The basement of the love letter apartment was extremely warm due to the heating. On the stage next to the big mirror, Tao Canhua, wearing a cotton robe, stood behind a table and slowly told a story from a Chinese chat room.

As a matter of fact, the audience who were playing mahjong under the stage were inevitably a little distracted.

"Meixiang, among us, you must be the one who knows how to do business."

At the card table, a rich lady whom Wei Ran had never seen before threw out a piece of eight and said with envy, "Not to mention the tea parties every Monday and Thursday, I can't even talk about the dance classes on Saturday alone.

I heard that many young men and young ladies from rich families come here to learn dancing."

"Can't"

Another overly wealthy lady sitting at the same card table said with the same envy, "I noticed it at the dance last Friday, but there were a few handsome college students.

To say that this woman is really good at not marrying. Look at sister Meixiang, how carefree she is living every day, it is really eye-catching."

“Who says it’s not?”

A young woman sitting at another card table with a cigarette in her mouth sighed sadly, and then glanced at Tao Canhua, who was telling a story on the stage, with the eyes of a prey, "Unlike me, that damn man in my family does it every day.

Baba's waiting behind his too-guy ass is more important than serving me. Now, I'm looking forward to the tea parties on Mondays and Thursdays every day.

Come to Sister Meixiang's place to listen to operas and music, drink tea and chat with everyone, or even dress up as a photoshoot and sing a few verses in person. It's much more comfortable than at home, and it's not as noisy as going to the theater."

"Why did Mrs. Ning forget her Japanese class every Wednesday?"

Junko Sometani, who was sitting at the same table as Wei Ran and Walker, smiled and said in Chinese, "My Japanese class doesn't even cost money for tea, but I haven't seen you come here a few times this month."

"Shunzi, please forgive me."

The resentful young woman said with a pitiful look, "I haven't studied for a few years since I was a child. How could I learn that?"

"It's okay to forget Shunzi's Japanese class. Why did you forget about the dance on Friday?" The rich lady at the same table as Meixiang threw a card and said with a smile, "I'm not here for this tea party.

You come every time, but I never saw you miss the Friday night dance. And you came early, so you danced with all the young men and college students who came to dance, right?"

"I'm afraid it's more than just dancing." The young woman who first started this topic joked.

“Don’t Second Sister You come here every time?”

The young woman with a resentful and lonely look on her face rolled her eyes and said without covering up at all, "We are just birds raised in a cage. Speaking of which, we are not as free as sister Meixiang. This is something we dare to do."

It’s just dancing, is it possible that you still want to sleep with them?”

"I think it's not my small business that the three sisters envy, right?"

As she spoke, Mei Xiang picked up the card thrown by the fat lady and said, "Second Sister You still feels sorry for me. What a fool."

"Hey!"

The chubby wife slapped her chubby white hand and said, "Why is your luck so bad today? Qiushi, Qiushi, peel an orange for me."

"okay!"

Qiushi responded crisply, picked the largest orange from the table by the wall, peeled it carefully and tore off the white silk, and carried it on a red lacquer tray to the fat You.

The second sister got a large reward in exchange for it.

Just an orange can get you a dollar reward. From this small detail, Wei Ran, who was playing cards with the "three foreigners", already realized what kind of wealth the rich ladies who came to this tea party had.

On the stage, Tao Canhua was still eloquently telling the story of Liaozhai. Offstage, the card games on several card tables were still going on. Around the card tables, Qiushi was also running around bringing tea and water.

Fruit, occasionally when a rich lady temporarily leaves the card table to go to the bathroom, Jasmine who is sitting on the side will temporarily come up to help take over for a while.

During the card game, Wei Ran also learned a lot of information from the casual chat with Walker and Someya at the same table, as well as from the few words of the rich ladies around them.

I have to admit that in just over two years, Meixiang has indeed managed this bookstore in a spectacular way.

No need to guess, the actors who sang on the stage just now and the drummers who accompanied the audience were all children who were saved from the flood in 1939.

Although Wei Ran couldn't tell whether the children sang well or not, they were able to perform on stage in just two years. Even if the singing was not good, it was enough to prove the hard work of these children. What's more, when he came down just now,

The two of them were blindfolded and fighting on the stage and they were fighting vigorously, which is enough to explain a lot of things.

On the other hand, the current "business" of this love letter apartment is far more than just singing a few plays. According to the information he heard, every Monday and Thursday are tea parties for rich ladies. On Wednesdays, Someya Junko

At Mei Xiang's invitation, I will come over to give Japanese lessons to the children of the actors. If those rich ladies want to listen to Japanese lessons, they can also come and listen for free.

On Friday night, there will be a dance organized on the second floor. In addition to these rich ladies who have money and leisure, there are also rich young men and young ladies who come to study and dance every Saturday, as well as some residents who live in the house.

Children of Japanese overseas Chinese in the Japanese Concession.

In other words, during this week, this bookstore is closed to the public on Tuesdays and Sundays.

While he was distracted by his thoughts, Wei Ran also lost two games in a row at the card table and contributed five or six yuan to his opponent Somegu and his wife.

