inexhaustible

Chapter 76 Sleep Well, Baby

The word filial piety is a very typical Confucian philosophy, and most Western philosophers think it is an outdated product.Russell even said that filial piety hinders the development of the public spirit, and giving the elders more rights will lead to the rampage of the old forces.

This point of view is not unreasonable, but it is undeniable that "filial piety" still has its positive meaning.

Modern research on filial piety tends to be an innate characteristic of human beings, but it needs to be triggered in a timely manner. It is called "preparing nature", and it is classified as the fundamental reason why human beings are different from other animals. one.

In other words, everyone is born with a strong dependence on "family", "group" and "parents".

This kind of dependence is guided and developed, and it becomes "filial piety".It drives us to strive to be the pride of our family, to crave family approval, to be afraid to challenge the patriarchal structure...

And because of its innate nature, even if people leave the "home" environment in the end, it will still not disappear.Extremely complex and extremely fragile, it has become a great anxiety of modern society.

It can be said that it is a nightmare, and it is also a dream.

From the bottom of his heart, Shang Muxiao couldn't forgive his parents and hated all the "violence" they imposed on him, but once he heard about the new discoveries of the Mei Zixun Foundation, he still couldn't be indifferent.

He didn't speak for a long time, neither said to go nor said that he would not go, and rarely went to the balcony to smoke a cigarette.

Sometimes silence itself is an answer.

In the end I made the decision for him.

"Let's go." I took the car keys and stood by the door to greet him.

He looked at me for a moment, then walked towards me with a cigarette in his mouth, and took the car keys from my hand.

On the way, he was preoccupied and smoked two more cigarettes with the car window open.I sympathized with his unspeakable mood and didn't stop him, but when I reached the third root, I couldn't help holding down his hand.

"All right."

He pursed his lips, retracted his hand, and raised the window.

The traffic started to move, it was too quiet, I turned on the radio, and the gentle female voice was introducing the life of the famous German composer Brahms, and playing his works one by one.

In the soothing music, we arrived at the office of the foundation - a secluded and quaint small villa of the last century.

Beside the small black iron gate, the white wall is covered with green vines and small red trumpet-shaped flowers blooming.

After ringing the electronic bell, a male staff member came out to open the door for us when we learned of our purpose.

"My surname is An, just call me Xiao An. This way please, our president is waiting for you in the reception room."

"Has everyone else arrived?" Shang Muxiao asked.

"Mr. Shang has already arrived, and Ms. Shang is on the way, saying that she will be there soon."

It was said that Cao Cao had arrived, but before he reached the gate of the villa, the bell rang again at the gate, and I faintly heard Yang Haiyang's voice.

Xiaoan asked us to wait for a while, and he went to open the door.As soon as the door opened, it was indeed Shang Yunrou and Yang Haiyang.

The siblings looked at each other, said nothing, and walked in with their heads down.

Yang Haiyang and I gradually fell behind and began to whisper.

"Beijiao, do you know about that... about Shang Lu and his little wife?" Yang Haiyang lowered his voice, speaking conservatively.

As soon as I heard it, I immediately knew that Shang Yunrou had confessed to him about Fang Qinian.

"know."

Yang Haiyang almost lost control of the volume: "Fuck, you know?"

The villa was silent and empty, and if he rang a little louder, there would be an echo.I put my index finger in front of my lips and let him tap lightly.

He covered his mouth and spoke in a vague way: "You know why you didn't tell me? It was too exciting for me to go. When Yunrou told me, I was numb. I really never thought about Shanglu ... My father-in-law can marry a man."

I glanced at him, and he loosened his hand a little, and immediately added: "I don't mean to discriminate against your group, but I just feel that this is too much to pretend to be too good at playing."

As he spoke, he soon came to a tall white wooden door.Xiao An blocked the door for us, and after we all entered the room, he gently closed the door and entered the room by himself.

The reception room is filled with clean and bright white as a whole, scattered with chairs and sofas of various shapes. I roughly calculated that it is no problem to squeeze about 30 to [-] people.

Shang Lu was holding an English-style black teacup and was sitting in a high-back chair. Diagonally across from him was a middle-aged woman with white hair but no specific age.Before we came in, the two seemed to be chatting, so when Shang Lu turned to us, there was even a rare aftertaste of a smile on the corners of his lips.

But soon, when he saw Shang Muxiao, or more precisely, seeing Shang Muxiao's stinky face, his smile faded away.

"I was talking about you with your father just now." The white-haired woman got up to greet us.

"Long time no see, President Tan." Shang Yunrou raised her smiling face politely and business-like, and shook hands with the other party, "What are you talking about us? Are you talking bad about us?"

Chairman Tan smiled and said, "I said that you are all grown up and have found your goals in life. If Zi Xun can see it, he will definitely be happy for you."

Shang Yunrou didn't say much, but Shang Muxiao sneered.

Chairman Tan may have been very used to Shang Muxiao's attitude, knowing how difficult he is, he would not be angry when he stabbed him suddenly, but just looked at him helplessly.

Shang Muxiao smiled at her: "It's nothing, I just think...you guys really know how to talk."

I secretly twisted his lower back, he hissed in pain, and looked at me in disbelief, as if I had done something that angered people for many days.

"Speak well." His mouth was stern, but his hands still rubbed the painful part of me just now for him.

