Old things in the south

Chapter 93 A Quiet Courtyard, a Silent Scenery and a Depression——Writing About My Three Mothers-in-Laws on Mother’s Day (1)
Women are the weakest, mothers are the strongest

On the eve of my marriage with Chengying in May 1939, there was such an interesting incident.Although we are holding a new-style wedding, there are still some old-fashioned etiquettes, such as "dowry", my mother more or less prepared some dowry for me: four shops and four covers, four seasons clothes, four boxes, a box Jewelry, as well as scattered washbasins, spittoons, lamps, and even toilets are accompanied.

Uncle Qingrong is a ready-made matchmaker, and he is in charge of delivering the dowry. When she was about to leave, when mother wanted to lock the two pairs of gilt-painted Fujian lacquer boxes, Uncle Qingrong hurriedly stopped her and said with a smile:

"Don't lock it, leave it to me, when the car is about to arrive at his house," he said, raised his right hand, opened his thumb and forefinger widely, and then closed it forcefully, jokingly said: "That's it , click to lock it, understand? This is called locking the mouth of the mother-in-law!" Everyone knew it was a joke and laughed.

But when he came back after completing the task of delivering the dowry, he said to me very seriously: "Yingzi, the marriage is unpredictable. Who would have thought that little Yingzi would marry a father-in-law and two mother-in-laws one day. A big family of more than 40 people with two brothers is going to be a daughter-in-law! Although the old Xia family is a loyal, honest and scholarly family, in any case, it is completely different from your current family life where widowed mothers and sisters depend on each other. Be careful everywhere..."

In fact, when Uncle Qing Rong said that I would have two mothers-in-law, he missed one.I will have three mothers-in-law. In addition to Chengying's biological mother, there is also an aunt called the second wife, and Chengying is nominally adopted as the son of the fifth uncle and aunt who has no children.It's just that the fifth uncle had passed away at that time, and the fifth aunt had gone to the rear of the war of resistance.

My mother-in-law married six daughter-in-laws, and I was the youngest among her daughter-in-laws.Although the big family I am going to live in is so different from my original life, I am not afraid or worried at all. Under the subtle influence of my mother, we get along happily and harmoniously with relatives and friends. Playing at home, the future mother-in-law knows that her son's girlfriend has come to the room, and she will stay for dinner. It is very convenient to add vegetables for dinner. She is small and boards the small bench, and she calls Tianfu to bring Qingjiang meat.When we got to the dining table in the main room, she would also come over to see us eating a lot of vegetables and rice, which made her happy.

The mother-in-law's boudoir name is Zhang Yuzhen, she is the daughter of a man who runs a satin account in Jiujiang, Jiangxi. Later, the Zhang family moved to Pukou, so the mother-in-law does not have the accent of an old cousin in Jiangxi, but the accent of "Nanjing Daluobo" is stronger.There are five elder sisters-in-law in her generation, all of whom are well-educated in poetry and books. Only the mother-in-law is illiterate, and even recognizes banknotes by their color to determine their value.But since she married her father-in-law in her teens, she gave birth to eight sons and one daughter in one breath.

His father-in-law was listed on the tribute list at the age of 24. At the age of 25, he became a small official in Jinjing during the Reform Movement of 55. He had been in the political and Chinese academic circles all his life. When he succeeded in the Northern Expedition at the age of [-], he also retired from officialdom and specialized in writing books and chronicles.My mother-in-law once told us that after Jinjing, she lived in the Jiangning Guild Hall, and she was already the mother of four or five children.Every night, two or three sleep on the bed, and one sleeps in the cradle, while she sews and mends under a bright light, with one foot on the cradle, and the days go by step by step year after year.

Although the mother-in-law is illiterate, she also has her principles in life and thinking, which can be understood from the proverbs she speaks every day.I think illiterate people (including men and women) in China in the old days expressed their thoughts or attitudes, likes and dislikes through oral sayings, proverbs, and adages.The mother-in-law's proverbs are eloquent and sometimes humorous.I remember that every morning after she got up, she would sit on the grand master's chair in the main room, smoking a hookah while directing the servants to work.She was impatient, and the water on the stove could not be boiled, so she had to count the servants for not knowing how to make a fire. She said: "A man must be loyal, but a fire must be hollow." So she picked up the fire chopsticks and fiddled with the briquette stove.

