August 26, 1983, Friday, 9:18 am, in front of the Hengshan Road store of Sewijinghao Cafe.
Following the host's introduction, Vice Mayor Hong and several leaders came to the stage one after another to cut the ribbon together with Ouyang Huihui, manager of Suijinghao (Huaxia) Company and manager of the Hengshan Road store.
At the same time, dozens of thousands of firecrackers blasted in unison, deafening the ears. Nearly a thousand balloons soared into the sky, blocking out the sky and the sun.
The onlookers cheered loudly, but could hardly hear their own voices. Sun Dahai and Cao Yue were also jumping up and down in the crowd. Sun Weihong was a little better, but her face was flushed with excitement.
After a few minutes, the smell of firecracker smoke slowly dissipated. The host began to move on to the next item and asked the leader to make a speech.
Sun Dahai didn't care what the leader said. He looked back and saw, my dear, there was a large group of people behind him, squeezing the relatively spacious road to a crawl.
Sun Dahai and the others stood very close to the front. He saw that the other side of the temporary venue and the other side of the road were densely packed.
How many people must have come? Sun Dahai couldn't understand. There must be thousands of people, but it was hard to judge whether it was tens of thousands.
The leader's speech continued, but Sun Dahai found that not many people left. Does it mean that everyone likes to listen to the leader's speech now?
With doubts, Sun Dahai turned around and asked a middle-aged couple next to him.
"Hello, uncle, may I ask if there will be any other activities later? Why don't everyone leave?"
"This store will be open to the public soon. I heard they advertised that you don't need a ticket to eat here, you just have to pay.
In addition, in the first week of opening, there will be discounts on membership prices. Let’s try this coffee and Western fast food.”
The person next to me asked: "Isn't this a coffee shop? There are also foreign fast food?"
The person who asked the question was a middle-aged man in his forties, and there was a woman and a teenage child beside him. The accent sounded like he was not from Shanghai. It looked like he was a family of three who came to Shanghai to play.
The man who just started talking replied: "In addition to drinking coffee, the cafe also sells pastries and fast food."
The child said: "Dad, let's eat here. Look at this house, how beautiful it is."
The middle-aged man touched his pocket unconsciously, gritted his teeth, and said, "Okay, since our family is traveling, let's try this foreign fast food. I just don't know if the food in it is delicious, and is it expensive?"
None of the people could answer his question. Sun Dahai went in and out of the coffee shop many times, but he never paid attention to the coffee shop's pricing.
"Fast food is not very expensive either. A portion of beef rice, a full plate, only costs 5 yuan. And there are discounts now. The membership price seems to be either 4.6 yuan or 4.5 yuan. And no food stamps or meat stamps are required.
There is also pasta, the meat sauce is 3.5 yuan, and the tomato sauce is only 3 yuan. I don’t remember the membership price, but it’s cheaper anyway.”
The person who answered was Cao Yue. As a senior foodie, how could she not pay attention to the price.
The middle-aged man was relieved. Although the price was not cheap, it was still within the acceptable range for him.
Sun Dahai took Cao Yue's hand and said something to Sun Weihong. The three of them squeezed out of the crowd, put on their name tags, let the police in charge of road closure take a look, then slipped into the backyard and entered the coffee shop through the back door.
As soon as he entered the door, he was surrounded by flowers and greenery, which shocked Sun Dahai. This is the Yangko team invited by the store, and they will go out to perform soon.
After a while, someone organized the yangko team to line up at the two side entrances, getting ready to perform.
Sure enough, the host's voice came from the speakers outside: "The opening ceremony of the Hengshan Road store of Suijinghao Cafe is over. There will be wonderful performances later, please don't go away. Now let us applaud and welcome all leaders and
Guests, come into the store to visit and inspect."
The side doors on both sides opened, and the yangko team lined up to go out to prepare for their performance. Several photographers walked into the door first, stood up, took out their cameras, and prepared to take pictures of the leaders who came in.
The TV cameraman and Zhang Yimou also came in together, and they started filming.
Under the guidance of Ouyang Huihui, Vice Mayor Hong walked into the coffee shop first, followed closely by his secretary. Other leaders walked in in order, and finally came the accompanying staff and drivers, as well as various other leaders.
Writer for a major newspaper.
There were sixty or seventy people who came in to visit. But there was no need to worry about the people following behind. Ouyang Huihui only needed to explain to the leaders in front.
When they came in, Sun Dahai and others slipped out again. They didn't want to look familiar in front of the leader.
The host outside was introducing the situation of the coffee shop to the audience. A large sign was erected on both sides with the price list of the coffee shop.
The purpose of putting out the price list is to let customers know what they are thinking before entering the store and not to waste time because of hesitation when ordering. There are too many people outside now.
In the case of Sun Dahai, he was lucky that he warned Ouyang Huihui as early as possible. Otherwise, if there was an accident with so many people, the cafe would not be able to open.
Ouyang Huihui initially proposed to open on Sunday, as the business was very popular on holidays, and Sun Weihong also agreed. When Sun Dahai found out, he couldn't laugh or cry. He was also worried that there would be too many customers on the opening day, so how could he dare to open on Sunday.
In the end, due to Sun Dahai's strong opposition, the opening ceremony was moved to Friday. At that time, they didn't agree with it.
Now, seeing so many people outside, what does Ouyang Huihui think? Sun Dahai is not in the store, and her expression cannot be seen. However, Sun Weihong is next to her, with a solemn look on her face now.
According to today's schedule, the leaders visited the coffee shop and had a taste. Around 10:30, the leaders and media reporters left. The coffee shop was officially opened to the public and customers entered.
It's not yet ten o'clock, and the Yangko team has started performing. About fifteen to twenty minutes later, the performance will end. Customers will be organized outside and start queuing up.
The gongs and drums were noisy, and the Yangko team's performance had now begun. Sun Dahai didn't think about it too much. All the preparations were in place and he was just waiting for the official opening.
Sun Dahai was watching the performance at the door, and Dai Wenpeng walked out quickly with seven or eight male waiters.
Seeing Sun Dahai at the door, he whispered to Sun Dahai: "The leaders are leaving. I will lead people to maintain order. It's time to let the customers line up."
Sun Dahai nodded and said to him: "Tell the police and ask them to help maintain order. There are too many people now, so there must be no problems."
The Yangko team finished their performance and exited from both sides. Several waiters rolled up the carpet and put up isolation cords on both sides.
The host announced loudly: "Now prepare to enter the venue. Please obey the instructions, line up in order, and be careful not to crowd."
Before he finished speaking, there was a surge of people on both sides, and the crowd on the other side of the road also rushed across the road. They were so densely packed that they looked very scary.
Fortunately, Dai Wenpeng has notified the police, and now the vehicles on both sides of the road have been temporarily blocked, and there are no cars on the road.