In 1944, the seventh year of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Sino-Japanese War at this time still had no intention of ending. On the evening of October 15 of this year, in No. 21 Xisantiao Hutong (now the former residence of Beijing) in Beiping, three uninvited guests suddenly came.
When they entered the gate of the courtyard, the mistress of the house and her servant were having dinner, each carrying a bowl of thin soup with a few dried leaves, and a dish on the table in front of them, with only a handful of pickles.
This hostess is Lu Xun's original wife Zhu An, and the servant is Wang Ma, who has been in the Zhou family for many years. For the past year, their dinner has been eaten in this humble way.
The three visitors who arrived at Zhou's house after stepping on the meal all subconsciously glanced at the pickles on their tables, and with just one glance, their hearts were a little sour. Zhu An looked up at the visitor with the bowl, and she found that only one of the three people had a face that she was familiar with, and this person had helped her Song Zipei. So, she politely put down the bowl and stood up and nodded, and when she was about to ask a question, Song Zipei preemptively introduced
"Mrs. Zhou, these two gentlemen are from Shanghai, and they want to talk about Mr. Lu Xun's relics. ”As soon as Zhu An heard that they were coming from Shanghai and were here for relics, he immediately understood in his heart. Immediately, she blurted out with some anger:
"You always say that Lu Xun's relics, you have to preserve, you have to preserve, I am also Lu Xun's relics, you have to save me! ”
The three of them were a little flustered when they saw that Zhu An was suddenly emotional, but for a while, they didn't know what to say. They realized that Zhu An's big reaction must have known the purpose of their trip, yes, they were entrusted by Xu Guangping to stop it after learning that Zhu An wanted to sell Lu Xun's relics.
And this stop is more of a reproach. Zhu An has seen such a scene many times after he decided to sell Lu Xun's relics in the newspaper. It is precisely because of this that she is very resistant to this in her heart.
The two representatives Xu Guangping invited to investigate the situation this time are both students of Lu Xun, one is called Tang Tao and the other is Liu **. Only they would risk their lives in this special situation and cross layers of blockades from Shanghai to Beiping.
Zhu An did not go to school, but she also knew at that time that it would not be easy to travel thousands of miles to Beiping under such circumstances. So, after seeing that the two of them were embarrassed by her words, she tried to calm down and asked them to sit down.
In 1943, a year before Zhu Andeng sold Lu Xun's inheritance and Lu Xun's two students visited Zhu An, Lu Xun's house, which had always been deserted, suddenly became "lively". Since the conflict between Lu Xun and Zhou Zuoren, Zhou Zuo and his wife Yu Taixinzi, who never liked to come to Lu Xun's house, frequently went in and out of Lu Xun's house, and the reason why this is so is naturally related to Mrs. Zhou: After the doctor's diagnosis, Mrs. Zhou, who was 87 years old at the time, was terminally ill.
Every time Zhou Zuoren and his wife went to Lu Xun's house, Zhu An always bowed his head and avoided it. really wanted to take a picture, and she never nodded, only with a cold face. This kind of thing, Mrs. Zhou naturally saw it all. But she knows: Zhu An is stubborn, she feels that her husband doesn't like people, she must not warm up her face. So, it is impossible for her to give them a good face.
Every time she thought of this, Mrs. Zhou couldn't help but sigh. Originally, she thought that she would have a good life if she was taken to Beiping, but in the end, the Zhou family lost their eldest son Lu Xun, not to mention, and fell into a fragmented situation. What's even worse is that not long ago, Mrs. Zhou heard that her second son Zhou Zuoren was a traitor to the Japanese, how could she feel good in this situation.
But for the elderly Mrs. Zhou, these are not the most headaches for her, her biggest headache is: what to do if she has been taking care of her eldest daughter-in-law Zhu An for a hundred years.
That afternoon, after Zhou Zuoren left, Zhu An cleaned up the house, Lu Ruiqiang sat up and called Zhu An's name.
