Chapter 31 in love

In 1921, his parents found a wife candidate for Liang Shiqiu, Cheng Jishu, from Jixi, Anhui, aged 20.The eldest sister who accompanied her mother to Cheng Cheng’s house said to Liang: “I think she is very nice, very gentle, with double eyelids and big eyes, not tall, with a thin waist, and her black hair is tied into a bun behind her head. A large veil covered the forehead, I was afraid that the veil was hiding scars or something, so I specially approached it and walked over, saying, 'Your hair is so well combed', while lifting the veil to see, there was nothing there." Liang Shiqiu was very satisfied with this marriage. He first wrote to Cheng, asking if she would like to associate with him.But after the letter was sent, it was like a stone sinking into the sea.So he called Cheng again, and Cheng's voice was soft and clear, which shocked him all of a sudden.He directly asked for a meeting, and although Cheng faltered, he agreed.On the first date, Cheng, who looked like a lotus in clear water with his plain face in the sky, left a good impression on Liang.

After that, the two started dating again and again in Central Park, Taimiao, Beihai, and movie theaters. At that time, it was not a common practice for young men and women to communicate freely. The two attracted the attention of everyone in the park, and some even whistled loudly.Liang Shiqiu often went to the elementary school where Cheng Jishu worked to wait for her, and every time the female students gathered to peep out of the reception room window.Because the two often dated, Cheng Jishu was criticized by others and was finally dismissed by the school.After the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, Liang went to Tianjin and lived in the home of his classmate Luo Longji. Luo's wife, Wang You's family, was one of the students who spied on him back then.

At the graduation ceremony of Tsinghua University, Liang Shiqiu and Wu Wenzao played the female roles in reverse and participated in a stage play.Liang asked Cheng Jishu to come and watch. After the end, he asked Cheng how he felt, and Cheng replied, "I dare not look up." It turned out that she was shy and did not dare to stand on the stage. She said, "I see you acting on the stage. I liked it in my heart, but I lowered my head for some reason, I was afraid that others would look at me!" In 1923, Liang Shiqiu was going to study in the United States.Three years later, Liang hurried back to China before the scholarship ran out. On February 11, 1927, Liang and Cheng held a wedding combining Chinese and Western styles at the Nanheyan European and American Alumni Association in Beijing.Ten days after their marriage, the Northern Expedition started, and the two hurried south and fled to Shanghai.

In Shanghai, Liang Shiqiu, editor-in-chief of the "Qingguang" supplement, hurried upstairs every night after publishing, wishing he could step back home.Cheng Jishu asked him: "When you went upstairs, did you step up two stairs at one step?" "Yes, how do you know?" "I listened to your 'dong dong' footsteps, and I counted the number of times that sound , does not match the number of stair sections." In 1934, Liang Shiqiu returned to Peking and taught at Peking University.At that time, there were more than a dozen members of the Liang family, and there were six or seven male and female helpers. After a long time, there would inevitably be conflicts. Liang was sometimes quite annoyed. There is only the third life, so what can't be tolerated?" In order for her husband to work with peace of mind, Cheng Jishu took on all the housework, serving her in-laws, educating the children, and working hard day and night.

Cheng Jishu fully supports her husband's translation work. Every afternoon, she always delivers tea to him at a fixed time.At this moment, Liang Shiqiu stopped writing and asked her to sit down for a while, but she always pushed Liang away and said, "Don't make trouble, don't make trouble, just finish your tea and get back to work." Then she turned and left.At night, when Liang told him that the day had gone well and that he had translated 3,000 words, she silently gave her husband the thumbs-up. In 1937, after the fall of Peking, Liang Shiqiu decided to go south.Because the mother-in-law is old and frail, she can't bear the pain of running around.After discussing with Cheng Jishu, he decided that he would go alone first, and make plans after the situation calmed down.Unexpectedly, their separation lasted for six years. In 1944, when Cheng Jishu stood in front of Liang Shiqiu alone with three children and a lot of luggage, both of them burst into tears.Cheng Shi was 43 years old, with wrinkles around his eyes and white hair around his ears.Liang Wenqiang still remembers the day when her father stared at the three children, pointed at them and said excitedly: "This is my child, this is my child, and this is my child!" For more than 30 years since then, no matter the ends of the earth, the two have always walked together.

In 1973, Liang Shiqiu and Cheng Jishu sold their house in Taiwan and moved to Seattle, USA, where they lived with their daughter Liang Wenqiang and spent their old age peacefully.They are as loving as ever, and often go out for a walk hand in hand.Cheng Jishu is getting old, and it is difficult even to go upstairs. She wears a large black sweater and climbs up the stairs with both hands and feet. Whenever at this time, Liang jokes: "Black bear, climb up!" , as a biting shape.Entering the room, Cheng Jishu fell into Liang Shiqiu's arms, and Liang could hear her heart beating. On April 30, 1974, Liang and his wife went to a nearby market to buy things together. A ladder in front of the market suddenly fell down and hit Cheng Jishu.Liang rushed her to the hospital for emergency treatment, but she failed to wake up after the operation.

