Chapter 11 (seven)

During the summer vacation of 1941, Zhongshu changed from land to sea and returned to Shanghai.At that time, the population of the Chin family on Lafayette Road was still increasing.A year ago, I rented a room in the alley on Lafayette Road, lived there for a month, and quit.This time, they couldn't find a house anywhere, so they had to squeeze into the downstairs living room of Qian's house.Before Zhongshu arrived, Yuanyuan and I had already stayed at Lafayette Road and waited for him. Zhongshu's eyes were dark and his hair was too long. He was wearing a linen gown, the style was very rustic, and the cloth was also very thick.He brought back a foreign orange from the boat for his daughter.Yuanyuan saw her father, and stood aside to watch curiously.She took the orange and passed it to her mother, all eyes on the stranger.I haven't seen her for two years, and she doesn't seem to know her anymore.When she saw the luggage her father had brought back by her mother's bed, she was worried and watched suspiciously.After dinner, Yuanyuan spoke to her father.

"This is my mother, your mother is over there." She wanted to drive Dad away. Zhongshu smiled recklessly and said, "Let me ask you, did I know your mother first, or you first?" "Of course I got to know each other first. I got to know each other when I was born. You got to know each other when you grew up." These are Yuan Yuan's original words. I only changed Wuxi dialect to Mandarin.I was very surprised at the time, so I remembered her words word for word. Zhongshu whispered something in her ear quietly.Yuanyuan was very friendly with her father as if she was immediately impressed, and her mother took a backseat.Yuanyuan has always been the most "buddy" with her father.I didn't ask what Zhongshu said at the time, and I didn't think to ask later. Now there is no one to ask.Did he say "I've known you since you were born"?Did you say "You are my daughter"?Did you say "I am your daddy"?Of the three of us, I'm the stupidest one.I couldn't figure out what exactly Zhongshu said that won his daughter's friendship in an instant, so I had to doubt it, and it would always remain a mystery.Anyway, the two of them immediately became good friends.

She joked, was naughty, and made noise with her father.In the past, Yuanyuan was surprisingly well-behaved on Lafayette Road, but since her father came back, Yuanyuan has become so obedient, playing with her father in the same way, she has changed completely.She was five years old at that time, but her real age was four years and two to three months.She has always had only people who love her, who take care of her and teach her, but she has never had a partner to play naughty with. Yuanyuan passed away at the age of 60 and still owed more than two months.One or two months before her death, she was still writing while lying on the hospital bed.The first section is "Dad Teases Me".Now, I attach her notes at the end of the volume.

When Zhongshu returned to Shanghai this time, he was only planning to spend the summer vacation.He has learned that Tsinghua has decided to hire him back to school.The news may have been delivered by Teacher Wu Mi.Therefore, Zhongshu has resigned from his position in Lantian and is planning to return to Southwest Associated University.In 1941, there was a poem "I will go to Yunnan again and read like a canal".According to the archives of Tsinghua University, on March 4, 1941, there is indeed a record of hiring Qian Zhongshu back to school.According to "Wu Mi's Diary", the department passed a resolution to invite Zhongshu to teach at the school on November 6, 1940. It said: "Those who are jealous express their opposition, but they pass it." ("Wu Mi" Mi's Diary VII, p. 258) Zhong Shu did not know that there were "express objections from those who are jealous", nor did he know that the dean of the department at that time was Chen Futian.

Chen Futian is an overseas Chinese who has no basic knowledge of the motherland's culture. When Zhong Shu was in school, he was just a teacher in the foreign language department, far from being a director.Zhongshu never called Mr. Chen Futian or Chen Futian, but only called FT.He and FT never interacted. Zhong Shuman thought that he would receive an appointment from Tsinghua University in the near future. "He is an idiot waiting for his wife" and waited and waited, but there was no news from Tsinghua University.Zhongshu's second younger brother has taken his wife and children to work elsewhere, Zhongshu's younger sister has gone to his father's side, and Zhongshu is still waiting for Tsinghua's letter of appointment.

