Chronicle of a Blood Merchant (21 page)

He stood for a while until he began to feel the chill. Then he squatted down next to the trunk of a tree. After he had squatted for a while, he extracted all his money from inside the lining of his jacket and began to count. The total was thirty-seven
yuan
and forty
fen.
He had sold blood three times but had only two bowls’ worth of blood money to show for it. He carefully folded the bills and put them back in his inside pocket. He felt wronged. Tears welled up in his eyes, and a cold wind blew the tears down to the ground, so that by the time he tried to wipe his eyes, they were already dry. He sat for a little while longer and then got up and continued to walk. He thought to himself that it was still a long way to Shanghai. He knew he would still have to pass through Big Bridge, Anchang Gate, Jing’an, Huang’s Inn, Tiger’s Head Bridge, Three Ring Cave, Seven-Mile Fort, Yellow Bay, Willow Village, Changning, and New Village before he got there.

Xu Sanguan decided that he could no longer afford to take passenger ferries. He figured that it would cost him three
yuan
and sixty
fen
to get to Shanghai from Pine Grove by boat. Since he had sold blood twice to no avail, he couldn’t spend his money so carelessly anymore. And that was how he decided to hitch a ride on a concrete river barge loaded with silk cocoons manned by two brothers called Laixi and Laishun.

Xu Sanguan had caught sight of them as he stood on the stone steps by the river. Laixi was standing at the prow brandishing a bamboo pole used for pushing the boat down the river, while Laishun stood at the stern waving a long oar. Xu Sanguan waved and asked where they were headed. They said they were going to Seven-Mile Fort. There was a silk factory in Seven-Mile Fort to which they would deliver their cargo of cocoons.

Xu Sanguan said to them, “We’re going in the same direction. I’m going to Shanghai. Do you think you could give me a lift to Seven-Mile Fort?” By the time he explained himself, the barge had already glided past him.

Xu Sanguan ran along the bank of the river in pursuit of the barge. “One more person won’t sink the boat. And I can help you row. Three people rowing is bound to be easier than just two. And I can help out with your food expenses. It’s cheaper for three to eat than two—everyone can eat an extra bowl or two of rice, and you don’t need any more vegetables.”

The two brothers realized that Xu Sanguan was talking sense, so they brought the barge to a halt against the banks and let him climb aboard.

Xu Sanguan didn’t know how to row, and almost as soon as he took the oar from Laishun, it slid out of his hands and into the water. Laixi hurriedly brought the boat to a halt with his bamboo pole, while Laishun bent over the stern and fished the oar from the water when it floated up on the current.

Having retrieved the oar, Laishun pointed at Xu Sanguan and yelled, “You said you could help row, but all you know how to do is drop the damned oar in the river. What else did you say just now? You said you could do this and help us with that, which is the only reason we let you on in the first place. So that’s what you call rowing? I wonder what else can you do?”

“I said I could eat with you, because it’s cheaper for three to eat than two.”

“I have no fucking doubt that you can eat!” Laishun shouted.

Laixi broke into laughter at the prow. “Well, you can cook for me. That’s a start.”

Xu Sanguan went up to the little brick stove on the deck. There was a wok on top of the stove and a bundle of kindling next to it. Xu Sanguan began to cook.

When night came, Laishun and Laixi moored the barge by the bank, opened an iron hatch on the deck, crawled down into the cabin, and wrapped themselves in a single quilt. Noticing that Xu Sanguan was still outside, they called up to him, “Come down and get some sleep.”

Xu Sanguan, seeing that the cabin was even smaller than a single bed, demurred. “I won’t crowd you two. I’ll sleep up here.”

Laixi said, “It’s wintertime. If you sleep outside, you’ll freeze to death.”

Laishun added, “If you freeze to death, we’ll be in trouble too.”

“Come on down,” Laixi continued. “We’re all on the same boat, so we have to take the good and bad together.”

Xu Sanguan knew he was right: it really was very cold outside, and when he remembered that he would have to sell still more blood at Huang’s Inn and could not afford to get sick, he slid down into the cabin and lay down between them. Laixi passed a corner of the quilt to him, and Laishun pulled enough of the fabric in his direction to cover him.

Xu Sanguan said to them, “You two are brothers, but somehow Laixi always sounds nicer than Laishun when he’s saying something.”

