Back to the Republic of China to open a department store

Old man Liu, who lives in Laiyang, was sitting in the courtyard and listening to the radio station.

Although it is already September, the weather is still very sultry.

He asked his son to open both the front and back doors, and moved the newly bought "Watson" floor-standing electric fan to the door of the room.Because I dare not blow directly on the body, I am afraid of catching a cold.Just let the fan blow against the wall of the patio, and let the wind that hits the wall return to yourself.

The raccoon cat raised at home uttered a "meow" and wanted to jump on the old man, but he knocked it down with a cattail fan. The cat turned around twice reluctantly, and finally lay down at the old man's feet.

"Mountains are smiling, water is smiling, and people are smiling. Drink 'Xiaoxiao Coke' and smile every day. Men will be healthier after drinking it, women will be more beautiful after drinking it, children will be smarter after drinking it, and the elderly will live longer if they drink it. To be happy, drink it" Smile Coke'."

On the radio, the female announcer was soft and soft, speaking Mandarin with a Su Bai accent, which made Lao Liu, who is from Suzhou, very comfortable.

He is old and his eyesight is not good. In the early years, he still liked to read a book or read a newspaper. In the past two years, his eyesight has deteriorated further, and he has given up reading.

But the ears are okay, they haven't degenerated to the eyes.

Ever since the old woman died, the son was afraid that he would be lonely, so he bought a radio to relieve his boredom.

So his daily life is to get up, turn on the radio, eat breakfast, and then spend the whole day in the sound of the radio.Before going to bed, I turned off the radio and fell asleep.

At the beginning, there were no programs on the radio, only news read in Mandarin, and foreign women sang, screaming like they were stepped on their feet by high-heeled shoes.

He is also idle when he is idle, so he bites the bullet and listens.Otherwise, the son goes to work, the grandson goes to school, and the daughter-in-law at home will not talk to him even if he is busy, so what else can he do if he doesn't listen?With the radio on, there must be some noise in the house.

In the past two years, there have been more and more radio stations one after another.There are Mandarin songs, Yue opera, and Beijing opera, as well as his favorite Suzhou Pingtan and Shanghai burlesque, which can be heard at dinner.

At that time, the family of four will sit together, listening to the opening chapter of Tanci, and eating the side dishes made by the daughter-in-law. The family is happy and harmonious.

But there is no "integer (serious)" in the radio station in Shanghai Beach.

I still listened to it well today, and the storytelling says it will continue next time.As soon as the channel is turned on at one o'clock tomorrow, the channel is simply gone.

He listened to half of the storytelling of "The Family of Gold Powder", and now he doesn't know what happened to the second half.The son said that he bought a book for his grandson to read to him, but he said forget it, the grandson is only seven or eight years old, reading things that men love and women love, will teach children badly.

There are also some channel owners who don't know what's going on, and the broadcast time of the program is erratic.The program that was broadcast in the evening yesterday, but at noon today, he heard the second half of the program, which made him baffled, and he didn't know when he should tune in to this frequency tomorrow.

Later his son told him that these are all private stations, and when they broadcast depends on when the founders are free, isn't this what makes people eat "hollow gnocchi"!

But it's better now, since he got the "Tianwaitian Wireless Broadcasting Station", he has completely fixed the frequency and never moved around again.

This radio station is different from other small private radio stations that only broadcast for a few hours a day, or even an hour. It broadcasts from morning till night.It starts at seven in the morning and ends at ten in the evening, which happens to be exactly the same as Old Man Liu's schedule.

And when and what program is broadcast every day, the iron plate is the same, and it is not bad at all.

Lao Liu has an English table clock at home, and he has to wind this clock every day to adjust the time.It is relying on "Tianwaitian" to tell the time on time every half an hour.

Every one and a half o'clock, a cheerful commercial song will be sung in "Tianwaitian". After the singing, with the sound of the last "ding" hitting the steel plate, the hostess will report the current time, and then start New broadcast content.

Many families in their alleys do not have clocks, and some neighbors have business at home, such as making an appointment to pick up someone at the train station, and they all come to their house to ask the time.Now there is no need to ask. Neighbors who have radios in their homes will all make a "ding" sound when the time is on time, and then the whole alley will know what time it is.

