Chapter 13: Changing Guards (52)

"Ouch, Amitabha, finally see my name!" In the slightly old courtyard on Hong Kong Island, there was a cheerful cry.

Everything is the same as before, it is still a semi-steep slope, it is still the courtyard gate on the slope, and the courtyard gate is still the path and the vegetable patches on both sides of the path. With the erosion of the years, the bungalows in the yard have a faint moss, and the original neat tiles on the roof have become lacking. It's just that the owner of the yard hasn't changed, it's still Mo Di and his wife Zhou Shiming. In the porch of the figure-eight adduction, on a bamboo recliner, curled up is the man of the year who was once invincible in the six counties of Anqing West, but there is no trace of the year, the hair on the top is piled up with a clear light, the head is reflected with green tendons, the closed eyes are inverted because of degeneration, showing a pair of ugly eye sockets, the face that has no two or two flesh is thinner, the only two lips that see the flesh are flushed, and the experienced doctor can judge at a glance that this is a patient with lung problems.

In Hong Kong and Kowloon in autumn, the rain stops at the right time every day, although it can add a little moisture to the air, but it does not carry too much heat. Fortunately, the woman sitting on the bamboo recliner affirmed the correctness and normality of the season. There is a way that is a, and the charm still exists, Mrs. Mo Zhou Shiming is in this half-old age, not only the charm still exists, but compared with the youth of the year, it is even more charming. The baby fat on the face has long since disappeared, replaced by the seductive demeanor of a mature woman, compared with a few years ago, slightly thin, but very resolute and neat.

In the past two years, they have not had a good time.

A bag of lime powder not only made Mo Di's eyes completely blind, but also induced Mo Di's latent lung disease due to the injury of the poison gas bomb back then, and he lost his qualification to attend classes in Chinese schools. Fortunately, the teachers' union was affectionate and righteous, so that Mrs. Mo Zhou Shiming became a dormitory supervisor in a girls' school, and had another income, relying on this income, she could barely maintain the livelihood of the two. In 60 years, when the domestic economy was in a serious crisis, the General Hospital of the Nanjing Military Region, which had been providing medicine to the invalids and other invalids who had drawn a clear line with Taiwan's military circles, also stopped supplying medicines. Without medicine, Modi's condition began to deteriorate, and several high fevers almost killed him. Just when the money ran out and Zhou Shiming was ready to sell the house, he ushered in a turning point. Hai Jingqiang, who is doing business in Taiwan, asked people to take a look at the old people in Hong Kong who are still alive and how they are doing. After knowing the recent situation of Mo Enemy, Hai Jingqiang found Wei Yongcheng, Huang Tianhua, Tan Heyi and others and raised a lot of money. With this money, Zhou Shiming bought a large number of antibiotics at Hong Kong Yingrenhe Hospital, so that Modi's condition could be stabilized.

The so-called ten years of life and death are boundless, the mainland has changed banners, the sky is different, and when I know the recent situation, I can't help but choke my wrists.

Wei Yongcheng, the attached horse of the Jiang dynasty, went to Taiwan at the earliest, in the autumn of the 38th year of the Republic of China, Tan He Yi was still fighting with the Red Army in the Henggui area, and Wei Yongcheng and his wife Jiang Huaxiu crossed to Taiwan. As the son-in-law of the Chiang family, he has the false title of legislator in Taiwan and has nothing to do. Jiang Huaxiu re-established a primary school in Taipei, and continued to use the name of "Zhongzheng Primary School", and later changed it to "Jingxin Primary School". The Jiang family had great scruples about Wei Yongcheng and his wife, and did not allow the Wei family to participate in any political gatherings, and only invited the Wei family to participate in the family gifts during the New Year's holidays or family celebrations, and it was even rumored that the Jiang family did not hesitate to let Jiang Huaxiu do birth control in order to prevent the Wei family from raising offspring so as not to put pressure on the Jiang family's descendants. Wei Yongcheng, who was frustrated in the political arena, not only assisted Jiang Huaxiu in running a school, but also set up a Guangxi Fellow Association with Li Pinxian to carry out non-governmental friendship activities. Wei Yongcheng lived very carefully, never used the words "new Gui line", and kept silent about his marriage with Jiang Huaxiu and the delicate relationship with the Jiang family.

