money player

There is a small room next to the front desk of Hengyang Hotel. In the second half of the night, it is difficult for new guests to come to the hotel, and the guests who have already stayed there rarely come in and out. The front desk staff will go into the room and lie down to rest, leaving the door open so that they can respond promptly to any movement.

At this time, Wang Zhaoyun was in the room, standing next to an old organ. A man was sitting in front of the organ and playing the song "Man Jiang Hong".

The man was Wang Zhaoyun’s lover. His surname was Wu and his name was Zecheng. He had a rather prominent background.

In his early years, he was sent by our party to study at Sun Yat-sen University in Moscow. He happened to be in the same class as Chiang Ching-kuo, and they sat at the same table and had a very close relationship.

After returning from studying abroad, Wu Zecheng joined the Kuomintang. Thanks to his connections with Chiang Ching-kuo and his ability to handle things, he was able to help his superiors generate personal income. He rose quickly to the top and was promoted to the highest position possible, becoming the chief of the Military Control Commission's Tianjin Field Station, responsible for general intelligence work.

He did not do much intelligence work during his tenure, and whenever he got the chance he would pass the work on to the Second Station, which was responsible for foreign affairs reporting. However, he was quite active in generating revenue, and made a lot of money for his superior Zheng Jieming and himself.

On the eve of the liberation of Tianjin, the station chief of the Second Station, Huang Tianmai, was transferred back to Nanjing. The Second Station existed in name only, and Wu Zecheng became the highest leader of the Military Control Commission in Tianjin.

At that time, the city was about to be broken, but Mao Renfeng did not issue a clear instruction. Should they evacuate or hide on the spot?
Just when the spies at the two stations were in a panic and didn't know what to do, they suddenly heard the bad news that the key station chief had boarded the plane sent by Nanjing to escort the prisoners and escaped.

Deserting from the battlefield and disrupting military morale should have been a capital crime, but there had been precedents, and with Chiang Ching-kuo's mediation, Mao Renfeng showed leniency and only punished Wu Zecheng by sending him to Taiwan to cut sugarcane.

Less than a year and a half after the sugarcane had been cut, Chiang Ching-kuo came to help again. Wu Zecheng gave away some of his previous "hard-earned" belongings, and he regained his freedom and became a commoner. He transformed himself into a businessman, and Hengyang Hotel was one of his businesses.

Wu Zecheng suddenly stopped playing the song halfway through, and said, "The snow-capped mountains are cold for eternity, only the Emei Peak is shining. Emei Peak, shining alone, President Jiang is quite romantic. But I am afraid that the jade buildings are too cold up there, and it is hard to return from up there!"

Hearing another sigh, Wang Zhaoyun placed her hand on Wu Zecheng's shoulder and said, "Mr. Zecheng, there's nothing wrong with being an ordinary businessman."

Wu Zecheng patted the back of Wang Chaoyun's hand and said, "Chaoyun, there are some things you don't understand."

Wang Zhaoyun said gently: "As long as you are here, I don't need to understand."

"I just like your personality." Wu Zecheng chuckled, "It's getting late, I'll go back first, you should pay more attention to Xian Yaowen."

"Why is Zechengjun interested in Xian Yaowen? Is it because of Chen Changtong?"

"It's a long story, you'll know later." Wu Zecheng stood up and said, "Let's go."

Seeing this, Wang Zhaoyun hurried to the clothes rack to take Wu Zecheng's suit.

Xian Yaowen did not stay in Grandpa's inn for long. He entered the inn through the back door, came out through the front door, and called two rickshaws at the door to go to the hotel.

When he returned to the door of the hotel, Qi Longque gave a hint with his eyes and didn't notice anyone following him.

As he stepped into the hotel, Xian Yaowen saw Wang Zhaoyun sitting at the front desk with a book in her hand. She was very perceptive, and her eyes turned to him as soon as Xian Yaowen took the second step.

Immediately, he smiled and said, "Mr. Xian."

Xian Yaowen went straight to the front desk and asked, "Ms. Wang, can your hotel provide wake-up service?"

"Okay, Mr. Xian, do you need to get up early tomorrow?"

