92 Haven Road, Upper Manhattan, New York, is a riverside apartment that was rented by two women who moved in one day before the summer vacation this year after the ladies left. At this time, Upper Manhattan was still a relatively remote place, even the Broadway Avenue south of the apartment was not as prosperous as the later generations, just an ordinary street, and the Haven Street, where the apartment was located, was even more desolate, its scenery was not in the city, but more from the Hudson River, which was more than 300 meters away to the west, and was extremely wide.

Hu Shi and a student from Yunnan named Lu Xirong live here. Compared to the Columbia dormitory I lived in, the biggest advantage here is that in addition to the low rent, it will not be as noisy as the school dormitory - the downstairs is not downtown, and there will be no sound of cars. The disadvantage is that it is at least three miles away from Columbia, and every time I go to class, it is a troublesome thing, and I rarely meet with many classmates at Columbia University except for assemblies, which is a little less lively with classmates.

It's just that this kind of friendship between international students is no longer attractive to Hu Shi, who has studied abroad for nearly seven years, before at Cornell University, the small town of Qisejia, which brought him many good memories, while at Columbia University, he just wanted to get a doctorate earlier, and rarely gathered with his classmates. But one afternoon in early November, a few rare international students finally got together and boarded the subway to New York's Times Square south of Central Park.

"There are so many people!" Although Times Square is a downtown area, I didn't expect it to be crowded here, and it was Zhang Xiruo, who had just arrived here. He is like this, and so are Hu Shi, Song Ziwen, Tao Xingzhi, Jiang Menglin, Sun Ke, Deng Jiayan, Ren Hongjun and others behind him. Everyone was scared by so many people. Only Li Meibu of Bernard Women's College had already guessed that this would be the case, looking at these men and laughing: "The difference between Wilson and Hughes's votes is extremely small. The outcome is unpredictable until the last minute. ”

"Wilson will win!" Hu Shi glanced at Li Meibu. Because the other party is a woman, although his 'political views' are different, he still shows a very gentlemanly demeanor.

"That's because women can't vote in politics, and if it's like my country, Wilson will definitely lose the election, or the prime minister ......" Last year, New York State launched a women's political craze, demanding that women also have the right to vote like China, but this demand was eventually suppressed by conservative forces. And Wilson, his wife died for a year and remarried. This kind of behavior is not only for women, but also for some men, who think that he has mishandled it. Li Meibu was right, but as a supporter of the prime minister, she should never mention Yang Jingcheng in front of these people.

Sure enough, as soon as she said the prime minister, Deng Jiayan was very angry among everyone: "My country's election campaign is just a farce under the control of the dictator!" That kind of election seems fair, but it will always only benefit the big party, and there is an unreasonable system of cabinet overthrow. If it goes on like this, not to mention that he will only be the prime minister for two terms, as long as Yang Jingcheng does not die, he can be the prime minister forever. ”

"I'm funny. The political system and public sentiment in our country are completely different from those of the United States. Why do we have to copy the usual practice of two US presidents stepping down? Li Meibu is a self-financed student in the Department of Economic Philosophy, the daughter of a pastor, and has been a unique debater since childhood. There is no fear of men," George. Washington refused to accept a third president. This is a testament to his patriotism; Yang Jingcheng's approach should continue to be the country. Stick to the post in the rapids. The former is for the sake of America's future happiness, while the latter is suspenseful about China's current crisis. Their approach is opposite, but their motivation is equally good and good. The establishment of the state system determines Washington's approach, and national security considerations guide Yang's behavior. ”

A few words led to Li Meibu so many words, Deng Jiayan, who was a veteran of the League and the head of the Justice Department of the League, was stunned for a while before thinking of how to refute, but when he was about to speak, the crowd broke up their cadres, and Li Meibu and several other girls fell far behind the team.

"Brother Meng Shuo, why do you have to meet women in general." Deng Jiayan's words were held in his stomach, very unhappy. Hu Shi has always admired Li Meibu, and his relationship with Deng Jiayan is also extremely harmonious, because he doesn't want the two to debate in public.

