The entertainment tycoon of the Republic of China

Furong Street, Hankou, present theater.

Although the sinking of the Wenheng ship was aroused by the Japanese, the modern theater is still the most famous theater in Hankou, and the gate is still full of people.

Shopkeeper Liu has a habit of standing at the entrance of the theater when he is free, and greeting the guests coming and going. On the one hand, he can make contacts, and on the other hand, he can pass the time by hearing more new things.

Of course, he had heard about Er Shao Wen's matter, so he sent Li Quan to visit Wen's house, but he didn't see Xie Yan. Shopkeeper Liu knew that he might not be able to handle these things as a small shopkeeper. With Xie Yan's instructions, we can only run the theater well first.

"Yo, Mrs. He came so early today."

"Treasurer Wang has been missing for a few days."

"Mr. Chen, please come inside. Today, Mr. Shun is going to talk about the key to Yulongji. What a coincidence that you are here!"

……

Shopkeeper Liu cheerfully smiles when he meets everyone. Don’t look at it as simply saying hello, but he remembers the hobbies of all the regular customers. He speaks naturally and ironically, which instantly improves the mood of the guests. A skill that has been practiced.

Shopkeeper Liu had just exchanged a few words with a teacher when he suddenly saw a rickshaw coming from the other side of Furong Street from the corner of his eye, and his eyes lit up.

"That's... Mr. Xiao Xie?" The teacher followed his gaze.

While the two were talking, the rickshaw had already parked at the entrance of the presenter's theater. Xie Yan got out of the car, straightened the cloak on her body, and walked towards shopkeeper Liu.

"Ayan! You're here."

"Uncle Liu." Xie Yan nodded with a smile, no different than usual, shopkeeper Liu couldn't help muttering in his heart.

"Xiao Xie." Shopkeeper Liu didn't speak, and the teacher next to him spoke up.

"you are?"

"I used to be a teacher in the school, and I was recently hired to teach in a new-style school. When you went to the school to invigilate the exam with Principal Guan Cheng, we met once."

Xie Yan recalled it for a while, and matched the face of the person in front of him with his memory, "So it's Mr. Gu, are you here to listen to a play at the theater today?"

"I'm here to listen to the book. I really can't wait for others to learn about Yulong Ji. It just so happens that today I'm talking about the key point, so I came here by myself."

There is no sense of copyright in this era. When Mr. Shun talked about Hankou Romance before, some colleagues secretly learned it and said it. Now that Mr. Shun and the present theater are so famous, naturally more people learn it secretly.

Although ordinary theater tickets are not expensive, they are not affordable for ordinary people. The theater is closed, and there is no way to listen to books at the door like a teahouse. Therefore, many people want to listen to new books but are short of money. People who are not familiar with the story will wait for a day or two to listen to the storyteller who secretly learned the book. Although it is not as interesting as Mr. Shun, at least they can know the characters and plot.

Xie Yan knew that this was the norm in this era, and no one thought there was a problem, so she didn't say anything to this teacher Gu's previous behavior of listening to "piracy".

Moreover, this kind of "piracy" is not without benefits. Compared with Hankou and the whole of China, the audience that the current theater can accommodate is just a drop in the ocean. Spreading the story faster in this way is more beneficial to Xie Yan's follow-up plan .

In addition, Xie Yan is also very confident in Mr. Shun and the present theater. Look, isn't this teacher Gu being hooked into buying tickets himself?

"Teacher Gu likes Yulongji? It just so happens that Yulongji's novel is about to be serialized. I would like to ask Teacher Gu to write a short review and publish it together."

When Guan Cheng introduced him, he said that Mr. Gu likes to publish literary criticism in newspapers, not only in Hankou newspapers, but also in Shanghai newspapers. Get an early invite.

Teacher Gu didn't know that Xie Yan was the presenter, but Xie Yan being the owner of the presenter's theater must have a close relationship with the presenter, so he didn't suspect anything.

"As long as I can read Yulongji's novel in advance, it's not a problem for me to write a hundred articles! But Mr. Xie, is Yulongji's novel still published in the social newspaper? Why has there been no notice?"

