Chapter 78 second quarter

In a dark and narrow attic in a dark and narrow attic in a deep alley in Nanjing City in a rainy winter, Sima Xunxin, an unaccompanied female student who was seriously injured, always secretly encourages herself: I can't fall in the last place. On the eve of the dark dawn, let alone be a coward and a deserter.However, this eve is too long, when will the dawn break through the thick clouds?During the endless waiting, she worried that her young and immature heart was not so strong.Extremely helpless, she stared at the night sky and sang softly: "My home is on the Songhua River in the northeast..." The sad and indignant song brought the suffering scene in her hometown to life.She thought of her grandfather's exhortation when she left home: do not expel the Japanese invaders, and never return home!At this time, how she wished there would be a battlefield to drive out captives and fight against the enemy, and restore peace to her hometown as soon as possible.However, after several months of running around, where is her battlefield?From here to there, she couldn't help but think of Lu You who had nowhere to serve the country, Li Qingzhao who left his hometown, Yue Fei who died unjustly, and Xin Qiji who fought against the enemy bravely. They all sang immortal poems of defending the country with passion and life, like Wan Dao Xia Guang brings hope to people in darkness.

"Chutian is thousands of miles away, and the autumn is boundless with the water. Looking far away, offering sorrow and hatred, jade hairpins and snails. The setting sun is on the top of the building, in the sound of breaking the sound, wandering in the south of the Yangtze River. Look at the Wu hook, pat the railing all over, no one will , Deng Linyi..." Sima Xunxin recited Xin Qiji's "Water Dragon Song Deng Jiankang Enjoyment Pavilion" in a low voice. Although his voice was low, it was sonorous and powerful, like a sharp sword shining blue light, piercing through the heart in an instant. It is like a clear stream that washes away the bloody winds of the world, cleans the dust from the earth, and soothes the pain and sorrow of the lonely wanderer little by little.

Luo Chongwen was deeply shocked by Sima Xunxin's tenacity under his weak appearance.He didn't know how much suffering a teenage girl had to bear to show such majesty.Her tenacity also infused him with a strength, a strength that freed him from his own narrowness and shortsightedness-as a man, he should bear certain responsibilities.Of course, the first thing he has to do is to be responsible to himself. In this way, the girl named Sima Xunxin who seemed to come into Luo Chongwen's life from the sky in front of him caused him to have a lot of worries, which he had never had before - even when he learned that his family had betrothed him, And he didn't know much about Miss Zhang's family, and he didn't have such deep thoughts.In addition to taking care of her like a brother to make her recover from her injuries as soon as possible, he is more willing to approach her from the heart and understand her. At the same time, he also hopes that she can understand herself and let her know that she really brought him something called "light". s things.In other words, she became the "light" he longed for in the haze.

So, during this period of exciting days for Luo Chongwen, amidst the lingering sounds of Sima Xunxin's sad, indignant and gloomy songs and poems, he and she started a long talk.He told her about his parents, his elder brother who died in a foreign country, and the local conditions and customs in Ping'an County and the county in the west. The marriage of my niece, Ms. Zhang.This is also the helpless cowardice he showed-he still can't fully face his own problems. For a period of time, many progressive young people were passionately wanting to change and seek liberation, but Luo Chongwen still followed the rules and obeyed his father's arrangements in everything, including the matter of setting him a fiancée without consulting his own opinion.Luo Chongwen's conformity made him quite out of touch with this radical era, so that he lost many of the same opportunities as progressive youths of the same age to do something big for the society, or until a long time later, because of Sima's heart-seeking Only then did he reach the camp of progressive youth.But there is no doubt that a considerable number of young people who could do great things for the society in that era started by resisting arranged marriages, which meant that something should happen between him and Sima Xunxin.The appearance of Sima Xunxin made Luo Chongwen vaguely imagine another prospect that was more meaningful to him besides his father's arrangement, although he has not yet clearly realized what specific content is included in that prospect, although he is still He obeyed his father's instructions, and was always ready to go home to complete the marriage event of his parents' order and the matchmaker's words.This marriage event made Luo Chongwen feel unprecedented distress.

