In July 1931, on the rainy night when Mei Lanfang was divorced, Meng Xiaodong made a remark with an extremely backbone: "Please rest assured, I don't want your money." Immediately, she disappeared into the rainy night, leaving only Mei Lanfang, who was about to calculate how much to lose as a breakup fee, in a daze in the house.
The rain was pouring down, and Meng Xiaodong immediately regretted his gambling behavior.
Married to Mei Lanfang for more than four years, nameless and unworthy, so that youth depression, career suspension, reputation damage, these costly losses have left a great trauma to her life, just like this, it is obviously a 100% dementia practice. But not only did he get out of the gold mouth, but then he turned back to pursue the lawsuit, and he felt disgraced. For a moment, Meng Xiaodong was dazed.
Figure | Meng Xiaodong and her first husband Mei Lanfang
One
"Tianjin Business Daily" reporter Sha Dafeng is a fan of Meng Xiaodong, he learned that Meng Xiaodong and Mei Lanfang divorced without taking a penny, directly called out confused, reminded her: "You are so clean out of the house, people who do not know the inside story still think that you are the wrong party in the marriage." He also cautiously gave advice: "Although your marriage is not legally registered, cohabitation is a fact of marriage, and divorce should be divided into alimony." Finally, he specifically advised her, "Don't get in the way of face, you can't get a penny to call it faceless." ”
After hearing this, Meng Xiaodong deeply believed that he was too naïve before, and resolutely adopted Sha Dafeng's recommendation and went to Shanghai to invite female barrister Zheng Yuxiu to fight a divorce lawsuit with Mei Lanfang.
However, before the lawsuit could be fought, Yao Yulan, The sister of Meng Xiaodongyi who had married Jinlan for ten years and Du Yuesheng's fourth aunt, came out halfway and said: "Everyone wants to resort to the law when they encounter difficulties, but they don't know that the lawsuit will always be laborious and tiring, so it is better to let my old Du take care of this matter." She knew that her husband Du Yuesheng had a crush on her girlfriend Meng Xiaodong and would be willing to serve.
Sure enough, after Du Yuesheng learned about it, he seized the opportunity to gain Meng Xiaodong's good feelings this time, and immediately called Mei Lanfang in Beiping and asked him to pay a divorce compensation, choosing a number between 30,000 and 50,000, and Mei Lanfang chose 40,000.
After receiving a large amount of compensation, Meng Xiaodong was relieved, but he also owed Du Yuesheng's affection. In the follow-up performance invitation initiated by Du Yuesheng, Meng Xiaodong was embarrassed to resign.
Good girlfriend Yao Yulan noticed quite cleverly that Lao Du's crush on Meng Xiaodong had gone to the point where he could not sleep at night. If you can pull your sister Meng Xiaodong into the Du Mansion, you can later form a new force to deal with those Suzhou women.
These "Suzhou women" refer to Du Yuesheng's former three wives. After Yao Yulan married Du Yuesheng, the situation was somewhat similar to Meng Xiaodong's first marriage. Meng Xiaodong was ostracized by Fu Zhifang (Mei Lanfang's second room) and had never stepped into the Mei Mansion half a step into the Immeasurable Adult Hutong, and Yao Yulan had not yet been able to enter the Du Mansion because she was bullied by Du Yuesheng's "Suzhou Wife". If you can match Du and Meng and tie up a good sister alliance, you will definitely be able to increase the "weight of the palace fight".
Figure | Meng Xiaodong and his sister Yao Yulan and the famous Lingling Zhang Shuyun
In May 1937, Meng Xiaodong came to Shanghai to cut the ribbon, but instead of staying in the hotel like other actors, she was cared for by her sister Yao Yulan and stayed at her Spicy Feili residence. The two slept in the same room, but when they woke up in the middle of the night, Meng Xiaodong was shocked, and the person sleeping next to the pillow was transformed into Du Yuesheng by the transfer of flowers.
Early in the morning, Meng Xiaodong was still grumpy about last night's events, but Yao Yulan, as if she had already understood everything, advised: "Xiao Dong, you should stay and live some stable days, you are all 30 years old, and you are still wandering, why should a woman be so strong?" ”
"I'm not going to be strong, I want to wait..." Meng Xiaodong understood the meaning of Yao Yulan's words, and she also knew that last night's incident was her set.
