平凡的世界英文版World of Plainness 1-2 20200519

World of Plainness 1-2, Lu Yao, pluiepoco, 20200519

Fred Sun found it so hard to spend his school days. As a boy aged 17 or 18, he had a huge appetite. Unfortunately, in each meal his offerings were no more than two sorghum buns. Once his father told him that sorghum was not even used as forage in old society -- this food was not nutritious. Even such sorghum food was not supplied sufficiently for him. At least 4 or 5 such black buns could satisfy his appetite in one meal. However, such a small allotment of food was just enough to save him from starving to death. He might endure the whole day staying in classroom; however, in the years of "open-door education", students must learn from farmers and workers outside school, even if they were staying in school, they must labor half the time. As to study, in fact, there was no textbooks except these mimeograph teaching materials distributed by prefectural government, and the lessons taught in class were no more than reading editorials of newspapers. No real lessons were taught in class since this semester began, and all the class were studying and discussing the theory of proletarian dictatorship. Of course, most speakers were students from urban areas, while few students from rural areas dared to speak except bold ones.

Daily labor was a must, lasting from 2:00pm to supper time, which period was the most unbearable to Fred Sun. Every time he toted two baskets of waste soil with a shoulder pole from the bottom of the slope out of the school gate to the hilly fields behind the school, he would feel dizzy, the world around him was whirling, his senses were completely absent, except that he mechanically crept his shivering legs step by step climbing up the winding hilly path.

But to Fred Sun, these were perhaps acceptable. What pained him the most were the harms caused by poverty to his proper pride. He was already 17 years old, with a beating heart in his chest, which was sensitive and shy. He thirsted for a decent suit of clothes that he could wear before girl students; he wished that every day in the queue he could receive an offering of the second class vegetable the same as many others, and in every meal he could have a white bun or yellow bun to match with the vegetable. This was not only for stomach, but also for a respectable life. He never expected to live in the same advantageous conditions as students from urban areas, and what would satisfy him was to live in similar conditions as most students from rural areas.

However, this was absolutely impossible. In fact, it was not easy for his family to let him go to high school in the town without living by earning labor-points in such an adult age. In the past, his elder brother returned home to become a farmer after graduation from senior primary school at 13 years old, without attending the examinations for junior middle school, so the family could afford the schooling of Fred Sun and his younger sister. Worse still, elder sister had never gone to school for even one day of her life. Now he deeply appreciated such dearest persons, so what else could he expect from them? Fred knew that his family was near collapse. His grandmother was nearly 80 years old, bed-bound suffering from hemiplegia; his parents were aging too, who could hardly earn some labor-points; his younger sister also went to junior middle school in the commune, increasing expenses; worse still, married with an irresponsible man, his elder sister was bringing up two kids on her own, and food was so insufficient that if the mom and children had food in one meal they would starve in next meal, so usually his family would often help her with a few food to save lives --  

His parents loved the two small grandchildren, and often received them into home to raise them.

Actually, in the family only elder brother was a full labor -- who was only 23 years old though! Dear elder brother since 13 years old had undertaken the heavy burdens of family life; without elder brother, God knows how the whole family conditions would deteriorate!

In normal sense, to raise such a few family members, his father and his elder brother the two persons were working, so life might be sustainable. But in reality, over many years, croppers had suffered not a few, but they were still empty-handed year after year. Since the production team was poor, how could a family in the team be not poor? Furthermore, parents were not clever nor capable, so the root was poor to the bone. Every year the family was in shortages, becoming poorer and poorer, and it seemed that there was no hope of a better life...

In such situation, it was a miracle for him to study in high school or senior middle school, why should he complain about anything? In other words, even if the family had some good foods, or good clothes, the aged grandma and underage sister would be prioritized; much more the two infants of Fred's elder sister! He was self-inferior in current environment. Although he was the tallest of the class, he felt he was the shortest.

