as born. The newborn baby cried at the top of his voice while the
scholar sat in a corner of the house, with tears of joy in his eyes. The household was so
excited that no one cared about supper.
A month later, the bright and tender-faced baby made his debut in the open. While the
young woman was breastfeeding him, womenfolk from the neighbourhood gathered
around to feast their eyes upon the boy. Some liked his nose; others, his mouth; still others,
his ears. Some praised his mother, saying that she had become whiter and healthier. The
scholar’s wife, now acting like a granny, said,
“That’s enough! You’ll make the baby cry!”
As to the baby’s name, the scholar racked his brain, but just could not hit upon a
suitable one. His wife suggested that the Chinese character shou, meaning longevity, or
one of its synonyms, should be included in his name. But the scholar did not like it—it was
too commonplace. He spent several weeks looking through Chinese classics like the Book
of Changes and the Book of History in search of suitable characters to be used as the
baby’s name. But all his efforts proved fruitless. It was a difficult problem to solve because
he wanted a name which should be auspicious for the baby and would imply at the same
time that he was born to him in old age. One evening, while holding the three-month-old
baby in his arms, the scholar, with spectacles on, sat down near a lamp and again looked
into some book in an effort to find a name for the boy. The baby’s mother, sitting quietly in
a corner of the room, appeared to be musing. Suddenly she said,
“I suppose you could call him ‘Qiu Bao’.” Those in the room turned to look at the
young woman and listened intently as she continued, “Qiu means autumn and Bao means
treasure. So since he was born in autumn, you’d better call him ‘Qiu Bao’.”
The scholar was silent for a brief moment and then exclaimed,
“A wonderful idea! I’ve wasted a lot of time looking for a name for the baby! As a
man of over fifty, I’ve reached the autumn of my life. The boy too was born in autumn.
Besides, autumn is the time when everything is ripe and the time for harvesting, as the
book of history says, ‘Qiu Bao’ is really a good name for the child.”
Then he began to praise the young woman, saying that she was born clever and that it
was quiet useless to be a bookworm like himself. His remarks made the young woman feel
ill at ease. Lowering her head and forcing a smile, she said to herself with tears in her eyes,
“I suggested ‘Qiu Bao’ simply because I was thinking of my elder son Chun Bao.”
Qiu Bao daily grew handsome and more attached to his mother. His unusually big
eyes which started tirelessly at strangers would light up joyfully when he saw his mother,
even when she was a long distance away. He always clung to her. Although the scholar
loved him even more than his mother did, Qiu Bao did not take to him. As to the scholar’s
wife, although outwardly she showed as much affection for Qiu Bao as if he were her own ω本ω作ω品ω由ωω網ω提ω供ω下ω載ω與ω在ω線ω閱ω讀ω
baby, he would stare at her with the same indefatigable curiosity as he did at strangers. But
the more the child grew attached to his mother, the closer drew the time for their separation.
Once more it was summer. To everybody in the house, the advent of this season was a
reminder of the coming end of the young women’s three-year stay.
The scholar, out of his love for Qiu Bao, suggested to his wife one day that he was
willing to offer another hundred dollars to buy the young women so that she could stay
with them permanently. The wife, however, replied curtly,
“No, you’ll have to poison me before you do that!”
This made the scholar angry. He remained silent for quite a while. Then, forcing
himself to smile, he said,
“It’s a pity that our child will be motherless…” his wife smiled wryly and said in an
icy and cutting tone,
“Don’t you think that I might be a mother to him?”
As to the young wo