Chinese Literature

autumn, he fell sick. I haven’t been able to do anything for him because I haven’t had any money. So his illness is getting more serious. Tm afraid he won’t live unless we try to save him!” He continued after a short pause, “I’ve come to borrow some money from you... .”

Deep inside her, the young woman had the feeling that wild cats were scratching and biting her, gnawing at her very heart. She was on. the verge of bursting into tears, but on such an occasion when everybody ' was celebrating Chiu Pao’s birthday she knew she had to keep her emotions under control. She made a brave effort to keep back her tears and said to her husband,

“How can I get hold of any money? They give me twenty cents a month as pocket money here, but I spend every cent of it on my baby. What can we do now?”

Both were speechless for a while, then the youne woman asked again,

“Who is taking care of Chun Pao while you’re here?”

“One of the neighbours. I’ve got to go back home tonight. In fact I ought to be going now,” he answered, wiping away his tears.

“Wait a moment,” she told him tearfully, “let me go and try to borrow some money from him.”

And with this she left him.

Three days later, in the evening, the scholar suddenly asked the young woman,

“Where's the blue jade ring I gave you?”

“T gave it to him the other night. He pawned it.”

“Didn’t I lend you five dollars?” countered the scholar irritably.

The young woman, hanging her head, answered after a moment’s pause,

“Five dollars wasn’t enough

The scholar sighed deeply at this and said, “No matter how good I try to be to you, you still love your husband and your elder son more. I wanted to keep you for another couple of years, but now I think you’d better leave here next spring!”

The young woman stood there silent and tearless.

Several days later, the scholar again reproached her, “That blue jade ring is a treasure. I gave it to you because I wanted Chiu Pao to inherit it from you. I didn’t think you would have it pawned! It’s lucky my wife doesn’t know about it, otherwise she would make scenes for another three months.”

After this the young woman became thinner and paler. Her eyes lost their lustre; she was often subjected to sneers and curses. She was forever worrying about Chun Pao’s illness. She was always on the lookout for some acquaintance from her home village or some traveller going there. She hoped she could hear about Chun Pao’s recovery, but there was no news. She wished she could borrow a couple of dollars or buy

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