Chapter 8 Chapter VII

Zhang Ailing sat on the kang with her back against the wall, and watched the servants remove all the things piled up in the house with cold eyes, probably to prevent her from smashing the glass or helping her escape with anything.The old butler directed the servants, Zhang Ailing looked at him, the old butler avoided looking, and continued to urge the servants. The maid cleaned the glass shards on the ground to prevent her from committing suicide. There were two standing at the door, some of whom had nothing to do but stared at her, fearing that she would take advantage of the chaos and escape.Zhang Ailing looked at everyone, judging their intentions.

She noticed that one of the maids was secretly looking at her, feeling sympathy for her. When their eyes met, the maid avoided it and picked up the broom and went out. Zhang Ailing was stubborn, and she made a look of indifference. She thought that even if she wanted to escape, she would have to use a way they couldn't think of. There were originally two windows on the wall, one was smashed by her and nailed to a wooden board so that it was impervious to light, it looked like a one-eyed dragon with one eye ruined.The other window, which was not nailed with wood, became Zhang Ailing's only hope. Although there was an anti-theft iron fence outside, at least she could see the outside world, and she might be seen outside.

She noticed that there was a bundle of thick hemp rope in the corner of the room, which was quite useful to her, and she was afraid that the servants would see it and take it away.The more frightened she was, the more she couldn't help but want to see it.The butler came in again, and Zhang Ailing hurriedly turned her eyes to the other wall. Soon, she heard the door slam shut, and then it was locked with a click, which was a keyhole lock in an ordinary house, followed by a clang, like a solid iron horizontal bolt.The house was empty, and the sound echoed and vibrated.Zhang Ailing's heart sank to the bottom.

She turned her head slowly, afraid that even her last hope would be lost.Sure enough, the rope was taken away.Zhang Ailing was so angry that she got up and stomped her feet. She searched around anxiously to see if there was anything usable that she missed.There was nothing there, except her and the mahogany kang.Looking at the white wall covered with penicillium, she thought of the words "the house is bare". From birth to now, she had never stayed in such an empty room, it was terribly deserted. Suddenly, she found a glass door that opened like a French window, covered with thick dust, which was probably blocked by piled things at first, so she didn't notice it.She was ecstatic, and ran over to pull open the floor-to-ceiling window, only to find that there was only a small suspended balcony outside, and she couldn't go anywhere.This small half-story balcony is facing the backyard, and the porter is right in front of her. The servants pass in and out from here every day, and the doorman is looking up at her at this moment.She retreated to the vacant room, leaning against the door, feeling hopeless, trying to figure out a plan for her escape.

Zhang Ailing decided to go on a hunger strike, and planned to continue to resist passively like this.Zhang Zhiyi was still angry, so he simply ordered He Gan not to deliver meals.Zhang Ailing was hungry for three days, dizzy, began to lose her breath, and felt very anxious.She sat weakly on the ground, the room was pitch black, the moonlight shone in, the walls looked extremely cold and pale, and there was a quiet murderous intent.She realized that she seemed to be waiting for death, she was afraid of death, and she still remembered that it was the thing she was most afraid of writing in the school magazine.

On the table was the meal delivered three days ago. Zhang Ailing couldn't bear the torment of hunger, so she went to the table and lifted the lid of the red lacquer food box, and a sour smell of food rushed up.As soon as she felt sick, she threw herself to the corner of the wall and vomited, but there was no food in her stomach, and all she vomited was acidic water. In the dead and empty house, the sound of the distant cannon sounds very friendly now. On the morning of the fourth day, Zhang Ailing opened her eyes, and the room was slanted.She fell down on the kang, saw He Gan bring the food, shook her head, and was about to take away the rotten food.She saw that the door behind He Gan was opened with a gap, and the light that came through the gap was so lovely, she straightened up and rushed towards the light.She rushed out of the room, but forgot that her hands and feet were weak after being hungry for three days, and she fell on the road outside the door.

Zhang Ailing was stopped by the porter, and she had no extra strength to struggle, and was carried back to the empty house again.She remembered that she looked up with heavy limbs and saw white clouds in the sky. After this incident, she began to eat seriously. She now knows that she can't go anywhere without strength.A plane passed overhead, followed by an alarm. Zhang Ailing heard the sound of a heavy bomb exploding at close range, and the glass was shaking.The war was suddenly overhead, the sound of shells came from all sides, and even the rattling of light machine guns could be heard.Zhang Ailing suddenly felt very excited. She ran to the small balcony outside the French door, looked up at the sky and shouted: "Blow it up! Blow it up! Just blow up here! Please! Blow up this house!"

