20 years of the Republic of China

Chapter 858 Aiming [Part 2]

South Market Bagua Street, Shao's Hardware and Foreign Goods Store.

Jiang Lianheng and the old lady took their seats, separated by a tea table. Hai Xinnian stood to the side with his hands behind his back, while Li Zhengxi paced back and forth outside the door, keeping a watchful eye on any suspicious people.

After the farce that morning, the shop was much quieter, empty everywhere, and even your voice echoed faintly.

Before long, Shao's daughter-in-law brought hot tea and some cigarettes from the counter, placed them in front of Jiang Lianheng, and said timidly, "Mr. Jiang, please have some tea."

"Oh, you're welcome!"

Jiang Lianheng raised his hand, glanced at the daughter-in-law of the Shao family, then turned to look at the old lady of the Shao family, put his arm on the table, and said, "Old lady, don't worry, I just came back from the yamen. Your old man didn't suffer in there. I've already taken care of everything for you."

The old lady leaned to one side, rested her hands on her knees, nodded and said, "Thank you, Mr. Jiang, thank you, Mr. Jiang. So... when will my old man be able to come back?"

"Well, that's hard to say. After all, Manager Shao hit a foreigner, and now the Japanese are making a fuss about it, demanding an explanation. The yamen is in a difficult position! Let's wait and see. I estimate that the trial will be held in a couple of days, and there will be a result. I reckon he can at least save his life. The yamen also has to consider public opinion, don't you think?"

"Can we visit him in prison?"

"sure!"

"But...when we went there in the afternoon, the officials wouldn't let us see it!"

"Oh, I see!" Jiang Lianheng pulled a business card from his pocket, handed it over, and said, "Take this with you later and find Old Xia, the person in charge. That way you can go in to visit him in prison!"

The old lady quickly took the business card with both hands, carefully tucked it into her bosom, thought for a moment, then handed it to her daughter-in-law, saying, "Keep this, go back to your room and tidy up. I'll be going there later. Hurry up and thank Boss Jiang!"

Jiang Lianheng waved his hand and said, "No need, no need. I respect Manager Shao as a man of integrity. It is only right for me to do what I can. I dare not say when the old man will be able to come out, but I can guarantee that he will be well-fed and clothed inside and will definitely not be bullied by anyone."

"I'm already very grateful," the old lady said, not daring to ask for more.

Jiang Lianheng pointed to the shelf and then said, "Grandma, quite a few things went missing today, didn't they?"

"That's right. A huge group of people were smashing and looting. We couldn't stop them at all. Let them go. The people are gone. There's no point in asking for the goods now."

"Tsk, don't say that! As long as the green hills remain, there's always firewood to burn! I'll have someone go and get your lost things back for you tomorrow."

"Sigh, these are all just odds and ends, where am I supposed to find them!"

“It’s alright. They’re just taking small pieces. But when it comes to selling stolen goods, you can’t sell them off piece by piece. I can’t say we can return everything, but we can recover eight or nine out of ten items.”

Upon hearing this, the old lady was speechless with gratitude.

However, she also knew that these favors were not given for free, and immediately stated, "Don't worry, Mr. Jiang, we definitely won't give this shop to Qin Huaimeng."

"Have you figured it out?"

"I've thought it through. Actually, my old man never wanted to sell. The reason things have come to this point is all my son's fault for causing trouble!"

It turns out that the Shao family itself had some disagreements about the matter of transferring the shop.

To be precise, the son of the Shao family agreed to the transfer. Not only did he agree, but he was also very enthusiastic. This was because Qin Huaimeng's offer went beyond the money stipulated in the contract. He also promised to transfer a shop in the concession to the Shao family to continue operating the hardware store. The contract had even been drafted in advance.

The Shao family only had this one son, and they spoiled him from childhood to adulthood, turning him into a foolish son of a landlord.

The silly son quickly calculated that the land in the concession was even more expensive, so he would make a profit no matter what, and immediately agreed.

Unexpectedly, the old man in the family disagreed.

When the maintenance committee was about to take over, Manager Shao suddenly changed his mind. The committee couldn't find the property deeds, so in a fit of anger, they arrested Shao's son and threatened to release him only when the contract was signed.

This is the whole picture.

In other words, if we really want to be serious, the Shao family is actually in the wrong.

However, people are used to pretending to be victims. When the old shopkeeper talked about this matter, he always intentionally or unintentionally skipped over the cause and only talked about the consequences.

Jiang Lianheng looked slightly disappointed upon hearing this, and then asked, "The property deed... is it in your possession now?"

