In 1941, Liang Zongdai and Shen Ying had been married for 7 years. 7 years is not long or short, but like many couples in the world, their marriage has entered a period of burnout.
Liang Zongdai always felt that Shen Ying was too strong, and Shen Ying always hated Liang Zongdai for braggarting.
Neither of them could put themselves in each other's shoes to think about each other, and the quarrel became a scene of the daily life of the two, and many years later, their eldest daughter Liang Siwei still remembered it very clearly
"The mother was not accustomed to her father's braggarty personality, and sometimes she could not help but talk about him, so she quarreled."
Liang Zongdai loves to brag and has capital. Liang Zongdai, who was famous for writing poetry at the age of 16, was talented, studied in Europe in his early years, was proficient in several Chinese, and returned to China after graduation to teach at Peking University, Nankai, Fudan and other universities.
A veritable young talent.
It is precisely because he is full of confidence in himself, Liang Zongdai lives a very personal life, he often argues with colleagues about literary issues, he fights without a word, and within a few minutes, the two sides laugh, like a jianghu chivalrous.
Liang Zongdai did not have any careful thoughts, like people is like, dislike is dislike.
He loves beautiful women and never hides himself. Once, Luo Dagang, president of the French Literary Research Association, went to visit Liang Zongdai, and when Luo Dagang was nervous, Liang Zongdai asked, "Who is the most beautiful female student at your Sino-French University?" ”
The atmosphere immediately enlivened.
Liang Zongdai's first wife originated from an arranged marriage, he did not agree to the marriage, but was tricked by his parents into returning home, and when he arrived home, he learned that he was deceived and reluctantly became a groom. On his wedding night, he hid in his study and did not want to sleep with his wife.
At his strong insistence, he soon divorced his wife.
The second lady was Shen Ying, a talented woman who was already a well-known writer and had published several novels when she met Liang Zongdai.
In 1931, after being introduced by a friend, the two were able to meet, and on the day they met, they determined that the other was the person they were looking for.
Liang Zongdai later wrote a poem commemorating the first meeting of the two men:
"I can't forget that day
We got to know each other
Yi bowed his head and smiled as he walked by
I also walked by with my head down and a smile..."
In 1935, the two married in Beiping, and the first days of marriage were as sweet as ever.
Shen Ying works as a housewife at home, and Liang Zongdai is responsible for earning money to support the family.
When two daughters were born one after another, Shen Sakura had to put down the pen in her hand and devote all her energy to taking care of her children and husband.
Real life is too trivial, all day in the face of children's crying, trapped at home Shen Sakura, inspiration is getting less and less, so that Barkin asked her to write, for two or three years, she could not write a word.
Her husband's career is rising, but she has to become the woman behind Liang Zongdai, and Shen Ying's heart is somewhat bitter.
After all, Shen Sakura does not need to rely on her husband to live, is a highly educated intellectual woman who can support herself.
Liang Zongdai did not understand Shen Ying's sorrow, in Liang Zongdai's view, the male protagonist outside the female protagonist, natural righteousness, Shen Ying is completely unreasonable.
The gap between the two is getting deeper and deeper, and they have not yet had time to solve it, but they are facing a bigger crisis.
In 1943, Liang Zongdai's father died, he returned to Guangxi Baise to mourn, deal with the family business, and when he was depressed, he met a woman who made him feel excited.
This woman is the drama Gan Shaosu.
Although Gan Shaosu was young, he suffered from snacks, because his family was poor, he only read to the third grade and quit school, he was apprenticed in the drama class at the age of 12, and at the age of 15, he was occupied by the ugly Huang Jiabao as his wife, Gan Shaosu was tortured in this marriage, and at the age of 23, he finally divorced the other party as he wished.
Not long after the bitter and sweet days, Gan Shaosu was again occupied as a concubine by Zhong Shuhui, a captain of the Guangxi Yulin Special Bureau, Zhong Shuhui already had a wife and a concubine in his family, the two women joined forces to bully Gan Shaosu, and Zhong Shuhui often scolded Gan Shaosu, her life was miserable, and it seemed that there was no hope.
Her and Liang Zongdai's lives are very different, it is reasonable to say that there will be no day of intersection, but fate is so wonderful.
Liang Zongdai was pulled by a friend to listen to the play, and accidentally heard Gan Shaosu's natural voice, and that night, Liang Zongdai wrote a poem praising Gan Shaosu:
Witty words and clear tones and round sentences, who said cantonese opera is unbearable? If the singing voice compares the spirit bird, it is half a yellow oriole and half a cuckoo.
