海外頭條總編審 王 在 軍 （中國(guó)）
海外頭條副編審 Wendy溫迪（英國(guó)）
海 外 頭 條總 編 火 鳳 凰 （海外）
圖片選自百度
英文誦讀：龔如仲（美國(guó)）
中文播音：琬 喬（中國(guó)）
《My Life – Family, Career & VIPs》
Chapter One: Fate Transformation
Posted by Ralph Gong
Fatalists believe that the fate of a human being is absolutely predestined. Fate is decided by mother nature or God, and it could never ever be changed. But my thinking towards this theory is entirely different. I know a boy, whose fate was transformed in three days after he was born.
One autumn evening many years ago, the rain was drizzling, chilly gusts of autumn wind were blowing. At the entrance space of an old and shabby building in an alley of XiangYanQiao Road, Hongkou District, Shanghai, a middle-aged couple were sitting there face-to-face, sighing again and again. The husband was Mr. Chen A-Jin, who was an ordinary coolie (a bottomed labor). A-Jin was short and small, but he was an honest man. In character-wise, he was a little bit meek. Sitting in front of him was his wife who was pregnant, expecting a baby shortly. Unfortunately, they were a very poor couple, and they already had two boys. Facing the reality that the third child was going to come into the world in the near future, the poor couple were very much worried. The reason was obvious: as a basic coolie, A-Jin’s monthly income was very limited. It was already difficult for A-Jin to keep the existing 4-member family alive, how could he manage to feed the third child who would be born soon?
The couple were hopelessly discussing what and how they should do next when a door-knocking sound came. A-Jin stepped to the gate and opened the door. It was Elder-Brother Gong who was Chen Family’s near neighbor.
Elder-Brother Gong’s full name was Gong Yunben. Since he was the fourth kid of seven children in Gong Family (all boys, no girls), people usually called him “Gong Lao Si” Or “Lao Si” (meaning “the Forth Son of Gong Family”). Lao Si was also a coolie, as well as A-Jin’s Sworn Brother (“Sworn Brother” means that in old China, two or more men were so close to each other that they would kneel down in front of a Buddha’s portrait or stature and swear to establish the relationship of “brothers” even though they came from different families with different surnames).
By mentioning Lao Si, I ought to tell you that he was not an ordinary person. Lao Si was a handsome man in medium-height, neither fat nor thin, very witty and capable. When Lao Si was a teenager who lived in the countryside in the north of Jiangsu Province, he learned the Chinese Gong-Fu (martial arts) well. Normally, a group of three or even four strong men together would not be Lao Si’s rivals when fighting against him. Besides, Lao Si was a very generous man with a sense of justice. In order to protect his Sworn Brother A-Jin, Lao Si sometimes had to use his strong fists to conflict with those who bullied or intended to bully A-Jin
After inviting Lao Si into the room, A-Jin politely asked his Sworn Brother to sit down and offered the visitor a cigarette. A-Jin’s wife got up immediately from her chair and served Lao Si with a cup of tea. Looking at both A-Jin and his wife, Lao Si realized that his Sworn Brother must be confronted with something extremely difficult. He could actually read it from A-Jin’s face. Sipping tea, Lao Si asked A-Jin what had happened. A-Jin trusted his Sworn Brother very much. He told Lao Si how difficult it would be if they should really decide to keep the child and raise him up.
Lao Si gave a deep thought for it and told both A-Jin and his wife that he had a good idea on mind. A-Jin and his wife could not conceal the eagerness to know about it. With emotion, Lao Si said to A-Jin and his wife: “If the born baby is a girl, you should definitely keep her because you have been looking forward to having a baby girl for a long time. Plus, girls are usually very close to their parents when they grow up. But if my sister-in-law gives the birth to a baby boy, I’m most willing to have the boy as my adopted son in order to perpetuate my Gong Family.”
The reason why Lao Si had such a suggestion was due to an incident two years ago. Back then, Lao Si’s wife, Mrs. Gong, did give the birth to a baby boy. But the baby died of meningitis when he was just two years old. As Mrs. Gong suffered from postpartum hemorrhage after the baby was born, she lost the ability to have children again (even though her postpartum trouble was later relieved by the doctor). To have a foster son was a long time dream for both Mr. Gong Yunben and his wife.
After listening to what Lao Si suggested, both A-Jin and his wife lowered their voices for a detailed and serious discussion. And then they came to the conclusion that it was a good proposal put forward by Elder-Brother Gong. On one hand, Chen Family was too poor to feed the child. On the other hand, the two Families of Chen and Gong were so close together that the child would for sure be treated very nicely after adoption.
