Chapter 6 Chapter 3 South Asian clog marks

A ship sails on the sea. The bow of the boat plows the sea water, and the yellow sea surface splits into endless herringbone ripples. The setting sun casts the vast sea surface into bronze and dignified, and countless pieces of gold shimmer in the sparkling waves. Xiao Xiangmei, who is under 5 years old, stands alone on the deck, staring at all this like an adult. She vaguely felt the greatness in the tranquility, and the scene of the torrential waves was contained in the tranquility. She folded her hands behind her back and took deep breaths again and again.When the wind picked up, she swayed a little, but she still stood.

This is not the first time she has seen the sea. She knows that Beihai is not a sea, and Beidaihe is not a river.But this is the first long voyage in her life journey.The father served as the Burmese consul, took his wife and three daughters, and sailed south from Tianjin by boat, planning to go to India first and then to Yangon, Myanmar. Father and mother found the deck, father frowned slightly: the most disobedient second child in the family, with more ideas than anyone else, quietly left the dining room alone, she also knows how to watch the sunset?His mother gently pulled him back, and showed him with her eyes to see Xiangmei's dignified appearance, and couldn't help laughing out loud.

Xiangmei looked back, lowered her head as if she had done something wrong for a while, but then raised her head stubbornly: "Daddy, I'm not afraid of the sea breeze, I don't know how to cough." She is chubby, but she can't stand the wind and cold the most, and she coughs almost every winter in Peiping. Once her father said irritably: "This child is really troublesome. She gets sick every day, so I might as well give her away." Perhaps the speaker Wuxin, when she was young, she hated her father, why didn't her father love her?Because she is a girl? The mother hurried over and took her hand: "Oh, my little hands are cold." The mother loved her deeply.

But her father took off his coat, leaned over to wrap her around her: "Okay, Daddy will accompany Meimei to watch the sunset on the sea." She looked at her father in surprise, for a moment his father was exceptionally kind.Her father told her that from the Bohai Sea to the Yellow Sea, after crossing the Yellow Sea to the East China Sea, the sea will be blue. If you cross the Taiwan Strait, the sea will be green. If you travel westward from the South China Sea to the Bay of Bengal, you will arrive in India. Stay for a while. she would.She already felt that this voyage would be very happy, because her father and mother were very happy, which is rare in Peiping.

Sunset fell asleep in the sea, and her father took her left and right hands and went back to the cabin.At night, the three daughters clung to their parents, listening to their father talking about studying abroad and listening to their mother talking about Andersen. Xiao Xiangmei felt the true warmth of a small family. Yes, both Chen Yingrong and Liao Xiangci seemed to be working tacitly to unfreeze the indifference between them.We have been married for twelve years, but our hearts are still far apart.Chen Yingrong is introverted, rigorous and rigid, and speaks practically. He has never been passionate about his wife, although he appreciates her talent and appearance from the bottom of his heart; while Liao Xiangci is full of emotions, delicate, and a little romantic. Thinking that life after marriage is so plain and tasteless, maybe because he is not her first love?But precisely because her first love was given to someone else, as she grows older, she feels that she owes him something.This time Chen Yingrong accepted the appointment of the Burmese consul, and she resolutely bid farewell to the old nest. Chen Yingrong also naturally reciprocated. After all, they were still young, and there were signs of falling in love at the beginning, which was of course very happy.

It was night when the boat crossed the Taiwan Strait. Looking out from the round window in the cabin, the sea was blue-gray, and there were small boats not far and near, with red lights on them. Liao Xiangci stared obsessively, the night blue ocean suddenly touched her sad place, so she has not forgotten her beloved blue eyes? Xiangju said sweetly: "Mom, tell us about your study abroad. You and my third aunt are together, England, France, Italy, Austria..." Liao Xiangci was taken aback, her eyes were wet, she shook her head. Chen Yingrong changed the topic: "Beibei, when you grow up, where would you like to study abroad?"

