Ye Shengtao and Hu Molin
In the spring of 1957, the snow dissipated and everything was full of life, as if everything in the world was developing in a good direction, except for the old man under the lone lamp, depressed and sad.
Countless nights, countless lone lamps, the old man named Ye Shengtao was reading He Zhu's "Partridge Heaven" over and over again: "After the sycamore was half dead and frosted, the white mandarin duck with the head lost its companion and flew." ”
At first, I didn't know what the word meant, but now I am the person in the word.
Everyone knows that parting from life and death is the most common thing in the world, but when parting really happens, it still hurts like a bone.
Ye Shengtao and Hu Molin
Watching the old man fall into grief and unable to extricate himself, friends advised him to go out for a walk and relax, but he went around and did not have the heart to love the beautiful scenery, and finally returned to the place that belonged to the couple.
For the next thirty years, he was alone and never thought of continuing the string, Hu Molin may not be a perfect woman, but in Ye Shengtao's heart, she is the best wife in the world.
Thinking of his wife's kindness, he always sincerely thanked the "arranged marriage" more than forty years ago, and thanked Ms. Hu Zhengzi for leading the red line so that they did not miss each other in this life.
Ye Shengtao
When he was 18 years old, he went to attend the wedding of his classmates, and the teenager was talented, filling in a gap of "He Groom" to express congratulations, and at that time, his friend Gu Jiegang also happened to write a long couplet.
Two pairs of couplets are hung in the new room, wonderful pens and flowers, clouds and flowing water, the guests are amazed, good words, good words, from whom?
If you can find such a young talent and be a matchmaker for your daughter, it is a beautiful thing.
Ms. Hu Zhengzi, who was present, saw the hero with a discerning eye, and immediately asked who the writer was? Is there already a marriage?
Gu Jie was betrothed by his family when he was just 13 years old, and he became married early, and Ye Shengtao was still a bachelor, Hu Zhengzi couldn't help but rejoice in his heart, such a good youth, it is difficult to find it again.
Speaking of this, everyone must have thought that Hu Zhengzi had taken a fancy to Ye Shengtao.
Such an excellent young man as Ye Shengtao, Hu Zhengzi really looks at it, but Madam Hu is not for herself.
Ye Shengtao and Hu Molin
It turned out that she had worked hard for her niece, Hu Molin.
Hu Molin had no parents at an early age and has been living with his second aunt Hu Zhengzi, who is like a mother, and Hu Zhengzi regards her as his own.
Moreover, Hu Zhengzi is still an intellectual woman, who has cultivated her niece extremely well, and Hu Molin lost her parents in her early years, following her aunt, which can also be regarded as her creation!
At that time, Hu Molin was already 19 years old, a year older than Ye Shengtao, and her aunt Hu Zhengzi had already worried about her life's events.
But such an excellent girl cannot marry casually because she is old, and her aunt is worried about her daughter marrying, but she is even more sorry that her daughter is not married well.
Fortunately, heaven took pity on him and arranged such a good play of the mother's son-in-law.
Although Ye Shengtao's age was one year younger than Merlin's, the difference was not big, and it didn't matter, Hu Zhengzi immediately asked Wang Boxiang to be a matchmaker.
Do not ask about the origin, do not ask about the appearance, just because of the talent to see him, Ms. Hu Zhengzi's vision and pattern is also the average woman can not compare, with this aunt, Hu Molin must not be an ordinary woman.
At least the Ye family was very satisfied with this daughter-in-law.
Ye Shengtao was born in Wu County, Suzhou, an ordinary and even somewhat poor family, and it is no exaggeration to say that he has nothing but talent.
Seeing that their sons have reached marriageable age, their parents are also worried, but their lives are so poor, which girl is willing to marry?
It seems that Ye Father and Ye Mu also underestimated their son too much, and there are indeed girls who are willing to marry him, and people not only do not want a bride price, but also an intellectual woman who knows how to read and get polite.
Ye Shengtao
When Wang Boxiang came to the Ye family to say kiss, Ye Father and Ye Mother naturally had a hundred willingness after listening to it, and now it depended on the children's thoughts.
Wang Boxiang's marriage was very easy, and from top to bottom, from the Ye family to the Hu family, no one even objected.
Ye Shengtao did not have a favorite object in his heart over the years, and now, he only said that it was up to the second old man to decide, and he exchanged photos with the other party.
Of course, he also has a little bit of caution, because he heard that the other party is an intellectual woman, and the talented person appreciates the talented woman, so this is not exclusive.
At that time, he naturally did not think that the "non-rejection" before marriage would become deep affection after marriage, and it would be difficult to give up.
The second left of the second row is Ye Shengtao
After the parents of the two sides agreed, they did not arrange for the children to meet, and the two did not have any correspondence exchanges, but simply exchanged photos, and the two agreed.
Destined people, even if they are not prepared, will be tied together by the moon elder.
It is said that the photo they exchanged was not carefully selected at all, and may even become a minus from each other.
