"I try to describe in this article the result of a popular actress going to an obscure marriage, and although she ended this misdirection with her own hands early, she still inevitably wasted her career, her years, her life... Sadly, none of the initiators are responsible for all this. ”
In the summer of 1925, the 17-year-old Meng Xiaodong handed over his first huge savings in his life, totaling more than 10,000 yuan.
The mother counted the stacks of silver tickets of varying denominations, overjoyed, "Your father has sung all his life, and he has never seen so many." ”
Meng Xiaodong turned his eyes to his father on the sickbed and said, "Dong'er will sing more hard in the future and earn more money to honor her father and mother." ”
The sick Meng Hongqun scanned the mother and daughter with the afterglow, and couldn't help but laugh, quite a bitter joy. This eldest daughter learned to sing with him at the age of 5, dropped out of school at the age of 8 to help the family, wrote a contract to her uncle, Sun Pai's old student Qiu Yuexiang as an apprentice, for many years with the teacher to go south and north, free service, and finally survived to the top, can support the family this day, how can he not cry with joy.
Not long ago (June 5), an advertisement for the play was posted at the entrance of the Sanqingyuan Theater in Beijing: "Meng Xiaodong, a specially hired named Zhen zhen China KunLingSu Sheng Taidou, performed in this theater." ”
Fans of the drama heard the news and thought that the advertisement was exaggerated, but they came one after another, all to see whether the young KunLing's style was really called the "Taidou" level.
That night, Meng Xiaodong took the lead with the whole book "Visiting the Mother", playing Yang Silang alone to the end, the whole performance was exquisite and wonderful, and the applause at the bottom was thunderous. The next day, the audience commented on its typhoon, the appearance was beautiful, and the singing voice was lingering around the beam, and the three days were endless. Since then, Meng Xiaodong has become a hit and became famous in Beijing.
At the same time, Beijing city was full of famous people, including Mei Lanfang, Yan Jupeng, Shang Xiaoyun and other big-name actors, but Meng Xiaodong continued to stand in an invincible position, was invited by many theaters, lacked skills, and then recorded a number of records, earning a lot of money for master Qiu Yuexiang.
In ecstasy, Qiu Yuexiang agreed to let the disciples take her parents and siblings in Shanghai to live in Beijing's Dongtangzi Hutong, but Meng Xiaodong felt that the old-fashioned courtyard he rented was too cramped, and bought No. 25-26 of Dongsi Santiao (two connected East and West Wing Courtyards) for a high price of 6,000 yuan. The whole family, together with a dozen servants, settled here from now until Meng Xiaodong left the mainland, which was the base of her mother's family.
Figure | Meng Xiaodong
After settling the family down, Meng Xiaodong's career continued to soar. In August of that year, Mei Lanfang's think tank Mei Dang noticed this up-and-coming new star, and it just so happened that Mei Lanfang had a play next that urgently lacked supporting roles, so she asked Meng Xiaodong to do the work. This is also the first time that Meng Xiaodong has performed with master Mei Lanfang on the same stage.
At first, the Mei party was also worried that the fledgling Meng Xiaodong was not Mei Lanfang's opponent, and worried that she would screw up the play. However, when they went on stage to rehearse the play, the Mei Party people found that the two were in harmony and surprisingly had a tacit understanding.
However, in the process of rehearsal, there were some slightly ambiguous third-party remarks, which were caused by Mei Lanfang saying a sentence when she was guiding Meng Xiaodong's role - "Our current situation is a common conversation between the little couple", and did not want to immediately cause the Mei party watching the play below to become restless.
Li Shijie said: "It really seems like a natural couple"; Zhang San immediately added: "Then let them cultivate the feelings of the real couple through the fake couple in the play, maybe it can be done." With these two guys opening the conversation, the others also laughed at the possibility between Mei Meng.
"That's it for today!" Feng Gengguang felt that the more the big guys talked, the more sensitive they became, and even some of them were arrogant, so he had to immediately stop the rehearsal and announce the end of the show.
