Zhao Mingyang showed Shi Qiang the looks of several people provided by Lai San, including the appearance of the noodle shop owner who was the first to provide it. This was the necessity for the painter's existence.
You can perfectly draw a portrait that is close to the original appearance, but this requires skills that not all painters can obtain. At least those related to criminal investigation, and even some medical knowledge, are required. Painters in this area have always been at the top of the pyramid.
Yes, the quantity is not large and the charge is not low.
Usually they are hired for many jobs. They are all specially hired, and of course they will also take on private jobs. After all, this is what they do.
The person Zhao Mingyang was looking for charged 20,000 yuan for a painting, which was neither high nor low. He was introduced by an acquaintance, and he didn't do this kind of work every day. If Cai Qimin hadn't introduced him, Zhao Mingyang might not have been able to find him.
After all, most of these people are in universities. There is a joke on the Internet. Some university teachers give lectures for 25,000 yuan per class. Some teachers are involved in revising penalties, and some are the original authors of textbooks.
These are really not uncommon in universities. For example, it is not surprising that the economics teacher himself has a net worth of hundreds of millions or billions.
Because many economics teachers are investment experts themselves, they enjoy life in school.
The painter Zhao Mingyang found was introduced by Cai Qimin. He often painted portraits for the criminal investigation team. Of course, it was basically free of charge, but for private business, that was a different story.
When Shi Qiang saw the portraits on Zhao Mingyang's phone, he was stunned for a few seconds, pointed at the woman playing cards with Lai San and said, "Isn't this Xu Sanmei?"
When Zhao Mingyang heard this, he quickly looked at Shi Qiang and asked, "Do you know her?"
"We know each other. We were in dance halls when we were young. To put it nicely, she was a singer, but to put it worse, as you know, it's nothing more than a business.
This Xu Sanmei first sang in underground dance halls, which were secretly opened in some underground passages. Due to the age, no one dared to open them openly at that time, and it was not until the mid-1980s that they were allowed to open.
However, there are still some people who are accustomed to the lifestyle and entertainment style of dance halls. After all, this is a form of entertainment that has influenced generations of people in Shanghai. Before the 1970s, some people also renovated and opened some underground passages and abandoned air-raid shelters.
Xu Sanmei was really not good at singing, so she turned to selling drinks in a dance hall, and worked as a middleman to get a commission.
Song and dance halls at that time were resolutely not allowed to do those things. Song and dance halls in Shencheng have always focused on singing and dancing, but it was inevitable that someone would have a need, and some girls would also like to make extra money, so Xu Sanmei became the middleman.
But later it was said that she married an old man, an overseas Chinese businessman. The businessman had a son, but he died young, so Xu Sanmei got together with him and gave birth to a son.
Later, it was said that Xu Sanmei was also in business, mainly engaged in the Erdao dealer business, and it was said that she was also engaged in the drug addict business."
"Do you know if anyone knows about Xu Sanmei? Someone who knows her well?" Zhao Mingyang asked.
"Yes, that's Li Lanhua, nicknamed Sister Hua, who is opening a song and dance hall now. She doesn't specialize in opening this. She just likes dancing. Now she opens a song and dance hall for the elderly, mainly for dancing, but she used to hold Xu Sanmei's
I am one of the owners of the song and dance hall where I work.
She is now sixty-five and sixty-six. She was thirty and old at that time, but she must know about Xu Sanmei, because Xu Sanmei was hanging around behind her back then.
Back then, she had a very powerful concubine, who had very strong skills. After all, she was a powerful person. Something happened backstage, and Xu Sanmei fell into despair.
At that time, Xu Sanmei's karaoke shares were given to her for free, so it was no big deal if her concubine could protect her."
"Can you give me the address?" Zhao Mingyang asked.
"I'm writing to you, it's hard to find that place." Shi Qiang said.
Zhao Mingyang didn't hesitate, took the address and went to look for it. This was due to Shi Qiang's romantic past, so he probably had all the pretty women in Shanghai...
That's why he knew so much, but there was no news from Lai San, and he didn't recognize Fan Lingling's appearance provided by Shi Qiang.
But Zhao Mingyang can be sure that even if the people in this circle are not a group of people, they all know each other. Although the circle of three religions and nine streams is complicated, they will basically meet each other.
