< Previous | Table of Contents | Next >
Early the next morning, Zhang Sushang went out for a 10 km run while Alexei got out of bed and washed up. The living room and corridor floor were sparkling clean, and the table and chairs were at the corners.
Because he had night blindness, his considerate Chinese flatmate would move all possible obstacles away to prevent Alexei from tripping over them if he had to get up at night, and then move them back in the morning. However today’s weather wasn’t very good — overcast, raining lightly, and not much sunlight — so although Zhang Sushang left for his morning jog at 5 a.m., it was still dark.
Alexei moved the furniture back to their original position just as the newsboy arrived at the door with a stack of newspapers. Alexei handed him a few kopecks, thanked him, and then began chatting about the weather.
“Although it’s raining, it’s still getting warmer,” he sighed.
“Oh yes, sir, I think it’s getting close to zero degrees now,” the newsboy said.
Before, the average temperature hovered between -10°C and -5°C.
Speaking of the weather, Alexei couldn’t help but admire Zhang Sushang, who got up before dawn every day to train. No matter how windy it was outside, he would insist on going outside unless it was actively storming. He worked so hard.
Then the newsboy showed a nervous expression. “Sorry sir, today… there’s no Saint Petersburg Morning Post today.”
“Why not?” Alexei wondered.
“Because today is Thursday, they’re sold out,” the newsboy answered.
The St. Petersburg Morning Post published a serialisation of Detective Ilya every Thursday in their special column; since the beginning of Twins Who Share No Blood, its popularity soared and reached a peak at its climax.
Alexei suddenly realised that oh, yes, Chyushka’s novel had become more popular lately. Even his professor had mentioned it, saying that his wife specially ordered the newspaper that published Detective Ilya and used an iron to steam the newspaper every day, taking care of it better than she took care of her face.
“It doesn’t matter if you don’t have it,” he replied gently. He had already read the manuscript in advance and only wanted the paper for his collection; he wouldn’t embarrass a newsboy over it.
The popularity of Detective Ilya was related to the ending of Twins Who Share No Blood. For this part, Zhang Sushang wrote a court session and introduced two new characters: the indomitable female lawyer Daria; and her eternal rival, the fluff-con Sergey.
These two outstanding lawyers stood on the sides of the defendant and prosecutor respectively. Daria did all she could to avert Mila’s death sentence, while Sergey sought justice for the plaintiff and wanted Mila to repent with her life.
In order to write this scene, Zhang Sushang went out of his way to read several contemporary Russian legal codices, and in the end, conceived a court debate that was pretty good from his perspective as someone from the future. With Dalia’s defence, Mila, the murderer of this case, was sentenced to twenty years in prison with the possibility of parole given good behaviour.
When Ilya and Vasily went to thank her, Daria replied righteously:
“I just want to leave more possibilities behind. In this era of limited investigative abilities, we cannot guarantee that every case is just, nor that there is no deeper story. Now I’ve saved Mila’s life for you — maybe she will give us more truths in the future.”
After saying this, Daria turned smartly and left, leaving behind a glimpse of a deer’s head on her sleeve. According to her character design, everyone in the law firm Daria belonged to had a coat with a deer head embroidered somewhere on it.
* * *
In short, after this was published, there was a big earthquake among readers. The steadily improving writing quality delighted old readers, while the appearance of new characters drew more readers into the pit.
For example, Daria, the female lawyer who was decisive in her actions and exuded unrestrained energy in every word. Her existence attracted countless intellectual women to the novel, who eagerly dug out the past chapters to read again and again. People gradually began to recognise ‘Chyushka’ as a pioneer who supported women’s liberation.
In the 20th century, calling these people pioneers was already polite. If someone wanted to fight for the rights of a certain group, they didn’t need to announce it on social media, and besides, supporting gender equality was a good thing, everyone supported him.
Zhang Sushang himself actually didn’t think that much when creating the female lawyer – he only felt that the existing characters were too comedic and needed someone rational to neutralise them.
For example, Sergey, the opposition lawyer who fought vigorously against Daria, added more funny elements to the story due to his setting as someone who loved fluffy animals.
He kept having a premonition that one day, these comedians would still be joking around with Boris the donkey during a boss battle. Without a reliable person to drag them back on track, wouldn’t the boss be able to just win without a fight?
