The Twelve Years: Song of the Unsung Friends

After a cup of tea, Shen Xi walked side by side with him and walked out of Fu Dongwen's courtyard.

The people under the Fu family were dismissed, and the courtyards were abandoned. Naturally, it was not like someone sweeping snow in the past. The alleys were covered by white snow, the leather shoes stepped on, and the snow collapsed, so thick that there was no loess.

Separated by high walls, the city of Beijing is the celebration before the New Year, and here is the desertedness after defeat.

When they got outside the main entrance, they waited for the car.

Fu Dongwen had nothing to do, brushed off the snow on the stone pier, patted it, as if saying: Goodbye, old man.

"Yang Yang has never seen the scenery of the third brother since he followed me," he whispered, taking off his black sheepskin gloves, and tapping in his palm, "What a pity."

"What a pity?" She whispered, "It's a pity that I didn't see you when you were the most romantic? Su Qing said to me that in the past, you and Si Ye were'Wang Sun walks through the horse Chang Mu Mo, greedy, obsessed, and young. Now, you know that your youth is proud."

Fu Dongwen smiled.

"What are you laughing at? Did I recite the wrong thing?" She was not good at poetry, and she was unavoidable when he smiled.

Fu Tongwen shook his head: "Yes, I just thought of another sentence, also written by the same poet."

"what?"

"There is no trace of Guiyun, where is the early stage," he said slowly, "Xingxing is strange, drunkard is bleak, not like a teenager."

The same poet made these two poems, which coincided with the half-life of a grandson.

The aristocratic family is annihilated, and people go to empty buildings, not like when they were young.

It also fits his state of mind.

In the original Fu's house, there were three or four rickshaws waiting outside the door all the year round. The young masters and ladies traveled frequently but not enough. Now it is an unseen one, and the gate is empty. When the car arrived, an empty rickshaw happened to pass by.

"San Ye?" When the driver saw Fu Dongwen and the others, he stopped enthusiastically, "San Ye is going out? How many cars can I call for you?"

"Since I have met today, please take care of your business and go call." He smiled.

The other party immediately greeted the companions, and within a moment, five cars parked outside Fu's house.

San Ye was interested, so Wan An had to do it. After ordering people to load their luggage into the car, he watched them sit on the rickshaw one after another, and whispered in Shen Xi's ear with ease. They were just details of food, clothing, housing and transportation. .

When they left, Wan An glanced at Peide jealously and waved goodbye with a long sigh.

When they arrived at Zhengyang Gate, the team to see off the delegation had just arrived.

Afraid of being noisy, Fu Dongwen avoided the seeing off crowd. He waited in a waiting compartment. After all the delegations boarded the car, he took everyone into the last compartment of the car. This train was prepared for the delegation, so the carriages from the beginning to the end were improved through first-class compartments, separated into compartments.

In their box, there is a long and narrow wooden table with goose down on both sides of the seats. Sitting down is soft, which is prepared for the cold. The six of them were sitting on two sides, facing each other.

At first I didn't notice anything, but when it was dark, the temperature of the cabin had dropped to ten degrees below zero.

The boxes are narrow and inconvenient to move around. People are inconvenient to move, the blood is not smooth, and it is cold.

Shen Xi and Fu Tongwen spoke softly, and all they heard were white mist.

"This is going to the Northeast, and then to North Korea, is it going to freeze to death?" She joked softly, handing him the white towel that he had just fished out of the hot water, and asked him to wipe his face.

Someone knocked the door.

It turned out that coal stoves were burned in the first two cars because it was too cold, and the Chief of Foreign Affairs asked the people in the second two cars to keep warm.

Because Fu Dongwen wanted to introduce Xiao Wuye, he took them directly to the first carriage to meet with the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

When they entered, Zhou Lixun was there, along with the president's Belgian wife.

"This is Mrs. Fu?" The chief smiled and shook hands with Fu Dongwen before looking at Shen Xi.

"Hello." Shen Xi nodded.

"Come on, let's sit down and say." The chief greeted him, apparently familiar with Fu Dongwen and Zhou Lixun.

The president's wife personally brought the tea and handed it to everyone, then looked at Peide with a smile and asked her nationality and name.

