Zhang Leyi came to the living room with red eyes. Zhou Hexuan looked a little distressed and asked with concern: "Are you okay?"
Zhang Leyi remained silent for a moment, then said in a deep voice: "Why do you want to tell me the truth? I came all the way to Tianjin, you should at least coax and lie to me!"
Zhou Hexuan shook his head and smiled bitterly, and said everything in his heart: "I write novels to expose the darkness of society, I reform underwear and call for women's liberation. I think I am a saint, but in the end it makes no difference. Like most men, I also long for threesomes.
I am a wife and a concubine, and I don’t have enough self-control to restrain my desires. I wanted to lie to you yesterday and tell you the truth after a while, but in the end I couldn’t hold it back. I think the only thing I can do is to confess.
, you have the right to know the truth, and I don’t want to continue to lie to you."
"You bastard!" Zhang Leyi finally couldn't help but curse out.
"I am indeed an asshole. This is very unfair to you," Zhou Hexuan sighed, "If it doesn't work out, I will send you back and we can all be ordinary friends."
Zhang Leyi said angrily: "How can I go back? I ran away from home without telling my parents, and now I go home in disgrace and tell them that I fell in love with a heartless man? How do you want me to behave!"
"Uh," Zhou Hexuan was speechless, "I didn't think it through well. How about you stay in Tianjin first and talk about it later."
Zhang Leyi lowered her head and stopped talking, which was regarded as acquiescing to Zhou Hexuan's arrangement. She really didn't know how to go back to face her parents, and at the same time she was still so reluctant to let go, and she didn't want to end it with Zhou Hexuan completely.
During the Republic of China, new-style women grew up in a complicated environment. They not only accepted advanced Western ideas, but also were influenced by traditional culture. Christians said that marriage should be between one man and one woman, but in society, three wives and four concubines can be seen everywhere.
Even Zhang Leyi's father does not come home from time to time. Not only does he raise a woman in Jiujiang, but he even has an outhouse in Nanjing. Some time ago, when he stayed in Nanjing, Zhang Leyi stayed at his "aunt's" house, and everyone did not shy away from anything.
Affected by the general social environment, women in the Republic of China were not too demanding and considered it normal for a man to marry his concubine.
Like the female writer Lu Yin we mentioned earlier, while writing novels calling for equality between men and women, she was willing to marry a powerless married man. Even after her husband died, she took her daughter back to her husband's house to take care of her mother-in-law.
The first wife was also very kind to Lu Yin, and the "sisters" got along well with each other. Only her mother-in-law thought she was trying to kill her husband and could not give birth to a son, so she kicked Lu Yin out of the house.
Zhang Leyi can understand a man's flirtatiousness, but what she can't accept the most is that Zhou Hexuan actually refused to lie to her and insisted on telling the truth. Everyone knows this kind of thing, so why put it on the table and make each other feel it?
Embarrassing.
And thinking about it carefully, Zhang Leyi felt that Zhou Hexuan was very reliable, at least he would not deceive her, let alone take advantage of her body.
This has to be said to be a kind of tragedy. A boyfriend cheating on her would definitely be considered a scumbag in modern society. But Zhang Leyi, a daughter of the Republic of China, accepted it easily. Instead, she hoped that the man would hide the affair from her. Waiting for her boyfriend to take the initiative.
After exposing the truth, she felt that she could trust the other party to be honest.
This kind of strange thinking is incomprehensible to modern people.
Historically, even though Mr. Mei Lanfang had his first wife, he married three wives in succession to continue their relationship. No one said that he had a bad character, but instead cited his marriage with Meng Xiaodong as a good talk.
A good story.
Wanrong's arrival broke the awkwardness in the room. She smiled and said, "Brother Zhou, Miss Zhang, aren't you ready yet?"
"Wait a moment, we'll leave right away." Zhou Hexuan responded.
Zhang Leyi put away her emotions and pretended to smile as if nothing had happened: "I'll go back to my room to put on makeup first."
