Chapter 28 Chapter Twenty Eight

A week later, Xiao Yuegui returned to Jisfeier Road home, Li Yu and Xiufang put her in her own bedroom, and she sat on the bed leaning on the pillows. "What's the matter at home?" Everything at home is still the same, there are still flowers in her bedroom, which is her favorite evening primrose, no wonder she has already felt a familiar fragrance in the corridor. Xiufang said: "There is nothing too urgent. We have already dealt with most of them. After you have rested, I will tell you one after another." Li Yu said: "I went to see my mother this morning, and she actually went back to the house in the old Ximen Yipin Building. You know, that house was converted into a hotel by her ten years ago."

Xiao Yuegui nodded, she knew what Xin Daiyu had done. "Mother left a room for herself." Li Yu turned around, put a pair of embroidered slippers by the bed, and said, "She is now moving into that room for a long time." "Is she so nostalgic? It's no wonder that Yipinlou was the happiest day of her life." "She said her days were coming to an end, and she moved back whole and wanted to wait there." "She's really going to die soon? She's only in her sixties." Xiao Yuegui was taken aback, counting with her fingers.She remembered that when Xin Daiyu brought her from the countryside to Yipinlou, she was exactly forty, and now twenty years have passed, she should only be over sixty, at most sixty-two, how could she think of waiting to die?

"I think she's losing her face, and it's really coming to an end," Li Yu said. Xiao Yuegui put her hands together and sat up from the bed, "Really?" Li Yu told her before that most women who have been in this industry don't live long.Xin Daiyu can't escape this fate, so she is going to cash in on her? Li Yu looked very serious, "I'm afraid she will breathe her last at any moment." Xiao Yuegui knew that Li Yu had a clear head on such matters and would not exaggerate.After all, she is older and has seen a lot. "Then prepare for me quickly, I'll go see her." Xiao Yuegui said, "I hope she won't leave without seeing me."

Li Yu didn't expect, "Miss, you don't have to worry too much, this won't be a matter of a day or two." "You said just now that she will die at any time, what if she doesn't wait for me to go?" Xiao Yuegui said, "After all, it has been twenty years, and many things are thanks to her." In the evening, Yipinlou completely lost any trace of the bustling and colorful atmosphere of the former book apartment, and it was quiet and desolate.The house has been in disrepair for a long time, only peeling paint remains on the wooden pillars, the gaps between the wall panels are cracked, and moss and weeds grow in the cracks in the patio stones.It is said to be an inn, it seems that there are not many guests, maybe they are small businessmen, they are busy, there seems to be smoke in the kitchen, and the threshold is full of dirty and black stains.

Xiao Yuegui walked up the creaking stairs to the second floor, walked straight in along the aisle, and stopped in her room.The room between her and Master Chang no longer existed. It was divided into two small rooms with another door opened. She walked slowly, across the corridor, and looked out through a gap in the corridor wall. The peach tree in the back yard had been cut down, and the goldfish pond had become a laundry trough. She used to be here, listening to the melodious Jiangnan Sizhu, seeing beautiful women in fresh clothes, playing the strings and singing softly, envious of their indescribable elegance.The voice of the steward shouting the game tickets and calling the women out is really sweet! "Your eyes are like cats, you look docile, but you don't know the shyness of a girl in your bones." Xin Daiyu said to her sixteen-year-old in this corridor.

Now that everything is gone, maybe soon, the old Ximen land, where only the skeleton of the old house remains, will be swallowed up by the concrete building.She turned sideways sadly, and walked straight to Xin Daiyu's former room. She remembered the majestic Fengqiuhuang Hall. All the furniture in the outer hall was gone, it was empty, even the pendant lamps of calligraphy and paintings were gone.The door of the inner room was ajar, she gently pushed it open and walked in.Xin Daiyu was lying on the bed alone, with the old curtain half hanging down.The room was very dark, Xiao Yuegui approached, lifted the curtain, hung it on the hook, then stood in front of Xin Daiyu, watching her quietly.

The white-haired Xin Daiyu struggled to open her eyes, and said with a slight smile, "Why do I always feel that there is something missing in Yipin Building? Isn't it just a little laurel missing?!" Xin Daiyu took Xiao Yuegui's hand and told her to open the curtains in the room.The curtains were drawn open, and a beam of slanting sunlight came in, which on the contrary aggravated the lightness and desolation in the room. "Light the lamp, light the lamp." Xin Daiyu gasped. Li Yu and Xiufang came into the room from the corridor, looking for the lamp switch.Xiao Yuegui walked back to the bed and sat down.Xin Daiyu asked Xiao Yuegui to turn her face to the bright place, and looked around for a long time, "Little Yuegui is really a woman who grows more and more beautiful, and will never show her age!" Xin Daiyu touched Xiao Yuegui's face, "It's still so white It's white and tender, it's thirty-six!"

