I wrote novels in the Republic of China

Zhang Zhuangmao goes home every week.

He didn't want to go back so often, but if he didn't go back, Mrs. Zhang would be unhappy.

In addition, Mrs. Zhang refused to give him the monthly living expenses in one lump sum, so he had to go back every week to get the money.

In the past, he always got up early and went home, but today, because a classmate told him that a new breakfast shop had opened in the concession and the breakfast there was very delicious, he went there with his classmates to have breakfast, and then walked around the neighborhood.

It was only at this moment that he came to take the tram, and then he saw Sang Jingyun getting off the tram.

Sang Jingyun was wearing old clothes and a straw hat. Her attire was very ordinary, but she was smiling very happily and was talking to a little girl.

Zhang Zhuangmao felt uncomfortable.

It would be fine if Sang Jingyun went to the county town to play, but why did he come to the concession?

Who is this little girl?
It happened that there were no classmates around today, so Zhang Zhuangmao asked.

Sang Jingyun recognized Zhang Zhuangmao, but for a moment, he couldn't even remember Zhang Zhuangmao's name.

After all, the original owner always called the other person Brother Zhang San, and never called him by his name.

"What does my coming to the concession have to do with you?" Sang Jingyun asked back.

Zhang Zhuangmao was a little angry when he heard Sang Jingyun's righteous question, but when he saw Sang Jingyun's pretty appearance, his anger disappeared for the most part.

Not only did he not visit Sang Jingyun for the past two months, he also asked Sang Jingyun to make clothes for him.

Sang Jingyun has never liked doing needlework, so she couldn't help getting angry.

Zhang Zhuangmao said earnestly, "You are getting married soon. It is not appropriate for you to go out alone without an elder to accompany you. Besides, it has only been two months since Master Sang passed away. You should stay at home to observe the mourning period and not run around."

The more Zhang Zhuangmao talked about it, the more he felt that this was the truth.

It was inappropriate for Sang Jingyun, a sixteen-year-old girl, to come to the concession without the guidance of her elders instead of staying at home.

If she really wanted to come to the concession to play, she could wait until they got married and he would bring her there.

Thinking about marrying Sang Jingyun, Zhang Zhuangmao's face turned red and he was excited.

Sang Jingyun felt that Zhang Zhuangmao was meddling too much: "You are so shameless, meddling in so many matters!"

These days, there are indeed very few young girls who come to the concession to play without the guidance of their elders.
But what does this have to do with Zhang Zhuangmao?
As for the matter of mourning... wealthy families are very strict about it, but it is not the case among the common people.

After Sang Yuanshan passed away, Sang Qianshi provided Sang Yuanshan with a bowl of rice every day, but their family still lived their lives as usual without any abstentions.

After the 57th day, after cooking something for Sang Yuanshan, they stopped offering him rice and the family went about their business.

It’s not that Sang Qianshi didn’t care about Sang Yuanshan. Not long ago, when Sang Yuanshan had been dead for two months, Sang Jingyun saw Sang Qianshi wiping tears and muttering that Sang Yuanshan left too early. If Sang Yuanshan had left two months later, life at home would have been better.

When Sang Yuanshan passed away, everyone in his family was very sad, but no matter how sad they were, the lives of the living were always more important than those of the dead.

In fact, a family like theirs is considered good.

The land around Shanghai is very fertile, productive and has high rents.

But because of this, land mergers are serious and most of the land is in the hands of large families. Many farmers have no land and can only rent land from large families to grow crops.

These farmers do not have land to bury their family members, and funerals cost a lot of money, so after a family member dies, they often choose to keep the coffin instead of burying it.

And this kind with a coffin is not the worst.

When people living in the shanties across the street died, they didn't even have coffins, so they had to rely on the body collection team to take their bodies away and bury them.

This is Shanghai. Nowadays, in some places where warlords are fighting each other, the situation is probably even worse.