"What are you waiting for? There are a few people in the world who can marry the people they like, and when the flowers are thanked, it is better to marry fame and fortune. Although Yao Yulan's words were more utilitarian, she was a person who came over, and her attitude towards feelings had long been flat.
Meng Xiaodong sighed and did not speak again. Yao Yulan was very worried, she couldn't figure out what her sister was thinking. But after the performance in Shanghai, Meng Xiaodong did not rush back to the beiping dongsi three-three mother's home, but instead went with the flow and stayed. This made Yao Yulan overjoyed, and Meng Xiaodong seemed to have become Du Yuesheng's mistress under her mediation. It was not until the Japanese invaded Shanghai and Du Yuesheng fled to Hong Kong that Meng Xiaodong temporarily returned to the family of Beiping Dongsi Santiao.
Committed to the 49-year-old Du Yuesheng, Meng Xiaodong was 29 years old. Compared with Mei Lanfang, Du Yuesheng is a rough person, not very talented, more old, not handsome enough. Most importantly, like when she first married Mei Lanfang, there was no deep love between her and Du Yuesheng. Does that mean that she is repeating the sadness of a marriage in the past?
The answer is unknown, but one of the obvious differences between Mei and Du is that Du Yuesheng, who walks the rivers and lakes, attaches more importance to responsibility and love. Perhaps it is for this reason that Meng Xiaodong is willing to throw himself into his arms. As a person who has been disappointed by love, she also agrees with her sister Yao Yulan's three views, thinking that love is a dog skin plaster, marrying a pig and marrying a dog is the same, it is better to calculate the second half of her life. The Japanese are about to fight, what extravagance can a drama have in the chaotic world, is not the purpose of finding a place to live?
Two
Du Yuesheng is not like Mei Lanfang, he did not ban Meng Xiaodong from acting. However, since visiting Yu Shuyan, Meng Xiaodong basically stopped performing and studied behind closed doors for up to 5 years. During this period, her financial situation declined, and her mother complained to her that her life was not good.
Meng Xiaodong is the eldest daughter in the family, and she has to support more than a dozen people in the Dongsi Santiao family, and the burden of support is quite heavy. Secondly, her personal expenses are not small. She herself is sick, addicted to opium, and believes in Buddhism (each donation is as high as more than 100 yuan), and the expenditure on learning drama is even more unimaginable (learning a play will cost three hundred silver yang). Such a wide-open spending day, coupled with the meager income of most of the past disaster relief charity performances, then the 40,000 yuan collected from Mei Lanfang actually cannot be supported for long. But even so, she still retained the habit of saving a little and immediately dropping out of the show.
During the five years of worshiping Master Yu Shuyan, Meng Xiaodong gave gifts to Yu Fu at both ends in three days, from Master and Master to the concierge, all of whom were gifted with high-grade clothing, shoes and hats, headdresses and other items. Yu Shuyan's two daughters got married, and she also gave a full set of Western-style furniture and all the makeup in a big way, which made Master Yu Shuyan particularly embarrassed. All these human feelings, of course, have received financial support from Du Yuesheng, but from her mother's complaints, it can be guessed that she should take money from Du Yuesheng in moderation.
Figure | Meng Xiaodong took a group photo with his master Yu Shuyan and his friend Li Shaochun
In 1945, after the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, as soon as Du Yuesheng returned to the Shanghai base area, he ordered Meng Xiaodong to come to the confluence. The two were separated for many years, reunited, and the relationship was more intimate, simply semi-open cohabitation to the outside world. In the late spring of 1946, Yao Yulan, who was late in returning home, found that her sister was sitting in her "position", and she was full of jealousy, regretting that she had invited this "good girlfriend" home.
Nearly forty-year-old Meng Xiaodong is still quite mature in her grasp of human affection, and she is sensitive to Yao Yulan's attitude towards herself, so she uses the excuse of returning to Beiping Dongsi san's mother's house to visit her sick mother, and consciously temporarily alienates Du Yuesheng.
Before leaving, Du Yuesheng gave Meng Xiaodong $10,000 and promised to buy a house for her in Beiping, but it was not cashed.