The niece of Ma County Mayor in Ping'an County is named Meimei, because the Luo and Ma families are family friends, and they met each other when they were young.It was at the birthday banquet of Ms. Zhang's grandfather, Mrs. Ma. Twelve-year-old Luo Chongwen followed his parents to pay his respects. Ms. Zhang, who was three or four years younger than him, was also present and sat at the same table with him when eating.He remembers very clearly that Ms. Zhang eats with chopsticks with her left hand, which is commonly known as "left-handed".But her mother repeatedly praised her for being smart.Who knows?Many people say that "left-handed people" are smart, but I don't know what the basis is.But her left hand is not always so neat with the chopsticks, and she keeps her head down to deal with the small half bowl of longevity noodles in front of her.She raised her head only once during the dinner, and it was her mother who said something to her.Luo Chongwen noticed that face, sharp and pale, with a malnourished or sickly appearance.After the birthday banquet, the guests all sat in the back garden of the host's house, doing daily chores, while the children played on the side.Meimei had a dispute with her cousin, and what she said was not as pale as her face, nor as weak as her left hand for chopsticks, but quite sharp.She probably said that her cousin's family was shabby and stingy, and she only took a basket of steamed buns as a birthday gift, but the whole family came to the banquet or something like that.Such words should not come from the mouth of a child of a few years old.She may have heard the adults gossip behind their backs.The dispute between the two children had no scruples, and everyone knew about it, which made the faces of the two adults very ugly.Meimei's cousin took her daughter and left angrily.When Luo Chongwen got older, he stopped visiting relatives with his parents, and he never saw Miss Zhang again.It wasn't until his father arranged for him to marry Miss Zhang that he remembered the scene at the birthday banquet again.It is said that women's colleges have changed in the eighteenth year. He doesn't know if Miss Zhang has changed now. From her appearance to her speech and manners, she really looks like a young lady. Later, her mother entrusted a relative who went to Nanjing to bring him a few A piece of embroidery - insoles, pillowcases, door curtains, bed surrounds, and a purse. It is said that Ms. Zhang made it herself, with meticulous workmanship and good color matching.Looking at those embroidered works, he dispelled some worries about marrying Miss Zhang in the future.

Of course Sima Xunxin knew nothing about these things.Although she saw that the embroidery in Luo Chongwen's room was definitely made by an ingenious woman, she didn't analyze or guess along these clues.Because she is only seventeen years old, she can't make correct judgments on many problems in the world.And she had already learned from Sima Wen that Luo Chongwen was a dutiful unmarried young man.After getting along for a period of time, she also discovered many of his strengths or excellent qualities as a man, such as his kindness and erudition.He is also not like her brother Sima Wenxin, who only pretends to be revolution and national affairs in his heart, and lacks due care for her, otherwise she would not be seriously injured.Luo Chongwen has more patience, care, and a lot of thoughtful human touch towards her, which cannot but stir up ripples in the heart of a seventeen-year-old girl, even though she hasn't thought deeply about this subtlety of her own psychology. Change—after all, it’s not something that a seventeen-year-old girl should keep in mind all the time. Even if she has a little bit of uncontrollable thought, she will wrap it tightly out of shyness, just like guarding a holy place .However, while she was recuperating from her injuries, she could not help but slowly rely on the "picked up" brother in front of her.

