Chapter 11 Chapter 10 The eldest son commits suicide

In the southwest corner of Beijing, there is a not-so-busy railway leading to Fengtai via Xibianmen Station. In 1960, when a train passed near West Bianmen, suddenly a young man jumped onto the rails and lay down on it.It was too late for the train to brake suddenly, and the tragedy happened... The deceased was 26 years old, male, technician of the Ministry of Nuclear Industry (Second Ministry of Machinery Industry), surnamed Chen, surnamed Xiaoda—the eldest son of Chen Boda. Chen Xiaoda is in the golden age of youth, why did he suddenly choose such a dead end? After graduating from the Department of Physics of Moscow University in the Soviet Union, he returned to Beijing in 1958 and lived with Chen Boda. Sometimes, he also visited his biological mother Zhu Youren.At that time, Zhu Youren served as the director of the research office and the director of the Propaganda Department of the Party Committee of the General Administration of Hydropower Construction of the Ministry of Water and Electricity.

Chen Xiaoda, who has just returned to China, speaks Russian but can't speak Chinese well.At home, he talked with Chen Boda in Russian.As a Chinese, I can't speak Chinese, not only I can't work in China, but even my daily life is very inconvenient.Chen Boda had to send his son to Peking University to attend Chinese classes. Probably because he is the son of a high-ranking cadre, he is regarded as absolutely reliable politically, so Chen Xiaoda was assigned to a secret unit—— ——Working in the Ministry of Nuclear Industry, although he did not major in physics. Chen Xiaoda lived in Zhongnanhai, and his work unit did not rent him. The leader assigned him to work with Soviet experts. His life path was paved with flowers.

What makes him most happy and proud is that he has a favorite girl.Considering that his "she" is still alive and she is also a figure of public concern, her name will not be disclosed, and her name will be referred to as M here. M and him can be said to be "the right family": M also lives in Zhongnanhai, and lives in District A. M's father has a higher position than his father. M and he have known each other since childhood, and M also lived in the Soviet Union and can speak fluent Russian. Chen Xiaoda and M are passionately in love. M often goes to Chen Xiaoda's house, and they talk until late at night.Chen Xiaoda also went to M's house to listen to the records she brought back from the Soviet Union.

In winter, they went north from Zhongnanhai, crossed the bridge, and went skating in Beihai Park.They flitted across the ice like swallows in spring, shouting and laughing in Russian, which attracted envious looks from many young people. As the years passed, the relationship between them became deeper and deeper, and the relationship gradually became clear. Click, click, the camera left many group photos of them.The author saw these photos at Chen Boda's home. By 1960, Chen Xiaoda was 26 years old, and it was time to formally propose marriage. As far as Chen Boda was concerned, he was in favor of this marriage.Because Chen Boda works under M's father, if he can get married, it can also provide him with "insurance" in politics—in this way, M's father may give him political support, at least not in the direction of the wind. Knock him down when the big change happens.

However, things backfired.M, who has always had a close relationship with Chen Xiaoda, suddenly proposes to break off the relationship with him and keep only ordinary friendship. M did not state that this was an opinion from her family. Chen Xiaoda felt distraught when he was hit by this, and in those few days, he was in charge of an important experiment.In a trance, his experiment had a big accident! The double blow made Chen Xiaoda, who was emotionally fragile, unable to think about it for a while.He once wanted to talk to his father, but Chen Boda was busy with other things.Talk to him in a few days.

Chen Xiaoda was extremely depressed, so he went to Xibianmen alone, and went to a dead end... For fear that Chen Boda would be provoked, Chen Xiaoda's death was kept secret. M also doesn't know the truth. Chen Boda didn't know about the death of his eldest son until a year later.He wailed loudly, but it was of no avail...Here, by the way, I would like to mention the later life of Chen Xiaoda's biological mother Zhu Youren—even Chen Boda himself is not very clear about it.The author has a Zhejiang literary friend named Feng Yingping.She works as a reporter in Hangzhou.Occasionally, she once told the author that she was Zhu Youren's "goddaughter", which gave the author the opportunity to understand Zhu Youren's lonely old age... Zhu Youren lived alone in his later years and rarely interacted with the outside world.

