Chapter2 Suliven and Gaubin
Born as a girl,Suliven and her parents,right after her birth,were cold-shouldered by the other family members.It was just because of the discriminations from all directions that Suliven’s parents would give more love than they should have to their poor daughter.The girl seldom cried,always gave her parents smiles,which was the only consolation to the wounded hearts of her parents,as if she could feel the social iniquity imposed on her parents.Three years later,her brother Glowie was brought into the world,this to a large extent mediated the intense relationship between her family and people around.As she grew up,there unconsciously took root in her innermost heart the thought of anti-feudalism or anti-masculinism,and her this thought took effect firstly on her sibling brother when he entered his school age.Suliven would do whatever better than Glowie could,only to put him in the shade,actually she would do any boy there .She was unusually sensible and diligent that didn’t fit her age;there was an unearthly and decent air about her,with which she could always tame the naughtiest boys only by looking into their eyes peacefully.People could feel the girl’s sacredity and calm that could pacify one’s uncontrolable agitation,extinguish one’s stirring evil thoughts,purify one’s guilt spirit. She always served as an asylum for her girl pals from the offence of some ill-bred boys.The girl of Suliven’s family neighbour was one of her classmates,named Emmy,who was the most vulnerable girl to those boys’s persecutions,for her family was very poor,.this made her very shy and timid in communications with others.She looked very slender and meagre due to malnutrition,so her classmates gave her a nickname “Little Pathetic”.One day, “Little Pathetic” was held by a few mischievous boys on her way home,those boys surrounded her laughing and teasing with insulting language,one boy was pulling her yellowish hair;the poor girl was crying;just at this moment,Suliven came,she grabbed the boy by the wrist with her grip which was a powerful fastener forged out by long time practice of labour at home and in the farm land.The boy grimaced with pain,and the other ones had already taken to their heels,scrambling for survival.The boy seized was set free after he was forced to apologize to the poor girl. From then on ,”Little Pathetic” would follow Suliven to go to school and return home,like Suliven’s shadow,and Suliven was willing to take her under her wings. Suliven was always the most excellent student at school,with her mark,she could enroll one of those first-level universities,but she surprisingly chose the provincial botanical college,saying she loved the nature. It was in college that Miss Suliven ran into Mr. Gaubin,when Gaubin was a student notorious of pugnacity.He had such a short fuse that could easily fall into fight whenever he thought something was unfair;and often hurt his opponents.He was a skillful football player but a bad subjects learner.He was nearly expelled for quarrelling with and conflicting the referee over a penalty. It was Suliven who changed his life and saved him.When he was tumbling-stumbling into his third year in the college,he was warned that if he failed one more exam of any subject,he would have to go home.This to some extent press him to study. One evening,in the public classroom,when he was bored with his hard –to understand lessons,someone who was talking nearby annoyed him,he suddenly gave a heavy strike on the desk with his irony fist,causing the stationary box and books to bounce inches high,then shouted roughly to the talkers whose enjoyable chat had been broken by the shocking thunder, “Shut up your big mouth! It’s no place for you to cackle!”All the students in the room were looking surprisedly toward his direction.The two boys who were talking just then didn’t seem to be easily handled,one of them rised to his feet and said gruffly, “Want a fight?” “Keep your nose clean!I warn you,better mind your own business,or you’ll be in trouble,”said the other classroom chatter provokingly. Gaubin had been all burnt up,sprang out of his seat to launch an attack,but his movement was frozen there,as if he was suddenly touched by a sorcerer’s wand.Why?because he found a pair of eyes,a girl’s beautiful eyes,were fixed on him;and he was galvanized when met this pair of eyes with his own’s.They were not only beautiful but peaceful,calm and soothing,which he had never seen before.His soul was shocked,under her beauty,he was feeling naked with his rudeness in public;flushed with strong shame,he bent his head for the first time,and slowly retreated into his seat. The two boys who were ready to meet their common enemy were puzzled by his move.Just at this moment,an alto voice came to their ears, “You two,Jack and Paul,sit where you’re!”the melody came from the same girl who had petrified our intrepid Gaubin.The two boys were classmates of the girl,they turned their hands outward and shrugged;then the whole room settled into quiet again.But Gaubin couldn’t settle his mind;the girl’s eyes impressed him deeply,leaving a persistence in his head.From then on ,whenever he was to fly off the handle,the girl’s eyes would appear in his mind,followed was a rush of shame,then he would cool off.He craved for this pair of eyes,he saught them every evening from one classroom to another till he made it,or he would become crestfallen.Whether admited or not,he had fallen in love with the girl.Our friends might have guessed out who the girl was,yes,she was Suliven.Inspite of Gaubin’s notoriety,she didn’t have a grain of repugnance toward Gaubin,because Gaubin had never been heard of bullying girls,you know,Suliven was an extreme promoter of women’s rights. At the end of his tether,Gaubin decided to risk his luck,so what,no more than a bloody scolding or a sonorous slap on the cheek.Then one evening he was lucky to find a seat beside Suliven,after doodling on a piece of paper for a while,he knocked on the desk slightly,when Suliven turned her head to him,he held his throat and said:“Could we go out of here?I wanna speak something to you.”Suliven frowned and scanned him up and down,findign he was full of sincerity,she nodded slightly. “there is a way” was what he said in his mind stealingly.When they stepped out of the classroom,Suliven asked him what was the matter,he stuttered and asked her to travel farther,she complied,when she asked once more,he stuttered once more and asked again to move farther more.She complied again. “What on earth are you going to say?” finally Suliven said. “I…I like your eyes,”stammered Gaubin. “What?you like my eyes?but I have only got this pair,how can I lend them to you?”Suliven almost spurted a laughter. “No,no,I didn’t mean that,I mean I…,could you help me with my lessons?”he gulped down reluctantly the next half of what he really wanted to say,and changed his idea. Suliven did know what was his true idea,she even a little liked such an imprudent guy as him in his embarrassment. “Why do you choose me?there are so many more excellent students,”said Suliven however. “Believe it or not,only I sit beside you ,can I have a peaceful mind to concentrate on my studies,”said Gaubin earnestly. “Oh?ok,that will do no harm to me anyway,I will do something to help you,”Suliven was really a different girl from others. Gaubin was so delighted that he nearly jumped to give Suliven a hug as if he would celebrate a goal in the soccer field.Gaubin was a diamond in the rough,under Suliven’s carve he made a rapid progress with his studies and turned out to be a nice guy.It was only because he had never concentrated on his lessons before that made him run to the brink of the abyss. The next story about them,I think,doesn’t need me to tell,Gaubin won Suliven’s love latter,and followed her to her hometown after graduation.Suliven found a job in the Forest Administrative Bureau;and Gaubin worked in a township government,in charge of the agricultural developments.One year later they got married,but they could only meet once a week on Sunday.Suliven wasn’t very busy with her office work,but Gaubin was very busy with his “state commisions”, meanwhile they went to see Suliven’s parents now and then.Three years later ,Gaubin was promoted to the position of the vice administrater of the township government,and they bought their own house in the city,what made them more delighted was that they finally could have time to give birth to a baby.While they were fully enjoying their happy life,Suliven’s father told her that he didn’t feel well,then Suliven took her father to have a diagnosis,and the result casted a shadow over her happy life.