"The Yulongji novel will be released in a brand new form, Teacher Gu will know when the time comes." Xie Yan bought a pass, then turned to tell shopkeeper Liu, "Uncle Liu, please make arrangements for Teacher Gu's tickets for the theater in the future." The money is free."

"What an embarrassment!" Mr. Gu waved his hands again and again. He was not really poor, but lived a frugal life and was reluctant to spend too much money on entertainment.

"I asked Mr. Gu to help me write a short review. How can I still listen to the book money? Isn't it too unreasonable?"

"Where is Mr. Xie, Yulong Ji is so brilliant, even if you don't mention it, I will recommend it to everyone. This free ticket is really deserved."

Seeing that he really insisted, Xie Yan decided to settle for the next best thing, "How about this, before Mr. Shun finished talking about Yulong Ji, your ticket price for listening to the book in Hankou Theater will be halved, so you must experience more personally when you write a review, don't you?"

This time, Teacher Gu didn't refuse any more, and chatted with Xie Yan again, and entered the theater under the leadership of Xiao Er arranged by shopkeeper Liu. Shopkeeper Liu explained a few words to the left and right, and went up to the third floor of the theater with Xie Yan.

The door of the lounge was guarded by Li Quan himself, shopkeeper Liu finally had the opportunity to be alone with Xie Yan, and expressed his worries and thoughts in the past two days.

"Wen Heng's matter is indeed the work of the Japanese and other foreigners. There was also an accident at Master's place this morning. Now that the theater is very popular, there will definitely be troubles coming to you. You need to be more prepared."

"This..." Shopkeeper Liu swallowed his saliva, "If it's an ordinary trouble, I can handle it with caution, but this matter has something to do with foreigners, I'm afraid that what they do, I, a commoner, can't solve it of."

"You can rest assured that although the Wen family is in chaos, Fang Xunxuan has not been overwhelmed. Foreigners will not challenge him directly on the border of Hankou, and they will not fight with real swords and guns. You should pay more attention to the theater. Tea and food, staring at those who want to touch porcelain, be careful of getting angry, if you feel that something is wrong, you can ask Li Quan to borrow someone from Wen's workshop. I made an agreement with Mrs. Wen before I came out. Li Quan studied in the workshop for a while The ability to do things is also reassuring.”

Shopkeeper Liu wrote down what Xie Yan said one by one, and still couldn't help looking at him frequently.

"Uncle Liu, is there anything else?"

"No, it's nothing, I was thinking about it." Shopkeeper Liu sneered, "You and Wen Ershao have such a good relationship on weekdays, I thought you would... I didn't expect you to be so powerful."

Xie Yan smiled, "Of course I have the emotions I should have, but if I can't get out, how can I be worthy of him?"

"Hey, it's good if you can figure it out. Although I don't understand big things, I can tell that the Japanese spread the word about Wen Ershao everywhere in Hankou. They must have no good intentions. They probably want us to mess ourselves up. Now you It is the backbone of the present theater, and it must not fall down."

Xie Yan turned her head and looked out the window. It snowed heavily in Hankou a few days ago. The snow on the road has not completely melted, and half of the glass windows are covered with thick frost. In this weather, how cold is the river in Sichuan?

"I understand."

"Sigh." Shopkeeper Liu sighed, remembering something, "By the way, you let me pay attention to Zhou Mama and Wednesday's matter, and there are clues."

……

Sichuan, Three Gorges.

The towering mountain walls are still as steep and magnificent as described by literati for thousands of years. The icy river is rolling and rushing, as if telling a story forgotten by time. In the slightly flat areas on both sides of the river, hundreds of trackers are shouting. Stepping on the gravel step by step, curious foreign photographers frequently exclaimed and recorded the images at this time for future generations with their cameras.

At lunch time, a few trackers took the black-faced pancakes they brought from home and sat down to eat and talk by the river.

"Xizi, Piaozi, have you heard that a boat sank in the Taiping River a few days ago."

"Foreigners' or our own?"

"It says it's our boat, but I don't know why, but it's full of foreigners fishing for it."