The three of them took a rickshaw to the southern suburbs. The water on the road had receded, but there were still many people clearing and cleaning it.
When I came to the foreigners' Xiangyi Club, I found that not only was it not affected by the floods, it was actually much more lively. Some foreign merchants were trapped in the port congestion and temporarily stayed in Tianjin, and they all came here to have fun.
"Hi, Mist Zhou, long time no see!" A foreigner greeted from a distance.
"Hello, Mike." Zhou Hexuan waved and smiled.
Another fat foreigner on the bar shouted to the bartender: "Give Zhou Lai a glass of whiskey, I'll treat you!"
Zhou Hexuan walked over and hugged the fat foreigner and said with a smile: "Haha, Jimmy, you have gained weight again."
The fat foreigner turned around and said to the bartender with a straight face, "I changed my mind. He has to pay for this drink himself."
The whiskey had been poured, and Zhou Hexuan walked over and drank it all in one gulp, which made his throat hurt. He put down the glass and said, "Put it in Fatty's account. I'm going to go play ball."
"Hey, you bastard!" The fat man laughed loudly.
Zhang Leyi was surprised. Zhou Hexuan's relationship with foreigners puzzled her. Her father was a comprador and had been dealing with foreigners for a long time. In her childhood impression, foreigners were always superior to others. Even if her father faced the powerless
Foreigners are also careful and polite.
Zhou Hexuan, on the other hand, is much more free and easy. He seems to be friends with foreigners on equal terms and can joke around casually.
"Who is that fat man?" Zhang Leyi asked in a low voice.
Zhou Hexuan said: "There is a major in the British garrison in Tianjin. I heard that he is still a minor nobleman. This guy often sneaks out of the military camp and goes to the club to drink and have fun."
"Are you familiar with the foreigners here?" Zhang Leyi asked again.
Zhou Hexuan said: "Some of them have drank together, and some have played football together. I come to the club to play for a few days every month, and I have become familiar with them after going back and forth."
Zhang Leyi said: "Those foreigners seem to have a good impression of you, and they can even make jokes."
"Haha, foreigners are human beings too, why can't they joke?" Zhou Hexuan said with a smile.
"But my father is always cautious when dealing with foreigners," Zhang Leyi said.
Zhou Hexuan said: "That's because your father wants to beg others and needs to rely on foreigners to do business. As the saying goes, being strong without desire, I don't ask foreigners to do things, why should I look at their faces? And the more casual I am with them, the more these foreigners like me.
They communicate with each other and treat me as an equal friend. In fact, they are also very curious about Chinese people and are willing to deal with normal Chinese people."
Zhang Leyi smiled and said: "You mean that other Chinese people are not normal?"
"Do you think it's normal? When we Chinese see foreigners, we either accept them or stay away," Zhou Hexuan said.
"That's right." Zhang Leyi nodded thoughtfully.
Wanrong knew this very well. After Puyi came to Tianjin, he often dealt with foreigners. On the surface, Puyi acted like an emperor, and even rewarded foreigners at business banquets, treating foreigners as servants of a foreign country. But the actual situation was that Puyi faced
Always be cautious when dealing with foreigners, for fear of offending them, just like a eunuch in the palace meeting his master.
The three of them went to the bowling room together. As soon as they entered, they saw the British and French consuls general and his wife. The two ladies were happily playing ball, but the two consuls stood beside them, discussing something in a low voice.
"To use a Chinese saying, when we talk about Cao Cao, Cao Cao arrives," Hervé waved to Zhou Hexuan, "Hi, Zhou, I just mentioned you and you are here."
Zhou Hexuan walked over and saluted: "Hello, Mr. Consuls."
British Consul General Roger Powell looked at Wanrong, then at Zhang Leyi, and said with a smile: "Mister Zhou, please introduce the beautiful young lady next to you."
Zhou Hexuan said: "This is my secret..."
"I am his fiancée." Zhang Leyi suddenly said while holding Zhou Hexuan's hand.
Zhou Hexuan was greatly surprised when he heard this and turned to look at Zhang Leyi in surprise.