Chronicle of a Blood Merchant by Yu Hua, Andrew F. Jones Page B

it?”
    Sanle said, “I don’t know his name.”
    Erle asked, “How big is he?”
    Sanle said, “The same as me.”
    As soon as Erle learned that the kid was only as big as his little brother, he slapped the table and shouted, “Goddamn! Trying to bully my little brother, is he? I’ll show him a thing or two.”
    By the time Sanle led Erle back to the street where the slapping match had taken place, the other boy had arrived with his own brother in tow. The other boy was taller than Erle by a head.
    Chills ran down Erle’s spine, and he turned and said to Sanle, “Stand behind me, and don’t say a word.”
    When the other boy’s big brother saw Erle and Sanle approach, he gestured at them with a dismissive air of nonchalance. “Is that them?” Then he approached, arms swinging expectantly back and forth, glaring balefully in Erle’s direction. “Which one of you hit my brother?”
    Erle spread out his hands, palms up, and smiled placatingly. “It wasn’t me.” As he spoke, he lifted his index finger over his shoulder to point at Sanle standing behind him. “It was my little brother who did it.”
    “Then I’ll beat up your little brother.”
    “Let’s be reasonable and talk this thing out,” Erle said to the other boy’s brother. “If we can’t work things out, then I won’t stand in your way, even if you have to hit him.”
    “So what if you did stand in the way?” He shoved Erle, sending him reeling several yards back. “I
want
you to stand in the way. I’m dying to beat the shit out of both of you.”
    “I’m definitely not going to get involved.” Erle waved his hands for emphasis. “I’m the kind of person who likes to talk things out, to be reasonable.”
    “Talk all you goddamn want.” He took a step forward and punched Erle in the nose. “First I’ll beat the shit out of you, and then I’ll beat the shit out of your little brother.”
    Erle began to retreat, one step at a time, asking the smaller child as he went, “Who is this guy to you? What’s his problem? Why’s he so unreasonable?”
    “He’s my oldest brother,” the child replied, not without a certain elation. “And I have another big brother too.”
    As soon as Erle heard this, he shouted, “Hold everything.” He pointed at the two younger children. “This is no fair. My little brother called his second oldest brother, but your little brother went and got his oldest brother. That’s not fair. If you had any guts, you’d let my little brother go get our oldest brother too. You think you have the guts to take on our big brother?”
    The other boy waved his hand through the air. “I’m not scared of anyone or anything. Go get your big brother then. I’ll beat the shit out of all three of you.”
    Erle and Sanle ran home to fetch Yile. Yile came but was quick to realize as he arrived on the scene that the other boy was almost half a head taller than himself. He said to Erle and Sanle, “I want to take a piss first.”
    As he spoke, he turned and walked down a lane. When he emerged, his hands were held behind his back. In his hands he held a sharp triangular rock. He approached the bigger boy with his eyes fixed firmly to the ground.
    “
This
is your big brother? Too scared to even look at me?”
    Yile looked up long enough to determine just where the bigger boy’s head was located. Then he lifted the rock and brought it down on top of it. The bigger boy cried out once. Yile brought the rock down on his head three more times. The bigger boy tumbled to the ground, blood trickling onto the pavement around his head.
    When Yile was sure the boy wouldn’t be able to get up again, he threw away the rock, wiped the dirt from his hands, and gestured toward his silent and frightened little brothers.
    “Let’s go home.”

CHAPTER EIGHT
    People said, “Blacksmith Fang’s son was beaten so badly by Xu Sanguan’s son that he broke his head right open. I heard his skull is cracked open, like a watermelon that’s