Chinese Stories in English
Stories Magazine (Page 06)
Stories from Stories Magazine Compilation #145 《故事会合订本145》上海文化出版社
Page citation and link to online Chinese text noted after each story.
1. Wrongly Accused Thief 3. Cat’s Got Their Tongues
2. Lost and Found 4. Ups and Downs
1. The Wrongly Accused Thief (委屈的贼)
Ayang (阿杨)
Someone’s Under the Bed
Around 7:00 p.m. on a late October evening, the lights in the ancient city of Liaoyang were just coming on when the police received a report that a resident of the Sunshine Community had caught a burglar. The police went to the scene and found a burly, middle-aged man holding a young fellow with a bloody nose and a bruised face. A plump, middle-aged lady with pretty features stood next to them.
The middle-aged man identified himself as Lucky Wang, a long-distance semitruck driver in his early forties. He made good money, but the work was demanding and he was often away from home. The woman was his wife, Springtime Charmer Song.
Lucky had come home earlier than expected that day. Springtime wasn’t there, so he hid in the wardrobe in the living room hoping to give her a pleasant surprise when she got there. A couple of minutes after she arrived, he heard the door being shut tight and latched again. He tiptoed out and saw his wife busy in the kitchen, so he went up and hugged her from behind. When she turned and saw her husband, she happily hugged him back.
The couple couldn't stop caressing each other as they headed for the bedroom. As soon as they fell into bed together, they heard a noise from somewhere nearby.
The Wangs’ condo had two bedrooms on opposite sides of a living room. The couple’s son lived in his high school’s dormitory now, so his bedroom door was usually locked. The living room wasn’t large and could be taken in with one glance, and they hadn’t noticed anything unusual when they’d passed through it. The only obvious place someone could hide was under the bed in the master bedroom.
Lucky’s head buzzed at the thought of someone under his bed. Why would anyone be there? Had a man come there to see his wife? No, Springtime was alluring but trustworthy. She worked as a kitchen helper in a restaurant every day to supplement the family income. How could such a good wife be unfaithful?
Who could be hiding under the bed? A thief? They kept no cash or valuables in the house. That’s when it occurred to Lucky: “I came back early without telling her! Could my wife really be having an affair…?” He reached out, grabbed the bed sheet and held it up, and saw a black shadow jump out from under the bed and rush out the bedroom door!
So, there was someone! Lucky chased out of the room after him, but the guy turned into the kitchen instead of heading outside. Uh-oh, he was going for a kitchen knife, an act of desperation by a cornered animal! Lucky promptly shot into the kitchen and, sure enough, saw the man groping around on the chopping board. He rushed up behind the guy, grabbed his hair, jerked him back and held him tightly.
Lucky got a better look at the fellow when the three of them arrived at the police station. He noted that the “thief” was a good-looking young man with delicate features. Lucky’s heart beat fast: a woman would naturally be attracted to such a handsome stud! Springtime spoke up. “I think there must be a misunderstanding, Comrade officer. This young fellow looks kind of familiar....”
A Romantic Marriage Proposal
Lucky was furious. What the hell? His wife was standing up for the guy at such a time. Was there really something fishy going on? He shouted at the policeman, “Hiding under someone's bed in the middle of the night, is that something a decent person would do? Please, officer, don't get taken in by his pitiful appearance!”
The police naturally wouldn’t show favoritism to either side. After repeated questioning and patient persuasion, the “burglar” finally opened up. His name was Eternally Peaceful Liu, and he worked for an IT company. He’d met his girlfriend, Dawn Flaxseed, online. She lived in another city and was beautiful, tall, mild-mannered and considerate.
Dawn said she worked for an investment company and her job kept her very busy. Peaceful worked even more irregular hours, so they’d only met face-to-face one time during the two months they’d been together. That time Peaceful treated Dawn to a meal of local specialties, but it was obvious that the food didn’t suit her taste. He asked her about it and learned that she liked seafood. Her favorite dish was steamed sea bass.
Although she didn't enjoy the meal, she didn't complain at all. Peaceful apologized profusely and offered to take her clothes shopping. She said it wasn’t easy to make money these days, so she shouldn't spend money recklessly. Later on, after she got married, she’d be even more prudent and frugal.
