That afternoon Song Gang held Baldy Li's hand and walked down three streets, over two bridges, and through a small alley, until they finally reached the warehouse holding landlords and capitalists, modern-day and old-time counterrevolutionaries, together with all other class enemies. Baldy Li spotted long-haired Sun Wei's father— he was wearing a red armband and standing in front of the warehouse smoking. When he saw Song Gang, he asked, "How come you're here again?"
Song Gang pointed at Baldy Li. "This is my brother, Baldy Li. He wants to see our father."
Sun Wei's father looked Baldy Li over, and asked, "Where's your mother?"
Baldy Li replied, "She's in Shanghai seeing a doctor."
Sun Wei's father tossed his cigarette butt onto the ground and stomped it out. He pushed open the warehouse door and shouted inside, "Song Fanping! Song Fanping, get out here!"
When the door opened, Baldy Li spied a man inside who was on the ground, cradling his head in his hands while another man whipped him with a belt. The man on the ground was completely silent, but the man whipping him was wailing, as if he were the one being whipped. This sight gave Baldy Li the shivers, and Song Gang turned pale. They were both so shocked they didn't notice Song Fanping, who had walked out the front door. Song Fanping walked up to the boys and asked, "So you've had your meat buns?"
Baldy Li looked up to see Song Fanping's tall figure before him. His shirt was covered in bloodstains, and his face was swollen and bruised, and Baldy Li could tell that this was the result of his having been beaten half to death. Song Fanping squatted down to take a look at Baldy Li, reaching out to caress his head. "Baldy Li, you still have meat juice on your lips."
Baldy Li bowed his head and let out a few sorrowful tears. He regretted his own revelation. He thought, If I hadn't said those things in front of the school gate, Song Fanping wouldn't be here getting tortured. When he thought about how kind Song Fanping had been to him, Baldy Li started sobbing. "I was wrong."
Song Fanping wiped away Baldy Li's tears with his thumb and teased him, "You haven't sucked the snot into your eyes, have you?"
Baldy Li broke out into a chuckle. The crying and shouting and cursing in the warehouse became louder and louder, rumbling ceaselessly from the door's cracks. There were also sounds of moaning, almost like frogs’ croaking. Baldy Li became alarmed. He and Song Gang stood by Song Fanping and shivered. Song Fanping acted as if he hadn't heard anything and chatted happily with the boys, though his left arm dangled awkwardly by his side. Baldy Li and Song Gang didn't know that his arm had been beaten until it was dislocated. They thought that it looked odd, as if he had a prosthetic limb. They asked him what was wrong, and he explained, "It's tired, so I'm letting it rest for a few days."
Song Fanping always filled Baldy Li and Song Gang with wonder. They felt that he had all sorts of mysterious powers and hidden talents, that he could even let his arm dangle and rest for a few days.
To satisfy Baldy Li and Song Gang's curiosity, Song Fanping became their coach right in front of this giant warehouse filled with wails and screams, teaching them how to let their forearms rest for a bit. He told the boys to first lower one shoulder until it was sloping down, and then to let their arm relax and hang down. He told them they couldn't use any force on the sloping arm; they had to pretend that it wasn't there. He pointed to his solar plexus, saying, "Don't think about this arm anymore." Once he felt that Baldy Li and Song Gang had gotten the gist of it, he told them to line up and march back and forth in front of the warehouse with their sloped shoulders and dangling arms while he chanted, "One-two, one-two." Baldy Li and Song Gang noticed that with every step they took, their dangling arm would swing back and forth. The boys were delighted, pointing excitedly to each Bother;s arm.
Song Fanping asked them, "So are your arms dangling?"
Baldy Li and Song Gang answered in unison, "They are!"
Long-haired Sun Wei's father watched them, laughing uncontrollably. First he chuckled, then he guffawed, and finally he laughed until he was squatting and clutching his stomach. He eventually stood up, clutching his belly, and said to Song Fanping, "Okay, you should go back in."
Song Fanping walked back to the warehouse, but before entering, he turned and told the boys, "Now go home and practice."
That afternoon Baldy Li and Song Gang completely forgot about the horrible sounds coming from inside the warehouse, as well as Song Fanpings bruised, swollen face. They only remembered Song Fanping instructing them to continue practicing. All the way home they enthusiastically practiced sloping their shoulders and dangling their arms. Once they got home, they lay in bed and draped their arms over the side. They discovered that it was much easier dangling their arms over the side of the bed than walking with a sloped shoulder, the only drawback being that after a while their arms would go to sleep.
CHAPTER 14
BALDY LI and Song Gang continued their parentless existence, and got by quite well. They would go together to the rice store, where they would fit their rice sack over the rubber chute and watch the rice cascade down. Then they would bang the chute opening with loud, crisp slaps until the store clerks yelled at them and a hand reached out from behind the counter to knock them on the head.
With their basket in hand, they went together to buy groceries. While selecting the greens, they would stealthily rip off the outer leaves until only the tenderest inner leaves were left, causing the old lady selling vegetables to tear up with annoyance. She cursed them over and over, calling them turtles’ eggs, little bastards who would come to a bad end; saying that they would choke on a breath and get water stuck in their teeth, and end up without an asshole to crap with or a penis to piss out of.
Baldy Li and Song Gang scrimped and saved and, like monks, ate only vegetables. After a while they began to really crave meat, so they went to the river to catch shrimp. By the time they reached the river, they realized that they had no idea how to cook them. At that point they hadn't caught sight of even a shadow of a shrimp, but already they were licking their lips and discussing how they were going to cook them. Would they panfry them? Stir-fry them? Or boil them? In the end, they made a detour to the warehouse to consult with Song Fan-ping. When they reached the warehouse gate, they slanted their shoulders and let their elbows dangle. Song Fanping came outside to tell them that stir-frying, panfrying, and boiling would all be fine, but just to make sure that the shrimp had turned pink before eating them. Song Fanping explained, "They're done when they're as pink as the tip of your tongue."
Song Fanping told the boys that the shrimp would be swimming in the shallows. He told them to roll their pants legs up to their knees, warning, "Once the water reaches your pants, then you shouldn't go any farther. There are no shrimp in the depths, only snakes."
Baldy Li and Song Gang shuddered. They didn't realize that Song Fanping, worried that they would drown if they ventured into the deep water, was deliberately scaring them. The boys nodded and promised that they would stay in the places where the river water remained below their knees. As they set off, shoulders slanted and elbows dangling, Song Fanping called out to them again, telling them to go home and get a bamboo basket. They asked, "What for?" Song Fanping replied, "What do you net fish with?"
The boys stopped and pondered this. Song Gang replied, "A fishing rod."