How can ordinary people observe mourning?
Sang Jingyun's attitude was very bad, which made Zhang Zhuangmao very unhappy: "Sang Jingyun, how can you talk to me like this?"
No wonder his mother doesn’t like Sang Jingyun, Sang Jingyun has such a bad temper!
Sang Jingyun no longer wanted to pay attention to this meaningless person: "What's wrong with the people in your family? Just because you rent a house to my family, you all want to be the boss! Jingying, give him this month's rent, otherwise his mother will come to ask for it again. His family can rely on these two silver dollars to make a living."

Sang Jingying also disliked Zhang Zhuangmao, and immediately took out two silver dollars and gave them to Zhang Zhuangmao: "This is this month's rent, you can take it."

After saying that, Sang Jingying thought of something and looked at Shopkeeper Hong: "Grandpa Hong, I paid the rent, please be my witness, so that they won't default on the debt and come back to ask for it in a few days."

Zhang Zhuangmao, who had two silver dollars stuffed into his hand, was so angry that his face turned red when he heard what Sang Jingyun and Sang Jingying said. He also felt something was wrong: "What do you mean? My family is helping you so much, and you are still mocking me!"

Sang Jingyun said, "How did your family help us? My grandfather helped your father a lot in the past. After my family fell into decline, my grandfather left his connections to your father. But your father said in front of my grandfather that he would give us the house and the nearby land. But as soon as my grandfather left, he turned his back on us and asked your mother to come and chase us away."

People like to join in the fun.

After Zhang Zhuangmao and Sang Jingyun confronted each other, some passers-by stopped and stood to watch the fun.

At this time, Sang Jingyun spoke clearly and explained the grudge between him and Zhang Zhuangmao. Those people looked at Zhang Zhuangmao strangely.

Zhang Zhuangmao couldn't bear it any longer, and realized that a lot of the information he had received before was false, so he covered his face and left.

When Sang Jingyun saw him leave, he said to Shopkeeper Hong, "Grandpa Hong, let's go."

They left the station under the gaze of everyone. After they left, Hong Yue said, "Sister Sang, you are really amazing."
If she were the one being criticized, she would definitely be at a loss as to what to do and would not be able to blame others like Sang Jingyun did.

Hong Xu asked, "Sister Sang, who is that?"

Sang Jingying briefly told Hong Xu about Zhang Zhuangmao's identity, and Sang Jingyun asked Manager Hong whether they wanted to go shopping first or go directly to find Hong Yongxiang.

Shopkeeper Hong said, "Let's go find him first, and then take a look around."

The newspaper office was some distance from the station, so they called three rickshaws.

Sang Jingying and Hong Xu were in one car, Sang Jingyun and Hong Yue were in one car, and Manager Hong was alone in one car.

When they arrived at the editorial office of Shanghai Daily, the old man guarding the door saw Sang Jingyun and called out Hong Yongxiang loudly without saying anything.

"Dad, why are you here?" Hong Yongxiang felt nervous when he saw Manager Hong.

Could it be that his father came here specifically to urge him to get married?
Shopkeeper Hong saw through Hong Yongxiang's little thoughts and was unhappy: "Why, I can't come?"

"How could that be?" Hong Yongxiang smiled awkwardly.

Shopkeeper Hong said, "Ayue made some money and wanted to come to the concession to play, so I brought her here."

"Then you must have a good time, you can go to the movies." Hong Yongxiang suggested.

Hong Yue, Hong Xu and even Shopkeeper Hong had never seen the movie, they had only heard about it. They all became interested after hearing about it, and Sang Jingying was also looking forward to watching the movie.

Only Sang Jingyun was not very interested in movies at that time.

But there's no harm in going and taking a look.

Since his father had come to the concession, Hong Yongxiang couldn't just ignore it, so he asked for leave and prepared to take Manager Hong and others to tour the concession.

Since it was still early for lunch, they went to the movies first.

At that time, all movies were silent black-and-white films, with no sound and the screen was a large piece of white curtain.

The movie ticket costs twelve copper dollars, and children pay half price.