Peaceful was quite moved. His financial situation was nothing special, and wasn’t it great karma accumulated over several past lives that he’d met such a beautiful, mild-mannered and considerate girlfriend? So he mustered up the courage to propose to her.
But Dawn said she was under too much pressure at work recently and would consider getting married only after a performance evaluation. When Peaceful inquired further, she said her employer had launched a new investment product with a high rate of return, but because it was new on the market, the performance evaluation for subscriptions was slow in getting done.
Peaceful heard that this product’s rate of return was as high as eight points, much better than expectations. He thought that wasn’t bad at all, so he transferred all his savings to Dawn and asked her to subscribe to it for him. He’d given her a total of two hundred thousand yuan for the buy-in.
Dawn became more amiable after that. She no longer dodged his proposal and consented to marry him. He was so excited that he spent twenty thousand yuan on a diamond ring and booked a dinner at the most upscale seafood restaurant in the city. He wanted to make the formal proposal a ceremonious occasion for her.
He’d heard from colleagues that girls nowadays like romance, so he got creative. He came up with the idea of putting the diamond ring in the fish's belly. The brother of one of his colleagues happened to be a chef at that restaurant. When Peaceful told this chef about his idea, the fellow patted his chest and promised, “Don't worry. I, Chef Jiang, guarantee to get it done right for you!”
Peaceful came to the restaurant early on the appointed day with a big bouquet of roses. He went to the kitchen and handed the diamond ring to Chef Jiang. The chef brought out a sea bass and told him, “This fish is reserved for you. I’ll cut a mark on the fish’s head as a reminder to make sure nothing goes wrong.” Then, with Peaceful watching, he hid the ring in the fish's belly.
A Strange Combination of Circumstances
Peaceful sat at the table waiting, imagining how surprised Dawn would be. When the restaurant opened for dinner, a group of guests came in and was seated at a nearby table. They also ordered steamed sea bass.
Peaceful kept an eye on them. When the bass was served, he took a close look at the fish’s head and was shocked to see that it bore the cuts made by Chef Jiang. He stood up at once and sprinted over to their table. They were picking up their chopsticks to start eating when he declared, “You guys, there’s something wrong with this fish. The kitchen made a mistake. We have to take it back and redo it. By way of apology, I’ll waive the entire cost of the meal for your table. Is that okay?”
Without another word, as soon as they heard that their meal would be free, they told Peaceful to take the fish back to the kitchen right away. An irate Peaceful went looking for Chef Jiang, but he wasn’t in the kitchen. An apprentice said that the manager had just asked him to do something.
Chef Jiang came back to the kitchen after a while and discovered that the bass had been steamed and served. He apologized to Peaceful and called the apprentice over to lecture him. It turned out that the apprentice thought that steamed sea bass was easy to make and wanted to show off his skills before the master returned, so he steamed a fish he found lying on the counter and served it.
When Chef Jiang learned that Peaceful had taken the fish back at the cost of paying the other guests’ bill, he patted his chest and said, “I didn’t expect anything like that to happen. I'll pay for those people’s meal. Call it a gift from my brother to his future sister-in-law.” As he spoke, he deliberately put the fish in a corner to keep it from being served again.
Peaceful breathed a sigh of relief. After all, he’d been more frightened than harmed. He looked at his watch and saw that it was past time for Dawn to arrive. She hadn't shown up yet, though, and he couldn't get through on the phone. He was quite anxious and wondered if he should go to the bus stop to meet her. Once that thought occurred to him, he couldn't sit still and decided to go to the bus stop. But the diamond ring was still in the fish's belly. All right, he might as well give it to her in person, so he went to the kitchen again to get it.
Chef Jiang was so busy he couldn’t stand still. It was the evening rush hour and a lot of customers had come to the restaurant, so the kitchen was extremely busy. Peaceful found him and said he wanted to get the ring. The chef pointed to the corner and said, “I put the fish over there. Don't worry, the servers will never touch anything there.”
Peaceful went over and saw that the place was full of leftover food, but the steamed bass was missing. Chef Jiang asked around and found out that Springtime might have taken it when she got off work just then. The restaurant allowed employees to take leftover food home.