How did Feng Yingping become Zhu Youren's "goddaughter"?She said that it was the midsummer of 1982, and the heat in Hangzhou was unstoppable.In order to take care of veteran cadres, relevant departments arranged for them to recuperate in Mount Mogan.Sent by the newspaper, Feng Yingping went to Moganshan for an interview.On the mountain, the man pointed to an old lady who was medium-short, faltering, with white hair and kind eyes, and said mysteriously: "He is Chen Boda's first wife!" From then on, Feng Yingping began to pay attention to this old lady, and learned that her name was Zhu Youren.Soon, Feng Yingping discovered that Zhu Youren often lived alone with his professional habits as a reporter.Feng Yingping believed that even though Chen Boda was one of the 16 main criminals of the well-known "Lin Biao and Jiang Qing counter-revolutionary clique", Zhu Youren, as Chen Boda's first wife—not to mention divorced for many years, should not be treated coldly.Feng Yingping took the initiative to approach Zhu Youren.Some of you took her to your room to chat.Feng Yingping learned from the chat that Zhu Youren participated in the revolution as early as 1925, and her brother-in-law was one of the early famous leaders of the party——Luo Yinong.Under the influence of Luo Yinong, she went to study in the Soviet Union, met Chen Boda there, and married Chen Boda in 1933 after returning to China.Later, she gave birth to a son named Chen Xiaoda...

When the old man said this, he suddenly said: "Jiang Qing killed my son!" Feng Yingping didn't dare to ask in detail, and the old man didn't go into details.Because Feng Yingping got along very well with Zhu Youren on the mountain, Zhu Youren invited Feng Yingping to the place where she lived at that time—Xin'anjiang Zijin Beach when she came down the mountain.In Zijintan, Zhu Youren opened the dusty photos for Feng Yingping to see.From those yellowed old photos, you can see Zhu Youren's group photos with Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, and Zhu De, revealing Zhu Youren's extraordinary life experience.Zhu Youren never forgot her only son, Chen Xiaoda.Zhu Youren said that in the summer of 1939, Zhou Enlai went to the Soviet Union to heal his broken arm. Chen Boda and Zhu Youren asked Zhou Enlai to take the five-year-old Chen Xiaoda to the Soviet Union.After that, Zhu Youren divorced Chen Boda.Chen Boda got married again, while Zhu Youren remained celibate.After liberation, Zhu Youren worked in Chongqing for many years.Later, Zhu Youren was transferred to work in Beijing.Zhu Youren misses his son Chen Xiaoda all the time.After his son returned to China, he lived with Chen Boda, but Chen Xiaoda also often visited his mother Zhu Youren.The son grew up, which gave Zhu Youren great comfort.

When she learned that her son Chen Xiaoda had suffered a sudden misfortune, she was like a thunderbolt.She did everything possible to find out the cause of her son's death.She heard rumors that Jiang Qing interfered in Chen Xiaoda's marriage, and she hated Jiang Qing from then on.She kept repeating that sentence in front of Feng Yingping: "Jiang Qing killed my son!" Rumors are just rumors after all.Feng Yingping had more contact with Zhu Youren, and gradually understood this matter.Feng Yingping believed that Zhu Youren had an extreme feeling towards Jiang Qing on this matter.Feng Yingping said in all fairness: "The old man did not provide specific facts for her assertion. Judging from the large amount of historical materials disclosed later, the failure of Chen Xiaoda's marriage was related to many factors, the most important being political factors. However, Jiang Qing's reaction is undeniable. Exist on earth." She was over half a century old when she lost her only beloved son.She felt very lonely.She proposed to the organization that she wanted an adopted daughter so that she could take care of her in her old age.

The organization agreed.From relatives and friends in her hometown in Sichuan, she recognized a girl as her adopted daughter.She spent a lot of energy moving the girl's household registration to Beijing and arranging a job.This was not easy at the time.Zhu Youren was very happy that his adopted daughter had a partner.Because once the adopted daughter gets married and lives with her, it will be even more lively.At this time, the catastrophe began.During the "Cultural Revolution", Zhu Youren was branded a "Soviet revisionist latent agent" and tortured.Her adopted daughter also "went to the mountains and went to the countryside" and was moved to Heilongjiang with her boyfriend. Since then, she has no contact with Zhu Youren.

Excessive depression not only accelerated the aging of Zhu Youren, but also gave birth to diseases.Chen Boda was older than Zhu Youren, and spent so many years behind bars in his later years, but Zhu Youren died earlier than him.This probably has a lot to do with the careful care of his son Chen Xiaonong and daughter-in-law Xiao Zhang after Chen Boda was released on medical parole.Because of this, the death of his son Chen Xiaoda was the heaviest to Zhu Youren.From then on, like Mrs. Xianglin described by Lu Xun, she babbled and kept telling people about her son's misfortune...