Chapter 2 Chapter One

In the spring of 1926, Ms. Hui was seventeen years old. She graduated from middle school and was about to enter the preparatory class for women's teachers in Beijing.Unfortunately, in April of that year, the Zhifeng warlord defeated Feng Yuxiang and took over the city of Beijing. The city was in chaos, and the preparatory class was suspended, and Ms. Hui had to wait for more than half a year before she could enter the university. Ms. Hui's father, Mr. Wang, was a senior official in Beijing at the time. In his own words, he was a "reformer with a braid cut off." His education for his daughter was like his own political position.However, Ms. Hui is a new-style young woman who is determined to break the feudal ethics. She has worried her family since she entered middle school. With a whip and a gun, Miss Hui didn't return all night, driving her parents almost crazy.Fortunately, she was only to send the injured classmate to the hospital, and she was not injured at all. Otherwise, she would not be able to win the right to return to school simply by relying on a letter of guarantee not to participate in the student movement in the future.

Thinking that her daughter would stay at home for half a year, and she might be tricked into causing trouble during the period, Mr. Wang felt that it would be safer to temporarily keep Miss Hui away from the right and wrong place of the capital.Just at this moment, Mr. Sheng, a senior acquaintance of the same year, wrote to him, saying that his son Sheng Guangzhe came back from studying in England and wanted to invite Miss Hui, mother and daughter to live in his home, and he finally solved a difficult problem for Mr. Wang. The Sheng family is a big family in Lincheng and has always been on good terms with the Wang family.And Sheng Guangzhe, the seventh eldest member of the Sheng family, is also a leader among the younger generation. He went to the UK to study a few years ago, but he didn't choose any major, and he only chose the Department of Agronomy, saying that China is mainly based on agriculture, and the only Only by improving agricultural technology can people's livelihood be improved, which reassures the Sheng family, who have always been afraid of politics and only rely on farming and education to inherit their families, and also makes Mr. Wang, who has seen too many passionate young people, look at this pragmatic young man with admiration. Both families have The meaning of getting married.This excuse to stay here is nothing more than to cultivate the relationship between the two young people. After all, Lord Wang and Master Sheng are both enlightened gentry, and they disdain arranged marriages.

Knowing the clean and strict family style of the Sheng family, Mr. Wang was very relieved about his wife and daughter going to stay for a while. He even wrote to Mr. Sheng specifically to find an opportunity to arrange for his wife and young lady to guide Miss Hui more. Good wife and mother. Unfortunately, when everything was ready, Mrs. Wang got a serious infectious disease and was sent to the isolation ward of Xiehe Hospital.Master Wang has to go to the Yamen to work and take care of his wife, and he can't take care of Miss Hui who lives at home.So although he was worried about his daughter going out alone, he had to arrange for his family to send Miss Hui to Lincheng alone.

Miss Hui walked out of Lincheng Railway Station with her suitcase, and hired a rickshaw to go to the Sheng family's mansion.Along the way, countless residents stared at Ms. Hui's exposed arm in her short-sleeved cheongsam and whispered, which made Ms. Hui feel a little uncomfortable.Although it has been more than ten years since the Republic of China, this peaceful city still seems to have not come out of the shadow of the former Qing Dynasty. The only difference is that the man's head is missing a braid.This discovery made Ms. Hui inexplicably loathe Lin Cheng, and she naturally felt a little more resistant to that Lin Cheng's Sheng family.

The Sheng family expressed great enthusiasm for Miss Hui's arrival. The masters, wives, young masters and misses squeezed into the room, curiously looking at the new women who came from the capital wearing improved cheongsams.Miss Hui tried her best to put on a generous and decent posture, and gave out the gifts entrusted by her father one by one, and exchanged pleasantries with Master Sheng for a long time, but she couldn't hold back her instinct and asked intentionally, "Why don't you see Brother Seven?" "This..." Mr. Sheng glanced at his wife in embarrassment, and Mrs. Sheng immediately put on a casual expression and smiled, "Guangzhe is busy with work in the Agriculture and Forestry Department, so he doesn't usually live at home, and I don't know Huier, you Arrive today..."

"Oh." Miss Hui nodded innocently, pretending to believe, but sneered in her heart.Looking at it like this, Sheng Guangzhe obviously avoided him on purpose. He didn't care about this arranged marriage, and he was still full of displeasure.It's just that in the end, others are the hosts, and you are the guest, so you have to live with face. "He will definitely come during dinner." Seeing that Miss Hui's face was a little strange, Mrs. Sheng took her hand affectionately, "Go, go and see the room we arranged for you." Although Master Sheng secretly sent people to remind him several times, Sheng Guangzhe never showed up.The family who sent the letter finally reported that the seventh young master was forced to be anxious, so he simply carried a suitcase and went out, saying that he was going to the countryside to check the improved rice seeds, and he would not come back within ten days and a half months.

Master Sheng has always been unable to control his son, now he can only lament, but he has to deal with Miss Hui.Ms. Hui is a smart person, how can she not guess the difficulties of the Sheng family couple, and her face becomes more calm, magnanimous and considerate, which attracts the secret praise of the Sheng family, but she doesn't know that because she doesn't meet Sheng Guangzhe in her heart, Miss Hui is also a school Relaxed and happy. After visiting all the places of interest around Lincheng, Miss Hui's living in Sheng's house gradually became boring.She also went to the study of the Sheng family to read, and they were nothing more than the Four Books and Five Classics plus "Books from the Family of Zeng Wenzheng Gong". No way.

