Brothers (18 page)

CHAPTER 14

B
ALDY LI
and Song Gang continued their parentless existence, and got by quite well. They would go together to the rice store, where they would fit their rice sack over the rubber chute and watch the rice cascade down. Then they would bang the chute opening with loud, crisp slaps until the store clerks yelled at them and a hand reached out from behind the counter to knock them on the head.

With their basket in hand, they went together to buy groceries. While selecting the greens, they would stealthily rip off the outer leaves until only the tenderest inner leaves were left, causing the old lady selling vegetables to tear up with annoyance. She cursed them over and over, calling them turtles’ eggs, little bastards who would come to a bad end; saying that they would choke on a breath and get water stuck in their teeth, and end up without an asshole to crap with or a penis to piss out of.

Baldy Li and Song Gang scrimped and saved and, like monks, ate only vegetables. After a while they began to really crave meat, so they went to the river to catch shrimp. By the time they reached the river, they realized that they had no idea how to cook them. At that point they hadn't caught sight of even a shadow of a shrimp, but already they were licking their lips and discussing how they were going to cook them. Would they panfry them? Stir-fry them? Or boil them? In the end, they made a detour to the warehouse to consult with Song Fan-ping. When they reached the warehouse gate, they slanted their shoulders and let their elbows dangle. Song Fanping came outside to tell them that stir-frying, panfrying, and boiling would all be fine, but just to make sure that the shrimp had turned pink before eating them. Song Fanping explained, "They're done when they're as pink as the tip of your tongue."

Song Fanping told the boys that the shrimp would be swimming in the shallows. He told them to roll their pants legs up to their knees, warning, "Once the water reaches your pants, then you shouldn't go any farther. There are no shrimp in the depths, only snakes."

Baldy Li and Song Gang shuddered. They didn't realize that Song Fanping, worried that they would drown if they ventured into the deep water, was deliberately scaring them. The boys nodded and promised that they would stay in the places where the river water remained below their knees. As they set off, shoulders slanted and elbows dangling, Song Fanping called out to them again, telling them to go home and get a bamboo basket. They asked, "What for?" Song Fanping replied, "What do you net fish with?"

The boys stopped and pondered this. Song Gang replied, "A fishing rod."

"That's for rod fishing," Song Fanping explained. "For netting fish you need a fishnet, and you need a bamboo basket to catch shrimp."

With his left elbow dangling, Song Fanping cocked his right elbow as if he were holding a bamboo basket, and bending down right in front of the warehouse, he started teaching them how to use a basket to net shrimp. He said that while standing in the river they should be as alert as sentries, placing the basket in the water at an angle, and once shrimp swam in of their own accord, the boys should immediately lift the basket. He stood up, concluding, "So this is how you catch shrimp."

Song Fanping asked them whether they got it. Baldy Li and Song Gang glanced at each other and nodded. Song Fanping said that he would teach them one more time, but when he bent down again, they immediately pointed out his error. Baldy Li said, "You haven't rolled up your pants legs."

Song Fanping chuckled. He bent down again and rolled up both pants legs, then once again demonstrated how to catch shrimp. This time both boys answered in unison, "We got it."

Baldy Li and Song Gang arrived at the river, rolled up their pants, and waded in. The water rushed by below their knees. They placed the basket in the water at an angle, just as Song Fanping had done in front of the warehouse, and waited for the shrimp to swim in. They waited in the river under the summer sun for an entire afternoon, until they were covered in sweat. They were startled to discover that the shrimp in the river skipped as they swam, unlike the fish with their tails wagging. The shrimp skipped, hopped, and swam into the boys’ basket, up to five swimming in at once. The boys were so delighted they started yelping but then immediately covered their mouths when they noticed that they had scared away the little river shrimp, making it necessary for them to change location. Only when the boys sat on the grass by the
riverbank counting the shrimp under the glow of the setting sun did they realize they had netted sixty-seven of the little guys.

On this particular evening, the boys’ expressions, their intonation, and their gait—all were the spitting image of those red-armbanders parading around Liu Town. Baldy Li and Song Gang strutted through town with their bamboo basket and their sixty-seven shrimp. Someone spotted the shrimp in their basket and couldn't help harrumphing, saying that these two little bastards really had something going. When Baldy Li heard this, he felt smug, this being the first time he liked being called a bastard. He said to Song Gang, "These little bastards have something going."

