The Rise of the Writers of the Republic of China

Xu Zhimo ran from Peiping to Tianjin, but Meng Xiaodong went from Tianjin to Peiping.

There are many famous Peking Opera teachers in Tianjin. Meng Xiaodong spent two years visiting and asking for advice, and he has already become the leader of each school. A while ago, when Meng Xiaodong went to Peiping, he met Chen Xiuhua, a well-known Tan School master. Although he didn't formally visit the entrance wall, he was allowed to learn art from Master Chen.

For this reason, Meng Xiaodong specially bought two courtyard houses in Beiping, intending to bring his parents and brothers from Shanghai. She is very rich, with tens of thousands of dollars in the bank, all earned from previous performances.

Early in the morning, Meng Xiaodong locked the door and went out. Today Chen Xiuhua's troupe has a performance, and she is going to observe the whole process, and learn some Tan School skills from it.

"Yeah!"

The gate of the courtyard next door opened, and a pair of little sisters walked out. My elder sister is about thirteen or fourteen years old, fair-skinned, beautiful, and pitiful; my younger sister is also eleven or twelve years old, but her appearance is much inferior, and she is still a yellow-haired girl.

The older sister glanced at Meng Xiaodong who had just left the house, and asked curiously, "Miss, did you just move here?"

"Yes, my name is Meng Xiaodong, I live at No. 26," Meng Xiaodong pointed to the side, "I also bought No. 25."

The elder sister seemed to feel that Meng Xiaodong was very kind, and said happily, "Then we are neighbors, and I live in Courtyard No. 27. My name is **** Tong, and this is my younger sister Wang Han."

In fact, the two sisters' surnames are not Wang, but Wanyan. The older sister is called Wanyan Litongji, and the younger sister is called Wanyan Bilin. They are the cousins ​​of Queen Wanrong. They lived in the palace a few years ago, but recently Zhang Zuolin bought the palace, and the family moved back to their ancestral home in Santiao Hutong, Dongsi.

Meng Xiaodong chatted with Grandma Tong for a few words, then walked to the entrance of the alley, called a rickshaw, and went to Shaojiu Alley in Chaoyangmen.

In the north of Shaojiu Hutong Road, there is a former Qing prince's mansion, which was called Prince Heng's mansion in Qianlong, and was renamed Prince Dun's mansion after Jiaqing. No matter what kind of prince it is, it's all gone now, and the luxurious and noble palace has become the residence of wealthy merchants.

Today is the 80th birthday of the old lady in the mansion, and she is hosting a banquet for guests from all over the world. How can there be no opera troupe at such a grand event?

Meng Xiaodong got off the car at the side door of the palace, waited for a while, Chen Xiuhua also showed up with his theater troupe, and everyone entered the mansion together after meeting.

Although it was early, the servants were already busy. Tables and benches were brought out one by one, and there were more than 20 baskets of cups, dishes and dishes piled up in the backyard. There were ten servants in charge of washing the dishes alone.

When noon approached, the troupe with all their make-up began to take the stage, and the guests who came to celebrate the birthday also took their seats one by one.

"Xiaodong, go sit down and listen to the play, so you can see it more clearly." Chen Xiuhua ordered.

Meng Xiaodong smiled and said, "It's fine to stand beside the stage, but the people sitting below are all guests, so I don't have the nerve to go."

"It's okay, I'll tell the host." Chen Xiuhua had a lot of face, his grandfather was enshrined in the Qing court, and his father was the famous Da Qingyi.

Meng Xiaodong couldn't refuse, thanked Master Chen, and left the backstage of the troupe to find a seat. She didn't dare to sit at the table nearer the front, the guests were all prominent figures, so she could only find the corner at the back.

After searching for a while, Meng Xiaodong saw that there was a table full of young women, and all of them were wearing new civilized clothes (top shirt and skirt), and they looked like they were all schoolgirls.

"Excuse me, are there any vacancies here?" Meng Xiaodong went over and asked.

One of the girls said with a smile: "Sit whatever you want, we are also guests."

Meng Xiaodong took a seat and sat down, then asked casually, "Which school do you belong to?"

