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 long been the leader of each family. Meng Xiaodong went to Peiping a while ago, and met Chen Xiuhua, a famous Tan school master. Although he did not officially worship the entrance wall, he was allowed to study with Master Chen.

   To this end, Meng Xiaodong bought two courtyard houses in Peiping, intending to bring his parents and brothers from Shanghai. She is very rich, with tens of thousands of dollars in bank deposits, all of which she earned from previous performances.

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

   "Yah!"

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

   Sister looked 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 on No. 26," Meng Xiaodong pointed to the side, "I also bought No. 25."

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

  The two sisters are not actually surnamed Wang, but their surname is Wanyan. The elder sister's name is Wanyan Litongji, and the younger sister's name is Wanyan Bilin. They all lived in the palace a few years ago. Recently, Zhang Zuolin bought the palace, and the family moved back to their ancestral home in Dongsi Santiao Hutong.

  Meng Xiaodong chatted with ****tong for a few words, then walked to the entrance of the alley and called a rickshaw to go to the soju alley in Chaoyangmen.

  There is a former Qing prince's mansion in the north of Shaojiu Hutong Road. It was called Prince Heng's mansion during the Qianlong period, and was renamed Prince Dun's mansion after Jiaqing. No matter what the prince is, it's like a passing glance now, and the luxurious and noble palace has become the residence of the wealthy merchants.

  Today, the old lady in the house is celebrating her 80th birthday, and she entertains guests from all over the world. How can such a grand event lack a troupe?

  Meng Xiaodong got off the bus at the side gate of the palace and waited for a while. Chen Xiuhua also appeared with his troupe. After everyone gathered, they entered the palace together.

   Although it was early, the servants were already busy. Tables and benches were brought out and set up, and cups, dishes and dishes were piled up in the backyard in more than 20 baskets, and there were ten servants who were responsible for washing dishes.

   As it approached noon, the costumed troupe 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, you can see it more realistically." Chen Xiuhua ordered.

  Meng Xiaodong smiled and said, "It's fine to stand beside the stage, all the guests are sitting below, how could I be so embarrassed to go."

   "It's fine, I'll talk to the host." Chen Xiuhua has a great face. His grandfather was enshrined in the inner court of the Qing Dynasty, and his father was the famous Da Qingyi.

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

   After searching for a moment, Meng Xiaodong saw that there was a table full of young women sitting on the table, and all of them were wearing new civilized clothes (top shirts and skirts), and they all seemed to be female students.

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

   One of the girls said with a smile: "Just sit down, we are also guests."

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

   "From the Yan Da Women's Court," the girl was very talkative, 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, her name is..."

   Yanda is Yenching University, formed by the merger of four Anglo-American mission schools, divided into men's and women's schools. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Yan University was abolished and split, and each department was merged into Tsinghua University, Peking University, National Chengchi University, University of Finance and Economics and Minzu University.

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

   Just as he was talking, another young girl suddenly ran over and 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."

   "I'm going to watch a play here," Feng Zhaodi said, "Today's finale is for everyone Chen to take the stage in person."

   "What's so good about Beijing opera? Old-fashioned things," Hang Shujun said disdainfully, "or poetry would be more interesting."

   The girl was sitting at the end, holding the newspaper in her hand and grinning and said, "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," the girl smiled proudly, "Haha, you can't guess, it's Zhou Hexuan who wrote "The Rise of Great Powers"."

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

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

   All the girls were pricking up their ears and listening, when the girl suddenly stopped.

   "No?" Zhou Yuan asked.

   "No more." The girl said.

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

"Poems are not long, but subtle," the girl said with emotion. "Darkness gave me black eyes, but I use them to find light. How wonderful, in just two sentences, you can describe today's dark society, and also Inspire us not to be afraid of the dark, but to look for a bright future. I would say that Zhou Hexuan's poetry is no less talented than Xu Zhimo and Wen Yiduo."

   All the girls silently recalled those two lines of poems, feeling more and more that the aftertaste was long and profound.

   Meng Xiaodong pursed his lips and smiled. That Mr. Zhou seemed to be able to do everything, but he started to write poetry again.

The girl added: "There is also a song "Seeing and Not Seeing", everyone listen: You see, or you don't see me/I'm there/I'm not sad or happy/You read, or you don't read me... Silently in love/Silent and happy ."

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

   In Xu Zhimo's eyes, "Seeing and Not Seeing" is just a little poem to express emotions, and "A Generation" is a wonderful pen.

   But for young female students, "A Generation" may have some flavor, but "Seeing and Not Seeing" is a really talented poem.

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

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

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

   "If only some man wrote me this kind of poem."

   "Hee hee, the public has a spring dream, I don't know how to be ashamed!"

   "I want you to take care of it!"

  “…”

   Listening to the laughter and jokes of the girls at this table, Meng Xiaodong felt a little disappointed, and muttered to himself: "Silently in love, silently happy, who did he write to?"

   Those girls said: "Hope Primary School is recruiting teachers in Peiping, Mr. Zhou is the principal. Who among you want 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 see it."

  “…”

  Yenjing University is a religious school, and the students in it are all from wealthy families, and they really don’t want to be primary school teachers. They are very interested in it, 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 hands on his fragrant cheeks, his eyes fixed on the stage, but he was not in the mood to watch opera and learn the arts, but thought about the people in Tianjin. She didn't know why, anyway, Zhou Hexuan made her feel different from others, as if she didn't belong to this era.