Zhu An was stunned, her mother-in-law has been bedridden since she fell ill this time, she needs someone to serve every time she gets up, and she hasn't called her name for a few days. Now that he suddenly sat up, he must have something to confess. Zhu An put down the work in his hand, walked quickly to his mother's bed, and asked, "What is the matter with Niangniang (Zhu An's name for her mother-in-law)?" ”
Lu Rui coughed and gasped, "What will you do after I die?" ”
When Zhu An heard this, his eyes turned red all of a sudden. Yes, since he married into the Zhou family, Lu Xun has always been responsible for living expenses; After Lu Xun's death, Lu Xun's second wife Xu Guangping and his second brother Zhou Zuoren helped him to live, and this was all in the face of his mother-in-law Lu Rui. When Zhu An was alone, although he also considered this problem, he was never able to understand it.
At this moment, her mother-in-law suddenly threw this question to herself, and Zhu An had some mixed feelings in her heart. After thinking for a long time, Zhu An replied: "If Niangniang really leaves, I will go back to live in Shaoxing's mother's house, Niangniang can recuperate with peace of mind, don't think about this." ”
After speaking, Zhu An helped her mother-in-law to lie down, but her heart was even more chaotic.
Mother-in-law Lu Rui is about to die, and Zhu An herself is also in her last years. Zhu An, who is old and has no ability to earn money, and has no children under his knees, once he loses his economy, he can only wait for death. Back to your parents' home? It's just a reassuring word to my mother-in-law.
Hearing his daughter-in-law say this, although Lu Rui still wanted to persuade again, the words came to his mouth after all. She didn't know that Zhu An was comforting herself, it seemed that Peking to Shaoxing was not far, and for an old man like Zhu An, Shaoxing was almost the end of the world; And she is in the Japanese-occupied area, and she is the sister-in-law of the traitor Zhou Zuoren, how can it be so easy to leave.
At night, Zhu An lay on the bed tossing and turning, and the mother-in-law in the opposite room couldn't fall asleep because of illness and family affairs.
The next morning, Zhou Zuoren and his wife Yuta Nobuko came to No. 21 Nishisanjo. As soon as he walked into the yard, he saw Zhu An making a fire in the yard and preparing to decoction of medicine. Seeing someone coming in, Zhu An hurriedly got up and was about to welcome them into the house, when he saw that it was Zhou Zuoren and his wife, he turned around and entered his own room.
After a while, Nobuko Hata entered Zhu An's house and said to her, "Mother-in-law has something to tell you. ”
Zhu An was stunned for a moment, didn't think much about it, and followed Yuta Nobuko into Lu Rui's bedroom opposite. In the bedroom, Zhou Zuoren knelt in front of the bed with red eyes, and Lu Rui leaned on the pillow angrily. Luri saw Juan come in and gestured at her to get her closer.
After doing all this, Lu Rui seemed to run out of strength, leaning against the pillow and gasping for a moment.
After a long time, Lu Rui opened his eyes and said to Zhu An: "I have already told the second child (Zhou Zuoren) that after I die, the pocket money he gave me every month will continue to be paid to you." This money belongs to me, and it has nothing to do with him, you must accept it. ”
After listening to her mother-in-law's words, Zhu An just lowered her head and stood there without saying a word.
Lu Rui saw that Zhu An had not spoken, and knew that she probably disagreed. Although Zhu An is silent on weekdays, her mother-in-law talks to her, and she always answers questions, but now she asks and does not answer, she must be wavering. Thinking of this, Lu Rui stretched out his hand with difficulty to hold Zhu An, and continued: "The family is like this, and I am most worried about you......."”
Hearing this, Zhu An couldn't hold back any longer, and tears flowed out at once.
Zhu An married into the Zhou family for 38 years and served her mother-in-law for 38 years, during which time Lu Rui's three sons hardly served their mother for a day. Without Zhu An, the rest of Lu Rui's life could not have been imagined; Similarly, without her mother-in-law, Juan doesn't know how to spend the rest of her life.
When Lu Rui said this, how could Zhu An not be full of emotion? And how can she refuse her last wish? So, Zhu An had to nod with tears in his eyes.
