Gone Water Lane

It was just the beginning of spring, and it was still cold, but the people in Beiping City were already active.The street gradually became louder, and more and more people came and went. The noisy people seemed to drive away a large amount of snow, and the rest of the snow was in the corners where the sun could not shine, with the beggars. If you just live on your own terms, it will gradually disappear.

Today is the fifteenth day, as usual, I should pay my respects to the elders.Ye Xuantang has already been to his father Ye Zhenlian's place and the residences of three mothers, and the last mother of Zhang's family is still missing.Every time he greeted Mrs. Zhang, he always had to spend half a day preparing everything before he dared to enter the door, lest she pick the wrong place.

Mrs. Zhang was the third wife married by her father, and she was born in a scholarly hairpin family in the south of the Yangtze River. How could such a beautiful young lady become a concubine? Naturally, there were some twists and turns in the story.She has bound feet, has a strange temper, withdrawn and thoughtful, and often smokes opium, and her health has always been bad.When the junior sees her, he has to invite Shuangan, she says this is Tianfu, and she is in good health after inviting Shuangan.

Ye Xuantang laughed every time he heard this.Whether one is blessed or not depends on personal cultivation, not on others.Mrs. Zhang only gave birth to Sangege, and she was very strict with her. Sangege had never been close to her, and she hadn't written a letter since she got married.Every time Mrs. Zhang cried while she was talking, she cried and cursed San Gege for being careless, and she didn't even look at her mother who was dying of illness.In fact, Ye Xuantang felt that San Gege was wronged.Manchus are very precious to unmarried girls, and serve as aunts at home. Only Sangege has suffered a lot because of Zhang's mother's practice.They are all Gege from the same mansion, she obviously did nothing wrong, but life is more difficult than the other five sisters.In the end, she married far away in Guangdong, and the relieved look made people feel sad.

Mrs. Zhang still babbled for a long time and then shed tears before letting Ye Xuantang out. It was almost noon at this time.On a sunny day, the white sun hits down, there is no heat but it makes people feel open-minded.After Ye Xuantang had dinner, he asked the fourth son Xuankai to go out of the mansion and go straight to Guanghe Building to listen to the opera.

Knowing that there will be a distinguished guest today, the boss has already ordered the waiter to wait, and when the two brothers entered the door, someone would lead them straight to the private seat on the second floor.Ye Xuantang thought it wasn't too late, but he didn't expect that there were already many people sitting in the theater below.He listened carefully to the messy voices coming and going, most of them were discussing the theater troupe Fu Liancheng and other actors who were performing for the first time today, and a small part were about political affairs.The news on the play had already been known from other channels, and he didn't pay much attention to political affairs, so he didn't pay attention to it and concentrated on drinking tea.

Sitting next to him, the fourth child grabbed a handful of candied fruit and ate them. Seeing his relaxed attitude, he couldn't help but say, "It is said that the Guanghe Building was dominated by the Jichun class before, and the opera was sung well. Why do you think that you went to the south? Today's blessing Let’s do it, I don’t think it’s easy to say.”

Ye Xuantang looked at the stage and said: "Fucheng said that the boss of the Jichun troupe had a lot of friends. He heard about the news of the war, so he took the troupe to Shanghai. As for Fu Liancheng, wasn't he quite famous in the north before? It’s also good to come to Peiping. I’ve heard the name of Yang Kunfang, the pillar of the stage, for so long and haven’t had the chance to see him. Two days ago, you said you wanted to see and see, why is it hard to say today?”

"We can't even fight a war in Peiping. But the prices in the south are so high all the time, so why go there?" The fourth child smiled, grabbed another candied fruit, but didn't eat it, and was fascinated by it for a while. "If you want to talk about you and Fucheng, the two of you..."

Ye Xuantang glanced at the fourth child.

"What are you looking at?" The fourth child twisted his neck, and raised his voice slightly, "You two can do it for yourself! Sixth child, I didn't say that Erni is jealous of this. She knows that this matter is absolutely difficult, and no matter how much she loves you, she won't be able to stand it. You have to have a measure."

Ye Xuantang lowered his eyes, and hummed in response.The fourth child didn't know if he listened or not, and he didn't say anything. He sighed and went to eat his candied fruit.

Not long after, the bead curtain touched lightly, and a person came from the aisle behind the two seats.The fourth child turned around and saw that it was his good friend Li Ruoxuan, he hurriedly threw down the candied fruit and got up to say hello, Ye Xuantang also stood up smiling and cupped his hands.

Li Ruoxuan was a very upright young man, with his hair combed back, a decent black suit, and shiny leather shoes on his feet.His attire was quite different from the two men in long robes and mandarin jackets, and it was even more incompatible with the antique Guanghe Building.The fourth child looked him up and down, and said flatly: "You don't look like you are going to a show."

Li Ruoxuan smiled, "Isn't this for business with my dad? It's popular in shopping malls now. And this," he pointed to his hair, "Look, it's been oiled a lot."

