Bro | Chapter 5

And so, just like that, the little boy shamelessly stayed.

Many years later, whenever the boy himself looked back on this incident, he almost felt that he had accomplished an impossible feat.

After his bastard big brother’s wings had grown strong, he only became more and more unmatched in displaying his bastardly qualities. Born with a heart of stone, once he made up his mind, that was that. Sometimes the boy wondered whether there was actually anything in this world that could change Wei Qian’s mind.

But that year, after observing for several months and pestering him with soft persistence for several weeks, he really did succeed in moving that stone-hearted bastard.

After the little boy moved into Wei Qian’s home, he slowly recovered his ability to speak, though most of the time he still remained very quiet, as if worried that if his presence felt too strong, he would invite other people’s dislike and abuse.

At first, he did not even dare get onto the bed or the sofa. At night, he would shrink into a corner by the wall and sleep on the floor like a little wild dog.

It seemed that as long as he had a roof that could shield him from the wind and rain, and a few clean meals, he was already satisfied.

Watching his behavior, Wei Qian found it hard to stop himself from thinking of when he had been around this little thing’s age and had once also cautiously tried to please his stepfather like this. He understood the meaning behind those behaviors. Not only did he not find the boy strange, he instead secretly developed a certain hidden emotional connection to him.

Of course, he would not show this kind of feeling. Wei Qian believed that as the “head of the household,” it was only proper for him to be a little high and mighty at home.

He patiently washed the little guy clean. Then, worried he might have lice, he shaved off all the little boy’s hair, and even found one of Xiao Bao’s old clothes for him to wear.

The little bald boy, dressed in a cheap little girl’s dress with the lace fallen off, actually did not look all that out of place, which only showed that the little boy had good features to begin with.

Wei Qian looked at him thoughtfully for quite a while, then, true to form, made the following dog-mouthed assessment: “Looks pretty decent.”

But Wei Qian thought that children were probably all fairly good-looking when they were little. Maybe it was because they were small, with nothing weighing on their minds, so even their eyes were clean and bright, able to catch the light.

This absurd opinion was flatly rejected by San Pang in a single sentence. San Pang said beauty was beauty and ugliness was ugliness, all inborn, and had absolutely nothing to do with age.

San Pang, Wei Qian, and Ma Zi had grown up together and were the kind of friends who had worn the same pair of pants since childhood. San Pang was three or four years older than Wei Qian, while Ma Zi was born in the same year as Wei Qian. As kids, they played in the mud together, and after growing up, they became hoodlums together. Although they had never done a single good thing together, their friendship ran deep.

When they reached adolescence, Wei Qian grew upward, getting thinner and taller, while San Pang grew sideways. At seventeen or eighteen, he already fully possessed the awful look of a middle-aged man gone to fat. As for Ma Zi, it did not matter whether he was tall or short, fat or thin. His face full of pitted, closed acne made his head look like a little asteroid covered in craters. Catch sight of him suddenly at night, and he could scare several people into tears, to the point that all his other characteristics got overlooked.

That damn fatty San Pang, who himself looked like Zhu Bajie1’s second aunt’s husband, was shamelessly fond of judging other people’s looks. Every time he saw Xiao Bao, he would let out a long sigh, because this little girl really was just too unfortunate-looking.

Relying on the closeness of their friendship, San Pang always spoke bluntly to Wei Qian. Usually, whatever Wei Qian did not like hearing, San Pang insisted on saying.

Every time San Pang came to Wei Qian’s house, he would dramatically beat his breast in grief, scoop Xiao Bao up and examine her, then cry out in an operatic voice, “Little sister, my poor fated little sister, how can your face be this dark? If you fell into a pile of coal, nobody would be able to find you!”

Wei Qian snatched Xiao Bao back in one motion. “Fuck off. Ours is what you call dark but pretty.”

San Pang kept on wailing, “Your brother’s lying through his teeth. Have you ever seen dark but pretty with eyes that small?”

Wei Qian argued forcefully, “What’s wrong with small eyes? Our face is small too. Are cow eyes big or not? Put them on that griddle-face of yours and they’d still just look like a narrow slit.”