He thought his wife missed his third sister who had just passed away. Liao Xiangci couldn't suppress the sadness that gushed out, Vidria died forever, where are the blue eyes? It was the spring of 1918. By the bridge of the Royal College of England, the water was gurgling, the lawn was green, and the evening bell was shaking the dusk.Liao Xiangci stood opposite a tall young British aristocrat, silent.Not far away, Videlia paced back and forth restlessly. Liao Xiangci lowered his head heavily. The English youth frowned silently. Not long ago, he met and fell in love with her by this bridge.The two sisters were engrossed in sketching, but he felt that the scenery would be dull without the pair of oriental women.He fell in love with Liao Xiangci, he courted her courteously, she bowed her head, neither agreed nor refused, he was fascinated by the tenderness and shyness of an oriental woman bowing her head, and was fascinated.But everything will end as soon as it started. Tonight, she bid farewell to him, and the sisters will return to their father who is the ambassador in Cuba. The reason for the hasty parting is because of his love for Xiangci!

Liao Xiangci can no longer love. Liao Xiangci and Chen Yingrong have long been married. In the early spring of 1895, Liao Fengshu's wife and Chen Qingyun's wife were both pregnant in Liujia. The two families were family friends, and the two were close friends.At that time, Liao Fengshu in diplomacy and Chen Qingyun in the business world were both on the rise, so they made an appointment. If they had a son or a daughter, they would become Jinlan; if they had a son and a daughter, the two families would be in-laws.Although this kind of thing is really absurd, it is frequently spread as a good story in the Chinese world, both official and private.

Unexpectedly, thirteen years later, the Chen family went bankrupt, and Chen Qingyun committed suicide by jumping off the building in anger;The Liao family was originally a family of loyalty and benevolence, not to mention that Chen Yingrong was so upbeat, even if it was not successful, the Liao family would never regret their engagement when the Chen family was in decline. Liao Fengshu, who is open-minded and open-minded, is old-fashioned and paranoid about this matter. When he learned of any clues, he cut off his daughter's affection and hurriedly ordered the sisters to go to Cuba, while hurriedly arranging the marriage for the eldest daughter.

Liao Xiangci used to procrastinate as a resistance, but she could not disobey her father's order, she could not bear to hurt her father's heart, and her father loved her dearly. She could only hurt the young Englishman's heart, and her own. The British youth finally became agitated, lost his aristocratic demeanor and complained: "Low your head! Lower your head! You can only bow your head!" She lifted her head, her dark eyes filled with tears. He held her hands tightly, his blue eyes burning with love. "Doubted see tears in their eyes, even Yuning choke".

