They often ran into Sun Wei's father on the street. On those occasions, Sun Wei would look down and hurry away as if he were worried about being recognized. Sun Wei's father wore a tall dunce cap and swept the streets as Song Fanping had once been made to do. Each morning he would start at one end of the street and sweep his way to the other end, and each afternoon he would sweep his way back. People often lectured him, saying, "Hey there, have you confessed all your mistakes?"
He stuttered in reply, "Yes, yes."
"Did you leave anything out? Think more carefully."
He nodded obsequiously. "Yes, I will."
Sometimes it would be children who would lecture him: "Raise your fist and shout, ‘Down with myself.'"
And he would raise his fist and shout, "Down with myself!"
On those occasions Baldy Li would itch with the desire to yell at him too, but with Sun Wei by his side, he couldn't bring himself to do so. One time Baldy Li really couldn't help himself, and when Sun Wei's father had finished shouting "Down with myself!" Baldy Li said, "Shout it twice."
Sun Wei's father raised his fist twice, shouting, "Down with myself!" Sun Wei stomped on Baldy Li's foot, cursing, "If you're going to fucking kick a dog, you should first see who it belongs to."
But when Sun Wei ran across other dunce-cap-wearing people being struggled against, he would happily throw in a kick himself as he walked past. Baldy Li would follow suit, and the two would be pleased with themselves as if they had just had a bowl of house-special noodles. Sun Wei said to Baldy Li, "Kicking bad guys is as natural as wiping yourself after taking a shit."
Sun Wei's mother had once been a woman with a vicious tongue. On Li Lan and Song Fanping's wedding day, she had been the one who let loose with a string of the foulest curses over a wayward hen. But now that her husband was wearing a dunce cap and a wooden placard, it was as if she had become a different person and was now soft-spoken and obsequious. Baldy Li often appeared at her front door in the morning, and she knew that he was her son's only friend; so whenever she ran into him, she was as affectionate as if she were his mom. If she noticed that Baldy Li's face was dirty, she would fetch a towel to wipe it, and if Baldy Li had a button missing on his shirt, she would have him take it off, then she would sew it back on right then and there. When no one was listening, she would ask after Li Lan. Baldy Li always shook his head and said that he didn't know, whereupon she would sigh and turn away before he could see her cry.
Baldy Li and Sun Wei's friendship didn't last very long. Now in addition to the parading masses, the streets were also full of people wielding scissors and razor blades. Whenever they spotted someone with tailored pants, they would drag him out and shred his pants legs until they were like the ends of a mop; when they saw a long-haired man, they would wrestle him to the ground and chop at his hair until it looked like a roughly weeded patch of grass. Men wearing tailored pants and sporting long hair were obviously bourgeois, and Sun Wei's long hair could not escape this fate. One morning, just as he and Baldy Li reached the main street and spotted Sun Wei's father sweeping at a distance with his head bent, a few men wielding scissors and razors ran toward them. At that moment Sun Wei was still busy reciting, "I ask, in this boundless land, who is master of his destiny?"
Baldy Li heard the clatter of footsteps behind him, and he turned around to see a few red-armbanders rushing at them with scissors and razors in their hands. Baldy Li didn't know what was going on. But when he turned back to look at Sun Wei, he saw that he had already dashed off frantically toward his father, with the red-armbanders close behind.
Usually, when Baldy Li's middle-schooler friend ran into his father on the street, he would walk past, eyes averted. But this time, in order to protect his beloved head of long hair, he ran toward his father, screaming, "Papa, save me!"
Another red-armbander suddenly jumped in front of Sun Wei and kicked him to the ground. When Sun Wei got up to continue running, the group of men tackled him. By this time Baldy Li had caught up and saw that Sun Wei's father was also rushing over. A gust of wind blew the father's dunce cap to the ground, so he ran back to place it on his head and then continued running toward his son.
Several of the stronger red-armbanders pinned Sun Wei to the ground and started pushing the razor across his gorgeous long hair. Sun Wei resisted with all his might; even after his arms were pinned down, he still kicked his feet as if he were swimming. Two red-armbanders sat on him, holding down his legs. Though his body was immobilized, Sun Wei strained to lift his head up, screaming, "Papa, Papa …"
The razor blade in the red-armbander's hand was slashing through Sun Wei's hair and neck like a machete. Between the red-armbander's downward thrusts and Sun Wei's struggles, the razor blade slashed deeply into Sun Wei's neck. Blood gushed all over the blade, but the red-armbander still slashed, ultimately slicing through the jugular vein.
Baldy Li witnessed the horrific scene as blood spurted in a two-yard-long arc like a fountain. The faces of the red-armbanders were sprayed with blood; shocked, they all leapt back like springs. When Sun Wei's father rushed over and saw that his son's neck was spurting blood, he pleaded with the group to spare his boy. As he knelt on the blood-drenched ground his cap fell off, but this time he didn't retrieve it. Instead he cradled his son in his arms as Sun Wei's head flopped over like a dolls. He screamed his sons name, but there was no response. With a look of terror he asked the crowd, "Is my son dead?"
No one answered. The red-armbanders responsible for Sun Wei's death were all mopping the blood from their faces and looking about in a panic, struck dumb by what had just happened. Sun Wei's father bellowed at them, "You! You killed my son!"
As he shouted he rushed at them. They backed away in terror, and he, with his fist clenched, didn't know who to pursue. At this moment four other red-armbanders walked over. When they spotted Sun Wei's father, they scolded him, ordering him back to his sweeping. Sun Wei's father's crazed fists crashed down on them, and the four beat him brutally in return. They rolled around like a pack of wild animals as the crowds hovered, rushing back and forth. Sun Wei's father used his fists, feet, and head, roaring like a crazed beast, and even the four red-armbanders together couldn't manage to take him down. He had once fought Song Fanping, and back then he had been no match for Song; but at this moment Baldy Li was certain that it would be Song Fanping who was no match for Sun Wei's father.
More and more red-armbanders congregated in the street. There were now more than twenty of them, and they encircled Sun Wei's father, taking turns beating him down until he was flat on the ground. Still, they continued to shower him with punches and kicks, and only when he was completely motionless did the red-armbanders pause to catch their breath. When he came to again, they bellowed at him, "Get up. Get going."
Sun Wei's father by now had resumed his former air of diffidence. Wiping at the blood on his lips, he dragged his bruised body up, but not before retrieving his dunce cap, stained with his son's blood. He solemnly placed it back on his head and, as he followed them with his head hung low, he caught sight of Baldy Li. He wept and said, "Go tell my wife our son is dead."