An actor who wants to concentrate on acting needs an agent to do some business (such as Meng Xiaodong's master Qiu Yuexiang), while a big-name actor like Mei Lanfang, with complicated affairs and daily gold, needs a team behind it to handle the operation. This team is called "Mei Dang", and it includes Zhang San (manager of "Mainland Daily"), Li Shijie (the playwright who wrote the script for Mei Lanfang), Feng Gengguang (president of the Bank of China), Qi Rushan (dramatist)... Among them, the more core figure is Qi Rushan, who is the manager and planner of Mei Lanfang's daily work affairs; the other is Feng Gengguang, who is in charge of Mei Lanfang's financial power, and is also the decision-maker and clapper of mei party think tank.
Figure | Mei Lanfang and Feng Gengguang took a group photo
On August 23, Mei Meng officially cooperated for the first time at the home of the general office of Beijing Electric Light Company, and the co-performance of "Shilang Visiting Mother" was a great success.
The success of the first battle seems to make Mei Lanfang unfinished, and after that, when he performed "Silang Visits His Mother", he actually announced the removal of his original partner Yu Shuyan and replaced it with Meng Xiaodong, but it is clear that Yu Shuyan's coffee position is far above Meng Xiaodong.
Regardless of whether Mei's strange move has ulterior motives or not, the increase in the number of performances on the same stage has surprised the top management of the Mei Party to find that the combination of Mei and Meng will detonate great market benefits. The steward Qi Rushan immediately advocated the marriage of Mei Meng, and the decision-maker Feng Gengguang was well aware of this, so he sent Qi Rushan to consult the opinions of the two parties.
Figure | Mei Lanfang
Since Mei Lanfang already had two wives (Yuan with Wang Minghua and the second room Fu Zhifang), he thought he would have some concerns, but Qi Rushan did not expect it, and he agreed without thinking about it. On the contrary, on Meng Xiaodong's side, Qi Rushan encountered a blockage.
On the day that Qi Rushan drove the East Fourth and Third Articles to visit, he saw Meng Xiaodong when he entered the door, so he opened the door and said his intentions.
After Meng Xiaodong listened, she was so excited that she almost did not stabilize the woman's reticence, because she could not marry the idol she worshipped, and secondly, she privately thought that Mei Lanfang would be of great help to her artistic progress. Moreover, At that time, Mei Lanfang was known as today's "national husband" and was the crush of countless famous ladies. Therefore, Meng Xiaodong's willingness to marry him seems to require no reason, and even if she wants nothing, even if there is a lack of deep love between her and Mei.
Of course, Meng Zheng was at his peak, and her own conditions were not bad, so she did not immediately agree to Qi Rushan, but politely responded: "As a marriage event, we must enlighten our parents." Qi Rushan had a number in mind, and the only person to deal with it was Meng Hongqun, the old man.
After a while, The old couple slowly walked from the east wing of the courtyard to the living room, smiling and squinting to greet Qi Rushan. Meng Hongqun's attitude towards his daughter's marriage was not hidden, and he first expressed his consent, but also raised his worries: "Boss Mei has two rooms, how old is Xiao Dong's door?" If you do partial room, our old Meng family still needs to discuss. ”
It was the mention of the name issue again, which inevitably caused Qi Rushan a headache. I still remember when Mei Lanfang married the second room Fu Zhifang, the Fu family also raised the same problem. At that time, the solution was to claim that Mei Lanfang had both died since she was a child, and had been passed on to her uncle since childhood, so she could have two rooms at the same time (that is, she was allowed to have two wives in the main house), which successfully promoted Mei Fu's marriage.
There are only two quotas for the main house, and in order, Meng Xiaodong can only be a concubine after crossing the door. However, at present, there is a special situation that since Fu Zhifang passed the door, YuanBei Wang Minghua was seriously ill and went to Tianjin for treatment, so the other main room position of the Mei family was actually in a state of vacancy.
