Our genius son Jin Xiaoyu

Recently, everyone's circle of friends may have been brushed by an article titled "Hangzhou Man Calls from a Funeral Home: Can You Write About Our Genius Son", and the "genius son" described by the old father Jin Zhiyong is the protagonist of this edition - the lonely and nameless translator Jin Xiaoyu.

When I was 6 years old, one of my son's eyes went blind

My hometown is in Tongxiang, Zhejiang, my father was the principal of the primary school, and my wife's mother was my teacher at that time.

My wife's name is Cao Meizao. I was admitted to Shanghai Institute of Chemical Technology, and Meizao was admitted to the Department of Chemistry of Nanjing University. After graduation, he was assigned to work in Tianjin. In 1967 we got married, first having the eldest son, Jin Xiaotian, and in 1972 the younger son, Jin Xiaoyu.

In 1984, we returned to Hangzhou with our two sons. I was so determined to come back because I had stuck a thorn in my heart. When we were in Tianjin, we lived in a dormitory. When he was six years old, Xiaoyu played with a neighbor child, who had a toy pistol in his hand and could shoot out a small paper ball. Wan did not expect that day he put a needle, a shot into Xiao Yu's eye, the left eye crystal shattered.

One of Xiaoyu's eyes has since become blind, and he can only squint at things.

In high school, he suddenly became bored with school, and the electrical appliances in his home were smashed by him

Xiao Yu was in the top class in his first year of high school, and the teacher said that it was no problem to enter the university. But one day, Xiaoyu suddenly said to us, "I'm not going to college, and I don't want to go to high school." ”

After he didn't go to school, my mom and I went to work every day before he went to work, he was in bed, and when he came home from work, he was still in bed. He doesn't talk to us either, he loses his temper suddenly, is extremely emotionally unstable, and is a completely different person.

One day, his mom and I were sitting on the couch watching TV and there was a loud bang. Xiaoyu pushed the refrigerator down in the kitchen. This was the first time he had been violent.

Because of this, our family has always been surrounded by walls. The whole of Hangzhou may not have a TV set in my house, but I was smashed by Xiaoyu three times before and poured water into it. The fridge, washing machine have been changed several times, and there are tables, bookshelves, cabinets, doors... Okay, suddenly a bang, you say what to do?

The doctor said that my son was manic and depressed

For a long time, we didn't know that the child was sick. When he said he wanted to go to college, we were overjoyed and let him into cram school. Xiaoyu basically did not go to high school, and after a few months, the college entrance examination results were surprising, only 3 points away from a line.

After seven turns and eight turns, Xiao Yu entered Shuren University, but after only one year of studying, he fell ill. I took him home. I knew this kid was out of touch with school.

For two years, he immersed himself in self-study, more diligently than going to school. Two years later, he received a self-examination diploma from the English Department of Zhejiang University.

But then something terrible happened, he committed suicide on sleeping pills, hanging a belt between the ceiling chandelier and the window. Several hospitals have diagnosed manic depression, also known as bipolar disorder, in which patients alternate episodes of depression and mania. Xiaoyu does not go to school, is depressed, does not sleep at night, and even commits suicide, all of which are in the depression period; groundless suspicion of accusing others, manic and restless, destructive behavior, is turned into a manic period.

Psychiatrists say that the disease comes and goes quickly, the danger is that it does not know when to come and go, and it cannot be controlled by taking medicine, and the only thing that can be done is to send it to the hospital in time. Since 1992, Xiaoyu has been sent in basically every year.

My son didn't want to die, and my mom and I suddenly felt that nothing mattered, that we didn't go to college, didn't work, didn't start a family, and we could all accept it — as long as he lived.

A classmate's meeting with his wife changed his son's fate

Ten years later, in 2010, my wife went to the 50th Anniversary Alumni Association of NTU. Maybe it was Heavenly Pity, or maybe it was the sincerity of a mother, and this classmate meeting actually changed Xiaoyu's fate next.

When I heard that my child had no job due to illness, a classmate who stayed at the school as a professor asked her: Can you ask your son to do a translator at home?

My wife said that Xiaoyu's English and Japanese are very good, please give him a chance to try it.

He spent six years teaching himself German and Japanese, consolidating his English

Back in the 1990s, it was the most difficult period in our family, it cost money to treat diseases everywhere, and children had to lose money when they went out to cause trouble, but I still did my best to meet Xiaoyu's requirements. His biggest request was to buy books — English, Japanese, ancient Chinese, Go, music, painting, geography, etc. More than two hundred books.

In 1993, I risked being smashed and bought Xiaoyu a Lenovo computer for twelve thousand yuan. Xiaoyu said happily that day, "Daddy, thank you!" ”

After that, he also fell on the sick, but never touched the computer. Computers have become another world for Xiaoyu. He also doesn't play games, but does two things: teach himself a foreign language and watch an acoustic movie. It took him six years to teach himself German and Japanese, consolidating his English. Watching foreign language movies, he first looks at the subtitles with Chinese, and after reading them, he makes a note to block the subtitles and then watch. Watch a movie N times until you fully understand it.

In ten years, he translated 22 books, "You've got a genius!" ”

Nanda Publishing House quickly sent eight short stories by American female writer Andrea Barrett and asked Xiaoyu to try one. He translated one of them, "Ship Fever," as fast as he could. When handing over the manuscript, I told the publisher that if the review is approved, please leave the rest to me. I'm surprised, this is literature, translation is equal to re-creation, a piece of paper does not know whether it can work, a whole book can you translate well?

Xiaoyu said, OK, Dad, you can rest assured, I will not be worse than others, these years I went out to the Zhejiang Library, I am not going to play, you go to Zhejiang to check the borrowing registration card, every book I have borrowed, there is Jin Xiaoyu's name.

"How many novels have you read?"

"I finished reading all the foreign language novels in the library."

Ten years later, in 2010, Xiaoyu accepted the task of publishing house and began his life as a translator. In ten years, Xiaoyu translated a total of 22 books at the rate of two books per year. His short and prolific translation career was the rarest and happiest time for our family.

The head of the editorial department came to my house to see Xiaoyu, and he said that Jin Xiaoyu's translated manuscript was sent to the editorial department, and everyone rushed to be responsible editor, because there were no typos, sentences, and mistranslations in the whole book, and every book was selling well, and the readers responded very well.

Nanda students called to congratulate the child's mother, "You have raised a genius! (Hangzhou Daily)

【Source: Chengdu Business Daily】