The two brothers’ chuckles quickly gave way to snores. Xu Sanguan was squeezed between them, and their shoulders jutted into his shoulders. And after a little while their legs were draped across his legs, and after a while longer their arms were sprawled across his chest. Xu Sanguan lay pressed beneath them, listening to the motion of the water. The sound was extremely clear and distinct. He could even hear the sound of drops of water splashing above the current, and he felt as if he were actually sleeping submerged in the river itself. The sound of the river brushing his ears kept him awake for a long time, so he thought about Yile and wondered how he was doing in the hospital in Shanghai. He thought about Xu Yulan, and he thought about Erle lying sick in bed at home, and he thought about Sanle watching over Erle.

After a few nights in the tiny cabin Xu Sanguan’s bones ached. During the day he sat on deck pounding his back, kneading his shoulders, and swinging his arms back and forth.

When Laixi saw him, he said, “The cabin’s too small. You didn’t sleep well.”

Laishun said, “He’s getting old, and his bones are brittle.”

Xu Sanguan felt old. He knew he was no longer a young man.
Laishun’s right, I
am
getting old. It’s not that the cabin’s too
small. When I was young, I could sleep in a crack in the wall and
not feel a thing.

The boat continued to move. They passed through Big Bridge, through Anchang Gate, and through Jing’an. The next stop was Huang’s Inn. The sun had been shining for two days, and the snow on the banks of the river was beginning to melt. A few patches of snow still clung to the roofs of the farmhouses they passed on either side of the river. The fields around the houses sat barren and idle, and they only rarely saw people at work in the paddies, but there were quite a few people walking on the road along the river, carrying shoulder poles and baskets and chattering loudly among themselves.

Within a few days Xu Sanguan and the two brothers had become quite friendly with one another. They told Xu Sanguan that transporting their load of cocoons would take them ten days all told. And for their efforts they would receive six
yuan,
or a mere three
yuan
each.

Xu Sanguan said to them, “You might as well sell blood then. You can make thirty-five
yuan
each time.” He continued, “Your blood is like water in a well. It’ll never run dry, no matter how much you draw.”

Xu Sanguan told them everything Ah Fang and Genlong had told him years before. When he was finished, the brothers asked, “But won’t your health go bad after you sell blood?”

“No,” Xu Sanguan replied, “but your legs will probably feel a little weak for a while. It’s a lot like the moment after you’ve finished with a woman.”

The brothers chuckled uneasily.

Noticing their befuddlement, Xu Sanguan asked, “You understand what I’m talking about, right?”

Laixi shook his head, and Laishun said, “Neither of us has ever had a woman, so we don’t know what it feels like when you’re done.”

Xu Sanguan also chuckled. “Well, selling blood is one way to find out.”

Laishun addressed Laixi. “Why don’t we give it a try? We’ll make lots of money, and we’ll find out what it feels like. Why not kill two birds with one stone?”

When they arrived at Huang’s Inn, Laixi and Laishun tied the boat to a wooden mooring on the bank and followed Xu Sanguan to the county hospital to sell blood.

As they walked, Xu Sanguan told them, “There are four kinds of blood. The first kind is O, the second is AB, the third is A, and the fourth is B—”

Laixi broke in, “How do you write those?”

Xu Sanguan said, “They’re foreign letters. I don’t know how to write them either. I only know the first one, O. You draw a circle. My blood type is a circle.”

Xu Sanguan led them through the streets of Huang’s Inn until they found the hospital. Then they went to the stone steps by the river. Xu Sanguan took a bowl from out of his pocket and handed it to Laixi. “Before you sell your blood, you have to drink a lot of water. If you drink a lot of water, you can water down your blood. Think about it. If your blood is watered down, there will be that much more to sell, right?”

Laixi took the bowl and asked, “How much should I drink?”

“Eight bowls.”

“Eight bowls?” Laixi was astonished. “Won’t your stomach burst if you drink eight bowls of water?”

Xu Sanguan replied, “I can drink eight bowls, and I’m almost fifty. Add your ages together, and the two of you still wouldn’t be as old as I am. Can’t you drink as much as an old man?”

Laishun said to Laixi, “If he can drink eight bowls, then we should be able to manage nine or ten.”

