money player

Jiu Long Tang.

Zhao Shiying sat in front of the telegraph machine wearing headphones, listening to the Morse code.

Beep, beep, beep…

She wrote the numbers one by one on a piece of paper, and the teletypewriter next to her spit out a piece of paper with a string of numbers on it.

After writing down all the passwords, she picked up two pieces of paper and compared the numbers on them.

Then, she stuck the telex note on a nail on the table and drew a symbol on the corner of the paper that only she could understand.

She pulled out a book from the bookcase beside her, found the corresponding words according to the numbers, and after the codes were "translated" one by one, she put the book back, put on gloves, opened the bag beside her, took out one of the three books in the bag, carefully flipped through the book, and began the formal translation of the telegram.

Zhao Shiying, a former telecommunications technology expert of the Military Intelligence Bureau, was good at intelligence gathering and deciphering various codes. He was a capable subordinate of the Military Intelligence Bureau's female major general Jiang Yiying. He participated in deciphering the telegram of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, intercepted important telegrams from the Japanese Navy, and deciphered Yamamoto Isoroku's itinerary.

When she went to Taiwan in 1949, her patron Jiang Yiying was not valued and was sidelined. One can imagine her life. Working in telecommunications is not field work, and she usually doesn't get any benefits. She can only focus on her fixed salary and bonuses. The salary in Taiwan is not stable, and it is not enough to support her petty-bourgeois lifestyle.

Just when she was looking for a way out, she received an invitation from Qi Weiwen. When she heard that the salary was good and it was a private job, she came here happily.

After translating the telegram, she took it to another room and handed it to Qi Weiwen who was standing by the window eating melon seeds.

Out of ten smokers who quit smoking, nine out of ten overeat. It is normal to gain half a centimeter in a year. In order to resist the addiction, Qi Weiwen started cracking melon seeds, but he did not eat the kernels.

After cracking a melon seed, she handed the kernel to the mynah bird standing on the windowsill, and then received a look of disdain from the mynah bird, "You bastard, I can't eat any more."

"Go play by yourself."

Qi Weiwen waved his hand, and the mynah bird spread its wings and flew away.

"This starling is too smart. Is it appropriate to keep it around?"

"I will send them away after two days." Qi Weiwen held up the note and glanced at the message. "The musk deer and pheasant have arrived."

"Can I get off work now?"

"Where are you going to eat?"

"A new noodle shop has opened in North Point. The owner is from Longyou, and the vermicelli they make is similar to the one I make in my hometown."

"You don't mind the trouble of crossing the sea just to have a meal."

Zhao Shiying chuckled, "I've been running around all my life just to have a mouth."

Qi Weiwen rubbed his hands and said, "Wait for me, I'll go with you."

Kong Lingxian flipped through the book for a long time before translating the message. "Business is the most important thing. Please hurry up and finish it. We are leaving."

The meaning of the telegram is not difficult to understand. "Business is the most important thing" means that Choi Eun-hee can attend the banquet no matter what she will face. The latter part means that Choi Eun-hee should finish filming the documentary as soon as possible and leave South Korea.

This was incomprehensible to her. She had paid a high price to send Choi Eun-ji away, but now she was allowed to look down on her. Could it be that the boss had no interest in her?
Unable to figure it out, she had to use the universal answer "All men are bad", and then stopped worrying about it and started thinking about how to tell Choi Eun-ji.

……

Xian Yaowen hugged Cai Jinman and stroked her cheek with his beard. "Don't ask really, really, really, and don't put pressure on yourself. I don't care whether you have a child or not, whether it's a boy or a girl, and it won't change your position in my heart. I don't believe in the saying that a mother's status depends on her son."

"Yeah." Cai Jinman nodded gently, lying lazily in Xian Yaowen's arms.

The two walked for a while, and Xian Yaowen whispered in Cai Jinman's ear: "Where do you want to go to watch a movie?"

"Master decides."

"To the big world?"

"Ah."

The two went to the Qingtian Theater in the Great World and bought two tickets. There was still more than half an hour before the show, so they came to the stall area of ​​the amusement park and strolled in front of the stall arm in arm.

They bought a handful of satay from a stall and ate while chatting.

Cai Jinman once again talked about her childhood when she grew up in her maternal grandfather’s house in Telok Kurau with an older brother, three younger brothers, and seven cousins.

She often went to play games with Chinese fishermen and Malay children from the nearby village, which was located in an alley opposite her grandfather's house. There were twenty or thirty wooden houses with roofs covered with attap leaves or zinc sheets.

On weekdays, the fishermen in the village fish in the sea near Signar, about 200 meters away. After a day of fishing, they would hang the fishing nets decorated with cork floats on the open space behind my grandfather's house to dry, and then dye the fishing nets with a dark brown liquid squeezed from mangrove bark.

When she was a child, her way of entertaining herself was very simple. She caught spiders and the brown, smooth-bodied "click beetles". The habits of that insect were very strange. When you put it on a matchbox and press its back, it would knock on the matchbox like it was kowtowing, making a "toto" sound.

