A doctor who travels through two eras

In a courtyard in Zhongjianzi Hutong.

This courtyard house is one of the many houses owned by Mr. Fu Zuo. A fire broke out in the area around the house a few years ago. The most feared thing in a large courtyard house is a fire, and this burned many people to death.

So this courtyard has been idle, surrounded by ruins from the fire, like a haunted house.

Precisely because this place is unpopular and unnoticed, it is used by Lin Sanqi and Mr. Fu as a grain trading place.

Today, this haunted house entertained a group of nobles from the former Qing Dynasty. What was originally planned to be a product promotion meeting has now turned into a family gathering for the old and young.

Fifty or sixty people, young and old, squeezed into the main room.

Everyone called him Prince Cheng, Duolo Baylor, Gushan Baylor, Zhenguo Duke, and Fuguo Duke.

Fortunately, they were all wearing Zhongshan suits. If they were wearing zombie costumes and rat-tail braids, people who didn't know would have thought it was still the Qing Dynasty.

When these old people meet their peers, they bow to each other, and when they meet their elders, they kowtow, just like watching a Qing Dynasty palace drama. Lin Sanqi was laughing as he watched from the side. This was like encountering living history.

Only Lin Sanqi present knew that this group of princes and ministers of the previous dynasty were like grasshoppers in autumn. They would not be able to jump for many more years, especially those whose hands were stained with the blood of the people.

However, this group of old people are also very tenacious, like the indestructible cockroaches.

In 2023, Lin Sanqi still saw someone on the Internet claiming to be a descendant of Emperor Qianlong, wearing dragon robes all day long, considering himself a big shot, and even holding a grand ceremony to worship ancestors at the Temple of Heaven. It was extremely funny, just like a mental patient.

Fortunately, it was the diverse society that saved his life, otherwise if you tried it in the buzz-buzz era, humph.

Lin Sanqi was watching these former princes and nobles like they were watching a monkey show, but Fu Zuo couldn't help himself:
"Everyone, please be quiet. Time is precious. Do you still want food?"

In terms of seniority, Fu Zuo was not the highest among those present. There were people from the Yi and Zai generations among them.

But because Mr. Fu is the emperor's younger brother, according to the rules of the previous dynasty he can be granted the title of prince. Therefore, he has the highest title among those present, so his words naturally carry weight.

When Prince Fu shouted "stop", the scene immediately became quiet.

When it became quiet, one could hear many people's stomachs rumbling. It was obvious that the lives of the princes and nobles present were not as easy as they seemed.

Prince Fu was a loyal man. He did not laugh at anyone, but continued:
"Call everyone to Zhongjianzi Hutong. Everyone knows what's going on. Time is precious. Let's take advantage of the cover of night. If anyone wants food, they can trade with the little brother behind me."

Everyone looked at Lin Sanqi.

Lin Sanqi swallowed his saliva. He was not a cuckold. The group of people in front of him were also powerful in the past. Their eyes were full of vigilance, scrutiny, curiosity, and even... contempt...

In their eyes, Lin Sanqi was just a low-class person, a grain dealer.

Lin Sanqi also bowed to everyone and said, "Nice to meet you. My last name is Wang, so you can just call me Xiao Wang."

At this time, an old man jumped out and asked in a soft voice:

"Xiao Wang, I heard that you can only exchange one small yellow croaker for 50 kilograms of white flour. Isn't that too much? You don't even get a fraction of what you got during the Republic of China."

"That's right, 50 kilograms of food is too little, at least give us 500 kilograms..."

"I won't accept this kind of exchange..."

With one person taking the lead, the others started talking in a disorderly manner, seeming to be quite excited.

Lin Sanqi was not annoyed. It was a seller's market now. Why should he be afraid that he couldn't exchange food for gold? At worst, he could go to the black market, although it would be a little slower.

"Don't be anxious, uncles, aunts, and brothers. I don't need to tell you how precious food is right now. If you could get food, I don't think you would come to Jianzi Hutong today, so there's no need for us to test each other.

