Chapter 44 my student

S grew up in Australia—her father was a diplomat stationed in Australia—and only returned to her motherland when she was seventeen.Her grandfather and my father were classmates. On the second day after she was admitted to university, her grandfather brought her to see me and asked me to take care of her.She did very well in the exam, but the subject of Chinese was an example of aiding overseas students, and she had to study separately after entering school. It was an early autumn afternoon, and I left her grandfather and her to have tea at our house.I chatted with her grandfather, and she was not restrained at all, chatting and laughing with us casually.I think that except for her black hair and black eyes, her clothes and expression are exactly like a European girl.She talked about Chinese with me in extremely fluent English, she said: "I have read Chinese, but a teacher in Guangdong taught it, and the accent is not correct..." When she said this, she rolled her eyes and smiled mischievously , "For example, he said: 'Yes, yes, it often rains in the sky.' Guess what? She said: 'Yes, yes, it often rains in summer' Look!" she said She laughed, and her grandfather laughed too.

I said, "Mandarin in college is no better than Mandarin. It is easy to learn Mandarin, as long as you are not afraid of speaking. As for Chinese, if you want to be able to listen to lectures directly, it is best if your Chinese professor can explain Chinese to you in English. As long as you pay attention, you will be fine." Her grandfather said: "In the Chinese Department, I am afraid that you are the only one who can explain Chinese in English, so put her in your group, please!" I had to agree. After a week of class, she came to see me and said that other homework was very easy, and the classmates were friendly with her, but I still couldn't understand Chinese.I said, "Of course I can't speak very slowly for your sake, but you might as well come to my office after class and I'll explain it for you again." She also agreed.From then on, she came four times a week and asked me to explain it to her.I have never seen such a smart child, progressing as fast as the wind.After a month, she only needs to come twice a week, and each time she talks to me in pure and fluent Mandarin.In the second semester, she was able to write articles in Chinese. The "autobiography" she wrote in my class was 9,000 words long. Not only were the words fluent, but the descriptions were very vivid.At this time, she has become a person who is often mentioned by the teachers and students in the school.

She majored in science and didn't have my homework in the second year, but because of her family acquaintance, she often came to see me.Now she has completely changed into Chinese clothes, and she doesn't speak a word of English, but she is still as lively and mischievous as little girls in Europe and America.She often imitated the Hunan dialect of their chemistry professor and the Shandong dialect of their physics professor to me, which often made the whole living room laugh out loud.Sometimes she suddenly said: "Uncle X, my grandfather said that you must have a girlfriend in the United States, otherwise why didn't you see you go out with your girlfriend in Peiping?" Walking with a certain female professor on campus, who do you think the female professor is?"

At first, some people believed her jokes, but later everyone knew how naughty she was, so they ignored her.At the same time, she has more and more friends, and she is busy with meetings, ball games, cycling, walking, skating, speaking, rehearsing plays after school, and has no time to come for tea. In the following three years, she was like a lion rolling a hydrangea ball, she was always active, and she was always active with all her strength.For her, work is play and play is work.In the morning, I saw her wearing a blue blouse, flat leather shoes, and carrying a book to class; suddenly on the court again, I saw her wrapping her head in a red silk scarf, wearing a white shirt and black shorts, playing tennis with three male classmates; in a blink of an eye, I also saw her riding a bicycle, passing by like a flying bird, and she had changed into a short-sleeved light blue fleece jacket and blue cloth trousers; in the afternoon, she appeared in front of the chemistry building in her experimental white clothes; It doesn’t matter, as long as the auditorium is brightly lit, go in and see, there is always her on the stage, either singing or acting; on weekend nights, you will meet her in the Beijing Hotel or Liuguo Hotel in the city, wearing a long dress that stretches the floor, Wear high heels, wear long earrings, thrush eyebrows, paint nails, eat and dance with people in the diplomatic or embassy circles.

All her activities seemed to have had no effect on her studies, and she graduated with great honors.Her grandfather was overjoyed and invited my father to graduation and lunch in our building afterward.After their grandparents left, my father said with a smile: "Do you see that S looks like a kitten, she never stays quiet for a moment! She is also alert and smart like a cat. Although she dances, she is not annoying at all. I think She will definitely marry a diplomat in the future, do you know that she has a lover in school?" I said, "She has many boyfriends, but I have never heard of any one who is particularly good. You are right, she will not If she chooses a partner among her classmates, she will definitely marry a diplomat. But no matter what, she will not marry a bookworm!"

