Xu Zhimo's wife - Zhang Youyi (2)

2. Our best time

There are always times when it has passed before you find that it is deeply rooted in memory. Years later, on a day when the leaves have fallen, the photos have become a little dull, and looking at the memories of the past, I can't help but feel a little more cold inside. Those people, who had long since gone by boat in the river of time, had disappeared without a trace. When we take the time that has been wasted from memory and pat the dust deposited on it, we suddenly find that it is the best time.

The ancestors of the Zhang family had always been engaged in the salt industry business. Later, Zhang Youyi's great-grandfather changed to a medical practitioner, which continued until the generation of Zhang Youyi's father. Zhang Youyi's nephew Zhang Guokui said: "My grandfather was a very famous doctor, when I was in Beiping, I heard several doctors say to me, 'Your grandfather's medical skills are very good!""

Zhang Youyi, the "quite famous" father, has a bad temper, is irritable and picky, and if he is slightly unsatisfactory, it will cause him to roar. Therefore, Zhang Youyi has always been cautious in front of her father. According to the requirements of the family rules, Zhang Youyi never dared to appear in front of her father casually, of course, leaving in front of him without permission, which was even more of a "major crime".

Children are not allowed to speak before adults speak, and when adults teach you, bow and thank adults for their corrections. For example, when asking her father if he wants to drink tea, Zhang Youyi never dares to say "Do you want to have a cup of tea?", but to say "Does Your father want to come to a cup of tea?"

In addition, as a doctor, Zhang Runzhi has a lot of pickiness about diet. In the Zhang family compound, in addition to Zhang Youyi's family, there are also grandmothers and two uncles and their families, originally the Zhang family had a shared large kitchen, but Zhang Father prepared a separate kitchen and cook for his family.

Zhang Youyi had seen her father order the chef and his brother-in-law to line up in the morning and listen to them talk about the ingredients they expected to buy that day. Then I frowned and thought, and decided the day's meal according to the ingredients of the day. Not only that, Zhang Father will also analyze and point out the presentation of food, the feeling of tongue after contact with food, etc. These details made little Zhang Youyi very admirable. The mother always obeyed her father and unconditionally obeyed his father's "orders", and this emotion directly affected her view of marriage in the future. She believes that her life should be arranged by her parents. Even if you marry someone, this initiative will not be in your own hands, but in the hands of your own men.

In the whole family, the person who attaches the most importance to Zhang Youyi is her second brother. In the eyes of the second brother, she is not a girl who should only be a husband and a child, but an individual who should have her own thoughts and feelings. Most of Zhang Youyi's understanding of the outside world as a child came from her second brother.

The second brother often told her about the excitement of the outside world, for example, he would compare China to a melon on a melon vine in the yard, pick up a knife, split the plucked melon in half, and then cut half of it in half. He told Zhang Youyi that this small half melon was a Province and Port in China, but it had become a foreigner's. He then dug up the melons, and each piece he dug up explained that it represented an area occupied by foreigners. And Shanghai, where they live, has long since become a port open to Britain. The laws laid down by foreigners to Chinese have made Chinese almost sacrifice all interests.

The Zhang family has a total of eight sons, in addition to the second brother, the best relationship with Zhang Youyi is her fourth brother. The two brothers have given her endless care in her later life, the difference is that the second brother wants her to be free, and the fourth brother wants her to return to tradition.

If Zhang Youyi made a mistake in life, or there was anything improper in her words and deeds, it was the fourth brother who reminded her. Her husband, Xu Zhimo, the "robbery" that haunted her all her life, was also selected by the fourth brother. Zhang Youyi said: "I was born at the time of change, so I have two faces, one listening to the old speech and the other listening to the new speech. I have partly staying in the East and looking out to the West. I have the inner temperament of a girl, and I also have a masculine spirit. "

Zhang Youyi's childhood was "fed" by stories, so that many years later, she still remembers the stories of her childhood. One of the stories influenced her whole life.

The story tells that there are two sisters living on the moon, and their brother lives on the sun. At night, people like to look up at the moon. The ancients praised the moon innumerable poems, making people have a different kind of emotion for the moon. However, the actions of the people made the two sisters very uneasy, and they wanted to exchange places with their brothers. When my brother knew what they were thinking, he smiled and told them that there would be more people during the day, and more people would be staring at you when the time came.

The two sisters thought of a good way not to let people see it. They told their brothers that if anyone stared at them again, they would stab people in the eye with seventy-two "embroidery needles." The brother thought it was feasible and exchanged accommodation with them. Later, these "embroidery needles" became a blinding sunlight.

If it is only such a simple story, it is not enough to affect Zhang Youyi. What makes Zhang Youyi understand life are two different interpretations of this story.

Zhang Youyi's grandmother always told her that the two sisters lived in the moon, and Grandma often pointed to the moon and asked little Zhang Youyi to look for the figures of the two sisters.

But her mother has a different view, she firmly believes that the two sisters live in the sun, and even let Zhang Youyi imagine that the two sisters live in the sun.

The two versions of the story make Zhang Youyi very contradictory. Later, every time at night, she would gaze at the bright moon in the sky and try to find the two sisters in the moon. Every time she "found the figure of the two sisters", she could sleep peacefully, and even dreamed of them.

And during the day, if she feels the temperature and heat of the sun, she will believe that the two sisters live in the sun and are using "embroidery needles" to prick themselves. Two sisters who live in the sun, shy personality, gentle and beautiful; The two sisters who live in the sun have strong personalities. The two versions of the same story have unconsciously become two sides of her personality, half obedient and half stubborn.

Grandma said to Zhang Youyi, if you are well-behaved, you will become as beautiful as the two sisters in the moon. She was too young to know what beauty was, but in her mind, her mother was beautiful.

Like the aunts in the family, the mother had a pair of small feet, and the three-inch golden lotus seemed to be only the size of the palm of the hand. People told her that such feet were beautiful. Only later did she know what kind of price such beauty would have to pay.

Unlike her mother and aunt, Grandma has a pair of ordinary people with big feet, she can go to the field to farm, and she can walk not only fast but also with big steps. This reminded her of the story of two sisters, the same woman, but with different feet and different lives. Just like when Xu Zhimo first saw Zhang Youyi's photo, the corners of his mouth flicked down and said in a tone full of contempt: "Rural buns." But who knew that years later, she went to college, read a lot of books, and achieved an extraordinary career?

Yan Hong once said: "If a woman in that old era wanted to stand on her own feet and improve herself, she must suffer some losses." Previously, Zhang Youyi also thought that obedience and forbearance were the so-called "blessings". On the contrary, after self-reliance and self-improvement have suffered some "losses", they have achieved an extraordinary life. Who knows if it's better to live in the sun or on the moon?