What is food now? Food is life! Outside of the 49-mile area, go and ask around every day to find out where there is food in the country. If you have relatives or friends in other places, you can ask them what the situation is like there.
You are all members of the royal family of the Qing Dynasty, so you naturally know the price of grain in a famine year. It is not an exaggeration to say that the price changes every day, right? Today you think that 50 catties in exchange for a small yellow croaker is too much of a loss, but do you believe that tomorrow a small yellow croaker can only be exchanged for 30 catties or 20 catties?"

In feudal society, once a natural disaster or man-made disaster occurred, a direct manifestation was a soaring price of food.

The big grain merchants at that time would simply sell the grain at several times the price. They would sell grain that cost dozens of wen per bushel for thousands of wen. The backers behind the big grain merchants were the royal relatives present at the scene.

So this group of old guys are pretending to be ignorant even though they know the truth. They are very mean and they are bullying Lin Sanqi because he is young.

After hearing what Lin Sanqi said, many people fell silent.

Mr. Fu Zuo also chimed in:
"This transaction is entirely voluntary. No one is forcing anyone. Those who want food can trade with Comrade Wang. Those who don't want it can just treat it as a get-together. But I have to say this: Comrade Wang has limited food, and he won't wait until it's sold out."

There was a lot of discussion at the scene again, and it was obvious that everyone had their own little plans.

Lin Sanqi then took out a box of medicine from his pocket:
"In addition to food, this is penicillin in my hand. It's imported from America and has a higher purity. One tube contains 80 units. If you split it up and use it, you can save many people. I'm also bringing it out today to give away at a big discount."

When they heard about penicillin, many people stood up. Obviously, there was no fool present and they knew how precious penicillin was.

"Xiao Wang, right? How are you going to exchange this penicillin?"

"It's still the same old rule. 10 bottles of penicillin for a small yellow croaker, 100 bottles of penicillin for a large yellow croaker. Don't think it's too expensive. I brought this back from thousands of miles away. The key is that this medicine can save lives. It's more valuable than food."

In an era when antibiotics are scarce, the idea that penicillin = life-saving medicine is deeply rooted in people's minds.

The key point is that after liberation, due to external blockade, penicillin was almost impossible to find even in hospitals, and even if you had money you couldn't use it, which shows how precious this medicine is.

Therefore, no one raised any objection to Lin Sanqi's proposed harsh transaction ratio.

Lin Sanqi was secretly calculating in his mind, 10 bottles of penicillin only cost 5 yuan, but he had to exchange them for a small gold bar worth 2 yuan. What a rip-off, he was really fucking rip-off.

The profits in the pharmaceutical industry are truly huge profits among huge profits.

At this time, someone in the crowd questioned:
"Comrade Wang, how do you ensure that you can deliver the goods on time? You don't want us to pay first and then pick up the goods, do you?"

The person who said this must have downloaded an anti-fraud app and is very vigilant, fearing that he would be defrauded of his money and end up losing everything.

Lin Sanqi laughed:
"Don't worry about this. If you want to trade tonight, we will exchange the money for the goods. I will not delay the payment of the materials you want, and you don't have to tell me that you are short of money and owe me the money first.

Of course, I also want to state that my food is limited and it’s on a first-come, first-served basis. Don’t say you regret it once you’ve sold it out. Don’t worry, if you don’t want it, I’ll sell it on the four major black markets, where there’ll be plenty of people to buy it.”

Fu Zuo continued to help Lin Sanqi cover up:

"In order to avoid unnecessary trouble, tonight's transaction will be conducted privately. Whoever wants a certain amount of food will go to the backyard to trade one-on-one. After the transaction is over, you can just take the food and leave through the back door. No one is allowed to ask."

When everyone heard this, they all breathed a sigh of relief.

Chinese people always believe that wealth should not be shown off.

If you trade a large amount of grain and people know about it, believe it or not, all your poor relatives will come to borrow grain tomorrow.

