In the 1960s and 1970s, on Wuyuan Road, a rare street in Shanghai's Xuhui District, there was a garage converted into a room. Next to it is a septic tank and across the road is a wet market.
In such a dirty and noisy environment, I often see a woman who is neatly dressed and elegant. Or look somewhere in a daze, or take a cigar in your hand and occasionally spit out a smoke ring in your mouth.
The woman's eyebrows were soft and gave people a feeling of awe-inspiring inviolability. Such a contradictory combination made pedestrians and cars passing by her seem to slow down.
Who would have thought that the proud-looking but not very well-dressed woman in front of them was Sheng Aiyi, the founder of the Paramount Ballroom, the "first music house in the Far East" that moved all of Shanghai and even all of China.
She looked so cold, and she didn't really look down on anyone, but she did this to everyone. Even if Song Ziwen, who was the "vice president of the Executive Yuan of the Republic of China (equivalent to the current vice president of the State Council)", stood in front of her, she did not pretend to turn her head and leave.
What is the origin of this sheng aiyi?
In 1917, Song Ziwen returned to China after completing his doctorate in the United States. Under the matchmaking of the eldest sister Song Xialing, he entered the Shanghai office of Hanyeping Company and served as the English secretary of General Manager Sheng Enyi.
HanYeping Company was founded by Sheng Xuanhuai, a famous politician of the Western affairs faction at the end of the Qing Dynasty.
Speaking of Sheng Xuanhuai, he is a "red-top businessman" who is even tougher than Hu Xueyan, and the titles imposed on his head are unknown, and the most commonly heard are "the father of Chinese industry", "the father of Chinese business" and "the father of China's higher education".
If this is not enough to explain the status of Shengjia Shengxuanhuai, then one more thing to mention: the first civilian joint-stock enterprise, the Steamship Merchants Bureau, was founded under the initiative of Li Hongzhang and the field operation of Sheng Xuanhuai.
When Song Ziwen returned to China, shortly after Sheng Xuanhuai's death, the manager of Han Yeping's company had just been changed to his fourth son, Sheng Enyi. Song Ziwen, on the other hand, had to report to this second ancestor every day.
Sheng Xuanhuai has a hand in doing business and being an official, but his adopted son is a top waste of firewood. Sheng Enyi has no self-consciousness of the leader of the family business, and every day he only cares about where to go to play; often he has just slept for a short time, the sky is bright, and Song Ziwen is coming to the door to report to him.
With more times like this, Song Ziwen became a regular visitor in the Sheng family's door, and also inadvertently met Sheng Aiyi for the first time in the Sheng family garden.
It is said that "young Fang Mu Shao Ai", Sheng Aiyi is such a picture of the water hibiscus, Song Ziwen can't help but fall in love with her.
At that time, the head of the family was Sheng Xuanhuai's step-wife, surnamed Zhuang. Although Madame Zhuang also liked Song Ziwen, a young and promising young man, she would not let the Seven Misses of the Sheng family beg to marry by the boy who appeared somewhere.
However, after some investigation, Lady Zhuang heard that Song Ziwen's father was a priest, so she no longer had any expectations for this family affair: What kind of priest of a foreign sect is similar to the witch way of the lower nine-stream jumping god, how can the Sheng family marry such a family?
Lady Zhuang acted violently, pressing Sheng Enyi and giving Song Ziwen a paper transfer order to go to Wuhan. Song Ziwen was full of grief and indignation, but had to bow his head and could only obediently leave.
But how can the feelings of young people be suppressed so easily? Song Ziwen, who had been in Wuhan for more than a year, finally bought a ferry ticket to return to Shanghai to meet Sheng Aiyi again.
Only in this way, Song Ziwen will be difficult to stay in HanYeping Company - the crime of trying to abduct the boss's sister, even if Sheng Enyi values him again, he can only endure the pain of dismissal.
It just so happened that Dr. Sun Yat-sen was in urgent need of talents to prepare for the establishment of a new government in Guangzhou, and the second sister, Song Qingling, sent several telegrams back in succession, hoping that Song Ziwen would come to help.
