Chapter 3 visitors

There are many things in the world that are melancholy and intractable, and certain friendships seem to be like that. In the summer of 1928, I lived on the second floor of a small alley on Lafayette Road in Shanghai. One afternoon, at about two o’clock in the afternoon, I was writing a creative memoir for the "Reader Monthly" in my small room. I feel that my memory is full of all kinds of rivers.The various rivers I have seen in various places in my life seem to flow through my heart one by one.There are also gray boats moored on the river surface, floating green vegetable leaves.To be honest, there are several small rivers on both sides of the world, all of which have had an inseparable relationship with me.It can be said that my education was obtained on the river.When I recalled all kinds of rivers, I was thinking calmly. For the comfort rarely seen in my life, I thought I could write at least 5,000 words in one go. When I just wrote the article to the second line, I could only hear Someone at the back door asked the aunt in impure northern dialect, as if looking for someone.The Sichuan lady was doing laundry by the tap, she raised her head and asked, "I'm looking for Mr. A, are you in the house?"

As soon as my aunt heard that someone opened the door upstairs, she knew that I hadn't gone out, and before I could speak, she wanted the person to go upstairs, and the person immediately came up the dark and narrow stairs.When we met at the top of the stairs, it turned out to be a white-faced young gentleman who didn't know much about the thorns. He was smartly dressed and well-groomed. When he saw me, he asked, "I'm looking for Mr. A. Is he at home?" Judging from the expression of that language, it was obvious that he would not think that the one in front of him was exactly the person he was looking for.Since I still asked about my master after seeing him, I thought that this strange and uninvited guest was just a "long-awaited" person to prepare to meet, and the person I hope to meet should be someone who is more like a master than the current me.At that time, in order to respect the feelings of the guests, I had no choice but to pretend to be stupid. I asked the guests to sit in the room, walked out of the door by myself, and stood by the stairs for a while. When I returned to the room, I respectfully answered the guest: "Mr. It was still here for a while before, but somehow it disappeared.

What's the matter with you? Is it something important? " Probably before this person only "suspected" that I was a servant, but now he "understood" that I was a servant, and when I asked him, he said grandly, "I just came from Beijing, and I will soon go abroad to study. I am also——a writer. I have admired your husband’s name for a long time, and I came to visit you specially!” After saying these words, the visitor seemed to immediately realize that what he said should only be said to the master, but now it is meaningless to say it to the servant, and it is really unnecessary, so he treated the servant Wang Gui and Tang Huai as the eunuch. With the air of speaking, he asked me in front of me: "I am your husband's comrade. Do you know when the husband will come back?"

"Maybe." The visitor looked around for a while, appraised the price with the staff of the auction house, and made a mental note of the amount of everything in the house.After everything was clarified, it seemed that the big business had been done, and it was time to take a rest. There was no need for the host to invite me, so I made a big show, chose a chair by the window and sat down.After sitting down, he drank the cup of tea that I poured for him, and his expression became a little calmer, and he didn't want to walk for a while. Seeing me standing timidly in the corner of the room, he seemed to comfort me not to be afraid of "big shots", so he talked to me When he got up, he was completely using the air of an officer talking to his subordinates.

"Are there many customers, sir?" "not much." "Do you cook for yourself?" "If you don't do it yourself, the landlord will do it." "How long have you been with him?" "..." I didn't know how to answer, so I just smiled. "Can you read or not?" "I don't know much, and I can hardly write a bill." "Your husband is a writer, why don't you learn to write novels from him?" "The master said that He Shui sued him for writing novels." "Why, the river sued him! What river and well water? He joked with you! He is very humourous. He must have studied with He and He, you don't understand!"

"He said the river." "He said the river would sue him? Then why don't you go to the river and ask the river? The river will tell you too! Try it!" "I grew up by the river, and the river told me..." Seeing me talk like that, the gentleman looked at me, and smiled, as if I were pitiably stupid.Seeing that I looked timid, trivial, and a little silly, I became interested, and asked me jokingly about some strangers who were not interested in asking about servants, and asked me everything about the owner of this room.After arriving, he asked me, "Did you really buy a house on Joffre Road? According to the XX newspaper, the house is worth 7,000!"