"What's the matter, it's probably the second devil's boat."

"Hey, not sure."

"Laozi, do you have any news?"

The young man named Piaozi was tall and thin, like a bamboo pole for a punting boat. He waved his hand and asked the people around him to sit closer before speaking in a low voice.

"I have a cousin who is doing fishing business nearby. When the accident happened at night, he heard gunshots vaguely, so he didn't dare to go out. The next day, a group of foreigners surrounded the place where the accident happened to prevent people from entering. I’ve been fishing for several days, so I guess I’m not looking for something, but looking for someone!”

"Really? Didn't the foreigners rob the ship? I'm a bitch, what kind of people are they looking for?"

"It's probably a big shot. Alas, anyway, it has nothing to do with ordinary people like us. I just hope that the water god will bless him, so that the person the foreigners are looking for can escape."

The job of the tracker was heavy and tiring. After a short chat, the foreman urged him with a whip.They could only finish eating the black-faced pancakes in their hands, wiped their hands and continued the repetitive coolie work.

"His grandma's, isn't she just giving her daughter to a foreigner as a concubine, and getting an easy job, what a bull!"

"It's really thanks to his ancestors!"

Several people cursed after the foreman walked away, but no matter how dissatisfied they were, they could not lose their jobs to support their families.

Tracking on both sides of the Three Gorges is a job that is always short of manpower. Because of the large number of people, long working hours, and no decent logistics support, trackers have accidents every day. The lucky ones break their arms and legs, and they can be carried back by their families to live on. If the bad one dies on the shore, he can only blame him for his bad life.

Anyway, the people have been struggling for a living these years, and there are new refugees joining the team of trackers everywhere. Compared to starving to death, doing coolies for a living is the best choice.

"Swallow, this rope is short of someone, help me." Xizi greeted a silent tracker.

Xizi is considered older among the trackers and has been working for a long time. Because there are a few young people in the family, she will take care of those who come out to work at a young age.

This swallow just arrived yesterday. He was dressed in ragged coarse clothes. Although his accent was Sichuan accent, he couldn't tell where he was. He probably fled from afar.Xizi saw that he was not very old, but he was strong, so he must be a good person for work. After getting acquainted, Xizi could take care of each other, so she took the initiative to chat with him a few more times.

Yanzi didn't talk much, maybe it was because of the fresh long wound on his face that made him not like to hang out in front of people. Just now when Xizi and the others were talking, he was also sitting beside him, but he didn't say a word.

Xizi knew that many of the people who fled here to work here had secrets in their hearts, so she didn't bother him, and only mentioned a few words when necessary, so that he wouldn't make a mistake.

Just as Xizi judged, Yanzi did have strength and worked very hard. With his help, the others felt a lot easier.

After an unknown amount of time, the boat on the other end of the rope finally passed the shore, and the trackers could breathe a little bit. At this moment, a man led by the foreman appeared.

"This is a newcomer, Xizi, give him instructions."

Everyone looked over together, and the person next to the foreman was dark and thin, his face was covered with ashes, and his hair was a mess. If the river wind was a little stronger, he might be blown away.

"Whose family's doll is this, I'm afraid I can't even lift the rope."

"Can he work?"

"It's like having consumption."

……

"That's enough, where do you talk so much? I said he can do the job, so don't force him here." The foreman cursed a few words, and then said to the person he brought, "Let's make a deal No wages, just food for you, but if you don’t do enough work, you don’t even want to eat, understand?”

After the foreman left, the trackers who were present inevitably scolded again. The foreman obviously wanted to be greedy for money, so he hired such a person who couldn't do the work.

The people brought by the foreman were not indignant, and chatted with the trackers around them naturally.

The new tracker named Little Cripple looked gray and inconspicuous, but he had a pair of black eyes that rolled around.

Xizi and the others naturally made friends with him and asked him to sit and rest together. The little cripple didn't refuse, and even took out half a pancake from his bosom to share with them.

Among the group of people, only Yanzi still didn't say anything, but when the little cripple and Xizi went to rest, they silently followed.

The sound of the waves bursts, non-stop.