Chapter 69 Catherine's Submission to the West Sound
Yao Xiaoyu's head ached from staying up all night, but the buzzing in her head wasn't as bad as her rumbling stomach. She tightened her peony-embroidered belt to the maximum, had Tao Xiaoxiao bring down the ice water from the room to dispose of it, and then took everyone out for breakfast.
Having not slept all night, and still feeling a sweet taste in her mouth after brushing her teeth, Yao Xiaoyu, driven by some kind of urge to check off a spot, slumped down in front of a stall—a large, rough porcelain bowl of snow-white tofu, topped with vinegar and soy sauce, and a wonderful aroma of Sichuan peppercorn oil and chopped chives, so hot that it made her tongue tremble, instantly whetting her appetite.
After finishing the last bite of tofu, there was no need to rush to eat rice. Instead, they ordered three ounces of Longxu Yangchun noodles, asked the vendor to add two golden fried eggs, and ate the beef that Tao Xiaoxiao had bought to fill their stomachs before going to get some cifantuan (sticky rice balls).
Cifantuan is similar to the Taiwanese rice balls sold at modern food stalls. Together with Shanghai's dabing (flatbread), youtiao (fried dough sticks), and doujiang (soy milk), it is known as one of the four great breakfast items in Shanghai. Although the stalls only offer pickled vegetables and youtiao, each rice ball is as long as a baby's arm, making it a substantial meal.
Yao Xiaoyu patted her swollen belly, packed up the two bowls of meat porridge, ignored the stares from the Yao family, changed the ice in the room, and collapsed onto the bed. She only closed her eyes for a moment before falling into a near-conscious sleep. When she woke up, the sky was full of stars.
The porridge from the morning was still on the table, but Yao Xiaoyu didn't really want to eat it. Listening to the vendors outside hawking olives, she hesitated for half a minute before decisively sending the meat porridge to the cellar, where the temperature was lowest, to keep it fresh, so she could use it to soothe Tao Xiaoxiao's throat tomorrow.
As for now...
"Give me some olives, and is there anything else hot to eat nearby?"
The generous Yao Xiaoyu received a warm helping hand from the vendor. She ate a hot ham-filled rice dumpling, drank a bowl of sweet lotus seed porridge, and contentedly washed up in the dark before collapsing back onto the bed.
Staying up all night took a heavy toll on Yao Xiaoyu, and it couldn't be replenished by sleeping for a day. She maintained her decadent routine of eating and sleeping until the last part of Miao Youjin's story was published in the Complete Collection of Stories, and the author, Little Fish, made a statement that caused a sensation throughout the city before she sat down at her desk again.
"Damn Japanese!"
As Yao Xiaoyu wrote the outline, she cursed under her breath, using the most sarcastic language imaginable. She had finally established her market appeal with two books at the newspaper, and her bold attempt at an infinite flow novel was only missing the female lead's face. Now that the novel had changed hands, she would have to go through a period of dancing in shackles again!
If it weren't for the fact that we don't have cell phones now, Yao Xiaoyu would really like to send a hundred annoying Monkey King emojis!
This idea was clearly ranked far down the list, but now it's being forced to jump the queue!
As Yao Xiaoyu wrote her outline, she grew increasingly angry. Finally, she slammed the paper on the table, grabbed another stack of white paper, and began to write furiously.
One week later.
David from the West Sound newspaper looked at the envelope in his hand and excitedly shared this strange news with his friend.
"Merlin's underwear, Smith, look at this! Someone actually submitted an article to our newspaper!"
Blue-eyed Smith peeked out from behind the table, reaching for a letter as he spoke in fluent English:
"Grandma Tom's tomato pie, it's really incredible, but I'm the first one to open it now."
David tried to snatch the letter from Smith's hand, but being slightly overweight, he was clearly not as agile as Smith. Seeing that his friend had already pulled out the paper, he could only curse and then lean over.
This was certainly not dignified, but it was his first submission to the West Voice newspaper, and David was extremely curious about it.
The West Voice Newspaper was founded by David and Smith. When they came to plant flowers, they knew nothing and almost starved to death on the streets if they hadn't been taken in by Dr. Maria. Later, with the help of others, they started the West Voice Newspaper and escaped poverty.
The newspaper they ran was called "Western Voice," which mainly published various news from abroad and reprinted some foreign articles. It was published weekly, and David's red hair and Smith's blue eyes were the best authority. Many Chinese people learned about other countries through their newspaper.
"Oh, why is it 'planting flowers' again? This Miss Catherine is really unfriendly."
David was already getting a headache when he saw a bunch of square characters. Neither he nor Smith were particularly good at learning, and the country's fonts were all square like a painting. They could only communicate in a basic way. They could understand people if they spoke slowly without using idioms or colloquialisms, but reading them was quite difficult.
"Uncle Martin's boots, I'm going to find our little translator now, what about you?"
David said with a bitter face, and Smith folded the paper, showing his agreement with his actions.
“My dear little Mary, come and help us see what’s written in this letter.”
Before she arrived, her voice preceded her. The Eastern girl in Western-style dress sighed, put down the ancient book in her hand, and took the manuscript from Smith.
"This is a letter of submission from Catherine..."