Peide answered earnestly. When the president's wife listened to Tan Qingxiang's translation, she immediately laughed. She directly said to Tan Qingxiang in German: "I am from Belgium and I happen to speak German, so I don't need your translation anymore." Then she held Peide's hand again and said kindly: "My name is Peide too. It's really fate."

Tan Qingxiang was quite surprised and translated it into Chinese and told the people present.

Everyone laughed because of this coincidence.

"Since it's such a coincidence, you can speak with her." The Foreign Minister said to his wife.

"Okay, you talk about your business, let's go out and talk." Madam agreed, holding Peide's hand and leaving the carriage. Tan Qingxiang was not at ease with Peide's temperament, and hurriedly followed away for fear that she would contradict his wife.

As soon as they left, the chief greeted everyone to sit down and talk.

Shen Xi and Xiao Wuye sat in the most corner, with a coal stove in front of her, and dozens of wooden boxes behind her, containing important diplomatic documents.

"You met me when you were young, do you remember?" the foreign minister asked Xiao Wuye, "I'm afraid you forgot."

Little Five Master smiled and shook his head: "I don't remember."

The Minister of Foreign Affairs looked at this young man who was willing to enter diplomacy with emotion, and smiled and said: "When I entered the industry, Xu Gong told me something about the embassy in France. It was the last year of the Qing Dynasty. The embassy rented a private house. When the lease expired, the landlord came to collect the house and was very angry. Why? Because the embassy was full of smokers from top to bottom, and the house was ruined. Later, the incident was so troubled that it was lost in France. Face up."

He smiled helplessly, and then said: "Xu Gong made three demands of me after talking about this." He raised three fingers, "Don't smoke, don't touch gambling, let alone go to sensual places. Today I am I'm telling you this because the Dong language wants you to embark on the path of diplomacy, so I hope you can do the same."

"I will do it." Little Fifth Master said solemnly.

The Director-General of Foreign Affairs was immersed in the memories of the past, unable to extricate himself: "He wanted to cultivate me, but he didn't like the old custom of worshiping a teacher to be righteous. He just told his subordinates to take care of me. My mentor... is a righteous person who cultivates me It’s for the country, not for my disciples all over the world."

That era could not accommodate too many people.

The Xu Gong mentioned in the chief's speech was Xu Jingcheng, a well-known elder of Fu Dongwen and a famous diplomat in the late Qing Dynasty.

Fu Dongwen was taught by him with Miss Gu Jia when he was young, and even Gu Youwei's saying that "diplomacy is not something to be learned right away, and diplomatic talents are not something to be created right away." It also came from him.

In the twenty-sixth year of Guangxu, the Eight-Power Allied Forces invaded China, and Xu Gong was executed by the court for opposing the will of Cixi.

Not long after Fu Dongwen arrived in the UK that year, he was hit by the double bad news of the coalition invading Beijing and Xu Gong was executed, and he was ill for half a month.

The chief was silent for a while, and Fu Dongwen was also silent.

He stretched out his hand and burned on the coal-burning stove with fire in his eyes.

"Our older generation of ministers are doing things that are insulting their power and humiliating the country, and they sign unequal treaties," the Minister of Foreign Affairs looked at Xiao Wuye. "The Fourth Treaty with Japan...that is, you see in the newspapers. I signed the "Twenty-one Articles" of China. Even my wife would say that if I sign such a document, I will be a sinner who is sorry for the motherland in my life."

The total length's voice is very soft. In mentioning the past, mentioning a heavy past.

Xiao Wuye didn't know how to respond.

"In Paris, we will be ashamed." Fu Tongwen answered the words for Xiao Wuye.

"Yes," the chief smiled relieved, "finally waited until this day."

After introducing Xiao Wu Ye, Fu Dongwen didn't want to bother him too much.

When he took Shen Xi and Xiao Wuye out of the car, a few men in dark cashmere coats were already waiting outside. They were all ministers who had met Fu Dongwen. They nodded and greeted them and passed by.

Passing through the two carriages and entering the box, Peide and Tan Qingxiang have arrived first.