Everyone in the Zhang family was stunned when they saw Zhang Ailing facing the bombing with her face up on the balcony. Because Zhang Zhiyi was not sure about the situation of the war, he decided to take refuge for a few days.Zhang Zijing sat in the back seat of the car, looking at the window of the old house, thinking of his imprisoned sister, feeling sad for a while.The car drove away from the door of Zhang's house, the gate was closed, and the iron bolt was buckled. It was a living prison. Zhang Ailing stood at the window and watched them go. The shell fell near Zhang's house, and the huge explosion caused a lot of lime to fall from the roof.Zhang Ailing hugged her head and hid in the corner between the bed and the wall.After a frantic bombardment, she thought she would be buried among the ruins.But no, she could still let go of her arms and look at this empty house that was more insane than a bomb.The outside world is about to crumble, why the inside can still be so quiet, dead, dead, this is a trance contrast.Burning cities in the distance dyed the night sky ocher red.When the shell hit the ground and exploded, there would be a flash of light on Eileen Chang's face.Her shadow was reflected on the wall, a huge shadow.She thought that if the city couldn't be destroyed, then she couldn't be easily destroyed either.

Zhang Ailing was imprisoned for three months, and Shanghai fell.It was futile for Huang Dingzhu and Huang Yifan to go to Zhang's house many times to argue, and only the loyal He Gan took care of her. Zhang Ailing looked for all opportunities to escape.That day she saw Zhang Zijing coming back from the back door on the balcony, and greeted him, "Do you have any pens and paper in your schoolbag?" Zhang Zijing hesitated.But seeing no one around, he opened his schoolbag and said, "Only pencils!" Zhang Ailing pretended to be very plain and said, "Anything is fine! I have nothing to do, I want to draw!" Zhang Zijing quickly took out an exercise book and a pencil and threw them up to her.

Zhang Ailing caught it, suppressed her joy and said, "Thank you! And what about the telescope that Mom gave you? I can look at the scenery when I'm bored!" On a cloudy afternoon, Zhang Ailing looked out the window with a binoculars. She wrote on the paper: "I am a recent graduate of St. Mary's Girls' School. I was imprisoned at home by my father and stepmother with violence for several months. I am on the verge of death. Crash. If any gentleman finds the note, please report it to the police station immediately to save a tragic woman. If you can escape, you will be paid a lot." She tied the note with a chopstick and threw it over the wall.