I asked Zhongshu: Did I make a mistake? Tsinghua did not hire you back to school.It seemed he was wrong.Zhongshu hesitated and said that Yuan Tongli had made an appointment with him, and if it was inconvenient to enter the mainland, he could work in the Central Library.I don't know if Zhongshu wrote to Yuan Tongli.Zhongshu later told me that Mr. Ye told Yuan Tongli that he was proud, but I don't know the basis.Anyway, Tsinghua University and Yuan Tongli have not heard from each other. School is about to start, and Zhongshu feels that he has failed in two places and is in danger of losing his job.His good friend Chen Linrui was the dean of the English Department of Jinan University at the time, and Zhong Shu applied to Chen Linrui for a job.Chen said: "It just so happens that everyone in the department is dissatisfied with Sun Dayu, so if you come here, you will reject him." Zhongshu only heard Sun Dayu's name, but did not know him.But he would never take other people's positions, so he refused.He took two hours of lessons at the Aurora Girls School that my dad had given him.

Around October, Mr. Chen Futian came to Shanghai on business.In his capacity as the head of the Department of Foreign Languages ​​at Tsinghua University, he personally hired Qian Zhongshu to return to school.Since Tsinghua had decided to hire Qian Zhongshu back to school, the letter of appointment should have been mailed out long ago.He didn't post it for a long time, obviously he was not welcome.Since it is not popular, why bother to make trouble for yourself?Zhongshu has been excluded a lot in his life. He never argues with the other party, and always gives in obediently.He politely declined the offer, and Chen Futian left after completing the task, and they didn't exchange a few words.

We lived in Chin's house on Lafayette Road for eight years. Dad often has letters from home, and the letters are always written to the youngest son, and every letter will praise him for "managing the family and caring for his mother".Since Zhongshu returned to Shanghai, the word "helping brother" has been added in addition to "caring for the family and caring for the mother".Why does Zhongshu need his younger brother to "help" him?Since Dad said so, he also admitted it.He is willing to be wronged and can endure.Yuanyuan is also willing to be wronged and can endure.I think they all look like my mother-in-law.

At that time, I had tutored Ms. Kuo until she graduated from high school, and I introduced her to a university teaching assistant I knew.After the Pearl Harbor Incident, the isolated island sank and the Zhenhua branch was disbanded.I took another job as a substitute teacher for a half-day primary school in the Ministry of Industry and Commerce. The salary is not low, and there are three buckets of white rice every month, but the school is far away from home. I rushed to class after dinner, so sleepy that I fell asleep on the bus. .I write scripts as an amateur. "Satisfaction" was staged, and I was still working as a primary school teacher.

After Zhongshu met with "Mother Thornton", the head of Aurora Women's Liberal Arts College, the school immediately added a few hours for him.He then accepted a student who worshiped the door, and Shu Xiu always rose with the price.Life in the occupied areas is hard, but we can always be self-sufficient.Self-sufficiency is victory.Although Zhong Shu was teased by bad luck, he felt that sharing weal and woe as a family was better than parting.He vowed: "From now on, we will only die and never leave again." After Zhongshu’s younger sister came to his father’s side, I can’t remember the year, but around 1944, Zhongshu’s second brother lived in Hankou with his family, and wrote to his mother, saying that his father had married his younger sister to his student XX. But my younger sister didn't want to, and often wandered alone by the river, fearing that she might commit suicide. (The second brother's residence is just across the river from the father's residence, so it's very convenient to come and go.) My mother-in-law loves children the most.General traditional family, patriarchal.But the Qian family has many sons and very few daughters, and daughters are very precious.According to the second brother's letter, the person my father chose is not suitable.The man was a lecturer who had worked with Zhong Shu.Zhongshu stood in the position of his younger sister, and if the younger sister didn't want to, it was just inappropriate.My mother-in-law thought it inappropriate just because he was a foreigner.Zhongshu's third younger brother has moved to Suzhou with his wife and children.The third brother travels between Suzhou and Shanghai, but is not in Shanghai at this time.