San Pang said, “Get lost. Does your family even need a griddle as mighty and handsome as your San-ge2’s face, who do you think you are, the commander? Hey, it’s not that big eyes or small eyes are the main issue. Look at our little sister’s nose bridge. This tiny flat nose is worrying me to death. It looks like it got smacked by a door panel. Qian’er, tell me, how come our little sister doesn’t look like our mom? Even if she didn’t look like our mom, if she looked like you there’d still be nothing to worry about!”

Wei Qian said, “Bullshit. It’s not like I gave birth to her.”

After saying that, Wei Qian lifted Xiao Bao up until she was level with his line of sight and carefully studied the little girl’s face, which looked strikingly like her biological father. Even though they were flesh and blood, he still had to admit that San Pang was right. That pathetic little flat nose bridge on Xiao Bao’s face really did look like she did not even have a nasal bone.

Worried, Wei Qian began calculating in his heart that no matter what, he had to make sure she protected her eyes in the future. She absolutely could not become nearsighted. Otherwise, that little flat nose bridge probably really would not even be able to hold up a pair of glasses.

But he still refused to admit his little sister was ugly, so he argued irrationally, “What’s wrong with a flat nose bridge? Women don’t look good with high nose bridges. A high nose bridge… a high nose bridge makes you look like a bad person.”

He said this because his mother had a straight, elegant, high nose bridge. The nose was the king of the features, and it made her look strikingly spirited, the kind that left a deep impression at first glance. But Wei Qian had always hated every trait his mother possessed, whether beautiful or ugly.

In Wei Qian’s heart, as long as Song Xiaobao did not look like their mother, then even if she grew up into a hideous freak with a face blooming all over like Ma Zi’s, he would still think she was adorable.

San Pang knew the whole story of his family, so for once he did not argue with him. He took Xiao Bao from Wei Qian’s arms and casually pinched her nose bridge again and again. Later, when she grew older, her nose bridge was not as flat anymore, and that was probably mostly because Pang-ge had manually pinched it into shape. As he pinched, San Pang muttered, “Little sister, oh my little sister who’ll never get married…”

At that moment, Ma Zi pushed the door open and came in. Grinning foolishly, he said, “S, Sa, San-ge, Qi-Qi-Qi… Qian’er, Li-Little sister Xiao Bao.”

San Pang instantly clapped his hands over Xiao Bao’s ears as if facing a mortal enemy. “Oh my god, please don’t talk in front of the child. If she learns a stutter from you, her brother will chop you up into dumpling filling!”

Ma Zi, limited by his natural gifts, could never in his lifetime become sharp-tongued, so he could only take the honest and guileless route. Hearing that, he did not get angry. He just rubbed his own head and gave a silly laugh. Then he reached out and rubbed both Xiao Bao’s head and the head of the boy they had picked up, took out two pieces of candy, and handed one to each of them.

Ma Zi had dropped out of school long ago, but it was not because he had no money for it. The real reason was hard to explain in just a few words. Right up to fifth grade in elementary school, Ma Zi could only count to ninety-nine. Once it reached three digits, he could not do it anymore. The teacher was so angry that he punished him by making him copy all the numbers from one hundred to two hundred in order one hundred times. Huffing and puffing, he copied every single one without missing a single round, neat and diligent, without even a little bit of laziness or trickery. In the end, when the teacher looked after he finished, well, the lines had shifted.

San Pang looked sadly at this ugly and stupid brother of his, then continued chanting, “Little brother, oh my little brother who’ll never get a wife…”

San Pang showed concern for other people’s marriage prospects far too early, so much so that Wei Qian concluded this dead fatty was exceptionally gifted and would definitely grow up to become a pimp.

Wei Qian felt deeply troubled about the state of his friendships. Ma Zi was an idiot, San Pang was a huge idiot, and caught between them, he practically felt a kind of tragic sorrow of “the whole world is idiotic, I alone understand.”

The idiot Ma Zi opened his mouth and asked, “Le-Le-ge told… told me to ask you, have you got your tuition… settled yet?”

These words struck straight into Wei Qian’s sore spot. The mood that had been rather pleasant just now seemed to have a lump of ice stuffed into it, and with a heavy plop it sank straight down.

Wei Qian thought, settled my ass, but he did not want to show weakness and lose face in front of his two idiotic childhood friends. So he put on an unconcerned look, waved his hand in a lofty, inscrutable way, and said, “Oh, no rush.”