"I love food. I want to try Taipei breakfast. To eat breakfast, you have to get up early. If you are lucky, you can see the breakfast just out of the pot or out of the steamer. I like to sleep in and can't get up. I have to trouble Ms. Wang to knock on the door at 5:30 tomorrow."

"Mr. Xian, I will knock on the door on time."

"Thank you very much. Thank you for your help."

After saying that, Xian Yaowen turned and left, passing by the small room and glancing inside.

When he realized that Wang Zhaoyun might have a lover who was an unsuccessful official in the Kuomintang government, he began to weld Wang Zhaoyun up and down, taking the three buttons of her cheongsam as the center point, and memorizing some details, such as the angle of the button pattern relative to the shoulder, and the connection between the button gate and the button lug.

The details have changed now. The material of cheongsam looks very expensive and is mostly made by good tailors, so there will not be big problems with the fit. This largely eliminates the possibility of frequent pulling due to the clothes not fitting well.

Wang Zhaoyun has a very good complexion and skin quality, and it is unlikely that she has skin diseases on her chest and back, which basically rules out the possibility of itching.

But the buttons seemed to have been undone. Following the speculation, her lover might have come tonight, but there was no mark of joy on her face, either because he was not serious, or because her lover was old and not in good condition, and could not leave a mark that would last forever. It was like poking an ear hole with a cotton swab, it would itch but could only bring out some floating shit, right?
Arriving on the second floor, Xian Yaowen gestured for the Xie brothers and sisters to return to their rooms and asked Qi Longque to follow. He knocked on the door, hugged Fei Baoshu, and whispered in her ear: "Don't say anything you shouldn't say."

Fei Baoshu nodded.

Qi Longque went into the room to check the lampshade, and Xian Yaowen opened his voice and said to Fei Baoshu: "Is the show good tonight?"

As he spoke, he knocked on the wall near the door and heard a clear echo.

"It's great. Boss Xia sings really well and looks beautiful too."

"Then I'll go with you to see it tomorrow."

Xian Yaowen went to the other wall and knocked, and still heard the crisp echo.

"Master, you don't have to be busy tomorrow?"

"No matter how busy I am, I still have time to accompany you to listen to the opera."

As he spoke, Xian Yaowen knocked on all the walls of the room. Three of the four exterior walls were hollow walls, the side facing the street was a horizontal half-brick wall, and the sides inside were vertical half-brick walls, inlaid with wooden boards on the outside.

Looking at the lime wall, it was very white, with no signs of yellowing, and it must have been painted within a few months; entering the bathroom and observing the wall under the washbasin, it was quite damp, and the wooden board dented when pressed lightly; if you smelled it carefully, you could smell mold and sourness.

After leaving the bathroom and checking the lampshade, Qi Longque shook his head at him.

Xian Yaowen pointed to the wall and silently said the word "empty", then pointed to the light bulb and said "a few watts".

Qi Longque made the gesture of "twenty-five".

Xian Yaowen looked up and observed the light bulb for a while, then walked closer to Qi Longque and whispered in his ear, "Is the tungsten ribbon on?"

"Bring it."

"Connect it in the bathroom tomorrow morning. Burn it whether it's there or not. Also, Wang Chaoyun will knock on the door tomorrow, so pay attention."

"clear."

Qi Longque left, Xian Yaowen walked to the stage and sat cross-legged next to Fei Baoshu, "Boss Xia's costume is very beautiful, I will make one for you someday."

Fei Baoshu blushed and said coquettishly, "Master, you don't want good things again."

Xian Yaowen chuckled, "Did your sister say that you look younger today?"

"How do you know, sir?"

"I can tell from your face. Since you followed me, you have become at least ten years younger. Sister must be envious and jealous."

Fei Baoshu laughed and said, "How can it be so exaggerated?"

Xian Yaowen hugged Fei Baoshu and asked, "What did you do every day these days?"

Fei Baoshu nestled in Xian Yaowen's arms, pointed his finger and said, "After breakfast, we went to Yongji Street to practice boxing. After practice, we went to the street to play with the sisters and brothers. In the afternoon, we played cards. After dinner, we went to the department store to play and listen to opera."

“Will it be boring?”

