't I like Lin Hong?"

  "Fuck!" Baldy Li suddenly cried out, his eyes growing wide, then shouted at Song Gang, "Lin Hong is mine. How can you like her? You are my brother, and while others can compete with me for her, you can't."

  Song Gang didn't know what to say and stared at Baldy Li in confusion. Suddenly Baldy Li said warmly, "Song Gang, we are brothers who have always depended on each other. You know that I like Lin Hong, so why do you want to like her as well? That would be incest!"

  Song Gang lowered his head and didn't say anything else. Baldy Li felt that Song Gang was ashamed, so he patted Song Gang's shoulder reassuringly and said, "Song Gang, I trust you and know that you wouldn't do anything to betray me."

  Baldy Li, still convinced that Lin Hong was secretly infatuated with him, looked at Song Gang and reasoned out loud, "Why didn't Lin Hong say that to someone else? Why did she have to say it to you, of all people? Perhaps she is using you as a way of communicating with me?"

  That night Song Gang couldn't sleep and kept tossing and turning, distracted by Baldy Li's contented snores and soft giggles. Lin Hong's beautiful figure and expression would flicker in and out of view in the darkness, making Song Gang long for her even more. At one point he forgot Baldy Li and, as a result, was able to enjoy a modicum of happiness. Song Gang's imagination soared in the darkness, and he pictured himself and Lin Hong strolling hand in hand through the streets of Liu, then owning a home together and loving each other like a married couple. However, this imaginary contentment immediately evaporated. Song Gang remembered Song Fanping's death in front of the bus depot, his and Baldy Li's tears, and his grandfather dragging the coffin home in a pullcart. He remembered the entire family walking down the muddy country road sobbing, and how frightened he had been when the sparrows by the road had abruptly flown away. He remembered how he and Baldy Li had dragged Li Lan's body back to the village like two sworn brothers. Finally, Song Gang remembered Li Lan grasping his hand before her death, making him promise to look after Baldy Li. By this point, Song Gang's tears were pouring down his face and soaking his pillow. Heartbroken, he realized he would never be able to betray Baldy Li. Eventually the sun came out and Song Gang finally fell asleep.

  Around noon he left the metal factory early and walked briskly to the main gate of the knitting factory. There he waited for Lin Hong to get off work and come out. He wanted to tell her that he wouldn't be able to meet her in the grove behind the theater, and he felt that that single phrase would communicate his resolve.

  Song Gang waited under the same wutong tree where Baldy Li's five emissaries of love had stood and shouted "intercourse." When the bell rang announcing the end of the workday, he suddenly felt an unprecedented sense of anguish, as if he were on the verge of death. He needed to say the one thing that he least wanted to say in his life; but he knew if he managed to get it out, he would no longer have to struggle with himself over Baldy Li.

  Lin Hong walked out of the factory as usual, accompanied by the usual crowd of workmates. She noticed Song Gang standing surreptitiously under the tree and called him an idiot under her breath. She had expected to see him that night at eight o'clock, not here at noon. When her workmates saw Song Gang, they started tittering, because they knew that he was Baldy Li's brother. They covered their mouths and whispered to each other that they couldn't imagine what bizarre stratagem Baldy Li had dreamed up this time. Because Lin Hong was with her workmates, she didn't give Song Gang a second look as she passed, instead just glancing at him out of the corner of her eye. It seemed to her that he didn't move at all, rooted to the spot like a small tree next to a larger one. Again she tenderly cursed him under her breath, "You idiot."

  Song Gang really did look like an idiot standing there, and when Lin Hong walked by him, his mouth moved a bit but he didn't utter a sound. It was only after she and her workmates had walked away that he realized she hadn't even glanced at him. He suddenly felt that Baldy Li had been right in saying Lin Hong couldn't possibly like him. The cold expression with which she had passed him certainly proved that point. This realization immediately made him feel that he had been relieved of a heavy burden, and he headed home feeling as light as a sparrow. He smiled a crooked smile, as though he were waking up from a dream and recalling its various lovely moments. The fantasy was better than the reality, he felt, since the dream version was so much less anxiety-producing.

  That night Song Gang was still relaxed and happy, humming a tune as he cooked Baldy Li'
s dinner, and he continued humming as they ate. Baldy Li watched Song Gang suspiciously and noticed that although it was almost eight o'clock, Song Gang didn't seem to have the slightest inclination to leave. Baldy Li, meanwhile, was himself thinking about that little grove behind the theater. He sat at the table, looking out the window at the moon, and tapping the table with his finger. Then, with a peculiar expression, he asked, "Why don't you go out?"

  Song Gang knew what he was referring to and shook his head in embarrassment, saying, "You were right, Lin Hong can't possibly like me."

