A lever scale 9

“Before I had stepped out of the doors (of our home),” the wife replied, “I heard of this (bad) news (about your being jailed). The moment I'd heard (the news), I hurried to the yamen, where I had three yen paid (as the fine). Now I don't have enough (money) to redeem it.”

“Oh,” he grunted absent-mindedly. He then took out the three yen he had earned in the morning and gave it to his wife. “I would carry the baskets back home with my pole,” he said, adding: “The pawnshop might be closed soon. Hurry up. Go there and redeem the hairpin and come back home.”

After the Qin family had enjoyed the weilu last supper of the year, the children went to bed early because they had to get up very early in the morning to greet New Year's Day. They dreamed a happy dream. While they were asleep, De-san continued to pace about their small bedroom restlessly. His wife tried repeatedly to persuade him to come to bed but he seemed to have heard nothing. He was deep in thought, feeling an unknown, inarticulate sorrow and sighing involuntarily and audibly from time to time. “A man isn't a man (anymore),” he thought aloud. Muttering to himself, he went on: “Damn! Who would so willingly (pay a fine for a lever scale broken in two, which was condemned as a bad one). What in the world have we come to? To live isn't any more pleasurable than to die!” Then he remembered the happy looks of his mother when she died. He made up his mind to end his life.

It's New Year's Day. Cry after shrilling, ghastly sorrowful cry burst out of De-san's home. Neighbors also heard, “All is gone? Well, they are only votive papers. * Nothing more left!”

At about the same time, tongues were wagging in town. Rumor had it that a police patrolman on his night beat was killed on a street.

*Votive papers are burned to provide ready cash for the departed to use in the other world.

P.S. (by Lai He)

It's a tragedy. After watching this tragedy a long time ago, I wanted to write about it. But whenever I tried to think back, my brain was always so fully clogged up with sorrow that I could not wield my pen. Recently, however, I read Anatole France's “L'Affaire Crainquebille” and came to know that such a tragedy would not necessarily occur only in an undeveloped country but also anywhere autocratic power is exercised. Subsequently, I disregarded my humble writing ability to endeavor to present this story for critics to review and critique.

A Dissatisfactory Year-end

Lai He's second short story to be serialized in this column is “A Dissatisfactory Yearend.” Its Chinese title is: Bu-ru-yi de guo-nian (不如意的過年). The story tells of a Japanese policeman who saw off a dissatisfactory year. The Japanese colonialists compelled the ethnic Chinese people on Taiwan to celebrate New Year's Day according to the Gregorian calendar. But the people continued to mark the festival according to the Chinese lunar calendar. As a matter of fact, the Japanese switched the celebration in line with the Western custom after the Meiji Restoration of 1867. Officers of the police force were greatly feared as harsh law-enforcers. The policeman in the story is known throughout as Zha Daren (查大人), the first word being the last of Junsa (巡查) in Japanese. Junsa was a police patrolman.

The Lai He Fiction serialization, sponsored by the Council for Hakka Affairs, is provided by the Central News Agency.

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