Brothers (63 page)

Blacksmith Tong had certainly heard about passports, but he had never seen one. Wiping both hands on his apron, he took the passport and examined it. He leafed through it enviously and cried out, "What is this foreign paper pasted inside?"

"This is a Japanese visa."

Baldy Li proudly put his passport away, carefully placing it in the pocket of his tattered shirt. He then sat down on the long bench with which he had had sexual relations as a boy, hiked up one leg, and grandiosely discussed his plans for his scrap business. He said that China could no longer satisfy his business needs, but perhaps the world could. He would first go to Japan to make some purchases. Blacksmith Tong asked, "Purchase what?"

"Purchase scrap," Baldy Li said. "I will start an international trade in scrap."

Then Baldy Li asked Blacksmith Tong whether he was interested in investing again. He said that he was now in a much better position than he had been four years earlier. If Blacksmith Tong was interested in investing now, he wouldn't charge him one hundred yuan for a share but one thousand. Even at one thousand yuan a share, Blacksmith Tong would still be getting a good deal. After Baldy Li finished, he threw Blacksmith Tong a nonchalant, take-it-or-leave-it glance.

Blacksmith Tong remembered the painful lesson he had learned the last time he invested, and a feeling of uneasiness welled up as he looked over at Baldy Li, standing there in his tattered clothing. He reasoned:
When this little bastard stayed put in Liu Town, he actually managed to get quite a few things done. But once he crosses the town line, who knows what kind of trouble he'll get into?
Blacksmith Tong shook his head and said that he wouldn't invest, explaining, "I'm content with what little I have and don't aspire to make a fortune."

Baldy Li laughed as he stood up, and with a magnanimous expression he walked to the door and once again pulled out his passport. Waving it at Blacksmith Tong he said, "I am now an international warrior."

Baldy Li left the blacksmith shop and then proceeded to visit Tailor Zhang and Little Scissors Guan. After hearing his plans to develop an international scrap business, they both hesitated, asking him if Blacksmith Tong had agreed to invest. Baldy Li shook his head, saying that Tong was content with what he had and lacked greater ambitions. Zhang and Guan said that they too were content with what they had and didn't have greater ambitions. Baldy Li looked at them pityingly and nodded as he said to himself,
In order to be an international warrior, one must have courage.

As soon as Baldy Li left, Tailor Zhang and Little Scissors Guan rushed into Blacksmith Tongs shop and asked about investing in Baldy Li's new venture. Blacksmith Tong frowned. "All Baldy Li has to do is leave Liu Town and I go into a frenzy. Furthermore, scrap is not exactly an up-and-up kind of business."

"That's right," agreed Tailor Zhang and Scissors Guan, nodding.

Blacksmith Tong spat on the ground and continued: "Four years ago he was asking for one hundred yuan a share, but now it has risen to one thousand yuan a share, and he even has the gall to say that we're getting it cheap. This bastard's prices are rising much too fast."

"That's right." Tailor Zhang and Little Scissors Guan both nodded again.

"Even during the Sino-Japanese War, prices didn't rise this quickly," Blacksmith Tong said angrily. "It's peacetime now, and this bastard is still into war profiteering."

"Yes, that's right," Tailor Zhang and Scissors Guan agreed. "That bastard."

Baldy Li ran into Popsicle Wang in the street, and because of his former partners’ earlier lack of enthusiasm, by the time he offered Wang
the possibility of investing in his business, he was really just going through the motions. When Baldy Li concluded his pitch, Popsicle Wang fell into deep thought. He also remembered the painful lesson from last time around. Unlike Blacksmith Tong, Wang didn't stop there but went on to recall how Baldy Li had repaid his loans and how he had managed to make an opportunity where none seemed possible. Then Wang considered his own miserable situation: He had saved up one thousand yuan, but that was certainly not enough for him to retire on. Therefore, he figured he might as well gamble again, and if he lost, at least he had already lived the better part of his life. Baldy Li stood there waiting as Popsicle Wang—silent, his head bowed—seemed lost in thought. Finally Baldy Li lost his patience: "Are you in or out?"

Popsicle Wang looked up and asked, "So for five hundred yuan I would only get half a share?"

"That's a bargain, even at half a share," Baldy Li said.

"I'm in," Popsicle Wang said, gritting his teeth. "I'll put in one thousand yuan."

