Chapter 21 Chapter 21

The winter sun shone faintly on the small station house; several withered willows leaned against the fence and erected their slender bodies, but their shadows were only a short section on the ground.As soon as a train arrives, the sound of the steam engine, the station attendants calling for the station's reputation, and the voices of a few disembarked passengers picking up their luggage and greeting the porters add some vitality to this quiet little station.Behind the station lay a river, shining brightly, into the leaden fields.Smoke was rising from several cottages.The distant mountains really seem to be falling asleep, dimly shrouded in a layer of fog.Compared with those quiet places, the station is a noisy world.

"Leshan, you are here. Welcome! Welcome!" Ni Huanzhi saw a short and slender man jumping down from the train with agility. Although he had been separated for several years, he recognized him as the guest he was expecting, so he shouted excitedly and ran over with brisk steps. "Ah, Huanzhi! I'm here as promised. We haven't seen each other for five years, right? I came back from Beijing that year, and we had a quick meeting in the city. Until now. I haven't changed anything, have I?" As if reminded, Huanzhi paid attention to Leshan's expression. He still had a broad forehead, sharp eyes, and the mouth that was often pursed to show his willpower, but his face was paler than before.He was wearing a gray cotton gown: no mandarin jacket; black leather shoes, oily and muddy, evident that they hadn't been polished for a long time.For some reason, Huanzhi suddenly felt that his youthful vigor had almost disappeared, and he said in a tone of emotion: "No change, no change, you are still a young man!"

Only then did they shake hands with each other so warmly and firmly, it was not like a courtesy to meet each other, it was simply a proof of the fusion of two hearts. "You haven't changed either, but you look too much like a typical school teacher." Le Shan shook the hands he held each other, and said with embarrassment. The train moved away, the rumble died away, and silence reigned again in the little station. "The boat I hired is parked at Hebutou, let's get off the boat." Huanzhi said, picking up his steps and walking ahead. Leshan looked around, turned around like a child, and said, "My ears are as clean as they have been washed, so quiet, so quiet that I feel empty. You live like a hermit in such a place, right?" You see, the fields are so calm, the river is so soft, and the clusters of villages seem to be inhabited by innocent people, and the conditions for a hermit life are fully met."

The term "hermit" at least has a kind of elegant connotation, but to Huanzhi, it has thorns like a rose branch.He replied humbly: "Where would one live a life like a hermit? It's far from it!" When the two came to Hebutou, the boatman Atu went to the bow of the boat to put on a pole, ready to give them handrails.But Leshan didn't need support, and there were three stone steps under his feet, so he reached the bow of the boat in one jump.After Huanzhi stepped into the boat. Wang Leshan was Huanzhi's middle school classmate, from a town twenty miles away from the city.There is a soy sauce garden at home, and there are some fields, which is very passable.He was a good athlete in middle school, and his performance in running and jumping was not bad. Because of his short and flexible stature, he was especially good at pole vaulting. He stuck to the top of a bamboo pole so high that people said he really looked like a monkey.He always had his part in messing with the kitchen or the teachers.He doesn't belong to the faction that makes troubles without much publicity and no reality. He often takes his eyes on the key points, and simply makes an action or a word, which makes the victim unable to deal with it.He just doesn't like reading or doing homework.But in the last year of school, there was a sudden change. He liked to read some children's books and secret publications full of Fu Han;In this way, Huanzhi and Huanzhi's tastes are very close, and they become close to each other.

Huanzhi was introduced by the principal of the middle school, and Leshan received the same treatment when he started working as a teacher.It's not that Leshan doesn't have the strength to go on to higher education. His tenure as a teacher is entirely to do something for the society.But he had had enough of being a primary school teacher for three years; when Huanzhi was disappointed and sad, but unable to think about it, he lost his teaching job and flew to Beijing to enter a preparatory university; Ability!As usual, correspondence between distant friends in two places became rarer and rarer. Until the last two or three years, there were only two or three letters from Huanzhi every year; but the letters also mentioned recent work and an optimistic future. .It can't be considered detailed.Of course, there are only two or three letters from Leshan every year, and he writes very briefly, "I know what, I am very relieved", and only briefly describes the recent situation.

