12.三月呻吟 Moaning and Groaning for Three Months
- Moaning and Groaning for Three Months
The little lamp fluttered in the cold wind.
Some Chinese believe that dog meat warms you up in cold weather, so on this chilly day, there were no empty seats in the dog meat restaurant. The air was full of the smell of dog meat and the sounds of the raucous crowds.
In the back of the restaurant, to the right, Cao Shengyuan was putting an-other dead dog into the kettle to boil. He had been a dog butcher for years, and finally opened his own restaurant. Business was good enough to hire a helper.
His helper was just saying to him, “Brother Cao, this one is really meaty?
Cao Shengyuan chuckled. “You said it! This fat dog is going to make a lot of money for us!”
They continued getting their knives ready as the water to boil the dog heated up.
Suddenly, the dog leapt out of the kettle. It seemed to fly through the air,straight at Cao. It pounced at him and bit him in the neck. Cao shrieked for help!
All the customers in the restaurant came to see what the matter was. They saw the dog biting Cao’s neck. His blood was pumping out of the wound. What a terrible sight!
After he got the dog off his neck, Cao Yuansheng went to many doctors to treat his wound, but no matter what kind of medicine they put on it, it kept rotting and getting worse. It hurt so much that Cao moaned and groaned day and night.
After three months of pain, Cao finally died. All the people in the area who liked dog meat gave it up, because they realized that the meat of any animal is produced through enormous suffering.
- 三月呻吟
燈火在寒風中飄忽不定。
有些中國人認為冬天吃狗肉能暖身子，所以在這個大冷天，狗肉店里座無虛席。店里人聲喧囂， 空氣里瀰漫著狗肉味。
在後店，曹生源正在把另一只死狗放到鍋里去煮。他屠狗為生多年，最後還開起了自己的狗肉店。生意紅火，還雇了個幫工。
幫工說，「曹大哥， 這只狗的肉可真夠肥的啊？」
曹生源 笑道。「真是！這肥狗能讓我們賺不少錢呢！」
煮狗的水熱起來之後，他們繼續磨刀。
忽然，那只狗從鍋里跳了出來，象是徑直朝曹生源飛去。它撲向曹生源，咬住了他的脖子。曹生源大聲尖叫救命！
店里所有的顧客都過來看看究竟發生了什麼事情。他們看到那只狗咬住曹生源的脖子，血從傷口里噴湧而出！這太可怕了！
當他把狗從脖子上拉開後，曹生源四處求醫，但是不管用什麼藥，傷口還是不斷地化膿、惡化。傷口疼痛異常，曹生源日夜哀號。
痛苦了三個月後，曹生源終于死了。那個地方所有愛吃狗肉的人都不再吃了，因為他們明白了任何肉食都源自無邊的苦痛。