Learned Western

Accompanied by the monotonous syllables on the train tracks, the train drove towards Peiping. Zhen Minzhi, a foreign student who had returned from France, sat side by side with Ms. Guan, opposite Brother Kong.All the way back home, the three have been walking together.First take a boat from France to Shanghai, and then transfer to Peiping by train.Right now Minzhi is sitting opposite Kong, her eyes are not staring at him, but firmly fixed on a small piece of floor beside his leather shoes, she really doesn't know where else to put her eyes, in her heart It was so chaotic, I could only try my best to chat with Ms. Guan with an interested look, so as not to think of her boyfriend who was sitting opposite her, the French courtship poem he read from him not long ago, and her clothes. On the collar was a little gold Cupid pin playing the harp.

In any case, everything has been decided, and there is no need to think about some things.Minzhi told himself over and over again.But her efforts were almost all in vain: she couldn't hear a word Miss Guan said to her, and it was filtered into the background buzzing in her ears.

Guan Junyan, however, took Minzhi's absence as an acquiesce to her opinion, and became more and more enthusiastic, "Ace style and half lotus leaf style are very suitable for you, and it is not troublesome to do. You can go to the barber shop to cut and iron it. If the hairstyle is changed, the whole person is guaranteed to be different, and that's how you look like you've lived abroad! If you always dress so old-fashioned, you're not the same as those little daughter-in-laws who haven't studied! Full stomach It’s a pity that the ink is not written on the face, and it’s always stuffy in the stomach like dumplings in a teapot.” Her spiral hair and long pearl earrings hanging on her shoulders gently swayed as she turned her head, sweeping Thin gold chains around the neck for foreign pendants.The whole person looks western and fashionable.

Zhen Minzhi finally recollected Miss Guan's words slowly in his mind, and couldn't help laughing secretly that all the "gold and jade" that this modern lady acquired while studying abroad were posted outside.She herself is a nostalgic traditional beauty, she neither wears foreign dresses nor perfume, her hair is cut short but not permed, and is still combed in the most common schoolgirl style.Every time she looked in the mirror, she always felt that she looked exactly like Miss Zhen from the west of Hangzhou, who had never been abroad three years ago.

Three years ago, Zhen Shaopeng, the ignorant elder brother of King Zhenhu, who has been a master pot maker for generations in the west of Hangzhou City, lost his family fortune in a big bet, and the already frail Zhenhu King suffered a stroke from anger.This matter is the market news that no one in the local area does not know.

Why do you suddenly remember the old things now?Probably because she is going to meet her brother Zhen Shaopeng soon.What expression should I make to meet him?Probably only normal.Anyway, he has always been like this, and it is useless to let others scold him.At that time, the noble father couldn't bear the blow of the prodigal son. Seeing that the Zhen family was declining day by day, he was unable to recover.

Minzhi still remembered that when his father left, there were still a few customers standing noisily in the front hall who claimed that their pots had not been made yet and wanted to refund their deposits, and Shaopeng was arguing endlessly with those people.Before the sickbed, there were only her and her father's most proud helper apprentice, Jin Huai.

At that time, she was crying so hard that her heart was broken, and she only felt that a big dark cloud covered her whole body.Jin Huai persuaded her, and helped Zhang Luo take care of various trivial matters.During the mourning, she followed her brother in and out to respond to the condolence visitors, and he ran back and forth to tell the helpers who were about to lose their temper.The two met each other in the yard from time to time, brushing each other's shoulders, and neither of them spoke.

They had planned well, and had much brighter prospects.But now it's all gone.

When King Zhenhu was alive, his most beloved apprentice, Jin Huai, could no longer expect his ineffective son to inherit the pot-making skills of the Zhen family. He taught him all the skills in his life, and prepared him to support the Zhen family in the future.

Minzhi is also deeply loved by her father. She is good at painting and always wins first place in art competitions held by girls' schools.Zhenhu Wang has prepared a sum of savings to send his daughter to a French school for further studies.Waiting for Minzhi to come back from abroad in the future, and Jin Huai to learn the skill of Hu Wang, the two of them will clarify everything in Zhen's house. As long as Zhen Hu Wang is satisfied, others will not dare to make irresponsible remarks.They can justifiably establish the Zhen family together.

Unexpectedly, Jin Huai failed to learn art, and the Zhen family changed unexpectedly. As the eldest son, Shaopeng took over all the affairs of the next family.The first thing he did was to marry himself a girl he knew well in the hall.The new wife's surname is Li. When she was in the hall, she was called Concubine Li.He is small in stature, with short hair that is permed in a puffy way, and his age can't be seen, it is said that he is in his twenties.But his hands are still thin and tender, and he always likes to wear a dark green jade ring on his finger.This hand always likes to hold Minzhi affectionately and talk with her in front of people, to show that the aunt and sister-in-law are harmonious and the family is harmonious.

