Brothers (62 page)

"I've used it for two summers now," Baldy Li replied proudly. "Next year I won't need it anymore, since I plan to install central air."

Tao Qing felt that Baldy Li was deliberately taunting him and therefore, gesturing to the shed, replied evenly, "An air conditioner wouldn't work well here, would it?"

"Why not?" Baldy Li asked.

"This shed is too drafty" Tao Qing explained. "An air conditioner would waste too much electricity."

"Then I'll just pay a slightly higher electric bill," Baldy Li replied. "With air-conditioning, in summer this shed will become an elite hotel."

Cursing Baldy Li under his breath, Tao Qing stood up and walked out. Baldy Li hurried after him and asked solicitously, "Director Tao, won't you sit a little longer?"

"No, thanks." Tao Qing shook his head. "I have a meeting to attend."

Baldy Li quickly turned to his ten part-time workers and prompted, "Director Tao is leaving. Everyone please applaud."

The workers let out another scattered round of applause, and Tao Qing again simply nodded in acknowledgment. Baldy Li said ingratiatingly, "Director Li, I'll walk you out."

Tao Qing waved him away. He took a few steps and then, pretending he had just remembered something, abruptly stopped and said to Baldy Li, "Come over here."

Baldy Li ran over, and Tao Qing patted his shoulder and said, "You should write a self-criticism."

"What do you mean, a self-criticism? Why should I write a self-criticism?"

"Regarding what happened four years ago," Tao Qing said. "Write a self-criticism, acknowledge your mistake, and I can arrange for you to return to your position as director of the Good Works Factory."

Baldy Li finally understood. He chuckled disdainfully. "I lost interest in that factory director position long ago."

Cursing Baldy Li again under his breath, Tao Qing said seriously, "Please consider it. This is a good opportunity."

"A good opportunity?" Baldy Li pointed to his four mountains of trash and said grandly,
"These
are my opportunities."

His face dark, Tao Qing continued, "I urge you to reconsider."

"I don't need to reconsider," Baldy Li replied firmly. "Why would I want to give up all this business in order to be a director of some charity factory? That's like telling me to trade in my watermelon for a sesame seed…"

The county governor was very angry that Tao Qing had failed to convince Baldy Li to return to the factory. He said Tao Qing should never have fired Baldy Li in the first place: "Firing him was like releasing a tiger into the wilds—and now you have brought disaster to the entire county."

Tao Qing subserviently endured the governor's reprimands, then returned to the Civil Affairs Bureau to find two section chiefs to chew out. The two section chiefs were bewildered at why they were being reprimanded, having no idea what they had done wrong. His anger vented, Tao Qing vowed to pay no more attention to Baldy Li's scrap business. Another month passed and Baldy Li not only had not left but, furthermore, had redoubled his efforts and started on a fifth mountain of scrap. The governor knew that he couldn't count on Tao Qing to resolve the problem, so instead he sent his own right-hand man, the county government office manager, to deal with Baldy Li.

Baldy Li owed Tao Qing a debt of gratitude from way back, so naturally he was respectful to Tao when he came. As for that office manager, Baldy Li owed him nothing. When the office manager arrived, Baldy Li was in the process of sorting his scrap. With a warm smile and warm voice, the office manager stood behind him and spoke as he trailed Baldy Li back and forth, but Baldy Li only occasionally tossed off a curt reply while continuing to work on his scrap. The office manager, noticing that the hour was ticking by but that Baldy Li was not
warming up to him, decided that he had no alternative but to play his final card. He told Baldy Li, "The governor asks that you go see him in his office."

Baldy Li shook his head and said, "I don't have time right now."

The office manager patted Baldy Li on the shoulder and shared with him the good news that the county's party secretary and deputy party secretary had both looked into the matter and agreed to allow him to resume his position as the director of the Good Works Factory. The office manager therefore urged him to see the governor without delay. "Go quickly. This is an opportunity you shouldn't pass up."

