Chapter 18 Spiritual exile

Huiyin studies hard, and Sicheng's silent but ubiquitous care always warms her.But this kind of study life does not make her feel satisfied.After all, there is a huge difference between American culture and Chinese culture; after all, the training of basic subjects is rigid and almost boring.Whenever she runs between the art classroom and the architecture classroom, and whenever her classmates in the United States go on vacation or go home on holidays, she can’t help being homesick, thinking of Beijing, thinking of her father and mother, and wanting to talk endlessly to each other. The cousins ​​who talked about my private room, and the friends of the Crescent Club.

In a letter to Hu Shih, she used "spiritual exile" to describe her life in the United States.In the letter to Xu Zhimo, Huiyin wrote: "...my friend, I don't ask you to do anything else, I just ask you to send me a quick letter, just saying that you are all safe, it will make me feel at ease... ..." When Xu Zhimo received this letter, he had many associations and imaginations.He hurried to the post office and sent a telegram to Huiyin.After leaving the post office, he walked on the street in a trance, many past events came to his mind, he turned a blind eye to everything on the street, only the appearance of Huiyin swayed in front of his eyes.Before he knew it, he went back to the post office and asked for a telegram.The staff of the post office looked at the telegram in doubt, and asked cautiously: "Sir, you just sent a telegram like this one half an hour ago. Could it be a mistake?" Xu Zhimo finally came to his senses. come over.

On Sunday, Huiyin wrote to his father in the dormitory.Several classmates came to invite Huiyin to go out for a picnic, and Huiyin agreed without hesitation, but he wanted to call Shang Sicheng.The students laughed and said, "None of us can invite him, it's up to you. Why don't we make a bet, if you invite him, you won't be asked to do anything when you go out today." Huiyin found the drawing room from the library, and finally found Sicheng.Sicheng is drawing a part of the ancient Greek temple on the drawing board.Huiyin could tell at a glance that they were the columns of the Parthenon in Athens and the Ionian columns of the Acropolis.

As soon as Sicheng looked up and saw Huiyin, he pointed to the drawing happily and said, "Huiyin, look at how much this column has overcome the rigidity of the big squares of early Greek architecture. The base of the column and the lintel on the top of the column A little bit of change makes the very stable building acquire the dynamics of a very beautiful bionic body. Look at this Ionian column again, how elegant the column is, how smooth the lines are, the rigidity of the groove of the column is replaced by the rigidity of the top of the column. The scrollwork greatly offsets the…” Huiyin looked at it approvingly and nodded. After Sicheng finished speaking, she talked about today's picnic plan and the bet with her classmates. She emphasized: "You can't let me lose to them!"

Only then did Sicheng notice that Huiyin was wearing a pair of short leather boots for traveling, and a sun hat was slanted on his head, which looked very playful.He hesitated for a moment, and said to Hui Yin with guilt: "I still plan to have a lot of things to do today, you should go and play by yourself!" Sicheng's tone was soft, but Huiyin knew that it was impossible to pull Sicheng away from the drawing board today.Maybe really gentle people have a strong will, because it's not the first time something like this has happened. During the picnic, an American classmate said: "When I first met you, I was really worried. I was afraid that I would accidentally violate your strict rules and religion. I imagined how many Tao Te Chings I would have to listen to in the future. You are so easy together."

Hui Yin said with a smile: "Actually, there is not much distance between the Confucius Temple and the Statue of Liberty. My landlady is an excellent proof. She is a devout believer. The very ordinary sketches I drew once It frightened her. When my boyfriend came to see me, he could only stand outside the building. If we sat on the edge of the stairs and talked, at half past ten, she would definitely cough." Laughter was everywhere. Amidst the laughter, Huiyin couldn't help thinking about Sicheng who was leaning over to the desk, and faintly, there was a ray of loss rising in his heart, which was faint and lingering, like the faint morning fog on the lake.