Back to the Republic of China to open a department store

"Third Uncle, wake up, today is your birthday, Third Uncle?"

The golden morning light shines into the Luo Mansion on the top of Victoria Peak in Hong Kong, and it is another summer solstice day.There is already a scorching heat in the air.This tropical city always enters summer earlier than Shanghai.

Walking in here sometimes makes people blur the time and wonder whether this is Hong Kong in the 80s or Shanghai in the 30s.

Everything here, be it the furniture, the decoration style, or even the clothes of the servants, seems to have been copied from Shanghai in the 30s.No need to guess, the owner is old school.

The current hostess of the Luo mansion, Ms. Luo Wanyi, the most famous entrepreneur in Hong Kong, is standing at the door of her third uncle, holding a cup of bird's nest with red dates, and knocking on his door regularly.

"Third Uncle, today you asked Brother Li to have dinner with you at noon. In the evening, you will celebrate your birthday with those uncles from Shanghai. Sister Yu is here today. She came back from the United States to see you. Are you thinking about her? Has it been many years. Wake up soon, please?"

She knocked again.

Seeing that no one answered, he turned around and handed the bird's nest cup to the maid, then twisted the doorknob hard and pushed the door open.

The veil hanging on the big bed fluttered as the door opened.

A very old man, who was very old but could be seen when he was young, was sleeping in the middle of the big bed with his eyes closed and his hands folded on his chest.

Seeing his chest rising and falling slightly, Xiaoxiao let out a sigh of relief, and ordered the servants to go out.

She turned and opened the heavy curtains, letting the sun shine into the room full of antiques and memories.She turned her head, looked at the sunlight shining in the room, turned around and sat on the side of the bed.

Rows of photos were densely packed on the cabinets on both sides of the big bed.

From black and white to color, the time has spanned about 50 years, and most of the photos have faded and turned yellow due to the baptism of time.

Looking from left to right, the first photo is the third uncle.

He was wearing the most popular plaid suit at that time, with his hands behind his back and a gentle smile.

The third uncle was really beautiful when he was young, no wonder she liked him more than her father when she was young.

Dad always has a straight face, but third uncle is always smiling.

When she was alive, the little grandma often said that the third uncle didn't wear glasses at first, and I don't know why he put them on one day, and then he couldn't take them off for the rest of his life.

——Look, this is reading stupidly, you can't do this.

It’s fine if he’s a boy, but you’re a big girl with a smile.The girl is from every family, and it doesn't look good with glasses.

We women rely on "eyebrows to express affection". Look at the singers on the stage, which ones don't have eyes that look like they have a puddle of water in their mouths?Wearing glasses becomes a dead eyeball.

After the little grandma finished speaking, she kept rolling her big eyes, which really made people feel like their souls would fly away.

Every time he mentioned this, Uncle San was always unconvinced, saying that he was only a high school student if he didn’t count the honorary doctorate certificate awarded to him by the University of Hong Kong later.Abao's academic qualifications are higher than his.Myopia has nothing to do with reading.

Then the little grandma would tease him, saying who made you admitted to St. John's University and didn't go to school. Now, except for her, a semi-literate person who can only sing and play, the lowest educated person in the family is you Xiaoxia!

Grandma didn't sing opera when she was in Shanghai, it is said that grandpa didn't like it.But didn't grandpa like the little grandma on the stage so he married her and became Mrs. Eight?

Xiaoxiao couldn't figure this out since she was a child.

Later, when I came to Hong Kong, my grandma didn't sing at first.

After my father passed away from lung cancer 20 years ago, my grandma suddenly became addicted to Yue opera again.

At that time, many Shanghainese came to Hong Kong, and they all liked to listen to Shaoxing opera.Many of them formed a "Xiangjiang Yue Opera Club" with their grandma, and gathered together every week to sing and rehearse operas.

The most numerous of them are retired saleswomen from Shimai Department Store. Many of them are sisters from the original "Spring Peach Class".

"Little Feiyan" sister, she will come to sing occasionally.But she is a busy person, and she doesn't have much time to play with everyone.

There is a special cloakroom in the Luo mansion, where the grandma puts her singing outfits.

If a Yue opera troupe from the mainland or a Shanghai opera troupe come to Hong Kong to perform, the little grandma will definitely bring her troupe friends to join in and express her lovesickness.