Among them, only Hong Xu was counted as a child, and the others all paid twelve copper coins.

Sang Jingying felt a little sorry for the money, but when the movie started, he didn't care about it and focused on watching the movie.

For someone who was watching a movie for the first time, the movie was so magical that he couldn't even blink.

Sang Jingyun noticed that not only were there people watching on the white curtain side, but there were also people on the other side watching the upside-down picture.

In short, this simple "cinema" was packed with people.

All this was quite new to her.

Sang Jingyun and the others had already forgotten about Zhang Zhuangmao, but at this moment, Zhang Zhuangmao felt as if the sky was falling.

He didn't want to believe what Sang Jingyun said, but he knew in his heart that Sang Jingyun was telling the truth.

If the Sang family really relied on their support to survive, Sang Jingyun would not have been so rude to him.

So, his parents had been lying to him?

He thought he had helped the Sang family a lot and preached in front of Sang Jingyun. How did Sang Jingyun view him at that time? Did he think of him as a fool?
Did his marriage with Sang Jingyun never happen at all?
But he told his classmates that Sang Jingyun was his fiancée... How would he face his classmates in the future?
Zhang Zhuangmao's life has always been smooth sailing.

What happened today really made him lose face, and he wanted to dig a hole and bury himself.

When the tram arrived at Shanghai County, Zhang Zhuangmao jumped off the train and ran home. When he got home and saw his mother, he shouted angrily, "Mom, why did you lie to me?"

Mother Zhang was stunned when she heard this.

Zhang Zhuangmao immediately said, "You and Dad never helped the Zhang family. You have been lying to me!"

In order to conceal this matter, Zhang's mother had done a lot of things. Now that she saw that Zhang Zhuangmao already knew the whole story, her heart was pounding, but she also breathed a sigh of relief: "We lied to you, weren't we doing it for your own good?"

Zhang Zhuangmao wanted to marry Sang Jingyun, so how could he think that this was for his own good? He immediately said something unpleasant: "For my own good? I think you are ungrateful!"

Mrs. Zhang's tears fell instantly, and for a moment she felt extremely miserable.

The two of them started arguing, and as they argued, they blurted out everything.

After learning that Sang Jingyun was very close to Hong Yongxiang and guessing the identity of the person who was with Sang Jingyun today, Zhang Zhuangmao also started crying.

The mother and son of the Zhang family were quarreling, but Fourth Master Zhang did not get involved at all. He was drinking and having fun with his lover, teasing his aging son.

In the concession, Sang Jingyun and his party watched a movie and then had dinner.

Because Hong Yue and Hong Xu wanted to eat Western food, but they couldn't get into a real Western restaurant and couldn't afford it, they went to eat fried pork chops again, but at a different restaurant.

There are no pre-prepared dishes at this time. If you go to another restaurant, the taste of the bread and pork chops will be very different.

Perhaps it was because his taste buds had never been poisoned by all kinds of heavy-tasting seasonings, Sang Jingyun felt that he could now appreciate the original taste of food.

The freshly baked bread was not soft because it did not contain any additives, but she found it very delicious.

The mushrooms in the soup were also delicious, not to mention the fried pork cutlet.

After dinner, Hong Yue said she wanted to go to Nancheng Bookstore.

Hong Yongxiang naturally would not refuse, and took them to the Nancheng Bookstore, and said to Hong Yue: "In addition to buying the Journey to the West comic book, you can also buy some other books to read."

Hong Yue nodded seriously.

At this time, Shopkeeper Hong suddenly said, "Yongxiang, Ayue is already talking about marriage, when are you going to get married?"

Shopkeeper Hong wanted to bring Sang Jingyun and Hong Yongxiang together, but Hong Yongxiang refused.

Later, he observed Sang Jingyun and realized that Sang Jingyun had no romantic feelings for his son. Seeing that Sang Jingyun made a lot of money by writing books, he gave up this plan.

If Sang Jingyun couldn't make money, she would have to get married in order to make a living.