Hearing this, I was really scared and worried. I didn't know how to answer this question, so I had to deal with it with the most humble smile.I am silent. The guest spoke just right, but seeing that I only smiled smirkly, and seemed to feel that it was inappropriate to talk to such a servant, so I frowned and walked over to the writing desk, as if wanting to look at the master's desk. situation above.This really made me anxious and embarrassed, but I couldn't think of any way to stop him.In a hurry, I took a white stone Buddha head of the Six Dynasties and a white stone pig head of the Han Dynasty on the bookshelf, and showed him that the two small sculptures were just sent from Beijing by a friend yesterday.But my behavior was totally unable to attract his attention.He doesn't need to appreciate this ancient sculpture at this time, he still read my article.He just watched silently, and what I wrote on it was: My education is all obtained by water, my wisdom is full of water, and my character is like a small river.I create, who will sue my creation?It's just running water in various places, telling me how to think and how to get there... probably read it two or three times. After reading it, this gentleman said to me who seemed a little embarrassed by his side: "Your It's really weird for the master to say that the river water accuses him of everything. How can there be such a thing?"

Because I didn't understand how to answer this sentence with the status of a servant, I was able to word it appropriately, so I still only smiled at him.From my smile, the guest seemed to feel a little discomfort, and his words immediately became more solemn.He said, "Don't you know when Mr. A will come back?" "I have no idea." "He's at his school meeting, isn't he?" "He never goes to those meetings." "He likes to watch movies?" "He doesn't watch movies." "Does he dance a lot?" "He can't dance."

Every answer seems to be inconsistent with the guest's estimate, and seems to be against his imagination. When the guest arrives at this time, he beats the floor with his stick and asks me how long I have been here.I replied that he had not been here for long.This time my handle was taken by him. "You don't know your husband. Your husband, in his own book, speaks of his own disposition and inclinations; he seems to mention you, and says that there is a servant in the family who knows nothing about him. I ask you, are you Not a 'Secretary'?" I said, "Did you mean 'Secretary Chief' in the Army? I'm not."

"I guess you're not. In the old days he had a clerk who was older and more interesting than you." He was holding a copy of "New Moon" in his hand. There was a novel in it called a secretary. "how do you know?" "Why don't I know?" When I said this, the guest seemed to ask me for revenge, "What's your name?" I said: "My name is Gao Sheng." This is really a name I often use, but when I said it, I saw a strange expression on his face. It was probably this vulgar name that dampened the interest of the guests in the conversation and made them unwilling to wait any longer.So he took out the business card holder, pulled out a small business card, and wrote on the table for a while.After finishing writing, I pondered for a while, shaking my head, as if I thought it was inappropriate, I tore it up, and replaced it with a second one, but it still didn't work, so I changed it to a third one.After writing the business card, I looked at the words I wrote, and seemed to be very satisfied, so I put the business card on the table, pressed it with a jade ruler, read my article again, nodded my head, and seemed to understand This time I was satisfied with some things I didn’t understand before, so I said to me: “Gao Sheng, I won’t wait for Mr. A anymore. I’ll keep this, and you can tell him when he comes back, don’t forget it!”

"I know. Don't worry, sir." As soon as the guests left, I resumed my status as the host, and hurried over to the table to see what was written on the business card. I just finished reading the first two sentences: "You are from Water Education, I am from Fire Education." ", suddenly a man pushes the door open, as if he understands that the master is not at home, so there is no need to knock.When he entered the door, he saw me sitting at the table, and seemed to know that I had read the text on his business card, and said with an unhappy expression, "Gao Sheng, what's wrong with you!" Then he said, "I forgot something. .” Embarrassed and anxious, I hurriedly stood up to serve the guest. "Sir, what do you want?" He didn't say anything, just approached the table, took back the original business card, replaced it with a new one, wrote two lines, and left in a hurry. I reckoned that he had walked out of the back door, opened the small window to look, and saw the little lap dog of the old Russian woman's house in the corner, chasing after the gentleman and barking, but the man turned his head and put Raising the cane to the dog, he growled softly in English "dog! dog!" After I closed the window, I breathed a sigh of relief, went to the table and picked up the business card to have a look. It turned out to be a new one with a Bachelor of Arts degree from a certain university in Beijing, but it replaced the two sentences I had read before. get rid.I thought, "Then this person himself doesn't think he was educated by fire!" Thinking of these words and everything about this person, I smiled wryly for a while. Of course I couldn't write that article anymore.The guest never came again, probably as he said, he really went abroad.I never want to write that article again. I always remember this person who was "educated with fire". Every time I write something, when I think of him, I lose my courage to write, and I can no longer write.Not sure what "fire" will educate him.Counting the days, he should have obtained a doctorate in literature in the United States. ——————————————————————————Completed in April 1933