Hollywood Secret Garden

Chapter 167 Chinatown

"The peacock flies to the southeast, it can't fly to the end of the world, all kinds of love and tenderness turn to ashes..." The gentle singing sounded softly on the streets where people come and go, and the lyrics with some ancient poem rhymes made many Chinese Turning my head to the street over there, although most of them speak Cantonese or Hokkien, it does not prevent them from listening to the song adapted from this ancient poem.

But when they saw the singer, they were taken aback. The one who played the guitar and sang in Chinese was an American girl dressed in cowboy!It just happened to be sung well, which made people feel fresh, but at the same time it was a bit weird.

"I would like to have a lover to drink water from the river..." At this time, the song had reached its climax, the brisk singing voice had a unique taste, and the lyrics combined pop and ancient poetry very well, making people forget her appearance , and continued to listen to her singing, even many white people were attracted by this singing.

After the song was over, all the Chinese people around applauded. Angela bowed slightly. She let go of singing this time. "Peacock Flies to the Southeast" is also very suitable for singing with guitar accompaniment, so the effect is amazing Well, of course, as for what to do with brother Tu in the future, this is not something she has to consider.

At this time, several Chinese young people around shouted a few words, all speaking in Cantonese, Angela guessed that it might be a compliment to her singing ability, immediately smiled, and said in Mandarin: "Sorry, I don't know I can speak Cantonese, so all I can say is thank you for your compliments."

The people around all looked surprised. As an American girl, there are some who can speak a few words of Cantonese, and some who can speak a few words of Mandarin, but they can speak such a well-spoken Mandarin and sing such a beautiful song. Mandarin songs with ancient rhymes are a very magical existence, so the surrounding people immediately opened their mouths, and Cantonese burst out.But this time they spoke so fast and anxiously that Angela couldn't understand at all, so she smiled apologetically.Shrugged, and plucked the guitar strings again.

"From that distant sea, you who are slowly disappearing..." The girl sang again, but the song "Ocean" performed the same taste as Zhang Yusheng, making it more romantic and pure.So after the end, there was another round of warm applause, and the girl stretched her arms with a smile and made a standard gesture of clasping her fists.It never occurred to him how ridiculous this action would be when matched with his own clothes.

However, the Chinese people around only let out good-natured laughter, and then dropped coins into the guitar case on the ground one by one. Then Angela clasped her fists together again, put away the guitar case, squeezed Natalie and Scarlett: "Okay, stop standing there, we should go!"

Then he waved to the crowd, and continued to go deep into Chinatown amidst their applause. Only after their figures disappeared, someone suddenly slapped the back of the head: Can't understand Cantonese, can you communicate in English!

Angela, who had already walked away, didn't realize this at this time.She also had to face Scarlett's cross-examination.

"You just spoke Chinese and sang Chinese songs, right?" Scarlett looked at Angela with her hands on her hips. "Again I'm the last to know, huh?"

"Well. Nat doesn't know..." Angela wanted to find a shield.But Natalie immediately cleared herself up: "Hey. I know you can speak Chinese. But you have never sung Chinese songs in front of me."

"Look, look. I'm right!" Scarlett said immediately.

Angela really wanted to say that Avril Lavigne didn't know, but at this moment she suddenly became a little angry: "Manny, even the best friends, there will be things that they don't know about each other. You can't just because of me because of certain circumstances It's not fair to accuse me of not telling you anything!"

Scarlett opened her mouth, but said nothing, then turned her head away.Seeing her like this, Angela couldn't help but sighed softly in her stomach.She could vaguely guess why, she seemed a little excited just now.

Fortunately, Natalie came out again to smooth things over: "Okay, it's already noon, let's go eat something. Just now, at least $4 was earned, which is enough for our little luxury."

"Okay, so what shall we eat?" Angela also followed the topic.

"How about Chinese food?" Scarlett exclaimed at this time, "I ate it once at a Chinese restaurant in Brooklyn with my dad. It tasted pretty good. I like the lemon juice chicken!"

"Chicken with lemon juice? Manny, did you go to a real Chinese restaurant?" Angela rolled her eyes.

"Of course, at least it says so on their signboard." Scarlett shrugged, "Is there something wrong?"

"Listen to me, dear, there are not many so-called real Chinese food even in Chinatown, because no matter what food comes from one place to another, it will be localized, and it is almost impossible to eat authentic Chinese food. It's possible." Angela said, shaking her fingers, and at the same time added in her heart: This is the result I got after going to Chinese restaurants in various places.

"Then what do we want to eat?" Looking at the two people in front of her, Natalie smiled secretly, and then interjected.

"Don't worry, see what takeaways are available at the nearby Chinese restaurant, maybe there are one or two delicious snacks." Angela clapped her hands and said.

"Put the fate of lunch in your hands? I don't have any hope." Scarlett said exaggeratedly, covering her forehead.

"Just wait and see." Angela raised her eyebrows, and the two looked at each other with a smile, and the little unhappiness before disappeared at this moment.

In the end, the three girls settled their lunch with siu mai, steamed buns and mung bean cakes. Angela was very lucky to find a Chinese restaurant with more authentic snacks. I have eaten siu mai filled with butter.

After choosing a few plain fillings for Natalie, everyone sat on the benches in the Confucius Square and discussed issues while eating, such as why the bronze statue of the old man had such a long beard and whether Chinese beards are so thick. Long, Angela had to do literacy work for the two of them, but the most discussed was the Chinese song sung before.

"What song are you singing? Does it have a name? Although I don't understand it, I still think it sounds good."

"Well, the name is Peacock Flying to the Southeast. It is a famous ancient Chinese poem. I just adapted it."

"So that means you wrote the song?"

"Um... yes. You can think of it that way, Nat."