Figure | Meng Xiaodong and Du Yuesheng
This time, Du Yuesheng met Meng Xiaodong again, it was already August 1947, when he was 60 years old. Yao Yulan was instructed by Du Yuesheng to reluctantly write a letter to Meng Xiaodong, inviting her to help Lao Du's birthday performance.
It is worth mentioning that Mei Lanfang, the "Du Shou Yi Performance" who reached the pinnacle of this summit, was also invited to appear, but in order to avoid suspicion, Meng Xiaodong never met with him for many days in a row, and even the whole group photo of the final curtain, because of the fear of Mei Lanfang's presence, she also took advantage of the absence. However, the tabloids on the market still flowed out of the scandal of Mei Meng's compound.
After the charity performance, Meng Xiaodong gave away all the costumes she had brought, leaving only one piece of less valuable — the old pleats she wore when she became famous in Beijing 20 years ago. This marked the end of her long acting career. The reporter asked about the reason for the withdrawal from the circle, she said: "I am like this, but how can I still get on the stage?" Indeed, long-term opium use has caused her to be sick, emaciated and old.
The day after the charity performance, Meng Xiaodong resigned to Du Yuesheng, the reason is still to return to her mother's house to visit her old mother. Du Yuesheng was reluctant and gave a generous gift of gold and silver jewelry as a reward for the performance. Meng Xiaodong was very unhappy in his heart, and only took a gold watch engraved with Du Yuesheng's name, and the others all pushed it away.
Du Yuesheng was very puzzled, and only later did he realize that Xiao Dong had come to help as a family member in this performance, and the naked money gift seemed to pull away the intimate relationship between them. At the same time, he also remembered that he had promised to solve the housing problem for Xiaodong until now (Dongsi Sanjo's mother's family was already overcrowded), suddenly blushed, blamed himself for the small hand, and immediately sent his disciples to Beiping, and bought a new Chinese and Western-style courtyard in Dingyin Hutong near Dongsi Santiao, and the house deed was written with Meng Xiaodong's name.
In 1948, Meng Xiaodong, who had already stopped acting, lived alone in the courtyard of Dingyin Hutong, which was Chinese and Western style, and her body was still thin and weak, and she had nothing to do all day, playing cards, smoking big cigarettes, and not boring. Outside the cold courtyard, the situation was turbulent, the civil war was nearing its end, the people of Peiping were panicked, and prices soared.
The day of regime change may be today or tomorrow. The restless Yao Yulan ignored the previous suspicions and wrote a handwritten letter to Meng Xiaodong, asking her to quickly pack up and come to Shanghai. Knowing that the traffic along the way between Ping and Shanghai has been paralyzed, Du Yuesheng chartered a special plane to Beiping to pick up, and Meng Xiaodong took the only time in his life that he did not like the most.
This emergency to Shanghai, Meng Xiaodong shed tears, sister and Mr. Du did not forget her, she decided to stay and take care of Du Yuesheng's sick body.
In April 1949, Du Yuesheng gathered the whole family to his side and said something heartfelt:
"Since the victory of the War of Resistance, all the casinos and tobacco shops I opened have been closed. In the past few years, I have only been able to go in and out, sitting and eating in the mountains, and the original some surplus has almost been borrowed by some friends, leaving only a box of dozens of IOUs... I am about to become a proletariat. It is now a year of wind and candles, full of sickness, and the so-called auspiciousness is uncertain..."
Just two days ago, Du Yuesheng had already privately told Meng Xiaodong in advance that he was going to escape!
Meng Xiaodong's first reaction was embarrassment, embarrassment, awkwardness, and confusion. Do you want to run away with it? In what capacity did he flee with the Du family? Before she could make a thoughtful decision, the evening wind blowing against the Huangpu River had already strangled her to Flee to Hong Kong, and she had not yet bid farewell to her old mother, nor did she know that she would not have the opportunity to return to the mainland in the future.
Three
Coming to Hong Kong, the former Shanghai Hua Ge Zhen Road golden and brilliant Du Mansion has become a thing of the past, and the current Du Mansion has been transformed into a three-bedroom and one-room room on the ground floor of No. 18 Kennedy Terrace. Du Yuesheng took Yao Yulan, Meng Xiaodong and the main domestic servant to live here, and the rest of the children and grandchildren had to move out to rent another house.