The few programs that old man Liu likes to listen to, his grandson wrote them in black pen on the beautiful calendar hanging in the living room.

This beautiful calendar was given by Luo Sanye's department store, the boss of "Tianwaitian".His daughter-in-law especially likes to go shopping in department stores. She usually goes to department stores whenever she has free time. On weekends, she just spends her whole life in them, buying herself a silver card... "Hey fart" what the hell member.The things at home are basically bought from the three department stores on the main road.

The family also ordered magazines from Shimai department store, and the postman would deliver them at the beginning of each month. When he was sitting at the door basking in the sun, he would squint his eyes and struggle to read the words—the words couldn’t be read clearly. The beautiful star illustrations and advertising girls on the coloring pages can still be glanced at.

Then last weekend, when the old man was flipping through a magazine at the door of his house, he accidentally saw the picture of the woman in the swimsuit.The old man, who had no experience, had his blood pressure suddenly rose. He was dizzy and walked around the courtyard with the magazine, and almost knocked his head on the well platform of the well.

If his daughter-in-law hadn't seen him in time when she came back from shopping for vegetables, and sent him to the clinic at the entrance of the alley, the old man would probably be "sick" that day.

Later, he heard from the old man Zhang, the neighbor next door, that Shimai Department Store is doing some promotional activities for women's new-style underwear and swimsuits. Movement" is about the same.

The old man Zhang next door raised two daughters, one is a female middle school student and the other is a female college student. Their ideological progress has been a mess, and old Zhang has also "improved" a lot along with him.

Old Liu himself has experienced the "Tianzu Movement", and he also wanted to improve when he was young.He was introduced to a young lady for a blind date, and the reason why he chose his later wife was also because among so many women, only his wife had "big feet".

So it turned out that the "movement" has started again now, and Lao Liu suddenly realized.

No wonder when he saw his daughter-in-law was drying the clothes, the original chest cloth disappeared, and it was replaced by two strange-shaped things that he hadn't seen before... Ahem, he just glanced at it casually, he is a Very serious old man.

Old man Liu originally thought that looking at photos of female models in swimsuits was an "indecent" behavior, but after some advice from Lao Zhang, he realized that this was "progressive thinking".So I am no longer embarrassed, take out this magazine from time to time, turn to the page of swimsuits, and the pages of female stars wearing new fashions, and accept the influence of "progressive thinking".

Because both Shimai Magazine and "Tianwaitian Radio Station" are under the name of Luo Sanye, Shimai will publish the "Tianwaitian" radio program preview.The content of the program for the next whole month will be written in a clear and refreshing way, and I will write an article to tell everyone that on the program someday, there will be a famous actor, "Da Xiangchot (Pingtan Famous Artist)" and stars to perform live, welcome Everyone come to the scene on the seventh floor of Tempai to meet face to face with your favorite famous artists.

Like Lao Liu, who has lived to this age, what he likes most is listening to Pingtan.I used to listen to it when I was in Suzhou, but I still listened to it when I moved to Shanghai with my son.

When I used to have good legs and feet, I would take a pinch of tea wrapped in oiled paper every morning and go to the teahouse and bookstore to listen to books.

You only need a dime to enter the venue. After taking off the outer cover, give the tea to the doctor in the bookstore, and he will go to the tea room to make tea for you.Every old guest has his own tea set, and there is no need to put his name on it. The doctor naturally knows which tea set is whose.

When the guests sit down, the little second-hand who has been waiting for a long time raises a wave-a steaming hot white towel floats to your hand.The little second hand who is responsible for throwing towels has a lot of kung fu, he stands there, no matter where the guests are sitting, whether it is the first floor or the second floor, or the corner next to the pillar, he can make the towel fall to you 100% accurately hands.

After wiping his face and hands, the smoke and exhaustion along the way were swept away.When the time comes, you pick up the towel and throw it back—throw it at ease, throw it casually, as long as the general direction is right, Xiaoer will always catch it.

At this time, the brewed tea was also delivered, because the tea leaves are my own, so there is no problem of not being used to drinking.Of course, there are also new customers who will buy tea directly in the bookstore, and the tea set at this time is provided by the bookstore.