Needless to say, Luo Chongwen likes the dignified, beautiful, thoughtful and energetic Sima Xunxin very much, although this kind of liking can only stay at the level of "brother and sister". Compared with Miss Zhang whom he didn't know much about, Sima Xunxin and Miss Zhang were two completely different types of people. Through the few embroidery works and a letter from home that his mother entrusted, he knew that Miss Zhang's female celebrity was doing very well.But being a female celebrity is something that most daughters can do, but it's just a matter of ingenuity.Sima Xunxin's ingenuity is not inferior to Ms. Zhang's, which can be seen from their daily relationship.Moreover, he didn't know if Miss Zhang had ever read a book, but Sima Xunxin had.The Sima family is known as a family of poets and books in the Northeast. Since Sima Xunxin could speak, her grandfather taught her, and when she was older, she entered a new school. After school, her grandfather continued to teach her Tang poetry, Song Ci, and scholars. Hundreds of schools, "Historical Records", "Hanshu", "Twenty-Four Histories", etc., she had graduated from middle school before the age of sixteen, and she was hailed as a "female scholar" by her neighbors in the local area.Seeing that the Northeast was not safe, she took her grandfather's entrustment to Nanjing to find her brother.After arriving in Nanjing, she continued to study at Jinling Girls' School, until she was seriously injured in radical activities with her brother, and her siblings were separated, so she had no choice but to terminate her studies.At this time, her hometown is under the iron hoof of the Japanese, how can there be any eggs under the overturned nest?She has long lost contact with her family, and this broken "connection" implies a serious crisis for her.She has a family and can't go back, or according to her grandfather's disposition, that family of poets and books has already been destroyed.This was what she had thought of when she walked out of the house with her grandfather's entrustment.On the way to the south, she had already had such a premonition: she and her relatives were not separated by life, but by death.

More than ten years later, after the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, when Sima Xunxin returned to her hometown to look for a home, she learned from her neighbors that her grandfather hanged himself on the night the Japanese entered the village.After taking care of her grandfather's funeral, her mother threw herself into the well, and her father disappeared after setting fire to his house.The fire burned all day and all night.Standing in front of the ruins of her former residence, Sima Xunxin did not shed tears. She was thinking that everything that happened was probably arranged by her grandfather long ago.

Perhaps because of her extensive reading of poems and books and the disposition inherited from her grandfather, Sima Xunxin is a person who has a strong sense of responsibility both to herself and to others. Like her elder brother Sima Wenxin, she always keeps those things in her heart. The displaced people, even pretending to be a matter of "restoring rivers and mountains", showed an extraordinary atmosphere at a young age.Even Luo Chongwen, who is a majestic man, is ashamed of this point, let alone that rich daughter who knows how to dislike the poor and love the rich when she is less than ten years old, who watches the dishes, and then watches others order the dishes?Ms. Zhang took the initiative to ask her future mother-in-law, Mrs. Luo, to send her embroidery to Nanjing. Maybe it was a cardamom woman who wanted to tie Luo Chongwen's heart thousands of miles away out of love for him; Guess, does she have other deep meanings?For example, the reputation and wealth of the Luo family are absolutely incomparable to that of the ma county magistrate's family.Otherwise, the ma county magistrate would not use his niece to marry the Luo family when his family has no girls of the right age.Of course, these are just Luo Chongwen's guesses.Although it was a guess, every time he thought about it, he felt uneasy about Miss Zhang's unsolicited expression of love.Ms. Zhang should be more reserved to conform to the social fashion at that time, and it is more in line with the demeanor of a young lady.She was indeed too impatient.

During the days of getting along with Sima Xunxin, Luo Chongwen was agitated, thinking about it, and he couldn't make a substantive choice about his life for a while. Soon, the "Songhu Anti-Japanese War" broke out.This is another pain suffered by the Chinese after the "September 18th" Incident.The aggressor's butcher's knife is held high, and they will not be merciful because of the opponent's compromise.The land of Huaxia is covered with clouds of war, and the current situation is even more turbulent.An undercurrent is surging, and they will erupt like a volcano at any time.

At this moment, Luo Chongwen received another letter from home urging him to return to Lanzhou to get married.He didn't hesitate any longer, and finally sent a letter to his father Luo Huanzhang, requesting to break off the engagement with Miss Zhang.Then he left Nanjing with Sima Xunxin.