After his wife passed away, Liang Shiqiu wrote the book "Reminiscences of Huaiyuan Dreams" to express his mourning for his deceased wife.He wrote at the end of "Huaiyuan Dreams": "The poet feels papaya, but wants to answer Qiong Yao. I am ashamed that he gave me a generous gift, and I am ashamed that this is not enough. Although I know that it is not enough to repay, I use it to express my love." Siyixuan in Zhongshan Park in Beijing is where Liang Shiqiu and Cheng Jishu met. In 1987, Liang Shiqiu's second daughter returned to Beijing and went to Siyixuan to take a lot of photos and send them to Liang.But Liang was still not satisfied and wanted a photo with a plaque.It's a pity that the plaque of Siyixuan no longer exists.Later, the eldest daughter Liang Wenqian went to take many photos and asked someone to bring them to her father.When Liang saw the photo, he couldn't help crying.

Gong Yeya is Liang Shiqiu's confidante, she is Liang's third sister Yazi's classmate at Women's Normal University, from Hunan.Liang Shiqiu met Gong Yeya before he met Cheng Jishu. According to Liang's recollection, when Gong was studying in Beiping, he went to Liang's house with his third sister. "The whole family liked her very much." "Yeya is the most boyish woman I have ever seen. She is straightforward and beautiful. She is very capable. She worked as the personnel director of the business translation office in Sichuan and Beiping successively. She managed more than 200 people, including 600 to 700 family members. She is very capable. She handled all the affairs of the compilation center back then, from Chongqing to Nanjing. She is not a literary talent, but a talented person."

After the Chongqing bombing, Liang Shiqiu and Gong Yeya’s family jointly bought a one-story house. Because there was no house number, it was difficult to find friends, and the postman was inconvenient, so they nailed a wooden sign at the intersection of the mountain under the name of Gong Yeya’s “Ya” and wrote: "Yashe". When Liang Shiqiu wrote "Elegant House Essays", every time he wrote an article, Gong Yeya had a sneak peek, laughed hard, and kept urging Liang to write quickly.Liang's works have never been prefaced by anyone, but "Elegant House Essays" was written by Gong.Liang Shiqiu also said frankly: "Yeya's essays are also named after Yeya. The first article of Yashe's essays was shown to Yeya first, and she encouraged me to write. Two-thirds of the essays on Yashe's essays were written by Yeya. I read it and republished it. It was published later, and the preface was also written by Yeya. Many friends did not understand the matter between me and Yeya, and I did not explain it, but I have always kept Yeya’s preface as a commemoration."

Liang Shiqiu recalled that once, he played mahjong with Lu Jiye, Gong Yeya and another friend all night: "Two oil lamps, a dozen lamp grasses, blazing like torches, and when the battle reached its height, Yeya looked up to the sky and laughed. The chairs were turned upside down, and the lamps were turned upside down." Due to the civil war, Liang Shiqiu left Beijing in a hurry before saying goodbye, and wrote to Gong Yeya when he arrived in Guangdong. Gong wrote back complaining that he should not leave.After Liang Chu arrived in Taiwan, the two continued to go back and forth, and did not lose contact until the cross-strait post and telecommunications were cut off. After the "Cultural Revolution", Liang Shiqiu asked his friends in the United States to inquire, but what he got was the news of Gong Yeya's death. He was 69 years old when he died.Liang Shiqiu once said: "The women who have influenced me the most in this life are Gong Yeya and my wife Cheng Jishu."

