Chinese Stories in English
Stories Magazine (Page 07)
Stories from Stories Magazine Compilation #145 《故事会合订本145》上海文化出版社
Page citation and link to online Chinese text noted after each story.
1. White Hair Turns to Silver 3. Award Winners
2. The Child Selling Lighters 4. Black and White Pairing
1. White Hair Turns to Silver (白发便银子)
Liu Jianping (刘建平)
It’s said that a man who didn’t honor his parents once lived in Jacket Village, Sand River County, Virtue Prefecture. His name was Succeed Gong
How unfilial was he? In the middle of winter one year, he took his white-haired mother to live in a cave outside the village. He pushed her there in a goat-cart with her sitting on one side and half a bag of wheat on the other. When they reached the cave, the cart flipped over and his mother fell to the ground. Her vision was blurred, but she saw that half of the bag of wheat had leaked out. In distress, she asked, “Why did the wheat spill out, son?”
In fact, Succeed had deliberately poked a hole in the bag, but he pretended to be surprised. “Why didn't you tell me earlier that the bag was leaking, Mom? This is your food for the whole winter. Now what are you going to eat? Heck with it, figure that out for yourself!”
Succeed left pushing the cart. He didn’t even look back. His mother cried as she went back to pick up the spilled grains one by one. The wheat was her only hope for survival in the cave.
One day Succeed went to the cave to see if his mother was dead yet. When she saw him, she said, “For treating me like this, watch out for retribution when you yourself get old.” Her voice was weak as a gossamer thread.
Succeed freaked. He shook his mother's shoulders and shouted, “Why are you cursing your son, Mom? If you can't leave me any gold or silver, you could at least say some auspicious words!”
The old lady’s head was so swollen it made her dizzy. She opened her eyes and forced herself to say, “I hope, when the time comes, every white hair on your head will turn into silver as a guarantee that you’ll have something to eat....”
Succeed was elated to hear that. He hoped his mother's blessing would come true when his hair went white, and it would all turn into silver….
After his mother passed away, Succeed buried her without delay. His neighbors took shots at him behind his back, but he didn't care a whit!
Twenty years passed in the blink of an eye. Succeed had gotten old and his hair was white. His two sons, one called Big Bro and the other Little Bro, had discussed how to take care of their father in his dotage, but they couldn’t reach an agreement.
One day Little Bro pushed Succeed up on top of a wall that was more than a man’s height. “Let's make a bet to decide it all in one fell swoop,” he suggested to his brother. “Whoever the old man falls towards will take care of him to the end of his days!”
Sitting upright on the wall, Succeed thought, “If these two fools knew that my white hair is silver, they’d probably fight to see who’ll take care of me in my old age! I’ll whisper the truth to whichever one takes me home!”
He watched as Little Bro picked up a thick stick and poked him hard, trying to push him to Big Bro's side. When the elder brother saw his father leaning towards his side, he turned his head and grabbed a dung fork he’d seen leaning in a corner of the wall. With a “Ya”, he raised the sharp end of the fork and stabbed in the old man’s direction.
If the fork found its mark next time, he’d have three punctures in his body! Succeed was so frightened that his face turned pale. He immediately pushed the thick stick away and threw himself down onto Little Bro. Little Bro pushed him away, but to no avail. He was so angry that his nose was bent out of shape.
And so, Succeed followed his youngest son home. Little Bro sat down beside him and sulked. Succeed said, “Don't get angry or worried, Son. Dad has something for you to look at.” He plucked a white hair from his head and told Little Bro, “This isn’t an ordinary white hair. It’s silver!”
Little Bro thought he was joking, but he took a closer look and was shocked. “What about the other hairs on your head?”
Succeed smiled and pointed at his full head of white hair. “Look closely!”
Little Bro was so excited that his hands were shaking. “Dear Old Dad, I never noticed that your white hair was such fine silver! Your hair grows an inch every two months, and if I cut it off, I’ll have almost a tael of silver. I’ll get five taels of silver every year and will be able to build a new house in a few years!” In no time at all, Little Bro was flashing smiles at Succeed.
There’s no such thing as a wall without cracks that let in the wind. Two months later, Big Bro also heard tell of his father’s white hair turning to silver. He knocked on the door of Little Bro's house, went in and asked to share in supporting Succeed. Little Bro of course wouldn’t go for it. “Our bet already decided that issue. I’ll take care of Dad in his old age by myself. You’ll have nothing to do with it. You’re the doctor who arrived after the patient recovered – too late!”