While poverty exaggerated his self-esteem, he often felt that others were laughing at his misery, so he had a heart-felt abnormal hostility to all classmates whose families were in good conditions. For example, now he was strongly hostile to the very manneristic monitor, Volk Retro. Every time when he saw Volk, trimly and modishly dressed, stood on the podium, calling the roll elegantly, at times raising his wrist to look at his watch, a nameless rage would start burning in his chest, which was uncontainable. In a roll call, one who were called should answer "Here!" Once, Fred was called, but he didn't answer knowingly. The monitor glared at him, and called his name again; however, he was mute again. If this happened in junior middle school, such condition might arouse a violent conflict. Perhaps all the students were fresh to high school, they didn’t know each other too much, so the monitor skipped such insulting ignorance, and continued to call the roll. After the roll call, Fred left the classroom with Wave, a classmate from the same village with Fred. This guy secretly congratulated him with an erected thumb, and smiled: "Well done!"

"I thought he would fight with me," Fred Sun somewhat regretted his misbehavior.

"Dare he?" uttered Wave in wide-open eyes, swaying his fist in the air. Wave was at the same age with Fred, but he was one head shorter than Fred. He was fair-skinned, beautiful, looking like a girl. But his heart was hard, and he did everything without delay. He was quiet like a pussycat, while acting like a tiger.

Wave's father was a truck driver of transportation company in this prefecture, his family conditions were better than Fred's, and his living standard was higher of the class. Fred was in an unbelievably good relationship with this "rich man". They grew up together in childhood, when they were playmates. Later, they went to school together. In the village, since Wave's father was working outside, at times some labor was wanted for Wave's family, so Fred's father or elder brother often helpt them. In addition, Wave's younger sister also went to school with Fred's younger sister, and the two girls were as close as twins. As to Wave's helps to Fred, it was not worth words. When they were in commune junior middle school, about 5km from the village, in order to save food and money, they ate at home -- returned home in evening, and went to school the next morning, bringing along homemade lunch. The daily route was 10km long, among the students of the village who were going to the same school, Wave and Vive (son of Fortune George, communist chairman of the village) each had a bike, and Fred was the only one who walked to school. So Wave shared his bike with Fred. Two years later, Vive's bike appeared still new, but Wave's bike was worn, so his father had to buy him a new one. Now Fred was in county high school, more than 30km away from the village, so he went back home only on weekends, depending more on Wave's bike. In addition, after Fred came to this high school, Wave had tried to gift him white flour tickets for half a dozen times. However, Fred had not accepted -- because in these years white flour tickets were rare for every family; moreover, several white buns wouldn't make a difference, except spoiling his stomach...

Well, although life was so hard, Fred Sun felt a wordless joy deep in his heart. He had come to a bigger world from a rural corner. This fact was already a great thing to him, son of a poor farming family! Every day, if there was nothing to do in school, Fred Sun would go out to explore every place of the county town: streets and lanes, downtown and uptown, ins and outs, anyway, he would find any place that he had not been to. He had visited the courtyards of almost all public services, except a few awesome organizations, such as county revolutionary committee, county military department and county public security bureau (police office); he had managed to get access to those places by cheating the old gatekeepers that he would go to a toilet. As a newcomer, he forgot about his shabby clothes in public eyes, and indulged himself in roaming throughout the county town unrestrictedly. By roaming, he had acquired numerous fresh images, even the coal smoke hovering over the town smelt different. Certainly, he couldn't understand all things new to him, but everything has impressed him undoubtedly. In the mirror of urban life, he apparently saw through the village where he had lived for more than 10 years -- in that familiar old world, many meaningful things now turned to be somewhat meaningless and common. In contrast, many important things that hadn’t been noticed by him were coming to his mind vividly at present. Apart from this kind of aimless roam, he had one more habit, reading extracurricular books. This habit was formed in the last schooling year of his junior middle school. Once he went to Vive's home, he found a book named How the Steel was Tempered, on the top of a box, which was used by Vive's mother as a holder of shoe-making patterns. At first, he did not care for it -- what on earth could a steelmaking book mean for? After reading some pages, he felt strange: a book in such a name, not telling about steelmaking or ironmaking, told nothing but the details of a Soviet man named Paul Korchagin. Suddenly he was strongly curious about that strange book. He wanted to see what happened in that book. Vive told the book belonged to his elder sister who was a teacher in the county town and scarcely came back home; that book was taken by his mother from the county town, and used to hold shoe-making patterns.

