The Beacon of Laiyang Metal

Chapter 7 First arrival in the "Magic City"

1930, Magic City, early spring.

It was a cold spring, and just the moment after traveling through time, Wei Yuan knew that even though he was fully prepared, he was still a little careless. At this moment, he was standing at the entrance of an unknown alley in confusion. It was just dawn, and most of the people on the street were people wearing short clothes. Dress up hurried pedestrians.

Although it is early spring, the chill has not abated. The biting north wind is mixed with raindrops, and the air you exhale is filled with white chill;

For Wei Yuan, who only wore a shirt and a casual suit jacket, this outfit obviously did not have much function in keeping out the cold and keeping warm.

At this moment, he was trembling all over and looking around, trying to find a place where he could temporarily shelter from the wind;

Fortunately, there is a stall on the side of the road not far from the alley entrance. Although the curtain erected as a screen looks crude, it is hard not to feel a sense of warmth from the stove firelight and water vapor emitted through the gaps in the screen.

He walked over quickly, and when he got closer, he saw that it was a Chaos vendor, with a pot of freshly cooked Chaos boiling on the stove.

Hello sir, please sit inside. There are pork buns and pan-fried buns. What would you like to eat? "

The stall owner in homespun Tsing Yi held a greasy rag in his hand and greeted him quickly.

Wei Yuan walked to the stall's chopping board, looked at the neatly stacked pan-fried buns that had not yet been taken out of the pot, and then looked at the cooked Chaos in the pot, and said to the boss: "Have a big bowl of Chaos and six pan-fried buns;

Okay, a big bowl of Chaos and six pan-fried buns. Sir, please sit inside and wait~~, the owner of the Chaos stall shouted and asked Wei Yuan to sit down at the empty table.

The stall is not big, with only three wooden square tables in total. There are four benches beside each table. There are already diners on two of the tables. Like the pedestrians on the street, they are also dressed in short clothes. From their conversation, it can be seen that He must be a stevedore at a nearby dock.

This shitty world is getting harder and harder. Not only are we being bullied by foreigners, but those gangs don’t regard us as human beings. A month’s wages for carrying goods at the dock is not enough to pay them head tax and protection fees. One of them is middle-aged. the man said.

Who says it's not the case? The boss of the Sun family next door to me heard that he didn't pay enough for the head tax last month. The ax gang came to the door and took away the daughter of the family. Boss Sun had two of his fingers chopped off by an axe. , that’s a miserable cry~
  Before leaving, the Ax Gang announced that if they don't pay in full next month, they will throw Boss Sun into the Huangpu River to feed the fish. Another person answered.

Wei Yuan couldn't help but chatted next to him: Doesn't the patrol room just ignore it?

Patrol room?
  hehe~~
  One of them sneered: Apart from trying to please foreigners, these black dogs have no time to care about our misery.

The Ax Gang had already cleaned up the patrol room from top to bottom, and even the stinky foot patrol on the street had a hand. The entire patrol room and the Ax Gang were almost wearing a pair of trousers.

Perhaps because of Wei Yuan's unusual attire, an older worker at the table opposite said to him: "To be honest, sir, it's not like our group has never found a patrol room before;
  The other party would either ignore them or ask them to go back and wait for notification. Sometimes when the trouble got louder, the Ax Gang would come to the house and threaten them. It was so hard to do the work at the dock. Who hasn't been severely beaten by gangs?

Even if someone was killed sometimes, they would just use a few low-level thugs to support the case. Within a few days, the patrol room would say there was insufficient evidence and let the person go.

Everyone is raising a family, so how dare you offend them again? In troubled times, human life is worse than that of a dog!

After speaking, there were no more words, and the atmosphere seemed a bit heavy.

When Wei Yuan heard this conversation, he felt as if his five-flavor bottle had been knocked over. Although there are various descriptions of the working people at the bottom of the "Old Devil's City" in later film and television works, they are not as direct and touching as his own personal experience. .

At this moment, he finally realized that in this old semi-colonial society, there was not only superficial indulgence but also a society in which people cannibalize people. While thinking about it, the wontons and pan-fried buns he asked for were brought to him;

Perhaps because he was so cold, Wei Yuan didn't care to speak. He picked up the big thick porcelain sea bowl and took a big sip of the chaotic hot soup. Suddenly a warm current spread from his mouth to his intestines and stomach. He let out a comfortable groan and felt the coldness all over his body. It dispersed quite a bit.

