Chapter 209 Family
After getting in the car, Li Xiaoyun remembered to introduce her brother to Lin Yan. Lin Yan had heard of Li Daqi, Song Yuanchao's best friend, but today was the first day she met him.
They greeted each other warmly and Li Daqi started the car. Although it was hot in the car, Li Daqi installed an electric fan on the roof of the car. The fan started to turn as soon as the car started . The buzzing sound of the motor and the hot wind blowing on the body were just so-so, but it was much better than being exposed to the sun.
It was Lin Yan's first time to visit Shanghai. She was driving from the train station to the city center, and looking at the scenery outside the car window, Lin Yan was very excited. When the car passed by some old buildings, Song Yuanchao would explain the origins of these buildings and the identities of their previous owners.
"Where do the three Shanghai tycoons live?" Lin Yan suddenly asked.
Song Yuanchao immediately laughed: "They don't live here. The train station and my home are in the north district of Shanghai. The three tycoons live in the old concession and the south district. The company back then was near the river in the east. I'll take you for a good look tomorrow."
"Okay!" Lin Yan nodded happily. Compared with Yanjing, Shanghai is just a new city. Although Shanghai was the fief of the famous Chunshen Jun as early as the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, it did not really develop until after the 1940s.
But in just over a hundred years, Shanghai has become China's largest and most economically developed city. Coupled with the old stories of the foreign concessions and the legends of those influential figures, Shanghai, despite its lack of historical sedimentation, also has another attractive side.
"I'll go too, I'll go with you. By the way, I know a lot of delicious places to eat. Sister Yan, I'll treat you." At the side, Li Xiaoyun raised her hands and cheered. She was the happiest one that Lin Yan came. Knowing that Lin Yan was coming, Li Xiaoyun had already figured out how to take Lin Yan around. There are a lot of fun and delicious places in Shanghai. She had always been taken care of by Lin Yan in Yanjing, and this time it was her turn to host the party.
Li Xiaoyun's impatience made everyone laugh. The four of them chatted and laughed in the car and soon arrived near Song Yuanchao's home. Li Daqi parked the car on the side of the road, and he and Song Yuanchao carried the luggage and walked into the alley with Lin Yan and Li Xiaoyun.
“Is this the alley?”
Seeing the Shikumen alleys for the first time, Lin Yan looked around curiously. Song Yuanchao had talked about alleys with Lin Yan and even compared the alleys with those in Yanjing. When she walked into the alleys, she was overwhelmed by the strong atmosphere of life. Although the layout was different from that of the alleys in Yanjing, Lin Yan had to admit that Song Yuanchao was right. The alleys in Shanghai were indeed similar to those in Yanjing in some aspects.
"Hey, isn't this the Aid Korea? Are you back?"
"Yuan Chao, who are these two girls? Which one is your girlfriend?"
"You are not even 70 or 80 years old yet your eyes are blurry? This girl is Li Xiaoyun, Daqi's sister. She has been here many times. This beautiful girl should be the target of aid to North Korea."
"Yes, it's too hot. I feel dizzy from the heat. Hahaha..."
As soon as he entered the alley, he met the neighbors. Everyone greeted Song Yuanchao warmly, and at the same time looked at Lin Yan and Li Xiaoyun who were with Song Yuanchao.
Song Yuanchao greeted everyone openly, and from time to time he would stop and take out some specialty snacks he brought back from Yanjing from his luggage to share with everyone. When he saw children, he would grab a handful more, touch their little heads, and ask a few questions with a smile.
"Brother who aids Korea! Brother who aids Korea!"
As they were talking, a few children came running over from a distance. One of them was running in the front, holding a toy gun in his hand. He was sweating profusely, and his sailor shirt was extremely dirty. Isn't this little guy who looks like he has rolled in the mud Zhang Hao?
"Little Haozi!" Song Yuanchao smiled when he saw the boy. The little guy had grown taller after not seeing him for half a year, but he was still as naughty as before.
The few friends who ran over with him were either classmates or children from the neighborhood. Ever since he got the toy gun given to him by Song Yuanchao, Zhang Hao became the most handsome boy in the entire alley. Now during the summer vacation, he would run out at dawn every day with the toy gun on his waist to play crazy with his friends, and would never come back until dinner time.
"Brother Yuanchao, you're back! Did you bring any delicious food?" Zhang Hao laughed, his eyes wandering towards the luggage that Song Yuanchao was carrying. When Song Yuanchao happily took out a big bag of fruit leather from the luggage, Zhang Hao couldn't take his eyes off it.
"Take it and share it with your friends. Remember not to eat it all by yourself." Song Yuanchao stuffed a bag of fruit leather directly into Zhang Hao's arms. Zhang Hao shouted with excitement, and then waved at his friends. These fruit leather kings shouted with joy and ran away in a blink of an eye.
"Is this Xiao Haozi?" Lin Yan asked as she watched them run away.
"Yes, he is Zhang Hao, Uncle Jianguo's son. He is very smart but playful. But boys will become successful only after they are naughty."
