Chapter 29 second quarter

Twenty-three-year-old Zhang Ailing is young, energetic, talented, and famous. Although she is well versed in the ups and downs of the world and the vicissitudes of life, she still doesn't understand the pain of love.Embracing countless dreams about love and ideals, walking through every corner of life expectantly, carefully opening all kinds of Pandora's boxes inlaid with gold and jade, I don't know what I will encounter and what I will see——Shou Yi Hong Qunfang held a night banquet, and it was Daiyu's turn to draw lots, and she prayed secretly: I don't know if there is anything good for me?Is it "I'm afraid that the flowers will fall asleep late at night", or "It's time for the flowers to bloom"?Is it "willing to live in a hut with a bamboo fence", or "planting red apricots by the sun and leaning on the clouds"?

She turned red so unprepared, so red that it couldn't be controlled, just like the rhododendrons in her writing, "the scorching red, burned all the way down the hillside", burning from inside the wall to outside the wall, burning The sky of the isolated island is red. 1943 and 1944 in the Shanghai literary world are called "the years of Zhang Ailing". It was published with flowers blooming brocade and cooking oil with fire; followed by, yes, yes, "Glazed Tiles", "Glazed Tiles", "Glazed Tiles", "Glazed Tiles", "Glazed Tiles", "Glazed Tiles", etc., are all such whimsical ideas, with a strange fragrance; , "Changing Notes", "Interesting Notes of Apartment Life", "Road with Eyes", and "Must Be Rectified" are all so fresh and eye-catching, and they are so incisive. Surprised: This woman who turned out to be so like a legend!

During this period, she also met many "legendary" characters by accident - Zhou Shoujuan was naturally the first; Ke Ling was the second. Ke Ling, formerly known as Gao Jilin, is a fellow of Lu Xun and a native of Shaoxing, Zhejiang. After the "September 18th" Incident in 1931, he followed his teacher to Shanghai to publish a newspaper. He rented the front building of an old-style alley near the Nanyangqiao Bull-killing Company. I ordered "Shenbao" and "News" on the Internet as information, contacted a printing factory, a small leader of a newspaper vendor, and opened up a "Current Affairs Weekly", which only published five or six issues and died peacefully. There was not even a bubble, but Ke Ling entered the ranks of newspaper publishers.

When I first met Zhang Ailing, he had just taken over from the famous newspaperman Chen Dieyi as the editor-in-chief of "Vientiane" magazine.Ever since he saw Zhang Ailing's "The First Burning Incense", he has been thinking about how to get an appointment with the article of this rising star in the maritime literary world. He thought about asking Zhou Shoujuan, the owner of the Luolan nunnery, to introduce him, but he felt presumptuous.I don't want the sky to follow people's wishes, but that day, Zhang Ailing took the initiative to visit the door. It was the hot weather in July, and the cicadas were neighing among the branches and leaves, one after another in an irritable and bad temper, which made people's ears go numb.Eileen Chang descended from the sky in an elegant silk floral cheongsam, like a ray of cool wind blowing away the heat, and handed him a volume of manuscripts and self-drawn illustrations——

"The central bookstore that published "Vientiane" is located in a small alley near Zhoujinli, Fuzhou Road. It is a double-bay Shikumen house with a shop downstairs. The editorial office of "Vientiane" is located in an upstairs wing room, separated by a The door is the bedroom of the boss Ping Jinya and his wife. Fortunately, besides me, there is only one assistant, Yang Yousheng, in the editorial room, so as not to disturb the tranquility of the owner. A considerable part of the culture of old Shanghai was produced under this kind of roof. And I In this family-style wing room, I was honored to meet this budding female writer... The meeting and conversation were brief but pleasant. It is difficult to recall what we talked about, but my mood at that time is still clear to this day Chu, that’s overjoyed. Although it’s the first time I’ve met her, I’m no stranger to her..." (Ke Ling, "Send Eileen Chang")

The so-called "like old friends at first sight" is undoubtedly the most appropriate word to describe Mr. Ke's emotion. At that time, Ke Ling was just thirty-four years old, and he was a romantic and talented man. When he saw a fresh and noble woman like Zhang Ailing, he didn't know if he had any admiration - if he didn't have any, it seemed unnatural.And it’s not easy to explain why he hates Hu Lan’s becoming a human being so much, but he has diligently found all his writings and "Mountains and Rivers" to read-you know, it used to be a "banned book" in China. It takes a lot of trouble to find it and read it.He later said in "Away from Zhang Ailing": "As a writer myself, if I also have a reader—even if it is only one, I will be satisfied if I treat my works like this."——He is also Lu Xun , Ba Jin, and Qian Zhongshu's enthusiastic readers, and he has been close friends with Fu Lei for decades. He has never written about them like this in a memorial article.