Unexpectedly, during the summer vacation, she announced her engagement to a Mr. P, who is her classmate who majored in geology and soil. I have never heard of this guy!When I asked about P's tutors, they all said that he was an excellent student, he worked very hard, had a calm personality, and rarely did any activities other than reading.But how to fall in love with S and get engaged, no one has seen it, and absolutely can't think of it. A year later, they got married and lived next door to Grandfather S. My father sometimes took some of us brothers to visit them.Their family is "fully Westernized", and the servants and women in the family can all listen to English and take food and drink, not to mention. S is an authentic European and American housewife, sneaking in and showing off her beauty.My father often said to S with a smile:

"When you arrive at your home, it's like going to the Chinese Embassy in Australia!" But Mr. P, who lives in the "Australian Chinese Legation", is like an old monk in an ancient temple, dancing and singing wildly outside, but he doesn't care, and hides in his own study after work. When it's time to eat, he comes out, greets the guests briefly, and then lowers his head and holds up his chopsticks.On the contrary, S often came to ask him to talk, and greeted him with a smile.After dinner, I would often go into the study with him, where he talked a lot.Although I was a layman, he did not hesitate to tell me many recent discoveries about geological soils, and showed me many pictures, photos and specimens.Sometimes my father would stroll in with a cigarette pouch in his hand and join our conversation.He had a very good impression of P, and often said to me: "P is the geology itself, he is the strongest rock. S is tired of playing with people who love to play with beauty. She knows that there is only this rock in her life. Best of all, she's a smart person after all!"

When I left Peiping, I went to bid farewell to her grandfather, and I also went to P's house by the way.At that time, S was already a mother of three children, and a sand pond, a swing set and the like were added to the yard.The family has grown a lot, including nannies, laundry maids, cooks, gardeners, drivers, and handymen.So when S smiled and said "see you later", I just smiled and said, "I am a bachelor who picks up his feet and leaves. How do you move this 'legacy'?" P just smiled too. ,Say: "Mr. X, if you find any geologically novel materials over there, please send some to me for a look." It has been another three years since then——suddenly, one day, I was traveling in a remote county in Yunnan. , Lost on horseback.

At that time, it was nearly dusk, and there were mountains on both sides. I walked along a stream and asked everyone I met. A shepherd boy pointed to me and said, "There is a family behind the mountain by the water, and you are also from the river. Go there and ask." Look, maybe we can find a place to live.” I led the horse and walked over, a woman in the setting sun was washing clothes by the stream with her head down, I yelled, she raised her head suddenly, I could hardly believe my eyes , who is not S who is looking at me with a round wrist, covering the sun, and a pair of big black eyes?

I rushed over, she jumped up in love, threw the washed clothes into the water, and said in her mouth: "You don't think my hands are wet, just hold hands with me! You go straight up, the hut by the mountain is us home. P is at home, he will give you a glass of water to drink, and I will come after washing my clothes.” The three children were playing on the grass at the door, while P was milking the goat. When he saw me, he stayed for a while before cheering.The four surrounded me into the room, pushed me to sit down, offered cigarettes and tea, and asked questions.The oldest, nine years old, slipped out to feed the horses for me.

