Chinese Literature
29
“Tm going to leave you tomorrow... .
“What?” the child did not quite understand what she meant and instinctively cuddled closer to her.
“Tm not coming back, not for three years!”
She wiped away her tears. The little boy became inquisitive,
“Mummy, where are you going? To the temple?”
“No. I’m going to live with the Li family, about thirty li away.”
“I want to go with you.”
“No, you can’t, darling!”
“Why?” he countered.
“You'll stay home with daddy, he’ll take good care of you. He’ll sleep with you and play with you. You just listen to daddy. In three ViCanSs = . 50
Before she had finished talking the child sadly interrupted her,
“Daddy will beat me!”
“Daddy will never beat you again.’”’ Her left hand was stroking the Scar on the right side of the boy’s forehead—a reminder of the blow dealt by her husband with the handle of a hoe.
She was about to speak to the boy again when her husband came in. He walked up to her, and fumbling in his pocket, he said,
“Tve got seventy dollars from them. They’ll give me the other thirty dollars ten days after you get there.” ;
After a short pause, he added, “They’ve promised to take you there in a sedan-chair.”
After another short pause, he continued, “The chair carriers will come to take you early in the morning as soon as they’ve had breakfast.’
With this he walked out again.
That evening, neither he nor she felt like having supper.
‘The next day there was a spring drizzle.
The chair carriers arrived at the crack of dawn. The young woman had not slept a wink during the night. She had spent the time mending Chun Pao’s tattered clothes. Although it was late spring and summer was near, she took out the boy’s shabby cotton-padded winter jacket and wanted to give it to her husband, but he was fast asleep. Then she sat down beside her husband, wishing to have a chat with him. But he slept on and she sat there silently, waiting for the night to pass. She plucked up enough courage to mutter a few words into his ear, but even this failed to wake him up. So she lay down too.
As she was about to doze off, Chun Pao woke up. He wanted to get up and pushed his mother. Dressing the child, she said,
“Darling, you mustn’t ery while I’m away or daddy will beat you. I'll buy sweets for you to eat. But you mustn’t ery any more, darling.”
The boy was too young to know what sorrow was, so in a minute he began to sing. She kissed his cheek and said,
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