Chapter 26 twenty three.Back to Kunming and Beijing

After Dr. Elousel's diagnosis, Huiyin's physical condition was obviously not suitable for staying in this humid and cold environment.She also no longer beautifies her temporary stay in the capital.She made her dislike very clear: "This abominable Chongqing, this terrible dormitory, and this gray winter light. These are really unbearable." At the same time, Sicheng wrote to us to tell us that in order to control the Yangtze River , A series of explosions has stopped the liner between Chongqing and Lizhuang.Even mail delivery can only be maintained by footmen.It is impossible for Huiyin to return to Lizhuang.

It just so happened that I was going to Kunming at this time, so I decided to discuss this matter with Lao Jin.Of course he was also very worried.We both thought it was a godsend opportunity for Huiyin to revisit Kunming, something she had been longing for.I told Kim about the doctor's dire diagnosis, which convinced both of us that it was worth the risk to her health, even if it had to be relocated to high altitude by plane, if it made her happy.The plan was settled when we found a charming little detached house near Zhang Xiruo's home.This house is on the back hill of the old ancestral home of the warlord Tang Jiyao. The ancestral home has large windows, a large luxurious garden, several towering eucalyptus trees, and long fragrant branches that hang down and sway in the wind.The "Xiajiang" tenant of this house has just moved out, and Lao Jin can move in and show her the house.

When we informed Huiyin of this plan, she certainly understood the risks to her health.However, after a little hesitation, she decided to "go to Kunming again, and suddenly get sunshine, beautiful scenery and flowering gardens, and the Kunming sky intertwined with shining light and beautiful shadows, torrential rain and white clouds blown by the wind." Mysterious atmosphere, I think I'll feel better." So the decision was made quickly, and she started packing for her first flight. After she arrived in Kunming, Zhang Xiruo and his wife insisted that she live in their neighboring home for the first few days.The stress and fatigue of flying had confined her to bed rest, but she was ecstatic to be surrounded by dear old friends after a long separation.Qian Duansheng and his wife, and of course Lao Jin, were among the close friends who held endless conversations around her bedside.

She wrote from her bed: "Even the wildest hopes I had entertained myself in Lizhuang could not be compared with the real and overwhelming joy of this reunion. It took 11 days to sort out all kinds of strange information about life in Kunming and the lives of people in Lizhuang under these conditions, so that all the friends who gathered here to talk could understand it. But rebuilding and expanding the old bridge of love and mutual understanding It took less time than any of us expected. In about two days, we had a good idea of ​​where everyone was emotionally and academically. Conditions, views of individuals and groups participating or not participating in wars, are generally discussed freely, and no one has any difficulty in understanding how others have arrived at such views and ideas. Even in the most casual In conversation, among the few of us there was always a reassuring exchange of mutual trust and common interest and newly increased gratitude and fresh enthusiasm, the result of a sudden reunion in these troubled times...

"Only now have I experienced the joys of the ancient Tang and Song poets, who lacked the means of travel, and who, on their way of demotion, suddenly found themselves in an inn, or on a boat, or in a temple with monks as abbots, No matter where it is, I meet an old friend unexpectedly. How touching this kind of heart-to-heart conversation is! "Our time may have been very different from theirs, but this reunion has a lot in common with them. We are all old now, have suffered from particular forms of poverty and disease, endured long wars and inconvenient Communications is now facing a great national struggle and a difficult future.

"Moreover, we reunited in a place far from home, where we had lived by force rather than by choice. We longed to return to the place where we had spent our happiest days, just as the Tang people longed to return. To Chang'an and the people of Song yearn to return to Bianjing. We are worn out. Passed various tests, we now have a new character, good, bad or indifferent. We have had enough of life and suffered from it We have lost most of our health but not one bit of will. We do know now that enjoying life and suffering are one and the same." When the spring was warm and the flowers were blooming, Huiyin recovered from the fatigue of flying, and Zhang Xiruo let her go to her "dream villa".

"All the best things come to watch around the garden, that bright blue sky, everything under the cliffs and beyond the hills... It's my 10th day in my new house. The rooms are so spacious, the windows are so big, it has the ge The effect of Den Clegg's early stage design. Even the afternoon sun seems to shoot into the window in a dreamlike way according to his instructions, and the slowly moving shadows are thrown onto the ceiling by the large eucalyptus branches outside. ! "If Old King and I could come up with the right lines, I'm sure this would be the ideal setting for a great theatrical masterpiece. But he's leaning over a small round table with his back to the light and me, wearing his usual Hats, pens and books. (He's old enough to protect his sensitive eyes from the sun.)

