The Jade of the Republic of China

In his early years, Uncle Cousin worked as a bodyguard and went all over the world. He ran to many piers and was able to make a living. On the second day after arriving in Shanghai, he took Meng Liansheng to find a residence and work at the passenger terminal at the mouth of the Huangpu River.

The job is to be a porter and carry goods, and he can earn at least six or seven yuan a month.

The place where I live is a work shed that is leaking from the wind and rain. There are dozens of floors packed tightly together, and the people who live there are all dock workers. In the sweltering heat, the fragrance is wafting ten miles all day long.

But the advantage is that it is cheap. Such a bed costs five cents a month, and it can be earned in a day or two.

Meng Liansheng was very satisfied with this residence, and he was also very satisfied with the porter's job.As long as he works hard, he can eat enough, even if the food is not good, for him who has been hungry and full for two or three years, he is satisfied.

He has strength when he is full, and he works very vigorously.

However, a month later, my cousin inadvertently noticed that although the child had grown a bit more flesh than before, his back seemed to be slightly bent.It was then that he remembered that Meng Liansheng was only 17 years old, and he was at the age of growth. He carried hundreds of catties of baggage back and forth every day.

My cousin has no children, so he regards Meng Liansheng, who has no father and no mother, as his own child. No adult would want his child to become a hunchback.

After thinking about it for two days, he bought a set of shoeshine tools for Meng Liansheng, and took him to the pier to watch how shoe shiners, old and young, worked.

The bad times made Meng Liansheng taciturn, but it didn't affect his learning speed.After only watching for a while, I learned the skill of shining shoes.

The next day, he went to the pier with a Mazar and a shoe shine box to get out of the stall.

Most of the shoe shiners on the pier are children and women, and there are very few teenagers like him.These child women seem to be naturally good at enthusiasm and initiative.Every time a cruise ship enters the port, the passengers with their suitcases have just set foot on the pier, and they will come out in full force, stopping men and women wearing leather shoes like tigers in the road.

"Sir and madam, do you need a shoe shine?"

"As long as two copper dollars, you can make your shoes like new."

"It is auspicious to enter the house with clean shoes on."

Most of the travel-worn travelers find it hard to resist such enthusiasm, so they sit down and stretch out their feet high above the ground, letting the shoe shiners polish their leather shoes to shine.As if this is homecoming.

At this busy pier, there are thousands of passengers arriving and departing every day. As long as they are enthusiastic enough and eloquent, the shoe shiners are never short of business.

Years of hunger and loneliness turned Meng Liansheng into a wooden pile that couldn't beat a fart with three sticks.When other shoe shiners came forward with shoe shine cloths to warmly welcome customers, this wooden stake would always sit on the pony as stable as Mount Tai, waiting for the guests to come to the door by themselves.

Fortunately, there were a lot of people at the pier, and when all the other shoe shiners had customers sitting in front of them, there was always something wrong.

The money Meng Liansheng earned from shining shoes was not as good as being a porter, but it was much easier, and it allowed him to sit quietly on the saddle and look curiously at the modern men and women in western clothes on the pier.

All in all, Meng Liansheng's career as a shoe shiner started fairly smoothly. Most of the well-dressed gentlemen and ladies are arrogant and picky. He doesn't have the ability to make people happy with a smooth tongue, and he doesn't even talk much, but he can laugh. No matter what kind of guests you meet, there is always a smile on your face.He was born very well, especially a pair of deep eyes, the black eyes are as clean as a child's, with a natural innocence, because he usually has no expression, and his smile is shallow, with a natural simplicity and shyness , is a very reassuring appearance.

In addition, he is meticulous in his work, unlike other shoe shiners who will take the opportunity to sell shoe polish while shining shoes. Most of the customers are satisfied, and they often get an extra copper dollar as a reward.

What's more, the gentlemen and ladies who can go abroad are all decent people, no matter how rude and rude, they are much cuter than those on the pier who beat and scold porters at every turn.

For Meng Liansheng, being able to eat and drink enough without being too burdensome has been the best day in the past two years, so he didn't have too many expectations or daydreams about his life in this metropolis.

