These Red Guards shattered, snapped, and looted Song Fanping's home all afternoon. Only after they saw that there wasn't much left to shatter or to grab, and all their pockets were stuffed full, did they finally depart, whistling happily. Long-haired Sun Wei turned around and said to Song Fanping, "Hey come out here."
On the day of Song Fanping and Li Lan s wedding, Sun Wei, Victory Zhao, Success Liu, and their fathers had been roundly beaten by Song Fanping. With his sweeping leg kick he had swatted them down. Now, a year later, these middle-schoolers wanted their revenge. They had Song Fanping stand in the empty lot in front of the house so that they could show off their own sweeping kicks. Song Fanping stood there stalwartly, like an iron tower. The three middle-schoolers started with their warm-up exercises, squatting down and sweeping their right legs out. Even after a few tries, not one of their kicks looked like the real thing. If they didn't lose their balance and end up sitting on the ground, they would drag their foot and scrape up a cloud of dust. The other two middle-schoolers would shake their heads. "Doesn't look like a sweeping leg kick to us."
"What does it look like, then?"
"I don't know, but certainly not a sweeping leg kick."
Sun Wei asked Song Fanping, who was standing there with his head bowed, "Hey, so did that look like a sweeping leg kick?"
"It did," Song Fanping replied. "But you haven't quite gotten the knack of it."
Sun Wei said to Song Fanping, "Now, spit it out. What's the secret?"
So Song Fanping became their coach, instructing them to watch carefully. He adroitly demonstrated the kick a few times, and the students whistled and exclaimed, "Now, that's a proper sweeping leg kick." Then he broke down his movements, explaining that the sweeping leg kick actually had three steps — squat, sweep, and straighten— and that the steps had to be done in one continuous motion. He explained that the body's center of gravity had to be shifted to the front, because that gave the sweep force, and that you could use your hands for support. Then Song Fanping had them practice, stopping them at various points and demonstrating the proper form. Finally, he announced that they had mastered the form but were still not swift enough. "Only when you do it swiftly will the kick not break down into its separate components. But you can't learn to be fast in a day or two. Go home and practice every day, and when others can see only one move, you've mastered it."
All afternoon Song Fanping used both explanations and demonstrations to teach the three middle-schoolers the proper execution of a sweeping leg kick. When the students finally felt they had gotten it, they ordered Song Fanping to stand still and get a taste of their newly mastered kicks. He stood with his legs slightly apart.
The first one up was Victory Zhao, who proceeded to practice the move in front of Song Fanping, earning a round of applause from the gathering crowd: "Way to go!" But when Zhao squatted down and swept his leg over, his foot caught on Song Fanpings leg. Song Fanping remained motionless, while Zhao found himself sprawled on the ground with a mouthful of dirt, eliciting a round of laughter.
Next up was Success Liu. He looked over Song Fanping and his strong figure and worried that he too would end up with a mouthful of dirt. But when he noticed that Song Fanping had his legs apart, he grinned and said he knew how to deal with him. So he told Song Fanping to stand with his legs together, saying that was how he was going to flatten him. When he squatted down, he still worried that he would end up with a mouthful of dirt, so he didn't immediately thrust his leg out. Instead he aimed his foot full-force onto Song Fanpings shin. Song Fanping shook from the pain but didn't fall down. The spectators all cheered Song Fanping: "Right on!"
Third up was long-haired Sun Wei. He went behind Song Fanping and then backed up a good forty feet, as if he were about to do a long jump. Running all the way, he aimed his foot at the back of Song Fan-ping's knee and then kicked. Song Fanping immediately fell to his knees, and Sun Wei cheered for himself, "Way to go!" Then he boasted to his mates, "Look at my kung-fu."
The other students disagreed. "That's not a sweeping leg kick."
"Why not?" Sun Wei kicked Song Fanping, who was kneeling on the ground. "Tell me, was that a sweeping leg kick?"
Song Fanping nodded and answered in a low voice, "Yes, it was."
Laid down by the variant sweeping leg kick, Song Fanping watched as the middle-schoolers left, whistling off-key. He waited until they were far off before standing up. He saw his son, Song Gang, head bowed and wiping away tears, and he saw Baldy Li, his adopted son, eyes wide with terror. The boys didn't know what to do: In their minds, Song Fanping had been invincible, but now he was being bullied like a little chick. Song Fanping dusted the dirt off his pants and beckoned the boys as if nothing had happened, "You two, come over here!"
Song Gang, wiping his eyes, and Baldy Li, scratching his head, walked over unsteadily. Song Fanping laughingly asked them, "Would you like to learn the sweeping leg kick?"
The children were startled by his offer. Song Fanping looked around, then knelt down next to them and confided, "You know why they couldn't sweep me down? Because I didn't tell them the final step. The final step I was saving for you two."
Baldy Li and Song Gang suddenly forgot everything that had happened and started shrieking excitedly, as they had the night before. Song Fanping nervously clamped his hands over their mouths. The boys looked up and exclaimed together, "There's no roof to raise here."
Song Fanping nervously looked around again. "It's not a question of raising the roof. We just wouldn't want other people to learn the secret of the kick."
The boys understood. Silently they learned the technique from Song Fanping. First they stood behind him and imitated his moves, then he turned and instructed them. After half an hour he announced that they had learned the move and could now start practicing. Song Fanping stood still and let Baldy Li try out his move. Baldy Li walked up to him, squatted down, and swept his leg out. With just a gentle sweep, Song Fanping ended up flat on the ground. He got up and told Song Gang to try, and with another gentle sweep he was back on the ground. Song Fanping rubbed his bottom and groaned. He marveled at the two boys. "Your kick is too lethal! It's simply unbeatable."
Then the boys enthusiastically followed Song Fanping inside to once again clean up the house. Having mastered their unbeatable kicks, they were pumped with energy. They helped Song Fanping right the armoire and reposition the bed planks, and learned to nail down the displaced floorboards. They picked up the shards of broken bowls and snapped chopsticks and threw them into the trash heap outside. They dashed in and out, covered in sweat, but then abruptly remembered they hadn't eaten anything all day. Suddenly limp with hunger, the boys climbed into bed and fell asleep the moment they shut their eyes.
After who knows how long, Song Fanping woke them up and told them that dinner was ready. The light in the room was on. Baldy Li and Song Gang sat up in bed, rubbing their eyes, and Song Fanping carried them one after the other to the dinner table. They saw that there was just a bowl of greens and three bowls of rice, these being the only four bowls that had survived the Red Guards’ rampage. They took up their chipped bowls and then realized that there were no chopsticks. All the chopsticks had been snapped in two by the Red Guards. The children held their steaming bowls of rice and eyed the glistening bowl of greens, asking themselves, How are we going to eat without chopsticks?