Chronicle of a Blood Merchant (5 page)

Dripping wet, he clambered the last few steps out of the well and shouted through pale blue lips, “Dad, I found the bucket! Dad, I almost couldn’t hold my breath long enough! Dad, the bucket was caught under a ledge! Dad, how long was I down in the well?”

Sanle ran eagerly forward to announce the total but was quickly and dismissively waved away by Xu Sanguan, who was stroking the water from Yile’s forehead with his other hand.

“Sanle, didn’t I already tell you to get out of here?”

XU SANGUAN said things like that to “the little brat” all the time.

So did Xu Yulan.

Even Yile and Erle told him to go away sometimes.

And when they told him to go away, he really would go away, walking through the streets, salivating as he stood for what seemed like hours outside the candy shop, squatting alone by the river looking at the little fish and the little shrimps in the shallows, pasting himself against electrical poles to listen to the sound of the electricity rushing across the wires above, falling asleep in somebody else’s house with his arms wrapped around his knees. He would always walk and walk until he didn’t know where he was, then ask for directions until he found his way home.

Xu Sanguan always said to Xu Yulan, “Yile’s like me and Erle takes after you. But I have no idea who that little brat takes after.”

When Xu Sanguan said such things, what he really meant was that of the three children, he liked Yile best of all. But it was also Yile who had become someone else’s son. Sometimes Xu Sanguan would sit back in the rattan chair thinking about Yile and start to cry.

As Xu Sanguan cried, Sanle approached, and seeing his father cry, he too burst into tears without knowing why. His father’s sadness was catching, like a yawn.

When Xu Sanguan discovered that someone was crying even more brokenheartedly than himself, he turned his head to discover “the little brat” standing by his side. He would dismiss him with a wave of his hand. “Sanle, go away.”

Sanle could only turn and leave. By this time Sanle was already seven years old. He carried a little slingshot in one hand, and his pockets were stuffed full of little stones. He would pace back and forth, and when he caught sight of a magpie moving along the eaves of a house or stirring among some tree branches, he would aim the slingshot and fire. Even if he didn’t succeed in actually hitting the bird, he could usually send it packing, twittering as it flew into the distance. Then he would shout, “Come back, you! Come back!”

Sanle’s slingshot was often aimed at street lamps, at cats, chickens, and ducks. He would aim for clothes hanging from bamboo poles to dry, at bundles of dried fish hanging from the eaves of houses, at bottles, baskets, and vegetables floating in the river. One time he even hit another boy on the head with a rock.

The boy was about the same age as Sanle himself. He was walking down the street when the rock hit his head. At first his body rocked back and forth with the unexpectedness of the blow. Then he reached out his hand to rub the spot that had been hit. Finally, he burst into tears. Still crying, he turned to see Sanle holding the slingshot and grinning in his direction. He walked over toward Sanle and extended one arm to slap him. Rather than landing on Sanle’s face, the slap somehow landed on the back of his head. Sanle, in turn, reached out and slapped the other boy. Then they traded blows, the sound of their slaps ringing out like an ovation. But the sound of their crying was even louder, because by now Sanle too was sobbing with anger and pain.

The other boy said, “I’m gonna go get my brother. I have two big brothers. My brothers will beat you up.”

Sanle said, “So what? I have two big brothers too. My brothers’ll beat up your brothers.”

The two children stopped slapping each other and negotiated. They agreed that they would each fetch their brothers and meet at the same place an hour later.

When Sanle arrived home, he saw Erle sitting drowsily inside. “Erle, I had a fight with another kid. Come out and help me.”

Erle asked, “Who was it?”

Sanle said, “I don’t know his name.”

Erle asked, “How big is he?”

Sanle said, “The same as me.”

As soon as Erle learned that the kid was only as big as his little brother, he slapped the table and shouted, “Goddamn! Trying to bully my little brother, is he? I’ll show him a thing or two.”

By the time Sanle led Erle back to the street where the slapping match had taken place, the other boy had arrived with his own brother in tow. The other boy was taller than Erle by a head.

Chills ran down Erle’s spine, and he turned and said to Sanle, “Stand behind me, and don’t say a word.”

When the other boy’s big brother saw Erle and Sanle approach, he gestured at them with a dismissive air of nonchalance. “Is that them?” Then he approached, arms swinging expectantly back and forth, glaring balefully in Erle’s direction. “Which one of you hit my brother?”

