Brothers (14 page)

Song Gang then explained mournfully, "We won't make it to the seaside today."

Song Fanping smiled. "Who said we won't?"

Baldy Li said, "The sun has already gone down."

Song Fanping replied, "The sun's gone, but there's still the moon."

They had been ready to go to the seaside when the sun was high in the sky, but they didn't set off on their way until the moon was shining brightly. The children grasped Song Fanping's hands, one on each side, and walked for a very long time along the moonlit road. When they arrived at the seaside, it was high tide. They walked along the beach, where there wasn't a soul in sight, just the cool wind and the roar of the waves. The waves rushed in, creating a long line of white froth along the endless sea. At times this whiteness would turn to gray, and sometimes it would be even darker. From a distance they could glimpse both light and dark, and the moon would appear and disappear behind the clouds. This was the first time the boys had seen the ocean in the moonlight, mysterious and protean. They started screaming ecstatically, but this time Song Fanping didn't cover their mouths. Instead, his large hands caressed the tops of their heads as he let them shout to their hearts’ content. He himself seemed lost in thought, staring out at the dark sea.

After they sat down on the shore, the children started feeling terrified by the night sea. There was only the sound of the wind and waves; the moonlight appeared and disappeared; and the darkness of the sea seemed to expand and contract. Baldy Li and Song Gang held Song Fanping tightly, and he hugged them close. They sat at the sea for a long, long time, until the boys fell asleep. With one on his shoulders and the other in his arms, Song Fanping made his way home.

CHAPTER 11

S
TRUGGLE SESSIONS
became increasingly common in Liu Town, and the middle-school yard bustled like a temple festival from daybreak to nightfall. Song Fanping had to carry that placard with him when he left home every morning and hang it from his neck once he reached the school gate. He stood at the gate, head bowed, and only after all the people coming to the struggle sessions had entered did he remove the placard and start sweeping the street in front of the school. When each struggle session ended, he would walk back to the entrance, put on his placard, and stand there with his head bowed. People poured out, kicking, abusing, and spitting at him, and though he was jostled from side to side he didn't utter a word. Then another struggle session would begin. Song Fanping had to wait until darkness fell—and make certain that there was no one left in the schoolyard—before he could take his placard and broom and head home.

Baldy Li and Song Gang would hear the sound of his heavy steps as Song Fanping walked into the house, his face lined with fatigue. He would always sit silently on his stool for a while, then he would get up, splash his face with well water, and use a rag to wipe down the dust, footprints, and children's spittle off his placard. Throughout all this, Baldy Li and Song Gang didn't dare say a word. They waited patiently, knowing that once Song Fanping washed his face and wiped the placard clean, he would become cheerful again and talk to them about many cheerful things.

Baldy Li and Song Gang didn't recognize the characters on the placard, but they knew these were the words that had brought Song Fanping all his misfortune. Before they appeared, Song Fanping was exultantly waving a red flag atop the bridge; but after they appeared, even little children spat and pissed on him. One day the boys finally had to ask him, "What do these characters mean?"

Song Fanping had just finished wiping clean his placard. Taken aback, he paused for a while. Then he smiled and said to them, "Next
fall you'll start school, so I'll teach you how to read, starting with these characters."

This was Baldy Li and Song Gang's first lesson. Song Fanping taught them to sit with their backs straight and their hands in front of them. Then he hung the placard on the wall and brought over one of the chopsticks of the ancients. He prepared for almost half an hour before beginning the lesson, filling them with anxious anticipation.

Finally he stood in front of the big wooden placard and coughed solemnly to clear his throat. "Now we'll begin our lesson. First let me announce two rules. First, no squirming about. Second, raise your hand if you wish to speak."

He raised an ancient's chopstick and pointed at the first character on the placard. "This character is pronounced
di.
Think, what does
di
mean? Which of you wants to guess?"

Song Fanping first pointed at the ground, then stomped his foot, all the while winking at th e boys. Baldy Li beat Song Gang to it, pointing downward and shouting, "I know!"

"Hold on," Song Fanping interrupted. "If you wish to speak, you must raise your hand."

With his hand raised, Baldy Li blurted,
"Di
means land,’ which is what is below us, what we're standing on."

