The arrogance started from Chinatown

Chapter 261: I haven't decided on a chapter title yet
During the two days of his wedding, Chen Zhengwei stayed at home obediently and did not go out.

It was a rare opportunity for Lin Changning to focus his attention on a woman. He felt very happy and quickly adapted to his new identity, with a smile always on his face.

Now it’s Chen Lin Changning.

For two consecutive days, Lin Changning failed to get up early, and Chen Zhengwei had completely ruined his work and rest habits.

After all, she went to bed in the second half of the night and couldn't get up in the morning.

On the third morning, Chen Zhengwei got up, yawned, climbed up and opened the curtains. Sure enough, he saw Lin Changning practicing boxing in the yard, twisting and turning in the yard, and his feet landed with a sound.

Except for the first day when Lin Changning felt unwell, she would practice boxing every day after getting up. It had become a habit for her.

When Lin Changning performs boxing, his body is stretched out, his punches are swift and fierce, and his movements are extremely beautiful, full of strength and agility.

Chen Zhengwei stood at the window and watched for a moment, then took out a cigar and put it in his mouth.

After a while, he opened the window and said, "It's time to go back home!"

Lin Changning stopped after a while, wiped his forehead with a towel, and went upstairs to change his clothes.

Still wearing a long-sleeved cheongsam with long pants underneath. Chen Zhengwei likes to see this.

"I plan to stay at the farm for a few days tonight. Do you want to come with me, father-in-law and Uncle Zhang?" Chen Zhengwei and others chatted while eating.

When dealing with people, he is always careless and vulgar, and he doesn't act serious even with Lin Mingsheng.

If Lin Mingsheng wasn't so old-fashioned, he would have asked Dapolan to take Lin Mingsheng out to play for a few days.

"You guys go ahead! Do you have any medicine that can treat inflammation? I heard that you saved a few people like this before." Lin Mingsheng asked directly.

"Your uncle Zhang's gunshot wound has become inflamed! He has a slight fever now."

"I'll have someone bring it over later." Chen Zhengwei agreed immediately, and then thought for a moment: "Does Uncle Zhang owe me a life?"

"You still want him to spare your life?" Lin Mingsheng glanced at him.

"Confucius said that a drop of water should be repaid with a spring. I'm afraid one life is not enough to repay this life-saving grace!" Chen Zhengwei was talking nonsense.

"Go tell him that!" Lin Mingsheng was too lazy to pay attention to him.

After dinner, Chen Zhengwei said to Lin Changning, "Let's go to the farm in the evening. I'll go back to the club to take care of something!"

Chen Zhengwei plans to stay on the farm for a few days, mainly to hunt.

Anyway, there is nothing happening in San Francisco recently, and the farm is not far from San Francisco. It takes about seven or eight hours by carriage or three or four hours by horse. A telegraph line has also been built there.

"I want to go and see it too!" Lin Changning looked at Chen Zhengwei.

"Then go!" Chen Zhengwei said indifferently.

Lin Changning lowered her head and smiled. She knew there was a woman in the club, but she was not looking for trouble, she just wanted to go and take a look.

She had never been there.

A moment later, the two arrived at the club in a carriage.

After Lin Changning entered the room, he looked around and was quite curious about the place.

"Boss!" The club's waiters greeted Chen Zhengwei when they saw him, and at the same time looked at Lin Changning with some curiosity.

"Mind your own business!"

"How much can you earn here in a month?" Lin Changning asked curiously. She had heard from the disciples of the martial arts school that this was a den of money.

"Last month's turnover was 39, and the profit was more than 28," Chen Zhengwei introduced.

Lin Changning was a little shocked. Having been in Chinatown for so long, she knew what 28 US dollars meant. An ordinary person would never see a fraction of that in their entire lifetime.

"The first floor is a bar. It's quite lively at night, and sometimes guests come to discuss things in the afternoon!"

"What about the second floor?" Lin Changning asked.

