中國兒童文學走向世界精品書系:野豬王(精裝)英文版 節選

　　《中國兒童文學走向世界精品書系：野豬王（英文版）》：　　I was a materialist, but I was starting to have my doubts. Nobody can really know whether or not there are ghosts in the world.　　I thought I should take some preventive measures. Hence, I cut off all the black hairs from the dog's white face. However, red flesh appeared on the bare spots that were left. The black tears turned into red tears, which seemed like blood tears. This ominous portent filled me with trepidation. I felt very anxious. At that time, another event occurred, which frightened me out of my wits. One night, I went to a neighboring village to chat with someone and returned with the hound round midnight. When we had covered half the distance along the Kunming-Daluo Highway, Striped Eagle suddenly snarled and ran up a path towards a hillside. I thought it had scented some prey. There was no moon that night. With only hazy starlight, the visibility was very poor. I blundered and floundered forward. The hound suddenly stopped snarling and rushed back to me and stood by my heel. There was something white and round in its mouth. I stoop down and took it from him to have a closer look. I was so frightened that my heart nearly stopped beating because it was a skull in my hands. Green phosphorescence was burning in the empty skull, and was belching out from the holes that had been mouth, nose and eyes. I looked around with my eyes widening, and realised that we were standing on a hillock dotted with graves and steles. Crying hysterically, I threw away the skull, turned, and ran like hell....　　Since that incident, I began to believe that the hound was really a creature possessed by an infernal spirit. In my opinion, even though I was a lowly, humble farmer, my life was still much more valuable than that of a dog. So I of course had a duty to protect my own life. I put it around that Striped Eagle was for sale at a reduced price of 5 Yuan. However, there was absolutely no one willing to buy it. Since the hound couldn't be killed or sold, I had to try to get rid ofit. 　　A folk saying has it that a dog can't be shaken off and a wolf can't be tamed. It is not an easy task to get rid of a loyal hound. In the beginning, I pulled down the shed from under the eaves and cast the hound out of my house. But it still got back through a hole in the fence. It lay where the shed had been and snarled at me fiercely as if asking me why I had pulled down its home. What a thorough scoundrel the hound was. "I bought you so I have the right to keep you or get rid of you. If I can't drive you away, I will bring you to a forest and leave you to fend for yourself in the wild," I thought. I covered its eyes with a piece of cloth and borrowed a bicycle. I rode the bike for over ten kilometers across two mountains. I tied it with a creeper to a small tree in a barren valley. Then, I quickly rode away before he could chew away the creeper that bounded its neck to the tree. However, at dusk on the third day, when I was washing my face by the well, familiar barks were suddenly heard from the edge of the village. Subsequently, Striped Eagle rolled over to me like a football. Its eyes twinkled with delighted surprise and it was so excited that it barked manically. The dog flung itself into my arms and put out its tongue to lick my face. I was beside myself with rage. I gave the dog a good swift kick in the stomach. It rolled away like a football with a yell of pain and sorrow. It eventually managed to stand up again after struggling for quite a while. Its body was badly skewed towards its left side and it couldn't straighten up properly. It turned round and round painfully. Obviously, I had broken its ribs. I was a little sorry, but then I steeled myself and remorselessly resolved to rid myself of this baleful beast. I rushed over like a devil and lifted my foot, assuming a posture to kick it again. Tucking its tail, it whimpered sadly and fled into the bamboo forest.　　I heaved a sigh of relief, thinking that it would never come back to annoy me and its love would turn to hatred since I had injured it so. But I was wrong.　　……