For example, smugglers, drug dealers, and some scammers all know each other, because these people rely on the help of these smugglers to escape.
And this group of smugglers also needs some thugs, and the thugs have connections with some circles, going around and around. If you can't find them on the surface, you can find them underground.
This is also why some police dramas have undercover agents and informants. If you don’t get into some doorways, you won’t understand the truth behind them.
Zhao Mingyang asked Liu Lanshan to contact Liu Fucheng. Zhao Mingyang did not want to have anything to do with that person. He showed Liu Fucheng the portrait provided by Shi Qiang, as well as the portrait of Xu Sanmei, including the portrait of the noodle shop owner and his so-called wife, and asked him to go underground.
Ask around and see how much information he can get out.
As long as the other party provided clues and the price was easy to negotiate, Liu Lanshan went to find Liu Fucheng. The two were old acquaintances before, but their paths were different.
Liu Fucheng still did some things that were not worthy of publicity. Not only did Zhao Mingyang not want to deal with him, Liu Lanshan also didn't want to have much to do with this person.
Liu Lanshan only asked Zhao Mingyang one sentence, what if the price proposed by the other party was high? Liu Lanshan knew this person very well, and his own uncle could betray him, let alone others.
Zhao Mingyang patted Liu Lanshan and said in his ear: "If Liu Fucheng knows about this and doesn't tell it, and demands a sky-high price, just give him a drink until he tells it."
Zhao Mingyang asked Lao Wu to arrange a few people for Liu Lanshan. Now Liu Fucheng is just a little loser in his eyes.
Zhao Mingyang took Lao Wu's car and came to a very desolate neighborhood. The layout here was really bad. There was a row of blocked-up facades outside, and this neighborhood seemed to be in a community. It was very difficult to enter through the gate.
It's not spacious, it's only wide enough for a car to drive in one direction.
The most important thing is that this place seems to be very close to the urban area, just in the urban area, but in this area it is classified as Sibu Kao, medical education and business are not on the side, and the community is an old community. Not to mention the consumption power, the age of the residents is generally average.
Not too small.
Therefore, this area has basically become a very desolate area, mainly because it is impossible to expand the commercial area. The people living here are also the former demolition households, and this commercial street was also demolished and compensated before.
Zhao Mingyang knew something was wrong when he came here. This street has two floors, but the layout here is really bad. First of all, in order to save indoor space, the stairs leading to the second floor were placed on the outdoor road. There are many outdoor
There are S-shaped stairs and V-shaped stairs, but the aisle is not wide, only as wide as two cars side by side.
The rooftop above is too low to the ground. The ground-floor facade rooms in this row are only about two meters high. When you walk up to the ground, they are only about two meters high. They are still scattered and uneven. It feels very depressing.
This place doesn't look like a commercial street at all, and it's a dead end road, with no other exits to the end. It's more like a temporary unplanned commercial house built to compensate the demolition households, a semi-finished product built for compensation and savings.
Zhao Mingyang and Lao Wu were walking in this street. The front rooms on the first floor were basically empty, or some wholesale departments. They walked to the middle section and took the stairs to the second floor.
There is a dance hall for the elderly here. The location is really remote, and the decoration is of course very ordinary. It is just a dance floor, a few seats, a colored light above the head and a big speaker.
This boss is called Li Lanhua. It is said that she was the concubine of a certain elder. Later, the elder fell into trouble, and Li Lanhua also declined, but she was much better than Shi Qiang.
At least she can still live in a commercial building with her pension, and she also opens a dance hall like this, which is not expensive. Everyone who comes here is given fifty fifty a month and can dance as they like.
There are quite a lot of people. One hundred and eighty people will come here and treat this place as an indoor square dance. Most of the people who come here are the older generation who used to like to go to dance halls for ballroom dancing, but now that kind of dance halls are basically
No longer exists.
This has become their gathering place. This sister Hua also has high appeal and credibility. It is said that she could have run away because many people ran away. She did not run away. She found all the debtors.
, and then pay back the money one by one. If you still don’t pay, you will give them a deadline. You will definitely pay them back and you will never run away.
Li Lanhua also paid back money one after another in the mainland for more than ten years, so the reputation has always been good. The song and dance hall he opened later, although the facilities were simple, everyone came to support it, mainly because such places are basically gone now.