After two rounds of cards, Tao Canhua also finished telling the story. Immediately afterwards, Qiushi, who was responsible for pouring tea and water, came on stage and sang a song that seemed to be quite popular, accompanied by Jasmine on the organ.

"What's the name of this song?" Wei Ran asked curiously after Qiushi came off the stage.

"See you soon, Sasha. Don't you want to watch the movie?"

Before Qiuzhen finished, another girl who looked younger than her came on stage and sang the second song with the accompaniment of Jasmine's organ.

At this time, Wei Ran didn't bother to ask, and simply cooperated with Walker to win back the lost Dayang amidst the songs of the little girls who took turns singing.

In the rounds of card games, the performances on the stage almost never stopped, whether it was songs, opera, storytelling, or drumming.

Although this unsystematic program arrangement is quite disorganized, Wei Ran can also see that whether the rich ladies, the Someya couple or the German guy like Volker, they really do this. Especially the rich ladies.

, and occasionally "sing" a song.

After all this commotion, when the self-ringing clock in the basement started to chime six o'clock, the ladies, the Someyas and Walker also left one after another, leaving only more or less money for tea and a lot of money on the table.

Peel garbage on the ground.

Without any instructions, the boys and girls who had been playing and singing all afternoon removed their makeup and cleaned up as quickly as possible.

It wasn't until everything was tidied up in the basement, and even the floor and stage were wiped with rags, that Meixiang, who had been watching, put down the tea cup in her hand and said, "Qiushi, you and Canhua take your younger brothers and sisters."

Let's go upstairs and let everyone talk about which one sang well and which one didn't sing well before eating."

"Hey!" Tao Canhua and Qiushi agreed in unison, and left the basement with the children, whose average age was estimated to be less than 18 years old, talking and laughing.

"Jasmine"

Mei Xiang winked, and the latter nodded and followed the children upstairs.

"Open the door and go inside to see how busy they are." Mei Xiang whispered.

Hearing this, Wei Ran immediately pushed open the large mirror hidden behind the stage with familiarity, and then opened the wooden door wrapped with a layer of cotton mattress inside and outside.

Following Mei Xiang and entering the small door, Wei Ran discovered that there were more cotton curtains hanging in the passage leading to the hidden basement than the last time he entered.

After passing through layers of cotton curtains, when the two of them finally stood at the door of the iron door, Wei Ran couldn't help but be stunned.

At this time, the hidden basement was brightly lit. Not only that, the surrounding walls and even the floor under the feet were also hung or covered with two layers of thick quilts.

But it's obvious that these quilts are not for keeping warm, but more for sound insulation.

Because at this time, in this underground space of sixty or seventy square meters, there were three girls either carefully wiping the printing machines with rags or busy cleaning the underground space.

And on the hospital bed at the end of the room, there was still a wounded person who was wrapped in a lot of gauze and could only be seen as male and female. Beside the wounded person, there was also a patient wearing a nurse uniform and holding a teacup in his hand.

Andy.

"How is Brother Tang doing?" While Wei Ran was stunned, Mei Xiang had already walked to the bedside and asked with concern.

“Basically stable”

Andy put down the tea cup, took out the thermometer from the armpit of the sleeping wounded man and looked at it, then continued to answer, "I was still awake for a while in the afternoon, and I estimate that I will be fully awake in a day or two.

What's going on outside now?"

"Mr. Someya told me in the afternoon that the Japanese were still looking for him." Meixiang couldn't help but sigh after finishing speaking.

"Do you think the Guan siblings are still alive?" Andy suddenly asked in German, "Will they come back?"

"meeting"

Just when Wei Ran thought the other party was asking him and was thinking about how to respond, Mei Xiang replied in German with a slight mispronunciation, "The two siblings are definitely still alive, and I believe they will definitely come back.

"

At this point, Meixiang switched back to her native language and asked the girls who were still busy, "Has the printing been finished?"

"Printing finished"

A girl who looked to be sixteen or seventeen years old immediately replied, "The printing was finished when Brother Canhua and Sister Qiushi started singing Romance of the West Chamber. At that time, we were all listening behind the small door."

"Okay, let's all go up and eat. Remember to put the big-character poster in the car."

Before Mei Xiang finished speaking, the three young girls either picked up the trash can, or picked up a boxy paper bag about the size of a shoe box, or picked up the spittoon outside the door, one after another.

Left the room.

At the same time, Mei Xiang and Andy continued to chat, while Wei Ran, who was ignored, still looked at the three little girls who walked out.

Although time had passed a little long for those girls, for Wei Ran, it was just last night, so he recognized at a glance that the three young girls in pajamas were exactly who he was in 1939.

On that thunderstorm night, three of the five girls who were rescued from the "haunted" small western-style building in the French Concession together with Tao Canhua!

Not only that, he also learned from the chat between Mei Xiang and Andy that the injured patient named Tang lying on the hospital bed turned out to be Andy's brother!

The reason why Brother Tang was injured was because he was caught by the Japanese while sending and receiving telegrams and then severely tortured. And the reason why he appeared here seems to be that Cao Mute and Mr. Feng rescued him.
To be continued...