The Rise of the Writers of the Republic of China

Shanghai Railway Station.

Xu Zhimo and his wife Lu Xiaoman came to see him off, reluctantly said: "He Xuan take care!"

"Goodbye Zhimo, goodbye Xiaoman!" Zhou Hexuan instructed, "Remember to help me deliver 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 also hurriedly followed.

The distance from Shanghai to Nanjing is very short, and the destination has been reached in a few hours. It was rather troublesome to get out of the station, because the soldiers searched very hard after the war had just ended, and found all the pistols carried by the Sun brothers.

"What are you doing!" The soldier immediately pointed his gun at Zhou Hexuan and the three of them.

Zhou Hexuan quickly took out a few dollars, and said with a smile, "My surname is Zhou, and I'm a businessman. I only carry a gun for self-defense."

It is indeed normal to carry a gun on the head this year. After receiving the money, the soldiers saw that Zhou Hexuan was dressed in a suit and leather shoes and looked upright, so he stopped embarrassing him and said, "Come over quickly, so as not to cause trouble."

"Thank you." Zhou Hexuan clasped his fists.

The moment Zhou Hexuan took the Sun brothers out of the station, suddenly there was a loud noise on the surface of the river.

"boom!"

British and American warships fired on the city.

what's the situation?

Zhou Hexuan was stunned for a moment. He saw with his own eyes a shell that fell into a residential house tens of meters ahead. Pedestrians on the street fled in panic, and soldiers at the station also fired shots to warn passengers not to trespass.

"Sir, go!" Sun Yongzhen dragged Zhou Hexuan and ran away.

The three of them buried their heads and ran wildly for a while, running straight out of the range of the shells, and then they felt a little relieved.

Zhou Hexuan was still a little dizzy, and couldn't figure out why the British and American ships fired at the city, but he quickly realized it.

Nanjing incident!

How did I forget the Nanjing Incident?

Zhou Hexuan regretted it unceasingly. If he could remember, he would definitely not come to Nanjing until a few days later.

"There's a foreigner over there, catch him quickly!"

I saw seven or eight Chinese soldiers frantically chasing a foreigner.

The foreigner couldn't run anymore, and threw away his belongings and hugged his head to beg for mercy. The soldiers didn't care about it, they punched and kicked the foreigner when they rushed up, and beat the foreigner to death, and then robbed the property and floated away.

The Sun brothers were stunned, and Sun Yonghao said: "The Northern Expeditionary Army is really a bloody man, even dare to kill foreigners."

Zhou Hexuan smiled wryly, if the foreigners in the city hadn’t suffered, 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 beaten to death by soldiers. Foreign consulates, churches, business houses, hospitals, and residences of foreigners in Nanjing and Xiaguan were all looted.

The situation was so bad that the generals of the Northern Expedition Army couldn't control it, so they could only throw the blame afterwards. First it was said that Zhang Zongchang and Sun Chuanfang's rout caused trouble, and later it was said that our party was conspiring to organize it. Anyway, the truth was not found out in the end, and foreigners were paid a large sum of money to deal with the aftermath.

Fortunately, these soldiers only target foreigners, and Zhou Hexuan is not in danger for the time being.

Because the city was too chaotic, there was no rickshaw to be found, so Zhou Hexuan and the Sun brothers could only walk forward. The road was messy, and there were local hooligans who took the opportunity to make trouble, regardless of Chinese or foreigners, anyway, they would rob anyone who had money.

Fortunately, there were brothers from the Sun family to protect him, otherwise even Zhou Hexuan would have been robbed by gangsters.

After walking for about an hour, Zhou Hexuan finally arrived at the gate 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.

Zhou Hexuan was devastated by the servant's answer: "Master left Nanjing half a month ago and returned to Mount Lushan."

Zhou Hexuan raised his forehead: "..."

I am Nima!

Mount Lu is in Jiangxi, more than 500 kilometers away from Nanjing.

Forget it, forget it, let's cooperate with Xu Shenru honestly, and don't need to get involved with the Zhang family anymore.

Zhou Hexuan had no choice but to take the Sun brothers to invest in a hotel, and just after completing the opening procedures, two foreigners, a man and a woman, ran in in a hurry.

The male foreigner said in fluent Chinese: "Boss, quickly open a room."

"Oh, I don't dare to take you in. If those soldiers know about it, they won't smash the shop down." The shopkeeper said apologetically.

The female foreigner's Chinese is better, and she can't hear the accent at all. She took out dozens of silver dollars and said, "Please, let us stay for a few days, and all the money will be given to you."

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 here, but don't wander around, just stay in the room."

"Okay, okay, thank you boss!" The two foreigners expressed their thanks quickly.

It happened that Zhou Hexuan lived next door to them.

Anyway, I had nothing to do when I was idle, so Zhou Hexuan struck up a conversation when he went upstairs: "Hello, two foreign friends, may I ask your surname?"

The male foreigner eyed Zhou Hexuan warily, and replied, "My name is John Booker, and this is my wife Pearl."

The female foreigner added: "My Chinese name is Pearl Buck."

Zhou Hexuan was speechless for a moment, he could meet a future Nobel Prize winner in a hotel, the world is too small.

Although Pearl Buck is an American, she grew up in China and even wrote articles in Chinese. Speaking of which, China is her real hometown.

Zhou Hexuan smiled and said, "Hello, both of you, my name is Zhou Hexuan."

"You are Zhou Hexuan who wrote "Goddess"?" Pearl Buck said pleasantly, "I like your work very much. It is so special. I heard it is called realistic magicism."

Everyone went to the guest rooms to pack 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 fight and rob foreigners when they see them. We dare not continue to live in Nanjing. We are going to Shanghai to see the situation first."

Zhou Hexuan issued an invitation: "Why don't you go to the north, the two of you can go to Peking University to be teachers."

Pearl Buck is now a professor at Jinling University. She said: "Peking University is the top university in China. Will it hire us?"

"I am the principal 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 didn't worry about where she was going, but asked: "Mr. Zhou, I want to translate your "Goddess" into English so that more American readers can know it. Is it possible?"

"Of course." Zhou Hexuan said.

There are many Chinese folk legends about ghosts and gods in "The Goddess", and it must be difficult to maintain the original appearance if it is translated by other foreigners. But Pearl Buck is different, she knows China very well, just listen to the name of "Water Margin" she translated - "All Brothers Within the Four Seas".

This translation is absolutely trustworthy, expressive, and elegant, and it is far better than the "Story of 105 Men and 3 Women" (Water Margin translated by Europeans).

Zhou Hexuan felt that it was worthwhile to meet Pearl Buck, not to mention abducting Pearl Buck and his wife to Peking University.

Zhou Hexuan didn't know that after Pearl Buck introduced "The Goddess" to Europe and the United States, it caused quite a stir in the western literary world.