The Rise of the Writers of the Republic of China

morning.

Zhang Leyi came to the living room with red eyes, Zhou Hexuan looked a little distressed, and asked with concern: "Are you okay?"

Zhang Leyi remained silent, and after a while said softly, "Why do you want to tell me the truth? I came all the way to Tianjin, you should at least coax and lie to me!"

Zhou Hexuan shook his head with a wry smile, and said what was in his heart: "I write novels to expose the darkness of society, I improve underwear and call for women's liberation. I think I am a saint, but in the end there is no difference. Like most men, I also long for three wives Four concubines, and lack of self-control, unable to restrain my desires. I wanted to lie to you yesterday, and wait for a while to explain the truth, but in the end I couldn't hold back. I think the only thing I can do is to confess, You have the right to know the truth, and I don't want to keep lying to you."

"You bastard!" Zhang Leyi finally couldn't help but curse out.

"I'm really an asshole, it's very unfair to you," Zhou Hexuan sighed, "It's really not possible, I'll send you back, we can be ordinary friends."

Zhang Leyi said angrily: "How can I go back? I ran away from home without telling my parents, and now I go home in disgrace and tell them, did I fall in love with a heartless man? How do you want me to behave!"

"Uh," Zhou Hexuan was speechless, "I didn't think carefully, why don't you stay in Tianjin first and talk about it later."

Zhang Leyi lowered her head and stopped talking, as she acquiesced to Zhou Hexuan's arrangement. She really didn't know how to go back to face her parents, and at the same time, she still had a little bit of reluctance in her heart, and she didn't want to end like this with Zhou Hexuan.

During the period of the Republic of China, the new-style women grew up in a complicated environment, accepting advanced Western ideas and being influenced by traditional culture. Christians say that marriage should be monogamous, but in society, three wives and four concubines can be seen everywhere.

Even Zhang Leyi's father didn't go home every now and then. Not only did he raise a woman in Jiujiang, he even had a concubine in Nanjing. During her stay in Nanjing some time ago, Zhang Leyi stayed at the house of "Auntie", and everyone did not shy away from anything.

Affected by the social environment, women in the Republic of China were not too demanding, and it was normal for a man to marry his concubine.

Like the female writer Lu Yin we mentioned earlier, while writing novels calling for equality between men and women, she is willing to marry a powerless married man. Even after her husband died, she took her daughter back to her husband's house to take care of her mother-in-law, and her original partner treated Lu Yin very well, and the "sisters" got along well. Only the mother-in-law thought that she had killed her husband and couldn't bear a son, so she kicked Lu Yin out of the house.

Zhang Leyi could understand a man's fickleness, but what she couldn't accept the most was that Zhou Hexuan didn't lie to her and insisted on telling the truth. It is enough for everyone to know this kind of thing well, why put it on the table and embarrass each other.

But thinking about it carefully, Zhang Leyi felt that Zhou Hexuan was very reliable, at least he would not deceive her, let alone occupy her body.

This has to be said to be a kind of sadness. A boyfriend who cheats on him is definitely a scumbag in modern society. And like Zhang Leyi, a daughter of the Republic of China, accepted it easily, but hoped that the man would steal it from her. When her boyfriend took the initiative to expose the facts, she felt that the other party was honest and trustworthy.

This kind of strange thinking is incomprehensible to modern people.

Historically, Mr. Mei Lanfang married three wives one after another to continue his incense. No one said that his character was bad, but his marriage with Meng Xiaodong was cited as a good story, which is a good story in the Liyuan.

Wanrong's arrival broke the awkwardness in the room. She smiled and said, "Brother Zhou, Miss Zhang, are you still not ready?"

"Wait a minute, we'll leave right away." Zhou Hexuan responded.

Zhang Leyi put away her emotions, pretended to be nonchalant and said with a smile: "I'll go back to my room to put on makeup first."

The three of them headed to the southern suburbs in a rickshaw. The water on the road has receded, but many people are still dredging and cleaning.