A “Thief’s” Guilty Conscience
Luckily Chef Jiang knew Springtime's home address, so Peaceful promptly took a taxi there. He was planning to approach her and explain the situation as soon as she got home. He waited and waited but no one showed up. He was wondering what to do when, out of the blue, Springtime flashed by on an electric bike. He yelled after her a few times, but she was wearing headphones and listening to music, as was her habit, and couldn’t hear anyone calling her at all. Peaceful was bashful by nature and couldn’t think of anything to say as he ran after her, so he ended up following her to her doorstep.
He was surprised to see that she didn't even close the door when she went in. Instead she went straight into the kitchen to put a bag of food on the table. He could think of nothing but the diamond ring and was eager to find the fish, so, rather befuddled, he walked straight into the condo. Right then Springtime seemed to remember that she’d forgotten to close the door, so she turned back to lock it. Still not thinking straight, for some strange reason Peaceful decided to hide. He glanced around and saw that the only place was under the big bed, so that’s where he went.
Telling his story to the police, Peaceful could no longer hold back at this point and started crying. “Oh, my diamond ring!” The police verified his statement and proved that he was telling the truth. Chef Jiang in particular pointed to his chest and said it was all his fault, and that Peaceful was a good man.
The misunderstanding was resolved after Lucky and his wife heard the whole story. Springtime remembered that Peaceful looked familiar because she’d seen him in the restaurant. Lucky looked at his wife and thought, “Hey, such a good wife, it was crazy of me to think what I did!”
The “burglar” was cleared of all charges, but another suspect caught the police's attention: Peaceful's girlfriend Dawn. Many people had reported the so-called investment product, suspecting it was an illegal equity financing scheme. The police compared a photo of Dawn provided by Peaceful with one of a women involved in many previous online “pig-killing” scams and found that they looked alike. The police thereupon conducted multi-faceted investigations including strict surveillance. In one fell swoop, they annihilated a gang of swindlers in their province.
Peaceful came to the Public Security Bureau again a month later. They placed two hundred thousand yuan in cash in front of him, as well as a confession from “Dawn”.
Peaceful hadn't expected that. After the incident at the restaurant, he hadn't been able get Dawn on the phone, nor could he contact her online. He’d had some doubts, but he’d still been unwilling to believe that such a gentle, beautiful and considerate girl could be a con artist. He’d been disappointed in an affair of the heart, but at least he'd recovered the two hundred thousand yuan he’d saved up with great difficulty. That was worth celebrating. He started to feel that he really hadn’t been wronged after all. Call it a blessing in disguise!
Text on p. 2-023. Also available here.
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2. Lost and Found (失物招领)
Huang Chaopeng (黄超鹏)
Sunrise Lu was a bus driver. One evening he was driving the last bus and not many passengers were on board. Only a few stops after leaving the departure station, an old man walked up to the driver's seat, holding the handrail, and said to him, “I just found a wallet under the seat, sir. I asked the other passengers, and they all said it wasn’t theirs. What do you think, should I give it to you, or….”
Sunrise was focused on driving and didn't even turn around. He glanced at the old man in the rearview mirror and said impatiently, “First, please sit down. It's not safe to stand. Besides, I'm driving! If you found money, you can give it to the police, or you can come with me to the terminal and hand it in. There’s a lost and found office there, but it's still more than ten stops away.”
In fact, it’s acceptable to turn in money found on a bus to the driver. Sunrise just thought it was too much trouble. He’d have to file a report when he got to the terminal. Sometimes, if the owner couldn’t be found or the item was too valuable, he’d have to check the video or call the police, which was overly time-consuming.
The old man frowned and started to say something but then stopped. Sunrise promptly told him, “First, please go back to your seat. Safety first.”
The old man had no choice but to do what he was told and sit down. Before long the bus stopped, and he jumped up and got off. “So, he’s leaving. It's none of my business.” Sunrise watched him go out of the corner of his eye and breathed a sigh of relief.
Sunrise hummed a song while he drove the rest of the way to the terminal. He was about to take a break after parking the bus when he touched his pocket. “Oh, no!” he cried out at once. The wallet that had been in his pants pocket was missing!