Baldy Li looked at him with surprise. "I never would have expected that you would be the one with grand aspirations. So it's true when they say that you can't judge a book by its cover."

Finally, Baldy Li went over to Yanker Yu's. Yu was in the midst of a career crisis. The county's Hygiene Bureau had announced that "freelance" doctors like himself now had to take an exam: Those who passed would be given a formal medical license, while those who didn't would be stripped of their right to practice. As Baldy Li walked over, Yanker Yu had a thick
Human Anatomy
textbook in his lap and was reciting with his eyes closed. However, every time he got through the first half of a sentence, he would find that he had forgotten the second half; and after he opened his eyes to check on the second half of the sentence, he would find that he had already forgotten the first half. Yanker Yu kept opening and closing his eyes, as if he were exercising his eyelids.

Baldy Li plopped himself down on Yanker Yu's rattan recliner. Yu initially thought he had a customer, but when he opened his eyes, he found that it was only Baldy Li. Yanker Yu slammed his
Human Anatomy
textbook shut and asked angrily, "What is the most immoral thing in the world?"

"What
is
the most immoral thing in the world?" Baldy Li had no idea.

"The human body is the most immoral thing." Yanker Yu slapped the
cover of the
Human Anatomy
volume. "A healthy human body not only contains many organs but has even more muscles, blood vessels, and nerves. I am no longer young—how can I ever learn them all? Don't you agree that this is immoral?"

Baldy Li nodded his agreement. "It is indeed fucking immoral."

As if a dam had burst open, Yanker Yu let loose a torrent of grievances. He said that in the thirty-odd years he had worked as a freelance dentist, he had extracted countless teeth and everyone loved him, calling him the best tooth-yanker within one hundred
li.
Now the fucking county Hygiene Bureau wanted everyone to take an exam, and this is where his career would fucking come to its bitter end. Yanker Yu's eyes grew red. He had enjoyed a spotless reputation his entire career, and now it was all going down the drain because this damn
Human Anatomy
textbook was proving to be his stumbling block. Yanker Yu watched the crowds strolling up and down the street and said heartbro-kenly, "The crowds are just going to stand by as the leading tooth-yanker within one hundred
li
disappears."

Baldy Li couldn't help laughing. He reached out and patted the back of Yanker Yu's hand, asking if he was willing to invest again. Yanker Yu squinted his eyes, and like the other partners immediately embarked on a series of mental calculations. When he thought of Baldy Li's previous failure, he became panicky, but when he looked at the
Human Anatomy
textbook in his hands, he became even more panicky. After considering the issue from every conceivable angle, he asked whether his former partners had decided to reinvest or not. Baldy Li responded that Tong, Zhang, and Guan had chosen not to, but that Popsicle Wang would. Yanker Yu was astonished to hear that Popsicle Wang, having lost his investment once, would be willing to try a second time. He mumbled to himself, "Where did Popsicle Wang find the guts to do this?"

"He has soaring ambitions," Baldy Li said approvingly and added, "Just think, he doesn't have anyone he can count on, so naturally he counts on me."

Yanker Yu looked at the
Human Anatomy
volume he was holding in his hand, and it occurred to him that he didn't have anyone to count on either. He immediately grew bold and held up two fingers, saying, "I also have soaring ambitions. I'll put in two thousand yuan, for two shares."

When he finished, Yanker Yu threw his textbook to the ground and
stomped on it. Grasping Baldy Li's hand, he exclaimed passionately, "I will follow you to the ends of the earth, Baldy Li. You have had such success with junk—who knows what you would have been capable of with nonjunk. Perhaps you could even have founded a nation—"

"I'm not at all interested in politics," said Baldy Li, cutting him off.

Yanker Yu, however, was not through. "What about your world map? Are all those dots still there? After you and I strike it rich, we should definitely visit all those sites."

The second time Baldy Li soared away from Liu Town, he again stopped at Mama Sus snack shop before leaving. As he ate his steamed bun he pulled his passport out of his ragged clothes and showed it to her, to expand her horizons. She took the passport with surprise, inspected it, then compared the photo with Baldy Li himself, saying, "The person in the photo looks a lot like you."

"What on earth do you mean, he looks like me?" Baldy Li protested. "That
is
me."

Mama Su continued to study the passport intently and asked in surprise, "With this you can go abroad to Japan?"

"Of course," Baldy Li said, retrieving his passport from Mama Su. "Your hands are covered with grease."