"The altitude sickness or something makes me so out of breath that I often feel like I've run a lot of miles. So I have to be much quieter than in Lizhuang to get the necessary rest. I wasn't allowed to talk at all, even though I didn't want to say much more than I was allowed to say. But the so-called 'talk' was so unfair to the surroundings." Her outrageous news is horrifying, but the liveliness of her writing style that flows between the lines suggests she's having fun nonetheless.She also touches in her letters fragments of the domestic affairs that went on around her.

"I was very lucky to have just the kind of maid I needed. The kind of maid who had all the semblance of human intelligence but was not just a simple human being. She was a log and stone and everything else big and indestructible Clumsy and good-natured make her a basic maid (that is to say, one who can do it), capable and strong and bring her close to the precious class (that is, one that people don't want to dismiss. Maid). Look how lucky I am! "After staying in the professor's dormitory for a long time, Lao Jin has acquired the barbaric habits of prisoners in concentration camps. He is picky about our existing upper-class social standards, such as letting the maid do the dishes. His habit is to put A cup and a pair of chopsticks, so that he can use them to make a cup of cocoa himself every morning. Once he was so angry that he could not find them in his room or on the dusty window sill. Will tell the maid to just stop washing them and put them under his pillow so he can find them!"

Six weeks later a long letter came from Sicheng, who was with his daughter in Lizhuang.He told us that apparently Huiyin was right to rush to Kunming. "The river project was just completed a few days ago. But only very small boats can come up from Chongqing. Ships with cabins can't come up until the second half of May. So Huiyin goes to Kunming is the only solution... In writing from Kunming In her first letter, she spoke of the 'almost religious' feeling of knowing her inner prayers were fulfilled. She was touched by the welcome our old friends had given her, and expressed regret that she had 'got' too much And the 'devotion' is too little.

"You and Fairbank's visit to Lizhuang broke her monotonous life of staying in one room for five years. She can still keep her spirits high after you have gone for a long time. Moreover, if you don't come, she will go to Chongqing. Don't even think about it. The psychological benefits are huge. "Although the altitude in Kunming has some bad effects on her breathing and pulse, she is very happy there. There are many old friends around her to keep her company, and she can't finish reading the books lent to her. Lao Jin and She stayed with her (he was very generous) and she had a good maid, so she was well looked after. I had nothing to worry about." At the same time, Sicheng and the few colleagues he left behind were busy packing the books, documents, pictures and technical equipment of the Construction Society, preparing to transport them back to Beijing once the transportation resumed.At this time, the institutes of Academia Sinica were also bundling their precious books, research reports and archaeological artifacts, which were finally sent to Taiwan.The Central Museum is also shipping their collections and books and so on back to Nanking where they have an ambitious building that wasn't built during the early chaos of the Japanese invasion. After months of Japanese surrender, the unpleasant temporary stay in Lizhuang was finally coming to an end.It is bordered by the Yangtze River, which flows directly east to Shanghai.This is the thoroughfare for the "downstream people" to go home.But the government took all ships and planes under control.To avoid confusion, it has numbered the relocation of countless departments and agencies.Inevitably, the high-ranking officials accompanying the capital and the wartime upstarts arrived on the east coast ahead of time using vehicles of unknown origin.For the desperately poor Lizhuang wartime refugees, there was no such opportunity.They have to rely on the government to send them home, and can only wait in the face of horrific inflation. Liang Sicheng's Construction Society and the Central Museum went together.He wrote from Lizhuang that the two institutions were ranked No. 47 together, "while the Central University, No. The planes go, but now we know we're going to have to use them for a long time." The whole family, including Lao Jin, finally returned to Beijing on July 31, 1946. They took a direct flight from Chongqing, but before that, they waited in the guest house of the Academia Sinica for more than a month. Forty helpless families huddled together.This plight is a fitting culmination of their ordeal in Lizhuang and Chongqing over the past five years.Despite waiting in this hopeless reality, Hui Yin still maintains her unique aesthetic talent. "Whether it's sunny or raining, Kunming is always so beautiful. The scenery outside my window is especially beautiful before or immediately after a heavy thunderstorm. The atmosphere in my room when it rains is so romantic that I can't describe it - when alone When we were in a lonely house in a large quiet garden, suddenly the sky and the earth became dark together. This is something that a person will never forget in his life."