Plum Garden.
Chen Fang prepared a table of delicious food, and Chen Xia drank with Chen Yigen and Chen Guoqing.
There were five meat dishes on the table. Chen Guoqing said with a smile, "Xiao Xia, this is the old rule. At least five bowls of meat."
Chen Xia said with a smile: "Other people might only have two or three bowls of meat when they come, but when Fourth Grandpa and Uncle Guoqing come, it must be five bowls of meat."
Chen Yigen was quite pleased to hear this. "Second Brother, are Qiaogu and the others still obedient? Are they doing things efficiently?"
"Ever since Sister Qiao came here, I've been doing nothing all day. You've helped me take care of everything. The girls in our Chen family are really good. Maybe we'll have a few more female entrepreneurs in the future, haha."
Chen Yigen was even happier. "The female entrepreneur doesn't know, but we have a branch in Hong Kong. Now that it's open, they wrote to us saying that they opened a factory there and are said to be making a fortune."
Chen Xia suddenly became interested. "Fourth Grandpa, do we have relatives in Hong Kong?"
Chen Yigen took a sip of his old wine and started to talk nonsense.
"That's a long story. It was before the liberation. Your grandfather had an older brother who had been in Shanghai. He started out as a businessman, but later on, I don't know how he got involved with the Nationalist Army. He ran away with them in 1949.
Before running away, he hid in the village for a few days, but his assets were all in Shanghai and he couldn't take them away. Your grandfather had to sell the old house to raise enough money for the trip, and then he took his wife and two children to Hong Kong.
There was no news from him for decades. Two years ago, a letter arrived looking for your family, and everyone realized he had fled to Hong Kong and started a business. Your father was still alive at the time, so he knew about it.
But Chen Bingkun is already dead, so there is no evidence. Chen Xia is also a transmigrated soul, with no memory of this life, so he has no idea what happened.
But this matter was very important to Chen Xia, so he shouted at the top of his voice: "Big sister, Chen Chun."
Chen Chun hurried over and asked, "What are you doing?"
"Did Dad ever tell you that we have relatives in Hong Kong?"
"Yes, didn't I write to him last year? He said there was a great-grandfather over there who wanted us to go to Hong Kong to live with him. But Dad didn't agree at the time. He was afraid of getting into trouble, so he didn't reply. Fourth Grandfather knows about this, so why are you asking me?"
"Where's the letter? Let me see it."
Chen Chun thought for a moment and said, "Oh, the letter is not with me. It's probably in the old house in Qingfeng Village. I remember that Dad's letters were all placed in the box under the bedside table. You can look for it yourself when you have time."
That night, Chen Yigen and Chen Guoqing both got drunk and slept in the plum garden.
Chen Xia couldn't fall asleep for a long time, and his mind kept thinking about the letter from Hong Kong. If he could get in touch with Hong Kong, doing business in the future under the guise of Hong Kong capital would undoubtedly be the safest and easiest way.
I just don't know what kind of person my great-grandfather is. Is he rich or poor in Hong Kong? Is he willing to help? Chen Xia couldn't be sure how much affection he had for relatives he hadn't seen in decades. Look at his own grandfather's family, his second uncle's family, and his younger uncle's family. When the Chen family was in trouble, they all pretended to be dead.
The only thing that was certain was that he had to find an opportunity to go to Hong Kong and see it for himself.
Early the next morning, Chen Xia ran back to Qingfeng Village alone and found an iron box from the bedside table in his parents' room. There were many letters in it, but the long lace-edged international mail was the most eye-catching.
Chen Xia couldn't wait to open the letter. From the content, it could be seen that his grandfather, his biological brother, missed his family very much and even left an address hoping that he could write back.
The letter said that if his parents were still alive, he would take a photo of them for them; if his parents were no longer around, he would also like to take a photo of their grave for them.
The key point is that in the letter he mentioned his current situation: he had opened a garment factory and was doing well. He asked if any of the Chen family's nephews were interested in going to Hong Kong to seek refuge with him, saying that he had left a portion of the family property for his younger brother's family and that they could ask him for it at any time.
It can be seen between the lines that this is an old man who values friendship and loyalty. Just because he did business and left a property for his younger brother's family, he is definitely a grateful person. It is probably because of the kindness of his grandfather who sold the house to raise money for the travel expenses.
Chen Xia looked at the address on the letter paper, "Chen Defa, 110 Wangjia Garden Street," and his mind was working rapidly...
South Square of Shanghai Railway Station.
After sitting on the train for a whole day, everyone had lost the excitement they had when they first got on the train and became exhausted.
In this era, there are no high-speed trains or EMUs, only green-skinned trains with coal-fired steam engines at the front. If you happen to sit in the first carriage, the dust will make you feel like you're in heaven.
The slow speed is secondary. The key is that this type of train has to stop at every station. It does not stop at one station in each county, but at every town train station, and has to give way from time to time.
There are both advantages and disadvantages. The disadvantage is that it is too slow and can give people who are in a hurry a heart attack.
The advantage is that it stops at every station, and those with spare money can walk to the platform, where there are many carts selling local specialties, which you can buy to eat.
For example, at Jiaxing Station, meat dumplings and water chestnuts are very famous. In the era of poor logistics, they are definitely a delicacy when traveling.
Back then, famous local delicacies such as Dezhou Braised Chicken, Shangrao Chicken Legs, Tianjin Hemp Flowers, Jinling Salted Duck, etc. could all be bought on the platform.
Well, it seems Zhu Ziqing's father went to the platform to buy oranges. The original text is: "I'm going to buy some oranges. You stay here and don't move."
Later, this meme was played up by netizens on the Internet.
People getting off the platform don’t have to worry about the train doors closing. If it really doesn’t work, they can just throw their things into the train window and climb in.
Unfortunately, later on, even the windows of trains could not be opened, so these platform delicacies disappeared.
In this way, the green train took 9 hours to travel more than 200 kilometers from Yuezhou to Shanghai, and both legs were swollen.
Chen Xia held Gu Lin's hand with her left hand and Chen Dong's hand with her right hand, looked at everyone and said with a smile:
"You're just following me. Follow closely. We still have to take the tram to Nanjing Road. Be careful not to get your wallet stolen."
Gu Lin and Chen Chun perked up as soon as they heard the name Nanjing Road. "Hurry up, I can't wait to see what Nanjing Road looks like."
What does the legendary Nanjing Road look like?
Standing on the busy Nanjing Road, just looking at the expressions of these people, Chen Xia wanted to laugh at the confused look on their faces.
Chen Dong quietly tugged at Chen Xia's hand. "Look, second brother, I just counted. This building is 24 stories high. Oh my god, how did they build it?"
Chen Xia squatted down and admired the "tall building" in front of them with Chen Dong, saying, "The 24th floor is not that high. There are buildings over 100 stories high in foreign countries."
"Wow, more than 100 stories high, isn't that like living in heaven? You can even see the gods."
Everyone was amused by Chen Dong. Chen Xia waved his hand and said, "First, find a hotel to stay in and get some rest. I'll take you guys on a fun trip starting tomorrow."
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