Of course, the county town is incomparable to the small Changsheng Town. There is no market day in the county town, but there are people coming and going on the streets, and the hawkers along the street are rushing to sell. There are also people who are playing tricks and performing monkeys and magic tricks on the smaller open spaces. In short, all kinds of people are noisy and very lively.

In the early days of the Republic of China, the warlords fought in Wan'an County, and the city of Wan'an was not spared. At that time, all industries were in a downturn and the people were living in poverty. After the so-called "golden decade" of the Republic of China, Wan'an County was very prosperous at this time, and the economy was very developed and the trade was prosperous. There were no less than two hundred shops in the county. When merchants lived in the market, Li Wancai was considered a rich man in the countryside, but he was not the richest man in the county.

"Birds of a feather flock together, and people are divided into groups." Most of the local rich men like Li Wancai who came from the countryside live in the northwest corner of the county town. Because there are a large number of gentry living here, a large-scale grain trading market has been spontaneously formed.

From Li Wancai's residence to Dongda Street, it takes about five or six miles to drive the bus.

Since the Republic of China, a large number of foreign goods have poured into the local market. Some foreign foreign companies and trading companies have entered Wan'an County through sole proprietorship and joint stocks, gradually occupying the forefront of industrial product sales.

East Street is full of signs and shops, and all the latest goods and the fastest information appear here. Department store cloth and other stores are concentrated in East Street, which is also the brightest street in the county.

There is the largest department store in the county, the best cloth and silk shop, the only cinema in the county, and even the only tailor shop in the county proudly hangs the signature "machine garment, ready to be desirable" on East Street, because this shop has the only Shanghai-made "Shengmei" sewing machine in the county.

East Street is a place where people are concentrated, so the surrounding streets and alleys are concentrated in restaurants, teahouses, theaters, even casinos, tobacco and brothels.

The methods taken by the shops on both sides of the East Street are all kinds of strange. Some hire someone to play quickies in front of the store and sing lotus flowers; some send clerks to stand at the door and clap their hands rhythmically while shouting loudly to promote the products in the store; slightly more modern foreign companies turn on the radio or phonograph at the door of the store and use radio or songs to attract customers.

What is particularly funny is a fur shop. There is an old phonograph in front of his house, which repeatedly plays a foreign black bakery record. I don’t know which country it was produced, and there is no substantial content in it. First, a foreigner said something, and then a group of men and women laughed loudly inside. After a while, someone said a string of foreign languages ​​inside, and then another burst of laughter.

This phonograph was produced in the United States in the 1920s. It does not require electricity but is powered by hand. It uses a scoop-wood record of 78 revolutions per minute. Because the speed is fast, a record is played within three minutes, so the store specially sent a clever young man to stand by the phonograph and play the record again at any time.

It is such a simple modern machine that can record human voices, but it has attracted a large number of new and novel guests. For the people of Wan'an County today, what the foreigners are saying is not understood at all. The only thing they can understand is the bursts of laughter. Some of the people who don't understand it even laugh.

The people on the street were shoulder to shoulder, and it was very lively. Li Lide asked Li Qinglin to stop the carriage at the door of an acquaintance shop away from the street, handed the carriage to the house for custody, and then the three of them walked to shop.

Li Wancai's plan to tie Li Lide with his fiancée was not smooth. The Li family selected several girls of equal status, but they all gave up temporarily because of Li Lide's firm opposition. Li Lide's reason was also very simple, that is, the woman should have a considerable education, otherwise he would rather be lacking than being too careless.

In the old days, it was not easy for a family to cultivate a scholar. Boys were the hope of the family's future. Parents with a little bit of family property and long-term vision would read for him. Sooner or later, girls would marry into other people's homes, and no matter how many books they read for her, they would read for them. Therefore, most families do not read for girls. It is not easy to find a girl who is just as compatible with Li Lide immediately.

The gift that Li Lide brought here was given to Li Lide's future second sister-in-law's house.

The Li family has three sons. The eldest son Li Liyan has been married and has one son. The second son Li Ligong has been sick since childhood and was later diagnosed with tuberculosis by a doctor. Tuberculosis is actually tuberculosis, which is also called "rich disease" in rural areas. At this time, medicine was extremely underdeveloped and there was no special medicine to treat tuberculosis. If a person is diagnosed with tuberculosis, there is no other treatment method except for strengthening nutrition and resting.

Li Ligong was born to his third wife. Seeing that he was weak and sick since childhood, the third wife appointed him a child's marriage. The baby marriage he appointed by Li Ligong was his cousin. His cousin was named He Chun, and he was the daughter of the eldest sister of the third wife.

In the old days, there was a marriage custom called "to be more kinship". This so-called "to be more kinship" means intermarriage between cousins. Usually, the cousin marrys a cousin, which is an extremely unscientific form of close relative marriage. Since the blood relationship between men and women is very close, the offspring born often have physiological defects.

