It was also a coincidence that when Li Yu went out this time, he met the driver who was pulling his cart again.
"You happen to know the road well, please take me to Dongchang Hutong." Li Yu jumped into the car.
"Okay." The coachman replied listlessly, and then slowly pulled up the car.
As soon as he walked out, Li Yu immediately stopped him: "Wait a minute, wait a minute, you seem to have taken the wrong route, right? We should go north. If you go south now, you will leave the city."
"Ah?" The coachman was a little confused. Suddenly he realized that he had really gone the wrong way and apologized quickly, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"
Li Yu felt that he was obviously helpless, so he asked: "What's wrong? What's bothering you?"
"No, it's nothing." the coachman replied dejectedly.
Li Yu said with a smile: "I have heard that you are now famous for being a quickie in the Dongjiaominxiang area. You know the roads and the cars are fast! You are not like your previous style. If you have anything to say, just tell me.
Maybe I can help."
"Hey!" The coachman sighed deeply, "You can't help me. What's happening to me is a big deal."
Li Yu asked curiously: "How big can such a big thing be?"
The coachman slowed down and said, "To tell you the truth, it was my brother who was in trouble."
"Is your brother responsible for the 'big deal'?" Li Yu asked.
"Yes, he owes the dealer 40 taels of silver! 40 taels, it costs lives! We brothers will never be able to save so much money in our lifetimes," the coachman said desperately.
"40 taels? What did your brother do? Gambling?"
Li Yu felt it was incredible how a coachman could owe so much money. 40 taels was indeed a huge number for them. According to their income, excluding daily expenses, it was almost impossible to save 40 taels.
"It's not gambling," the coachman said. "The thing is like this. My brother usually pulls the carriage for a young man. That young man likes to go to Shitou Hutong and visit brothels. Some time ago, he fell in love with a prostitute. He didn't want to have any other
My brother liked the same prostitute. When my brother took him there that day, he was blocked by another group of people, and a fight broke out between the two sides."
Li Yu wondered: "It doesn't sound like it has anything to do with your brother."
"It doesn't matter!" the driver said angrily, "but they beat my brother indiscriminately, and most importantly, they smashed the car! They left after the fight, and now the car dealer wants to ask my brother to pay for the car.
"
Li Yu understood clearly that his brother was lying on the gun inexplicably and suffered the disaster of Chiyu.
"Where is your brother now?"
"My brother is lying in bed in a medical clinic in Shitou Hutong. Luohua Tea House also felt that my brother was wronged and helped pay for medical treatment."
The place of fireworks in the Qing Dynasty was also divided into levels. The first level was called the Qingyin Xiaoban. The women in it generally performed arts but did not sell themselves. They were basically good at playing music, chess, calligraphy and painting, and could even recite poems and compose poems. They were also very beautiful and had beautiful eyes.
With affectionate smiles, celebrities, gentry, powerful and wealthy businessmen all flock to her.
The second level is the tearoom. Although the tearoom is inferior to the Qingyin Xiaoban, the tearoom is also a relatively high-end romantic place. The interior decoration is very particular about carvings and dyeing. Although the Yingying Yanyan of this level is not as talented as the girls in the Xiaoban
, but they are also young, beautiful, and knowledgeable in literature and art.
The third level is the lower level. It is not as beautiful as the first two buildings and courtyards, the interior decoration is simple, the fireworks woman is relatively older, and the appearance is average.
As for the fourth level, it is the so-called "yaozi".
"If you take me to Shitou Hutong, I should be able to help you." Li Yu said.
The driver stopped suddenly, and Li Yu almost fell out of the car with such a sudden movement.
"Can you help my brother?" the coachman asked excitedly.
Li Yu smiled and said: "Yes, but it's not a free gang."
The coachman immediately knelt down in front of Li Yu: "Master, I call you master! If you can help my brother, I can make cows and horses for you!"
Li Yu was the most uncomfortable with people kneeling down to him. In his era, people would only kneel down before their parents, or when brothers were sworn sworn brothers.
Of course, kneeling down to your wife is a special situation and is not within the scope of discussion!
But this era is like this, so it’s no wonder he is.
Li Yu jumped out of the car and helped the driver up, "Don't kneel down for me in the future. I already told you that your help is not in vain, so there is no need to do this."
The coachman was almost in tears, "I have met such a good person! You are a living Bodhisattva! What is your name? I will burn incense for you every day from now on!"
"My name is Li Yu, what's your name?"
"My name is Zhao Qian," the coachman said.
"I understand. You should hurry up and take me to Shitou Hutong first."
"Come on, sir! Sit down!"
