Chinese online short story 罪恶有痕 Traces of Sin 1 (Intermediate to Advanced)

I had concerns to post intermediate to advanced level stories on this blog before. Not that I was not confident in my respectful learner friends’ language level, it was more of a concern for not-so-advanced-yet learners who wanted to try something harder. If I stretch the vocabulary table to cover beginner’s need, it will be toooo long! If I don’t, unless they know how to use a capture-and-translate tool, it’ll be too much work to read through.

Now I don’t have this concern anymore. A hearty thanks to Mandarinspot.com to offer the lovely popup annotation that helps so much with lookup chores!!

A short vocabulary table is still provided to highlight certain key words that might be a bit difficult to learn.

Then what this story is all about?

It’s a mystery. As you might guess out from the name of the story, it deals with a crime, and how the crime got investigated and finally solved. I was inspired by the investigation of a real criminal case  happened in modern China. And I felt like it could turn into a very good story. Yes, there are traces of every crime that human committed. No matter how deliberately the sinners tried to conceal, the trace of sin will sell them out in the end. This is my note here to help you understand the title of the story: 罪恶有痕 zuì’è yǒu hén - Traces of Sin.

This is a serial online story that I post as I go. I’ll try to updat as fast as I can (three to four posts a week?) But don’t be mad with me if I lag behind a bit some time. :-)

Again, any help with my English translation is very well welcomed! Audio will be made for this story, but later!

Now, let’s get started …

[simplified Chinese]
罪恶有痕 1

 

南方的盛夏，闷热得连一丝凉风都没有。

屋里的电风扇一边转，一边发出嘎吱嘎吱的声音。当人的思维在高速运转时, 大概也会发出这样的声音。

窗边坐着的女人有一头染成棕黄色的卷发。 她盯着窗沿的某个地方, 努力回想着当天早晨发生的事情。

旁边一个男人提示她,”你不用害怕, 我们会对你的个人情况绝对保密. 在这起持枪抢劫案里, 你很可能是唯一看清嫌犯模样的人。 我们虽然已经做了一遍笔录, 你不妨再叙述一遍经过, 这样做对你的回想会有帮助。”

女人点了点头. 这是一个聪明镇静的女人。一份推销保险的职业, 虽然不太讨人喜欢, 但却培养了她对人过目不忘的能力。

“因为客户住得远, 我今天很早就出门了. 天刚朦朦亮, 我就开上131国道。”

“当时路上车多不多?” 提问的男人一边问, 一边在纸上记着。

“车很少, 星期天那条路都很好开。”

“请继续说.”

 

[vocab table]
Simplified Chinese     Traditional Chinese     Mandarin Pinyin     English Definition
盛夏         sheng4 xia4     midsummer
闷热     悶熱     men1 re4     hot and stuffy
思维     思維     si1 wei2     thinking
保密         bao3 mi4     to keep sth confidential
持枪抢劫     持槍搶劫     chi2 qiang1 qiang1 jie2     armed robbery
嫌犯         xian2 fan4     criminal suspect
笔录     筆錄     bi3 lu4     to take down notes
镇静     鎮靜     zhen4 jing4     calm
推销     推銷     tui1 xiao1     to market; to sell
过目不忘     過目不忘     guo4 mu4 bu4 wang4     to have a highly retentive memory
国道     國道     guo2 dao4     national highway

[pinyin]
 zuì’è yǒu hén 1

 

nánfāng de shèngxià， mēnrè dé lián yī sī liáng fēng dōu méiyǒu。

wū lǐ de diànfēngshàn yībiān zhuàn， yībiān fāchū gāzhī gāzhī de shēngyīn。 dāng rén de sīwéi zài gāosù yùnzhuǎn shí, dàgài yě huì fāchū zhèyàng de shēngyīn。

chuāng biān zuò zhe de nǚren yǒu yītóu rǎn chéng zōng huángsè de juǎnfà。 tā dīng zhe chuāng yán de mǒu gè dìfang, nǔlì huíxiǎng zhe dàngtiān zǎochén fāshēng de shìqing。

pángbiān yī gè nánrén tíshì tā,” nǐ bùyòng hàipà, wǒmen huì duì nǐ de gèrén qíngkuàng juéduì bǎomì. zài zhè qǐ chí qiāng qiǎngjié’àn lǐ, nǐ hěn kěnéng shì wéiyī kànqīng xiánfàn múyàng de rén。 wǒmen suīrán yǐjīng zuò le yībiàn bǐlù, nǐ bùfáng zài xùshù yībiàn jīngguò, zhèyàng zuò duì nǐ de huíxiǎng huì yǒubāngzhù。”

nǚren diǎn le diǎntóu. zhè shì yī gè cōngming zhènjìng de nǚren。 yī fèn tuīxiāo bǎoxiǎn de zhíyè, suīrán bù tài tǎorénxǐhuan, dàn què péiyǎng le tā duì rén guòmùbùwàng de nénglì。

“ yīnwèi kèhù zhù dé yuǎn, wǒ jīntiān hěn zǎojiù chūmén le. tiān gāng méng méng liàng, wǒ jiù kāi shàng131 guódào。”

“ dāngshí lùshang chē duō bù duō?” tíwèn de nánrén yībiān wèn, yībiān zài zhǐ shàng jì zhe。

“ chē hěn shǎo, Xīngqītiān nà tiáo lù dōu hěn hǎo kāi。”

“ qǐng jìxù shuō.”

 

[traditional Chinese]
罪惡有痕 1

 

南方的盛夏，悶熱得連一絲涼風都沒有。

屋裏的電風扇一邊轉，一邊發出嘎吱嘎吱的聲音。當人的思維在高速運轉時, 大概也會發出這樣的聲音。

窗邊坐著的女人有一頭染成棕黃色的卷發。 她盯著窗沿的某個地方, 努力回想著當天早晨發生的事情。

旁邊一個男人提示她,”你不用害怕, 我們會對你的個人情況絕對保密. 在這起持槍搶劫案裏, 你很可能是唯一看清嫌犯模樣的人。 我們雖然已經做了一遍筆錄, 你不妨再敘述一遍經過, 這樣做對你的回想會有幫助。”

女人點了點頭. 這是一個聰明鎮靜的女人。一份推銷保險的職業, 雖然不太討人喜歡, 但卻培養了她對人過目不忘的能力。

“因為客戶住得遠, 我今天很早就出門了. 天剛朦朦亮, 我就開上131國道。”

“當時路上車多不多?” 提問的男人一邊問, 一邊在紙上記著。

“車很少, 星期天那條路都很好開。”

“請繼續說.”

 

[English translation]
Traces of Sin  1

 

In the midsummer of the southern cities, it was so hot and damp that there wasn’t even the hint of a breeze.

The fan in the room kept spinning tirelessly in a cracking tone. It’s probably true that when our brain works in full power, it would make a cracking sound just like that.

The woman sitting beside the window had curly hair that dyed in Brown. She stared into a certain spot on the window sill, trying her best to recall all that had happened in the early morning.

A man on her side reassured her, “Don’t worry, we will keep your identity absolutely confidential. As for this armed robbery, you probably are the only person who witnessed the robbers’ look. Although we’ve just finished our interview, you might as well run through the whole event again to help you recall all the details.”

The woman nodded. She’s smart and calm. A job of an insurance agent, not that much of a likable occupation, had trained her to remember people’s appearance extremely well.

“Due to the far location of my client, I had to get out very early this morning. Before dawn, I’ve already driven onto highway 131.”

“Were there many cars on the road at that time?” the man asked her while taking down notes.

“Not really. It’s always an easy drive on that road in Sundays.”

“Go ahead please.”