Jin Xingzhen, formerly known as Lu Xingzhen, this little Lori just turned seven years old this year and is in the first grade of primary school in the Shanghai Public Concession.

Although in her short life, she has experienced many turmoil that ordinary people may not have in their lifetime, but she still feels very happy.

Regarding the days when she was still at the Lu family in Shenyang, Northeast China, three years ago, because she was too young, the impression left in her mind had become very blurred. I only vaguely remember that it was an old house with a deep courtyard, and there was a grandfather with a majestic appearance who liked to blow his beard and stare at him, a grandmother with a kind face but a sour speech, and a few servants whose names were no longer remembered...... Of course, the more impression is the mother who has been smiling gently.

The only regret is that there is a lack of a father at home...... Mom said that before Zhenzhen was born, her father had gone far, far away to earn "great wealth" for the family, and he would definitely come back with a lot of fun and delicious things in the future, and then prick Zhenzhen's face with his beard......

Well, I hope Dad can bring some delicious and fun things back for Zhenzhen, as for piercing his face with a beard...... The young Xingzhen thought.

However, Lu Xingzhen never waited for her father's return, but the terrible Japanese came, causing the whole family to flee in a hurry - I remember that night, in the midst of the earth-shattering artillery fire and explosions, her mother huddled in the carriage with her and shivered, for fear that her carriage would be overturned by a cannonball in the next moment...... And my grandmother couldn't cry all night, and she fainted several times from crying......

In this way, her mother, grandfather and grandmother took her away from her hometown in Shenyang, Northeast China. Following Zhang Shaoshuai's team retreated to Guannei, and continued south to Shanghai. She didn't know that she was going to run so far, just from the ugly faces of her relatives. You can detect that something is wrong.

Then, as soon as the family settled down in Shanghai and moved into a beautiful small bungalow, my grandfather and grandmother unfortunately fell seriously ill and passed away one after another. Just when her mother was busy with her grandparents' funeral, Lu Xingzhen's father, who had never met her. finally came back by ship from the United States, but instead of bringing any gifts to Lu Xingzhen, he sent a divorce agreement!

- Ruthless dad, don't want to be with your mother anymore! He's got a new wife outside!

Xiao Xingzhen still remembers when her mother received the divorce agreement. That kind of pale face that seemed like the sky was about to fall. In the next few days, my mother seemed to have a soul disorder, crazy and muddy all day long, crying and laughing for a while. Sometimes they smash things and curse people. Or say something that no one understands, and I won't play with Xingzhen anymore...... Looking at her mother's abnormal condition, Xiao Xingzhen, who felt very scared in her heart, could only find the only maid in the family, Zhang's mother, to complain. And Zhang's mother could only caress Xiao Xingzhen with pity, sighed and comforted, "There's no way!" Madame is also really miserable...... Let her cry for a few days, and when the grievances in her heart are finished, people will naturally get better......"

A few more days later. The mother seemed to finally pick herself up and untie the woman's bun in the mirror. The girl's hair was braided again. And Xiao Xingzhen's surname also changed from "Lu" to "Jin" - when she changed her name, her mother hugged her and cried again, "...... Zhenzhen, from now on, you will treat yourself as if you don't have this father! Even if we are divorced from a man, we can live! ”

Jin Xingzhen thought about it - in the past so many years, she had never seen her father once, and the life at home was still the same?

After that, my mother actually started to write articles, appeared in newspapers, printed books, and made a lot of money every month!

And the family's life in Shanghai is getting better and better, and from time to time some guests who are dressed up luxuriously and generously come to discuss some things in the article with their mother. Some people will smile and give her a small gift when they see Jin Xingzhen.

Well, although my mother seems to have become different from before since my father didn't want them, Jin Xingzhen thinks that such a mother is not bad.

- The original Aisin Jueluo. Although Chyna is literate, she has absolutely no literary talent. If there are any relatives and friends who have been familiar with her for many years, they will definitely be able to detect her changes and differences. However, at this time, Qina was on the run, and she had already cut off contact with her acquaintances in her hometown, and even the only maid around her was rehired after fleeing from the Northeast and entering the customs, so she was not afraid of goofs at all.

As for her only daughter Jin Xingzhen, although she is far more sensible than children of the same age, after all, she is just a few years old, and she would not think that there is such a thing as crossing in this world. Those who know a little bit of the inside story will even associate Qina's personality changes with the upheaval in the family, and let out a few sighs of pity at the same time...... Then, all the "anomalies" become very plausible......

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After life stabilized, in Jin Xingzhen's immature perspective, Shanghai was much more interesting than Shenyang.

