Baldy Li waved him off. "If someone is to go, it should be you. I'm not going."
Song Gang continued to hem and haw, saying that if you beat someone up, you should take them something. Baldy Li didn't know where Song Gang was going with this, and asked, "What are you trying to say with all that muttering?"
Song Gang had no alternative but to tell Baldy Li the truth, which was that he wanted to buy a few apples to take to Writer Liu. When Baldy Li heard the word apple, his mouth immediately began to water, and he told Song Gang that he himself had never eaten an apple. He added, "Is this not letting that laborer off lightly?"
Song Gang did not reply but just lowered his head and sat at the table. Baldy Li recognized that Song Gang was distressed and therefore patted his shoulder and said, "Okay, go buy some apples and pay him a visit."
Song Gang smiled with gratitude, and Baldy Li shook his head, saying, "I don't care about a few apples. I'm just afraid that, after all the effort I expended in bringing out his inner laborer, a few apples might encourage his intellectual pretentiousness to return."
Song Gang bought five apples from a fruit stall. He then returned home and picked out the biggest and freshest to leave for Baldy Li, placing the remaining four apples in an old book bag. Song Gang arrived at Writer Liu's house carrying the bag. By that time Writer Liu had recuperated and was sitting in his courtyard chatting with neighbors. Hearing that Song Gang was at the door, Liu sent someone to ask what he wanted while he hurried back to bed.
Cautiously entering Writer Liu's room, where Liu was lying in bed with his eyes shut, Song Gang walked to the front of the bed. Liu opened his eyes to glance at him, then quickly shut them again. Song Gang stood in front of Liu's bed for a while and eventually softly said, "I'm sorry."
Writer Liu opened his eyes but quickly closed them again. Song Gang stood there a while longer, then opened his book bag and took out the four apples. When Liu saw the four apples on the table, he smiled and said to Song Gang, "You are truly courteous."
As Writer Liu was saying this he took an apple, wiped it on the bed-sheet, then hurriedly took a bite. Liu's eyes narrowed to small slits in delight, and he crunched down melodiously, chewed melodiously, and swallowed the apple in a melodious manner. As Baldy Li had expected, after Writer Liu took a bite of the apple he immediately recovered his intellectual airs and began animatedly discussing literature with Song Gang as if nothing had transpired between them.
CHAPTER 29
HALF A YEAR passed, and not only did Baldy Li not find an opportunity to beat Poet Zhao's laborer identity back into him; he even pretty much forgot all about his promise to do so. Instead, he found himself increasingly busy, having been appointed director of Liu Town s Good Works Factory. When he first arrived, two cripples served as the factory's director and deputy director, but within half a year both of them were obediently following Baldy Li's orders.
Thus Baldy Li became Factory Director Li, even though he was still only twenty years old. Originally, when the factory had only two cripples, three idiots, four blind men, and five deaf men working for it, it would lose money hand over fist, and therefore year after year it was necessary to ask Tao Qing to bail them out. Tao Qing had built the factory for the sole purpose of providing its fourteen handicapped workers with a way of making a living. The factory, however, did not make a profit — he constantly had to make up for its losses out of his own pocket. Tao Qing hired Baldy Li because Baldy Li's mother had kowtowed to him so vigorously that she bloodied her forehead. What he didn't expect was that during Baldy Li's first year at the factory he would manage to turn the entire place around. Baldy Li not only brought in enough money to pay the salaries of the fourteen employees but also earned a profit of 57,224 yuan. The second year he was even more impressive, earning Tao Qing a profit of more than 150,000 yuan, or 10,000 yuan per employee. When the county governor saw Tao Qing, he was full of smiles, saying that Tao was the richest Civil Affairs Bureau director in all of China. He then privately asked that Tao Qing use some of the Good Works Factory's profits to plug a hole in the county's public finance deficit.
Tao Qing was therefore promoted to bureau director, and although he had not been to the Good Works Factory for the preceding several years, on that particular day he happened to wander up to the factory. Tao Qing had long known that the two crippled directors were ineffective to the point of being merely figureheads and that Baldy Li had become the de facto director. Tao Qing also knew that within half a year of Baldy Li's arrival, he had taken the two cripples, three idiots, four blind men, and five deaf men to the photography studio to pose for a group portrait, and then had taken this family photo on a long bus ride to Shanghai. Before getting on the bus, Baldy Li bought ten plain steamed buns at Mama Sus snack shop. He rushed around Shanghai for two days, visiting seven stores and eight companies and showing everyone his Good Works Factory group portrait. He would introduce each of the people in the photo to the corporate directors he met, explaining which were the cripples, the idiots, the blind and deaf men. Then he would point himself out in the photo, saying, "That only leaves this one, who is neither blind, deaf, crippled, nor an idiot."
Everywhere he went, Baldy Li tried to solicit people s sympathy. By the time he finished all ten of his steamed buns, he had received a long-term contract from a large company to put the finishing touches on paper boxes, and thus began the Good Works Factory's glorious path to brilliance.
When Tao Qing entered the factory that day, the crippled deputy factory director was just emerging from the restroom. Tao Qing asked him where the factory director was, and the deputy director replied that he was working in the workshop. Tao asked him to call the director over, and then he walked into the director's office. Tao Qing noted the group portrait hanging on the wall and remembered that the last time he came to this office there had been two desks, where the crippled directors had been playing chess, retracting illegal moves and happily cursing each other. Now there was just one desk. Tao Qing felt that something was a little fishy — perhaps the crippled factory director had kicked the crippled deputy director out of the office? As Tao Qing was sitting down in the chair behind the desk, Baldy Li ran in, shouting, "Bureau Director Tao has arrived, Bureau Director Tao has arrived!"
Tao Qing saw that Baldy Li was very happy and cheerfully said, "You're not doing bad at all. Not bad at all."
Baldy Li shook his head modestly. "I've only just begun and still need to work harder."
Tao Qing nodded approvingly and asked Baldy Li whether he was satisfied with his job. Baldy Li nodded repeatedly, saying that he was indeed. Tao Qing chatted with Baldy Li for a while, then glanced out the door and wondered why the crippled director hadn't arrived yet. The workshop was right next door, and although it was true that the crippled director walked slowly he should still have arrived by now. Tao Qing asked Baldy Li, "Why hasn't your factory director arrived yet?"
Baldy Li was momentarily speechless, but he recovered in an instant, pointing to himself and saying, "I'm here. I'm the director."
"You're the director?" Now it was Tao Qing's turn to be taken aback. "Why was I not informed?"
Baldy Li laughed. "You are so busy, I was reluctant to take up your time, so I simply neglected to tell you."
Tao Qing's face fell. He asked, "What happened to the original two directors?"
Baldy Li shook his head. "They are not directors anymore."
Tao Qing understood now why there was just one desk in the office. He asked Baldy Li, "Is this your desk?"