Personally, I've never heard of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Ostrovsky" target="_blank">Nikolai Wassisface</a>. Maybe I should have, because anyone with a forehead like that deserves my attention and respect. Or maybe no one in the West really knows who this is, but because of China's relatively long-standing friendly relationship with the Soviet Union, Chinese intellectuals are more keyed-in to Soviet lit. Wouldn't be the first example. 

<h3>三步并作两步 [pinyin]san1 bu4 bing4 zuo4 liang3 bu4[/pinyin]</h3>
Couldn't find this in the dictionary, had to turn to Baidu Answers for feedback. Apparently, 三步并作两步 is just a wordy way to say "walking fast". The phrase also seems to have a few different permutations, and turned up in web searches more commonly as: 三步并做二步. 

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1) 苏联优秀小说《钢铁是怎样炼成的》作者尼古拉·奥斯特洛夫斯基，从小就懂得关心和同情别人。有一次，母亲让他去铁路机车库给哥哥送早饭，临走时，再三嘱咐他路上不要逗留。可尼古拉一去就是几个小时，直到日升中天时还没有回来。母亲心慌意乱起来，几次跑到篱栅门外去张望。因为她知道，尼古拉经过车站时，经常从车厢底下爬过去。这样虽然少跑了路，但很容易发生危险。望来望去，仍然不见尼古拉的影子，母亲只好三步并作两步往车库方向找去，就在母亲心急如焚的时候，终于看见了尼古拉的身影。  

2) 原来，尼古拉在从车库回家的路上，遇见一位妇女。她身上背着两个满满鼓鼓的大口袋，一只手提着篮子，里面放着一只母鸡和许多小鸡，另一只手还领着一个两三岁的孩子。那孩子正哭着闹着不肯走呢！尼古拉一问，知道她是急着去赶火车的，眼下离开车时间只有十几分钟了。偏偏就在这个时候，母鸡挣脱篮子飞了出来，小鸡也跟着四处乱跑。尼古拉见此情景，毫不迟疑地跑过去，把母鸡和小鸡一只只抓住，放进了篮子，并把篮子牢牢捆好。随后，又接过那位妇女背上的口袋，一直送她到了车站„„  母亲听了，心中的火气顿时烟消云散。她高兴地抱住尼古拉，接连亲吻了几次。

See the <a href="http://www.gushi51.com/mingren/gushi3222.html" target="_blank">source</a>.

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1) Author of outstanding Soviet novel "How the Steel was Tempered" Nikolai Ostrovsky understood how to care for and empathize with others since he was a child. One day, his mother sent him to the train yard with some breakfast for his brother, and before he left, repeatedly admonished him not to tarry. But Nikolai was gone for several hours, and still had not returned by the time the sun had risen into the noontime sky. His mother began to fret, now and then running out to the hedgerows to look for him. She knew that when Nikolai crossed the train station, he often went by crawling beneath the train cars. Though that was the shorter way, it was also dangerous. Looking all about, but still catching no sign of Nikolai, she began walking hurriedly in the direction of the train yard, but just as her impatience reached a fever pitch, she finally caught sight of Nikolai.

2) As it turned out, Nikolai was on his way back from the train yard, when he happened to spot a young lady. She was carrying two overstuffed bags on her back, in one hand she carried a basket with a mother hen and several little chicks, and with the other hand she was pulling a two or three-year-old child. How the child cried and wailed, unwilling to walk. Nikolai asked, and learned that she was hurrying to catch a train, which was scheduled to leave in little more than ten minutes. Just at that moment, the mother hen struggled free of the basket and flew out, and the little chicks followed, running off in all directions. Nikolai saw this, and ran over without hesitation, caught the mother hen and the chicks one by one, put them in the basket, and tied the basket up firmly. After that, he shouldered the woman's burdens, and took her all the way to the station. His mother listened, and her anger instantly disappeared like a cloud of smoke. She happily embraced Nikolai, and covered him in kisses. 
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