Lin Hong sat facing him on pins and needles. She understood perfectly well what he was suggesting. He repulsed her, and even from across the table his entire body reeked of cigarette smoke. But she remembered that Song Gang was injured and had already lost his job, meaning that she couldn't afford to lose hers as well. Therefore she had no alternative but to sit there with a smile on her face, hoping fervently that someone would walk through the door and permit her to escape.
Director Liu waved a pen at her, saying this was the pen with which he had scratched her name from the list. Seeing her smile without answering, he leaned forward and whispered, "Won't you even say ‘thank you'?"
Lin Hong smiled and said, "Thank you."
Director Liu then went further and said, "How are you going to thank me?"
Lin Hong continued smiling and said, "Thank you."
Director Liu tapped the table with his pen, listing the names of several other factory workers and describing how, in order to avoid being laid off, they had each voluntarily slept with him. Lin Hong still smiled. Director Liu looked at her lecherously and asked again, "How do you plan to thank me?"
"Thank you."
"How about this." He put down the fountain pen, stood up, and walked around the table. "Let me hug you as I would a sister."
Seeing him come around the table, Lin Hong immediately headed for the door. On her way out she smiled and said, "I'm not your sister."
As she was leaving his office she heard Director Liu cursing. Still smiling, she returned to her workshop. However, when she got out of work and rode her Eternity bicycle home, she remembered the lecherous way in which the director had stared at her and his broad hints, and she felt a wave of humiliation sweep over her.
Several times Lin Hong considered telling Song Gang about what had happened, but each time she saw his exhausted appearance and his forlorn smile, she found that she couldn't bring herself to mention it. It seemed to her that telling him about her humiliation now would merely add salt to his wounds. One day followed another, however, and Song Gang still hadn't managed to find work. Lin Hong suddenly remembered Baldy Li, who was becoming wealthier than ever and now employed more than a thousand workers. One night, after a brief hesitation, she suggested, "Why don't you go see Baldy Li?"
Song Gang bowed his head and didn't respond. He remembered how he had resolved to completely sever relations with Baldy Li, and therefore he simply couldn't go back and ask for his help now that Baldy Li was rich and successful. Seeing that Song Gang wasn't responding, Lin Hong added, "Surely he wouldn't ignore you…"
Song Gang lifted his head and said stubbornly, "I have already severed my relationship with him."
At that point Lin Hong almost told him about the humiliation she had suffered in Director Liu's office, but she bit her tongue. Instead, she merely shook her head and didn't say anything more.
Song Gang knew that he was no longer able to perform heavy labor, so he instead started looking for another line of work. He told Lin Hong that as he was walking around he would often see young girls from the countryside selling white magnolia flowers strung together with wire thread. The young women of Liu wore the flowers on their chest or tied to their braids. Song Gang said shyly that the flowers were very becoming. He had learned that these flowers were purchased from the nursery, costing an average of just five cents per bundle. Lin Hong looked at Song Gang in surprise, unable to imagine a grown man like him carrying a basket selling magnolia flowers. He entreated her, "Let me give it a try."
Lin Hong agreed, and Song Gang went out bright and early the next day with a little basket, a roll of wire, and a pair of scissors, and walked for more than an hour to the nursery. There he bought the flowers, sat down in the grass, and proceeded to string them together with the needle and wire. Then he placed them in the basket and walked back toward town.
Song Gang squinted his eyes in the sun and headed toward the horizon. After about ten minutes he started to sweat and began to worry that the sun would wilt his flowers. Therefore, he walked into a field beside the road and picked several melon leaves, laying them carefully over the flowers. Still anxious, he went to a nearby pond and sprinkled some water on the flowers. Reassured, he continued forward, periodically looking down at his little flowers hiding under the melon leaves, as though he were peering down at a swaddled baby. He felt that he hadn't been this happy in a long time. Walking along the narrow path through the vast fields, he would give his flowers a little more water every time he passed a pond.
By the time Song Gang returned to Liu Town it was already noon. Not taking time for lunch, he stood in the middle of the street and started hawking his magnolia blossoms. He carefully arranged the melon leaves around the edges of the basket so that green leaves would surround the white flowers. He stood under a wutong tree holding his basket, smiling at everyone who walked past. Some people noticed the flowers he was holding but would only glance down and continue on their way. A couple of young women looked at his flowers and exclaimed appreciatively how charming these magnolia blossoms surrounded by green leaves were, but Song Gang merely smiled at them. As they walked away he felt a pang of regret, realizing that he should have cried out "For sale," since they apparently hadn't realized he was selling the flowers.
Then a peasant girl walked by, hawking the same flowers. Carrying her basket in her left hand, she held a string of flowers in her right as she walked back and forth shouting, "Magnolia blossoms for sale!"
Song Gang followed the girl, similarly holding his basket in his left hand and a string of flowers in his right. Every time she cried out, "Magnolia blossoms for sale," Song Gang would add shyly, "Me, too."
Seeing a young woman walking over, the peasant girl called out, "Big sister, won't you buy a string of magnolia blossoms?"
Song Gang leaned over, hesitated, and then said, "Me, too."
He followed the peasant girl halfway down the street, saying a dozen or so "Me, toos." Displeased, she turned around and said to him, "Don't follow me."
Song Gang stood still and watched in confusion as she walked away. At that point Popsicle Wang ambled over and started bellowing with laughter. Wang had been sauntering around all day, but upon seeing Song Gang with a basket of flowers and following a little girl peddling flowers, he started laughing so hard his stomach began to hurt. He walked over and pointed to Song Gang, saying, "You can't just follow her around all day."
"Why not?" Song Gang asked.
"I used to sell popsicles for a living," Popsicle Wang said proudly. "If you always follow someone else, everyone would simply buy from the person in front, and then who would buy from you? This is like fishing — two people can't fish in the same hole; they have to separate."
Song Gang nodded and, with flowers in his right hand and the basket in his left, headed in the opposite direction from the girl. Popsicle Wang then thought of something else and called out, "When the girl sees a young woman, she calls her ‘big sister.’ You, however, would need to call her little sister.'"
Song Gang hesitated and then said, "I can't say that."
"Then don't say it," Popsicle Wang said. "But you can't go around calling young women ‘big sister.’ You're thirtysomething years old."