A Romantic Journey Through the Rain - Chapter 757, Ballroom Romance 1

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The meal was incredibly delicious and sensual. Erjie ate the tofu with great relish, thoroughly enjoying himself. As dusk approached and the city lights began to twinkle, Erjie led the beautiful girls straight to the Paramount Ballroom on Nanjing Road in Shanghai.
On the bus, Lu Erjie embraced the girls on both sides, kissing and touching them all over. Although the girls remained shy, they were much more relaxed. They responded to Erjie's hugs, kisses, and caresses with a mixture of reluctance and acceptance.
Shanghai is a city that never sleeps, and it has an especially large number of dance hall girls. While the girls generally have low levels of education, the patrons are typically more educated, have higher social status, and a more cosmopolitan lifestyle; they represent Shanghai's "middle class," including civil servants, company employees, businessmen, wealthy young men, and university students. University student patrons are particularly popular with the girls; they are young, knowledgeable, energetic, and naive. Although they may not be wealthy, dance halls welcome them to attract customers.
Dance halls were havens of pleasure and extravagance, where patrons indulged in debauchery. University students neglected their studies, and some patrons went bankrupt as a result, even fighting over dancers. In the mid-1930s, Chiang Kai-shek launched the New Life Movement to combat extravagance, and at one point banned civil servants and university students from dancing; any civil servant found in a dance hall was dismissed. Dance halls faced financial difficulties, and some went out of business.
The Supreme Group owned over a dozen dance halls, and the Paramount Ballroom, after its acquisition, was arguably one of the most famous dance halls in Shanghai at the time, surpassing even the Great World Ballroom. The Paramount building boasted a magnificent exterior and opulent interior, with beautiful and dazzling lighting. Coupled with a top-notch jazz band and glamorous dancers, it became the premier choice for high society to showcase their glamour and socialize, attracting countless celebrities and becoming a renowned comprehensive entertainment venue in Shanghai.
The ballroom building has three floors. The ground floor houses the kitchen and shops. The second floor contains the dance floor and banquet hall, with an extremely modern design featuring abundant nickel, crystal, and white wood accents. A white marble spiral staircase leads to the main ballroom, whose largest dance floor is over 500 square meters. The floor is supported by car steel plates, creating a swaying effect while dancing. Surrounding the main dance floor are smaller, customizable dance areas, suitable for both practice and intimate gatherings. A particularly striking feature is the transparent glass-floored dance floor on the balcony, illuminated by footlights, creating the illusion of dancing on eggs. When both floors are fully operational, they can accommodate a thousand people simultaneously. The interiors are air-conditioned and luxuriously furnished. The third floor houses a hotel, with a massive cylindrical glass tower on the top floor. When patrons are about to leave, staff display their car license plate numbers or other identifiers on the tower, allowing drivers to see them from a distance and guide their vehicles to the ballroom entrance.
The dancers at the Paramount Ballroom were all recruited from the public. At that time, the dancers earned between three and six thousand yuan a month, which was more than ten times that of ordinary employees.
Old Shanghai was known for its abundance of three things: cinemas, theaters, and dance halls. Cinemas were the primary source of leisure and entertainment for Shanghai residents, followed by theaters, and then dance halls. These three formed a tripartite balance, and none of them should be underestimated.
Supreme Films dominated Shanghai's film industry, unchallenged, with cinemas nationwide showing only their productions. They controlled a third of the dance hall market, but had little involvement in theaters. This was likely related to Lu Erjie's age; the cacophony of opera was torture for a 21st-century young man like him, leaving that lucrative market to other gangs. Little did he know that for a lecherous man like him, he had inadvertently lost a crucial territory: many opera singers were truly beautiful, and numerous famous performers came from the opera industry. Wang Xueqin, for example, sang Peking Opera and was later taken as a concubine by Lu Zhenhua.
Dancers and socialites dressed in cheongsams and long skirts with curly hair, and men with slicked-back hair and suits, danced gracefully on the dance floor, dancing wildly to jazz music.