The fun for her and her friends was to see whose "click beetle" made the loudest "toto" sound, but they spent most of their time playing rougher games.

They fight fighting fish, which they usually catch in the shallow ditches along Changi Road, using a wicker dustpan, the same dustpan road builders use to carry soil, to catch fish, which they then put into glass bottles.

The fighting fish is 25 to 40 mm long and is deep red and purple in colour. When provoked, it spreads its fins, displaying dazzling red, orange and blue, which is extremely beautiful.

They placed two glass bottles, each containing a fighting fish, side by side. When the two fish saw each other, their fighting instinct was triggered. They seemed to be dancing a war dance, flapping their fins and getting ready for battle.

At this time, they would pour one into the glass bottle of the other, and let them fight until one of them was defeated and fled. In panic, the dazzling colors on its body suddenly disappeared.

The owner of the victorious fish took the defeated fish as a trophy, but there was actually no trophy at all, because it was covered with wounds, not only its fins were bitten off, but also large chunks of its flesh were bitten off. After this defeat, it was difficult for it to regain its fighting spirit.

They also fight with kites. They use two thin bamboo strips and special kite paper to make their own kites for fighting.

It takes a certain amount of skill to make a kite that is light, maneuverable, well-balanced, and does not tilt to one side.

They stretched the kite string between two wooden poles and carefully smeared the string with paste mixed with broken glass. The rougher and more gritty the broken glass was, the more likely it was to cut their fingers when applied to the kite string, and the more likely it was to cut the opponent's kite string, which was the purpose of kite fighting.

When a kite with a broken string falls to the ground, whoever picks it up owns it.

They played with spinning tops, which they bought from the store. The most expensive kind was made of hard teak, which could withstand the impact of the opponent's spinning top without leaving any deep dents. To enhance the defense of the spinning top, they nailed a layer of armor on the surface of the spinning top with copper thumbtacks to make it block the opponent's attack.

They also played marbles, digging three holes in a row on a patch of firm sand so that they could take turns shooting a marble into each hole.

During the game, you use the index and middle fingers of your left hand to place the marble in the appropriate position, and then use the index finger of your right hand to eject the marble. You can also attack your opponent's marbles. If the marble is close to the hole, you can use your own marble to knock it away with all your strength, and it is best to break it.

Cheap marbles are usually made of plaster, or a mixture of cement and gypsum. They break easily into two pieces when struck. Only the more expensive ones are made of hard stone or real marble.

"When I was a kid, I wore simple rubber-soled canvas shoes, which cost only 40 or 50 cents a pair. Most of them were made by local shoe factories. Later, the Bada Shoe Company produced a better quality rubber shoe, which cost one dollar a pair.

Every year before the Lunar New Year or in the middle of the year, if I was lucky, Ah-Ai would go to the shoe store on Middle Road and buy me a pair of low-quality locally made leather shoes. The insoles and even the heels that were not exposed were made of cardboard, and if the shoes got soaked, they would become flat and loose..."

During the chat, Cai Jinman mentioned the trip he had once said he would take to his grandfather's rubber plantation for vacation, riding a ox cart, the food he ate as a child, the cakes during the Chinese New Year, and the Hehe cakes made by the local bakery that imitated British biscuits.

"When I was six years old, I wanted to eat British biscuits, but they were too expensive. Only British bosses and local rich people could afford them. I couldn't bear to buy them."

Xian Yaowen took out a handkerchief to wipe the grease from the corners of Cai Jinman's mouth, and said with a chuckle, "British cookies and shortbread are delicious."

Cai Jinman's eyes sparkled. "I've never eaten butter shortbread. Is it delicious?"

"There is a man named Joseph Walker in the UK. He makes delicious shortbread." Xian Yaowen deliberately said, "Let me think about it... Well, he opened a Walker Shortbread Factory (Walkers) in Aberlour, Scotland. It seems to have been open for more than 50 years. It's not very big. Next time I go to the UK, I can try to buy a stake. That way, you can eat it whenever you want."

Cai Jinman smiled and said, "If you want to eat shortbread, you don't have to buy the ones from the shortbread factory."

Xian Yaowen pinched Cai Jinman's hand and said lovingly, "As long as it's what you like to eat, you won't have trouble selling it. Buy some shares and you'll have something to eat and make money."

"Give me the shares?"

"Ah."

"No." Cai Jinman waved his hand. "I can't even spend all the rent I earn. It's useless to take more money."

Xian Yaowen pinched Cai Jinman's face and said, "Who would complain about having too much money? Just listen to my arrangements. As for the money, you can keep it in your hands. If you want to do something in the future, you don't have to ask anyone for it."

"What should I do?"

"There are so many things to do, including your personal business and personal relationships. I have to treat everyone equally. It's not appropriate to take care of anyone more. You have to take care of yourself."

Xian Yaowen hugged Cai Jinman and walked forward, "I told you before, you are not my vassal, you have your own life, your own social circle, and there are many places to spend money."

"Ah."

Cai Jinman nodded happily. (End of this chapter)