One day in 1995, Zhang Xueliang sat on a bench in the courtyard and listened attentively to his son's account of what he saw and heard in the northeast.
Not long ago, Zhang Lulin returned to China as an aerospace expert to investigate, and according to his father's advice, he returned to his hometown in the northeast to worship his grandfather Zhang Zuolin.
After listening to his son's eloquent narration, Zhang Xueliang's heart was excited and nervous, and he picked up his pen and wrote ten words on the paper tremblingly:
"The crane has a dream of returning to the nest, and the cloud has no heart. ”
And when Zhang Lulin worshipped, it seemed that the bloodline of the family genes buried in the bottom of his heart was awakened.
Suddenly, his tears flowed uncontrollably, and he was repeating 9 words in his mouth.
So what did he say to himself?
After Zhang Xueliang was imprisoned, how did Zhang Lulin live and grow up, so that she even became a generation of aerospace experts later?
Before leaving, he went to the prison cell
It is also a pity that Zhang Xueliang had four sons in his life, but three of them unfortunately died early due to various reasons, and Zhang Xueliang was the only one left by his side in his later years.
It stands to reason that there is only one son left, and Zhang Xueliang should love and cherish it even more, but Zhang Lulin's experience is not smooth sailing.
Soon after Zhang Lulin was born, the 918 Incident broke out.
In order to avoid the scourge of war, Zhao Yidi took his son to many places in Shanghai and Beiping, and the young Zhang Lulin seemed to be able to enjoy little time with his father.
After the Xi'an Incident, Zhang Xueliang insisted on escorting Chiang Kai-shek back to Nanjing, but as soon as he landed, he was detained by Nanjing.
It was also from this time that Zhang Lulin and Zhang Xueliang began a thirty-year separation. That year, Zhang Lulin was 6 years old, which is the age of memory.
With Zhang Xueliang's house arrest and the fall of Shanghai, Zhao Yidi was worried about his son's personal safety, so he secretly took Zhang Lulin to Hong Kong.
So, at this time, Zhang Lulin also began to learn English. At that time, he had already shown a memory beyond ordinary people, and his learning ability was also very strong.
Although Zhao Yidi is worried about her son's safety, she is also worried about Zhang Xueliang's situation.
At first, she and Yu Fengzhi were also allowed to take turns visiting the young marshal.
In the past three years, she has often run between Hong Kong and the mainland. But since Zhang Xueliang was secretly escorted to Jiangxi, he has gradually cut off contact with the outside world.
In addition, Lao Jiang also transferred the location of his imprisonment from time to time, which made Zhao Yidi instantly cut off contact with Zhang Xueliang.
With little hope in front of him and a child behind him who urgently needs to be raised, Zhao Yidi is in great pain, but he can't do anything about it.
And just when she was about to give up the news and devote herself to raising her children, a sudden letter arrived in her hands.
It turned out that Yu Fengzhi was diagnosed with breast cancer not long ago and urgently needed to go to the United States for treatment.
The letter mentioned that he hoped that Miss Zhao Si could come to Guizhou, which is where Zhang Xueliang currently lives, to take care of the young marshal.
Zhao Yidi thought about it again and again, even though she was reluctant to give up on her son, she finally made the decision to return to Zhang Xueliang.
But what should the young Zhang Lulin do at this time? The future of this trip is uncertain, and Zhao Yidi naturally will not take him with him. But how can you keep your child safe?
Zhao Yidi's mind came up with an old friend worthy of trust, Iago.
In this way, Zhang Lulin, who was only 10 years old, was sent to San Francisco, USA, and handed over to Zhang Xueliang's old friends and Mrs. Iago to raise her.
Although Ijag is an American, he is a friend that Zhang Xueliang relies on and trusts very much. Even during the period when Zhang Xueliang was in charge of the Northeast, he directly became the "economic agent" of the young marshal.
He is not only humble and courteous, but also very gentlemanly, and his ability to handle things is also very good.
Zhang Xueliang asked him to order an advanced American large passenger plane, but after everything was ready, when the two sides were about to deliver, the Xi'an Incident broke out.
