Zhang Ailing is one of the famous talents in modern China, leaving behind many popular works, such as "Small Reunion", "Love in the City", "Red Rose and White Rose" and so on. Zhang Ailing's love story, like her literary achievements, is legendary.
Zhang Ailing's ancestors were prominent families, her grandfather was Zhang Peilun, the great yuan of the late Qing Dynasty, and her grandmother was the daughter of Li Hongzhang, a famous minister of the Qing Dynasty, such a family was naturally rich and wealthy. But when Zhang Ailing's father arrived, the family was in decline, and her parents did not divorce, her mother traveled overseas, and her father sat in the mountains and ate the sky. Childhood misfortune made Zhang Ailing precocious. Zhang Ailing's lack of paternal love since childhood makes it easy for her to develop special feelings for older men. Later, Zhang Ailing was able to fall in love with Hu Lancheng and Lai Ya, who were much older than herself, which was closely related to her family environment.
The love story of Zhang Ailing and Hu Lancheng is legendary. Hu Lancheng grew up poor and suffered a lot, but he was very talented and belonged to the characters who fought the world with their bare hands. After the establishment of the Wang puppet regime, Hu Lancheng, who was quite talented in writing, became an important member of the Wang puppet government.
After Hu Lancheng read Zhang Ailing's novel in the magazine, he visited her as an enthusiastic reader. But Zhang Ailing did not see the guest, Hu Lancheng was not dead hearted, leaving a note, on which was written the reason for the visit, his address, and the telephone. After Zhang Ailing saw it, she called him and visited him in person. The first time the two people met, they talked for five hours, commented on the popular literary works, and talked about Zhang Ailing's monthly income.
When Hu Lancheng sent Zhang Ailing home, he said with deep affection: "Your figure is so tall, how can this be?" This is from the perspective of male and female marriage to evaluate Zhang Ailing's height, this sentence makes Zhang Ailing feel surprised, but also feel happy, not at all abrupt. In fact, Hu Lancheng's wife died early, when he was in the second marriage.
The next day, Hu Lancheng went to visit Zhang Ailing, and then went to visit her every day, and the two of them whispered and forgot the time. Once, Hu Lancheng talked about Zhang Ailing's photo, and Zhang Ailing took one and gave it to him, and left two sentences behind the photo:
Seeing him, she became very low, very low, low into the dust. But her heart was joyful, and flowers blossomed from the dust.
The two have known each other, known each other, and loved each other, and their relationship has progressed rapidly and smoothly. Hu Lancheng's wife offered to divorce, which gave Chengquan Hu Lancheng and Zhang Ailing a chance. The 38-year-old Hu Lancheng and the 24-year-old Zhang Ailing are married, and Zhang Ailing's best friend Yan Ying, as a witness, has no wedding ceremony, only a marriage contract:
Hu Lancheng and Zhang Ailing signed a lifelong contract and married. May the years be quiet and the present world be stable.
This period is the golden time for Zhang Ailing's creation, she has completed 1 long story, 6 novellas, 8 short stories and 40 essays, a total of more than 500,000 words.
The good times did not last long, hu Lancheng was sent to Hubei to edit the "Dachu Bao", and the two lived separately. Hu Lancheng, who had no sense of responsibility, quickly forgot Zhang Ailing and fought with Zhou Xunde, a 17-year-old nurse at Hanyang Hospital. The two held a wedding ceremony and lived together in a bright and upright manner.
A few months later, Hu Lancheng returned to Shanghai and stayed with Zhang Ailing for more than a month before he told Zhang Ailing about his derailment. Zhang Ailing's heart was stung, but she still loved Hu Lancheng and could only chew the pain herself. After that, Hu Lancheng returned to Wuhan, and when he saw the little nurse, he forgot Zhang Ailing.
In 1945, the end of Japanese imperialism came. Hu Lancheng fled to Zhejiang under the pseudonym Zhang Jiayi, claiming to be a descendant of Zhang Ailing's grandfather Zhang Peilun and living in the home of his former friend Si Songde. Si Songde's father had a concubine named Fan Xiumei, who had already given birth to a daughter for the Si family, two years older than Hu Lancheng. Due to the unstable situation, the Si family let Hu Lancheng take refuge in Fan Xiumei's mother's home in Wenzhou, escorted by Fan Xiumei. Hu Lancheng, who was not willing to be lonely, hooked up with Fan Xiumei again, and before he arrived in Wenzhou, the two became husband and wife. In Fan Xiumei's hometown, the two held another wedding.
The obsessive Zhang Ailing only had Hu Lancheng in her heart, and she actually went through hardships and obstacles to find Wenzhou all the way. Zhang Ailing went as a cousin, and she quickly became aware of the marital relationship between Hu Lancheng and Fan Xiumei, and Zhang Ailing, who was hurt again, quickly returned to Shanghai.