The two became friends, and after learning of Gan Shaosu's tragic experience, Liang Zongdai was very sympathetic to Gan Shaosu, and Gan Shaosu later said in his memoirs that Liang Zongdai listened to her story at that time
"Tears filled his eyes, and he occasionally took off his glasses to wipe them, without saying a word."
Men like heroes to save the United States, and Liang Zongdai is no exception, he wants to help this bitter woman through his own strength.
"What I am particularly surprised about is the realism of her tragedies, from her interest in art, I want to know more about her life, and it turns out that her situation is hell on earth!" "I am a nosy person and determined to improve her situation"
Since then, he has come to see Gan Shaosu sing every day, rain or shine.
Gan Shaosu sang the wrong words and did the wrong actions, and Liang Zongdai would point out for her afterwards, hoping that she could go further in her career.
For Gan Shaosu, Liang Zongdai, as a professor at Fudan University, could be so close to her as a humble and bitter woman, she seemed to see the light in the darkness.
She wanted to cling to Liang Zongdai's life-saving straw.
Gan Shaosu filed for divorce from Zhong Shuhui, who said that as long as Gan Shaosu could come up with 30,000 yuan, he would let Gan Shaosu go free.
30,000 is undoubtedly a huge amount of money for Gan Shaosu, but this big problem was easily solved by Liang Zongdai.
He took out 30,000 yuan to redeem himself for Gan Shaosu, and he also personally went to negotiate with Zhong Shuhui, but he was beaten by the other side and a few small, fortunately, Liang Zongdai had learned martial arts, although he was hit a few times, it was not a big problem.
In a small part of the county, a little thing can make headlines in minutes, not to mention that university professors are making a big fuss for female dramas?
The next day, Guangxi Daily made a headline: Professor Liang Zongdai performed a full martial arts performance for a female maid.
Liang Zongdai became a local news figure, and his scandal with Gan Shaosu spread well.
Gan Shaosu also wasted no time in saying
"To this day, society is so deafening... I mean to be wrong is wrong, I don't want to live on stage anymore, please do human to the end, send the Buddha to the west...
Although Liang Zongdai later thought that it was difficult to ride a tiger, he had to accept Gan Shaosu.
"Originally it was for your artistic future, who expected to get to such a point today, I already have a wife, Shen Sakura must not allow me, but now I have to do so." 」 ”
But Gan Shaosu made him feel the long-lost heartbeat, which was a fact.
The talented woman Shen Ying knows Liang Zongdai's inner world better than the illiterate Gan Shaosu, but she has a strong personality, never likes to hold her husband, and cannot satisfy Liang Zongdai's machismo, only Gan Shaosu of the third-grade culture can take Liang Zongdai as the center, often praise him, and praise Liang Zongdai to be satisfied.
Compared with Shen Ying, who calls herself an "untamed wife", perhaps Liang Zongdai needs a bird-like woman like Gan Shaosu more.
Shen Ying was a proud person, when she knew that her husband was hiding in the Outer Golden House, she did not cry or make trouble, packed her luggage, and moved away from her and Liang Zongdai's home with her two daughters.
At this time, Shen Sakura was still pregnant with her third child.
Liang Zongdai did not consider Shen Ying's efforts for so many years, perhaps for Liang Zongdai, this kind of payment is a matter of course, after all, China has been a husband and wife for thousands of years.
After Liang Zongdai returned to Chongqing, he wrote to Shen Ying hoping to reconcile, and after these letters were sent, they were like stones sinking into the sea, and Shen Ying did not reply to a single letter.
He found Shen Sakura several times, but was also turned away by Shen Sakura.
Without dragging mud and water, this is the place where Shen Sakura is free.
How hard it is for a woman to raise three children, Shen Sakura's courage can be seen.
In 1946, Shen Ying took her three children to Shanghai to teach, and after Liang Zongdai learned about it, he rushed from Guangzhou to Shanghai and wanted to take Shen Ying and her children to Guangzhou and live together.
Shen Sakura refused again.
Shen Ying later talked about why she left Liang Zongdai:
"The reason for being separated from him, is both simple and complex. He was rich and a man with a dual personality. I can only be liberated without him, otherwise, it will be difficult for me to get out. I am an untamed wife, and I will never follow him, probably this is also the temper of shandong people. ”
In 1948, Shen Ying took two daughters, a son, and her family to Taiwan.
On the occasion of parting, Liang Zongdai hoped that she could keep the child, but Shen Ying refused. Liang Zongdai became angry and told Shen Ying that without children, he could regenerate.
People are not as good as heaven, Gan Shaosu was unable to have children, and the two could only rely on each other for their lives.
