Not The Sideburns I Know Chapter 8

After the gathering at Huang's house, Ryan met Ervin several times at various gatherings. Most of the time, he greeted Ervin and told a few jokes to make everyone laugh. Ervin can play cards now, but he is not addicted yet. He has to be urged by others before he is willing to play two games at the table. On the one hand, he is afraid of losing. If he loses in front of these ladies and masters, the performances of several days will be in vain. He was originally a person who did not calculate money. The income was all managed by his maid Xiaolai. However, every time he took out money from Xiaolai to pay for the gambling, Xiaolai's face was always very bad, and Ervin could not help but be concerned about her. Ryan knew this as soon as he got the upper hand. As long as he and Ervin sat at the same table to play cards, he would find ways to prevent the little actor from suffering losses, and Ervin was ignorant of this. So Ervin liked to play with Ryan very much.

Everyone's friendship with Cheng Shang was unexpected, but reasonable. Although the two of them had Lily as a thorn in their side, as long as they didn't take Lily to heart, with their open-minded, humorous and easygoing personalities, they would get along best.

Lily had no idea that her brother had been dating Ervin behind her back. Now she was guarding Commander Cao and acting as a good wife, and she had to take care of the three children left by Commander Cao's original wife. She used to be such a ostentatious and social person, but now she seemed to be "washing away all the makeup and presenting a plain appearance". She no longer appeared at ordinary card parties, and when she did, she was not dressed up like in the past, with all the red and green colors and sparkling lights. Others thought she had changed her mind and wanted to be a dignified lady. Only Ryan and her siblings, who grew up together, knew that she had to restrain herself because her foundation in the Cao family was not yet stable. She had to exploit the family property, train the servants, and buy off the personal soldiers, especially the three children who had not been subdued yet. Only after a long time would the truth be revealed.

This time, Vice Minister Qian's family hosted a card game. Lily arrived late in a silver-gray cheongsam and a few diamond pendants. She first entertained Mrs. Qian and came out to see Ryan and Lucas playing cards together. When Lucas saw her, she was more anxious than Ryan. She bowed and called her sister and offered her seat. Lily hadn't seen her brother for a long time, so she must play with him for a while.

Ryan was winning a good hand and shouted to Lucas, "Sit down! Don't move!"

A person at the same table stood up and collected the chips, saying with a smile: "Okay, you guys are relatives, just sit at the same table and play, I'll just vacate my seat!"

Lily was not polite either. She smiled at the man, then sat down and shuffled the cards without asking the beginning or the end, breaking up everyone's hands. Ryan turned his head and closed his eyes in hatred.

"I say, it's time for Brother Lian to go away. I see you sticking to our Second Master all day long. You two men have nothing to do properly. What will happen if we separate for a while?"

Lucas laughed and said, "Sister, you are wrongly accusing me. You saw it just now. It was him who was clinging to me all day long."

Ryan said: "Don't be ungrateful! This is a sign of respect for you."

Lucas said in a long voice: "Then I have to kneel three times and kowtow nine times to thank you for your grace!"

"You're welcome! Stand up!"

Lucas glared at him.

"You two are brothers, dear ones." Lily sighed and said, "I told my sister-in-law last time that if I can't find the second master of the Cheng family, I can only find the second master of the Fan family. They are always together! I don't know why they are so attached to each other!"

Lucas smiled and said, "You two sisters have misunderstood. My brother-in-law and I only get together when we are having fun. But my brother-in-law is always having fun, so we always get together."

Lucas ridiculed Ryan like this, so Ryan naturally had to fight back, smiling and teasing: "To be honest, sister, if Lucas was a woman, with her beauty, talent, knowledge, and family background..." Ryan lifted his brother-in-law's chin and said, "I would marry her as my c0ncubine."

Lucas laughed a few times and said with a hint of meaning: "If I were a woman, my brother-in-law would only keep me but not marry me."