Big Bro was furious. “If you won't agree, I'll play rough!” He rolled up his sleeves and was ready to fight.
Little Bro was no match for him. Right away he thought, “Discretion is the better part of valor. If he takes the old man away, I’ll never get anything from him, so it's better to give a little this time.” So he smiled and said, out loud, “Since we both want to take care of Dad, let's take turns. One month each, OK?”
“Three months for each of us, no less!” Big Bro demanded. “You can come to my place to pick him up three months from now. That’s the way it’ll be.”
Big Bro was leading their father away as he spoke. Succeed remembered to look back and shout to Little Bro, “I’ll be back here in three months, son!” He was ecstatic. His mother had really done him a great favor back then!
Contrary to his expectations, Big Bro didn’t treat him well. He didn’t even put a good face on it and focused exclusively on his father's white hair. Three months after taking him, Big Bro got a razor and “zip, zip, zip,” shaved Succeed's head. Little Bro hopped around in anger when he came to pick up Succeed and saw his shiny bald head. “Why’d you shave Dad's head?” he demanded.
Big Bro was nonchalant about it. “Saves you from having to do it, doesn't it?”
The two brothers fought about it and, strange as it seems, Big Bro dragged his father back into his home. No matter how much Little Bro shouted and banged on the door, Big Bro refused to show his face again.
Little Bro’s face turned blue with anger. He ran straightaway to the county government office to file a complaint demanding justice. He accused Big Bro of monopolizing his dear father.
County Magistrate Chen, the current head of the office, was corrupt. He couldn’t see a way to squeeze any grease out of this case, so he instructed his assistant, “Lots of times brothers shirk their responsibility and abandon the older generation. This is the first time I've heard of two brothers competing to support their elder. Ask them why they’re doing it and, if the two sons really have such deep love for their father, praise them and let them take turns.”
The assistant came back red-faced after a long while. “Master,” he reported, “the one beating the drum is Little Bro, a resident of Jacket Village. He’s called in his elder brother, Big Bro, to confront him. The two brothers have no love for their father, Succeed, and are fighting over his white hair. It’s not ordinary white hair – it’s high-quality silver! Silver growing on the scalp is a no-lose business. It can only make money.”
Magistrate Chen rolled his eyes and went directly to the courtroom to accept the case. He questioned the brothers about the situation, read them the riot act and finally proclaimed, “You brothers don't have to support your father from now on. Starting today, Succeed will go live in a nursing home.” He didn’t give the two brothers a chance to argue about his decision.
Succeed was taken straight to the county's rest home. Disdainful of his sons, Succeed told them, “You two fools. This silver hair of mine could’ve sustained you, but you didn't know how to value it. You didn't take good care of your father, so now someone else will do it for you. Your father is going to live in ease and comfort!”
But Magistrate Chen had placed Succeed in the rest home because of his silver hair, not to let him enjoy a good life. He had someone watch over Succeed and give him regular haircuts. Someone else would melt the hair into silver ingots and send them to the magistrate.
The people working in the government office and the rest home all knew that Succeed had silver on his head and watched what was going on. Their eyes burned with greed and their hearts beat fast. The more they watched, the more they wanted to take advantage of the situation and get some silver for themselves. Someone would swipe a few hairs whenever Succeed wasn't paying attention, and then someone else would snatch some more. Over time, Succeed gradually went bald.
Magistrate Chen became suspicious as the amount of silver he received decreased, so he sent his advisor to the rest home to investigate. When he learned that only a few hairs remained scattered on Succeed's head, he knew there was no longer much profit to be made. He told his advisor in private, “Send him home. You can all do whatever you want with the remaining silver hair!”
The advisor did nothing at all to soften the blow to Succeed. He sent men to kick the old fellow out of the nursing home without delay. “The home can support you for a while, but not for your whole life. You have two sons, so go and ask them to take care of you in your dotage!” The magistrate’s bailiff pulled out the last few strands of Succeed's silver hair during the kerfuffle. The old man's hair was completely gone.
Succeed returned to the village in despair. He remembered how Big Bro had stabbed him with a dung fork and shaved his head bald. How cruel! Only his younger son had smiled at him and given him good food for a few days, so he went to Little Bro's house and knocked on the door. When Little Bro opened the door and saw the bald-headed Succeed, his face changed abruptly and he slammed the door shut. Succeed sighed, shook his head and walked away.