That afternoon, Lu Rui died at the age of 87.
After the death of her mother-in-law Lu Rui, Zhu An's life fell into difficulty, the inheritance left by her mother-in-law was exhausted, and the "pocket money" given by Zhou Zuoren began to be less and less with the price of goods.
According to Zhou Zuoren's later self-report, he gave Zhu An 100 yuan of joint bank coupons every month, and later, with the price of **, it increased to 200 yuan of joint bank coupons.
The money given by Zhou Zuoren seems to be more than the money given by Lu Xun, that is, the amount of 100 legal tender a month, but in fact, the currency used in Beiping, which has become an occupied area, is the joint bank bills issued by the Japanese, and the purchasing power of the joint purchase coupons is very low.
According to the statistics of 'Changes in the Price of Wholesale Goods in Beiping', the prices of daily necessities in Beiping in 1944 were: 3 yuan for soy sauce and 1 for green vegetables5 yuan jin, mung bean sprouts 4 yuan jin, salt 90-300 yuan jin, peanuts 22 yuan jin ......
This also means that the so-called 200 yuan that Zhou Zuoren gave to Zhu An is actually only enough to buy less than 10 catties of peanuts.
At that time, in Beiping, which was occupied by Japan, rice, flour and diesel were strictly "rationed", and the "staple food" of the Japanese was either moldy and rotten, or mixed with sand, and it was getting higher and higher day by day.
During that period, Zhou Zuoren's "relief money" of 100-200 yuan to Zhu An, after buying daily necessities such as rice, flour, and diesel, was basically only enough to buy some pickles to eat.
At this time, Zhu An was 66 years old, and various geriatric diseases invaded her.
In order to survive, on the one hand, Zhu An continued to reduce the cost of living, and she almost ate thin soup and pickles for three meals a day; On the other hand, Zhu An also rented out two wings in the east and west and one in the south, leaving only one north room for himself and his servants to live in, so as to relieve the financial pressure. Later, in order to survive, Juan also sold everything she could, including the gold and silver left to her by her mother-in-law Lu Rui.
Eventually, Juan had to borrow money from neighbors to make ends meet.
But even in such a situation, all the relics left by Lu Xun during his lifetime, including 70,000 books and manuscripts, letters, cultural relics, etc., she never touched a single bit.
During the war years, if Zhu An, who was in the enemy-occupied area, had not had a younger brother who was on an errand under the Japanese, the fate of a widow like her was really unimaginable. But even with the "protective umbrella" of his younger brother, it was difficult for Zhu An in the enemy-occupied area at that time to find a stable life.
In a letter written by Zhu An to Lu Xun's former best friend, the Japanese Uchiyama Wanzo, she said:
"Life is soaring, and my debt is increasing to more than 4,000 yuan day by day, which really makes me unable to turn around! I am also sixty-six years old this year, and I have begged for cloth and warm food in my life, and I dare not have any other extravagant hopes. ”"Not having enough to eat, not having enough clothes, and being in debt" is the real life situation of Zhu An, who was 66 years old at the time.
This kind of day lasted for a whole year after the death of her mother-in-law, Lurui. Originally, although such a life was hard, it was not impossible to live. But as prices in the Japanese-occupied area of Beiping continued to soar, Zhu An realized that she might not even be able to eat "full" at any time.
At the same time, Zhu An, who already felt an existential crisis, could hear the news that someone was starving to death in Beiping City almost every day.
After hearing the news of the starvation of the people of Peking for the eighth time, Zhu An's mood was on the verge of collapse. The nanny Wang's mother, who was also aware of the grim situation, knocked on Zhu An's door at dusk with the courage to knock on Zhu An's door, after Zhu An opened the door, she stood at the door and wanted to speak, Zhu An saw this and asked: "If you have something to say, you and I have been talking for so many years, what can't you say." ”
After hearing this, Wang Ma raised her eyes and glanced at Zhu An, then lowered her head and whispered: "Why don't we sell Mr. Big's (Lu Xun)'s belongings?" When Zhu An heard this, he immediately shouted angrily: "Mr. Big's things, can you move them casually?" Even if you starve to death, don't fight Mr. Big's idea. After finishing speaking, Zhu An closed the door with a "bang" without waiting for Wang Ma's reaction.
