Lin Hong despised these two handsome misers, who kept coming to her house empty-handed just before dinner and dawdling in order to get a free meal. It's true that once one of them did give Lin Hong some melon seeds to snack on. He kept reaching into his pocket while they were chatting but waited until her parents retreated to the kitchen to hand her the seeds, looking as if he were giving her some South African diamonds. Lin Hong saw that the seeds were already soaked with the sweat from his palm and mixed with lint from his pocket. Revolted, she turned away, pretending she hadn't seen them, and thought to herself that this oaf was even worse than Baldy Li, if that were possible.
Initially Lin Hong's parents, upon seeing a suitor lingering about when they were ready to eat, would courteously invite him to stay for dinner. After each of these bachelors had had dinner once at Lin Hong's home, he immediately bragged to everyone that he and Lin Hong were officially an item. They would even spice things up a bit, one boasting that Lin Hongs mother had served him personally, the other claiming that Lin Hong had fed him with her own spoon. The bachelors even asked their friends to help spread the stories of their romantic adventures with Lin Hong. Their friends, however, suspected that none of this was true; and while it would have been easy to simply repeat the stories, they would lose face if Lin Hong disavowed them. The two bachelors, however, saw things differently, and upon hearing each other making up preposterous stories, they felt the need to make even more outlandish claims so as not to fall behind. Even if they fell short in the end, they nevertheless felt that to have courted Lin Hong in the first place was definitely something to be proud of and would certainly raise their personal worth — which would come in handy in courting other girls.
These two sensationalizers finally encountered each other on the street. As one of them was proudly recounting stories of his romantic adventures with Lin Hong, the other, walking by, couldn't stand it anymore and shouted, "Bullshit!"
The two then stood there in the middle of the street and proceeded to curse each other, spittle flying everywhere. Everyone watched as they simultaneously rolled up their left sleeves, then their right. The onlookers retreated to give them room, fearing that a fierce battle was about to erupt. The two suitors then squatted down and rolled up their pants legs, exciting the onlookers even more. Everyone was certain that they were about to put up a ferocious fight, a fight for the ages. After the two had rolled their pants legs up above their knees, they noticed that they now had nothing left to roll up, but they still didn't come to blows; rather, they continued cursing each other as before, the only difference being that now they wiped the spittle from their mouths with more intensity.
As everyone was waiting with anticipation Baldy Li appeared on the scene. Having just given Tao Qing his work report over at the Civil Affairs Bureau, he was on his way to the Good Works Factory when he saw a huge crowd of people. He pulled one of the onlookers aside and asked what was going on. With a certain degree of exaggeration the person exclaimed, "World War Three is upon us!"
Baldy Li's eyes glittered, and he shoved his way through the crowd. When the people of Liu Town caught sight of him, they became even more excited, saying that now there was sure to be a great show, that what had already been a competition between two heroes had now become, with the arrival of Baldy Li, a Romance of Three Kingdoms. Hearing the two men — fingers pointed at each others chests and spittle flying everywhere — each claiming Lin Hong as his own, Baldy Li immediately erupted in a fury and launched himself between them. Grabbing each by the collar, he roared, "Lin Hong is my girlfriend!"
The two suitors hadn't expected Baldy Li to appear and immediately stopped in shock. Baldy Li roared again as he released the one on his right and swung his fist at the one on his left, giving him a black eye. Then he proceeded to give the one on his right a black eye as well. That morning Baldy Li ended up beating both men so badly that they were left moaning in anguish. The onlookers were now so giddy that they repeatedly stomped their feet, sensing that this was even better than returning to the Three Kingdoms period and watching Cao Cao beat up Liu Bei and Sun Quan. Several onlookers became so frenzied that they imagined themselves to be the famous Three Kingdoms strategist Zhuge Liang and urged the two suitors to join forces and attack Baldy Li together. One onlooker pointed at one of the suitors and shouted battlefield strategies at him as though he were Liu Bei: "Join forces with the Kingdom of Wu to defeat the Kingdom of Wei! Join with Wu to defeat Wei!"
After Baldy Li beat the two so badly that their heads started spinning, the crowds calls became increasingly muffled, though Baldy Li's shouts could still be clearly made out. He continued to pound them mercilessly while at the same time submitting them to a policelike interrogation: "Tell me, quick, whose girlfriend is Lin Hong?"
Both responded with their last breath, saying, "Yours, yours."
The onlookers shook their heads in disappointment, saying, "They are both hopeless."
Baldy Li shoved the two aside and glared at the onlookers. Those who had just been pretending to be Zhuge Liang were so terrified that they tucked their heads in and retreated, not daring to say another word. Baldy Li waved at the onlookers, warning them, "If anyone dares to claim that Lin Hong is his girlfriend, I will beat him so badly he won't even be reincarnated."
Baldy Li then turned and left. Many in the crowd heard him smugly saying to himself, "Chairman Mao put it well when he said that power comes from the muzzle of a gun."
Baldy Li beat the two romantic sensationalizers so badly that they would never forget it, and never again did they dare pursue Lin Hong. Having completely lost face, whenever they encountered her in the street, they would lower their heads and scurry by in embarrassment. Lin Hong couldn't help but laugh, thinking that that hooligan Baldy Li had finally done something right.
When she cast her eye over all of Liu Town, she saw that, though the town s bachelors might be as common as weeds, there was not a single towering oak among them. She was increasingly desolate, feeling completely on her own with no hope for the future. Despite everything, one person began to stand out more clearly in her mind — a pale, handsome man wearing glasses, who was beginning to occupy her thoughts. Although this person was not a towering oak, from Lin Hongs perspective he was at least a tender sapling and, at any rate, was better than all those weeds. As long as he was a tree, there was the possibility that he could one day scrape the sky, while the weeds would never do more than spread along the ground. This person was Song Gang.
CHAPTER 32
AT THE TIME, Song Gang was a model youth. He was always carrying a book or magazine under his arm, he was polite and refined, and if he noticed a young woman looking at him, he would invariably blush. During the period when Baldy Li was pursuing Lin Hong, Song Gang was always at his side, and because he was Baldy Li's constant companion, Lin Hong glimpsed him far more often than she did any of the other young men of Liu. Baldy Li pursued Lin Hong so single-mindedly that there was no other thought in his head, and consequently he remained oblivious to the fact that Lin Hong had taken a liking to the quiet Song Gang.
Baldy Li stood stupidly in the middle of the street serving as Lin Hongs personal bodyguard, adamantly refusing to let other men so much as glance at her. Song Gang always lowered his head and quietly walked beside him. Lin Hong grew accustomed to Baldy Li's pestering and learned to ignore it and walk without exhibiting any expression. Sometimes when she was turning a corner she would sneak a peek at Song Gang, and on several occasions she managed to catch his eye, though each time he would immediately avert his gaze. Lin Hong couldn't help but smile at this. When Baldy Li said infuriating things, she couldn't resist peeking at Song Gang and would always see his melancholic expression. From this she understood that Song Gang felt sorry for her, and that gave her a feeling of contentment. Baldy Li came to pester her pretty much every day, so Lin Hong would see Song Gang virtually every day. Every time she glimpsed Song Gang's confused or melancholic expression, her heart would pound like water burbling from a fountain. She wasn't even annoyed by Baldy Li anymore, since he made it possible for her to see Song Gang every day. When Lin Hong went to sleep at night, the unforgettable image of Song Gang with his head bowed would silently enter her dreams.