Chapter 129: Part 1
There was a sudden commotion downstairs: the porters got up early to unload the truckloads of beer shipped from the sea from the barges and move them into the Brothers Bar; the Russian dancers who never got up early heard that there was big news in the concession, so they all came out of the nightclub dormitories, put on their coats, stepped into high heels and walked out to the street, hoping to meet the headhunters from the soap or cigarette advertising companies who could help them earn half a year's salary; the reporters also gathered outside the court early in the morning, waiting to see how the city would be in chaos.
The two of them were chatting casually upstairs in Tekachenko's building.
She remembered where she was and asked him, "Why are you out so early? Was the trial result not satisfactory?"
"Thanks to Mr. Xie, this is the best result he could have achieved given his situation."
He recalled how others had described Xie Hong: "He didn't consider himself Chinese, nor did he consider himself British, so he could profitably navigate the two." How similar?
Just as his father had said, the foreign powers marched into the Forbidden City as if it were no man's land. Historical relics, pearls, and jade were packed in boxes and cages. What they killed and looted was nothing more than "ill-gotten gains" that would one day be repaid. If not today, then tomorrow, there would be a time.
So he thought Xie Zeyi must be an Englishman. He had his own sworn loyalty, but he also had a sudden realization of the passions of justice and hatred, sometimes cold and sometimes hot.
Over the past eighty years, countless British people have set foot on Chinese soil. Nearly one million bright faces yearning for justice have been assimilated into the slaughter of pigs by this hell on earth, but no one has ever repented and become a Buddha on the spot.
He could even imagine how Xie Zeyi risked his life to travel among officers from various countries in order to seek this glimmer of hope at the right time.
It is not easy to choose the benefit, it is easy to die but difficult to live, and it is not easy to be awake alone.
This is something that only he can do.
So it must be Xie Zeyi, not Si Yansang.
For a long time he had been thinking that if it had been Xie Zeyi who appeared outside her window in Shaoxing that year, the result would have been different.
Yan Sang couldn't help but laugh.
Downstairs, on Sanma Road, the doors to the joint trial hall opened. Men in various military uniforms emerged one after another, and reporters swarmed in from outside.
He immediately sent for his servant to bring the bill.
He turned around and saw that she was still staring at him, so he smiled.
She asked hurriedly: "When are we leaving?"
He said, "Tonight."
She didn't expect it to be so sudden, but if she hadn't met him, she would have thought he had left long ago.
She asked, "Are you still going to leave at this time?"
He smiled and answered the question irrelevantly: "If I don't run away soon, how can I still attend your wedding?"
She stared at him and said, "You will have your lover, but it will never be me. I am not a good match, and I should run away. Why can't you?"
He looked up, sighed, and smiled. "I haven't left yet. I wanted to say goodbye to you, but I couldn't find a suitable reason to come and ask for a meeting, so I kept putting it off until today. I never thought you would appear in front of me on your own, so I had nothing to do and stayed at home."
"I've read The Old Bride." She added, "Mr. Xie brought it to me."
Stay home and write a story to say goodbye to her.
She remembered that he later became nearsighted. He never wrote an autobiography, and when others recalled him, no one paid attention to when he began to lose his sight. But now, as he looked at her from across the dining table, less than a meter away, his demeanor was calm and composed, with a faint smile and a hint of distance.
That was the distance he knew he should keep from her.
He added, "Ever since I announced the end of my engagement with you, whenever I go out, he always asks me who I'm dating, just like any other father."
She nodded. "That's a good thing."
"I'll tell him I'm not dating a cow." He smiled.
She laughed.
It was rare to see her laugh so heartily, and he was also infected. "The first time I saw you, my father brought me here. You were carried into the house, and in the chaos, you slipped out of her arms. Everyone was clearly talking about you, but you slipped away as if nothing had happened. You were small in stature, wearing a purple jacket and long trousers, a long braid, and bright eyes, as perceptive as seeing through fire."
She closed her eyes slightly, and a few words naturally flowed through her mind -
"...When my father was about fifteen, he returned to Peking. Six months later, in February, my grandfather received a letter from his good friend Lin Yu, inviting him to take my father to the old house in Shaoxing to meet the Lin family's two daughters. My father understood what my grandfather meant. He was still young, having received many years of education abroad. Although he had known from the beginning that he would have such a bride in his homeland, he had never been, and was not in a hurry to fall in love. As he and his group waited in the Lin family's study, he remained somewhat nonchalant, absent-mindedly trying to be polite and courteous. Just then, the door opened, and a slightly childish girl in a purple jacket and long trousers walked in. She had a small braid and clear eyes..."
Look, the text is not deceiving me, it is exactly the same.
He said, "Actually, before that, I was the one who came to see you first. I was outside your room window, but I didn't let you see me."
She was silent.
He sighed, smiled, and said, "I never dated anyone else after that."
But her tone was not helpless, and he had no regrets whether she answered or not.
He raised his head slightly and motioned her to look out the window.
While she was looking out the window, he signed the bill, his eyes lingering on her for a moment, then he took his clothes and stood up to leave.
When she came to her senses, she hurriedly caught up with him and called his name: "Mr. Yan Sang!"
His steps were much faster than hers, and he showed no intention of stopping, so it was a bit difficult for her to catch up with him.
Finally, he grabbed Tekachenko's sleeve downstairs.
She took two breaths and said, "I'll take you there tonight...with Mr. Xie."
He smiled. "Mr. Xie said the same thing when he came to see me. I don't want to refuse it a second time."