"I want to be old." Xiao Yuegui said, "Mum, tell me, you have to tell me frankly: what should a woman do when she is old?" Xin Daiyu said: "You little Yuegui is the most sensible person in the world, so I'll just say it straight. When a woman starts to get old, she should back off by herself, so as not to be disliked by others and forced to back off. But you are far from that time yet. You are not only beautiful, you have taken the elixir, and you will always be young." "When does a woman start to age?" Xiao Yuegui almost said to herself, "I'm not talking about appearance, appearance is not clear. I mean, when should a woman recognize that she is old?"

Xin Daiyu seemed to know what Xiao Yuegui was thinking. She took her hand and said slowly, "When she starts to feel sorry for herself." After hearing this, Xiao Yuegui was silent for a long time, and finally said: "Thank you, Mama. You are very right." She walked over, took a wooden comb with a broken tooth from the dressing table, and said to Xin Daiyu Said, "Mom, I want to comb your hair." Then he helped Xin Daiyu up and let her lean on him. Xin Daiyu sat up with difficulty, and she said to Li Yu, "Bring the mirror." The mirror on the dressing table was too heavy, so Xiufang hurriedly helped Li Yu, and the two of them supported each other, holding the mirror, so that Xin Daiyu takes a picture of herself.

Xiao Yuegui gathered Xin Daiyu's messy hair in her left hand, and gently combed it with her right hand, giving her a bun.The neck was wrinkled, and Xiao Yuegui's hand was pressed against it. Seeing Xin Daiyu in the mirror crying silently, she hurriedly handed over her handkerchief. "I'm so happy!" Xin Daiyu murmured. "I know, Mom." Xiao Yuegui replied softly with her eyes wet. Newspaper headline: The Xindu Hotel on the 18th floor of the joint consortium was completed, and Ms. Xiao Yuegui, the chairman of the consortium, presided over it in person. Located on Sanma Road, Metropolis Hotel is a soaring tower-like skyscraper building, and it is also one of the earliest buildings that are completely controlled by Chinese capital among the skyscrapers that have sprung up in the center of Shanghai.Although the architect was hired from Germany, the contractor was the well-known Rongji Construction Company in Shanghai.

