The family strolled down two main streets. When they walked past the soda shop, the children looked longingly inside, but their parents dragged them along until they arrived at the photography studio. Song Fanping stopped and announced that he wanted to take a family portrait, having completely forgotten about his swollen face. Li Lan suggested that they could come back later, but Song Fanping had already walked inside. He turned back and saw Li Lan standing with the boys outside the door, so he enthusiastically waved them inside. But Li Lan held on to the boys and refused to go in.
When Song Fanping explained to the photographer that he wanted to take a family portrait, the man looked at him with astonishment. It was then that Song Fanping realized that today might not be a good day to have his picture taken. Cocking his head, he saw his face reflected in the studio s mirror and said to the photographer, "Well, perhaps not today, then. My wife says we can come back later."
Song Fanping walked happily out of the studio, still chuckling to himself. His happiness infected Li Lan, and both of them chuckled as they continued their stroll, until soon Baldy Li and Song Gang were giggling too, though they had no idea why.
The newly remarried Li Lan was aglow with happiness. For the past seven years, ever since her first husband drowned in the public latrine, she had endured a life worse than death. Her hair had become tangled like a bird s nest, but now she resumed the girlish braids of her youth and even tied two red bows at the ends. Her complexion was suddenly blooming as if she had eaten ginseng, her migraines disappeared, and she started humming again. Her newly remarried husbands gestures became expansive with pleasure. When he walked about the house, his steps would ring, and when he pissed against the wall outside, the urine would splatter like a thunderstorm.
This newly remarried couple stuck together like honey throughout their honeymoon. Whenever they had a free moment, they retreated to the inner room and shut the door tight. Baldy Li and Song Gang could only imagine what was going on inside. They heard loud smacking sounds and were firmly convinced that their parents were hiding inside to eat from that bag of White Rabbits. The sounds could be heard not only throughout the day but late into the night. Before it was even dark, the two of them would force Baldy Li and Song Gang to go to bed and then would lock themselves in their room, their lips smacking away. Neighborhood children were still running around outside, but Baldy Li and Song Gang were forced to go to bed. Listening to the smacking sounds, they would fall asleep with tears in their eyes and drool on their lips. The next morning they would wake up and find that their tears had dried up but their saliva was still flowing.
Baldy Li and Song Gang became insanely gluttonous. One day after finishing lunch, when their parents started smacking lips again in the inner room, Baldy Li stood by the door and peeked inside, with Song Gang right behind him, eager for an update. Baldy Li saw through the crack in the door that there were two pairs of legs on the bed, with Song Fanpings on top gripping Li Lans below, and he whispered to Song Gang, "They're eating on the bed."
Baldy Li shifted to the other crack in the door. He saw that Song Fanpings body was on top of Li Lans, his hands encircling her waist. He whispered, "They're eating while hugging."
From the third crack in the door Baldy Li saw that that Song Fan-ping and Li Lan were kissing passionately. Baldy Li initially giggled, thinking they looked funny, but then he quickly became mesmerized by what he saw. Song Gang, standing behind him, nudged him several times, but Baldy Li didn't notice. Song Gang whispered to him again and again, "Hey, hey, what are they eating?"
Baldy Li, in the midst of watching, turned around and said mysteriously, "They're not eating candy. They're eating lips."
Song Gang was confused. "Who's eating whose lips?"
Baldy Li answered mysteriously, "Your father is eating my mother's, and my mother is eating your father's."
Song Gang was startled, imagining Song Fanping and Li Lan gnawing away at each other like two wild beasts. The door to the inner room suddenly opened, and Song Fanping and Li Lan stood in the doorway staring at the boys in astonishment. When Song Gang saw that their lips were still attached to their faces, he was immensely relieved. He pointed at Baldy Li and said, "He tricked me. He said that you were eating each other's lips."
Song Fanping and Li Lan grinned, blushing, and then left to return to work without another word. After they left, Baldy Li, in order to prove that he was no liar, had Song Gang sit on the bed, as upright as if he were sitting in a movie theater seat. Baldy Li then placed a bench in front of Song Gang, and, lying prone on the bench, he raised his head and pointed down at the bench and explained, "Now, this is my mother."
Then he pointed at himself and said, "And I'm your dad."
After transforming the bench into Li Lan and himself into Song Fanping, he started demonstrating what lip eating was. Baldy Li pressed down tightly against the bench and hugged it to himself. He started slobbering all over the bench and wiggling against it. As he kissed and wiggled, he explained to Song Gang, "Just like this. They were just like this."
Song Gang didn't get why Baldy Li had to wiggle his body and asked, "Why do you have to move around so much?"
"That's what your dad was doing."
Song Gang giggled. "You look funny."
Baldy Li replied, "Well, your dad looked funny."
Baldy Li wiggled faster and faster on the bench. His face started turning red and his breath quickened. Song Gang became alarmed and jumped off the bed. He pushed at Baldy Li and asked, "Hey, hey, are you okay?"
Baldy Li's wiggling body slowed down. When he got up, he pointed to his crotch with a look of delight. "When you wiggle like this, your weenie gets hard and it feels good."
With great camaraderie, Baldy Li wanted Song Gang to get on the bench and try it out. Looking skeptical, Song Gang lay on the bench but saw that it was all shiny with Baldy Li's drool and snot. He sat up and shook his head. "Look, it's all your snivel."
Ashamed, Baldy Li hurriedly wiped down the bench with his sleeve and had Song Gang climb back on. Song Gang lay down but immediately got back up again, complaining, "It smells like your snot."
Baldy Li was deeply apologetic. He wanted Song Gang to share in his newfound pleasure, so he eagerly helped him lie down facing the other end of the bench. Baldy Li directed him like a coach, telling him how to wiggle and correcting his movements. When he finally felt that Song Gang's wiggling was beginning to resemble Song Fanping's, he sat down on the bed and wiped his brow, asking smugly, "Feel good? Is your weenie hard?"
Song Gang's response was a huge disappointment. He declared it to be no fun at all and added, "The bench is so hard. It just rubbed my weenie and hurt."
Baldy Li looked at Song Gang, mystified. "How could it feel bad?"
Then he helpfully placed two pillows on the bench. Still worried that it wouldn't be soft enough, he went and fetched Song Fanping and Li Lan's pillows from the inner room and also placed them on top. Smiling encouragingly, he offered Song Gang the bench. "Now it'll definitely feel good."
Song Gang didn't want to disappoint him, so he lay on the pillows and started wiggling again under Baldy Li's coaching. After a few wiggles he got up again, complaining that it still felt uncomfortable. It felt like there were little pebbles in the pillow, rubbing his weenie until it hurt.
Then, a miracle: The children discovered the remainder of the bag of White Rabbit candy, which their parents had hidden inside the pillowcase. They had turned over every cabinet in the house looking for it but could not find a single trace. They had crawled under the bed and ended up covered in dust and had burrowed under the bedspread until they were short of breath, but still hadn't managed to find the White Rabbits. It was like looking for a needle in a haystack. But just as they felt they had looked everywhere and were on the verge of giving up, the White Rabbits suddenly appeared in the pillowcase, as if by magic.