"Why?"
"I'm afraid that when you say goodbye to me, you won't be able to help asking you when that will be."
She was startled, then raised her head slightly.
Is this the same as "You ask when I will return"?
Seeing that she seemed to be holding back tears, Yan Sang hurriedly said, "You seem to owe me a letter. When are you going to return it to me?"
It's like debt collection.
Chu Wang looked up, not because she wanted to cry, but because she had made a great determination. She took a deep breath and said a name without thinking: "Qinfiya Sachs."
"A Jew?" He hesitated.
"If you meet someone named Chinphia Sachs," she emphasized the name, "then I will send the letter to you."
The Ford car from the Radio Company sped away. From time to time, all the news from the court would be broadcast to Shanghai and even the world via radio.
Someone was already shouting, "October 25th Agreement! The Japanese Marines will withdraw from Shanghai this month! All Japanese manufacturers will relocate their factories back home! Transportation between southern Shanghai, the concessions, and Zhabei will be connected from today! After the Eight-Year Treaty takes effect, six unequal treaties with over 170 articles will be abolished! Consular jurisdiction will be revoked! The armies of the five nations will withdraw from Shanghai in the 26th year of the Republic of China! Return the concessions!"
A large number of patrol police dispatched by Shanghai and the Municipal Council struggled to maintain order.
Separated by a wide road built by foreigners, the world on this side is as quiet as another world.
Yan Sang looked at the girl in front of him, his eyelashes fluttering slightly. He had many questions in his mind, but he didn't ask them. He just looked at her, as if he could see the answers from her determined expression.
He leaned over, held her shoulders, and gave her a very gentlemanly hug. As he leaned in close, he whispered, "Happy wedding."
Then, he took two steps back and said to her slowly, "Look at Shanghai. Doesn't it look like a circus?"
She was stunned.
Before she could answer, he had already put on the coat in his hand, turned around and strode away.
She was not worried about Yan Sang at all, nor did she think that they would never see each other again, so "Happy Wedding" was not a farewell, and she did not need to say "Goodbye" to him.
So he asked, "Does Shanghai look like a circus?" as if to remind her that this was Shanghai, with the court downstairs and all sorts of strange things happening outside the door.
Isn't Shanghai beautiful and rich? During this period, perhaps confused Europeans and Americans would ask, "Shanghai is every bit as impressive as Vancouver, San Francisco, and Berlin. It has cars, movies, radio, and everything else."
However, when millions of Chinese workers built railways in San Francisco and Vancouver, no one cared about their deaths and injuries; white people came to Chinese territory and plundered everywhere. No matter where they were, if a white person killed a Chinese, the Chinese would die; and if a Chinese killed a white person, he would also die.
She had been wondering why Zhenzhen hadn't been willing to date Chelsea earlier. It was simply because of Miss Shen's incident that she realized: in our own land, we were treated as second-class citizens.
Chelsea was no different from everyone else. The moment he set sail from Southeast Asia to the Huangpu River with his soldiers and fleet, they were destined to be invaders and superior to others.
When the Eight-Nation Alliance entered Beijing, the British burned and looted the most; they were expanding their territory all over the world, while China was losing its sovereignty.
This relationship was destined to be unequal from the beginning.
Even if he is willing to humbly pursue an Oriental girl, she and her family are still called "Chinese pigs" and slaves of a conquered country in the eyes of the white people.
She thought, Zhenzhen had seen countless times in her eighteen years on the Bund, witnessing foreign police beating rickshaw pullers, yet she had no right to fight back. She could only feel indignant. Now, she couldn't complain to Chelsea—she didn't even know if he had ever chopped off a rioting worker's thumb, or shot a coolie in the chest. She couldn't ask, had no one to turn to. If he had done all this, would he consider himself guilty? He was just one of the thousands of soldiers who assimilated into the British colonies, and they were used to it.
Perhaps if he stood there, he would immediately transform into the three big words "invader".
Eighty years ago, they broke into our home, occupied our yard, made some changes there, and sent people to guard this area. Then they said, "This place is much better than where you live. If you are willing to enjoy the civilization here, you are welcome to live here."
But our civilization is not ours, our soldiers are not ours, and even if you tell them this is my home, they will be stunned and ask, "Who told you that?"
No one who is born with self-respect and grows up with pride can naturally accept such humiliation and unfairness; Chelsea cannot understand it even more.
Unless someone is naive enough to drive them out of here, and then sit down face to face, as equals. You come to my place and treat me with courtesy; I go to your place and there is no distinction between high and low.
She thought of Sakuma, and sometimes she felt that the sentiment of swearing allegiance until death and the righteousness might not be brainwashing. Only others could understand the feelings of most people who defend the place where they were born.
She recalled Lu Xun's reply to the university students: "We should first fight for freedom of speech, and then I will tell you what we should fight for."
"If you want stability, you will have no freedom; if you want freedom, you must experience some danger."
Now freedom and danger were both on the other side of the road. She stood alone on this side of the road built by the British in the East, and could only hear the rumble of the great era as it rolled towards her from the other side of the road, like a collapse, but also like the slow opening of a grand ceremony.
Then, amid the noise and clamor, a tall figure walked through the crowd and slowly walked towards her.
She looked up and saw his black tie, and remembered the purpose of her coming here today, which was just to tie a Windsor knot for him that she had learned all night long.
In the midst of her chaotic thoughts, she accidentally caught a small, troubled voice asking herself: "What is he sworn to defend?"
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