京华烟云Moment in Peking Chapter 18.docx

1、京华烟云Moment in Peking Chapter 18CHAPTER XVIIIJUENs money was gone sooner than he had thoughthow, he could not understand, although he remembered that he had lentseveral hundred dollars to two friends, who later disappeared. Toward the end of November,his father received a letter asking for money,and

2、replied peremptorily telling his son to return or he would cut him off entirely.So one day during the winter solstice recess when Mulan and Mo- chow had returned to their home,Tijen arrived. His appearance was greatly changed. He looked gaunt and pale, his eyes were sunken, his cheekbones stuck out,

3、his hair was long,and he had grown a wisp of a mustache and wore a pair of darkspectacles. Moreover, he had arrived home with exactly thirteen cents in his pocket.The mother was both shocked and happy. “My poor child,how you must have suffered! There was no one to take care of you in a strange city.

4、 I never believed in sending you away at this age. ” She immediately ordered chicken noodle for him. As the noodle was being placed on the table, Coral said to Tijen, “Now you must eat. In this soup there are at least three or four chickens. Three days ago Mother asked people to kill a chicken,but y

5、ou didnt come,and every day we killed one more chicken, and we have stewed them all down to this bit of soup. If your eyes do not brighten after tasting it, the chickens have died an unjust death. ”While Tijen was having his soup, surrounded by all the women of the family and the maids and servants,

6、 his father swept into the room. Tijen immediately stood up. Mulan saw that her fathers eyes were distended and she thought he might strike Tijen on the headthen and there;but the father merely grunted and walked out again, and kept away from him the whole day. He did not even appear for lunch, prob

7、ably to give the mother and daughters and son a period of peace. After lunch, when Brocade gave Tijen a hot towel,he casually asked her,“Where is Silverscreen? How did she disappear?”“We dont know, young master.One night she disappeared and so just disappeared, replied Brocade in a ringing voice,bit

8、ing her lip and looking wistfully at him and at the mistress.“Your dog disappeared with her,” said Afei.“So after all the dog was more faithful, ” said Tijen impulsively and more brusquely than he had intended.“Are you praising the dog or are you condemning human heings?” asked Mochow.“Sister,you ar

9、e still like that,”said Tijen. “I was only asking. But since there was the dog, wasn t it easy to find her? Did you try to find her? Even if you didn91 care for Silverscreen, you might have cared to find my dog. The moment my back was turned, they were turned out of the house. ”“My son,said the moth

10、er,“you misunderstand. Nobody drove the maid away. She ran away herself. ”“She must have had a reason for running away,”he insisted.“Well,said his mother, “your uncle returned at the end of July shortly after you departed, and he brought word from Silverscreen * s aunt that she was to be married off

11、 in Peking. .”“Did you try to marry her off?”asked the son. “You promised tfme.“It was the girls family. You dont understand. You were going away for years, and their girl was of the age to marry and her term had expired. How could we prevent them from wanting to marry her off? There was her aunts l

12、etter. ”“Her uncle s,” corrected Mrs. Feng, who usually did not speak much and was extremely obedient to her sister-in-law because her husbands position was entirely dependent upon the latter. Now Mrs. Yao looked at her and said,“She is right. Her aunt told your uncle be-fore he left,but Silverscree

13、n demanded a written word and her uncle then sent the letter. ”“No,Mother,it was her aunts letter,not her uncles,said Afei, who had heard of the forged letter but not of the uncle s letter that came later. Brocade suppressed a smile and the sisters who also did not know of the uncles letter,looked a

14、t each other in surprise.Tijen noticed the confusion.“You, little child, what do you know about it?”said the mother, scolding Afei. “The uncles letter is still here,if you dont believe. Have you got it?” she asked Mrs. Feng.“No.He keeps it at the shop,” said Mrs.Feng.“Ill ask him to show it to you,”

15、 said the mother. “But bygones are bygones. We do not know where she is now. Dont waste your thoughts on such things. ”“I dont think you would care even if she died,” said Tijen, angri-er than before.“My son,you are crazy,”said the mother. “She ran away and even if she starved to death,it was her fa

16、ult. We tried to arrange a good match for her. Bluehaze suggested a very good merchant. Your moth-er didn t do wrong. ”Tijen flew into a rage. “You drove her away. I know it, You tried to marry her off. You promised me not to, and you broke your promise.Didnt you? Didnt you?”His mother began to weep

