宋连昌/Song Liangchang

    我的邻居老纪，是位消息灵通人士。每天下班，总要带回几条新闻：大至国内外大事，小到谁家夫妻吵架、婆媳不和……他发布新闻，是大家都在做饭的时候，地点自然以厨房居多。

    这天，老纪进了厨房就说：“老王，你听说了吗?”“什么事?”“ X X X的儿子被逮了。”“噢!因为什么?”我停住手里的菜刀，惊愕地问。“还用说，犯法了呗!……”

    “其实，那孩子小时候也蛮好，都是家长的过失。”老纪一边淘米一边说，“你没看，从小就质。孩子说要星星，大人不敢摘月亮。你想孩子小时不教育，长大能好得了果不其然，以后骂人、打架、抽烟、喝酒全来了。”

My neighbor Lao Ji was well informed. Every day when he got off work, he would bring several pieces of news from big events at home and abroad down to Small strifes between husband and wife, or between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law. The tune far his news broadcast was usually dinner time, so the best place for it was naturally the shared kitchen.

One day, Lao Ji carte into the kitchen and said, "Lao Wang, haven't you heard the news?"

“What?

"So-and-so’s son has been arrested."

"Oh? Why?" I asked in surprise, putting down the knife.

  "No doubt for an offense against the law. The boy was quite a darling as a child. It was all his parents' fault," Lao Ji went on while washing rice. "He has been spoilt from childhood, you know. If the boy wanted a star, his parents would not dare to give hire the moon. You see, if a child is not brought up properly from infancy, you cannot expect him to grow up in the right way, can you? Bad habits such as swearing, fighting, smoking and drinking are the consequences."

    老纪的话简直够得上至理名言，我不住地点头，并暗暗地为xxx惋惜，若是他早能听到老纪的“教诲”，也许不至于铸成今天的大错了。

    老纪讲着，已打点好饭锅，准备切菜。不知怎么“哟”了一声不说了。我回头一看，原来他的案板背上用粉笔胡乱地画着些什么。但老纪一眼就认出那是他六岁的儿子小光的手笔，他默然一笑：“这小子，准是从昨晚的内部电影上看来的。”说着他又细细地端详一阵，才不慌不忙地擦去。

What he said was indeed right and proper and I kept nodding in agreement while secretly sympathizing with spend-so. If he had heard Lao Ji's lecture, he wouldn't have committed such a grave mistake.

Lao Ji had finished washing the rice and was preparing to cut the vegetables when he suddenly stopped short with an exclamation of “Oh!” I turned to am something scrawled in chalk on the hack of his cutting hoard. Lao Ji recognized his six-year-old son's drawing at one glance. He then smiled, "'that kid must have learnt this from a film he saw. It was a restricted film, not open to the public. “He stared at the picture for a while before slowly cleaning it off.