At this time, he didn’t yet know what the appearance of Daria represented. Russia experienced a huge transformation in 1917 when the government announced equality between men and women, granting women the right to vote, the right to education, and the right to equal pay for equal work.
It was currently 1926, nine years after that great change. Women’s rights had indeed made progress, but not to the point that they were able to enter ‘high-end’ professions like lawyers.
In fact, after being brainwashed by feudal consciousness for thousands of years, most women of 20th century Russia had already internalised the idea that there was an inherent gap in intelligence between themselves and men. Many felt that it was impossible to learn how to operate machines, they were unworthy of working, and they couldn’t take on men’s work. They just couldn’t do it.
Therefore the government carried out extensive propaganda on this topic, telling women through posters, movies, and other mediums, that they could do it, they should believe in themselves, they could be factory workers, teachers, scholars, and scientists; that gender did not influence intelligence.
Daria, who appeared in Detective Ilya, was smart and capable and had extremely quick reactions. She didn’t fall behind during her debate with the male lawyer, and afterwards, she comforted her defendant, Mila, and firmly stated that she would protect her life. It was an extremely moving scene.
The idea that Daria proposed — that preserving one more life may bring further truths in the future — made readers think deeply.
Zhang Sushang himself was opposed to the death penalty. He believed that death was a major deterrent to criminal behaviour, however it was something to be used with caution. Writing these stories was only to make a living, and after writing, he went back to doing burpees.
But in 1926, such a novel which was seemingly light-hearted yet contained many advanced ideas could cause an ideological shockwave; thus, Detective Ilya was reprinted by an official newspaper that published monthly throughout Russia with rather high subscription numbers.
Below the article was a long review.
【I enjoy reading St. Petersburg Morning Post’s Detective Ilya before dinner. At first, I just took it as something to pass the time, but gradually, I couldn’t help but become immersed in the story. My two daughters are already attending school. They were so excited because of Daria the lawyer that they couldn’t sleep, and my youngest daughter Lyudmila swore to become a lawyer as well, I’m very proud of her…】
Chyushka, who somehow became a flagbearer of the women’s liberation movement out of nowhere, was scratching his head, but any newspaper reprinting his novel would give him additional royalties, while the St. Petersburg Morning Post had also offered to increase his fees. These were all good things.
After a while, Zhang Sushang ran back covered in sweat and holding his ice skates, evidently having gone on the ice. There was a big bag thrown over his shoulder, which Alexei noticed was full of socks, the kind that was very thick and warm.
Zhang Sushang grinned, then took out ten pairs of socks and stuffed them into his hands. “Here, my royalties increased, you take this and let’s be happy together.”
“Oh, thanks,” Alexei said, somewhat overwhelmed.
This was the first time that anyone bought him socks since his mother passed away…
Running over to the fireplace again, Zhang Sushang took a deep breath of the roiling milk inside, allowing the rich milky fragrance to enter his sinuses. Ah, this was indeed fresh milk produced by a nearby farm, it smelled so good.
He happily took out a box of biscuits from his bag for dipping in the milk which he shared with Alexei. Although they were just simple egg biscuits without even any nuts, they were made with enough butter to be soft and sweet, matching perfectly with the milk.
“I’ll be going to the professor’s place to calculate data today, what about you?” Alexei asked.
With his mouth full of food, Zhang Sushang replied indistinctly, “I’m delivering socks to my friends.”
He had bought fifty pairs of socks at once. He and Alexei each took ten pairs, while the remaining thirty pairs would be packed up and sent to the dormitories of Jiang Jinghu, Wu Yeming, and Li Yuan.
He had long found that the three fellow students who came abroad with him were very frugal, they were reluctant to buy new socks even when their old ones were worn until they were riddled with holes. However, given the weather, it was just tempting fate to wear socks with holes.
When they received the socks, these three students were happy and moved, yet refused to accept them.
Wu Yeming, the eldest among the three, directly stuffed the socks back into Zhang Sushang’s hands. “Qiupu,” he said, “we appreciate your kindness, but it’s not easy for you either. Buying so many cotton socks must have been expensive, you quickly go return them and buy something filling for yourself.”
After speaking, he glanced at Zhang Sushang’s waist.
Qiupu was originally big and round but was now so skinny, his days must have been miserable.
Li Yuan also came over with concern. “Was it for the sake of buying socks that you refused to eat much before? There’s no need, you really don’t need to! People are iron and rice is steel, no matter what your grievance is it can’t affect your appetite!”