The Luo mansion at that time was much more lively than it is now.No matter when you come back, you will either hear the sound of babbling opera or the sound of mahjong.

The little grandma and the others from Shanghai don’t like playing mahjong with the wives in Guangdong.It is said that Guangdong mahjong and Shanghai mahjong are not the same thing at all, and they cannot be played together.We can't even talk together.

Yes, everyone says that as long as you walk to the Luo Mansion, you will feel like you have returned to old Shanghai.

The chefs in the Luo Mansion are cooks who can cook local dishes. Here you can eat authentic Yangchun noodles and chicken head rice water with eggs; the record player in the Luo Mansion is full of old Shanghai songs from the 30s and [-]s; Even the servants of the Luo mansion speak crisp Shanghai dialect, which is completely different from the Shunde girls invited outside.

The lively days didn’t last long. Once my grandma went out to watch a theater in the middle of the night. It was raining and the road was slippery. She accidentally fell down the steps of the theater and broke her tailbone.

Although he recovered very well later, the whole person lost the spirit of the past.I stopped listening to operas and playing mahjong.

One day, Xiaoxiao got up in the middle of the night and went downstairs to the kitchen to find water. Suddenly, she saw a white figure floating in the garden outside the window.

Through the moonlight, she could vaguely see that it was the little grandma wearing a full white lady costume and heavy makeup, singing "Broken Bridge" in the garden.

Think at the beginning,

Bridge Pavilion is beautiful in March,

When he saw Xu Lang, he fell in love with him.

I hope we will always be together in this life,

Be a pair of lovebirds in the same forest.

Xiaoxiao listened to operas with her grandma these years, and gradually understood some tricks in the operas.The little grandma sang one chant and three sighs that night, which was sad and moving.She sang better than when she rehearsed with the ladies before.

After that night, the little grandma's body became worse day by day.

At the end of the year, he died of illness.

The third uncle said that "Broken Bridge" was the most popular song that my grandmother sang when she came to Shanghai from Chenzhou to run the pier when she was 16 years old.

Grandpa fell in love with her after seeing Bai Suzhen, who was born and died for love, in "Broken Bridge" sung by grandma.

Xiaoxiao cried at that time, it turned out that grandma loved grandpa so much, and she had already forgotten what grandpa used to be like.

A few years later, Xiaoxiao suddenly remembered that the day when the little grandma sang "Broken Bridge" in the garden was her father's birthday in the lunar calendar...

The second photo was taken when my third uncle was 20 years old, standing at the gate of the newly built Shimai Department Store in Shanghai with Uncle Gu.

Although it is a black-and-white photo, the four characters of "Shimai Department Store" on the roof seem to be shining golden, which suddenly aroused Xiaoxiao's memories of the rooftop.

No one knows that the most famous rooftop playground in Shanghai was built by the third uncle to make her happy. On that night, she became a princess for one night.

It was that year that the third uncle, who was as talented as he was, opened the Universal Department Store that he was proud of all his life.

Some people say that it is because of the "Shimai Department Store" that there is a prosperous main road.

With the tall buildings rising from the ground, the "Tianwaitian" radio station, and the "Seven Heavens" restaurant-it is the beginning of all legends.

Shimai Department Store has suffered two catastrophes.

Once, there was a big fire in the early years, and Xiaoxiao only found out after hearing from his third uncle that it was the second uncle who married a Japanese wife who sent someone to do it.

It's really embarrassing for brothers to fight against the wall, but to resort to such means.

But then the second uncle also died, and the Japanese second sister-in-law, a few years after remarrying an Englishman, suddenly went crazy one day.Before the war started, she was sent back to Tokyo by the Tsubaki family, and it is unknown what happened now.

The second catastrophe was before the fall of Shanghai, when the top two floors of the department store were blown up by Japanese bombs.

Fortunately, because it was Uncle San’s birthday and it was meal time, the cafeteria provided birthday noodles with pork ribs as usual in previous years, and all employees of the company were invited to share.

The staff working on the sixth floor basically went to the cafeteria to eat noodles, so many people escaped unharmed.

Otherwise, it is really hard to imagine how many people will die that day.

She who was far away in Hong Kong at the time knew about it, and really wanted to fly directly to Shanghai to bring the third uncle and the others back to Hong Kong.

But after the third uncle sent his father and grandma back to Hong Kong, he resolutely decided to stay in Shanghai and mediate with the Japanese to the end.

