Chapter 97: The Republican-Era Young Lady Stops Making a Fuss 8 – Want Me to Translate for You?

The girl looked around curiously at the buildings, then at the crowd.

Suddenly, her eyes lit up.

She happily ran toward a certain spot, where several men in uniform were standing.

They were policemen from the Police Station.

Aside from that girl, everyone else was giving those gentlemen a wide berth.

Several policemen stood there smoking, slouching without a shred of proper posture, huddled together and talking about something.

The girl walked up to them and asked with a bright smile, “Excuse me, sirs, could you tell me how to get to Avenue Joffre¹?”

The policemen stopped talking. Cigarettes dangling from their mouths, they swept their gazes up and down over the girl asking for directions.

The girl frowned and took two steps back.

One of them blocked her with his baton and said with a grin, “Why are you running?”

Then, imitating the girl’s voice in a mocking falsetto, he repeated her words to his companions: “Excuse me, sirs, could you tell me how to get to Avenue Joffre?”

The others followed suit, parroting her in that nasty, mocking tone, then burst into laughter.

The girl seemed to finally see their true colors. She wanted to leave, but they still blocked her and kept teasing her like the scum they were.

Following Song Xuange’s line of sight, He Dusheng naturally saw what was happening over there as well. He instructed, “A-Xiang, go take a look.”

Then he covered Song Xuange’s hand with his own and soothed her, “Don’t worry. It’ll be fine.”

A-Xiang got the girl out of that situation, and she came over with him to thank them.

Song Pingzhang found it all very novel. “People usually avoid those Police Station men like the plague, but you’re interesting, going right up to them yourself. This must be your first time in Shanghai, miss. You really shouldn’t be so reckless in the future.”

Though Song Pingzhang was only half-grown himself, the girl didn’t get annoyed at being lectured by him. Instead, she thanked him.

“I thought asking someone official for directions would be more reliable. How was I supposed to know they were that kind of people?”

Then she said clearly, “My name is Lu Zhu. Thank you all for helping me.”

She asked once more about Avenue Joffre.

The Song Family also lived on Avenue Joffre, so after explaining the situation, Song Xuange invited her, “You can come with us.”

“I really shouldn’t refuse your kindness, madam, but I still need to buy some gifts to bring with me.”

Song Xuange knew she was still a little guarded at the moment, so she did not press her.

Song Pingzhang spent all his days running wild outside, and he knew every road by heart. Enthusiastically, he explained to her how to take the public tram, where to hire a rickshaw, and even introduced the streets where she could buy all kinds of gifts.

Lu Zhu memorized everything one by one, thanked them, and then left.

Song Xuange took her younger brother home, listening along the way as he talked about how wildly he’d played around in the Suzhou countryside.

Judging by all that endless energy of his, one could only imagine how much of a headache his hosts must have had entertaining him.

He Dusheng laughed and privately told her that he would make time to bring gifts and pay a visit to thank them, so she needn’t worry.

Song Xuange truly let it go after that.

Song Pingzhang had brought back a great many little things from Suzhou.

In the past, Song Xuange generally wouldn’t care about such things. Song Pingzhang would only ask her for form’s sake before handing them out to the servants.

This time, when he came to ask, Song Xuange had him open the trunk so she could take a look.

And inside, she found several packets of osmanthus candy.

Song Pingzhang said, “Sis, you like this now? Then take it and eat it. I don’t like sweets. Do you want the rest too?”

Song Xuange shook her head. As he sorted through the remaining items, he said regretfully, “Looks like it’s my not-yet-born nephew who likes this. Ah, why couldn’t he have the same taste as his uncle? How am I supposed to take him all over Shanghai to eat everything then?”

When Song Xuange realized what he was saying, she felt deeply embarrassed.

It wasn’t exactly easy for her to admit that she had specifically asked for it for He Dusheng.