In that unusually cold autumn evening, the would-be born boy’s fate was thus decided.
As expected, Mrs. Chen did give birth to a baby boy one month later. Coming into the world with a cry, the baby enjoyed three days’ breast-feeding by Mrs. Chen. Three days later, Mrs. Chen sent the child to Gong Family in indescribable pain.
The fate-transformation of this newly-born boy was significant. It changed his whole life dramatically!
It was said that Mrs. Chen was very regretful after giving the boy to Gong Family. She kept crying for a few days after the boy was gone and even had a big quarrel with her husband, Mr. A-Jin Chen. With the time passing by, though, both Mr. and Mrs. Chen found out that Mr. Gong Yunben and his wife had been trying their very best to give their full care to the child. Mrs. Gong was so busy with taking care of and feeding the child that for 20 successive days, she was neglecting her own washing and dressing. In order to earn more money to feed the child, Mr. Gong Yunben voluntarily worked over-time. Discovering that both Mr. and Mrs. Gong were so whole-hearted to the boy, Mrs. Chen felt consoled and relaxed. She cooperated with the couple and went to give the boy breast-feeding from time to time.
Gradually, the two families reached an agreement: Mrs. Chen, the natural mother of the child, became the child’s foster mother. She is entitled to frequenting the couple in order to visit her natural son.
Reading up to now, you may think that this is only a fictitious story. It is not. The baby boy was nobody else but me myself.
《歲月如重—兼談華國(guó)鋒》
第一章、第一節(jié)：命運(yùn)被轉(zhuǎn)移的男孩
作者：龔如仲
宿命論者認(rèn)為，一個(gè)人的命運(yùn)在他（她）出生之前就被牢牢地鎖定了，要想改變冥冥中被“主宰者”安排好的命運(yùn)是不可能的。然而我寧愿相信人的命運(yùn)是可以改變的。至少，有一個(gè)男孩就是如此，從他出生后不久，他的命運(yùn)就得到了轉(zhuǎn)移。
在許多年前的一個(gè)秋天的晚上，天空中飄灑著瀝瀝細(xì)雨，秋風(fēng)吹過，送來陣陣涼意。在舊上海虹口區(qū)香煙橋路的一個(gè)弄堂里，一對(duì)中年夫婦正坐在一幢老式房子的門廳里面對(duì)面地不斷嘆著氣。這個(gè)男人姓陳，叫阿金，一個(gè)普通的苦力工人。阿金身材瘦小、老實(shí)巴交，一副忠厚相。坐在他對(duì)面的妻子正挺著個(gè)大肚子。這是一對(duì)已經(jīng)有了兩個(gè)兒子的貧苦夫妻，一家四口僅靠阿金每月所得的有限工錢勉強(qiáng)糊口。眼看著又有一個(gè)孩子即將出世，這往后的日子怎么過？
正當(dāng)二人愁眉苦臉、不知所措之際，突然間響起了敲門聲。阿金開門一看，原來是同住一個(gè)弄堂里的龔家大哥前來串門。龔家大哥大名叫云本，兄弟七個(gè)，他行四，所以大家都叫他四哥，或者干脆叫他老四。老四也是一個(gè)干苦力的窮工人，與阿金是拜把子兄弟。
