Chronicle of a Blood Merchant (8 page)

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

When Xu Sanguan emerged from Lin Fenfang’s house, he felt as drained as a man who has just come from the steam room of a public bathhouse. He moved down the sun-drenched summer street bathed in sweat. Just as he was about to turn down another street, he caught sight of two peasants from out of the corner of his eye. Waving their arms despite the empty carrying poles suspended from their shoulders, they shouted across the street, “Aren’t you Xu Sanguan?”

Xu Sanguan said, “Yeah, I’m Xu Sanguan.”

It was only then that Xu Sanguan recognized them. They had come from the village where his grandpa, who had died a few years before, had lived.

Pointing his arm back in their direction, he called, “I know you all right! You’re Ah Fang, and you’re Genlong. I know what you’re doing in town too. You came in today to sell blood. And I know why you’re both carrying empty mugs. You used to have bowls, but I guess you’ve switched to mugs. How much water have you drunk this time?”

“How much
have
we drunk?” Genlong asked Ah Fang.

Genlong and Ah Fang crossed the street toward Xu Sanguan. Ah Fang said, “Truth be told, we don’t really know how much we’ve drunk.”

Xu Sanguan suddenly recalled something Blood Chief Li had told them ten years before. “Do you still remember? Blood Chief Li was saying your bellies, I mean your bladders, were bigger than a pregnant lady. Actually, what he said was your bladders.
Bladder
’s the scientific word for it.”

They stood laughing in the street. Xu Sanguan had seen them only twice since they had sold blood together ten years before. On both occasions he had gone down to the countryside for a funeral. The first funeral had been for his grandpa, and the second had been for his fourth uncle. Ah Fang said, “Xu Sanguan, it’s been seven or eight years since you last came to see us.”

Xu Sanguan said, “My grandpa died and then my fourth uncle died too. They were my only family in the country, so I don’t have as much reason to come anymore.”

In the seven or eight years in between, it seemed to Xu Sanguan that Ah Fang had grown old. His hair was going gray, and when he smiled, his face creased into a whorl of wrinkles like the waves that fan out across the surface of a pond after a rock has hit the water. Xu Sanguan said to Ah Fang, “You’ve aged.”

Ah Fang nodded. “Well, I’m already forty-five.”

Genlong added, “We country folks show our age. A forty-fiveyear-old in town looks about thirty to us.”

Xu Sanguan glanced at Genlong. Genlong, wearing a sleeveless undershirt, looked much sturdier than he had before, and his chest and arms were braided with solid clumps of muscle. Xu Sanguan said to him, “Genlong, you’re getting stronger and stronger. Look at those muscles. Every time you move, it looks like a little squirrel’s running back and forth across your chest. Did you ever get together with Guihua, the girl with the big behind? You still hadn’t gotten married when my fourth uncle died.”

Genlong said, “She’s given me two sons.”

Ah Fang asked Xu Sanguan, “How many sons has your woman given you?”

At first Xu Sanguan wanted to say three, but he quickly changed his mind. Yile, after all, was He Xiaoyong’s child.

“Just the same as Genlong’s woman. Two sons.” Xu Sanguan thought to himself,
If Ah Fang had asked me the same question
two months ago, I would have said I have three sons. They don’t
know that I’ve been a cuckold for nine years now. And what they
don’t know, I’m not going to tell them.
He continued, “I don’t know why, but as soon as I saw you two on your way to sell blood, I started to feel a little itch to sell some blood myself.”

Ah Fang and Genlong said, “That little itch means you have too much blood in you. It can be awfully uncomfortable, having too much blood. Your whole body starts to itch and swell and all that. You better come with us and sell some blood too.”

Xu Sanguan thought for a moment, then decided to walk with them over to the hospital. As he walked, he thought about Lin Fenfang. He couldn’t help feeling she had been very good to him. When he wanted to rub her feet, she let him. When he wanted to touch her thigh, she let him. When he had jumped up to squeeze her breasts, she had let him squeeze. She had let him do whatever he wanted to do. She had let him do whatever he liked despite the fact that her leg was broken. When he had bumped painfully against her leg, she had merely let out a little grunt. Xu Sanguan was thinking that he really ought to give her ten pounds of soup bones and five pounds of yellow beans. The doctors in the hospital were always telling people with broken bones, “You ought to eat a lot of yellow beans stewed with soup bones.”

