Chapter Six

  Dào Jìng became an elementary school teacher in Yáng Zhuāng. As her ideal of supporting herself was realized, her mood gradually calmed down, and she also gradually developed an interest in teaching life and children. The only thing that made her disgusted was: She still had to see Yu Jing Tang from time to time. His thin yellow face and his constantly blinking eyelids with a cunning smile would make her feel an inexplicable discomfort and disgust whenever he appeared before her.

  The students told Lin Daojing: her cousin Zhang Wenqing was fired by Yu Jing Tang because he was dissatisfied with Yu's interference in the teachers' freedom. He is a big landlord and scholar in the village, and also a red person in the county, people call him "smiling tiger". However, when Yu Jing Tang saw Lin Daojing, he was still very polite, he nodded twice as usual, then smiled at Daojing and said: "Mr. Lin is busy? Our school equipment is simple, sorry! Sorry!"

  Dao Jing nodded calmly and indifferently, unwilling to talk more with him.

  Yu Jing Tang still had a smile on his face. He narrowed his eyes at Dao Jing, nodding "Oh, oh......" Truly deserving of the title "Laughing Tiger".

  One day, Dao Jing met him again on the high steps outside the school. He nodded to Dao Jing, his nose almost touching Dao Jing's face, and smiled: "Mr. Lin, congratulations! Yong Ze's wife has just died. You are truly a lucky person who doesn't need to worry..."

  "What?" Dao Jing suddenly took a step back, staring at Yu Jing Tang with indignation: "I don't understand what you're saying!"

  "Oh, oh, nothing, nothing... Yong Ze's daughter-in-law just died. The broken carriage that blocked the way has been moved away. Before the sick daughter-in-law had even passed away, the matchmaker was already at the door, this is our county's custom. Oh, oh, nothing, nothing."

  Yu Jing Tang said with a smile and walked away.

  Dao Jing returned to the house and lay on the table for half a day without moving, still fuming.

  Two days later, after class in the afternoon, two or three teachers were chatting in the teacher's lounge. Yu Jing Tang walked in with a stack of letters, humming and making noises as he approached. As soon as he saw Dao Jing flipping through the newspaper, he walked up to him and shouted: "Mr. Lin, there are letters! The post office is going to move into our Yangzhuang Elementary School, look, what a big deal!"

  Before Dao Jing stood up, he held the letter high above his head and laughed at all the other teachers, saying: "Mr. Lin can open a post office by himself! Every time a letter comes, it's a big bundle - no one in the whole village has as many letters as him!" As he spoke, his face changed color, his eyes blinked, and his expression turned stern, saying: "Mr. Lin, I must advise you, there are already rumors in the village. Do you understand? As a teacher, you must pay attention to your reputation, men and women..."

  Dào Jìng snatched the letter from Yu Jing Tang's hand, interrupting him angrily: "Principal Yu! I'm here to teach, not listen to your lectures on 'The Legend of Lü Bu'! I'm a teacher, I have my freedom!" After finishing speaking, she turned around and went straight back to her dormitory, immediately lying down on the bed and covering her head.

  After lighting the lamp, she finally restrained herself and lit the lamp to read the package of letters. The dozen or so letters she received in one breath were almost all written by Yu Yongze alone. This thin young university student was burning with love, and every day he would write a letter, even two or three hot letters, to send to her. Because the rural post office only delivers mail every few days, when the postman doesn't come, it's fine, but when he does come, there are always a bunch of letters for her. This is what Yu Jingtang grasped as a handle. He was dissatisfied with Yu Yongze because Yu Yongze had ruined his plans - he not only planned to give Daojing to County Magistrate Bao as a gift, but also wanted to take advantage of it himself. It's just like when a piece of 'fat' mutton is about to enter one's mouth, suddenly a quick hand snatches it away. He couldn't help but feel annoyed. However, Yu Yongze's father and Yu Yongze himself were not people to be trifled with - university students are the village's sacred people, knowing that he will become an official in the future. So they could only vent their anger on Daojing. This young, wandering girl was after all a plaything in their hands, and it wasn't easy to deal with her.