The rent here is not too expensive. When everyone comes to dance, Li Lanhua will give everyone dance clothes for free. They are all advertisements for the nursing home. She will also be given three to five thousand a month for advertising fees, plus she sells snacks, drinks, and other miscellaneous things.
He can earn 10,000 to 20,000 yuan a month from small commodities, and with retirement salary, he still has 18,000 yuan a month. She can live a decent life. Of course, this is far from what she used to be. The difference is huge.
When her mistress was in trouble, she didn't run away. In fact, it wasn't that she didn't want to run away, but that she had a child and she didn't want the child to wander around in the future. The most important thing was that she knew that if she went out, there might be no good, and it might happen soon.
All the money will be spent. She is the only woman to go out with a half-year-old child. She is very vulnerable and maybe neither of them can survive.
When she stayed in Shanghai, at least she had a lot of acquaintances, and at most her life was not as easy as before, but much better than ordinary people. In addition, she had a good employer where she had been working.
So she chose to stay, and it was a blessing that she stayed. I heard that the group of people who opened the cabaret and dance hall ran away, and there was basically no good ending, because going abroad at that time and going abroad now were one day at a time, and the place was unfamiliar.
Without any background, they could only be bullied, and some died on the way, huddled under the board of the ship. Some people couldn't survive it.
Li Lanhua is one of those people who ended up better. In Shencheng, it is too difficult to survive for decades. For example, her concubine and Shi Qiang were both prominent figures at the time, but they ended up not being good in the end. Her concubine
It was even worse than Shi Qiang, who died immediately because he committed a serious crime.
Now that she has such a life, Li Lanhua feels that she has made a lot of money, at least ten thousand times better than that Shi Qiang. She has seen Shi Qiang a few times, and Li Lanhua has given Shi Qiang a sum of money as relief. It is not much, and it is not enough. Just one thousand, Shi Qiang didn't want it.
This old man was a powerful influencer in Shanghai back then, but he ended up like this. He is not as good as the former bosses Huang. At least he still has someone to look after him in his later years.
Zhao Mingyang came to the song and dance hall and saw a woman with obviously dyed hair and brown sunglasses sitting in front of a cashier.
Wearing brown eyes is nothing more than covering the wrinkles at the corners of the eyes. After all, he is over sixty years old, but he still looks like an old man. It can be seen no matter how much he takes care of himself. Li Lanhua is already sixty-five or sixty-six years old. A little boy is here Playing inside, Li Lanhua asked her children to pay attention to their safety. The little boy is her grandson. Her basic job now is to take care of the children, and then save the money she earns to give to her grandson in the future.
Sister Hua, who was the most powerful woman in Shanghai back then, is no different from an ordinary old lady now. The only difference is that she likes to put on make-up and wear nice clothes when going out. It takes an hour every day to prepare her make-up before going out.
"Hello, aunt." Zhao Mingyang walked forward and said. If you call someone sister, you will be scolded. Sometimes not all women like to be called sister. It depends on their age, especially if it is against their will, people will see it at a glance. .
Li Lanhua glanced at Zhao Mingyang, and she could tell at a glance that Zhao Mingyang was not an ordinary person. After all, he had seen people in strong winds and waves, so he was pretty good at judging people.
Lao Wu was behind Zhao Mingyang, so he was obviously a thug. He had been behind her before.
"What's the matter?" Li Lanhua looked at Zhao Mingyang and asked.
"I'm asking about this person. Do you know this person?" Zhao Mingyang took out his mobile phone and handed the screen to Li Lanhua to look at.
Li Lanhua looked at it and said: 'You can just tell me that you are looking for Xu Sanmei. You will know that I know her when you come to me. Why are you talking so much nonsense? If I know I won't tell you, it will be in vain for you, right?'
Zhao Mingyang nodded and stretched out his hand. Old Wu handed Zhao Mingyang an envelope.
Zhao Mingyang put the envelope on the table and said: "This is a little thought. I really need to know his news, because it is very important to me. Let's put it this way, you tell me this, I remember your love, If you don't tell me, I can let you say it, but it may be disrespectful to you, not very friendly to your family, and you may do something to hurt them.
