Xu Zhimo and his wife Lu Xiaoman came to see him off and reluctantly said: "He Xuan, take care!"
"Goodbye Zhimo, goodbye Xiaoman!" Zhou Hexuan asked, "Remember to help me send the 5,000 silver dollars to Xu Beihong."
"I'll deliver it in the afternoon." Xu Zhimo said with a smile.
Zhou Hexuan turned around and walked towards the train, and the Sun brothers quickly followed.
The distance from Shanghai to Nanjing is very short, and we have reached the end point in a few hours. It was quite troublesome when we left the station, because the war had just ended, and the soldiers searched very strictly, and found all the pistols carried by the Sun brothers.
"What are you doing!" The soldier immediately raised his gun and pointed it at Zhou Hexuan and the others.
Zhou Hexuan quickly took out a few pieces of ocean and said with a smile: "My surname is Zhou. I am a businessman. I only carry a gun for self-defense."
It is indeed normal to carry a gun these days. After the soldier collected the money and saw that Zhou Hexuan was in a suit and leather shoes and looked upright, he no longer embarrassed him and said, "Hurry over and avoid causing trouble."
"Thank you." Zhou Hexuan said with his fists in hand.
The moment Zhou Hexuan took the Sun brothers out of the station, a loud noise suddenly came from the river.
"boom!"
British and American warships opened fire on the city.
what's the situation?
Zhou Hexuan was stunned for a moment. He saw with his own eyes a cannonball falling into a house dozens of meters away in front of him. Pedestrians on the street fled in panic, and soldiers at the station also fired shots to warn passengers not to trespass as if they were facing a formidable enemy.
"Sir, let's go quickly!" Sun Yongzhen dragged Zhou Hexuan and ran away.
The three of them kept their heads down and ran wildly until they were out of the range of the cannonball's impact point, and then they felt a little relieved.
Zhou Hexuan was still a little dizzy and couldn't figure out how the British and American warships could fire on the city, but he quickly came to his senses.
Nanjing incident!
How did I forget the Nanjing incident?
Zhou Hexuan regretted it endlessly. If he could remember, he would definitely come to Nanjing in a few days.
"There's a foreigner over there, catch him quickly!"
I saw only seven or eight Chinese soldiers chasing a foreigner madly.
The foreigner couldn't run anymore, so he threw away his belongings and begged for mercy. The soldiers didn't care. They rushed forward, punched and kicked him, and beat the foreigner to death. Then they robbed the foreigner and fled away.
The Sun brothers were stunned. Sun Yonghao said: "The Northern Expeditionary Army is really a bloody man. They even dare to kill foreigners."
Zhou Hexuan smiled bitterly. If the foreigners in the city hadn't been in trouble, would the British and American warships have opened fire?
Not to mention ordinary foreigners, even the vice president of Jinling University (American) and the preparatory principal of Aurora University (Italian) were killed by soldiers. Foreign consulates, churches, trading companies, hospitals, and foreign residences in Nanjing and Xiaguan
, all were looted.
The situation was so bad that the Northern Expeditionary Army generals could not control it, so they had no choice but to blame others. First, they said it was Zhang Zongchang and Sun Chuanfang who broke up and caused trouble, and later they said it was our party who was organizing the conspiracy. Anyway, they did not find out the truth in the end, so
Foreigners paid a large sum of money to deal with the aftermath.
Fortunately, these soldiers only targeted foreigners, so Zhou Hexuan was not in danger for the time being.
Because the city was too chaotic and there was no rickshaw to be found, Zhou Hexuan and the Sun brothers had no choice but to move forward on foot. There was a lot of chaos along the way, and there were local ruffians who took the opportunity to cause trouble, regardless of whether they were Chinese or foreigners, they just robbed anyone they saw with money.
Fortunately, the Sun brothers were protecting him, otherwise even Zhou Hexuan would have been robbed by gangsters.