"Brothel!" Chen Zhengwei said lightly, and then took Lin Changning to the casino on the third floor. There was no one there at the moment, not even the dealer.

After a walk around, he came to the office on the fourth floor.

Wanyun had seen the two of them on the fourth floor before. After looking at them against the wall for a few seconds, he looked envious and returned to his office somewhat dejectedly.

She envied the eldest lady and was able to put herself in the right position.

"Send someone over!" Chen Zhengwei said to Lin Rongcheng before entering the office.

Two people returned from Old Silver Mountain last night. It was said that the situation was going well there, so Chen Zhengwei was not in a hurry to see them.

A moment later, two young men were brought in, carrying a few bags. After they came in, they smiled and congratulated: "I wish Brother Wei a happy marriage! They all know about your wedding and asked us to bring you gifts!"

Then he turned to look at Lin Changning, wondering how to call him.

"Just call me Sister Changning! What did you bring back?" Chen Zhengwei said with a smile.

"Sister Changning!" The two of them hurriedly called for help.

Lin Changning nodded to the two of them, then sat on the sofa beside them.

"It is said that these are vases used by Emperor Qianlong." The two took out a pair of tightly wrapped vases from their bags. They were found in Zhang Baoshan's home.

"Oh?" Chen Zhengwei took the vase and looked at it. He had no interest in it.

And how could Qianlong's vase end up at the Old Silver Mountain? It must be a fake.

But Ma Zai had good intentions, so he accepted it.

"Sit down and talk! What's the situation over there?"

"The situation has settled down. After a few battles with those foreigners, they know we are not easy to mess with, so they have become more restrained!"

"Foreigners are born in the year of the dog! If you don't beat them, they won't be obedient!" Chen Zhengwei said with a smile.

"The people in Yixing Hall have calmed down. As for the miners, they only come back one or two days a week and haven't caused any trouble." "We found more than 300,000 yuan in cash in Yixing Hall. In addition, we found IOUs worth more than 600,000 yuan in Yixing Hall. Half of the miners owed money."

"So much? They owe me money now! How is the interest calculated?" Chen Zhengwei was a little surprised. It was too much. Even the gangs in Chinatown didn't have such a deep financial foundation.

But when I think about it again, I can understand that it is different from Chinatown.

Although the gangs in Chinatown also exploit people, the power here is complicated, with a lot of gangs and guilds. They are all from the same hometown and are more or less polite to each other.

It’s different over at Old Silver Mountain, they all buy piglets.

Those piglets were sent to the mines, where they had nowhere to run to, and Yixingtang wanted to skin them alive.

"It's a profit for every investment! Yixingtang is in collusion with those mining companies. The wages are directly handed over to Yixingtang, and then they are deducted when the wages are paid, leaving only a few dollars for the miners to eat.

The debt is paid off once a year, and if it is not paid off, the interest will continue to roll over in the second year! It’s okay if you owe less, but if you owe more, you will never be able to pay it off even if you die.” The horseman said.

"100% interest a year...this money is so damn easy to make!" Chen Zhengwei sighed.

"Brother Wei, Sister Changning, you don't know that the Chinese workers mining over there are not human beings. Half of them will die in five years!" The henchmen also sighed. Compared with that place, the original San Francisco was a paradise.

Chen Zhengwei nodded. No wonder Yixingtang exploited them so harshly, with only more than 300,000 in cash.

Apart from daily expenses, all the money was used to buy piglets.

The piglets on our own boat were sold there.

"How are the people from Yixingtang doing now?" Lin Changning asked. She felt that the people from Yixingtang deserved to die.

"The leader has been killed, and the remaining ones are some lackeys!" Chen Zhengwei said to her, and after thinking for a while, he said:
"It is only natural to pay back debts. Even if I feel sorry for them, they still have to pay it back. I will reduce the interest for them and use the principal they owed before to calculate the monthly interest rate at 2%!"

I am a soft-hearted person, and they are lucky to have met a kind person like me.

All the opium dens over there were closed down from now on.