“If that’s what I get from my youngest son, I’ll face even worse treatment from his older brother. I’d best not go there. The old saying is true, filial sons produce filial sons, while sons who don’t honor their parents produce sons who don’t honor theirs. I brought this on myself, because I was foolish enough to think I could rely on my silver hair to support myself in my old age. What an ironic turn of affairs….”
It happened to be midwinter, and Succeed had nowhere to hide from the snow and freezing cold. With no other choice, he went to the cave where he’d ensconced his mother all those years before.
Succeed was hungry and cold in the cave, and about to pass out, when he saw someone pushing a goat cart into the cave. He opened his eyes wide and saw it was Big Bro, and he had half a bag of grain on the cart.
Succeed was thrilled. “Have you come to bring me food, son? That makes you a better man than me! But I don't need it anymore. I wasn’t kind to your grandmother back then. I let her starve to death here, and I deserve the same.” Tears flowed from the corners of his eyes as he spoke.
Big Bro knelt beside Succeed and cried, “Dad, the grain is only a counterbalance for the cart. I came here today to take you home….” Then he revealed an astonishing secret he’d long kept to himself.
It seems that Big Bro, who was a few years older than Little Bro, had been aware of everything going on at home, including his father's unfilial behavior. He had a deep affection for his grandmother but was too young to do anything about Succeed's behavior. When he saw Succeed starve his grandmother to death, he made up his mind to give his father a taste of his own medicine when he grew up.
As Succeed aged, his white hair turned into silver. Big Bro found out about it but didn't say anything.
When the family divided their assets between the two brothers, Little Bro didn't want to support Succeed, and Big Bro followed suit as part of a plan. He used the dung fork to scare Succeed into going with Little Bro.
Little Bro didn't push Succeed out for a long time, so Big Bro knew that Succeed had beguiled the young man with his silver hair. He therefore demanded that the brothers share in their father’s support. Then he shaved all of Succeed's silver hair off, leaving Little Bro with no way to profit from his father’s situation. His intention at the time was to get Succeed to realize that money can't buy a child's true love.
He didn’t figure on Little Bro making a scene at the government office, or that County Magistrate Chen would put Succeed in a nursing home. Eventually, when Succeed was kicked out of the home, Big Bro watched as his father came to the cave alone. He went to get the goat cart and pushed it to the cave to bring his father home….
As Big Bro helped Succeed into the cart, he said, “I kept all the silver hair I shaved off you. Starting now, I'll use it to take care of you in your old age.”
Sitting in the cart on the way home, the old man felt a mixture of guilt and resentment. He kept mumbling, “I know I was wrong, Mother. I know I was wrong.…”
Chinese text on p. 2-035. Also available here.
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2. The Child Selling Lighters (卖打火机的小孩)
Gong Jia (宫佳)
Excellence is a travelling salesperson. She recently had to go on a business trip to an unfamiliar city to discuss a new project. She got off the plane about one in the morning, feeling groggy, and followed the crowd out of the arrivals area and into a passageway. She was going to wait there for a taxi to go downtown.
At a bend in the passageway, Excellence noticed a young girl with her left arm stretched out in front of her. She held a cigarette lighter straight up in her left hand and was grasping some more lighters firmly in the palm of her right hand. She approached Excellence as soon as she saw her and asked, "Hello, do you need a lighter?"
“This girl has good business sense!” Excellence thought. Anyone who’s ever taken a plane knows you can’t bring lighters on board, which is very frustrating for smokers. They want to satisfy their craving for a cigarette as soon as they get off the plane and need an emergency lighter to do so! Unfortunately for the girl, Excellence doesn't have this addiction.
She took another look at the girl. She was a bit shy -- her eyes jumped around instead of looking directly at Excellence. Her eyelids drooped and she kept looking down, as if she were focused on her toes. Her posture remained steady, though, with her hands raised in front of her chest.
When Excellence thought about it, she realized that she just might want a lighter after all. She’d been flying around so much recently to discuss business transactions that she hadn’t been sleeping well, so she carried a small incense burner in her suitcase to use as a sleep aid. So she did need a lighter. She asked the girl, "How much?"
"They’re not expensive. Only two yuan."
The girl kept her head down during this exchange, looking at her toes, but her voice was loud and clear. Excellence handed over the money, selected one of the girl’s lighters without really looking at it and hurried off. Following a security guard’s directions, she got into a taxi and left the airport.