-- The clanging of the tram passed slowly, and countless outsiders looked around in various accents, pointing at the towering spires of the bungalows on both sides; Under the red, green, and green neon lights, rickshaw drivers walking through the streets and alleys, and modern girls holding pet dogs; In the busy streets, huge colorful advertising pictures of Western beauties can be seen everywhere, and passers-by, no matter how rigid they are, will secretly look up at the blonde woman scratching their heads. Oriental advertisements were once a sight in Shanghai, but because the rejection of Japanese products was in full swing, the small stickers with folding fans and kimonos could only sneak on the walls of small alleys.

The ladies and ladies who wandered the streets of Shanghai did not wear coats and buns like those in Shenyang, but wore modified dresses or cheongsams with their heads permed. Although at this time there are still people who disdainfully claim that those wearing close-fitting cheongsam. Women who show their delicate curves are immoral. But with the popularity of various Shanghai films, these gorgeous cheongsams have finally become a fashion in China's major cities...... The bizarre combination of suit tie and cheongsam horse coat, high-heeled leather shoes and three-inch golden lotus era matching. It fully shows the fierce collision of Eastern and Western cultures in this era.

When playing with her peers, Jin Xingzhen's most envious and inferior self-esteem is: The girls in Shanghai are so beautiful and good at dressing up!

Yes, the girls in Shanghai are very good at dressing up. When she first moved to Shanghai, Jin Xingzhen didn't dare to look up at people when she went out - she felt that she was so rustic and embarrassed, and looked at those little girls her age, all wearing foreign dresses. He wore braids, curly hair, and shiny things around his ears and neck. It may look strange, but it is really beautiful......

In addition, there are many delicious things in Shanghai - all kinds of foreign sweets, colorful Western sodas. Four-way pastry delicacies...... Especially when it comes to birthdays every year. The cream cake that her mother ordered for her made Jin Xingzhen drool when she thought about it.

-- These are all things that she has never seen or tasted when she was in the Northeast. Well, she really likes it here.

Next, Jin Xingzhen is finally going to enter the school, which is a place she has never seen before, and boys and girls can actually go to school together. She had never seen so many boys in a room who were not her relatives, and they were sitting together.

And. There are a lot of things taught in school, and she can't understand a lot of what the teacher talks about in class, as well as the pictures of animals and landscapes that hang out, but just listening and watching, she vaguely feels that it is so powerful. In addition, being able to play games with so many children after class also made Jin Xingzhen, who is still a child, feel very happy.

What makes Jin Xingzhen feel even more amazing is that the young female teacher who taught Mandarin to her class in school is actually still a fan of her mother's books! She often took out a copy of "Water and Clouds" or "The Big Girl" during recess and read it with relish, and even wiped her tears while reading.

When Jin Xingzhen arrogantly mentioned in front of this teacher that her mother was the author of these two novels, the eyes of the Chinese teacher lit up all of a sudden, and she hurriedly stuffed the two novels into Jin Xingzhen's hands, wanting to ask her to ask her mother to sign the title page...... After that, Jin Xingzhen received more than a dozen entrustments of "asking for Teacher Qiong Yao's signature......

When it came time to visit her home, the female teacher even talked with her embarrassed mother for two hours.

So, with her mother's fame in the female literary world, Jin Xingzhen proudly became a little celebrity in school who can call the wind and rain.

In recent days, something even more interesting has happened: a new wave of guests has arrived, including men and women, old and young, and blonde foreigners...... Listening to my mother, they actually wanted to discuss with my mother to open a store and do business together!

Moreover, they are very kind to Jin Xingzhen, and one of them is a young uncle who wears glasses, and he brought a lot of delicious and fun things to Xingzhen...... Alas, it would be nice if he didn't like to touch his head so much-Jin Xingzhen thought as she bit her fingers.

――In order to please this little Lori, Wang Qiu not only bought a lot of mini rag dolls that were originally used as mobile phone pendants during his second official visit, but also made a few tin boxes with gorgeous appearances printed with cartoon patterns such as flowers, animals and fairies, and then collected some modern snacks that were relatively rare during the Republic of China, and unpacked them and put them in. These include Wangzi small steamed buns, Wangwang snow cakes, Dove chocolates, Shanghaojia potato chips, cookies, etc., and then put them together in a delicate basket, smiling and offering treasure to Jin Xingzhen.

This gift really made Jin Xingzhen very happy, not to mention more than 20 mini rag dolls with novel shapes, exquisite workmanship, and small size, just those colorful cartoon pattern tin boxes, she couldn't take her eyes off it. When she opened the lid and saw the kind of novelty that she had never tasted before, Jin Xingzhen was even more happy and was about to ripple.

- No way, children and women are born with a love of snacks, and little girls love snacks even more!

So, she immediately picked up a piece of snow cake that looked very tempting. I gently bit into it, and I was immediately fascinated by its taste!