Ryan said decisively: "I only prostitute, not keep it!"

A stranger at the table couldn't help laughing: "You two are such a funny couple!"

Lily also laughed to death, and pushed Ryan's shoulder: "You dirty thing! Tell me, how are we siblings alike?"

As they were talking and laughing, a man suddenly came to the door. This man was even late, but when he arrived, several gentlemen at the nearby tables put down their toys, gathered around him attentively, helped him take off his cloak, brushed the snow off his hair, and laughed and joked with him.

The man smiled and said, "Don't bother! I can do it myself! Don't crowd me!"

Ryan knew who it was when he heard the soft, rustling voice. He turned around and said with a smile, "Boss Shang! Will you play eight rounds with me today?"

Ervin was about to agree with a smile, but when he looked up, he saw Lily sitting at the top, looking at him with a gloomy face and vicious eyes. Ervin immediately stopped smiling, nodded to Ryan lightly, and turned to the next room. But Ryan didn't know whether he was deliberately trying to anger his sister or not, and he was still shouting there: "Boss Shang? Boss Shang! Come on! Waiting for you!"

Lucas kicked him under the table, thinking that he really didn't take his sister seriously, why did he do that in front of her? Lily slammed a card on the table, glared at Ryan hatefully, and cursed him in her heart, but didn't get angry in front of him.

Ryan never took the disputes among his family members to heart, as he had seen a lot of them when he was a child. In his opinion, Lily and Ervin, the wife of the principal wife, were fighting for power and squeezing out the c0ncubine, so why should they be so irreconcilable and fight to the death? He was such a confused man, but Lily thought he was deliberately against him. After a few days, she went to the second grandmother to complain, saying: "Sister-in-law should also control my brother and stop him from playing around with people of questionable character outside."

Second Mistress was about to give birth, and was shocked to hear this. She stood up and frowned and asked, "Who is he messing around with again?"

Lily helped her sit up and said with a smile: "That's not the case. I just saw him getting a little close to an actor recently."

Second Mistress frowned and waited for her to tell the truth. Lily said, "The one my sister-in-law knows is Ervin. That androgynous thing is not a good thing. Don't let my second brother be seduced by him."

Unexpectedly, the second wife's brows relaxed, and she held her big belly and said, "You know your brother best. How can I control him? It's harder to make him change his mind than to kill him! I just hope he doesn't bring women and ba5tards from outside into the house, and I will thank God and accept his kindness!"

Second Mistress and Lily are women from two different worlds and countries. Second Mistress wears her hair in a bun and has bound feet, and she still lives in the Qing Dynasty. Because Ervin is a man, even if Ryan really has some affair with him, Second Mistress will not argue. Since Ryan can't be restrained from playing around the world, it doesn't matter who he plays with. When he's done playing, he can just leave and leave cleanly. But if it's a female actor, Second Mistress will be so nervous. If she gives birth to a boy or a girl, what should she do? Lily failed to instigate, and said some family nonsense, and returned home in anger.

Ervin's Shuiyunlou performed a closing drama at the end of the year. It was lively, interesting, novel and colorful, and the whole city of Beiping was talking about it for half a month. Ryan had no interest in drama. Even though he was good friends with Ervin, he didn't think of getting a ticket to listen to the drama. Lucas had to go. After returning, he was so excited that he couldn't sleep for several days. He gestured back and forth with Ryan, saying how wonderful Ervin's cross-dressing was, how good the martial arts actor was, and how authentic the work was. Ryan listened in vain, smoking a cigarette and standing there in a daze. Lucas kept scolding him for playing the lute to a cow, which was vulgar.

Then in the first month of the year, Minister Jin of the Ministry of Finance came to Beijing on official business and specially arranged a play in the Chamber of Commerce. Minister Jin personally sent a letter to invite Ervin to sing the finale. Ervin had already given Shuiyunlou a holiday. The actors went back to their hometowns to reunite, and some lived with their mistresses. There were only a few children and martial artists left. None of them who could play the finale were there, and even Li Bo, who played the erhu, was sick. He had to pack two bags of gouache and ink and come alone with Xiaolai.