The chaos and turmoil made it difficult for the plane to receive it normally, and Iag had to inform the merchant to delay the delivery.
But soon, Zhang Xueliang was imprisoned by Chiang Kai-shek, the Northeast Army was leaderless, and Ijag was also a little at a loss.
The merchant contacted him and said that he could choose to get a refund, so that the huge amount of money for the purchase of the plane would fall into the hands of Iag alone.
Iag immediately objected, and soon went to Shanghai to explain the situation to Zhang Xueliang.
The young marshal replied:
"Get the plane to China as soon as possible, and I'm going to give it to Mr. Chiang. ”
Iag immediately copied and handed over the plane to the Chinese Air Force.
Although in the end, Lao Jiang just lightly asked Song Meiling to reply:
"Thank you, Han Qing. ”
It can only be said that the young marshal's good intentions did not change the tragic situation of his imprisonment for half his life.
But relatively speaking, Iag still chose to help Zhang Xueliang when he was in danger, and it can still be seen from here the depth of the friendship between the two.
This is why Zhao Yidi chose to entrust his son to their couple.
And after Zhang Lulin was taken over by the Ijag couple, they always remembered Zhao Yidi's request and took care of Zhang Lulin to raise her.
Dedicated to raising, adhere to the "righteousness" escort
Before leaving, Zhang Lulin hugged Zhao Yidi and didn't let go, crying and shouting that she wanted to go to see her father with her mother.
Mother and child separated, what a sad moment.
At this time, Zhao Yidi had already burst into tears, but she still held back her emotions and explained to Iag:
"Now that the situation is turbulent, I hope that the two of them will take care of them wholeheartedly, and try to hide my son's identity as much as possible, so that he can grow up happily. ”
Then, Zhao Yidi bowed to the Ijag couple.
Yiag immediately decided that Zhang Lulin must be raised smoothly and safely, and it will not be in vain for the "Zhang family" to know him.
In order to guard against the harm caused by people with good intentions in China, after the two returned to the United States with Zhang Lulin, they immediately moved out of the Chinese area where they originally lived and came to Los Angeles in the United States.
They named Zhang Lulin "Kerr" and took care of him as their own child. Even the usual communication is in English.
So when Zhang Lulin met his father again later, he no longer spoke Chinese.
Including in the 90s of the 20th century, Zhang Lulin returned to China several times, and many Chinese-sounding stumbling dialects were actually learned in advance.
But despite this, the Ijag couple still felt that there was something wrong with the matter.
Because they know many Chinese people in the United States, if they keep Zhang Lulin by their side for a long time, it will inevitably arouse the suspicion of others.
In order to be sure, Ijag decided to foster the child in the home of his friends Mr. and Mrs. Cohen, on the one hand, to avoid the surveillance of the eyeliner.
On the other hand, it can allow the young Zhang Lulin to integrate into American life as soon as possible.
Because the Cohens have a child of the same age as him, Xiao Lu Lin is not too lonely.
Mr. and Mrs. Iago often used the excuse of visiting Cohen to visit Zhang Lulin.
In this way, he quickly integrated into life in the United States under the careful care of these two kind couples.
And Zhang Lulin is also very competitive, not only did she not fall behind in her homework, but her grades were still at the top of the class.
After graduating from high school, he was admitted to the University of California with excellent grades and studied aerospace with a very difficult degree.
Since then, he has dreamed of becoming an aerospace expert in the future, and after decades of hard work, Zhang Lulin has fulfilled this dream.
During college, Zhang Lulin also met the person who was in love with him.
The girl's name is Chen Shuzhen, and she is Chen Jitang's niece. It's just that the two didn't know each other's identities when they fell in love.
Although Zhang Lulin had no worries about food and clothing under the care of his adoptive parents, and then started a family and had a stable income, he always seemed to have that inseparable attachment complex in his heart.
Sometimes, when Zhang Lulin returns home after a long day's work, she will sit alone in front of the window in the dead of night.
Looking at the bright moon hanging high in the sky, I wondered what happened to the motherland across the ocean, and how did my biological parents live?
