84.

When Lin Hongwen returned to his residence after explaining the inspection to Zhou Shiying, it was already completely dark, but because of the snow, the streets were much brighter than usual. It was also a loss that it was brighter than usual, and when Feng Ping came out of the corner, Lin Hongwen was not frightened.

The two tacitly understood that no one squeaked, Lin Hongwen welcomed him into the house, boiled water, made tea, and then grabbed a handful of melon seeds and gave them to him, "The Russians have suffered a defeat, and it has become more and more peaceful recently, are you okay?" ”

Feng Ping shook his head, "Many troops have withdrawn from the front line, and there are many more garrisons in Harbin than before. ”

"I've heard that the Russians have killed several people in recent days?" Lin Hongwen asked.

"Yes, those things are brutes," Feng Ping said fiercely, "not to mention robbing money with guns, but also killing people." ”

Lin Hongwen stood up silently and gave him five hundred rubles, Feng Ping looked up at him in surprise, "Why are there so many?" ”

"If you give it to you, you will take it, and you will buy what you need," Lin Hongwen said.

Feng Ping took the money and sighed, "Brother Lin, I won't tell you, there are many Russian soldiers, and our situation is getting more and more difficult, and we still have you." Sometimes I think, if I am a single person, one day I will die and it will be just a straw mat and a grave. But I'm dragging my family, what if I die, what will I do if I call them two mothers? ”

"You have children?" Lin Hongwen asked with some surprise, "How old is it?" Boys and girls? ”

"Tao boy", Feng Ping said with a helpless smile, "The clever is clever, but the Tao is going to die." ”

Lin Hongwen thought for a while, reached out and took a three-layer food box sent by Yamada yesterday, "You can take this back and give it to him." ”

Feng Ping knew that the price was high as soon as he looked at the lacquer and pattern on the food box, "No, this can't be helped." ”

"It's not a rare thing, it's just some snacks," Lin Hongwen said, "I don't like to eat sweets given to me by others, and I'm afraid that I won't be able to finish it if I keep it." ”

Feng Ping carefully took the food box and said, "This snack must be delicious, you see that this box is so good-looking." ”

Lin Hongwen smiled and said: "This is lacquerware, after the dim sum is eaten, you can use it to hold other things." ”

Feng Ping nodded and said another word of thanks before leaving.

Lin Hongwen took a sip of tea, still thinking about the box of snacks in his heart. After the Russo-Japanese war, the Japanese trading houses were closed, but the Japanese did not completely withdraw, just like the trading houses in Yamada, which always leaked some light through the cracks in the door at night. In fact, as long as these Japanese people change their clothes according to the local customs, it is simply too simple to hide themselves among the Chinese.

However, in the past few days, the Japanese merchants on the streets of China seem to have appeared again, sending gifts to several trading houses, thinking that the Japanese army had won the battle in Lushun, and these Japanese merchants were about to reopen again. Lin Hongwen remembered He Guiba's friendship with the Japanese, and couldn't help but sigh again.

85.

The Japanese occupied Arthur, but the war was far from over. When he got up early, Lin Hongwen looked at the gray sky, and always felt as if it was going to snow again. On the bare branches stood a few crows with shiny coats, unsure of what they were looking at. Lin Hongwen grabbed the millet and scattered it on the ground, and didn't see if they had eaten it, so he turned around and left.

The shops that were later recovered were basically taken care of by him. It takes more than half a day to go around one by one, but fortunately, the business is prosperous, and it is not in vain that he has spent so much effort.

It was quite a peaceful day, and when Lin Hongwen returned to China Street, the sky was still bright. But as soon as he entered the shop, he found Xu Qingzhi sitting in it with his brows tightly locked, and he didn't know how hard he was working in his hands, but he saw that the pen was so shaky that he couldn't write at all.

"What's wrong?" Lin Hongwen glanced at the guys in the store.

"Don't mention it," said the man, "just now there was a bunch of Russians, with guns on their backs and an interpreter, who said they were going to raise the rent. ”

"What's the way to go up?" Lin Hongwen asked.

"They want to go up to 20 rubles per square meter", Xu Qingzhi was so angry that his voice trembled, "They just grabbed it!" ”

"That group of people is very horizontal, saying that from next year onwards, they will pay rent at 20 rubles per square meter, and if they don't pay, they won't be allowed to do business, and this will be the New Year soon, they are sincere and don't let people have a good New Year", the guy looked back at Xu Qingzhi after speaking, he only came to Hezhong Commercial Bank for a few months, but he also knew that Xu Qingzhi valued Lin Hongwen, so he muttered to Lin Hongwen in a low voice, "The boss is angry enough, you go and persuade him, otherwise I will be scared of my work." ”

Lin Hongwen nodded with a smile, took off his coat unhurriedly, and warmed his hands by leaning on the charcoal brazier. The shop pù on China Street was single-handedly run by Zhou Shiying. Lin Hongwen remembered that when he bought the land number, Zhou Shiying once showed him the number, which was about four or five rubles per square meter per year. It's only been two years, and it's going to rise to 20 rubles, so it's no wonder that Xu Qingzhi is like that.

