After the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, with the influx of new ideas, the people's thinking was very active. Especially the emancipation of women, when many talented women appeared, such as:Lin Huiyin, Xiao Hong, Shi Pingmei and others are all called talented women.
The name of "** talented women" is very general, not only those talented women in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China, but also talented women who grew up later. But among these talented women, Zhang Ailing is one of the people who has been admired in recent years.
Zhang Ailing was born in a famous family, her grandfather Zhang Peilun was a famous minister in the late Qing Dynasty, and her grandmother Li Ju was the eldest daughter of Li Hongzhang, an important minister of the imperial court. The father is a young master-type character, and the mother is a new-style woman. Under the influence of such a family, Zhang Ailing has been talented since she was a child. However, what made Zhang Ailing much criticized was that he later followed the traitor Hu Lancheng, and the two separated in June 1947.
Zhang Ailing then went to Hong Kong to work for the Americans, and married Lai Ya of the United States in 1956, until Lai Ya's death in 1967. Zhang Ailing's article will not be mentioned here for the time being, but this talented woman lived a very poor life in the United States, and there was no one around her when she died.
In her later years, Zhang Ailing lived in a very simple place, with no furniture, only a writing desk and a stack of cardboard boxes. It is said that the works she wrote in her later years, such as "Little Reunion" and "Comparative Notes", were completed in this kind of environment.
Zhang Ailing has a TV in her house, and she likes to lie in bed and watch TV. It is said that Zhang Ailing relied on watching TV to forget about illness and hypnosis. Zhang Ailing lived alone in her later years, no one dared to disturb her, and she didn't invite anyone to go.
Lin Shitong built an apartment, where Zhang Ailing lived from 1989 to 1991
On September 8, 1995, at about 12 noon, Lin Shitong, a real estate businessman in Los Angeles, received a call from a woman: "You are the only person I know who knows Zhang Ailing, so I called you, I think Zhang Ailing has passed away!."”
It was Zhang Ailing's Iranian landlord who hit **.
Lin Shitong couldn't believe it, but he still hurried towards Zhang Ailing's apartment.
The Los Angeles Police are already there to deal with the matter.
After verifying, the police let Lin Shitong walk into Zhang Ailing's room.
Zhang Ailing died lying on a marching bed. The camp bed rests against the wall. She faced the door, with a blue-gray blanket underneath her, her hands and legs lying naturally flat. Her appearance was serene, surprisingly thin, and the fluorescent lamp for warmth was still on when the landlord found her.
According to people at the funeral home, Zhang Ailing has been dead for three or four days.
In other words, the time of Zhang Ailing's death was about September 5 or 4, 1995.
Zhang Ailing's documents in her later years
one
Zhang Ailing lived a solitary life in her later years, she did not contact anyone, and others did not know her whereabouts. Before moving to the apartment built by Lin Shitong, for 3 years, Zhang Ailing lived a wandering life in the city: she claimed to have a serious ** disease, because a kind of South American lice is very bad, in order to avoid lice, Zhang Ailing kept moving and lived in a cheap motel. According to Lin Shitong, almost all the motels in Los Angeles are occupied by Ms. Chang, who moves almost once a week.
The motel where Eileen Chang lived
Later, one day, Zhang Ailing called Lin Shitong, saying that her ** illness had been cured, and asked Lin Shitong to find her a house. It happened that Lin Shitong had just built a batch of apartments, and Zhang Ailing was very satisfied after seeing it, so she immediately moved in. Since then, Lin Shitong has become Zhang Ailing's landlord.
Zhang Ailing lived in Lin Shitong's apartment for 3 years, and later because many South Americans lived in the apartment, the security deteriorated, and Zhang Ailing asked Lin Shitong to find her a house. Lin found this Iranian-run apartment at 10911 Rochester **e, Los Angeles, not far from his home. This is 1991. Eileen Chang spent the last 4 years of her life here.
Zhang Ailing died here
Zhang Ailing's relationship with her Iranian landlord is not good. It's not that Zhang Ailing owes rent, but that her Xi habits make Iranian landlords very uncomfortable. Once, the landlord gave Lin Shitong a **, saying that after the rent expired, he was not ready to rent to Zhang Ailing, because the sanitary condition in Zhang Ailing's room was very bad, and the landlord asked Zhang Ailing to clean up the room several times, but Zhang Ailing was not completely completed, especially the tiles in the bathroom were not cleaned for a long time, and a layer of black rust fell on them.
Since Zhang Ailing has no normal income, the guarantor of her rental house is Lin Shitong, and after Lin Shitong made another guarantee, the Iranian landlord did not terminate the contract with Zhang Ailing. In 1995, Zhang Ailing's house expired, and the Iranian landlord signed a two-year contract with Zhang Ailing. Who would have thought that Zhang Ailing would die here.
Zhang Ailing's last **, 1994
II. II. II
As the executor of Zhang Ailing's will, Lin Shitong sent Zhang Ailing through the last road. He called his student Zhu Mi to clean Zhang Ailing's room together.
This is the second time Lin Shitong has walked into Zhang Ailing's home.