Although Zhang Sushang agreed with the last half of what Li Yuan said, his expression was helpless. “I’m not suffering anything, I’m skinnier because I’ve been exercising. And also, my financial situation is fine, I get publication royalties!”
“Royalties?” Jiang Jinghu, Wu Yeming, and Li Yuan all echoed at the same time.
He nodded seriously. “Yes, you all know that I’ve severed ties with my family, so I had to make some money here to continue studying. My Russian is good, so I used the pen name Chyushka to write a novel…”
“Wait wait wait. You’re using the pen name Chyushka to write novels?” Wu Yeming interrupted.
“Yeah,” Zhang Sushang nodded again.
Li Yuan quickly turned around and rummaged through the books piled on his bed. The bed wasn’t big — with the books on it, he probably had to curl up to sleep. After a while, he took out a stack of newspapers and unfolded them in front of Zhang Sushang.
“Is it this Detective Ilya series?” When he asked this, Li Yuan still couldn’t believe it, so his tone was a little hesitant. He had the habit of reading many newspapers and periodicals to get more familiar with Russian; with Detective Ilya’s popularity, it was hard for him to imagine that it came from the hands of his countryman.
Yet Zhang Sushang replied with certainty, “Yes, that’s the one I wrote.”
Zhang Sushang asked his classmates and professors to call him Chyushka because his name sounded too much like ‘Susan’, but no one linked him to the author Chyushka.
He didn’t mention how high his royalties were, only reiterating, “I don’t lack money, you guys don’t have to be afraid that I’m making things hard for myself. Also, I want to lose weight for my health. Excessive body fat will lead to high blood sugar, high blood pressure, and high levels of fat in the bloodstream, none of which are good for the body.”
“Low blood sugar isn’t a good thing either,” Jiang Jinghu, who was also a medical student, muttered, though he finally accepted the socks. Then he enthusiastically asked Zhang Sushang, “How did you come up with such an interesting story like Detective Ilya? I’ve never heard of anything like exchanging murder victims. It’s so clever.”
Zhang Sushang became embarrassed. “No no, I’m only standing on the shoulders of giants, there are many much more exciting cases in other detective novels. I just read a few more to get inspiration.”
Everyone asked him for the subsequent plot, but now Zhang Sushang showed the quality that any author should have — he wouldn’t reveal spoilers even if someone killed him.
He swiftly changed the subject. “Oh, I’m not telling you any more. We rarely have a day off, I’m going to skate a bit while the ice hasn’t melted yet.”
Hearing this, Wu Yeming’s eyes lit up. “You like ice skating as well?”
“I like it a lot, you too?”
Wu Yeming showed a proud look.
Li Yuan pointed at him. “Here, let me introduce you. Last year the lake at home froze, didn’t several middle schools come together to hold an ice sports competition? This guy won at speed skating.”
Said person was quite modest. “Hey, I mainly won because my skates were slightly better and I sharpened them beforehand. No one else had this awareness. Besides, it’s not as if it was a professional event.”
Speaking of this, his smile turned bitter. “There’s no future in being an athlete in our country, after all. In 1908, a newspaper from Tianjin asked when will our country be able to send someone to the Olympics, when can our athletes be able to win a medal at the Olympics, and when can we host the Olympics. Think about it, do we have any hope of answering these three questions?”
Not to mention winter sports which had relatively few participants, even track and field sports which could be done at any time of the year were out of reach for Chinese athletes.
In the final analysis, their country was too weak to develop athletics.
This question was a bit heavy, causing everyone to fall silent. Zhang Sushang looked around and encouraged them, “Don’t be like this, we worked so hard to study abroad, isn’t it just to achieve success and return to serve the motherland?
“One day we will be pillars of the country and stand strong together.”
Zhang Sushang stretched out his left hand and used his right to place Jiang Jinghu, Wu Yeming, and Li Yuan’s hands on top. “There are many like us; if we work together, we can create miracles. So, as long as we work hard, we will see the day when those three questions are answered.”
However if they wanted to see them fully answered, they would have to live until 2008 — by that time, Zhang Sushang would be 100 years old…
Author:
The bid to host the Olympics succeeded in 2001. Chyushka was born in 1908, he’ll be 93 years old in 2001, and exactly 100 years old in 2008.
1 Pingback