He started to sweat. He went back to the bus right away to look around but found nothing. It occurred to him that the wallet the old man had picked up might be his, so he turned on the surveillance video straightaway to check. Sure enough, he saw that he’d taken the bus keys from his pocket when he got on the bus through the back door, and didn't notice that he pulled the wallet out with them. It fell under the seat near the back door.
Sunrise was shaken. There were no documents in the wallet, and only a few hundred yuan, but it was a gift from his new girlfriend and was particularly important to him. He didn't know why the old man got off the bus before reaching the terminal. Had he changed his mind and decided not to turn it in?
Sunrise was filled with anguish. He was worried that, if he reported the situation, his boss would watch the video and find out that he’d turned the old man down when he wanted to hand in the lost property. His boss wouldn’t sympathize with him for his loss and would blame him for not doing his duty!
Sunrise figured the old man must be a frequent passenger on some of the nearby bus lines, so he took a picture of the old man from the video and posted it on a private chat group to which several drivers belonged. He asked everyone to keep an eye out for the guy.
The next day, Sunrise was on a break when his colleague Young Li called him. He said that the old man Sunrise was looking for had just gotten on his bus. He also made it a point to ask if Sunrise wanted to know where the old man was going to get off.
Sunrise promptly hailed a taxi when he heard the news and, burning with impatience, sped to the stop where the old man was going to get off to wait for him. The bus arrived after a moment and the old man did indeed step off. Sunrise walked up and stopped him. “Do you remember me, Uncle?” he asked.
The old man looked at Sunrise with a confused look on his face.
“It doesn't matter if you don't remember me,” Sunrise continued. “Did you find a wallet on the bus yesterday? I was driving that bus.” The old man nodded, and Sunrise snapped, “Do you have the wallet with you?”
“The wallet?” the old man replied. “I handed it in at the station.”
Sunrise snorted under his breath when he heard that. He suspected the old man was lying and had probably kept the money. “I doubt that. I asked the people at the terminal and no one came to turn in lost property yesterday. To tell you the truth, I lost that wallet. If you return it to me now, I won't pursue it. Otherwise...”
The old man was nervous, too. “I really did hand it in,” he insisted. “If you don't believe me, you can call the people at the station and ask them. They also told me I could’ve handed the lost property to the driver and not have to make a special trip.”
Sunrise's face turned from white to red. “Okay, I'll call now. If it’s not there, I'll call the police,” he threatened. He took out his cell phone and was about to dial when it rang.
The call was from a colleague at the bus terminal. He said that a passenger reported finding a wallet on Sunrise’s route the previous evening. The owner hadn’t come in to claim it, so he wanted to confirm the situation with Sunrise.
Sunrise hung up the phone, not knowing what to say. It appeared that the old man hadn’t lied.
The old man smiled. “How you feeling? Relieved?”
“You really went to the station to hand in the lost property, but why did you get off the bus halfway there?”
“Oh, I could’ve gone to the terminal, but when I found the wallet, I’d asked the other passengers and none of them claimed it. So I figured, obviously, the owner had already gotten off. Since we’d just left the departure station, I guessed that the owner would go back there to look for it. So I got off, went to the other side of the road and took another bus back there….”
A light bulb lit up in Sunrise’s head. His face got even redder.
The old man looked at him and smiled gently. “Since it’s your wallet, you should go claim it on the double! Child, believe that if you’re a conscientious person, pleasant surprises will come to you in return.”
Sunrise bowed deeply to the old man, as if he’d found something more important than his wallet.
Text on p. 2-028. Also available here.
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3. Cat’s Got Their Tongues (锯了嘴的葫芦)
Tong Shumei (童树梅)
Wheat harvest season had arrived. It used to be that strong laborers were the most sought-after people because everyone had to hire workers to help with the harvest. Now that agriculture has become mechanized and manual labor isn’t needed, mechanized harvesters have become the most sought-after things. They’re faster than manual labor, more labor-saving and more economical. At this time of year, everyone scurries to book a harvester.
However, while harvesters were roaring away in most fields, one farm was different. Believe it or not, the crop was still being harvested manually. From a distance people saw two grown men harvesting the wheat, a scene that seemed reminiscent of bygone days.