It is said that Liang Shiqiu once wanted to divorce Cheng Jishu and marry Gong Yeya. Jiang Dongxiu took Cheng Jishu home, advised her, and brought a lawsuit in the court.As a result, Liang Shiqiu lost the lawsuit, and rumors abounded for a while.After that, Liang and Gong were forced to break up. Liang Shiqiu met his second wife, Han Jingqing, because of "A Dream in Huaiyuan".Han Jingqing is 28 years younger than Liang Shiqiu. She won the first prize in a children's singing competition in Shanghai at the age of 7, and won the title of "Queen of Singers" at the age of 14. In 1949, Han went to Hong Kong with his father and entered the entertainment industry.The film "My Love Is You", which she wrote, acted, sang, and produced, won her the Golden Horse Award for Outstanding Actress. At the age of 30, Han retired from the film industry. On November 27, 1974, Han Jingqing and her adoptive father Xie Renzhao visited the boss of the Far East Book Company. The boss immediately presented a brand new "Far East English-Chinese Dictionary" and took them to meet Liang Shiqiu, the editor-in-chief of the dictionary.The two hit it off right away, and within a few days, Liang fell in love with Han Xin.When Han Jingqing told Liang that she was going to be his matchmaker, Liang said bluntly, "I love the matchmaker!" Hearing what Liang Shiqiu said, Han Jingqing was very conflicted in her heart. She wrote to Liang on the fifth day of their acquaintance, hoping that he would retreat.Unexpectedly, the next morning, when Han Jingqing opened the door, she saw Liang Shiqiu at the door. He handed Han a letter, which he said was found downstairs, and on the envelope was written "Miss Cheng Jingqing".Han Jingqing opened it and found that the letter was written by Liang Shiqiu. From this day on, Liang Shiqiu came to Han Jingqing's home with a love letter every day. Liang wrote in the love letter: "Don't talk about the cliff, even the crater, we have no choice but to embrace and jump down." Liang's fiery love flame finally melted Han Jingqing and the two began to fall in love and planned to spend the rest of their lives together. Liang Han's love caused an uproar.The newspaper was the first to launch an attack, targeting Han Jingqing.Most articles think that Han Jingqing's marriage to Liang Shiqiu is a blasphemy against Liang; some people even say that she is the same as those women who specially marry a dying person and wait to inherit the inheritance. At the same time, Liang Shiqiu also encountered resistance.Some friends came forward to find a wife for him, and some disciples of Liang's sect with high social status even opposed Liang Hanzhi's love under the banner of "Nursing Teachers Group".Regarding the dissuasion from friends, Liang said: "Many people claim to be my friends,...and give me some exaggerated advice. These people are self-destructing from me. I have to write them off, and they are no longer among my friends." "Those old-fashioned and crooked things, let them go away together!" In 1975, the love between Liang and Han came to fruition.On the day of the wedding, Liang Shiqiu acted as the master of ceremonies, standing in front of the big red happy letter to announce the start of the wedding, then read the marriage certificate by himself, and presented the groom's speech amidst the laughter of the guests.That night, the two laughed loudly at first, but later hugged each other on the bed and cried. Liang Shiqiu called Han Jingqing "Qingqing", and Han Jingqing called Liang "Qiuqiu".Liang joked that this was Han Jingqing's "big invention". The combination with Han Jingqing allowed Liang Shiqiu to regain the long-lost youth: when they were in love, the two ate supper together. Liang said that it was the "first time in his life" to eat porridge outside in the middle of the night; after marriage, he was 74 years old He began to learn to dance, and danced in the dining room at home; although his eating habits were different, because of Han Jingqing's good cooking, Liang became fat after marriage, and gained five kilograms in eight months; After a long time, Liang started to create again.He concentrates on reading and writing every morning, and writes more than 5,000 words a day. In June 1979, Liang Shiqiu completed "History of British Literature" and "Anthology of British Literature". The former was about 1 million words, and the latter was about 1.2 million words. It took seven years and won Taiwan's "National Literary Contribution Award". In their spare time, Liang Shiqiu and Han Jingqing played word games, for example, within 5 minutes, write the words next to "氵" or "言", and see who can write more.But Han Jingqing often wins, because she has a quick brain and writes quickly, while Liang always writes rare characters with many strokes first, and writes common characters with simple strokes later.However, Han Jingqing said that she did not dare to fight a "protracted battle" with Liang Shiqiu, because Liang could write many words on the same side, which was far better than her, so she insisted on limiting the game to end within 5 minutes. Hu Zongnan's daughter Hu Xiaomei once wrote: "Liang Shiqiu and Han Jingqing have been married for nearly two years. Their married life is like a long-standing stream. No matter how many naughty pebbles, they can only stir up some bubbles and ripples at most. , disappearing without a trace, following the slow, but seemingly endless waves of water." Liang Shiqiu and Han Jingqing went hand in hand for 12 years until Liang Shiqiu passed away.In the face of death, Liang Shiqiu said in a letter to Han Jingqing: "I still love you. After my death, you don't have to be sad, because I will go before you, which is what we expected a long time ago." After Liang Shiqiu passed away, Han Jingqing went to visit the tomb twice a month, brought fireworks to Liang Shiqiu, and pulled weeds from the tomb.She embroidered a red "Ya" character on her skirt to commemorate Liang Shiqiu. Regarding this love in his later years, Liang Shiqiu said: "I am just a mortal - all I have are feelings, and I have nothing but feelings. I don't want to be a Buddha! I don't want to be a sage! I just want to be in love with my little baby forever. In love, people become immortals, Buddhas, and sages!"