"Unexpectedly, you can also write Chinese songs."

"What is unexpected. I also wrote French songs!"

"But I heard that Chinese is the most difficult foreign language in the world."

"Just one of them, let me tell you, Manny, I not only know Chinese, but I also learn Chinese musical instruments!"

Angela didn't expect that she just said it casually, but when Scarlett passed a certain Chinese musical instrument store next, she insisted on pulling her in to have a look and introduce it to her, and even play it for her.

It was an unassuming little shop on the corner of the street.Originally, Angela planned to stop being a street performer and return to Long Island after walking around the other two blocks, but when she passed the corner of the street, Scarlett happened to see the picture that Angela had drawn for her in the cabinet. With?Oh, the musical instrument of "Gu Sheng", so I asked the other party to go in and have a look. Angela couldn't resist her, so we had to go in and have a look together.

The store is not too big, and there is a flat sign with only one Chinese character on it: Yun!It looks free and easy.Angela, a guy with half a barrel of Chinese knowledge, can recognize it well, but it is impossible to see what fonts are written.

It's neat and tidy inside.The decoration is completely Chinese style, antique, and there are all kinds of Chinese classical musical instruments, such as Guqin, Guzheng, Erhu and Pipa, except for the too old things like chime bells.It can be said that everything is available.

"Is there anything I can do for you?" The owner of the store is a middle-aged Chinese in his 40s. He was stunned when he saw Angela and the others, but he still smiled and said in English.

"Let's just have a look. My two friends are more interested in Chinese classical musical instruments." Angela also responded with a smile.

"Then please take your time." The shopkeeper nodded and made a gesture of invitation.

Natalie and Scarlett had been aroused by Angela just now, and she also drew a lot of pictures of musical instruments for them to see, and immediately verified them with great interest, while Angela stood in the middle and looked around. Most of the musical instruments have been used, so it is not proficient, but it is not difficult to play one or two pieces of music. Turning her head around, she was suddenly attracted by a word on the wall, and read it unconsciously: "The west wind blows the waves of the old Dongting, and Xiang Jun has white hair all night. After being drunk, he doesn't know that the sky is in the water, and the boat is full of clear dreams and crushes the galaxy."

It took a long time after she finished reading before she nodded as if reminiscing. If it was someone else's poem, even if it was Li Bai and Du Fu's, she would not be able to understand it. She was so impressed, not only because she liked the artistic conception of this poem, but also because the author Tang Wenru didn't even have a biography in history, leaving only this poem.

"You speak Chinese well." An old and powerful voice rang out at the door, Angela hurriedly looked over, and an old man in a white Tang suit appeared at the door, with full head of gorgeous hair, but looked very energetic and sharp eyes It was falling on him, and behind him was a Chinese youth in his twenties, dressed in ordinary clothes, but looking at his nose and nose, as if he didn't care about everything, he was very strong, is he the nephew of the old man?

"You're too proud. I'm just an ordinary girl who likes Chinese culture." Angela said with a polite smile. She didn't realize that the two sentences were in Mandarin until she saw the blank expressions of the two girls. Answered.

"Mr. Li, hello." The owner hurried over to greet him at this time, showing great respect.

The old man nodded slightly to him, and then looked at the girl: "Did you just say that you praised it? Well, I didn't expect that it was not only good, but also very authentic, and it was more standard than most Chinese Americans."

Angela stuck out her tongue secretly, she didn't say much, and she didn't think the old man's words were too much, on the contrary, there was a sense of intimacy, just like granddaughter and grandpa.

At this moment, the old man glanced at the poem on the wall: "Do you understand?"

"Yes." The girl nodded, and at the same time tried her best to recall the analysis of this poem she had read.

Unexpectedly, the old man did not continue to ask, but pointed around: "Do you know how to use these instruments?"

Angela didn't know why, so she nodded.

"Do you know erhu?"

Continue to nod.

The old man smiled slightly and looked at the shopkeeper.

"It's okay, you can pick and use it." The shopkeeper smiled.

"Thank you, Old Xu." The old man nodded, and then looked at the young man beside him: "Guan Shui, choose a handy one for this young lady to try."

"Yes, master." The young man replied respectfully, picked the old mahogany erhu from the erhu shelf and handed it to Angela.

The girl was puzzled for a while, wondering why the old man asked her to try playing the erhu, but it seemed to be nothing after thinking about it, Natalie and Scarlett were watching the show, so it was fine.She shrugged and took it, found a place to sit down and tried a few notes, and then thought about what to play, because the timbre of the erhu is usually sad, so she didn't spend much time on it, and she really didn't know how to play it for a while. What's good?

Suddenly a thought came out of his head, his eyes lit up, he suppressed his smile, and started pulling up. When the music started, everyone was stunned. Natalie and Scarlett were fine, but this The three Chinese on the side were really surprised. When can the erhu play such a playful music?The young people even blurted out: "Super Mario?!"

That's right, this is a piece Angela heard in her previous life. It was adapted from the game music of "Super Mario". Played.

The piece was not long, and it lasted about 3 minutes. After playing the last note, Angela jumped up and bowed to the old man: "Thank you for your erhu."

Followed by Natalie and Scarlett and ran out, if they don't leave, God knows that this slightly weird old man will continue to ask him to do something, although he feels very kind.

The old man did not stop them, but watched them leave, and then the young man beside him suddenly found that his always stern teacher was smiling, a pleasant smile, which surprised him, but soon the old man frowned and muttered He continued: "No, her eyes..."

Then he turned his head to look at the young man: "Guan Shui, I want you to follow them and send them back, and then tell me where they live, especially the girl in the cowboy hat."

The young man opened his mouth, but in the end he didn't ask anything, he just nodded and answered, "Yes!"