Fleeing the mainland, Du Yuesheng's mood did not change, especially his illness was getting worse. When asthma attacked, Meng Xiaodong had to stand next to him and hold up an oxygen cylinder to give him oxygen. Meng Xiaodong herself is also a long-term frail patient, who has always had a fierce stomach disease, but still has to take care of Du Yuesheng, who is more decadent than her, usually decocts soup and delivers medicine, not leaving the left and right, like a nanny and like a nurse.
In the late autumn of 1950, even though he was terminally ill and inconvenient to travel, Du Yuesheng still believed that Hong Kong was not suitable for a long time, and he planned to flee to France to avoid the wind. After saying that, he immediately summoned the housekeeper Wan Molin to the sickbed for consultation, and they carefully counted the number of heads of the whole family, and they needed to apply for a total of 27 passports.
When Du Yuesheng ordered the housekeeper Wan Molin to quickly do it, Meng Xiaodong said coldly, "I will follow, what if I make a summoner?" Or is it a girlfriend? Du Yuesheng trembled in a flash.
Maybe her tone was calm and a little timid, but it was a frosty torture. From the beginning of her commitment to Du Yuesheng in 1937, this sentence she held back for 13 years, countless times wondered whether her fate would end up like the first marriage with a nameless and pointless end, a self-insulting "mistress" name? The answer is self-evident, and this humiliation does not erupt in silence, but sinks in silence. Now that she is facing another moment of escape, she must not run away with the Du family like an outsider.
Meng Xiaodong's words cleared Du Yuesheng's thoughts like an autumn wind sweeping away the fallen leaves, and he suddenly realized that this was a serious and imminent problem, he had married many women in his life, but he had not let a woman live a decent life, and he did not want to almost ruin his reputation when he was about to die. He immediately announced to the whole family, "The application for a passport is put on hold for the time being, and the urgent wedding will be held first." ”
As soon as this word came out, the whole house was smiling in shock, and perhaps someone had already scolded in his heart: This dead old man sat in a wheelchair, survived by oxygen infusion every day, the coffin lid was covered for a long time, and he actually wanted to get married? I'm afraid I don't want to bury it early.
But on the surface, no one dared to say a word of disobedience. Du Yuesheng saw that his children had no opinion, and then looked at Yao Yulan, yao Yulan looked at Meng Xiaodong again, the two looked up and smiled bitterly, one bowed his head and did not say a word, Du Yuesheng made a decision. Looking back, Yao Yulan dissuaded a few words in private, and Du Yuesheng dismissed them one by one.
Without delaying the wedding ceremony, the housekeeper Wan Molin hurriedly crossed the sea to the Kowloon Hotel to book the highest grade, 900 yuan a table of dishes, but only coldly opened 10 tables, invited the chef to the Outside of du Mansion, and the venue borrowed the lobby of the landlord on the second floor. Although there is no crowd, it is quite lively in the crowded two-story living room. However, as a celebrity who resounded throughout Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai, Meng Xiaodong had never had a grand and high-profile wedding, and even the scale of the two weddings of a lifetime was not as large as his own ordinary performance (Note: marrying Mei Lanfang was held in secret).
During the wedding ceremony, 62-year-old Du Yuesheng was helped to the center of the living room by someone unsteadily, put a diamond ring on Meng Xiaodong's left ring finger, and ordered his son-in-law and daughter-in-law to kneel and pray to Meng Xiaodong, and all of them changed their names to "Aunt Meng Xiaodong" to "Mommy".
Meng Xiaodong kindly sent gifts to "these descendants" and then respectfully performed a sisterly ceremony to Yao Yulan. After the process was completed, the 19-year-old girl who had refused to be a concubine was finally willing to become a fifth aunt at the age of 42.
Figure | Du family group photo: Meng Xiaodong, Du Yuesheng, Yao Yulan in the front row
After the marriage, Du Yuesheng was seriously injured and became more and more tired, and Meng Xiaodong often sang to him in the room while coaxing him to take medicine. Watching this pair of old Mandarin ducks "snort very much", Yao Yulan should be disgusted, along with the fire of the marriage account gushing into the brain door, from time to time to say something stinging to poke Meng Xiaodong. Du Yuesheng was very annoyed in the middle and asked them to be harmonious and tolerant. In order not to irritate Old Man Du, the two sisters tried their best not to tear their faces, but the mustard between them became deeper and deeper.