Big Idiot San Pang hurriedly cut in, “Oh, sweetheart, I’m begging you, at a time like this, stop playing the mysterious immortal. This isn’t something that can wait. School’s about to start. So what’s the deal? How much are you short? Just say the word, and we brothers will help you figure something out. You tell me, all of us in this crowd were born with no fate with school whatsoever. You’re the only one with promise. Even if each of us just lends a hand, we’ll still shove you upward.”

Wei Qian felt as if a burning-hot hand had squeezed his heart. For one or two seconds, he was at a loss for words. His lips trembled twice, almost imperceptibly. Yet the very next moment, he still managed, through sheer willpower, to hold back and preserve both his nasty, stubborn insides and the outward appearance of a swaggering fraud.

“Alright, that’s enough. It’s no big deal,” Wei Qian said carelessly without even lifting his eyelids. “I know what I’m doing. There’s no need for you two to worry about it blindly. Also let Le-ge know for me that it’s fine.”

Then he swiftly changed the subject. “Oh, right, that little brat, when I asked him what he was called, he told me his name was ‘Kid.’ I don’t know what kind of bullshit parents would give a child a moronic name like that. These past two days I’ve been thinking about getting him a proper name.”

Ma Zi was worried for him and wanted to say something else, but the more anxious he got, the less clearly he could speak. In the end, San Pang cut him off first.

San Pang knew exactly what kind of person Wei Qian was. He knew the guy would rather lose everything inside than lose face on the surface, and clearly did not want to talk about this in front of the two of them. So he followed Wei Qian’s lead and absentmindedly spouted nonsense. “Sure. You’re called Wei Qian, so let him be called Wei Xu3 instead.”

Wei Qian laughed and cursed, “Fuck off. ‘Weak stomach,’ huh? Why not call him ‘stomachache’ while you’re at it?”

The three of them messed around for a while. Then, after eating a meal at Wei Qian’s house with the food and dishes they had brought themselves, they each left.

Wei Qian thought it over. Since Le-ge had asked about him, he had to go see him in person. Otherwise it would seem rather disrespectful. For the sake of pocket money, Wei Qian had mixed with a bunch of social scum since childhood, and Le-ge was the big brother of their whole crowd, the most formidable man in the area. He was older than all of them, had been in the game for many years, his family had a powerful background, and he himself was extremely loyal. With this bunch of younger brothers, he always dealt heart to heart and life for life, never putting on airs.

After Wei Qian’s mother died, Le-ge had taken care of them quite a lot, helping whenever there was work to do and shouldering things whenever something happened. For a time, Wei Qian had even felt that he was practically his own real older brother.

Le-ge was still as warm and pleasant toward him as ever. First he exchanged a few pleasantries with Wei Qian, then said, “I’ve heard about what happened at your place. This little thing made it all the way here, and who knows how far he walked. For such a tiny little thing, it wasn’t easy for him to survive till now. I think maybe in the future he’ll turn into somebody. He might even go farther than all of us. If so, why not call him Xiao Yuan. Wei Yuan? Mm… doesn’t sound that good. Add one more character. Call him ‘Wei Zhiyuan.’ What do you think?”

Since Le-ge was the one giving the name, Wei Qian was naturally happy with it.

At the time, Wei Qian was still young and did not have that many schemes in him. Although he already had one foot stepped into the world of riffraff and the underworld, limited by his age and experience, he could not truly understand the rules of adult society very well, nor did he really know what kind of person Le-ge actually was.

At that point, even if Le-ge let out a fart, fourteen-year-old Wei Qian would still think it was deeply philosophical.

Le-ge asked again, “How old is that little thing?”

“He says he’s eight,” Wei Qian said. “I don’t think so though. He looks about the same age as Xiao Bao.”

Le-ge gave an “mm,” then frowned. “Have you thought about what you’ll do later? He doesn’t have a household registration. Having a proper name won’t help.”

That was true. Wei Qian’s heart stirred. Wei Zhiyuan now had a proper name, but he was still a genuine “black household4.”

Actually, if one of Wei Qian’s mother’s johns had not gotten drunk and decided to play the good guy, then by now Wei Qian himself would definitely also have been a “black household.”

Wei Qian frowned. A local household registration was not so easy to get, and on this matter he truly had no solution.