"I don't have a preconception about women, I just think they have long hair and short knowledge. The success of the Chinese revolution was not due to the efforts of the Fuxing Society, but Yang Jingcheng did not say anything about killing, but also violated the constitution and seized the people's ......property, and those who did not sign a contract to sell their land last year will have to pay 20 percent of the land tax this year, which means that their land will be robbed by the government for nothing...... This is internal, but what about externally? The battle with Japan was deliberately provoked by him, and the country took such a big risk before it was firmly established, what if it lost? What's even more ridiculous is that he is still very tough on Russia, which provoked the tsar to declare war on our country, if it were not for Germany and Austria to provoke a war in Europe, the main force of the Russian army could not be transferred eastward, and our country would definitely be another fiasco this time. Such a person, addicted to murder and gambling, what qualifications does he have to be the prime minister of China! ”

"Brother Meng Shuo......" Deng Jiayan said above his mouth, hating Yang Jingcheng more and more in his heart, so his voice became louder and louder, even if the crowd was noisy, the overseas students who accompanied him also stopped and looked back. At this time, Ren Hongjun hurriedly shouted to stop him, and whispered: "I'm worried that the wall has ears." ”

Deng Jiayan is not only the chief justice of the League, but also a key member of the Chinese Revolutionary Party, and it is Ren Hongjun, who is also a comrade, who advised him not to be exposed.

"What is there to be afraid of, this is the United States!" Deng Jiayan still didn't shut up, but his voice was quieter, and then he forced himself to say: "According to the Constitution, even in China, I have the right to criticize the government. ”

Deng Jiayan was so stubborn that Ren Hongjun, Hu Shi, and others couldn't help but think of Ma Junwu, who had studied in Europe a few months ago but returned to China via New York -- he was originally going to Yunnan, and he didn't want the Yunnan Revolutionary Army to be defeated by the Renaissance Army in just one month. At the rally of Chinese students at Columbia University, Ma Junwu tried his best to criticize Yang Jingcheng and the authoritarian government of the Fuxing Society, as he had advocated for a full platoon at the Spring Festival Party in Tokyo 14 years earlier, in front of the Manchu Beizi Fu Lun, causing chaos in the venue.

Shaking his head with a wry smile, when Ren Hongjun still wanted to persuade again, the red and white lights on the Times building suddenly turned on. The crowd waiting in the square cheered, and the conversation between Ren Hongjun and the others was stopped.

"Which color is Wilson? White? "Look at the numbers made up of red and white light bulbs on the Times building. Hu Shi couldn't tell who was who.

"Red is Democratic, white is Republican. This color seems to be used incorrectly. Song Ziwen, who had a Sven face and wore black-framed glasses, said on the side. He felt that white should represent the Democratic Party instead of red.

"Why is there such a small difference!" Hu Shih had been a loyal supporter of Wilson since four years ago, and as he got to know him in the United States, he became more and more sympathetic to Wilson's views. This time Wilson is running for president again, and the Republican Party's presidential candidate, a vice judge of the Supreme Court, and former governor of New York, Charles Murphy. Evans. Hughes was very competitive, and he had the same number of votes as Wilson in the primaries, and even more so now, so he was worried that Wilson would not be defeated.

"Wilson signed the eight-hour work week bill a few months ago, and the labor group is behind him, and he has a better chance of winning." Between Wilson and Hughes. Song Ziwen does not have a certain bias, let alone Hu Shi, who is bent on hoping that Wilson will win the election.

"It's hard to say!" Zhang Xiruo, who stood on everyone's side, did not quite agree with Song Ziwen's statement, "Wilson was too soft in handling the Mauritania cruise ship, which made many Americans have opinions about it." ”

"But there are many more who do not want to get involved in the war in Europe." After several changes, Hu Shih now fully agrees with the idea of peace groups to resolve disputes. And when looking at the votes of Wilson and Hughes, seeing that Wilson was ahead of more than 1,000 votes, he had some thoughts to participate in everyone's discussion.