Metropolis Hotel is a multi-purpose building for hotel entertainment and offices. Xiao Yuegui's company has several offices, but she specially reserved a suite for herself on the top floor where she can overlook the whole of Shanghai. The opening ceremony was extremely grand, Chinese and foreign people from all walks of life in business and politics came to congratulate, and there were hundreds of distinguished guests. The manager of the hotel announced loudly to the guests in the room: "Respectfully invite Ms. Xiao Yuegui, China's first female businesswoman, to cut the ribbon." The main hall spans three floors, and everyone from top to bottom is watching, and the flashing lights are shining, making people's eyes hurt.Xiao Yuegui was wearing a close-fitting hand-embroidered silk satin cheongsam, with a sparkling diamond necklace around her neck, and she looked radiant.All the guests commented on Xiao Yuegui: "It's really beautiful!" "It's not easy to be able to sing and do business at the same time." "It's said that the underworld in Shanghai only accepts her as a woman!" "It's really the first woman in a century." "Such characters can only be born in Shanghai!" She cut the red colored silk, and the whole room applauded.The red silk was not facing the gate, but in front of a steel monster between the first and second floors. The manager of the hotel said loudly: "This escalator is called 'Smooth Rising Clouds', and it is specially customized from Germany. There are not many of them in the world." They all shrank back in fright.He invited the guests to step up the escalator, and the guests hesitated.This thing looks terrible, as if it wants to roll people into a machine. Xiao Yuegui nodded gracefully and said, "Then I will go first, and I deserve the jackpot." The manager of the hotel shouted, "Xiao Yuegui, Boss Xiao, the number one person in China's 'smooth career'!" Xiao Yuegui tried her best to control herself, without showing any timidity on her face, stepped on the high-heeled leather shoes, stepped on them steadily, and slowly rose amidst the terrifying chugging sound of the machine.There was amazement all around, and she rose higher and higher. The band played music and the reception began.Many people lined up in front of the escalator, eager to try, some made a fool of themselves, some screamed, some fell, and more people dared not take the last step and needed someone to hold them back. accident.The hotel manager and hotel staff are busy taking care of them. When everyone's attention was attracted by this novelty, Xiao Yuegui quietly walked aside and took the elevator to the top floor.She pushed open the side door of the hallway and walked up to the roof. The whole of Shanghai can be seen at a glance. This is no longer a foreign market ten miles away, but the largest international metropolis in the Far East with a population of more than 3 million. High-rise buildings are like layers of mountains. There has never been such a thing in China. spectacle. On the other side, across the vast Huangpu River, you can see the Pudong area on the other side of the river. Except for the warehouse and shipyard by the river, there are still fields and fields.The same sunshine shines on two countries in completely different eras, both of which spread out boundlessly, extending to the horizon without end. The magnificent scenery didn't seem to move her at all, Xiao Yuegui seemed to be talking to herself: "Shanghai is so big, with millions of people, why don't I have a relative?" She couldn't help feeling sad. She found that she clenched her hands tightly when she slept, and often the pillow slipped to her side, as if she was accompanied by a person. A kind of loneliness unknown to outsiders emptied her heart, and she heard the howling wind inside. On the second day after she left the hospital, she was woken up by a phone call in the morning. It was Yu Qiyang who had escorted Lili to Huangshan. "I can't live without you, I have to get back to you as soon as possible." Upon hearing his voice, her whole body tensed up. "You want me, don't you?" he said. She tried to calm herself and not let her heart soften.She turned him down again.She said to him in her heart, you must know that I am a woman, and I am even more a mother! When the deadly silence on the phone echoed in her ears, she felt that it was just a dream, Yu Qiyang would never return to her side, and she and him lost each other forever. As the horizon moved away, her eyes turned back, and she looked at the layers of roofs near the downstairs, the low black tile houses, sandwiched between the western-style flat roofs.Her eyes moved closer and closer, and when she walked to the edge of the railing, she looked down at the bottom of the valley that was straight and steep, and there were busy streets and pedestrians.In this world of living people, people and vehicles that move tirelessly are always busy going from east to west.She was fascinated, took off her shoes and socks, stepped over the railing with one leg, and rode on Shanghai to look down again. The road downstairs began to sink deeper, falling sharply.She began to have hallucinations, feeling that there was another world under the abyss, where the heaviness and distress in her heart no longer existed, that was the first Shanghai she saw, under those gray and black corrugated walls, was the joy she first knew, that is Chang Ye The out-of-body joy of being in bed with her.She closed her eyes and asked, "Shanghai, do you really want me to try how to fly?" She simply straddled the other leg and stretched it out of the railing. Now she saw her own bare feet, a pair of beautiful feet, stepping on the whole of Shanghai.There was a dance banquet and reception going on below, and the music seemed to be ringing in her ears. She stood up, stepped on the beat of the music lightly, and walked a few steps beside the stone edge.The temptation of the abyss made her dance steps extraordinarily light. She felt that she hadn't been in such a happy mood for a long time. Suddenly, she clung to the railing tightly and asked herself in fear: "Big footed girl, you are worthless, are you pitying yourself?" Someone saw Xiao Yuegui walking outside the railing from the stairwell on the top floor, and ran back into the building in a panic, shouting, "Boss Xiao jumped off the building!" A group of people rushed up panting, the hotel manager ran ahead, he looked around the railing in panic, there was no one there, He immediately threw himself on the railing and looked at the Shanghai road under the thousand-ren straight wall. There were crowds of people below, as if something had happened.The bright red sunset is falling into the whole city from the gap between the buildings, the light and shadow are brilliant, and this group of people are confused. Taking a closer look, it is people crowding at the entrance