Volume 2: The crown and the hat are all over the capital, and the spirit is full of energy and enter the foggy city Chapter 113 Black and White
The subtitle of this chapter: The night of New York is dark, the night of Shanghai is white.
"Mr. Yuan..."
"Please don't call me Mr. Yuan, just call me Neo. By the way, can I call you Ai Si?"
"Of course, Yuan... um, Niao." Miss Ethel Moman said shyly in Niao's arms: "You dance so well!"
Isn't this nonsense? Just like Mahjong, is it unacceptable that a high-level Chinese and a famous master can't dance?
Our Master Yuan invited a professional dancer to teach him how to dance. Although his agility is not high and he can't do many difficult moves, compared to ordinary people, he is definitely good at it.
They are now dancing the most popular dance in America, the "foxtrot". In fact, this ballroom dance is not called the foxtrot because its steps resemble a fox. This is a translation "error" caused by cultural barriers. In fact, the foxtrot has nothing to do with foxes.
Foxtort was created by an American actor named Harry Fox in the summer of 1914. When the burlesque song and dance he designed based on black dance was premiered on the roof garden of a New York movie theater, it unexpectedly received a standing ovation, thunderous applause, and people shouted "fox! fox!"
This modern dance then became popular in Europe and America, replacing the original waltz in ballroom dance. However, foxtrot is still a very formal ballroom dance. In later national standard dance competitions, men had to wear tuxedos, modern dance suits, and bow ties, while women had to wear long skirts and formal hairstyles for banquets. This is similar to the outfits these two are wearing now.
At the end of the song, Miss Moman snuggled in Master Yuan's arms. When the two looked at each other and were about to say something, they heard a series of drum beats on the stage.
They turned around and saw that a new band had come on stage, and the new band was composed entirely of black people. It seemed that it was past midnight.
At that time, some upscale dance halls in America had "midnight shows", which would turn into jazz dance shows after midnight.
As the cheerful drums and sharp trumpets sounded, the dancing couple knew that the next song would be Lindy Hop, a swing dance that had just become popular.
Swing dance is a type of jazz dance, while Lindy Hop is a type of swing dance. In movies from the late 1980s and early 20s, the men and women did not always keep in contact with each other, and the movements were very exaggerated and a bit funny. Sometimes the men would throw the women around in an eight-beat fast dance. Lindy Hop is a slower and more elegant type of swing dance.
But even if it was slow and graceful, Miss Moman in her evening gown could not do this kind of bouncing swing dance.
She sighed regretfully and said , "Oh, I can't dance anymore..."
"Love it! Why aren't you dancing anymore?" Yuan Yanshu was dancing happily. Besides, a time traveler like him who came from a hundred years later prefers the more unrestrained swing dance.
He looked at Miss Moman's attire and finally understood, but he smiled playfully and said, "It's okay, love. I'll make you able to dance right away!"
As he spoke, he squatted down, pulled up the hem of his floor-length evening gown with both hands, and just with that much force...
“Shhhhhhhh…”
With the pleasant sound of silk being torn, Master Yuan really tore off several large pieces from the hem of her evening gown, turning the evening gown into a knee-length skirt.
"Ah!" Miss Moman was caught off guard and was greatly surprised and asked, "What are you doing..."
"Well, you're welcome." Yuan Yan suddenly stood up with a smile, stretched out her hand and pulled off the headdress she was wearing, and the girl's brown hair was free again.
He took off his tuxedo and threw it aside, bowed slightly and raised his hand to invite: "Damn it, now you can dance!"
"You..." Miss Moman rolled her eyes at him with both anger and amusement, but still placed her soft hand in his big hand.
Old Kennedy saw Master Yuan's unruly behavior. He rolled his eyes and ignored Miss Susie's delicate protest and tore open her evening dress.
The "heroic act" of these two gentlemen not only did not cause dissatisfaction among the other dancers around them, but instead received warm applause, and even the black musicians on the stage worked harder.
Cheerful music, cheerful dance steps, cheerful crowd, cheerful midnight...
This was the night in New York in March 1921. This was the American spring of “bright lights, wine, women, intoxication and extravagance”!
"How can this be a one-time thing? It's already afternoon, and no one is coming to clear the door?"
The heart of the capitalist world had just entered midnight, but in the largest city of Seris it was already one in the afternoon. The weather, which had been warming up in March, had suddenly turned cold, and the temperature dropped from more than ten degrees to zero overnight.
Needless to say, God dutifully killed a group of poor people sleeping on the streets. It's a pity that the dead poor people don't disappear on the spot like the monsters in the game, but lie on the street and at the entrance of the alley, which makes people feel disgusted.
The Shikumen villa of the old Yuan family is located on Ferry Road in the International Settlement of Seres. Ferry Road, which was built in 1900, would later be called Xikang Road. It was the name changed by the puppet government established by the traitor when it took over the concession in 1943.
"Master, out of sight is silence.Just go and have a cup of tea to calm your temper."
“Bang!”
Master Yuan's father took the tea brought by the fourth aunt, picked it up and put it into his mouth, but he didn't expect that the tea would scald his lips. He shook his hand and dropped the tea bowl to the ground.
"Oh, is the master burned?" The fourth concubine, who had delicate features, petite figure and fair skin, walked with her three-inch golden lotus feet and immediately rushed over to check on Master Yuan's injuries.
Well, Yuan Yanshu’s stepmother’s nickname is Yu Linglong.
"Nong..." Mr. Yuan, who was already in a bad mood, was about to lose his temper, but when he saw his concubine's timid, distressed, and pitiful look, he finally suppressed his anger, "Okay, okay, I'm fine."
The fourth concubine said with tears in her eyes: "Master, it's my fault..."
Old Master Yuan waved his hand and said, "Linglong, this has nothing to do with you. It's..."
He thought of the novel written by his son and could not help but gnashing his teeth and saying in hatred: "How could I have given birth to such a little bastard? And I even paid money to send him abroad. I am really blind!"
"Master, don't be angry. Chunlan, go get some stuff and clean up this place."
"Yes, aunt."
As a Mr. Changsan who has been through a lot of worldly affairs and has a lot of experience, Yu Linglong knows the principle that "distant relatives cannot separate close ones".
After all, she was a concubine, while Yuan Yanshu, who wrote "Wives and Concubines" and made his father angry to death, was the legitimate eldest son. Moreover, he was a talented man who studied abroad. Now he was going to marry the daughter of a wealthy family in Southeast Asia. No matter how much she said bad things about him, it would be useless.
Just as Yu Linglong was sending her maid to clean up the tea bowls, she heard someone shouting from the alley outside: "Can you fix the parasol? Can you fix the parasol?!"
She had an idea and winked at the maid, saying, "Chunlan, go out and ask the others to clean up. Go to my room and ask the umbrella repairman to take a look at the Western flower umbrella. It seems that some of its ribs are crooked."
Chunlan nodded in understanding and said, "I understand, Auntie."
Old Master Yuan, who was sitting there sighing, didn't notice this little thing, since other people would take care of it. After a while, Yu Linglong found an excuse to leave the study and returned to her room.
Just then the little maid came in with a parasol and said loudly, "Auntie, it costs three cents to repair the parasol. Do you want it repaired?"
She said this as she walked to the side of Fourth Auntie and whispered in her ear, "The eldest prince's people asked you, when can we start?"
Yu Linglong hesitated for a moment and replied in a low voice: "Go and help Yila, the morning light hasn't arrived yet!"
