*THIS NOVEL CONTAINS A RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ADOPTED BROTHERS, DO NOT READ IF YOU ARE OPPOSED TO THIS THEME, HATE WILL NOT BE TOLERATED AS YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED*
**THIS CHAPTER HAS BEEN FULLY EDITED AS OF 16/12/20, 16:35(UK TIME), IF YOU READ BEFORE THIS THERE HAVE BEEN SOME CHANGES**
DISCLAIMER: I have absolutely 0 knowledge on the Chinese language just an avid reader of novels. Saw this on MTL and tried, I repeat tried to translate this using a combo of translators , Google and my own English knowledge. Please don't expect much!
Chapter 1: Cry with laughter and live with death -Yu Hua's "To Live".
He dreamt that he was around five or six years old, sitting on the head of the bed, with a hot radiator on one side, and a woman leaning on the other.
The woman had a big belly, and he dared not lie on it anymore. He just put his crooked head on her arm, creating an illusion of intimacy and dependence. The woman was beautiful, not inferior to those famous stars on TV, with an oval face, fair and neat eyebrows.
Holding a tattered old book in her hand, she was reading a story carefully.
The woman seemed to have a low level of education, and her literacy was low. She could read fairy tales with simple words. However, she often confused complex sentences, but she still seemed quite content. Her tone was sweet and clear, and expression calm and beautiful.
"...The children walked to the other side of the mountain together and found a small stream. The stream happily ran from east to west, and said, "Stupid children, there are delicious pastries and golden roast chicken. Unclear candies hang colourfully on the trees, just like stars in the sky. You can't finish picking them. There are human-eating monsters waiting to raise you into chubby lambs and swallow you in one bite."
"At the beginning, the children were shocked and did not dare to cross over. They stayed on this side of the stream, and lived on wild mushrooms and wild strawberries. The wild mushrooms were bland, tasteless, sour and green. Finally one day, the oldest boy said to himself: "I can't bear it anymore. If I could eat the pastries and roast chicken from the other side, it would be great, and there are countless sweets.”
"He was the first to jump over the creek, ate a full meal in the beautiful forest, and then jumped back to the side of the creek in the evening, telling everyone that there were no monsters that can eat people in the forest. So the next day, the oldest girl also said to herself: “If I could eat the pastries and roast chicken from the other side, it would be amazing, and there are countless sweets.” That day, she followed the first boy and jumped over the stream. After a full meal in the beautiful woods, the two came back in the evening, claiming that they still hadn’t encountered the cannibal monster."
"The boys and girls jumped over the stream one by one and went to enjoy the delicious meals on the opposite side. One day passed, but the monster that ate humans did not come out, and after a month, the monster that ate humans still did not come out. They laughed loudly and started to live on the side of the stream together, they freely pranced through the beautiful woods every day, eating exquisite food and countless sweets. Only the youngest boy stayed in place, he insisted on not taking a step closer, no matter how much his companions were laughing and playing on the other side."
"The children who had crossed the stream shouted to their little friends everyday: 'Hey, come here, the stream is lying, there are no monsters that eat people, life here is like in heaven!' But the youngest boy remained unmoved. He still ate mushrooms and wild strawberries. He remembered what his grandmother told him when he went out, there is no free lunch in the world, and leisure without work is the most terrible trap in the jungle."
"Suddenly one night, the youngest boy heard a sharp roar, he was frightened awake, opened his eyes and found that the stream was soaring, splitting the earth in half and turning into a vast ocean."
"Wang Yang was singing: 'The little lambs are chubby, eat them up in one bite, don't run away!' The youngest boy rubbed his eyes and found that his companions were being chased by a monster the size of a mountain, but they were too fat and couldn’t run away fast enough. They were overtaken and eaten one by one before they reached the water's edge. They all fell into the most dangerous trap, and only the youngest boy escaped and spread the story. The end."
The woman turned over the yellowed pages, the endless story was over. She seemed to have completed a big project as she breathed a sigh of relief and casually said to Wei Qian who was leaning on her: "So, people can't live too comfortable, when your brain is full of fat and your stomach is full and round, you will not be far from belching and..."
Her nice voice was interrupted by the sharp bell. Wei Qian, frightened, opened his eyes and bounced off the bed.
At half past five in the morning, the sky was not yet bright.
Wei Qian was still immersed in the dream of just now, it was a sweet dream but also a nightmare.
With a headache due to lack of sleep, he got up like a dead dog, picked up his slippers, smashed a cockroach that was crawling on the head of his bed, and jumped under the water pipe, landing on one leg. He washed the soles of his shoes, washed his hands and then washed some rice. With the sound of "pada" and "pada" footsteps, he went to cook porridge in a small deformed pot.
Then he poked his head out of the window and saw that the breakfast stall at Mazi's downstairs had been set up, and oil was being heated in a pot.
Wei Qian rushed downstairs, not minding the possibility of waking up his neighbors at all, he yelled "Mazi, give me three fried dough sticks!"
