Brothers (13 page)

Baldy Li and Song Gang thought that was a hoot. This time they covered their own mouths as they laughed nonstop.

CHAPTER 10

T
HE NEXT DAY,
as they were about to set off for the seaside, a dozen or so people from Song Fanpings school sauntered in, all wearing red armbands. Baldy Li and Song Gang didn't realize that they were here to search the house, thinking instead that Song Fanpings pals had come to check on him. The boys found themselves stirred by the sight of so many red-armbanders, all full of bravado, filling up their house. Exhilarated, they wove back and forth through the crowds as if navigating a forest. Then a loud
boom!
made them shudder with terror, and they watched in horror as their dressers and bureaus were upended, their clothes and things strewn all over the ground. The red-armbanders picked through the family's possessions like scavengers, rummaging through everything looking for Song Fanpings land deeds. Song Fanping was born into the landowning class, so these people were convinced that he must be hiding land deeds, merely waiting for a regime change to take them out again. The red-armbanders flipped over the bed planks and pried up the floorboards while Baldy Li and Song Gang hid behind Song Fanping. They saw that Song Fanping still had a smile on his face, but couldn't understand why he would be pleased. These people turned Song Fanpings home into a scrap heap without finding any land deeds. They eventually filed out of the house one by one as Song Fanping, still with a smile on his face, followed them out as if seeing off guests. At one point he even asked them, "Won't you have a cup of tea before setting off?"

One of them responded, "No need."

Song Fanping stood, smiling, at the door, and only when they had left the alley did he turn to go back into the house. As soon as he got inside and sat down, his smile immediately vanished, like a light switching off. Song Fanping sat there, his face the color of iron, and for the longest time he didn't move a muscle. The two boys walked over and timidly asked him, "Are we going to the seaside?"

Song Fanping started as if woken from a deep sleep and bellowed, "Let's go!"

He looked at the sun shining outside and said, "With such good weather, of course we're going."

Song Fanping righted the armoire, repositioned the bed planks, and nailed down the displaced floorboards. Baldy Li and Song Gang followed behind him, placing the clothes back into the bureau and the knickknacks back into the drawers. It was as if the light had been turned back on, and Song Fanping was once again smiling. As he tidied the house he talked and chuckled nonstop with the kids. By noon they were finally done cleaning up, leaving the house even tidier than before. They used towels to wipe the sweat off their faces and handkerchiefs to dust off their clothes. Then they combed their hair in front of the mirror and were finally ready to leave for the seaside.

When they opened their door, they found seven or eight red-armband-wearing middle-school students standing outside, including the three who had stolen Baldy Li's and Song Gang's Mao badges. When Baldy Li and Song Gang saw the three of them, they started clamoring excitedly, and Song Gang said to his father, "Papa, they're the ones who took away our Mao badges. Go teach them a lesson."

Baldy Li shouted at the middle-schoolers, "Give them back! Give us our badges back!"

The three middle-schoolers pushed the children away, chuckling. The one with the long hair, Sun Wei, said to Song Fanping, "We're Red Guards, and we're here to search your home!"

Smiling, Song Fanping welcomed them in. "Come in, come in."

Baldy Li and Song Gang were baffled by Song Fanping's obsequious manner. The Red Guards swarmed in and again threw the house into tumult. The bureau that had just been righted was upended once again, the just-tidied bed plank was again flipped over, the floorboards that just been nailed back down were pried up again, and the clothes they had just folded were once again strewn all over the floor. When the previous group, from Song Fanping's school, came, they had primarily rifled through Song Fanping's books and papers, looking for his hidden land deeds. But these Red Guards were like bulls in a china shop, shattering pots and pans on the floor, snapping chopsticks in half, and searching the house as they stuffed things into their own pockets, periodically stopping to compare what they had each pocketed.

These Red Guards shattered, snapped, and looted Song Fanping's home all afternoon. Only after they saw that there wasn't much left to shatter or to grab, and all their pockets were stuffed full, did they
finally depart, whistling happily. Long-haired Sun Wei turned around and said to Song Fanping, "Hey come out here."