Qi Rushan decided to seize this point to fool around, he told Meng Hongqun: "Mrs. Wang's body is very ill, she has not returned to Tianjin for recuperation, and there is actually only one room in the house. ”
After Meng Hongqun listened, his eyes lit up, but he still thought about it. Qi Rushan saw the situation, and then whispered: "Wang's life is not long, Miss Meng substitutes nature..." At this point, Meng Hongqun did not let Qi Rushan continue to speak, but his mood was suddenly cheerful. Finally, he mentioned one more thing to Qi Rushan, that is, meng Xiaodong's contract with his master Qiu Yuexiang had not yet been redeemed, and he was personally attached, and he still had to wait for the two of them to make a decision before they could get out of marriage.
Qi Rushan understood the spirit and said goodbye. Before leaving Dongsi Santiao, he also agreed to Meng Xiaodong's request to visit Mrs. Wang Minghua in Tianjin.
Figure | Mei Lanfang and the housekeeper Qi Rushan
Two days later, Meng Hongqun sent Qiu Yuexiang 3,000 yuan, which was apparently prepared for him by Feng Gengguang, the finance minister of the Mei Party, to dissolve Meng Xiaodong's mentor-apprentice relationship with Qiu Yuexiang.
Qiu Yuexiang was greatly displeased after receiving the money, and the loss of Meng Xiaodong's hot printing machine meant that he could not continue to establish himself in Beijing. But there was no room for maneuver, and before he packed up his bags and sneaked back to Shanghai, he warned this apprentice and half-daughter of many years in a rather retaliatory tone: "Do you still want to sing after you get married?" Wait to cheat on men! ”
Meng Xiaodong became angry and became more and more convinced that this master only used her as a cash cow. Li Shijie of the Mei Party advised Meng Xiaodong not to worry much, after all, the original intention of the Mei Party's top brass in promoting Mei Meng's marriage was to let the bi people expand their profits on the stage, so they would not let them hide after marriage.
After Mei Lanfang learned that Meng Xiaodong's side was done, he suddenly retreated, and he confessed his heart to the stalwarts of the Mei Party, "The side of the Immeasurable Adult Hutong (Fuzhifang base area) is afraid that it will not be easy to deal with, and marrying Miss Meng still needs to slow down and think about the long term." ”
If everything is ready, how can it be lost? Qi Rushan and Feng Gengguang did not care that promoting Mei to marry Meng would annoy Fu Zhifang, on the contrary, this was the challenge launched by the Mei Party top brass to Fu.
Fu Zhifang was also planned by Qi Rushan and Feng Gengguang to marry into the Mei family, but as a result, he did not think that Fu was not only not used by the "Mei Party", but was feared by the "Mei Party". After Fu Zhifang passed through the door, she was good at rationalizing the family, and gradually tightened her grip on Mei Lanfang, which has affected the normal activities of mei lanfang's think tank in contacting Mei Lanfang. Qi Rushan tried his best to promote the combination of Mei and Meng, precisely to re-plant a Lady Mei to come out to resist Fu Zhifang. However, to the friends around him, he declared that the reason for his dissatisfaction with Fu was that Fu was at odds with Dafang, and he was sick with Lady Wang, and he needed to use Meng to frustrate his sharpness. However, the culprit of Wang Minghua's illness is largely inseparable from the Mei Dang think tank that promoted Fu Zhifang to enter the door.
Speaking of Feng Gengguang, on the surface, he and Fu Zhifang were harmonious, but secretly they were fighting against each other. Whenever the Mei family encounters large expenditures, they must be approved by Feng Gengguang. Fu Zhifang complained about Jiuyi and always wanted Mei Lanfang to take back the financial power of the family and let her manage it, so Feng had to be wary of Fu Zhifang, and the best way was naturally to borrow Meng to cut the power of Fu.
Among this group of people (including Meng), perhaps only Mei Lanfang is the purest and most unintentional ambush, he really only wants to marry Meng Xiaodong.