S came back with a bucket of wet clothes, and a female worker with small feet came out of the kitchen, took it, and hung it on the line to dry. S wiped her hands and came in with a smile. We started an excited and messy conversation, talking about recent situations. From the conversation, we knew that they came here two years ago. I asked about her grandfather, and she also asked about me. father. S is constantly doing this and that, wherever she goes.We will talk about it wherever we go.It wasn't until after dinner that the children fell asleep that everyone was quiet and sat down around a vegetable oil lamp. S was mending his socks, while P and I were smoking Liuzhou cigarettes and drinking Shengli black tea and talking. S said with a smile: "This is the 'mountain station' of the 'legacy', what we do is what we look like! Uncle X! This thatched hut was built by P instructing the workers. The doors all open outwards and there is only one window. Can't even close it! I took it apart and installed it, installed it and took it down again, and tossed it dozens of times. The desk, bookshelf, and 'sofa' chairs were all nailed by P and myself. We used seventy-eight kerosene barrels. Wooden box. There is also our bed, which is a masterpiece, and there is a low cabinet for shoes under the bed. It is very fun, just like when we were playing 'play house' when we were young, building a house, making furniture, holding dolls, and cooking , washing clothes, raising chickens, growing vegetables, busy all day long, but it’s really fun, the children have grown up, and even P can do some housework. Our family lives a camping life, and there are many jokes, However, we also often talk about our cleverness and being able to handle everything. I will show you our chicken coop, sheep pen, beehive, and toilet tomorrow... All in all, it’s really fun!" I stared at her, the word "really fun" is her outlook on life, her attitude towards the world, the work that other women feel painful and resentful, she coped with it with the spirit of "really fun" and "lifting the weight as if it were light".She is busy working by herself, experimenting by herself, admiring by herself, it's so fun!She didn't feel that she was doing the work of the War of Resistance in the rear area, she was what George Bernard Shaw said: "In the era of the Anti-Japanese War, except for the work of the Anti-Japanese War, he can do everything" great artist! That night they built a cot—they also nailed it themselves out of cowhide—and put me in P's study, which was the largest of the three rooms and doubled as a guest room, storage room, and so on.The walls are still full of photos and pictures nailed, the bookshelves are full of books, and there are many hoes, shovels, saws, poles and the like standing in the corners.After the lights were turned off, the moonlight filled the windows, and I couldn't sleep for a long time. I thought of the "Australian Chinese Legation" in Peiping, and my father. I don't know what my father would think if he saw this mountain station! The sun shines on my face, and the scent of sencha invades the nasal passages.As soon as I opened my eyes, there was a typical Yunnan sea blue sky outside the window, and there was no sound outside the door.I lightly put on my clothes and walked out. I saw S tiptoeing to prepare breakfast, looked up and saw me, and smiled and said, "Did you sleep well? You must be tired after riding a horse all day. We didn't call you. P has gone to work, and the children have gone to school, I am waiting for you to eat porridge together." He hurriedly went to the kitchen again. I was in the outer room, washing up, and at the same time looking around in the sunny room. The material aspect of the "legacy" has been reduced, but the clean and beautiful spirit of the "legacy" is still there, with some rustic charm added.On the dining table was a red flower homecloth with a white background, and a pot-bellied earthenware pot was filled with wild flowers of red and white. On the table is a plate of yellow fruits—the people in Sichuan call them Guanggan—and on the opposite side are two white plates, next to which are two red-handled knives, two pairs of red chopsticks, two red Bakelite wash bowls, two A napkin with red flowers on a white background... As I was watching, S came in with a plate of egg fried steamed buns and asked me to sit down, while she sat opposite.We peeled the yellow fruit and talked at the same time. Looking at S during the day, I feel that she is much thinner than three years ago, but she is still in good spirits. She is wearing a homemade shirt with blue background and white flowers, short socks, and cloth shoes; her face is lightly powdered, and her nails are also very red.I laughed and said, "Have you brought all your cosmetics?" She also laughed and said, "I have brought them all, but now I use goose egg powder and rouge cotton. Impatiens petals and alum can also be pounded." Paint your nails." We ate salted duck eggs and kimchi homemade by S, had porridge, and drank sencha.After sitting for a while, S invited me to visit her environment.Outside the door, in the vegetable garden are red peppers and tomatoes, green beans, yellow cucumbers, and purple eggplants. Surrounded by flower beds, the sun is shining brightly, and bees and butterflies are buzzing.Behind the vegetable garden, it looks like a zoo! A dozen large white Italian chickens, feeding on the sand, three black