Just as he finished calling, the window upstairs "creaked" opened, and a fat man with a toothbrush said vaguely: "Brother wants six. give me a thick and big one!"
(TN: ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) are we getting to the smut already?)
It was Third Fatty upstairs who yelled (TN: Third Fatty is this guys nickname), this guy was as fat as a ball, still proud of the trait of "rice bucket" (1) , and thought that his height was simply extraordinary.
Wei Qian felt as though he had been defeated,(2) so he raised his head up at Third Fatty and taunted, "I'm surprised that a pig as fat as you managed to get up so early!"
Third Fatty (3) had a mouth full of froth (TN: From the toothpaste), and ignored him, he stretched out his hand that resembled a pig's trotter during his busy schedule and took the time to make a middle finger at Wei Qian.
Mazi's (TN: Owner of the breakfast stall) father died a long time ago. He was an orphan and lived with his widowed mother. The widow made a living selling breakfast. Mazi had to get up every morning to help his mother fry dough sticks. He was very accustomed to hearing his friends looking for trouble early in the morning.
He wiped his hand on his apron without saying a word. Then grinned and rushed to the two uncles upstairs and waved his hands to indicate that he had heard-- oh, Mazi has a stutter, and he usually doesn't talk in public. When breakfast was settled, Wei Qian went to the toilet to brush his teeth and wash his face, starting his busy and hard day. He left the cooked porridge to cool (4) , and at the same time he cleaned himself up, then trotted downstairs with his change to get the fried dough sticks, and then came back to wake his sister.
Xiaobao (TN: His lil sis) ate her breakfast, and was carried upstairs. She was left in the Third Fatty's mother’s care. Before leaving, he pulled out the thumb that Xiaobao had put in her mouth again. (5)
Then Wei Qian rushed to school on his old bicycle.
Today was the day Wei Qian participated in the high school entrance examination.
Wei Qian never knew who his father was. The only idea he had of him was that he was a scumbag. This came from the 10 years Wei Qian spent with his mother, who repeated it endlessly in his ears every day. Legend has it that the old shameless man is still squatting in a prison, holding a majestic and glorious title, called "rapist". Wei Qian didn’t look forward to him coming out, an old labour reform criminal who can't even fart is a burden on society.
Wei Qian thought that it would be better for the old man to be beaten to death by other prisoners in prison before he could be released. One of the victims of the old labour reform prisoner was Wei Qian's mother... Oh, yes, there was also Wei Qian, an indirect victim. When his mother was young, she was very stupid. She didn’t learn well at the time. She got drunk and wandered outside in the middle of the night with a bunch of hooligans. Unfortunately, she was caught by the old prisoner and became pregnant and ended up giving birth to Wei Qian.
So, logically speaking, Wei Qian understood why his mother hadn't liked him since he was a child. He felt that when he was born, the fact that she didn't directly choke him to death was already due to maternal love... Maternal love was really a miracle of human life. (6)
Not to mention she also reluctantly raised him up.
But despite this, Wei Qian still hated her in his heart. He hated her every day, and he hated her at fixed points at a fixed time like clocking in, wishing to eat her flesh and drink her blood.
However... he would still look forward to her love and hoped that she could give him a little warmth. Occasionally, when she did give it, Wei Qian would feel great happiness, so he also hated himself. (TN: same)
He thought that his genes were not good and he was born with it. Such a cheap bone.
Women are always out at night, and the work she did for a living was ancient and traditional, and had a history of thousands of years in our country. This was a job that has brought countless "honours" to Wei Qian’s mother. In the shameless words of this bitch, the advantage of this job was that she got to have sex for nothing, and men needed to give her money.
Wei Qian's rapist's father ended her entire childhood, making her black from the inside out, and led to her becoming shameless.
As an "egg", Wei Qian's childhood was a long torture.
His mother would go out cursing every night, and didn’t come back until the next morning. She would use her long nails to pull him alive from the quilt. If she was in a good mood, he would be scolded by her. If she was in a bad mood, she would slap him twice, and then whilst drunk instruct Xiao Wei Qian, who was still not as tall as the pot, to cook for her.
Several times, Wei Qian took all the rat medicine in the house, prepared to put it in the meal, and die with her, but in the end he never did because occasionally the woman tactually acted like a mother, she would hold him with her soft arms. Watching TV for a while, and when she was happy, she would whisper a few loving words in his ear. If she earnt a lot at work, she would buy Wei Qian two sets of pancakes and fruit on the way home in the morning.
Although this kind of situation was rare, it always satisfied the young Wei Qian. During these times, he didn’t want to kill this woman because he would remember that she was his mother, his mother that was more beautiful than any woman he had ever seen in his life, but she did not bring him any pride.
However, there is only one person in the world who is his own mother.