"From Yanda Women's Hospital," the girl was very chatty, talking like a machine gun, "My name is Hang Shujun, her name is Zhou Yuan, her name is Lu Beixi, her name is Feng Zhaodi, and her name is..."

Yenching University is Yenching University, formed by the merger of four Anglo-American church schools, divided into men's and women's colleges, and the first president is Leighton Stuart. After the founding of New China, Yanda University was abolished and split, and its departments were merged into Tsinghua University, Peking University, Zhengda University, University of Finance and Economics and Minzu University.

Meng Xiaodong nodded to everyone and said with a smile, "Hello everyone, my name is Meng Xiaodong."

Just as I was talking, another girl came running over, hurriedly sat down and said, "Tingting and the others are going to have a poetry meeting in the afternoon, so don't run around, let's join in the fun together then."

"I'm going to watch a play here," Feng Zhaodi said, "Today's grand finale is for Mr. Chen to come on stage in person."

"What's so good about Beijing opera? It's old-fashioned," Hang Shujun said disdainfully, "Poems are more interesting."

In the end, the young girl raised the newspaper in her hand and said with a smile, "I found two good poems in this issue of "Poems"!"

Lu Beixi quickly asked: "Who wrote it? Xu Zhimo, Zhu Xiang, or Wen Yiduo?"

"Neither of them," the girl said with a smug smile, "Haha, you would never have guessed that it was Zhou Hexuan who wrote "The Rise of Great Powers"."

"He can also write poetry?" Hang Shujun asked in surprise.

"Ahem, I'll read it to you," the girl spread out the newspaper and cleared her throat, "A Generation, the night gave me black eyes, but I used them to find light!"

All the girls were pricking up their ears to listen, but the girl suddenly stopped.

"No more?" Zhou Yuan asked.

"No more." The girl said.

Feng Zhaodi said: "It's too short, only two sentences."

"Poetry is not long, but subtle," the girl said with emotion, "The night gave me black eyes, but I use them to find light. How wonderful, just two sentences can describe today's dark society, and what's more... It inspires us not to be afraid of the dark, but to look for a bright future. If you want me to say, Zhou Hexuan's poems are no less talented than Xu Zhimo and Wen Yiduo."

All the girls pondered those two poems silently, feeling more and more that the aftertaste was long and profoundly reasonable.

Meng Xiaodong pursed his lips and smiled, that Mr. Zhou seemed to know everything, but he started to write poems again.

The girl said again: "There is another song "Seeing and Not Seeing", everyone listen: You see, or you don't see me/I'm there/Never sad or happy/You read it, or don't read me...Love each other silently/Silence and joy .”

The audience was silent, and the female students were speechless.

In Xu Zhimo's eyes, "Seeing and Not Seeing" is just a small poem expressing emotion, and "One Generation" is a wonderful pen.

But for young female students, "A Generation" may have some taste, but "Seeing and Not Seeing" is a really good poem full of talent.

As expected of the poisonous chicken soup praised by "Reader", all the girls at this table were poisoned.

"It's very touching. Mr. Zhou must be a man with a story."

"It should be a love poem written by Mr. Zhou to his lover."

"If only some man could write me such poems."

"Hee hee, it's shameless for the public to have a dream!"

"I want you to manage!"

"..."

Hearing the laughter and jokes of the girls at this table, Meng Xiaodong felt a little lost, and muttered to himself: "Love each other silently, be happy in silence, who is he writing for?"

Those girls said again: "Hope Primary School is recruiting teachers in Beiping, and Mr. Zhou is the person in charge. Which one of you wants to go?"

"I want to go, but my family will definitely not agree."

"That's right, I'm going to study in France after graduation."

"Will Mr. Zhou come to Peiping? If he comes in person, I will definitely go and see."

"..."

Yenching University is a missionary school, and the students there are all from wealthy families, and there is really no one who is willing to be a primary school teacher. They are very interested in this, mostly out of the mentality of following the trend, keen to catch up with the trend of patriotism and progress.

Meng Xiaodong leaned on the table with his cheeks in his hands, staring at the stage, but he wasn't in the mood to watch operas and learn skills, but was thinking about the people in Tianjin. She didn't know why, anyway, Zhou Hexuan gave her a different feeling from others, as if she didn't belong to this era.