  Under the dim kerosene lamp, she read those passionate and lingering letters one by one, and gradually a smile appeared on her face. She was deeply moved by the gentle emotions and ardent yet implicit confessions in the letters, and her young heart was immersed in the joy of love, forgetting the fatigue of the day. After finishing reading the letters, she immediately picked up her pen and wrote a long letter to Yu Yongze. A paragraph in the letter reveals that she is not like an innocent young girl, but rather seems to have the temperament of an old person who has experienced many hardships:

  ...Yong Ze, I loathe this evil society, I want to tear it apart! But like a small insect on a spider's web, I just can't shake off the suffocating and terrifying grayness that surrounds me. ...Family is stifling me, I escaped to society; but society is no different from family, everywhere reeks of rot and decay, a dark and sinister presence. Here, your older cousin and my father are birds of a feather - all talk about righteousness and morality, but full of corruption and debauchery! I'm like a lone camel, carrying a heavy burden, trekking through the endless desert of hardships. ...Yong Ze, when can I see an oasis? When can I again taste the sweet spring water that I yearn for?...

  Tell you, aren't you always complaining that I'm not enthusiastic or even cold to you? No, from today on, I love you. And very much so... You know how hard it was for me in my heart today, I couldn't bear these humiliations, and I wanted to escape - but where could I escape to? ... So I love you very, very much now.

  It was late at night, and she was too tired. Her eyelashes were mischievously fighting each other. After finishing writing, without even having time to read it again, she fell asleep on the bed with her clothes still on, and in her hand, she still tightly grasped that package of letters.

  A dull village, a dull life, even the magnificent and majestic sea, in her quiet and dim heart, gradually became dull and colorless. Her letters to Yu Yongze and Wang Xiaoyan were filled with sorrow and melancholy. Although Yu Yongze and Wang Xiaoyan both wrote back to advise her not to be so depressed and to cheer up, she herself sometimes wondered how at such a young age she had already developed this terrible old mindset. However, the life presented before her was so gloomy and dark that even her first love with Yu Yongze could not dispel this feeling of darkness. Thus, she remained trapped in her melancholy emotions and unable to extricate herself.

  Suddenly, a loud thunderclap on a clear day shocked the numb village and also shocked Lin Daojing's numb and declining heart.

  September 24, 1931 was an unforgettable day.

  Trains from Shanhai Pass to the inside of the pass were suddenly filled with people crying and shouting as they escaped; The villagers near Beidaihe Railway Station, Yangzhuang, heard about this situation and were already a little surprised. Then they heard that the Japanese Navy had occupied Qinhuangdao, and the village of Yangzhuang was in an uproar. Men, women, and children who had fled from Qinhuangdao and nearby villages to Yangzhuang crowded the streets, making the villagers even more anxious. Schools were closed, teachers living nearby returned home, and even local teachers did not come to school. The Guandi Temple was deserted, with only one person left.

  In the afternoon, Dao Jing sat alone in the teacher's rest room. The autumn sun shone weakly on the gourd shelf outside the east window, casting a mottled leaf shadow on the dim old window paper. She held a book and read it absent-mindedly. Although she was in Guandi Temple, her heart couldn't help but fly to the chaotic streets, fly to Qinhuangdao, which was occupied by the Japanese Navy, only twenty miles away.

  A worker came in with a newspaper. It was the old drunkard who had locked Dao Jing out of the temple gate on the day she arrived. He stumbled and mumbled as he walked in, and when he saw Dao Jing, he shouted: "Mr. Lin, it's terrible! The Japanese have occupied the three northeastern provinces!"

  Dào Jìng was shocked and snatched the newspaper away. Sure enough, in big bold letters, it read that the Japanese army had occupied Shenyang and other parts of Northeast China. She read on, her eyes scanning the page, until finally she clutched the paper and collapsed onto a stool.

  The Guandi Temple is quiet, the teacher's lounge is quiet, and the world seems to have suddenly come to a standstill.

  "Mr. Lin, what's the news? How are national affairs?"

  Dào Jìng was startled. She looked up to see that the old drunkard had left without her noticing, and standing in front of her was Li Zhitian, a teacher from their village in his forties. He quietly walked into the house and saw Lin Daojing sitting alone with a stack of newspapers, lost in thought, and couldn't help but ask.

  Dào Jìng stood up and handed the newspaper to Lǐ Zhī Tíng. Her clear eyes turned red.

  Li Zhitang held the "World Daily" and read a few lines of the headline, shaking his head and sighing: "Not good! Not good! Is China going to perish soon? Alas, perish! Perish!"

  "Mr. Li, please don't say that! It's heartbreaking to hear you talk like this!" Lin Daojing, who rarely spoke, interrupted Li Zhitian's words, with tears in her eyes, "I think: China will never perish! The rise and fall of a country is the responsibility of every individual, can we let it perish?..."

  Dao Jing's words had not finished, a tall young man walked into the 'door' with a steady pace. He stood at the edge of the 'door', casually nodded to Dao Jing and smiled slightly: "What you said is very right, the rise and fall of the country, every ordinary person has a responsibility. Are you a teacher here?"