But at the moment when the door closed, Juan "buzzed" in her brain at the loud sound of the door closing, and another voice in her head told her: If they all starve to death, who will protect Mr. Big's things!
Soon after this, Zhou Zuoren came to find Zhu An, and he came to discuss with Zhu An about selling Lu Xun's relics.
Like other people in Beiping City, Zhou Zuoren at that time also felt an existential crisis. After all, he had to support his own family by himself at that time, and at the same time support Yu Taixinzi's family and Zhou Jianren's family, in addition, he had to free up his hands to support Zhu An.
Originally, Zhou Zuoren could barely cope with all this, but when prices soared, his economic situation was stretched.
That day, after seeing Zhu An, Zhou Zuoren explained his suggestion straightforwardly, he said: "You sell his collection of books first, those are not so important after all, it is important to live first now." ”
Zhu An knew that when Zhou Zuoren said this, it must have been a very tense time for their economy. After a long silence, Zhu An said with difficulty: "I'll think about it for a few days." A few days later, Zhu An agreed to Zhou Zuoren's suggestion.
As a result, on August 25, 1944, in the "New China Daily", there was a news published by Lu Xun's widow Zhu An that "I want to sell Lu Xun's related heritage".
As everyone knows, Lu Xun loved books all his life, and his home at No. 21 West Sanjo was the place where Lu Xun collected books. Even if Lu Xun later moved to Shanghai, it was still his private "library", and whenever Lu Xun wanted to consult something, he would write to Zhu An to send it from here to Shanghai, and then send it back after reading it.
To Lu Xun, these books were as precious as the guns in the hands of soldiers.
Therefore, as soon as the news of Lu Xun's book collection came out, it immediately caused an uproar in the cultural circles.
On August 31, a week after the news was published, Xu Guangping, Lu Xun's former cohabitant in Shanghai, learned the news. Xu Guangping, who was anxious, immediately wrote a letter to Zhu An, in which she urgently advised her to "don't ** Lu Xun's collection of books".
To Xu Guangping's surprise, half a month after her letter was sent, she still did not receive any reply. In those ten days, in addition to checking the correspondence frequently, she also stared at the newspaper every day, for fear that she had missed the relevant information.
The stone sinking of the dissuasion letter finally made Xu Guangping not calm, she began to make all kinds of speculations, and she finally decided that Zhu Anding completely ignored her own persuasion. In Xu Guangping's view, this is undoubtedly the worst outcome, in order to recover the losses as much as possible, she hurriedly published such a statement in the "Declaration" on September 10:
"According to Mr. Lu Xun's lifelong engagement in cultural undertakings, the whole country mourns after his death, so all his relics should be properly preserved by all my family members for the commemoration of the country. In addition, as far as the law is concerned, the estate is a joint property before it is divided, and it cannot be disposed of separately, otherwise it cannot take effect, and the law clearly stipulates that it is a common property. If Mr. Lu Xun does have a private inheritance in his family letter in Beiping, Guangping will never admit it. ”After Xu Guangping made this statement, he was reluctant to breathe a sigh of relief. She felt that since she had issued a statement, it also meant that she had legally protected Lu Xun's estate. If the potential buyer sees this statement, she will not buy it easily, and she can also recover the Lu Xun estate that has been sold.
At the same time that Xu Guangping published his statement, Lu Xun's former friends who learned that "Zhu An wanted to sell Lu Xun's relics" also wrote letters to Zhu An, and the content of their letters was no different from Xu Guangping.
Just when Lu Xun's friends from all over the country dissuaded letters came one after another, Zhu An, who was originally showing up Lu Xun's relics with great fanfare, has not made any movement.
During this period, the only person who knew Zhu An's specific movements was Lu Xun's former friend and the aforementioned Japanese Uchiyama Wanzo. And he learned the specifics through another long letter that Juan later wrote to him.