“No way,” Xu Sanguan said. “The very most you should drink is eight. Any more than that, and your bladder’ll burst, just like Ah Fang—”

“Who’s Ah Fang?”

“You don’t know him. Drink. Each of us can drink one bowl first, and then we’ll take turns.”

Laixi bent down and skimmed up a bowl of water to drink. As soon as he started, he clasped his chest and exclaimed, “Too damn cold! It’s so cold my stomach’s twitching.”

Laishun said, “Of course winter water is cold. Give me the bowl. I’ll go first.” After one sip, Laishun also called out, “No way! No way. It’s too cold. I can’t take it.”

Then Xu Sanguan remembered that he had yet to give them any salt. He fished the packet from out of his pocket and passed it to them. “Eat a little salt first. When your mouth gets dry, you’ll be able to drink.”

The brothers took the packet and began to eat the salt. After a while Laixi said he was ready to drink. He skimmed another bowlful of water and took three gulps. Then he started to shiver. “You’re right. When your mouth’s all salty, it’s easier to drink it.”

He drank a few more gulps. When the bowl was dry, he passed it to Laishun and sat trembling with his arms wrapped around his own shoulders. Laishun took a few gulps but managed to finish the bowl only after letting out a long string of curses and exclamations.

Xu Sanguan took the bowl and said to them, “I’ll go first after all. Watch how it’s done.”

The brothers sat on the stone steps and watched as Xu Sanguan tapped a bit of salt into his palm and popped it into his mouth. His mouth twitched. Then he fished up a bowlful of water and drank it in one gulp. He drank two bowls in a row, stopped, poured more salt into his palm, and popped it into his mouth. He repeated these motions until he had swallowed eight bowls of water, never once wiping the water from around his mouth or allowing himself to shiver. Only when he was finished did he finally wipe his mouth, wrap his arms around his shoulders, and shudder with the cold. Then he burped three times. After burping three times, he sneezed three times.

When he finished sneezing, he turned to the brothers and said, “I’ve drunk enough. Your turn.”

Each of the brothers drank five bowls, then declared, “I can’t drink any more. Any more water, and my stomach will freeze solid.”

Xu Sanguan, realizing that “a man can’t get fat from a single bite of food,” let them stop there. That they had been able to drink five bowls of icy river water on their first try was enough. He stood and led them to the hospital.

When they got there, Laixi and Laishun sold their blood first. He was happy to discover that they too had type O blood. “The three of us all have circle type blood.”

After they had sold their blood at the Huang’s Inn County Hospital, Xu Sanguan brought them to a restaurant by the river. He sat in front of the window, and the brothers sat at his flanks. “You can be thrifty at other times, but at a time like this you have to spend a little extra. Do your legs feel weak now that you’ve sold blood?” He saw them nod. “That’s what it feels like after you’ve been with a woman. Your legs go weak. At times like this you have to eat a plate of fried pork livers and two shots of yellow rice wine. The pork livers build up the blood, and the wine gives it life.” As he spoke, he began to tremble.

Laishun said to him, “You’re shaking. When you’re done with a woman, do you shake after your legs go soft?”

Xu Sanguan chuckled and gestured in Laishun’s direction. “I see what you mean. But this time it’s only because I’ve been selling blood the whole way here.” Xu Sanguan crossed two fingers to make the character for ten. “In the last ten days I’ve sold blood four times. If you did it with a woman four times in one day, weak legs and trembling would be just the start of it. You’d start to feel cold chills too.”

Noting that the waiter was winding his way toward their table, he lowered his voice.

“Put your hands on the table. Don’t let them hang underneath the table like people who’ve never been to a restaurant before. You want to look like you always come to places like this, if only for some wine. Straighten up and hold your heads high. You have to do this with style. When you order, make sure to slap the table and speak up. That way they won’t dare cheat you, or skimp on the food, or water down the wine. When the waiter comes over to our table, just follow my lead.”

The waiter came over to the table and asked what they wanted. Xu Sanguan was no longer shivering. Rapping the table for emphasis, he barked, “A plate of fried pork livers and two shots of yellow rice wine.” He waved his right hand back and forth through the air and added, “Warm the wine up for me.”

The waiter took his order and turned to Laishun.

Laishun pounded on the table with his fist until it rocked back and forth. Then he demanded with a shout, “A plate of fried pork livers and two shots of yellow rice wine.”