**I RECOMMEND RE-READING CHAPTER 1 AS THERE HAVE BEEN CORRECTIONS TO SOME OF THE TRANSLATIONS**
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, Baidu and my own English knowledge. Please don't expect absolutely accurate translations!
Chapter 2: Wei Qian used his childhood to struggle with a longer question-"To kill his mother or not."
When Xiao Bao was 11 months old, still a small meatball in diapers, and could only take two steps unsupported, her father died.
He died in a brutal car accident whilst he was cycling home from his night shift. In the dark, thinking that there was no one around, he decided to take a shortcut. So, he pedalled his two-wheeled bike onto the highway and was hit by a truck as soon as he got on the highway, causing him to be flung away several meters.
Wei Qian and his mother once again became orphan and widow. This was nothing, there were so many families with orphans and widows all over the world-such as Mazi and his mother who sold fried dough sticks every morning. Others wiped their tears clean, straightened up, and still went on with life...
But Wei Qian was horrified to find that his beautiful and kind "mother" had become a fucking bitch overnight.
Whilst she was sad, she seemed to think her life was more bitter than a bitter cauliflower and became suicidal, so she attempted to harm herself. She was gifted and experienced in this field.
Wei Qian struggled every day. He had to go to school, find ways to earn money, take care of his little sister who couldn’t even speak, and he had to protect himself against that crazy woman who could explode at any moment.
Eventually, Wei Qian didn't even dare to leave Xiao Bao at home alone.
Every day, when he went to school, he would send Xiao Bao upstairs to Third Fatty's house or Mazi’s house, where he ran a small restaurant, to be looked after. He would then pick-up Xiao Bao after school in the evening.
Wei Qian was so exhausted. This stressful lifestyle suddenly made him unable to lift his head. Adults wouldn’t be able to bear it, not to mention a child like him.
For a while, Wei Qian secretly hid a knife. When he went to bed, he would hold the knife in one hand and Xiao Bao in the other. As he looked at the knife, he wanted to rush out and kill his mother. But, when he saw Xiao Bao, he had to rein in this wild idea and lay back on the bed. Gently patting her on the back and coaxing the little girl who was about to wake up back to sleep again.
He had a little sister, a living creature, a person, just like him. She was born into such a family, and he was her elder brother, he had to at least raise her.
Just like Hamlet struggled with the incessant question "To be or not to be", Wei Qian spent his childhood struggling with the incessant question-"To kill his mother or not."
He lived like a dog, but he was still in a mood to struggle on such a philosophical question. He may be destined to be a philosophical figure in the future.
During this period, Third Fatty’s mum and Mazi’s mum helped him a lot.
Third Fatty and Mazi were his childhood friends, Third Fatty’s family were vulgar and rough, Mazi and his mother were cowards who couldn't kick a fart. They were all neighbours, though they weren’t rich members of society, they were willing to help him as long as he said the word.
The Third Fatty’s mother was not as silent as Mazi’s mom. Sometimes she couldn't stand it. She was so angry that she almost wanted to spit on Wei Qian's mother's face, but she didn't make a move
It’s nothing, Wei Qian knows that she didn’t dare, because although Third Fatty’s mother was poor, she was still a good woman. Good women didn’t dare to provoke bitches, just as decent sensible people didn’t dare to provoke hooligans.
Later, Wei Qian's mother finally died as expected.
Wei Qian calmly accepted this fact; he knew she didn't want to live long ago.
Wei Qian's mother was suddenly shocked out of the happiest moment of her life. The distress and suffering she felt were beyond understanding. She couldn't get over it and couldn't get used to it, so she naturally she regressed back into her old character and went back to her old job. Soon, the situation escalated, and she began to take drugs.
First, she accompanied her customers and sniffed cocaine, and then they had sex, whilst high, together. When the guests were happy, they would tip her lingerie. She relied on these moments to escape the reality of being unable to refuse.
Later, her addiction went out of control and she began to give herself injections whilst trembling.
During that time, Wei Qian saw a lot of needles around the house. Usually, he was afraid that Xiao Bao would put them in her mouth. Wei Qian would clean the house three or four times a day and put the needles away when he saw them.
After his mother died, Wei Qian set her things on fire. She finally died of an AIDS infection from the needles.
You reap what you sow. (1)
This motto was used by gangsters to pretend to be coercive, and it’s also the last words that the woman left for Wei Qian and his sister.
