"Three thousand guests under the Chunshen Gate, five feet south of Xiaodu City."
During the Republic of China period, it was the most turbulent era in society, warlords competed with each other for turf, revolutionaries shouted for reform and freedom, workers and students went on strike to seek the slightest change in society, and gangsters were busy thinking about the political situation and cautious teams in order to save money and protect themselves. In this chaotic era, countless influential people have come into being.
When he was poor in childhood, he sent people to the fence, as a teenager, he went to Shanghai alone, he tasted all the hardships, long-term and short-term workers were done, he won the trust of the gangster jin Rong at that time at the fastest speed, and he became a legendary figure in Shanghai with his efforts in his thirties, he was Du Yuesheng.
The party and government reform did not make Du Yuesheng laugh to the end, and on the eve of the founding of the People's Republic of China, Du Yuesheng fled Shanghai with his family and went to Hong Kong to seek a place to stay. It was also this time that Du Yuesheng and his family never returned to their homeland.
First, flee in a hurry
When his parents died when he was young, Du Yuesheng lived in the Shili Yangchang, relying on Jin Rong to establish his own network of relationships, opening up the intricate relationship between the military and the government and the industrial and commercial circles. Du Yuesheng chose to stand on the united front with Chiang Kai-shek and help the Kuomintang slaughter many revolutionary fighters, and his hands were stained with the blood of Communists.
After Chiang Kai-shek's defeat in Taiwan, he personally invited Du Yuesheng to accompany him to Taiwan, but he knew so many things about Chiang Kai-shek, and going to Taiwan with him would not be the same as house arrest, and he would lose his entire life. Du Yuesheng did not agree to Chiang Kai-shek's invitation and took his family to Hong Kong.
After arriving in Hong Kong, Du Yuesheng found a remote and narrow place to live, different from the spirit of the past, now Du Yuesheng is more afraid of so many enemies to find revenge, so Du Yuesheng is depressed all day, can't eat and sleep, and even wakes up from nightmares.
After about two years of such fearful days, the elderly Du Yuesheng fell ill, and in just two years, the original spirited gangster had suffered a stroke and was paralyzed and bedridden.
Perhaps it was that such a daily frightened life exhausted Du Yuesheng's hard work, and the future was meaningless, du Yuesheng decided not to treat it anymore.
One day, Du Yuesheng, who was getting weaker and weaker, fainted, and when he woke up, probably feeling that his limit was coming, Du Yuesheng gathered all his aunts and children to the bed, explained the matters behind him, and divided the remaining property in the family.
Du Yuesheng has five wives, eight sons and two daughters, and the most beloved daughter is Du Meiru, the eldest daughter born to the fourth aunt Yao Yulan.
When he fled from Shanghai to Hong Kong, Du Yuesheng only brought 300,000 US dollars, and he was always accustomed to a life of fine clothes and food, and these 300,000 US dollars were soon squandered, and after Du Yuesheng's death, each aunt and daughter received only a small part of the inheritance. Du Yuesheng's most reassuring before his death was also the most beloved little daughter.
On the eve of her father's departure, Du Mei now lives, and he knows that he has left nothing for his daughter in terms of money, and how her thin daughter can afford her daily life with her mother. However, Du Yuesheng's limit had arrived, and he could not say anything to return to heaven, just looking at his most beloved daughter who kept crying, and kept saying sorry to her daughter.
2. Live independently
When Du Meiru was born, Du Yuesheng was already more than forty years old, old and female, this child was too precious to him, Du Meiru got all the favor and love of his father. Du Yuesheng attaches great importance to the education and cultivation of her children, and Du Meiru has been arranged to learn piano, chess, calligraphy and painting since she was a child, proficient in all aspects of etiquette, and living a delicate life of high society.
At the age of nineteen, Du Meiru successfully entered St. John's University in Shanghai, originally she should go to the school to report enrollment, but her father decided to leave Shanghai too suddenly, originally thought that going to Hong Kong was only a temporary shelter, Du Meiru had to put aside the matter of going to school, originally thought that the limelight was only temporary, and it was not too late to finish her studies after a while, but who knew that this departure would become forever.
Due to the large family population, and Du Yuesheng's legacy is also very small, accustomed to a life of fine clothes and jade food, suddenly become nervous and tight, all the aunts and wives can not adapt, helplessly can only quietly sell jewelry, patch up the luxurious daily life. Even if there are many brothers and sisters, after the death of the head of the family, the rest of the Du family can only run for their own things in order to live.
Du Meiru's mother Yao Yulan was slightly luckier, Yao Yulan and Song Meiling were friends in the boudoir, after Du Yuesheng's death, Yao Yulan took her daughter Du Meiru to Taiwan to join Song Meiling, with Song Meiling's care, Yao Yulan's life was much better than others.
However, she and her mother cannot always rely on Song Meiling to live, and Du Meiru knows how to live on others to see people's faces, so she wants to find something to do on her own and earn money to support her mother.