Erle spread out his hands, palms up, and smiled placatingly. “It wasn’t me.” As he spoke, he lifted his index finger over his shoulder to point at Sanle standing behind him. “It was my little brother who did it.”

“Then I’ll beat up your little brother.”

“Let’s be reasonable and talk this thing out,” Erle said to the other boy’s brother. “If we can’t work things out, then I won’t stand in your way, even if you have to hit him.”

“So what if you did stand in the way?” He shoved Erle, sending him reeling several yards back. “I
want
you to stand in the way. I’m dying to beat the shit out of both of you.”

“I’m definitely not going to get involved.” Erle waved his hands for emphasis. “I’m the kind of person who likes to talk things out, to be reasonable.”

“Talk all you goddamn want.” He took a step forward and punched Erle in the nose. “First I’ll beat the shit out of you, and then I’ll beat the shit out of your little brother.”

Erle began to retreat, one step at a time, asking the smaller child as he went, “Who is this guy to you? What’s his problem? Why’s he so unreasonable?”

“He’s my oldest brother,” the child replied, not without a certain elation. “And I have another big brother too.”

As soon as Erle heard this, he shouted, “Hold everything.” He pointed at the two younger children. “This is no fair. My little brother called his second oldest brother, but your little brother went and got his oldest brother. That’s not fair. If you had any guts, you’d let my little brother go get our oldest brother too. You think you have the guts to take on our big brother?”

The other boy waved his hand through the air. “I’m not scared of anyone or anything. Go get your big brother then. I’ll beat the shit out of all three of you.”

Erle and Sanle ran home to fetch Yile. Yile came but was quick to realize as he arrived on the scene that the other boy was almost half a head taller than himself. He said to Erle and Sanle, “I want to take a piss first.”

As he spoke, he turned and walked down a lane. When he emerged, his hands were held behind his back. In his hands he held a sharp triangular rock. He approached the bigger boy with his eyes fixed firmly to the ground.

“
This
is your big brother? Too scared to even look at me?”

Yile looked up long enough to determine just where the bigger boy’s head was located. Then he lifted the rock and brought it down on top of it. The bigger boy cried out once. Yile brought the rock down on his head three more times. The bigger boy tumbled to the ground, blood trickling onto the pavement around his head.

When Yile was sure the boy wouldn’t be able to get up again, he threw away the rock, wiped the dirt from his hands, and gestured toward his silent and frightened little brothers.

“Let’s go home.”

CHAPTER EIGHT

People said, “Blacksmith Fang’s son was beaten so badly by Xu Sanguan’s son that he broke his head right open. I heard his skull is cracked open, like a watermelon that’s been dropped on the ground and broken into bits and pieces.” “I heard he used a cleaver, cut almost an inch into the skull, so you could see his brains oozing out. The nurse at the hospital said his brains looked like stewed tofu, and steam was coming out from between the cracks in his head.” “Dr. Chen had to sew up his head with almost a hundred stitches.” “How can you sew through something as hard as a skull?” “I don’t know how he did it.” “He used steel needles, they’re about so thick, a few times thicker than the ones you use to stitch the soles of your shoes.” “Even those wouldn’t work. I heard he had to use a little hammer to hammer in the steel needles.” “But first you have to pull out all his hair.” “What do you mean, pull out his hair? How do you do that?” “I mean shave his head clean. It’s not as easy as pulling up a patch of weeds, with the skull all broken to pieces like that. If you pulled too hard, pieces of his skull might come away along with the hair.” “That’s called ‘clearing the area.’ Before an operation you have to clear away all the hair. When I had my appendix removed last year, they shaved off all my pubic hair.”

XU SANGUAN said to Xu Yulan, “Have you heard what people are saying?”

PEOPLE SAID, “Dr. Chen saved Blacksmith Fang’s son’s life. He was operating on him for over ten hours.” “Blacksmith Fang’s son’s head is completely wrapped in gauze bandages, all you can see are his eyes, his nose, and a little bit of his mouth.” “After the kid got out of the operation he didn’t move for almost twenty hours. Wasn’t till yesterday morning that he finally opened his eyes.” “Blacksmith Fang’s son can eat a little gruel now, but as soon as he takes a sip, he brings it all up again. Vomits everything. He even threw up some of his own shit.”

