The two brothers collected their first months wages on the same day. Song Gang got home first, since the metal factory was closer. Firmly grasping the eighteen yuan in his pocket, he stood in the doorway waiting. When Baldy Li arrived, his wages grasped tightly in his sweat-covered palms, Song Gang asked excitedly, "Did you receive yours?"
Baldy Li nodded. He saw Song Gangs delighted expression and asked, "How about you?"
Song Gang also nodded. The two walked into the room and quickly shut the door and pulled the curtains, as if afraid of thieves. Then they both began to laugh hysterically as they laid out their wages on the bed: thirty-six yuan in all, each of the bills damp with sweat from their palms. The two sat on the bed and counted the thirty-six yuan over and over again. Baldy Li's eyes lit up while Song Gangs crinkled into narrow slits. Song Gang by this point was very nearsighted and had to bring the money right up to his nose to see it. Baldy Li suggested that they pool their earnings and that Song Gang be in charge of them. Song Gang felt that since he was the elder, it was indeed appropriate that he should assume that responsibility. Therefore, he collected the bills on the bed one at a time, arranged them in a neat pile, and let Baldy Li count them one last time. Then Song Gang also counted the pile of bills a final time before sighing contentedly. "I've never seen so much money before."
While speaking, Song Gang stood up on the bed and bumped his head on the ceiling. He then bent over and unbuttoned his pants, revealing underwear stitched together from old scraps. There was a small pocket sewn on the inside of his underwear, and it was in this pocket that Song Gang carefully stashed their combined earnings. Baldy Li complimented Song Gang on the pocket and asked who had made it for him. Song Gang replied that he had stitched it himself, adding that he had also cut the pattern and sewn the underwear. Baldy Li expressed his admiration and asked, "Are you a man or a woman?"
Song Gang laughed. "I also know how to knit a sweater."
After the brothers received their first month's wages, the first thing they did was go to the People's Restaurant for a steaming bowl of plain noodles in broth. At first Baldy Li wanted to order the house-special noodles, but Song Gang argued that they should wait until they were living more comfortably before pampering themselves like that. Baldy Li acknowledged that Song Gang had a point, and since this time the money was coming out of his own pocket rather than that of someone trying to buy the secrets to Lin Hongs bottom, he readily agreed to have just the plain noodles. Song Gang walked up to the cashier, unfastened his pants, and, as the woman at the register watched, proceeded to fumble around inside. Baldy Li immediately burst into peals of laughter while the middle-aged clerk, who seemed altogether too familiar with this sort of scene, waited impassively for Song Gang to fish out the money. He finally succeeded in extracting a one-yuan bill from his underwear pocket and handed it over to the clerk, then stood there patiently holding up his pants while waiting for her to give him change. Two bowls of plain noodles cost eighteen cents, and after he received his eighty-two cents in change, Song Gang meticulously folded up the money, starting with the larger bills and proceeding to the smaller ones, and then placed everything, including the two pennies, back in the secret pocket in his underwear. Then he tied his pants back on and accompanied Baldy Li to an empty table.
After the brothers finished their plain noodles, they left the People s Restaurant while wiping the sweat from their foreheads and proceeded to the Red Flag fabric shop to pick out some dark blue khaki cloth. This time it was a young woman who was working at the counter, and she watched in horror as Song Gang once again undid his pants and started fumbling around inside. The young woman blushed crimson as Baldy Li leered at her, and she abruptly turned away to speak to one of her workmates. Song Gang fumbled around in his pants for a long time, all the while counting out loud. When he finally pulled out the money, it was precisely the amount he needed to pay for the fabric. As the red-faced young woman accepted the money, Baldy Li asked Song Gang in surprise, "Where did you learn that trick?"
Song Gang squinted at the red-faced clerk, but his nearsightedness rendered him oblivious to her embarrassment. Smiling, he fastened his pants and explained to Baldy Li, "Since I fold the bills in order from the smallest to the largest, I always know which bills are in front."
With their bundles of khaki fabric in hand, they proceeded to Tailor Zhang's shop and asked him to make each of them a Mao suit. For the third time Song Gang stuck his hand down his pants and started fishing inside. Tailor Zhang draped his tape measure around his neck and, seeing Song Gang with his hand inside his pants, laughed and said, "What a great place to hide your money."
Song Gang pulled out the money and handed it to Tailor Zhang, who then held it up to his nose and sniffed, saying, "It smells of dick."
Though he couldn't see clearly, Song Gang gathered that Tailor Zhang had sniffed his cash. As they left the shop Song Gang, squinting, asked Baldy Li for confirmation: "Was he sniffing our bills?"
Realizing then that Song Gang was extremely nearsighted, Baldy Li insisted that they go to the optician to buy him a pair of glasses. Song Gang shook his head, saying that they should wait until they were living more comfortably. Baldy Li had compromised earlier in not ordering the house-special noodles, but now he held his ground. He stopped in the middle of the street and shouted at Song Gang, "By the time things are more comfortable, you may very well have already gone blind!"
Song Gang was flabbergasted by Baldy Li's outburst, and through his squinting he could see that a good number of people had stopped to watch them. He asked Baldy Li to lower his voice, but Baldy Li spat back that if Song Gang didn't go get glasses today, they might as well split up. In a ringing voice he commanded, "Let's go! Let's go get you some glasses."
As Baldy Li said this he began to strut toward the optician's shop, with a reluctant Song Gang following behind. They were no longer striding side by side, as they had been a moment earlier, but instead walked in single file. The two looked as though they had just been in a fight, with Baldy Li parading ahead as the victor and Song Gang trailing dispiritedly behind.
By the following month the brothers had their dark blue Mao suits and Song Gang was wearing a pair of black-rimmed glasses. Baldy Li had insisted on the most expensive frames in the shop, thereby reducing Song Gang to tears. On the one hand, Song Gang begrudged spending so much money; on the other hand, he was moved by his brother's generosity, deciding that Baldy Li was really quite all right after all. After putting on his new glasses and walking out of the optician's shop, Song Gang gestured excitedly to Baldy Li and exclaimed, "Everything is so clear now!"
He told Baldy Li that, with the new glasses, the world became as clear as if it had just been freshly scrubbed. Baldy Li laughed and said that now that Song Gang had an extra pair of eyes, he should alert Baldy Li when he spotted a pretty woman. Song Gang nodded and laughed as well and started scanning the street for a pretty woman for Baldy Li. Wearing brand-new khaki Mao suits, the two brothers walked down the main street of Liu. A few elders playing chess by the side of the road looked up in surprise and remarked that, the night before, these two had been dressed like beggars but today they looked like county cadres. Sighing, the elders said, "Its certainly true that clothes make the man."