She visited that city for a second time not too long thereafter. It was past 11:00 p.m. when she got off the plane. She saw the girl again at the arrivals exit, still hard at peddling lighters to people passing by. Some of the people shook their heads and left; some paid for a lighter before hurrying away; and some simply detoured around her.
The girl approached Excellence again. She seemed to have forgotten her, but Excellence had some questions in mind this time. She couldn't understand – shouldn’t a child of her age be about to start high school? Why was she hanging around the airport just to earn some pocket change? She wanted to bring the girl to her senses. This time of night, she should be home in bed. Doing well in school was much more important than making a little spending money.
On second thought, though, she and the girl had met by chance, like patches of duckweed drifting on a pond. What right did she have to tell the girl how to live her life? And so, even though her mind was full of things she wanted to say, she walked on by without a sign of recognition, as if the girl didn't exist. She thought the girl might be disconcerted, but her expression remained placid. She just turned around and walked over to peddle a lighter to another customer.
Excellence returned to that city a few days later. The girl was still there when she came out of the arrivals area. A security guard happened to be walking by and Excellence asked him, "Why is that girl always here selling lighters? I've seen her several times."
"She’s a very motivated child,” the guard replied. “Her adoptive parents don’t have much money and she has eye problems. Corrective surgery will cost an arm and a leg! She wants to earn the money on her own by selling lighters so she won’t be a burden on her adoptive parents."
Excellence was astounded. No wonder the girl had kept her head down when they talked! She asked another question. "Why does she come here at night to sell lighters? She could sell them during the daytime!"
"Because two women sell lighters here during the day. She doesn't want to compete with them, so she comes here at night."
Complex emotions welled up in Excellence. She took a notebook from her bag and wrote down a few lines before tearing off the page and handing it to the guard. "Please give this to her. It’s the names of some of my customers in this city. They all operate supermarkets. Tell the girl to contact them after tomorrow.”
The guard held the note between two fingers. "May I ask your name? I’ll need to give the youngster an explanation!"
Excellence waved her hand, turned around and got into a cab.…
Chinese text on p. 2-044. Also available here.
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3. Award Winners (获奖)
Jiang Xiaolan (姜笑澜)
County-level news media recently reported that two girls from an Arts School won the Piano Newcomer award and the Oil Painting Newcomer award in an internationally renowned competition. One of the girls played "Hungarian Rhapsody" on the piano so well that the judges sang her praises. The other girl's oil painting, "The Moon on the Windowsill", was extolled as unique in conception and profound in artistic expression.
Mr. Jiang, a reporter from the Provincial Education Magazine, went to the school to interview the two girls. The principal received him warmly and showed him to the piano room, where a girl was staring at some sheet music on the piano. The principal asked Mr. Jiang to wait a moment while he went to look for the other girl.
Mr. Jiang started the interview and got straight to the point. "You started studying piano when you were quite young, right?" He sized up the girl: curly black hair, pretty face, slightly melancholy but resolute expression.... Maybe this was the future pianist? He could almost hear the "Hungarian Rhapsody" pouring out like a tidal wave from her slender but powerful fingers....
The girl seemed indifferent. “I was about three, maybe four.…” she answered. “Truth be told, I don’t love playing the piano.…”
"Oh?" The reporter was rather surprised. "Then how could you keep at it for so many years?"
"Because of my father." A mischievous pout came over her face. "Because he dreams about being a pianist -- he wanted to be a pianist when he was young but ended up flopping. Because of his dream, I didn't have a happy childhood like other children. I spent at least five hours at the piano every day.... I passed one level after another and was entered in one competition after another. But in fact I didn't know what the piano was all about. All I knew was that I was playing the piano while other children were playing games or sleeping in or eating snacks. What I loved was painting. As for painting....”
“No,” Mr. Jiang interrupted her, "We’re talking about piano, not painting...."
"Oh, piano! OK. Maybe you don't know, it was a painful process. I practiced countless songs until I knew them well, and I learned various techniques. But in the end I was just a piano-playing machine. I only found my true self after I picked up a brush. I was always passionate.... "
"A paintbrush?"
"Yes." The girl wouldn’t stop talking about painting. "When I finished my schoolwork and practicing the piano, I spent most of the rest of my time painting. I sat alone in front of my bedroom window on countless quiet nights, painting while I gazed at the moon. Ah, what a wonderful time it was! The moon, my best friend. She always comes as promised and brings me endless imagery...." The girl was completely engrossed in her own story.