X U SANGUAN said to Xu Yulan, “Have you heard what people are saying?”

PEOPLE SAID, “As long as he’s in the hospital, Blacksmith Fang’s son is going to need medicine, and shots, and an IV bottle too. It costs a fortune. Who’s going to pay for all that? Xu Sanguan? Or He Xiaoyong? Anyway, Xu Yulan’s the one who’s really on the hook, because no matter who the dad might be, we all know that she’s his mom.” “Is Xu Sanguan going to pay? He’s been going around saying that He Xiaoyong should take Yile back.” “He Xiaoyong really should pay. After all, Xu Sanguan has raised his son for nine years now for nothing.” “Xu Sanguan’s slept with Yile’s mom for nine years for nothing too. If I’d spent nine years with a woman for nothing and her son got himself in trouble, I sure would stand to one side.” “You’re right there.” “What’s so right about that? Spending nine years with a woman as pretty as Xu Yulan doesn’t seem so bad to me. If her son got into trouble, I think it would only be natural to do what you can to help out. And Xu Sanguan spent good money to get her for his own. So no matter what you think, they’re still a married couple. That’s hardly what you could call ‘spending nine years together for nothing.’ ” “You think Xu Sanguan will pay up?” “No way.” “No way.” “Xu Sanguan’s been a cuckold for nine years now. But he didn’t know what was going on before. I guess it wouldn’t matter if he was still in the dark. But now that he knows, wouldn’t paying up just add insult to his injury?”

XU SANGUAN said to Xu Yulan, “Have you heard what people are saying? Even if you haven’t heard all of it, you must have heard some. Blacksmith Fang has already come by a few times to ask you to bring the money to the hospital. So tell me, how much have you and He Xiaoyong been able to come up with? What are you crying about? What’s the use of crying? Don’t come begging to me. If it had been Erle or Sanle who’d gotten into trouble, I’d do everything in my power. Hell, I would willingly wipe Blacksmith Fang’s ass for him. But Yile isn’t my son, I raised him for nine years, and for what? All for nothing. How much of my own money have I spent on him? I’ve been kind enough not to demand that He Xiaoyong pay me for what he owes. Haven’t you heard what they’re saying? They’re saying that I’m a good man, that I’m generous, that if it was someone else in my position, He Xiaoyong would already have been beaten within an inch of his life, not once but several times over. So don’t ask me to talk it over, because this has nothing whatsoever to do with me. This is a He family affair. Haven’t you heard what they’re saying? Wouldn’t paying up just add insult to injury? . . . All right already, stop crying, it’s driving me crazy, the way you’re always crying. All right, I give up. Forget it. Go see He Xiaoyong. You can tell him that we’ve been together almost ten years. You can tell him that Yile’s thought of me as his dad for almost as long. That’s why I’m allowing him to stay here. And why I’ll agree to be responsible for raising him from now on. But
only
if he pays what he owes this one time. Just this once. He has to pay up, if only just this once. Otherwise I’ll have no face left at all. Why am I letting that bastard off so damn easy?”

CHAPTER NINE

Xu Yulan announced to Xu Sanguan that she was on her way to see He Xiaoyong.

Xu Sanguan was sitting inside, knotting some rags to make a mop. When he heard what Xu Yulan said, he stuck out his hand to rub his nose, wiped his mouth, and wordlessly continued to work on the mop.

Xu Yulan continued, “I’m going to see He Xiaoyong, but only because you asked me to. I swore long ago that I would never see him again.” She asked Xu Sanguan, “Should I dress up before I go over there, or is it better if I go as I am?”

Xu Sanguan thought to himself,
She wants to dress up to see
He Xiaoyong? Does that mean she’s going to comb her hair in the
mirror, moisten it with hair oil, rub Snowflower cream on her
face, put on her best sweater, pat the dust from her shoes, and
wear that silk scarf around her neck? And then cheerfully
saunter off to see the man who made me a cuckold these nine
years?
Xu Sanguan threw the mop to one side and bounded up from his seat.

“You still want He Xiaoyong to squeeze your fucking tits? You still want to have your fun with him? You want to look nice for him? You’re going just as you are. Better yet, rub your face with ashes from the stove.”