But merely giving her soup bones and yellow beans somehow didn’t seem sufficient. He thought he should give her some mung beans as well, because mung beans were cooling. Lin Fenfang was lying inside all day, and the weather was so hot lately. She would certainly feel cooler after eating some mung beans. And he ought to give her a pound of dried chrysanthemums too. Chrysanthemum tea had cooling properties as well. He would go sell blood with Ah Fang and Genlong so he could earn enough to buy her the soup bones, yellow beans, mung beans, and chrysanthemums. That way he could pay her back for her kindness.

He could earn thirty-five
yuan
selling blood. After he bought the things for Lin Fenfang, he would still have a little more than thirty left over. He would put away what was left to spend on himself, on Erle, and on Sanle. He might even spend some on Xu Yulan from time to time. Anything he liked—as long as he didn’t spend any on Yile.

Xu Sanguan followed Ah Fang and Genlong to the hospital. When they got there, they didn’t go right in, because Xu Sanguan had yet to have any water. They went instead to the well near the hospital. Genlong picked up the wooden bucket and drew some water from the well. At the same time Ah Fang handed Xu Sanguan his ceramic mug. Xu Sanguan knelt down next to the well, mug in hand, and drank mug after mug of the cold water. Ah Fang stood over him counting. By the time Xu Sanguan had finished six mugs of water, he said he couldn’t drink any more. Ah Fang told him he had to drink at least ten mugs, and Genlong said Ah Fang was right. Xu Sanguan started in on his seventh cup. But after a few sips, he began to gasp for air. When he reached the ninth mug, he stood up and told them he really couldn’t take any more. If he drank any more, he said, he might die, and besides, he had pins and needles from squatting by the side of the well. Ah Fang said if his legs had fallen asleep, he should drink the water standing up. Genlong told him to drink another mugful. Xu Sanguan shook his head and told them he simply could not swallow any more. His blood was already swollen, he added, and if he were to drink any more, he might burst. With that, Ah Fang suggested that they set out for the hospital. And so they walked through the hospital gate.

AFTER THEY SOLD their blood to Blood Chief Li and he handed them their money, they made their way to the Victory Restaurant and sat down at a table by the window. Xu Sanguan, beating Ah Fang and Genlong to the punch, pounded on the table and called to the waiter, “A plate of fried pork livers and two shots of yellow rice wine. And warm the wine up for me.”

Then he sat back and watched contentedly as Ah Fang and Genlong each pounded the table, calling out to the waiter in turn:

“A plate of fried pork livers and two shots of yellow rice wine.”

“A plate of fried pork livers and two shots of yellow rice wine.”

When Xu Sanguan noticed that they had forgotten to add the part about warming up the wine, he waved the departing waiter back to the table, pointed at Ah Fang and Genlong, and added, “Warm up the wine for them.”

The waiter said, “In all my forty-three years in this business, I’ve never once seen anyone ask for warm wine on a hot summer day.”

Xu Sanguan glanced over at Ah Fang and Genlong. The bemused smiles lighting up their faces told him that he had made a fool of himself. He laughed along with them.

After a good long chuckle, Ah Fang said to Xu Sanguan, “Now remember. You shouldn’t sleep with a woman for at least ten days after you sell blood.”

Xu Sanguan asked, “Why do you say that?”

Ah Fang said, “Eating a bowl of rice will get you no more than a few drops of blood. And you need a whole bowl of blood just to produce some seed. Well, anyway, that’s what we country folk call it, though I guess Blood Chief Li would call it sperm.”

Xu Sanguan felt a sudden jolt of alarm. After all, he had just finished his business with Lin Fenfang moments before. He might end up crippled if he went on like this. He asked Ah Fang, “What if you slept with someone just before you went to sell blood?”

Ah Fang said, “You’d be a dead man.”

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

A sweaty, bespectacled man carrying ten pounds of soup bones, five pounds of yellow beans, two pounds of mung beans, and one pound of chrysanthemum flowers appeared at Xu Yulan’s door. She watched as this stranger set his things down on their table, picked up a glass of boiled water that she had left out to cool, and gulped it down.

When he finished drinking, he said to Xu Yulan, “You’re Xu Yulan, I know who you are. You’re the lady everybody calls the Fried Dough Queen. Your man is Xu Sanguan. I know who he is too. Do you know who I am? I’m Lin Fenfang’s man. The Lin Fenfang who works at the silk factory with your husband. They’re on the same shop floor. My woman went to wash clothes by the river and fell and broke her right leg—”

Xu Yulan interrupted, “How did she do that?”