When Wei Qian's mother was dying, she looked like a monster. Her whole body was as thin as bones, her hair was messy and some of it missing, her face was seriously deformed, her eyes, which were already bigger than others, protruded, and her skin was festering. There was no trace of youth and beauty. She was simply a dirty and smelly toad.
She was death personified, yet her words were gentle. She looked at her two children with almost tender eyes and said calmly, "Oh, I reap what I sow. I knew this day would come."
Wei Qian sneered and thought that she was annoying. If she had known that there would be such a day, she should not have fooled around or taken drugs, let alone dressed up as a monster and went to the nightclubs to sit on the stage out of curiosity and for the sake of a few yuan.
[TN: Yuan is Chinese currency]
She should’ve been like the countless chick-like girls, dressed in school uniform that didn’t fit well, with a row of silly bangs in front of her forehead, sitting upright in a classroom listening to a teacher explain geometry, and then she should’ve gone to a university, work, get married or leave.
No matter what, she should’ve lived like a decent person.
Even if she was too stupid to learn anything, at least she could’ve worked as a babysitter, taken up a part-time job, sell breakfast…
Then she might’ve lived to be ninety and see her grandson get married and have children.
But she didn't. She chose to be a crazy woman who liked to play around and hated work. She grew up like a flower in a vase. [TN: Basically a person who's only useful trait is their looks]
Wei Qian realized that he had finally gotten rid of the crazy woman and would never see her again. He couldn’t control his sadness. He saw life and time quickly speeding away like a fast car in front of him. Before he could even smell the exhaust gas, everything was gone.
But he didn't want to show any emotions. He thought he deserved to hate this woman, and all his feelings for her were weak and baseless, so Wei Qian forced himself to think that she deserved it.
Wei Qian ordered himself to recall the hellish life he had lived over the past five years and asked her, trying his best to look indifferent: "Bitch, why did you give birth to us?"
The woman looked confused for a long time and replied, "Who knows?"
Wei Qian was angry. Without her, "who knows", he might have been reincarnated as a rich second generation or an official second generation, and now he had to live like a dog!
So, he gave her a small push on the shoulder and cursed, "Fuck you."
It was just a nudge - who knew she wouldn't be able to handle it the next second.
She twitched all over, her eyes as wide as a ping-pong ball, and then gasped for five minutes, her gasping for breath turned into dry bellows, she became a bloody mess, and finally succeeded in turning her hair into pigtails. (2)
That year, Wei Qian was less than 13 years old, he was still a young teenager. He had just entered his second year of junior high school, with a little sister that had two lines of snot running down her nose. Xiao Bao was five years old, she didn't know anything, and she just looked at her elder brother and mother with a blank expression.
Wei Qian let the woman's body be displayed at home for two days, and it even began to smell, he didn't know what to do with it.
The place where the dead slept was more expensive than that of the living, and they couldn't afford to buy a graveyard even if they sold their brothers and sisters -not to mention that Wei Qian wasn’t even planning to pay for the crematorium- his mother was dead, and the dead could make do anyway, but he had to live, pay tuition, and he had to support his sister. Finally, Wei Qian decided to find a good day and make do with a broken mat to roll the body and throw it directly into a garbage heap, allowing her body to decompose and return to nature.
But before he could put this into practice, several of Wei Qian's mother's friends showed up at their home, proving that even Qin Hui had some true friends. (3)
Together, they pooled some money to arrange her funeral, properly sending her off. One woman told Wei Qian, "Even if she didn't live a respectful life, she can at least have a proper funeral".
They gave the little money left after the funeral to Wei Qian and his sister Xiao Bao. Wei Qian rummaged through the cabinets and sold some of the jewellery left by his mother, these things were worth that woman's life.
No, they were more precious than life.
Her precious son had long seen them as not pleasing to his eyes, and when she closed her eyes, he immediately shook them off and sold them. With these meagre savings, Wei Qian lived a life of raising a small child and struggled for more than a year. He graduated from junior high school.
The three-day high school entrance examination ended, and on the last day, Wei Qian handed in his papers and rode home. He studied a lot like that. Doing odd jobs had not affected his grades, because school was the only connection between him and the words "future" and "hope", and "decent life". and he desperately wanted to grasp them.
Along the way, Wei Qian bought some steamed buns, parked his bike in a simple bicycle shed built by a large apartment building, and walked home with his things.
He saw a kid.
