Yue Guanchao looked at her, and indeed heard Song Siyuan mention such a thing: "You took this matter seriously, I thought you just said it casually when you were in a mood."
"A gentleman's promise is worth a thousand pieces of gold. How could I just agree to something for others? Since I agreed, I will definitely do it. Apart from helping Lan Ruling, I am also curious about where Joseph is now."
After that, Song Siyuan opened the envelope, and her eyes immediately became confused. Yue Guanchao noticed the change in her eyes, and walked to the side to stare at Fengtian's reply carefully.
"It said that Fengtian could not find the name Joseph at all through diplomatic channels."
Song Siyuan thought her family had sent Joseph's information, but now there was only this empty sentence, and she immediately became curious.
Yue Guanchao said: "This is normal. Didn't Joseph tell Sister Lan that he was going to return to the country? Maybe he has never been back since he returned to the country. It was still the former dynasty at that time, and it is impossible for the Republic of China to have information about him."
Song Siyuan, on the other hand, didn't think so much and retorted: "If the Republic of China has never come again, then at least the previous dynasty has information. Why hasn't the information from the previous dynasty been sent? Fengtian has completely taken over the Prime Minister's Yamen Clearance Office. It's impossible. No trace of Joseph’s previous residence could be found.”
"Unless!" Song Siyuan's eyes lit up: "Unless we were deceived."
"You mean, Mrs. Lan deliberately lied to us?"
Yue Guanchao's eyes widened and before he could finish his words, Song Siyuan immediately grabbed his ears: "Fool, what I meant was that maybe Lan Nanny got a fake name."
She paused and continued to explain: "Maybe the name Joseph is just his pseudonym, and the real name used for customs declaration has another name. In this case, of course we can't find any information about Joseph, even the former There are not many records in the old records of the dynasty."
"But, isn't this old man John Hua also named Joseph?"
When he was on Xuanwu Island, John Hua, an old foreign dog, said that he and Joseph joined Huasheng Trading Company at the same time, which shows that Joseph's name is indeed his commonly used name.
Listening to Yue Guanchao's suspicion, Song Siyuan's eyes became curious: "This only shows that even John Hua doesn't know his real name. According to our guess, this person's true identity is quite mysterious. Otherwise, why would he bother to Go to great lengths to hide your true name."
"Then, if this is a fake name, it will be difficult for you to find Lan Ruling's relatives based on this. The only clue is the photo. Now twenty or thirty years have passed, even if there is a real person, he probably looks completely different. Same."
What Xu Xiake said was true. Song Siyuan had no choice but to shake her head: "It seems that God is not kind to us, so we can only press down the clues first."
"Let's forget about this matter for now. I see there is a letter inside, written by Hua Ling to Sun Daqiao."
After saying that, Song Siyuan took out a folded letter from the envelope: "Sun Daqiao has been following us out for several months. Hua Ling is probably worried about him, so she wrote to him to report that he is safe. Just give it to him when he comes back." .”
"Where's Sun Daqiao? Ever since my second uncle went to see Luo Shiniang off, I haven't seen him for several days." Song Siyuan asked.
Yue Guanchao scratched his head and said, "Yes, this old man appears and disappears. Who knows what he is doing."
"He, he has been a bachelor for more than 20 years, what else can he do?" As he spoke, Yue Erpao kept blinking his eyes. Anyone with a discerning eye could tell at a glance that he was holding back something to say.
"Yue Guanhai, you're a bad learner. You even know what an old bachelor does, and it seems you've done it a lot." Yue Guanchao smirked, hugged his neck, and teased.
Yue Erpao scratched his head and said with a smile: "Hey, don't accuse me wrongly. I am a good young man. When I got up to pee at night, I met Sun Daqiao and came back. I smelled like a theater fan. Think about it. You know what to do."
"I told you, it turns out you were here to have fun." Xu Xiake suddenly realized.
"How about we follow him to the theater?"
Yue Guanchao's words made Song Siyuan look bad: "Shouldn't you three say this behind my back?"
Yue Guanchao continued to explain: "Actually, there is nothing to avoid. We didn't go to the theater to watch the show. We just wanted to catch Sun Daqiao and come back. Why don't you come too!"
"Yes, the drama in Jianghan City is much more exciting than other places."
Seeing the curiosity of the three people, Xu Xiake continued to explain: "When I traveled to the south, I lived in Jianghan for a period of time, and I have some knowledge of it. Jianghan can be said to be the Chicago of the East, and the prosperity of freight transportation is no less than that of Haicheng."
There is a saying in Jianghan that goes: Goods come to Hankou to work, and drama comes to Hankou to make red. These few catchy sentences explain why Jianghan City is prosperous.
The history of Jianghan City can be traced back to the former Zhu Ming Dynasty.
This is the heart of Kyushu, adjacent to the Yangtze River and the Han River, and is the heart of Kyushu. Starting from the river, you can sail to Shudu, Chongcheng, and Yunnan via the Yangtze River to the southwest; to the southeast, you can pass Jinling, Hangcheng, Suzhou, and Yangzhou. It can be said that as long as it passes here, navigation from north to south is achieved.