Hai Jingqiang's situation is even more sighing, the commander of the 188th Division was betrayed by the army commander Han Liancheng in the Battle of Laiwu in Shandong Province in February of the 36th year of the Republic of China, and was tragically captured by the Red Army. After spending two years in the Red Army prisoner camp, he was released from the peace talks between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party in April 1949 and returned to Nanjing to serve as a major general of the Central China Governor's Office, and then returned to Guangxi to serve as the deputy commander of the 56th Army and the chief of the recruit training department. In November, Director Hai, who had no recruits to train, went to Taiwan with his family. In Taiwan, Hai Jingqiang was unable to resume his military post because he "returned to prisoners without training and was not reinstated." He could only join the industrial and commercial circles and work hard for 10 years to start a business, with a slight success.

After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, Huang Guanghua returned to Guangxi and served in the Guangxi Provincial Government. Later, he went to Nanjing as a representative of the National Congress and served as the convener of the first National Congress of the Republic of China, and was actually one of the members of Li Zongren's vice presidential campaign committee. After the election, he served as a member of the Standing Committee of the Party Department of the National Assembly, and worked hard for Li Zongren to become acting president, and became one of the senior staff members of President Li Zongren. In the winter of the 38th year of the Republic of China, the situation on the mainland deteriorated, and he left Guangzhou for Taiwan and became an adviser to the Central Committee of the Kuomintang.

A year has passed, external and internal troubles, and the assistance of friends can only solve a temporary emergency, not a long-term plan. In order to alleviate the grim economic situation in the mainland, the leaders of the Beijing government* began to implement the three self and one package of four freedoms, and the mainland's economic situation has improved. Because of the strong demand of the military, the scientific research and production departments continued to develop and produce medicines, and Dr. Zhang Junyi of the General Hospital of the Nanjing Military Region led a condolence delegation to Hong Kong and Kowloon to offer condolences and treatment to those who had made meritorious contributions to the war.

All the improvements were shattered by a blow to the waist this spring!

It was the day after the Ching Ming Festival, and the Hong Kong Guangxi Association received an obituary from the Taipei Guangxi Association: Tan Heyi, chairman of the Kuomintang Guangxi Province and staff officer of the Ministry of National Defense, died in Taipei at the age of 65.

Zhou Shiming still remembers that it was evening, and she helped Mo Di to take a walk on the path on the slope. The climate before and after the Qingming Festival in Hong Kong is the most comfortable, the weather is neither hot nor cold, the air is not dry or wet, and the hillside is full of all kinds of flowers. Zhou Shiming came back from work every day, hurriedly got something to eat with Mo Di, and walking became their best pastime.

Just when they were bathed in the sunset and moving slowly, Mo Di listened to some of the trivial things in the school that Zhou Shiming said, an angry woman stumbled up, and when she saw Zhou Shiming, she cried loudly: "Shiming, Brother-in-law Tan has passed away!" ”

"What? Who passed away? Zhou Shiming asked the crying woman in front of him. This woman she knows, she is a fellow villager in her hometown of Tongcheng, named Wu Liangzhen, and she also has an identity, the wife of Zhang Weikang, general manager of Hong Kong Yiyuan Industry and Trade. Yiyuan Industry and Trade is a company founded by Tan Heyi when he was in Hong Kong, as early as when the mainland changed banners, Tan Heyi sent his cronie Zhang Weikang to Hong Kong to seek a way out, and did not hesitate to use the military funds of the 10th Corps to set up Yiyuan Industry and Trade Company in Hong Kong. As the commander of the 10th Corps and the commander of the 46th Army, Tan Ho-yi did not come to Hong Kong, but led the remnants to retreat into Vietnam, becoming the largest force of the Nationalist army stranded in Vietnam. In 1953, Tan Heyi, who saw that he could not do anything, disbanded the troops on the spot and contacted the mainland containment department to let most of the personnel return to the mainland for shelter. Sending some of the personnel to the warship sent by Taiwan, Tan Heyi was disheartened, came to Hong Kong, and decided to wash his hands of gold, no longer join the army, and take care of the company with his subordinates, intending to spend the rest of his life. Unexpectedly, in 1954, when Wei Lihuang defected to the mainland, Taiwan's old Chiang was afraid that the old troops who were wandering in Hong Kong, Macao, and other places would be united one by one, and hurriedly ordered all meritorious and meritorious personnel, regardless of their positions, to go to Taiwan, and give them arrangements or pensions, and make it clear that those who were invited but did not succeed would be punished by breaking away from the party-state and no longer having any economic care and political asylum. Tan Heyi was among those invited and agreed to go to Taiwan to serve as a staff officer of the lieutenant general of the Ministry of National Defense, and Mo Di was also invited, but his family refused to go because he was reluctant to go to Hong Kong. When Tan Heyi went to Taiwan, he handed over the company to his old subordinate Zhang Weikang, Zhang Weikang's wife Wu Liangzhen is the youngest of Mrs. Tan's Qiu Yunying, and she is a classmate of Mrs. Zhou Shiming, and she is deeply trusted by Tan Heyi. And Tan Heyi's small courtyard in the west of Hong Kong Island was half sold and half given to Mo Di. In the past few years, the business of Yiyuan Industry and Trade has not done well, and it is a bit difficult to make ends meet, and there are not many contacts with everyone.

