Chapter 216: Killing?
Yan Zhensheng’s Qin Fang Ju is a century-old famous brand; even the old hag Cixi of the Great Qing loved eating Qin Fang Ju’s sauced Buddha’s hand.
This is enough to show how famous Qin Fang Ju’s pickled vegetables are in Beiping.
The entire Beiping pickle business is at least more than twenty percent monopolized by Qin Fang Ju!
Especially in these chaotic war years and famine years, pickled vegetables are always good things that are never short of buyers!
A car is just four or five thousand silver dollars; for the Yan Family, it’s not like sprinkling water, but it’s definitely not enough to hurt their bones.
Later, the reason the Yan Family almost went bankrupt due to poor management was not because of internal problems, but external problems, which won’t be mentioned here for now.
Hearing this, Yan Zhensheng smiled bitterly and waved his hand: “Alright, Cao Ye, don’t make fun of me. I’m just an ordinary person; how could I afford a car?”
“Not to mention anything else, just this car—it’s a big consumer of gasoline. For an ordinary person like me, where would I buy gasoline? Even if I could buy it, I couldn’t afford to use it.”
Cao Weida suddenly realized; it turned out it was this concern, but it made sense.
On one hand, cars in these times are all imported, but the quantity is limited, and there are so many rich people in Beiping. Whenever a car arrives, it’s basically taken by those with power and influence.
On the other hand, after the War of Resistance broke out, gasoline supply has always been tight, and the Japanese puppet regime has tightened control over gasoline even more.
Many people have cars at home, but because there’s no gasoline, a large number of cars are just sitting idle at home.
Before, on the car, Fan Wu Ye had boasted to Cao Weida about the performance of those cars, gasoline, and such, which ones were good, but that was in the past!
If it were now, even if Fan Wu Ye had money, he couldn’t get his hands on those!
Although the Yan Zhensheng family has some money, they have no power!
In such chaotic times, it’s not that having money means you can buy things; many things, you can’t buy even if you have money—no place to get them!
There are small amounts flowing out on the black market, but the price is really impressive. Without a mountain of gold and silver at home, who would be willing to keep using black market gasoline!
Dropping this topic, he smiled and said: “It’s mealtime now. Shopkeeper Yan, come on in and eat something together?”
“No, no, the meal at home is already ready.” Yan Zhensheng smiled and waved his hand in refusal, then hesitated and said: “Cao Ye, I wonder if you have time tonight. I’d like to invite you for a casual dinner.”
Cao Weida raised his eyebrows; this was someone seeking his help and planning to ask him for assistance?
“If Shopkeeper Yan is inviting, even if I don’t have time, I have to make time.” Cao Weida smiled and flattered him. After all, they were neighbors, seeing each other often; he was willing to give this bit of face.
“Oh, Cao Ye, you’re too kind. Alright then, tonight at six, Dongxing Tower on East Anmen Street. I’ll be waiting for your honorable arrival!”
Before entering the courtyard, Cao Weida glanced with his peripheral vision at a certain direction and saw the curtains of that house wide open, empty inside, and the corner of his mouth curved slightly.
After eating, Cao Weida didn’t stay long at home and didn’t let Xiangzi see him off; he strolled out alone.
At a secluded spot, he seemingly casually shifted the direction of a brick, then turned and nonchalantly went into a nearby teahouse, got a private room, and sat on the second floor leisurely listening to the storytelling in the teahouse.
Downstairs, a fair-skinned, skinny man in his fifties was playing the clapper.
“I come with the bamboo clapper, counting treasures but still haven’t gotten rich.”
“Nowadays, in the Republic of China, cut off the queue but still no way out.”
“Shopkeeper Wang, use your brain, improve everything and talk about reform.”
“Use your brain, all in vain.”
You have to say, this compares well with later generations’ patter, even more skillfully played than those; it’s quite engaging to listen to.
Especially the words here, full of humorous and satirical criticism of current ills.
Just as he was listening with interest, Xu Jin’ge, disguised and dressed up, sat down across from him.
“Did you call me here because something happened?”
Cao Weida withdrew his gaze, shifted it to Xu Jin’ge, and smiled: “Nothing major, mainly I want to ask you to help kill someone.”
“Killing? Who?”
“A Japanese person.” He took out a folded piece of paper and a photograph from his pocket and handed them over: “This is his information. I hope it can be done cleanly and neatly, but you have to leave your method of killing.”
Xu Jin’ge curiously took the photo and looked at it, then glanced at the opened paper, and immediately said angrily: “Damn little devil! So cruel!”
“Killing is one thing, but to humiliate China people like this! He deserves ten thousand deaths!”
“Don’t worry, tonight I’ll take action; I absolutely won’t let him see tomorrow’s sun!”
Xu Jin’ge is a Kuomintang Military Statistics Bureau agent. He received Confucian education from childhood and has unwavering loyalty to the country and nation.
When carrying out missions, he is not a cold-blooded killer, but insists on fighting for justice!
He particularly hates executioners who cruelly kill China people.
“Then I’ll leave this matter to you.” Cao Weida nodded; he knew that once Xu Jin’ge learned of this little devil’s actions, he absolutely wouldn’t refuse.