Figure | Mei Lanfang and Fu Zhifang
Qi Rushan and Feng Gengguang believe that Mei Lanfang's concerns are not unreasonable, and in order not to have a direct conflict with Fu Zhifang, Li Shijian gave an idea: "Marrying Meng should adopt the strategy of cutting first and playing later, and the golden house hides the jiao." After marriage, he temporarily lived outside the plum house, accumulated grain, built a high wall, and waited for the birth of an heir, and then slowly became king. Mei Lanfang listened and praised it.
After all obstacles were cleared, in the late autumn of 1926, Meng Xiaodong, accompanied by Mei Lanfang, Qi Rushan and others, went to Tianjin to pay respects to his wife Wang Minghua.
Wang Minghua lives in a small Japanese hospital, where there are few patients and the corridors are deserted.
After Mei Lanfang got out of the car, she walked up to the second floor of the hospital, shouted "Minghua", and was the first to rush into the familiar ward. The couple did not see each other for months, and they almost hugged and wept in front of everyone.
Meng Xiaodong shouted "Hello" rawly, and Wang Minghua reacted to the fact that there was a young and handsome girl among the group. She ate the raw pear cut by the nurse and responded vaguely with a few "Good... Good... Good".
After some greetings, Mei Lanfang entered some irrelevant topics. Qi Rushan was anxious, and when talking about Meng Xiaodong, he interjected coldly: "If the wrist Hua is handed over to Xiao Dong, Madame, are you at ease?" ”
When Wang Minghua heard this, he was shocked to drop the raw pear in his hand, and he was stunned for a moment before he said happily: "How not to be assured!" Xiao Dong is so young, and the play is sung well... I would like to give up the main room to Xiao Dong. After speaking, she took off the ring of her left hand and lovingly put it on Meng Xiaodong's left ring finger. Meng Xiaodong was greatly moved and blurted out a "sister".
Wang Minghua was a sad wife who, after giving birth to a pair of children, was sterilized to concentrate on serving her husband, but a measles took away her two children. Mei refused to adopt, and for the sake of the Continuation of the Mei family's fireworks, she generously agreed to Fu enter the door, and now agreed to Meng enter the door. Her virtuousness and generosity have been circulated among relatives and friends, but some ill-intentioned people have pointed out that she can no longer tolerate a woman dividing up her husband, and the poor inability to have children is out.
Figure | Wang Minghua and Mei Lanfang are in Japan
On the twenty-fourth day of the first month of 1927, Mei Lanfang and Meng Xiaodong finally officially married, the difference between the two was 14 years, belonging to the combination of two generations. The wedding venue was set in Feng Gengguang's mansion at No. 35, Jiutiao, East Fourth Arch Building, Dongcheng.
Based on the principle of internal self-management and external secrecy, this wedding only invited a few tables of relatives and Mei Party stalwarts He Xi, in addition, all eye-catching ceremonies were exempted. However, those in the know agreed that Meng Xiaodong's marriage to Mei Lanfang was in line with the regulations of the Ming Media, and in the folk tradition, it was "recognized and had the effect of a contract".
After marriage, Meng Xiaodong's biggest concern is whether he can continue to sing. At first, Mei Lanfang prevaricated that to avoid stimulating the immeasurable adult alley, it was necessary to settle down for a while. Later, when Meng Xiaodong asked again, Mei Lanfang told her bluntly: "Inside the male and female protagonists, you run out to sing, not only my friend, in the future (referring to the public relationship) the whole city of Beijing will laugh at me Mei Lanfang can't even feed his wife, where is this face?" ”
After listening to this "ban order", Meng Xiaodong was surprised and frustrated, because the think tank of the Mei Party did not say so. She turned back to ask Qi Rushan again, and Qi's tone was even more non-negotiable: "How can you show your face after marriage, if you want to get married, you have to sacrifice." Meng Xiaodong was repeatedly shocked, but his heart was dumb and eating Huang Lian, and he had a feeling of being deceived.