"No, I just had bad luck. I had to play five or six games before I could win one. I lost a lot of money."

“Are all your poker partners female?”

"Ah."

"Next time, call a man. I'll guarantee you a win."

"This statement is unreliable. A woman can beat a man once or twice, but after a long time, she will lose. Men are better at calculating cards than women."

"What should I do? I'll find a master to teach you?"

Fei Baoshu thought seriously for a moment, "Will it be hard to learn a craft?"

"It's just a matter of learning a little bit." Xian Yaowen hooked Fei Baoshu's chin, "Losing money is a small matter, but you being unhappy is a big matter. I think the scenery over there in Shek O is pretty good, and it's not far from Blue Pool Road. Do you want to buy a piece of land over there and build a mahjong parlor for you?"

"You can play mahjong anywhere. There's no need to waste money on building a mahjong parlor."

"It's not built just for you. My idea is to build the most luxurious mahjong parlor in Hong Kong. It will not only have private rooms for playing cards, but also places for drinking tea and coffee. It will be a membership system, and only ladies of high status can apply for membership."

"My aunt can't apply?"

"Of course you can. Just keep the application restrictions in mind and don't tell anyone. After a while, people outside will know who the members are and will naturally understand whether they are eligible to apply for membership."

Fei Baoshu stroked Xian Yaowen's hand with his chin and said coquettishly, "Master, you are so mean. This is the only hobby I have, but you want to turn it into a business."

Xian Yaowen chuckled and said, "You don't know how to appreciate kindness. I paid for you to build the mahjong hall, and you collect the membership fees yourself. You use other people's money to play cards. If you win, it's a big win, and if you lose, it's still a small win. You are invincible, so you don't have to complain about losing a lot of money."

"It's no fun playing cards like this."

"Okay, I'll talk to Shuying about this and let her run the mahjong hall and collect the membership fees. As for you, I'll waive your membership fee, and there's nothing else."

Fei Baoshu felt warm in his heart, and said with a hint of duplicity and sincerity: "Master, Shuying is a girl."

"What's wrong with Nannan? Nannan needs to be raised in wealth."

Fei Baoshu hugged Xian Yaowen tightly and buried his face in his chest, "Master, you are so kind."

Xian Yaowen untied Fei Baoshu's hair and stroked her hair. "Have you noticed that the clothing style here is quite different from that in Hong Kong?"

"I saw it. It's pretty."

"This is the evolution of the Japanese-Western eclectic style in Taiwan. Chunghwa Garment not only makes shirts in Taiwan, but also women's ready-made clothes. Tomorrow you and your sister go to the cloth and silk shops and buy some cloth to make clothes. I want to see how it looks on you."

"Ah."

……

The next day.

At half past five, Wang Zhaoyun knocked on the door on time, waking up Xian Yaowen who had opened his eyes five minutes earlier.

Without waking up Fei Baoshu, Xian Yaowen washed, did morning exercises, and took a shower. After finishing a series of things, he sat at the head of the bed wrapped in a bath towel and put one hand into the quilt.

Soon, Fei Baoshu snorted charmingly, "Master, no, wait until night."

"Don't dream, I'm calling you to wake up."

Fei Baoshu blinked his eyelashes a few times, slowly opened his eyes, looked at Xian Yaowen, and said resentfully: "The master is annoying."

Xian Yaowen clapped his hands and said with a smile: "Come here, little treasure, daddy will hold you."

Fei Baoshu rushed into Xian Yaowen's arms at lightning speed and chuckled, "Dad, Xiaobao wants to pee."

"Hush, hush, daddy will carry you."

Xian Yaowen carried Fei Baoshu to the bathroom and treated her like a three-year-old child, helping her pee and squeezing toothpaste for her face.

Five miles away, a woman who was making breakfast at a stall suddenly looked up at the sky, her eyes wide as bells, and spoke in a manly voice, "Such a strong smell of lewdness, who on earth is this evildoer? Come on, bring up the Azure Dragon Yanyue."

Another male vendor nearby heard this and fell to his knees, shouting, "The Emperor Guan is having a spirit, go inform the gang leader."

