Novel by Le Xiao Mi, adapted into a drama starring Ma Tianyu, Sun Yi and Wallace Chung to be aired in Dec 2017.

In this chapter, the relationship between Jiang Sheng and Liang Sheng is established.

Translation based on raw version. I am also reading as I translate. Please do not post spoilers in the comments section.

Chapter 3: Mine Accident — The Water-Like Night

At night, Bei Xiaowu’s mother dragged the almost disfigured Bei Xiaowu to our yard. The frown on her face was more catchy than the teeth marks on Bei Xiaowu. Mother offered tea and apologised non stop. It was late night before Bei Xiaowu and his face full of teeth marks disappeared from my sight. Before leaving, Bei Xiaowu’s mother even grabbed a large  bunch of red chillies hanging on our walls.

Because of this, I suffered a round of beatings from Mother.

This is the first time the gentle and kind mother had laid her hands on me. As she caned me, she cried, “Don’t you know you are a thorn in the eyes of the Wei villagers! Told you to beware when interacting with others, you had to go find trouble! You want the entire Wei Village to know off your existence? Why are you such a bully?

At that time, I did not know Mother’s words were meant for Liang Sheng. She is a compassionate woman, and just like the many abandoned women mentioned in novels, soft and weak.

When the cane striked my arm, touching the wound caused by Liang Sheng’s bite, I shuddered into a ball. Liang Sheng who was peeping from behind the curtains also closed his eyes tightly.

The moonlight is just like water.

Under the moonlight that shone like water, the weak Mother helplessly lifted the whip. Her hair dispersed, tears fell. Her 4 years old young daughter will mever understand her pain of being a woman.

The man named Jiang Liang Zhi, married her when he was a useless and poor teacher in the Wei Village. They had promise to rely on each other for life. To take care of both his bedridden parents, and to not cause additional stress to him, she had chose to terminate her pregnancy twice. Every time, he hugged her and cried, saying, “I’m sorry.” With tears in his eyes, this man swore to her that in the future, he will give her a happy family and a bunch of healthy children. Eventually, he really did it. He succeeded and became a famous reporter in the city. But at the same time, he found a new love — someone who has the same knowledge, culture and is of the same level as him. They lived happily! Sweetly! Drunkenly!

Meanwhile, a peasant woman is enduring this at the faraway Wei Village. Suffering! Struggling! Waiting! She knew he had a family outside, and even had a child. But she did not dare to say anything, did not dare to cry nor complain. She understood, he did not divorce her because her in-laws needed and loved her diligence and endurance, and also because she would not interfere with his affairs.

A few days ago, the man named Jiang Liang Zhi and his reporter lover paid a visit to the mine in Wei Village for an on-site interview but there was an accident which buried the mine under the well. The female reporter died, there was no more love and passion. Whereas, the man named Jiang Liang Zhi is now lying in the hospital, life or death still unknown. Only the wife he abandoned was looking after him. He instructed her to bring his son to the Wei Village and should  he die, to bring him up well. Yes, he did not need to beg her, he just needed to instruct. There is a type of women whose life is pitiful — you can bully her while alive, you can also still bully her after passing on.

This pitiful woman is my mother. At this moment, her hair was dispersed and she was crying, looking as if she lost her soul. As for the matter with Father, it was until after I was thirteen years old that I realised, that I understood. It is also from thirteen years old onwards that I cultivated an extremely bad habit — to open my eyes in the middle of the night and attempt to get a clear view of the newspaper-filled ceiling. Curling my tiny body up, looking for those beautiful nights. The water-like night! The water-like moonlight!

Once, on a night with water-like moonlight like this, Mother hit me and then hugged me while weeping. She said, “Jiang Sheng ah, my life ah.”

I was a child Mother had only after middle age. She treated me that preciously. She did not have much treasures in her life, and I was her treasure. She transferred all the guilt that she had for being unable to give birth to the previous two children into love and showered me with it. But today, after crying, she gave me the usual punishment of standing in the yard.

