From ‘The Story of Ah-Ming’ by Wang Zhanhei
Old Ah-Ming was roaming further from home and coming back even later, and while Ah-Hsin didn’t object he wasn’t exactly happy with the situation. For one thing, it was embarrassing. Everyone could see her traipsing about, a mother sent out by her son to collect scrap to support the family. People would be laughing about it. And to add to that, she was falling behind on the shopping and cooking. When the child came home he’d wail that he was hungry, and then Ah-Hsin would get mad.
'No-one’s making you go around collecting scrap! Stop it now! It makes us look terrible. Stay home and look after the child. Food on the table three times a day, that’s what you need to worry about. Got it?'
Ah-Hsin always barked instructions. It wasn’t worth talking back.
The old lady agreed to stop, but furtively carried on. She took a shopping bag to market but came back with an extra sack of pickings. When people hailed her on the street it used to be: 'Ah-Ming, you’re back from the market!' Now it was more like: 'Ah-Ming, you’ve got some new stock in!' She would give an uncomfortable laugh, then scuttle off to stash her haul as quickly as possible. She was like a thief hiding stolen goods. Some of what she brought back was packed away outside the back window and some at the bottom of the stairwell. Kids found her collection of soft drink bottles under a stone bench and started kicking them around. Ah-Ming went after them to get the bottles back. 'Little wretches, who said you could touch those!'
阿明的故事
王占黑
阿明老太太跑得越远，回得越晚，阿新虽然不反对，心里总归觉得不好。一个是丢面子，走来走去大家都看到了，儿子叫亲娘出去捡破烂补贴家用，传开去叫人笑话。再一个是常常耽误了买菜做饭，小孩回来喊肚子饿，阿新就要发脾气了。
没人逼你去捡破烂，以后覅去了，叫人家看不起。屋里厢小孩看住，三顿饭管牢，就可以了，晓得吗。
阿新讲话总是生碰碰的，不好回嘴。
老太太答应下来，背地里仍偷偷在做。一只布袋拎出去买菜，回来的时候，身上总要多驮一只米袋。从前人们打招呼，阿明，买菜回来啊。现在都改口了，阿明，进货回来啊。阿明不好意思地笑笑，闷头疾走，她急着把新进来的货物安顿好。像做贼似的，后窗外面塞一点，楼道底下藏一点，放在石凳底下的可乐瓶被小孩发现了当球踢，阿明追着他们一路讨，小鬼，谁叫你动的！