Song Ziwen hesitated again and again, looking for an opportunity to deliver news to Sheng Aiyi, hoping that she could follow her to Guangzhou.
But Song Ziwen only thought about the love between men and women, but ignored the Sheng family's teaching to their daughters as a family family: to marry is to run as a concubine. How could Miss Sheng Qi have taken this step?
Tangled again and again, Sheng Aiyi finally did not agree to Song Ziwen's request, but it was difficult to say the words of refusal, only handed him a bag of gold leaves, wishing him to show his grand plan and waiting for him to return in Shanghai.
Song Ziwen knew that his wish was difficult to repay, and he could only bear the bitterness of his heart: "This bag of gold leaves will be given to me by the bag Cheng Yi, and when I return to Shanghai, I will return it." ”
Song Ziwen left his sweetheart full of sorrow, but he did not know that Sheng Aiyi, who remained in Shanghai, was also uncomfortable. After the death of Mrs. Zhuang in September 1927, she saw the unbearable scene of brothers fighting for property, and Sheng Aiyi's pain reached its peak.
Sheng Enyi II was too able to spend money, and after spending all his inheritance, he also spent the inheritance of his inherited son, and then hit the idea of the ancestral property - he wanted to take out the confiscated inheritance for his own use and continue to spend.
After the sons of the Sheng family in the other two rooms discovered Sheng Enyi's plan, they did not think about how to stop it, but instead had a rogue face of "listening to the participant". In the end, it evolved into a faceless scene in which the three sons robbed the dead of money.
Sheng Aiyi was cold and cold, and originally did not pay attention to these.
But she has been deeply taught by her father since she was a child, and it is precisely from the inside that the family wants to be chaotic, and isn't what her brothers are doing now a sign that they are going to lose the family? Even more because he did not dare to leave with random people at that time, he spit on his timidity day after day.
So this time, Sheng Aiyi made a decision that shocked the beach: fight a lawsuit with her brothers and nephews to get back her share of the inheritance - since you said that the ancestral property can be divided, then as a daughter who has not yet left the cabinet, according to the law, I also have a share, so take out my share!
For a time, the pastimes after the tea and dinner in Shanghai were all the bad manners of Miss ShengJiaqi: the ugliness of the family should not be publicized, and the brother should be solved behind closed doors no matter how wrong he is.
But Sheng En was determined to fight the lawsuit, and she was cowardly once and did not want to do it again.
And the result of the lawsuit is also very gratifying: Sheng Aiyi got her share, and also helped Bamei win her share, and because of this lawsuit, she became a representative of the new women of the Republic of China.
Such a self is no longer the timid and cowardly Miss Sheng Qi, when Song Ziwen returns, he may be relieved, right?
Finally, in 1930, the situation in the country was stable, and Song Ziwen returned to Shanghai.
At this time, he was not only the vice president of the Executive Yuan of the Republic of China and had great power in his hands; he was also proud of his wife and unspeakable spring breeze.
Sheng Aiyi saw this heart-wrenching scene and turned his head and fell ill. After more than a year of lingering in the sickbed, his body just turned around, and he accepted the offer of his stepmother Mrs. Zhuang's mother's family; after marriage, he threw all the inheritance from the lawsuit into the preparation of the Paramount Ballroom.
Although Song Ziwen already had a family, he still had a longing for Sheng Aiyi, and many visits were blocked back, and finally he was led by the second ancestor Sheng Enyi, and wanted to have a light meal with Sheng Aiyi.
Unexpectedly, sheng aiyi saw Song Ziwen when he entered the door, and immediately got up to resign, bluntly saying that her husband at home was still waiting, so he left. Leaving Song Ziwen alone, he looked at the direction she was leaving at a loss.
Sheng Aiyi was asked about Song Ziwen privately, but he never had only one sentence: "He still owes me a bag of gold leaves and has not returned it..."
Looking at the tall and cold woman, it was really stupid: he owed you, let alone a bag of gold leaves.