The life center of our big family is in the main room of my mother-in-law. She has been sitting in the main room since she got up early, and the heads of each room want to discuss things and chat at night, so please come!In the first few years of my marriage, there was no separate cooking, and everyone ate big pot meals in the main room.This big round table has not been idle since early in the morning, because the mother-in-law eats by herself, and the father-in-law eats another, it is like a flowing water table all day long.The mother-in-law loves to tell her sons to eat more. In the morning, she said: "If you want to be full in the morning, you should be good to your ancestors." Say: "Eat less for dinner, and live to 99." Sometimes after a meal with messy cups and plates, she would joke and say: "It really made the family cry and shake their heads!" Get vegetarian vegetables!" Because people in Nanjing have to stir-fry ten kinds of vegetarian dishes during Chinese New Year, they cut each vegetable into shreds and stir-fry them together.

When the mother-in-law talked about her life as a daughter-in-law, she said, "It was not easy for a daughter-in-law to be a daughter-in-law at that time! You have to get up at five o'clock to comb your hair, get up early in the morning, and get up late in a panic!" The so-called three lights refer to the head, face, and feet.It is impolite to get up early and wash up early, and to go to the mother-in-law's house late to say hello.At that time, combing hair and binding feet were time-consuming makeup.I know that my mother-in-law washes and binds her feet every night and doesn't go to sleep until midnight.She is the most protective of her sons. Sometimes when she sees her son arguing with his wife, she doesn't want to blame her son, and it's hard for her to make concessions, so she will say: "Men have dog hair on their mouths, don't pay attention to him." !" With such a relaxed tone, she was obviously scolding her son, but she wanted her daughter-in-law to yield to her son out of selfishness, what a skill!

A Kunling on a Red Lavender
When news of my family came from the mainland, I never heard from my aunt. She is one of my three mothers-in-law and my father-in-law's concubine.It was only later that word came out bit by bit that she died after her father-in-law.My father-in-law died at the age of 1963 in 90, and my mother-in-law, who was one year older than my father-in-law, died at the age of 1950 in 78. They were both lucky that they did not survive the "Cultural Revolution".My aunt is miserable, she doesn't know where she lives alone, and no one cares about the people in the family who have been sent down and liquidated by the struggle.It is said that a large amount of my aunt's property—houses, gold, and leather goods—has been handed over.Later, when she died of illness, the Xia family was notified, but the Xia family said that they had already drawn a clear line with her, so they could not handle the funeral, and finally her natal sister-in-law handled it.My aunt, who had been with my father-in-law since childhood, passed away so lonely in 1973 at the age of 72.

Lin Peiqing, Auntie's stage name, was Kunling who was somewhat famous for singing Lao Dan in Beiping City South Amusement Park.Those of the older generation who listened to operas in Beijing may have some memories of Lin Peiqing's prolific appearance on the red carpet back then.Although her life on the stage is not long, it is rare to hear that she plays an old role as a teenage girl, and she is excellent in both singing and acting.She is slim, tall and tall like a northerner, with fair skin, regular facial features, and white teeth that are white and clean.Ordinarily, such a beautiful girl should sing Hua Dan in Tsing Yi, why should she sing the old Dan who is leaning on a cane and bowing her waist?It turns out that Lin Peiqing is a girl from a Manchurian banner family. Although I don't know what color flag she is inlaid with, I know she is a daughter of a good family.After [-], the children of Bannermen had no means of living, and many were sent to study opera, which is not uncommon.Lin Peiqing's older brother learns to play the huqin, and her younger sister learns to sing, but she is a conservative family after all. She couldn't bear her daughter to play Huadan on the stage, so she chose an old girl who is not easy to become popular and not easy to be a big axis drama to learn from. .In her imagination, when she was young, she had a slender and delicate appearance, and she won a lot of applause when she said "Called Zhang Yi, my son..."!

(End of this chapter)