The old lady said, "In my hands, my husband and I are of one mind. If it weren't for the fact that our child was taken away by them, I wouldn't have agreed to the transfer. Now that things are in such a mess in the city, I guess even if we sign the contract, our son probably won't come back. I can do whatever he wants with everything else, but I can't let him get away with this. I can't tolerate his bad habits."

Seeing her resolute attitude, Jiang Lianheng couldn't help but ask curiously, "What's wrong?"

"Hey, Mr. Jiang, let me tell you the truth. Don't think I'm just bragging. Back in the day, the Shao family did business in Andong, and their business was much bigger than this. It was only because the Japanese came to fight here in the First Sino-Japanese War that their business was completely destroyed, so they moved to Fengtian to do business."

"Then you've certainly seen the world."

The First Sino-Japanese War occurred 31 years ago.

Although Jiang Lianheng was a participant, he was young and ignorant at the time, and many of his impressions have become blurred.

All he remembered was the Japanese flag rising and falling in the city. Later, he heard the adults talking about it and learned that Liaodong was almost ceded to the Japanese.

The old lady had a particularly vivid memory of the situation at the time. Andong County was lost almost inexplicably. The Japanese soldiers looted supplies in the city, and many people had no choice but to leave their homes to escape the war.

At this point, the old lady suddenly became somewhat emotional.

“Everyone in my generation knows that the Japanese are wolves and the Russians are tigers. Neither of them are good people. But some young people these days, I don’t know what’s wrong with them. Take my son for example, he always tells me that the Japanese weren’t that bad, that what’s written in books is all fake and exaggerated. It’s a joke. I saw it with my own eyes, how could it be fake?”

Jiang Lianheng nodded.

Despite the repeated anti-Japanese demonstrations in Fengtian, they do not represent the entire public opinion. As far as he knows, a considerable number of young people still harbor illusions about the Japanese, or at least do not have such strong hostility.

“This is your own family matter,” Jiang Lianheng said, shaking his long robe. “I just need a clear stance from you.”

The old lady hurriedly said, "I definitely won't sign it, it's just... I'm just worried that those traitors will come and cause trouble again."

“That’s easy to handle!” Jiang Lianheng suggested. “I have another residence in the south of the city. If you don’t mind, you can stay there for now. Once this storm has passed, you can come back. In the meantime, I will do my best to rescue the old man!”

Having said all that, the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law naturally had no reason to refuse, and immediately nodded to indicate that they would follow the Jiang family's arrangements, seemingly forgetting that just the night before, the Jiang family had sent someone to threaten them with the Shao family's grandson to prevent them from signing the contract. After a few more polite words, and once the tea had gone cold, Jiang Lianheng finally got up to take his leave.

As they left the Shao family's shop and reached the fork in the road, just as they were about to bend down and crawl into the carriage, they suddenly heard a commotion coming from across the street.

Jiang Lianheng stopped in his tracks and looked in the direction of the sound. He saw a dozen thugs in cotton robes causing a disturbance in a bookstore. Before long, they dragged out the owner and his employees and beat them. He didn't know why.

It's just a bookstore, who could it possibly offend?
Jiang Lianheng frowned and muttered, "What's going on?"

Li Zhengxi took two steps forward, squinted at the sight, and said, "Brother, it looks like they're from the provincial capital's detective team."

Jiang Lianheng then recognized several familiar faces in the crowd and went over to call out, "Master Hong? Master Hong!"

Hong Ye was the leader of this detective team. He was quite thin with a pair of protruding ears. He was standing at the entrance of the bookstore, scolding the passersby around him. When he heard someone calling him, he looked over in the direction of the voice, recognized the person for a moment, and then walked over with a big smile.

"Hey! Boss Jiang, it's been a while since we last met!"

"On duty tonight?"

Jiang Lianheng, being a secret service advisor in the provincial capital, was naturally very familiar with this group of plainclothes officers, and they immediately started offering each other cigarettes.

With a puff of smoke and a spit of phlegm, Hong said, cursing, "Don't even mention it. We've been working non-stop these past few days, and we're all fucking exhausted."

"What did the owner of a bookstore do wrong?" Jiang Lianheng asked.

"Him?" Boss Hong curled his lip. "He's done something really serious—he's a Red Devil!"

"sure?"

"Is it still not certain? An informant reported that they just searched his shop and found this thick stack of banned books, some of which were in foreign languages. He said he didn't know where they came from. Damn it, take him back and give him a beating and he'll behave."

"This is the old marshal's order, isn't it?"

"Yes, didn't you know?"

Jiang Lianheng nodded and said, "I've heard about it, but I've been busy with other things lately. I didn't expect this commotion to be so big."