For Jin Huai, Shaopeng also has his own plans.He understood that Jin Huai's success in Zhen's family was all due to his pot-making skills, so he simply announced that the Zhen family would no longer make pots, sold the old house to pay off the debt, and drove away this disliked apprentice with a foreign surname up.Just in this way, the remaining money from the sale of the house can be used for Minzhi to go abroad.As for their future livelihood, they would go to Peiping with the last of their family property and join their uncle.In short, the boat is naturally straight when it reaches the bridge, and Jin Huai is not indispensable to the Zhen family. "You should also understand, don't be as confused as your father and get angry with the same foreign surname. He is going to change our family's surname to Jin before he is willing to give up." Zhen Shaopeng persuaded Minzhi in every possible way.

Min Zhi didn't bother to argue with his younger brother who was confused in the family.At this point, it is useless to say anything else.She thought of the lantern riddle written by Jia Yingchun in "A Dream of Red Mansions", "Fortunate people have a lot of skills, and luck is hard to come by if you have meritorious deeds. Because the town is chaotic, it's just because the yin and yang can't be counted." The answer is like Go, and it's like abacus.It's always black and white, and they collide in one place, which makes people feel confused.

She couldn't let go of her painting, she wanted to go to Paris.Think more than anything else.

Apart from Zhen Shaopeng, only the maid who had the closest relationship with her knew about this quiet love affair with Jin Huai, which saved the trouble of making public the news of their severance.Jin Huai left Zhen's house and became a cook at the Lou Wai Lou restaurant with his skill in cooking to please the master.Minzhi went to Paris alone and buried himself in the studios and classrooms of the school.

This is her choice, the art she pursues wholeheartedly, and the destiny she has set for herself.

There are not many Chinese girls at the same level, and Ms. Guan from Peking is one of them.Meeting an old friend in a foreign country is the most rare thing, and the relationship between the two is particularly close because of this.Miss Guan is a modern lady in the true sense. She dresses in western style and is fashionable. She can pronounce French very well, especially the short sentences used to give orders at balls and concerts. She is best at it.In addition, she is proficient in communication, clothing, lipstick and jewelry—probably because of this, not long ago when their brother Kong, who is also from Peking, made up his mind to express his love to Minzhi, he would plead for the crown. The young lady invited another male companion to act as a foil, so that the scene would not appear so stiff and embarrassing.

Zhen Minzhi especially remembered every detail of what happened in the jewelry store on the streets of Paris that day: the bald store manager wearing glasses sat in front of the glass window and wiped the pearl necklace with a piece of green velvet; Miss Guan gathered in front of the innermost counter with great interest, Picking out a gold collar pin with a rose flower pattern and an embossed agate pendant, he took his small silver handbag from his boyfriend to pay the bill; Brother Kong seemed a little unnatural, since he entered the store, his lips kept opening and closing silently , like a goldfish struggling to breathe—now it seems that she should have seen some clues from this omen, instead of waiting a moment later to sing in her pudgy, British nursery rhyme The good brother of "Mr. Egghead" fell into the dilemma of hesitating to make a choice when he gave her a gift and a string of courtship poems read in French.The little Cupid brooch playing the harp in the box urged her silently, her throat tightened, and a hundred futile thoughts raced through her mind.But you can't stay silent for too long, you have to speak----this situation may seem very romantic to others at the moment: the rose-colored soft glow of the sky shines in through the glass window, as if her canvas has not been wiped The man expressing love is waiting for an answer, the woman's complexion is mixed with surprise and embarrassment, and the wings of the little cupid in the small black velvet box are flowing with ever-changing golden color, under the slanting sunlight outside the window A piece of metal was shining brightly——Minzhi suddenly wished at this moment that he could draw a golden arrow from the quiver on the back of the god of love and stab it at the atrium, so as to force himself to make a decisive decision.

"That's him," she said to herself.

As the saying goes, men should get married in college, and women should get married in college. After she graduates, she should get out of ink and watercolor and return to the real gravel and soil.She knew that it was impossible for her to stay in the empty pavilions and palaces for the rest of her life.But I really want to keep a studio for myself, in which there are all kinds of thick and thin brushes, pigments ground from various rare ores, ivory boards for oil paint, and friends in the art world who send me from time to time. Salon party invitations, and a husband who can talk about art with him at any rate—even if he missed a grade for a year because he missed credits at various eating and drinking parties when he was studying; she was afraid that her snow-white dress would be worn when painting If the blouses are stacked in the box for too long, they will be completely soaked in the slightly sour smoke in the air.

After thinking about it piecemeal for a long time, my thoughts still turned back to this matter.Did she regret her decision?No, of course not.Minzhi recited the word "impossible" upside down a hundred and eighty times in his head, trying not to find out whether he had no regrets or not allowed himself to regret it.