If he persuaded her, Sang Jingyun might be willing to pursue his son actively.

Now that the girl has taken the initiative, his son will definitely be taken down!
But now that Sang Jingyun can earn money and doesn't need to marry to support herself, Manager Hong gave up his plan.

"Ayue is still young, why are you talking about marriage?" Hong Yongxiang was surprised.

Shopkeeper Hong said, "Many families get engaged when they are around ten years old. It's a bit late for Ayue to get married now. It's not easy to find a good family."

Hong Yongxiang felt that Hong Yue was still young and it was too early to decide on a lifelong relationship with her.

But he is only Hong Yue's uncle. If he speaks out to stop her and Hong Yue's life becomes difficult, he will probably be blamed.

Hong Yongxiang was in mixed feelings, and so was Sang Jingyun.

In her opinion, Hong Yue is still a child, so how could the Hong family arrange a marriage for her?

But she couldn't control this matter, and the Hong family wouldn't listen to her.

At this moment, Sang Jingyun felt somewhat fortunate that the Sang family had been in turmoil in the past two years, so no marriage had been arranged for her.

However, even if the marriage is arranged, if she doesn't like it, she will definitely find a way to refuse it.

Shopkeeper Hong did not mention Hong Yue again and began to urge Hong Yongxiang to get married.

Hong Yongxiang could only smile bitterly.

It’s not that he doesn’t want to get married, it’s just that he has always wanted to go out for a walk.

He wanted to leave Shanghai and visit the war-torn areas, and he also wanted to go abroad and see the outside world.

If they get married, he can't just abandon his wife and children and go out alone, but if he takes them away, he may not be able to protect his family.

On the way to Nancheng Bookstore, Sang Jingyun asked Hong Yue: "Ayue, after you finish painting Journey to the West, do you want to continue painting something else?"

Hong Yue was a little worried: "Will they let me paint?" "As long as you want to paint, you can always paint, Yue, it is important to have a skill to make money," Sang Jingyun said, "Just think about your parents' attitude towards you recently, and you will understand."

Hong Yue was slightly stunned.

The group soon arrived at Nancheng Bookstore.

There were still a lot of people in the bookstore, but half of them were underage boys.

This comic strip was novel for a while at first, but over time it returned to its essence.

After all, this is a book for children, and its target audience is children.

Sang Jingyun always bought five books before, to give to Hong Yue. But this time Hong Yue came by herself, so she only bought three of the new books.

Afterwards, she picked and bought some other books.

Ever since she bought "Water Margin" for Sang Jingying, Sang Jingying has been studying it carefully every day.

When she saw it, she also flipped through the book.

When she was in junior high school in her previous life, she had not yet been exposed to online literature and there were very few books she could read. She had also read the "Four Great Classical Novels".

She didn't finish reading "Dream of the Red Chamber", but she read "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" until the death of Zhuge Liang. However, she finished reading "Water Margin" and "Journey to the West".

But now, when she read it again, she realized that she had almost forgotten the content.

After graduating for many years, her ability to tell stories and write novels has improved, but she has forgotten a lot of other knowledge.

Sang Jingyun plans to read some books and arm himself with knowledge.

After reading through them, Sang Jingyun realized that he could not read classical Chinese and ended up buying only two magazines.

After she bought the book, she came out from the back of the bookstore with Hong Yongxiang and Fei Zhongxu.

When Sang Jingyun was selecting books, Hong Yongxiang went to find Fei Zhongxu and gave him the manuscripts and drawings they brought.

"I thought you would come to see me in the evening. Why are you here so early today?" Fei Zhongxu was a little curious.

Hong Yongxiang said: "My father brought my nephews and nieces to the concession to play, and I took them around."

"I see! I haven't seen your nephew and niece for several years. I must go and meet them this time." Fei Zhongxu said: "Your niece is very good, and the paintings she draws are very interesting."

Other people's comic strips list the characters and what they are doing, but Hong Yue's perspective is unique.