With the consent of Vive's mother, he took that book, hurried home and read it immediately. He was enchanted by that book at once. The next day was Sunday when he should have gone out in the hills and chopped a bundle of firewood for family use; but in reality he did not go anywhere but hide himself behind a wheat hay stack on the wheat threshing ground of the village, to greedily read through that book before dark. The story of Paul Korchagin, an ordinary person in another country, strongly shocked his young and weak heart. After the curtain of night thickened, he did not return home. In stead, he stayed beside the threshing ground silently, looking at the stars overhead, listening to the waterflow clearly from the river, and lost himself in thoughts untellable. His minds were messy and floating, mysterious and immeasurable. He suddenly recognized that there was a bigger world outside Duaqua village blocked by mountains. More importantly, now he was aware though not clear that whoever in whatever conditions could live a great life! In that moment, his 16 years old chest was filled with poetic imagination of life. He saw Paul's sharp cheeks and vigorous figure. Paul who was not blind at all was staring at him brotherly from afar with blue eyes. Of course, Fred could never forget Donia, lovely daughter of a rich family. She was so good. She so deeply loved Paul, son of a poor family. Fred did not hate Donia even in the end of the story. He burst into tears for Donia finally parting with Paul. He thought: How good would it be if he could encounter a Donia!

That day, he forgot the supper, and did not hear his family calling him home for supper. He forgot everything around him, until he was back home, hearing his father's complaining voices and seeing his elder brother's condemning eyes, and yes, he was back to the cruel real life when he took a bowl of cold sorghum-rice porridge from the top of kitchen range...

From then on, he was in love with novels, especially Soviet novels. Before going to high school, he had already read The Story of Zoya and Shura.

Now, he had thousands of ways to search for books from the school library and the library of county cultural center. He disliked recent books published in China, because he had already read several Soviet novels, so those new books in China didn't interest him any more. He was only searching for foreign books, and Chinese books published before the Cultural Revolution.

Gradually, he was intoxicated in reading everyday. When he was free, he would lie reading on his bed with ragged bed clothes, without an end. Even whenever he strolled outside school, he must be already carrying a book under his arm -- if he was tired of strolling, he would find a quiet and secluded place for reading. Later, he developed to read in classroom when he secretly hid his readings under the desk disregarding the meeting or political study which was going on.

Soon, his misbehavior was reported by somebody to head teacher, where he were accused of indifference to proletarian politics and exclusive reading of "reactionist books". The reporter was the lame girl sitting not far from his seat, Jade Duke, who was careful of other's privacy. It seemed that defective physiology brought about defective psychology: she was most careful of other's defects in life, maybe trying her best to prove nobody on the earth was complete – “Although your legs are better than mine, I am better than you in other aspects!” Jade Duke was always the first speaker in discussion, interpreting the theories of proletarian dictatorship, looking like cadres. In physical labor, she was very active, though she was lame. Of course, she also loved to help others; at the same time, she was monitoring all irrevolutionary acts of the class, as if she was chairperson of the discipline supervisory committee.

One day, the class was studying on an article titled “Leaders and officials should lead to study good things”, an editorial on the People's Daily, which study was chaired by the head teacher, and interpreted by class monitor Volk Retro. Fred Sun did not hear even one sentence, while he was bending his head to read the secret novel under the desk. He did not find that lame girl had signaled the head teacher to take care of his misconduct. When the teacher walked to him and seized his book from his hands, he was suddenly surprised. The whole class burst into laughs. Volk Retro stopped interpreting the newspaper, and posed as an outsider, but Fred Sun felt that the monitor was apparently gloating at this event, who must be expecting how the teacher would dispose of Fred. The head teacher put the confiscated book on the teaching desk, did not say anything at first, and let Volk Retro continue interpreting.