In the midst of boredom, Ms. Hui called together several long-term servants of the Sheng family and offered to teach them how to read.This kind of thing is often easy to persist at the beginning, but after a few times, the number of people who come to learn gradually decreases, so among the two or three people who insisted on practicing calligraphy, Brother Nian attracted Miss Hui's attention. Brother Nian is one of the long-term workers of the Sheng family, he looks about eighteen or nineteen years old, and he comes from the countryside two hundred miles away from Lincheng.He is short in stature among men, and he looks similar to Miss Hui, who is tall and slender, but his body is thin, his face is tired and weak, and he seems to be unable to sleep well for a long time, which makes him Mrs. Sheng, who has always been generous and merciful, was a little dissatisfied, for fear that others would say that the Sheng family had abused the servants.Fortunately, brother Nian was extremely diligent in his work and honest, so Mrs. Sheng didn't make up her mind to fire him.

In order to ensure the effect of her handwriting practice, Ms. Hui has to test the words and sentences she taught last time. Among all the people, there is only one brother who is sure to get everything right in every test.Such a bright and studious student naturally made Ms. Hui feel relieved. Even if the calligraphy class was over, she felt a little closer to Brother Nian when she was a child.It's just that brother Nian is very thin-skinned, every time Miss Hui greets him, she lowers her eyes and dare not answer, her pale face is also flushed, she is a countryman who can't stand on the stage, but she has failed her cleverness brain.

Until many years later, Ms. Hui still remembered the first time Brother Nian spoke to her.At that time, she had just learned embroidery from Mrs. Sheng for half a day. She sat under the window shaking her sore fingers, took out the new vernacular magazine that she had brought with her from the capital, read aloud: "...What can I offer you? If you have no self, you will still be darkness and emptiness. However, I am willing to be only darkness, or it will disappear into your day; I am willing to be nothing but emptiness, and will never occupy your heart. I would like to, my friend— I travel alone, not only without you, but also without other shadows in the dark.Only I was engulfed in darkness, and the world was all my own. "

She was excited to read, and only after she finished reading did she find someone standing outside the window listening blankly.The man was thin and thin, with only a pair of clear eyes on his pale and thin face, but the moment he met Miss Hui's gaze, he lowered his eyes, and even unconsciously glanced behind the privet tree beside him. Seeing his embarrassment, Miss Hui became anxious and called out, "Brother Nian, can you understand what I'm reading?" Brother Nian nodded, but immediately shook his head in a panic, his face seemed to turn redder. "This is a poem written by Mr. Zhou Shuren, do you think it is good?" Ms. Hui was flustered when she was idle, so she grabbed Brother Nian and started chatting. "I've never heard such a touching sentence." Brother Nian replied in a low voice. "For the sake of the light of others, I would rather stay in the darkness forever. It's really touching." Miss Hui sighed. Seeing Brother Nian still lingering under the privet tree and never leaving, she was surprised that this was not his old style, so she went He smiled, "You have something to do with me?" "I...I want to ask Miss Hui to write a few words for me." Brother Nian muttered. "No problem. What to write?" Ms. Hui beckoned Brother Nian to his desk, picked up a brush and spread out the rice paper. "No, no... it's writing this." Brother Nian said, and hurriedly took out a piece of paper from his pocket, but it was a blank remittance letter. "You send money to the family?" Ms. Hui knew that most of these people who left their hometowns to do long-term labor were to subsidize their families.However, it was a novelty to think of using the post office to send money. "Well, give it to my brother." Brother Nian replied with some hesitation. "Name, address." Ms. Hui picked up the tip of her pen and stopped on top of the remittance slip. "Zhang Nianzu, Room No. Junzhaixu, Yenching University." "Your brother is very good. You are far behind him." Miss Hui smiled as she wrote, "How much is the remittance?" "Twenty silver dollars." "I don't see how you can save money." Miss Hui finished writing and handed the remittance letter to Brother Nian, just in time to catch a glimpse of his black eye circles and bloodless face, she couldn't help thinking, "Could it be possible for you to save money?" All the frugality is for your brother to study?" "Without my brother, there would be no me." Brother Nian replied with a smile, as if remembering something from the past, his pure eyes shone with gratitude. Ms. Hui snorted secretly, no matter what, she went to the capital to study at university but let her illiterate younger brother work as a long-term worker to support the family. After all, she looked down on this kind of man.It's just that Brother Nian is too honest. Looking at his skinny appearance, he was probably squeezed by his brother, but he still enjoys it.Mr. Zhou Shuren said it right. In this world, there is no shortage of people who are willing to be slaves. Thinking of this, Miss Hui became more and more anxious to save Brother Nian, and couldn't bear to see such a smart boy spend his whole life in numbness and ignorance.Although Brother Nian should be a year or two older than Ms. Hui, there is no denying that Ms. Hui, who came from the capital and received a good new education, has full compassion and care for an illiterate boy from other provinces and countryside. Miss Hui didn't hide this sense of superiority on purpose. Brother Nian knew it himself, but he never revealed it.He just took the calligraphy book given by Miss Hui to learn a few more words in the daily work, and silently narrowed the gap between the two of them.When Ms. Hui was surprised to find that he had learned all the words and phrases in elementary school in more than ten days, and called him a genius, Brother Nian just smiled silently. In a trance, I feel that this breath should not belong to the mortal world.