Page 152 - I Live in the Slums: Stories (The Margellos World Republic of Letters)

Picking up her embroidery, she ran off.
Lu-er was trying to distinguish things in that vast expanse of white. What was
inside? Nothing. When he stood up, his legs shook. Oh, he could do nothing. He
climbed away from the cliff.
When he got home, his dad told him to help him clean out the pigpen.
As they stood in the manure pit, Lu-er heard his father talking to himself:
“This is truly the best place to stay.”
Father and son were busy for a long time. They stank.

After taking baths and washing their hair, Dad sat on a stool smoking a
cigarette, and Lu-er sat there worrying.
“Hey, Lu-er, in a few more days, you’ll be thirteen, but your mama and I are
already old. I’ve been wondering recently: Are you unhappy about having been
born to us? Sometimes, your mama and I wonder if you want to leave and go far
away. That’s a great idea, but what’s wrong with staying in this village? If you
stay, you’ll appreciate it more and more.”
“Dad, I haven’t thought about going far away.” Lu-er rolled his eyes in fear.
“You haven’t thought of it yet, but sooner or later you will.”
“I won’t leave. If I did, I would die. I want to stay here my whole life and be
with you! Ji feels the same,” Lu-er said fervently. He blushed, a little ashamed of
his ardor.
Dad looked him up and down, not at all pleased.

“Then do you think the village is a good place or not?”
Lu-er bent his head and said despondently, “I don’t like to do housework, and
I don’t like to farm.” All of a sudden, he raised his head. “Today I saw
something strange! It was Plum giving a performance for me! I’d love to learn to
do what she does. I wonder if I can.”
“There’s nothing that Lu-er can’t learn.” Dad’s tone turned kindly.
“Then you’ve seen her performance?”
“Uh-huh.”
So his parents had thought all along that he would leave the village sooner or
later. This idea made Lu-er feel a little flustered—like the idea of the collapsing
cliff. He couldn’t bear to think about this in detail. Plum! Plum! Such an exciting
girl! He wanted to stay in the village. His dad said there was nothing he couldn’t
learn. If he practiced every day, maybe he could learn to do what Plum did? God
—the motion: even thinking of it made him dizzy.
Because Lu-er had worked hard in the pigpen that day, Mama was kinder to
him. After dinner she let him go out to play. Mama said to Dad, “This child

wants to go outside all the time.”
Before he knew it, he was walking to Plum’s home. Plum was leaning against
the wall next to the main entrance of her home. She was doing handstands; she