After they got home, Baldy Li told Song Gang, "Let's boil those sixty-seven little bastard shrimp."

As the water in the pot started to boil, Baldy Li excitedly pointed out to Song Gang, "Hear that? Do you hear those sixty-seven little bastard shrimp bouncing around in there?"

When there were no more sounds coming from the pot, the boys lifted the lid and saw that the shrimp inside had all turned pink. Remembering what Song Fanping had told them about when the shrimp were done, Song Gang stuck out his tongue for Baldy Li and asked if the shrimp were as pink as his tongue. Baldy Li replied, "They're even pinker."

Baldy Li also stuck out his tongue to show Song Gang. Song Gang said, "They're pinker than your tongue, too."

Together they cried, "Let's eat! Let's eat these little bastard shrimp."

This was the first time they had eaten shrimp that they themselves had caught and cooked. They had forgotten to put salt in the pot, and after taking in a few bland bites, they decided that the taste was somewhat off. Song Gang then had a flash of culinary inspiration and proceeded to pour some soy sauce into a bowl, then dipped the shrimp into the soy sauce before eating them. Baldy Li grinned from ear to ear as he ate, proclaiming that the meat on these little bastard shrimp was dozens of times tastier than those little bastard meat buns. At that moment the boys had no awareness of anything other than the shrimp they were eating. After they finished, they sat there savoring the dish, not having fully emerged from their gustatory ecstasy. Only when Song Gang let out a belch, followed by Baldy Li, did they realize that they had finished off all sixty-seven little river shrimp. The boys wiped their mouths and agreed dreamily, "Let's eat shrimp tomorrow."

In the days that followed, Baldy Li and Song Gang lost all interest in wandering the main streets. They now loved the creek with a passion. They left at dawn every day with their basket to catch shrimp, walking a long, long way down the riverbank and then back again. Their legs were as pale as corpses and swollen from all the soaking, while their faces glowed red like overfed capitalists. Completely on their own, they learned to boil, panfry, and stir-fry the shrimp. They discovered that stir-frying shrimp required soy sauce, but that salt worked better with deep-frying. When good fortune came rushing in, there was no damming it. Once the boys netted more than a hundred shrimp. They fried and fried the shrimp until they had turned black, but when they ate them, they were delighted to discover that the blackened shells were crisp and delicious, with a taste completely distinct from that of the shrimp meat. When they were halfway through and still had more than forty shrimp left, Song Gang suddenly stopped eating and suggested, "Lets take these to Papa."

Baldy Li agreed, "Yes!"

They gathered the remaining fried shrimp into a bowl, and as they were walking out the door Song Gang said that they should get Papa two ounces of yellow rice wine. Song Gang imagined that Song Fan-ping would be so delighted to be drinking wine and eating shrimp that he would laugh with delight. Song Gang opened his mouth and cackled, demonstrating how his father would laugh. Baldy Li said Song Gang hadn't gotten it right and sounded like he was screaming for help. Then Baldy Li showed how he thought Song Fanping would sound— his mouth would be so crammed with shrimp and wine that he would barely be able to get a sound out and instead would just emit a few gurgles of laughter. Song Gang replied that Baldy Li's version wasn't right either, that it sounded more like a yawn.

They brought an empty bowl and went to the store to buy two ounces of wine. The wine vendor caught sight of the shrimp in their other bowl and took a few greedy sniffs. He said that the shrimp smelled so good he could only imagine how tasty they would be. Baldy Li and Song Gang chuckled and confirmed—"Yup, they were even tastier than they smelled." As they turned to leave they could hear the wine vendor swallowing his saliva.

It was dusk, and with Song Gang holding the bowl of wine and Baldy Li carrying the bowl of fried shrimp, the two boys carefully made their way to Song Fanping's warehouse. There they once again ran into the
three sweep-kicking middle-schoolers, who walked toward them hollering, "Hey kids!"

Oh no,
they thought. If it weren't for the wine and shrimp, they would have already taken off. But now, their hands full with bowls, they could only plop themselves on the ground. Three pairs of sweep-kicking legs encircled them. Baldy Li and Song Gang, still cupping their bowls, looked up at the three middle-schoolers. Song Gang said, not without satisfaction, "We're already sitting on the ground."