  "Yes!" Dao Jing replied to the man's question while looking at Li Zhitian in surprise, as if asking him: What is this frank young man doing?

  "Let me introduce you!" said Li Zhitang with a smile, "This is my brother-in-law Lu Jia-chuan, a student at Peking University. Because his mother-in-law was ill, he returned home to visit her and took the opportunity to see his sister."

  As soon as he arrived here, he couldn't stay still and asked me to take him around. This is Mr. Lin Daojing, a teacher in our village, she is also a student from Beiping."

  The young man smiled and said: "Very good, students from Beiping are teaching elementary school in the countryside... Please sit down, the situation has been very tense these days!"

  It seemed as if this young man had a kind of charm that could effortlessly draw people to his side. Indeed, Dao Jing was immediately attracted by his frank and easy-going manner and his elegant demeanor, and she asked him in a familiar tone: "Where are you from? Do you know that Japan has occupied the three northeastern provinces, will China fight back or not?"

  The young man did not rush to answer. He smiled with his clever and gentle eyes, looking at the two people in front of him, as if he was thinking about something, or waiting for something.

  Li Zhitang puffed on his cigarette, silently gazing at his brother-in-law, seemingly waiting for a response. But before the guest could speak up, he turned to Lin Daojing and gave a brief explanation: "Mr. Lin, you don't know that my brother-in-law is particularly fond of studying national affairs, and when it comes to domestic and foreign history, past and present, he's got a whole set of theories... Alright, Jiachuan, go ahead and talk, let Mr. Lin see if our country has any worries."

  "Mr. Lu, then you tell us!" Dao Jing urged again.

  "There's nothing, it's all in the newspaper." Lu Jiachuan flipped through the newspapers on the table, raised his head and said slowly, "There's just one thing: Chiang Kai-shek is very 'brave' in fighting the civil war, but he ordered the hundreds of thousands of troops in Northeast China not to resist externally. So Japan occupied the largest Shenyang Ordnance Factory and Shenyang Arsenal, airport and 200 aircraft without firing a single shot. And then they attacked Benxi, Yingkou, Changchun and other places; I heard Jilin has been occupied, our Qinhuangdao is finished too... But the National Government's solution to this great humiliation is just sending a telegram to Shi Zhaoji in Geneva, asking the League of Nations to uphold justice for China..."

  He suddenly fixed his gaze on Dao Jing and asked her seriously, "Do you think such a dream can come true? Can China defeat Japan without resorting to armed struggle?"

  Dào Jìng stared at Lú Jiā Chuān with an unwavering gaze. In her stirred up indignation, there was still a hint of astonishment. She had never seen such a university student before; he was vastly different from Yú Yǒng Zé. Yú Yǒng Zé often spoke only of beautiful art and moving, entwining stories; but this university student was familiar with national affairs, speaking fluently about things that Dào Jìng had never heard before.

  "I don't know!" Dao Jing thought for a moment and replied straightforwardly, her face flushing with embarrassment.

  "But since you care about national affairs, you should know!" Lu Jia-chuan said with a smile.

  "But...," Lin Daojing smiled. She didn't know how to respond to this stranger.

  "Jia Chuan, go take a look elsewhere. Aren't you still trying to find out about things on Qinhuang Island?"

  "Let's go!" Li Zhitian was a good fellow. Seeing that Lu Jiachuan had asked Lin Daojing, whom he met for the first time, some very embarrassing questions, he quickly pulled him away.

  Lu Jia-chuan and Li Zhi-ting walked out of the 'door' with Dao Jing seeing them off. As they walked, Lu Jia-chuan said to the two teachers, "The national situation is like this, none of us can stand by and do nothing!"

  "What can we do? We are just scholars, unarmed..." Li Zhitang muttered softly, shaking his head and sighing.

  "Patriotism doesn't necessarily mean taking up guns and going to battle. Spreading propaganda, stirring people's hearts - like you instill patriotic ideas in students, this is also a kind of weapon."

  Li Zhitang did not speak. Dao Jing also did not respond. However, in her heart, she acknowledged that the stranger's words were correct. Moreover, towards this person - a strange and unusual individual who was different from ordinary people - she felt respect. In just over ten minutes of conversation, he seemed to have suddenly enlightened Dao Jing, making her realize many things.

