Literary Heroes of the Republic of China

The owner of the grocery store sells fish, so he only gives the fish without packaging.

Mu Qiong didn't come out with a basket, so he could only walk back with half a deep-fried dough stick in one hand and the fish in the other.

He ate some batter in the morning, and he was already very hungry. In his eyes, the fried dough sticks in his hand became a tempting delicacy, which made him want to swallow it... But when he thought of Zhu Wanwan and Mu Changyu at home, he It's really embarrassing to eat alone.

It is autumn now, although the sun is not as harsh as in summer, it is still very sunny. The sunny bluestone road by the river is steaming, and when entering the shady alley, a cold air blows towards the face.

When Mu Qiong got home, he was dizzy and thirsty.

"Brother, you're back!" Mu Changyu was the first to see Mu Qiong.

Mu Qiong nodded to her, his smoldering voice made him not want to speak.

At this time, Mu Changyu saw what Mu Qiong was holding: "You stick! Bro, you bought fried sticks!"

When Mu Changyu looked at the fried dough sticks, both eyes lit up!

Seeing this, Mu Qiong was a little glad that he didn't eat the fried dough sticks.

"Eat it." Mu Qiong gave the half fried dough stick to Mu Changyu.

Mu Changyu was obviously very greedy, but he didn't eat half of the deep-fried dough stick. Instead, he said, "Brother, this deep-fried dough stick can make a bowl of soup at noon! There is also fish, we can save it for dinner!"

"You don't need to keep the salted fish until night, let's cook it now." Mu Qiong said: "It's very good for dinner, we can eat this piece for several meals, so don't save."

"Hmm!" Mu Changyu swallowed.

Mu Qiong smiled and asked again: "Is there any water?"

"Brother, are you thirsty? I'll get you water!" Mu Changyu ran into the house after speaking. After a while, he poured a bowl full of water for Mu Qiong and brought it over.

After drinking the water, Mu Qiong finally felt better, and gave Mu Changyu the salted fish.

Mu Changyu happily went to cook.

Seeing this scene, Zhu Wanwan disapproved a little: "Qiong'er, what are you doing buying fish? Does it cost a lot of money?"

"One copper dollar can buy a large piece." Mu Qiong said: "Mother, I didn't find a job at the dock. I want to go to the foreign concession in the afternoon."

"Going to the concession?" Zhu Wanwan was taken aback for a moment, then said again: "The concession... how do I get there?"

After Zhu Wanwan came to Shanghai, she didn't go out much, and she didn't know many things.

Mu Qiong had read some books before crossing, and knew some of the situation in the concession at this time, but he also didn't know how to get there: "I'll ask someone to find out."

After Mu Qiong finished drinking the water in his hand, he saw Aunt Zhao's husband, Zhao Changyuan, coming back with a rickshaw.

Aunt Zhao's family consists of five people, two husband and wife with three children.

Her husband pulls a rickshaw, the eldest daughter is a servant, the second son is an apprentice in a silk shop, and the youngest is also a son who studies in a nearby elementary school.

Aunt Zhao is very talkative, but her husband is a dull gourd. He only knows how to pull a cart every day, and his biggest hobby is to smoke a pack of shredded tobacco that is as big as a copper dollar with a long bong.

Pulling rickshaws had the best business in the morning and evening, so Zhao Changyuan would go home to eat at noon, take a nap, go out with dry food in the middle of the afternoon, and then pull the rickshaw until midnight.

Mu Qiong walked forward with a smile: "Uncle Zhao, I want to ask you something."

Zhao Changyuan parked the car and wiped his sweat with the towel around his neck.He didn't speak, just looked at Mu Qiong, motioning Mu Qiong to continue.

Mu Qiong asked: "Uncle Zhao, where is the concession? How do I get there?"

Zhao Changyuan pointed to the north: "The concession is there. Go west first when you go out, walk a section on the main road and go north, and you can take a tram after walking three miles."

From what Zhao Changyuan said, I knew that the concession is quite far from here... "Thank you, Uncle Zhao! Uncle Zhao, how much does it cost to take the tram?"

"Go to the French Concession for a copper dollar, and the French Concession to the British Concession for another copper dollar."

Mu Qiong wrote down Zhao Changyuan's words and thanked him again: "Uncle Zhao, thank you."

Zhao Changyuan didn't speak anymore, and went back to the house. At this time, a woman in her thirties who lived next door to Mu's house said sourly: "The family is too poor to cook, and they buy fish and fried dough sticks. , and go to the concession, tsk tsk!"

What she said was weird, Mu Qiong glanced at her, ignored her, and didn't think she was wrong.

He also knows to save money, but in his family's situation, it doesn't matter if he spends one more copper and one less. The most important thing is to open source.

In the end, he didn't speak, but Aunt Zhao, who was busy in the kitchen, turned on him: "Why, people are not allowed to eat a piece of fish? Your family is still in debt, why don't you still eat pork?"

The woman's expression froze, she snorted coldly and went back to her room.

"Thank you Aunt Zhao." Mu Qiong thanked Aunt Zhao.

"Thank you!" Aunt Zhao looked at Mu Qiong: "I just can't understand her! The family owes a debt, the house is all paid off, and I don't know how to work hard."

After Aunt Zhao finished speaking, she went to work again.

Her family also eats salted fish for lunch, in addition to a large piece of tofu, which is being stewed right now.She turned around and threw a handful of chopped pickles into the tofu. After a while, the pickled vegetable tofu was ready.

Mu Qiong is even hungry for tofu.

