Chapter 3 First Arrival in Shanghai

One day, when I came home from the sea, a neighbor forwarded a letter, which was written by Li Gang. The letter said that Lin Lutuo helped him find an errand, and it happened that one of his distant relatives opened a grocery store in Shanghai, and the guy in the store quit his job because of something at home, so he asked Li Feng to go to Shanghai to do this job, including food and lodging, and the salary will be discussed later.

After reading the letter, he was overjoyed and quickly ran to his parents to tell him about it. The father said very decisively: "You can go, you don't have to worry about your brother's living expenses, I will take care of it with your mother." You just need to take care of yourself outside, keep to yourself, and don't cause trouble. The mother said, "My son is so sensible, how can he cause trouble? I and your father have no ability, so I have wronged you by letting you stay at home and work." Now that you have a way, you have to work hard and don't embarrass your brother's classmates. ”

Li Feng was like an arrow, and just after dinner, he packed his luggage. His mother helped him clean up together, and ironed the wrinkled ones in an enamel cup with hot water. In addition, some peanuts and broad beans were wrapped into a bag, and two pairs of cloth shoes with mille-feuille soles were made out of some old cloth overnight. My father didn't sleep that night, and he smoked a whole night with his dry pipe, and in the autumn night, he went out and out.

With the first rooster crow, Li Feng suddenly raised his body and hurriedly put on his clothes. The mother heard the sound of getting up and walked in. Sleepless all night made her look a little old after working hard. She put the oil lamp in her hand on the small table, took out a pair of cloth shoes tucked under her armpit, and said, "Come, put it on, and I have a pair in your package." Li Feng wiped the soles of his feet with his hands, put on his shoes with his bare feet, stood on the ground and stomped twice, and his feet felt soft and firm.

At this time, there were voices outside the window, and it turned out that several neighbors next door heard that Li Feng was going to Shanghai on an errand and came to see him off early in the morning. Several teenagers about the same age as Li Feng wanted to send him to the dock, and his mother had already cooked a pot of noodles and filled a big bowl for everyone, each with a poached egg in the bowl. After a while, everyone swallowed the noodles and poached eggs, picked up their luggage and walked out.

An aunt stuffed a dozen eggs into the package, and some stuffed dried dates. At that time, the material was so poor, and the folk customs were so simple, which made people sigh. Aunt Zhao said to Li Feng: "When you go out, you have to have a good time, and get a Shanghai wife back." Li Feng didn't answer, just lowered his head and smiled and walked out. At this time, his nose was very sour, so sour that even his eye sockets were sinned, as if he had been poured vinegar, and his throat seemed to be blocked by something, and he could not make a sound.

He walked straight away, for the first time in his life, away from his family, friends, neighbors, and parents who gave birth to him and raised him. After walking more than a dozen steps, he looked back, but did not see his mother, only to see his father staring straight at him, the dry tobacco pipe in his mouth was still in his mouth, the fire had been extinguished, but he was still smoking hard. He turned his head sharply, tears covering his face.

Boarding the ship to Shanghai, Li Feng had already suppressed the sadness of parting, he walked out of the cabin and stood on the bow of the ship. There are some waves on the sea, and white lines rise and fall in the distance, without stopping. The sky was so blue that one wished to be one with it. From time to time, a few unknown birds pass by in the sea, and they spread their long wings and fly freely. After a while, the blue water began to become cloudy, and a whistle could be heard faintly in the distance. After some time, the faint smoke at first became thick, and Li Feng couldn't help shouting: "Shanghai, I'm here!"

Shanghai is located at the mouth of the Yangtze River, a Huangpu River flows into the territory from the southwest, joins the Wusong River from Taihu Lake and turns northeast into the Yangtze River. The Huangpu River divides Shanghai into two parts, east and west, called Pudong and Puxi respectively. Shanghai's geographical location is very advantageous, it can travel from Wusongkou up the river to Nanjing, Wuhan, Chongqing and other important cities in China, and can also go directly to the East China Sea from Wusongkou.

Since the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal was silted up, gradually weakening the function of connecting the north and south waterways, Shanghai has assumed this function, thus connecting the inland areas along the Yangtze River with the eastern coastal provinces. Foreigners took a fancy to this area, and after the Opium War, Shanghai was designated as one of the five treaty ports. Over the decades, Shanghai became the Paris of the East, the richest place in China.

Li Feng stepped onto the dock with his luggage on his back, secretly reciting the address of the grocery store in his heart, identifying the general direction drawn on the letter, and walking in great strides. There are a lot of people on the road, and there are also many cars and rickshaws, and the road that is not spacious seems a little crowded. Li Feng tried to touch people as little as possible, because he had heard his brother say that some people have a great ability to steal things, and when they get close to people, that person doesn't feel anything, and the money on his body is gone. There are also some people who if you touch him, he will lie on the ground, crying out that his hands and feet will be broken, and he will pay for it. When you go out, you must pay attention to avoid this kind of person.

Li Feng didn't have the ability to burn his eyes, he didn't know which oncoming person was going to steal and which one was going to cheat, so he could only bow his head slightly, bend down slightly, and try his best to shrink his body to avoid others. Sometimes it's good to want to be a turtle, and you can protect yourself with your shell. But what if someone steps on the shell? Which one sticks out the limbs first, or does the head stick out first?

When I was thinking about it, I suddenly saw a house number, which turned out to be there. I saw that the grocery store was open to the south, with two floors and three front rooms. On the left is a side door for one person only, and on the right is what should be a row door, which is now removed. The whole house was full of goods, and it was full under the eaves. Only the door had a narrow passage to the past, and at the end of the passage there was a small door, and the curtain was nailed to the door frame, so that nothing could be seen, I think it was the kitchen and the staircase.

As soon as the thought turned, the curtain was lifted, and out came a man of forty or fifty years old, with hair slightly dyed with white frost, a pair of talented black mirror frames half-draped on the bridge of his nose, and through the eye pieces I could see a pair of businessman's shrewd eyes, medium height, slightly thin, wearing a gray sandwich gown.

When he saw Li Feng, a smile flashed on his face, and he said in Mandarin with a Shanghai accent: "Nong, what do you want?" Li Feng hurriedly laughed and said: "You are Uncle Zhao, I am Li Feng, and Brother Lin Lu introduced me to you to help." ”

It turned out that this person was a distant relative of Lin Lu, surnamed Zhao Jincai, which sounded homophonic to recruit wealth, and it seemed that the name given by his parents was completely consistent with the purpose of opening his shop now. His wife's name is Shen Suzhen, and she has the same name as the White Lady of the White Snake, but she has a different surname. The couple gave birth to two daughters, the eldest daughter is married, named Zhao Yingdi, her husband is a middle school teacher, named Ding Zhilei, and the younger daughter is one year younger than Li Feng, and she is studying in the middle school where her brother-in-law teaches, called Zhao Yingdi.

After listening to Li Feng's self-introduction, the smile on Zhao Jincai's face was like falling into a deep pool, without splashing the slightest splash. He said expressionlessly, "Oh, it's you." It's a lot of work here, can you afford it?" Li Feng put down his luggage. Straighten your waist and puff up your chest and say, "I have worked in this house since I was a child, and I will do whatever you say, and I can afford it." ”