That night she called Baldy Li to her bedside and examined him carefully. She was comforted to see that her son looked nothing like that man named Liu Shanfeng. Her breathing labored, she told him, "The day after tomorrow is Qingming. I'd like to go visit the grave, but I don't have the energy to make it that far."
"Ma, don't you worry," Baldy Li replied. "I'll carry you."
Li Lan smiled and shook her head, then mentioned her other son. "Why don't you go to the countryside tomorrow and bring Song Gang back? The two of you can take turns carrying me."
"No need to fetch Song Gang." Baldy Li firmly shook his head. "I can carry you by myself."
"No," Li Lan said. "The road is too long; you would exhaust yourself trying to carry me alone."
"If we get tired, well rest under a tree." Baldy Li waved dismissively "We'll just sit and rest."
Li Lan still shook her head. "Go fetch Song Gang."
"No need," Baldy Li replied. "I'll think of something."
Baldy Li yawned and said he was going to the outer room to go to bed. At the door he turned to Li Lan and said, "Ma, don't you worry. I guarantee that I'll get you comfortably to the countryside, and then bring you comfortably back to town."
Baldy Li, who by now was fifteen, lay down in his bed. Within five minutes he had come up with a plan, and so he closed his eyes and immediately started snoring.
It wasn't until afternoon the next day that Baldy Li leisurely made his way out of the house. First he went to the hospital, where he paced the halls as if he were a visitor coming to see a relative; the moment he noticed that no one was at the nurse's station, he ducked right in. Once inside, he took his time, selecting from among a dozen or more used IV bottles, raising each of them to see which had the most glucose left. Once he had made his selection, he swiftly hid it under his shirt, ducked back out of the nurse's station, and left the hospital.
Baldy Li paraded down the street with his swiped bottle. From time to time he dangled it in front of his eyes, trying to figure out exactly how much glucose was left inside. He guessed that there was probably half an ounce, but in order to be sure, he walked into a soy sauce store and asked the vendor how much liquid he thought there was inside. The soy sauce vendor was of course an old hand at this sort of thing. He gave the bottle a couple of twirls and announced that between half an ounce and an ounce was left. Pleased with this estimate, Baldy Li took back the bottle and said, "This is pure nutrition."
Baldy Li walked smugly with his glucose into Blacksmith Tongs shop. Baldy Li knew that Blacksmith Tong had his own pullcart, and he was hoping to borrow it for a day to take Li Lan to the countryside. Baldy Li stood at the door of the shop and watched Blacksmith Tong raining down sweat while working a piece of metal. After a while Baldy Li waved at him benevolently, as if on an inspection visit, and said, "Take a rest, take a rest."
Blacksmith Tong put down his hammer and wiped his sweat-drenched face with a towel. He watched as Baldy Li sauntered into his shop and comfortably took a seat on the long bench he used to sexually exploit. Blacksmith Tong growled, "You little bastard. What do you want?"
Baldy Li chuckled. "I'm here to collect my debts."
"Fuck," spat Blacksmith Tong, as he whipped his towel in the air. "And what debt would that be, you little bastard?"
Baldy Li continued chuckling. He reminded Blacksmith Tong, "Remember what you said to me two weeks ago in front of the bathhouse."
"What did I say?" Blacksmith Tong honestly couldn't remember.
Baldy Li pointed to himself. "You said that I, Baldy Li, was truly something, and that someday you were going to treat me to a bowl of house-special noodles."
Blacksmith Tong remembered now. He hung his towel back around his neck and growled, "Yeah, so I did say that. What are you going to do about it?"
Baldy Li decided to shift to flattery. He said, "Who doesn't know your stature in this town? When you, Blacksmith Tong, say ‘Jump,’ everyone asks, ‘How high?’ You would never go back on your word, would you?"
