Shanghai Embroidery Lady

Chapter 63
Ye Zijin showed the address to the driver, and the driver said while driving: "This alley is a bit remote, what is Miss Ye doing there?"

Ye Zijin put the note back into her handbag, "Go find someone."

"Oh..." The driver responded, and then concentrated on driving.

Along the way, the car was silent.Meng Haoxiang continued to read the newspaper, while Ye Zijin just looked out of the window.

After so many years, Beiping doesn't seem to have changed much.At the foot of the emperor and at the root of the imperial city, there will always be a lot of traffic and people.When passing the Forbidden City, Ye Zijin couldn't help being surprised.The imperial city was originally surrounded by four walls in the southeast, northwest, but now these walls have been demolished, and four new avenues have been built.

Ye Zijin asked the driver, "When was this wall demolished?"

The driver said in a sharp Beijing accent: "It was demolished a long time ago, it was demolished two years ago, only the south side is still left."

Ye Zijin sighed secretly, the old city wall had collapsed, and the Qing Dynasty had completely collapsed.The once mysterious and cold Forbidden City has now been stripped of its hard shell, and has been stained with a bit of life in the world. Only the red walls and golden tiles still retain the glory of the past.

The car drove slowly on the road, and when passing the vicissitudes of the Drum Tower, Ye Zijin felt inexplicably sad.When she was a child, when she couldn't sleep at night, Aunt Zhou would always whisper in her ear: "Go to sleep, the clock tower is striking, and Lady Zhu Zhong wants her embroidered shoe..."

However, after she learned the story of the lady who made the bell, she couldn't sleep even more. When she thought of the woman in the red coat, red trousers and embroidered red shoes who jumped into the furnace, the sound of the bell became horrifying to her. terrible...

These memories are like the spring breeze in Beiping, the warmth is mixed with a little bit of coldness.

Heh... this old city.Now it's reminiscing about the past, bustling and competing, sighing at the building outside the door, sorrow and hatred continue...

The car turned around and arrived at an alley, the driver stopped the car, and said to Ye Zijin: "This is it, Miss Ye, please be careful on the road."

After Ye Zijin thanked the driver, he also thanked Meng Haoxiang out of politeness.

Meng Haoxiang glanced sideways at the deep alley, and said, "You can go to the small teahouse at the intersection just now when you're done. I'll pick you up after I buy something."

Ye Zijin quickly responded: "No need, no need, I'll go back by myself in a rickshaw."

"Okay." Meng Haoxiang looked away and waved to the driver.

The car gradually disappeared at the end of the narrow street.

Ye Zijin followed the address on the paper to a house in the alley.She knocked lightly three times, and after a while, she heard footsteps approaching.

There was a "creak" sound from the wooden door, and a middle-aged man in a coarse old cotton robe opened the door and walked out, concealing the door with his backhand.

"Who are you looking for?" The middle-aged man asked coldly, his eyes were particularly sharp.

Ye Zijin was stunned for a moment, then realized that it was down to business, and said politely, "Do Shen Kang and Mr. Shen live here?"

"Which Mr. Shen? There is no such Mr. Shen here." The man frowned, folded his hands in front of his chest, tilted his head and looked at Ye Zijin a few times, suddenly slapped his forehead, and suddenly realized: "Oh, look at me This memory, come to think of it, the tenant who lived here used to have a surname Shen, but he moved away long ago."

Ye Zijin was a little disappointed, but this was also expected by her, after all, the letter was from four years ago.

The man changed his initial cold attitude, and said enthusiastically: "That Mr. Shen left me an address when he moved out. If you don't mind, I can take you there."

Ye Zijin was overjoyed, without thinking too much, thanked the man and let the man lead the way.

The middle-aged man walked in front, and Ye Zijin followed behind.Looking over at a glance, Ye Zijin only felt that the slightly bald back of the man's head was a bit funny.

The middle-aged man led her to turn left and right into another alley. The further she went down, Ye Zijin felt more and more that something was wrong. When she vaguely heard a woman's laughter coming from the yard, her back could not help but ooze. In a cold sweat, there is a brothel here!

She clenched her handbag tightly and observed her surroundings as she walked.The aisles of the alley were long and narrow, and if there were people betting at both ends, she would have nowhere to escape.

Ye Zijin saw that the middle-aged man in front hadn't looked back, and thought that if she didn't run away, she might be caught in the yard, so she took off her two thick-heeled leather shoes and held them in her hands as she walked.

Spotting a fork in the road, Ye Zijin didn't turn the corner with the man, but ran forward desperately.

The man found that Ye Zijin had escaped, cursed loudly, and shouted something, only to hear more footsteps behind him.Ye Zijin was looking for the exit of the alley in a panic, feeling like she had stepped into a complicated maze, and the countless fork roads dazzled her.

When she realized that she had run into a dead end, she was startled, and immediately turned around. Just as she stepped out, she couldn't help but step back step by step.

There were six people walking towards her in front of her, including a woman with a bloated round face.

Seeing those people approaching calmly, Ye Zijin touched something hard in the handbag while being nervous.She quickly took out a few oceans, held them up, and shouted at the group of people: "You let me go, and I'll give you money. If it's not enough, let me go back and I can give you more money."

