The famous writer Bai Xianyong was the son of Bai Chongxi, a first-class general in the Kuomintang Army, and was born into a wealthy family, but Bai Xianyong's childhood in his memory was not very happy. At the age of 7, he was infected by his grandmother and suffered from tuberculosis.
Long-term treatment began, and in order to avoid passing on to the rest of the family, Bai Xianyong was isolated in another house.
In addition to the villain book and the radio, there were two poodles that accompanied him, the white poodle was sent by his attending doctor, and the black poodle was picked up by him from outside.
The days when he couldn't go to school were lonely, and his family always avoided him. Among the brothers and sisters, only his third sister, Bai Xianming, had seen him.
This made Bai Xianyong very moved, and he gave his black poodle to the third sister, who regarded it as a treasure.
Bai Xianyong's third sister, Bai Xianming, has a round apple face, so she is called an apple sister by her father Bai Chongxi.
Apple sister Bai Xianming has always loved her younger brother Bai Xianyong, and when the family lived in Chongqing, they raised a group of chickens in the backyard.
Whenever he heard the sound of the annunciation after the hen laid the egg, Bai Xianming would always pull Bai Xianyong to find the egg, and Bai Xianming would knock the egg into a small hole and then hand it to his brother to eat.
Bai Xianyong recalled this scene many years later and still found it funny. Raw eggs were so fishy, but they thought they were so delicious.
The White Family has 10 children, so not every child can share the same maternal love.
His father, Bai Chongxi, was busy with the Southern Expedition and the Northern War for many years, and his mother Ma Peizhang had to take care of 10 children and manage all the affairs of the Bai and Ma families.
Lack of skills, can not do everything.
The introverted Bai Xianming is not valued at home and is alone in school.
Adolescent children are sensitive and delicate, and Bai Xianyong once heard the third sister Bai Xianming crying softly in the next room at night.
The girl's confusion and concerns were unspoken of.
Bai Xianming received a notice of repetition from the school during his studies at St. Mary's College in Hong Kong, and Bai Xianyong remembers that his sister looked at the notice and shed tears sadly.
She has been studying hard, but she has never mastered the method, so she is always doing useless work.
Bai Chongxi attaches the most importance to each child's academic performance, and during the war outside, every time he calls home, he will ask His wife Ma Peizhang about the children's recent examinations.
When the children of the Bai family grew up, they recalled that their father, Bai Chongxi, asked them about their homework at the dinner table, and they still had palpitations.
The test results determine the family status of the Children of the Bai Family, Bai Xianming neither studies, nor the two sisters are beautiful, nor are they as lively and sweet as their younger brothers.
In families with many children, there is always one child who is neglected. She spent her adolescence melancholy.
In 1951, Bai Chongxi sent Bai Xianming to the United States, and Bai Xianming's two sisters had gone to the United States to study in the past few years, and the sisters could take care of each other.
The development of the matter was unexpected by the Bai family.
During his studies at Boston University in the United States, Bai Xianming could not keep up with the progress of school, the pressure accumulated, and he had no friends, and then simply skipped school and did not want to go to school again. She had mental problems and had auditory hallucinations.
In 1955, Bai Xianming interrupted his studies and flew back to Taiwan.
Bai Chongxi had already received a letter from his eldest daughter and knew about the third daughter's illness, but the letter was written euphemistically, far less than the impact of reality on him.
The Bai family waited for Bai Xianming at Songshan Airport, waiting for a third girl of the Bai family who became obese and bloated because of illness and overeating, and his skin became rough and sallow, and he would smile strangely for no reason and look sluggish.
Bai Xianyong recalls that Bai Xianming's illness hit Bai Chongxi and his wife with a huge blow, and his mother grew white hair shortly after the return of her third daughter.
Ma Peizhang always believed that his neglect of his daughter had caused her to suffer from schizophrenia.
The family got together to discuss, believing that Bai Xianming was not valued by his parents during his growth, and then went to such an unfamiliar environment as the United States, where the pressure at school was huge, internal and external troubles, and eventually suffered from mental illness.
Bai Xianyong read a lot of books about mental illness and wanted to find a reasonable treatment for his sister. However, the more books he read about mental illness, the more confused Bai Xianyong became. Every expert says it differently, and he doesn't know who to believe.
Bai Xianyong sighed at this:
Human beings have gone to space and conquered the moon, but their own square inches of land are still not allowed to enter.
After Bai Xianming returned home, the family loved her very much. Ma Peizhang wanted to return all the maternal love she had owed her before, but Bai Xianming had already closed the door of his heart.
Freezing three feet is not a cold day.
Although she was not as conscious as before, she still remembered some of the past events. Once, she mentioned the black poodle "Mida" that her brother Bai Xianyong had given her as a child, and her face was full of sentimentality and joy.
She still remembered that Bai Xianyong liked to eat eggs when she was a child, and during Bai Xianyong's return to Taiwan from the United States, late one night, Bai Xianyong saw her busy alone in the kitchen. Bai Xianming brought out two bowls of sugar water eggs, and handed one bowl to Bai Xianyong: "Old Fifth, this bowl is for you."
At that time, Bai Xianyong did not like to eat eggs for a long time, but looking at this bowl of sugar water eggs, his heart was very moved.
Bai Xianming did not study or work in Taiwan, did not fall in love and did not get married, and time seemed to stand still.
When she first returned to Taiwan, she spent some time in a mental hospital before returning home to recuperate.