Then he picked up a fried bun with chopsticks. Hmm~ It tastes so good.
  The skin is thin, the filling is full, and the juice is overflowing. Compared with the pan-fried buns that I ate in the "Magic City" City God Temple Scenic Area in later generations, it is nothing like it.

While eating, Wei Yuan gave a thumbs up to the boss who was busy at the stove and shouted: "Your pan-fried buns are amazing~ It's so fragrant. At first glance, it looks like serious domestic pork."

The young man who was resting after eating Chaos on the side said happily, "Sir, you really know how to joke. Which pig in the world is not domesticated?"

Wei Yuanxin said, "People these days have never seen the large-scale feed pigs of later generations, let alone the synthetic pork produced by unscrupulous merchants using technology and ruthless methods. Isn't my complaint just nonsense?"

The older worker who had been talking to Wei Yuan pretended to be angry at the young man: "You are the only one with a poor mouth. You go to work when you are full. After saying that, you called the owner of the Chaos Stall to pay and leave.

老板快速数了一眼就随即道：一共5碗馄饨，每碗2分合计1角，30个生煎包合计1角5分，拢共惠承2角5分。

Wei Yuan couldn't help but lamented how cheap things are in this world. The 1 Yuan Yuan he bought online in later generations was 50 Yuan Yuanmei. Converted into this time and space, 1 dime is equal to 5 Yuan Yuanmei. The table next door ate 5 large bowls of Chaos plus 30 more. The pan-fried buns only cost 12.5 yuan.

Thinking of this, he stopped the stall owner who was about to collect the money and said: The meal money of these chefs will be counted in my account. After saying that, he took out a "Yuan Datou" from his pocket and handed it to the boss. .

The boss looked at the other diners hesitantly;

The older worker quickly waved his hand and said: Sir, you can’t do it, you can’t do it.
  You meet us by chance, so there is no reason for you to pay for a meal with us. Although we have to work hard, we still have to have the integrity to be human, and we cannot let you spend money for nothing!
  Wei Yuan stood up and said with a smile: Friends are what you depend on when you go out. Today we have just met. The money for a breakfast is not worth anything, so we just treat it as making friends.

Next time if I have the chance to invite you to have a drink together, seeing Wei Yuan say this, the older man will not be able to refuse again.

Instead, she cupped her hands at him and said: I am Wei Youtian from Huangpu River Pier 3. My co-workers call me Tian Lao Er;

Then he pointed to the other three companions and said, these are Han Dazhuang, Li Baoguo and Zhang Jinghan, who also work at Pier 3. If Mr. passes by in the future, he must remember to come to us and we can treat him to a drink.

I don’t know what to call you sir? Wei Yuan smiled and said: My surname is Wei, and my given name is the word "Yuan".

It turns out to be Mr. Wei! After saying this, several people bowed their hands to Wei Yuan one after another, exchanged greetings with each other, and then left.

Wei Yuan turned around and sat down, and asked the boss to add more wontons with more shrimp skin. He was really satisfied with the meal. The authentic local pork was full of flavor, and the purely natural wonton pork bone soup without any MSG was also very delicious.

Taking the change that the boss had given me, I looked at the sky and saw that it was getting brighter and there were more and more pedestrians on the street. Trams and rickshaws were coming and going, and the horns on the cars were honking and the pedestrians were noisy. Cigarette vendors and newsboys also start their day with a new livelihood.

Cigarettes~Cigarettes~Hardman, Lao Dao brand cigarettes
  Sell ​​newspapers, sell newspapers, Ta Kung Pao, Xinmin Evening News: Du Yuesheng, Boss Du was officially appointed as Director Hua of the Shanghai French Concession Public Affairs Bureau...
  Du Yuesheng. Wei Yuan murmured secretly when he heard the name.

After calling the newsboy to come over and buy a newspaper with news about Du Yuesheng, he called over a rickshaw that was working nearby and casually said: Go to the Peace Hotel.

(End of this chapter)