Song Yuanchao watched Zhang Hao go away and couldn't help but think of his own childhood. He was also a naughty boy back then. How can a boy be called a boy if he is not naughty? Although well-behaved children are liked by adults, Song Yuanchao believes that naughty children are more childish.
I continued walking inside, and when I was almost at the door of my house, Zhang's mother and Xiao Pingping, who had heard the news, also came out.
Seeing Zhang's mother standing at the door and looking at him with a kind smile from afar, Song Yuanchao quickly stepped forward and held the old woman's arm.
" Mother , why are you out in such hot weather?"
"I was in the house when I heard some noise outside, so I asked Pingping to come out to see. Pingping said it was you, and I couldn't sit still any longer. So I came out." Mother Zhang was in good spirits. Although it was a hot day, she was still as healthy as usual, which made Song Yuanchao feel relieved.
"It's hot outside, let's go inside and talk." Song Yuanchao picked up little Pingping and walked inside with one hand supporting Zhang's mother. Lin Yan and Li Daqi followed behind. When they entered the house, it felt much cooler than outside because it was on the first floor and the sun was not shining directly.
Looking at the electric fan in the room, Song Yuanchao frowned slightly: "Mother, didn't I ask Daqi to install an air conditioner for you? Why don't you use it?"
In June, Song Yuanchao specially asked Li Daqi to install air conditioners in his and Zhang's mother's homes. The air conditioners were specially bought at the Friendship Store.
On April 1 this year, the country officially issued foreign exchange coupons. Foreign exchange coupons began to appear as a special currency or ticket between foreign currency and RMB. With the emergence of foreign exchange coupons, a special type of store also appeared in big cities such as Shanghai and Yanjing. These stores are foreign-related stores.
The Friendship Store is the largest foreign-related store in Shanghai. It has many popular commodities that cannot be bought in ordinary stores, including many imported commodities. Of course, these things cannot be bought with ordinary money, and need to be purchased with foreign exchange coupons. Therefore, a special profession has been formed in the market, which is "scalper".
The scalpers in Shanghai are also known as "pile drivers". They often hang around the Friendship Store, major foreign-related hotels and the Bank of China, muttering "Do you have foreign currency... Do you want foreign exchange certificates..." While privately engaging in the reselling of RMB and foreign currencies and foreign exchange certificates from various countries.
For Song Yuanchao, foreign exchange coupons were not a difficult matter. He could easily get some through his connections in Hong Kong and Guangzhou . Of course, he had never thought of making money from foreign exchange coupons, but having foreign exchange coupons made it much more convenient to buy many things, including the air conditioner that he entrusted Li Daqi to help install.
Today's air conditioners are certainly not as good as those in the future, and due to the limitations of electricity and layout of the old house, the air conditioner Li Daqi bought was an old-fashioned window unit. But in this era, window air conditioners were already amazing and advanced things, considering that most people had never even seen what an air conditioner was.
Even though it was a smaller-power window unit, Li Daqi still replaced all the old electrical wires in Zhang Jia A Niang and Song Yuanchao's homes during the installation, and even replaced the electric meters with new ones, in order to avoid problems with the high-power appliances due to unstable voltage and current.
This is what Song Yuanchao and Li Daqi talked about before. The air conditioner was installed a few days after it was purchased so that it could be used during the hot summer.
"The air conditioner is too cold, and it consumes a lot of electricity. My room is not that hot during the day, and I'm used to using the electric fan. I turn it on for two hours before going to bed at night and then turn it off. It's nice to have a peaceful night." Zhang's mother said with a smile.
For an old person like her, thriftiness has become a habit deeply ingrained in her bones. Compared with the power consumption of electric fans, air conditioners consume several times more power than electric fans. Although it is comfortable to turn it on, when she sees the electric meter running rapidly, Zhang's mother feels that her heart can't take it.
However, after Song Yuanchao and the others entered the house, Zhang's mother no longer cared about the electricity bill and turned on the air conditioner directly. When the air conditioner buzzed, gusts of cool breeze immediately dispelled the heat in the house.
Knowing A Niang's character, Song Yuanchao didn't say much about this matter. He thought about talking to Zhang Jianguo about it after he came back. The old woman was old, and the summer in Shanghai was too hot. He bought an air conditioner for her to use, so what was the big deal if she just didn't use it?
Besides, how much is this electricity bill worth? Does Song Yuanchao care about these electricity bills? The elderly live well, this is what Song Yuanchao hopes.
"Yuan Chao, who is this girl...?" Zhang's mother noticed Lin Yan when they were at the door, and now after sitting down, she looked Lin Yan back and forth.
"I almost forgot. Auntie, let me introduce you. This is Lin Yan, my girlfriend, whom I mentioned to you before. You can just call her Yan Zi. We all call her that."
"Swallow... ? This is a nice name, it sounds auspicious." When Zhang's mother heard Song Yuanchao say that Lin Yan was his girlfriend, she couldn't stop smiling. During the winter vacation, Song Yuanchao didn't bring Lin Yan back, and Zhang's mother had been talking about her for a long time. Today, she finally saw her.