Bai Xianming, who was mentally ill, was happier than before, she became a gourmet, no longer cared about the image, ate and drank when she wanted, and became a happy fat man.
She loves to watch TV, especially martial arts movies and horror movies. For crying love films, they are dismissive.
Bai Xianming, who refuses to enter the adult world, has always been Bai Xianyong's original memory of the smiling apple sister, and she has become a little girl who has not grown up.
Time can only age her face, but it cannot age her mind.
The Bai family all felt ashamed of Bai Xianming, so the Bai brothers and sisters scattered in all directions would always buy a lot of gifts for Bai Xianming whenever they came home.
Bai Xianming and Bai Chongxi in 1957
She likes small animals, so everyone buys her all kinds of animal toys, such as hens made of shells, penguins made of marble, wood carved mice, stone lions, porcelain birds, etc., and put them on her dresser, like a small zoo.
After the deaths of Bai Chongxi and Ma Peizhang, Bai Xianming's life became more and more lonely, and Luo Po, an old housekeeper who had served the Bai family for decades in the Bai family, took care of her living.
Grandma Luo was old and could have gone home to spend her old age, but she couldn't let go of the third girl, Bai Xianming.
Once, Grandma Luo fell ill with pneumonia and was in a coma in the hospital for more than ten days, and the Bai family thought that her limit was coming, but Grandma Luo miraculously recovered.
Grandma Luo later said that she had a dream and dreamed of Bai Chongxi and his wife, and they asked her to continue to take care of the third girl.
Grandma Luo believes that taking care of Bai Xianming is her mission, and it is also a reward for Bai Chongxi and his wife.
Bai Xianming and Luo Po's life is monotonous, the two do housework during the day and watch TV in Bai Xianming's room at night.
Grandma Luo was older and often dozed off while watching TV.
Bai Xianming is a standard TV fan, every night from 7 o'clock to 11 o'clock, before he is willing to fall asleep. During Chu Liuxiang's hits, she became a die-hard fan of Chu Liuxiang and never missed an episode.
During that time, Bai Xianyong returned to Taiwan to produce the drama "Dream of Visiting the Garden", and sometimes went home early, and would accompany his sister to watch a few episodes of Chu Liuxiang. The plot he missed, Bai Xianming would make up for him in detail, and tell the plot of Chu Liuxiang and Shi Guanyin Fighting Technique very wonderfully.
Bai Xianyong is very grateful for the invention of the television set, if it were not for the TV set, the life of the third sister Bai Xianming would only be more lonely.
Bai Xianming was unfortunate, and he suffered from mental illness at a young age, delaying the happiness of the second half of his life. She was also lucky that she had a large family who loved her, and they took good care of her and did not let her be hurt by the outside world.
Because of the support of her family, she does not have to worry about her livelihood and is not forced to marry.
She lived peacefully in her own world, as a naïve adult.
After Bai Xianming passed the age of forty, she began to keep her mouth shut, and when others asked her how old she was, Bai Xianming would sometimes conceal how old she was. The older a woman gets, the older she gets, the more she becomes a secret.
But in Bai Xianyong's view, there is actually no need for her sister to be jealous of her age, because since she has been ill, time has taken her helplessly. Everyone else has gone through vicissitudes, and she still lives in the past.
Bai Xianming cherished the days when her brothers and sisters went home to visit her, and every time she knew the time when the fifth brother Bai Xianyong would return to Taiwan, she would clean Bai Xianyong's room with Grandma Luo a few days in advance, change into new curtains, and prepare new toiletries.
The eldest sister, Bai Xianzhi, once came back from Hong Kong to see her, and she gave up her room to her sister to live in, and bought a bouquet of flowers for her sister and inserted them in a vase in the room. She said to the eldest sister, "Sister, do you like the flowers I bought for you?" ”
Bai Xianzhi burst into tears. This silly sister has always loved her family.
However, the time spent together is always very short, and most of Bai Xianming's time is lonely. She likes to go to the department store alone to walk around the east and west, to see this, to touch that.
Bai Xianming can walk around the department store for half a day without buying anything.
She withdrew from the adult world, without having to work to support her family, without getting married and having children, day after day, year after year.
In July 1982, Bai Xianming was admitted to the hospital because of hepatitis, and after diagnosis, her hepatitis was a rare case.
Doctors can't do anything about it.
The Bai brothers and sisters gathered together again for Bai Xianming's illness, but they could only watch Bai Xianming go down haggard day by day.
She spent her last birthday in her hospital bed, and in September of that year, she turned 49.
Her family, friends, and Bai Chongxi's old subordinates all came to celebrate her special birthday.
No one told her the truth about her condition, and Bai Xianming was still as happy as ever. She received a lot of birthday gifts, and Bai Xianming, who kept opening gifts, smiled like a child, or rather, she had always been a child.
On October 23, Bai Xianming died in the hospital.
After Bai Xianyong received the call in the United States, he was overwhelmed with grief.
The eldest sister-in-law and sixth brother who accompanied Bai Xianming to the last moment in the hospital told Bai Xianyong that Bai Xianming kept calling "mother" in his coma.
Since Ma Peizhang's death in 1962, for many years, Bai Xianming has not mentioned his mother's name, but he kept calling his mother before his death, perhaps subconsciously she still loves her mother very much, and will think of the mother who gave her life at the most critical moment of her own life and death.
Before her death, Bai Xianming said that "the road is too cold, so far", probably, her mother came to pick her up and take her home.