Everyone was astounded. When they walked over to take a look, they saw that the men wielding the sickles were Seamount Han, whose family owned this field, and Justice Stalwart Hu, a tall, strong fellow whom everyone called “Big Hu”.
Someone just had to ask, “What’re you two doing, using manual labor to harvest your crops instead of a harvester? You have that much time to waste?” Seamount straightened up at the question and wiped the sweat off his face.
“What do you know about it?” he answered, his voice dripping with distain. “You only know how to harvest by machines. You save effort, but machines can’t harvest the crops cleanly. What’s more, they pollute the air with black smoke as soon as you start them. Eventually our village won’t be beautiful anymore because of the pollution. Get it?”
Everyone laughed at that. One of them said, “Machine harvesting does indeed knock down some of the wheat spikes, but how many? You hire Big Hu to help with the harvest, but aren’t you afraid the wages you pay him will far exceed what you’d lose from fallen spikes? Also, the sky is so vast, how much can the black smoke pollute?”
Seamount replied with even more disdain. “You guys, your vision is even shorter than your hair. You need to realize that pollution accumulates bit by bit. What’s more, why do people nowadays suffer from so many diseases? It's because they’re too greedy for the good life and aren’t willing to work for it. And harvesting wheat is great exercise, too! Don't you think so, Big Hu?”
Big Hu had been concentrating on cutting wheat, but he raised his head when he heard Seamount call him. He wiped the sweat off his face and flashed an innocent smile.
That got everyone talking. “Yes, it’s true. We are for sure getting lazier and fatter. Lots of people these days have trouble just bending down, let alone harvesting wheat. I suppose it won’t be good if things go on like this.”
For many days thereafter, while the villagers kept discussing the issue, Seamount continued using Big Hu to help his family harvest the wheat. His father-in-law, his uncle and his aunt all hired Big Hu to help them out as well. When they saw what Seamount was doing, a few families with small fields also hired Big Hu, if they felt hiring a harvester wasn’t worthwhile or if they couldn’t get one.
Big Hu was indeed a good hand at farm work. He brought in every grain and left the fields he worked clean and tidy. Everyone was glad to hire him. For a while, manual harvesting was as common as harvesters, to the point that everyone was asking, “Aren’t we going back in time?”
Winter arrived and, as usual, every household had to grind wheat or rice into flour: wheat flour for making steamed buns and dumplings, and rice flour for steamed cakes, pancakes and noodles. No matter how much time goes by, people will always love fine food, and the older and more traditional foods are the most pleasing to the taste.
All villages used to grind flour using stone mills powered by human labor, but now stone mills are being relegated to the dustbin of history and small electric mills have become popular. It’s just like what happened when harvesters were introduced to the farmlands.
Seamount was the only one worried about his family's millstone and stone pestle being idle. The village was on a vast plain which had no mountains or stones. His house had the only millstone and stone pestle in the village. Rice would be pounded with the stone pestle after it was ground in the millstone. It was so fragrant, sticky and chewable!
Seamount's grandfather got the millstone and pestle when he when he was young and went traveling around the country on a big ship. He brought them back with him and they became treasures for the whole village. Every household used to use them during the New Year. Seamount was quite strong, so he helped people grind and pound for a small fee. He was busy for some time before the New Year and earned a considerable amount of money.
This winter, however, no one came to use the mill. Someone had bought an electric mill for their home. The thing would start to turn when you pressed a switch, and it was much faster than the stone mill. It saved labor, too, and the price was about the same, so everyone went to that family to grind their flour.
Seamount worried about it for a while because his family needed the money. His mother had fallen seriously ill two months before, leaving Seamount and his wife to stay home and take care of her. The family's income dropped sharply because they couldn't go out to work. He’d expected to make a bunch of cash from the mill before the New Year, but now that hope was gone.
Someone came to the door early one morning, shouting, “Seamount, are you home? I’m here to grind some flour.” Surprised, Seamount went out and found Big Hu and his wife pushing a wheelbarrow with several bags full of wheat. Seamount didn’t know what to say and stammered, “This, this….”
“What’s up, Seamount?” Big Hu bellowed. “I've come to grind some flour. Doesn't that make you happy?”