Soon, a large number of local people knelt in front of the medium of Guandi and shouted in unison, "Guandi, please have mercy and overthrow the Kuomintang reactionaries!"

Next to the railway in Ximending, there is a row of illegal buildings that have spontaneously formed a market that mainly sells food, without distinguishing between breakfast and lunch. Most of the shops sell from morning to night.

A porridge shop opened by a local. After communicating with the owner, Xian Yaowen and his friend ordered sweet potato porridge and fried rice. It was just a very simple fried rice, fried with lard, with a bit of oily smell. There was also a bowl containing two pickled vegetables that the uncle had pickled himself.

According to the old man, if you remove the lard, what they eat is the most common breakfast for people in the province.

At this time, it was almost half past eight. The busiest time in the store had passed, but it was still early for the next session. A pack of Camel cigarettes made the old man happy. He put the Camel cigarettes away solemnly, took out a cheap Double Happiness cigarette sold by the Monopoly Bureau, and chatted with Xian Yaowen.

"Uncle, is it easy to do business here?" After taking a sip of sweet potato porridge, Xian Yaowen put down his chopsticks and lit a cigarette for the uncle.

The old man patted the back of Xian Yaowen's hand, indicating that he could stop working, then sat up straight and said, "It's not easy to do. I can only earn enough to feed my family."

The old man was a Hakka and didn't speak Minnan dialect very well. Xian Yaowen could only understand 20% to 30% of Minnan dialect, and only a few words of the Hakka dialect, which has many branches. There was no other way, the two could only communicate in Japanese.

"Oh, you grow your own rice and sweet potatoes?"

The old man smiled bitterly, "We only have one mu of land and less than two mu of garden at home. There is not enough food for seven people to eat, so how can we have any surplus to sell? All the food used in the store is bought from the countryside."

[At that time, the units of cultivated land in Taiwan were jia (Dutch land unit moorhen), fen, and ping (Oriental land unit), 1 jia (14.5 mu) = 10 fen = 2934 ping. In addition, paddy fields were called tian and dry fields were called yuan.]
"Isn't it enough to grow sweet potatoes in two acres of garden?"

"Sir, sweet potatoes cannot be the staple food. They will kill people. They can only be mixed with other foods. There are enough sweet potatoes, but not enough rice."

How could Xian Yaowen not understand that sweet potatoes cannot be used as staple food? There is a mystery hidden in his question. Some people are picky, which means they are guaranteed to have enough to eat. Otherwise, let alone sweet potatoes, they would even eat soil.

He smiled awkwardly, "We don't grow many sweet potatoes there. We use the garden to grow vegetables and sell them at the market. We also sell some eggs and hunt wild boars in the fall. We can make enough money from the oil. I guess we don't eat as much as you do, so we have to save some food to have enough to eat."

The old man showed a longing look, "Sir, you don't have to worry about not having enough to eat now. The clothes you wear are enough for my family to eat for a year."

"It's not that easy. I have a big family, and they all depend on me for their livelihood. I'm in the export business, and now the foreign exchange..." Xian Yaowen slapped the palm of his right hand with the back of his left hand, then waved his hands, "I don't understand, I don't understand at all. For every US dollar worth of goods sold, I should get 15 Taiwan dollars, but I may not even get seven.

I'm not selling arms, so how can I make half the profit? If business continues like this, I'll be selling sweet potato porridge next door tomorrow and steal your business."

As he spoke, Xian Yaowen deliberately turned his head and looked behind him to see if anyone was eavesdropping.

Since the start of martial law, Taiwan has increased control over the financial market. There is even a saying among the people that "disrupting finance is the only capital crime." In addition, control over speech has been increased, and speaking nonsense is also a crime. Xian Yaowen's criticism of foreign exchange policy has touched the red line of speech, and the police station can arrest him or not.

Of course, the premise is that he is Taiwanese.

Seeing his nervous look, the hatred towards the rich in his heart suddenly disappeared. "Sir, don't be afraid. It's okay."

"Bad luck, bad luck." Xian Yaowen clasped his fists and said, "Let's not talk about this, let's not talk about this. Uncle, what kind of noodles are they selling next door? They smell so strong of onions." (End of this chapter)