On the day of Song Fanping and Li Lan s wedding, Sun Wei, Victory Zhao, Success Liu, and their fathers had been roundly beaten by Song Fanping. With his sweeping leg kick he had swatted them down. Now, a year later, these middle-schoolers wanted their revenge. They had Song Fanping stand in the empty lot in front of the house so that they could show off their own sweeping kicks. Song Fanping stood there stalwartly, like an iron tower. The three middle-schoolers started with their warm-up exercises, squatting down and sweeping their right legs out. Even after a few tries, not one of their kicks looked like the real thing. If they didn't lose their balance and end up sitting on the ground, they would drag their foot and scrape up a cloud of dust. The other two middle-schoolers would shake their heads. "Doesn't look like a sweeping leg kick to us."

"What does it look like, then?"

"I don't know, but certainly not a sweeping leg kick."

Sun Wei asked Song Fanping, who was standing there with his head bowed, "Hey, so did that look like a sweeping leg kick?"

"It did," Song Fanping replied. "But you haven't quite gotten the knack of it."

Sun Wei said to Song Fanping, "Now, spit it out. What's the secret?"

So Song Fanping became their coach, instructing them to watch carefully. He adroitly demonstrated the kick a few times, and the students whistled and exclaimed, "Now, that's a proper sweeping leg kick." Then he broke down his movements, explaining that the sweeping leg kick actually had three steps—squat, sweep, and straighten— and that the steps had to be done in one continuous motion. He explained that the body's center of gravity had to be shifted to the front, because that gave the sweep force, and that you could use your hands for support. Then Song Fanping had them practice, stopping them at various points and demonstrating the proper form. Finally, he announced that they had mastered the form but were still not swift enough. "Only when you do it swiftly will the kick not break down into its separate components. But you can't learn to be fast in a day or two. Go home and practice every day, and when others can see only one move, you've mastered it."

All afternoon Song Fanping used both explanations and demonstrations to teach the three middle-schoolers the proper execution of a
sweeping leg kick. When the students finally felt they had gotten it, they ordered Song Fanping to stand still and get a taste of their newly mastered kicks. He stood with his legs slightly apart.

The first one up was Victory Zhao, who proceeded to practice the move in front of Song Fanping, earning a round of applause from the gathering crowd: "Way to go!" But when Zhao squatted down and swept his leg over, his foot caught on Song Fanpings leg. Song Fanping remained motionless, while Zhao found himself sprawled on the ground with a mouthful of dirt, eliciting a round of laughter.

Next up was Success Liu. He looked over Song Fanping and his strong figure and worried that he too would end up with a mouthful of dirt. But when he noticed that Song Fanping had his legs apart, he grinned and said he knew how to deal with him. So he told Song Fanping to stand with his legs together, saying that was how he was going to flatten him. When he squatted down, he still worried that he would end up with a mouthful of dirt, so he didn't immediately thrust his leg out. Instead he aimed his foot full-force onto Song Fanpings shin. Song Fanping shook from the pain but didn't fall down. The spectators all cheered Song Fanping: "Right on!"

Third up was long-haired Sun Wei. He went behind Song Fanping and then backed up a good forty feet, as if he were about to do a long jump. Running all the way, he aimed his foot at the back of Song Fan-ping's knee and then kicked. Song Fanping immediately fell to his knees, and Sun Wei cheered for himself, "Way to go!" Then he boasted to his mates, "Look at my kung-fu."

The other students disagreed. "That's not a sweeping leg kick."

"Why not?" Sun Wei kicked Song Fanping, who was kneeling on the ground. "Tell me, was that a sweeping leg kick?"

Song Fanping nodded and answered in a low voice, "Yes, it was."

Laid down by the variant sweeping leg kick, Song Fanping watched as the middle-schoolers left, whistling off-key. He waited until they were far off before standing up. He saw his son, Song Gang, head bowed and wiping away tears, and he saw Baldy Li, his adopted son, eyes wide with terror. The boys didn't know what to do: In their minds, Song Fanping had been invincible, but now he was being bullied like a little chick. Song Fanping dusted the dirt off his pants and beckoned the boys as if nothing had happened, "You two, come over here!"

Song Gang, wiping his eyes, and Baldy Li, scratching his head,
walked over unsteadily. Song Fanping laughingly asked them, "Would you like to learn the sweeping leg kick?"

The children were startled by his offer. Song Fanping looked around, then knelt down next to them and confided, "You know why they couldn't sweep me down? Because I didn't tell them the final step. The final step I was saving for you two."

