Chinese Literature

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Ce Oe

a

Wo

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Big Stone Bay right then and there, no matter how Kuei-chieh and her little girl tried to keep her a little longer. ‘

Before she left, Mother Wang told Kuei-chieh she should talk her father-in-law over a bit more and also that she should mend his torn clothes and take better care of him. Kuei-chieh said: “I’ve just been too busy with other things to get around to that, that’s all.”

Finally, Mother Wang told Kuei-chieh to send the little girl Hsianghsiang to winter school and that she would provide the money for her eranddaughter’s schooling.

So Mother Wang left. But for quite a long time she remained the topic of conversation between Kuei-chieh and all the women around her. They kept talking about her clothes, how youthful she sounded when she laughed. ... They were all agreed:

“She’s like a fresh peony, just in bloom, at sixty years of age!”

Translated by Tso Cheng

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