Uncle Xu said that his second career ambition was to open up a hotel; what did he care if it was a drab joint like the ones we stayed in, with only a communal toilet and washroom? His number one goal was to have his own harbor port—but of course this was a dream that he could never realize. Even in his dreams he probably never thought he’d end up running a parking lot. But he wasn’t careful and ended up with a couple million NT, rented a plot of land, and all he could do was open up a parking lot—anyway, it’s a little like a port. And so this is Uncle Xu’s life. The night we switched to the second hotel, Uncle Xu came to visit us. He brought along a whole mess of pickled vegetables and beer just like he was calling on close friends. My guess was that he was just joking when he said he wanted to open a hotel like the one we were staying at. Who would be willing to live with several hundred cockroaches and spiders? In the middle of the night there were even bats that would fly in through the hole in the window screen. The walls and floors would strangely shake as if they had contracted some old person’s disease, always teetering and wobbling. It was as if the beer bottles and teacups could fall off the coffee table at any time. And then Uncle Xu, Annie, and Old Bull all laughed aloud.
“There she goes, bringing down the walls again.” As Uncle Xu spoke he poured me half a glass of beer. He continued chortling as he told the others, “And so that’s why I say the service business is tougher than anything out there.” They all broke out in laughter. I chuckled with them, though all the while I had no clue what they were laughing about. But all the same, I liked the feeling of everybody together having a good time. It was a bit like when I was little and used to play house, only this was much more realistic than any game of house.
I couldn’t tell you when exactly the earthquakelike trembling in the room ended because I was in the bathroom. As I was squatting over that toilet—which was seemingly doomed to never flush down its contents clean—I had to force myself to think of some happy and beautiful images. For example, Uncle Xu standing beside his very own harbor port. With a smile on his face and his hand waving, he welcomed large and small boats from all over the world. Getting off the ships were both foreigners and nationals; of course my classmates and I were there too. I introduced Huang Munan, Li Ahji, and Chen Xiaohao to Uncle Xu, saying, “This is the gang leader who took care of me while I was out in the streets. He used to run a parking lot, but now he’s doing big business at the harbor port, he’s doing really well.” I would also introduce my classmates to my brothers Little Horse, Little Xinjiang, Old Bull, and Ahzhi. Everybody would be really happy getting to know each other. As soon as my imagination got to this point I heard a sudden scream. I couldn’t tell if the sound came from nearby or far away, but one thing was certain—it was a woman’s scream. At first I thought it must be Annie, but right afterward I heard the sound of Annie’s and the others’ giggling coming from the room as if nothing had happened. So I went back to my port. I imagined everybody under a beach umbrella sipping iced black tea and beer, each person wearing a different-style pair of sunglasses. This time Annie was also there, but I didn’t make her as old as she really is—I made her just a tad bit older than me. She gazed at me from a short distance away, her love for me written all over her face. I told Huang Munan, “That’s my woman.”
It was a pity that at that moment someone banged loudly on the bathroom door.
Pounding on the door was a super-hefty giant, who must have been a sumo wrestler or something. Since he was only wearing his underwear, the fishy stench of his body flowed into the air like an exploding volcano. He gave me a malicious glare and I glared right back at him. As he slammed the door back shut, I cursed him: “Fuck!” What was I afraid of? All my friends were just around the corner. Rushing back to my hotel room, I turned my head to look back for a second and bumped into a woman. Originally this woman had been waiting in line behind that bastard sumo wrestler; she probably also had to use the toilet. As she waited there, she was attempting, strand by strand, to arrange her long, messy hair. I muttered my apologies, but she just gave me a wry smile.
Approximately ten minutes later I knew her name: Apricot. The instant she pushed open the door and strutted in, everyone except me stood up and gave her a round of applause and called out her name. Old Bull said, “Here she is, raw and in the flesh!” Uncle Xu said, “Long time no see.” Annie said, “You must be exhausted after a show like that.” Apricot herself said, “Damn it! The only reason I didn’t take any money from that john was because you guys were right here next door! You know, just before when I was screaming and moaning, it was all for you guys!” After that she flashed me a wink as if she were sharing some secret with me.
“This is Little Bull-boy,” Uncle Xu introduced me.
“I know, he’s one tough cookie.” Apricot winked at me again. She then took out a Marlboro, lit it up, and as she continued, a thin, long trail of smoke prepared to exit through the hole in the window screen. “So what’s up? I heard that you’ve run into another little complication.”
I think it was about this time that I passed out from all that booze. But later Apricot told me that Uncle Xu put something in my drink. After I heard this I was a bit pissed, but Apricot said it was for my own good. She said that there are some contradictions about making it in the streets—sometimes you want to know everything, and sometimes it’s best you don’t know so much. Whether I was drunk or drugged actually isn’t that important, I just hazily remember Uncle Xu asking Apricot to help him out with something when their voices began to slow down, and between every word was the sound of waves. Later I think Annie approached me and wrapped one hand around my cheek and caressed my hair with the other. The strange thing was that she really was wearing a pair of sunglasses.
At that port where the blaring of the sun causes everyone’s vision to go blurry and head to feel dizzy, people from all over the world come and go, and for some reason or another, everyone is happy. On the beach I heard people speaking in slow motion.
“This has nothing to do with whose territory it is! You do your business, and I’ll do mine!” a man said.
“That’s right! That’s how it’s always been,” a woman replied.
“He’s probably after me,” another woman said. “You know, Golden Nine’s place?”
Everybody was ecstatic, but for some reason I just couldn’t locate the people talking. I started to get a bit anxious. There were more and more people at the port, more and more people. But among the crowds there wasn’t a soul that I knew; I couldn’t find any of my friends. And then my father’s voice jumped into my ear: “Big Head! Why aren’t you wearing any pants?”
“I am wearing pants!” I retorted.