The Rise of the Writers of the Republic of China - Chapter 999

  Chongqing, Southwest Hospital.

   “Mr. Zhou, please come in.” Chen Xiaoxia invited Zhou Hexuan into the ward.

  Chen Xiaoxia is Zhang Jiluan’s third wife. She is young and beautiful. She married Zhang Jiluan five years ago. Zhang Jiluan’s first wife, surnamed Gao, died of illness at an early age; the second wife, surnamed Fan, broke up peacefully. The first two wives were unable to produce children, so Zhang Jiluan married Chen Xiaoxia to continue the incense.

   Zhou Hexuan nodded and stepped into the room, and saw that Zhang Jiluan on the hospital bed was in a coma, so thin that only a skeleton remained. He put the gift on the bedside and asked, “sister-in-law, has brother Ji Luan been awake?”

  Chen Xiaoxia said, “I woke up for a while last night and said some nonsense.”

   “What did the doctor say?” Zhou Hexuan said.

   “There is no cure.” Chen Xiaoxia felt sad.

  The historical Zhang Jiluan died of illness as early as September, and now it is rare to delay it until December. He had been seriously ill in the summer, and the affairs of “Ta Kung Pao” were handed over to the deputy editor Wang Yunsheng. A few days ago, Lao Jiang personally visited the hospital.

   Zhou Hexuan said with emotion: “Let him quit opium sooner, he just won’t listen.”

  Chen Xiaoxia said: “He wants to quit too, but he just can’t quit.”

   Few people know that Zhang Jiluan, who often writes articles in newspapers calling for smoking ban, is actually an opium ghost himself.

  Zhang Jiluan once wrote an editorial “Tobacco Ban and Foot Ban”, comparing feet binding with opium smoking. He said that smoking ban is the foundation of national health care. Smoking opium is more harmful than binding feet and leaving braids. The national government should make every effort to ban opium.

   It can be seen that Zhang Jiluan is well aware of the harm of opium, but he is eccentric by nature and lacks perseverance, and he has quit opium for half his life to no effect.

  Zhang Jiluan belongs to the kind of bohemian old-fashioned literati who often invites friends to visit kilns. Many editorials in Ta Kung Pao are written in Lao Qi (a young prostitute) room. Japanese friend Kenji Yahara also often persuaded Zhang Jiluan to quit opium, and he replied: “A Furong is like the old seventh, I’m just acting on the scene.”

  Yahara Kenji was a doctor who lived in Peiping. Zhang Jiluan, Zhang Henshui, Guan Yixian and other northern scholars, as well as many military and political officials, would come to Yahara Kenji’s house every three or five times. This Japanese friend has left the United States because he was discovered by the Japanese army to help a Chinese friend escape from the occupied area.

   “Bang bang bang!”

   There was a knock on the door.

   It was Zhang Henshui who came in to visit. He nodded to greet Zhou Hexuan, and then asked, “How’s brother Ji Luan?”

   Zhou Hexuan shook his head.

   “Alas.” Zhang Henshui sighed.

  The two sat in the ward for half an hour, Zhang Jiluan was still in a coma, they could only get up and say goodbye to Chen Xiaoxia.

   After leaving the hospital, Zhou Hexuan and Zhang Henshui found a teahouse and sat down.

   Zhou Hexuan recalled: “The first time I met Brother Ji Luan was in a teahouse in Tianjin, and more than ten years later.”

   “Who said no,” Zhang Henshui shook his head and smiled bitterly, “I was drinking with brother Ji Luan half a year ago. I didn’t expect that I would go to the south side, and when I came back, he was already terminally ill.”

   The two sighed and chatted about interesting past events, and they laughed while chatting. It was really Zhang Jiluan’s anecdote that made people laugh.

   However, he said that the children of Peiping gangsters were a lot of mischievous people, and a newspaper criticized it with the title “Fostering or not teaching, the fault of the father”. At that time, Zhang Jiluan, Zhang Henshui and others were gathering at Kenji Yahara’s house, and Zhang Jiluan said, “Reading this title will give me a couplet. The first couplet said: “Father’s fault, who of you can tell the second couplet?”

