#4
The Story of Ba
By Yu Laoshi
Once upon a time, in a small town in China, there lived a family. There was no mother, just a father and two sons. Father was called Subject, and was the person in charge of the family. The eldest son was called Verb and did all family work. The second son was called Complement. He was a little clumsy and could not take care of himself . He has to follow his elder brother every day. The family lived in a small, one-room house. When eating, they sat on a long table against the wall. The father Subject sat to the left of the eldest son Verb, and the second son Complement sat to the right of his brother. Later his brother had a wife named Object. When Object came, there was a problem at home. In the beginning, Complement was still very thin, so he still sat to the right of his brother Verb. Object sat to the right of Complement. You may think it strange: why didn’t the wife Object of the Verb sat next to her husband? This is because in China, the relationship between male siblings is a kind of family relationship. It is very important and can’t let outsiders in. The wife is an outsider. And because Complement is stupid and need his brother to take care of him, he had to sit next to his elder brother Verb. Although Object would like to be next to her husband, she must behave and could not be selfish.
But later, Complement became more and more stupid, and did not pay attention to eating, and ate more and more and became fatter and father. In this way, while eating, Object was farther away from Verb her husband. Of course she was upset. After all, she was Verb's wife. There was a family meeting to talk about what to do. Object said, "I have to be close to my husband." Verb said, "But I can't help but look after my brother." You can't sit between me and my brother." Dad said, "Well, you can sit between me and Verb." Object said, "How can that be done? How can a daughter in law sit next to her father in law?" Subject the Dad said: "There is a way. Put a 'BA' between you and me. "What is' BA '?" 'asked the wife. "It is a magic sign that is only available in China. Put a BA between two people and the relationship won't go wrong." Dad said, "If you want to sit by yourself sometimes, but you don't want to be too far from Verb, you can also sit on my left side, not too close though." “ Do we still need BA between us?” “ No,” Subject said. “BA only protects the person to its right. I do not need protection.” Object heard this and thought it was very good. They lived hereafter happily for thousands of years like this.
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