The coachman Zhao Qian was like a small universe exploding in an instant, sweeping away the gloomy mood just now, and transformed into a "swipe of smoke" again, swooping out, and Li Yu was directly pushed back by the inertia.
Zhao Qian led Li Yu towards Shitou Hutong at his highest speed.
Stone Hutong is one of the eight famous alleys in Beijing, and is also the place where the fireworks alleys and willows will appear.
In fact, there are not only eight Bada Hutongs, there are more than a dozen similar ones, but the Bada Hutongs are the highest grade among them.
Starting from the 21st year of Qianlong's reign, fireworks were not allowed in the inner city of Beijing, and they were all moved to Nancheng, right next to Liulichang.
When they arrived at Stone Alley, Zhao Qian was already sweating profusely from running, and Li Yu was almost vomiting in the car.
"Slow down, slow down, we are here anyway!"
Zhao Qian smiled naively and said, "I'm sorry, I'm just too excited."
Li Yu jumped out of the car, "I can walk the rest of the way by myself. It's called Luohua Teahouse, right? How far is it?"
Zhao Qian wiped his sweat and said: "It's not far, it's not far, it's just a hundred steps ahead."
"Okay, let's go."
However, Li Yu stopped just after taking two steps because he saw a familiar figure.
Yang Xiaolou!
The two of them instantly looked at each other, looking at each other.
Yang Xiaolou coughed, "Brother Li, are you here to have a good time?"
"No, no, no! That's not what happened. I'm not here to find a girl." Li Yu quickly explained.
Yang Xiaolou's eyes were full of disbelief, "Brother Li, you don't need to explain, I understand. Besides looking for girls, what else can you do here? Are you here to study your knowledge?"
"I'm not here to study knowledge, nor am I here to find girls!"
Li Yu was jolted so hard in the car that he started coughing in a hurry.
Yang Xiaolou said: "Brother Li, there's no need to do this. If you're looking for a girl, just look for a girl. You're not a court official, so it doesn't matter. Besides, I just heard the words 'Luohua Teahouse', so I know where it is."
The Qing government explicitly prohibited officials from visiting brothels. To a certain extent, this was also the reason why many high-ranking officials in the Ming and Qing Dynasties liked boys.
Li Yu stopped coughing: "I'm here to see his brother."
Yang Xiaolou looked at Zhao Qian, the coachman pointed by Li Yu, who was tall and thick, and frowned, "Brother Li, you need to change this habit!"
"It's not what you think. His brother is lying in bed and can't get out of bed." Li Yu said.
"Ah!" Yang Xiaolou's face changed drastically, "Brother Li, how could you do this! You, you, you!"
Gan!
Why can’t I explain it?
"His brother is injured and lying on the bed. I said Brother Yang, what are you thinking about?"
Yang Xiaolou breathed a sigh of relief, "It turns out he was injured! I thought..."
Li Yu asked: "What do you think?"
Yang Xiaolou was also a little embarrassed for misunderstanding Li Yu, and quickly waved his hand: "Nothing, nothing!"
Li Yu pretended to snort and asked: "You still talk about me, but why are you here?"
Yang Xiaolou pointed to the yard behind him: "This is my adoptive father's home. I'm here to get my things."
"Your foster father? Senior Tan?"
Yang Xiaolou nodded, "Yes, this Yingxiu Hall belongs to my adoptive father. What do you think?"
Li Yu said: "What I thought was what you thought just now."
Yang Xiaolou was laughed out loud by Li Yu.
Li Yu glanced at the plaque in the courtyard behind, "Yingxiu Hall".
In fact, the Bada Hutong was originally the place where Hui opera troupes came to Beijing to stay and live, and it was a foothold for Peking opera artists. Later, with the development of industry and commerce, the increase of poor families, and the serious imbalance between men and women in the capital, the male-to-female ratio reached
An astonishing 160:108! If there is demand, there will naturally be a market, so gradually the eight major alleys have become red light districts at the same time.
However, in the late Qing Dynasty, the Bada Hutongs were not very large. According to statistics during the Guangxu period, there were 37 registered households, with more than a dozen people in each household. In general, there were only four to five hundred registered prostitutes working with certificates.
The real development of the Eight Hutongs had to wait until the Republic of China.
At that time, many opera masters lived in Bada Hutong, and their residences also taught opera. Each master would also give his apartment a hall name. Tan Xinpei named his apartment Yingxiu Hall, and Mei Lanfang came from Zhu Aiyun's Yun.
Hetang.
In "Farewell My Concubine", Leslie Cheung's character Cheng Dieyi was called Xiaodouzi when he was young, and his mother was a prostitute. Why was she able to take her child to the troupe immediately at the beginning of the movie? In fact, she lived nearby and her status was not high.
