20 years of the Republic of China

Chapter 695: Moon Shining on Fengtian (Final Chapter)
The moon rises over the eastern mountain, casting a furry faint glow, illuminating the world with clear and bright light.

Three huge round tables were set up in the courtyard, with seats and tableware prepared, delicious food displayed, and laughter everywhere, just waiting for the banquet to begin.

Normally, hiring a kitchen team to prepare a banquet should include providing meals, but the Jiang family has its own rules. After the dinner was ready, Song Ma gave extra tips as usual. After all the temporary helpers had left, Hu Xiaoyan and Xu Ruqing arrived one after another and sat down slowly beside the main seat.

The rest of the people stood in the yard one by one, all focused their eyes on the entrance of the mansion, stood with their hands hanging down, and waited quietly.

It was not until Jiang Lianheng walked out slowly that the brothers clasped their hands and shouted in unison: "Boss!"

Jiang Lianheng smiled, walked over to Hu Xiaoyan and sat down, waving his hand and said, "Everyone, please sit down. Today is a day off, so everyone can drink as much as they want!"

Everyone looked delighted, and quickly rushed to the table with laughter, sat down one by one, and drank happily.

Jiang Lianheng sat in the main seat, with Xu Ruqing on his left and Hu Xiaoyan on his right. Looking around the circle, they were naturally all close relatives of the Jiang family.

Not to mention Jiang Ya and Jiang Chengye, brother and sister, there are also Xue Yingqing, Zhao Guoyan, Wen Tingge, Zhang Zhengdong, Wang Zhengnan, Li Zhengxi, Zhao Zhengbei, Hai Xinnian, Sister Hua, and the sisters-in-law Cheng Fang and Guyu.

The whole family is harmonious, laughing and playing, and having fun.

After twenty years in the business world, thinking back to my original aspiration, all I wanted was to enjoy the present happiness.

The seats at the round table on the right were headed by Song Ma and Yingzi, both of whom had been long-term servants of the Jiang family. They were smart and hardworking, and they must have been in the Jiang family for nearly ten years. The master and servants took care of each other and never had any quarrels - they were not family, but better than family.

Song Ma and Yingzi were not young anymore, and they were in high spirits tonight. They drank two more glasses of wine, and their faces turned red, causing the other servants to tease and laugh at them.

The son of the Yuan family was also among them. He was not a servant, but was brought by Yingzi to satisfy his craving. After all, the Yuan couple both worked for the Jiang family, so they also got Hu Xiaoyan's permission.

The round table on the left was more lively. Within half an hour of the meal starting, three or two people were already starting to look drunk.

Looking up, I saw familiar faces sitting in the seats.

Yuan Xinfa, Chuanghu, Kang Zheng, Laodao, Laojie, Yang Lazi, Laoheer, Ligenleng, Lenggenli, Chang Laocai, Wan Dewei...

If you count them carefully, these people have either made great contributions to the Jiang family or done dirty things for the Jiang family and have blood on their hands. They can be regarded as the Jiang family's trusted generals. Although they are not conspicuous in this mansion, if they are taken out individually, they are all well-known figures in and outside the provincial capital.

But is it because of the Jiang family that they became prominent? Or is it because of them that the Jiang family became successful? This seems to be difficult to say clearly.

A tall building rises from the ground; every brick and tile serves as its foundation.

There are many more disciples of the Jiang family, but those who can spend the Mid-Autumn Festival with the host tonight and drink wine together have all, without exception, earned their status through their own efforts.

The brothers were drinking fiercely, noisily playing finger-guessing games and making circles, but Yuan Xinfa and a few others were the only ones who refused to drink.

It’s not that I don’t like to drink, but in this huge house, someone has to stay sober at all times.

Yuan Xinfa, as the "Jiang Family Door God", has quit drinking since he worshipped Jiang Lianheng. He never drinks on weekdays and only has a sip of wine during festivals. In total, he drinks less than half a tael of wine, and he stops drinking early before he can even taste the aroma of the wine.