In those few years, they lived in Hong Kong with great fear. The first thing they did when they opened the newspaper and the radio every day was to see what happened in Shanghai in the past two days.

Fortunately, just like what the third uncle said, he was very lucky and fateful. Not only did he rebuild Shimai Department Store and Qichongtian Hotel, but he also escaped various "appointment" requirements from the Japanese several times, which not only guaranteed Shimai The work of the old employees has maintained the national integrity.

She still can't imagine what kind of wisdom and courage the third uncle used to face all this.

The worst control group was the former owner of "Modern Department Store", Li Tianen.

He united with the Japanese, betrayed the interests of Chinese businessmen many times, and even acted as a minion when Shanghai fell.

After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, the government liquidated the Tongri traitors. This Li Tianen was the first to bear the brunt and was sentenced to be shot.

Except for the modern department store in Hong Kong, all the properties of the Li family in Shanghai and Guangzhou were confiscated.Master Li Zhaoye was getting old, and he was pissed off to death that night when he encountered the disaster of copying his home.

In the third photo, the person on it is not the third uncle this time, but a character dressed like a servant, who is also eighteen or nineteen years old, and smiles embarrassedly at the camera.

The restraint from the inside out can be felt even through the photos.

Xiaoxiao no longer has any impression of him, only remembering that when she was very young, there was indeed a boy called "A Le" by her third uncle's side.

Later, he may have made a mistake and was taken back to his hometown in Chongming by his family.

Speaking of Chongming Island, she remembered the first time she met Uncle Gu, on the boat that was going to Chongming with her third uncle.She was lost at that time, and Uncle Gu, who was still the principal at the time, sent her back to the third uncle.

It was such a fun summer.The third uncle took her to run wildly on the beach. They dug crabs and took a walk in the forest.The kind of happy days like a wild horse that has run free may only be experienced in a dream.

Since returning from the island that time, she has never been to Chongming Island again.I don't know if the "Yingzhou Xiaozhu" on the island is still there? Is the elementary school opposite "Yingzhou Xiaozhu" still there?

When the Japanese attacked Shanghai, the government forcibly confiscated three [-]-ton cruise ships from the Luo family in front of the waters of Chongming Island. They used the method of self-sinking to block the waterway to prevent Japanese ships from landing on the mainland of Shanghai.All crew members on board died for their country.

However, Chongming fell because of this. The Japanese army burned and killed the island, turning it into a piece of scorched earth for a radius of ten miles.

The fourth photo is Uncle Liang Shaolong who is dressed so handsomely that he is about to fly, hugging Brother Li Ye who looks reluctant.The background is the atrium on the first floor of Shanghai Shimai Department Store. In the photo, the words "new products for autumn and winter" can be vaguely seen on the wall.

This photo should have been taken during the first fashion show of Shimai Department Store. The American bomber jacket worn by Uncle Liang was popular in Shanghai back then.

Since then, Uncle Liang Shaolong has had the stage name of "Flying Dragon", and from time to time, he has appeared as a guest model in magazines of Times Mall, and even in movie advertisements.

It is said that Sister Yu signed up for the subsequent "Miss Shimai" beauty pageant because she was attracted by the handsome face of "Flying Dragon" and became a world-class star.

It's a pity that after filming two well-received and well-known movies, Sister Yu quit the film industry.Today, Sister Yu is already a successful female director.Her son Xiao Yuer also inherited his mother's business and became the exclusive director of Luo's S&M Entertainment Company. The martial arts film he shot became popular in the three places.

Speaking of which, Sister Yu has given birth to a grandson this year.She has long settled in the United States, and this time she came back specially to visit her third uncle.

In the years when the little grandma was there, she would come to the Luo Mansion to play mahjong with her during the filming breaks.Sometimes when I met Uncle Liang at home by chance, she would scream loudly, saying, "Feilong, you are the most handsome! Come and be the hero for me!"

Every time it can make everyone laugh forward and backward.

Uncle Liang Shaolong was indeed the most handsome man she had ever seen.

This is not to say that Uncle San is not as good-looking as him, but Uncle San and Uncle Gu are both gentle and elegant men.

Uncle Liang has been handsome since he was young, like a big star who has stepped down from a Hollywood movie in the United States.

With a bright smile, a fit body, and a sharpened facial line, he is like a god in Greek mythology.