Mary slowed down her speech, but it still sounded a bit awkward. Miss Catherine had written the whole thing in Chinese, but the arias and metaphors were so Western that she wanted to translate them directly into English and repeat them. But she soon couldn't care less about such trivial matters.
The people of that country are as ugly in appearance as in spirit. I have never seen such a despicable race. A good lady should not judge others so casually, but I simply cannot tolerate their actions...
Japan in that era was called "Japan" in English. The phonetic spelling of Japan actually has many characters, but this lady must have been extremely angry to use these two characters as a substitute.
[...They actually scattered snails carrying schistosome pupae into the waterways where flowers were planted, attempting to create a plague and cholera outbreak. Innocent civilians walking in the water unknowingly contracted schistosomes, becoming unfortunate victims suffering from "big bellies." They only felt they were unlucky, unaware of the viciousness behind their misery!]
Mary trembled as she read these words. She knew about the pregnancy disease. Her original name was Xiangdi. She was the third girl in her family. Life wasn't too bad, but her father and uncle's bellies became unusually large, and they died not long after.
The atmosphere in their village wasn't good. Their father's and uncle's coffins were still in their house when people started knocking on the window that night. Their mother hadn't even finished the seven-day mourning period before she ran away with their younger brother. She didn't stop them, but before the mourners noticed, she also packed some things and ran off. It wasn't that she didn't want to stay, but that she couldn't stay—
There was a widow who wanted to stay with her son and never remarry, but the well-behaved child soon ran into a pond and drowned; another widow was very observant, but one morning she never saw her mother and son again. Later, her brother overheard something and learned that the village had tied them up and sold them to a boat at night in order to seize their land and house.
Mother is right, she just wants to live.
Instead of looking for her mother, Xiangdi walked along the main road to Shanghai, where she fainted from hunger at David and Smith's feet. The two men originally only wanted to take her to the hospital, but they discovered that Xiangdi's language talent was astonishing, so they made her their translator.
However, that was a long time ago. The current Xiangdi has changed his name, and David and Smith have officially completed the adoption procedures and sent him to a bilingual school.
Mary is now fluent in English and French and is learning Russian and Spanish on her own. But her illustrious life cannot make her forget the fear of fleeing overnight. She had always thought that her father and uncle were just unlucky, because no one in Shanghai knew how they contracted the pregnancy disease. It turns out it was the Japanese!
Mary immediately lost all goodwill towards the country.
[...Don't swim in rivers carelessly, don't walk barefoot on paddy field ridges, don't eat raw fish casually, and always boil water before drinking...I know this is difficult, but the disaster in Japan has already happened, and all we can do is protect ourselves and then inform others as much as possible...]
"...Eliminating just one more snail could mean one less person getting sick..."
[...I don't know if our country has ever been attacked by something similar from Japan. I hope not, but given that Japan can even target a country with thousands of years of civilization, I'm not optimistic about the possibility...]
After listening to the entire article, David and Smith turned pale. Their country didn't have people with swollen bellies, but they did have Pneumocystis carinii and toxoplasmosis, diseases discovered in recent decades. Without Miss Catherine's letter, they wouldn't have made the connection, but now…
"This article needs to be published as soon as possible."
David spoke quickly in his native language, and Smith nodded without hesitation:
“You go find the printing press, I’ll find the doctor, and then we’ll write the letter.”
The veracity of this matter still needs to be verified, but they are inclined to believe that Miss Catherine is telling the truth. In their memory, there are indeed more people with large bellies in areas with many paddy fields.
"Oh, and Miss Catherine's royalties... Mary, do you know how much other newspapers pay for their articles?"
It may sound unbelievable, but the content of The West Voice was actually entirely supported by David and Smith—translating articles into English or other readable foreign languages, copying them down, and that was the new issue of The West Voice. They didn't even have a submission channel; Catherine's letter was sent directly to the newspaper office.
David and Smith stared at Mary expectantly. The girl thought for a moment, then hesitated before saying:
"The standard may vary, but it will always cost a few silver dollars."
Many newspapers advertise generous remuneration upon acceptance, but the specific figures are kept secret. Those that aren't kept secret are usually only a dollar or two, which clearly doesn't meet Miss Catherine's remuneration standards.
"Then let's say fifty dollars."
The exchange rate between US dollars and silver dollars was roughly one to four. For a short story of over ten thousand words, this compensation wasn't low.
While the two white men were discussing royalties, Yao Xiaoyu had already put away the original manuscript on schistosomiasis and was immersed in writing her new article.
Yes, Miss Catherine, who retains Western language habits and is fluent in Chinese, is Yao Xiaoyu's latest alias, and schistosomiasis is a mudslinging smear that this honest and virtuous foreign lady has thrown at Japan!
She's a foreigner, how could she lie!
Yao Xiaoyu knew, of course, that schistosomiasis had nothing to do with Japan, but that didn't stop her from making Japan take the blame completely—she dared not write about actual spies and poison bombs, fearing that those perverts would get inspiration from her articles and prematurely introduce these beastly acts into reality!
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The author's note: Xiaoyu stopped Miao Youjin's story at the factory where the Japanese were liberated for the same reason; she was afraid that the butterfly effect would affect Red Star.
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