Dr. Tea retreats, and a little girl with a wooden box around her neck will appear.

Cigarettes of various colors are usually placed in that wooden box, and there are peanuts, pumpkin seeds, fragrant melon seeds, all kinds of candied fruit in the triangular paper bags wrapped in newspapers, as well as pear paste candies, a specialty of Shanghai, and rice dumpling candies from "Caizhizhai" in Suzhou. .

Buy a pack of cigarettes, take a pack of melon seed candies, and wait for the storyteller to start, that day is simply "evil and comfortable (very comfortable)".Of course, if you come out early in the morning and your stomach is empty, tell the little girl, and her mother who works in the back kitchen will immediately bring steaming small wontons with lard, egg skin and seaweed to fill your stomach.

Until the death of his wife the year before last, old man Liu lived a happy life chasing famous actors and wandering around Shanghai's major bookstores every day.After the old woman left, he suddenly felt that he was "coming old", and he was afraid of being hit by a passing rickshaw while walking on the road, so he never went out to listen to books.

He put all his love into the radio station and put it on various Pingtan programs.

Until three months ago, when his grandson read him the preview of the "Tianwaitian" program as usual, he told him that at the end of the month, Wu Silan, the famous Suzhou Pingtan "big ring crotch", would come to Shimai to give a live performance on the seventh floor.

Wu Silan! !He has been chasing Mr. Wu Silan for more than ten years!

For her, he once deliberately took a boat from Shanghai to various piers in Suzhou to catch up with the opera, followed for more than a month before returning home.

Unlike the troupes who sing Jingkun and Yue opera, these storytellers and pingtan masters only need to carry a sanxian and pipa on their backs to eat.They usually tell stories in the bookstores near various piers along the Yangtze River.After finishing talking in the morning, I will take a boat to the next city in the afternoon to continue talking.Only "die-hard fans" like Lao Liu who have money and leisure will follow and listen all the way.

Hearing that "Wu Silan" was about to come, the old man's heart, which had been silent for a long time, suddenly became "vigorous".

That night when his son came home from the foreign firm, he asked to go to the seventh floor of Shimai on the day of the performance as soon as he stepped through the door.

His son is a filial son, so he agreed without hesitation.Because Shimai's live performance tickets were sold at the information desk on the first floor the day before, in order to meet the requirements of his father who hadn't gone out for several years, Xiao Liu went to Shimai's gate to queue up in the early morning of the previous day.

Then saw a horrible line of about 300 meters.

Even though it was the middle of the night in June, the weather was cold enough.Not only was the dew thick, but also because there were gusts of evil wind standing under the tall building, a group of people in long-sleeved coats tremblingly lined up.

Xiao Liu was very shrewd. He counted the line from beginning to end, and found that the number of people in line had already exceeded the number of votes stipulated by "Tianwaitian".Looking at the crowd in line again, many of them were of his age, who obviously came here to wait according to the "sacred decree" of their parents, and some of them simply came on stage by themselves, braving the cold wind.

Originally, at this time, it is reasonable to go to the "scalper".

But since "Tianwaitian" opened this face-to-face show with celebrities, Shimai has strictly cracked down on scalpers.In the first episodes where actress Ruan Lingyu and actor Jinshan were invited, more fans came and more scalpers came.As a result, the scalpers were severely beaten twice by Shimai and the Concession Detective House "joint law enforcement".

As a result, the scalpers have half given up on Shimai's business, after all, no one wants to be stripped naked and paraded through the streets because of reselling tickets...

Xiao Liu came back that night in frustration, and he didn't dare to let his old man know, but just told his wife who was waiting for him to come home.

When his wife heard it, she said calmly: "Long wait, tomorrow when I go home for lunch at noon, I promise to see the ticket directly."

Xiao Liu went to work dubiously—in order to avoid his father asking questions early in the morning, he deliberately left in advance before his father woke up.

As a result, when I went home at noon, I saw two tickets for Wu Silan's meeting the next day.

It turned out to be two! !

