With every shout, he would hear echoes in the distance: "Gang … Gang … Gang …"
CHAPTER 24
TIME DRIFTED silently and unnoticed past Liu Town, and before anyone realized it seven years had gone by. In Liu Town, a widow was not supposed to wash her hair for a month after her husbands death, and sometimes the custom would be extended to half a year. Li Lan stopped washing her hair altogether following Song Fan-pings death. For seven years she didn't wash it, instead slicking it down with oil. She would neatly comb her black, greasy hair and proudly walk down the main street with the kids of Liu Town trailing behind, taunting, "Landlords wife, Landlords wife …"
Li Lan never shed her proud smile. Though she and Song Fanping had spent only fourteen months together as husband and wife, for Li Lan it meant more than if it had been a lifetime. Seven years of not washing her hair, combined with the layers upon layers of oil she applied, resulted in a foul odor emanating from her head that grew increasingly noxious. At first it was just the house, which would smell like worn socks the moment she returned home; then the odor grew so strong that everyone would smell it as she walked down the street. Everyone in Liu Town now ran away from her. Even the kids who used to call her "Landlords wife" would cover their noses and run away, yelling, "That stinks, stinks …"
Li Lan s hair became her badge of honor. She wanted everyone to think of her always as Song Fanping's wife. After Baldy Li entered school, each time he had to fill out his fathers name, she always made him write "Song Fanping," after which he had to write "landlord" in the Family Class Background box. As a result, Baldy Li was maligned and abused at school, and his classmates all took to calling him Little Landlord. Aside from Li Lan and Song Gang, who would occasionally visit him from the countryside, no one else seemed to know his name was Baldy Li, and in the end even the teachers used his class designation to address him, as in "Little Landlord, stand up and read that passage."
When Baldy Li turned ten, he remembered that he had a birth father — the one who had drowned in the latrine while ogling women's bottoms. Baldy Li resolved to use his birth fathers name so he could escape the bad luck of being called a landlord. When he once again had to fill out a name for the blank under Father, he decided to resist and asked his mother, "What should I write?"
Li Lan, who was in the middle of cooking, was taken aback by Baldy Li's question. She looked at her son in confusion, then answered, "Song Fanping."
Baldy Li lowered his head. "I mean my other dad…"
Li Lan gave him a withering look and replied firmly, "You have no other dad."
Li Lan lived her identity as a landlords wife with pride — it kept Song Fanping alive in her heart. Her pride lasted seven years, until the year Baldy Li turned fourteen. That was the year Baldy Li was caught spying on women in the toilet. Li Lan immediately fell apart, and later, when once again Baldy Li had to fill out a form, she erased Song Fan-pings name and substituted a name that was entirely foreign to Baldy Li — Liu Shanfeng — and also changed the Family Class Background box from "landlord" to "poor peasant." After Li Lan handed the revised form to Baldy Li, she noticed he again erased "Liu Shanfeng" and "poor peasant" and replaced them with "Song Fanping" and "landlord." Fourteen-year-old Baldy Li no longer cared that he was a little landlord. Grumbling as he erased his birth fathers name, he said, "Song Fanping's my dad."
Li Lan stared at her son as if he were a stranger. His words shocked her. When he raised his head to look at her, she immediately looked down, mumbling, "Your birth fathers name was Liu Shanfeng."
"What Liu Shanfeng?" Baldy Li tossed out the words with contempt. "If he were my dad, then Song Gang wouldn't be my brother."
Ever since Baldy Li had become notorious for peeping in the women's toilet, he was no longer called Little Landlord and became known instead as Little Buttpeeper. His birth father, who had long been forgotten, together with his own notorious deed, was now ubiquitous again, like an excavated relic, and referred to by Baldy Li's classmates as Old Buttpeeper. Even the teachers adopted Baldy Li's new nickname, saying, for instance, "Hey, Little Buttpeeper, go clean the toilets."
Li Lan was once again trapped in her shame, just as she had been when her first husband had drowned in the public latrine. All the pride that Song Fanping had granted her suddenly dissipated. She no longer walked down the street with her head held high but instead became as fearful and timid as she had been fourteen years earlier. Now every time she went out she walked with her head bowed and turned toward the wall, feeling as though all eyes were upon her. She no longer wanted to go outside; even when she was home, she locked herself in, sitting on her bed like a bump on a log. Her migraines also returned, and her teeth once again chattered from dawn until dusk.
Baldy Li by this time was busy peddling the secrets of Lin Hongs bottom, and his face glowed with health from having downed countless bowls of house-special noodles, along with an occasional bowl of plain noodles.
Baldy Li strutted down the street like a celebrity, not minding at all being called Little Buttpeeper. The folks who called him that didn't know a thing. As for those who were in the know — folks like Victory Zhao, Success Liu, Little Scissors Guan, and others, basically everyone who had done business with him over the secrets of Lin Hongs bottom — they all called him King of Butts. By this time Victory Zhao was Poet Zhao and Success Liu was Writer Liu, and it was these two Men of Talent who had come up with Baldy Li's new nickname. He was quite satisfied with King of Butts. Gotta tell it like it is, he thought.
The teenage Baldy Li and the two young men Poet Zhao and Writer Liu were best pals for a few months. What they had in common was the study and discussion of Lin Hong's beautiful backside. Liu Town's two Men of Talent racked their brains to come up with myriad literary phrases — graphic, lyrical, descriptive, metaphorical, clinical, and analytical — and they laid them all at Baldy Li's feet for him to choose the ones that most accurately captured the wonders of what he had seen. But once they had exhausted all possible ways of discussing the matter, their friendship with Baldy Li came to a natural conclusion. Several times in the dark of night, the two Men of Talent went to pilfer books from a room that was filled with tomes confiscated during the Cultural Revolution while Baldy Li served as their lookout. Many of the wondrous and poetic phrases that they came up with to describe Lin Hong's bottom were discovered in these stolen books.
Blacksmith Tong was the only one among those in the know who did not refer to Baldy Li as King of Butts. He had wanted to use a cheap bowl of plain noodles to obtain Baldy Li's secrets, but the boy had not fallen for it. Therefore, Blacksmith Tong, out a bowl of noodles and with nothing to show for it, would curse Baldy Li every time he saw him: "Little Bastard Buttpeeper."
Baldy Li took absolutely no offense, instead reasoning with him, "You might as well call me King of Butts like everyone else."
Sometimes Baldy Li would run into Lin Hong on the street. She was eighteen then, and at the height of her beauty. All the men stared slack-jawed as she walked by, but only Baldy Li had the guts to greet her enthusiastically, as if she were an old flame of his. "Lin Hong, its been a long time! What have you been up to?"
Lin Hong blushed in fury and shame. She couldn't believe that this little fifteen-year-old Peeping Tom of a hoodlum was actually sidling up to her. Completely ignoring the shocked and mocking glances of the passersby, Baldy Li continued warmly, "How is everyone in your family?"
Lin Hong said through gritted teeth, "Just go away!"