Baldy Li was not at all impressed, and without even bothering to look up he retorted, "Haven't you noticed that I am sorting through thousands of opportunities every day?"

The office manager returned dejectedly and repeated to the county governor what Baldy Li had said. The governor, now extremely irked, threw down the document he was holding and said, "What does he mean by saying he has thousands of opportunities every day? I'm the only one with thousands of opportunities every day."

After his tantrum, the county governor determined to go see Baldy Li himself. A few days later the deputy provincial governor was coming to visit, and the five mountains of scrap had to be cleaned up before he arrived. Although the county governor was furious, he was all smiles when he greeted Baldy Li: "Baldy Li, are you still sorting through your thousands of opportunities every day?"

Seeing that the governor himself had come, Baldy Li set aside what he was working on and straightened up to speak with him. He was much more humble than he had been with the office manager, saying, "What is this about my having thousands of opportunities every day? You are the only one with thousands of opportunities every day."

The governor didn't want to stand in front of Baldy Li's mountain of trash for too long—he feared that it would give the masses the wrong impression if he were seen—so he went straight to the point and told Baldy Li that the county had accepted his petition to return as director of the Good Works Factory. The only condition was that he had to clean up these five mountains of scrap within the next forty-eight hours. After hearing the governor's proposal, Baldy Li didn't respond but instead lowered his head and continued sorting his scrap. The governor stood to one side waiting for Baldy Li to answer, growing increasingly angry and resentful that Baldy Li wouldn't even acknowledge
what a great kindness had been bestowed upon him. After sorting scrap for a while, Baldy Li found a mineral water bottle with some water left in it, so he unscrewed the cap and took a swig. Then, wiping his mouth, he asked the governor what his monthly salary would be if he returned to the factory.

The governor said that he wasn't certain, but that the State determined the salaries of cadres. Baldy Li then asked how much the governor himself made each month, and he replied vaguely that he earned several hundred yuan. Baldy Li laughed, pointed to his ten sweaty part-time workers, and said, "Even they make more than you do." He then added good-naturedly, "Governor, why don't you come work for me? I'll pay you one thousand yuan a month, and if you perform well, I will even give you a bonus."

The governor left absolutely livid, and when he returned to his office, he threw an even bigger tantrum. He called the office manager again and said that he was handing Baldy Li over to him. Regardless of what it might cost, it was essential that he have the mountains of scrap cleared away before the deputy provincial governor arrived. The office manager dejectedly returned to the gate, and when he saw Baldy Li, he cut straight to the chase. "Tell me, what would it take to get you to move?"

When Baldy Li heard this, he knew that his plan had come to fruition. He declared that he would never return to the Good Works Factory. Standing there in his tattered clothes, he said that the salary at the factory wasn't high enough for him, then spiritedly added, "And furthermore,
a good horse never grazes in the same spot twice."

Then, just as the office manager was at his wits’ end, Baldy Li changed his tune. He said that his salvage and recycling company was not merely a business; it was a way of promoting socialism and of serving the people, and therefore it needed the support of the State. He said that he had been planning for some time to move these piles of scraps away from the entrance because he didn't want to cause the county leaders and residents to lose face. The only problem was that he didn't have anywhere to move to, and therefore he continued eking out a living here.

Baldy Li said this quite earnestly, and the office manager nodded emphatically. Taking advantage of the situation, Baldy Li suggested that the county's Real Estate Bureau owned several unused shops along the main street, as well as that empty warehouse that he had previously
rented for his garment factory. The warehouse was quite out of the way and had a large empty lot in front that would be perfect for laying out his scrap. Those street-front shops, meanwhile, he could use as scrap retail stores and recycling centers. This way, they could make use of shops and a warehouse that were sitting empty while getting rid of the mountains of trash in front of the government building. "This is a solution that would please everyone."

