These days Hare-lipped Ah Bao is quite a celebrity on Fragrant Flower Bridge Street.
It all happened early one morning when the sky had just begun to brighten up. Someone saw Hare-lipped Ah Bao, a dirty, raggy bundle in his arms, hurrying home through the street. A short while later the sound of a baby crying came from inside his home.
From that morning on, the Residents Association folks found, Hare-lipped Ah Bao became quite a different person. Ever so often, with the baby in his arms, he would stand against the door or stroll in the street, humming a lullaby of some sort, so out of tune, to get the baby to sleep. Now and then he would bend to kiss the baby with his cleft lip. The kind of loving care he was giving the baby could more than match that of many young fathers.
It was said that Hare-lipped Ah Bao found the baby in a bathroom. The rumor spread far and wide but nobody dared to confront Ah Bao with it. Ah Bao’s thuggish reputation was well-known in the street. At the slightest provocation he would let you have it, cussing and punching, until you were completely down. Little Third-Born, one of his neighbors, had barely gathered enough courage to ask: “Ah Bao, are you the father of this illegitimate baby?” when Ah Bao glowered at him with such fury that he shook all over with fear.
When Ah Bao strolled in the street with the baby in his arms he was oblivious to the world around him.
One day, Ah Bao’s fiancée Fatty came to visit. Before long she burst into sobs. How could she, a shy girl, face the world now that Ah Bao had gotten a baby from nowhere? She asked Ah Bao to give the baby away, but Ah Bao didn’t want to hear about it, his eyes ablaze with fury.
People felt Ah Bao was being rather foolish to have ruined his own happiness for this abandoned baby. Not worth it.
Ah Bao, on his part, appeared as if nothing had happened.
A few days later a young couple came to see Ah Bao. Before long they erupted into a row. Ah Bao lost it again. He grabbed a broom and with it drove the couple to the street. They ran as fast as they could, rather embarrassed.
That same evening a residential police officer came to talk to Ah Bao. The couple were truly the biological parents of the baby, the officer said. They now realized their mistake and wanted their baby back. Ah Bao shouldn’t have reacted like that. As to his expenses, lost pay, and bonuses, he would be reimbursed accordingly. As he listened, Ah Bao looked pale as death and didn’t say a word. Finally, pressured by the police officer, he said, “I want to see something written down, that they will never abandon the baby again. Otherwise, don’t even think about it!”
The police officer smiled: “That’s easy. I’ll get it to you in no time.”
When the couple came to take the baby away, Ah Bao looked rather bad. They thanked him profusely, but he turned his back to them, his eyes shiny with mute anger.
People whispered: “Something is going to happen.” But nothing happened. The more observant among people noticed tears trickling down his cheeks.
The elderly in the neighborhood said Ah Bao had been an abandoned baby, too; it was Crippled Uncle Liu who had brought him up as his own.
(1993)