  Baldy Li didn't understand why Song Gang was saying this, so Song Gang told him about his attempt to meet Lin Hong at the knitting factory, explaining that when she saw him she acted as if she didn't even recognize him. When Baldy Li heard this, he nodded knowingly and then pounded the table and shouted, "That's how it should be!"

  Song Gang jumped in surprise, and Baldy Li stood up and said, "Everything Lin Hong said must have been directed to me."

  Baldy Li confidently walked out the door and rushed toward the grove behind the theater. While running past the theater, he suddenly remembered that he was now a factory director and therefore couldn't rush around like a young hothead. He switched to a more leisurely pace, but by the time he reached the grove, he once again looked like someone arriving for a date.

  Lin Hong was waiting there. She had intentionally arrived fifteen minutes late, thinking that Song Gang would be waiting for her. Not finding him there, she was about to get annoyed when she heard soft footsteps behind her, footsteps that sounded like someone arriving for a secret rendezvous. Lin Hong couldn't help but smile, surprised that the usually upright Song Gang should be capable of such stealth. But then she heard Baldy Li's coarse laughter.

  She jumped in surprise, then turned and saw that it wasn't Song Gang at all, but instead Baldy Li was standing there laughing in the moonlight, boasting, "I knew that you were waiting here for me, and knew that what you said to Song Gang was actually meant for me."

  Lin Hong stared at him in shock, at a loss as to how to respond. Baldy Li tenderly complained, "Lin Hong, I know that you like me. Why don't you just come out and say it?"

  As Baldy Li said this he attempted to grasp her hand, causing Lin Hong to call out in alarm, "Get away, get away from me!"

  Lin Hong screamed and ran out of the grove, with Baldy Li hot on her heels, repeatedly calling out her name. Then she suddenly stopped, turned around, and, pointing at him, said, "Stop right there."

  Baldy Li stopped and asked unhappily, "Lin Hong, what are you doing? What kind of flirting is this?"

  "Who is flirting with you?" Lin Hong was so angry that her entire body started shaking. "You ugly toad."

  As she was saying this she quickly walked away. Baldy Li, having been called an ugly toad, stood there staring resentfully at Lin Hong as she disappeared. He began to walk away himself but then remembered how her parents had also called him an ugly toad and a pile of cow dung, and he cursed, "Your dad is an ugly toad, and your mom is a pile of cow dung. Fuck!"

  Baldy Li returned home looking like a defeated rooster in a cockfight. Disconsolate, he sat down, then furiously pounded the table while wiping the sweat from his brow. Song Gang sat on the bed holding a book, watching Baldy Li nervously. Baldy Li's appearance suggested to Song Gang what had happened, so he carefully asked, "Did Lin Hong go to the grove?"

  "Yes," Baldy Li said angrily. "She fucking called me an ugly toad."

  Song Gang watched Baldy Li distractedly as memories of his own encounters with Lin Hong rushed back to him: every word she said to him on the bridge, as well as while braiding her hair in her bedroom— these scenes were as clear as if they were playing right in front of his eyes. And now, in a moment of clarity, Song Gang finally became convinced that he was indeed the one whom Lin Hong liked. At that point, Baldy Li began to study the distracted Song Gang intently and said, as if he had suddenly made an unexpected discovery, "Maybe Lin Hong really fucking does like you."

  Song Gang shook his head sadly, and Baldy Li asked him suspiciously, "Do you like Lin Hong?"

  Song Gang nodded, and Baldy Li pounded the table and cried out imperiously, "Song Gang, Lin Hong is mine, and you can't fucking like her. If you like her, we can no longer be brothers but instead will become enemies, and more specifically class enemies."

  Song Gang listened to Baldy Li's cries with his head lowered, and after Baldy Li had gone through all the curse words he could think of, Song Gang finally lifted his head and laughed miserably. "Relax, I won't get together with Lin Hong. I don't want to lose my brother."

  "Really?" Baldy Li began to laugh.

  Song Gang nodded earnestly, whereupon tears began to roll down his cheeks. After wiping his tears, he pointed to the bed on which he was sitting and said, "Do you remember? Before she died, Mother made me carry her home, and then she lay in this bed…"

  "I remember." Baldy Li nodded.

  "And do you remember how then you went out to buy some stuffed buns?"

  Baldy Li nodded again, and Song Gang continued: "After you left, Mother took my hand and made me promise to look after you. I told her not to worry and said that I would give you my last piece of clothing and my last bowl of rice."

  After he said this, tears ran down Song Gangs cheeks, and Baldy Li also began to cry, saying, "Did you really say that?"

  Song Gang nodded, and Baldy Li wiped his tears and said, "Song Gang, you are really a good brother."

