Novel Series: Liantang Fusheng - Legend of the Cheng Family of The Marquis of Fujian (179)
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【Released every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday】
179, more than a hundred years ago, Fuzhou's "Ten Mile Ocean Field"
It is said that on the day of the Mid-Autumn Festival in 1930, the mother of Gu Rare, a large family in Fuzhou Gong Lane and the owner of Guo, who operated goods from the north and south, found that most of her gold jewelry was missing, suspected that it was stolen by Sun Yibiao.
On that day, she did not show her face, according to the established plan, during the day to climb Wushi Mountain to incense, and at night to visit the lamp market in Nanhou Street.
The next day, Yi Biao was summoned to the house for interrogation.
At first, Yi Biao still wanted to pass the pass, deny it, and not admit it.
This is not going to happen.
His grandmother was not a vegetarian.
This home was propped up by this old lady.
Her husband died of tuberculosis when she was young, when her son Yi Yao (now Boss Guo) was just 10 years old. She also had 3 daughters, the youngest of whom was only 10 months old at the time and was still swaddling. She was a small-footed woman, buried her husband, and took over the north-south goods business run by her husband. She has calloused hands and feet, is diligent and thrifty, has a cold eyebrow to a thousand fingers, and dares to carry a thousand jun pressure on her shoulders. Not only did it keep this business, but it also developed and grew, making the Guo family's north-south goods business a giant in the north-south goods business on the ground in Fuzhou.
This, on the one hand, is that this woman is not simple. On the other hand, she has a strong foreign home (mother's house) as a backing.
How powerful is her homestead?
It is said that fuzhou Taijiang has a southwest to northeast direction of Shanghang Road, Shanghang Road to the south has a Xiahang Road that is also southwest to northeast, Xiahang Road to the south and another Zhongping Road that is also southwest to northeast, Zhongping Road to the south, is the Minjiang River. After this section of the Minjiang River continues eastward, it will reach Mawei and enter the sea from there.
These three roads, which run horizontally on the map and the neighborhoods around them, constitute Fuzhou's "Shangxiahang Area", or "Shuanghang District".
(Above: Upper and lower Hang location map.) ）
The Shuanghang area is located on the minjiang river and was historically a large shipping dock. Since the Ming Dynasty, the Shuanghang area has gradually developed into a commercial center of Fuzhou, and from the Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China, it is a commodity distribution center that radiates the whole province and communicates at home and abroad.
Among them, Zhongping Road is known as Fuzhou's "Ten Mile Ocean Field".
The "Ten Mile Ocean Field" is in Shanghai, specifically the Anglo-American concession on the Bund, with a length of about 10 miles.
But Zhongping Road is not 10 miles, not as big as the British and American concessions on the Bund. I measured it with an online map, from the west entrance of Zhongping Road to the east entrance, only 800 meters.
Although it is not as long as ten miles, the ocean field is a complete ocean field.
The so-called foreign field, Western-style buildings, foreigners, foreign companies, foreign goods, foreign goods, foreign things gathering place.
After the "five ports of trade" all the way to the Republic of China, Zhongping Road is a gathering place for western-style buildings, foreigners, foreign companies, foreign goods, and foreign things. There are many western-style buildings, and foreigners and foreign goods and foreign things are everywhere.
No. 65 Zhongping Road is now Zhongping Hostel, which was the "Guest Restaurant" more than a hundred years ago, the first Western restaurant in Fuzhou.
The lights are red and green, the paper is drunk and golden, and the white noodle house is naturally indispensable. White-faced houses are not white-faced, they are brothels. Fuzhou people call prostitutes white-faced, and prostitutes call white-faced brothers. Then, the place to do this kind of work is, of course, the white-faced house.
Next door to the aforementioned Western restaurant "Guest Western Restaurant", there is a three-storey green brick building, which was the "first-class" white-faced house in the "Shili Yangchang" on Zhongping Road at that time, known as "New Ziluan". "First class" is the rating given to it by the government, which is the highest level rating. It is said that even Lin Shu, a master translator who did not know foreign languages, had patronized Xinziluan.
(Above: More than 100 years ago, the site of Baimiancuo New Ziluan is now numbered No. 61 Zhongping Road.) ）
The owner of this new Ziluan was first the father of Yi Biao's grandmother, then the eldest brother of Yi Biao's grandmother, and in the 1930s, he was the nephew of Yi Biao's grandmother, that is, the cousin of Yi Biao's father Yi Yao, and was considered to be Yi Biao's own cousin.
Yi Biao's grandmother's mother's family also owned another "first-class" white-faced house in the "Ten Mile Ocean Field", "Apricot Blossom Day". This white-faced house is not on Zhongping Road, but on Oxbow Street. Niu Bow Street went a little north in the middle of Zhongping Road, on the east side of present-day Longping Road. Niugong Street was the famous "Qinglou Street" in Fuzhou at that time, in today's terms, it was a red light district, full of white-faced houses.