The position of the top level of the Mei Party is indeed contrary to the previous one, but this is likely to be because it touched Mei Lanfang's red line and had to change her mouth. However, Meng Xiaodong did not make a big fuss about this matter, but lived in the courtyard of the deep mansion of the Feng Mansion, which almost allowed her to live an isolated life.
Figure | Meng Xiaodong silhouette
After Meng Xiaodong "disappeared", people outside were looking for her (she also wanted to go out inside), and a large number of theater fans, especially theater owners, dug three feet into the ground to track down the whereabouts of the Winter Emperor (winter emperor is Meng's nickname). But at this time, Mei Lanfang can still take care of herself and work, and sit still. It wasn't until the Beiyang Pictorial exposed a scandal about the marriage of Mei Meng and The Two Lings that he suddenly summoned Feng and Qi to discuss countermeasures.
Less than a month later, beiyang pictorial newspaper itself debunked this reliable information, saying that "Mei Meng's marriage" was purely illusory. The antics of "Beiyang Pictorial", you can know without guessing, it is mei dang public relations that is secretly extinguishing the fire.
Compared with the news obtained by the newspaper catching the wind and catching the shadow, fu zhifang may have mastered the relevant information about her husband and the little goblin living outside, but Fu did not have a shrew seizure, but instead pretended to be deaf and dumb, and ignored it.
After this encounter, Feng Gengguang realized that his family had many eyes and ears and was easy to leak the wind, and decided to transfer Meng Xiaodong's hiding place to a secluded alley in The Inner Interior Department Street in Beijing's Dongcheng City, where a rectangular courtyard was Meng's new residence. It is surrounded by green brick walls, and people look up in the middle of the courtyard, and there is loneliness in sitting in a well and watching the sky.
In order to alleviate this atmosphere, Feng Gengguang intimately arranged for his sister-in-law, who was one year younger than Meng, to accompany him (but he was actually a guardian), in addition, he also lived with his old mother who cooked rice and the male maid who guarded the nursing home. Mei Lanfang has to report back to the infinite adult hutong every day and will not stay overnight, so there are only 4 people in the whole house, which further strengthens the level of confidentiality. But it's like painting the ground as a prison.
Meng Xiaodong lived in seclusion here, living a life of locked up near house arrest. Mei Lanfang purchased a hand-cranked phonograph for her so that she could listen to records, and at the request of the extension of traditional Chinese studies teachers and Peking opera teachers to teach in secret, in short, to maximize her self-amusement.
Such a day seems to be peaceful, but in fact, it is already testing Meng's patience, but things have not waited for Meng to erupt in a frenzy, and it has been pushed to the worst situation by an unexpected head blood case.
Figure | Meng Xiaodong first tried to take a bicycle for a photo
On September 14, 1927, a human head was hung from a telephone pole near The East 49, and a group of people gathered around to watch it. Meng Xiaodong's residence is not far from here, and the old mother who bought vegetables came back to report the news that caused a sensation in beijing, and she pretended to be vicious and said: "The person who was beheaded is still a college student!" Meng Xiaodong threw out her tongue in fright, she didn't know that this human head came from a stranger she knew.
According to the military police, the owner of the human head is named Li Zhigang, a young college student. In the early morning of the night of the 14th, he premeditated the kidnapping of Mei Lanfang at the door of Feng Gengguang's house and extorted a ransom of 50,000 yuan. Unexpectedly, the plan failed, and Zhang San, a member of the Mei Party, was mistakenly tied up. After the military police arrived and arrested him, Li Dog jumped off the wall and fired three shots at the hostage Zhang Sanlian, and the military police immediately killed him on the spot. At three o'clock in the afternoon of the same day, Zhang Zuolin ordered that the bandits be shown to the public for three days.
Zhang San was sent to the hospital for treatment, Mei Lanfang felt deeply guilty, on the night of the crime, he could not raise a ransom of 50,000 yuan, otherwise Zhang might not have died for him.