  CHAPTER 33

  BALDY LI continued to pursue his beating to a pulp courtship stratagem, but never again did he ask Song Gang to accompany him. Baldy Li said that he would feel very uneasy if Song Gang and Lin Hong were so much as to catch sight of each other. Therefore, he asked that Song Gang avoid Lin Hong at all costs, and if he were to run into her in the street, he should avoid her as if she were a leper. Baldy Li then began to model himself after Song Gang, reasoning that if Lin Hong liked Song Gang, it must be because Song Gang was so refined and never cursed and was always studiously carrying a book around with him. Baldy Li therefore completely transformed himself, and whenever he was near Lin Hong he too would make sure to have a book with him. He also stopped bullying the other men of Liu; instead he smiled effusively like a politician on the stump, and every time he encountered someone he knew, he would greet them with a warm handshake. When the people of Liu saw this new Baldy Li, they all said that it was as if the sun had suddenly risen in the west. They always saw Baldy Li leafing through his book and muttering to himself like a Confucian scholar whenever he was at Lin Hongs side. Everyone muffled their laughter with their hands and whispered that Lin Hong had rid herself of a love-crazy hooligan but had gained a love-crazy monk. When Baldy Li noticed that the onlookers were very curious about his incessant reading, he proclaimed loudly, "Reading is good, and going a day without reading is even more uncomfortable than going a month without taking a shit."

  Baldy Li said this for Lin Hongs benefit, but as soon as the words were out of his mouth he immediately regretted them, feeling that his comparison was perhaps too crass. After he returned home, he asked Song Gang for advice and subsequently changed his line to "Reading is good. You can go a month without eating, but you can't go a day without reading."

  The people of Liu disagreed, pointing out that if you don't read for a day, you can still survive, whereas if you go a month without eating, you will surely die. Baldy Li dismissed the naysayers as a bunch of cowards and said valiantly, "If you go a month without eating, you would in fact starve to death, but if you go a day without reading, it would result in a life worse than death."

  Lin Hong continued walking expressionlessly She heard this back-and-forth between Baldy Li and the onlookers and noticed the onlookers’ laughter and Baldy Li's excitement, but she herself maintained a studious indifference to it all.

  After Baldy Li adopted the identity of a Confucian scholar, he became very bookish and would frequently spout pearls of wisdom, only occasionally straying into obscenit
y. When Lin Hong heard Baldy Li's obscenities, she thought to herself, You can't teach a dog not to eat shit.

  Lin Hong knew what kind of scum Baldy Li was and didn't feel at all as though the sun were now rising in the west. Instead, she was convinced that he was up to his old tricks, and at the end of the day he was merely the same ugly toad and pile of cow dung, just as, at the end of the day, the Monkey King in Journey to the West was still, despite his seventy-two incarnations, merely a monkey.

  On the night of the rendezvous in the grove, Lin Hong had been furious when Baldy Li, rather than Song Gang, appeared. She then attempted to excise Song Gang from her heart. When she glimpsed him on the street a few days later, she laughed coldly and thought to herself that this guy was a perfect idiot who wouldn't get another chance. She lifted her head high and walked toward him, telling herself that she wouldn't give him a second glance. The last thing she expected, however, was for Song Gang to run away as soon as he saw her coming. The next several days, every time Song Gang caught sight of her, he would run away as though she were a leper—exactly as Baldy Li had instructed. This ritual gradually ate away at her pride and left her feeling completely bereft.

  In this way, Song Gang unintentionally made his way back into Lin Hong's heart. She noticed her heart's peculiar transformation: The more Song Gang avoided her, the more she liked him. Every night, rain or clear, Lin Hong would find herself remembering his handsome figure as she was trying to fall asleep—his smile, his bowed head and pensive appearance, his soulful look every time he saw her. She found everything about Song Gang as sweet as could be. After a while, her memories of him became an intense yearning, as if he were her lover from whom she was separated by a vast distance.

  Lin Hong was convinced that Song Gang was secretly in love with her and that he was avoiding her on Baldy Li's account. The mere thought of Baldy Li turned her pale with fury. His fearsome appearance made all the other young men of Liu too terrified to court her— though, truth be told, in her eyes they were all worthless wretches. Song Gang was different, and Lin Hong would often fantasize that he was courting her. Each time after her daydream she would shake her head and sigh, knowing that he would never come visit her on his own accord. Deciding that it was time for her to take the initiative again, she resolved to write him a note—seven lines and eighty-three characters long, together with thirteen punctuation marks, to be exact. Of those eighty-three characters, she devoted fifty-one to cursing Baldy Li and the remaining thirty-two to urging Song Gang to come meet her at eight o'clock that evening under the bridge. Lin Hong folded the note into the shape of a butterfly and hid it inside a brand-new handkerchief, then waited in the street for Song Gang to get off work. The last sentence in the note asked that Song Gang return the handkerchief to her when he came to meet her. She felt that, by adding this line, she was guaranteeing that he would not stand her up.