This Xu Sanmei has caused a lot of trouble. If you help her hide it, you will push your family into the fire. I am not joking with you. If you don't believe me, you can ask Shi Qiang. This is the current situation after he helped me. "
Li Lanhua saw the new-looking Shi Qiang sitting in the restaurant wearing a suit and eating an exquisite lunch, and then looked at Zhao Mingyang.
She knew very well that what Zhao Mingyang said might be true.
"Xu Sanmei and I haven't been in touch for a long time. Please come here." Li Lanhua stood up, took the envelope and put it in the drawer. She tried it and found that it was no less than one hundred thousand. This was really a generous move. Li Lanjuan was not greedy for the money, but She knew that if she didn't take the money, her family would really be in danger.
She found a table and invited Zhao Mingyang to sit down, then got a cup of tea for Zhao Mingyang, sat opposite Zhao Mingyang and said, "You can ask anything you want to know."
Li Lanhua knows better than anyone else that when a person is in a very high-level circle and has to deal with an ordinary person, it can really make your family disappear without any trouble.
So she didn't dare to offend Zhao Mingyang. Her grandson was still playing there, and he couldn't run away if Zhao Mingyang targeted him.
Zhao Mingyang asked Lao Wu to buy a toy for the children. He picked up the tea on the table and took a sip and said: "Aunt Lan, you were once a prominent figure in Shanghai, so you are a smart person, so I will find Xu Sanmei.
I'm not interested in asking about the rest, but I hope you can tell me everything you know."
"That's right, that's right, I won't hide anything. Xu Sanmei used to hang out with me. She is very quack-like. I don't really like people with quack-like vibes. Most of them are not good in quality.
In fact, I have nothing to do with martial arts. I just like dancing, so I invested in that song and dance hall. Shanghai is different from other places. The song and dance hall has never been discontinued, because it seems to be a living habit of everyone.
.
It's just that the dance halls at that time were only for singing and dancing, and they were all opened secretly. The difference between Shanghai and other places is that no matter who comes here, they can't change it. Didn't the old man say it all?
Shanghai cannot be changed.
At that time, I had never heard of pastry shops in Shanghai. You could eat Qingtuan and White Rabbit toffees, and chicken, duck, and fish were served every day. At that time, Shanghai was the only metropolis in China that could be said to have a special existence." Li Lan's painted face.
He was filled with that kind of pride in his bones.
She is right. Shencheng has never changed. It cannot be changed. History tells everyone that it is indeed not easy to change. It is a very special existence. In the 1970s, it was unique in China. There is no other place like it.
one.
"But no matter how things change, the dance halls of that period couldn't be so blatant, right? We all opened them secretly, trying to be as low-key as possible, and we required a very pure and clean environment. Who is not afraid of setting fire to warm up?
, you can’t change Shanghai, you can’t change us without a watch.
But this Xu Sanmei is dishonest. You must have heard about the things she did. I was afraid of getting into trouble, so I drove her away from the dance hall.
She later followed an overseas Chinese. I can’t remember the name of that overseas Chinese, Sun.
The old man was more than twenty years older than Xu Sanmei. He was mainly engaged in insurance business overseas, and in Shanghai he was mainly engaged in some foreign exchange business of banks.
After Xu Sanmei followed him, she gave birth to a son for him, which made the old man very happy. The boy's name was Xingxing, and I had met him when I was a child.
It will be difficult for you to find Xu Sanmei. She has gone abroad a long time ago and I can't find her. However, I can help you find out her husband's name, because someone remembered it at that time and knew her husband's company. You
Wait a minute, I’ll send a WeChat message to ask people in the group.”
Li Lanhua sent a voice message in front of Zhao Mingyang: "Does any of you still remember that dancer Xu Sanmei? What did she end up marrying that old man for?"
Zhao Mingyang could tell that Xu Sanmei had always been unpopular in Li Lanhua's heart.
Li Lanhua is more like an old Shen adult. There is always a feeling that you are all from the countryside. In the 1990s, people from the imperial capital were called country people when they went to Shanghai.
Soon, an old lady sent a voice message: "Didn't the old man open an insurance company in Baodao? The old man's name is Sun Jianhua, and his hometown is in Xiamen City..."
When Zhao Mingyang heard this, he knew where to go. He was going to Treasure Island. This time the clue was very important.