During a sad farewell ceremony during the Republic of China, an emotional woman caused a commotion in the venue and insisted that the coffin and shroud be changed for the deceased.
Relatives and friends around her hurriedly stepped forward to reassure her and try to stop her violent behavior, but the woman insisted on changing the deceased's clothes and setting the coffin herself. In the chaos, people can't help but wonder, who is this woman, and who is the protagonist of this funeral?
The deceased is the talented Xu Zhimo, and the "troublemaker" is the talented woman Lu Xiaoman? Today, let's talk about the story.
Tragically killed on a plane
On a gloomy morning in November 1931, Xu Zhimo arrived at Nanjing Airport on time and planned to take the "Jinan" postal flight of China Airlines to Beijing.
In the evening, his friend Lin Huiyin will be there to give a lecture on Chinese architecture, and many foreign envoys will also attend the event, so Xu Zhimo, as his close friend, naturally does not want to miss this important moment.
Despite the poor weather conditions, the Xuzhou area was shrouded in fog, and the flight conditions were not ideal, Xu Zhimo still resolutely embarked on the journey to Beijing.
He was on a postal plane mainly used to deliver mail, and there were only two crew members on board except Xu Zhimo himself. At first, the plane flew in a calm sky, and everything seemed as peaceful as it had been on countless previous flights.
Before flying to the area of Dangjiazhuang, the sky was clear, there was no trace of fog or heavy rain, and the whole journey was as smooth as a picture. However, life is always full of unpredictable uncertainties, and when people are still looking forward to tomorrow, accidents often come unexpectedly.
When the plane arrived over Dangjiazhuang, a sudden thick fog shrouded the surroundings, the pilot's vision was blurred and he could not identify the course, and the normal route became out of reach. At the critical moment, the pilot decided to lower the flight altitude in the hope of gaining a clear view and finding the right course.
Unexpectedly, in the unclear conditions on the ground, this rash descent caused the plane to crash into a towering mountain peak in a turn. The worst-case scenario came true, as the plane collided with a mountain and lost its balance on a violent impact, crashing into the valley just a few minutes later.
In an instant, the fuselage fell into a raging fire, and all three crew members on board, including Xu Zhimo, were killed, which became the biggest misfortune at that time......
The ex-wife claimed the body and organized the funeral
At 2 a.m. on November 20, 1931, the silence was broken by a sharp knock on the door of Fan Yuan Villa at 125 Haige Road in Shanghai, and a servant crept through the hall until he reached a bedroom door and called softly:
"Madam, there is a gentleman from the Bank of China who has a telegram to hand to you. ”
Zhang Youyi hurriedly put on her robe as soon as she woke up from her sleep, walked to the living room sleepily and took the telegram, but after a hurried glance, she seemed to be woken up by a bucket of cold water, and instantly woke up.
The hasty telegram brought heartbreaking news: the private plane on which the poet Xu Zhimo was traveling unfortunately crashed into Jinan in a storm, and the only passengers on board, Xu Zhimo, and the two crew members fell in an instant.
Previously, the messenger went to Xu Zhimo's residence with a heavy heart, but was met with Lu Xiaoman's desperate denial, insisting that this was just misinformation, unable to accept the cruel reality, and fainted in grief.
The messenger reluctantly recounted to Zhang Youyi: "When I arrived at Mr. Xu's house, Mrs. Lu Xiaoman did not believe this, refused to receive the telegram, and fainted due to excessive grief, so I had no choice but to send it to you. ”
After learning the bad news, Zhang Youyi's heart was filled with shock and sadness, but Lu Xiaoman's fainting made her have to fight her spirits.
Zhang Youyi and Xu Zhimo's marriage has long come to an end, and nine years have passed in a hurry, and as an ex-wife, it seems that it is against etiquette for her to take care of the aftermath.
In the midst of anger and anxiety, Zhang Youyi is unhappy with Lu Xiaoman's refusal to accept reality, but now is not the time to argue.
Xu Zhimo's father was old and could not afford this sudden change, so at this moment she thought of a person, that is, Xu Jikai, the son born to Xu Zhimo.
Soon Zhang Youyi found her eighth brother Zhang Yujiu, and took on the responsibility of claiming the body together with Xu Jikai, and at the same time, she was also thinking in her heart: how to tell the old people and relatives of the Xu family about this unfortunate news.
After sending Xu Zhimo's body back to his homeland, Lu Xiaoman was so sad when he heard the heartbreaking news that he was so weak that he was bedridden.
In this way, Xu Zhimo's posthumous affairs all fell on Zhang Youyi, her figure was busy at the funeral, but the sadness in her heart could not be hidden.
The sudden plane crash caused Xu Zhimo's body to be violently hit and engulfed in flames, and his remains were seriously damaged.
Zhang Youyi endured her grief in tears, entrusted professionals to carefully stitch up the body, and tried her best to maintain his last dignity.
On the day of the funeral, Zhang Youyi prepared a set of solemn black cheongsams for herself, but chose to avoid the ceremony, unwilling to meet Xu Zhimo's current wife Lu Xiaoman, and only sent her deep sorrow with a couplet.
Lu Xiaoman made a big fuss about the funeral
Lu Xiaoman came sick and haggard, and slowly walked into the mourning hall with the support of his friends, where Xu Zhimo lay peacefully in the sea of flowers, and the coffin was lightly opened to accept the farewell of relatives and friends.
Lu Xiaoman staggered close to the coffin, and Xu Zhimo in front of him was dressed in a Chinese-style shroud, resting in a simple coffin, and the black silk shroud reflected his pale face.