Embarrassed, Mama Su wiped her hands on her apron while Baldy Li used the sleeve of his shirt to wipe the grease off his passport. Noticing his tattered clothing, she asked, "You're going to wear this to go to Japan?"

"Don't worry, I won't make our nation lose face," Baldy Li said as he patted the dust on his clothing. "When I reach Shanghai, I'll buy a decent outfit."

When Baldy Li had filled his belly and was ready to walk out of Mama Sus shop, he remembered how four years earlier she had almost invested in his earlier venture, and he felt that he should give her a chance as well. Baldy Li briefly told her about the possibility of investing again. Mama Sus heart lurched, and she remembered the loss they had suffered the previous time, and how the reason she didn't lose her investment then was because she happened to have gone to the temple to burn incense. Recently business at her snack shop had been good, and she had been so busy that she hadn't been to the temple for three weeks. She warned herself that without having
burned some incense, she shouldn't risk anything. Therefore, she shook her head and said that this time she wouldn't invest. Baldy Li nodded in disappointment for her and turned to leave, setting off valiantly toward the Liu Town bus depot. Thus for a second time he spread his wings and soared away.

CHAPTER 50

B
ALDY LI
spread his wings and soared to Tokyo, Osaka, and Kobe, not skipping over Hokkaido and Okinawa either. He loitered in Japan for more than two months, during which time he amassed
3,567
tons of discarded "junk suits." These so-called junk suits looked brand-new, had impeccable tailoring, and fit just as well as the Italian-made Armani suits Baldy Li would later wear. The Japanese sold these old suits to Baldy Li for next to nothing, and Baldy Li in turn hired a Chinese freighter to ship them back to Shanghai. He wasn't willing to hire a Japanese freighter because, he explained, the Japanese charged far too much. In fact, merely hiring workers on the Japanese docks to load the suits onto the ferry would end up costing more than the
3,567
tons of suits themselves.

He sold the suits soon after he got to Shanghai. Within a few days so many scrap kings had come from all over the country that they were said to have completely filled a four-star hotel on Nanjing Road. The scrap kings hauled their cash around in large hemp sacks—dragging these sacks behind them as they trudged into the lobby of the hotel to register, dragging them onto the elevators, and continuing to drag them into their respective rooms. In the end, however, all the money in their sacks ended up in Baldy Li's hands. Li's junk suits were thereby distributed throughout the entire country via railways, highways, and waterways. As a result, throughout China people were removing their old wrinkled Mao suits and donning instead Baldy Li's Japanese junk suits.

Baldy Li of course never forgot those of us back in Liu, and he specifically set aside five thousand junk suits to bring back. By this point, Western suits had become quite fashionable in Liu, and when the town's young men needed new suits for their weddings, they would always ask Tailor Zhang to make them. After twenty years making Mao suits, now that Western-style suits had become fashionable Zhang switched to making them instead. The way he saw it, it was quite simple: Both kinds of suits had the same shoulder padding, so all you had to do was add a collar and lapels to a Mao suit and you would have
a Western one. Invariably, though, after a couple of months, the young men of Liu found that Zhang's knock-off Western suits would begin to lose their shape. So when Baldy Li brought his suits back from Japan, the town found itself in a consuming frenzy, with huge crowds jostling toward the warehouse, diving into Baldy Li's pile of suits as if they were diving into a river. While searching feverishly for their size, everyone remarked on how the suits, even though they looked brand-new, were cheaper than secondhand ones sold elsewhere. Within a month Baldy Li had sold his entire stock of five thousand suits.

Li's Salvage and Recycling Company was livelier than a teahouse. Upon returning to Liu, Baldy Li had immediately changed back into his tattered old clothes and cheerfully sat there as people crowded around him every day, listening attentively to tales of his adventures in Japan. Every time he got to the part about how expensive things were in Japan, he would grit his teeth in mock anguish. He described how, for the price you would pay for a breakfast of fritters and soy milk in Japan, in Liu you could buy an entire pig. Plus, he added, a bowl of soy milk there was absurdly small, "not like the huge bowls we have here in Liu. The bowls they use in Japan are even smaller than our teacups, and their fritters are thinner than chopsticks." Everyone listened intently and agreed that it would be impossible to live in Japan. Indeed, were the gluttonous Pigsy from
Journey to the West
to spend time there, even he would become thinner than the White-Boned Demon.