“She slipped on a watermelon rind.” The bespectacled man asked Xu Yulan, “Is Xu Sanguan here?”

“He’s not home,” Xu Yulan said. “He’s still at work over at the factory. Should be back any minute now.” She looked down at the soup bones and beans and everything else on the table. “You’ve never come to visit before, and Xu Sanguan’s never mentioned you to me either. When you came in, I was wondering who you were. So how come you’re giving us so much stuff? There’s barely enough room on the table for it all.”

The bespectacled man said, “I’m not giving you these things. Xu Sanguan gave all these things to my woman, Lin Fenfang.”

Xu Yulan said, “Gave them to your woman? Who’s your woman?”

“I just told you, my woman’s called Lin Fenfang.”

“Oh, I know,” Xu Yulan said. “You mean Fatty Lin over at the silk factory.”

The bespectacled man said nothing more. Instead, he sat down next to the door to quietly wait for Xu Sanguan, as unruffled as a tree on a windless day. Xu Yulan was left to stand by the table, looking down at the soup bones and beans and flowers and feeling increasingly befuddled.

Xu Yulan said, half to the man and half to herself, “Why would Xu Sanguan give all these things to your woman? They almost fill up the whole table. That’s nearly ten pounds of soup bones, four or five pounds of yellow beans, and I’d say there’s at least two pounds of mung beans, and a pound of chrysanthemum flowers too. Why would Xu Sanguan give so much stuff to your woman?”

Suddenly, she understood. “Xu Sanguan must have slept with your wife!”

Xu Yulan began to shout, “Xu Sanguan, you home-wrecker! You’re always so goddamn stingy. Every time I buy a little strip of fabric, it takes you six months to get over the shock. But when it comes to giving gifts to someone else’s wife, then it’s different, then there’s more stuff than we can afford, more than I can count on my fingers.”

Xu Sanguan arrived home from work soon afterward. When he saw the bespectacled man sitting in his doorway and realized that he was Lin Fenfang’s husband, he heard two alarms go off in his head. When he stepped into the house and saw the table laden with things, his head buzzed twice more. When he looked over at Xu Yulan and saw that she was screaming, he thought to himself that he was a dead man.

The bespectacled man stood up from the doorstep, stepped out into the lane, and addressed Xu Sanguan’s neighbors. “Come over here, I have something I want to tell all of you. Come on over. Bring your kids too. Come and listen to what I’m going to tell you.”

The bespectacled man pointed inside at the table and said to Xu Sanguan’s neighbors, “Do you see all those soup bones, yellow beans, and mung beans on the table? There’s a pound of chrysanthemum flowers too, but they’re hidden behind the soup bones. Xu Sanguan gave those things to my woman. My woman’s name is Lin Fenfang. Lots of people in town know who she is, and I bet some of you know her too. I see a few of you are nodding your heads. My woman and your Xu Sanguan both work at the silk factory. They work on the same shop floor. My woman slipped and broke her leg when she was washing clothes by the river. Xu Sanguan came to visit my woman. Now, when other people came by for a visit, they would sit by the bed, make some small talk, and then take their leave. Not your Xu Sanguan. When he came for a bedside visit, he ended up
in
bed with the patient. That’s right. He raped my woman. Think about it now. A woman with a broken leg—”

Xu Sanguan protested, “But it wasn’t rape at all.”

“That’s exactly what it was.” The bespectacled man stated categorically. “What do you people think? You think she would have had the strength to push him away with a broken leg? The slightest move left her in pain for hours. You think my woman could have pushed him away? This Xu Sanguan—this Xu Sanguan wouldn’t even spare a woman with a broken leg! What do you say to that? Is he any better than a beast?”

The neighbors didn’t bother to answer his query. Instead, they gazed curiously at Xu Sanguan.

Only Xu Yulan emerged to give her assent, grasping hold of Xu Sanguan’s ear with one hand and screaming, “You’re no better than a beast! You’ve ruined me! How can I ever hold my head up again?”

The bespectacled man continued, “After this Xu Sanguan raped my wife, he went out and bought these soup bones and yellow beans for her. And it worked. He got her to shut up about the whole thing. If I hadn’t noticed all these things in the house, I wouldn’t have known someone else had slept with my wife. But when I saw all these things, I knew something was going on. If I hadn’t shouted and pounded on the table, she wouldn’t even have told me what happened.”

