Chapter 17 Chapter 7 Le Queso, France

As soon as I decided to leave the United States, I immediately applied for a job with the American-sponsored Chinese Young Workers Association in Le Creusot, France.It was 1919, the year after the First World War.The Youth Association accepted my application and was willing to pay for the travel expenses of my wife and I. For a moment, I was so happy that there would be such a good thing in the world; in 1917, maybe 1918, China joined the Allied Powers , and sent 100,000 laborers to Europe to transport and bury dead bodies.In the Treaty of Versailles, Japan seized China's Shandong Province and several concessions, so amid the voices of students participating in the patriotic movement, strikes and city strikes were protested throughout China.But the YMCA in Le Creusot had nothing to do with it.

I compiled a thousand-character lesson for Chinese laborers.There are four or five of us eating at a table. Among them is a Chinese cook whose hand is always shaking, so every time he holds a plate of food in his hand, you don't know what he is going to do. Give it to you, or take it back from your hand.The Chinese men in the YMCA could make a good relationship with the French lady, because there was too little French man at that time.My wife and I live in a house outside the YMCA.The bed we slept on was very, very high and the mattress was very thick.The downside of this house is that the toilets are outside the back garden.

However we had a very comfortable stay. At that time, I knew neither French nor German.I worked hard to study German by myself, and I was able to write a letter in German to apply to Jena University, which is quite proud.His wife learned French from a French lady, and they became very good friends.My wife bought a beige coat in Boston, and she looks very good in it. The photo of my wife and I in Le Creusot is wearing that coat. Later, we didn’t see Paris until we passed through Germany, so we didn’t know anything about Lou Bvres, or Champs-Elysees or Concorde, etc. After a long time, we looked out from the train. .We did see Verdun, which was the battlefield where France and Germany fought back and forth in trench warfare for three or four years. As a result, neither side got that piece of land, and there was not a single tree left in that piece of land. , without a shade.How many regiments of troops died in battle, and their bayonets were still scattered on the ground at that time.Later, the French Maginot Line was built there, and it was considered to be a strong fortress that was difficult to break.Anyone could pick up the left bayonets from the ground as we passed.

While in Le Creusot, I was hoping to find my missing grandfather.During the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Rebellion in the tenth year of Xianfeng, my grandfather was taken away by Taiping soldiers to carry things during the Zhangzhou Massacre, but there was no news from him.My father hid under the bed at that time, just to save himself.My grandmother took my father and another baby, who was only one or two years old, and fled to Gulangyu Island. Later, she gave the baby to a rich doctor surnamed Lu. My family has always had a good relationship with that doctor.Their houses are huge.When our three brothers were studying in Gulangyu Island, they were the godsons of women from their Lu family.I was given Mannia, and the Mannia I wrote about was her shadow.When her fiancé died, she became an unmarried widow. She would rather stay a "widow" as a virgin than marry.Dr. Lu chose two children and planned to raise them.In my opinion, this virgin and widow is worthy of the ideal figure among the old Chinese women.She used to comb my hair when I went to her room.Her cosmetics are exquisite, with elegant fragrances.She was "Mannia" as I knew her. The death of "Pingya" is faithfully recorded in the book.Mannia and Mulan often held hands.In this novel, I am most familiar with Mannia.

I gave it to my uncle surnamed Lu when I was two or three years old, and later won the Juren. I am quite honored to have such a distinguished relative, because he is of the blood of our Lin family.My aunt's son is also a well-known scholar in Jiangsu.When I arrived at Gulangyu, that Uncle Lin died.Before his death he sent a son to England, who later became an engineer.My grandmother married another person named Lu, and we still have a picture of him in our family.But my grandmother still counts in our Lin family, and so does my father.When I was in France, I held a ray of hope in my heart, hoping to find my grandfather among those Chinese laborers.Naturally, this kind of hope is not great, but I have searched carefully, never letting go, to see if there is any similar age.I also find this idea very interesting.