On the third day of the shoe shine at the pier, it was a sunny day in early autumn. At nine o'clock in the morning, an ocean-going ship crossed the horizon and sailed into the port.

Half an hour later, passengers with suitcases filed out of this huge monster, filling the long-quiet pier with dusty steps.

For Meng Liansheng, the pier is the most novel world in the past 17 years. You can see all kinds of modern men and women who have never seen in the small town.

In the past few days, watching the travelers boarding the pier after the ship enters the port has become a small game for him to entertain himself.

But among such people today, he saw a handsome young man at a glance.

The man was caught in the crowd, and he looked like a nobleman, wearing a pinstriped suit, with neatly combed hair, and a fair and handsome face, shining brightly in the morning sun.Because the suitcase was carried by the servant beside him, he strutting around the ground with his hands empty, with a kind of natural chic and suave.

Among the densely packed passengers, it can be said to stand out from the crowd.

During these days at the pier, Meng Liansheng had seen many young and good-looking men and women, but this was the first time he had seen such a handsome man who seemed to have walked out of a pictorial.

His eyes were completely attracted by this noble young man, and a pair of black eyes followed him curiously, watching him getting closer and closer to him.

The shoe shiners next to him had already recruited customers and started to work in a hurry, but the matza in front of him was still empty.

However, he was unaware of this, and just looked at the young man curiously with his pair of dark eyes.

When the other party passed by him, he seemed to notice his gaze, stopped, turned his head to look at his shoe shine box, and then looked down at the dark brown leather shoes on his feet—there was a small piece of leather on it. stains.

Under Meng Liansheng's watchful eyes, the man came over, sat on the saddle, stretched out his feet and put them on the pedal of the shoe box, curled his mouth, met his clean black eyes, and said politely: "Little brother, shine your shoes."

Meng Liansheng came back to his senses at this moment, hurriedly lowered his head, as if thinking of something again, raised his head and smiled slightly at the man, then lowered his head again, picked up the shoe towel, and first carefully cleaned the stain on the leather shoe. Wipe it clean, apply shoe polish, and start using a shoe brush.

The autumn sea breeze blew past, but what got into his nose was not the familiar salty smell, but a strange aroma.

This was the smell from a man's body. Meng Liansheng didn't know that this fresh and elegant fragrance was cologne at that time.

Not knowing whether he wanted to polish the leather shoes as cleanly as possible, or simply wanted to smell the fragrance for a while, he carefully polished the leather shoes on the young man's feet for a long time before finishing the work.

Fortunately, the man wasn't impatient at all. After he finished wiping, he looked around seriously, then raised the corners of his mouth in satisfaction, took out an ocean from his pocket, and handed it to the little shoe shiner in front of him.

Meng Liansheng looked at the ocean between the man's slender fingers, habitually showed a harmless smile, and said seriously in a low voice, "Sir, you only need two coppers to shine a shoe, and you can't find it for a ocean."

The man nodded in understanding, then chuckled nonchalantly, put the silver dollar in his hand, and said softly, "Then you don't need to look for it!"

Without waiting for Meng Liansheng to thank him, he had already got up, patted the dust that did not exist on the hem of his clothes, and strode away with the servants beside him.

Holding the huge sum of money in his hand, Meng Liansheng carefully looked at the man's back as he walked away, and saw him walking towards a small black car.

At the same time, a middle-aged man in a suit and leather shoes got out of the car.

Because the distance was too far, Meng Liansheng couldn't hear what the two of them were talking about. He could only see them hugging each other excitedly, presumably they were relatives who had reunited after a long absence.

Then the two got into the car and drove away.

It was not until the car was completely out of sight that Meng Liansheng slowly looked away and looked down at the shiny silver dollar in his hand.

Being a porter only earns at most ten yuan a month, and one ocean is enough to eat meat noodles for half a month.

He remembered this rich young man.

The author has something to say:

The little shoe shiner is an attack, a big onslaught→＿→

I haven’t posted an article for a few months, how many people are still here?

Writing dramas is more difficult.

In the previous book, he could trick some people into coming in by wearing a book, but there is no way to deceive people in this book.

PS, although it is from the background of the Republic of China, it is not abusive, capitalized HE.