When I came to the foreigner's friendship club, I found that not only was it not affected by the flood, but it was much more lively. Some foreign merchants were trapped in the port congestion and stayed in Tianjin temporarily, and they all came here to have fun.

"Hi, Mister Zhou, long time no see!" A foreigner greeted from a distance.

"Hello, Mike." Zhou Hexuan waved and smiled.

At the bar, another fat foreigner shouted to the bartender: "Give Zhou a glass of whiskey, I'll treat you!"

Zhou Hexuan walked over to hug the fat foreigner, and said with a smile, "Haha, Jimmy, you've gained weight again."

The fat foreigner turned to the bartender with a straight face and said, "I've changed my mind. Let him pay for this glass of wine."

The whiskey had already been poured, Zhou Hexuan walked over and drank it down in one gulp, making his throat hurt, put down the glass and said, "It's on the fat man's account, I'm going to play ball."

"Hey, you bastard!" the fat man scolded loudly.

Zhang Leyi looked at it strangely, Zhou Hexuan's relationship with foreigners made her a little puzzled. Her father was from a comprador background and had long dealings with foreigners. In her childhood impression, foreigners should be superior to others, and his father was cautious and polite even when facing powerless foreigners.

But Zhou Hexuan is much more free and easy, he seems to be friends with foreigners on an equal footing, the kind who can make jokes casually.

"Who is that fat man?" Zhang Leyi asked in a low voice.

Zhou Hexuan said: "A major in the British Tianjin Garrison, I heard that he is still a minor nobleman. This guy often sneaks out of the barracks and goes to the club to drink and have fun."

"Are you familiar with the foreigners here?" Zhang Leyi asked again.

Zhou Hexuan said: "Some have drank together, and some have played ball together. I come to the club for a few days every month, and I get to know them well."

Zhang Leyi said: "Those foreigners seem to have a good impression of you, and they can even make jokes."

"Haha, foreigners are human too, why can't they make jokes?" Zhou Hexuan laughed.

"But my father is always cautious when dealing with foreigners." Zhang Leyi said.

Zhou Hexuan said: "That's because your father has needs from others and needs to rely on foreigners to do business. The so-called self-improvement, I don't ask foreigners to do things, why should I look at their faces? And the more casual I am with them, the more these foreigners like me. Exchange, treat me as a friend who treats each other as equals. In fact, they are also very curious about Chinese people and are willing to deal with normal Chinese people.”

Zhang Leyi smiled: "You mean that other Chinese people are not normal?"

"Do you think it's normal? When we Chinese meet foreigners, we either obediently promise them, or turn them away." Zhou Hexuan said.

"That's right." Zhang Leyi nodded thoughtfully.

Wanrong has a deep understanding of this. After Puyi came to Tianjin, he often dealt with foreigners. Pu Yi put on airs of the emperor, and even rewarded foreigners at business banquets, treating foreigners as servants of foreign countries. But the actual situation is that Puyi always approached foreigners carefully, for fear of offending them, just like a eunuch in the palace meeting his master.

The three of them went to the bowling alley room together, and saw the consul general couple of Britain and France as soon as they entered. The two ladies were playing ball happily, but the two consuls were standing beside them, discussing something in a low voice.

"To use a Chinese saying, say Cao Cao, Cao Cao is here," Herway waved to Zhou Hexuan, "Hey, Zhou, just when I was talking about you, you came here."

Zhou Hexuan walked over to salute and said, "Hello, Mr. Consuls."

British Consul General Roger Powell looked at Wanrong, then at Zhang Leyi, and said with a smile, "Mister Zhou, please introduce the beautiful lady next to you."

Zhou Hexuan said: "This is my secret..."

"I'm his fiancee." Zhang Leyi said suddenly, holding Zhou Hexuan's hand.

Zhou Hexuan was very surprised when he heard the words, and turned to look at Zhang Leyi in surprise.