Xu Yulan said, “But if I go with stove ash on my face and my hair all a mess, don’t you think He Xiaoyong might say, ‘Hey everyone! Come look!
This
is what Xu Sanguan’s woman looks like! ’ ”

Xu Sanguan had to agree that she was right. He was not about to let that bastard He Xiaoyong have a good laugh at his expense. “Then you better dress up before you go.”

So Xu Yulan put on her finely woven sweater, over which she wore a dark blue khaki jacket with a turned-down collar. She adjusted the collar so as to show as much as possible of the sweater underneath, then went to get the silk scarf from her trunk. She tied and knotted it around her neck, but after a glance in the mirror revealed that it covered the sweater, she shifted the knot to the side and tucked it under her collar. After another glance in the mirror, she tugged the two ends of the knot out from underneath and let them rest atop her collar.

Xu Yulan walked over to He Xiaoyong’s house enveloped in a cloud of fragrance emitted by the Snowflower cream on her face. The ends of her scarf fluttered in the breeze like a pair of chicks flapping their wings. She passed two intersections, turned down a small lane, and came to He Xiaoyong’s door.

Xu Yulan saw a thirty-year-old woman sitting by his door scrubbing clothes on a washing board. This, she knew, was He Xiaoyong’s woman. He Xiaoyong’s woman was as skinny as a bamboo pole. She had been just as skinny ten years before, when she had walked through the streets with He Xiaoyong in tow, letting out a little snort of derision whenever they happened to run into Xu Yulan and bursting into giggles after they had passed her by. At the time Xu Yulan had thought to herself,
He
Xiaoyong’s gone and married a woman without any tits or ass.
Now she saw that the woman still didn’t have any tits and that her ass was sitting squarely atop a stool.

Xu Yulan shouted into the open front door, “He Xiaoyong! He Xiaoyong!”

“Who is it?”

He Xiaoyong stuck his head from out of the second-floor window. But when he realized to his dismay that it was Xu Yulan standing outside, he immediately recoiled. After a moment his head reappeared, and his eyes looked down in her direction. He looked at this woman standing downstairs who was prettier than his own wife, this woman with whom he had made love; this woman who never talked to him anymore when they ran into each other in the street; this was the woman who was smiling in his direction. He spluttered, “What do you want?”

Xu Yulan said, “He Xiaoyong, I haven’t seen you for a long time. You’ve gained weight. You even have a double chin now.”

He Xiaoyong heard the sound of his wife spitting in disgust. “What do you want?”

Xu Yulan said, “Come down here. We can talk after you come downstairs.”

He Xiaoyong, eyes on his woman, said, “I’m not coming down. I’m just fine up here. Why should I come down?”

Xu Yulan said, “Come downstairs. It’ll be easier to talk if you’re down here.”

“I’m staying up here.”

Xu Yulan glanced at He Xiaoyong’s woman, then smiled up at He Xiaoyong. “He Xiaoyong, could it be that you’re actually afraid to come down and talk to me?”

He Xiaoyong looked over toward his wife, then said in a low, diffident voice, “I’m not afraid of anything.”

At this point his wife could no longer remain silent. She got to her feet, looked up at the window, and said, “He Xiaoyong, come down here. What can she do to you? She’s not going to eat you, for heaven’s sake.”

He Xiaoyong came down the stairs and walked over to where Xu Yulan was standing. “Say whatever it is you have to say, and make it quick. I don’t have time for this shit.”

Xu Yulan smiled nicely and said, “I came to tell you the good news. It’s Xu Sanguan. He says he’s not going to come and settle his debt with you, so you can put your mind at rest on that score. At first he was planning to chop you into pieces with a cleaver, because you knocked up his woman and forced him to take care of your own son for nine years. That’s why he was going to chop you to bits with a cleaver. And if he had, no one would have blamed him for it either. Xu Sanguan says he’s not going to ask you to pay back the money he’s spent on Yile. And he’s not going to send him back to live with you. He Xiaoyong, you’re getting off pretty easy, having someone else raise your son for you and never having to lift a finger to help. You get to be a dad for nothing. But Xu Sanguan has had himself a raw deal, from the very start. After Yile was born, he never got any sleep. He’d hold the baby and walk back and forth across the room all night so he wouldn’t cry. Xu Sanguan washed all of Yile’s diapers, and every year he made him a new set of clothes. Not to mention that he always provided him food to eat and water to drink, day in and day out. And Yile eats more than I do. He Xiaoyong, Xu Sanguan says he’s not going to settle his accounts with you. And he says all you have to do in return is give the money to Blacksmith Fang.”