It was such a soul-crushing Cambridge. But still only farewell.The eldest brother took the two sisters to Cuba and handed them over to their parents. In December of that year, Liao Fengshu and Qiu Yaqin organized an extremely grand wedding ceremony for Chen Yingrong and Liao Xiangci in Havana. The wedding was completely Western.Chen Yingrong wears a tuxedo, Liao Xiangci wears a white wedding dress and a white wedding dress, and the sixth, seventh, ninth and tenth sisters all wear white hats, white dresses, white socks and white shoes, leading the wedding dress and carrying a flower basket, in "Marriage March" Slowly walked into the church.In the voice of the priest's questioning, the couple solemnly completed a major leap in life: they completed the almost absurd but natural marriage contract in ancient China in a western wedding! In the Chinese embassy in Cuba, there are many guests.There are flower baskets, balls, walls and seas of flowers everywhere.The third sister, Videlia, did not take part in the wedding photoshoot. She was not as happy as the four younger sisters who were flower girls. Only she knew how deep the scars in her sister's heart were! When Chen Yingrong put a diamond ring on Liao Xiangci's ring finger, for a moment, Liao Xiangci had an illusion: I belong to you.Maybe, the past is gone, and what is left is just a lingering sweet poem.Time will heal the wounds of the heart. However, she was wrong.As the years go by, this fragrant poem becomes more and more unforgettable. The joy and happiness when setting sail, and all the wishes for a new start, have been eroded bit by bit because of the memories of the past during the voyage. Who said life can start from scratch? Life does not go backwards. Chen Yingrong's family disembarked at Calcutta port. India in Xiao Xiangmei's eyes is both novelty and ancient, brilliant and salty. The vegetation is verdant and the flowers are blooming like a brocade. The heat of the equator makes flowers bloom here in five winters and six summers. Fever, hunger and poverty make the poor here often die in the streets and alleys.Antique temples, gleaming golden domes, beaded and jade-studded temples, resplendent and resplendent, countless believers worshiped; and beggars all over the street stretched out their dirty hands to ask people for money.There are snake-playing men, stall operators, women in red and green tropical costumes, with cinnabar on their foreheads, rings on their noses, chewing cardamom, and bells ringing around their ankles. The three sisters watched all this with great interest, while the mother fell into deep thought. She thought of the Indian philosopher and poet Tagore. On April 12, 1924, the first Asian Nobel Laureate came to China for a visit, and she had just returned to Beijing with her husband and daughter.The grand occasion of Tagore’s arrival in Beijing, the poet with a childlike face and long hair and long beard, Xu Zhimo and Lin Huiyin, a golden boy and a jade girl, are on the left and right, just like the pictures of the three friends of pine, bamboo and plum, all are topics that celebrities and ladies in Kyoto like to talk about.She loves to read Tagore's poems, and she heard such rumors: when Tagore left Beijing, someone asked him: "Did you leave anything behind?" He shook his head: "I didn't leave anything behind except my heart. "She heard it and her heart was moved, because of the poet's love for China and Beijing.Right now, she really wants to go to Tagore's house and pick a leaf from the horse chestnut tree, which is said to be the never-forgotten leaf... She also thought of the British writer Somerset Maugham. Most of his novels were set in the British colonies. Many stories happened in India and Malaya. The portrayal is lifelike.At this moment, what she is recalling is Maugham's "Marriage in Dew": a British young man mistakenly regards a lady's impulse as his true love, and ends up in poverty, becoming a starving corpse on a South Asian island.Can wrong love ruin a person's life? Thoughts are at a loss, and the mind is heavy.Xiao Xiangmei couldn't stop tugging at her mother's skirt: "Mom, what are you thinking?" Mother murmured: "Maugham, Tagore..." "I know Tagore, did my grandfather teach me to read his, Mother Mao? Who is Mother Mao?" The mother stroked her black hair: "William Somerset Maugham, a British writer, you will like his novels when you grow up. He doesn't have the innate sense of superiority of white people. He loves to explore human nature..." Rather than talking to my daughter, it is better to say to myself. The father frowned and shrugged. He didn't like his wife always immersed in unreal literature. He interrupted the mother and daughter's conversation: "My wife, I think the most urgent thing is housekeeping. You have to manage our family independently." The mother's vision dimmed: no one can change anyone. Forget about the past.Don't pick the seven leaves on the horse chestnut tree either. They soon arrived in Yangon, Myanmar, and Liao Xiang followed her husband's words and acted as a housewife. The consulate is a large and majestic stone house, very old, half as an office and half as their residence.The yard is even bigger, with tropical flowers and plants growing crazily, and trees such as bodhi, mango, papaya, coconut, banana, etc. are disorderly, like a forest of wild plants.Liao Xiangci