The fat woman narrowed her eyes and smiled, "Tsk tsk tsk, you can enter the Qingyin class with this figure, girl, we don't want your money, I want you to earn money for us, you can earn a lot of money."

The fat woman's eyes were shining brightly, and her eyes were circling on Ye Zijin's body, as if she saw a cash cow.

Ye Zijin was running for a while, but now she stopped and felt hot all over, panting and staring at the group of people, but she was helpless for a moment.

"Don't come here!" Seeing them getting closer, Ye Zijin was panicked and angry, and threw two shoes towards the group of people.

The middle-aged man easily avoided the attack of the shoes, and a wicked smile appeared on the corner of his mouth.

Ye Zijin was forced to stick to the corner of the wall, she had no way out, she could only watch this group of people getting closer and closer.

Seeing Ye Zijin's resolute appearance of fighting to the end, the fat woman waved her hands to make the men behind her stop, but she walked up to Ye Zijin by herself, and said with a smile: "Girl, I advise you to follow along." , so as not to suffer some flesh and blood injuries. You can follow mom and me at ease, and I will guarantee you a great success, and I will make you a famous flower in Bada Hutong."

Ye Zijin had heard about Bada Hutong for a long time, it was a dirty place in Fireworks and Willow Lane, so it turned out that this group of people really ran a brothel.

Ye Zijin looked at the fat woman's gaudy smiling face, turned her head to one side in disgust, and said coldly: "You want me to earn money for you, yes, I can burn a few stacks of money for you."

Seeing that Ye Zijin refused to persuade the fat woman to eat oil and salt, the fat woman put away her smiling face and said viciously, "I've seen people like you a lot, but it's just a matter of being hungry and whipped a few times, so I tied them up and took them back home." !"

Several men were about to rush towards Ye Zijin, when they heard a shout from behind: "Stop!"

The moment Ye Zijin saw Meng Haoxiang, his heart suddenly fell back to the original place.

"If you don't want to die, get out." Meng Haoxiang was not polite, his eyes were pitch black, as deep as the night, hiding a faint murderous intent.

Seeing that Meng Haoxiang was alone, those strong men didn't take him seriously.The middle-aged man glanced at the man who suddenly jumped out, and said in a harsh tone: "I think you are looking for death." He rushed towards Meng Haoxiang with the other four people.

Meng Haoxiang's face was still indifferent, and he put his hand into his pocket calmly.Suddenly, those people froze in place as if they had been struck by lightning, not daring to take another step forward.

I saw Meng Haoxiang holding a pitch-black Browning gun in his hand, and only said one word coldly, "Get lost!"

Seeing that the man had a gun, the fat woman hurried forward and tugged at the middle-aged man's sleeve.A group of people timidly leaned against the wall, and ran away from Meng Haoxiang's gun as if fleeing for their lives.

Meng Haoxiang slowly put away the gun, glanced at Ye Zijin leaning against the corner of the wall, then bent down to pick up the two lonely shoes lying on the ground.Ye Zijin felt that this scene seemed familiar, when she was most embarrassed that time, he also picked up her shoes like this.

"Put it on." Meng Haoxiang walked over and put the shoes at her feet.

Ye Zijin moved her feet back and covered her legs with her handbag, not wanting Meng Haoxiang to pay attention to her feet.Meng Haoxiang turned his face away and stopped looking at her.Only then did Ye Zijin stretch out her feet to put them in the shoes.

After Ye Zijin put on his shoes, he followed Meng Haoxiang out of the alley, and Meng Haoxiang asked, "Who exactly are you looking for?"

Ye Zijin just lowered her head sullenly, thinking of how foolishly she believed the stranger just now, she felt a little embarrassed for a moment.After hesitating for a while, he hesitated and said: "I came to Beiping to find Master's son. Master has tuberculosis and refuses to go to the Western Hospital. I think his son can go back and visit the old man, and he can help persuade him."

Meng Haoxiang frowned, feeling a little ridiculous. Is this why she came to Peiping?

"Master Shen is so sick? Why didn't you come to see me when you were in Shanghai? I'll just send someone to tie him up and take him to the hospital. If he refuses, just take a sedative." Meng Haoxiang said It was very easy.

Ye Zijin was a little surprised, but this was indeed Meng Haoxiang's style, she was very disdainful about it, "You know Master's temper, you should reserve this method to deal with gang members, we ordinary people can't stand such a toss."

"Oh? Then what's wrong with my method just now? Didn't it also save you?" Meng Haoxiang shook his head and smiled, then walked towards the car on the side of the road.

Ye Zijin was at a loss for words for a while, she felt that although she was not eloquent, she was not stupid, but when arguing with Meng Haoxiang, she felt that her tongue suddenly became dull, and she couldn't find a reason to argue, she clearly felt that he It's not right.

Seeing the two getting into the car, the driver breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Miss Ye, are you okay? I just remembered that there are many brothels hidden in these alleys. As soon as Boss Meng heard about it, he immediately called me... "

"Let's drive, go to Qianmen Street." Meng Haoxiang interrupted.

The driver shut his mouth tactfully and started the car.Ye Zijin knew that there was a famous Nanwei dim sum shop in Guanyin Temple on Qianmen Street, and she would go to that shop to buy red bean cakes when she went to temple fairs when she was young.

(End of this chapter)