The brothers knew that he had a heavy responsibility on his shoulders, so naturally no one dared to dissuade him.

Yang Lazi and Lao Jie met again after a long separation, and seemed to have endless things to say, so they poured all of it into the wine, one cup after another, sip after sip, without stopping for a moment.

Suddenly thinking of Lao Niu, they both burst into laughter and drank three cups of liquor. As they looked up and down, their intestines were filled with sorrow, from their throats to their lungs, which was really burning their hearts.

Chuang Hu sat among a group of strong men, feeling cramped and unable to stretch, so he huddled into a ball. He finally picked out a chicken leg, but before he could reach it, the chicken on the plate was gone just as his chopsticks were halfway in the air. Where could he find the leg?
Others "took care" of him, laughing and teasing him: "Brother Tiger, if you want to eat something that's out of reach, just tell me and I'll help you get it!"

"No need, I think you're dirty!"

Chuanghu rolled his eyes and muttered a few words under his breath, but he was unable to do anything, so he had to eat some of the food and wine in front of him.

This dinner was exceptionally lively.

After a while of enjoying the delicious food and wine, and feeling half full, they began to talk more and more.

One said you drank too much, the other said you were talking nonsense, neither of them would admit defeat, so they raised their hands to wipe the hot sweat from their foreheads and started drinking again.

The drunk man was unaware of the movement of the stars. Gradually, the full moon rose to mid-sky.

Everyone gradually became quieter and focused on eating the plump river crabs. They peeled open the crab shells, slurped the crab meat, savored it slowly, and smacked it carefully. Occasionally they drank a sip of liquor, talked some irrelevant nonsense to each other, and then burst into laughter for no apparent reason.

Although the evening breeze was a bit cold, I had a liquor in my stomach and my family was around me, so I felt warm in my heart.

In fact, everyone was quite emotional.

It has been ten years since the Jiang family opened their business. Although it has been generally smooth sailing, if you look into it carefully, you will find that it has not been smooth sailing or without danger.

A single thread cannot make a thread, and a single tree cannot make a forest.

The fact that the Jiang family has come this far is not only the result of the hard work of Jiang and Hu, but also the result of all the members of the family making the best use of their talents and resources.

After ten years of family business, everyone can say: Not easy!

Now he is famous, has no worries about food and clothing, is well-versed in both right and wrong, and has great power. Thinking back to the past of Gongjin, although we cannot compare them, the feeling and the high-spirited and cheerful mood are roughly the same.

The night deepens and the autumn is in full swing.

After finishing his meal, Chuanghu wiped his mouth and came over to ask, "Boss, I think it's almost time, shall we start the movie?"

Jiang Lianheng saw that everyone was already full and in high spirits, so he nodded and said, "Let's go! Ask a few people to go into the house and turn off the lights!" Everyone immediately got busy and moved the three round tables closer together.

Chuanghu and his men set up the curtain and placed the movie-playing machine; Song Ma and Yingzi got up and went back to the house and turned off the lights so that they could see the movie more clearly.

In a short while, the lights in the open space of the courtyard went out one by one.

However, the surroundings did not get much darker.

Only then did everyone realize that the full moon had risen to the zenith without them noticing.

The moon was bright and round, hanging in the sky above the Jiang family's residence. It was so close and so large that even the tiny spots on the moon's shadow could be seen clearly.

Jiang Lianheng pointed at the full moon and said jokingly with a smile: "Jiang Ya, look up, there is a toad on the moon!"

"Toad?" Jiang Ya looked at the shadow on the full moon and frowned in dissatisfaction. "What toad? Isn't that a rabbit?"

Xu Ruqing and Chuang Hu, some knowledgeable people, laughed and said, "Both the Jade Toad and the Jade Rabbit are correct. It is what it looks like."

Whether it's a toad or a rabbit, there are shadows anyway. You can call it anything. There's nothing wrong with it.

After all, it's just the reflection of the same thing in different eyes.