The characters in the book are also cutely drawn, and the female monsters are even prettier.

Hong Yongxiang brought Fei Zhongxu to Hong Yue and introduced them to each other.

Fei Zhongxu saw the chubby and childish Hong Yue with a kind expression on his face. He praised Hong Yue for her good painting skills and said that through Hong Yue's paintings, readers often look at the characters in the story from a unique perspective, which is different from other comic strips.

Hong Yue was very happy to hear the compliment and her eyes sparkled.

The reason why she paints like this is related to Sang Jingyun.
Sang Jingyun told her some things about painting and also explained what "storyboard" was. She then drew according to her own understanding.

As he was speaking, Fei Zhongxu saw Sang Jingyun.

He likes good-looking people, and Sang Jingyun fits his aesthetic very well, so every time he sees Sang Jingyun, he would go and say hello.

Seeing Sang Jingyun again today, Fei Zhongxu whispered to Hong Yue, "Hong Yue, that lady really likes your comic strips. Before, she was in our bookstore, recommending your comic strips to everyone."

After that, he turned to Hong Yongxiang and said, "That's the girl I told you about who really likes this comic strip. Is she pretty? Do you think she would agree if I invite her to dinner?"

Fei Zhongxu was just talking. If you really asked him to do something, he wouldn't dare to do it.

He had met this lady many times and she was very nice to him, but he never even asked her name, let alone invited her to dinner.

Hong Yongxiang said: "She will definitely agree."

Fei Zhongxu didn't understand.

At this time, Sang Jingyun walked towards them.

From a distance, she saw Fei Zhongxu and Hong Yongxiang talking in low voices and looking at her.

She thought the two were talking about her identity.

Sang Jingyun smiled at Fei Zhongxu and said, "Editor Fei, hello. I've always wanted to treat you to a meal. Are you free next Sunday at noon?"

Fei Zhongxu was stunned.

Sang Jingyun realized something was wrong. At this time, Hong Yongxiang said, "This is Miss Sang."

When Sang Jingyun heard this, he smiled at Fei Zhongxu again.

It was as if a strong wind was howling through Fei Zhongxu's heart.

The girl in front of me is Sang Jingyun?
Sang Jingyun, who wrote the comic strip "Journey to the West" and "The Two-Faced Demon King"?
Fei Zhongxu opened his mouth, and finally said woodenly: "I'm free next Sunday."

"Then I'll treat you to dinner when I come to the concession next week." Sang Jingyun said as he thought about giving Fei Zhongxu a gift.

There wasn't much in their house, except for Lu Ying's needlework.
But as an unmarried girl, it was not easy for her to give her needlework to others.

I'll go back today and ask Mrs. Sang Qian about what to buy.

Thinking of this, Sang Jingyun went to invite Hong Yongxiang again.

Hong Yongxiang knew that Sang Jingyun was not short of money now, so he agreed.

The group bought books at the Nancheng Bookstore and strolled around the area before returning to the county town, a little later than usual.

Sang Jingyun bought a big bag of rice cakes on the road and hurried towards Alan. From a distance, he saw Alan waiting at the door.

"Grandma Alan, we had something to do today, so we came late." Sang Jingyun said.

Alan smiled and said, "It's not too late."

Sang Jingyun gave Alan some rice cakes and asked about Alan's situation a few days ago.

Alan said, "Miss Yun, you should go back soon. It's getting late."

It was indeed getting late, so Sang Jingyun and Sang Jingying said goodbye to Alan and hurried home.

She has walked this road many times and is very familiar with it.

But today, while walking, Sang Jingyun suddenly heard chaotic footsteps.

Suddenly, a group of ragged children rushed towards them, bringing with them a strange and unpleasant smell.

While Sang Jingyun was stunned, someone reached out to pull the basket she was holding, and someone else tried to pull Sang Jingying's backpack.

Sang Jingyun knew very well that external objects were far less important than life, so he simply let go and allowed them to snatch the basket away.

Sang Jingying's backpack was difficult to get rid of.