He calmed down a bit, took a deep breath, apologized vaguely to Chairman Tan, and then pulled me to sit on the couch beside him.

Yang Haiyang supported Shang Yunrou and sat on another sofa.

After everyone was seated, President Tan said to Xiao'an, "Please bring the painting here."

The other party nodded and went to the other end of the reception room.There is a small door there, which seems to lead to another space.

Chairman Tan introduced: "We found it when we were cleaning up the painting and changing the frame routinely. It was hidden behind another oil painting and it was not finished. I guess that Zi Xun might have tried to get it. Painted it, but didn't succeed..."

After a while, Xiao An, wearing white gloves, appeared in front of everyone holding an A3-sized oil painting in his hand.The oil painting is covered with a white cloth so that people cannot see the content on it.

The three merchants sat up straight almost at the same time, visibly becoming tense to the naked eye.

Yang Haiyang probably wanted his wife to relax, he hugged Shang Yunrou's shoulders from behind, and held her left hand that was placed stiffly on her lap.

My hand tightened, I looked down, and it was Shang Muxiao who held my hand.

"That's it." Chairman Tan walked slowly to the front of the painting, pinched the white cloth gently with his fingers, and lifted it away as he spoke, "I have never seen such a warm color, although it is not finished, but I think it is a painting comparable to "Landscape". Personally, I would very much like you to allow us to exhibit it, but ... I know that it depends mainly on your wishes."

As President Tan said, this painting is very warm, not only in color, but also in the theme it expresses.It depicts a "home", a home that is warm, welcoming, and full of warmth.

A young woman with a pregnant belly is sitting on an armchair, and a little girl in a red-dot dress is curiously putting her ears on her belly, listening carefully to the movement inside.The woman lovingly caressed her head with one hand, and pressed her stomach with the other hand, while the man supported the back of the chair and stood aside, staring at them tenderly.

The woman is undoubtedly Mei Zixun, the little girl is Shang Yunrou, the man is Shang Lu when he was young, and the belly... should be the unborn Shang Muxiao.

No one who looks at this painting can ignore the maternal radiance on Mei Zixun's face.

It draws my eyes to her soft brows and eyes, and I can't help but want to be happy that she can become a mother again, and want to smile from the bottom of my heart.

"Oh my God..." Shang Yunrou covered her mouth tremblingly, and burst into tears, "She didn't destroy it...she hid it...I thought she destroyed it..."

She was completely out of control, trembling and crying.I have never seen her collapse like this. Even if her brother brought a man home on New Year's Eve, she would still treat guests without changing her expression. The steel-like shell is crying like a little girl.

Fearing that Shang Yunrou would cry and break her body, President Tan asked Xiaoan to take the painting away quickly.

The reception room echoed with Shang Yunrou's soft sobs, Shang Muxiao lowered his eyes, his face expressionless, Shang Lu put the teacup on the coffee table, and sighed wearily.

"We... Yunrou and I both know about this painting, but we thought it had been destroyed by Zixun long ago." Shang Lu rubbed his temples and said, "It was painted when she was five or six months pregnant, and later She... she just got sick and couldn't continue. It got so bad that she didn't allow us to ask about the paintings, otherwise it would be very emotional. Before she died, she burned all the paintings she made in those two years, and I Didn't expect her to keep it."

Chairman Tan found a chair and sat down, and said: "I don't know if you noticed just now, there are a few very abrupt gray strokes in the corner of the painting, which were added later, so I said...she might Tried to finish it, but failed."

Shang Muxiao suddenly stood up at this moment.

"This painting has nothing to do with me. You two decide whether to exhibit it or not. I'll go first." He turned around and held out his hand to me.

I froze for a moment, glanced at the silent business father and daughter, held Shang Muxiao's hand and stood up.

On the way back, Shang Muxiao became more silent. This kind of "silence" is not as simple as not talking, it is accompanied by low pressure and bad temper.

On the radio, the introduction of Brahms' works continued.

"...Next, I will bring you one of Brahms' most familiar works—the lullaby in F key. Because of its beautiful melody, it is often regarded as a concert repertoire by major singers."

A thick and high-pitched soprano sounded slowly in the background: "Lullaby and goodnight...with roses bedight...with lilies bedeckes baby" sweebed..."

"Sleep peacefully, baby, sleep sweetly, sleep in the quilt of roses..."

"Turn off."

Shang Muxiao's voice was mixed in, and I didn't react immediately.

"Shut it off!!" After a while, he roared louder, as if he couldn't bear the existence of this song for a second.

I quickly turned off the radio, and at the same time he quickly pulled the car aside.

After pulling up the handbrake, he stepped back, away from the steering wheel, wiped his face, and said with an extremely frustrated expression.

"Sorry……"

His eyes were red and his voice trembled. I even suspected that he left the foundation so quickly because he didn't want Shang Lu and Yang Haiyang to see his tears.

I leaned over, hugged him gently, and said, "Don't be sorry, I told you that you don't have to be so sensible."

He hugged me tightly, like a drowning man grabbing the last piece of driftwood.

"Why me?" He buried his face in my neck, grabbed the clothes on my back with his fingertips, and asked with a sob, "Why her..."

Russell's words come from his "China Question".The one who studies filial piety is Professor Zhang Xianglong. If you are interested, you can read his "Family and Filial Piety".