The photo of Ye Shengtao wearing a long shirt, her hair is disheveled, and the picture of Hu Molin is not much better, she is wearing very fat clothes, looking short and fat.
If you look at the photos alone, neither of the two people may look at the other, but these two people are Ye Shengtao and Hu Molin, and they never care about superficial things such as appearance.
Facts have proved that beauty is not a necessity for love marriage, more reliable and attractive than appearance, is a person's talent and quality.
Ye Shengtao's family
On August 19, 1916, Ye Shengtao and Hu Molin, with the blessings of everyone, entered the marriage hall, and an arranged marriage that was not excluded began.
The beginning of the story is frightening, because the arranged marriages in the world are most likely to live together, and their union is inevitably a bit sloppy.
However, the story's course and ending are surprisingly beautiful, because Ye Shengtao and Hu Molin are living with their hearts and loving each other with their hearts.
Ye Shengtao began to teach at the Shanggong School of the Shanghai Commercial Press in 1915, and Hu Molin also taught at the Nantong Women's Normal School.
After getting married, they went back to their respective schools to continue teaching, and the real problems were in front of them, and the newlyweds had to accept the challenge of being off-site.
Nantong to Shanghai seems to be a very close distance today, but in that era, the traffic was not convenient, and they had no way to meet often.
On the days that could not be seen, the postman from Shanghai to Nantong was filled with letters written by Ye Shengtao, and between the lines, they were all lovesickness.
People are like this, when they are alone, they feel that they can go anywhere, once they are married, they have belonging, and the place where they have a lover is their home.
With Hu Molin, Ye Shengtao became a family lover, and he began to look forward to every short reunion, missing his wife at night, and writing his sorrows in his diary.
Arranged marriages have no love, and this sentence is a false proposition here in Ye Shengtao and Hu Molin.
Love grew little by little between two strangers, and for more than forty years they became an integral part of each other's lives.
Ye Shengtao
I remember that shortly after marriage, in order to solve the lovesickness, Ye Shengtao and Hu Molin changed jobs one after another and went to teach in a school in Luzhi, Suzhou.
How much love in the world has been lost to long-distance love, but the love that rushes to each other is not afraid of the obstacles of time and space.
Couples in other people's families are afraid to stay together and work together, because after staying for a long time, they look at each other and hate each other, and the contradictions become more and more.
But Ye Shengtao was accustomed to such a way of life, and if Hu Molin was not around, he felt that everything was an abomination.
Decades later, When Hu Merlin went west, he recalled his teaching life in those days, and perhaps only one sentence could be summed up by saying that "at that time, only the Tao was common".
At that time, even he himself felt strange, why did he feel that everything was boring as long as Hu Molin was not at home? Maybe it's dependency, maybe it's habit, and no one has a definitive answer.
Ye Shengtao
Later, he was hired by Peking University and met talented people such as Zhou Zuoren, Sun Fuyuan, and Pan Jiayuan, and his talents were displayed and his spirit was greatly enriched.
However, in the middle of the night, his heart was always empty, and the employment period of Peking University was two years, and he only taught composition classes for more than a month, so he took a leave of absence to return to Lu Zhi.
Because the lady of the family was approaching the time of childbirth, he could not rest assured that he had to personally send Merlin to give birth.
Compared with those wives who enter the delivery room and do not see the shadow of their husbands, Ye Shengtao is really rare, and he loves his wife like this, so why should the husband ask for it?
In the more than forty years spent together, Ye Shengtao never wanted to leave home to work in other cities, even if he had to go, he would not be able to quit his job and come back for a long time.
Ye Shengtao
He resigned from Shanghai, resigned from Beijing, and later Guo Shaoyu repeatedly invited him to go, and he resigned and returned home not long ago.
Every time he resigned, he always had various reasons, and the reason he was embarrassed to say in front of everyone was his wife who missed his hometown!
They are like Shen Fu and Chen Yun in the 20th century, recording the sorrows and joys of floating life, but in the days when the cases are raised, it is more "huan".
Or maybe for them, there are such lovers around them, and even sorrow does not feel bitter.
In those years when the Japanese army invaded China, no one could become a bystander of the times, and in the years of flames, their lives were unstable, and the most dangerous one was that their whole family was in Leshan, almost bombed.
That was also the thing Ye Shengtao regretted the most in his life, they were all together for so many years, but his wife and children were not around when they were in the most dangerous time.
Ye Shengtao
On August 19, 1939, a day that the people of Leshan will never forget, the Japanese army sent 36 bombers to bomb Leshan.
When Ye Shengtao was lecturing in Chengdu, his family of six was struggling in the sea of fire, with a bomber overhead, and their lives hanging in the balance.
In the end, it was the eldest son Ye Zhishan who desperately opened the sealed back door and led the family out of the fire.
Ye Shengtao heard the news of the bombing of Leshan and stayed up all night, his family never heard from him, he was alone in safety, sad but powerless.
