Scream: Ministry of Education's High School Chinese Teaching Syllabus Recommended Reading List for Extracurricular Reading. Senior High School Section

Author: Lu Xun
Country: Mainland China
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2002-06-01
Features: When the villagers saw Zhao Qiye coming to the village, they quickly finished their meals and gathered around the dining table in Qi Jin's house. Qi Jin himself knew he was a key figure and felt it was unseemly to be publicly insulted by the women like this, so he had to lift his head and slowly said, "You said it was easy to say things like that today, but back then you"
"You dead prisoner" among the onlookers, Bai Yi's wife was the kindest-hearted person, holding her two-year-old illegitimate child and watching the commotion by Qi Jin's wife's side. At this moment, she felt uncomfortable and quickly tried to mediate, "Qi Jin's wife, let it go. People are not gods, who knows what the future holds? Even Qi Jin's wife didn't say back then that being bald wasn't ugly at all? Besides, the officials in the office haven't posted a notice yet."
Qi Jin's wife didn't even finish listening, her ears already flushed red. She turned the chopsticks around and pointed at Bai Yi's nose, saying, "Oh, what nonsense is that! Bai Yi, I myself think I would never say such foolish things. Back then, I cried for three whole days, and everyone saw it. Even the little devil Six Jin cried too."
Six Jin had just finished a big bowl of rice and held an empty bowl, shouting for more. Qi Jin's wife, already in a bad mood, used the chopsticks to stab straight into the middle of Six Jin's twin pigtails and yelled, "Who asked you to interfere! You shameless widow who steals men!" With a loud thud, Six Jin's empty bowl fell to the ground, accidentally hitting a brick corner and breaking into a large crack.
Qi Jin jumped up, picked up the broken bowl, checked it, and yelled, "Damn it!" He slapped Six Jin down with a slap. Six Jin lay crying, while Lao Tai Lao Ji pulled his hand and kept saying, "Each generation is worse than the last," and they left together.
Bai Yi's wife also got angry and shouted, "Qi Jin's wife, you 'hate-beating people'!"
Zhao Qiye had been smiling and observing the scene, but after Bai Yi's wife said, "The officials in the office haven't posted a notice," he grew a bit angry. At this point, he had already moved away from the table and continued, "What's the use of 'hate-beating people'? The soldiers are coming soon. Do you know who is saving the country this time? It's General Zhang, the descendant of Zhang Yi De of Yan. With his eight-foot spear, he is invincible. Who can stand up to him?"
He clenched both fists as if holding an invisible spear and charged forward a few steps toward Bai Yi's wife, saying, "Can you stand up to him?"
Bai Yi's wife was already trembling with anger, holding her child. Suddenly, she saw Zhao Qiye's face covered in sweat, glaring at her, and charging straight at her. She grew very scared and couldn't finish her sentence, turning around and leaving.
Zhao Qiye followed her, and the villagers, while blaming Bai Yi's wife for being too meddling, cleared a path. Those who had had their hair cut and grown it back quickly hid behind people, afraid of being seen. Zhao Qiye didn't pay close attention and suddenly slipped through the crowd, turning into the background of the jujube tree and shouting, "Can you stand up to him?"
He climbed onto the single-log bridge and left without looking back. The villagers stood there blankly, calculating in their minds that they indeed couldn't stand up to Zhang Yi De, and thus decided that Qi Jin would surely lose his life.
Since Qi Jin had broken the law, he recalled how he used to talk about city news to others, and he shouldn't have shown such arrogance with his long cigarette pipe. Therefore, he also felt some satisfaction about Qi Jin's crime. They also seemed to want to make some comments, but then realized there was nothing to say.
A buzz of chatter arose, and mosquitoes swarmed around, buzzing past bare bodies and gathering under the jujube tree like a market. They slowly dispersed and went home, closing the door to sleep.
Qi Jin's wife muttered and also packed up the utensils and table, taking them home and closing the door to sleep. Qi Jin took the broken bowl back home, sat on the doorstep smoking, but he was very worried and forgot to smoke. The light in the ivory mouth, six feet long, bamboo pipe with a bronze bowl, gradually dimmed.
He felt that the situation was extremely urgent and tried to think of some methods, some plans, but they were always very vague and didn't connect: "The queue! The eight-foot spear! Each generation is worse than the last! The emperor sits on the dragon throne. The broken bowl needs to be taken to the city to be repaired. Who can stand up to him? It's all written in the books. Damn it!"
The next morning, Qi Jin still rowed his boat from Luzhen to the city and returned to Luzhen in the evening, taking with him the six-foot-long bamboo pipe and a bowl. At dinner, he told Lao Tai Lao Ji that the bowl had been repaired in the city because the crack was too big, requiring sixteen copper nails, three coins each, totaling forty-eight small coins.
Lao Tai Lao Ji said unhappily, "Each generation is worse than the last. I've lived long enough. Three coins for a nail! Were the nails like this in the old days? The nails from the old days... I've lived seventy-nine years,—"
After that, Qi Jin still went to the city every day as usual, but his family situation grew dimmer, and most villagers avoided him, no longer coming to listen to the news he brought from the city.
Qi Jin's wife also treated him poorly and often called him a "prisoner."
More than ten days later, Qi Jin returned from the city and saw his wife very happy. She asked him, "Did you hear anything in the city?"
"I didn't hear anything."
"Did they say if the emperor is sitting on the dragon throne?"
"They didn't say."
"Did anyone say so in the Xianheng Hotel?"
"They didn't say."
"I think the emperor probably isn't sitting on the dragon throne. Today, as I passed by Zhao Qiye's shop, I saw him sitting there reading, his queue tied at the top again, and he wasn't wearing a long gown."
"You think, he isn't sitting on the dragon throne?"
"I think, he probably isn't."
By now, Qi Jin had regained the respect and treatment he deserved from both his wife and the villagers. In the summer, they still ate at the earth platform in front of their own house, and when they saw each other, they greeted with smiles.
Lao Tai Lao Ji had already celebrated her eightieth birthday and was still unfair and healthy. Six Jin's twin pigtails had grown into a long braid. Although she had recently had her feet bound, she could still help Qi Jin's wife with chores, carrying the eighteen-copper-nailed bowl and staggering back and forth on the platform.
October 192.
① "Market" originally refers to a gathering of buyers and sellers, forming a lively market. Here it metaphorically describes a swarm of mosquitoes gathering under the jujube tree.
② "Eighteen copper nails" should be "sixteen" according to the text. In a letter Lu Xun wrote to Li Jiye on November 23, 1926, he mentioned, "In Six Jin's family, there is only one nailed bowl. The nails are either sixteen or eighteen, I can't remember. In any case, one of the two numbers is wrong. Please change it to be consistent."
② According to Lu Xun's diary, the date of writing this story should be August 5, 1920.