Ever since learning that he was somewhat fixated on osmanthus candy, she had also gone out looking for it herself, but she had never found the kind he liked. There was only the sort called osmanthus candy that was actually made by kneading dried osmanthus blossoms together with malt sugar. It was quite rough and crude, not the kind families prepared when marrying off a daughter.

Song Xuange specially went to the kitchen to fetch the large sugar jar usually used for rock sugar, and put all the osmanthus candy she had gotten this time inside. She even covered the mouth of the jar with a layer of oil paper beneath the lid to seal it more tightly.

She placed the jar by the bedside.

He Dusheng could see it the moment he came in.

Just as she had expected, he was delighted when he saw it and immediately ate one piece.

“Well? Well? Is it the taste you were thinking of?”

He Dusheng nodded, smiling with complete satisfaction.

After eating one piece, he picked up the jar and started to leave with it.

“Where are you taking that?”

Today he was wearing a long gown with slightly wide sleeves. At her words, he held the jar in one arm and used the other sleeve to cover it up.

“Shouldn’t I find a place to hide it? If I leave it in the bedroom, what if you sneak some of mine?”

Seeing how seriously he was taking it, Song Xuange truly did not know what to say.

“I was the one who found it for you in the first place. What’s wrong with me eating one piece?”

He Dusheng shielded the jar and backed toward the door. “Absolutely not. My wife prepared this especially for me, how could I let other people eat it?”

With one hand behind his back, he opened the door and slipped out.

It left Song Xuange staring in astonishment.

She had always seen him as mature and steady, and never expected him to have such a childish side.

Kneeling on the bed, Song Xuange giggled to herself.

Since he could behave like this in front of her, then these past days, he must have been happy.

Thinking that, she could not help falling into a daze, and she thought of him in her previous life.

Ah, her Dusheng.

–

Early in the morning, neither of the two men in the house was around.

It was one thing for He Dusheng to have gone to work. After asking the servants, she learned that Song Pingzhang had run off with his friends to have fun.

With nothing to do, Song Xuange went out by herself.

Not to shop, but to look for a book.

That day, seeing how hard it was for He Dusheng to read that book on machinery, she had wanted to help. No matter what, her English was better than He Dusheng’s.

So she thought she could first make a rough translation of the book herself and then give it to him to read. It would certainly be more efficient than things were now.

Only, after He Dusheng left, she had also gone to look through that book, and the specialized terminology had stopped her in her tracks.

So she wanted to see whether she could find an English dictionary related to machinery or industry.

She searched several bookstores along the way and found nothing.

She eventually wandered to the Chung Hwa Book Co. on Fuzhou Road.

Browsing among the shelves, she searched for a long time and finally found a technical dictionary.

This book included professional terminology from several different industries, and the industrial section took up a fair amount of space.

She only skimmed through it for a few moments before finding several of the technical terms that appeared at the beginning of He Dusheng’s book.

It was a very thin volume, priced at sixty-eight yuan.

It was truly expensive.

One had to remember that an old servant of the Song Family like Nanny Wen earned only twelve yuan a month. Even with all the holiday gifts and red envelopes added in, it still would not exceed fifteen.

She sighed inwardly, but at least she had found something useful.

Song Xuange took the book to the bookstore manager to pay for it.

Only to be told that it was not for sale.

The manager took one look at the cover. “Oh, this one… I’m terribly sorry, miss. This book was reserved by a gentleman. He arranged to pick it up this afternoon, and this is the only copy in our shop.”

“It can’t be that you’re putting me off, Manager. If someone is coming to collect it this afternoon, why is it still sitting on the shelf for people to browse?”

“It really was reserved,” the manager explained. “We recently hired a new assistant, and he’s still not familiar with the work. He shelved this book by mistake.”

He even took out a notebook from behind the counter, flipped to a certain page, covered the column with the customer’s name, and showed it to Song Xuange. Sure enough, the page listed the book’s title and the scheduled pickup time.

Having no choice, Song Xuange said, “I truly have an urgent need for this book. Manager, could I trouble you to help me get a copy transferred from somewhere else?”

