Chapter 2: Good Citizen
The organization has made basic contingency plans for their arrival in Shanghai.
The first goal is to settle down and obtain a fake legal identity.
That is, the Good Citizen Certificate currently promoted by the special government of SH City.
Without a Good Citizen Certificate, it’s impossible to move an inch outside the Concession. If caught on the street, it starts with a beating, then prison. Even if you don’t die, you’ll be bled dry and extorted heavily.
Simply obtaining identity isn’t difficult. Although they are from out of town, the Japanese also need to restore Shanghai’s trade after the war to profit from it, so they don’t reject out-of-towners coming to Shanghai to do business or work.
But identity checks are extremely strict; the more suspicious points in your past history, the more money you have to pay.
There are ways without spending big money. SH City always has original residents, that is, those who were in Shanghai during the window period from after the war to before the establishment of the puppet city government. They were all issued Good Citizen Certificates.
And for those who fled Shanghai at the start of the war and later returned, if they can be verified with previous residential registration information, or have neighbors or acquaintances to vouch for them, they can also be directly issued a Good Citizen Certificate.
The person Lu Bowen and the others are going to contact is someone who returned to Shanghai and went underground at the first opportunity after the war.
He can not only solve the identity problems for Lu Bowen and He Yun, making them old good citizens with verifiable histories directly, but more crucially, this underground agent has a stash of firearms and a radio.
Now this person is withdrawing from Shanghai, leaving these supplies to them.
The benefit of being sent out at a high level is this: Minister Chen, who handles organizational work, was directly dispatched, and has relatively more resources on hand. This counts as leaving them a baseline welfare.
But plans can’t keep up with changes; now the contingency plan has become useless.
According to the plan, disembark from the British American Concession and enter the Concession directly, then make contact inside the Concession to get identity documents.
But now exiting from Hongkou, they can’t pass the Japanese checkpoint.
They can only spend money to avert disaster.
As for Gu Yansheng himself, he is going into the government and can’t mess with these shady things. The Japanese will definitely scrutinize strictly later, so directly spending money to get a Good Citizen Certificate with his own identity is the safest.
Carrying the suitcase and queuing to disembark, there was some chaos at the disembarkation point. Japanese soldiers stood in two rows surrounding the wharf, passengers coming off the ship one by one like prisoners being scrutinized.
“Open the suitcase!”
“On what grounds? You have no right to search my suitcase.”
“Baka!”
A rifle jabbed in his face.
“Don’t argue. Foreigners go this way. Chinese queue over here for inspection. Dare to resist orders, don’t blame us for being ruthless.”
Bang, a gunshot into the air.
A man wearing a Zhongshan suit holding a gun walked over from the passage entrance, his cold gaze sweeping over everyone present, with several foreigners following behind him.
The intimidation of firearms is still very strong, and the several foreigners behind are clearly from the British, American, and French Concessions, directly opening the convenient door for their own countrymen. The cruise ship’s docking and search gave face, so their own people definitely can’t be searched; that face must be saved.
“Queue up, accept inspection. All Chinese come here for registration.”
Puppet personnel set up a table for quick recording, while the Zhongshan suit man who fired stood nearby, his eyes still fixed on the faces of the Chinese in the crowd.
“Name, place of origin, have you been to Shanghai before.”
“Yes.”
“Open the suitcase and you can go. Next.”
“Name, place of origin, have you been to Shanghai before.”
“Gu Yansheng, from Hangzhou, never been to Shanghai before.”
The Japanese are probably looking for someone. At a time like this, the closer to the front you are, the less problem. Gu Yansheng positioned himself very forward to show candor, and proactively opened the suitcase, which contained only clothes.
“From Hangzhou?”
Who knew the recorder perked up at “Hangzhou,” suddenly staring at Gu Yansheng and asking, “Did you participate in police training in Hangzhou?”
“No.” Gu Yansheng shook his head.
The recorder’s suspicion didn’t lessen. He stood up and rummaged through Gu Yansheng’s suitcase very carefully, but it only had some changes of clothes and a few law books.
“What are you carrying these books for?”
“To read. I’m studying law. Here, my Student ID.”
“Studying law, Peking University.”
The recorder flipped through but found nothing, then asked again: “What are you coming to Shanghai for?”
“Find a job.”
“Find a job, do you have relatives in Shanghai?”
“No.”
“No. Come, pat down.”
After patting him down and flipping through the suitcase again, the recorder indeed found no suspicious points and glanced toward the Zhongshan suit man nearby.
That man stared into Gu Yansheng’s eyes for a moment, met Gu Yansheng’s innocent gaze, and asked: “What did you go to Hong Kong for?”
Gu Yansheng deliberately paused in confusion and said: “Hong Kong implements British law, different from ours. I’m studying law, so I wanted to see it implemented locally. Going to the United Kingdom is too expensive, and Shanghai has been unstable, so I went to Hong Kong to study abroad. What’s wrong?”
The man said nothing, suddenly stepped forward and grabbed Gu Yansheng’s hand, his thumb slowly rubbing over the palm, then shook his head and lost interest.
Gu Yansheng had only trained for a total of twenty days on all items; these calluses probably won’t develop, bound to disappoint him.