Seamount's wife reacted first. “Of course it does,” she answered cheerfully. “What sense would it make to turn you away?”
And so the four of them got busy without delay. First, they cleaned the dust off the millstones, then the two women put in the wheat while the two men worked together to turn the mill, “whoosh, whoosh”, a sound that hadn’t been heard for a long time.
The neighbors noticed the noise and they all came to see what was going on. Everyone was talking and laughing when someone blurted out, “I don't mean to rain on your parade, Seamount, but I’ve just got to say something. Big Hu, nowadays we all use an electric machine to grind flour. It’s fast, labor-saving and economical. Are you living in the past?”
Big Hu wasn’t happy to hear that. In a caustically bitter tone of voice, he replied, “What are you talking about? This is living in the past? Pah! You don't know how to enjoy life! All you know is the fast-food life.”
Everyone laughed at that. The man even teased, “Oh, Big Hu’s been working for wages for a few months, and now he can talk the talk.”
Big Hu was serious about it. “Do I sound like I'm joking? Let me ask you this. An electric grinder is fast, that’s for sure, but how does the flour it produces feel in your mouth? Can it match the texture of flour ground by hand? Our lives are so busy that we aren't inclined to make any effort to produce good food. What's the point? What are we living for?” Big Hu's words seemed to have hit the nail on the head, and everyone kept silent.
“Also,” he added, “if we were using an electric mill, would the four of us, Seamount and I and our wives, have a chance to get together and shoot the breeze and joke around? Why do we celebrate the New Year? It's the excitement and the comradery. Everyone says New Year’s isn’t fun anymore, but really, haven't we brought that on ourselves? Everyone wants to stay home alone to avoid hassles, so of course the New Year's holds no interest. The way I see it, you guys, stone mills and pestles can be considered rural folk culture. Am I right?”
Someone whispered, “That makes sense. If we’re lazy about the food we eat, what spice is there in life? That does it! I'll go home and get some wheat, too! Seamount, I'll be first in line for the next spot, okay?”
Seamount agreed. His voice trembled a bit.
Everyone shouted, wanting to be next. “Seamount, if my family is next after him, we’ll grind some, too!”
An old man shouted out, his face twisted with anger, startling everyone. At first they thought something terrible had happened, but then they laughed. The old man yelled: “Right on! I told my son I wanted to grind our flour here, but he insisted that the electric grinder was faster. The flour had no taste when I ate it. How could that seem like New Year’s? I'm your next customer, Seamount!”
At that everyone left, still brimming with excitement. They went home to get their wheat and rice.
Big Hu and his wife finished grinding their flour before long. The two men shook hands vigorously and smiled at each other before going their own way.
Big Hu's wife looked around while they were on the way home. When she saw that no one was around, she whispered, “Big Hu, we took our flour to Seamount to grind because his family needed the business. Truth is, we were looking for an excuse to help him out. But look at the guy, he didn't even say a word of thanks.”
Big Hu waved his hand. “It's not like that,” he declared. “Seamount understands, but he just didn't say anything. I know him. Remember when he hired me to harvest wheat? Our family was hurting for cash at the time. You were sick, and I couldn't go out to work. Our daughter was in college and we had to send her money every month. It was really rough! That’s when he came and asked me to help with the harvest. He had me work his father-in-law’s field, too, and his uncle’s and his aunt’s fields as well. That got lots of other people to hire me, which helped us get through the hard times. Did he really have to hire me? No, he was also just looking for a way to help. Isn't that how it is between people?”
His wife listened without any expression. When he finished, she looked at him with admiration and said, “I'm convinced. A cat got all of you guys’ tongues.... “
Text on p. 2-031. Also available here.
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4. Ups and Downs (河东河西)
Ren Liming (任黎明)
Second Shi waited on tables in a teahouse at the entrance of Willow Tree Town. He often strayed from the straight and narrow. He also knew everything that was going on in Willow Tree Town like the palm of his hand.
One day a family in Rivulet Village was holding a banquet at noon in the town to welcome a new daughter-in-law into their family. Second was going to go join in the fun.