of Xindu Hotel, wanting to go in and see something fresh. The hotel manager felt strange and asked the person who called for help just now what was going on, but the person couldn't tell a good reason.The manager quickly ordered his subordinates to search everywhere, "Look at Boss Xiao's own suite on the top floor!" There is no one in her room. They searched anxiously, and finally found Xiao Yuegui in the ballroom downstairs. She had already changed into a white cheongsam inlaid with glittering silver pieces, with high breasts and a thin waist, and she was walking towards the banquet hall. In the hall, many people surrounded her, both Chinese and Westerners, as waiters in suits and bow ties brought drinks.Holding a glass of champagne in her hand, her face was rosy and full of energy, just like Miss Xiao who walked into the Licha Hotel and amazed everyone in the hall more than ten years ago, with the same contented expression on her face as before.At that time, she had nothing but a cheongsam that she borrowed money to make. At that time, she suffered hardships all the way and lived a wonderful life; now the whole of Shanghai knows her and regards her as a mythical figure, rich, powerful, talented and beautiful.But in fact, she is a person that no one can love, her heart is empty, there is no flame to rise, and there is no destination. Just like when I looked at her handprints, her fate line is so different in this life, and the handprints will change with the years, and those that can't stay will never stay. At the grand ribbon-cutting banquet, those people took turns to toast or toast her.A group of followers and bodyguards under her, including the third master and others, stood faithfully in the corner of the banquet hall from a distance.The waiter was carrying a tray with small and exquisite snacks inside, and the music of the band suddenly changed from soft to warm. I know, of course I know, my dear reader, you are getting impatient.You want to know why I was able to interview Xiao Yuegui herself, and how I became her close friend, allowing her to have such a detailed talk with me. Shanghai is still there, even those buildings are still there, and you can meet women like Xiao Yuegui everywhere!But things are different and people are different, depression is different from generation to generation!People themselves are the most vulnerable and the easiest to disappear.I saw the shadow of Xiao Yuegui several times: once on Fuzhou Road, she walked like a swallow, she was so light and enviable, she was the kind of woman who would never grow old; once on Nanjing Road, she was idle and carefree, looking Looking at the window, thinking for a while, then turned around and left.No, there are really not many good things in the store now, and there are a lot of gimmicks, and women like Xiao Yuegui are the most ridiculous gimmicks. She is a Shanghainese who pays attention to "benefits" and doesn't like false flamboyance.As for "fashion"?She is the one who creates fashion. Well, I am going to end this book now. The fate of these characters after the spring of 1927: how many businesses Xiao Yuegui has built; will Yu Qiyang stay with her for life, even without formal marriage; Didn't go to Europe to become a Shaxology expert?Every Shanghainese knows these things, and these things have become part of the history of Shanghai and part of the connotation of the word "Shanghai", so I don't need to tell you. Still, you want to know my professional secrets. I can use some kind of time machine, super light tunnel, things like that.Unfortunately, Hollywood movies use too much, vulgar.I am not such a big hand that can turn the vulgar into a new one.The main problem is that I don't want to falsify: after all, I'm writing about real historical figures. Maybe you will say: Got it, the poetess is just in her true colors. I did write poetry when I was in college in Shanghai. In a cafe outside the campus, someone saw me buy a cup of coffee and paint four pages of bold nonsense in two hours. Plato identified poets as the best liars three thousand years ago. Although Shanghai is still a short step away from the "Utopia" Plato said, almost none of the poets left were exiled. I will not do this kind of self-inflicted trouble, and of course I don't rely on imagination. I know that before I finish this book, I have to tell you how I met Xiao Yuegui, how I knew so many secrets of her, so many secret and ulterior thoughts. Well, I can tell you that it was at that moment that I met her.It was at that moment - the moment I deliberately skipped and didn't write earlier: She was walking on a deserted street, and she didn't understand how the street, which was so noisy day and night, became like she was alone.There are still flags and lanterns hanging outside the shop door, illuminating the beautiful and pleasant names of women, but no one patronizes them.Only those two red doors were very lively, with laughter and laughter, it seemed that Master Chang and even Yu Qiyang were also inside.She heard Xin Daiyu's voice: "Yuegui, come in quickly, what are you doing at the door while getting in the way?" Master Chang is dead, and so is Xin Daiyu, those people inside are all dead.As for Yu Qiyang, of course, he was still alive, but she had already held a funeral for him in her heart.She has always loved him, from the first time she saw him, she failed to erase his shadow, she has never loved someone so much like now, she sacrificed herself to love him. She stood at the door, unwilling to push the door open.She turned her back to the door, calmed down, and then turned to look inside. She saw that she had a big belly, so Xin Daiyu asked her to come back here so that she could take care of her.Sure enough, she went into labor soon after her return.That pale evening, the midwife came rushing in, and stepped anxiously through the door.She was already struggling, sweat and tears mixed on her body.The midwife was saying, "Push! Push!" She was in excruciating pain and shouted for help!Li Yuxiufang was by her side to help her.Xin Daiyu was restless in the Phoenix Hall, when suddenly she heard a loud cry. "It's a daughter, congratulations." Xin Daiyu rushed over upon hearing the sound, "Ah, Master Chang's daughter!" Xiao Yuegui fainted, she felt her soul leave the couch, walked towards the corridor, went down the stairs, crossed the patio, and opened a gate.Standing here as she is now, she feels that the night has never been so dark blue. After the last round of watch, pedestrians and vendors in white clothes appeared on the street, as well as women, women doing various businesses in this city , one or two, more people, all kinds of professional women, and even women who write like me. She touched her face, it was still so smooth and vivid.She knew she had to go.She came out and joined us, she knew I was waiting for her. October 2003