Happy Dreams

by Jia Pingwa

I was shocked, but I was excited too. The better the wheat harvest, the more straw there was. The richer the city became, the richer the trash pickings. As long as there was trash, we could establish ourselves in the city, and the more trash there was, the better our standard of living.

We’re not less intelligent than they are, we’ve just seen less!”

As long as you didn’t care about losing your dignity and were quick off the mark and hardworking, you’d never starve as a trash picker in the city, even if you were a total stranger here.

Our feelings toward each other bound us together in Freshwind, but only law or money bought trust in Xi’an.

The trouble was that I didn’t understand women.

Anyone who hates wealth and hates the wealthy won’t last long here.”

I don’t normally lose my temper, but when I do, I explode like a powder keg.