Page 106 - I Live in the Slums: Stories (The Margellos World Republic of Letters)

“About what?” I asked.
“Whatever. Who cares? Hurry up!”
Someone walked over and stepped on my instep with his heavy boot. My foot
seemed to be broken. I screamed in pain.
“Good,” said Xiaoyi. “This is also a declaration.” He relaxed.
But the girl next to us wasn’t happy. Girls are girls, not like us boys. They’re
always unhappy with others, always grumbling. Whatever you do, they’re never
satisfied.
I stood up with tears in my eyes. I was groaning. There was no way I could
continue sitting on that stone bench.
The girl put something in my palm. She said they were soybeans—as a
reward to me. Hadn’t she been unhappy with me a moment ago? So why was she

rewarding me?
Soybeans were being lightly stir-fried in the iron wok, but I couldn’t see the
wok, nor could I see the stove. This was truly odd. Could it be a smoldering fire
that was burning with no flames? It was so hot. I put the two soybeans in my
mouth and chewed. They tasted quite good. My instep still hurt a lot. I propped it
up on the stone bench, and stood there bent over. The boy on my left said
something to me, but I couldn’t hear him well. He was angry and shouted, “Why
don’t you leave?”
But I didn’t intend to go. Maybe I was waiting to eat soybeans, or maybe I
was curious about this place.
“I’ll wait a while,” I said in a faint voice.
But that boy heard me right away! He shouted to everyone all around us, “He
wants to wait a while! He wants to watch us! But we won’t let him do what he
wants.”
Everyone in the room roared. What they all said was: “He’s too ambitious!”
Then they laughed their heads off. I was super scared. I thought they might

attack me. But they didn’t. I heard the spatula as the soybeans were frying, and I
smelled the aroma. That girl rewarded me with a few more beans. This was
exciting! But Xiaoyi came over, grabbed my arm, and ordered me to leave with
him.
We went up the stairs, climbed the partition, and returned to the large kitchen.
No one was there. It was already midnight. Only the few stoves with fires still
burning were visible.

I took the soybeans out of my pocket and looked at them from time to time.
They were ordinary fried soybeans. When I put them in front of my nose, I could
smell their aroma. What kinds of people were engaged in secret activity at