The next day he returned to Leshan, and as far as he could see, it was all wreckage, and he saw Hu Molin again, as if he were in another world.
Thankfully, they were all safe, and a heart that had been hanging for a long time could finally be put down.
Ye Shengtao's family
After this big bombing, Ye Shengtao became more afraid of separation, and in the era of war, no one could guarantee that he would be able to see him again safely after separation.
What the disaster brought to the world was probably to make them cherish the people in front of them even more, and for him, there was nothing more terrible than separation.
Life and death go hand in hand, probably the most enviable love in the world.
In that big bombing, the Ye family lost everything except their lives, their clothes were burned clean by the fire, and when the weather turned cold, they did not even have immunity to the cold.
A family of seven people, all shivering with cold, Hu Molin, an intellectual woman who had never made clothes, had to start preparing winter clothes for the whole family.
In the front row are Ye Shengtao and Hu Molin
Perhaps because Ye Shengtao and Hu Molin are both intellectuals, the whole family has been well educated, and life is difficult, but the family understands each other, helps each other, and survives together.
Even Zhu Ziqing said, "His home is so good!" ”
"Teaching craftsman" Hu Molin did not have experience in making clothes, the whole family went to battle together, even Ye Shengtao sewed a few stitches from time to time, but there was also a little fun in the pain, and the days were not difficult.
Years later, who will pick up the lights and mend clothes at night? The people in front of you are still there, it is already a kind of luck, what else is there to complain about?
When you think about it, that time was also a very rare experience.
The couple had been teaching before they got married, and after marriage, they were also a pair of ten-fingered teachers who did not touch the spring water, and after the bombing, their lives changed completely.
Hu Merlin held the child
A female worker originally hired by the Ye family ran away by herself when she was fleeing, and without a maid, she suddenly felt that her life had collapsed half of the sky, and they had to do everything themselves.
Laundry, cooking, sweeping, pouring toilets, all the dirty work in the house has to come by yourself.
When Hu Molin went to buy vegetables, Ye Shengtao always liked to go with her, and the middle-aged couple went to the vegetable market together, which was also a rare scene.
Husband and wife, along the way you mention me negative, although it is difficult, but it is not a fun.
The affectionate poet will also say "poor and lowly couples mourn" in desperation, and thousands of years later, they did not expect that the couple would be happy in their sufferings and turn chai rice oil and salt into poetry.
When Ye Shengtao recalled these years in his writings, he was also as sweet as ever.
Ye Shengtao and Hu Molin
However, the loving couple could not always accompany bai tou, Ye Shengtao's most feared parting still came, and what was even more frightening was that this time it was not something he could solve by resigning and returning home.
Hu Molin's life stopped in the spring of 1957, the 41st year after their marriage, and although there were still many years to look forward to, her body could not hold up.
"March 2, 1957, never forget this day of grief." Ye Shengtao's diary contained such a sentence.
In fact, as early as three years ago, the children knew that their mother was suffering from "cancer", and their whole family was hiding it, just wanting their mother to treat her illness with peace of mind.
When she was in good health, Ye Shengtao took her to play and take pictures together, but then the cancer recurred, and she couldn't control it, couldn't hide it, and couldn't rescue her.
Photograph of Ye Shengtao and Hu Molin
Hu Molin died, and the one who couldn't stand it the most was Ye Shengtao, although he had already made preparations, he still collapsed overnight.
The son built a canvas bed next to his father's bed, and sometimes when he woke up, he would see the lamp on, and he knew that his father was thinking about his mother again.
Writing down the eulogy word by word is Ye Shengtao's unique way of remembering.
He enlarged the photographs of Hu Molin's youth one by one and hung them in his bedroom, day after day, year after year, looking at the pictures as if she were still there.
They were with each other before they were born, and no matter how long they didn't feel bored, and so did they after they left.
Some people have experienced marriage and become enemies and wrongdoers, but some people are more and more happy the more they look at it, and the more they look at it, the more they miss it.
Ye Shengtao
In the 30 years after Hu Molin's death, it became the loneliest time in Ye Shengtao's life.
For 30 years, he has not forgotten her for a moment, and every year on March 2, he writes in his diary the words "Mo died for several years".
He affectionately called her "Mo", he used to say "Mo is not at home, he feels different", at that time "Mo is not at home", there is still a return date, and now he goes west, and there is no news.
Probably at the end of 1987, Elder Ye had a premonition that his body would not last long, and before he was hospitalized for the last time, he specially told his children:
"On the day of your mother's death, whichever of you goes to the grave to have a look... I'm not going. ”
Ye Shengtao Memorial Hall
Thirty years after the old man went west, he was missed for thirty years, and he never forgot his deep love for thirty years.
In 1988, a dozen days before Hu Molin's death, Ye Shengtao completed the mission of this life, followed his lover, and they were buried together in the spring.
Ye Shengtao and Hu Molin, in love, there is no thrilling, there is no country and city, and the plain days of decades are even more precious.
One lifetime and one couple, at least in this lifetime, they are each other's only one.