Jiang Ya was still looking up at the night sky, muttering to herself, "Don't they say 'the moon is fullest on the 16th and 15th'? I think it's quite round now, isn't it?"

Everyone says this, but no one has ever measured which day the moon is rounder. It's just an auspicious saying.

If we really want to be picky, perhaps we can call it "round but not full", but the so-called "great fullness is like emptiness" is also a kind of greed.

Soon, the projection screen was hung up and the movie-playing machine was ready.

Chuanghu himself served as the narrator, also known as the "film debater".

This is a relatively new profession, which specializes in introducing the background story and plot direction of silent films, and sometimes even requires one person to play two roles, bringing the dialogues in the film to life, just like the storytellers in Tuanchai. Excellent silent film commentators can often add a lot of color to the film by adding details.

Chuanghu was particularly serious and first picked a short film to get a feel for it.

After talking for more than ten minutes, he made everyone laugh so hard that they fell over, and they all praised him for being suitable for this job.

Chuang Hu shook his head and said, "This can only be considered a side job, and my skills are not good enough. Compared with my brother Lin Qi, I am still far behind!"

Hu Xiaoyan heard him mention Lin Qi's name twice, and she became curious. She couldn't help but ask, "Is he famous in this industry?"

"He's pretty famous in Harbin." Chuang Hu nodded and said, "My brother, nicknamed 'Wu Ming Juan', is born with a unique skill of imitating the speech of people, regardless of gender, age or young...well, women may not be so good at it, but imitating men's speech is as easy as pie, and his tone of voice is so realistic that everyone applauds when they hear him."

Hu Xiaoyan smiled and said, "Then he is indeed born to do this job."

"No, no, no!" Chuanghu said hurriedly, "Sister-in-law, you haven't seen his shadow puppet show. It's really amazing. The shadow puppets in his hands can..."

"That's enough, that's enough!" Seeing that he was talking endlessly, everyone hurriedly urged him, "There is no shadow play now, only movie plays, are you going to put it on?"

Chuanghu came to his senses, smiled slightly awkwardly, and then handed the movie list to his sister-in-law.

Hu Xiaoyan and others discussed for a while and then ordered the most popular movie.

Chuanghu did not dare to delay. He quickly found the movie film, placed it on the machine, and started to turn it gently.

The movie had not yet started and the curtain was still pale. As soon as the name of the movie popped up, his commentary began.

"This story happened more than 20 years ago. It was the end of winter at that time. The weather was freezing cold. The orphan on the earthen kang tossed and turned, unable to sleep at night..."

As Chuanghu narrated, the figure of the protagonist slowly emerged on the screen - it was a young man!
The curtain is rough and the characters cannot speak, so they present exaggerated movements unique to silent films, as if the whole person is trapped inside, and no matter how hard they scream, they can't make a sound.

Every frame is unstable, either jumping or misplaced. You need to stand farther away and squint your eyes to watch it so that the plot flows smoothly.

As the story unfolded, the house suddenly fell silent.

There was no other sound around except the "clicking" sound of the projector.

Jiang Lianheng and others gathered together tightly, watching the movie intently, their faces flickering, sometimes full of expectation, sometimes full of fear.

This was Hu Xiaoyan's first time watching a movie. She was filled with joy. When she saw the exciting parts, she exchanged a glance with Jiang Lianheng, then turned to look at Jiang Ya and smiled. She felt very satisfied and had no other expectations.

Although the rest of the people had different expressions, they all looked happy.

The so-called movie is nothing but an interweaving of light and shadow, projected on a snow-white curtain, depicting a series of grudges, love and hatred, and scenes of life and death. Even though we know it is a dream, we still cannot watch it that way, and then we feel mixed feelings of sadness and joy, and sigh with regret.

Although the film is short, it cuts off the beginning and the end, and only performs the most exciting chapters.

Only by concentrating fully can you avoid omissions.

Otherwise, once the camera turns, the next scene may be just a moment away, or it may be many years later...

——Volume 4·End——

(End of this chapter)