Because they had to cook salted fish, the Mu family ate lunch a bit late that day, but they ate very satisfyingly.

Mu Changyu wanted to use deep-fried dough sticks to make soup, but there was no extra bowl at home, so he chopped up half a deep-fried dough stick and threw it into the batter. In this way, the batter, which was originally clear and watery, immediately became fragrant.

As for the marinated salmon, not only the meat is tight, but also fish oil!Although it was very salty, Mu Qiong felt that he could chew it by himself.

Of course, he actually ate a small piece.

A family of three ate a lunch that cost less than two copper dollars, and you pushed me to let it go, and they felt very happy.

After dinner, Mu Qiong told about the need to take the tram to the concession, and said: "The concession is quite far away, I'm going there now, and I'll be back soon... Mom, I'll go tomorrow."

It's almost one o'clock in the afternoon now. I'm going to the concession at this time. I'm afraid it will be dark not long after arriving there.

What's more, he went out in the morning, and he was a little weak... Although Mu Qiong wanted to find a job, he still cared about his body.

"Alright. Qiong'er, just take your time looking for a job, don't worry." Zhu Wanwan said, and took out five copper coins to Mu Qiong: "You take this money to buy food by car..."

"Mother, no need, I still have more." Mu Qiong showed Zhu Wanwan his remaining two copper coins, and said, "Changyu will make me a pancake tomorrow, and I'll just take it with me for lunch."

"Why do you still have two copper coins?" Zhu Wanwan was surprised: "Didn't you buy fish and fried dough sticks?"

"The half fried dough stick was given to me by Sister Chunjuan." Mu Qiong told about meeting Zhao Chunjuan.

"It's only half a fried dough stick in total, and you still take it back..." Zhu Wanwan was a little touched.

Mu Changyu was also a little embarrassed. She felt that her brother must have eaten deep-fried dough sticks a long time ago. When serving batter, she purposely didn't put deep-fried dough sticks into her brother's bowl...

"Bring it back and everyone can taste it, how nice it is." Mu Qiong smiled: "Mother, I still have money, so you don't have to give it to me anymore."

"You don't bring much money when you go out, if there is an accident..." Zhu Wanwan insisted on giving the money to Mu Qiong.

Mu Qiong thought about it, and finally accepted the money.

After going out in the morning, Mu Qiong was already very tired, so he simply took a nap in the afternoon, and when he woke up again, he saw Zhu Wanwan counting copper coins excitedly.

Seeing that Mu Qiong woke up, Zhu Wanwan said: "Qiong'er, mother sent the clothes to the workers in the sand shipyard this afternoon, and got a total of twenty copper dollars."

Twenty copper coins are really few, but Mu Qiong is also excited at this moment: "Mother, let me buy a piece of tofu." The three members of their family are a little too thin now, and they should eat something nutritious.

Zhu Wanwan just accepted that her son wanted to eat tofu.

Tofu can be bought not far from home.

The tofu in the south is much tenderer than the tofu in the north. In fact, it is tofu nao. You can buy a large piece for a copper dollar. Mu Qiong didn't bring a basin, so he couldn't get it. In the end, he just bought a pound of dried tofu.

This dried tofu was similar to the old tofu in the north. Mu Qiong took it home and saw Mu Changyu making gnocchi.

Boil a can of gnocchi in a crock pot, then put in small pieces of dried tofu, put some salt, it is delicious with salted fish!

The family of three had another delicious meal.

Early the next morning, Mu Qiong went out at dawn.

Before going out, he drank a bowl of dried tofu boiled noodles, and brought a few pancakes wrapped in oiled paper in his arms.

The noodles are really just plain noodles. They don't have baking powder at home, and Zhu Wanwan and Mu Changyu don't want to beg for things, so they mixed the batter in the end. After Aunt Zhao used up her pot , I borrowed Aunt Zhao's pan, and spread out the pancakes without putting any oil.

This pancake is definitely not delicious, but it saves money anyway.

Mu Qiong walked against the cool autumn morning wind for about half an hour before arriving at the place where the tram stopped and got on the tram.

There was a conductor on the tram. He was a young man not much older than Mu Qiong. After learning of Mu Qiong's destination, he accepted a copper dollar from Mu Qiong.

Although it is early in the morning, there are many people in the tram, most of them are locals from Shanghai County, chatting in local dialect: "This is the tram..."

"I don't know what the concession is like."

"must be fun!"

"I heard that there is a new world playground opened in the concession, it's very fun."

"We are going to the New World Playground to play, are you going?"

"My child celebrates his birthday, and this time I took him to play."

……

Mu Qiong listened to them talking all the way, and found that for ordinary people outside the concession, going to the concession seems to be a very fashionable and very happy thing. If there is something worth celebrating, they will go there.

Whenever he has money, he will also take Zhu Wanwan and Mu Changyu to play.

The tram stopped at the French Concession, Mu Qiong got off the tram, and saw a world completely different from the alley where his Mu family lived.

The buildings here are all Western-style, the roads are spacious and very lively, and there are many shops along the roadside.

It was still early, and many shops were not open, but some were open. Mu Qiong walked all the way, and saw a group of people carrying an iron box at the door of a bank.

If there is no accident, the iron box should contain silver dollars.

Money is so heavy these days, it's hard to grab it...

Today's shops don't put up recruitment notices, so Mu Qiong can only ask by himself.

He followed into the bank and asked the shopkeeper behind the counter: "Hello shopkeeper, is your shop hiring?"

"No." The shopkeeper raised his eyelids and glanced at Mu Qiong, and said very simply.