"It's Chief Tan of Sister Yunying's family." Wu Liangzhen said with a crying voice.

Mo Di only felt that his head was buzzing, and his body shook with it, and he couldn't get up in one breath, and the sky was dark, and a mouthful of blood spurted out, and his body softened.

Since that day, Mo Di has never left the recliner or left this courtyard gate.

Hearing Zhou Shiming's cheers that he wanted to cover up, Mo Di grinned, he knew that his wife was forcing a smile, in the past half a year, his physical condition has deteriorated day by day, and his wife has done her best to take care of herself every day, without complaining or disgusting, not only to go to school to work, but also to take care of herself, extremely tired, but without a word of seriousness, let alone a trace of complaint. Although I can't see her kind face, I can feel the bitterness in her laughter.

Trembling, he reached out from under the felt, groped, grabbed the person next to him, and held her wrist tightly.

Mrs. Zhou hurriedly stroked Mo Di's hand that was tightly grasping her wrist with her other hand, it was a very thin hand, covered with skin and bones, but very clean, the nails were only cut yesterday, and they were carefully polished with a small file. I remember that Mo Di said to himself at that time, and he didn't go out to meet people, so he was so particular about what to do with his nails. I laughed, and only said one sentence: I like it, and I heard Mo Di let out a heavy sigh. has been together for 20 years, and has also helped Mo Di cut his nails for 20 years, and he is more familiar with his nails than his own. In the years when I accompanied Mo Di to study, I often saw such a picture, Mo Di was holding a book and reading, and the other hand was in the hands of his wife. Unconsciously, Zhou Shiming was also immersed in memories.

"Brother Fu, you're so bad." Zhou Shiming said with a smile: "Eavesdrop on me and Sister Yunying with Yun Ying's brother-in-law." ”

Mo Di smiled, stretched out his other hand from the felt, put it on his wife's hand, stroked it gently, and said: "I was quite surprised, I knew the rumors outside, and I thought that no woman in Tongcheng liked me, but I didn't expect that there would be such an anomaly as you." ”

"Brother Fu, I'm not an outlier, there are rumors outside that you are not handsome enough and not healthy enough, but I never dare to say that you are not hot enough and not heroic enough." Zhou Shiming's eyes were full of enthusiasm, as if he had returned to that war-torn era: "You are the most glorious hero in the eyes of our girls' middle school classmates, invincible in the world, and the Japanese army is terrified." When you were at school, your deeds have long been spread all over the world, and every time you win a battle, the whole school will cheer for you, and you were injured in the Bayang River, and half of the school girls want to visit. I want to know you, I want to take care of you, how many girls dream of marrying you. Knowing that I am married to you, there are those who are envious and those who are jealous, and no one thinks that I have married the wrong one. I couldn't figure out the reason why you had a bad reputation in Mengxia Town at first, but then I asked my mother to find out that you are the Langjun in the eyes of all girls, but not the good son-in-law in the hearts of your mother-in-law. ”

"Hehehehe, the order of my parents, the words of the matchmaker, no wonder I am so unpopular." Mo Di smiled and said: "However, there is a way not to listen to the old man, and the loss is in front of him, and the old man's words are right." I wasn't in good health at the time, and now it's getting to this point. If you had chosen a healthy partner at that time, you would not have to wait for the patient every day to live such a bad life! ”

"Brother Fu, I'm willing." Zhou Shiming leaned down, put his face on the back of Mo Die's hand, and said.

Mo Di sighed and said, "I have wronged you." ”

Zhou Shiming shook his head, reacting that Mo Di couldn't see it, and couldn't help but smile bitterly. Knowing that Mo Di is a little pessimistic these days, maybe his physical condition is getting worse and worse, and he feels that there are not many days to come, and the two of them have no children, how will he live in the next few days. He couldn't change Mo Di's physical condition, so he could only try to change the atmosphere in front of him, so that Mo Di no longer considered these sad themes, so Zhou Shiming said with a smile: "Brother Fu, do you remember the first time you went to our door?" It frightened our family and shook half of our street, and I think at least half of the Meng Xia people regretted not marrying their daughter to you! ”

Mo Di smiled, remembering the events of that year, that year was really a young man who was careless, three points of recklessness, three points of straightforwardness, and four points of sincerity.