He Xiaoyong said, “What does Blacksmith Fang’s son being in the hospital have to do with me?”

“Your son smashed his head in with a rock.”

“I don’t have a son,” He Xiaoyong said. “Since when do I have a son? All I have is two daughters. One’s called He Xiaoying and the other’s He Xiaohong.”

“You really have no conscience, do you?” Xu Yulan jabbed her finger toward him. “I suppose you’ve forgotten that summer when you took advantage of my dad’s going to the public toilet and pulled me onto the bed. You’re a heartless bastard. What did I do in my past life to deserve this? What did I do to deserve your bastard seed finding its way into my belly?”

He Xiaoyong brushed away her finger with his hand. “Do you think I would waste my precious seed on a bitch like you? That kid is Xu Sanguan’s bastard, and there’s two more where he came from.”

“Oh, for heaven’s sake.” Xu Yulan’s tears began to come. “Everyone who sees Yile says so. They all say he’s the spitting image of He Xiaoyong. Don’t think you can deny it. Even if your face was scarred by fire or scalded by coals, you wouldn’t be able to deny it. Because he looks more and more like you every day.”

When she saw that a group of spectators had begun to gather around and watch, He Xiaoyong’s woman chimed in, “Take a good look. She’s a shameless bitch, this one. Trying to steal my man in broad daylight.”

Xu Yulan swung around to look at her. “If I was going to steal anyone, it sure as hell wouldn’t be He Xiaoyong. He Xiaoyong! Back then I was as pretty as a flower. Everybody called me the Fried Dough Queen. He Xiaoyong was nothing to me. I threw He Xiaoyong out like a piece of trash, and you stooped down to collect him like he was some kind of treasure.”

He Xiaoyong’s woman straightened and slapped Xu Yulan across the face. Xu Yulan slapped her right back. In an instant their arms were flailing through the air, and each had grasped hold of the other’s hair and was tugging with all her might. As she pulled at Xu Yulan’s hair, He Xiaoyong’s woman called out to her husband, “He Xiaoyong! He Xiaoyong!”

He Xiaoyong stepped forward, grabbed hold of Xu Yulan’s arms, and squeezed them so hard that she was forced to let go of her opponent with an anguished “Aiya!” He let fly with a slap to her face that sent her tumbling to the ground.

Xu Yulan, rubbing her own face, burst into tears. “He Xiaoyong, you ought to be cut to pieces with a thousand knives! You’re a bastard, a son of a bitch, your conscience must have been eaten by a pack of dogs.” She stood up from the pavement and pointed an accusing finger at him. “Just you wait, He Xiaoyong! You won’t live to see another day. I’ll send Xu Sanguan after you with a cleaver. He’ll chop you to pieces. You won’t live to see another day.”

But Xu Sanguan didn’t support the death sentence Xu Yulan had pronounced so summarily for He Xiaoyong. When Xu Yulan got home, Xu Sanguan was still working on his mop. Xu Yulan sat down exhaustedly across from him, her face streaked with tears, and gazed in his direction. After a while her tears began to fall again.

When Xu Sanguan saw that she was crying, he knew she hadn’t succeeded in getting any money from He Xiaoyong. “I knew you’d come back empty-handed.”

Xu Yulan said, “Xu Sanguan, go chop him to pieces.”

Xu Sanguan said, “You fell to fucking pieces as soon as you saw him, didn’t you? You went soft, right? Couldn’t bear to ask for the money after all?”

Xu Yulan said, “Xu Sanguan, go chop him to pieces.”

Xu Sanguan said, “I’m telling you, if you don’t get the money today, Blacksmith Fang is going to come tomorrow and confiscate all our things. He’s going to take your bed, your table, your clothes, your Snowflower cream, your silk scarf. He’s gonna fucking take it all away.”