sheep, two wolfhounds—my horse was also hitched by the side—and the children's squirrels and white rabbits.A very fat blue-eyed Siamese cat hopped in and out of the hedge. After turning to the mountain, I saw many houses. S said that this is the city center, with a vegetable market, a postal agency, and a central primary school. P's "Geological Survey Office" is the most beautiful and tall house in the city, with brick walls and tile roofs, and a police box is set up next to the door.When we walked through this "street", men, women, old and young, and pretty people from the village all greeted S and talked gossip.A woman even carried a sick child out of the doorway to show S.When we left the house, I laughed and said, "S, now you are not the minister's wife, but the pastor's wife!" She smiled. At the end of the street, there are five or six houses similar to S's, which are the residences of colleagues from the Geological Survey Institute. S also took me in for an interview.Most of the wives were from other provinces, and when they saw me go, they were all very affectionate, and offered to sit down and have tea.Their room is the same as S's, but the furnishings are very messy and vulgar. I am dressed in rough clothes, and the children are crying and making noise. These wives kept apologizing to me, saying that the room was small, the servants were stupid, If you don't have anything at your fingertips, how can you treat guests like Beiping and Shanghai?I sat bored for a while, then said goodbye. On the way back, S asked me to go first, saying that she had to go to the elementary school to teach a class.I didn't come back either, but went to the "Geological Survey Institute" to visit their work.When P got off work, we walked out together, and the three children were waiting at the door very happily, saying, "Mom stewed chicken, roasted meat, and steamed custard, please go back and eat big steamed buns!" I took a long nap in the afternoon and wanted to walk when I woke up. S and P would definitely not agree, saying that they would invite some friends to talk to me tonight. S laughed and said that there are several beautiful wives. I said: "If you feel sorry for me, you can avoid this trick, I am really afraid of meeting strangers; besides, you can't play the 'legacy'!" P said: "That's fine, you can do it again Let’s stay for one day, so we don’t invite guests.” S thought for a while, smiled, and said, “I have something to do before dinner, you take these children to the opposite mountain to play, around six o’clock, bring some red Rhododendron is back," we agreed, and the children cheered and ran ahead. P and I lay opposite each other on the grass on the top of the hill, basking in the sun.I said, "You two are really nice. You were so calm before, and you are still so calm now. S was so lively before, and he is still so lively now, but he is more experienced and capable than before, which is really rare." P was silent. After a while, he said: "Mr. X, you only know S's lively side, but you haven't seen her serious side. She strives for perfection in every way and strives to win in everything. In the past two years, her body has not been as good as before! She is alone. People do the things of six or seven people, but never admit their weakness. You know that she likes to quote Chinese idioms—English is her dialect after all, and she often speaks English in her sleep—sometimes the words are wrong and make people laugh. One day , When I came back from work, I found her lying on the bed and was about to get up when I saw me. I held her down and asked her what was wrong, and she said nothing. I just felt a little dizzy. I sat by the bed for a while, and she suddenly said :'P, I am a person whose heart is higher than the sky and life thinner than paper.' I suddenly felt sad and forced a smile and said: 'Stop talking nonsense, you know what the word 'life is thinner' means. ' But she shed tears, turned around and lay down. Mr. X, do you think..." P couldn't go on, and I didn't feel stunned, so I said: "I can naturally see that S is serious. If she is not serious, she will not recognize you. If she is not serious, she will not come to the mainland. Her body is not as good as before, you have to protect her all the time! As for the two sentences she said, you don’t have to keep them in your heart, she doesn’t understand Chinese.” P did not speak, but his eyes were red. At this time, the children ran up with their arms full of red rhododendrons and said: "It's time for us to go back. Before dinner, we have to change our clothes." As soon as she entered the house, Mrs. Li, the "helper", came out wearing black silk underwear and a white apron, and said with a smile, "Guests, please sit in the living room." We went into the middle room and looked at the dining table covered with a snow-white tablecloth, four brilliant red candles lit, a large plate of red rhododendrons in the middle, silver plate and chopsticks of the same color on the table, and a snow-white napkin.While we were in shock, Mrs. Li smiled and opened the cloth curtain of the bedroom, saying: "Ma'am! The guests are here." S came out of the room with a smile, wearing a red velvet gown, big ruby ​​earrings, stockings on her feet, golden high-heeled shoes, long eyebrows, painted The red lips, and Tantan's yellow powder was smeared around the eye circles, making those watery handsome eyes even more beautiful—these handsome eyes were full