   A friend said, “How about ‘Zibuyu’?”

   Zhang Jiluan shook his head and said, “It’s not good, it’s not working, it’s not as good as ‘mum’s forcing’.”

  Everyone laughed and praised it.

   Don’t look at the ironic articles written by Zhang Jiluan, but he is extremely witty and humorous in private, and is proficient in eating, drinking, prostitution and gambling.

   “That’s right,” Zhang Henshui put down the tea bowl, “Fu Mengzhen (Fu Sinian) is going to co-sign the hole again, and invite me to sign together. Has brother Mingcheng received the invitation?”

   Zhou Hexuan shook his head and said, “I received a letter from Fu Sinian, but Kong Xiangxi can’t be beaten, and I don’t bother to spend that idle time.”

   “Yeah, it’s easier said than done,” Zhang Henshui said with emotion, “This time, Chen Lifu used the topic to play the role, and he used the right hand to impeach Kong Xiangxi. How could it be successful?”

   Although Zhang Henshui was a literati, he clearly saw the factional struggle of the Kuomintang.

   The CC Department controlled by Chen Lifu has become a behemoth, which makes Lao Jiang deeply jealous. The more Chen Lifu impeaches Kong Xiangxi, the more Lao Jiang will keep Kong Xiangxi – the CC Department must not be allowed to enter the financial system.

   Kong Xiangxi does not belong to any faction of the Kuomintang, but he has clashed with almost all the Kuomintang factions. Such an “orphan” is a gun of Chang Kaishen and has an irreplaceable role in the political world.

   “Brother Zheng has returned to Chongqing?” Zhang Henshui asked.

   Zhou Hexuan said: “I came back yesterday. The scandal of ‘a newspaper master is not as good as a dog’ was exposed, which made our President Jiang lose face, and quickly sent a special plane to pick him up.”

   “It’s really hard to laugh or cry, are the Kong family all dog brains?” Zhang Henshui shook his head and smiled wryly.

Zhou Hexuan said disdainfully: “Kong Lingwei is a dog-brained, I believe Song Ailing is a smart person. I often go to Yunxiu Tower to chat with Song Meiling, Song Meiling is seriously influenced by her eldest sister, and a woman who can influence Song Meiling ideologically would be a fool? But she let more than a dozen pet dogs on the plane, and she was unwilling to move a few vacancies for brother Zheng, obviously she was arrogant, or she didn’t take the newspaper owner as a person at all.”

Zhang Henshui said: “It’s true. Last time I had an exchange with Mr. Currie, the US special envoy, and Mr. Currie said something that impressed me a lot. He was living at Kong Xiangxi’s house, and one day he was discussing China’s inflation with Kong Xiangxi. Guess what Kong Xiangxi said? Kong Xiangxi said: How can there be inflation in China? It’s all ignorant people who don’t trust the government and don’t use the fiat currency printed by the government as money, which causes the fiat currency to depreciate and prices soar. As long as everyone agrees Fiat currency must have a strong currency value and stable prices.”

   Zhou Hexuan smiled dumbly: “I’m afraid our Minister Kong is talking nonsense with his eyes open. I don’t believe he really doesn’t understand.”

   “Who knows, maybe he really thinks so.” Zhang Henshui shook his head repeatedly.

   The two of them were drinking tea, chatting and listening to the show, but they were relaxed and comfortable. At this moment—

   “Outside the number! Outside the number!”

   “Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, Japan attacked the US fleet!”

   “Outside the number! Outside the number…”

  Zhang Henshui stood up and rushed out of the teahouse, turning over several bamboo chairs along the way. He stood at the door and shouted: “Newspaper, give me a newspaper!”

   is finally here, Zhou Hexuan smiled and walked out slowly.

   After a while, Zhang Henshui held the newspaper and danced: “Mingcheng, if the United States joins the war, then China will have nothing to worry about. I guess the war will almost end next year.”