Hearing Hu Shi say that the vast majority of people in the United States did not want to get involved in the war in Europe, Song Ziwen just laughed in his heart. Not only did he pursue his Ph.D. at Columbia. He also worked at Citibank, and was very clear about the financial entanglements between the United States and the Entente countries. Now that Germany is getting stronger and stronger in Europe, the Entente is getting weaker and weaker, and the French army is actually disobedient. If the United States does not send troops again, then the billions of private loans in the United States will be lost, and this is something that Wall Street absolutely does not want to see. Wilson's campaign slogan was not to engage in war in Europe, if it were. How could Wall Street possibly let him be re-elected.

Feeling that there was no need to talk too deeply with this large group of literati, Song Ziwen did not answer after Hu Shi finished speaking. Just looking at the electric light display in the Times building, I wanted to know the results of the US election before I went back to school. But obviously this is going to be disappointed, until the driving time of the last subway, Wilson and Hughes did not distinguish between the winner and the loser, and even, when everyone left the square, the two of them still had the same number of votes, thinking about the subway that was about to be closed, a group of international students had to return to school.

Hu Shi, who stayed for a while, didn't get on the subway, and walked five miles before squeezing with everyone in the dormitory of Zhang Ruoxi at Columbia University all night. In their sleep, everyone talked about the election of the President of the United States and the second election of the House of Doubts, which had begun in China. As soon as the name of the Inspectorate was said, Hu Shi was very disdainful, and he said: "I don't understand why the court and the princes chose such a name, why don't they call it the parliament or the parliament?" ”

There were only Zhang Xiruo, Ren Hongjun, Jiang Menglin, and Sun Ke in the dormitory, and Lin Bin and Tao Xingzhi were already asleep. Hu Shi suddenly shifted the topic from the United States to China, and Ren Hongjun, who had been with him at Cornell for several years, said with a smile, "It's appropriate to refute Mr. Taiyan and advocate that China should speak vernacular, right?" ”

"I don't want to refute Mr. Taiyan, I just want to refute Chinese classical Chinese!" Hu Shi, who had walked five miles, was still sleepy before, but as soon as he talked about the vernacular of classical Chinese, his end came up again. "The times have advanced to the present, and the Chinese writing and language are already dead, so why do you still worship these dried corpses? The new China should have a new script, a new language, not because of the old rules, and literature should be equal, how many people can understand the use of classical Chinese? ”

At Cornell University, among the international students who have made good friends, Mei Jinzhuang has always insisted on classical Chinese and opposed vernacular Chinese, while Ren Hongjun prefers vernacular Chinese; The reason why Jiang Menglin had not heard the vernacular proposed by Hu Shi before was that he was inconsistent; In order to hide his identity as Sun Wen's eldest son, Sun Ke has always spoken little; Only Zhang Xiruo supported the Fuxing Society, and when he saw Hu Shi criticizing Wenyan, he immediately said: "Do you want to play cow music?" ”

"What is Niu Le?" Ren Hongjun said curiously, he didn't fully know Zhang Xiruo's identity, but he knew that he was very familiar with Yu Youren, the patriarch of the Revival Society, and others, and often defended the Revival Society in his words.

"As the so-called playing the piano to the cow, the cow doesn't understand music at all. You make it understand. Wouldn't you learn a few words like this? Is that a cow or a human? In the dark, everyone only heard Zhang Xiruo give such an example, and they all laughed. Only Hu Shi was very angry. He said angrily: "How can people be compared to people and oxen? Classical Chinese is difficult to understand, but vernacular is not, and the people in the market can be familiar with it, and this kind of literature is true literature! ”

"Then why did you study at Cornell and give up agriculture to study philosophy?" Zhang Xiruo asked rhetorically, "Some people are naturally more literate, some people are more practical, you want those who have no interest in literature to understand the essence of literature, isn't this to play the cow music?" In many cases, what you understand will naturally understand. If you don't understand what you don't understand, why bother tossing and turning the language? ”

Zhang Xiruo seemed to be reasonable, and everyone listened to him, but Hu Shi was more and more rebellious, and in Zhang Xiruo's Chinese with a Shaanxi accent, he tried hard to think about how to refute.