Will not be looked down upon.
Master Guan also said in the play: "We are all low-life, no one will dislike the other!"
Of course, the Bada Hutong has now become a place where ordinary people live, and there are also some historical sites left.
Li Yu has a classmate from Beijing who lives in Bada Hutong. He said that every holiday, he would always hear some tour guides leading tourists pointing to the downstairs of his house and saying, "Did you see it? This is where Cai E was back then."
The place where you get engaged with Xiao Fengxian!"
His classmate was very worried. Think about it, if the tour guide pointed at your house and said that it used to be a brothel, would you be happy?
Li Yu said to Yang Xiaolou: "I still have business to do, so I'll leave first!"
Yang Xiaolou said: "I'll go with you, I'm familiar with this place."
"Are you familiar?" Li Yu asked jokingly.
"I'm just familiar with it!" Yang Xiaolou quickly corrected.
The three of them came to the hospital together. When Zhao Qian saw his brother on the bed, he immediately grabbed him and said, "Brother, how are you?"
Zhao Qian's brother was a little surprised when he saw Zhao Qian and said, "Brother, why are you here? You didn't even get enough money for your contribution today!"
Zhao Qian said with a tearful tone: "It's already like this, brother, why do you still want to pull a car?"
Brother Zhao Qian said: "It's impossible if I don't do it. How can I eat if I don't do it? How can I pay back the money if I don't do it?"
"But you!" Zhao Qian couldn't help crying.
Li Yu also saw his legs. Zhao Qian only said that his brother was injured before, but he didn't expect that his legs were broken. These people really went too far!
Although the hospital tried its best to reattach his leg, the medical condition at this time was just that. There would be no problem in walking normally in the future, but it was impossible to continue pulling the car.
Brother Zhao Qian squeezed out a smile and said: "Don't cry, brother! How are you doing, brother? At least I can last another ten years, and I won't lose to you, a 'smooth boy' again!"
"Stop talking, brother!"
"Also, how many times have I told you not to come here again! I am responsible for my own affairs. If they know that you are my brother, they will definitely ask you for money. Just let them come to me. What a big deal.
I will give my life to them!"
While the two were talking, a woman was heard talking to the doctor from the medical center outside the door.
The woman said in a particularly tactful voice with a hint of romance: "Boss, if you wait a little longer for yesterday's medicine, I will be able to pay it back to you in a short time."
The doctor sighed: "Feng Ling, of course you can get some relief, but the medicine costs a lot of money. I'm not telling you, but for Zhao Qian, you have done your best, so that's almost enough!"
The woman said: "No! His brother was injured because of me, how could I ignore it?"
The boss said: "You are not the poor man you used to be. How much money can you have now? Don't get yourself involved again."
The woman said firmly: "I'm not afraid, I'm in charge anyway!"
Fengling used to be the shepherd of the Golden Flower Class, and the Golden Flower Class was a romantic place where the famous Sai Jinhua bloomed.
As mentioned above, Qingyin Xiaoban is the highest-level brothel. The girls in it are prostitutes rather than prostitutes, which are the so-called "Qinghuren".
But things are not so absolute. Some donors are willing to spend money to "make money." The so-called "making money" is similar to giving rewards to anchors now, starting with at least 10 taels of silver at a time.
If you give a lot, you can get close to her. In fact, it means that the madam sold the girl to the big brother.
This kind of ceremony is quite solemn, commonly known as "combing the comb". There will be many red lanterns, a lot of red silk, and big dragon and phoenix candles.
Jin Xiangyu, played by Maggie Cheung in "New Dragon Inn", sings the phrase "Light the candles on August 15th". The so-called lighting of candles is the same as the Qing Dynasty people lighting candles.
From now on, the Qing Guanren became "Hunguanren", and the "Hun" who fished in troubled waters were also called "Red Guanren".
It would be fine if the eldest brother really kept her as a concubine, but I couldn't help but think that even though the eldest brother was having fun outside, he was afraid of his wife when he came home. Or for some other reasons, such as being attacked by political opponents, he had no choice but to abandon her.
The red waiter will definitely never be able to return to the Qingyin class, and can only enter the teahouse one level below.
But after all, she was from the Qingyin class, she was very pretty, and she knew how to play music, chess, calligraphy and painting, so she was obviously much better than the other girls in the teahouse.
In addition, she is from the Golden Flower Class of Sai Jinhua, so she is even more popular.
In the past, Sai Jinhua was the side chamber of the number one scholar. When she came to the sea again, she was known as the "number one scholar in the flower list" and became famous throughout the world. The women she trained also knew how to be bookish, and they were quite popular among dignitaries.