Baldy Li thought that they would respond, "Stand up if you have balls." So he jumped the gun and added, "Sweep-kick us up if you have the balls." But the three middle-schoolers hadn't said a word, instead focusing all their attention on the contents of Baldy Li's bowl. Sun Wei, Victory Zhao, and Success Liu all squatted down next to Baldy Li, and Sun Wei took a deep sniff and said, "Smells real good, even better than shrimp from the restaurant."

Victory Zhao added, "Damn. They even have wine to go with it."

Baldy Li's hands started trembling as he realized that they were going to grab his fried shrimp. Sure enough, they said, "Hey, kid. Give us a taste."

Three pairs of hands simultaneously dipped into Baldy Li's bowl. Baldy Li ducked and protected his bowl, hurriedly reminding them, "Blacksmith Tongs already told you, we are the young blossoms of our homeland."

When they heard Blacksmith Tongs name, the middle-schoolers yanked back their hands. After looking around and making sure that Blacksmith Tong was nowhere to be seen and that no one else was paying them any heed, they reached over again. Baldy Li opened his mouth and prepared to bite down on any invading digits when Song Gang suddenly shouted, "Shrimp for sale! Shrimp for sale!"

As he yelled out Song Gang nudged Baldy Li with his elbow. When Baldy Li saw that Song Gang's hawking had attracted some passersby he too began shouting, "Shrimp for sale! Fragrant fried shrimp!"

A crowd instantly gathered and stared curiously at Baldy Li and Song Gang. The three middle-schoolers were squeezed off to the sides and stood there cursing Song Gang's dad, Baldy Li's mom, as well as all of their ancestors, before finally wiping their lips and going away.

Someone asked Baldy Li and Song Gang, "How much for the shrimp?"

Song Gang replied, "One yuan a shrimp."

"What?" the man exclaimed. "Do you think you are selling gold?"

"Just smell." Song Gang let Baldy Li hold up the bowl. "These are fried shrimp."

Baldy Li raised the bowl over his head. The crowd all caught a whiff of the shrimp and someone said, "They
do
smell good. But it should really be two shrimp for a cent."

Someone else added, "With one yuan you could buy a golden shrimp. These two little bastards are real profiteers."

Song Gang stood up, retorting, "You can't eat a golden shrimp."

Baldy Li also stood up and said, "Plus, golden shrimp aren't tasty."

Seeing that the three middle-schoolers were no longer around, Baldy Li and Song Gang breathed a sigh of relief and extricated themselves from the crowd of people. Holding their bowls, the boys swaggered away and proceeded down the street and over the bridge until they reached the front gate of the warehouse. The warehouse was still being guarded by the father of long-haired Sun Wei—who had just missed an opportunity to eat Baldy Li's shrimp. Sun Wei's father saw the two boys walking toward him and chuckled, "Hey, you're not dangling your elbows anymore?"

The two boys answered, "Can't dangle ‘em. We're carrying bowls." Sun Wei's father caught a whiff of the shrimp. He walked over to peer down at the bowls, then grabbed a shrimp and started munching on it. He asked, "Who cooked these?"

Baldy Li answered, "We did."

Astonished, he said, "You little bastards, you're top chefs."

As he said this he reached into the shrimp bowl again, but Baldy Li quickly dodged. So Sun Wei's father simply thrust out both hands, demanding both the shrimp and the wine. The children backed away, dodging his grasp. After cursing "Fuck that!" he walked back to the warehouse door and kicked it open, bellowing, "Song Fanping! Get out here. Your sons brought you stuff to eat and drink!"

He lingered on the words
stuff to eat and drink,
and soon five or six people wearing red armbands rushed out. Looking all about as they hurried over, they asked, "What's there to eat? What's there to drink?"

Their nostrils flared as they sniffed, and they said, "How fragrant, even more fragrant than lard." They had been eating carrots and
greens day in and day out, and tasted pork at most once a month. Now that they caught sight of the fried shrimp in Baldy Li's hands, they felt so ravenous that claws seemed to emerge from their mouths. They surrounded the two children like a high wall encircling two saplings. A din of "Lemme try it!" filled the air, and a stream of saliva rained down on Baldy Li and Song Gangs faces. Frightened, the boys cradled their bowls and yelled, "Help! Help!"