Chapter 376
One day, Wang Jiazhi came back and told him about what she had seen on the tram. One woman told another woman that her father had treated her badly and named her Zhaodi, which sounded awkward. Later, when they got married, her husband said that this name was not good, so she was called Shuxian from then on, and had her own name.
He smiled and said, "A father hopes his daughter can give birth to a son, and a husband hopes his wife will distance herself from her family and serve him gently and virtuously. These are all calculations in men's minds, but some may express them in a high-sounding way, while others may not. If he truly respects her, he should ask her what new name she wants."
Wang Jiazhi once read a story about a girl so beautiful, so famous throughout the capital, that the emperor snatched her from her beloved and took her into his harem. Because of her favor, she was given the title of Defei (De Fei), just one rank below empress. Later, she became pregnant. The emperor, childless at the time, was overjoyed and promised that if she bore a son, he would make her empress. However, she gave birth to a blind daughter, a fate the emperor considered a bad omen, and banished her to the cold palace. Twenty years later, when the emperor saw her again, he had forgotten her completely. Not only her name, but even the title of Defei (De Fei) had vanished from his memory.
During the last days of her past life, Wang Jiazhi recalled this story. She felt that if she died, the only difference between her and the girl would be that the girl hated the emperor so much that she didn't need or want him to remember her. She, on the other hand, wanted him to remember her.
But could he remember her? Everyone called her Mrs. Mai, and she had only mentioned her name to him once. He would definitely not remember his own name, and soon, he would not remember who Mrs. Mai was either.
Wang Jiazhi's world was too painful, filled with humiliation, suffering, and loneliness. Mrs. Mai's world wasn't much better, but there was happiness there, and someone she loved.
But after all, she is Wang Jiazhi, not Mrs. Mai.
But the one he liked was Mrs. Mai, the one who was stripped naked and defiled by those bastards, and then dressed in beautiful clothes and jewelry to create a fake person who didn't exist at all.
If he knew that the person he liked was such a ridiculous fake person with a beautiful appearance but rotten inside, how could he still like her?
In the days leading up to his imprisonment, he arranged for his close associates. Driver Yao was six or seven years older than him. Back in their hometown, their families lived close together, and they had been close friends since childhood. Later, when he was in his twenties, when Old Yao moved to the city, he helped find a job and asked him to learn to drive. He believed that learning a skill would ensure a job, and with the increasing number of cars, learning this would surely make it easier to find work in the future. The bodyguard was also the son of a close friend of his parents' generation.
Although they were old friends from the same hometown, he hardly spoke to them later, and they didn't dare to initiate a conversation with him.
During those days that followed, there was nothing to be afraid of or worry about, and he began to talk to them about things in his hometown.
After talking about many things, Lao Yao finally said, "Miss Wang is a very good person."
After a long while, he said, "Yes, she is a very good person."
The bodyguard also mentioned this, saying, "Miss Wang is a good person, but good people don't live long. It's all their fault."
Secretary Zhang used to refer to her with disdain, calling her "that woman" or "that Mrs. Mai." After her death, he would respectfully address her as "Miss Wang" to others.
My mother rarely mentioned her, but when she did, she called her "Miss Wang" just like the bodyguard and driver.
He didn't know that she had failed several times in submitting her articles, but he thought that maybe she had submitted them to other places as well. He searched every newspaper and magazine he could find and found her three articles among the mountains of rejected articles.
Finally, the newspaper "Ji Lu" where he wanted to publish reprinted that article and published the other three articles together.
The article received a very positive response after its initial publication, and received numerous letters from readers. A few years later, three more articles sparked even greater responses, and again, countless letters. However, the author could no longer write, and she will never know the astonishing extent of her talent, or how many people admired and respected her.
At the end of the article, her photo and biography were published. When readers, still lingering after reading all three articles, noticed that the author's biography actually listed her birth and death years. The author had already passed away three years earlier, at the age of 23, yet she was still such a beauty. Countless people were heartbroken, lamenting that talent was being forsaken by fate.
After all, colorful clouds are easily dispersed and glass is fragile, and the banished immortal-like characters cannot be retained in the human world.
He later buried the letters and the magazines in which the articles were published in his grave.
He thought that after his death, no one would remember her name. He hoped that she could leave her name and her talent in this world. And after her unyielding struggle and torture throughout her life, someone would finally remember her name. People only knew her as Wang Jiazhi. No one knew who Mrs. Mai was or what her relationship was.
As for those false eunuchs who were high and mighty, looked down on her, ridiculed her, and made her feel ashamed of herself, except for a very small number of her close confidants, people only knew them as Mrs. Ma, Mrs. Yang, Mrs. Liao, Mrs. Xiao... They were just appendages of men.
In one of her novels, the heroine said before her death that she did not want those flashy eulogies written by irrelevant literati. She only wanted her beloved, the person who understood her life, to write a eulogy for her.
He hadn't written a eulogy for her, and he had deliberately avoided letting anyone know about her connection to him. He only wanted the world to know that she was a stunningly beautiful and talented woman who died young, and that she had nothing to do with a man like him.
After all, he still didn't understand her well enough. She finally struggled and suffered, and tried many ways but still felt that she couldn't do it. What she wanted most was not to sever her ties with him.
There was no eulogy, but he wrote the biography of her life under her article.
Yu Lan (September 27, 1919 - October 22, 1942), whose real name was Wang Jiazhi, was born in the central district of Guangzhou, with her ancestral home in Bao'an County, Guangdong Province.
Biography:
Wang Jiazhi was a beautiful and intelligent child, fond of literature and history. She excelled academically, achieving near-undisputed top marks in elementary, middle, and high school. She also excelled in writing, calligraphy, and painting, particularly watercolor and freehand flower paintings. She lost her mother at 16, and her father and younger brother went abroad to England. At 19, she was admitted to Lingnan University. At 20, she moved to Hong Kong with her school due to the war, where she began her literary career. In 1942, she dropped out of school due to the Pacific War and moved back to Shanghai, where she died in October of the same year.
Because of his early death, only "The Journey", "The Cold Moon at Weiyang Night", "Twenty-Four Bridges" and "The Nine-Tailed Fox" are extant, all of which were published after his death, which is truly a pity.
His mother died when he was young, and he was abandoned by his father. He wandered alone in turbulent times for nearly ten years, struggling through war, hunger, and cold. Throughout his life, he remained like a lotus orchid, noble and proud, steadfast and unyielding. His literary talent is as profound as his personality, embodying the legacy of the Book of Songs and the Chu Ci. It is a pity that such a talented person was banished from heaven, a truly heartbreaking experience. What can be done?
The happiest thing in the world is that all your goodness is spoken by the person you love most and then made public.
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