However, the children cooperated well and quickly took out everything in his backpack, then dispersed.

As soon as these children left, a few of them came rushing over with farm tools in their hands. It was obvious that they were farmers living nearby.

Seeing them, these people asked with concern: "Are you okay?"

Someone else said, "Those outsiders have been coming here to steal things lately!"

"You should be more careful next time..."

……

After asking a few questions, Sang Jingyun found out that those children all lived in shanty towns.

The suburbs of Shanghai are densely populated, and they dare not come out to steal things during the day, but at night, they will run out in groups to steal farmers' crops, especially sweet potatoes.

The farmers had to arrange people to take turns to watch over the children. They once caught two children and beat them severely, but this did not stop the children's behavior.

This group of kids usually don't rob passers-by, but this time they robbed Sang Jingyun and Sang Jingying, probably because they felt that the two had little fighting power.

"You should go home quickly." The farmers asked Sang Jingyun and Sang Jingying to go home quickly. As for calling the police, they did not even mention it.

Sang Jingyun also knew that calling the police was useless.

They were not important people, and even if they went to find the police, it was impossible for the police to respond just because they were robbed by a group of kids.

The people from the Shanghai County Police Department might even extort some money from them.

So they can only blame themselves for their bad luck.

Fortunately, they had their money and banknotes on them, and the children did not search them, so the loss was not serious. All they lost was a bag of rice cakes, a gourd they used to hold water, and the comic books, newspapers and magazines they bought today.

The rice cakes and gourds were not valuable, but the books were not cheap, so Sang Jingying felt distressed: "It's ok for them to steal food, but why are they stealing books? They can't understand them!"

Sang Jingyun didn't say anything.

A group of skinny kids came to steal things, but this didn't make her angry. Instead, it made her feel depressed and uncomfortable.

"They are also very hungry." Sang Jingyun said.

Sang Jingying felt a little uncomfortable when she heard Sang Jingyun say this.

As soon as they got home, they smelled the fragrance of food.

In the shantytown, a group of children found an open space and counted the things they had stolen from Sang Jingyun and Sang Jingying in the moonlight.

The first thing they opened was the bag of rice cakes.

"This stuff smells so good!" A child about seven or eight years old rushed to grab it.

His hands were fiercely opened, and a boy of about twelve or thirteen said coldly: "You can't steal things! I'll divide it!"

As soon as the boy opened his mouth, the boy didn't dare to grab it anymore and waited eagerly for the boy to share it with them.

The boy was fair. He took out a knife without a handle, placed the rice cake on a brick and cut it, giving everyone a similar amount.

Rice flower cakes are made from popped rice and sugar and are originally very clean.

But now that they have done all this, it looks dirty.

But the children didn't care at all. They couldn't wait to stuff the rice cakes into their mouths and start chewing.

“It’s sweet.”

"Really delicious."

"I've never had anything so delicious."

……

They were talking at once, and some of them picked up the brick crumbs with their fingers and put the dirt on them into their mouths.

The leading boy ate his portion of rice cake and started looking at other things.

He simply put Sang Jingying's drinking gourd on his waist, and as for the others...

Seeing the pile of books, the children were particularly disappointed: "Why aren't they edible?"

"We can't understand these books, so we can only use them to start a fire."

"Brother Jiang, I'm so hungry..."

The young man in the lead was named Jiang Lai, and it was said that he was fished out of the river by someone.

He looked at the books and said, "What kind of fire can we start? Books are very expensive and can be sold for a lot of money!"

"How much can it sell for?" someone asked him.

Jiang Lai frowned and said, "It's worth saying that. It can be sold for at least ten cents!"
"So many..." Everyone was shocked.

"I will sell them tomorrow and use the money to buy broken rice to cook porridge!"

Everyone was looking forward to it.

They hadn't eaten anything today, and a small piece of rice cake didn't fill their stomachs, but made them even hungrier.

But thinking that I can have porridge tomorrow, I can hold on.

(End of this chapter)