Recently, Leshan went to Shanghai specially for something about the student union.Huanzhi saw it in the newspaper, and suddenly felt a desire to meet with Leshanhui and talk for a while.So I sent a letter to his Shanghai address listed in the newspaper, inviting him to come to the countryside for a few days; if he really had no time, he could come today or leave tomorrow, but he must not refuse.Huanzhi's mood has recently been in a new realm.Peizhang's complete transformation into a family mistress, and the fact that his new family has finally become an unstoppable dream made him very disappointed.In school, he taught from the beginning, and it can be said that he seldom used the old method to teach. Jiang Bingru's son Yihua and Jiang Huhu's son Jiang Hua had recently graduated. There was no significant difference between graduates of this or other schools: this disappointment is certainly not light.However, I don't know whether it's the relationship between getting closer to the prime of life, or other reasons, but the sad and decadent mood like three or four years ago did not grow; he only felt strangely lonely, as if he was locked in an empty room , There are a lot of hands, but there is no such loneliness as there is nothing to do.The like-minded Jiang Bingru, whose eldest son has graduated from Huayi for a year, stayed at home to take tutoring, and never went to school. Now that Yihua has graduated again, Bingru is thinking about which middle school in Shanghai is good, and plans to send them there; For things in school, Bingru seems to have relaxed a bit.Moreover, Bingru has the intention of being a township director; he thinks that if he wants to transfer the society, this kind of position that can be obtained should be taken unceremoniously. With the status, everything is much more convenient.This is at least a little bit away from Huanzhi, which adds to Huanzhi's sense of loneliness.Coincidentally, he saw the news that his old classmate Wang Leshan came from the south, and the place where Leshan came from was Beijing, the birthplace of the "new trend of thought", which made him miss Leshan deeply; he thought, if Leshan came to talk, how many Can dispel some loneliness.So I wrote that it is fine to come today and leave tomorrow, but I must not refuse such a sincere letter.

Leshan's reply made Huanzhi very happy. He said in the letter that he hadn't seen him for a long time and wanted to talk, so he took him to see his new camp. It was impossible to stay longer, but three or four days was no problem.Huanzhi then wrote again, explaining which train would be the most convenient to take. When he arrived at the station, he didn't have to ask any questions, because he planned to hire a boat to pick him up at the station. The boat sailed slowly in the quiet river; Leshan narrated the splendid story of the "May 4th Movement" in detail according to Huanzhi's inquiry.He described the crowd of students at that time very vividly; he mentioned that a small number of them, with the determination to sacrifice everything, hoped to alert the people of the whole country, and his words can quite express their generosity and tragic spirit; In such a situation, there was a contemptuous sneer between his words.Although Huanzhi learned a lot from the newspaper, how could it be worth what he said?His loneliness seemed to have eased a lot. If his heart was warm just now, it is gradually warming up now.When Le Shan's tone paused, he asked, "How do you know so carefully? You are among a small group of people, right?"

Le Shan salivated and smiled. From this smile, Huanzhi remembered the impression of Le Shan who liked to make trouble back then. "I'm not in it, I'm not in it," was the muffled tone.He went on to say: "With the New Culture Movement, the situation in the student community is very different from previous years. There are a group of young students gathered in each apartment. They open their mouths about ideological issues and life concepts, and shut their mouths to form a group and form a society. Publications. Of course there are people who go shopping in brothels, but everyone looks down on them, so they cover up like thieves and dare not make it public. Even Shanghai is different. Think about it, what can students in Shanghai have? Whiteness① is their highest ideal! But now it cannot be generalized. The place where I lived in Shanghai was rented by more than a dozen students, and it seemed like an apartment. There is no need for a servant. During the winter vacation, they read all the books on philosophy and socialism in the apartment. They have to read one book in a few days, and then report their reading experience to everyone. They go outside to learn German French, because knowing only one English among foreign languages ​​is useless. People like this group are at least not hopefuls of Gang Baidu."

①The transliteration of English comprador, that is, the comprador of foreign firms. ——Author's note Huanzhi was fascinated by what he heard, and turned his eyes upwards, indicating that his meditation was galloping. He said excitedly, "This can be said to be a great progress for the student world, and it has turned to the side of hard work." "So it can't be completely wrong," Le Shan said again in a vague tone.He suddenly changed the subject, "You like to listen to the outside world, I will tell you some more. Now the relationship between men and women is much more free: everyone talks about liberation, and of course this heavy bondage will be released in advance."

"What? You tell me." "It's meaningless to talk about it in general, let's just tell a short story. There was a college student surnamed Liu (his name was already familiar to newspapers and magazines, and you probably know it too), and he was going to study in the United States because he was waiting for the ship in Shanghai. Interesting, I went to Hangzhou to play the West Lake. A few Sichuan students also played the West Lake. When they saw his name on the hotel sign, they went in to visit him for the purpose of exchanging ideas. There was a girl among them, wearing a pink shirt, He held a lotus flower picked by Santanyinyue in his hand. It looked very good. The college student was overjoyed and insisted on talking with the girl, art and aesthetic education, etc. The girl's heart was touched. In the room of the college student; it is said that this was intentional, and she specially arranged a topic of goodbye. Sure enough, the college student realized this meaning, and he went to her hotel to find her on the pretext of returning the lotus. In less than three days, it was over The friendship is more than friends. Lingyin, Tianzhu, Jiuxi Shibadong, Liuhe Pagoda and the riverside, you can often see their two shadows. In this way, they missed the sailing schedule to the United States. The two asked themselves If we really can't separate, we might as well go together and set off on the next boat. The people on the same boat wrote back, and the two of them still have a lot of flings in the boat."