Mr. Jiang had to shout at her, "But it was the piano that brought you such great honor!”
"Ha, ha, you're wrong." The girl burst out in laughter. "I'm not the girl who won the Piano Newcomer award. I'm the girl who won the Oil Painting Newcomer award -- the one who painted "The Moon on the Windowsill."
“What?“ The reporter’s jaw dropped in surprise.
The school’s principal was already standing at the door of the piano room by this time. Another girl stood next to him with a sketchpad in her hand.
The girl by the piano smiled. She pointed at the girl with the sketchpad and explained, "She won the Piano Newcomer award. She’s my sister. She likes to play the piano, but our mother has had her study painting since she was a child.... "
The principal appeared awkward. "It's an interesting story," he commented with a smile. "The girl in the piano class won the oil painting award, while the girl in the art class won the piano award."
"That may be more interesting than just getting the awards!" Mr. Jiang smiled and was in high spirits as he finished up the interviews....
Chinese text on p. 2-046. Also available here.
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4. Black and White Pairing (黑白配)
Hou Xiaoqi (侯晓琪)
The Pride of the Town’s Pharmacy
The town of Crouching Dragon Temple sits at the foot of the Qinling Mountains. Tolerance Hall was a pharmacy in the town. The shopkeeper, an ancient fellow, felt that his time was at hand. His successor was away at school, so the old man sent someone to bring him home. On his sickbed, just before he died, the old shopkeeper told his successor, "Tolerance Hall has been in business for ninety-nine years now and will soon be a century old. It’s been the town’s preeminent pharmacy all these years. Even in a town as big as Crouching Dragon, no one’s dared open a competing shop. I’m only worried that…."
"What’s there to worry about?” the young man interrupted. “It's good not having any competition! We’ve been in business ninety-nine years, soon to be a hundred, so what’s the problem?" The old shopkeeper waved his hand to indicate he wanted to say something, but he had no strength left. He passed away shortly thereafter, and the young man took over the pharmacy.
The new boss went to a spot on the mountain behind the pharmacy one day, an area planted with maple trees that was an important place for making medicines. Bunches of straw mats laid out under the trees were covered with ingredients wrapped in honey shells to dry in the sun. They were used to make “Black and White”, an amazing medicine.
The finished product was a whitish, mud-like substance stuck in the middle of a square sheet of black paper, hence the name. It immediately reduced symptoms associated with wounds, headaches or fever when spread on the affected area. Even more astounding, it also had a miraculous effect on gastrointestinal disorders and abdominal distension when taken with wine. Ingested or applied externally, it was the pride of Tolerance Hall.
The dog days of summer had arrived that day when the young boss went to the mountain. The men who were drying the medicine had gone somewhere to cool off, and the young boss foamed at the mouth with rage when he discovered they weren’t working. He could see nothing on the straw mats but black sheets of ants that had poured out of their forest nests to enjoy the honey on the lumps of medicine.
The new boss called the foreman into his office and let loose a thunderstorm of curses. The foreman responded, "This... This is the way it’s always been…. In the past, when the old shopkeeper was here….”
The new boss hadn’t been in charge for long, and he hated it to the max when people used the old shopkeeper to put him down. "That's because he was kindly by nature and didn't want to punish you for it. Things are different now. If you dare shirk your duties again, don't blame me if I’m not all that nice to you!"
The workers realized that the new boss wanted to establish his authority, so they didn’t dare say much. The boss took note of their reluctance and felt depressed. Tolerance Hall's business had flourished under the old shopkeeper, but before his death he’d complained about the lack of competition. The business hadn’t improved even the tiniest bit since then, so no wonder his subordinates were dissatisfied.
He was in the middle of a quiet sigh when he heard a burst of firecrackers on the street. An assistant soon came in to report, "It’s the new drugstore opening across the street. It’s called Constant Benefit Life!"
The new boss frowned. According to custom, to avoid bad blood between the two businesses, before a new pharmacy opened its owners had to inform and pay respects to the senior shop. Constant Benefit Life had completely ignored this rule of etiquette. They obviously didn’t take Tolerance Hall seriously and were bullying him because of his youth. He made up his mind: “You’re rude, so don't blame me for being impolite. Let's have at it, like two tigers fighting in the wilds!”