At odds with Yao Yulan, a close sister, Meng Xiaodong actually had no one in the Du Mansion who could accompany her to speak from her heart. The outside world always thinks that du mansion has become her warm harbor, but in fact, it is lifeless and stagnant. Du Yuesheng did not get sick all day and ate a bowl of rotten noodles at every meal. The owner of the family does not preside over the dinner, other family members do not have to eat at the same table, and the young master has their own way of eating. Meng Xiaodong used to shut himself in his room to eat pastry bread and drink milk. Her own lonely and uninspiring personality does not look good at many people and things in the big family, and if she does not take care of Du Yuesheng on weekdays, she will lock herself in a small room that does not see the sun and does not interact with anyone.
Many tabloids ridiculed her for being extremely clever in singing, but in two marriages, she made the mistake of "stupidity and incurability". Zhang Junyu, the writer of "Du Yuesheng's Biography", also has a precise evaluation of her:
"Since Du Yuesheng entered the door when she was 60 years old, she spent a long time with the tea stove medicine pot, He once shared Du Yuesheng's wealth and glory, and He once had a moment of Du Yuesheng's light pity and honey love... Letting her step into such a disordered and complicated environment as the Du Mansion and accompany a long-term sick old man like a candle of the wind was a very cruel thing for her. ”
In fact, since the day she entered the Du Mansion, she has never been truly happy, nor has she ever been truly happy. Her face has been cold for many years, her smile lines have dissipated day by day, and her naturally beautiful appearance is lifeless. Sometimes she wondered if she was wrong to follow the Du family to Hong Kong, she had no political problems and didn't need to escape. Whenever mainland friends came to see her, she missed Beiping and remembered her mother, and in the end, when the old mother died, she did not see the last face.
In early August 1951, Du Yuesheng's illness took a sharp turn for the worse, and in front of his eldest daughter Du Meiru, he tore up all the IOUs that others had borrowed from him, and solemnly declared to the younger generations: "I don't want you to go to court after I leave." ”
On August 7, Du Yuesheng began to make a will and divide the property. In total, he only had $100,000 in cash left in the bank, and the large Du family and the "people close to the Du family" all had a share, but the weight was different. When Meng Xiaodong got $20,000, his first reaction was to spit out four words: "How is this enough?" ”
"Beauty doesn't kill you!" If it weren't for the old man's pity for you for a wedding, two thousand would have been thought. "There are family members muttering behind their backs.
Meng Xiaodong Fangling retired, never reappeared on the stage for the rest of her life, did not have any source of income, and had to rely on this 20,000 US dollars to save money in the second half of her life, and it is no wonder that she blurted out rude words.
On August 14, Du Yuesheng's life entered a state of death, and Meng Xiaodong accompanied the waiter to wipe away his tear marks and comfort him into a long sleep. Two days later, at 4:50 p.m. on the 16th, Du Yuesheng swallowed his last breath, and Meng Xiaodong closed his eyes and prayed for him.
Careful people found that until the last moment of Du Yuesheng's death, Meng Xiaodong was politely calling him "Mr. Du". It may sound very jerky, but it is because more than ten years of guest status have made Meng Xiaodong accustomed to calling, so that she can't change her mouth. But it is not excluded that she did not dare to show too much of the willfulness and arbitrariness of a small woman in front of "Mr. Du", so that she could not call "Old Du" one by one like Yao Yulan. But no matter what, she and Du Yuesheng both walked into an ending with a beginning and an end, although they did not start with a straight face, they must have ended in a just name.
Four
After Du Yuesheng's death, the Du mansion people took tea cool, and the two sisters Yao and Meng also parted ways. Yao Yulan traveled to Taiwan in November 1952 with Du Yuesheng's coffin, and subsequently settled in Taiwan. Meng Xiaodong lived alone in the embassy building apartment to live alone, and her good friends Yang Baosen, Ma Lianliang, Zhang Junqiu and others returned to the mainland one after another, and she stayed alone in Hong Kong to teach apprentices.
Around 1963, Premier Zhou was willing to give her HK$1 million to invite her back to the mainland to make color films, but the negotiations were not settled. In front of her, mei lanfang, Zhang Shizhao and other big names came to Hong Kong to persuade her to return to the mainland to spend a stable and valuable old age, but she politely refused one by one.