After walking for about an hour, Zhou Hexuan finally arrived at the door of Zhang's mansion by asking for directions. It took a long time before a servant came out to open the door.
"Hello, I'm looking for Mr. Zhang Mouzhi." Zhou Hexuan said.
The servant's answer made Zhou Hexuan collapse: "The master left Nanjing and returned to Lushan half a month ago."
Zhou Hexuan held his forehead: "..."
Damn it!
Lushan Mountain is in Jiangxi, more than 500 kilometers away from Nanjing.
Forget it, forget it, just cooperate with Xu Shenru honestly, and there is no need to involve the Zhang family anymore.
Zhou Hexuan had no choice but to take the Sun brothers to a hotel. As soon as he completed the room check-in procedures, he saw two foreigners, a man and a woman, running in in a hurry.
The male foreigner said in fluent Chinese: "Boss, please get a room quickly."
"Oh, I don't dare to take you in. If those soldiers find out, they won't destroy the store." The store manager was embarrassed.
The female foreigner's Chinese was better and her accent was completely unrecognizable. She took out dozens of silver dollars and said, "Please, please let us stay for a few days and I'll give you all the money."
The shopkeeper hesitated for a moment, but finally couldn't resist the temptation of money, gritted his teeth and said: "Okay, I'll let you stay, but don't wander around and stay in the room honestly."
"Okay, okay, thank you boss!" The two foreigners thanked them quickly.
As it happened, Zhou Hexuan lived next door to them.
There was nothing to do anyway, so Zhou Hexuan struck up a conversation when he was going upstairs: "Hello, two foreign friends, what are your last names?"
The male foreigner looked at Zhou Hexuan warily and replied: "My name is John Booker, and this is my wife Pearl."
The foreign woman added: "My Chinese name is Pearl Buck."
Zhou Hexuan was speechless for a moment. He could meet the future Nobel Prize winner in literature even if he stayed in a hotel. The world is too small.
Although Pearl Buck is an American, she grew up in China and even writes articles in Chinese. China is her real hometown.
Zhou Hexuan smiled and said: "Hello you two, my name is Zhou Hexuan."
"Are you Zhou Hexuan who wrote "The Goddess"?" Pearl Buck said in surprise, "I like your work very much. It is so special. I heard it is called realistic magicism."
Everyone went to their guest rooms to place their luggage, and soon Pearl Buck and his wife came to visit.
Zhou Hexuan asked: "Where do you two plan to go in the future?"
"I don't know," Booker shrugged and complained, "Chinese soldiers are too crazy. They beat and rob foreigners when they see them. We don't dare to continue living in Nanjing. We plan to go to Shanghai first to see the situation."
Zhou Hexuan extended an invitation: "Why don't you go to the north? You two can become teachers at Peking University."
Pearl Buck is now a professor at Jinling University. She said: "Peking University is one of the top universities in China. Will it hire us?"
"I am the president of Peking University." Zhou Hexuan said with a smile.
Booker said happily: "That's just right. Pearl, let's go to Peking University."
Pearl Buck did not hesitate about where to go, but asked: "Mr. Zhou, I would like to translate your "The Goddess" into English so that more American readers can know it. Is that okay?"
"Of course." Zhou Hexuan said.
There are many Chinese folk ghosts and legends in "The Goddess". If it were translated by another foreigner, it would definitely be difficult to maintain the original appearance. But Pearl Buck is different. She knows China very well, just listen to the name of "Water Margin" she translated.
--"All Men Are Brothers".
This translation is definitely honest, expressive and elegant, far superior to "The Story of 105 Men and 3 Women" (Water Margin translated by Europeans).
Being able to meet Pearl Buck made Zhou Hexuan feel that his trip was worthwhile, not to mention that he took Pearl Buck and his wife to Peking University.
Little did Zhou Hexuan know that after Pearl Buck introduced "The Goddess" to Europe and the United States, it caused quite a stir in the Western literary world.