So Lin Sanqi deliberately arranged a one-on-one transaction. Outsiders did not know who took how much food. It also made it convenient for Lin Sanqi to keep taking out food without arousing suspicion about where so much stock came from in such a small room.

"Okay, let's do this."

"Hurry up and start, I still have to go back to sleep."

This bunch of old men and women always wanted to put on airs wherever they went and take advantage of others verbally. Lin Sanqi didn't care and pretended to turn around and leave. Suddenly, in full view of everyone, a gun fell from his body.

In the surprised eyes of everyone, Lin Sanqi picked up the gun casually:
"Oh, sorry, this belt is too loose and things always fall out of it. Okay, I'll wait in the backyard. Anyone who wants to trade can come over."

We are not fools, so we can naturally understand that this is Lin Sanqi's warning.

People can use their imaginations. In this day and age, those who dare to smuggle food and medicines can be called desperadoes. Those who have ulterior motives will be discouraged.

With "Prince Fu" in person, everyone in the room soon began to calculate how much they wanted to buy.

For these former princes and nobles who had not yet been beaten down by society, money was not a problem, as gold and silver were also piled up like mountains in their own secret cellars.

Although not as exaggerated as those of Shanxi merchants, the amount accumulated by several generations of the family is definitely an amount that ordinary people cannot even dream of.

If it were in the past, they would really be reluctant to dig it out and trade it, but now they have been hungry for two years and have begun to learn their lesson. They know that money is useless and life is the most important.

Lin Sanqi came to the backyard and saw a table and two chairs in the room. Because there was no electric light, a kerosene lamp was lit on the table.

The first person to come in was a middle-aged man. He didn't look like a playboy, but rather a businessman because his eyes were always moving around.

The man was quite polite, and after entering the room he put down a wooden box, which made a silent sound on the table and seemed very heavy.

"Master Wang, these are the 50 large yellow croakers that we collected. I want to exchange them all for penicillin."

50 large yellow croakers are equivalent to 5000 bottles of penicillin. They are definitely big customers and a king bomb is served right at the start.

Lin Sanqi was shocked. "No, you take penicillin as a meal? What do you do with so many medicines?"

The middle-aged man chuckled and said, "I used to run a pharmaceutical company."

Lin Sanqi understood immediately, everything was self-evident. It turned out that this man was also a middleman like him.

Since he is a middleman, he naturally has his own way to make a profit. For precious penicillin, let alone 5000 bottles, even 50 bottles are not difficult to sell. "Okay, if you are straightforward, I am also straightforward. Wait a moment."

After a while, Lin Sanqi brought over a few cartons from another room: "5000 bottles of penicillin, please count them."

When the middle-aged man saw the penicillin, his eyes lit up, so he clapped his hands, and several young people came in with the boxes and left.

"No need. I trust the person introduced by Zuo Ye. Xiao Wang, if I want penicillin again next time..."

Lin Sanqi chuckled and said, "Just contact Mr. Fu. I have as many as you want!"

"Okay, straightforward guy!"

The first transaction was completed, and Lin Sanqi harvested 50 large yellow croakers, which was about 31 kilograms of gold. Calculated according to the gold price in later generations, that was million RMB.

What is the cost? 0.5 cents per bottle, and 5000 bottles is only 2500 yuan.

With the ability to make money like a money printing machine, Lin Sanqi is now so confident that he wants to grab the collar of the Hermès belt guy and shout:
Who else???
The second person to come in was a little old man, about fifty years old, with a good temperament. His clothes were very worn but clean, but his head full of white hair showed that his life was not so satisfactory.

After the old man came in, he looked at Lin Sanqi coldly and threw a small cloth bag directly in front of Lin Sanqi.

That expression was as if he was dismissing a beggar. Anyone with eyes could see that he looked down on small traders like Lin Sanqi.

"Take it and see how much food you can get in exchange?"

Lin Sanqi was not angry either. Who has ever seen the God of Wealth angry? If you have the guts, you can use money to kill me. Anyone who hums is a coward!