Zhang Ailing successively published the novel, "Glazed Tiles", (unfinished), and the essay "Is Shanghainese after all" in "Vientiane", all of which were handled by Ke Ling. At the end of 1943, she made up a play "Go!Go upstairs! ", but also showed it to Ke Ling first, asking for his opinion.Ke Ling felt that the structure was too loose, and the last scene was completely unusable.She was very grateful and changed it again and again; Later, Ping Jinya, the owner of "Vientiane", wanted to publish a collection of Zhang Ailing's novels, and she asked Ke Ling for advice;

"Zhang Ailing quickly climbed to a brilliant peak in writing, and at the same time became popular in Shanghai in a blink of an eye. This made me happy on the one hand and worried on the other. Because of the special environment, it is difficult to distinguish between clear and turbid. Ballroom dancing.——At that time, those who clapped hard for her to make the scene were some newspapers and magazines with dirty backgrounds. They were not interested in literature but in supporting themselves. After the fall of Shanghai, there were still a few respectable seniors in the literary world. Living in seclusion, most of them found Zhang Ailing happily, but Zhang Ailing herself naturally had no way of realizing this. Zheng Zhenduo kept his anonymity, kept his clothes on a diet, and was trying his best to snap up the classics of the motherland, using his limited personal power to save the "Shiliu Tabang" and return the text overseas. He asked me to persuade Zhang Ailing not to publish her works everywhere, and specifically suggested: she wrote an article, which can be handed over to Kaiming Bookstore for storage, and Kaiming will pay the manuscript fee, and then publish it after He Qinghaiyan. At that time, Kaiming editors Ye Shengtao, the person in charge of the store, has moved his family westward to Chongqing, while Xia Yizun and Zhang Xichen, the bosses, stayed in Shanghai. The store recruited a group of cultural elders, called editors, who actually hid their strengths and bide their time there, sheltering from the rain and wind. Wang Tongzhao, Wang Boxiang, Zhou Yutong, Xu Tiaofu , Zhou Zhenfu, Gu Junzheng, you are all of them. But it is too inconvenient for me to talk to Zhang Ailing, it is too presumptuous. It is also a coincidence that I received a letter from her soon, and it is said that Ping Jinya is willing to give her a book. Collection of novels, thanks to her trust, ask me for advice. There used to be a kind of "10% off" books in the Shanghai publishing industry, which specially reprinted ancient books and popular novels. I started from here. I pushed the boat along the way and sent Zhang Ailing a copy of the store's bibliography for her reference, explaining that if it were me, I would rather thank you. I sincerely state that with her talent, she will not worry about not being seen in the world, and I hope she will wait. Timing, don't rush. Her reply was frank, saying that her idea was to 'strike while the iron is hot.' Her first work was born immediately, which was the first edition, published by "Magazine". I regretted it a little: If we had known this earlier, we might as well have completed the Central Bookstore."

—— Zheng Zhenduo certainly had good intentions, but for Zhang Ailing at that time, one was not capable of "moving her family westward", and the other was not qualified to "hide your strengths and bide your time". He was just a rookie in the literary world. When will it be possible to "clear river and sea Yan"?What's more, if it wasn't for Zhang Ailing's sharp edge and "popularity in Shanghai", how could the seniors in the literary world "discover it happily"? The question of "which came first, the chicken or the egg" has always been a matter of opinion.

In fact, after He Qinghaiyan, the only thing Zhang Ailing can do is to leave, but I don't know if it counts as "history has flowed to another country, and the writing has returned to overseas". But Zhang Ailing received Ke Ling's kindness after all.Later, because of the "cutting in half" and "one thousand yuan gray tin", she had a very unpleasant fight with "Vientiane", but her friendship with Ke Ling remained; In the autumn of 1944, Zhang Ailing was going to adapt it into a stage script. Ke Ling provided a lot of advice and introduced her to Zhou Jianyun, the host of the Dazhong Theater Troupe (one of the Big Three of the Star Film Company before the war).Meet in a restaurant.Zhang Ailing wore "an ancient-style knee-length jacket with super wide body and large sleeves, water-red silk, bordered with extra-wide black satin, and a curling cloud under the right lapel—perhaps it was Ruyi. The robe was short. Put it on and cover it outside the cheongsam." With such splendor, even the well-informed Zhou Jianyun couldn't help but look cautious in front of her.

Ke Ling wrote, "Zhang Ailing's prominent literary name and appearance probably left a deep impression on him." And the impression on him must be even deeper, right?So I still remember it thirty years later.Whether he admits it or not, his later writing style was deeply influenced by Eileen Chang, not to mention that he wrote "I haven't seen Eileen Eileen for thirty years" at the beginning of the article "Send Ailing Eileen from afar", and then quoted the text about the moon at length; It was he who wrote his own memoir, "The First Step in a Literary Career", at the beginning of the chapter, "Life is very like a series, often pulling each other one after another." The term "serial set" obviously came from Zhang Ailing, and the past of "cutting in half" left a deep impression on him... After the performance, Eileen Chang gave Ke Ling a royal blue silk robe to thank him.Ke Ling used it to make a leather robe face, which is very conspicuous on the body. Mrs. Ke Ling, Chen Guorong recalled: "The color of this cloth is royal blue, really, it is not navy blue, nor dark blue, it is royal blue, bright. Terrific. He made a leather robe and wore it on his body, which was ridiculous, but because it was given to him by Eileen Chang, he was very happy to wear it." Ke Ling was walking around in this bright leather robe. Director Sang Hu saw it and joked in Shanghai dialect: "The red scrape is the new end." Sang Hu is another important role among the strange people in Shanghai that Eileen Chang knew - "but this is a later story".