Baldy Li and Song Gang suddenly forgot everything that had happened and started shrieking excitedly, as they had the night before. Song Fanping nervously clamped his hands over their mouths. The boys looked up and exclaimed together, "There's no roof to raise here."

Song Fanping nervously looked around again. "It's not a question of raising the roof. We just wouldn't want other people to learn the secret of the kick."

The boys understood. Silently they learned the technique from Song Fanping. First they stood behind him and imitated his moves, then he turned and instructed them. After half an hour he announced that they had learned the move and could now start practicing. Song Fanping stood still and let Baldy Li try out his move. Baldy Li walked up to him, squatted down, and swept his leg out. With just a gentle sweep, Song Fanping ended up flat on the ground. He got up and told Song Gang to try, and with another gentle sweep he was back on the ground. Song Fanping rubbed his bottom and groaned. He marveled at the two boys. "Your kick is too lethal! It's simply unbeatable."

Then the boys enthusiastically followed Song Fanping inside to once again clean up the house. Having mastered their unbeatable kicks, they were pumped with energy. They helped Song Fanping right the armoire and reposition the bed planks, and learned to nail down the displaced floorboards. They picked up the shards of broken bowls and snapped chopsticks and threw them into the trash heap outside. They dashed in and out, covered in sweat, but then abruptly remembered they hadn't eaten anything all day. Suddenly limp with hunger, the boys climbed into bed and fell asleep the moment they shut their eyes.

After who knows how long, Song Fanping woke them up and told them that dinner was ready. The light in the room was on. Baldy Li and Song Gang sat up in bed, rubbing their eyes, and Song Fanping carried them one after the other to the dinner table. They saw that there was just a bowl of greens and three bowls of rice, these being the only four bowls that had survived the Red Guards’ rampage. They took up their
chipped bowls and then realized that there were no chopsticks. All the chopsticks had been snapped in two by the Red Guards. The children held their steaming bowls of rice and eyed the glistening bowl of greens, asking themselves,
How are we going to eat without chopsticks?

Song Fanping forgot that there were no chopsticks in the house and got up to fetch some before remembering. He stood there for a while, his powerful back motionless as the dim light threw a shadow of his head as big as their washbasin onto the wall. Eventually he turned back toward the boys with an enigmatic smile and asked them mysteriously, "Have you ever seen the kind of chopsticks the ancients used?"

Baldy Li and Song Gang shook their heads and asked curiously, "What kind of chopsticks did they use?"

Song Fanping smiled as he walked to the door. "Just wait awhile, I'll show you."

Baldy Li and Song Gang saw him tiptoe outside and carefully close the door behind him, as if he were about to enter the land of the lost. After he left, the boys looked at each other. They had no idea how Song Fanping was going to retrieve chopsticks from the ancients, but they nevertheless felt that their father was truly amazing. After a while the door opened and Song Fanping returned, smiling, his hands behind his back.

The children asked him, "So you managed to get the ancients’ chopsticks?"

Song Fanping nodded. He walked over to the table and sat down, then thrust out his hands and gave Baldy Li and Song Gang each a pair of chopsticks. The boys took up the chopsticks of the ancients and examined them. They were about the same length as regular chopsticks, though they were of different thicknesses, were slightly curved, and had some knots on them. Baldy Li was the first to exclaim, "But these are twigs!"

Song Gang asked Song Fanping, "Why are the ancients’ chopsticks like twigs?"

"The ancients’ chopsticks
were
twigs," Song Fanping explained. "Because in ancient times there were no chopsticks, so the ancients used twigs."

The boys finally understood: In ancient times people used twigs to scoop up rice. Baldy Li and Song Gang started to dig into their meal with the freshly cut twigs, and when they ate, there was a bitter green taste to their food. Using their ancients’ chopsticks, they ate ravenously
until their faces were covered in sweat. Only after they had eaten their fill and belched loudly did they notice that it was dark outside, and only then did they remember they had been planning to go to the seaside. There hadn't been any strong winds or rainstorms, and the sun had been so bright you couldn't even open your eyes, but they couldn't go. The boys immediately fell into a funk. Song Fanping asked if they liked their ancients’ chopsticks, and they nodded.