18 慈母情深

Lesson Eighteen

Deep Mother Love

1. I’ve always wanted to buy a novel, The Young Guard.

2. The price of the book was more than one yuan.

3. My mother has never given me so much money.

4. And I have never asked my mother so much money at one time.

5. But I want to have a The Young Guard, which made me out of my mind all day.

6. I have heard several consecutive broadcasts of The Young Guard, from my classmate’s radio.

7. At that time, my broken radio had already been sold and the money was used to buy food for us children.

8. I came to my mother’s work place and asked for money.

9. My mother was laid off by the railway factory that year. In order to earn 27 yuan a month, she went to work in a small street factory which processed cotton rubber uppers.

10. It was the first time I went to the place where my mother made money for us.

11. The space was very low and depressing.

12. The factory building was damp with an area less than 200 m².

13. Seventy or eighty broken sewing machines were lined up, and seventy-eight women, not young, were busy at their sewing machines.

14. Because of the dark light, a light bulb hung above each woman’s head.

15. It was the hot summer, the windows could not be opened, seventy-eight women’s bodies and the heat emitted by seventy-eight light bulbs made me feel like a steamer.

16. I look around the women in a daze, but I could not find my mother.

17. The noise from seventy or eighty broken sewing machines was deafening.

18. “Who are you looking for?”

19. An old man yelled at me.

20. “My mom!”

21. “Who’s your mother?”

22. I called out my mother’s name.

23. “Here.”

24. The old man pointed to the woman at the innermost corner.

25. I walked through the rows of sewing machines and came to the corner where I saw an extremely thin back bent and her head on the sewing machine board.

26. There were several light bulbs around my face.

27. “Mom.”

28. “Mom.”

29. Her back was straight, and she was my mother.

30. She turned around, she was my mother.

31. Over the brown mask, a pair of tired eyes looked at me in surprise, my mother’s eyes…

32. “What are you doing here?” My mother asked loudly.

33. “I’m…”

34. “Is something wrong? I’ve to work now!”

35. “I... I want money...”

36. I didn’t want to say “ask for money”, but I said it!

37. “What do you want money for?”

38. “Buy books...”

39. “How much is it?”

40. My mother took out her pocket, took out the crumpled paper money, and counted with her cracked hands.

41. A woman next to her stopped stepping on the sewing machine, leaned over to her mother and said, “Don’t give it!

42. It is not as motherly as you are! It’s for them to eat, to wear, to go to school, and there is no more money for them to buy books.”

43. Then she yelled at me, “Look how your mother is earning money?

44. Do you have the heart to ask your mother for money to buy books?”

45. But my mother had put the money in my hand and answered the woman in a loud voice, “Because we are mothers!

46. I’m glad he loves reading!”

47. After saying this, she immediately sat down again, bent her back, bent her head on the sewing machine board, and immediately fell into the busy state of using both hands and feet.

48. At that day, I found for the first time that my mother was so small!

49. At that day, for the first time, I felt that I had grown up and should be an adult.

50. I sniffed and ran out with my money in my hand.

51. At that day, I used that one yuan and fifty cents to buy a tin of canned fruit for my mother.

52. “You child, why you buy me canned fruit!

53. It is not that you said you should buy books, otherwise, I would not give you so much money!”

54. My mother scolded me that day.

55. After that, she gave me enough money to buy the book.

56. I don’t think I have the right to buy anything else with that money, either for myself or for my mother.

57. In this way, I had my first novel.