Zhang Xiruo continued: "I also saw Lin Qinnan's translation on the desk of Shizhi, although he used simple and elegant classical Chinese, but those Western novels were not all written in classical Chinese, and which of them could not be appreciated by both the elegant and the vulgar? ”

Hu Shi's rebuttal has not yet been thought of. Sun Ke, who couldn't help it, spoke: "Zhang Taiyan is the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, and it is impossible for you to abolish classical Chinese when he is in office. Looking at the domestic press, the censorship is now getting stricter and stricter, and the deposit used to be a few hundred taels of silver. Now it has risen to between 1,000 and 5,000 yuan, and the government has a special censorship agency, as long as it is undesirable. Then ban it. If it can't be banned in the concession, then the post office will be prohibited from delivering ....... Appropriate. Isn't the youth magazine you used to write for blocked by Shanghai?"

The monthly pension for international students is fixed. Originally, Hu Shi could still submit articles to domestic magazines to get some extra money, but the magazines that he didn't want to submit often couldn't do it because of the blockade of the mail route. After he finished speaking, Hu Shi suddenly sat up from the bed, and he said, "Youth magazine is really blocked by the government?" ”

"You don't know?" In the end, Sun Ke paid great attention to the domestic news because he was concerned about the wartime in China, while Hu Shi did not like the revolutionary party to solve problems in a violent way, so he ignored those things. "Just last month, the Ministry of Rites issued a document banning 38 newspapers and 14 magazines, and the youth magazine you submitted to was among them."

"Why do you want to ban these newspapers and magazines, doesn't the government know that the mouth of the people is more important than the defense of Sichuan?" Ren Hongjun also heard the news for the first time and asked.

"Why a ban?" Sun Ke smiled, "What else can it be?" These newspapers and magazines are nothing more than not liked by Yang Jingcheng. ”

"That's not the case at all." Zhang Xiruo didn't know as much about this as Sun Ke, but he didn't believe that the newspapers were banned because they criticized the government. He said. "If you really criticize the government and be blocked, then the first one to be sealed is the Ta Kung Pao in Tianjin, which is still run by the Manchurians, why is this Ta Kung Pao not sealed?"

"Then you can't be sure that Ta Kung Pao has not changed its editor, won't the Manchu people say good things about Yang Jingcheng?" Sun Ke once again led the matter to a dark place, making Zhang Xiruo's defense useless. "I'm going to be a tyrannical life. Xinhai established an emperor without a republic, and elected a prime minister instead of a president, and the thing is like this now, such a good opportunity is gone, so I really don't know when a democratic republic will be realized? ”

"No matter how authoritarian this government is, at least China will not pay any more reparations to the outside world and recover Taiwan, which is enough." Zhang Xiruo said. "Since Lord Tao Huanqing advocated land reform, the domestic newspapers have suddenly made an uproar, accusing the government of not, and Yunnan has also colluded with the Russian invaders and the revolutionary party to launch a rebellion. If these banned newspapers and magazines are related to Yunnan, then they will be sealed, and there is nothing to be sorry for. ”

As soon as he mentioned Yunnan Sun Ke, he had no intention of refuting it, after Kunming was occupied by the revival army, his father had no news until now, and he was very worried. At this time, only Ren Hongjun said: "The rebellion was also forced by the Fuxing Society, if they hadn't slandered Mr. Liang Zhuoru, Yunnan would not have rebelled." As long as the revolutionary party does not cede its national power and interests, it has nothing to condemn at all, and President Wilson is now very supportive of China's Dharma protection movement, believing that this is a manifestation of democracy......"

