Explore Chapter 12 of '老张的哲学' with the original Chinese text, English translation, detailed Chinese vocabulary explanations, and audio of the Chinese original. Listen and improve your reading skills.
Wang De, Li Ying, and Li Jing-Li Ying's sister-had grown up together, seeing each other daily in their childhood. After her uncle's business faltered, Li Jing moved to the city to live with her aunt. She attended school by day and helped with household chores in the evening. Now she had graduated and did not pursue further studies.
She was two years Li Ying's senior, yet in appearance she seemed the younger sister and he the elder brother. Her brows were delicate, her face round, and her eyes possessed a particular brightness and softness, lending her a quiet, refined air. As a child, she had loved Wang De even more than she loved Li Ying. She loved his mischievousness, his ready laughter, the single dimple, the jet-black, spirited pupils of his eyes…
In their youth, she would tell him jokes. He, in turn, would adapt her tales with a roll of his eyes and recount them back to her, sometimes twisting them beyond all recognition. If a day passed without meeting, they would still cross paths several times. And if a day truly passed without a meeting, they would meet several times over in their dreams. When they were apart, it was as if their hearts had been torn out and cast upon a desert, lashed by fierce winds, pelted by flying sand, seared by a blazing sun-their hearts shattered, charred, turned to drifting ash! When they met, they found solace and joy; their hearts were stitched together with the thread of affection.
They remained as fond of one another as in their childhood, yet unconsciously, something more had taken root in the depths of their hearts-an inexpressible sentiment. As children, when parted, they would weep, and weeping truly comforted them. Now, when parted, they would sit in blank stillness, brood in heavy silence, wishing they might perish rather than endure the separation. They knew not why it was so, much as a yellow butterfly pursues a white one without knowing why.
Their affection grew with the years. In their solitude, a faint starlight, a spark of vitality, would gleam, reflecting and quickening within each other. The profound fragrance of their hearts, though separated by worlds upon worlds, seemed destined to connect in a single strand, adrift upon an ocean of love beneath a sky of passion. When they met, they talked and laughed without a trace of shame. When they did not meet, they thought of one another without shame, even to the point of shamelessly wishing to sit together, live together, die together…
"Lao Zhang wants-" Wang De broke off as the street gate creaked. The aunt entered, her arms laden with parcels and jars.
The two hurried out to relieve her of her burdens. The aunt glanced at Wang De but said nothing. Wang De set the things on the table and, his face flushed, retreated to his little room.
Li Jing's aunt was about sixty, still hale and hearty. In feature, form, and attire, there was nothing to distinguish her from the ordinary. Place her among common Chinese women, and you would be hard-pressed to pick her out from the rest. Every trait of the average Chinese matron could be used to describe her, or she could be taken as their very representative.
She loved Li Ying and Li Jing truly, and she felt a genuine responsibility toward her brother-Li Ying's uncle-in watching over the young ones. She also bore a solemn, self-respecting sense of duty toward the ancestors of the Li family, and indeed toward all social morality and domestic order. She was a good woman, a good Chinese woman!
"Girl! You are no child of seven or eight. You ought to know to be circumspect in all things. Do you understand me?"
"Girl! Girl! In my nearly sixty years, I have never seen a woman love a man without harboring wicked thoughts. Girl, you have the audacity to speak of love!"
"Aunt, I cannot eat all this. Let me give you some." Seeing her meager portion, Li Ying offered his own plate.
"No! Li Ying! It is my heartfelt joy to watch you eat. So long as you grow plump and rosy-cheeked, that is my blessing. Amitabha Buddha! May Buddha protect you! What little money I have, aside from buying fine incense for Buddha, is spent on food for you!"
"Li Ying has just returned. Let him rest a while. I shall fetch the wine," Wang De said to the good woman.
"Good Wang De, you go, you go!" The good woman began pulling, with hastening yet deliberate slowness, one by one the warm, gleaming copper coins from a pocket over a foot long. "Do you know the shop? Go south from this street, not far, on the east side, with five golden gourds hanging. Get two taels of the wine at five coppers a tael. Hold the bottle straight-never mind if it sloshes on the way back, not on the way there… did you hear? Go quickly! Good child!… Wait! Check the pork shop opposite for pig's ears. Pick a thick one. He does so love a crisp, braised ear. Can you manage?-I'm not easy. You young folk are unreliable. Give me the bottle. I'd best go myself. Last time, Li Ying bought mutton, blunted the knife's edge, and still couldn't slice the meat. I shall go myself!"
Wang De dared not answer first. It was Li Ying who suggested using their own money to buy more dishes for a lively gathering. The aunt consented and told Li Ying and Wang De to go together for the shopping and wine, reasoning that merchants often cheated men, and with two pairs of eyes, they might escape some deception. She then admonished the two youths once more before letting them go.