Chinese Literature

“Sister dear, you’d better go to the pigsty and have a look at the two pigs which have been grunting all the time. They’re probably hungry because the kitchen-maid never gives them enough to eat.”

Hight months had passed and winter came. The young woman became fussy about her food. She had little appetite for regular meals

and always felt like eating something different—noodles, potatoes and

so on. But she soon got tired of noodles and potatoes, and asked for meat dumplings. When she ate a little too much she got sick. Then she felt a desire for pumpkins and plums—things that could only be had in summer. The scholar knew what all this meant. He kept smiling all day and gave her whatever was available. He went to town himself to get her tangerines and asked someone to buy her some oranges. He often paced up and down the veranda, muttering to himself. One day, he saw the young woman and the kitchen-maid grinding rice for the New Year festival. They had hardly started grinding when he said to the young woman, “You’d better have a rest now. We can let the farmhand do it, since everybody is going to eat the cakes.”

Sometimes in the evening, when the rest of the household were chatting, he would sit alone near an oil lamp, reading the Book of Songs: “Fair, fair,” ery the ospreys On the island in the river. Lovely is this noble lady, Fit bride for our lord.

WO) ROOF Os 6) Oo RIO 85) Cam oO

The farm-hand once asked him,

“Please, sir, what are you reading this book for? You’re not going to sit for a higher civil service examination, are you?”

' The scholar stroked his beardless chin and said in a gay tone,

“Well, you know the joys of life, don’t you? There’s a saying that the greatest joy of life is either to spend the first night in the nuptial chamber or to pass a civil service examination. As for me, I’ve already experienced both. But now there’s a still greater blessing in store for me.”

His remark set the whole household laughing—except for his wife and the young woman.

To the scholar’s wife all this was very annoying. When she first heard of the young woman’s pregnancy, she was pleased. Later, when she saw her husband lavishing attention on the young woman, she began to blame herself for being barren. Once, the following spring, it happened that the young woman fell ill and was laid up for three days with a headache. The scholar was anxious that she take a rest and frequently asked what she needed. This made his wife angry. She grumbled for three whole days and said that the young woman was malingerine.

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