Chinese Literature

“But if she has to go far?”

“That will not happen, Sister.”

“Tt’s all the old devil’s fault, why didn’t he die an early death... .”

Ying-ying came out from the back room carrying baby Sze-hsi in her arms. With surprise and suspicion she glanced at the strange scene around her. She handed the baby to her mother and then stared at everyone in the room with big round eyes.

With the exception of the two outsiders, all present were again seized with heartache and remorse. ;

“Is she the one?” asked Hsia, the bearded man, who, having been nudged by Baldy, now began to stare at Ying-yineg.

After much negotiation, Hsia agreed to pay only two dollars for each year of the child’s life. Ying-ying was ten, so the price was set at twenty dollars. Both parties had to pay one dollar each to Baldy as commission.

“Ah, ah! What kind of a world is this?”

Uncle Yun-pu held the nineteen pieces of snow white silver in his hand, but he was so stunned by what had happened that he turned numb as a wooden block. With one sleeve he kept wiping the tears that welled from his eyes, and at the same time he stared unbelievingly at the money. “Oh, God! Is this the money for my precious, my Ying-ying!”

Mrs. Yun-pu changed Ying-ying into the clean patched suit and told her that she was going to Uncle Hsia’s house to have a few good meals and that she’d be coming back. But still Ying-ying could not hold back the rapidly flowing tears.

“Mama, can I come home tomorrow? I don’t want to go away alone and have things to eat.”

With tears in their eyes the family kept looking at Ying-ying. They couldn’t take their eyes off her. It was, after all, their last look at their little girl.

_ After Baldy had taken Ying-ying away, Mrs. Yun-pu behaved as one completely possessed. Several times she started out as if to chase after them. They heard Ying-ying turn back and call to them from a distance: “Oh, Mama, I don’t want to have a full stomach all by myself! I want to come home tomorrow... .”

Thus, for the time being, the family was able to keep alive. With the nineteen dollars they bought a little over two piculs of grain. It was enough to feed the five members of the family for about sixty days or more. The father and sons had to work hard on the farm to find new sources of income.

It was three days before Ching Ming that the sowing was to begin, but there was not a single household in the village that had the seeds to sow. For the solution of this problem, Mr. Ho went to the county seat to seek out the county magistrate. Unless the sowing was done in time there would be no harvest in the autumn.

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