After the study finished, the teacher called Fred to his office, surprisingly returned Fred's book, and told him: "Red Rock is a good book, but you should not read extracurricular books in class. You can go now..."

Fred Sun left the teacher's office in grateful mood. From the teacher's eyes he did not see a little rebuke, instead he saw a fullness of kindness and enthusiasm. Such a trifle increased his love to books. Yes, what else did he own except several black sorghum buns per day? It was only for such books that he believed life was meaningful, his spirits were a little relieved, and his nature was calling him for a beautiful life -- without this, he could not stand every day of hardship and misery at present.

In his current life, there was actually another trifle he couldn't tell, which brought a little warmth and joy to his inner heart. This trifle was already known to us in fact, that is: in each meal every day, when he was fetching his two black buns personally after every one was leaving after meal -- every such time, he would see another person doing the same.

Of course, at the beginning, he and the girl named Plum Rouge took their buns respectively and left, as they were unrelated.

God knows which day, she looked at him when she was coming by. He looked at her too. Although there was no words, they communicated. People usually have a language without words in life. Thence, this kind of eye "communication" increased. Fred Sun found that Plum Rouge was in fact the most beautiful girl of the class. Only because she wore raggedly, plus a sallow face, no body else ever found her beauty.

Boys at this age, once lucky enough to be educated a little, usually loved to flirt with "exotic girls". Especially for these boys from rural areas, in their eyes, these daughters from official families in urban areas were all like fairies who were descending to the world from the heaven. Of course, boys and girls at this age didn't really know about love, but undoubtedly they had known superficially about sex, and just because they had known a little about it, they behaved more passionate about it even than the experienced.

Well, who has escaped such an age? In this Werther's age of disturbance, any micro emotion between different sexes might cause a tornado in the heart of a lad!

Fred Sun was not in this stage now. He only felt that in his poorest life, there was a girl looking at him with dear and kind eyes, and this warmed him limitlessly. Her loveable thin cheeks, her gracile neck, and her ragged clothes only enough to cover her private parts, all these had rippled his heart, like spring rains on water.

They had "communicated" with eyes for some days, then finally one day, after fetching her two black buns, she hesitantly walked to him, and asked him in a low voice: "That day, teacher confiscated your book, then what is it?"

"It is Red Rock. I have bought it from county cultural center," answered he quivering his hand holding his two black buns. She is so close to him, but he dared not look at her any more. He buried his head lower uneasily, looking at the two black things in his hand.

"There is a Sister Rivers..." she was not tense by nature, but seeing him so nervous, her voice was a little unnatural.

He at once replied: "Yes. But she was killed later... for honor!" He added a poetic word he was proud of, but his head was still bent down.

"There was an old lady with two pistols," added she.

"Have you read this book?" now he dared lift up his eyelids to look up at her.

"No, I haven't. My father has told me the story before."

"Your father? Your father has read the book?"

"Yes, he has."

"Who is your father..." Fred was stunned by this girl in ragged clothes whose father dared have read Red Rock, so he was puzzled who her father was on the earth.

"My father is a farmer, a bad element, a landowner, no, my grandfather was a landowner, so..."

"Then has your father been to school?"

"No, my father has never been to school. But my grandfather had been to school. My grandfather taught my father to read. My grandfather died many years ago... I have not read the novel Red Rock, but I can sing the songs in the opera Red Rock. My name was given by my father from the lyrics. One sentence of the opera sings: On the Red Rock, red plum trees are blossoming..."

She spoke gently, while he was listening like a log.

Suddenly, she was flushed and asked: "Have you returned your book?"

"Not yet," he answered.

"Then can you lend it to me?"

"Of course!" he answered without hesitation.

So the next day, he handed over the book to her hands.

From this time on, Fred Sun would lend every book he had read to Plum Rouge. Whenever he lent a book to her, or she returned a book to him, everything was undergoing secretly as if they had reached an agreement. They both knew that such a close relationship between a boy and a girl was dangerous, if other classmates found this, what a response would be there? – if so, they couldn't expect a peaceful life!