“You can go. Go there to pay and handle the Good Citizen Certificate.”
Seeing the officer had no objection, the recorder directly let him pass.
Gu Yansheng nodded, closed the suitcase, went through the passage to the counter ahead, and handed over his Student ID to handle the Good Citizen Certificate.
With the prior inspection, the female clerk at the counter didn’t make things difficult for him and lazily quoted directly: “Five silver dollars or 100 legal tender.”
“So expensive?” Gu Yansheng felt the pain.
One gold bar at current market price can only exchange for 100 silver dollars. This crappy certificate costs one-twentieth of a gold bar, about 1.5 grams of gold.
“Handle it or not!”
“.Yes.”
With a depressed expression, Gu Yansheng took out the money, counted 100 legal tender for him, leaving just over 80 legal tender on him.
The female clerk smiled instead, “Since you’re a student, I’ll remind you: keep it safe. Getting caught in Shanghai without it won’t cost just this much.”
Collecting money and handling was efficient. She took out a blank booklet, filled in name, place of origin, age, and other info, then stamped the document on the counter: “Take the certificate, turn left out the door to the photo studio. Give it to him and he’ll take your photo. Go.”
Damn, does this mean another extortion?
Gu Yansheng nodded in thanks and walked quickly.
At that moment, a shrill cry suddenly rang out behind him, followed by exclamations and women’s screams.
“Grab him!”
Bang bang.
Gu Yansheng turned back and saw a man in a blue long gown breaking away from the queue, sprinting toward the seaside. The pistol in his hand and the two Japanese lying in pools of blood on the ground highlighted his bravery.
Japanese soldiers drew guns to fire back. The Zhongshan suit man anxiously shouted: “Don’t shoot! We need him alive!”
But the Japanese soldiers ignored him. Seeing the long gown man not stopping, they directly fired rifles.
The long gown man wanted to jump into the river, but it was too far. One shot hit, and he fell immediately.
Seeing this, the Zhongshan suit man rushing over couldn’t help cursing under his breath, then immediately ordered: “Quick, to the hospital. Where’s his luggage? Take it, take it, call the captain over, have his people identify, see who on the ship talked to him.”
The scene was chaos, screams everywhere.
Gu Yansheng didn’t watch long before withdrawing his gaze, silently mourning this stranger in his heart, then continued forward.
Turn left out the door to the photo studio for photos. The boss took the certificate without nonsense, just reminded: “Taking photos is quick, but developing photos takes time. See the people at the door? All queuing. If you’re willing to wait, it’ll be done in three to five days. But I remind you, without this certificate you can’t enter Shanghai. Of course, if you have money to stay in the Concession, three to five days, probably a hundred or two hundred legal tender can find a room.”
“What if I want it fast?”
“Kid, you’re sharp. To make it fast, heh, I’ll have the off-duty employee work overtime. 50 dollars salary, I have to pay him.”
“Understood, then please have your employee help out.”
No nonsense, Gu Yansheng paid.
“Wait, half an hour and it’ll be done.”
While waiting, Lu Bowen and He Yun, the fake couple, also came out. Lu Bowen’s grim face showed he’d been extorted plenty.
Who told him he’s thirty-three this year, still a businessman identity. To say he never did business or socialized with National Party people before, the Japanese wouldn’t believe it.
Then developing photos, more extortion.
Twenty minutes later, Gu Yansheng got the Good Citizen Certificate handed over by the boss.
The boss greeted with a fake smile: “Congratulations, you’re a Shanghai person now.”
“Thanks.”
Gu Yansheng opened the Good Citizen Certificate to check. Fine, all stamps were there. Who knows whose big shot’s business these money collectors are in.
Though money was spent, at least it was handled. With this Good Citizen Certificate, he had an official identity in Shanghai.
Gu Yansheng gave Lu Bowen and the other an eye signal, then left on his own.
“Rickshaw to Xinxin Coffee Shop.”
According to the prior agreement, Lu Bowen and He Yun go to make contact, Gu Yansheng waits at Xinxin Coffee Shop until the coffee shop phone for him rings, announcing Lu Bowen’s side has smoothly received the supplies, then based on the received property, agree on a meeting place near the property later. Next, they each carry out their own missions independently.
Gu Yansheng at the coffee shop ordered the cheapest coffee, picked up an English book to read, pretending to be a leisurely young Shanghai heir enjoying free time.
Fortunately, coffee can be refilled, saving a bit.
After waiting nearly two hours with no phone call, Gu Yansheng sitting by the window suddenly spotted He Yun across the street, signaling him with her eyes.
Not following the agreement, Gu Yansheng’s heart sank. He paid and left.
Out the door, no contact, pretend to pass by, leave one after the other.
“Bowen is in trouble. The contact was caught, and he was caught too.”
“How did it happen? How come you’re fine?”
“Don’t know. The Japanese seemed to know they were making contact. I didn’t go in.”
Gu Yansheng was somewhat stunned. “That’s the French Concession? Japanese caught them?”
“It was the Japanese.”
“.”
Off to a bad start. What shitty day is this? He guessed the almanac must say two inauspicious today: one not suitable to travel, two not suitable to socialize.
“Change places to talk.”