Wilson saw that China and Japan did not kill each other as he thought, but still made friends with each other, so he supported the Dharma Protection Movement. No matter how civilized Wilson is, he is also an American, and as long as it is beneficial to the interests of the United States, he supports it, and opposes it otherwise. Zhang Xiruo doesn't know why the newspaper was blocked, but he is sensitive to Sino-US relations.

"That's also the result of the reversal of the dynasty." Whether it was a rebellion or a protector of the law, it was not supported by Hu Shi, but if Zhang Xi criticized Wilson, he would not be happy. "It was the United States that supported China in resisting Japan's aggression, but now it is immoral that the DPRK is not close to its former friend the United States, but is friendly with its former enemy, Japan. The reason why Sino-US relations are so bad is entirely because someone is crossing the bridge and being ungrateful. ”

"The Americans spent money to buy the ammunition machine, and the Mobil's loan was exchanged for oil production rights in several provinces in Guannai. Other than these fair deals, I really don't know what we have to be sorry for the United States? Zhang Xiruo said. Japan is an enemy of China, and even more so, an enemy of the United States, and supporting China in attacking Japan is in line with the vital interests of the United States. ”

Zhang Xiruo originally wanted to study civil engineering when he entered Columbia University, but in the end he found that he couldn't raise his mind for mathematics, so he changed to political science. Literature may not be his forte, but when it comes to politics, he is well aware. Between China and the United States, between China and Japan, even if there is no monthly meeting of the Revival YMCA, he can see the game between China, Japan and the United States.

Maybe you know that politics is not your strength, maybe everyone is beginning to doubt Zhang Xiruo's position, or maybe you are sleepy. This is the end of the dormitory meeting. Early the next morning, Hu Shih, who was most concerned about whether Wilson was elected, got up anxiously and went out to buy newspapers, wanting to know the results of the general election. Unexpectedly, when he woke up late, the New York Times, which had always supported Wilson, had long been sold out on the school newsstand, and most of the remaining newspapers were speculating that Hughes would win the election. When he saw the newspaper headline that Wilson might win narrowly, he suddenly felt that the two days had added up to more than ten miles, and the nearly twenty kilometers had not been in vain.

The New York Times did exactly that, and in the afternoon of the same day, the news that Wilson was elected as the next president by a narrow margin of 4,000 votes came out. Wilson's supporters hugged each other and rejoiced, while Hu Shi, who was in his apartment, only let go of the matter with a hasty hug with Lu Xirong.

Seeing Hu Shi so crazy about Wilson, Lu Xirong smiled and said, "Suitable, how can we feel happier than you yourself being elected president?" ”

"No, I'm glad for such a suspenseful and fair election." Hu Shi lay lazily on the chair, weak and weak. "In such an election, I am even happier that Wilson can be re-elected president."

"You're just delaying your return for a few months just because of this?" Hu Shi's doctoral dissertation exam was held a few months ago, and although it was a major repair, he did not have time to overhaul his dissertation now, and it was inevitable that he would return to China.

"Nothing." Hu Shi finally remembered what was going on and said, "By the way, Jin Hou, is there any letter from me?" ”

"There's Velensi." Lu Xirong said with a smile. Hu Shi is the most affectionate among international students - in order to make international students better contact with American culture, many of Geng's international students live in American homes, but only Hu Shi hooked up with the landlord's daughter. Although he moved from Qi Sejia to Manhattan, New York the year before last, the American girl still corresponded with Hu Shih often, and the house they live in now is shared by Wei Liansi and a female reporter. Because of this relationship, Lu Xirong will often joke about Hu Shi quietly.

"Is it only hers?" Hu Shi didn't pay attention to Lu Xirong's jokes at this time, he just remembered that Mr. Yu had told him before leaving the United States that he would return to New York at the beginning of this month, and he had been waiting for news from him.

"And a letter from Mr. Yu." Seeing that the joke could not be made, Lu Xirong had to hand him a letter on the desk, and on the lower left corner of the front of the envelope, the words 'Aaron.Yu' were written in fluent English. (To be continued......)