But in his memory, the image of his biological father has become more and more blurred, so that he can't even remember Zhang Xueliang's name later.
You may say that Zhang Lulin has forgotten her roots, but this is not the case.
What can a 10-year-old child change in the face of family changes? Sometimes, forgetting is often more difficult than remembering.
In fact, it is precisely the case that the Ijag couple "protect" their children very well.
Father and son meet, the way home
At this time, Zhang Xueliang and Zhao Yidi, who were imprisoned in Taiwan, also missed their son all the time.
In 1952, a fire broke out in the Chinese neighborhood of San Francisco, and the newspapers spread across the sea to China, which showed the seriousness of the disaster.
Zhao Yidi has been cut off from her son for 15 years, and the address that the Ijag couple gave her is still the address in the Chinese section of San Francisco, but they don't know that they have moved.
Zhao Yidi, who learned the news, was very worried, but there was nothing he could do.
So in 1955, when she learned that Dong Xianguang and his wife were about to go to the United States as "ambassadors", she immediately found the two of them and hoped that they could help find the child.
In this way, Dong Xianguang and his wife set off with this special task.
At first, they just wanted to find the child in a low-key way, so as to avoid unwanted complications.
But when they took the address provided by Zhao Yidi, they found that it had long been inhabited, and the original residential area had also become a golf course.
The situation was urgent, and Dong Xianguang had to seek help from the media and the government.
They were relieved to find the file of the fire record and find that it did not contain the names of Ijag and his wife, Ena.
They contacted the FBI and eventually found Iago and Zhang Lulin, who had moved to Los Angeles.
Unfortunately, Ena has been dead for 12 years.
Since then, Zhang Lulin has finally gotten in touch with his biological parents in the mainland again, and he often goes to Baodao to visit his parents.
However, because Zhang Xueliang has not yet been freed at this time, even if Zhang Lulin comes to visit, he will be partially restricted.
It was not until 1991 that Zhang Xueliang was able to regain his freedom and later emigrated to the United States.
Due to the particularity of his own identity and the instability of the domestic and foreign environment, Zhang Xueliang was unable to embark on the journey back to China again after all.
But he didn't let his son Zhang Lulin go back and forth between China and the United States. Among them, Zhang Lulin returned to China in 1994 to mourn his grandfather Zhang Zuolin.
At first, Zhang Lulin went to China for investigation and research as an aerospace expert in the United States.
After Zhang Xueliang learned the news that his son was going to return to China, he still kept instructing before he left:
"You must go back to the Northeast and see your grandfather for me!"
Zhang Lulin took this sentence to heart, and after the work was completed, she hurriedly boarded the train to Liaoning with his wife.
When he really stood in front of the door of the "Great Marshal's Mansion", his heart was a little uneasy.
Decades pass by like a movie film, recording the changes of the family and the growth of oneself.
When Zhang Lulin came to the tomb of the handsome, he first stepped forward and bowed, and then spit out the nine words clearly and forcefully:
"I've come to see you for your son. ”
How much bitterness and helplessness does a short sentence contain? In a short sentence, no matter how many words are there, heaven and man will be separated forever, and they will never be the same.
It seems that the prosperity and liveliness of the Marshal's Mansion are close at hand, but when you really want to reach out and touch them, those laughter, noise, babbling, and pacing back and forth are all in the past......
Scene after scene, frame after frame, but it is really close to the horizon.
epilogue
In the following years, Zhang Lulin also returned to China many times, on the one hand, instead of his father, he visited Shenyang, Xi'an and other places again, and after he returned, he would tell Zhang Xueliang what he had seen and heard.
On the other hand, it seems that he is also looking for his own "way home".
The local feelings of the Chinese are engraved in the bones, and we often talk about "returning to the roots of fallen leaves", probably also missing the feeling in our own memory.
Although Zhang Lulin has not lived in the motherland for a long time, let alone in her hometown in the northeast.
But he still chooses to "go home often", probably because he is also nostalgic for the warmth and comfort that his hometown gives him.
-END-
[Text: Here]
[Editor|Chang Gung]