Reunion in Renmin University

Author Feng Xinsheng(Beijing)

Translator Jin Zi(Beijing)

Reunion in Renmin University

Author Feng Xinsheng(Beijing)

Translator Jin Zi(Beijing)

In mid-Autumn, I really love the style of wine. It is a sober and mature season,especially for meeting those friends we share interests with. In the elegant moment of raising the Bordeaux glasses, with the surging dark red of the wine, we often have rippling hearts. The street outside our windows, the falling yellow leaves,the shine and reflection of light redness of maple leaves, does it all accumulate thousands and thousands layers of deepness?

In Beijing’s Haidian District,education and culture is embedded with this area; an intensive number of higher education institutes are located. Often blindly I would march through the trail of leaves inside the campuses, walking towards the rising early moon, listening to autumn insects singing, spending the evening in a western-style restaurant and seeking the mood.

Pushing the door through the Vilan 1958 restaurant inside the Renmin University campus, the restaurants is packed with people. Is the reverse thinking lead the young consumers’ enthusiasm?Or is it the flavour of the season?

I have a habit of sitting on tables right next to windows. When I went to my table,I bumped into her by surprise……

I met her in Tuscany, Italy. I remember it was also an autumn night.

That was a beautiful farm hundred kilometres away from the bustling city. It was a large area producing wines. Red soil, green forests, vineyards and idyllic farms are all like described in the poems,especially the light green olive garden, the Chianti wine filled with shining ruby colour,ripen bight red tomatoes and colourful romantic blend of fruits.

She is a well-known young violinist specially invited by the vineyard. Her play,accompanied by the exquisite fragrance of the wines, incorporated into the monsoon from the Tyrrhenian Sea, intoxicated every single audience present. After the show, I interviewed her. She told me we were right in the birth place of Renaissance, among the ancient villages that produced Giotto,Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Dante and Raphael. When I listened to her, I can not help but notice her beautiful features,elegant manners and superb Mandarin pronunciation.

“Hope we would meet again, say good bye to each other again, escape the misty dusk!” That’s what she said and saw me and a few other journalists colleagues left with the bus.

Perhaps it was because the rough world is too complicated, or perhaps it was because wheels of years kill our memory. After a few years, I actually forgot about that encounter……yet, another mid Autumn season, another room filled with wine fragrance and also a dusk with the fallen yellow leaves, I met her again! I hope this time we are not tasting wines for good bye.

She immediately recognised me. Her eyes are lifted with a deep smile. She rose the goblet filled with shining ruby wine and asked if I still remember her.

I suddenly forgot my language; my face flushed with burning redness. I do not know it was because it is easy for me to forget the past or because the current circumstance of reunion is a bit too comical. After the initial tension, I calmed down and quickly asked the waiter to bring a bottle of Italian Sini red wine from Tuscany and ordered several Russian,French signature dishes. I met with her smile and toasted with the glass.

It turned out she had come to Renmin University to study Chinese classic literature since last year and also tried to contact me. Unfortunately I had changed my number. Home address had also changed from Haidian Academy Road to Olympic Village north!

Then I heard the words I am most afraid to hear. Tomorrow, she will leave Beijing to return her home country.Tonight, she had came here to sit quietly and taste a couple of wines, who would expect to meet me again in another “dusk for good bye”!

I tried to light the mood of reunion but very soon farewell, tried to avoid her slightly hidden bitter eyes. So I joked about the year of the wine on the table,the signature dishes, talking about the restaurant environment and so on.

This is a Western restaurant decorated with subtle classic style.Under the wooden dome, simple yet delicate tables are arranged neatly. In the background, top ten saxophone songs are soothing the desolate night.Exquisite flower bouquets, Europeanstyle furnishings, bright red fireplace,vintage chandeliers, Russian leather chairs, green velvet floor length window mantle, a bit mysterious tunnel……one by one became subjects of our conversation.We remembered the world famous artists,commented on the details of several famous works. It was as if we saw Valery Barry meditated in the private lounge;Ostrovsky watched lights over the window;Victor Hugo stared the red wine inside the Bordeaux glass; Alexandre Dumas fils standing near the glowing fireplace…….

Not far from our table on the wall,there is an old picture with fainting colour.It was taken in 1958, also an autumn night. Famous educator, historian, linguist,the first chancellor of Renmin university Wu Yuzhang dines with famous foreign scholars here. Then look at the depths of the restaurant , in the hall, channel,private rooms filled with old pictures,they recorded many moments of fame figures, shaking hands, conversing or meditating….

Talked about history, our topic made a turn. We started to talk about the two pre-Qin dynasty philosophy schools, six dynasties period scholars,Ma Zhiyuan’s poignant style and the characteristics of Tagore’s classic verse,the key representative of impressionist paintings……

The night is late; the conversation is getting deeper; the aroma of the dishes is too tempting; somehow our conversation has changed from the ancient China,Europe and United States back to the table. Yes! The assorted Russian smoked fish and pickles platter resembles uncompromising attention of a fine artwork. The utensils are bright and clean.Beautifully cooked sea delicacies are carefully arranged on top of them. The light taste is topped with black pepper ; red and smooth, without too much decoration,characterised by sweet and sour. On the meat dishes, they were gently covered with a few seasonal fresh vegetables, a few blackberries, or the embellishment of plum flowers on the edge. There is also that French truffle crab flavour mushroom soup, more like Leonardo da Vinci’s superb painting; within the exquisite soup pot, floats pine mushrooms, accompanied by a few carefully baked crisp crotons like the white “soft jade”. You just need to gently stir the soup the delicious crab flavour will be dispersed through your nostrils.

When we finished the Italian wine,she suddenly filled with tears, saying despite she is very obsessed with Chinese ancient culture, but when she tasted this piece of wine, it had made her very homesick.

It seems we both try to prolong the night to avoid “farewell of the evening”,therefore the lingering meal has lasted until the next morning.

Autumn morning breeze seems very cold. The fallen leaves on the track of small courtyard have quietly covered with the first frost. It was all like a yesterday’s warm old dream. She has companied me all the way to Renmin University’s west gate, to see me on a taxi. Across the window, I saw her keep waving her hands towards me, Her long hair was fluttering in the early morning wind……

We may also reunite again, perhaps in that romantic overseas land, perhaps in this rich Beijing academic land. But I hope we would avoid “moment of reunion before thousands of miles away”. Until her shadow has disappeared from my vision, I still quietly pray……