Seeing Xiao Liu's eyes almost popping out, Mrs. Xiao Liu covered her mouth and smiled, and finally revealed the whole story - Mrs. Liu is a silver card VIP member, and her little sister married into the Yang family The daughter-in-law is a gold card VIP member.It just so happened that this daughter-in-law of the Yang family had a classmate who was the eldest lady of the dignified Silver Star Soap Factory. The whole family of this eldest lady was a black gold card VIP member of Shimai.

As a black gold card VIP member, you can get free tickets to any celebrity meeting from Time Mai every month, and you can get up to two tickets per card.

The lady from the soap factory had no interest in Pingtan, but since she was entrusted by the little sister, she reluctantly made a call to the VIP management department of Shimai.An hour later, the two tickets were delivered to the eldest lady.And Mrs. Liu, who sat in the living room of the little sister's house and waited for a whole morning, finally got these two precious tickets with a price but no market before noon.

"It's really a 'free ticket'!"

Xiao Liu took two thin and small pieces of paper and looked at them carefully. It said: The promissory note is a free ticket, which is only used by VIP customers and their relations, and cannot be bought or sold.Once the buying and selling behavior is discovered, it will be treated as invalid ticket immediately.

"Wife, you are so capable! Long live my wife!"

After putting down the ticket, Xiao Liu hugged his wife and kissed her twice, almost making Lao Liu who passed by the door of the wing room feel like "stealing the eye of a needle".

However, after knowing the ins and outs of these two tickets, Lao Liu himself really wanted to hug his daughter-in-law and kiss them——Long live the wife indeed!

The next day, Lao Liu went to the seventh floor of Shimai Department Store accompanied by Mrs. Xiao Liu.Because his daughter-in-law is a silver card VIP member, they can even take the elevator directly to the glass studio of "Outer Sky" instead of crowding the stairs with other people.

It turned out that Lao Liu was quite critical of his daughter-in-law's behavior of "buying, buying, buying" in the department store, but now it has disappeared.

On that day, Lao Liu finally saw Mr. Wu Silan, who hadn't seen him for several years, and still had the same demeanor.He was sitting in the VIP seat in the first row. Mr. Wu was wearing a silver cheongsam embroidered with winter jasmine flowers. With a straight waist, he was holding a pipa less than two meters in front of him.

——Meeting Chanjuan at the foot of Huqiu Mountain, it is suspected that Chang'e came out of Guanghan.Spreading her teeth and smiling half-ashamedly, she is a gentle lady and a gentleman.

In the song "The Cause of Laughter", Wu Nong's soft words flowed from Mr. Wu's mouth into Lao Liu's heart like a clear spring.

The old man shed tears of excitement on the spot.

"Although I'm too old to walk, Mr. Wu still looks good..."

After Mr. Wu sang a song, the audience came to the record department downstairs to buy records, so as to get a chance to shake hands with Mr. Wu—but not for VIPs! !With the VIP ticket, you can go to the western restaurant on the fifth floor of Shimai with Mr. Wu to drink coffee, talk freely, and then send Mr. Wu downstairs for a signing and handshake meeting.

On the same day, Lao Liu listened to Mr. Wu's Pingtan performance, drank coffee with Mr. Wu, bought ten records downstairs, and shook hands with Mr. Wu. Mr. Wu also wrote on the cover of one of the records: Congratulations! Mr. Liu Yifeng is in good health and lives a long life.Wu Silan stays

The old man was so happy that the next day he asked his son to send this cover paper to the painting shop for mounting, and hung it in the living room for all his relatives and friends to see!

After that meeting, the old man Liu became a loyal member of Shimai Department Store, Tianwaitian Radio Broadcasting and Shimai Magazine.He firmly believes that Mr. Luo is a genius who is rarely seen in a century. Unlike those bosses who desperately want money, Mr. Luo sincerely puts the needs of their people in his heart.

So, after seeing the beautiful girl holding a glass soda bottle on the cover of this new issue of "SMART" magazine, and seeing the advertisement of "Xiaoxiao Coke" on the advertisement page, he immediately became interested.

Not to mention the advertisements on the radio saying that drinking this "Xiaoxiao Coke" will make the elderly live longer and children smarter, which is even more convinced.

At dinner that day, Lao Liu asked his son to try this "Xiaoxiao Coke".

