Chapter 22 Chapter 21: A Beautiful Divorce

My grandmother Feng Wanyu's heart almost stopped when she received the divorce agreement from my grandfather.The agreement was signed by Deng Yuhui, deputy political commissar of the ninth branch of the Laogai Farm, and also stamped with the official seal of the branch.Everything was done for my grandmother except her signature.It was July 1965 in Shanghai. On a Wednesday afternoon, she had just walked from home to the entrance of the alley, ready to buy cheap vegetables before the free market closed.Wanyu retired at the end of last year, her salary is half of what she used to be, and she strives to save half of the money on any expenses.The old man in the paging room has passed away, and his grandson, who did not pass the university entrance exam, will replace him.The young man called out to Wanyu: "Mom Feng Jiamu, there is a letter from ××'s mailbox!"

Wan Yu turned back from the corner that was about to turn, her feet were free and her pace was fast, she was afraid that the young man would yell out a second time, "There is a letter in the ×× mailbox!" Everyone in the alley knew that Feng's mother and the mysterious "×× "Letterbox" has a close connection that I'm ashamed to mention.Because of this relationship, the Feng family's mother walked in broad daylight for decades as if she was walking under someone else's low eaves. Wan Yu took the letter and hurried back, it didn't matter so much to buy cheap vegetables.She went upstairs as fast as she could, opened the door, and found herself a seat.The thickness of the letter made her wonder about its contents, whether another newspaper clipping had been sent.As soon as she sat down, she remembered that she hadn't picked up the knife to open the letter, so she stood up again.She turned around but couldn't find the Lu family's ancestral letter-opening silver knife, the handle of which was covered with a layer of pure gold.Yan Shi's last letter arrived on a Sunday a year ago.On that Sunday, Feng Ziye and his wife brought their children to dinner, and saw a copy of "Zixin Daily" in his father's letter, on which there was a photo of Zhang Lu Yanshi giving a speech in front of a large group of prisoners.Ziye glanced at his mother and knew what she was thinking.He said: "Mom, if you don't think about yourself, you should also think about me; so many people in the 'Siqing' movement unit have their eyes fixed on me, and they can't tell clearly if they don't associate with the old man. He came letter after letter. When this old man ran away, he only wanted to make himself happy. Did you think of you, Mom? Did you think of us juniors? Such a selfish person, you still can't tell him!"

Wan Yu said: "I have no intention of replying." Zi Ye was about to say something, but his wife gave him a wink, and her chin slightly tilted towards her little daughter.Ziye swallowed the words back. I was five years old.My mother suspected that I was eavesdropping on the conversation between my father Feng Ziye and my grandmother, because she observed it several times, and as soon as such discussions happened, I would stop all sounds and movements.As a five-year-old, I really found this kind of discussion strange. The relationship between father and grandma was reversed; my father's old-fashioned tone towards grandma made me puzzled and scared.

At that time, Wanyu promised her son that she would be responsible for his political future and would not write to Lu Yanzhi again. Feng Danjue looked at the photo of his father in the newspaper and said: "Mom, Dad is so old, so he looks okay? Are you and Dad on good terms?" Dan Jue said this with a bit of mischievous romance and envy.What Danjue noticed was what she lacked.She asserted several times that her father must have been a fugitive for her mother.He thought that the new society would still be the same as the old society, hiding in a place without the police to check the household registration, and without the detectives of the grandmother of the neighborhood committee, he could grow old with his wife in secret.If there was a man who risked his life to escape from prison for her, Feng Danjue, her whole life would be worthwhile.

At this moment, Wan Yu was turning around in the small space where he bumped into the wall, but he couldn't find the knife to open the letter, and his feet were sore.After so many years of living a humble life, she still hasn't changed her habit of opening letters.Especially the letter from Yan Shi.When he went to study in the United States, Enniang's name was written on the envelope of every letter. Sometimes Enniang wanted to reward Wanyu by handing the extremely delicate silver knife to Wanyu to open the envelope. Wan Yu couldn't find the knife anymore, so Wan Yu went back to the chair.She felt that the sudden disappearance of the knife was a dark omen.She felt the thickness of the letter; its extraordinary thickness made her break the envelope for many years, tearing the seal of the envelope with her hands.She carefully tore a small hole in the corner, and stuck her little finger in, hoping that her slender little finger would function as the silver knife, but the paper of the envelope was too bad, and the paper was dry. As soon as her little finger moved, A crack tore diagonally from one corner to the other.This is a completely dark omen.

Immediately afterwards, a piece of official paper fell out of the envelope, and the red printing ink stained to the back of the paper could be seen without opening Wanyu.An official seal. The official document was a divorce agreement, with a leader's signature and Lu Yanzhi's signature on it.The only vacancy was reserved for Feng Wanyu.Along with the official documents, there was a piece of letter paper, densely packed with the last care Yan Shi gave her as a euphemistic husband.Don't work too hard, retire early (he obviously doesn't know that Wanyu has retired), his son and daughter are grown up, and it's time to "fed back".The books he left behind are all good books, many of which are ancient books collected by his grandfather's generation, which will be a spiritual and material wealth for the children in the future.Wanyu paid much more than his father in raising and nurturing the children.He did not say a word about the reasons for the divorce.