The day after the accident, Zhang San's widow and her children ran to the door of the Mei mansion in the immeasurable adult hutong to cry for mourning, and did not stop for several days in a row, Fu Zhifang was angry, Mei Lanfang in order to calm the storm, humanitarian compensation for a house plus 20,000 yuan of money, Zhang San's widow was willing to disperse.
But the matter is not over, the tabloids flying in the society have leaked out the motives of the bandit Li Zhigang, saying that he is a fanatical fan of Meng Xiaodong, and he heard that the idol was acting because he was married to Mei Lanfang, so he had a sense of revenge. This information is not false, the bandit Li Zhigang single-minded Meng Xiaodong, often squatting in the east four three to harass, Meng had to politely persuade each time. However, the helpless tabloid became more and more crooked, and the follow-up even fabricated that "the bandit Li Zhigang is Meng Zhigang's fiancée, and Mei Lingren inserted a foot horizontally, grabbing people's love, shameless to the extreme." ”
Mei was depicted more and more black, and at this time, Fu Zhifang, who had always stayed out of the matter, finally jumped out and attacked, not only exposing Mei for secretly building an outer room, but also accusing Meng of being a sinner in this public relations crisis. Suddenly, Mei Lanfang fell into a situation of internal and external troubles, and had only been married to Meng for less than a year, and she had to face the point of considering abandoning Meng. But Meng is not at fault, and abandoning Meng may cause greater trouble. Mei also couldn't bear it, after all, he still loved Meng Xiaodong.
Figure | Mei Lanfang, Meng Xiaodong
After weighing and considering, Mei Lanfang regained her sanity and decided to keep her own people to set up signboards first, and paid people to withdraw the heat on the "Beiyang Pictorial". This is a common means, the public is happy to forget, and then wait for public opinion to gradually fade, but because Fu Zhifang has broken the window paper, Mei has no longer dared to frequently enter and exit the Street of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (Meng Xiaodong base area).
In the past, Mei would appear on time on the street of the Ministry of Internal Affairs at one or two o'clock in the afternoon, but now she only goes once a week, and later it is reduced to once every half a month, or even a month to see people. Mei explained that she had no time to prepare for a visit to the United States.
In the face of her husband's increasingly cold, even if she gives the most impeccable reason in the world, Meng Xiaodong cannot be without emotion. At this moment of uneasiness, the damn tabloids published the news that Mei Lanfang and his wife Fu Zhifang had gone to Tianjin to perform together, and Meng Xiaodong was furious and ran back to the dongsi santiao mother's house in a huff.
When Meng Mu learned that her daughter was bullied by Mei Lanfang, she couldn't help but complain: "When she was not married before, Dong'er sang at home without any worries, and now that she is married, the family has no income at all, and she also has to be wronged by Mei Dapai." Meng Hongqun also echoed and blamed Mei Lanfang, simply letting her daughter come back to acting.
With the support of her parents, Meng Xiaodong really ran to Tianjin to perform for more than ten days. Back on the stage that had been missing for a long time, Meng Xiaodong's mood suddenly turned sunny, but Mei Lanfang's side was like a thunderbolt on a sunny day, he suppressed his anger, hurried to Dongsi Santiao to receive reprimands from his father-in-law, and humbly took Back Meng Xiaodong.
In late September 1928, Wang Minghua, who had been ill for three years, died, Mei Lanfang was devastated, and Meng Xiaodong finally survived to the moment when she could keep the clouds open and see the moon. In November of that year, Mei Lanfang carried Fu Zhifang and Meng Xiaodong to Hong Kong to perform, and on February 16 of the following year, beiyang pictorial openly called Meng Xiaodong "Mrs. Mei Meng". Mei Lanfang does not deny it, which also shows that his relationship with Meng Xiaodong is officially open to the public.
Wang died on the bench, which was expected by Fu Zhifang, so she did not have any worries, but continued to preside over good housekeeping.
