Chapter 96: The Repeated Imprint of History on the Calendar of Palace Museum Artifacts…
The collaboration between the Daping Daily and the City Gossip News on the topic of opium had an effect in Shanghai far more than just the sum of its parts. Ordinary people would feel disgusted by opium after reading the stories, while the detailed data would make wealthy families wary. As for the smoking cessation drugs that were selling like hotcakes not long ago…
"They closed so early today?"
A customer who came to the grocery store to buy matches noticed the closed door next to him and asked in surprise. He remembered that this place was bustling with people not long ago, and the people inside had faces like they were holding a funeral, but that didn't stop customers from rushing to send gold and silver inside.
He even remarked to the shopkeeper that it was the first time he had ever discovered so many chain smokers in Shanghai.
"If we're caught selling counterfeit goods, we'll run into trouble several times a day, and we'll have to close down."
The customer suddenly realized what was happening and responded. After taking a few steps, his mind finally caught up with the situation. He immediately turned around and went back into the shop. While asking the shopkeeper for two ounces of kerosene, he tried to subtly inquire about the matter. When the shopkeeper saw that the customer genuinely didn't know anything, he asked if the customer hadn't been reading the newspaper or going out recently. The customer nodded blankly, not knowing what the two had to do with each other.
"The matter of opium and smoking cessation drugs has been making a great deal of noise lately."
The shopkeeper, unwilling to lose this regular customer, only touched upon the topic of being well-informed. Since business was slow at the moment, he began by explaining the matter in detail to his regular customer, starting with the two articles published by the scholar and the wedding dress magazine.
"Those two articles had just passed through the newspaper boy's hands in the morning, and in the afternoon someone came over to ask if the smoking cessation medicine really worked. When the people inside saw that the person asking the question was dressed in shabby clothes, they beat and scolded him and threw him out."
The shopkeeper sighed as he spoke. He only ran a small business, and he knew about the person who had asked the question—her child wasn't bad, but she was competitive and thought herself strong-willed. She was cornered and started smoking opium, and once she started, she couldn't quit.
The woman hurriedly went to fetch a doctor, only to find out that the child had a special constitution. What would be a sip of something that would only be a pick-me-up for an ordinary person was purer than Indian horse hoof mud for him. He could abstain from it, but it would take a long time and cause him great suffering.
That kid was quite responsible; he had his mother tie him up in the house. When he was sober, he would do some handicrafts to earn a few copper coins, and when the addiction hit, he would just endure it like that. The shopkeeper had passed by that house before and heard the pleas and cries of the man suffering from the addiction, but he hadn't heard it much since—the neighbors protested for mercy, so the mother would gag her son when he had an attack.
"After that, people kept coming to ask if the smoking cessation medicine was effective, from rich families to poor families."
Compared to the opium business that had been operating for many years, the newly arrived anti-smoking medicine, although showing its strength in crossing the river, was still a relatively easy target. In fact, the deceptive nature of the drug made the questioning seem even more justified.
The person selling smoking cessation drugs was clearly unprepared to deal with so many questions at the same time. It only took a few days for them to go from being at ease to going crazy. They made a ruckus during the day and at night. Sometimes, even when the shopkeeper brushed past the people in the store, he could see the bags under their eyes.
It is said that they were also investigating the true identities of the scholar and the bride, but unfortunately, both of them were selfless people. They did not leave an address on the envelope, sent the letter directly through the mailbox, and had the editorial department donate the royalties directly to orphanages and other places in need.
The smoking cessation pharmacy was impacted by the two articles and the influx of customers, causing its business to quickly decline. Every day, idlers would stand at the door listening to the arguments and counting how many people came to inquire about the efficacy of the medication.
There were even wealthy families who were not short of money and were not afraid of trouble, who just wanted to have some fun. They would bring iron cages meant for wild animals to the side of the shop, pay a lot of money to hire addicts to stay there, buy them smoking cessation drugs and give them the drugs according to the prescribed course of treatment. After they finished the drugs, they would stay there for another month to see if it was really effective.
To ensure the addict wasn't deliberately fooling people, he ate, drank, and relieved himself inside, but he didn't mind. He even asked if he could stay a little longer—they said it would cost one dollar a day.
The shopkeeper saw it clearly; as soon as the iron cage was placed, the person inside turned green with fear.
"According to you, it hasn't even been a month yet, so where is the iron cage?"
The man glanced at the shop selling smoking cessation medication and asked with some curiosity. The shopkeeper sighed, still feeling a pang of unease as he thought about what had happened a few days ago.
"They were taken away."
A few days ago, the woman who had first come to question him came to the store again. Without saying a word, she pulled out a knife and slashed the neck of the thinner man selling nicotine cessation medication. The blood splattered onto the counter. Everything happened too fast. By the time another tattooed man kicked her away, the thin man with the Western-style haircut was already dead.
The shopkeeper learned that the woman had sold her house to buy the opium addiction medication, hoping that her child would suffer less and have a better life in the future. However, after the child heard that the medication was fake, he went to see a doctor to have his pulse checked and found that his opium addiction, which he had previously had some hope of quitting, had been strengthened by the medication, and he would never be able to get rid of it in his life.
The son returned home in a daze. In the midst of his outburst, he forgot to tie himself up and smashed things all over the house. Realizing that he was a burden to his mother, he strangled himself to death. Whether he killed himself or slit his throat, leaving bloodstains on the ground would require compensation.
That woman only had one child; she was a widow whose only son had died...
Is she still alive?
The man asked with some regret, but the shopkeeper just shook his head.
"His chest caved in when he was kicked out, and he died before he could even be carried out of the store."