Li Ligong was weak and sick. When he was a child, he had been recuperating at home after he was a child. For the sake of the next generation, the Li family paid for his future second daughter-in-law to study. He Chun will be in the third grade of junior high school in the second half of this year.

Li Ligong's health has been getting worse every year. Among the people, there has always been a method of using the joy of patients getting married to get rid of their illness. It is commonly known as "chongxi". Li Wancai's family also wants to use the method of "chongxi" to get rid of Li Ligong's illness. This time, Li Lide brought some gifts to He Chun's family, and also wanted Li Lide to explore the He family's to see if he could marry Li Ligong as soon as possible.

The economic power within the Li Wancai family is in the hands of the eldest wife. Purchasing gifts for the He family is the unanimous task of the eldest wife. Taking advantage of the time today, she took her son to Dongda Street to buy some gadgets that the girl likes.

Maybe she didn't go out often, or she was happy by her son today. The eldest wife walked down one shop at a time and bought something that she saw. After walking around for less than half a street, Li Lide and Li Qinglin had too much to get the things they had.

Recently, a new department store was opened on East Street, called "Zhenghe Department Store". Because it sells many novel foreign goods and the store is unique, it has a lot of money and a prosperous business, and has made a great reputation in Wan'an County. The eldest wife considers that He Chun is a student and must like novel foreign things, so the focus of purchasing today is Zhenghe Department Store.

Generally, department stores have three-bedroom stores, while Zhenghe Department Store has five-bedroom stores, and each store is still two-depth, so the store is spacious and is significantly different from ordinary stores.

At this time, ordinary stores all have a large wooden counter in the store, with a row of shelves placed against the wall behind it, and the goods are placed on the shelves. Unlike several other department stores, Zhenghe Department Store’s first large glass counter in Wan'an County, where various products are placed for customers to choose. In addition, several vertical glass cabinets are set up outside the counter, with various brightly colored cosmetics and trinkets placed inside, which is convenient for customers to choose, and also makes the products look dazzling.

As soon as Li Lide arrived at the store, he met an acquaintance. This acquaintance was still a woman, and the woman was still a girl. The most important thing is that this girl was a student.

This girl was met by Li Lide when he was studying Japanese after Yan Boling when he was in high school. Her name was Ye Lu, and she was the daughter of Yan Boling's colleague and neighbor Ye Ziqiang.

Ye Lu is about sixteen or seventeen years old this year, with a round face and big eyes. Instead of braiding, she cuts her hair with short ears, a white lotus leaf sleeve top, a blue cloth pleated skirt on the lower body, white socks on the feet, and black single cloth shoes with buckles. She is a standard dress for a female student in the Republic of China.

Ye Lu seemed very excited when she saw Li Lide. As soon as she met, she asked him: "Li Lide, you don't come to see me after the summer vacation. Have you gone somewhere to mess around?"

Li Lide looked at Li Qinglin and his mother beside him and said a little embarrassedly: "I'm not fooling around. I worked as a long-term worker in Dalizhuang for a summer vacation."

Ye Lu didn't believe it and said a little angry: "Are you a young master and you still work as a long-term worker? You believe it! I think you are using these lies to deceive me..."

Li Lide was afraid that she would say something bad again, so he interrupted her and introduced her to her, "This is my mother, she can prove it."

The eldest lady stood beside her without saying anything. She looked at Ye Lu with a smile. Ye Lu was very generous, walked to the eldest lady and bowed, saying, "Hello Aunt!"

The eldest lady smiled and said, "Hello girl! I don't know which lady is? Which school do you study in?"

Seeing his mother's attitude of digging into the bottom line, Li Lide hurriedly took over the conversation and said, "She is Teacher Ye's daughter Ye Lu, and she has also learned Japanese from Teacher Yan Boling. She is half of my classmate."

Seeing that Li Lide was anxious to protect Ye Lu, the eldest lady immediately realized her heart. She smiled and said to Li Lide: "You are so bored with me for a long time. Let's do this. You and Miss Ye take the purchased things to the cart. Qinglin and I will buy a few more things and go home together. Miss Ye, if you don't think my house is cold and you will leave it to the pot of food at noon, okay?"

Ye Lu looked a little hesitant. Li Lide was eager to keep Ye Lu for dinner, so he hurriedly took a lot of things from Li Qinglin's hand and said, "Mom, listen to you, I will definitely keep Ye Lu for lunch." After that, he took the things and led Ye Lu towards the direction of the cart.

The eldest wife stayed in the store to continue shopping, and Li Qinglin had to wait by her side. At this moment, two people rushed in from the door of the store. The first Li Qinglin knew him, Qian Duofu, who had disappeared for a long time.
Chapter completed!