In the original work, when the liberation army was at the city gates, although Xu Jin’ge refused Fang Jinglin’s suggestion to surrender, he said he didn’t want Beiping people to suffer and the nation to take losses, all showing his concern for the people.
As the saying goes, a gentleman can be deceived with righteousness; Cao Weida just wanted to deceive Xu Jin’ge a bit.
However, he wasn’t just deceiving; he also had to give some sweets.
“Let me tell you something: a couple of days ago, I saw Wang Kemin.”
“Where is he!” Hearing this name, Xu Jin’ge immediately stood up excitedly.
His first woman was humiliated because of assassinating Wang Kemin, and he had painfully killed her in the end; this thorn had always been stuck in his heart and he couldn’t forget it.
“I don’t know.” Cao Weida shook his head; he really didn’t know. He didn’t have professional tracking talent under him, and Wang Kemin had plenty of counter-intelligence talent; he never even thought of tracking Wang Kemin, so naturally he didn’t know.
Even if he knew, he wouldn’t rashly tell Xu Jin’ge.
With his eager-for-revenge mindset, if he really knew Wang Kemin’s whereabouts, who knows if he’d lose his head and rush over for revenge?
That wouldn’t be revenge; that would be walking into the trap!
“You don’t know?!” Xu Jin’ge’s tone was heavy, clearly very dissatisfied with this answer.
“I really don’t know; I just saw him by chance.” Cao Weida pressed his hand, signaling him not to get agitated.
“You know, Wang Kemin is surrounded by special agent experts. I don’t have talent like that under me; rashly tracking would easily expose us.”
This explanation was reasonable, and Xu Jin’ge deflated like a punctured balloon.
Seeing this, Cao Weida comforted him:
“However, I discovered he was secretly meeting someone, probably on some mission. My people are watching; maybe we’ll see him again next time.”
“Don’t be too anxious; I’ll have people keep an eye out for you. When I have news, I’ll notify you.”
After soothing Xu Jin’ge and explaining the matter, Cao Weida tossed down a silver dollar for Xu Jin’ge to pay the bill and strolled out leisurely.
Six in the afternoon, Dongxing Tower entrance.
Seeing Cao Weida get off the rickshaw, Yan Zhensheng hurriedly came forward to greet him: “Cao Ye, you’ve finally arrived. Please, please come in; the wine and dishes are ready, just waiting for you! This way!”
“Shopkeeper Yan is too polite.” After replying, Cao Weida said to Xiangzi who pulled him there: “You go eat a casual meal around here first.”
The two entered the Dongxing Tower private room. Cao Weida could already be considered a regular customer at Dongxing Tower. Shortly after ordering, the dishes were served one by one.
Even the Dongxing Tower boss personally came to toast a cup of wine.
This made Yan Zhensheng, who saw it all, even more confident in his mind.
After three rounds of drinks, Yan Zhensheng finally got to the point: “Cao Ye, I want to ask you for something.”
“Shopkeeper Yan is too polite. Go ahead, what is it? If I can help, I definitely will!”
Distant relatives are not as good as close neighbors; for a long time in the future, they would be neighbors. Maintaining good neighborly relations had no downsides.
Besides, if you don’t use power, it expires and becomes useless; no reason not to use it!
“Then thank you in advance!” Yan Zhensheng paused, then said softly: “What I want to ask is, do you have a way to get some supplies, like cotton, sugar, oil, and such? Not much, around two thousand silver dollars is enough!”
Hearing this, Cao Weida couldn’t help but raise his eyebrows meaningfully: “Shopkeeper Yan, these supplies are all Imperial Army strictly prohibited strategic supplies. You don’t need them usually; buying so much, what do you want to do?”
“Of course, reselling!” Yan Zhensheng admitted straightforwardly, then began to complain:
“You don’t know, ever since the Imperial Army came in, supplies in our Beiping have been under control.”
“Especially these two years, supply controls have been even stricter. The pickled vegetables in our Yan Family’s Qin Fang Ju shop are almost gone; we don’t dare sell much each day, afraid of selling out and closing in a few days.”
“These two years, my Qin Fang Ju hasn’t made money—not losing money by subsidizing is already good! Always losing money to keep the name going!”
“It’s almost not covering costs, so I was thinking if I could resell some supplies to make a bit of money to sustain the shop.”
“Also, my son has his eye on a marriage; since the girl has agreed to him, I have to handle the wedding properly.”
Listening to Yan Zhensheng’s performance of complaining about poverty, Cao Weida wanted to laugh inside.
You have to say, the acting is really quite good.
If I hadn’t read the original work, I really would have believed it.
Upon hearing that Yan Kuan was getting married, he already had an idea.
If he remembered correctly, Yan Kuan joined the Communist Party not long after getting married.
And this intention definitely wasn’t a sudden thought; it must have been planned before.
As for reselling supplies?
That was just the other’s pretext.
However, since it was to support the War of Resistance, Cao Weida naturally wouldn’t refuse.
Supporting the resistance without spending his own money—what was there not to do?
He deliberately stayed silent for a bit, while Yan Zhensheng was uneasy, then nodded: “I can get the stuff; after all, selling to anyone is selling. But you have to pay cash; no paper money or anything like that.”