of a smug mischievous smile—she stretched out her hand, grasped it with me, and smiled Said: "Mr X good night! How long have you been here?Are you used to seeing everything here? We all laughed, but the children ran over and hugged S's leg, cheering and saying: "Mom, it's so beautiful!" " Turning around, she clapped her hands and said with a smile, "Look! Mrs. Li has also dressed up!" Mrs. Li held back her laughter and went to the kitchen. We quickly washed our hands and sat down.Since there were no other guests, the children also came to the table, and everyone was very happy.After the meal, the children ate some fruit and went to bed one after another. S made coffee again, and we chatted while watching the moon on the porch.Seeing S's high-heeled shoes shining under the moonlight, I said, "You don't have the chance to dance and play cards now, right?" S laughed and said, "No wonder! P only learned to dance and play cards when he came here. After dinner, I have nothing to do, so I taught P how to play 'Honeymoon' cards and danced him. He was very tired from work all day, so he should change his mind." P laughed and said, "I don't care about these things. When I was in Peiping, Don't change your mind. I'd rather you go to bed early after a busy day, and I'll read some relaxing books by myself." I said, "S, do you know how to drive a car?" S said, "Yes, but after arriving here, there is no chance to drive a car." I laughed and said: "Since you know how to drive, you know that no matter how strong a car is, it cannot be driven 24 hours a day, especially on this rugged mountain road. Material resources should also be cherished, let alone manpower? Don't you live in an electric refrigerator now? Flush toilet' life, everything is mainly to preserve vitality, you can't treat yourself as a machine all day long, keep turning on..." S said quickly: "That's exactly what I said! People thought I could only live a life of 'electric refrigerator, flush toilet'..." I stopped her, "You come again, you always have a competitive temper! If you treat me as an uncle, you should listen to me If so." S smiled, looked up at Yue, and said nothing. Early the next morning, I rode out of this small town. P, S, and the three children all sent me to the main road. Looking back at this group of lovely shadows, I was suddenly grateful and sad. On the third day after returning to my residence, I suddenly decided to come to Chongqing.Before boarding the plane, I hurriedly wrote a short message to them, thanking them for their hospitality and reporting my whereabouts.He also said that after I arrived in Chongqing and settled down, I would write to them—unexpectedly, as soon as I arrived in the capital, I suffered from a severe cold for a month, and then moved east and west without a definite address.It was not until two months later that I wrote them a long letter, and I did not hear back for a long time.Two months later, I opened a letter from P in front of the dormitory window of a single professor in a university: Mr. ×: How unfortunate am I that S abandoned me yesterday morning!The reason was that a colleague went on a business trip, and his wife suddenly got acute appendicitis. S found out, and immediately borrowed a car and drove her to the provincial capital.When I got off work, I saw her note, and immediately rode to the hospital... The lady had already entered the hospital, and the affected area was festered. Fortunately, the operation went well, but the blood loss was too much, and a blood transfusion was needed.It was very expensive to buy blood at that time, but the wife refused because of financial concerns. S found out that their blood was of the same type, so she transfused 200 cc of blood to the wife. ... I asked her to come back with me, but she said that the lady needed someone to take care of her, and she couldn't afford a special nurse, and she had to stay there until her husband came.I couldn't hold her back, and the office was busy with official duties, so I had to go first... Three weeks later, S came back, so thin that she couldn't bear it!It turned out that within three weeks, she had transfused 400 cc of blood to the wife.Since then, I have been lying down, and sometimes I struggled to get up, and I couldn't walk anymore.The doctor found that she was suffering from corneous tuberculosis, which is the blood vessels all over the body, all of which contain tuberculosis bacteria, which is the most violent and incurable type of tuberculosis!The cause of the disease was too much blood loss, overwork, and insufficient nutrition... During these three months, S was anxious, the child was exhausted, and I was exhausted. However, all these sufferings did not save our miserable fate! ...She was born in Shanghai, grew up in Australia, married in Peiping, and died in Yunnan at the age of thirty-two... Like thunder and lightning, I was stunned, and S's calm and sad words appeared in front of my eyes, Look up at the face of the moon!Thinking of her beautiful and tidy home, her peaceful and silent husband, and her bright and lively children...Suddenly the horn of the flag was lowered in the square, and I couldn't help but put the letter in my hand and stood up straight.With my arms hanging down, I stared at the glorious national flag, and slowly landed from the high pole. In the lingering sound of the horn, I sat down weakly. My tears, I don’t know where they came from, It's all over my face! scholar. )