After more than a year of thinking, Zhang Ailing wrote a farewell letter to Hu Lancheng:
I don't like you anymore, you don't like me anymore. This determination was something I had considered for a year and a half. He does not want to increase your difficulties. Don't look for me, even if you write a letter, I won't look.
Zhang Ailing attached her own 300,000 yuan in writing fees in the letter, because Hu Lancheng had given her money before. At this point, the legendary love of Zhang Ailing and Hu Lancheng came to an end, their love withered, Zhang Ailing's literary talent also withered, and her creation entered a trough.
Zhang Ailing, who was high and strong in the Qing Dynasty, met the shameless Hu Lancheng, and in vain bore him the name of "traitor", and his work was banned. The real traitors, however, remain unscathed, and are still merciful everywhere, performing the most shameless scene of men in the past and the present. It is not an exaggeration to say that Hu Lancheng is the person who hurt Zhang Ailing the most.
Desperate, Zhang Ailing flew to the United States and met Laiya, the second man in her marriage. Born into a family of German immigrants in Philadelphia, USA, Fudnan Raya was quick-witted and able to improvise poetry in public. Growing up, he earned a Master of Arts degree from Harvard University and later taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After the outbreak of World War I, the adventurous and exciting Laiya resigned from her teaching position and became a war correspondent for the Boston Post, covering on the front lines. After returning home, he married a feminist and had a daughter named Faith. Soon, Laiya, unable to bear the shackles of family and marriage, left her daughter and wandered away.
For the next 12 years, Raya became a screenwriter in Hollywood. He could have been a good playwright, but he lacked the perseverance to devote all his attention to the creation of the script. But he still got a good paycheck and lived a life of a drunken fan.
The long-term alcohol poisoning caused Raya's memory to be reduced, no one let him write a script anymore, and the financially troubled Raya had to apply to live in the McDowell Literary Camp in New Hampshire, USA. The so-called literary and art camp is a place dedicated to providing temporary food and accommodation for writers with difficulties in life, so that they can write.
Zhang Ailing, who had just arrived in the United States, also had a difficult life and lived in a slum, she also applied for the MacDowell Literary and Art Camp, and lived in it as she wished. One day after lunch, Zhang Ailing saw a group of people listening to an old man tell a story about Hollywood and leaned over. This old man was LaiYa, and he actually turned around and looked at Zhang Ailing. It was this glance that Zhang Ailing later wrote: "This face seems to be a well-written first chapter that makes people want to read it." The two people who had a good feeling for each other began to visit each other.
In a difficult time, the two fallen literati felt sorry for each other and began another love legend. Zhang Ailing never looks at Laiya with a worldly eye, and she does not care about Laiya's poverty, old age and illness. LaiYa really understands Zhang Ailing, communicates with her about literary creations, accompanies her to watch movies, and goes to big shopping malls together to see gorgeous goods, only to see and not to buy. Zhang Ailing told LaiYa that she was pregnant. Laiya sincerely proposed to her, but was adamantly opposed to the child, and he only wanted to spend the rest of his life with a Chinese wife, unable to raise another child. Zhang Ailing agreed, laying the only flesh and bones in this life.
After the life of the literary camp, they went to Petersburg for a simple wedding. Zhang Ailing is very good at enjoying life, but she is busy writing all day and has no time to take care of herself. Laiya is a hard-working bee, gets up early and spends the morning grinding coffee, making authentic Italian coffee for Zhang Ailing and petting her as a princess. Zhang Ailing, who was bumping and wandering in a foreign country, finally found warmth and comfort in Laiya.
After only two months of sweet time, bad luck came. Laiya's body exposed the truth, he suffered a stroke again and again, and finally completely paralyzed in bed; Zhang Ailing's novel "Pink Tears", which she spent several years of painstaking efforts to write, was rejected, she could not withstand this heavy blow, and she fell seriously ill; her mother died in London, and Zhang Ailing, who was too busy to take care of herself, could not bury her mother; a Hong Kong film company that Zhang Ailing contributed to collapsed, cutting off their source of livelihood. Zhang Ailing bravely stood up in the predicament and lived by selling the antiques left by her mother. They often live a life where they have eaten and eaten, and when they have nowhere to live in the evening. After LaiYa lost her ability to work, Zhang Ailing took care of all the household chores. At the same time, she also had to take Raya around for medical treatment and take care of him without abandonment. Laiya's meeting Zhang Ailing in the last few years of her life was his greatest fortune, and Zhang Ailing's meeting with Laiya made her originally heavy life even heavier now.
They lived together for 11 years, and Raya died. 11 years of support, 11 years of vicissitudes, Laiya brought to Zhang Ailing the happiness and sweetness and many tribulations, all melted into Zhang Ailing's blood. Zhang Ailing missed LaiYa until her death, and she always used such a name in her later years - Ai Ling LaiYa, because Lai Ya was the most sincere with her.