Soon, Du Meiru, with her intellectual advantages, found a job as a French teacher. Due to the small number of people who could speak foreign languages at that time, the great demand for French teachers, and the lack of educated women, Du Meiru's ability was very prominent, so she was richly paid for this job.
With this generous remuneration, Du Meiru's life with her mother has improved, and she does not have to rely on others. It was during this time in Taiwan that Du Meiru found the other half of her life. The husband is a pilot, the ancestral home of Anhui, the two also grew up in the mainland quickly found a common language, talked very happily.
The husband's humor and handsomeness attracted Du Meiru, and Du Meiru's intellectuality and elegance also attracted her husband, and the young couple soon fell in love.
After marriage, like many women in the society at that time, Du Meiru chose to give up her career and serve her husband at home wholeheartedly, who would have thought that the daughter of Du Yuesheng, a prominent figure on the beach, would now become a housewife, a husband and a godson, and unknown.
Subsequently, in a short time, her husband was transferred to Jordan, and Du Meiru also left for abroad with her husband. After settling abroad, Du Meiru gradually felt as if she was useless to the family, and everything depended on her husband.
In particular, the French translation skills that Du Meiru was proud of at the beginning could not be used in foreign countries. For the sake of her family's livelihood, Du Meiru could not always sit at home and wait, so after thinking about it, Du Meiru decided to open a Chinese restaurant in Jordan with her husband.
Third, return to the motherland
Du Meiru's restaurant business was not as good as expected, at that time Chinese food was not yet popular in foreign countries, the business of restaurants was very poor, and the shop was also deserted. Du Meiru's husband has a higher income, enough to support the family, even if the restaurant business is not very good, Du Meiru is not in a hurry, after all, the source of survival in the family is not dependent on the income of the restaurant.
At a banquet hosted by the King of Jordan, the King invited many important business and political figures, and Du Meiru and her husband were also on the guest list of the banquet, and just as the banquet was halfway through, a foreign guest came forward to talk to the King, and the foreign guest spoke French, which made the Jordanian King confused. The king did not speak French, could not communicate with foreign guests, and was not equipped with an interpreter, and the masked king was very embarrassed.
Du Meiru came forward and translated the foreign guest's French into Arabic to speak to the king, and then translated the king's words into French to speak to the foreign guests, acting as an interpreter for the two, and came and went to let the king and the foreign guests talk very happily.
This time the diplomacy was very successful, Du Meiru shined at the banquet, if there is no help from Du Meiru, perhaps this banquet will become a diplomatic accident, and no one knows what the consequences will eventually occur.
Du Meiru helped the king a lot, and the king later led the royal nobles to Eat at Du Meiru's restaurant, and with the king's drive, many high-class celebrities also followed the king's footsteps to patronize Du Meiru's Chinese restaurant, making the restaurant that was originally deserted lively, and Du Meiru also got a high income. Until the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Israel, Du Meiru's restaurant invisibly became the hub of friendly development between the two countries.
After her husband retired, the couple ran the restaurant together, and looking back on this life, Du Meiru's heart was full of sighs. When I left Shanghai in a hurry, I originally thought that I would be able to return to my homeland after a short time, but who knew that I had been wandering outside for half a lifetime, and there was an old saying Chinese that the fallen leaves returned to the roots, no matter how long they drifted outside, they also had to return to their hometown.
Restaurants in Jordan have been operating for decades, Du Meiru and her husband proposed to pass on the restaurant to their children to run, but the children have their own careers, there is no time to take care of the restaurant, but the homesick Du Meiru can not manage too much, decades have not set foot on the land of the motherland, compared with returning home, anything is not so important.
Du Meiru finally embarked on the journey back to China as she wished, and du mansion witnessed her dream as a teenager, and also witnessed the rise and fall of the Du family. The Du Mansion was about to be demolished, but someone paid for the mansion and maintained the mansion as it was when Du Meiru left, and Du Meiru was very happy in her heart.
In 2001, Du Meiru was already seventy years old, and the Du Mansion was different from before, standing at the door as if to see her father smiling and waving at her, and it was also like seeing her mother gently snuggling next to her father and slowly looking at her. The old people are no longer there, only Du Meiru went home alone, the scene of the past years, now can only rely on memory to fill the gap in the heart.
epilogue:
The legend belonging to Du Yuesheng has long come to an end, and now China in the new era is more powerful than before, there is no gangster fight, no fear of displacement, living and working in peace and contentment has become the norm, and a new social landscape has long been opened. Fortunately, the years of wandering finally ended, and Du Meiru also set foot on the land of the motherland.
Her father's decision to encourage her to learn French was the right one, and with this skill, Du Meiru supported her mother, solved the embarrassment for the king, and indirectly promoted the development of friendship between China and The Jordan. His father left not only money, but also the cultivation and teaching of Du Meiru. Maybe her father wanted her to become an independent woman, and it was better to rely on anyone than on herself.