With an annual interest rate of 24%, most people can pay off the loan in one year unless they are a heavy gambler or whoremonger.

"Brother Wei has a good heart. They are blessed to have met Brother Wei. This way they have a way out!" The two also laughed.

"After we go back, let Ah Sheng and Ah Hong talk to the mining company and ask them to improve the treatment of the workers. At least they should have enough food to eat and their wages should also be increased. You should know what to do!"

Afterwards, Chen Zhengwei asked about the situation at Old Silver Mountain. After all, he still had shares in a mine there.

"People there said that the current profits are far less than before. Many mines can be closed. Only a few can still be maintained. Miners leave every day."

After hearing this, Chen Zhengwei nodded. It seemed that the place was not suitable for long-term development and was far inferior to San Francisco.

He didn't know much about Nevada. He had never heard of Old Silver Mountain in his previous life. He only knew one place in Nevada, Las Vegas.

But Las Vegas has not yet been built.

"When you go back, take some money and use it to bribe people. As for the reward, I'll give it to you when you come back. You have nowhere to spend the money over there, so I'll save it for you first!" Chen Zhengwei patted the bag. He was not worried at all that they would not be able to make money at the Old Silver Mountain.

After learning about the situation at Old Silver Mountain, Chen Zhengwei let them leave, and they would bring back a batch of supplies later.

After they left, Chen Zhengwei opened the bag and saw that it was full of US dollars of varying ages.

Chen Zhengwei picked up a stack at random, put it in front of his nose and smelled it, then threw it back into the bag.

A moment later, two more well-dressed foreigners were brought in, and they also brought a box.

"Hello, Mr. Chen. We are from the San Francisco branch of Bell Telephone Company. We are here to bring Mr. Chen a revolutionary communication device that is far more efficient than the telegraph..."

"Just dial this, Mr. Chen, and you can talk to the other people on the phone..."

After taking off their hats and greeting each other, the two men took out a huge telephone box from the box, with a joystick next to it.

Before you can make a call, you have to crank the handle to generate power.

"Do you think I'm a country bumpkin? I don't usually read newspapers?" Chen Zhengwei sneered. He knew that this thing had already been released.

He even knew that Edison's Electric Lighting Company had been established, which he had read about in the newspaper in October of the previous year.

The telephone is still in its most primitive stage and has a very narrow range of applications. It is far inferior to the telegraph, which can send messages to any part of the United States at any time.

"If I install your phone, where can I contact? New York? Or Chicago?" Chen Zhengwei asked, leaning back in his chair.

"Mr. Chen, although we can only contact the downtown area of San Francisco now, the development of telephones is the trend and the future..." the two said somewhat awkwardly.

This is also the biggest problem in promoting telephones at present.

The facilities are not perfect, the coverage area is very small, and the number of users is extremely small.

Even in San Francisco, it can only cover the financial district.

"The future is great, but what does it have to do with the present? The current use of this thing is to call someone to bring me toilet paper while I'm sitting on the toilet!" Chen Zhengwei said lazily, leaning back in his chair. What's the use of it if it can only call the financial district?

Besides, not many companies in the financial district have telephones installed.

"Unless you can build me an internal telephone network that can cover half of San Francisco!"

"At least the port area, financial district, Chinatown, North Beach, and South of Market Street should be covered!" If these areas can be covered and several telephone points are set up in each area, then it will be of some value.

The two looked at each other. This Chinese man was unexpectedly knowledgeable, which was completely beyond their expectations.

But they saw this as an opportunity.

The Chinese in front of me is very rich. If I can make this deal, not only will I make a substantial profit, but it will also be much easier to open up the San Francisco market.

They both expressed admiration and said:

"Mr. Chen, your vision is surprisingly sharp and accurate. If you can do this, the value of the phone will indeed be greatly improved."

"We don't know if current technology can achieve this. We need to go back and ask the technicians. And even if it can be done, the price will be very expensive..."

"Then tell me after you've asked!"

(End of this chapter)