"That's correct," Song Fanping said. "You're very clever."

Then Song Fanping pointed at the second character in
landlord.
He said, "This character is even harder. It's pronounced ‘zhu.’ Think: Where have you heard this word before?"

Baldy Li shot his hand up before Song Gang again. This time Song Fanping didn't let him answer. He said, "You answered last time; now it's Song Gang's turn. Song Gang, think, where have you heard this character
zhu
used before?"

Song Gang timidly responded, "Is it the same
zhu
that appears at the beginning of
chairman,
as in ‘Chairman Mao?'"

"Correct!" Song Fanping said. "You're very clever."

At this Baldy Li exclaimed, "He didn't raise his hand."

Song Fanping said to Song Gang, "He's right, you didn't raise your hand, but you can raise it now."

Song Gang quickly raised his hand. He asked anxiously, "Is it too late to raise my hand?"

Song Fanping laughed. "Of course not."

On this day the boys learned five characters. They first learned
land,
then the
zhu
character in "Chairman Mao." They finally understood what the placard said: It was that
Song Fanping
was the
chairman
of the
land.

Song Fanping and his placard had to travel together every day. He took the placard with him in the morning and came back with it in the evening, just like those women who brought their grocery bags to work and back. Baldy Li and Song Gang still roamed freely exploring the entire town. They had been absolutely everywhere, even visiting places where only ducks, chickens, cats, and dogs went. The streets were still overgrown with red flags and dotted with people as numerous as the hairs on a cow, who dispersed at the end of every day like an audience at the end of a movie. Gradually, more and more people appeared wearing dunce hats and bearing wooden placards. Initially, Song Fanping had been the only one sweeping the streets in front of the middle school, but he was joined a few days later by two other teachers. They stood next to Song Fanping, all three in a row, wearing placards around their necks. One of the two teachers was a bespectacled, scrawny old man, whose placard bore the word
LAND
-
LORD
, just like Song Fan-pings. This made Baldy Li and Song Gang very excited. They said to him, "So you're also a Chairman Mao of the land."

The children's words caused the teacher to tremble. His face turned as white as a corpse, and he said to them, "I'm a landlord, I'm a bad man. Please hit me, please yell at me, please criticize me."

Baldy Li and Song Gang often spotted Sun Wei, Victory Zhao, and Success Liu practicing their sweeping leg kicks. The three middle-schoolers spent just about every day under a wutong tree by the side of the road, hugging the tree while practicing their kicks around its trunk. Sun Wei could actually circle the entire tree while kicking continuously. His movements resembled a theater troupe performer's as his long hair blew in the breeze. Victory Zhao and Success Liu could kick only about halfway around the tree before landing on their butts or dropping their raised legs midkick. Therefore, Sun Wei became their coach. Running his fingers through his hair, he would repeat what Song Fanping had taught them: "Quicker, quicker. Only when your moves are swift can you perform the three moves as one."

Baldy Li and Song Gang strutted past. They knew that these three were still missing a move, since only
they
knew the
real
sweeping leg kick. Song Fanping hadn't taught the others the real deal, having saved the most important part for the two of them. So they would walk
back and forth hand in hand, watching the middle-schoolers and giggling.

The students were so absorbed in their kicks that they didn't notice that the two snot-faced little boys were secretly laughing at them. The long-haired Sun Wei started to practice circling the tree twice without stopping. Once he was going so fast he lost control, and his entire body went flying.

Baldy Li and Song Gang couldn't contain their laughter. The middle-schoolers stalked over to them, glaring. Sun Wei, covered with dust and dirt, got up, walked over to them, and spat out, "What the fuck are you laughing at?"

Baldy Li and Song Gang weren't at all scared of him. Song Gang raised his head. "We're laughing at your sweeping leg kick."

"Heh." Long-haired Sun Wei looked back at his mates oddly, saying, "How dare he laugh at my kick?"

Song Gang scoffed to Baldy Li,
"His
sweeping leg kick?"

Baldy Li chuckled and also scoffed,
"His
sweeping leg kick?"

Baldy Li's and Song Gang's cocky attitude astonished the older boys, who exclaimed, "Fuck!"