A man Second knew came into the teahouse at ten that morning. His name was Surplus Liu and he lived in the Upriver District of Rivulet Village. His family situation wasn’t good. His son Abundance had moved away from the village and wasn’t doing well. Surplus hadn’t seen his son come home for several years.
Surplus rarely visited the teahouse, and today he looked dazzling in a Western-style suit and leather shoes. He asked Second to serve tea and bought half a pound of melon seeds to go with it.
Second asked, "Uncle Surplus, aren’t you here a little early for the banquet?" Before he finished the question, another man came into the teahouse. He also lived in Rivulet Village, but across the river from Surplus in the Downriver District. His name was Kernal Sun. He and Surplus had been ardent competitors since they were young.
Surplus raised his voice to answer Second’s question when saw Kernal come in. "The banquet’s secondary. The main thing is to wait for my son, Abundance. He’s coming home to celebrate New Year’s with us. He’s an ambitious child and said he'd come home only after he made something of himself. He became a manager this year and bought a house in the city, so he wants to come back and see how things are."
Second knew that Surplus’s words were intended for Kernal’s ears. When Kernal’s son, Pip Sun, had started a company and become rich a few years previously, he’d built a house and bought a car for his father. Once the family had money, there were always people visiting their house to socialize. Second went there, too, but he sneaked in at night. He’d stolen five thousand yuan and a watch without any effort. Last year, Kernal revealed that his son's company had gone bankrupt and owed a pile of foreign debts. The social life at the family’s home cooled off and Second never went there again.
Second was about to welcome Kernal to the teahouse, but Surplus chimed in first. "Kernal, my man, let me treat you to some tea. Second, bring another cup!" Kernal obviously didn't expect Surplus to be so friendly. He took two cigarettes from his bag, but Surplus held him off with a smile. "Have one of mine!" he said. He tossed a pack of expensive Zhonghua cigarettes on the table.
Kernal smiled, "Good smokes,” he commented. “Seems Abundance is indeed showing promise. You have a good life ahead of you! Better than mine.
"Life has its ups and downs,” Surplus replied, still smiling. “Who knows, maybe your son Pip will turn his life around in a few years."
Second could see that Kernal didn’t want to sit at the same table with Surplus. He managed to down two sips of tea and then excused himself.
Surplus called his son as soon as Kernal left. Second could barely hear him telling Abundance to come home in a car. At noon, a brand new, chauffeured BMW brought Abundance to the entrance of the teahouse. Surplus dropped his teacup and ran up to it just as it came to a stop. "Let's drive two hundred meters ahead and go directly to the banquet," he yelled.
After Surplus left, Second closed the teahouse and went to the restaurant where the banquet was being held to volunteer to help out. He saw Surplus standing in front of the BMW with Abundance in tow, chatting gleefully and loudly in front of a group of villagers.
Surplus deliberately pulled Abundance over to sit next to Kernal when the banquet started. He was in high spirits and asked Abundance to toast Kernal, who responded politely.
Kernal’s son Pip came in halfway through the banquet. He arrived on foot. When Surplus saw him, he welcomed him with open arms and pulled him over to sit down. "Say, Pip,” he asked, “what kind of car did you come in?"
"I took a bus, Uncle."
Surplus patted his shoulder. "Gosh, if I’d known, I would’ve asked Abundance to bring you!"
Surplus kept spouting off throughout the banquet. Kernal and his son said nothing and ate with their heads down.
After the banquet, the time came to pay the “compensatory gift”. Willow Tree Town still goes by the old rules and has a "gentleman accountant" publicly record the gift money in a big book. That way everyone knows at a glance who’s given how much. Most rural people attend these functions to have a good time, so they usually pay a hundred yuan or so.
Kernal had paid eight hundred yuan every time in the past few years because his family was so well off. Since last year, though, his standard of living had plummeted, so this time he and his son only paid a hundred yuan together. When Surplus saw that, he wasted no time pulling Abundance aside. He put a stack of banknotes on the table and said, "Abundance, pay a thousand yuan as a gift!" The villagers around him exclaimed in admiration. Second was also among the crowd, paying close attention to Surplus and his son.
After the ceremony, Surplus asked Abundance's driver to take people back to the village. Pip and his father started to walk back, and Surplus pointedly shouted to their backs, "Kernal, my man! Want a ride?"