That day was naturally a time of great wealth and excitement, with all the well-known merchants in Peking present. When a business reaches a certain scale, the people who run it also get older. The only youngest people in the whole place were the nouveau riche Ryan and the heir to the family business, Lucas. They were too young to look like business masters, and their demeanor was frivolous. They only chatted in low voices about last night's movie and the food and drinks, as if they were visiting a temple fair.

Minister Jin loves to support young people, and he is also an old friend of Ryan's father and Lucas's father. When Ryan and Lucas met him, they couldn't help but respectfully call him uncle, which made them seem closer than others. Minister Jin had been limping and greeting guests for half a day, and his legs and feet were already numb and sore. He took Ryan and Lucas's hands, limped to his left and right, and sat down next to them, and talked to them about business and housework. This was already a huge honor, which even the president of the Chamber of Commerce could not get. Ryan and Lucas didn't take it seriously, and even felt it was annoying. Ryan's smile was fake, and Lucas's smile was perfunctory. The two were careless.

Minister Jin knew that Lucas had gone south to avoid the war, so he seized the opportunity to say to Lucas, "It would be better for you to go back and guard Fanjiabao yourself. First, since the boss is away, the men will inevitably neglect their finances and conceal their annual output. Second, the enemy is all around us now. If the soldiers are not careful and lose the land to the Japanese invaders, they will be ashamed of their country and ancestors."

When the Japanese invaded, the regular army ran away without firing a single shot. Today, the officials have the nerve to ask the unarmed people to defend their homes and feed the gun barrels of the Japanese who are armed with live ammunition. Lucas smiled coldly in his heart, thinking that I lost Fanjiabao just because of the blame of my ancestors and was scolded by my sister. You lost the country, which is unfaithful and unfilial, despised by the people, and deserve to die! But he has always been honest to the outside world, and these insults, truths and harsh words are only exchanged with Ryan in private. He smiled and said, "Minister Jin is right. How can we defend the country without protecting our home? When my sister gets married next year, I can go home with peace of mind."

Ryan listened in and thought to himself that it was a lie. There was no sign of Fan Jinling getting married. Who knew when it would happen? Or if Jinling never got married, would he never go home in this life?

Minister Jin didn't know if he realized that Lucas was fooling him. He nodded with satisfaction, watched the show for a while, then turned to Ryan and said casually: "I remember that my brother was the most in favor of 'saving the country through industry'. Why is my nephew only engaged in the business of hoarding and short selling now? With my nephew's talent, if he can inherit his father's ambition, he can open any kind of factory? By then, he can make a fortune every day, and save us from dealing with gangsters on the road, which makes us elders feel at ease."

Ryan's father suffered from the loss of running a business. The factory rotted in his hands and he couldn't sell it, which made his family broken up and died a miserable death. Ryan remembered it and would never repeat the same mistake. Moreover, the current situation is turbulent. If there is a war, there will be a war. He didn't have time to sell some of the original shops. If he added a few more, if the war really started, who would he cry to while guarding the factory? It couldn't be dismantled or sold, and a bomb would blow it to pieces. Besides, when his family was in trouble, he didn't see this elder helping him, so why did he come out to claim seniority now?

Lucas also quietly listened to Minister Jin's words, and at this time he exchanged glances with Ryan, his eyes full of disdain and ridicule. Both of them thought: Jin Laowu is a crippled man with a treacherous heart. He has his own land and money, why doesn't he guard it with a gun, or run some business, he just knows how to push others forward. When others revitalize the economy, he sits there signing documents and counting dollars. Listen to him, idiots listen to him!