Wan Yu called Zi Ye.Dan Jue was doing experiments in the laboratory that night, and received a call saying that he would not be back for a while.Around eight o'clock, Ziye went downstairs to call Dan Jue again. This time, he didn't hide that there was an important matter at home waiting for her to come back to discuss, but directly said what the important matter was. "The divorce agreement has been mailed, and Mama signed it and sent it back. The old man has nothing to do with Ala. As for this matter, if you can't come back, I'll do your best." My father Feng Ziye knew that the young man in the paging room would send the news to every family in the alley tomorrow.At least everyone who came to use the paging phone.So tomorrow, the grandmothers and aunts of the neighborhood committee will know that Feng Wanyu, who is on the third floor of No. 7, is equal to them from now on. She is no longer an enemy who listens to their summons at any time. Chinese citizen.

Hearing her brother's words, my little lady immediately put down the unfinished experiments, asked her students to wait for the results for her, and hurried home by bicycle.Panting in the dark passage, she began to ask, "Mum, what's the matter?" Wan Yu has been sitting in the chair since she finished reading the letter.She has always held hope, no matter how bleak it is.This official document came, and as soon as she signed it, the hope was no longer bleak, because there was no hope.Dan Jue entered the door, looking nervously at her mother's face, trying to see if she had cried.Finding that her mother hadn't cried, she didn't know whether to be worried or relieved.

Ziye has been talking with his mother for a long time; it's not talking, it's class.There is one movement after another outside, and every movement must point to the old "no period" in the prison.He is "no period" alone, and the whole family follows "no period", and he dare not straighten his intestines in the work unit.Now is the new society, children do not intend to inherit their parents' property, at least they should not be allowed to inherit political debts, and the debts should be repaid indefinitely.The old man should have learned a little bit earlier and filed for divorce.As Ziye talked, he blamed his mother, saying that the mother should think more about the children and should divorce the old man when he was arrested.

Wan Yu sat there motionless.Dan Jue didn't move when she quarreled with her brother.The siblings were so noisy that the neighbors started knocking on the wall, and Wan Yu made a gesture to tell them to be quiet. "I'll sign it now." Wan Yu said. The siblings were silent. Wan Yu took out the pen, pointed at the space left for her name and hung the pen, the hand holding the pen caused Enniang's late Parkinson's disease.She had to put down the pen.Ziye stood up from where he was sitting.Seeing her son standing up, Wan Yu shrank back, tears streaming down her face.The way she sheds tears is in the same line as Enniang's. After all, they are all surnamed Feng.Dan Jue was infected by her mother's tears, and she shed tears.

"Okay, okay, then don't sign, don't divorce!" Dan Jue choked up. Brother says sister, is there any principle? !Divorce is of course not a happy thing, and crying is normal, how can you change your principles once you cry? The younger sister warned the elder brother that if he forced his mother again, she would never recognize him again for the rest of her life. The brother and sister are about to attract neighbors to knock on the wall again.Wan Yu hardened his heart like taking poison, and signed his name in one stroke.His hands were drenched with tears, and the word "meaning" was immediately used. The agreement signed by the three people was put into an envelope, and Feng Ziye wrote the address. When Ziye proposed to deliver the letter to the post office on the way to work tomorrow, he politely thanked him; .Ziye suspected that her mother would do something wrong, write out the signed name, or simply write another letter telling her father that she would not cooperate with the divorce agreement. My father Feng Ziye knew that my grandmother Feng Wanyu belonged to the generation of women who marry a chicken and follow the chicken, and marry a dog and follow the dog.But he didn't know what kind of feelings my grandmother had for my grandfather. She had been fascinated by him for decades, and the old "indefinite" Lu Yanshi who was imprisoned was still regarded as a treasure by Feng Wanyu. That night euphemistically walked around the house like a ghost.Walking in a small space for a while made her dizzy.She turned around everywhere, but she didn't get close to the Eight Immortals table, because there was the divorce agreement in an envelope on the table.Afraid of waking Dan Jue who was sleeping in the former kitchen called the bedroom, she unscrewed the door silently like a ghost and came to the stairwell.Dan Jue had to carry her bicycle from the first floor to the third floor every day, and today she forgot to take her purse off the bike.Wan Yu took the leather bag from the shelf, and poured out the contents of the bag with the bottom up.Wan Yu saw a notebook, some sticks of chewing gum, and a pack of cigarettes on the ground.She never knew that Dan Jue smoked.Dan Jue chews gum to keep her mother from knowing that she smokes.Did Dan Jue smoke because of various unfavorable conditions?It must be, like she drank. My grandmother's understanding of my little lady Feng Danjue often depends on this kind of accidental discovery.A few years ago, she found that a mouse had escaped into Danjue's bedroom, so she dragged out everything under Danjue's single bed, but the mouse didn't find it, and instead found a cardboard box full of wine bottles.They were all "cherry brandy" bottles, thirty-five of them.Dan Jue was too busy, otherwise she wouldn't have accumulated so many bottles and still not go to the waste collection station to sell them.Maybe she was a brilliant biologist in front of her, and a worthless alcoholic in her back, which made her unable to face it. Hiding the bottle was like an ostrich digging its face into the sand.Wan Yu, a mother, stood in the stairwell for a long time holding a half pack of Qian No. cigarettes. The next day, the envelope containing the divorce agreement was delivered. When the envelope reached my grandfather, he opened it and saw that besides the agreement, there was also a piece of letter paper.Wan Yu also wrote her last care in that letter, but buried a hint in the plain sentence: Take care of yourself, so that you won’t be too afraid to admit it when you see it in the future.