Read Online Chronicle of a Blood Merchant by Yu Hua, Andrew F. Jones - Free Book Online Page B

streets with He Xiaoyong in tow, letting out a little snort of derision whenever they happened to run into Xu Yulan and bursting into giggles after they had passed her by. At the time Xu Yulan had thought to herself,
He
Xiaoyong’s gone and married a woman without any tits or ass.
Now she saw that the woman still didn’t have any tits and that her ass was sitting squarely atop a stool.
    Xu Yulan shouted into the open front door, “He Xiaoyong! He Xiaoyong!”
    “Who is it?”
    He Xiaoyong stuck his head from out of the second-floor window. But when he realized to his dismay that it was Xu Yulan standing outside, he immediately recoiled. After a moment his head reappeared, and his eyes looked down in her direction. He looked at this woman standing downstairs who was prettier than his own wife, this woman with whom he had made love; this woman who never talked to him anymore when they ran into each other in the street; this was the woman who was smiling in his direction. He spluttered, “What do you want?”
    Xu Yulan said, “He Xiaoyong, I haven’t seen you for a long time. You’ve gained weight. You even have a double chin now.”
    He Xiaoyong heard the sound of his wife spitting in disgust. “What do you want?”
    Xu Yulan said, “Come down here. We can talk after you come downstairs.”
    He Xiaoyong, eyes on his woman, said, “I’m not coming down. I’m just fine up here. Why should I come down?”
    Xu Yulan said, “Come downstairs. It’ll be easier to talk if you’re down here.”
    “I’m staying up here.”
    Xu Yulan glanced at He Xiaoyong’s woman, then smiled up at He Xiaoyong. “He Xiaoyong, could it be that you’re actually afraid to come down and talk to me?”
    He Xiaoyong looked over toward his wife, then said in a low, diffident voice, “I’m not afraid of anything.”
    At this point his wife could no longer remain silent. She got to her feet, looked up at the window, and said, “He Xiaoyong, come down here. What can she do to you? She’s not going to eat you, for heaven’s sake.”
    He Xiaoyong came down the stairs and walked over to where Xu Yulan was standing. “Say whatever it is you have to say, and make it quick. I don’t have time for this shit.”
    Xu Yulan smiled nicely and said, “I came to tell you the good news. It’s Xu Sanguan. He says he’s not going to come and settle his debt with you, so you can put your mind at rest on that score. At first he was planning to chop you into pieces with a cleaver, because you knocked up his woman and forced him to take care of your own son for nine years. That’s why he was going to chop you to bits with a cleaver. And if he had, no one would have blamed him for it either. Xu Sanguan says he’s not going to ask you to pay back the money he’s spent on Yile. And he’s not going to send him back to live with you. He Xiaoyong, you’re getting off pretty easy, having someone else raise your son for you and never having to lift a finger to help. You get to be a dad for nothing. But Xu Sanguan has had himself a raw deal, from the very start. After Yile was born, he never got any sleep. He’d hold the baby and walk back and forth across the room all night so he wouldn’t cry. Xu Sanguan washed all of Yile’s diapers, and every year he made him a new set of clothes. Not to mention that he always provided him food to eat and water to drink, day in and day out. And Yile eats more than I do. He Xiaoyong, Xu Sanguan says he’s not going to settle his accounts with you. And he says all you have to do in return is give the money to Blacksmith Fang.”
    He Xiaoyong said, “What does Blacksmith Fang’s son being in the hospital have to do with me?”
    “Your son smashed his head in with a rock.”
    “I don’t have a son,” He Xiaoyong said. “Since when do I have a son? All I have is two daughters. One’s called He Xiaoying and the other’s He Xiaohong.”
    “You really have no conscience, do you?” Xu Yulan jabbed her finger