Half Real, Half Fake
The fact is, Constant Benefit Life had been holding its horses. It’d been doing business openly for several months and had done nothing untoward. Had they been holding back while they hatched a ruthless plot? The new boss was thinking it over when he heard a burst of shouting outside the shop. It was a group of people who’d been on the mountain cutting wood. In the past, people would carry Black and White with them when they went into the mountains. If they happened upon unclean water, they’d throw a bunch of Black and White into the pot to disinfect it when making tea or boiling water. This time, though, it had upset their stomachs.
When the young boss went outside, one of the people who’d been on the mountain put his hand on his stomach and complained, "Our bellies hurt after we drank it. We’ve taken Black and White internally before and didn't expect it to make matters worse. Young Boss, Black and White used to be effective for lots of things, but now it doesn't seem to work!"
The new boss collected the unused Black and White from the people right away and examined it. Each dose was new medicine that had been manufactured and sold recently. He asked, "Where’d you guys get this stuff?"
They lived in different places and had bought the medicine from different sources: A few bought it from Tolerance Hall; Some had asked others to get it for them; Some bought it from village doctors, and so on. It was apparent that tracing the source of each dose would be difficult.
Black and White was a proven formula that had been mixed for nearly a hundred years with no careless mistakes. Could the doses be fake? The new boss realized something right off the bat: “OK, someone must’ve made a fake batch on the sly to tarnish Tolerance Hall’s reputation.” It was done with great skill, since everything from the paper to the medicine itself exactly matched the real thing. Ordinary small workshops didn't have the ability to do that. Thinking it through, it had to be Constant Benefit Life.
The new boss groaned for a moment, then bowed to the crowd and proclaimed, "You guys, it’s unfortunate that villains envy Tolerance Hall. I’ve checked out the stuff you had and concluded they’re all fake medicine!" Everyone protested and clamored for compensation.
The new boss had no choice but to fight back at all costs against such a despicable opponent. He understood that point and shouted, "Tolerance Hall was established and has been in business here for many years, thanks to the support of you villagers. We’re grateful for your kindness and will never let you suffer! How about this? Tolerance Hall will buy back and destroy the fake medicine you have at double the price!"
The new boss glanced across the street while the crowd cheered. He supposed his competitor might close its doors before noon with a "guilty conscience". He’d suffer a major loss from his exceptional strategy, but Tolerance Hall would become more famous while business would get harder and eventually wither away for Constant Benefit Life.
The new boss breathed sighs of relief, thinking he had the upper hand, until more people came to his door with a complaint. They’d been injured by falling trees while cutting wood and had applied Black and White to their wounds, but the pain didn’t stop and even became worse. The new boss felt his scalp tingle at this turn of events. "What? More fake medicine?"
The man leading the newcomers wasn’t sympathetic. "I was afraid of getting fakes,” he said, “so I bought over the counter at Tolerance Hall this time."
Since the first fake medicine incident, Black and White doses had been made with novel secret marks. The new boss took the newcomers’ Black and Whites and saw that they bore the secret marks inscribed by him personally. What was going on?
His suspicions running wild, he took newly made Black and Whites from the shelf to replace those turned in by the newcomers. The wounded people applied the medicine but still moaned in pain -- the new batch was useless. "What do you have to say for yourself?” the unhappy people cried. “Did you cut corners and make fake medicine on the qt?"
"No, these are all real!" The new boss grasped at straws, "Are you agents of Constant Benefit Life?"
"What? You’re still BS-ing, even now?” The villagers were furious. Some of them wanted to tear down Tolerance Hall’s sign, but an elderly man stopped them. He peeled off the Black and White patch on his arm and showed it to everyone. "Wait! My arm got hurt, too, but the Black and White patch I put on it obviously worked!"
The newcomers’ leader took the patch from the man’s hand and examined it carefully. He raised his eyebrows and said, "Uncle, maybe this medicine is half-real and half-fake. It’s lucky you got results, like groping around in muddy waters and still pulling out some money. Look, this must be the old medicine made by the old shopkeeper. It’s worth a bunch on the black market now because it’s clearly effective!" He threw the patch out of the hall angrily, stepped forward and grabbed the young boss. "You’re greedy. Ruining the old shopkeeper's life-long reputation isn’t such a big deal, but it’s immoral to impede the healing of people’s injuries. Let's go see a judge!"