Figure | Fu Zhifang and Mei Lanfang
In the summer of 1929, Meng and Fu, two opponents who had never met but had their own grudges, had their first confrontation. The performance of visiting the United States is imminent, and Mei Lanfang has not yet decided whether to take Fu to the United States or to take Meng to the United States. Just when he was struggling, Meng Xiaodong suddenly expressed concern for Fu, and then analyzed: "Second Sister Fu is pregnant with Liujia, it is inconvenient to travel far, in order to avoid her involvement, it is better for me to accompany her." Mei Lanfang was deeply impressed, so she went home to dissuade Fu from accompanying.
In fact, Fu Zhifang has self-awareness, she knows that she is pregnant, she must not be able to accompany, otherwise it will not be a system, and it will be true. But she did not compromise, in order to block Mei Lanfang's excuse, turned around and postponed the Japanese doctor to take medicine to abortion, Mei Lanfang went home to find that the child was gone, almost did not faint. The top level of the Mei Party also made a helpless remark, saying that Fu Xin was fierce and fierce.
Mei Lanfang was afraid that Fu Zhifang would make another move that she could not open, and simply decided that no family members would be brought to the United States, so that Fu and Meng would not have to fight anymore. Meng Xiaodong was discouraged and frustrated, and returned to the home of Dongsi Sanjo, and Mei Lanfang simply took Fu Zhifang, who had just suffered the loss of her son, to the summer resort of Beidaihe to relax. Mei Fu's itinerary was tracked and reported by beiyang pictorial, and Meng also saw these angry news. At this point, the depth and contrast of the relationship between Mei and Fu and Meng are clear at a glance.
In July 1930, Mei Lanfang's six-month visit to the United States ended, and just after arriving in Tianjin, she was shocked to hear the bad news of the death of her mother, and rushed back to Beijing that night for funeral.
Although Meng Xiaodong still resented Mei Lanfang, he still cut his hair short, planted white flowers on his head, and went to the Infinite Adult Hutong to cloth his mother-in-law with hemp and filial piety. However, when she came to the door of the Mei Mansion, she was stopped by three or four domestic servants who were waiting in a strict line.
"I have come to mourn my mother-in-law, and I am righteous, do you dare to stop me?" Meng Xiaodong was angry and did not fight.
The maid had a hard look on her face and replied, "Miss Meng please come back, this is Madame's meaning, we also have to order things." ”
Meng Xiaodong felt humiliated, angrily shouting Mei Lanfang's name, most of the guests who went to the door to mourn knew the Winter Emperor, and the scene once made Meng Xiaodong feel self-conscious.
After a while, Mei Lanfang and Qi Rushan rushed out, and Mei Lanfang leaned on Qi Rushan, dodging and saying, "Xiao Dong, you go back first, you don't have to worry about it here, in two days I will give you an explanation." ”
Meng Xiaodong had a seizure when he boarded, "I am the daughter-in-law of the Mei family, and I refuse to kowtow to the old lady, what do I think I am?" ”
Mei Lanfang did not dare to answer, and Meng Xiaodong turned to Qi Rushan beside him and asked, "Mr. Qi, didn't you say that I was also the main room?" Now give Xiao Dong a precise word, am I a wife or a concubine? ”
Qi Rushan was in trouble and turned to Mei Lanfang to deal with it. Meng Xiaodong suddenly woke up, sat on the ground with a weak body and cried, "You guys got together to lie to me..."
Mei Lanfang, at the suggestion of a friend, cheekily went back to the house to plead with Fu Zhifang, "Xiao Dong is not coming, let her prostrate her head and send her away." Fu Zhifang's eyes widened, and she warned with unprecedented anger: "You see that I have one in my stomach and two more running on the ground, if the concubine comes in half a step, our mother will die to show you." Mei Lanfang was frightened, and he believed that Madame could do anything.
Figure | Fu Zhifang with children
In the end, Meng Xiaodong did not even step on the threshold of the gate of the Mei Mansion, and ran back to the mother's house of Dongsi Santiao crying.