The manager sighed. “To be honest, even the copy in your hands doesn’t belong to the shop. That gentleman commissioned me again and again, and only after asking around everywhere did I manage to get this one copy.” He looked troubled. “You’ve seen for yourself that this book is expensive, and there aren’t many buyers. Only a small number were printed to begin with. If you’re asking me to find another copy now, I’m afraid I can’t. I truly wish I could help, but I can’t.”

Song Xuange really did not want to give up, so she tried negotiating with the manager.

“How about this? Before that gentleman comes to collect it, could you let me copy it down? That way it won’t interfere with your business, and I can solve my problem as well.” She added, “Don’t worry, Manager. I won’t take advantage of you for nothing. Just name whatever fee I should pay for copying it.”

After thinking it over, the manager agreed. He did not take her money, and even lent her a fountain pen.

He only asked that she buy paper from the shop.

Song Xuange readily agreed.

The manager also reminded her not to stain or damage the book, then found her a table where she could copy it.

In truth, it was just a corner beside his counter. It was practically the same as keeping her right under his nose.

She only needed to copy the vocabulary from the industrial section, so there was not all that much to write, but she also had to copy down the meanings. To save herself from writing too many words, she had to check the example sentences and basic usage first, then rewrite them based on her own understanding.

That slowed her down considerably.

By noon she still had not finished, so she sent the driver out to buy lunch, including portions for the manager and the shop’s two assistants as well.

The driver bought pork cutlet rice from a nearby restaurant with a good reputation.

In a large sea bowl, the bottom was filled with a generous mound of rice, and on top lay a golden, crispy pork cutlet bigger than Song Xuange’s face, cut into small pieces about two fingers wide.

The vegetables on the side were shredded kelp salad and lightly stir-fried bean sprouts.

The driver carried in four large bowls on a tray, and the aroma instantly swept through the entire bookstore.

Even the customers still browsing books turned to look.

The manager thanked her again and again.

There was no proper dining table, so the few of them sat on boxes in the storeroom at the back to eat, so they would not dirty the books in the shop.

The pork cutlet suited Song Xuange’s taste perfectly, and she ate with great enjoyment.

When one of the shop assistants came over to collect a meal and thanked her, she realized it was actually someone she knew.

Lu Zhu held her sea bowl without hurrying to eat. Delighted, as if she had run into a friend, she said, “Madam, it’s you. We really are fated to keep meeting.”

She was wearing a flax-colored shirt, dark blue-black overalls, with her long hair pinned up beneath a hat.

It was completely different from what she had worn that day.

One had been bent over working, the other intent on copying from a book, so neither had recognized the other.

Song Xuange asked, “How did you end up working here?”

Had things not gone well with the relatives she meant to rely on?

“Ah, it’s a long story.” Lu Zhu took a huge bite of pork cutlet. “Mmm… delicious! Pork that hasn’t been fattened on feed really is more fragrant…”

When Song Xuange asked about it, Lu Zhu did not hide anything, and Song Xuange in turn told her about copying the book.

Lu Zhu’s eyes lit up, and she stopped eating altogether.

After swallowing the food in her mouth and wiping her lips, she said to Song Xuange, “Translation? You should come to me. I’m more than familiar with this kind of work.”

Song Xuange did not react at first.

Lu Zhu continued, “If you need an industrial foreign-language text translated, I’m perfect for it. I can do German too. Back when I was in Germany…”

Everyone in the room, including Song Xuange, stared at her in surprise.

Lu Zhu cleared her throat. “What I mean is, my teacher studied English from childhood, and when he grew up, he went to Germany to study abroad. He specialized in machinery manufacturing and related fields. He taught me at home for many years, and I happened to be interested in machinery too, so I learned that from him, along with English and German. I also often helped him translate related papers.”

She began promoting herself. “Madam, hire me to translate for you. As long as the book isn’t too thick, I can definitely finish the translation within a month. I’ll only charge you… hmm, thirty silver dollars. That’s not even half the price of the book you wanted.”

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Translator’s Notes