Yanker Yu shouted impatiently, "I'm asking you which family's suit are you wearing?"
Finally understanding, Tailor Zhang peeked inside his jacket: "Jiushan."
Yanker Yu and Popsicle Wang looked at each other, and Wang asked Tailor Zhang, "Is that the same Jiushan who was one of the Japanese enemies in the Cultural Revolutionary model opera The Red Lantern?"
Tailor Zhang nodded. "Yes, that's the one."
Somewhat disappointed to discover that Tailor Zhang wasn't wearing a no-name suit, Wang asked, "Does this also count as a famous name?"
"It is indeed a famous name," Yu replied. "But infamous." Popsicle Wang nodded emphatically. "Yes, definitely infamous." Yanker Yu and Popsicle Wang felt as if they had survived a close call at Tailor Zhang's. They smugly continued forward, finally reaching Little Scissors Guan's stand. Little Guan had found himself two junk suits, one black and the other gray, whereupon he abruptly decided he no longer wished to keep sharpening scissors. He stood in front of his stand flaunting his exquisite sense of style, wearing his black suit in the morning and his gray suit in the afternoon. Whenever he encountered anyone, he would start chattering endlessly while lightly brushing the dandruff off his shoulders — using his left hand to brush his right shoulder and his right hand to brush his left. Ever since the men of Liu started wearing these junk suits, at every occasion they would open each other's jackets and ask, "Whose is yours?" This quickly became a fad, and Little Scissors Guan finally noticed that his own suits were not name brands, which left him depressed for several days. Eventually he plucked off the no-name labels from the breast pockets of his suits and stitched the names Sony and Hitachi in their place. Little Scissors Guan was thinking that Sony and Hitachi were famous electronics brands, but what he didn't realize was that they were brand names, not surnames. When Yanker Yu and Popsicle Wang approached, Little Scissors Guan, wearing his black Sony suit, proudly leaned over and eagerly asked, "Whose are yours?"
"The Matsushita family's." Yu opened his jacked to show Little Scissors Guan and pointed to Popsicle Wang, saying, "His is a Sanyo."
"Not bad," Little Scissors Guan said, nodding approvingly. "Those families are not bad at all."
Yanker Yu laughed, saying, "Which family's is yours?" "Also not bad." Little Guan pulled open his jacket. "Sony." "You too are an electronics king!" Yanker Yu shouted with glee. Little Scissors Guan pointed behind him, saying proudly, "In my closet I also have a Hitachi brand suit."
Popsicle Wang noted with surprise, "Your two suits are in the same business?"
Yanker Yu added, "You are your own competitor."
"You are correct." Little Scissors Guan was very satisfied with Yu's remark and patted him on the shoulder. "This is called challenging oneself."
Yanker Yu and Popsicle Wang tittered as they left Little Scissors Guan's shop and proceeded to Blacksmith Tongs. Tong was wearing a dark blue suit, over which he had his trademark apron. The apron was covered with little comet-shaped burn holes. Yu and Wang stared in disbelief at the sight of Tong wearing a suit to do his hammering and soldering, leading Popsicle Wang to whisper to Yanker Yu, "Can a Western suit also be used as work clothes?"
Overhearing them, Tong proclaimed, "A suit is work clothes." He put down his iron hammer and added, "The foreigners on television all wear suits to work."
"Yes, that's true." Yanker Yu instructed Popsicle Wang, "Suits serve as foreigners’ work clothes."
Popsicle Wang looked at his own suit and said, somewhat disappointed. "So all this time we've been wearing work clothes?"
Unfazed, Yanker Yu excitedly asked Blacksmith Tong, "Whose is yours?"
Blacksmith Tong calmly removed his apron and opened his jacket. "It's the Tong family's."
Yanker Yu was startled. "They also have the Tong surname in Japan?"
"I stitched it on myself," Tong explained with unmistakable pride. "I asked my wife to remove the original Japanese name and replaced it with my own."
Yu nodded and said, "Your own surname is certainly fine, it's just that it isn't famous."
Tong snorted and, putting his apron back on, said, "You people in your foreign clothes have completely forgotten your Chinese ancestry and have lost all integrity. Why were there so many traitors during the war? One has only to look at people like you to understand why."
Saying this, Tong lifted his hammer and continued pounding the iron, whereupon Yu and Wang turned around and walked away. Yanker Yu said angrily to Wang, "Damn, if he has so much integrity, then why's he still wearing a Japanese suit?"
"That's right," Popsicle Wang said. "Isn't that like trying to hawk your wares as a whore but still competing for a chastity medal?"
Soon even the county governor started wearing a Japanese junk suit. His was embroidered with the surname Nakasone, which was the name of the Japanese prime minister at the time: Yasuhiro Nakasone. The governor had heard that Baldy Li had obtained a shipment of Japanese suits, and he noticed that the people in the provincial government were all wearing these suits. He immediately wanted one for himself and asked Tao Qing to accompany him to Baldy Li's warehouse to take a look. The governor got himself this Nakasone suit, and Tao Qing got a Takeshita one. When the governor tried his on, he found that it fit very well, almost as if it had been specifically tailored for him. He looked at himself in the mirror, thinking he never would have guessed he was so similar to Yasuhiro Nakasone. Of course, the governor could not go about town flashing his adopted family name as Yanker Yu and Popsicle Wang did. As a result, it was only when he removed his jacket to drape it over his chair that people spotted the Nakasone name, whereupon they would invariably cry out, "Governor, you are wearing a suit of the Japanese prime minister!"
The governor would be secretly pleased but feign disapproval, saying, "It's coincidental, purely coincidental."
Tao Qing, however, was quite displeased, given that he was the one who had found the Nakasone suit in the first place. He was on the verge of trying it on when he noticed the governor glaring at him. Tao Qing therefore didn't dare take the Nakasone suit, and the governor snatched it up. Tao Qing managed to squeeze out a smile and compliment the governor on how well the suit fit, and in order not to expose his own political ambitions, he then grabbed another suit, a Takeshita, for himself. After this, every morning when Tao put on his Takeshita suit, he would remember bitterly the Nakasone. Unexpectedly, half a year later, Yasuhiro Nakasone stepped down as prime minister, and his replacement's name turned out to be Noboru Takeshita. Meanwhile, the county governor was transferred away, and Tao Qing was promoted in his place. In his new capacity as county governor, Tao gazed at his reflection in the mirror in his Takeshita suit, and as a flood of emotions rushed through his mind, he muttered, "It is indeed fate."
CHAPTER 52
AFTER BALDY LI made his fortune from junk suits, his first thought was of Song Gang. Now that his plans had come to fruition, he decided to invite Song Gang to join him in creating a business empire together. Baldy Li turned the house upside down looking for the sweater Song Gang had knit him when he first became factory director. The next day he wore it, with his coat open so that the image of the Great Prospects Ship embroidered on the front of the sweater was clearly visible, and sailed majestically through the streets of Liu to Song Gangs place. He hadn't been there since the day he had shown up with his vasectomy certificate following Song Gangs wedding. Baldy Li stood there, watching Song Gang and Lin Hong through the window, and when the two of them opened the door and walked out, he excitedly pulled open his tattered coat and said warmly, "Song Gang, do you remember this sweater? Do you remember this Great Prospects Ship? Song Gang, you were right, I am now finally captain of my own Great Prospects Ship. Song Gang, why don't you come and be the ship's first mate?"