"This is probably the beginning of free love. In the future, the liberation will be more thorough, and there will definitely be more new love stories in various ways." "I forgot, didn't you get married in love? Are you satisfied now? I'd love to see your new family." Leshan's unintentional question sounded like a thorn in Huanzhi's ears. He forced a smile and said, "What's your satisfaction? We just want to be together. The new family is really like the nest you mentioned in your letter. It's just a shelter and sleep in it, a den like a beast." Le Shan was a little strange, and asked, "Why did you say it so plainly? Didn't every word in the letter you told me about the success of the marriage last year look like a smile?" Although Huanzhi and Leshan hadn't seen each other for five years, and their correspondence was rare, there was no barrier between them; if he told Leshan all about his disappointment, Huanzhi would not think it inappropriate.However, there is another kind of reluctance to go into detail that hinders him, so he can only answer in a general way: "Everything is the same. When you look at it from a distance, you see a brilliant and dazzling brilliance. When you get close, you don't know the brilliance." When did you hide it long ago? This is what I answered you." "That being said, there's nothing unpleasant about it, right?" "Is that..." Huanzhi felt a little dazed, and he pulled himself together before saying this sentence. Le Shan looked at Huanzhi with pity, raised his right hand and patted Huanzhi's shoulder, and said, "That's good. Let me tell you, love is nothing more than that. So I never want to be in love." Le Shan said this The demeanor and tone of the words gave Yu Huan an impression that he had never had before. He felt that he was sophisticated and firm, beyond his age. Leshan looked at the scenery on both sides of the strait for a while, and then asked, as if the elder brother was asking the younger brother about his homework: "How is your innovative education doing?" "Do as I tell you." "Do you think it's interesting?" "It's just that—but it's okay," Huanzhi couldn't help being a little discouraged, and stammered. "Is it to teach students to farm, work, act, hold meetings, and do things like that?" "That's right. I read Dewey's speech recently, and some of the meanings coincide with ours; our principal Jiang Bingru once joked that heroes see the same thing." "I haven't read Dewey's speech carefully, but I think your method is too trivial. You have to learn this, and you have to learn that. What kind of people do you want your students to become!" "What we mean is that learning in this way and learning in that way are nothing more than making use of the topic, but the fundamental meaning is to cultivate students' ability to deal with things and cope with situations." "Of course the meaning is good; but I'm a utilitarian, so I have to ask, how effective are you?" Le Shan made another advance in this way, making Huanzhi look like a timid fighter, just trying to dodge. "Is it effective? The first class of students taught by the new method has recently graduated, and they can't see anything special. I think that after they enter the society and participate in various businesses, they can see that they are different from ordinary students. No difference; haven't had the opportunity to experiment yet." "Do you think so?" Le Shan seemed surprised by Huanzhi's fantasy expectation.He also said: "I can say arbitrarily now, but it is 80% or 90% correct. They have entered the society and participated in various businesses, and the result is that the society is swallowed up by the same, and they can't see it at all. What a special place. You must know that society is an organized thing, and what you teach students is only a more beautiful side; given this, I hope they will perform, which cannot be said to be a luxury." Huanzhi listened to those unreasonable objections and willful ridicules a lot; but this was the first thing he heard of the rational criticism.Emotionally, he didn't want to believe the criticism was true, but half of his heart couldn't help but nod to it.He said sadly: "You say it's an extravagant hope, but I hope it won't be so remote!" "Even if it's slim, you've finally done something interesting. People raise birds and grow flowers for fun. You play it uniquely, and use some students instead of birds and flowers." "Are you saying this is a game?" "Honestly speaking, I think what you are doing is just a new kind of play in the secluded life." Le Shan said, taking out a small English book from his pocket, ready to read it.However, Huanzhi told him about the idea of ​​teaching society at the same time that he thought of recently, and he also talked about some proposed plans, very earnestly, and hoped that he would criticize as much as possible. Le Shan replied calmly: "I will still say what I just said. Society is an organized thing. Listening to what you said, it seems that you are preparing to fight the world with your bare hands. This is in vain. If you want to transfer society and transform society, you must Don't do it in an organized way!" "How does it work in an organized way?" "That's more than a sentence or two..." Le Shan flicked the small English book with his fingers, and fell into deep thought for a while.Then he said in a provocative tone: "I think you don't want to do this teaching career, go outside for a walk, like a bird, fly into the sky." At the same time, his hand drew an arc in the space, indicating that the bird How to fly. "Let's just lose this teaching career," Huanzhi thought, although he felt that it was very slim to achieve this level.He didn't hate teaching as much as he used to, but he had a vague longing for something more meaningful and unknowable. At this time, the river course was over, and the boat entered a vast lake, the surface of which was white.Huanzhi stared and thought, "The mood at this moment is just like the surface of this lake. I hope that what follows behind is not a blank page in the history of life!"