"You really are a little bastard," Blacksmith Tong said, laughing. He couldn't maintain his bullying tone any longer, but he did find a loophole. Smugly, he said, "It's true I said I'd treat you to a bowl of house-special noodles someday. But someday — that could be any day. I certainly don't know when."
"You got me!" Baldy Li showed his admiration by giving him a thumbs-up but then immediately cut to the chase. "How about this: I won't have you treat me to a bowl of house-special noodles, but if you lend me your cart for a day, we'll call it even."
Blacksmith Tong had no idea where Baldy Li was going with this. He asked, "So why do you want to borrow my pullcart?"
"Aiya!" sighed Baldy Li. He explained to Blacksmith Tong, "My mother wants to go sweep my father's grave in the countryside. You know how sick she is. She certainly couldn't make it by walking, so that's why I want to borrow your pullcart."
As he spoke he put the IV drip bottle down on the bench. Blacksmith Tong pointed at it and asked, "What's that for?"
"This is a military canteen," proclaimed Baldy Li. He explained, "The road to the country is long and the sun will be strong, so what happens when my mother gets thirsty? I'm going to fill this bottle with water and nurse her along the way with it. That's what this military canteen is for."
Blacksmith Tong said, "Oh," and added, "I would have never pegged you, little bastard, for a filial son."
Baldy Li smiled modestly. He gave the drip bottle a few swirls and observed, "There's somewhere between half an ounce and an ounce of glucose nutrition in there."
Blacksmith Tong said generously, "Well, seeing that you're being such a filial son, I'll lend you the cart."
Baldy Li thanked him repeatedly. He then patted the long bench and waved Blacksmith Tong to sit down next to him. Baldy Li said mysteriously, "I won't just borrow your pullcart with nothing in return. Good deeds are to be repaid in kind, as they say."
Blacksmith Tong didn't understand. "What do you mean, repaid in kind?"
Baldy Li whispered, "Lin Hong's butt…"
"Oh!" Now everything became clear.
Intrigued, Blacksmith Tong sat next to Baldy Li as the latter began to divulge the secrets of Lin Hong's butt with the most florid of descriptions. Just as he was getting to the most exciting part, Baldy Li's lips ceased moving. Blacksmith Tong waited patiently for him to start up again, but when he did he no longer spoke of Lin Hong's bottom but, rather, of how Poet Zhao nabbed him at that critical moment. Blacksmith Tong was crushed. He stood up, rubbing his hands and pacing about back and forth, then broke out in curses: "That bastard Poet Zhao…"
Though he had gained only the faintest glimpse of Lin Hong's bottom, Blacksmith Tong was still filled with goodwill toward Baldy Li. When he lent Baldy Li his pullcart, he told him, "Whenever you need the cart, just give me a holler and take it away."
Baldy Li stashed his pilfered glucose drip in his pocket and pulled Blacksmith Tongs cart up to Yanker Yu's stand. He now had his eyes on Yanker Yu's rattan recliner. He planned to tie the recliner onto Blacksmith Tongs cart so that Li Lan could ride lying down all the way to the countryside.
When Baldy Li walked up, Yanker Yu was himself stretched out on the chair, napping. Baldy Li set the pullcart down with a resounding thump. Yanker Yu woke up with a start, but when he opened his eyes and saw it was merely Baldy Li with a pullcart and that neither of them was a customer, he promptly shut his eyes again. Baldy Li inspected everything with the air of a visiting officer. Hands clasped behind his back, he examined the dental tools and teeth displayed on the table.
It was already the tail end of the Cultural Revolution, and the revolution was no longer a roaring tide but more like a trickling stream. Yanker Yu no longer had to display his class loyalty with an exhibit of mistakenly extracted healthy teeth; on the contrary, they now threatened to hurt his reputation as a dentist. Tacking to the political winds, Yanker Yu had hidden away his healthy-teeth display behind his cash. He figured that after flowing west for a while the river might begin flowing east again, and the revolutionary stream could again turn into a tide, so he might as well save the healthy-teeth display for another cycle.