Chinese Literature

“You lazy-bones, it took me all this time to wake you, and now you complain about its being too early!”

“‘Get up, get up!’ I don’t know what we get up in the dark for. We can toil our lives away, but we'll only be slaving for others.”

“You’re just lazy. Who’s slaving for others?”

“We are. Isn’t it S02 Once the rice is threshed, see how much you get from the crop.”

“Nonsense. I suppose you think a bunch of robbers will come and take everything? You’re a fool, and you’re just talking rubbish. You’ve oeen doing nothing but gadding about outside lately. You're so irresponsible you neglect everything at home. You've changed for the worse. People all say you are mixing with Big Lai and his likes all the time. You’ve probably become what they call a . . . communist!”

Uncle Yun-pu was really angry. He wanted to grab his son by the neck and give him a good beating so as to relieve the pent-up anger within him. His voice grew louder and louder as he fumed and cursed. Aunt Yun-pu was also awakened.

“What are you fussing about in the middle of the night? The children have worked hard all day. You should at least let them sleep a while. Look, it’s not even daylight yet.”

“Tt’s all your fault, you old witch, you produced these good-fornothing devils.”

“Whom are you cursing?”

‘Tt’?s you I’m cursing. You do nothing but spoil them.”

“All right! You hate them, do you? Take them and kill them one by one! Why torture them to death slowly? Or else you can sell them all so that they won’t be eyesores to you any longer. But why fuss and fume like this in the middle of the night?”

Uncle Yun-pu was now in a towering rage. He felt that recently his wife had been unreasonably lenient with the children, to the detriment of their family interests.

“You’re completely crazy. Don’t you want to eat? You... .”

“What if I am crazy? But you, you sell your own daughter so as to eat; now perhaps you’ll want to sell your sons! You just give me back my Ying-ying. Oh, I simply don’t want to live any more! Ah... ah... .”

Crying and screaming she rushed at Yun-pu. The thought of her daughter Ying-ying made her hate Yun-pu so much that she wanted to scratch his eyes out.

‘Why bring up Ying-ying? After all we didn’t sell Ying-ying for my sake alone.” Uncle Yun-pu turned away from her, and left. But the thought of Ying-ying brought involuntary tears to his eyes.

' “Give me back my Ying-ying... .” Dawn was breaking in the east. The sons stood there rooted to the

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