Song Gang nodded. He patted Little Guan on the shoulder and said, "I know."
Little Guan s wife smiled at Song Gang, and Song Gang smiled back. He stood there watching that adversity-ridden couple walking into the sunrise. After Little Guans wife put on the big backpack, Song Gang could no longer see her form but could see only the suitcase and travel bag in either hand. As the couple left they were arguing loudly. Little Guan, with his bag of cutlery and pulling his smaller suitcase, was insisting on taking the large travel bag his wife was carrying, but she adamantly refused to give it to him. Then he tried to take the large suitcase she was pulling, but she refused to hand over anything. The two argued furiously, and Little Guan roared at her, "Damn it, I have an empty hand."
"Your hand? Hmmm," she said loudly. "You are rheumatic and arthritic."
"Fuck." Little Guan cursed her again. "I must have been blind when I married you."
"I was the one who was blind to have married you," she cursed right back.
CHAPTER 72
ON HAINAN ISLAND that morning, Song Gang waved goodbye to Little Guan and his wife and then stood, dazed and alone, in the market where he first saw Little Guan, and sold off his final two vials of Boobs cream.
He finally decided to go home. Little Guan s remarks had made him miss Lin Hong terribly, and he was worried that if he waited too long he would become like Little Guan and his very desire to return would fade. He stayed at the little hotel one final night, and the next day he went to the plastic surgery clinic to have his breast implants removed. By this point the implants had become stiff, and the doctor, when he saw this silent patient, assumed that this was why he was having them removed. The doctor therefore asked if he had had his breasts massaged regularly, but Song Gang just shook his head. The doctor left it at that and concluded that the implants had hardened because Song Gang hadn't received his massages. After the operation, the doctor told him to return in six days to have the stitches removed, then warmly recommended his own hospital, telling Song Gang that if he ever wanted to have a sex-change operation, this hospital should be his first choice. Song Gang nodded as he took the anti-inflammatory medicine and left the clinic.
That afternoon he took a bus to the seaport. As the bus was driving up the coast, he again saw the gulls soaring between the sun and the waves. This time, however, his ears were so full of the noise of the bus engine that he couldn't hear the gulls’ cries. When he boarded the ferry to cross over to Canton, he was finally able to make out the gulls’ cries in the sound of the waves. At that point he was standing on deck, watching the gulls chase the boat's eddies as though they too were eddies. As the sun set below the horizon, the gulls all soared away together, rising up like a cloud of smoke and gradually disappearing into the horizon.
As Song Gang rode the train from Canton to Shanghai, the gulls had disappeared. He once again put on a face mask, feeling that his lungs were getting progressively worse. Each time he coughed, he felt shooting pains in the wounds under his armpits. He would often take out the sweet photograph of himself and Lin Hong when they were young. At that point, even the Eternity bicycle was still young. Song Gang hadn't looked at the photograph in more than half a year, having been afraid that, upon seeing it, he would feel heartbroken for days on end, or that he would want to drop what he was doing and rush back to Liu Town. Now, however, he had no misgivings. He looked repeatedly at the picture of Lin Hong, occasionally also glancing at his own young, smiling face, but his thoughts were still soaring with the shadows of the gulls.
As the autumn wind blew up the leaves Song Gang walked out of Liu Towns bus depot, pulling his suitcase. This mask-wearing man returned in the evening. Treading on the fallen leaves, he walked home with a swishing sound accompanying every step. The sound of his breath behind the face mask also made a swishing sound every time he inhaled. Excited at the thought of finally seeing Lin Hong again, he began coughing fiercely. This time, however, the wound under his armpits did not hurt. He quickly walked down the main street of Liu, and the neon lights and raucous music faded away like mist. When he finally glimpsed his house from far away, his eyes grew moist. He removed his glasses as he proceeded forward, pulling his suitcase with one hand and wiping the lenses of his glasses with the other.
Song Gang walked up to his front door. While still on the bus, he had taken out his key and held it in his hand, and now it was in the hand with which he was pulling his suitcase. As he put the suitcase down and inserted the sweaty key into the keyhole he hesitated a moment and then decided to knock instead. He knocked three times, and three more times, then stood there eagerly waiting for Lin Hong to open the door. But inside there was no hint of movement, and finally Song Gang had no choice but to use his key. As he opened the door and went in he called out with a trembling voice, "Lin Hong."
Hearing no response, he put down his suitcase and walked into the bedroom, then into the bathroom, but both were empty. He stood for a while in the living room at a complete loss, and then it occurred to him that Lin Hong might still be on her way home from the factory. He went to stand in the doorway, looking down the road, bathed in the light of the setting sun. As people and cars bustled back and forth Song Gang stood excitedly in the doorway until the light had completely died away, but still there was no sign of Lin Hong. Instead, a few passersby stopped when they saw Song Gang and remarked in surprise, "Song Gang? You've returned?"
Song Gang nodded blankly. Even as he saw these familiar faces his thoughts remained absorbed with Lin Hong, to the point that he couldn't remember these people's names. After he had stood in front of his house for more than an hour, he happened to glance at the snack shop across the street and noted in surprise that the neon sign above the store had changed. It no longer read SU FAMILY SNACK SHOP but, rather, had been changed to WANDERLESS ZHOU'S SNACK SHOP. Then Song Gang saw Wandering Zhou's bobbing face in the window. Song Gang crossed the street and entered the shop.
He saw Missy Su sitting behind the cashier's counter and Wandering Zhou chattering with several customers as they ate. Song Gang nodded to Missy Su and smiled. When she saw him with his face mask, she stared in alarm, at first not knowing how to respond. Song Gang then turned to the charlatan and called out, "Wandering Zhou."
Like Missy Su, Zhou also stared in alarm when he saw Song Gang, until he finally recognized who he was. Wandering Zhou warmly called out to him, "Song Gang, it's you. You've returned?"
As Wandering Zhou walked up to Song Gang he suddenly remembered something and corrected him, "I've changed my name to Wanderless Zhou."