The first time was when the police were handling Zhang Ailing's body.
Zhang Ailing's home can be described as a house with four walls. There is no decoration on the surrounding walls. There is a gray carpet on the floor. Although she is a writer, she doesn't even have a decent desk, and when she usually writes, she leans against a few cardboard boxes in front of the window.
There was no furniture in her room. There was only a camp bed, a folding table. A small wardrobe. She didn't even want to pretend, and then considered that she was old and needed to order food from the supermarket and contact a few friends, so she installed a ** and put it on a small herringbone ladder. The electrical appliances in the room, in addition to the TV and refrigerator, are fluorescent lamps that irradiate ** diseases.
In Zhang Ailing's room, the paper box under the window is where she writes
Lin Shitong said that Zhang Ailing did not have a pot for cooking in the kitchen. It shows that she rarely cooks. There is a lot of canned food. Almost all of her cutlery is disposable, so it saves trouble and can be thrown away when you are done. Shortly before her death, she also ordered a batch of canned food from a nearby supermarket. There are quite a few clothes in the closet.
In addition, the floor of her room is filled with disposable paper bags with daily necessities. This is her Xi habit of moving for many years, when she wants to move, she will pick it up and leave, and throw away useless things, because of this Xi, she even threw away all her documents, and later reapplied for documents with the help of Lin Shitong.
Zhang Ailing's documents in her later years
Lin Shitong said that when he first walked into Zhang Ailing's room, the police handed him a handbag containing Zhang Ailing's documents, and the police said that the bag was on her desk, so he found it as soon as he entered. This shows that Zhang Ailing had a premonition before she died, so she sorted out all the documents, because according to the laws of Los Angeles, without relevant supporting documents and wills, all of Zhang Ailing's belongings will be confiscated.
It was precisely when Zhang Ailing's documents were successfully obtained that the police handed Lin Shi the same key, which was a small warehouse rented by Zhang Ailing in Los Angeles, which stored her ** precious manuscripts!
Zhang Ailing handed Lin Shitong's will
According to the will, Lin Shitong mailed all Zhang Ailing's manuscripts and relics to her good friends in Hong Kong, Song Qi and his wife!
Eileen Chang's travel card
Three
Zhu Mi is a fan of Eileen Chang, but she has never met Eileen Chang, and this is the first time she has walked into Eileen Chang's home.
What impressed Zhu Mi was that there were 4 nylon bags with double knots in Zhang Ailing's bathroom. Zhu Mi opened the nylon bag only to find that it was full of garbage. This makes Zhu Mi wonder, why didn't Zhang Ailing's series of garbage be thrown away?Because there are chutes on each floor of the apartment, you can use the chutes to throw garbage into the bins below. However, when Zhu Mi went to throw out the garbage, he found that the handle was very heavy to open the iron door of the chute, which made Zhu Mi suddenly realize: Zhang Ailing, who has been malnourished for a long time, has no strength to open this handle. The reason why her kitchen and bathroom are covered in black is because she doesn't have the strength to clean!
Zhang Ailing has lived in an apartment for 10 years
Four
On September 30, 1995, according to Zhang Ailing's last wishes, the funeral committee held a simple memorial service, and Lin Shitong and his friends held a sea burial ceremony for Zhang Ailing. On that day, the wind and the sun were fine, and the ship for the sea burial was moored on the predetermined sea. When Lin Shitong was about to open Zhang Ailing's ashes, the boat shook violently, and with the help of his friends, Lin Shitong opened the ashes and slowly sprinkled the ashes on the sea.
Zhang Ailing has been living a lonely life in her later years. She rarely has contact with people and doesn't want others to disturb her life. In addition to Song Qi and his wife in Hong Kong, the only friends who have been in contact with each other intermittently are Zhuang Xinzheng, Xia Zhiqing and Lin Shitong.
Lin Shitong is not a person in the literary circle, and he has not seen Zhang Ailing's **, but after his friend Zhuang Xinzheng asked him to take care of Zhang Ailing, Lin Shitong took on this responsibility. He knew that Zhang Ailing didn't see people, so he rarely bothered her, but just called Zhang Ailing every once in a while, asked for safety, and if there was anything that needed help, just come to him. But Zhang Ailing rarely asks Lin Shitong for help, even if she moves. Therefore, Lin Shitong respects Zhang Ailing's lifestyle very much, and slowly understands her.
He said: "Zhang Ailing and I are not related to each other, and we are not ......It's only been two meetings, and it's ...... to be able to maintain such a long relationship and win her so trustMost of it comes down to fate. If Zhang Ailing hadn't given me the suicide note in advance, she would have ...... in Los Angeles without relatives or reasonThe consequences are unimaginable!”
The person who held the funeral for Zhang Ailing, the third from the left is Lin Shitong
Let's remember the people who accompanied Zhang Ailing on the last journey: good friend Lin Shitong, and the five people who have never known each other are Xu Yuanxiang, Zhang Cuo, Zhang Shaoqian, Zhang Xinsheng, and Gao Quanzhi.