  Two days passed, the storm was over, and school resumed as usual. In the third-grade classroom, Ms. Dao Jing did not teach her lesson. Her fervent patriotic passion overcame her personal grief, and she told the students about the painful news of "9/18" and the evil of Japanese imperialism's invasion of China, as well as the non-resistance policy of the Nationalist Party that the young stranger Lu Jiacai had told her. She spoke in a low voice, pausing from time to time, but her sorrowful tone and the tears streaming from her eyes moved the children deeply. The children listened quietly, motionless.

  Many small eyes shone with tears, and several bigger 'girls' even cried out loud.

  "Teacher, why don't we fight against Japan?" a little boy asked with tears in his eyes.

  "Because the government is unpatriotic..."

  "Teacher, what is Japan used for?"

  "With troops and artillery."

  "Does China not have guns?" "Does China not have airplanes?" "Does China not have an army?" ... The children's innocent mouths fired off questions like a string of pearls, and Dao Jing hastily replied to them: "The Nationalist Party only fights internal wars, fighting Chinese people, but they dare not fight Japan. They are afraid..."

  "We're not afraid, we'll fight!"

  "We fight, I'll fire!"

  "We'll fight!" "We'll fight!" The children's shouting voices, usually quiet in class, were now loud and clear. Dao Jing felt a mix of sadness and joy. How lovely these children are! They all know how to love their country, they all know how to fight, fight, fight Japan!

  From then on, Dao Jing often told the children stories of patriotism, such as the stories of Wen Tianxiang, Yue Fei, and Shi Kefa, as well as foreign stories like "The Two Fishermen" and "The Last Lesson". The children loved listening to her, and she loved telling them. Her relationship with the students seemed to suddenly become closer, and her own empty heart seemed to be filled up.

  But then another storm broke out one day.

  Yu Jing Tang walked into the teacher's lounge. He still blinked his eyes with a sly smile, first glanced at the four teachers, then looked at Lin Dao and said in a low voice: "Oh, oh, have you heard? The wind is very tight in Beiping and Tianjin! Troublemakers, students, petitions, strikes, all mixed together, some even ran to Nanjing*, what's going on!…… Called anti-Japanese resistance, but actually it's still *** party manipulation!"

  He suddenly waved his hand, looked solemn and began to lecture loudly, "Oh, isn't that nonsense? Can this really save the country from Japan? Oh, oh, please note: Chairman Chiang has already given orders - do not resist, everything will be taken care of! Note, I heard that there is anti-Japanese propaganda in our school!" He swallowed a mouthful of saliva and scanned the four silent teachers with a sly gaze, finally fixing his eyes on Lin Daojing. "Oh, Mr. Lin, you're young, you must be careful! What's with 'Second Fishing Husband' and 'Third Fishing Husband'? What are you teaching students that for? If outsiders say our school has Communist Party members inciting propaganda... then, then even my head will not be able to stay on!"

  The other teachers remained silent. Lin Daojing was silent for a moment, then suddenly stared at Yu Jing Tang with angry eyes and said: "Principal Yu, whether your brain is long or short has nothing to do with me! The country is in such a critical situation, I am Chinese, how can I not even have the freedom to publicize anti-Japanese resistance? Publicizing anti-Japanese resistance is the Communist Party, who made this law?"

  The other teachers were stunned. Li Zhitang's face turned white. The usually shy and quiet 'female' teacher actually dared to be so bold as to defy the principal, this was a rare thing!

  Yu Jing Tang's thin face turned dark, his eyes didn't even blink. He was stunned for a few seconds, then suddenly turned around and left. When he reached the door, he turned back, stood still, swung his big sleeves, and blinked at Lin Daojing several times, saying in a trembling voice with cold laughter: "I don't know about this! If you don't understand, please ask Chairman Chiang yourself!"

  "Don't worry! The students of Peking University have already gone to Nanjing on my behalf!" Dao Jing added, turning his back to Yu Jing Tang.

  In Yu Yongze's letter to her, she learned that the students of Peking University went to Nanjing to petition because they opposed the government's non-resistance policy and opposed Jinzhou being designated as a neutral zone. Yu Yongze said he had also wanted to go but didn't make it due to sudden illness. He also told her that the deputy commander-in-chief of their *** corps was Lu Jiachuan, Li Zhitang's younger brother-in-law.

  "Lu Jia-chuan?……” After quarreling with Yu Jing-tang, Dao Jing sat alone in her room, fuming and thinking to herself. Suddenly, she thought of Lu Jia-chuan, whom she had met by chance. Thinking of him leading a large group of students to Nanjing to settle scores with the Nationalist Party, she couldn't help but smile. It seemed that this young man had helped her vent her anger, and she silently whispered his name in gratitude.