The county office manager nodded and said he would look into it. A little more than an hour later, he and the Real Estate Bureau director returned together and told Baldy Li that the county had agreed to rent him three empty street-front stores at a low price and would permit him to use that empty warehouse for three years. The only condition was that he had to have the five mountains of scrap cleaned up within forty-eight hours.

"Two days?" Baldy Li shook his head. "Two days is too long. As Chairman Mao said,
We must seize every minute between dawn and dusk.
I will have this cleaned up within a day."

Baldy Li was true to his word. He hired 140 peasants and, combined with his 10 part-time workers and himself, the 151 of them worked twenty-four hours straight, and the five mountains of scrap vanished as if by magic. Not only did they sweep everything clean; they even placed two neat rows of potted lilies where the scrap heaps had been. When the county governor and the party secretary came to work the next morning, they stared in astonishment, thinking that they had come to the wrong place. Even the governor couldn't help but exclaim, "In all fairness, it must be admitted that Baldy Li has his good qualities."

The people of Liu had gotten used to Baldy Li's mountains of scrap. When they suddenly vanished, everyone ran around excitedly with the news, as if a new continent had been discovered. One after another they came to the entranceway of the government building to marvel at the sight and remarked that only now did they notice that the scenery around the entranceway was as beautiful as a painting.

One week later, Li's Salvage and Recycling Company held its grand opening. Two days earlier Blacksmith Tong had called a meeting with Tailor Zhang, Little Scissors Guan, Yanker Yu, and Popsicle Wang, whereupon they had reached two decisions. First, everyone would pool their money and buy a pile of firecrackers; and second, they would invite all their friends and relatives to attend. The day of the opening,
about a hundred people came to offer their congratulations, as well as two hundred more spectators who crowded around to ogle at the hour-long fireworks display. The scene was as lively as a temple fair at New Years. A beaming Baldy Li was still dressed in his usual ragged clothes, though for the occasion he sported a giant red corsage pinned to the front of his shirt. He stood on a table and spoke to the well-wishers, stammering and overcome with emotion. "Thank you … thank you … thank you … thank you…"

After he had stammered out a whole string of thank-yous, he finally said relatively fluently, "Even if someone in the family had gotten married, we still wouldn't have had this many guests. Even if we had had a death in the family, we still wouldn't have seen this many people at the funeral…"

The guests erupted in thunderous applause, and Baldy Li, who had just regained his composure, once again was overcome. Wiping his eyes and sniffling, he opened his mouth to speak but found himself completely choked up. He let out a few sniffles before finally being able to speak again. Sobbing, he said, "There's an old song you have all probably heard:

Neither the earth nor heaven is as vast as the kindness of the Party.

Neither mother nor father is as close as Chairman Mao.

A thousand or ten thousand goodnesses cant compare to the goodness of socialism.

And neither the river nor the sea is as deep as class love.

Baldy Li wiped his eyes and said, "I want to change the words to this song, and sing the new version for you." He then began to sing through his tears:

Neither the earth nor heaven is as big as the kindness of the Party and your kindness.

Neither mother nor father is as close as Chairman Mao
and all of you

A thousand or ten thousand goodnesses can't compare to the goodness of socialism
and all of your goodness.

And neither the river nor the sea is a deep as
your
class love.

CHAPTER 49

B
ALDY LI'S
scrap business boomed. A year later he obtained a passport with a Japanese visa so that he could travel to Japan to drum up some business. Before leaving, he paid a visit to his five former partners, asking them if they were interested in investing again. Baldy Li was now not lacking in money, but seeing that he was about to become as rich as an oil tanker, he immediately thought of his five former partners and felt that he should give them another opportunity, allowing them to follow him on the road to wealth.

Still in his tattered clothing, Baldy Li went to see Blacksmith Tong. The last time he arrived with his world map; this time he came with his passport in hand. He shouted at a sweat-covered Blacksmith Tong, "I'll bet that you've never seen a passport, have you?"