Happy Lantern Festival! Read more

4. The third step towards destruction

Fallen into the pit of loveliness, Mei Mei became more and more beautiful. I thought I was done for. I was going to become a beast. There were puppy loves at school, and there were girls who secretly gave me love letters. But I could only think of Mei Mei. By my third year of junior middle school, Mei Mei also got into my middle school. The male classmates of mine all pounced like wolves when they saw Mei Mei and vied to win my favor for me to introduce them. How could I give Mei Mei to them? I found all sorts of reasons to keep them off, push them away, drive them away…in order to protect Mei Mei, I wracked my brains until they were empty.

I was suffering; I was confused; I was depressed. Why did she have to be my younger sister?

I can’t stand it anymore! I couldn’t stand the way Mei Mei looked at me with her bright eyes. I needed to smash her idol and expose my true colors. I want her to keep far from me.

One day, there was an opportunity at the dinner table. Dad and Mom asked me about my aspiration for the middle school exam (for high school). I fiercely said, “I’m not going to go to school anymore. I’m going to join the triads. I want to be a triad boss.” Read more

3. The second step towards destruction

The days of dying with dignity and live with endurance passed one by one. When the school term ended, the two of us brought back our report cards. No one could tell that she was actually very smart. But once she concentrated on studying, her grades rose up very quickly. At the end of the term, she actually tested to be second place in the grade. Comparatively, I was average; didn’t even make it to top 50.

Grandma, Dad, and Mom were very happy and praised Mei Mei for being smart. But Mei Mei had an expression like she had just found her idol in the trashbin, and said, “How can this be? How can this be? Ge Ge is so smart, how can he not test higher than me?”

I couldn’t stand it, but I had to! It had to do with a man’s honor! With my purple face, I blathered, “Of course I can, it’s just that my stomach wasn’t feeling well on the day of the test, so I didn’t test well.

Grandma, Dad and Mom all had shocked expressions on their faces. Only that stupid Mei Mei suddenly nodded with understanding, “That’s right. Like I said, Ge Ge is extremely awesome.”

Grandma and them were all snickering. I couldn’t hold my expression any longer, so escaped from everyone’s eyes, but was still reluctant to admit my mistake, “Just wait, next term, I’ll definitely surpass you.”

*Sigh*, that hateful honor of men! During the new term, in order not to lose honor in front of Mei Mei, I made an all-out effort in studies and eventually got first place on the podium at the end of the term. This shocked everyone. Only Mei Mei had on a fame follows merit — that was the way things ought to be — expression. Read more

2. The first step towards destruction

Poisoned by a sugarcoated bullet, the starting point of me trying to correct Cheng Yong Kang wasn’t really for anything good. A bad person wanting to do good things would make someone die laughing. However, there’s that so called saying, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure; things that are evil for Cheng Yong Kong, can be good for others. From this I attracted an annoyance that will lead me down the wrong path for the rest of my life.

One Sunday, I went to find classmates to play. When I passed by Lantern Lane, I happened to see Cheng Yong Kang bullying his older sister. Of course I didn’t hesitate and went up to pull him away from his sister using one hand. And then kicked him in the butt. Cheng Yong Kang started howling at once.

It was a major miscalculation. I had forgotten that the place was his front door. Very quickly, his crying attracted that old mother hen. Cheng Yong Kang was easy to deal with, but that old mother hen in his family was someone I could not deal with at the time.

There’s that saying, “Your head may be cut off, you blood may flow, but your honor must be kept.” Even though my power fell short, I still resolved to confront the old mother hen. The scene was very chaotic that day. We started by hurling insults at each other and then hitting each other, neither side won in the end.

The final outcome of the event was that I ended up with an additional younger sister. It was because when the old mother hen and I were fighting and throwing insults at each other, without thinking much about it, I, very heroically, made an exaggerated announcement — saying that I was going to take that girl home to raise. That shameless old mother hen, simply, very despicably grabbed onto that opening and didn’t let go — determined to have me bring that girl back home. And for the sake of that damned so-called honor of men, with a bloody nose and swollen face, I brought that woman’s child back home. Read more

Happy Chinese (Lunar) New Year! For the rest of the Chinese New Year celebration, I will be bringing you translations of a story called, The Destruction of a Triad Boss Trilogy (一个黑道大哥的毁灭三部曲) by Wu Xiu Long Xiang (无袖拢香) (No Sleeves to Catch Fragrances). It’s a fairly short story (though the author has even shorter ones) so let’s get right to it. Read more