When I opened it, I saw small yellow croakers and big yellow coins, but more of them were gold bracelets, gold chains, gold rings, etc.

"Comrade, I see that many of these jewels are old items, but they can only be counted as ordinary gold in my case. You see..."

The old man looked impatient: "Stop talking nonsense. Do you care about these golden people?"

Lin Sanqi was asking for trouble, thinking that it was probably some poor prince who had to endure it for the sake of money!

After weighing, Lin Sanqi calculated that there was one large yellow croaker and one small yellow croaker, and the jewelry together amounted to two small yellow croakers.

"Comrade, I will give you 650 kilograms of food in total. Do you want flour or rice?"

"Only 650 pounds?"

This poor prince was obviously a little worried. He then took out a thick cloth bag from his arms and gently placed it on the table:
"Noisy, then, please take a look at the jewelry in here and see how much food you can exchange for it. Give me some more penicillin."

Lin Sanqi opened the cloth bag and took a look, then his saliva began to flow. There was nothing he could do. It was not only women who had no resistance to such shiny things, men were the same.

There was a small cloth bag inside the cloth bag. When I opened it, I saw two pairs of green, transparent jade bracelets and two pairs of white mutton-fat jade bracelets that seemed to be covered with a layer of grease.

Even under the dim light of an oil lamp, the eight bracelets can still sparkle brightly, which shows how extraordinary they are.

The old man saw Lin Sanqi's inexperienced look and snorted:
"Let me tell you, these four pairs of bracelets were all made by the craftsmen of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. See the green bracelet? The two with red strings were worn by the Empress Dowager back then. They were later given to me by my father and mother when she got married. You can't buy them even if you have money!"

In fact, jade was not that precious in the Qing Dynasty or the Republic of China. Only Empress Dowager Cixi and Miss Song San liked it. It took another 30 years for the price to be driven up.

The ancients still liked mutton-fat white jade, which was a good thing that could be a family heirloom.

Lin Sanqi himself had no ability to appreciate antiques. He later checked Baidu and learned that antique counterfeiting was quite popular in the Republic of China. He was really afraid that these bracelets were made of glass.

So Mr. Fu was invited over.

Fu Zuo saw the four pairs of bracelets on the table. Without looking closely, he cursed inwardly, "What a waste of money..."

"Enahai, you are really willing to give it up. These are all things from the palace. Are you willing to take them as your own?"

The old man was very nice to Fu Zuo: "Fifth Master, my family is so big, and there are so many brothers relying on me, I can't do anything about it."

Fu Zuo was a little angry: "Forget about your family, but what about your bad friends? You are so poor that your family property is almost gone, but you still support others just for the sake of face. Are you angry?"

The old man was not convinced: "Our status as men depends on this. Why would we live without it?"

Lin Sanqi understood what he heard. It turned out to be another old playboy. At the same time, he thought to himself that this old man was also a fool with good fortune.

He is squandering his fortune now and has sold out everything he can. Then, he can turn things around and become powerful again.

This is the so-called truth that blessings often lie within the shadow of misfortunes, and misfortunes often lie within the shadow of blessings.

Since there is no problem with the stuff, Lin Sanqi doesn't mind helping the old man to be a proletarian for once. Let Lin Sanqi be the rich villain.

Such a glass-type imperial green jade bracelet, such a white, smooth and delicate mutton-fat jade bracelet like solidified fat, would not be sold at an auction for less than tens of millions of yuan.

"Okay, old comrade, since this is your heirloom, I won't let you suffer a loss. For the four pairs of bracelets, I'll give you a ton of flour and 200 bottles of penicillin. What do you think?"

When the old man heard this, his face lit up: "Okay, I'm satisfied with this price, deal."

Fu Zuo didn't say anything, shook his head and went out again. A few young people came in and carried the food away, while the old man held a few boxes of penicillin and walked towards the back door humming a little tune.

Then the third person came in...