The child had thin hands and skinny feet. He had a big head and was a little taller than Xiao Bao, but not much taller, perhaps about the same size as her. He was wearing an adult's sports vest (4), naked underneath, and had no shoes. There was soup and water on the vest, amongst other chunks of food and garbage. He looked like a combination of colourful mountains and rivers. He was digging out garbage beside a garbage dump in an alley.
Wei Qian didn't know how such a little thing could survive, and even wild dogs bullied him. When Wei Qian passed by, the pup (5) was confronting a wild dog in a small alley for half a can of beef that had been thrown away by others.
The wild dog was thin, but not small, and had red eyes. Wei Qian didn't know if it had rabies, but the fact that it could survive during the dog-fighting campaign that was in full swing in the city meant it was probably a hero among dogs.
Originally, Wei Qian was going to ignore the situation. A pup like this appeared every month. They were accidentally born, accidentally survived, didn’t have living parents, and soon died after a while. But when Wei Qian glanced over there, the pup who wasn’t even in love with the man unexpectedly raised his head and glanced at him.
When he saw that his opponent was distracted, the wild dog seized the opportunity. The pup has probably been chased for a long time, as his reactions were very quick. He jumped to the side and hid. So, the wild dog threw itself at the feet of Wei Qian.
The animal had red eyes and its nostrils were rapidly twitching. With no distinction between friend or foe, it barked at an innocent crowd and bared its yellow teeth.
Wei Qian was thinking about how to solve the problem of tuition fees in case he was admitted to high school. He didn't plan on paying any attention to the wild dog and raised his legs to go. As a result, he didn't know what the animal was thinking. It lowered it’s head and took a bite at his ankle.
Wei Qian hurriedly drew back his foot and the dog missed.
Wei Qian was 13 or 14 years old at the time, his father and mother died, and he had a sister who could only produce a runny nose. Although he performed well in the exam, he might not be able to pass the exam, and he was in a miserable situation. It was not normal for a child to grow up like this if their temperament was not cynical - because it meant that they were too good at acting and were likely to become a highly intelligent sociopath in the future.
So, the troubled junior high school boy who was full of troubles and anxiety raised his leg and kicked the wild dog. He grew up with thugs and used to fight. The kick was not gentle in the slightest, he kicked the big dog directly into the wall. The wild dog was stubborn and still clung to Wei Qian's shoes. Fortunately, the shoes were plastic shoes he had picked up. They were hard, airtight, solid and not bitten through.
Wei Qian shook his foot. Seeing that he couldn't get rid of the dead dog, he stomped on the wild dog's stomach with his feet, picked up a brick from the floor, and smashed it on the head of the dog. At once, the dog let go, and after two blows, the dog was beaten into a bloody mess and completely became a ghost.
People and dogs are the same. Like how some people have fancy suits and shoes, good houses and cars, some dogs have regular grooming and soothing. And like how some people and dogs are destined to bleed and sweat for ridiculous and sad reasons in a small alley-way full of garbage.
The same person has no fate, and the same dog has no fate.
TN Notes: click here to skip
(1) Actually translates into "You always have to pay it back when you come out" (?) in Chinese, which basically holds the same concept as "You reap what you sow" so I replaced it. You can read more about it here [Click the number to return to where you were]
(2) During the ancient Chinese era, dead women’s hair was put in braids and placed above their heads
(3) Qin Hui is most likely his mother's name.
(4) This is what google gave me: Imagine it oversized on a child and dirty :P
(5) "Pup" or "Puppy" or even "Cub" is what WQ will refer to the boy as occasionally
Yay! It seems like I'm making progress, I've managed to cut down the amount of TN notes, so I'm very satisfied! Although WQ's mother was scum her childhood made me pity her... I even caught myself tearing up at her death scene :(
Any guesses to who this young pup is?
Please leave a like and comment, they're both super encouraging and prevent me from feeling like I'm talking to a brick wall lol.
This is scheduled to release 2 days before Christmas Eve so I hope everyone is having a nice day! I'm wishing you a very merry Christmas and hope you stay safe <3
Going to try to do updates every Tuesday if everything goes smoothly :D
If anyone has any feedback, requests or corrections for me please comment them, or post them in the forums :D Please remember that I'm a total noob so if your an experienced translator or group who thinks I'm not up to par and wish to pick this up please contact me at dollyspams@gmail.com
I don't want to accidentally ruin the reader's experience and not properly show how good this story is! It's unfair to everyone involved :P