Figure | Meng Xiaodong and Mrs. Zhang Shizhao
In the spring of 1967, Meng Xiaodong no longer lived in the apartment of the Embassy Building, and after two tosses and moves, she came to Jiyuantai to continue to live alone.
This year, Meng Xiaodong is already almost 60 years old, and although her lonely and cumin life has brought her unrestrained, the beauty of Chi Twilight has also exposed her fragile side of yearning for the warmth of human feelings. After 15 years of severing relations with Yao Yulan, she finally remembered the only relative in the world. One morning in early spring, she plucked up the courage to make a long-distance call to Taipei. Yao Yulan on the other end of the phone was also hanging old, the two had been talking for a long time, the tone had not changed, and they greeted each other strangely and immediately became acquainted.
Hearing that she was not happy alone, Yao Yulan couldn't help but sob, "Xiao Dong, come on, come to my side!" The past grievances were relieved with the washing of time, and the two Jinlan sisters once again released their previous suspicions. On September 11, at the urging of Yao Yulan, Meng Xiaodong left Hong Kong, which had been adrift for 18 years, and took a ship to Taipei for a reunion.
After coming to Taipei, Meng Xiaodong still chose to continue to live alone, renting a house on Xinyi Road in Taipei, but near Yao Yulan's mother and daughter. Yao Yulan and her daughter Du Meixia would visit her every day, 365 days a year, and not a single day would not go to take care of her life. Meng Xiaodong confessed, "It's really strange, as soon as she (Yao Yulan) came here to sit down, I felt very reassured, if she didn't come one day, I don't know how this day would be!" ”
Figure | A group photo of the Kim Ranh sisters when they were young
Meng Xiaodong gave up her own daughter in her early years, and in her later years broke with her adopted daughter (the adopted daughter married far away from the United States), resulting in her childless situation under her knees. Yao Yulan urged her daughter Du Meixia to take care of her mother. Every night, Du Meixia had to make dinner for "Mommy (Meng Xiaodong)", watch TV with her, pour her foot wash, make a bed for her before going to bed, and wait for her to go to bed before going home.
Because many things can not take care of themselves, Meng Xiaodong relies on Du Meixia for everything. But it is not easy to take care of this pampered old man, sometimes Du Meixia just came home shortly after, Meng Xiaodong called over and cried that she was hungry. Because she doesn't use the new gas stove to cook things, Du Meixia has to go over again to take care of her cooking.
In her later years, Meng Xiaodong was sick and weak, and she did not pay attention to keeping warm, that is, she suffered from a cold, even so, she still could not quit smoking opium, and the Taiwan authorities turned a blind eye to connivance with her. But this made her panting and coughing worse, and cruelly restricted her from singing.
In the Spring Festival of 1977, Meng Xiaodong quarreled with Yao Yulan again because Yao Yulan persuaded her to go to the hospital. Meng Xiaodong felt that it was very unlucky to run the hospital during the New Year, so he threw a tantrum at Yao Yulan without reason: "I advise you to make a will as soon as possible." ”
Yao Yulan asked her, "Why don't you set up one?" ＂
She replied: "I am different from you, you have money, you have children, I have no money and no children, so I don't need to make a will." Yao Yulan wet her eyes after listening.
Figure | Meng Xiaodong and his dog are photographed in the Buddhist hall at home
After the Spring Festival, Meng Xiaodong's asthma became worse, and he could not alleviate the medication, but he was still reluctant to go to the hospital for treatment. In mid-May, she couldn't stand the torture and asked her doctor for treatment, but she stubbornly refused the doctor's recommendation to be hospitalized. As of the 20th, doctors found that she had water in her lungs and urged her to be hospitalized, but she was rejected. Finally, at 11:50 p.m. on May 26, Meng Xiaodong died of emphysema and complications of heart disease at the age of 69. On the day of the funeral, Yao Yulan's children dressed her with filial piety, and her adopted daughter Du Meijuan did not show up.
Before his death, Meng Xiaodong did not propose to be buried with Du Yuesheng in Taipei's Dujia Cemetery, but was buried alone in a Buddhist cemetery in Taipei County. It is said that she has been looking for this cemetery for a long time, and everyone wonders why she should stay away from the Du Family Cemetery, perhaps she always feels out of place, or loneliness has completely become her destination.