felt that it was interesting, and liked the unique sweet smell of the tropics in the air.She only used a Cantonese old lady, and the other gardeners, drivers and porters were all local natives.She instructed them to tidy up the yard in an orderly manner, and set up a vegetable field. The three sisters were often busy in the yard, and the mother happily scolded them: "The more you help, the more busy you are." The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is very poor and has limited funds. His salary is often in arrears. Can Liao Xiangci in the Lord not plan carefully? The three sisters enjoy the tropical scenery and eat tropical fruits, but they are also troubled by mosquitoes, geckos and mice.The mosquito is as big as a fly, the gecko is as big as a mouse, and the mouse is as big as a cat. Perhaps, Xiao Xiangmei is too small, and the pupils exaggerate these three things?But the mother wasn't heroic either, as she lowered the mosquito net for her daughters, saying: "Hehe, let's face this together. Maybe there's something worse." She was referring to the snake, which luckily didn't swim suddenly. Don't scare them. The consulate is not lonely. Chen Yingrong wanted to start his career ambitiously, but he was busy.Many overseas Chinese in Myanmar also often come to the consulate.They wore turbans, shirts, and sarongs, just like the local natives, but they still spoke Chinese.Most of the overseas Chinese are rice merchants, and some of them have strong economic strength. They are willing to contribute as much as possible to the motherland. They often have lively conversations with Chen Yingrong.When they learned that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was late in arrears of money and salaries to the consulate, they sincerely scrambled to help.Chen Yingrong was so anxious that he said: "No, thank you." Xiao Xiangmei slipped in like a kitten and listened to their conversation with her hands on her cheeks.After seeing off the guests, Chen Yingrong would say angrily and funnyly: "It seems that you are our little diplomat." Then she asked her father seriously: "Why are they treating us so well?" My father sighed: "Overseas Chinese, strangers from a foreign land, have no background, no tradition, and their ideas are homeless. Their family is in China, their roots are in China, and they hope that the motherland will be prosperous and strong." She seemed to understand, but remembered that "the roots are in China". If Chen Yingrong goes to the island countries on business, Xiao Xiangmei, mother and daughter will also accompany him.They visited the rubber plantations in Malaya and saw that men and women lined up in two rows on the lawns of villages and towns at night, dancing swayingly. The women waved flowered handkerchiefs in their hands and sang "Shayang! Shayang!" Shayang is a lover ?Calling like this?The most interesting time was when the whole family visited the orchard in an open car, the sun was scorching, and the whole family was wearing straw hats. Suddenly, a little monkey reached out from the tree to pick off Xiao Xiangmei's straw hat, and then mischievously climbed up the branch to escape.Xiao Xiangmei was startled and frightened but could not stop being happy. The Malayan who drove the car laughed heartily. The laughter was so contagious that everyone in the car laughed.The disrespectful father also laughed: "This naughty little monkey must know that you are the little naughty in our family!" No, she is clearly sitting in the middle. Chen Yingrong also took his wife and daughter to Vietnam.In Hanoi and Saigon, the Liao family has relatives, and their business is prosperous.It is a great pleasure to have friends from afar, let alone relatives.So there was a dance, a salon.Xiao Xiangmei found that her mother was as charming and radiant as usual in Beiping.Vietnam is a French colony, and my mother's fluent French and ladylike charm amazed all the French present.When the guests dispersed and the lights were dimmed, relatives and friends said with emotion: "The French are really a family of pleasure, and they can't forget the upper class everywhere." The mother shook her head: "Don't think they are all upper class people, maybe they are Hypocrites, liars, male thieves and female prostitutes who can’t stay on their own land, racial discrimination and colonial policies have made them perfect and let them change their appearance.” In the dead of night, when we drove back to the residence, the night sky was blue and the stars were twinkling, and the mother couldn’t help but burst into tears In a daze, she remembered her blue eyes again?Doesn't he look down on people of color etc?Is this a flash of humanity?Or just love her black eyes?She doesn't want to think rationally anymore, her husband and her daughters are in the car, this is home. Thirty-eight years later, Chen Xiangmei has an indissoluble bond with Vietnam. She played a very important role in the United States' participation in the Vietnam War. She is full of grievances. Does the childhood memory of traveling with her parents still involve her? Where is her heart? On the South Asian Peninsula, clog marks are everywhere, but the time is only one year.The Ministry of Foreign Affairs was struggling financially, and it was difficult for a smart woman to survive without rice. Chen Yingrong led his family back to Peiping.