Under the scorching clear sky in summer, you can see fashionable and beautiful girls everywhere. They hold hands and talk happily, smiling wantonly. They are the most moving scenery on every street.

Girls living in this era are undoubtedly the happiest.

When we finish reading Zhang Ailing's "Agarwood Chips? The First Incense", we will firmly think so.

That very classic love confession: "I love you. It's none of your business. It's none of your fault even if it's weird." It comes from this novel.

A girl loves humblely, loves sadly, loves wholeheartedly, and loves without self. Such a girl will make people "angry", but more importantly, it makes people feel sad.

I am willing to find the moldy green copper incense burner at home and light a burner of agarwood chips. After burning the agarwood crumbs, this girl didn't want her to finish telling her story. I always hope that this very ordinary girl in Shanghai will have a good ending in life.

However, this is a luxury hope, because Ge Weilong is in pre-war Hong Kong, alone, with only a perverted aunt who wants her to become a social butterfly.

"The First Incense" is the first novella published by Zhang Ailing. It was published in serial form in the second, third and fourth issues of the Shanghai "Violet" magazine. The original title was " Agarwood shavings? The first incense."

The 23-year-old Zhang Ailing caused a sensation in the entire literary world.

Her language is gorgeous and exquisite, and her character descriptions are as vivid as those in "A Dream of Red Mansions".

I read this novel for the first time ten years ago and was impressed by her language style. However, I did not understand the novel.

What I don’t understand is why there are women like Mrs. Liang in the world, who are empty, boring, selfish, sentimental, and vulgar.

I don’t understand that Qiao Qiqiao’s purpose in marrying Ge Weilong was to let her make money for herself and people for Mrs. Liang.

Ge Weilong, a very ordinary Shanghai girl, was born in that era. Growing up in such an environment was a tragedy of fate. She went from being innocent and aloof at the beginning to falling into depravity in the end. She was a little introspective, but she couldn't help herself. Just like what was written in the novel, the vigorous wild cuckoos all over the mountain, with their scorching red color, burned all the way down the hillside.

She cannot control the direction of her destiny.

She fell because of her humble and inextricable love for Qiao Qiqiao, and because of her unwillingness to break away from the luxurious but extremely vulgar living condition.

I read this novel again today for the third time. The delicate and gorgeous language of Zhang Ailing is unparalleled, and the pictures she paints are exquisite meticulous paintings.

For example, she described her aunt's garden as if it were a gold-lacquered tray lifted out of thin air in a chaotic mountain. When we read this, we will be filled with infinite reveries about this garden, imagining its luxury and extravagance.

When Ge Weilong left her aunt's house for the first time and made her first life choice, although she was a little confused, she "looked back at her aunt's house again." This time she looked back, it was revealed that she Will definitely come back. She was a little moved by this kind of life.

Zhang Ailing described her aunt’s home when she saw it again: “I still vaguely saw the yellow ground and red-edged window lattice, and the green glass windows reflected the color of the sea. The towering white house was covered with green The glazed tiles are a bit like ancient imperial mausoleums."

She was like a scholar who escaped from "Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio". In the blink of an eye, the noble family's residence had turned into a large tomb.

Her aunt is a very capable woman: "She holds the great wheel of the times with one hand. In her own small world, she retains the lustful atmosphere of the late Qing Dynasty and makes small-scale works behind closed doors. The Empress Dowager Cixi."

The colors in her paintings are gorgeous and unique.

Describing azaleas: "The flowers are pink with a hint of yellow, and are bright shrimp red."

Ge Weilong went to her aunt's house for the first time: "She caught a glimpse of herself through the glass door The shadow of herself - she herself is also part of the unique oriental color of the colony. She is wearing the unique uniform of Nanying Middle School and a emerald blue bamboo shirt."

Writing about the clogs that the maid looked at: "A Exquisite wooden clogs with red lacquer and gold branches and plum blossoms flew in."

Writing about the colors of the clothes Ge Weilong wore after living at his aunt's house, the colors of the maid Ni'er's clothes were all elegant and unique, such as "goose yellow" Silk shirt, dove gray shorts, snow-green tight-fitting jacket, emerald blue narrow trousers, white ground-flat gold vest, ginger-yellow cloud crepe cheongsam, moon-white pajamas, white linen shirt, black fragrant cloud gauze large-horned pants, etc."< /p>

There is also Mrs. Liang’s “Blue Crepe Baotou”.

The most exciting part is when Ge Weilong met Qiao Qiqiao for the first time. "Weilong was wearing a porcelain thin silk robe that day. When she looked at his green eyes, she felt that her arms were hot. It's like milk, poured out of a green pot, and you can't control it, and all of yourself spills out."

A girl has a beautiful yearning for life and love, but in the face of reality, it is. Impossible. There are two points in the novel that describe the beginning of her decline. "

The first point is that she was unwilling to give up this life. The article reads: "Weilong sighed; after three months, He has become addicted to life here.

"

She knew clearly that "Mrs. Liang is a shrewd person and a thorough materialist. "She didn't want to become such a person one day.

She eventually became a social butterfly who "willed herself to humble herself and ruined the family tradition", following in the footsteps of her aunt.

The difference is that my aunt is purely money-worshiping. She is the fourth concubine of a rich old man, so that she can receive a large amount of property for nothing after the old man dies.

Ge Weilong Buquan. It is for material life and for the love that is like a castle in the air.

This is the second point that leads to her downfall. It is what she said to the despicable Qiao Qiqiao: "I love you, Guan." Whatever happens to you, no matter how strange it is, it can’t be blamed on you. "

For him, she said to her aunt: "I don't have money, but... I can make money."

There is only one way for her to make money, which is to follow her aunt's teachings. Be an excellent social butterfly, "busy all day long, either getting money for Qiao Qiqiao, or getting people for Mrs. Liang. ”

After Ge Weilong finished lighting the incense, she finally faced cold and darkness.

Zhang Ailing was only twenty-three years old when she wrote this novella, but her desolate writing style and her profound insight into human nature constitute her unique literary world, which is amazing!