A Century of Success
Tolerance Hall lost the lawsuit, and the young boss spent more than half a year in jail. When he returned to his shop, the place had been emptied and all the employees had left. He went to an inner room with a gloomy look on his face and took a small box from an interlayer behind a blank wall. It contained the formula for Black and White. He believed he’d ruined his ancestors’ magical recipe and was so ashamed he buried his face in his hands and cried.
Just then he heard noises outside the hall. He went out and, to his surprise, saw Mr. Ye from Constant Benefit Life followed by all the former Tolerance Hall staff. One of the staff said, "Boss, after you got into trouble, Tolerance Hall closed down and we had nowhere to go. Mr. Ye took us in. He said whenever you came back, we could return to Tolerance Hall anytime we wanted!" When he noticed Mr. Ye smiling and nodding slightly, the young boss's eyes turned red. He hastened to invite Mr. Ye into the inner room and told him what was in his heart.
The new boss was mortified. "My pettiness has harmed Brother Ye!" Right from the start, the young boss had regarded Constant Benefit Life as a mortal enemy. He suspected they were behind everything bad that happened. This made everyone resent that pharmacy. They worried that it really was trying to monopolize the market and doing whatever it could to bring down Tolerance Hall. The resentment and worry of course meant that Constant Benefit Life's business could not flourish.
When he saw this apology was sincere, Boss Ye also came clean. "At first I hired your employees because Constant Benefit Life was a new store and short of staff. Now that you’re back, Tolerance Hall must resume business as a matter of course. I came here today for two specific reasons: first, to bring the employees back, and second, to bid you farewell."
Surprised, the young boss asked, "Are you leaving, Brother Ye?"
"Constant Benefit Life can't get a foothold here,” Boss Ye replied forlornly. “I’ll have to go somewhere else."
The new boss thought for a moment, then brought out the recipe. "Brother Ye, here’s Tolerance Hall’s formula for Black and White, famous among the people for nearly a hundred years. It's my fault that I didn't learn well enough to grasp the skills passed down from my ancestors. The foundation of Tolerance Hall’s business for nearly a hundred years was destroyed in my hands! I’ll give the recipe to you now, in the hope that you’ll take it and make good medicine as soon as possible, and thus continue to benefit the people here!"
Boss Ye declined politely, "I appreciate your kindness, but Black and White’s formula is an heirloom of Tolerance Hall. I really don't dare take it for myself! However, did you say there was a mistake when you made the medicine according to the recipe? If you trust me, I can take a look at the recipe and help you find out what went wrong."
The new boss handed over the prescription without hesitation. Boss Ye read it carefully and thought about it. Eventually he pointed to a sentence in the formula and commented, "Every word in this recipe is a pearl, and every step is ingenious. But it says here that the compound should be placed under the maple trees for three days, during which time you needn’t worry about it. You can retrieve it after three to five days of air drying and mix it into the medicine. Isn't this phrase, "needn't worry about it", superfluous?
A light bulb lit up in the young boss’ head. He remembered that day when he chewed out the foreman because the workers had left the mountain site. He was shocked: Could that be the problem? He told Boss Ye what had happened that day. Boss Ye clapped his hands and said, "Yes, the ants are the key!"
It turned out that the ingredients for the medicine were placed in the maple forest during the dog days of summer to attract ants! Maple trees secrete a slightly toxic, sweet gum that sickens ants if they eat too much. When they climb onto the ingredients to suck up honey, they secrete formic acid and semi-digested, non-toxic maple gum liquid -- this liquid was the key to the Black and White.
“So, the ‘black' in Black and White refers to ants, not the paper. I didn't understand the mystery and didn't allow the ants to enjoy even the tiniest bit of the honeydew. That’s why real ingredients turned into fake medicine." The young boss trembled and continued, "Before my father died, he was worried that Tolerance Hall wouldn’t make it to its hundredth year because we had no rivals. Truth is, he wanted to teach me the wisdom of tolerance!"
The young boss and Boss Ye had a long talk that day. They ended up agreeing to merge Tolerance Hall and Constant Benefit Life into one pharmacy. They’d open a new store which would combine the strengths of both companies. Boss Ye insisted on naming the new store "New Tolerance Hall"!
New Tolerance Hall opened for business three days later. Passers-by all said, even though it was called “New”, Tolerance Hall had finally become a century-old pharmacy!
Chinese text on p. 2-035. Also available here.