Ryan said with a smile: "My nephew is used to spending lavishly. Although he seems to be doing well, he actually still owes Mr. Fan a huge debt. His servants concealed their annual output, and when he ran out of money, he pressed me to pay the debt. When Mr. Fan's sister gets married, he will return to Fanjiabao, and no one will force me to pay the money back. I will open a bank in Dongjiaominxiang, and compete with Citibank to enhance our country's prestige!"

Lucas turned his head away and tried hard not to laugh. What about the buddy concealing the annual output and the sister wanting to get married? Those were all nonsense. He took the topic seriously and said that he treated Minister Jin as a fool and was showing off the prestige of our country. Lucas was so happy that his shoulders shook with laughter.

Minister Jin turned around and asked in surprise: "Hey! Why is Lian Ge'er so happy?"

Ryan couldn't say that he was laughing at me and teasing you. Just then, Ervin came on stage, so he said, "Master Fan is Mr. Shang's fan. Every time he sees Mr. Shang's play, he feels like he's eaten bee sh!t."

Minister Jin seemed to suddenly understand and nodded and smiled.

Now everyone says that Ervin and Henry are good at their own fields, and they are on par with each other, and even have the intention of continuing the past and opening up the future. Minister Jin doesn't quite believe it. He suspects that after Henry retired, Ervin is like a monkey in a mountain without a tiger, a fake and a pearl, and is not as good as the rumors say. Today, he intends to test Ervin's ability and orders him to perform his own play "Fanjiangguan". Because Henry is proficient in both Dansheng and Wenwu, he is a versatile talent. Minister Jin doesn't believe that Ervin is also accomplished in both, so he orders another Laosheng play "Empty City Plan". The play list is passed down, and Ervin doesn't come to refute it. He can actually sing Laosheng.

Ervin came on stage and made a very spirited appearance, which won the applause of the whole house. Ryan was a Shanghainese after all, and he didn't know much about the business, and he didn't even know how to watch the excitement. If a Qingyi Huadan was sung elegantly on the stage, he might still listen. There were only a few words in the lyrics of "Fanjiangguan" when a dazzling fight with sticks appeared. Ryan didn't pay any attention to it at all. But those rich gentlemen who usually had a lot of airs stood up and cheered for him, and Minister Jin also smiled and nodded, looking very approving, which must be a very good performance.

After Ervin finished singing Xue Jinlian, Minister Jin couldn't help but call him off the stage. His eyes changed. He personally poured him a glass of wine and said, "I know you opera singers avoid alcohol, but this is okay. It's made from grape juice and won't hurt your throat."

Ervin thanked him and drank the whole cup slowly. When he put down the cup, his eyes swept over Ryan and Lucas with a smile. Ryan glanced at Minister Jin and made a bitter face to him, as if to say: Look, I am here to accompany a stinky old man to talk official language, it is boring!

Minister Jin smiled and said, "Boss Shang's skills are really beautiful, and he has put a lot of effort into it."

Ervin said: "I started out as a martial artist, and later changed my profession."

"Then I made a wrong calculation. The Empty City Strategy later on will not be difficult for Boss Shang."

Ervin did not answer, but smiled modestly, and went backstage to change his clothes. Although he received a few compliments, he did not look proud at all. He felt that he played well today, but his singing was not good, and he blamed the strings of the huqin for being high and low, which did not match his voice. While putting on makeup, he asked people, "Who is playing the huqin today?"

People laughed and said, "Boss Shang also felt that? That's the eldest disciple of 'literary master' He Shaoqing, so arrogant!" As he said that, he pointed to the wine pots and glasses on the table, "Before going on stage, he came here to drink two cups and chatted with a young female role. People who drink wine are inspired to write poems. As for him, his string music is inspired, and he uses us as a foil to show off his ability! A dog's stomach can't hold four ounces of oil..."

Ervin nodded, thinking that he turned out to be his apprentice. He didn't complain about anything else. He put on his beard and prepared to go on stage.