This time, she almost lost face, everyone knew that she had been married to Mei Lanfang for three years, but she had never stepped into the Mei family for half a step. She herself was aware of a very serious problem - Mei Lanfang could not fulfill her promise to give her the right wife, but she herself did not admit that she was Mei Lanfang's concubine, so what was she? Many outsiders have looked at her jokes and ridiculed her as Mei Lanfang's "mistress". It is really hard to imagine that the Winter Emperor, who was so popular and his acting career was like the day in the sky, was reduced to becoming the "mistress" of his population.
Since returning to his mother's home, Meng Xiaodong could not afford to be ill, and then went to Tianjin to treat diseases and believe in Buddhism, so Mei Lanfang went to Dongsi Santiao to pick up people and pounce, and also suffered a loss to train her father-in-law.
About the end of this year (1930), the two reconciled in Tianjin, but the broken mirror was still round and the rift was still there, and The appearance of the god was separated for half a year, Meng Xiaodong told himself soberly, the feelings were gone, the fame guarantee was gone, what was the use of nostalgia for an empty shell? It's time to put an end to this torturous relationship.
In July 1931, on a rainy night with heavy rain, Meng Xiaodong bluntly proposed to Mei Lanfang to break up. Mei reacted fiercely, but Meng said to him in a resolutely cold tone: "My heart is like a piece of wood, and the newspaper openly says that I am your "concubine", which I do not admit." We have not registered the relationship between husband and wife, so today we will make it clear that we do not need to go through divorce procedures. After saying that, she ran straight back to the home of Dongsi Sanjo, took out scissors to strangle her black hair, and committed suicide by hunger strike for several days, and her mother knelt on her knees and pleaded bitterly, before she dispelled her thoughts.
Afterwards, although Mei Lanfang went to Dongsi Sanjo to plead guilty, Meng's heart was like ashes. She could sense that it was only a matter of time before May gave up on herself. This is indeed the case, because before the breakup, not only did Mei himself have the intention of thinking of returning home, but also launched a debate on Meng's stay, because Meng's behavior caused Mei to be in a mess, the Mei Party think tank unanimously decided to "leave The Blessing and Pai Meng", but Mei obviously disagreed, he cherished the feathers, how could he let himself fall into the stigma of chaos and abandonment. Now that Meng has offered to break up, it may be the best landing step for both parties. In this way, no one accused Master Mei of playing with feelings, and no one did not praise the Winter Emperor for daring to love and hate.
However, the divorce between Mei Meng is not as easy as Meng said, because their marriage is socially recognized. The follow-up situation is that Meng Xiaodong wants to fight a lawsuit to seek compensation (originally Meng said not to pay a penny), but due to the intervention of du Yuesheng, a big gangster in the green gang, the lawsuit was not successful, Mei Lanfang was willing to compensate Meng for 40,000 yuan for the breakup fee (at that time, 2 yuan could buy a bag of 40 pounds of flour), and this huge amount was temporarily paid by Du Yuesheng. Later, in order to repay the debt, Mei Lanfang had to sell the Mei Mansion Garden in the Immeasurable Adult Hutong. According to statistics, Mei's previous visit to the United States performance total income of 700,000 yuan, but the total team expenditure is as high as 800,000 yuan, Mei lost 100,000 yuan, and also lost another 40,000 yuan, which is undoubtedly a tragic price.
The result of both defeats and injuries greatly injured Mei Lanfang, and also made Meng Xiaodong lose himself. They did not begin with a straight face, and they were doomed to end in ambiguity. The fame that Meng Xiaodong is painstakingly pursuing is only a self-insulting name in the end, and it may be precisely because of the stimulation of this layer of reasons that she gave Mei Lanfang a very ambitious and cruel sentence: "I will either not sing in the future, and I will not be worse than you when I sing again; in the future, I will either not marry, and I will never be worse than you when I marry again!" ”
Sure enough, this marriage with great blessings did not bring her anything, but resentment crawled all over her face.
Text | Déjà vu