It is also because of the convenient water transportation that from the Zhu Ming Dynasty to the previous dynasty, it was the north-south freight port. It has an advantage that is unparalleled by many ports in the world.
In the feudal era, water transportation was only convenient here. It was at the end of the previous dynasty that Jianghan City truly developed and became a prosperous city like Chicago.
Shipping here is relatively convenient, and it was one of the earliest areas to open a port. As early as seventy or eighty years ago, it had been designated as a port by the previous government, allowing Western merchants to trade here. The demarcation of foreign port boundaries made it possible Foreign businessmen from various countries began to enter the port with funds, investing in trading companies, commercial banks, banks, hospitals, and theaters, and embassies from various countries also moved in.
In the closed and conservative era at that time, for the people of Hankou, this was like a thunderbolt change, and it also opened their eyes to the world.
The demarcation of the foreign port boundary brought prosperity and development to the northwest of Jianghan City. Although the foreign port boundary was indeed an act of humiliation and loss of power, it is undeniable that the development of the foreign port boundary brought Western civilization concepts and lifestyles to Jianghan City.
With the opening of the port, ocean-going ships and cruise barges were operating on the river outside Hankou for countless days and nights, transporting Western goods to the south and north through here, connecting Jianghan City to the world trade network.
At that time, the entire Jianghan city included Hankou, Hanyang, and Wuchang. The three banks were connected by river bridges. Hundreds of thousands of foreigners gathered in Hankou, and in the areas outside the borders of the foreign ports, most people from the Chinese community lived.
There are more than five or six times more people living here than in the foreign port area, at least five to six million people. A large number of people live in the Chinese community. The bustle has also made housing resources in the Chinese community extremely scarce.
Some people, three generations of a family, can only live in a single-room courtyard, and even the sleeping place only has a bed board.
Although this is frustrating, it is enough happiness for them. After all, it is not easy for them to survive in troubled times.
The prosperity of Hankou's business is only one of the reasons why so many people can gather in the Chinese community. The war in the north is also the most important factor.
Since the opening of Hankou as a port, the north has experienced Taoist rebellions, Nian army rebellions, bandit rebellions, and locust plagues. People's livelihood has long been declining and increasingly difficult. Many people have been displaced and can no longer survive. They either fled to the south of the Yangtze River or took advantage of Hankou's reputation. Flooded into Jianghan.
After refugees, refugees, landless farmers and exiled merchants entered Jianghan, they all gathered in the Huajie and Hanyang areas of Hankou. They combined with nearby farmers and immigrants from other provinces to form an extremely complex social group. It can be said that there are three religions and nine streams. Not an exaggeration.
What can best promote the integration of folk customs is the flow of immigrants. These northern refugees flocked to Hankou, causing the folk customs, dialects, slang, eating habits, and craftsmanship from the north and south to converge and blend here, eventually forming Hankou's unique flood and drought dock market culture.
At that time, most operas from various provinces were sung on the same stage in Hankou. Chu opera, Cantonese opera, and Sichuan opera came to Hankou with the chamber of commerce and guilds. They set up a stage in the Chinese community across the street to sing wild operas. The Southern and Northern tunes were mixed, and the world was full of variety. Gathered together in one place, it was extremely lively.
When it was most prosperous, all churches, temples, temples and mansions had stages set up outside for performances in honor of the gods. Every time there was a performance, tens of thousands of people often gathered, competing with the Western dance halls in the foreign port world and creating a lively scene. .
"Business is booming, no matter how sophisticated foreign goods are, people buy them, folk customs are fused, no matter what accent is from the south to the north, there are people who are popular. From the prosperity of the last century to today, Jianghan can indeed be regarded as the Chicago of the East."
After Xu Xiake introduced the history of Jianghan, everyone was surprised and also became curious about the culture of the city dock.
"Why don't you guys go and have a look?" Yue Guanchao asked.
"But we don't know which theater Sun Daqiao went to!" This is really difficult. There are thousands of theaters in the entire Chinese world, not including wild theaters. It is very difficult to find Sun Daqiao, so Xu Xiake can only tell the truth.
"I know." Yue Erpao looked proud. He paused and said in a mysterious tone: "After I locked the door, I went to his room to have a look. There was a ticket stub for reading. It seemed to be some kind of Fuyu Tower."
"Let's go then. Let's follow Sun Daqiao, the glutton, and see what kind of drama he listens to, which can make him forget about food and sleep for more than half a month."
While Yue Guanchao was talking, Song Siyuan was already dressed, the four of them locked the door, took out the map of Jianghan City and left the hotel.
The place where they live is called Lifen. It is a mixture of Western townhouses and Eastern courtyards. It is neat and compact, has a serious layout, straight lanes, and unified buildings. Most of them are Chinese and Western-style buildings. They stay in a hotel here because it is far away from Jianghan. The road is not far, and there are rows and blocks of foreign port boundaries across the street.
The theater stages Xu Xiake mentioned were mostly concentrated near Jianghan Road. From a distance, you can see numerous stages crowded with spectators, listening to endless Southern and Northern accents and eating endless Northern and Southern delicacies.
