An elderly French authoress, while writing her memoirs, is narrating the story of her first love. The year of that story is 1929, the place southern Indochina. Her mother and her two brothers lived in the house that came with the mother’s poor paying teaching job, while she, across the Mekong River, lived in a boarding school dormitory in Saigon. The girl had an uneasy relationship with her family, largely because of her mother’s inexplicable favoritism of her eldest brother, who was selfish, egotistical and thieving. The girl and her younger timid brother secretly wished he was dead. That year, she began a relationship with a Chinaman, who she met on the Mekong River ferry. He was western educated in Paris, came from a wealthy family and as such money was no issue for him, and had never worked a day in his life. They entered into their sexual relationship nervously if only because of the taboo associated with a relationship between races, and people of their respective ages (she telling him that she was eighteen, he telling her he was thirty-two). As time progressed, they were more open to the world at least about having a relationship. Her family disapproved of what they knew she was doing, while still savoring the Chinaman’s showering of money at them. They talked openly to each other about their non-existent future, as she could never marry a Chinaman, and he was already betrothed to a woman from a wealthy family, she who he would not even meet until the wedding ceremony. But both began to think that there was the possibility of a future “them”, driven by their passion and desire.
参考翻译：
一位上了年纪的法国女作家在写回忆录时，正在讲述她的初恋故事。那一年的故事是1929，印度支那南部的地方。她的母亲和两个兄弟住在母亲收入微薄的教学工作所带来的房子里，而她则住在湄公河对岸的西贡一所寄宿学校宿舍里。这名女孩与家人的关系不稳定，主要是因为她母亲莫名其妙地偏袒她的大哥，后者自私、自私、偷窃。女孩和她胆小的弟弟偷偷地希望他死了。那一年，她开始与一位中国人交往，她在湄公河渡轮上认识了这位中国人。他在巴黎接受过西方教育，出身于一个富裕的家庭，因此钱对他来说不是问题，他一生中从未工作过一天。他们紧张地开始了他们的性关系，哪怕只是因为种族之间的禁忌，以及他们各自年龄段的人之间的关系（她告诉他她18岁，他告诉她他32岁）。随着时间的推移，他们对世界更加开放，至少在恋爱方面是这样。她的家人不赞成他们知道她在做的事情，但仍然享受着中国人向他们倾注的金钱。他们公开谈论他们不存在的未来，因为她永远不会嫁给一个中国人，而他已经和一个富裕家庭的女人订了婚，她甚至在婚礼之前都不会遇见。但两人都开始认为，在他们的激情和欲望的驱使下，未来“他们”是有可能的。
重点词汇释义
authoress女作者; 女作家
first love初恋
boarding school寄宿学校
because of因为; 由于①because of是复合介词，其后可接名词、代词、动名词或由what引导的从句。②because of一般引导状语，不引导表语；但当主语是代词时，because of短语在句中可用作表语。
eldest brother长兄；大哥
thieving偷窃; 偷; 行窃; thieve的现在分词
Chinaman【蔑】中国人，华人
educated in在…念书，在…受教育
as such像这样的; 严格来说，真正意义上; 本身
