On October 26, 1925, Lin Zixuan left France.

The cruise ship enters the Mediterranean Sea, passes the Port of Said on the Suez Canal, enters the Red Sea and Arabian Sea, then passes through Djibouti in the African Triangle, crosses the Indian Ocean, crosses the Strait of Malacca, passes through Singapore, Saigon, Hong Kong and other places, and finally arrives in Shanghai.

This trip takes about 40 days.

Most of the places passing by are French colonies overseas, and the passengers on the cruise ship are basically French.

They ventured to the colony, hoping to gain a lot of wealth.

The routes for each cruise ship from European countries to the Far East are different. If you take a cruise from the UK, you will pass through the British colonies overseas.

Different routes determine the different navigation dates, and the time of stopping at each place is also different.

Without encountering severe weather such as strong winds and waves, it takes about a month to go to Shanghai in the United States, a month and a half to go to Shanghai in the United Kingdom, and about forty days to go to Shanghai in France.

Lin Zixuan lives in second-class cabin and his conditions are pretty good.

He was not good at French, so he was not willing to communicate with the French. He spent most of his time in the cabin and was busy reading and writing.

In fact, Britain and France are close neighbors. There have been many wars between the two countries and they are very familiar with each other. The French naturally understand English.

But the French are very proud. They always think that French is a noble language and look down on countries with English. They usually do not use English unless necessary for communication.

Lin Zixuan, who lives in the French Concession in Shanghai, has a deep understanding of this.

He wants to take advantage of this free time on the cruise ship to write some manuscripts.

During the days when he went abroad, "The Smoke and Clouds of Beijing" had already been interrupted, and the fairy tales in "The King of Fairy Tales" had no manuscripts, so he could only translate some foreign fairy tales to count.

Lin Zixuan left behind an outline of fairy tales, but it is not easy for the creative team to write these stories well. There is always a feeling of being a dog-tailed person. They are not very adapted to the writing style of later generations.

Especially fairy tales, they require extremely strong imagination.

According to the rules set by Lin Zixuan, every issue of "The King of Fairy Tales" must be read to children.

You must let your children understand it. If you like fairy tales and continue to listen to it, you will be considered successful.

This rule made the editors of Wanxiang Bookstore Children's Magazine complain, and in their eyes, children are the most difficult creatures to deal with.

Children don’t understand hypocrisy, they will laugh when they like it, and they will cry when they don’t like it, which can best reflect the quality of a story.

It is precisely because of strict requirements that the magazine "The King of Fairy Tales" has been successful and has even been sold to Hong Kong and Nanyang.

Facts have proved that Lin Zixuan's "superficial" fairy tale is more popular with children than the profound fairy tale written for adults. Although there are still people who talk about education, most of the opponents have stopped.

Lin Zixuan is still thinking about the cultural exchange between China and the West.

During these days in the UK, he communicated face to face with Western cultural elites and found that these people were generally interested in Chinese culture, but they just lacked a channel to understand.

Chinese publishers translate a large number of foreign books every year, but rarely translate Chinese books into English.

There are many reasons for this. In this era, facing Western powers, Chinese intellectuals can't wait to learn advanced Western technologies and culture, and do not pay attention to the culture of their own nation.

He even put forward a slogan to completely deny traditional culture.

How could the Chinese people spread to the West if they don’t respect their culture?

Of course, there are factors such as Chinese books that are difficult to translate and are not popular in foreign countries.

Lin Zixuan thinks that these are not problems, and at worst, he can lose money and gain publicity.

After returning to China, he decided not only to continue publishing new literature series in Western countries, but also to select a batch of representative works from traditional literature for translation.

In this way, Wanxiang Bookstore will set up a compilation office to recruit talents who are proficient in foreign languages.

Chinese classics translated by foreigners are often not very reliable. Chinese people understand Chinese culture better.

In addition to writing, Lin Zixuan would also take a walk on the deck, blow the sea breeze, or take a walk on the shore when the cruise ship is docking. See the exotic style.

Once, the cruise ship was docked in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

When he got off the boat, he met a French girl who was also eager to get off the boat, and the two collided.

The little girl looks like she is eleven or twelve years old, with a cute face, and looks a little impatient, followed by a middle-aged woman.

In this way, Lin Zixuan met the little girl named Margaret Tauradeo and her mother Mary Tauradeo.

They lived in the third class cabin of the cruise with Margaret's two older brothers and headed to Saigon, Vietnam.

Vietnam during this period belonged to a French colony, and a large number of French people lived there.

Among the French, there are rich and poor people. Through chatting, Lin Zixuan knew that the life of Margaret's family was not satisfactory.

Margaret was born in Jiading, Vietnam. Both her parents were teachers. Her father died early and the family relied on her mother to live.

In 1924, her mother spent all her savings to buy a piece of land in Cambodia, but she didn't expect to be deceived. This land would be flooded by sea water for six months every year.

Her father had a small manor in his hometown in France. This time, their family lived in their hometown in France for a while, but life in France was equally bad, and they had to continue to live in Vietnam.

Since their parents are teachers, Margaret received a good education and knew French and English, so she could communicate with Lin Zixuan.

The little girl is quite lively and talkative, or precocious. After knowing that Lin Zixuan is a writer, she often comes to Lin Zixuan's cabin to look for books and chat.

She talked about her dark life and hoped to grow up as soon as possible.

Perhaps because she lives in Vietnam, she is not unfamiliar with Orientals, but she doesn't know Lin Zixuan's reputation in the literary world.

Margaret read the Chinese New Literature Series and "Lord of the Flies" that Lin Zixuan brought by her side, and thought that Lin Zixuan wrote well and would become a great writer in the future.

Lin Zixuan took out a gift from Paris, picked out one and gave it to Margaret, which won the praise of the little girl.

The two of them were communicating without restraint.

Lin Zixuan understood that once the cruise ship arrived in Saigon, they might not have the chance to meet again in their lives.

People are so strange that those things that you can't say to your close friends may confide in a stranger.

Because you know that strangers are just passers-by in your life, and close friends will always live by your side.

During this short journey, Lin Zixuan and Margaret talked about a lot of things, including life and ideals, and he didn't think that this little girl could understand some things.

At the port of Saigon, Lam Zixuan watched the little girl walk down the cruise gangway with her family.

At this time, Margaret suddenly turned around and ran towards Lin Zixuan, hugged Lin Zixuan, and said goodbye in French in Lin Zixuan's ear: Goodbye, my lover.

This action made Lin Zixuan laugh and cry.

Through these days' contact, he knew that Margaret was very lively and that the little girl had the romantic factors of the French.

He watched Margaret disappear into the crowd, and he couldn't help feeling sad.
Chapter completed!