At this point in his speech he walked over to the table, picked up the soup bones and yellow beans, and slung them over his back. Then he told Xu Sanguan’s neighbors, “I brought these things over here today for your benefit. I thought I should let you know what kind of man Xu Sanguan really is. In the future, you’d best be on your guard. The man’s a pervert. Whoever has women in the family had better watch out.”

With that, the bespectacled man strode off with the ten pounds of soup bones, five pounds of yellow beans, two pounds of mung beans, and one pound of chrysanthemum flowers on his back.

Xu Yulan, wholly occupied with pulling and scratching at Xu Sanguan’s face as she berated him, failed to notice at first what exactly the bespectacled man was doing. When she finally turned to look, he had vanished, and the tabletop was empty. She immediately gave chase, shouting as she went, “Come back here! How dare you take our things?”

The bespectacled man ignored her shouts and continued down the lane without so much as turning to glance in her direction.

Xu Yulan pointed at his retreating figure and shouted to her neighbors, “I’ve never seen anyone so shameless! He steals your things and still struts away like he’s done you a good turn.”

She continued to curse in the direction of the bespectacled man until he disappeared into the distance. Then she turned and caught sight of Xu Sanguan. As soon as she saw him, she fell heavily on the doorstep and began to cry.

“It’s all over for us. With other folks the old saying holds true: ‘As goes the nation so goes the family.’ But it’s different for us. The country’s just fine, but we’re ruined. First Blacksmith Fang came to take away all our things. Not one month later, and we’ve been betrayed by one of our own. That Xu Sanguan is no better than a beast. Usually, he’s famously stingy! If I buy a yard of fabric, he feels sick to his stomach for a whole month! But as soon as that Fatty Lin comes on the scene, things change. As soon as that bitch shows up, he’s handing out ten pounds of soup bones, four, even five pounds of yellow beans, and no less than two pounds of mung beans! Not to mention the chrysanthemum flowers! I wonder how much all of that stuff cost?”

At this point Xu Yulan appeared to have thought of something else, because she interrupted her harangue to shout toward Xu Sanguan, “You stole my money! You must have stolen the money I hid inside my trunk. I saved that money one or two
fen
at a time. I worked for ten years to save that money! Ten years of blood, sweat, and tears! And you gave it all away to that fat bitch!”

Xu Yulan darted over to her trunk, opened the lid, and rifled through the contents. Soon she fell silent; she had found her savings intact.

Having securely refastened the lid of the trunk, she looked up to see that Xu Sanguan had closed the front door, shutting the neighbors outside. He smiled ingratiatingly toward her with thirty
yuan
in his hand, the three ten-
yuan
notes fanned out from his fingers like a poker hand. Xu Yulan sidled over to where he was standing, took the money from his hand, and asked in a low voice, “Where did this money come from?”

Xu Sanguan also lowered his voice. “I earned it selling blood.”

“You sold blood again?”

Xu Yulan gave a low moan and, after a moment of silence, began to cry. Between her sobs, she said, “Why did I marry you? I’ve suffered and I’ve struggled for ten years now, and I’ve given you three sons. When did you ever sell blood for my sake? I never knew until now what a heartless son of a bitch you are. I can’t believe you sold your blood just to give that fat bitch some soup bones.”

Xu Sanguan tapped her on the shoulder. “Since when have you given me three sons? Is Yile my son? And when I sold blood to pay Blacksmith Fang, who do you think I was doing it for?”

Xu Yulan fell silent. Then she gazed at Xu Sanguan for a moment. “Tell me. What exactly happened between you and that Fatty Lin? Did you really want a woman as fat as all that?”

Xu Sanguan stroked his face thoughtfully. “She broke her leg, so I went to see her. It was just common courtesy.”

“And was it just common courtesy to hop in bed with her? Go on.”

Xu Sanguan said, “I reached out my hand to squeeze her leg and asked her where it hurt.”

“On her thigh? Or her calf?”

“At first it was the calf, but then I somehow got to her thigh.”

“You’re shameless.” Xu Yulan jabbed a finger at his face. “Then what happened? What did you do next?”

“What happened next?” Xu Sanguan hesitated for a moment. “What happened next was I grabbed her tits.”

“Aiya!” Xu Yulan cried out. “You worthless son of a bitch! Since when did you start taking tricks from that bastard He Xiaoyong’s book?”