The shopkeeper didn't say that he foresaw what would happen after seeing the woman raise the dagger; after all, it had already happened, and it would be hindsight to say so now. But he truly knew—
His father came from a small village where a widow took the first step to kill her only son, who was ruined by opium. People followed suit, turning opium from an open business into a clandestine operation that lasted for decades.
There's nothing new under the sun; everything goes through the same cycle. The same widowed mother and her only son, the same mother going mad after her son's death. The fact that the smoking cessation pharmacy had to close down because of encountering knife-wielding people several times a day is not an end, but just the beginning.
The shopkeeper longed for a stable life, but the thought of the bloody battles his father had recounted decades ago stirred a deep emotion within him.
"Buy some more food to take back. Things might get a bit chaotic in the coming days."
The man was somewhat bewildered by the rambling words of the shopkeeper, but the shopkeeper said no more. He was just betting in his heart how long the storm would last—last time the government quelled it, how long would it take for the officials to react this time?
...
Yao Xiaoyu stuffed the manuscript of the paper wedding dress into the mailbox, then went to the small shop next door and ordered a cucumber-flavored pineapple dish. The combination sounded a bit strange, but it tasted pretty good. The shopkeeper didn't even hide the recipe from Yao Xiaoyu; he just gave her the recipe as soon as she ordered it, which was basically just one sentence:
Cut the pineapple and cucumber into pieces, add white sugar and white vinegar, and soak them in well water for half an hour.
Yao Xiaoyu knew that people wouldn't tell her the exact proportions, so she didn't dwell on it. She just thought that when she made it at home, she could soak the pineapple in salt water, since it was still a bit sour. She also regretted that it would be decades before Coca-Cola could enter China, otherwise she could replace the white vinegar with sparkling water, which would definitely taste better.
The cucumbers were crisp, the pineapples were sweet, and Yao Xiaoyu's irritability from the hot weather gradually subsided. A mouthful of sweet and sour juice slid down her throat, and the street vendors' cries no longer sounded so jarring—when people have no patience, nothing seems right.
"Selling calendars! Current year calendars are on sale cheap!"
After taking the last sip of the juice, which tasted similar to Xue Wang's cucumber and pineapple tea, Yao Xiaoyu's ears picked up a familiar voice from a series of common hawking calls. She looked over curiously and saw the vendor's face turn red.
Um?
How much is this calendar?
Yao Xiaoyu walked over and asked, "The calendars were all bought at the beginning of the year. Selling them now, while not quite like selling a bicycle to a fish, is still a bit of a waste... Well, the calendar printed with antiques from the Forbidden City is quite different from the ordinary calendar in her hand that she tears off each day."
Even though the year is almost halfway over, she is willing to spend more money as long as the price is not too high.
"One silver dollar."
Sorry to bother you.
Yao Xiaoyu turned to leave, but she was probably the first customer the inexperienced vendor had ever encountered with a willingness to buy. As soon as she turned her head, the vendor automatically lowered the price.
"Octagonal, no, hexagonal..."
Yao Xiaoyu looked at the vendor, who didn't seem like a street vendor at all, from the prayer mat with the calendar hanging on it. Suddenly, she had the urge to hear a story. If she wasn't mistaken, the vendor's profession was something she rarely, if ever, came into contact with. If she could learn more about it, it might be a great source of material.
...
"I am a clerk in the printing press."
This was a very unfamiliar profession to Yao Xiaoyu, but it would be easy to understand if it were replaced with the modern clerk and archivist. The job of a clerk was probably a combination of the two, responsible for drafting, organizing, archiving and transmitting documents. Since the printing bureau was also responsible for printing government bonds, silver dollar molds and the like, the positions there were considered lucrative—provided that one could stay there indefinitely.
Everyone knows the importance of the purse strings. Every time a new official is appointed, the printing bureau chief is replaced. Then it's a case of "a new emperor, a new court." The original employees all stay home and wait for their assignments. If they get one, they go back to work; if not, they have to find another way out.
The street vendor was a former clerk who was laid off, and he was one of the best-paid ones, the kind who was marked as a "part-time worker".
"Those whose names are 'husbands' in the official document, whether recommended or assigned, will receive a monthly salary of seventeen yuan..."
The vendor explained in detail, and Yao Xiaoyu realized that the government offices, like the website rankings she used to work on, were divided into "red" and "black" categories. The "red" categories had high salaries and good standards, while the "black" categories often went seven or eight months without receiving a salary.
Yao Xiaoyu: ...
It was a bit of a surprise, but not entirely unexpected.
Even the clerks in a small printing bureau are divided into two factions. Because there is no quota, all kinds of people with connections are put in. As for how to distinguish them... those with the word "husband" receive a monthly salary and a year-end bonus. Those without this word are lucky if they can get 20% or 30% of their salary each month. Some people can be owed more than half a year's salary at once.
The year-end bonus wasn't just silver or copper coins. After the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, the bureau chief would give some people envelopes containing a handwritten note indicating how many calendars to send—a maximum of 500 and a minimum of 50. Once they received the calendars, they didn't even need to leave the house to sell them; the clerks at the paper shop would swarm around them, wanting as many as they could get.
The vendor sighed again as he looked at the few silver coins in his hand. He should have known better than to keep one for himself. Before the New Year, a calendar cost two yuan a copy on the market, and he had wholesaled it to his clerk for one yuan and fifty cents. Now he was only selling it for seven cents, and that was only because the girl in front of him was kind enough to give him that price.
"Is this the calendar?"
As Yao Xiaoyu flipped through the Palace Museum's antiquities calendar she had just received, a vague thought flashed through her mind.
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The author notes: The information about clerks was found online. It is true that the word "huo" (伙) indicates timely payment, but it only shows that they appeared during the Republic of China period, without specifying the year in which these benefits were given. So, it is assumed that they already existed at that time. The scope of their work was not mentioned in the information I found, so it was made up based on modern definitions.
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