Chapter 7 (three)

When we first arrived in London, Zhong Shu’s cousin Zhong Han took us to visit the British Museum, several famous galleries and the Wax Figure Museum.This summer vacation, he rode a bicycle to tour Germany and Northern Europe, and went to a factory for an internship.Zhongshu can only admire him.He has no such skills, nor such interests.He would just "adventure" with me pitifully: from the apartment to Hyde Park, and then to the old bookstore on Tottenham Road; from the zoo to the botanical garden; from the wealthy West End to the slums of the East End; . There are more classmates in Paris.I don’t remember whether it was in London or Paris. Zhongshu received a telegram from the government authorities, sending him to be a representative of the “World Youth Congress” in 1936 to attend a meeting in Geneva, Switzerland.There were three representatives, and Zhong Shu was not familiar with the other two.When we were in Paris, Wang Haijing, a member of the Communist Party of China who lived in Paris, invited us to eat at a Chinese restaurant.He asked me to be the Communist Party representative of the "World Youth Congress".I am very proud.I went to Switzerland with Zhong Shu, and I had my own identity, so I didn't go with them.

Zhong Shu and I moved with a group of representatives of the Communist Party.On the eve of our meeting, we took the night train to Geneva.The two of us shared the same carriage with Tao Xingzhi, and the three of us talked about dawn all night.Tao Xingzhi also took me out of the carriage, and in the aisle of the train, facing the sky outside the train, taught me how to use scientific methods to point to the stars in the sky. During the meeting of the "World Youth Congress", the two representatives of us ran away from the meeting if we encountered a meeting that we could slip away from.On the rugged, narrow and difficult mountain road, we "explored" to the edge of Lake Leman, hoping to go around the lake.But the farther you go, the wider the lake becomes, making it impossible to walk around.

The important thing is, we don't slip away.For example, we all attended the meeting where Chinese youth addressed the youth of the world.Those who spoke on stage were representatives of the Communist Party; the English speech was written by Qian Zhong.The response to the speech was not bad. We returned to Paris from Switzerland and stayed in Paris for another week or two. At that time, several of our old classmates and friends were studying at the University of Paris (Sorbonne). For example, Sheng Chenghua was my classmate in Tsinghua University who took French classes.It is said that if we want to study for a degree at the University of Paris, we need a two-year degree.Unlike Oxford University, the University of Paris has a "meal system" to guarantee living on campus, so you might as well register as soon as possible.So before we returned to Oxford, we asked Sheng Cheng to handle the registration procedures for us.We started in the autumn of 1936. Although we are in Oxford, we are already students at the University of Paris.

The room Ms. Dale rented to us this time was more decent than last time.Our bathroom has a large new tub instead of the old set of coiled pipes.However, the hot water is heated by electricity. After a month, we realized that the electricity bill was staggering, so we hurried to save hot water. We took a long trip this summer; when we returned to Oxford, I was pregnant with a child.People who get married generally look forward to having a child, and we are no exception.Fortunately, I was an idler at the time, and when the child was born and brought to France, I could entrust it out.We know that many girls who go to school in Paris leave their children behind, either in nurseries or in rural foster care.

Zhongshu earnestly told me: "I don't want a son, I want a daughter—only one, like you." I am not satisfied with "like me".I want a daughter like Zhong Shu.Daughter, like Zhongshu again, I don't know what she looks like, it takes a lot of imagination.Our daughter is indeed like Zhongshu, but that's for another story. I thought there was a baby in my stomach, but I ignored it.But when I was pregnant with a child, I knew that I had to dedicate the best of my body to this new life.In the lower animals the growth of new life is accomplished by the annihilation of the mother body.I didn't eliminate it, just hit a 30% discount, and everything diminished.Zhongshu described me in his diary at the end of the year: "Too late, Ji summed up what I have studied this year, and I am sorry that I am not satisfied..." Laughing at me, "I can be a good wife and mother because of my talents, and I want to be a female doctor..."

Zhongshu was very serious about the matter, and accompanied me to the maternity hospital early to book a single ward and asked the female director to introduce an expert doctor.The dean asked: "Want a girl?" (She is an expert herself. All the mothers in the general ward are delivered by her.) Zhongshu said: "Ask for the best." The dean introduced Dr. Spence to me.His family's garden house is not far from our apartment. Dr Spence said I would have a "Coronation Day doll".Because he expected the baby's birthday to coincide with the coronation of George VI (May 12).But our daughter has no interest in the coronation of the king, maybe she doesn't want to be in this world.I entered the maternity hospital on the 18th, and tried my best on the 19th but I couldn't bring her out.The doctor gave me medicine and let me "die" peacefully.

When I woke up, I was wrapped in a flannel bag like a newborn baby, with a hot water bottle behind my feet.His belly was empty, and his whole body was in pain, even his belt and bones, and he couldn't move.I asked the nurse next to me: "What's going on?" The nurse said, "You did hard work, hard work." Another nurse poked her head at the door.She asked me curiously: "Why don't you scream?" Seeing that I was dying of pain, she kept silent. I didn't expect to have this trick, but I said, "It still hurts after screaming." They are getting weirder.