"Dad, this is soda. Nothing special."

After Xiao Liu heard it, he laughed it off.

"What soda, Mr. Luo said - it's 'Xiaoxiao Coke'. Don't change the concept secretly."

Lao Liu is very stubborn.

Now Mr. Luo's status in his heart may be higher than that of his son.

"Dad, it's really soda. When I went to Shimao the other day, they happened to be doing a 'free drink'. My son and I each had a bottle. They have orange soda, mint soda, lemon soda And this brown 'Xiaoxiao Cola'. It tastes pretty good, but I think it smells like medicine..."

Mrs. Liu said while holding a chicken leg for her son, "Is that right? Son."

"Smells of licorice...and a little bit of cloves."

Her son, Xiao Xiaoliu, has been in poor health since he was a child. He drank too much traditional Chinese medicine, and he can already distinguish the taste of some medicinal materials.

"Okay, so you have all drank it! You have enjoyed it yourself, so you don't remember me as an old man?"

Lao Liu threw his chopsticks away and began to lose his temper.

Look, orange soda, mint soda, lemonade...and then "Smiley Coke"!There must be a reason why it is not called soda, but "Coke"!

It turns out that there are traditional Chinese medicines in it, so it must be a tonic that is good for the body!

It is said in the radio, prolong life, grow smarter!

This daughter-in-law is also really good. She usually brings home any good things, but now that she has such good things, she never thought of bringing him some.

"I don't care! I want to drink Coke! If I can't drink it today, I will... I won't sleep."

After the old man finished speaking, he went straight to his room and closed the door with a "bang".

"What should I do? Go to Shimai to buy now? It will take more than an hour to go back and forth."

His family doesn't live near the main road.

Xiao Liu is in trouble.

"No, Lennon, didn't you see what was written in the advertisement in this magazine - it's sold in all major pharmacies in the city. Lennon, go to the two pharmacies at the door now. If there is no Chinese medicine store, go to the western medicine store."

At the critical moment, the wife is still reliable, Mrs. Liu pointed to the advertisement page of the magazine and said.

"Tsk tsk, it's not a tonic, it's an ordinary soda... It's all sold in the pharmacy!"

After closing the door, the old man Liu who put his ear on the door to eavesdrop smiled triumphantly.

Half an hour later, Xiao Liu, who was pedaling home on a bicycle, returned home with eight bottles of "Xiaoxiao Coke". While calling his father to come out of the room, he said to his wife and son.

"You all don't know, I went to many pharmacies to buy it. This soda... this Coke has just started to be sold, and the pharmacy doesn't have a lot of stock, so it was sold out quickly."

Mrs. Xiao Liu brought a clean cloth and wiped the mouth of the bottle. Then Xiao Liu pressed marbles one by one, opened four bottles of Coke, and handed them to everyone.

"Hiccup..."

"belch……"

The four of them uttered "voices from the bottom of their hearts" one after another. Because of the hot weather, the stagnant breath in their chests disappeared.

"Sure enough, it smells like cloves, and it tastes delicious in your mouth."

Mrs. Liu pointed to herself, then patted her son's head, "Son, do you think you are smarter?"

"It seems to be smarter!"

Little Liu nodded while holding the glass bottle.

"Where's grandpa?"

"I feel full of strength! A burst of dantian energy rises from here."

I don't know if it's because of the advertisement or because of psychological factors, but this old man feels like he's ten years younger!

"That's good. This Coke is not cheap. It costs two cents more than their ordinary soda to buy."

Xiao Liu seemed to feel refreshed physically and mentally after being told by them.

He put the remaining four bottles of soda in a basket, hung them into the well water and chilled them—it would be more enjoyable to drink at the hottest time at noon tomorrow.

"After drinking this, I still need the bottle to return to the pharmacy. I paid a deposit for the bottle, and I have to get it back..."

"Why do you take it back? It's fine if you can't buy it next time... The old bottle will be replaced by a new bottle."

The sudden "family crisis" was resolved, and the family happily spent the last few hours of the day on the radio.

Lao Liu was lying on a bamboo recliner fanning his palm-leaf fan, with an increasingly lazy raccoon cat nestled at his feet.Xiao Liu sat at the table and helped his son with his homework.Mrs. Liu was nibbling melon seeds while flipping through magazines to see what other interesting events were happening in the department store recently.