Well, the dim sum sent by this young uncle surnamed Wang is really delicious. This crunchy "biscuit", with snowflake-like white frosting on top, is really crunchy and delicious when you bite into it; The fried potato chips are smeared with various flavors of condiments, and they are really delicious; There is also that fragrant "little steamed bun", God knows how it is made, and when you throw it into your mouth, it can be sweet from your tongue to your heart!

As for the kind of chocolate that looks very high-end, it melts in the mouth and has a silky texture. Let your mouth be filled with the sweet taste of chocolate and milk; And the cookies sprinkled with sugar are filled with an intoxicating rich flavor, and I can't bear to put them in my mouth!

Such a high-end and rare Western confectionery. After Jin Xingzhen tasted a piece of everything, she cherished it and hid it very much, and she didn't dare to eat more, a small steamed bun could be held in her mouth for a long time, and she was not willing to swallow it until it was completely soaked. These are not ordinary snacks such as candied fruit and sugar gourds. It's a high-end product that money may not be able to buy! Naturally, this little Lori was regarded as a baby.

It's a pity that it was after school the day before yesterday. A few female classmates came to their house to play. Jin Xingzhen didn't know why, and suddenly wanted to show off to her classmates in the small talk, so she took out these precious Western snacks and proudly boasted and shared them with everyone......

It's miserable, a bunch of gluttonous elementary school girls, seeing so many delicate and rare high-end dim sum, their eyes are really like a hungry wolf seeing fresh meat, and they immediately unceremoniously take a piece of you and I will take a piece. In the blink of an eye, these tin boxes were all turned upside down.

Because she received a basket of compliments, Jin Xingzhen didn't feel how sorry she was at the time. But after the classmates left happily. She looked at the empty food box stupidly, and found that her heart hurt so much - if these snacks were for herself, I am afraid that they would be able to enjoy them for a month. Who knew that it was only one afternoon now, and I was gobbled up by my classmates!

So, Jin Xingzhen pouted like this, and stayed up for a day without taste in her mouth, Zuihou still couldn't stand it after all, so she had to pull down her face and rush into the study, pestering her mother who was struggling to write and sell cuteness, and wanted her mother to help her beg those uncles and aunts to send some "high-end snacks" over. And Jin Qina, who was copying books and was dazzled, rolled her eyes tiredly, and then touched her pocket to give her a silver dollar, and asked Jin Xingzhen to go to the grocery store next door that Uncle Wang just opened today to pick it up for herself, "Buy whatever you want to eat"!

As a result, a moment later, Jin Xingzhen pinched a silver dollar and stood at the door of the grocery store next door to her house, looking at the crowd of rush buyers crowded and lined up, and couldn't help but be dumbfounded for a while...... After a long while, he stared at his round eyes and whispered to himself:

“…… Wow, Uncle Wang's grocery store business is so good! ”

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Although they didn't put out any rare treasures or anything like that, relying on a century of jishu differences and the overwhelming absolute advantage in price, the grocery store that Wang Qiu and his family ran in the Shanghai Public Concession was unusually hot from the beginning.

For example, the wholesale price of a tin thermos with a colorful flower pattern in modern China is only 30 yuan a piece, while in old Shanghai shops it is priced at one and a half silver dollars – the average price of even a bamboo-shelled thermos in Shanghai is between two and three oceans.

Then there's the brand new thermos gall, which costs only 5 yuan a piece in modern China and is priced at a silver dollar triangle in stores.

As for the cheaper plastic shell hot water bottle, because in the Republic of China era, many plastic products have not been widely used, rashly launched may be troublesome, and the bamboo shell hot water bottle has long been eliminated in modern times, even if there is a handicraft production, the price is high, so Wang Qiu they did not buy.

Automatic watches, at this time in Shanghai were sold for 140 yuan. Even second-hand goods can usually be sold for about a hundred silver dollars. The price of the modern stall mechanical watch that Wang Qiu and his family bought in modern China is about 100 yuan a piece, and the price in the store in old Shanghai is 10 yuan, which is still the lowest price in the city, but it is still several times the huge profit.

What's even more exaggerated is the all-metal small alarm clock with alarm clockwork, the cost price of the purchase is only ten yuan, and the price in the store is simply a piece of ocean...... As a result, these alarm clocks were snapped up almost as soon as they were launched. Wang Qiu's 100 alarm clocks were sold out in the blink of an eye.

In addition, in the small grocery store opened by Wang Qiu, there are also industrial products such as enamel teacups, basins, magnifying glasses, and telescopes, as well as deep-processed foods such as Wangzai's small steamed buns, Wangwang snow cakes, gold coin chocolates, and lumpy seaweed seasoning soup...... Although most of them were already in the Republican era, or could be manufactured, they far surpassed all commercial competitors in terms of cheapness - so they immediately sold like crazy...... (To be continued......)