Lin Hongwen walked over and rescued the pen from Xu Qingzhi's hand, "If you pinch it again, it will crack." ”

Xu Qingzhi glanced up at him, lowered his head and said angrily, "When Shi Ying bought the land number, it was obviously 4 rubles, and this was a voluntary agreement between the two parties, how could they unilaterally break the contract like this?" ”

Lin Hongwen patted the back of his hand, "What kind of rules and principles do you talk to a group of scum, if they understand this, they won't come in with guns on their backs." ”

Xu Qingzhi hated itchy, "Then what should I do?" Bear with it? ”

Lin Hongwen leaned closer and whispered, "Give as much as you want." ”

Xu Qingzhi turned his face to look at him in disbelief, Lin Hongwen's eyes were ruthless, but the corners of his mouth were slightly raised, "Don't worry, feng shui takes turns, and sooner or later you will find it back somewhere else." ”

Xu Qingzhi couldn't guess whether he was comforting himself or really had other plans, but at the moment there was no other way than to give money. Even if I bought two hands from Vincent. Guns are also impossible to use with two hands. Guns go against people's entire armies.

Lin Hongwen took Xu Qingzhi's pen and wrote two strokes on the paper, but found that the scraping paper was very bad, and the strokes were not as slender as before. On closer inspection, the tip of the pen is split. He raised his eyes and looked at Xu Qingzhi, who said helplessly, "I was so angry just now that I dropped my pen." ”

"You don't want you to give it to me", Lin Hongwen said bitterly, "Such a rare pen is too bad." ”

"It will be the same with a brush in the future," Xu Qingzhi said.

Lin Hongwen thought for a while and said, "I'll take this first, and take it to someone to see if it can be repaired." ”

Xu Qingzhi nodded, and went to the cabinet to turn over the pen, ink, paper, and inkstone. Lin Hongwen saw that there was a book on the table, so he reached out and took it, and the cover read "TheWanderingsofOisinandOtherPoems".

Or this collection of poems, Lin Hongwen thought, flipped through it casually, and turned to a poem called "AnOldSongRe-Sung", Lin Hongwen pondered for a while and asked Xu Qingzhi, "What does this mean?" ”

Xu Qingzhi took the brush and inkstone and looked down and said, "Old songs and new songs? ”

Lin Hongwen raised his eyebrows, "Sing and listen?" ”

Xu Qingzhi set up the inkstone and began to grind the ink, and said while grinding, "He only wrote the words, who knows what the tone is." ”

Lin Hongwen read a few lines of music, "It's still a love poem." ”

"When I was going to school over there, I thought it was quite catchy to read, so I bought it," Xu Qingzhi said, "Why don't you read a few sentences?" See if your English has regressed? ”

"Then I have to see if there is anyone I don't know first", Lin Hongwen hastily looked up and down, asked Xu Qingzhi a few words, and then cleared his throat and began to read.

Downbythesalleygardens

MyloveandIdidmeet

Shepassedthesalleygardens

Withlittlesnow-whitefeet

Shebidmetakeloveeasy

Astheleavesgrowonthetree

ButIbeingyoungandfoolish

Withherwouldnotagree

Inafieldbytheriver

MyloveandIdidstand

Andonmyleaningshoulder

Shelaidhersnow-whitehand

Shebidmetakelifeeasy

Asthegrassgrowsontheweirs

ButIwasyoungandfoolish

AndnowI-mfulloftears①

Xu Qingzhi listened to him read for a long time without moving, and couldn't help but look up at him, "It's a good read, but there is no emotion." ”

"I don't quite understand", Lin Hongwen frowned and swept again, "The two people in front were so good, why did he cry so much that his face was full of tears in the end?" ”

"Maybe they separated later", Xu Qingzhi said, "Didn't our poems also say that this situation can be recalled, but it was already lost at that time." ”

Lin Hongwen nodded, looked down at the sentence "ButIwasyoungandfoolish, andnowI-mfulloftears", and closed the book of poems.

The two kept going until closing, and after returning to Fu's shop, Lin Hongwen decided to go to Drunken Rouge to see Ru Ting. It's been a busy time, and I haven't seen her for more than half a month. When Ru Ting saw him, she asked nervously, "Why are you here?" ”

Lin Hongwen smiled, "What's the matter, you don't want me to come?" ”

Ru Ting stretched out her hand and slapped him gently, "I heard that the Russian soldiers have killed several people recently, so you don't have to hang out at night." ”

Lin Hongwen said with an embarrassed face, "I don't come out to hang around, how can I come to see you?" ”

"I'm serious with you", Ru Ting looked stern, "Don't come out at night, what if something happens?" ”

"I think I've been very busy lately, and I haven't come to see you for more than half a month", Lin Hongwen said, "Since I still don't make you happy when I come, I'll just go back." ”

Lin Hongwen stood up and was about to go out, but Ru Ting grabbed his cuffs, "You are a person, you don't grow old but have a good temper!" By me, I wish you were coming every day. But what if something happens to you when you encounter a Russian soldier? I won't have a place to cry when the time comes! ”

Lin Hongwen was stunned by her, he originally thought that Ru Ting was the same as him, but she was just acting on the spot. Who knew that today's outing, but I saw a bit of sincerity.

"Love to go", Ru Ting angrily shook off Lin Hongwen's cuffs and leaned against the table to stop looking at him.

Lin Hongwen squatted down and stretched out his hand to brush her sideburns hair, "I also said that I have a good temper, and you are not much better." ”

Ru Ting pouted and said, "I'm not good for you." ”

"Got it", Lin Hongwen said, "I'm going to come in the future, try to come as early as possible, don't be angry." ”

Ru Ting smiled at this time, and pulled Lin Hongwen to the back room.

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(1) Downbythesalleygarden, a poem by the Irish poet William Butler Yeats, originally known as AnOld Song Re-Sung, collected in the collection of poems "The Wanderingsof of Oisinand Other Poems", published in 1889.