He decides to hold an Inaugural National Virgin Beauty Competition to make his reputation great again. The so-called hymen economy springs up along with the competition. The Liu Town, which is also known as the Baldy Li’s Town, is now named as Virgin Beauty Town. Song Gang leaves Liu Town with Wandering Zhou – a charlatan who makes a profit during the competition by selling fake hymen. They go to Shanghai, then travel to southern China. To make money, they try to sell different products, and Song Gang even has a breast surgery to better sell the Boobs bust-enhancing cream. Their cooperative charlatan journey ends up with Wandering Zhou’s drop out for taking care of his new-born daughter in Liu Town. While Song Gang is still on his journey, Baldy Li pays a Russian painter for a giant portrait and asks Lin Hong to unveil the portrait. Eventually, they cheat on Song Gang. Song Gang comes back to Liu Town and hears the affair between Baldy Li and Lin Hong. After the consideration for days, Song Gang releases and believes that Lin Hong should be with Baldy Li since the beginning. He writes two letters – one for Lin Hong and another for Baldy Li – and he kills himself on the railway. Baldy Li and Lin Hong notice the death of Song Gang when they sleep together. They are too late to regret it. On the next day, they receive Song Gang’s letters. The letter to Lin Hong demonstrates Song Gang’s love to her, and the letter to Baldy Li can be concluded by the last line: “even if heaven and earth were to be turned upside down, we would still be brothers…even if we are separated by life and death, we will still be brothers”. Three years after Song Gang’s death, people change in Liu Town. Lin Hong becomes a pimp and runs her prostitution business. Baldy Li decides to go outer space with the goal of placing Song Gang’s ashes in orbit to allow him traveling between the moon and stars. Yu Hua revisits themes of death, violence, and family that he has touched on in his earlier works. There are several other themes that are apparent throughout Brothers, a prominent theme would be suffering, which is prevalent in Baldy Li's early life, especially with all of his misfortunes that both of his parents and his stepfather died when he was very young. This also demonstrates how it is a novel of survival, as Baldy Li and his family initially came from nothing, forcing Baldy Li to fight for his success as an entrepreneur.