Shen Ying works as a teacher in Taiwan, part-time writing and translation, and raises three children alone.
It was hard, but she never complained.
Shen Sakura is a very strong woman who does not like to let her children live in the mother's complaints all day.
Even Gan Shaosu, who had taken her husband, had never said anything bad about Gan Shaosu in front of her children.
Such a mother, both cultured and cultivated, how can the children raised are not excellent?
Shen Sakura's three children later went to the United States to study and work.
The lonely Shen Sakura often reminisces about the past, and the older people get, the more they like to miss the past.
Although Shen Ying left Liang Zongdai for many years, she still left a place for him in her heart
In Chinese New Year's Eve 1963, Shen Ying wrote to her daughter in the United States:
"Your letter didn't say anything about 'thinking of your relatives every festive season', nor did I think of 'one night at home'. At this moment, I think of these famous sentences throughout the ages, and I deeply appreciate the misery of the past that is not heard, and life and death are close to death. ”
At the end of the letter, she sighed, "Our family scattered in five places..."
In addition to her and her three children, the fifth place is Liang Zongdai, and Shen Ying has always regarded Liang Zongdai as her family, but has to separate.
Some people can't say what's good, but no one can replace it.
The children are out of work, and Sakura doesn't have to worry like in the past, she has more time to do what she likes.
Shen Ying translated the novella "Letter from a Strange Woman" created by the Austrian writer Zweig, she printed the book at her own expense, planning to send it to a friend as a souvenir, but she did not expect that the book was so well translated that it was printed in 10 consecutive editions in a year, creating a miracle in Taiwan's publishing industry.
Shen Ying's interest in translation was inseparable from Liang Zongdai, and she later wrote to Liang Zongdai:
I often say to my children that in the relationship between husband and wife, we are resentful couples, but in literature, you are the teacher who has influenced me the most. To this day, the fun of reading and writing is still not free from your barriers. ”
They were like-minded confidants, but eventually they parted ways.
The white head said good to old, walking and walking will disperse.
Although Shen Ying and Liang Zongdai have long been separated, the two have not gone through formal divorce procedures, and nominally, Shen Ying is still Liang Zongdai's wife.
She still regarded herself as Lady Liang Zongdai to the outside world, and some of Liang Zongdai's former students called her master mother, and Shen Ying would smile and agree.
Tang Ji, a student who called Shen Ying his teacher's mother, once mentioned to Shen Ying about Liang Zongdai's previous class
: He often strolled into class wearing English suit shorts and knee-length white socks, and he raised a goat, like a dog, meekly following him until he reached the class before turning back.
After Shen Sakura listened, she smiled and said, "He is that virtue." ”
"He is that virtue." There is nostalgia and sweetness in this tone, the years have changed, even if there has been more hatred for Liang Zongdai, it has long since dissipated with the passage of time, and love is more unforgettable than hate.
Shen Ying resumed correspondence with Liang Zongdai in his later years, and the two got along like friends.
Shen Ying learned that Liang Zongdai was ill, and wrote a letter to comfort the other party, "I thought you were stronger than me, I didn't expect to go into the old world", "Unfortunately, you can't come here to swim together, I hope to take care of myself, and I can see you again."
Although they cannot be husband and wife, they are still deceased
"I should take the opportunity to write to you again when I can correspond." In this old age, which has nothing to do with old friends, we can always be called the deceased. ”
Shen Ying often mentioned to Liang Zongdai the recent situation of the three children, comforting and comforting Liang Zongdai, who could not see the child.
At the end of the 1970s, Liang Zongdai's two daughters came to the mainland to meet their father, and Liang Zongdai was very pleased that in his daughter's growth career, he was absent for a long time and was not a qualified father.
He also wanted to see his youngest son, Liang Siming, but was told that his son did not want to see him, and Liang Siming said: "My father treated his mother like that, and I didn't want to see him." ”
Liang Zongdai is very helpless, very sad, people are old, they are very attached to family affection. In his later years, Liang Zongdai often mentioned several of his children to colleagues and friends, and his words were missed.
However, Liang Siming never lived with Liang Zongdai, and his father was just an unfamiliar term to him.
In the end, only Liang Zongdai can be blamed for giving up family affection in order to pursue love.
In 1982, Shen Ying returned to the mainland to visit relatives, went to several cities, met many old friends, such as Zhao Qingge, Ba Jin, etc., but did not go to Guangzhou alone, which is where Liang Zongdai lived.
Maybe it's not that I don't want to see it, but I just don't want to embarrass Gan Shaosu.
Shen Ying has always been a woman who can carry clearly and put down.
In 1983, Liang Zongdai died of illness and left this world with regret.