The people who open the white noodle house are all black and white all-you-can-eat masters. Yi Biao's grandmother has such a foreign house (mother's family) as a backing, so that orphans and widows will not be bullied.
(Above: Fuzhou Taijiang Zhongping Hotel, former guest restaurant.) ）
In 1930, Yi Biao's grandmother was more than 70 years old, deaf and blind, ma ma li li, all things were taken care of by herself, even combing her hair was combed by herself, and she did not need the help of the maid at home. At that time, women were all combing buns, and their hands had to be stretched backwards to the back of their heads to tie their hair buns, but it was not as simple as today's "clear soup noodles".
Such a woman, eighteen or nineteen-year-old reading brother, rice to open his mouth to stretch out his hand, where is the opponent?
She leaned forward and stared at her tail grandson and said, "Yi Biao, come quickly, there are some things to talk about, and Yi Biao will find a way for Ru." If Ru ruo is a servant, I will ask Ru Qi's father to come, and Ru Qi's father will shoot Ru Boneless. "Tell Grandma something, Grandma will figure out a way for you." If you don't talk, I'll call your dad, and your dad will beat you boneless. Pat Ru Boneless = Break Your Bones.
Yi Biao repented bitterly and cried bitterly.
He wasn't afraid that his father would really "beat him bonelessly", he knew that his father would not do it, because the old lady in front of him would not let him. He remembered that when he was a child, he mischievously provoked his father, who first yelled at him and then viciously spanked him. Of course, he was crying heavily, but he didn't expect the grandmother beside him to cry too, and counted down her son and said, "Li Ru has a concubine or a concubine?" Ruhui sheng two 野本事是伓是? "You have a son, don't you?" You're going to have two sons, aren't you? Since then, his father has not beaten him, not even scolded.
Yi Biao lost his voice and cried bitterly at this moment because of remorse.
The loss of voice means that he can't control it and cries, but it is not as loud as crying. Yi Biao tried to restrain himself from being too loud. He was afraid of alarming a large group of children outside his grandmother's house.
The grandmother cried from him and took the hookah from the coffee table herself to smoke.
After smoking a pot of cigarettes, the grandmother spoke: "Go quietly, and cry." "Stop now, don't cry. Fuzhou people do not say "cry", only "cry". The same is true of the Jian'ou people. Jing, pronounced in Fuzhou dialect: sáng, "jing go" means to stop crying. The word "jing" is used in such a way that it is very "scientific". For there must be a sound in crying, otherwise it cannot be counted as crying, but only as tears.
Yi Biao was really ashamed, listening to his grandmother's orders to "go quiet", and he couldn't stop crying immediately, but he tried to suppress the voice, and the original cry with the sound turned into a sob of sucking and sobbing.
The grandmother continued to ask after what she had just said: "Tell me quickly, is my gold vessel taken away?" "Now let's talk about it, my gold is not something you take."
Yi Biao began to confess: "Yi Yan, it was I who took it." ”
In Fuzhou dialect, dig = take.
In fact, Yi Biao's behavior is not "digging" but "stealing", which is "stealing" in Fuzhou dialect. "Digging" and "stealing" are very different in nature.
Yi Biao is certainly reluctant to say that he "stole money".
The wonderful thing is that his grandmother did not say that he "stole it". In the whole process of interrogating The Grandson, the old lady did not use the word "steal" from beginning to end, but always used "dig". Except for the old lady who scolded Yi Biao in her heart when she first discovered that the gold jewelry was short, there was no more cruel scolding method, and any "defeat (loser)" and "thief" had never been used.
Why?
To maintain the self-esteem of the grandchildren. This is her grandchild, not someone else's grandchild. This young widowed woman who has struggled all her life is the helmsman, flag bearer, leader, and beacon light of this family. Every member of this family is her heart and liver baby, her life, and she will not give up any of them.
More importantly, maintain the dignity of this family. Our family is so rich, why should my grandson "steal"? It's just like Emperor Shun, marrying (taking) without telling. Mencius: Shun marries (take) without telling, "Yu Zhi ye". It's the same as telling. Yi Biao did not tell and "took it", "Yu Sue also", anyway, it is not "stealing".
Logically, the old lady should then ask Yi Biao what to do with the gold object. But the old lady didn't ask that. She asked Yi Biao to get up, go and open her jewelry, and said, "There are 3 pieces of paper in it, and Ru pulled it out." "There are 3 pieces of paper in it, and you take it out.
Yi Biao opened his grandmother's jewelry and took out the 3 pieces of paper, and saw that each piece of paper had a different word written on it, which was the grandmother's word, Wen Ya Juanxiu's thin gold body.