Saturday, 8 February
Thirteenth day of the first lunar month
I heard from Yukun that Miss Sun arrived on the 4th and Lan Ni has not moved out. When they met, the girl merely wept. Dr. Sun was very much moved. He therefore took Lan Ni to Dr. Wang Chonghui asking the latter to shelter her. Poor Dr. Wang! What could he do? He must have managed it with extreme difficulty. He wrote me a letter in Cantonese dialect urging me to go out to Chungking. Yukun was going out, so wrote him the following:
[refer to original; the letter has been written in classical Chinese and refers to Wang Chonghui asking Fu to go to Chungking]. Apologised also for having written in vernacular Chinese. Yukun transmitted an urgent message from Chen Bozhuang (陳伯莊) asking me and Wu Shangying to go to immediately, as the situation is already at an irredeemable state. He said unless we can stop Mrs. Sun from coming before Lan Ni leaves, God only knows the consequences. President Sun is in a desperate state and even took to wine. I had a long consultation with Wu Shangying and John C.H. Wu. We came to the conclusion that at this stage we should not butt in. Dr. Sun has blundered badly. He could and should have avoided it by Lan Ni moving out before his daughter’s arrival. But who does not blunder when dealing with a young mistress? Poor man! How he must have suffered! We all pity him.
The following reply is in classical Chinese to Wang Chonghui (as a joke).
Also excerpt of Commentary of Zuo. [Refer to original].