Song Gang said evenly, "Let me tell you guys. There's a move my father didn't teach you, but he taught it to us."

"Fuck!" the students retorted. Sun Wei added, "So you're saying that you also know the sweeping leg kick?"

Song Gang pointed at Baldy Li. "We both know it."

The three middle-schoolers burst out laughing. They looked over Baldy Li and Song Gang. "You know the sweeping leg kick? You're still as short as our dicks."

Long-haired Sun Wei said to Song Gang, "So sweep for me."

Song Gang said, "You stand steady first."

Sun Wei looked even more astonished. He turned to Victory Zhao and Success Liu. "He wants me to stand steady? Fuck, he thinks he can sweep me off my feet?"

Amid their snorts and laughter, Sun Wei stood in front of Song Gang. First he stood with his legs apart, then he brought them together again, and finally he ended up perched on one leg. He asked Song Gang, "So how do you want me to stand?"

Song Gang pointed to the ground. "Stand on both legs."

Sun Wei grinned and lowered his leg. Song Gang turned to Baldy Li. "You want to kick first? Or shall I?"

Baldy Li wasn't so sure of himself, so he said to Song Gang, "You go first."

Song Gang backed up a few steps and made a running start to sweep-kick Sun Wei's leg like a bunny rabbit kicking a dog. Long-haired Sun Wei just stood there smirking while Song Gang bounced to the ground like a rubber ball. Song Gang got up again, unable to understand what had happened, and looked over uncertainly at Baldy Li. At this point Baldy Li realized the truth about his and Song Gang's sweeping leg kicks, but Song Gang was still completely in the dark. The three middle-schoolers roared, and their laughter caused Baldy Li's insides to tremble. With a smile, Sun Wei swept out his leg and flipped Song Gang over. He said to Baldy Li, "See, now
that's
a sweeping leg kick."

The revolutionary crowds in Liu Town saw the three middle-schoolers kicking the two little preschoolers and scolded them furiously, saying that they were oppressing the weak, just like the military in the old society. Victory Zhao and Success Liu didn't dare reply, but long-haired Sun Wei argued, "They are landlord Song Fanping's sons. They are little landlords."

The revolutionary masses were silenced. They watched as Baldy Li and Song Gang again and again fell to the ground until both of them simply lay there, unable to get up. Sun Wei, Victory Zhao, and Success Liu were drenched in sweat and breathing heavily, but they gathered around Baldy Li and Song Gang, laughing and shouting at them to stand up again. The brothers had nothing left in them. They couldn't stand up, so they lay on the ground, saying, "We're just fine lying here."

Once they said this, they immediately realized how to escape the middle-schoolers’ sweeping leg kicks, which was simply to stay lying on the ground. No matter how the older boys kicked them, cursed them, and threatened them, they steadfastly refused to get up. Finally the three middle-schoolers resorted to trickery, saying, "If you get up, we won't kick you anymore."

Baldy Li and Song Gang didn't fall for this and continued lying in the street. Sun Wei pointed at an electrical pole, trying to lure Baldy Li up. "Hey, kid, go over to the pole and vent some of your sex drive."

Baldy Li shook his head. "I don't have any sex drive now."

Victory Zhao and Success Liu also encouraged him. "If you go and rub a few times, you'll get your sex drive."

Baldy Li continued shaking his head. "No rubbing for me today. You go and get some sex drive for yourselves."

"Fuck," said the middle-schoolers. "These two little fucking cowards."

Long-haired Sun Wei commanded, "Pull those two little cowards up, then kick them down again."

Just as Victory Zhao and Success Liu were about to pull the boys up, the stout-hearted revolutionary Blacksmith Tong arrived and roared, "Stop!"

Blacksmith Tongs roar made the three middle-schoolers tremble. Sun Wei mumbled, "They're little landlords."

"What little landlords?" Blacksmith Tong pointed at Baldy Li and Song Gang. "They are the blossoms of our nation."

Sun Wei looked over Blacksmith Tongs thick arms and torso and didn't say anything more. Tong pointed at the three middle-schoolers and said, "You are also the blossoms of our nation."