In the letter, Zhu An confided in Uchiyama how difficult her life was, how Xu Guangping's promised monthly living expenses were interrupted, and how high her cost of living in Peking was. At the end of the letter, Juan wrote:
"If Mr. is willing to speak up, so that my debts can be cleared, and my life will not be cut off, at that time, not only will I be grateful to your heart that can not be described by pen and ink, but also Mr. Lu Xun's soul in the sky, but also grateful for the love of old friends! ”In the letter, Zhu An also stated that he did not sell Lu Xun's relics. After receiving this letter, Uchiyama immediately sent the original letter to Xu Guangping, who was far away in Shanghai.
After reading this letter, Xu Guangping quickly deduced that the letter was not written by Zhu An, but was probably ghostwritten by Zhou Zuoren.
Xu Guangping's speculation is based on the fact that the fluency of the letter, the viciousness of the writing, and the meticulousness of the logic are by no means beyond the reach of ordinary ghostwriters; Moreover, this letter deliberately exalted Zhou Zuoren and satirized Xu Guangping in the details. More importantly, the person who wrote the letter had an inner understanding of Zhu An and was familiar with Lu Xun's life, and among all the people in Beiping, only Zhou Zuoren could do it.
After realizing this layer, Xu Guangping felt more worried in her heart, she felt: If it was just Zhu An, this matter would be easy to discuss; When Zhou Zuoren is involved, things get complicated.
Xu Guangping believes that since Zhou Zuoren can instigate Zhu Andeng to sell books, he may continue to instigate her to really sell books. In any case, this matter is also related to Zhou Zuoren's vital interests, after all, Zhou Zuoren has to give Zhu An 200 yuan every month to "receive money", if Zhu An has money, although he doesn't expect her to pay back, he can at least guarantee that she won't reach out to him to ask for money.
After sorting out this relationship, Xu Guangping made up his mind to send people to Beiping to learn the truth, so there was a visit from the three visitors at the beginning of the article.
When the visitors invited by Xu Guangping visited the old house of the Zhou family, nearly two months had passed since Zhu Andeng newspaper declared "** Lu Xun's relics". The visitors who came with Xu Guangping's entrustment that day also had a certain certainty, that is, Zhu An would sacrifice Lu Xun for interests and money.
It is also because of this kind of identification that they will only show reproach in their words and demeanor after seeing Zhu An. But soon, they thought of her plight in Juan's anger that day. In order to ease the atmosphere, after sitting down, they hurriedly told her about Xu Guangping's arrest by the Japanese gendarmerie.
They told Zhu An that Xu Guangping, who inherited the copyright of Lu Xun sold by Zhu An, had never sent money to Zhu An because her situation was not better than hers. They even informed Zhu An of the illness of Xu Guangping and Lu Xun's son Zhou Haiying. Zhu An immediately became anxious when she heard that Zhou Haiying was sick, and she asked nervously, "How is Haiying now?" ”
Tang Tao listened to Zhu An's question and replied: "Haiying's illness was contracted by his mother before he was released from prison, it was really a crime, but fortunately, he has been cured now, and he misses you very much." ”
Zhu An's eyes lit up when she heard this, she had no children in her life, so she always regarded Zhou Haiying as her own son. When Lu Xun was alive, every time Zhu An wrote a letter to Lu Xun, he would ask about Haiying; And Lu Xun replied to the letter, and he would also talk about the condition of Hai Ying.
came and went, Zhu An naturally cared about this "son" who had never met.
Therefore, after hearing that Zhou Haiying was cured, he patted his chest and said with a sigh of relief: "Mr. Big is just this piece of meat, but nothing can happen!" After speaking, she asked again: "Why don't you bring Haiying to Beiping and let me see it?" ”
This long conversation completely dispelled Zhu An's previous misunderstanding of Xu Guangping, and also gave the visitors a new understanding of Zhu An, and they only knew at this time that the titular Mrs. Zhou was actually a kind and well-informed woman.