The two of them lived like this, hating and relying on each other. When Wei Qian was five years old, his mother remarried. His stepfather was an honest man, he didn't make much money, and he didn't have much talent. He was not very friendly to this cheap son, but he had never abused him. Later, it was probably because he was an eyesore at home. When Wei Qian was just six years old, his stepfather took the initiative to send him to the elementary school.
Wei Qian called him Uncle.
After the uncle came, his mother "put down the butcher knife and became a Buddha" overnight, and never went out to fool around. She cleaned up her appearance almost immediately, pulled up her long hair, and never touched a drop of wine. Her temper also improved a lot.
She transformed into a normal woman and a normal mother.
In the winter of that year, she even knitted a sweater for Wei Qian. He only wore that sweater for one winter. Because he grew too fast, he couldn't wear it the next year, but it was kept by Wei Qian in the cabinet, because that was almost the only gift he received in childhood.
[TN: Break my heart why don't ya OAQ)]
It’s said that six or seven-year-old children roam everywhere and even dogs are disgusted, but when Wei Qian was six or seven years old, he was very obedient. He didn’t say much nonsense and didn’t request a lot. , He never asked the adults for money. Sometimes the school required students to pay for things. Wei Qian always borrowed from others first, and then went to the billiard hall game hall to help around, earning a few dollars and paying them back. . In the process, he got to know a lot of people who were much older than him. The boss looked at him as a youth that ran around picking up stranded billiard balls and cleaning dishes. It was very interesting. With his eyesight, he knew how to determine people’s personalities so he left him and used him as a strange mascot, to make fun of.
Wei Qian enjoyed it and didn't feel sad, because he learned in school that he was also one of the flowers of the motherland. He lived this kind of life with satisfaction. (7)
Therefore, he always feared that his uncle would be unhappy, and that his uncle and his mother would divorce and he would have to live life like a pig and dog. When Wei Qian was seven and a half years old and less than eight years old, his mother gave birth to another girl. The girl looked like his uncle and was carved out of the same mold- oh, which means it was ugly , but the whole family was too precious.
[TN: The author/ Wei Qian just woke up today and chose violence (ﾟдﾟ) ]
She was born in spring, and her parents disliked such names as "chun", "liu"(8), and so on that were too dirty to be worthy of their baby girl. For his mother and uncle it was hard to settle on a name. They both had less than nine years of education combined. It took more than a week for them to get together, and finally rack their brains to give the girl a name that they thought was poetic, called "Song Lili". With his uncle's surname Song, the "Lili" of "Liliyuan Shangcao" (9)
However, Wei Qian rarely called his sister this unlucky name, until she became an adult, he called her "Xiao Bao". (10)
Not wishing to unite, but wishing to "seperate", no one had heard of someone giving thir child this kind of name. What a great wish. (11)
His mother and stepfather are illiterate and care about "wetness", and naming the child such a name is nothing but fun. This inauspicious name will accompany the little girl for a lifetime, and it seems to herald that life and death will run through her thin life one after another.
TL NOTES: click to skip
(1) Courtesy of Urban Dictionary: a rice bucket also denotes a person who eats a lot, but does not produce a lot; a useless person; a bum. ↼
(2) I have noooo idea what this means lmaoo. Here's the chinese if anyone can decipher it : 魏謙覺得三根和六根比起來，相當沒有英雄氣概，於是仰頭沖三胖說：「豬，出欄出得真積極，有思想覺悟！」(RESOLVED) ↼
(3) Fat guys name, I assume ↼
(4) Translated as cold but I'm replacing it with left to cool. ↼
(5) These are the raws for that paragraph: 他把煮好的粥放涼，同時拾掇好了自己，帶著零錢小跑著沖下樓拿油條，再回來叫醒妹妹小寶，盯著她吃完早飯，抱著她跑到樓上，把她交給三胖的媽照顧，臨走，他還打掉小寶又往嘴裡送的手。not sure what it means near the end with him slapping her hand out his mouth (RESOLVED) ↼
(6) Had to wrack my brain to make this make sense... The raws: 因此理智上來說，魏謙理解為什麼從小他媽就不待見他，他覺得自己生下來的時候，她沒有直接把自己掐死，就已經是激素的作用了……激素才是人類生命的奇跡. (RESOLVED) ↼
(7) "Flowers of the motherland" is often used to refer to Chinese youth. Found an article that mentioned it here ↼
(8) "Chun" means spring and "Liu" means willow. ↼
(9) "Li li yuan shang cao" a poem written in 1980, you can read it untranslated and translated here ↼
(10) Translates as "Little treasure" with Xiao meaning little and Bao meaning treasure. So cute!(/ε＼*) ↼
(11) Last sentence is supposed to be sarcastic ↼
<3 This was actually surprisingly fun, like I said and as you can probably tell I literally do not speak Chinese just relying on my novel knowledge! Tried adding notes to fill in for my poor skills lol! :)
Please leave comments and likes, they really encourage me to know people are actually reading lol! Feedback is also appreciated !!