Then Baldy Li proceeded to use his right fist to pound Writer Liu's back and quickly punched him eleven times in succession while Liu grunted in pain. Baldy Li noticed that Liu's voice had changed from his earlier shrill screams to a series of dull moans. With a surprised expression, Baldy Li told the assembled crowd, "Do you hear? This intellectual is chanting a laborer's work song."
Then, as if he were performing a science experiment, Baldy Li punched Writer Liu in the back again and heard Liu grunt, "Heave-ho." Baldy Li pounded him five more times, and Writer Liu responded with five more "heave-ho" grunts, sounding as if the two of them had previously rehearsed their call-and-answer routine. Baldy Li excitedly continued to beat Liu as he told the crowd, "I am helping to bring out his true laborer colors!"
By this time Baldy Li was covered in sweat. When he released his left hand, Writer Liu's body crumpled to the ground and lay motionless like a slaughtered pig. Baldy Li wiped the sweat from his brow and said with satisfaction, as if he were concluding a lesson, "We'll stop here for today."
In reality, Baldy Li was just getting started. He remembered that Writer Liu had another intellectual comrade, Poet Zhao, and therefore announced to the assembled crowd, "Poet Zhao is also an intellectual. Please tell him that within the next six months I'll plan to help bring out his true laborer colors, too."
Baldy Li swaggered off, leaving Writer Liu crumpled beneath a wutong tree, completely covered in blood. Passersby crowded around him for a while, pointing and offering their opinions. Baldy Li had aimed his twenty-eight punches at Writer Liu's five facial orifices, leaving him lying motionless on the street and barely able to discern the world around him. Finally some workers from the metal factory passed by on their way to work and, seeing their section chief lying there covered in blood, they rolled their eyes, grinned, then quickly carried him to the hospital.
As Writer Liu lay in the emergency-room bed, he insisted that the person who had beaten him was not Baldy Li but, rather, Li Kui. The factory workers didn't know what to make of this and asked him, "Which Li Kui?"
Writer Liu coughed up some blood as he answered, "The one who appears in Water Margin, who is also known as the Black Whirlwind."
The workers were flabbergasted, saying that that Li Kui was not from Liu Town but, rather, was a character in a novel. Writer Liu nodded, saying that Li Kui had emerged from the novel to smack him around. Several workers burst out laughing, asking him why in the world Li Kui would want to do that. Writer Liu took the opportunity to curse Li Kui a few times, saying that he was all brawn and no brain, his muscles having crowded out his wits. He said that Li Kui received mistaken information, went to the wrong place, and beat up the wrong person. After explaining this, Writer Liu continued coughing up blood and asked in a dull voice, "How could Baldy Li be a match for me?"
Several workers thought to themselves that this was the end and pulled over a doctor to ask whether their section chief had been beaten senseless. The doctor shook his head and replied that Liu's condition was not that serious, that he was merely suffering from a case of delusional memory. He added, "If he sleeps it off, he'll be fine."
Baldy Li had threatened that his next victim would be Poet Zhao. When word of this threat finally made its way to Poet Zhao himself, he turned pale with fury. He snorted five or six times in succession, and then Zhao, who rarely cursed, pronounced, "That little bastard."
Poet Zhao told the Liu Town crowds that formerly, which is to say eleven or twelve years earlier, he had repeatedly given Baldy Li the taste of his heel, whereupon Baldy Li had wailed and stumbled about, sometimes halfway across the street. Poet Zhao declared that Baldy Li was human scum. He told how at fourteen Baldy Li had peeked at women's bottoms in the public toilet, and how after he, Poet Zhao, had nabbed him, Baldy Li had secretly nursed a grievance against him, waiting for a chance to exact revenge. As Poet Zhao recalled that day of glory when he paraded Baldy Li down the street, his face began to warm and his voice became loud and clear. When some in the crowd repeated that Baldy Li was planning to beat Zhao until the poet became a laborer, Poet Zhao's complexion turned pale again. So angry that his voice quavered, he said, "I'll beat him up first, you just watch. I'll first take this laborer and beat him into an intellectual, beat him until he never curses again, until he treats people politely, until he respects the elderly and loves the young, until he is refined and cultivated."
Some of the townspeople laughed. "If you continue beating him like this, won't you beat him into a Poet Li?" asked one.
Poet Zhao was momentarily confounded, then muttered, "I might as well beat him into a Poet Li."
Poet Zhao had spoken boldly while out on the street, but once he got home he started to feel apprehensive. Now agitated and fearful, he calculated that if he and Baldy Li were indeed to duke it out, his height would probably give him only a slight advantage, and he couldn't even be certain of that. He worried that Baldy Li was so impulsive that he wouldn't know how to keep his beatings in moderation. Remembering how Baldy Li had struck Writer Liu in the face twenty-eight times and left him suffering from delusional paranoia, it occurred to Zhao that if Baldy Li were to strike him in the face twenty-eight times, he might end up not just filled with temporary delusions but permanently retarded. After realizing this, Poet Zhao started doing everything in his power to avoid having to leave the house. If there was something for which he absolutely had to go out, he would first carefully reconnoiter the unfamiliar terrain like a military scout; if he caught the slightest whiff of Baldy Li, he would immediately duck and cower in the nearest alley.
After his beating, Writer Liu spent two full days in the hospital and then rested at home for another month. As for Baldy Li, apart from being summoned by Tao Qing to the Civil Affairs Bureau office for a reprimand, he was off the hook. When people asked Baldy Li why he wanted to beat the intellectual Writer Liu until he turned back into the laborer Success Liu, Baldy Li would immediately answer with a grin, "I didn't beat him. It was Li Kui who beat him."
Song Gang was deeply troubled by the fact that Baldy Li had beaten someone to the point that he had to be hospitalized. Though everything Liu had said and done that day infuriated Song Gang, he nevertheless felt that it was not right for Baldy Li to beat him so badly. Song Gang wanted to go visit Writer Liu but was afraid that Baldy Li would disapprove. When he saw that Writer Liu had almost recovered and would soon return to work at the metal factory, Song Gang decided that he could not put the visit off any longer. Stammeringly he suggested, "We should go pay a visit to Writer Liu."