——Fake sons and true grandchildren have no hope, after all, they are their own flesh and blood.It's like thousands of peach blossoms growing from one tree, which is an extraordinary relationship.

The soft and glutinous Tanci of "Pearl Tower" and the sound of sanxian and pipa came from the radio.

"Seriously, Xiaoxia, why did you think of selling soda and coke in drugstores?"

After "Xiaoxiao Coke" and other sodas became popular in Shanghai, Liang Shaolong also asked Luo Xiazhi this question.

——Because the earliest Coca-Cola was sold in American pharmacies as cough medicine...

Of course, it is impossible for Rorschach to say this reason.

"I heard from Hanlin that in his father's pharmacy, people were often sent to the doctor for heatstroke in summer. Our Shanghai is no better than Guangzhou. There are herbal tea shops everywhere to cool off the heat and thirst. I just thought, don't we also add it to our soda and cola? If you buy mint, galangal and other medicinal materials that can be used as fire, you might as well sell them in the pharmacy."

What Luo Xiazhi said was true, he even went to the "Xinglin Garden" to inspect it himself.

The heat stroke patients who were sent here, after drinking their "Xiaoxiao Coke", were quickly replenished with water and sugar, and recovered faster than patients who had not drunk it.

Moreover, the soda tastes good and can make people burp, which is more popular than the traditional Chinese medicine used to cool off the heat.

So in addition to Shimai Department Store, major grocery stores and pharmacies have also become one of the sales channels for soda and cola.

"Your brain... tsk tsk."

Gu Hanlin's "Xinglinyuan" Chinese pharmacy has now become the national pharmacy general agent of "Xiaoxiao Coke".Even if the summer is coming to an end, there is an endless stream of people who come to buy Coke.

There are even some parents who dote on their children and buy them several times a day for their children to drink.

At the end of the month, his elder brother and sister-in-law counted up and found that the money from selling Coca-Cola was actually more than the combined consultation fees and medicine fees received by their family, and the profit was astonishing.

"Siblings" are amazing!

This "money rake" not only raked money for himself, but also brought their Gu family to make a fortune together!

"Anyway, this 'Coke' really makes me happy."

Liang Shaolong looked at the glass bottle and said sincerely.

This soda factory has become a "money printing machine". Compared with the spinning and garment factory, it is easier to earn more.

"Third Master, this is the newspaper that just arrived today."

Li Ye knocked on the door and came in, ignoring Liang Shaolong who was winking at him, and put a newspaper specially folded into the advertisement page in front of Luo Xiazhi.

This is a Japanese newspaper that is circulated in Japanese trading companies in Shanghai.

And Li Ye, who has studied Japanese in college, is one of the few people in their department store who can see that this is basically equivalent to "internal reference".

"This event... It seems that my second brother is preparing to 'strike back'..."

Looking at the translated Chinese in the newspaper, Luo Xiazhi said with a smile.

The author has something to say: Sorry, the update is late today, and I apologize to everyone.

I find that every time I go out and come back I get a cold.Today I slept until four o'clock in the afternoon and didn't wake up...囧.

Today's article can actually be called "The Happy Life of an Old Man in Shanghai" haha.It mainly records some scenes of the teahouse in Suzhou Shuchang in Shanghai in the old days.When I was very young, there were still some traditional bookstores around my home, but basically none of them exist now... I seldom go to Suzhou now, and I don’t know if there are any in Suzhou.As for the knowledge of the bookstore, it is mainly my childhood memories and my mother’s dictation, because my grandfather used to listen to books every day, and he went to work after listening to the books every day.

In addition, the soda I drank when I was a child, I had to return the bottle to the grocery store after I finished drinking it. Today's children will no longer have this memory.

预告一下下一章《樱花反击》。二哥要出力了哦！感谢在2020-10-3118:13:07~2020-11-0120:20:23期间为我投出霸王票或灌溉营养液的小天使哦~

Thanks to the little angels of irrigation nutrient solution: 2 bowls and [-] bottles;

Thank you very much for your support, I will continue to work hard!