17、 and said,“It is difficult to be a mother. ” He was really unashamed, but his sisters were ashamed for him and came to their mother and tried to comfort her. Frankincense brought a hot towel to the mistress,while Mulan said,“Brother, I think this is enough. You were going away to England and then yo

18、u wouldn t go. You were to be gone for years, and how could you at the same time expect to hold up other people s affairs? Mother was doing nothing wrong to marry her off when her term had expired. And now on the very day of your arrival, you have made Mother cry. Is there ever going to be peace in

19、this family?”“Good! You are all good, and I am the only bad son in the family, cried Tijen. “If you dont want me to ask questions, Ill get out and let you all have peace. ”The mother said through her tears, “Just on account of a bondmaid,there has been no peace in this house. I dont understand what

20、you see in her. When you are grown up, my son, a family like ours can find ten better bondmaids for you,if you like. Now you are tired, go and take a rest. ”Mulan was angry because her mother was so soft toward her broth-er.Now at supper,the father sat down at the table with an expression that frigh

21、tened everybody, most of all Mrs. Feng and her daughter, Redjade,who had never seen such a look on his face. The old man, though short in stature, had a big head and powerful, penetrating eyes, and the hair on his temples was now a beautiful gray, and when he was angered,he looked very impressive. T

22、ijen ate his rice quietly, knowing that the time of reckoning was near. He looked ridiculous,in that Chinese home, with his foreign dress and little mustache and dark spectacles, as if he were an imported monstrosityno longer a son,no longer a Chinese.The sisters also sat and ate quietly and there w

23、ere moments of tense silence. Coral tried to lead the conversation by asking Tijen why he had arrived a couple of days later than they ex-pected , and he answered in an abnormally hoarse manly voice that the voyage was rough. Upon hearing Tijens voice,the father glowered.“What did you come back for?

24、”he growled.“You asked me to,Father,replied the son.“Dont let off your wind! Did you think I would provide you funds to go whoring in the South? The niehchang! ” In the past months Mr. Yao had changed his reference to his son from niehchung (seed of sin) to niehchang, or a predetermined disaster in

25、one s life brought about by some previous sin. It meant the wages of sin, the stumbling block to a peaceful life, the inescapable snare set by the devil; hence its variation, mochang , which meant literally “devil sstumbling block. ”“He just came back,”said the mother. “You ought to leave him a litt

26、le face, at least before the servants. ”“What? Face?”shouted the father aloud. “Has he still got face? Can he still be called a man? What did you go abroad to learn but such monstrosities? Take off your spectacles. . . Give them to me!” The father crunched the pair of spectacles in his powerful righ

27、t hand,until they were only a mass of twisted wires and broken glass. His hand was pricked by the broken glass and bled, but he refused to have anybody do anything to it. With the bleeding hand he pushed his bowl and plate aside, and he pushed his chair back and rose and paced the floor, and no one

28、dared to touch the food. His face and beard be-came smeared with blood and he looked fearsome. Afei began to cry, “Brother !” and Mr. Yao said, “Be silent! That is not your brother; that is the devils stumbling block! Let him be a warning to you! If you grow up to be like him,the Yao family is finis

29、hed!” Mulan, who sat next to little Afei, hushed him, while Mrs. Feng held Redjades hand in fear and stared her into immobility.Turning sharply, the old man addressed his elder son: “I am not go-ing to flog you. And I won t ask you for accountshow you spent a thousand two hundred dollars in three mo

30、nths. But I am through with you. You had better make up your own plans as to what you are going to do. Now Tijen had risen and stood at attention,and Mr. Feng also had left his seat. In a repentant voice, Tijen said, “Father, I was wrong. But now I am going to study. ”“Study?”sneered his father. “Yo

31、u had your chance and now you are not going to have it. Do you know what you need? Starvation is the best thing for you. If you know what hunger means,you will ap-preciate more where you are. ”Mochow could not help remembering the quotation from Mencius and looked at her brother. With his gaunt face

32、 he really looked as if he had not been well-fed.“Shut him up in my study and let no one give him food for a day. ” Tijen felt both rebellious and frightened. It was Mr. Feng whospoke up, in his best business tone. “Brother, let me say something. My nephew of course is wrong. Isn t that so? But the rice is already cooked and there is no use going over the old accounts now. Isn t that so? Of course going to England is out of the question. But going to college here is also unnecessary. He will be twenty this New Year and ought to learn business, don