Le-ge deliberately paused for a while, letting him worry properly for a bit, before leisurely opening his mouth and saying, “If you trust me, why don’t you leave this matter to me for now? What do you think?”

Wei Qian froze on the spot. “I… I, this… this matter is so…”

For a moment he could hardly get out a complete sentence. Wei Qian lowered his head with a somewhat embarrassed smile and mocked himself, “Damn it, I’m practically getting infected by Ma Zi’s stutter.”

Le-ge fondly rubbed his head once, then waited at ease for his answer.

Although Le-ge was young, he was an ambitious man, and his ambitions all ran down crooked paths.

He was quite calculating, suspicious, and full of schemes. He knew that if he wanted to accomplish something in the future, he had to have his own diehard loyalists. In the process of paving the road for himself, he set his sights on Wei Qian. First of all, Wei Qian was the right age, fourteen or fifteen, exactly the age when a person half understood and half did not. Sensible, but not too sensible. Treat him a little well, and he would easily become completely devoted. Among so many little brothers, Le-ge had singled out Wei Qian alone because Wei Qian could mix, could fight, and could go all out without hesitation. Those three qualities alone were already rare, and on top of that, he could even study.

The first time Le-ge heard that this kid could actually take the high school entrance exam, and could even do so well on it, he was simply shocked. Even though Le-ge already counted as somebody in the local area, he was still a big thug who had climbed up from being a small-time hoodlum, and had never had the slightest connection to something like “studying.”

A little brat like Wei Qian, even if he had been born into a somewhat poorer but ordinary family, would definitely become someone great in the future. Yet fate had treated him with such neglect, and nothing could have suited Le-ge’s wishes better. Le-ge felt as if he had gone out to the flower-and-bird market to buy a stone, only to pick up a priceless antique bargain instead.

As Le-ge saw it, the only problem was that Wei Qian’s temperament was a little hard to handle. Although he very rarely held a certain amount of awe toward him, he was absolutely the sort of person who did not want to ask anyone for help.

Supporting a half-grown boy through high school did not cost much, not with Le-ge’s current financial resources. Even sending a child abroad to study would not count for much. For the sentiment of offering charcoal in the snow, he was not afraid that Wei Qian would not one day repay him with utter loyalty and total sacrifice.

Le-ge could tell that this child was heavy-hearted and thin-skinned. A person like that probably could not do something as ungrateful as forgetting kindness.

At that time, household registration rules were much looser than they later became. As long as you had the right connections and spent a bit of money, there was still some room to work things out. But no matter how workable it was, it was not within Wei Qian’s abilities. So after thinking it over, he did not cluelessly refuse. Instead, he silently marked this down in his heart against Le-ge. This was a debt of human favor, and he would have to repay it.

Le-ge casually chatted with him for a bit longer and did not mention the matter of tuition. No matter what, the household registration was something Wei Qian could not handle, and the boy could still accept that. But he could not bring up the tuition problem. If he did, it would instead be too easy to wound a young boy’s pride.

But Le-ge was not in a hurry. He could tell that Wei Qian truly wanted to study, otherwise his grades could not possibly be that good. So he waited. Sooner or later, Wei Qian would come to ask him of his own accord. As Wei Qian was leaving, Le-ge said to him meaningfully, “Why are you being polite with your brother? Qian’er, remember this. If you run into any difficulty in the future, you can come find me. You hear? As long as it’s within my ability, even if the sky falls, your brother can hold it up for you. Don’t keep it all bottled up by yourself. Who told us to be good brothers?”

After speaking, he gave Wei Qian’s shoulder a hard pat. Looking at the flustered young boy, he felt quite pleased with himself, thinking this had really been a masterstroke, with hints buried like grass-snake and gray-line, hidden veins stretching for a thousand miles. With talents and foresight like this, if he did not accomplish great things in the future, it would practically be against heaven’s justice.

1) 猪八戒 A character from the classic Chinese novel Journey to the West, depicted as a pig-like humanoid; he is known for his gluttony, laziness, and lust, but also for his loyalty and occasional bravery.

2) 三哥 San-ge

3) 虚 A Chinese term meaning “weak,” “frail,” or “lacking strength.

4) 黑户 A person not officially registered in the household registration (hukou) system, effectively lacking legal identity papers and access to public services.