On the same day, the four of them chatted about their daily routines for nearly an hour in the living room of the north house at No. 21 Nishisanjo. It was also through this conversation that Song Zipei and others knew that the sentence "I am also a relic of Lu Xun" was not Zhu An's complaint, but Zhu An's inner desire to be noticed.
After Lu Xun's death, Xu Guangping almost became Lu Xun's "spokesperson", and she was responsible for sorting out Lu Xun's posthumous manuscripts and publishing Lu Xun's works. After Xu Guangping was imprisoned, people in the cultural circles tried their best to rescue her, and her child Zhou Haiying was well cared for at a friend's house safe and sound.
And Zhu An, who was Lu Xun's original partner, was not cared about at all. For a long time, few people even knew who Zhu An was, as if Lu Xun didn't have this original wife at all.
After Lu Xun's mother Lu Rui died and Xu Guangping** was imprisoned, there were fewer people who had dealings with Zhu An; The few people who occasionally deal with Zhu An on weekdays only regard her as an old man who needs to be taken care of, rather than as Lu Xun's original partner.
Originally, Zhu An didn't care much about these things, but when survival was a problem, she had to "do something", after all, in Zhu An's opinion, she was always the guardian of Lu Xun's relics. That's right, she had to live well when these relics had no real place to go.
is also based on this, when Zhou Zuoren asked Zhu An to discuss Lu Xun's book collection, Zhu An thought about it for several nights, and it was the thinking of those nights that made Zhu An understand: If she didn't sell books, she would starve to death, and Mr. Big's relics would be all lost. Therefore, for the sake of today, the only way to do this is to sell some of them to protect the majority.
Zhu An didn't say these things to Tang Tao and the others, but they also understood these things from the conversation with Zhu An. After chatting that day, when they said goodbye to Zhu An, there was no blame in their eyes at all, only understanding and sympathy.
After going back, Tang Tao told Xu Guangping about Zhu An's condition. After listening to this, Xu Guangping realized that the two had misunderstood each other. After sending them away that day, Xu Guangping hurriedly took out some of the money he had stored before from the drawer. She made up her mind: even if she was hungry, she couldn't let Juan go without food.
Since then, Xu Guangping has often maintained correspondence with Zhu An, and her living expenses for Zhu An have never been interrupted. And Zhu An, who was far away in Beiping, never had the idea of wanting Lu Xun's relics after that visit, and at the same time, Zhu An, who had been basically guaranteed his economy, also refused to accept donations from well-wishers to maintain Lu Xun's reputation.
In a letter to Xu Guangping's son Zhou Haiying, Zhu An wrote:
"For the sake of your father's reputation, I dare not casually accept ...... from indifferent organizationsTherefore, it is better to suffer than to take, which is also related to your future prospects. ”Zhu An's refusal of the Quartet's funding was really because Xu Guangping gave her enough money, and the answer was no. In fact, even though Xu Guangping has been sponsoring her later, her life is still extremely simple. On December 29, 1945, the "World **" reported on her meal:
"There is more than half a nest of millet noodles there, a bowl of cabbage soup, in the soup there are short noodles made of white noodles with little finger thickness, and a plate of shrimp oil and cucumbers, and there are two sharp chili peppers pickled in shrimp oil on the side of the plate, a plate of pickled cabbage, and a plate of moldy tofu. There is no meat, no oil, and no old man has enough nutrition. ”From this description, it can be seen that Juan's life at that time was miserable. But Zhu An was content with this, because she had always regarded herself as the protector of Lu Xun's relics, and she felt that she just needed to survive.
On June 29, 1947, at the age of 69, Zhu An died alone, and when she died, her figure was as thin as a withered leaf.
When she died, the "relics of Mr. Big" that she guarded all her life were lying quietly in the old mansion of the Zhou family, and they were the same as when Lu Xun left, without one more or less.
On the day of Zhu An's death, the jujube tree in the backyard of the Zhou family was green, but unfortunately, a leaf fell from the tree that day and floated into the storage room of Lu Xun's relics, and landed ......on one of Lu Xun's books