Chapter 206: Night Talk
Waiting for information at the tea house delayed him for several hours. By the time Gu Yansheng returned near his residence, it was already midnight.
Passing by Minister Zhou’s residence, Gu Yansheng parked and knocked on the door.
Although knocking on the door in the middle of the night was a bit immoral, not to mention that the lights inside the house were still on, even if they were off, Gu Yansheng would have to smash the door open.
Of course, the hard work of doing things needs to be known to others, otherwise how would the superiors know you did the work.
The Japanese soldier did not dare to stop him and immediately went to report.
Minister Zhou, wearing pajamas, personally came out to greet him a couple of steps. “I was just taking a bath. Why come so late? What happened?”
Gu Yansheng flashed the document in his hand. “The investigation has results.”
Minister Zhou immediately became serious. “Come inside to talk.”
“Not going in.” Gu Yansheng reminded, “This matter involves the Japanese. Be careful of the walls having ears.”
Minister Zhou glanced around. His concern was not unfounded; indeed, everyone was arranged by the Japanese.
“Move to another place to live as soon as possible. Now, what do you say we do?”
“Come to my place.”
“Alright, then I’ll change clothes. You sit down and wait a moment.”
“Okay.”
Minister Zhou made quite a bit of noise going up and down the stairs, which startled Miss Zhou out.
“Mr. Gu, you’re here.”
Gu Yansheng looked up. Miss Zhou, wearing a nightgown, stood at the railing on the second floor smiling.
“Good evening, Miss Zhou. Why haven’t you slept so late?” Gu Yansheng smiled politely.
“Couldn’t sleep. Thought I’d read a book before bed, but ended up even less sleepy after reading.”
“Haha, that means this book isn’t sleepy enough; it’s not a good book. Try another one.”
“Like what? Does Mr. Gu have any recommendations?”
“Hmm, criminal law, procedural law—might help with sleep for you.”
Miss Zhou leaned on the railing, propping her cheek, thinking he would recommend some good book, but Mr. Gu’s choice was so extraordinary.
She was stunned for a moment, then smiled. “I’ll definitely take Mr. Gu’s recommendation. Just need to see if they have it here.”
“I don’t have it. If you want to read it, later I’ll have someone send it over to you.”
“Great.”
“Send what?” Minister Zhou came out, dressed neatly in a suit.
Gu Yansheng said straightforwardly, “I plan to send a procedural law book for Miss Zhou to read.”
“Ah?” Minister Zhou hesitated. Sending a skirt to a woman was a fine move, but sending procedural law—that was unheard of.
He couldn’t help glancing at Miss Zhou and asked strangely, “Are you interested in law?”
Miss Zhou smiled. “Maybe not before, but now I really am quite interested. You all are busy. Goodbye, Father. Goodbye, Mr. Gu.”
“Goodbye, good night.”
Driving back to his own home, Gu Yansheng found a criminal law and procedural law book and had his subordinate send them to Miss Zhou.
Minister Zhou joked, “She was kidding, and you took it seriously. Three minutes of enthusiasm—how could she understand law and such?”
“Even if it’s only three minutes of enthusiasm, it’s not a waste of time. Minister, have some tea, please.”
“Mm.” Minister Zhou took a sip of tea. “What exactly is the situation?”
Gu Yansheng took out the document and handed it over. “This Chen Junhui on the materials is the Minister of Commerce and Industry of the Nanjing Reform Government.”
“Nanjing?” Minister Zhou was as surprised as Gu Yansheng had been upon first hearing the news. This differed somewhat from their initial prediction.
But the result was the same: Japanese involvement.
Gu Yansheng nodded. “Yes, Nanjing. But there’s also someone from the Shanghai side involved. I found out Chen Junhui was in Shanghai a few days ago. I’ve got his call records, and there’s a name in them that I think is key: Head of the General Staff Office China Section, Imai Takeo.”
“Imai Takeo is involved? Sure about that?” Minister Zhou’s voice suddenly rose.
Their negotiations with the Japanese had started with Imai Takeo as the operator. It could be said that Imai Takeo’s existence had enabled them to come from Chongqing and negotiate up to the current situation.