It's a pity that after Uncle Liang came back from the battlefield, his health was not as good as before.

He had gunshot wounds and bomb wounds.The face that once broke the hearts of thousands of girls in Shanghai was also left with a scar that almost ran through the entire face because of the missile.

Although Uncle Liang said it was a man's medal, he looked indifferent, but he later passed away in his 50s. I have to say that these old injuries are the most important reason.

When he died, Brother Li seemed to be half dead.

During that time, if the third uncle hadn't taken Brother Li to the Luo mansion, accompanied and enlightened him every day, even more unfortunate things might have happened.

The third uncle told himself that Brother Li did this because of his brotherly love with Uncle Liang.

In fact, he really underestimated himself... She saw the relationship between Uncle Liang and Brother Li. The two of them, just like Third Uncle and Uncle Gu, were a pair of close lovers.

In fact, as long as you observe carefully, you can find that both Uncle Liang and Brother Li are wearing a gold wedding ring, and Third Uncle and Uncle Gu are also wearing rings of the same style on their fingers.

Their relationship may not be in the world, but these two couples are indeed the best couple she has seen in so many years.

They went through their teenage years together, spent the darkest and most painful days in their lives together, and in their later years, they lived together in Hong Kong for the elderly. Such a life, what can we ask for.

The fifth photo was taken at the entrance of Shimai Department Store in Hong Kong.

There are so many people in the photo this time.Dad, Grandma, Third Uncle, Uncle Gu, Uncle Liang, Brother Li, Aunt Fifth, and Abao are all there, and they are all in their prime.

There are also Sister Xiaofeiyan and Sister Yu who came to celebrate the [-]th anniversary of Shimai's opening in Hong Kong. Sister Xiaofeiyan brought her daughter, and Sister Yu brought her son.

The two little enemies were disrespected, and no one looked down on the other. Who knew that they would become in-laws later.

Of course, there was also herself, standing next to Ah Bao, with two long braids.

Xiaoxiao stroked her hair, now her temples are already frosty white.

"Third Uncle, get up, everyone is waiting for you."

She got up, squatted down beside the bed, and gently pushed the old man lying on the bed.

Luo Xiazhi slowly opened his eyes, as if he was not sure where he was.After more than ten seconds, he turned his eyes and looked at Xiaoxiao squatting beside the bed.

"I just had a dream."

There was a smile on the corner of his mouth, it should be a happy dream.

"I dreamed that your Uncle Gu came to play with me during lunch. You know, they are just a few turns away from Nanyang High School on our main road."

He said wistfully.

"We went to the bookstore on Fourth Avenue to buy books. He ordered "The Complete Works of Shakespeare" and waited for three months before we arrived in Shanghai. Later, we took the books and walked back to Shimai department store. He bought Xiaoxiao Coke and kept it for himself. One bottle, hand me a bottle. I said, are you confused, we both have diabetes, how can we still drink such sweet things?"

Luo Xiazhi lowered his eyelids, smiling a little lonely.

Only then did Xiaoxiao realize that her third uncle's eyelashes had already been stained with frost.

"He said, little fool, I'm only 30 years old now, how can I have diabetes...you're only 23 years old."

"Back then, your Uncle Gu was really pretty..."

Eyelashes trembling slightly, Luo Xiazhi sighed, lifted the quilt, and got out of bed.

The dream is over, it's time to get up.

"Third uncle, happy birthday."

She stood up with a smile on her arm.

Luo Xiazhi nodded, and tremblingly walked into the bathroom in the corner of the room.

The moment he turned to close the door, he caught a glimpse of the color photo taken on Gu Hanlin's [-]th birthday on the coffee table.

He is always in a long gown, no matter whether he is in Shanghai or Hong Kong.Even on the day of the burial, he was still wearing the long gown that Xiaoxiao specially invited a tailor from Shanghai to make...

"Xia Zhi, happy birthday."

The kind old man in the photo seems to be saying so.

The author has something to say: This episode is written from the perspective of Xiaoxiao, and there will be another episode in the evening, which is written from the perspective of Rorschach 100 years later.

See you tonight!

感谢在2020-12-0821:50:10~2020-12-0915:39:56期间为我投出霸王票或灌溉营养液的小天使哦~

Thanks to the little angel of irrigation nutrient solution: 20 bottles of purple mist;

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