Chapter 12 Mr. Duff's Affair

Mr. Duff's appearance is very clear, with high cheekbones, small eyes and mouth, and a slender figure. He looks like a small businessman from Jiangsu and Zhejiang.Although there was a photo of him wearing a suit, when we saw him, we never saw him wearing a suit. He always wore a dark gray robe, which was not eye-catching.This very casual attitude of dressing is somewhat similar to that of Mr. Lu Xun. For a period of time, he lived in the front upstairs of a house in Minhou South Lane, Hardong Road, Shanghai. He had a small bed, and books were piled up on the table and on the floor.This simple furniture was probably borrowed from the second landlord, so apart from tables, chairs and a bed, the walls are empty.At this time, he seemed to be coming back from his teaching position at Peking University. He was not in good health. There were jars of foreign candy bought from the company among the books on the table. He said he had given up drinking and smoking, so Use candy instead.This made it cheaper for me, a non-smoker, to have the opportunity to eat sweets.After a short while, he continued to smoke again. Naturally, he couldn’t quit, but another reason for quitting was that eating candy was more expensive than smoking cigarettes, so it’s better to resume smoking rashly.

At this time, Dafu had a young friend who admired him very much. His name was Jianer, Zhang Wentian's younger brother, and he was with him almost every day.In Duff's novels, a neurotic young man wearing myopia glasses who is emotional and crying frequently appears, and this character is written by Jianer.At that time, Zhang Wentian was working as an editor at Zhonghua Book Company, and he also lived in Minhou Nanli, while Jianer lived in his elder brother's house, so it was very convenient for him to come and go.At that time, I also lived in the house of my uncle Minhou Nanli, and I "made the floor" in the living room at night. During the day, I carried a painting box to the art school to learn painting. After class, I became Dafu as a "literary youth". There are guests in Mr.'s room in the front building.He didn't eat at home, so we young people who followed him always went to restaurants with him as usual.He often patronizes some local and Huibang small restaurants, half a catty of old wine, and one of his favorite dishes is "white rotten".The so-called "white rot" refers to boiled shredded pork with yellow buds and white shreds without soy sauce.Putting soy sauce is called "red rotten dirt".I remember once when I went to Jiangwan to play, I was resting in a small restaurant outside the station. As soon as he sat down, he ordered a "white rotten", which shows his deep love for this dish.

Later, in order to oppose his pursuit of Wang Yingxia, several other friends and I fell out with him.He once said in "Nine Kinds of Diary" that several young people should be cast into a row of iron statues and kneel in front of his bed, and I guess one of them should be me.This has been going on for several years.When I was a little older, I realized that I was too young to do anything, so I wrote a letter to apologize to him.At this time, his "Storm Thatched Cottage" had already been built, and he was living in Hangzhou. He replied a long letter to me, saying that you don't need to mention such things again.This letter was later included in the "Letters of Modern Writers", but unfortunately I not only lost the original letter long ago, but I also don't even have this book at hand.