My mother-in-law asked Zhong to write a letter to discourage this marriage.My uncle sympathized with my mother-in-law and wrote to dissuade her.In his letter, he was very open-minded, saying that the couples in the family love to quarrel, but our husband and wife don't quarrel, which shows that marriage is better than freedom.On behalf of his mother, Zhongshu made a tactful statement, saying that he was the only girl in his life, and he didn't want her to marry a foreigner, and hoped that his father would think about it again.Zhongshu privately wrote to his sister to encourage her, telling her to resist.Unexpectedly, the younger sister did not dare to disobey her father, so she took out her brother's letter and spoke for her. Dad was very annoyed when he saw the letter.He was determined to choose a good son-in-law for his daughter, and he fell in love with this lecturer who is both good in character and learning, and believed that under his training, he would surely become a talent; if his daughter married a scholar, "rough tea and light meals are enough", so what about foreigners?I can't remember whether he replied with one letter or two, but I only remember that the letter said that Chu Anping (who was working in the teacher's college at the time) was free to marry, and he was getting divorced all the time!He also sneered that parents now have to wait for their children to be educated! (This is aimed at Zhongshu's incitement to my sister's rebellion.) The letters from Dad and Zhongshu are all wonderful words in classical Chinese, but unfortunately I can only summarize them, which inevitably lacks literary talent.But I can understand the emotions of all parties. The fourth aunt was the most humorous, she rolled her eyes and said to me privately: "The obedient one is fine, but the stupid one is getting scolded again." - "The obedient one" refers to Yang Zhi's younger brother (but he was not in Shanghai at the time), "the naive one is fine." "Referring to Zhongshu.In fact, even the "good" uncle was "squeezed", and I was also "suffered". Zhongshu's younger sister obediently got married in August 1945.My mother-in-law came to my father-in-law's place on the eve of liberation and lived with my daughter and son-in-law.Zhongshu's younger sister gave birth to two smart and beautiful daughters, and two young children whom I have never met.The marriage arranged by father alone should be considered a happy one, but that's another story. In fact, Zhong Shu is the son that his father values ​​most.The depth of love comes with severe responsibilities, but the strict father's posture cannot conceal the true feelings of a loving father.Although Zhongshu was afraid of his father since he was a child, the relationship between father and son is still very sincere.He respected his father very much and pitied him very much. He told me privately: "Because my mother was sick and weak, my father gave birth to four children in seven years. He didn't go back to bed, worked in the study outside day and night, and fell tired to rest on the recliner. The Jiangsu-Zhejiang War, The rebel army robbed Wuxi, grandpa's property was robbed, and grandpa owed a large debt. This large debt was repaid by dad alone." I asked, "Where's little uncle?" Zhong Shu said: "My little uncle has nothing to do with it. Daddy is in charge. When this huge debt is paid off, Daddy will be sick from exhaustion." I once heard my father-in-law yell "ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh" and thought it was a bruise.Zhong Shu said that it was not a cry of pain, but his idiom, because he had been in pain all over the body for many years, and he would yell "ahhhhhhhhhhh" when he was not in pain. Dad's admonition to Zhongshu is just a good article, which does not benefit Zhongshu much.Zhongshu didn't fully agree with his father's "aspirations", but he understood it.Dad didn't know Zhongshu's "aspirations" well, and he didn't approve of them either.Their father is kind and their son is filial, but their interests are not aligned. Zhong Shu's cousin Zhong Han and Zhong Shu are good brothers, closer than brothers.Once, Zhong Han said a very pertinent sentence in our Sanlihe apartment.He said: "Actually, I am the most like Uncle San." We all felt that what he said was absolutely right, he was my father-in-law's ideal son.