Chapter 1282 Why is the Magic City called the Magic City
The third day after Li Ye arrived in Shanghai was Sunday. The sky finally cleared up and the number of people at the exhibition increased by more than seven or eight times. However, Li Ye only stayed in the exhibition area of the first branch for half a day before he wandered off.
When others asked him, he said he was doing market research, but in fact he was going shopping with Wen Leyu.
To a certain extent, Niu Hongzhang did not wrongly accuse Li Ye. He just came to Shanghai for a trip with his wife, but today is Sunday, and he should have a rest even if the king of the world came.
He is not willing to earn double overtime pay like Xiao Zhu and others, so what can you do?
When Li Ye arrived at Wen Leyu's residence, he found that his young wife had already dressed up and was waiting for him.
Seeing Wen Leyu tied her hair into a ponytail again, Li Ye couldn't stop smiling.
Since Wen Leyu got promoted in the past two years, she rarely wears a ponytail because it is not solemn enough.
I have to say that the rules in some government agencies and enterprises are pedantic. As long as you are in a leadership position, even if you are in your twenties, you have to act like Master Miejue.
Letting the sixteen-year-old Zhou Zhiruo pretend to be Nun Miejue, isn't that extremely unscrupulous?
When Wen Leyu saw Li Ye, he asked with amusement, "Why are you grinning like an idiot?"
Li Ye reached out and grabbed Wen Leyu's ponytail, then said softly: "I heard a little story from someone.
Someone asked Buddha how to find the person he loves the most. Buddha said that the person who smiles when he sees you and the person who makes you smile when he sees you. So is there anything wrong with smiling when he sees you?
Wen Leyu blinked, smiled knowingly, and then reached out to slap Li Ye's claws away: "Stop pulling, you're already a grown man."
Li Ye said unhappily: "Can't you fall in love as an adult? You are not even thirty yet! Sometimes I dream about the feeling of pulling your hair."
"Okay, okay, okay, you can go home any way you want. Now we have to go eat first. We are starving."
Wen Leyu half coaxed and half deceived Li Ye, and the two of them finally went out.
It was the first time for both of them to visit Shanghai, and they were quite looking forward to this legendary "Magic City".
The word "魔都" first appeared in the novel "魔都" published by a Japanese writer Muramatsu Shofu.
This novel was written by him based on the Shanghai market in the 1920s. The work describes the dark side of Shanghai and uses the term "Magic City" to refer to Shanghai.
Later people believed that the reason why Shanghai was called the "Magic City" was because there were concessions in Shanghai at the time, which led to the concessions and the county town forming two completely different worlds.
These two worlds penetrate and conflict with each other, making it an inclusive city and also producing all kinds of strange "magic".
Li Ye and Wen Leyu were walking on Nanjing Road, looking at the Western-style buildings along the street, the crowded crowds and the shops lined up along the street, and they could indeed feel a special atmosphere.
However, the two of them didn't like this kind of atmosphere very much. Even when they saw the luxury store that Li Ying and Fu Yiru were tinkering with, they just went in and took a casual look around before coming out.
Because this atmosphere gave Li Ye and Wen Leyu a feeling of being unreal and fake.
For example, in the luxury goods store, all the sales clerks inside have a cool and aloof attitude of "I don't care if I buy or not", but Li Ye knows their true colors. These brands of luxury goods are represented by Li's Jewelry Company registered by Fu Yiru in Hong Kong Island. She is just a middleman, so why pretend to be so sophisticated?
If we have to talk about exotic fashion, it's not like Li Ye and Wen Leyu haven't seen it overseas before, so facing this kind of hypocritical prosperity, both of them are a little indifferent.
Li Ye feels that the Shanghai Stock Exchange will be more confident and more worthy of pride decades later, because at that time everyone's confidence and pride will come from the world's sixth largest GDP, rather than the antique houses left over from the concession period.
But after the two uninterested people accidentally walked into a small alley, they discovered another world.
In the cramped alley, some places still have puddles from yesterday's rain. It is not as clean and tidy as the outside world, but it is full of the real smell of fireworks.
Children chasing and playing, women hanging clothes to dry, and men using tools to mend things in a small space all present another Shanghai market.
Decades ago, the concession and the county town were two different worlds. Decades later, although the concession is gone, the entire Shanghai market is still two different worlds.
The modernity of the foreign concessions and the fireworks in the alleys and lanes interweave to create the so-called magic.
A bun shop hidden in the alley was selling freshly-baked dumplings. Li Ye and Wen Leyu tried some and were surprised at how delicious they were.
At noon, the two of them had lunch at a so-called "old restaurant", but the food was far inferior to the one in this small alley.
Think about it, if you run a business in an alley, you only have one "taste" to offer. If your food is not delicious, you would have gone bankrupt long ago.
The century-old brands in the prosperous city, like the West Lake Vinegar Fish in Hangzhou, are just selling a "signature product". If you think it tastes bad, it may be because you are an outsider who has been deceived.
Li Ye and Wen Leyu became interested and wandered around for a long time. They ate at a shengjian restaurant and a pork ribs and rice cake restaurant. One of them tasted particularly delicious, and the other used very genuine ingredients, which made them very satisfied.
Some people say that Shanghainese people's nights start with lighting a honeycomb coal stove. Because their homes are too small, the honeycomb coal stove that can be moved around is very popular.
It was already around four or five in the afternoon. Some people in the alley began to carry out the honeycomb coal stove, then put on aprons and started cooking. Suddenly, the smell of smoke in the alley became thicker.
When Li Ye and Wen Leyu walked to a place, they found that most of the people cooking were men, and their cooking skills seemed quite skilled.
In his previous life, Li Ye heard from several female classmates that men in Shanghai are very good at cooking, which then evolved into the idea that "Shanghai men are so rich and they cook, why don't you cook?"
But now it is 1991, and this kind of scene is really rare.
Wen Leyu picked up the camera and wanted to record the scene, but felt it was a bit presumptuous.
So Li Ye went up and started chatting with a few men.
"Brother, do you mind if we take a picture?"
"Take a picture? Sure, sure."
The other party looked at Li Ye, then at Wen Leyu, and felt that these two neatly dressed young men did not look like bad people, so he did not care about anything.
Then Li Ye used half a pack of good cigarettes to chat with several men.
"I heard that all men in Shanghai cook for their wives. Is that true or false?"
"Of course, wives are meant to be loved, and men in Shanghai are all considerate of their wives."
"Little brother, are you married to your girlfriend? You should also learn to cook after marriage."
“.”
Several men wearing aprons and smoking, they waved their spatulas and chatted with Li Ye.
But at this moment, a sharp and contemptuous voice suddenly came from the building next door.
"Young man, don't listen to their nonsense. They cook for us because we have to work the night shift to earn night shift pay. Otherwise, do you think they would be willing to do it?"
(End of this chapter)
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