At the end of the night, Lin Sanqi received more than 260 large yellow croakers, more than 500 small yellow croakers, and a pile of various jewelry and antiques. It was a great harvest.

This number is already astonishing, but Lin Sanqi is far from satisfied. This gold can only be considered a comfortable living at best, and is far from enough to complete the original capital accumulation.

Fortunately, there were many Manchu loyalists who were taken advantage of in the old city. Later, the news spread in a small circle, and friends introduced friends, and the news spread quickly.

Everyone knows that food and medicine can be bought in Zhongjianzi Hutong, and no one will be turned away, giving you as much as you want.

Eventually, things started to get out of control.

Just like a concert, they originally planned to hold only one show, but because there were so many enthusiastic people buying tickets, Lin Sanqi had to add more shows.

Every night, a group of people come in and a group of people leave Zhongjianzi Hutong.

When they came, they carried boxes with them, and when they left, they loaded large and small bags onto cars and pulled their things away, and some even drove trucks.

Do you really think that all the aunties in Dongcheng District are dead? As time goes by, it will naturally attract people's attention.

Lin Sanqi was also too proud and had forgotten the lesson he had learned when purchasing in the three southern provinces. This kind of illegal and disorderly behavior must be dealt with once and for all, otherwise it would be exposed over time.

This is the case even in remote rural areas like South China, and in the capital city, this kind of surveillance has reached its peak.

Of course, it was the street offices and police stations that attracted attention, but it was not as exaggerated as the national public security departments.

Aunt Qian from Jingshan Subdistrict Office and Chief Qin from the police station led a group of people to ambush at the entrance of the alley, staring at the courtyard house with number 20.

Director Qin asked, "How many people have entered tonight?"

"Report, a total of 56 people went in."

Aunt Qian was a little nervous. "Lao Qin, what do you think these people are doing? Could they be a gathering of enemy agents? Should we ask for support from our superiors?"

Director Qin waved his hand, but his eyes were fixed on the gate:
"No need for support. According to our reconnaissance over the past few days, this group of people should be engaged in speculation and profiteering. The most likely possibility is that they are trading grain. This is an economic crime and is not too dangerous. Whether it is true or not, we will find out today."

Aunt Qian breathed a sigh of relief when she heard this, but a street worker nearby brightened his eyes:
"Captain Qin, if they are grain dealers, then the grain that was seized should be distributed by our street, right?"

As soon as these words came out, the eyes of the staff nearby lit up.

Civil servants these days have no special privileges. They all get a fixed salary, and their food rations are the same as those of workers, or even less. After all, workers do heavy physical work, while civil servants are ordinary staff members.

So all the staff members of the street office were hungry, and when they heard about food, their stomachs started to growl.

If the streets are allowed to distribute the dirty food, then how to distribute it is up to them. Except for a small portion given to the needy, most of it is distributed by the street staff.

Director Qin chuckled and said, "Then divide it into three parts. One part will be handed over, one part will be kept by our police station, and one part will belong to your street."

The more than 30 people in ambush nodded repeatedly after hearing this. This meant that everyone who saw it could get a share. After working for a long day, they could finally have a full meal, so everyone became more motivated.

In the darkness, a policeman suddenly ran out from the alley:

"Captain, we caught three people at the back door. We found 2000 kilograms of food and 500 bottles of penicillin in their truck."

When Director Qin and Aunt Qian heard this, their heartbeats instantly accelerated. Everyone now knew that they had caught a big fish.

Director Qin stood up immediately, holding a pistol in his right hand, and shouted at the people behind him:

"Everyone, please pay attention. Rush into the yard right now. We must catch all the criminals in one fell swoop. We can't let any of them escape. Deputy Director Zhang, you go to the back door and wait for them. We are going to solve a shocking case today."

it is good! ! !
At Chief Qin's command, an agile policeman immediately climbed over the courtyard wall and opened the gate. People from the street and police station immediately rushed into the courtyard. (End of this chapter)