The fourth child still laughed and shook his head to express that he could not accept this kind of aesthetics, and Li Ruoxuan was not angry either.Ye Xuantang next to him felt that he was very energetic dressed up like this, but he didn't have that deep friendship with him, so it was not easy to intervene.

The ancestors of Li Ruoxuan's family were also officials in the capital, their official positions were not high, and they had a lot of wealth.Later, the Li family saw that the road of studying and becoming an official was difficult, so they started to do business in the cotton cloth business. Now they are also a large merchant in Beiping, with many properties.He himself and the old Siji are similar, they are both young and playful sons and daughters, and soon after they met, they became close friends who ate, drank, prostituted and gambled together.This time, Li's client was a theater fan from out of town. His father was the host and invited him to the Guanghe Building to listen to the opera.As soon as Li Ruoxuan entered the door, he saw Ye Xuankai, the fourth master of the Ye family, and his younger brother Ye Xuantang sitting above him, so he ran up to say hello, and after a few words of greeting, he quickly slipped back to his table.

Li Ruoxuan and the others were not far from Ye Xuantang, and through the beaded curtain and spun screen, some voices could still be heard.As soon as he went back, someone asked him why he had been there for so long, Li Ruoxuan laughed and changed the topic away, making everyone laugh.The fourth child heard the laughter of the young girl, and said, "I said why did he come out to discuss business with his father, I'm afraid it's because of other girls. This kid has all eyes on women."

Ye Xuantang glanced at him: "Aren't you all women?"

The fourth waved his hand: "That's different, it's different."

With that said, the play has begun.

Fu Liancheng's debut play is "Red Maned Horse", which is different from the common version in Peking. It has a beautiful voice and a heavy performance. It can be seen that this adapted version took a lot of effort.The performance of the mainstay Yang Kunfang and his partner was amazing, and the young and old in Guanghe Building were obviously convinced. The applause continued one after another, and it hadn't stopped since the first turn.

The fourth child loves to make jokes, and would call out to him from time to time while listening to the opera, which attracted the attention of Li Ruoxuan's table.He has a good technique of calling Haoer, he is in harmony with the rhythm of the play, his voice is loud but not noisy, and he is often the leader of calling Haoer in the theater.It's the same today, he catches the gaps between the verses very accurately, and it's often after he says "yes" that everyone applauds.Fu Liancheng's people didn't notice that there was such a bluffing audience at first, and they were worried that he was here to spoil the situation. Later, they found out that he was not just making fun of him, so they gradually relieved.The hard-working actors on the stage and the enthusiastic audience off the stage sang together, which was surprisingly harmonious.

The girl who turned to the fourth child was the girl. Li Ruoxuan had been chatting at Li Ruoxuan's table before the show started, and Ye Xuantang could hear her hearty laughter. After the show started, she concentrated on watching the show.It may be that the surprise of the fourth brother sitting at the next table really affected the mood. Later, whenever the fourth brother made a sound, the girl would cast a disgusted look at him.The fourth child was immersed in the rhythm of applauding while watching the play without noticing it. It wasn't until Ye Xuantang poked him calmly that he noticed that someone was watching him all the time, and the booing became more vigorous.Ye Xuantang sighed, turned around and cupped his hands in the girl's direction to express his apology.The girl met his eyes, stunned for a moment, blushed slowly, and lowered her head in embarrassment.

Li Ruoxuan next to him coughed heavily, seeing that she didn't respond, coughed again, but still didn't respond, his expression was a little listless.

The other people at the table didn't notice this exchange, they were still talking and chatting.From the tone of voice, the deal should be done.

After the show ended, Ye Xuantang walked slowly on the way back home with the fourth child who was hoarse.It was already late at this time, and the street lamps on both sides gave off a dim light, hitting the top of the two of them.The fourth child looked at Ye Xuantang and his own shadow under the light, and couldn't help laughing again.

"Still laughing," Ye Xuantang said helplessly, "Is it that funny?"

The fourth child trembled, "I really have never seen such a girl, and I have never seen such a sixth child. You don't know. At that time, you poked there like a frightened quail. If I hadn't rescued you, I'm afraid you'd be raped by that girl, hahahaha..."

"It's not that exaggerated..."

The fourth child was talking about Miss Xu who was at the same table as Li Ruoxuan.When the show was just over, Miss Xu suddenly stopped Ye Xuantang by herself, and asked him if he was married after she reported her family name, Ye Xuantang shook her head.Ms. Xu smiled and said, well, I'm looking forward to seeing you, we just moved to Beiping, and there will be a church meeting at home in three days, will you come?

Ye Xuantang recognized that Miss Xu had a Northeast accent, and was completely taken aback by her straightforwardness, and was stunned for a long time.It was the fourth child who dragged him away by saying that something was going on at home, and kept laughing at him all the way afterwards.

Thinking about it now, besides embarrassment, there is a faint sense of uneasiness.