Regarding the progress of the negotiations, aside from the high-level figures in mainland Japan, the ones who knew best in China were Kagesa Sadaki and Imai Takeo.
Someone who knew their full plan was now preparing to open a bank that shouldn’t be opened.
This matter was too problematic!
Upon closer thought, it even seemed like the whole thing was a conspiracy!
Gu Yansheng nodded. “No mistake. From the clues, Chen Junhui called the persons in charge of several Japanese conglomerates in Shanghai. The funding source for the bank’s establishment is Japanese enterprises. Contact between them is normal.
But why did he call Imai Takeo?
Besides this matter, I can’t think of any reason needing a Nanjing Director of Commerce and Industry to come to Shanghai for this call.”
Minister Zhou was silent. This matter was too important. He’d felt something off at the time, and sure enough, there was a big problem.
“Call Mr. Wang and ask him to come over. We need to talk about this right away!”
“I don’t know the phone number. What’s the phone number?” Gu Yansheng picked up the phone.
Minister Zhou and Gu Yansheng stared at each other. “I don’t know either.”
Just moved here—who knows the phone number? And usually, the secretary kept such things, but now there was no secretary.
“Then I’ll send someone to pick him up directly.”
Gu Yansheng sent someone to pick up Wang Ni.
Dragged out from sleep, the man arrived twenty-odd minutes later.
“What’s the emergency?” Woken in the middle of the night, Wang Ni, with his status, was not in a good mood.
“Take a look at this.” Minister Zhou handed over the document. “The Japanese might not be negotiating in good faith.”
The words hit like thunder, calming Wang Ni’s temper as he sat down to review it.
As he read, Minister Zhou explained the whole sequence of events.
“Good thing we discovered it early, or we’d still be in the dark.” Minister Zhou emphasized the severity.
Wang Ni frowned tightly. “What do you think of this now?”
“Yansheng, as an outsider, give your view so we don’t influence you.” Minister Zhou said.
“Okay.” Gu Yansheng said, “What we know so far is that Imai Takeo is supporting the Nanjing Minister of Commerce and Industry to open a bank.
So the initial guess that this bank is just for Japanese trading companies and the Military Department to transfer compensation payments doesn’t hold up.
With Imai Takeo’s status, if he’s involved, the Japanese must have other political aims.
And since Imai Takeo was involved in Mr. Wang’s negotiations with the Japanese side, he knows the big picture. We can judge from that.
Imai Takeo has no expectation of the negotiations concluding quickly, hence this new military scrip bank.”
The bank’s appearance only shows some Japanese are pessimistic about the negotiations, but if that pessimist is the negotiation operator Imai Takeo, then things are serious.
If it’s the Shanghai Gendarmerie Headquarters being pessimistic, so be it—who cares about them.
But if the negotiation leader is pessimistic, then all reports to the Japanese Cabinet are surely no good.
Wang couldn’t help asking, “Gao Zhongwu and Mei Siping’s reports on the negotiations have no issues. Though we and the Japanese haven’t agreed on some matters, overall it’s advancing, and no irreconcilable conflicts have arisen, right?
Even if there are issues, they can be brought out openly. But Gao Zhongwu and Mei Siping’s reports don’t mention the Japanese representatives taking a very hard line on anything.”
Minister Zhou pondered and nodded. “That’s what I can’t figure out. Imai Takeo and Kagesa Sadaki should want the negotiations to succeed most. For them, success is a great achievement. Why make trouble for themselves? Why pessimistic? It doesn’t make sense.
Unless they’ve been acting from start to finish, never intending to negotiate, just deceiving us.
Luring us out of Chongqing to weaken Chongqing’s strength, using us to strike Chongqing.
But I think that’s impossible.
If they want to use us to strike Chongqing, they need the negotiations even more. Dragging without negotiating, dragging without negotiating.”
“Dragging without negotiating, pretending to want to negotiate but actually not intending to finish—is that a strategy?” Wang finished his unspoken words.
Of course, it was a question.
Minister Zhou didn’t speak. The situation was unclear now; couldn’t say it wasn’t possible.
“Then let’s not negotiate! No sincerity—what’s there to talk about!” Wang stood up, furious.