說起這位龔老四，他可不是個(gè)一般人物。老四中等個(gè)兒，不胖不瘦，極為精悍，人看上去英氣勃勃、相貌堂堂，一雙虎目炯炯有神。老四少年時(shí)在江蘇老家練就了一身好功夫，尋常里三五個(gè)大漢近不了他的身。老四為人仗義，但性如烈火，又好打抱不平，常常為了保護(hù)義弟阿金而不得不對(duì)別人施展拳腳、大打出手?？吹搅x兄四哥來了，阿金夫婦連忙起身讓座、敬煙倒茶。一見兄弟、弟媳心事重重，老四忙問原因。于是，阿金便把“很快又添一口人，家中卻有困難把孩子養(yǎng)大”的實(shí)情說了一遍。
聽罷阿金兄弟的訴苦，老四尋思片刻，說他有了個(gè)好主意。阿金夫婦忙問是何主意？老四這才對(duì)阿金說道，若是陳家生下千金，自然由陳家自行撫養(yǎng)，因?yàn)殛愄@次懷孕的初衷就是想生個(gè)女兒，將來可對(duì)媽媽親、當(dāng)媽媽的“貼身小棉襖”。倘若這一回再生個(gè)“禿小子”，老四很想把孩子收養(yǎng)過來，這樣也可續(xù)承龔家的香火。原來兩年前龔太太生過一個(gè)男孩，但出生后不久孩子便染上了腦膜炎，因醫(yī)治無效，不幸去世。龔太太生孩子后月子里受了風(fēng)寒，醫(yī)生斷定她今后不能再生養(yǎng)，所以龔家兩口子很想把義弟的兒子繼養(yǎng)過來。
聽罷四哥的建議，阿金夫婦一商量認(rèn)為這倒是個(gè)好主意。因?yàn)橐粊黻惣邑毨?，再撫養(yǎng)一個(gè)孩子確實(shí)很難；二來陳龔兩家關(guān)系親密，孩子送過去斷然吃不了虧。就在這個(gè)罕見陰冷的初秋的晚上，這孩子的命運(yùn)就被決定了。
一個(gè)月后，陳媽媽果然又生了個(gè)男孩。小男孩呱呱墜地后，陳媽媽只喂了小家伙三天的奶，就忍痛把孩子送到了龔家。于是這孩子就從一個(gè)四口之家的陳家，轉(zhuǎn)移到了夫婦二人且膝下無子的龔家。這次命運(yùn)的轉(zhuǎn)移對(duì)這個(gè)男孩而言是至關(guān)緊要的，因?yàn)檫@次轉(zhuǎn)移將徹底改變這個(gè)男孩的一生。
據(jù)說陳媽媽事后極為后悔，呼天喊地地哭了好幾天，還和陳爸爸大吵了一架。但過了一陣子，他們發(fā)現(xiàn)，龔家夫婦為了撫養(yǎng)好這個(gè)男孩，幾乎把性命都拼了上去。一連三十多天，龔媽媽忙得連臉都沒時(shí)間洗，頭也無空閑去梳；龔爸爸起早貪黑，玩命地去掙錢，無非是為了給兒子多掙點(diǎn)奶粉錢。一看龔家兩口子對(duì)兒子如此經(jīng)心，陳媽媽的心軟了。后來兩家達(dá)成了正式協(xié)議：讓孩子干脆叫親媽為“干娘”。這樣一來，干娘就可借機(jī)來龔家看望兒子，也可時(shí)不時(shí)地給孩子喂喂奶。
不要認(rèn)為我講的是個(gè)虛構(gòu)的故事，其實(shí)這是件實(shí)實(shí)在在發(fā)生的事情，因?yàn)槟莻€(gè)男孩就是我。
***本文選之我的自傳《歲月如重—兼談華國(guó)鋒》中之第一章、第一節(jié)，此書于2012年由臺(tái)灣采薇出版是出版、發(fā)行。
【作者簡(jiǎn)介】龔如仲 (Ralph) , 中國(guó)對(duì)外經(jīng)濟(jì)貿(mào)易大學(xué)英語系畢業(yè)。曾任鐵道部援建坦贊鐵路工作組總部英語翻譯, 中國(guó)國(guó)際廣播電臺(tái)英語部播音員、記者, 外貿(mào)部中國(guó)輕工業(yè)品進(jìn)出口總公司駐美國(guó)公司總裁, 澳大利亞利富集團(tuán)駐美國(guó)公司總裁, 外貿(mào)部中國(guó)基地總公司駐美國(guó)公司總裁, 美國(guó)TA國(guó)際有限公司駐北京辦事處首席代表。
有關(guān)作品: 中國(guó)電影出版社出版翻譯作品美國(guó)動(dòng)畫電影小說《忍者神龜》（Ninja Turtles) 。
臺(tái)灣采薇出版社出版、發(fā)行《歲月如重---兼談華國(guó)鋒》（此書已被香港中文大學(xué)圖書館、美國(guó)紐約市市立圖書館、澳大利亞國(guó)家圖書館正式收藏）《東西南北中國(guó)人---細(xì)談如何在大陸做生意》《悠然時(shí)光》《如仲詩(shī)語》《My Life--Family, Career & VIPs》
中國(guó)國(guó)際廣播出版社出版、發(fā)行《悠然齋詩(shī)文選》《花兒在身邊開放》。
中華詩(shī)詞學(xué)會(huì)會(huì)員、中國(guó)經(jīng)典文學(xué)網(wǎng)特約作家、臺(tái)灣采薇出版社資深顧問、奧地利英文網(wǎng)Sinopress特聘專欄作家、歐華新移民作家協(xié)會(huì)會(huì)員、加拿大高校文學(xué)社周同題作者、海外華英總顧問，北美翰苑社長(zhǎng)兼總編。
琬喬：朗誦愛好者，喜歡用聲音傳遞世間一切美好與熱愛！
