【作者简介】龚如仲（Ralph) 

中国对外经济贸易大学英语系毕业，曾任外贸部中国轻工业品进出口总公司驻美国公司总裁。

有关作品：中国电影出版社出版翻译作品——美国动画电影小说《忍者神龟》（Ninja Turtles），台湾采薇出版社出版、发行《岁月如重—兼谈华国锋》（此书已被香港中文大学图书馆、纽约市市立图书馆、澳大利亚国家图书馆正式收藏），《东西南北中国人---细谈如何在大陆做生意》、《悠然时光》、《如仲诗语》、《My Life--Family, Career & VIPs》，中国国际广播出版社出版、发行《悠然斋诗文选》《花儿在身边开放》。

作者现旅居美国，为中华诗词学会会员、中国经典文学网特约作家、台湾采薇出版社资深顾问、奥地利英文网Sinopress特聘专栏作家、欧华新移民作家协会会员、中诗报七室创作者。

前言：这篇作品选自我的英文拙作《My Life --- Family, Career & VIPs》。最初，文章发表在奥地利维也纳的英文网SINOPRESS上（连载），后来被台湾采薇出版社作为英文书在台北发行。我非常感谢出版社的社长、总编，也是我的老友胡志成先生。同时也非常感谢SINOPRESS的社长、主编Helen Chang，因为她为我的这本英文书写了序言。发表此文，希望有兴趣的朋友不妨一读。多谢诸位！

   Chapter 1: Fate Transformation

          Posted by Ralph Gong

Fatalists believe that the fate of a human being is absolutely predestined. Fate is decided by mother nature or God, and it could never ever be changed. But my thinking towards this theory is entirely different. I know a boy, whose fate was transformed in three days after he was born.

One autumn evening many years ago, the rain was drizzling, chilly gusts of autumn wind were blowing. At the entrance space of an old and shabby building in an alley of XiangYanQiao Road, Hongkou District, Shanghai, a middle-aged couple were sitting there face-to-face, sighing again and again. The husband was Mr. Chen A-Jin, who was an ordinary coolie (a bottomed labor). A-Jin was short and small, but he was an honest man. In character-wise, he was a little bit meek. Sitting in front of him was his wife who was pregnant, expecting a baby shortly. Unfortunately, they were a very poor couple, and they already had two boys. Facing the reality that the third child was going to come into the world in the near future, the poor couple were very much worried. The reason was obvious: as a basic coolie, A-Jin’s monthly income was very limited. It was already difficult for A-Jin to keep the existing 4-member family alive, how could he manage to feed the third child who would be born soon?

The couple were hopelessly discussing what and how they should do next when a door-knocking sound came. A-Jin stepped to the gate and opened the door. It was Elder-Brother Gong who was Chen Family’s near neighbor.

Elder-Brother Gong’s full name was Gong Yunben. Since he was the fourth kid of seven children in Gong Family (all boys, no girls), people usually called him “Gong Lao Si” Or “Lao Si” (meaning “the Forth Son of Gong Family”). Lao Si was also a coolie, as well as A-Jin’s Sworn Brother (“Sworn Brother” means that in old China, two or more men were so close to each other that they would kneel down in front of a Buddha’s portrait or stature and swear to establish the relationship of “brothers” even though they came from different families with different surnames).

By mentioning Lao Si, I ought to tell you that he was not an ordinary person. Lao Si was a handsome man in medium-height, neither fat nor thin, very witty and capable. When Lao Si was a teenager who lived in the countryside in the north of Jiangsu Province, he learned the Chinese Gong-Fu (martial arts) well. Normally, a group of three or even four strong men together would not be Lao Si’s rivals when fighting against him. Besides, Lao Si was a very generous man with a sense of justice. In order to protect his Sworn Brother A-Jin, Lao Si sometimes had to use his strong fists to conflict with those who bullied or intended to bully A-Jin.

After inviting Lao Si into the room, A-Jin politely asked his Sworn Brother to sit down and offered the visitor a cigarette. A-Jin’s wife got up immediately from her chair and served Lao Si with a cup of tea. Looking at both A-Jin and his wife, Lao Si realized that his Sworn Brother must be confronted with something extremely difficult. He could actually read it from A-Jin’s face. Sipping tea, Lao Si asked A-Jin what had happened. A-Jin trusted his Sworn Brother very much. He told Lao Si how difficult it would be if they should really decide to keep the child and raise him up.

Lao Si gave a deep thought for it and told both A-Jin and his wife that he had a good idea on mind. A-Jin and his wife could not conceal the eagerness to know about it. With emotion, Lao Si said to A-Jin and his wife: “If the born baby is a girl, you should definitely keep her because you have been looking forward to having a baby girl for a long time. Plus, girls are usually very close to their parents when they grow up. But if my sister-in-law gives the birth to a baby boy, I’m most willing to have the boy as my adopted son in order to perpetuate my Gong Family.”

The reason why Lao Si had such a suggestion was due to an incident two years ago. Back then, Lao Si’s wife, Mrs. Gong, did give the birth to a baby boy. But the baby died of meningitis when he was just two years old. As Mrs. Gong suffered from postpartum hemorrhage after the baby was born, she lost the ability to have children again (even though her postpartum trouble was later relieved by the doctor). To have a foster son was a long time dream for both Mr. Gong Yunben and his wife.

After listening to what Lao Si suggested, both A-Jin and his wife lowered their voices for a detailed and serious discussion. And then they came to the conclusion that it was a good proposal put forward by Elder-Brother Gong. On one hand, Chen Family was too poor to feed the child. On the other hand, the two Families of Chen and Gong were so close together that the child would for sure be treated very nicely after adoption.

In that unusually cold autumn evening, the would-be born boy’s fate was thus decided.

As expected, Mrs. Chen did give birth to a baby boy one month later. Coming into the world with a cry, the baby enjoyed three days’ breast-feeding by Mrs. Chen. Three days later, Mrs. Chen sent the child to Gong Family in indescribable pain.

The fate-transformation of this newly-born boy was significant. It changed his whole life dramatically!

It was said that Mrs. Chen was very regretful after giving the boy to Gong Family. She kept crying for a few days after the boy was gone and even had a big quarrel with her husband, Mr. A-Jin Chen. With the time passing by, though, both Mr. and Mrs. Chen found out that Mr. Gong Yunben and his wife had been trying their very best to give their full care to the child. Mrs. Gong was so busy with taking care of and feeding the child that for 20 successive days, she was neglecting her own washing and dressing. In order to earn more money to feed the child, Mr. Gong Yunben voluntarily worked over-time. Discovering that both Mr. and Mrs. Gong were so whole-hearted to the boy, Mrs. Chen felt consoled and relaxed. She cooperated with the couple and went to give the boy breast-feeding from time to time.

Gradually, the two families reached an agreement: Mrs. Chen, the natural mother of the child, became the child’s foster mother. She is entitled to frequenting the couple in order to visit her natural son.

Reading up to now, you may think that this is only a fictitious story. It is not. The baby boy was nobody else but me myself!

Note: The above-story was selected from my book which is named “My Life --- Family, Career & VIPs”, and the book was published by Taiwan Tsaiwei Publishing House in the year of  2019).