That night, the moon was that lonely, I stood in the yard barefooted. Only Kitty’s warm little body nestled by my feet.

In the middle of the night, Liang Sheng secretly ran out from the house, he called out softly, “Jiang Sheng, Jiang Sheng.”

I looked at him with a face of grievance and lowered my head. My exposed bare calves moved constantly.

He pulled my arm and looked at the red teeth marks with heart ache. The blood which had coagulated became dark red boils. He asked me, “Jiang Sheng, does it still hurt?”

I shook my head, then nodded and pulled his arm while I burst into tears. I rubbed all my tears and snot onto his clean sleeves.

He bit his lips, “Jiang Sheng, I’m sorry.”

After he said that, I cried even more.

He used his sleeves to wipe my tears, “Jiang Sheng, stop crying. It is all Liang Sheng’s fault! Liang Sheng will not let Jiang Sheng suffer from any grievance anymore in the future! Or else, the moon in the sky will crush me to death!”

I stopped crying and called him Brother. I said, “Let’s not let the moon crush you to death. If Jiang Sheng is wronged in the future, you shall use braised meat to crush me to death!”

I licked the corner of my lips with my pink tongue as I said that, trying to recall the taste of the braised meat I ate in the afternoon. The six year-old Liang Sheng stared at me dryly for half a day and cried. Later, when we were in elementary school, the teacher asked all of us about our ambitions. Most of the clueless kids wanted to either be scientists or astronauts. Only Liang Sheng foolishly stood there for half a day to think before saying he wanted to be a braised meat chef in the future. The class broke into laughter and he was punished to stand outside the classroom for half a day. The reason was he disrupted classroom discipline.

It was also that night with the water-like moonlight that Liang Sheng pulled me back into the house secretly, collected the cool water from the well, and washed my feet for me without saying anything. My feet were very small. Liang Sheng’s hands were very small too. Liang Sheng said, “Jiang Sheng, you need to wear shoes in the future, or else your legs will grow as big as a boat and nobody would want you when you grow up.”

I sat on the stool and laughed, “I’m not afraid. I have Liang Sheng. I have Brother.”

Liang Sheng did not say anything but picked me up from the stool and piggy-backed me into the house.

Mother had already fell asleep, she was sighing even in her dreams. I found a spot beside Liang Sheng and slept. The two little black heads put together are just like two mushrooms that are stubbornly growing.

The cat snuggled by my side. I snuggled by Liang Sheng’s side.

I pretty much forgot I had just got a beating, and flashed a smile at Liang Sheng. Liang Sheng patted my head and said, “Jiang Sheng, be good. Go to sleep quickly.”

When I slept, I stole a glance at Liang Sheng. The moonlight was water-like. Liang Sheng’s eyes were also water-like.

Volume 1 of 2
Chapter 3 of 83
Click on the tag 凉生，我们可不可以不忧伤1 to look through all translations in this volume.

I knew this was a makjong story regarding half-siblings Jiang Sheng and Liang Sheng falling in love when I started this novel… But I guess it just didn’t hit me that they had the same father. (I didn’t thought they had the same mother either.) I just didn’t thought they will be real (half) siblings. There is either going to be a birth secret somewhere along the line (not a spoiler, just a guess) or this is one screwed up story (which I will stick until the end regardless, so no worries).

Now the relationship between Jiang Sheng and Liang Sheng is established. We now know why they are so tight — Jiang Sheng loved Liang Sheng’s pretty face while Liang Sheng remembers this beating that Jiang Sheng had endured for him.

And yes, I rushed this chapter out because I saw a couple of different comments saying that they are waiting eagerly for the translation (even though the views for these posts are really low…) Hope you guys liked it 🙂 I also cheated a bit and read until chapter 15 and I find it pretty good thus far. From now til then, it will be about their childhood and teenage years.