Song Gang lifted his head and grunted in reply, then lowered it again and continued his reverie. One workmate teased him: "Song Gang, you should go take a piss!"
After his grunt, Song Gang did in fact stand up and walk out, intending to go to the bathroom. While his workmates laughed uproariously, he walked to the door of the workshop and paused, as if he had just remembered something. He then walked back to the same corner of the factory and sat back down again. His workmates laughed hysterically and asked him, "Why did you come back?"
Song Gang responded absentmindedly, "I don't have to pee."
By evening, the events on the bridge had become increasingly real in Song Gangs memory. His thoughts were focused on Lin Hongs blushing face and her trembling voice, as well as her nervously skittering eyes. Especially her whispered "I like you" made his heart skip a beat every time he remembered it.
At that point, Song Gang was sitting at home, having already had dinner. Baldy Li, sitting at the table with him, studied him suspiciously, since Song Gang was grinning idiotically as though he had swallowed the wrong medication. Baldy Li softly called out his name, "Song Gang, Song Gang …"
Song Gang didn't respond, and Baldy Li suddenly pounded the table, shouting, "Song Gang, what's wrong?"
Song Gang finally recovered his demeanor, and in a normal tone of voice asked Baldy Li, "What did you say?"
Baldy Li looked at Song Gang and said, "Why, when you laugh, do you sound like one of the idiots who work for me at the Good Works Factory?"
Song Gang was disconcerted by Baldy Li's confused look. He avoided Baldy Li's gaze, bowed his head, and hesitated for a moment. Then he lifted his head and stammered, "What would you do if it turned out Lin Hong likes someone else?"
"I'd slaughter them," Baldy Li replied without hesitation.
Song Gang paused and then continued, "Who would you slaughter, that man or Lin Hong?"
"Of course I'd slaughter the man." Baldy Li waved his hand and then wiped his mouth. "Lin Hong I would spare; I want to keep her around as my wife."
Song Gang was deeply shaken but continued, asking, "And if I happened to be the one whom Lin Hong liked, what would you do?"
Baldy Li laughed out loud and struck the table with both hands, saying firmly, "That's inconceivable."
Seeing Baldy Li's confident expression, Song Gang's heart sank. Facing this brother of his, with whom he shared everything, Song Gang felt that he could not hide the truth any longer. He drew a deep breath, as if he had fallen into a distant memory, and then related with great difficulty the entire encounter on the bridge. When he concluded, Baldy Li stared at him with eyes as wide as saucers as he gradually calmed down. When Song Gang finally finished his tortured confession, he sighed and began watching Baldy Li nervously. Song Gang was waiting for Baldy Li to roar with fury.
What Song Gang didn't expect, however, was that Baldy Li would look at him calmly, blink his eyes, and then narrow them to thin slits. Baldy Li looked at Song Gang suspiciously. "What exactly did Lin Hong tell you?"
Song Gang replied, "She said she likes me."
"Inconceivable." Baldy Li stood up and told Song Gang, "Lin Hong can't possibly like you."
Song Gang blushed and said, "Why is that not possible?"
Baldy Li sat on the table and peered imperiously down at Song Gang. "With so many men in Liu Town pursuing her, and each of them being far better than you, how could Lin Hong possibly have fallen for you? You are an orphan, with no mother or father."
Song Gang rebutted, "You are also an orphan."
"I might be an orphan" — Baldy Li nodded, then patted his chest— "but I am also a factory director."
Song Gang continued to argue, "But maybe Lin Hong doesn't care about all that."
"How could she not care?" Baldy Li shook his head and said to Song Gang, "Lin Hong is better than a celestial immortal, while you are just a poor lad. The two of you … it's simply inconceivable."
Song Gang recalled a beautiful legend, observing, "The seventh celestial maiden fell for the common mortal Dong Yong."
"That's just a legend; it isn't real." Baldy Li suddenly noticed something and gazed carefully at Song Gang, asking, "Do you like Lin Hong?"
Song Gang blushed again. Baldy Li bounded down from the table, stood in front of Song Gang, and said, "I'm telling you, you can't like Lin Hong."
Song Gang replied unhappily, "Why can't I like Lin Hong?"
"Fuck!" Baldy Li suddenly cried out, his eyes growing wide, then shouted at Song Gang, "Lin Hong is mine. How can you like her? You are my brother, and while others can compete with me for her, you can't."
Song Gang didn't know what to say and stared at Baldy Li in confusion. Suddenly Baldy Li said warmly, "Song Gang, we are brothers who have always depended on each other. You know that I like Lin Hong, so why do you want to like her as well? That would be incest!"
Song Gang lowered his head and didn't say anything else. Baldy Li felt that Song Gang was ashamed, so he patted Song Gang's shoulder reassuringly and said, "Song Gang, I trust you and know that you wouldn't do anything to betray me."
Baldy Li, still convinced that Lin Hong was secretly infatuated with him, looked at Song Gang and reasoned out loud, "Why didn't Lin Hong say that to someone else? Why did she have to say it to you, of all people? Perhaps she is using you as a way of communicating with me?"
That night Song Gang couldn't sleep and kept tossing and turning, distracted by Baldy Li's contented snores and soft giggles. Lin Hong's beautiful figure and expression would flicker in and out of view in the darkness, making Song Gang long for her even more. At one point he forgot Baldy Li and, as a result, was able to enjoy a modicum of happiness. Song Gang's imagination soared in the darkness, and he pictured himself and Lin Hong strolling hand in hand through the streets of Liu, then owning a home together and loving each other like a married couple. However, this imaginary contentment immediately evaporated. Song Gang remembered Song Fanping's death in front of the bus depot, his and Baldy Li's tears, and his grandfather dragging the coffin home in a pullcart. He remembered the entire family walking down the muddy country road sobbing, and how frightened he had been when the sparrows by the road had abruptly flown away. He remembered how he and Baldy Li had dragged Li Lan's body back to the village like two sworn brothers. Finally, Song Gang remembered Li Lan grasping his hand before her death, making him promise to look after Baldy Li. By this point, Song Gang's tears were pouring down his face and soaking his pillow. Heartbroken, he realized he would never be able to betray Baldy Li. Eventually the sun came out and Song Gang finally fell asleep.
Around noon he left the metal factory early and walked briskly to the main gate of the knitting factory. There he waited for Lin Hong to get off work and come out. He wanted to tell her that he wouldn't be able to meet her in the grove behind the theater, and he felt that that single phrase would communicate his resolve.
Song Gang waited under the same wutong tree where Baldy Li's five emissaries of love had stood and shouted "intercourse." When the bell rang announcing the end of the workday, he suddenly felt an unprecedented sense of anguish, as if he were on the verge of death. He needed to say the one thing that he least wanted to say in his life; but he knew if he managed to get it out, he would no longer have to struggle with himself over Baldy Li.
Lin Hong walked out of the factory as usual, accompanied by the usual crowd of workmates. She noticed Song Gang standing surreptitiously under the tree and called him an idiot under her breath. She had expected to see him that night at eight o'clock, not here at noon. When her workmates saw Song Gang, they started tittering, because they knew that he was Baldy Li's brother. They covered their mouths and whispered to each other that they couldn't imagine what bizarre stratagem Baldy Li had dreamed up this time. Because Lin Hong was with her workmates, she didn't give Song Gang a second look as she passed, instead just glancing at him out of the corner of her eye. It seemed to her that he didn't move at all, rooted to the spot like a small tree next to a larger one. Again she tenderly cursed him under her breath, "You idiot."