The path she chose for herself was good enough.Her boyfriend is from a wealthy family and is considerate. Seeing her tired face, he immediately speculates that Min Zhi must have something to eat.For this reason, as soon as I got off the bus, I greeted everyone and found a nearby cafe to have a snack and rest.Minzhi could only laugh and said, "I didn't expect that the first thing we did when we returned to China was still so foreign."

Miss Guan was about to say a French proverb "Habits die hard", but when she opened the door and saw a table of acquaintances in the cafe, she spoke this short sentence extremely loudly and full of French style.Among them, a gentleman in a linen white suit saw her, and immediately greeted her with a smile, "Miss Guan, it's been a long time. I just came back from studying abroad?" Yan responded, and at the same time said hello to those few people: a Hongjiao from Xifeng Garden in Beiping, a friend who was doing business in Shanghai, and two brothers and sisters, a girlfriend and a classmate who went to the same middle school as her. Her older brothers, who run a dance hall in Peking, are all good at having fun.

When old friends reunited, it was natural to catch up on the old days, so Miss Guan resigned from the table of Zhen and Kong, and returned to her social circle with precision.Zhen Minzhi had no choice but to bite the bullet and face the romantic reality of the two sitting and having dinner together.She had a sore throat and wanted something sweet, so she looked through the menu and ordered an ice cream banana split.It's a pity that I can't eat sweet-scented osmanthus glutinous rice and lotus root for a while.She has always loved this kind of sweetness the most. The sweetness of Chinese food is different from the sweetness of French food.The latter is sweet on the teeth, while the former penetrates from the tip of the tongue to the heart.

Forget it, it doesn’t matter if you don’t eat it, anyway, this dish is Hangzhou cuisine, and it is the most authentic one made by the garden in Louwailou in Hangzhou.Or, just eat the smell from her own kitchen.Min Zhi scooped up a scoop of ice cream, and tried his best to cater to Brother Kong’s various criticisms of how unauthentic this store was, and listened to his opinion on French blue cheese by the way: the blue cheese from a restaurant in Paris was the best for him, The fermentation is just right, and you can clearly see some thin blue fluff on the skin...

At the table over there, Miss Guan had already accepted the invitation to the party in the ballroom that night, and was happily making a comeback pose and pretending to clink glasses with a few people.These people happened to be wearing western clothes, and the colors matched well. The three men’s suits were all of the same color. The two skirts of Miss Guan and her middle school girlfriend, one white and one pink, also complemented each other perfectly. From Minzhi’s vision Looking over, it was a brightly colored Western-style exaggerated caricature.In the future, she will probably also become part of this comic, and her whole life will be spent in the bright colors of oil and watercolor...

It was several years later that Zhen Minzhi returned to Hangzhou again.

Mr. Kong, who is still full of happiness, went to Hangzhou as a representative of the art world with his wife to participate in the art exhibition. After the exhibition, he was invited to have dinner with some friends from Shanghai. The venue for the dinner was the most famous restaurant in Hangzhou, Louwailou.

"I heard that Mrs. Kong is from Hangzhou? Can you help me order two dishes from my hometown." The host who initiated the invitation politely handed over the menu.

Min Zhi refused and took it over. When he saw the small words "Osmanthus glutinous rice and lotus root" on it, his eyelids twitched twice, and he closed the list with a smile. Let's add a set of pure vegetable soup." "Not bad, not bad, these dishes are famous all over the world, let's try the authentic ones today. Hey, is there a little less side dishes? Let's order another sweet-scented osmanthus glutinous rice and lotus root. "

It's a blessing, not a disaster, it's a disaster that can't be avoided.

The long-lost dish was served, and Min Zhi stretched out his chopsticks to pick up a slice, it was so sweet that it was greasy, probably because he hadn't eaten southern food for a long time, and he couldn't get used to the sweet taste.This dish is probably not made by him. There are so many cooks outside the building, how could it be his turn by such a coincidence?

The atmosphere of chatting and laughing during the banquet was very good, and the guests had finished boasting about the dishes as usual, and turned to greet each other politely.Among the wives of several gentlemen, Mrs. Kong received the most praise. Her good conversation, elegant artistic taste, two miniature oil painting earrings on her ears, and her hot cloud temples were all appreciated.Her hair was freshly styled to match her beige dress with a touch of Bath.Recently, she likes to use herself as a model to draw sketches in the mirror. When her brother Shaopeng came to see her, he happened to see her wrapping her hair in the studio with curls commonly used by European women. For some reason, she thought she was having a perm with her sister-in-law Li Fei. Contest.

"Mrs. Kong really has a great pursuit of art." A female guest concluded.

Zhen Minzhi smiled subtly and plucked the curls of her perm-shaped hair, "Yes, I do love art, but I haven't sacrificed anything for art like those great painters, really."