"How could it not be big? Guo Guizi's rebellion was caused by chaos in the north. The old marshal was furious. He just gave the order a few days ago: better to arrest the wrong person than let one go!" Master Hong said with a smile. "By the way, Boss Jiang, your network of informants is much wider than mine. If you have any news, you must tell me first!"

Jiang Lianheng was currently focused on dealing with Qin Huaimeng and had no time to worry about capturing spies, so he just gave a few perfunctory replies, saying that he would inform him immediately if there was any news.

Just as he was about to turn and leave, Master Hong stepped forward and asked mysteriously, "Mr. Jiang, would it be convenient for us to talk in private?"

"What's wrong?" Jiang Lianheng followed him to the street corner.

Hong looked around, then suddenly lowered his voice and said, "Boss Jiang, we've known each other for years. I'm just being nosy and giving you a heads-up, so please don't blame me for being a gossip."

"What exactly happened?" Jiang Lianheng became increasingly curious.

Hongye seemed a bit embarrassed. He finished a cigarette with a hissing laugh before saying, "There have been a lot of rumors about your family on the street lately, haven't you heard?"

"I don't know, what did they say?"

"Hiss—heh, I don't know which bastard is spouting nonsense, saying there's a crazy woman locked up in your basement, named something like He. Anyway, I don't believe it, but it's all over the streets. Just take it as me making up!"

Jiang Lianheng's face darkened, then he smiled and said, "You actually believe that? You underestimate me. Next time someone mentions it, tell them for me that there's not just one, there are thirty in total. I change them every day, and I never repeat them every month."

"Haha, Mr. Jiang is so witty!" Master Hong's doubts vanished instantly. "With fame comes trouble. With your abilities, it's no wonder they're talking about you behind your back!"

Even so, Jiang Lianheng learned a lesson: some news, no matter how many times it is spread, is difficult to reach his ears.

For example, if he accidentally slipped and fell on his backside during a heavy snowfall, some people might see it and chuckle behind his back, but they wouldn't dare say it to his face, nor would they dare discuss it in front of Sifengkou or Zhao Guoyan. By the time it reached the Jiang family, it would probably be common knowledge.

Jiang Lianheng could guess that the matter was probably leaked when Li's men massacred the Jiang residence. So he kept it in mind, thinking that he would deal with Qin Huaimeng and then go back to investigate the root of the problem.

Hongye happened to have other business to attend to, so he didn't talk any further and turned to escort the suspect away.

The bookstore owner was still pleading and saying things like he was wronged, but the detective team ignored him and, when they got annoyed, they slapped him.

Hong Ye shouted and cursed along the way, pointing at various shops and yelling, "What are you looking at? If you look again, I'll take you all back for questioning! And that glasses shop, do you want to leave too?"

"No, no, no! Sir, please wait patiently, please wait patiently!"

The owner of the eyeglasses shop immediately closed the door, drew the curtains over the shop window, and simply shut down the shop.

The shop was dimly lit. The owner peered through the gauze curtain and quietly observed for a moment before lighting an oil lamp and taking small steps toward the back room.

In the back room sat a burly man in his forties, his hands covered in chilblains, smoking on a large trunk.

“With the Commissioner’s crackdown on the provincial capital this time, Fengtian is no longer safe.” The shopkeeper put the oil lamp on the table and went to a corner to pack his luggage. “It’s best to go back to Harbin now. Once we get there, we can have some protection. It’s not too late to come back after this storm has passed.”

"Go back!" The burly man threw down his cigarette butt and stomped on it twice. "I'm staying; I have some personal business to attend to!"

"Are you crazy?" the boss ran over and said, "I have to remind you, you are a laborer who returned to China back then, and you are a key target of the government's strict investigation. If you stay, you will be exposed sooner or later!"

The burly man didn't care: "Then let's expose ourselves!"

"Tsk, I just don't understand, why are you so stubborn? Don't you have any sense of the bigger picture? Your personal feud with the Jiang family has lasted for twenty years, and you still can't let it go?"

"This is not just a personal grudge!"

The burly man raised his head, and the flame of the oil lamp flickered and danced in his eyes.

The boss waved his hand and said, "Don't give me that nonsense. Do you think I don't know you? You still have that old-fashioned way of the镖局 (escort agency) in your mind, fighting and killing, acting like a江湖 (jianghu, a term referring to the martial arts world). What kind of image does that make you? You're a warrior now, understand?"

The burly man shook his head and said, "Old Luo, this is not just a personal grudge. The Jiang family controls all the foremen of the major factories in the provincial capital. If we don't get rid of this cancer, it will be difficult for the workers in Fengtian to truly unite. The so-called 'rest' is just to make money for him. Someone has to do this, and no one is more suitable than me."

(End of this chapter)