Song Fanping obediently lowered his head, but Baldy Li and Song Gang were so startled they jumped back a few steps. The man with the red armband continued to yell, and amid the din Song Fanping snuck a peek at the boys. Seeing that he was smiling, they regained their confidence and returned to his side. They told him that their Chairman Mao badges had been taken away by those three bastard middle-schoolers. Song Gang asked him, "Could you get them back?"
Song Fanping nodded. "I could."
Baldy Li asked, "Could you beat them up?"
Song Fanping nodded again. "I could."
The boys started chuckling. The man with the red armband walked over and slapped Song Fanping twice on the face. He shouted angrily, "I told you not to speak. Why the fuck are you still talking?"
A trail of blood flowed down from Song Fanping's lips as he urged the boys, "Get out of here."
Baldy Li and Song Gang slipped away quickly. They went under the bridge, then, trembling all over, scurried away. They kept turning back to look at Song Fanping atop the bridge. His head was flopped over, as if it were merely dangling from his neck. The boys made their way to the crowded, noisy street, walked into a snack shop and bought two steamed buns, then stood outside eating them. In the distance they could see that Song Fanping was almost bent over at the waist, and it was clear that todays Song Fanping was not the one from yesterday. Song Gang lowered his head and started to weep silently, then raised his two clenched fists to his eyes like binoculars and wiped away his tears. Baldy Li didn't cry. Instead, he kept thinking about his badge with Chairman Mao atop the ocean, fearing that he would never get it back. While Song Gang wept, Baldy Li walked over to an electrical pole and humped it perfunctorily a few times. Then he returned to Song Gang and dejectedly told him, "I've lost my sex drive."
It was dark by the time Song Fanping returned home. His footsteps were as heavy as if he were dragging along two prosthetic limbs. Without a word he walked into the inner room and lay on the bed for two hours without moving; in the outer room Baldy Li and Song Gang couldn't hear a sound. The cold moonlight shone in through the window. The children became alarmed and went into the inner room. First Song Gang crawled onto the bed, then Baldy Li joined him, and together they sat at Song Fanpings feet. After a long time had passed, Song Fanping suddenly sat up and said, "Oh, I fell asleep."
Then the light came on and laughter began. Song Fanping heated up the stove and started to make dinner with Song Gang and Baldy Li at his side, learning how to cook. Song Fanping taught them how to rinse the rice and vegetables, light the coal, and cook the rice. As he stir-fried the vegetables, Song Fanping told Baldy Li to add oil and Song Gang to sprinkle in some salt. He also held their hands as they took turns stir-frying. Each of them took three turns, and after nine rounds, the greens were finally ready. The three of them sat around the table and ate. Though it was just a plate of greens, they all worked up a sweat eating. After Song Fanping finished dinner, he told the boys that though he had not taken them to the ocean since their mother had left for Shanghai, if it wasn't stormy the next day, he would take them to see the waves, to see the sky above the waves, as well as the seagulls flying between the sky and the sea.
Baldy Li and Song Gang shrieked with excitement, which startled Song Fanping so much that he covered their mouths with his hands. The look of terror on his face also frightened them. When he saw their alarm, Song Fanping immediately lowered his hands and laughed as he pointed up to the ceiling. "Your screams almost blew the roof off!"
Baldy Li and Song Gang thought that was a hoot. This time they covered their own mouths as they laughed nonstop.
CHAPTER 10
THE NEXT DAY, as they were about to set off for the seaside, a dozen or so people from Song Fanpings school sauntered in, all wearing red armbands. Baldy Li and Song Gang didn't realize that they were here to search the house, thinking instead that Song Fanpings pals had come to check on him. The boys found themselves stirred by the sight of so many red-armbanders, all full of bravado, filling up their house. Exhilarated, they wove back and forth through the crowds as if navigating a forest. Then a loud boom! made them shudder with terror, and they watched in horror as their dressers and bureaus were upended, their clothes and things strewn all over the ground. The red-armbanders picked through the family's possessions like scavengers, rummaging through everything looking for Song Fanpings land deeds. Song Fanping was born into the landowning class, so these people were convinced that he must be hiding land deeds, merely waiting for a regime change to take them out again. The red-armbanders flipped over the bed planks and pried up the floorboards while Baldy Li and Song Gang hid behind Song Fanping. They saw that Song Fanping still had a smile on his face, but couldn't understand why he would be pleased. These people turned Song Fanpings home into a scrap heap without finding any land deeds. They eventually filed out of the house one by one as Song Fanping, still with a smile on his face, followed them out as if seeing off guests. At one point he even asked them, "Won't you have a cup of tea before setting off?"
One of them responded, "No need."
Song Fanping stood, smiling, at the door, and only when they had left the alley did he turn to go back into the house. As soon as he got inside and sat down, his smile immediately vanished, like a light switching off. Song Fanping sat there, his face the color of iron, and for the longest time he didn't move a muscle. The two boys walked over and timidly asked him, "Are we going to the seaside?"
Song Fanping started as if woken from a deep sleep and bellowed, "Let's go!"
He looked at the sun shining outside and said, "With such good weather, of course we're going."
Song Fanping righted the armoire, repositioned the bed planks, and nailed down the displaced floorboards. Baldy Li and Song Gang followed behind him, placing the clothes back into the bureau and the knickknacks back into the drawers. It was as if the light had been turned back on, and Song Fanping was once again smiling. As he tidied the house he talked and chuckled nonstop with the kids. By noon they were finally done cleaning up, leaving the house even tidier than before. They used towels to wipe the sweat off their faces and handkerchiefs to dust off their clothes. Then they combed their hair in front of the mirror and were finally ready to leave for the seaside.
When they opened their door, they found seven or eight red-armband-wearing middle-school students standing outside, including the three who had stolen Baldy Li's and Song Gang's Mao badges. When Baldy Li and Song Gang saw the three of them, they started clamoring excitedly, and Song Gang said to his father, "Papa, they're the ones who took away our Mao badges. Go teach them a lesson."
Baldy Li shouted at the middle-schoolers, "Give them back! Give us our badges back!"
The three middle-schoolers pushed the children away, chuckling. The one with the long hair, Sun Wei, said to Song Fanping, "We're Red Guards, and we're here to search your home!"
Smiling, Song Fanping welcomed them in. "Come in, come in."
Baldy Li and Song Gang were baffled by Song Fanping's obsequious manner. The Red Guards swarmed in and again threw the house into tumult. The bureau that had just been righted was upended once again, the just-tidied bed plank was again flipped over, the floorboards that just been nailed back down were pried up again, and the clothes they had just folded were once again strewn all over the floor. When the previous group, from Song Fanping's school, came, they had primarily rifled through Song Fanping's books and papers, looking for his hidden land deeds. But these Red Guards were like bulls in a china shop, shattering pots and pans on the floor, snapping chopsticks in half, and searching the house as they stuffed things into their own pockets, periodically stopping to compare what they had each pocketed.