Based on these observations, Second had no doubt that Surplus and his family were definitely in the money. He decided to go to their home that night to give himself a "year-end bonus".
Second sneaked into Rivulet Village at midnight. To his surprise, Surplus and his son were still awake and drinking in a side room, so he had to hide outside the back wall and wait.
Surplus picked up his wine glass and said to Abundance: "Have a drink, son. You did me a great honor today. You saw the gloomy expressions on Kernal and his son's faces. That really made me feel good! He used to show off in front of me a lot, and today can be considered my 'revenge'!"
Abundance sighed, "Dad,” he said, “I was promoted to manager but it's only an empty title. I just paid the down payment on my house, and I still owe the bank a lot of money."
"Look, that car today, how many people were jealous? Who’d suspect it's not your car? Who knows how much money you’ve got in the bank? But they’ll all look up to us...."
The father and son kept chatting, but Second couldn't wait any longer. So, the boy supposedly had no money! Second was unwilling to accept this and, since the father and son were both drunk and Abundance's door was wide open, he plucked up his courage and slipped inside. His eyes fell on Abundance's suitcase, but when he opened it, he found only a few sets of clothes and a few packs of cheap cigarettes.
"Shit!" He was furious and threw the cigarettes to the floor. The noise woke up Abundance’s mother in the next room. When she saw a stranger in her son's room, she shouted, "Stop, thief!" Second climbed over the wall as fast as he could and ran across the river on a small bridge. He saw Surplus and Abundance chasing him with flashlights, so he climbed into Kernal's courtyard in a hurry.
The shouting woke up Kernal and Pip. Kernal opened the door a crack to take a look. He seemed quite happy and told his son, "It's Abundance's house. Don't go out. Let's pretend to be asleep."
Second breathed a sigh of relief, but he couldn't get away just then because Kernal and Pip had sat down on recliners in the courtyard after they were awakened. They started talking.
Kernal asked his son, "You said you bought a new car. What kind of car is it? How does it compare to Abundance's BMW?"
Pip smiled. "Truth is, Dad, his car is actually mine." Kernal was shocked, but no more so than Second. He bent his ear and listened as Pip told his father the whole story.
Pip’s business had done fairly well that year, so he’d purchased the new car and hired a new driver. As he was on the way home through the provincial capital, he saw Abundance on the side of the road renting a car and bargaining with a driver. He was about to offer him a ride back to the village when he got a call from Kernal. He told Kernal he was coming home in a new car, and Kernal immediately asked him to leave the car and take a bus home.
When Pip realized that Abundance had been haggling with a driver for such a long time just to save a little money, he asked his own driver to take Abundance in his car. The price was no problem.
“Dad,” Pip asked, “I don't understand. Why are we pretending to be poor? Look at how pompous Success and Abundance acted today!"
Kernal laughed. "He did cut an impressive figure today, but he’ll pay for it in the future. Four or five families in the village are going to hold weddings this year. He gave a thousand yuan to that family today, so how can he give the others less than that? What’s more, all his connections from around the area will come to him when they have problems. We’ll see how much he’ll have to pay…. And look, his family has already been targeted by thieves. I'm afraid he won't be getting any peace from now on!"
"I get it,” Pip said. “It’s like what you experienced before, right? I still remember when our house got robbed."
"Yep. Success’s family was jealous of me for years because I was rich. They had no way of knowing the problems of rich people. It gives me great satisfaction to think about the hassles they’re going to face! I’ve been pretending to be poor for more than a year now, son, and my life has been much more peaceful!"
Second, still hiding in the dark, couldn’t believe his ears. He was on cloud nine again so quickly. It turned out that his trip here tonight wasn’t a waste after all. Richie Rich was right here! He slipped into Kernal's bedroom while the father and son were so happily engrossed in their conversation. Opening a drawer, he discovered several thick bundles of cash.
"Oh, boy!" He was so happy that his heart raced and his eyes sparkled. He couldn't keep from letting out a surprised cry as he stuffed the money into his pocket. But when he turned around, he found that he had a problem. He saw Kernal and Pip blocking the door...
Text on p. 2-035. Also available here.