She couldn't accept the fact that the person who called her "Man" in her usual days had been separated from her forever, and grief made her turn her head and close her eyes.
When he opened his teary eyes again but felt that everything was wrong, he stared at the shroud on his husband's body and took a step back to look at the coffin, shook his head and sobbed almost uncontrollably and cried:
"No! That's not right! Who put this dress on him? Who picked this coffin? I'm going to change it! I have to change it all!"
She emotionally reached out to unbutton Xu Zhimo's shroud, trying to find the once familiar him in this way, and everyone hurriedly stopped Lu Xiaoman, for fear of disturbing Xu Zhimo, who had just been able to rest in peace.
After careful reassurance by her friends, Lu Xiaoman was guided to the lounge, but she had already made up her mind and insisted on changing Xu Zhimo's suit and using a Western-style coffin.
As Xu Zhimo's wife, her requests made the relatives and friends present at a loss, so they had to turn to Zhang Youyi for help.
Zhang Youyi rushed to the funeral scene in a hurry, learned what Lu Xiaoman had done, closed her eyes tightly, took a deep breath and then exhaled slowly, and so on until the fluctuations in her heart subsided.
"Even if he dies, he can't change anything now, let alone in such an unexpected situation......", "Go and tell Lu Xiaoman, I don't agree." ”
When Lu Xiaoman learned of Zhang Youyi's reply, her mouth opened slightly as if she wanted to justify, but in the end she didn't say a word, knowing in her heart that no matter how she argued, it would be useless.
Xu Zhimo's father will undoubtedly be on Zhang Youyi's side, she is isolated, and the person who once thought about her has left.
Moreover, Lu Xiaoman also relied on the alimony provided by Xu Zhimo's parents, if he offended Zhang Youyi, the future would become uncertain, and under various considerations, Xu Zhimo was finally according to the previous arrangement.
Feelings are not blessed
Looking back on the past, the love story between Zhang Youyi, Lu Xiaoman and Xu Zhimo once caused an uproar in the community.
At that time, Lu Xiaoman was already a wife, and Xu Zhimo was already a married man, and the emotional entanglement between them was undoubtedly regarded as an unfaithful journey.
Although the people around him are against this relationship, Xu Zhimo is firm and always guards Lu Xiaoman. Finally, Lu Xiaoman ended his marriage, and Xu Zhimo couldn't wait to marry her home.
This long-suffering relationship was not blessed by everyone, and Liang Qichao gave a message at their wedding:
Lu Xiaoman, you and Xu Zhimo are both from the past, I hope that from now on you can abide by women's morals, review your personality and behavior, divorce and remarriage are caused by the mistakes of your character, I hope you don't make mistakes again and again.
Don't take selfishness as the criterion of action, don't take absurdity and pleasure as the goal of life, don't treat marriage as child's play, think that you can get married if you are happy, divorce if you are unhappy, make your parents ashamed, make your friends look down on you, and let society see jokes......
The second elder of the Xu family is not optimistic about his son's marriage with Lu Xiaoman, in their opinion, this woman who held hands with her son because of an "affair" seems to be full of shortcomings compared to the former daughter-in-law Zhang Youyi.
So even if their son divorced, the two old men still insisted that Zhang Youyi continue to be in charge of the housework, and at the same time cut off the financial support for Xu Zhimo, so that he and Lu Xiaoman could support themselves.
Lu Xiaoman was originally an unemployed person, so Xu Zhimo had to shoulder the heavy burden of supporting his family, under normal circumstances, a family has 20 yuan a month is enough, Xu Zhimo is a university professor with a good salary, and he is completely able to support the family.
But Lu Xiaoman's monthly expenses are as high as hundreds of yuan, and in order to support the family, he has to teach at Peking University and Beijing Women's Normal University at the same time.
Even so, under Lu Xiaoman's extravagant squandering, hundreds of oceans still seem to be stretched, and he still needs to borrow money from others every month to survive.
Upon learning of this, Xu Zhimo's relatives and friends persuaded Lu Xiaoman to be thrifty, but she did not change like the wind in her ears.
Xu Zhimo and Lu Xiaoman live in Shanghai, and have to travel back and forth between Beijing and Shanghai every day for the sake of teaching, and he has repeatedly persuaded Lu Xiaoman to accompany him and go to Beijing together for the rest of his life.
Lu Xiaoman couldn't let go of the familiar life in Shanghai, and repeatedly rejected Xu Zhimo's invitation, and the latter had no choice but to travel back and forth between the capital and Shanghai. In order to save money, Xu Zhimo has chosen free flights many times.
I often walked by the river without getting my shoes wet, and finally the tragedy mentioned above occurred......
After Xu Zhimo passed away, Lu Xiaoman and Weng Duanwu lived together, and the two lived together for 30 years and never got married. Regarding Weng Duanwu's feelings, Lu Xiaoman did not give a clear answer in his life, but regarded him as an indescribable emotional support.
When Lu Xiaoman died, he was eager to be buried with Xu Zhimo, but was rejected by Xu Jikai, as a lonely man, Lu Xiaoman was neither recognized by the Xu family, nor accepted by the Weng family, and the funeral was extremely shabby, and there was not even a decent tombstone.
Until 23 years after her death, Lu Xiaoman's nephews and nieces worked together to raise funds and purchased a stone tablet for her at the Dongshan Overseas Chinese Cemetery in Suzhou, which was engraved with the words "Ancestral Aunt Lu Xiaoman's Memorial Tomb" to remember her past.
What do you think differently about this?