Several female employees had never danced in a dance hall before, and they longed to go, but lacked the courage to enter a luxurious one. Occasionally, they would share their thoughts with their coworkers, and tonight they were excited and thrilled to be accompanying the most powerful boss in Shanghai to the Paramount Ballroom to broaden their horizons.
Li Mei was clearly a regular at the dance hall. Paramount was an industry under the Supreme Group, and as a white-collar worker and a junior leader in the labor union, she naturally frequented the group's dance halls.
The manager of the Paramount Ballroom was already waiting downstairs with his men, but Lu Erjie ignored them completely, acting as if they didn't exist.
Li Mei, holding Lu Erjie's hand, led him and several beautiful girls up to the second floor with practiced ease. They were surrounded by a large group of bodyguards, with Long Er following closely behind, his sharp eyes and alert gaze observing their surroundings.
The dance hall was filled with loud music and flashing lights, where men and women danced gracefully, embracing each other. The manager of the Paramount Ballroom eagerly led Lu Erjie to a comfortable, dimly lit circular booth, where various drinks, red wine, and snacks such as fruits and pears were already prepared on the coffee table.
"Remove all of these," Long Er said coldly to the manager.
The Paramount manager was completely bewildered and didn't dare to ask. He immediately ordered a waiter to bring a tray and remove the drinks and food from the table.
Long Er waved his hand, and a bodyguard carrying a cardboard box immediately took out red wine, various drinks, wine glasses, and snacks such as fruit and melon seeds from the box and laid them out on the table before leaving.
The manager of the Paramount Ballroom understood; it wasn't that his arrangements were bad, but rather that the big boss was prioritizing safety!
"Don't let anyone bother me." What annoyed Lu Erjie the most was that there were many acquaintances of him in the dance hall. Most of the people who came to the dance hall were acquaintances from the political world. The real big shots in the military and the underworld bosses actually frequented theaters, opium dens, casinos, and brothels every night, not dance halls.
"I understand." The Paramount manager bowed and left, leaving two waiters behind to receive further instructions.
Long Er stood behind Lu Erjie. After the girls sat down, Lu Erjie looked at their curious and excited expressions and asked, "Besides Sister Li Mei, who among you can dance?"
The girls all shook their heads with timid smiles: "None of us know how."
Li Xiaojun asked, "Chairman, you will definitely jump."
"My dancing skills are so-so, Sister Li Mei, could you teach them?" Lu Erjie said to Li Mei.
“Okay, but I can only teach one person to dance at a time, and there are five of them,” Li Mei said charmingly.
"You figure something out." Lu Erjie raised an eyebrow. Do you expect me to handle this? What kind of subordinate are you?
Li Mei beckoned to the waiter standing to one side, and the waiter immediately leaned forward to listen to her instructions.
"Go find four dancers."
"Okay, Sister Li."
As several graceful dancers swayed over, Erjie encouraged the five beautiful girls: "Study hard, don't waste this opportunity."
"Sister Li Mei, please teach me." Li Xiaojun had been eager to try for a long time.
Li Mei nodded and smiled, then said to the four dancers who came over, "Each of you lead one of them in dancing, and put your heart into it."
"Understood, Sister Li," the four dancers replied.
He watched as five beautiful young women led him onto the dance floor. Erjie's gaze followed the men and women in the dance hall, occasionally catching Li Mei's eye as she gave him a charming smile.
Lu Erjie remembered Meiqin; it was at the Paramount Ballroom that Lu Erjie and Meiqin had their affair in the restroom. Lu Erjie crossed his legs and turned to Long Er, saying, "Sister Long Er, why don't you find someone to dance with?"
Long Er shook his head and suddenly asked, "Boss, do you want to rest upstairs tonight?"
Lu Erjie opened a can of beer and took a big gulp: "Won't you guys feel pressured if I stay out overnight?"
Long Er said sternly, "Pressure is the driving force. Protecting the boss is a matter of utmost importance. How can we choose the time and place? That's not something a bodyguard should decide."
"Bingo!" Lu Erjie snapped his fingers. "I'll stay here."
"I'll have someone arrange it right away."
"No, everything is decided on the fly, don't make any special arrangements. Wait until they finish dancing."
Ryuji understood. The temporary arrangement was designed to prevent her opponent from getting to know her. She might stay here, or she might not; the room selection was also temporary, keeping her opponent in the shadows guessing. It seemed she still had a lot to learn.

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A Romantic Journey Through the Rain - Chapter 757, Ballroom Romance 1

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