The note was picked up by members of the Zhang family and showed it to Zhang Zhiyi, while Sun Yongfan added fuel to the scene: "It's been like this since she was locked up, so what if I let her out? Call us two worse than Qin Hui and his wife! Drag them out." Whipping corpses is not enough for revenge!" Without saying a word, Zhang Zhiyi ordered his servants to seal the window with long wooden slats, leaving only a gap of two inches wide.Looking at all this, Zhang Ailing sat on the kang in a daze, the light on her face dimmed inch by inch. Zhang Ailing suffered from dysentery, vomiting and diarrhea.She couldn't remember what year and month it was now, she opened her eyes dully, thinking that she would die in this house, and when she died, she would be buried in the garden behind.She almost saw it. Several servants in the family took advantage of the night to dig the soil with a round shovel and shovel, and put her into a deep pit with rough hands.She looked up at her father standing above the pit, walked away expressionlessly, and the farm worker began to fill in the soil. Moonlight came in through the cracks in the wooden boards that sealed the windows, and she saw a full moon.The gentle light of the moon is like a mother visiting her, with tears rolling in her eyes.Her lips were parched, and when she wanted to drink water, she straightened up a little, and saw the mouse eating the untouched things on her plate, rolling its bright and sneaky eyes.She was terrified and trembling, she wanted to shout, her throat was burning so much that she could only make a hoarse and dry voice to herself. In a trance, she returned to her childhood memories: her parents worked together to take care of her three-year-old who suffered from typhoid fever, she felt that she was tightly hugged by her mother, she had a fever, her face was flushed, when her mother put her face close to her, She felt a chill in her heart.Father sat aside.Being ill at a young age turned out to be a happy memory for Eileen Chang, because her parents stayed by her side together. Zhang Ailing's sanity was a little blurred, and He Gan couldn't bear it any longer and pleaded with Zhang Zhiyi and his wife: "This child is so sick, it's impossible not to see a doctor! It's not me, there should be a limit to this punishment, it can't be endless of……" Sun Yongfan's face darkened and he asked: "Who are you brave enough to speak here? Do you know how to discipline? If you lead well, you will make it like this today? The confinement is to make her reflect on herself. Who punished her for being sick? She was entrusted to you to take care of her. When you are sick, should you ask your fault or my fault? Is it worth making such a fuss about having a stomachache? The war is already annoying enough! Not to mention that the master has lost his errand and now he has to let you stay to make ends meet! Each one is really used as a rice bag!" Zhang Zhiyi let his wife play tricks and remained indifferent. He Gan gave up, and went to look for Zhang Zhiyi again while Sun Yongfan was out. This time she came prepared, and when she saw Zhang Zhiyi, she immediately said, "The old lady came to see me last night!" Zhang Zhiyi was stunned, and lightly reprimanded: "What nonsense!" He Gan looked serious, and Zhang Zhiyi was stunned by what he said: "It's not nonsense, I saw the jade bracelet on the old lady's hand, I gave it to her when she passed away. I held her hand, it was still thin , I cried before I called her! As soon as I cried, she sighed! I asked her why she came back? She said her granddaughter was going to die of illness, could she not come back? I was so scared that I was sweating when I woke up! I just found out that the old lady came to give me a dream! She said, if you don't raise this child, she will take her away!" Zhang Zhiyi's expression froze slightly, and he also felt that he was a little too much. He Gan secretly observed Zhang Zhiyi's face, and continued: "I beg her! I say no! If you take this child away, the third master will be charged with killing his own daughter for the rest of his life, and he will never be able to turn himself over again! Her old man said..." He Gan paused on purpose, Zhang Zhiyi turned to look at He Gan and asked, "What did you say?" He Gan took a deep breath, as if borrowing the courage of the old lady, he could completely imitate her vicious tone: "You son of a bitch! Let him carry it! This is what the old lady said!" Zhang Zhiyi was startled now, and he didn't dare to scold back, feeling that the matter seemed to be more serious than he thought, so he hurriedly asked: "Is Xiaoying's stomach upset still okay?" He Gan cried out: "It's dysentery, and the spit is full of blood! Everyone is only half breathed! Third Master, I know you are in the way of the third grandma's face, so you can only ignore it, but you carry three Grandma, don’t you just ignore her? The child is not her own flesh and blood, and she doesn’t care about her life or death, but you can’t sing with her, third master! You are the father of the child, and the child is the fate of the Zhang family. Watching her child die, is there any human relations? The old lady disciplined her children back then, she was both strict and kind. If she hit you, she would carry her back to the room and cry. If she saw what happened to her granddaughter with her own eyes , I’m afraid I’m going to fight you desperately! Third Master!” Naturally, Zhang Zhiyi didn't want to bear the notoriety, so he walked to Zhang Ailing's bed with the medicine box for morphine.Seeing his daughter curled up emaciated and pale, his nerves, which had been numb for a long time, were prickled, and he injected her with anti-inflammatory injections.Zhang Ailing fell asleep, the needle poked into her arm, she just frowned slightly, and didn't even have the strength to react. When Zhang Ailing woke up, her eyes were full of dazzling light. She thought she had gone to the western sky, and slowly opened her eyes, only to find the light coming in from the two windows. The wooden boards were removed, and the glass she broke was finally repaired .She stood up, and the room looked much more comfortable, with an extra table and chair set, and books on the table. She didn't know why these changes came about, but it meant that she had to continue endlessly in this room. stay. He Gan brought her the news of his mother, with a mysterious look: "She wanted me to tell you that she was sitting next to each other without eating or sleeping because of your affairs, and she tried everything she could. She said I want you to think clearly, if you want to be with her, there is no money, and you will have a share with your father in the Zhang family in the future! She wants you to think clearly, and you will not regret it in the future! This family is not rich, but there are still some foundations. It was the dowry brought by the old lady back then. She took care of the family with great care, and it still hasn’t been dispersed after division! After all, you are the daughter of the Zhang family. Your aunt and your mother rely on their natal family when they go abroad. Wealth is not a small amount, you have to think about it seriously. If you go to your mother, you won't even think about taking anything!" Zhang Ailing hesitated, she didn't know whether to calculate these invisible things.She had planned to escape for so long that she couldn't think of anything else. In the middle of the night, He Gan secretly opened the lock on the door, and Zhang Ailing fled to the street with one foot and one foot.Shanghai no longer had the brightly lit night scene before the war, and ruined walls after the bombing can be seen everywhere.If home is a tomb, then what you see in front of you in Shanghai is like a large dead cemetery.Zhang Ailing, who spent the entire war in confinement, felt the thrill of the war at this moment.