Xu Yulan began to weep. “I asked them for the money. They wouldn’t give it to me. And they pulled my hair, and he slapped me right across my face. Xu Sanguan, are you actually going to let someone get away with treating your woman that way? Xu Sanguan, I’m begging you to go chop him to pieces. There’s a cleaver in the kitchen. I sharpened it just yesterday. Go cut him to pieces.”

Xu Sanguan said, “What do you think would happen to me if I chopped him to pieces? If I went over there with a cleaver, I’d end up in jail, that’s what. I’d be executed, and you’d be a fucking widow, that’s what would happen.”

When Xu Yulan had heard him out, she stood, walked out of the room, and took a seat on the doorstep. When Xu Sanguan saw her sit down on the doorstep, he knew what was coming. Xu Yulan, flicking the handkerchief she had just been using to wipe her tears back and forth through the air, began her tearful litany.

“What did I do in my past life to deserve this? He Xiaoyong took advantage of me. And if that wasn’t enough, he got me pregnant. Not only did he knock me up, but I even gave birth to Yile. If giving birth to Yile wasn’t enough, he had to go and get himself into trouble.”

Xu Sanguan growled at her, “Goddamnit, get back in here! Do you have to let everyone on the fucking street know that I’m a cuckold?”

Xu Yulan sobbed, “And if Yile getting into trouble wasn’t bad enough, Xu Sanguan said he couldn’t help him out of it. Xu Sanguan won’t do anything, and neither will He Xiaoyong. He Xiaoyong not only refused to pay up but even pulled my hair and slapped my face. He Xiaoyong’s a crime against nature. He Xiaoyong will not die a happy death. But what am I supposed to do when Blacksmith Fang comes for the money tomorrow? What am I supposed to do? What am I going to do?”

Yile, Erle, and Sanle heard their mother’s sobs and ran to her side.

Yile said, “Mom, don’t cry, go inside.”

Erle said, “Mom, don’t cry. Why are you crying?”

Sanle said, “Mom, don’t cry. Who’s He Xiaoyong?”

The neighbors came to her as well. The neighbors said, “Xu Yulan, don’t cry, you’ll strain yourself.” “Xu Yulan, why are you crying?” “What are you crying for?”

Erle said to the neighbors, “It’s like this. My mom is crying because Yile—”

Yile cut in, “Erle, do me a favor and shut up.”

Erle said, “I will not shut up. It’s like this: Yile isn’t my dad’s kid.”

Yile said, “Erle, if you don’t shut up, I’ll kill you.”

Erle continued, “Yile is He Xiaoyong and my mom’s kid—”

Yile slapped Erle on the face, and Erle broke into loud sobs as well.

Xu Sanguan heard what was happening from inside the room and thought to himself,
So that little bastard Yile thinks he can
get away with hitting one of my sons?
He catapulted out the door and slapped Yile’s face. Then he pinned him against the wall and shouted, “Little bastard! Just because your dad messes with me, you think you can bully my son too?”

Yile, dazed by Xu Sanguan’s sudden attack, stood in silence, rubbing his hand against the wall.

Xu Yulan pointed in their direction and once again sobbed, “My fate is bitter. But that child’s fate is even worse. Xu Sanguan doesn’t want him. He Xiaoyong doesn’t want him either. The child has no father, no one to call his own.”

One of the neighbors said, “Xu Yulan, why don’t you have Yile go over to He Xiaoyong’s place? Who wouldn’t be moved by seeing their own flesh and blood? He Xiaoyong doesn’t have a son yet, just two daughters. Who knows? Maybe he’ll even start to cry when he finally sees his own son.”

Xu Yulan immediately stopped crying and turned toward Yile, who was still standing against the wall, biting his lip. “Yile, didn’t you hear what the man said? Go on. Go find He Xiaoyong. Go over there and call him your dad.”

Yile backed himself against the wall and shook his head. “I’m not going.”

Xu Yulan said, “Yile, listen to what your mother’s telling you. Go on. Quick. Go call He Xiaoyong your dad. If he doesn’t listen to you, just try again.”

Yile shook his head. “I’m not going over there.”

Xu Sanguan pointed at him. “You’re not going, huh? If you don’t go over there right now, I’ll beat the shit out of you.”

As he spoke, Xu Sanguan approached Yile, grabbed him with one hand, pulled him away from the wall, and then pushed him a few steps forward. But as soon as Xu Sanguan had released him, Yile backed himself once more against the wall.