"Who lives better?" by 张洁

[flautert]

Hi all,

I've just finished reading the short story "Who lives better?" by Zhang Jie in Pleco EBook. 

I think I could understand it reasonably, but about one thing I was clueless.

Some guy named Wu travels every day in the same bus with the same girl as ticket seller. He uses to help her and seems confident, but instead of telling her he is interested, he leaves a letter in a book that he deliberately forgets in the bus. The next day he asks her if she found it, and she gives it back to him. He then asks her if she saw the letter inside, which was for her. Then, she gets really mad, I and could not understand why. This is what she said:

一般情况下，姑娘收到小伙子的信都要脸红，不好意思。可是售票员姑娘没有这样。她很平静。她对吴欢慢慢地说：“您不觉得这样做很荒唐吗？就算是您不尊重自己，那也是不应该的，并且您也是不尊重别人。您记着，不要使自己的行为变得丑陋！您看，我也许说多了，不过请您原谅，我的愿望是好的！”

I even pasted it on Google Translator but it seems she does not explain why that is an ugly behaviour.

Has any of you read the story? Based on the local culture of the time (I think it takes place in the 1980's) can you guess why she did not like it?

Thanks a lot!

[Woodford]

I've read this story before!

 

My attempt at (roughly) translating it is, "In ordinary circumstances, when a girl receives a fellow's letter, she'll blush red in the face (and) feel embarrassed. But the ticket seller girl wasn't that way. She was very tranquil. She slowly said to Wu Huan, 'Don't you think doing such a thing is absurd? Even if you don't have any self respect, it still isn't something you should do, and moreover, you don't even respect other people. Remember, you don't need to make your behavior become so ugly! Look, perhaps I spoke too much, but please understand, my intention is good!'"

 

I think she's just telling him, "This is really silly behavior that makes you look like a total clown," but she doesn't really elaborate why. I think she believes it should be self-evident that his behavior is foolish.

[889]

Maybe if we knew exactly what the letter said.

 

That is, this could be an indirect way of saying he phrased his letter very thoughtlessly.

[flautert]

It seems it is meant to be left unclear...

 

Thank you all 

[Lu]

It seems to me that the girl finds the whole thing improper, that a gentleman is not supposed to flirt with unknown women. He treats her as if she is an easy woman who would be up for a love affair with a stranger -- he has no respect for her. And he knows it's improper, because he had expected her to blush out of embarrassment. But instead of blushing, she confronts him with his improper conduct. And now she is also behaving un-ladylike by confronting him, and she knows it, that's why she says '您看，我也许说多了，不过请您原谅，我的愿望是好的！'