"Are all Chinese women good at philosophy?" "Aren't Chinese women allowed to shout?" The nurse held the doll and showed it to me, saying that the doll was born with bruises all over her body, and that she had taken pictures of it alive.The doll is said to be the second Chinese baby born in Oxford.I was not yet fully awake, unable to speak, and fell asleep again. Zhongshu visited me four times that day.I had been taken to the maternity hospital by car the day before.Our apartment is not too far from the maternity hospital, but the bus cannot reach it.Zhong Shu had to cross several parallel bus roads, so he had to walk.He came in the morning and knew that he had a daughter, but the hospital still refused to let him meet with me.The second time I came here, I knew that I was on the stuffy medicine and I still haven't woken up.The third time came to meet me; I was freed from my flannel bag, but still too sleepy to speak.The fourth time was after afternoon tea, and I was sober.The nurse took the doll out of the nursery just for him to show Dad.

Zhong Shuzai carefully looked at it again and again, and then said triumphantly, "This is my daughter, I like it." After Yuan grew up, I told her my father's "welcome speech", and she was very grateful.Because I had never seen a newborn baby at the time, as far as I could describe her, she was ugly and weird.I learned that this was Zhongshu's fourth visit, and he had walked back and forth seven times. I was afraid that he would be exhausted, so I told him to go back by car. After Ah Yuan became sensible, every birthday, Zhongshu would always say that it was a difficult day for his mother.But it was also difficult for her father, and it was also difficult for herself.She was resurrected from the dead.She was probably very reluctant and cried very loudly.The nurses called her Miss Sing High because of her loud cry, which translates to "Miss Gaoge" and transliterates to "Miss Xinghai".

The single room is upstairs.If the weather is fine, the nurse opens the French windows and pulls the hospital bed to the balcony.I have occasionally seen two or three patients in the neighboring room.It is estimated that there are only six or seven or seven or eight single rooms in the hospital.The nurses are attentive.My bedroom is Ah Yuan's dining room. Every day, the nurse brings the doll to me to eat, and when she is full, she takes her back to the baby room.There are special guards there, and those who don't wear white coats are not allowed to enter. Generally, those who live in single rooms stay for about one week or ten days, and those who live in ordinary wards only stay for five to seven days, but I stayed for three weeks and two days.The maternity hospital charges one guinea a day (guinea - 1.05 pounds, stores are calculated in "pounds", but tutor fees, doctor's fees, lawyer fees, etc. are all in "guinea"). The maternity hospital has limited beds and single rooms There are not many, and long-term stays are not welcome.I was about to be discharged from the hospital several times and had accidents again. The maternity hospital made an exception and made me a very special patient number.

Two days before I was discharged from the hospital, the nurse asked me to take the elevator downstairs to visit the general ward—one common room, thirty-two mothers, thirty-three dolls, one pair of twins.The nurse let me watch the dolls being stripped and weighed, washed and returned to my mother.The dolls are all lying in the sleeping basket, hanging at the end of the mother's bed.I envied the doll hanging at the end of the bed, because I could only hear Ah Yuan's crying, but couldn't see her.The nurse taught me how to bathe and dress the doll.I learned, just not as fast as them. Zhongshu lived alone during this period. He visited the maternity hospital every day and often said with a bitter face, "I did something bad." He knocked over the ink bottle and stained the tablecloth of the landlord's house.I said, "It doesn't matter, I will wash it." "Ink!" "Ink can also be washed." He went back with confidence.Then he did something bad again and smashed the lamp.I asked Ming what kind of lamp it was, and I said, "It doesn't matter, I can fix it." He went back relieved.The next time he was full of worry, saying that the door hinge was broken, and one of the croquet balls at both ends of the door hinge fell off, and the door could not be closed.I said, "It doesn't matter, I will fix it." He went back with confidence. I said "it doesn't matter", and he was really relieved.Because he believed in what I said "it doesn't matter".While we were "exploring" in London, he had a boil on his cheekbone.I am worried too.Someone introduced me to an English nurse who taught me how to do warm compresses.I comforted Zhong Shu and said, "It doesn't matter, I will cure you." I earnestly applied hot compresses to him every few hours, and within a few days, I pulled out the last trace of pus sticking to the gauze, leaving nothing on his face. Next little scar.While he was grateful, he believed in what I said "it doesn't matter".All the "bad things" he did when I was in the maternity hospital, after I returned to the apartment, I really fixed them all. Zhongshu hailed a car to pick up his wife and daughter and leave the hospital, then returned to his apartment.He stewed chicken soup, peeled the tender green broad bean, boiled it in the soup, put it in a bowl, and served it to me.If the members of the Qian family knew that their "big official" could take care of the pregnant women in this way, they would be so surprised. Zhong Shu successfully passed the thesis oral examination.In the same year, a student studying in Oxford, who was studying in Oxford, proudly told Zhongshu after the oral examination: "The examiners only asked one question, and no one will ask questions in the future." Unexpectedly, his thesis still needs to be rewritten.Zhongshu’s British friends in the same college failed the oral examination and did not get a degree.Zhongshu received a Bachelor of Arts (B.Litt) diploma.He bid farewell to Oxford, packed his luggage, and the family of three headed to Paris, France.