Page 147 - I Live in the Slums: Stories (The Margellos World Republic of Letters)

Previously, two cliffs had faced each other here. They had been three or four
meters apart, as if they had been cut apart. Several hundred meters below, a
mountain spring roared. At this moment, the opposite cliff disappeared. Looking
across, one saw only nothingness flashing past.
Lu-er sensed danger. His legs were trembling as they carried him quickly
down the mountain. In his hurry, he tripped; the momentum sent him rolling a
long way before he was stopped by a small fir tree. When he stood up, he saw
that his clothes had been ripped in several places.
He wanted to tell someone what he had discovered. As his mother scolded
him, he chopped pig feed and waited for dark. Not until dark did he go looking
for the little shepherd Ji.
“Ji, did you hear that?” he asked him impatiently.

“Oh, yes.” Ji avoided his fierce gaze.
“Do you know where that sound came from? I went to check it out—”
“I don’t care!” Ji suddenly roared, interrupting him.
He turned and went inside. Lu-er stood there, stunned.
Dad passed by from a small courtyard. Right now, the one Lu-er least wanted
to see was his dad. He wanted to hide, but there wasn’t time.
“Are you loafing again, Lu-er?” he shouted. “When we were kids, we worked
all the time. We worked from morning to night! You are so irresponsible as a
boy, what kind of man will you become? Just look: Ji is more mature than you
are, isn’t he?”
When they had almost reached the door, his dad suddenly said, “Don’t let me
down, Lu-er!”
Lu-er thought his dad knew what had happened and hadn’t said anything
because he was worried about him. What was his father so worried about?
Lu-er couldn’t sleep. The scene on the cliff kept playing back in his mind. At
the time, if he had walked ahead two more steps and found out what was going

on down there, wouldn’t that have been much the same as death? Everyone said
that death meant going to another world. Naturally, Lu-er didn’t want to go to
another world, but lying in bed he couldn’t keep from repeatedly imagining that
he had fallen down the cliff. Just then, he heard his dad talking with someone in
the courtyard. Sure enough, it was Ji. Ji must have had an important reason to
come over so late. Lu-er got up immediately, put on his clothes, and walked out
to the courtyard.
But Ji had left. His dad was standing there alone smoking a cigarette.
“Ji is really sensible,” his father said. “I wish I had a son like him.”
Lu-er stood there, head bowed, ashamed.
“Lu-er, look up and look ahead,” his father spoke again all of a sudden.
Perplexed, Lu-er looked ahead. In front of him was the mountain. In the night