As soon as Shen Xi sat down, Peide poured hot water on her and pushed it to her eyes, smiling.

"Why is she so happy?" Shen Xi asked Tan Qingxiang in a low voice, "What happened?"

"The chief madam told her her marriage story. It's a beautiful love story," Tan Qingxiang smiled helplessly. "Little girls like this."

Shen Xi was aroused: "What is it? Tell me about it."

"You speak." Tan Qingxiang was too lazy to repeat, and threw it to Fu Dongwen.

"I don't understand it very well," Fu Tongwen said perfunctorily. "Men rarely talk about this. You know it better than me."

Tan Qingxiang had no patience. After speaking in a few words, Shen Xi had never heard of it, so he urged Fu Dongwen.

Fu Dongwen couldn't wear Shen Xi, so Fu Tongwen had to explain it to her and Xiao Wuye in detail.

Soon after entering the business, in his early twenties, the diplomatic chief met a mature woman at a diplomatic ball. This woman was sixteen years older than him. She was hearty and generous. She was the daughter of a famous Belgian general. After she danced with the chief executive, the two fell in love. But according to Chinese tradition, marrying a Western woman is insulting to ancestors, and the children born to them cannot enter the ancestral hall or the ancestral grave. At that time, the Minister of Foreign Affairs encountered a lot of resistance, whether from the family, from the teacher Xu Gong, or from the court, all received great opposition. But the chief has no regrets, and he doesn't marry him.

In the end, his teacher reported to the Qing court to allow the court to approve the marriage on the grounds of conducive to diplomacy with Belgium.

"Sixteen years old? My mother gave birth to me when she was sixteen. This is a generational age in China," Xiao Wuye was shocked, "the age difference is too much, why... why must we marry? "

Fu Tongwen was amused: "The stunner in the world is just what you want."

Tan Qingxiang followed: "There is Xi Shi in the eyes of the lover."

Okay, Xiaowuye hasn't gotten to know it, and still doesn't understand.

Everyone started from this legendary love story, chatting all over the world, starting with a cup of boiling water, resisting the cold inside the car. In the second half of the night, Shen Xi and Peide turned over the thick clothes and gave them to everyone.

Although it is cold, you still have to sleep, otherwise you will fall ill within three days of a long journey.

Shen Xi asked Peide and Xiao Wuye to lie down in the corner and sleep. Zhou Lixun and Tan Qingxiang picked up their coats and went to the next car to find a place to make do. Everyone was tired, and after a while, they all took a nap.

Because the snow was too heavy, the car stopped and went.

At dawn, Shen Xi woke up first, and when she came back from the bathroom, Fu Dongwen woke up too.

In the darkness, she gently returned to him and sat down next to him.

"Are you going out soon?" she asked softly.

"It's already out." He whispered.

"Really?" Shen Xi was surprised, sitting up straight and looking out the car window.

This is the first time she has left to the Northeast, and it is naturally fresh. Before dawn, the moonlight was dim, and the daylight was not visible, and the scenery on both sides of the railroad tracks could not be seen clearly. There is only one impression: the sky is dark and the ground is white.

The biggest difference from before leaving Beijing is that thick ice formed outside the car windows.

She thought it was rare and turned to tell him. Fu Dongwen raised his hand and stopped.

what happened?

"The car is slowing down." He whispered.

"Is it at the supply station?" she guessed.

Outside the box, there were footsteps at the same time.

Not only Fu Dongwen, but also someone found in the box next door. Fu Tongwen and Shen Xi quietly got up and walked out of the box. Three men stood in the aisle, one of them was Zhou Lixun who went to sleep next door last night.

"What's going on?" Fu Dongwen asked Zhou Lixun in a low voice.

"It's not clear yet—"

But after two or three minutes, the car stopped completely.

Shen Xi looked out from the window on the opposite side of the box. There was light on the side of the railway, flashing and flashing, and black figures throbbed.

At this time, a young man ran into the car and whispered a few words to Zhou Lixun.

Zhou Lixun was slightly startled, and nodded: "I see."

He turned to the remaining two gentlemen and Fu Dongwen and said: "It is a person from the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs who is here. The special car is already waiting on the Nanman Railway to pick us up."