Spy Wars: Red Shopkeeper

Chapter 49 Mission
Noon, in front of the city hall.

Lu Bowen and He Yun got off the rickshaw.

I was actually a little worried along the way. After all, this was the first time I left the rental area after being targeted. If I was caught on the way, it would be so tragic.

But you have to take this step, sooner or later.

It was only when they arrived at the government gate and saw the other two inmates that they realized they were not the only ones who had taken this step.

"Were you also summoned?"

"Yeah, why don't you go in?"

"It's not time yet. They said they would start work at one o'clock, but now they won't let you in."

"It's so bad, they called us here and we don't know what's going on."

When inmates met each other, their eyes were filled with tears. This was a friendship that was worth life, so they started chatting immediately.

At exactly one o'clock, Liu Xiaolou came down to pick them up and arranged them all in the conference room.

"Who is Lu Bowen?"

"I, I am."

"Come with me, and your wife."

Liu Xiaolou looked at his future neighbor and knocked on the office door.

dong dong dong.

"Come in."

"Director, the person has been brought here."

"it is good."

"Then I'm out."

"There are still two people in the conference room. Keep an eye on them and don't let anyone from the department go and chat with them."

"Ok."

Liu Xiaolou went out and closed the door behind him.

Gu Yansheng looked at the two of them with a smile, and the two of them looked at Gu Yansheng in surprise with their mouths open and eyes wide open.

Gu Yansheng stood up and opened the door a little to prevent someone from leaning against the wall.

Wen Yan first asked him to go with the secretariat to complete the entry procedures, take a tour of the building, and familiarize himself with each department, so he would not be back soon.

"What's wrong? Why are you looking at me like that?"

Lu Bowen sighed, "When your assistant found us, I actually didn't believe it. How could you join the government so quickly, and even become a director? I was worried that something might have gone wrong, but it turns out to be true."

Gu Yansheng chuckled: "Deputy."

"The deputy is also very good."

He Yun looked as if she couldn't take this lightly, and she touched Gu Yansheng's desk, and the logo of the government's secret files on it, and sighed.

"Yansheng, your progress is really solid. You're moving towards your goal step by step, steadily and steadily. In comparison, our progress is really far behind."

"You have a special situation. The temporary speed or slowness is only temporary. You can't rush when you can't rush. Is coffee okay? It's all I have here."

Gu Yansheng walked to the coffee machine and made a cup for each of them.

"sit."

"Is it really okay that we just come here to see you like this?" He Yun asked.

"It'll be fine. Even if someone wants to arrest you and bring you back for questioning, they'll have to follow you and see where you go, right?

And once they know you're here to see me, he might not dare to make a move. Don't worry, I've assessed the risks, and it's not a big deal."

Gu Yansheng doesn't bother Li Shiqun much now, although they have never met each other. But if Li Shiqun is a far-sighted person, he will tend to think too much and be cautious. He will not take action easily without investigating why they came to the government.

But if an accident really happened and they arrested him directly, then he, the deputy director, would be no pushover.

As for Li Shiqun now, No. 76 has not yet been established. At most, he has some say in front of the Japanese, but it is definitely not much.

In a head-on confrontation, it is hard to say who will suffer the loss.

"How are you doing recently?" Gu Yansheng asked the two of them with concern.

"Go ahead." He Yun asked Lu Bowen to speak.

Lu Bowen took a sip of coffee, glanced outside the door, and confirmed that no one was there before he whispered, "We are already interviewing. Since we want to do rice business in the future, I will try my best to see if there are any rice businesses hiring so that I can get familiar with the business.

But there is really no shortage of people in the concession now, and the competition is fierce.

I'm applying for an assistant manager position, which is quite limited. Plus, I'm not familiar with the connections in the nearby rice-producing areas, so even with my trade experience, I'm out of luck. There are so many options. I plan to search for another two days. If nothing works out, I'll look for another job. Maintaining my salary is our top priority. We urgently need some money to tide us over.

He Yun did much better than me in finding a job.”

"I'm lucky. A shipping company in the International Settlement wants me to be an accountant. I could have started today, but because you asked me to, I postponed it to tomorrow. From tomorrow I'll have an income and won't have to worry about not being able to pay the rent." He Yun added with a smile.

Lu Bowen continued, "With He Yun's income, I finally see hope. If there is no more income, things will be really troublesome.

The organization’s first mission has arrived.”

"So fast?" Gu Yansheng was a little surprised. Logically speaking, they had only been in Shanghai for a short time. Even if they worked hard to make money, the organization would not think they could earn much.

Lu Bowen nodded: “Don’t worry too much, it’s not immediate, otherwise I would definitely find a way to notify you as soon as possible.

The information I deciphered was that the organization asked us to find a way to find some money or a batch of cotton yarn, and that he would contact someone to pick it up in a month and a half, or at the latest two months.

"One and a half months. That's for winter clothes. It's already quite late, plus it takes time to transport them. Then they have to be knitted. It's a question whether the soldiers can wear them by the end of December. There really isn't enough time. If it's two months, it will take them until January to wear cotton clothes."

Gu Yansheng thought for a moment and asked, "How much do you want?"

Lu Bowen shook his head: "There is no requirement for the quantity. I guess the organization has taken into consideration that we have just arrived and our abilities are limited, so it should be that we can contribute as much as we can.

It is impossible for the organization to rely on us alone. It must be that there is not enough strength in other places, so they let us supplement it.

He Yun has inquired about it. Cotton yarn is not cheap in Shanghai now. The key is the purchase limit. The Japanese also know that winter is coming. Both us and Chongqing are short of cotton yarn, so bulk purchases are strictly limited.

Officially, each citizen can only buy the amount needed for daily use, but if they want to buy more, they have to go through the black market.

But as you know, the black market is not cheap, and it's not necessarily safe. These merchants are cunning and cunning. Everyone knows that those who buy cotton yarn on the black market are definitely not ordinary people."

"Do you know the exact price?"

"I know. The exchange has cotton yarn futures listed. I heard from stock traders that buying directly from the factory in the city is about 80 yuan per piece. One piece is 181 kilograms. The sales are limited. If you buy more than that, you need a certificate.

Prices in the concession are unstable. Some goods are smuggled in from Southeast Asia and are about half as expensive as in the city.

The price on the black market is now about 150 yuan per piece.

If it is scattered, the price of these three will be added.

This is the price of standard products. The cotton-padded jackets made from them have good cold-keeping effects and look good. In addition, there are high-end ones, which are the ones worn by the Japanese army themselves. They have excellent cold-keeping effects, but the price is 200 oceans each, and 400 oceans on the black market.

There are also cheap ones, which are inferior to the standard ones. It's not that they are not as effective in keeping out the cold, but they don't feel as good to the touch. The advantage is that they are wear-resistant. They are the kind that poor people in the countryside like to buy. They can be worn for more than ten years and can't be damaged by washing. Those are 70 yuan, and the black market price starts at 120 yuan.

"It sounds expensive. How many military uniforms can be made from this piece of cotton yarn?" Gu Yansheng asked.

"I don't dare ask for the details, but He Yun did some calculations. He Yun, you tell me."

"Okay." He Yun took over and looked at Gu Yansheng and said, "When I went to the clothing store to pick out clothes, I asked the boss about the fabric. People who don't have much money usually use coarse yarn to make winter clothes. The feel is a little worse, but the coarse yarn is thicker and warmer.

They sell this kind of cotton yarn by the piece, and the kilogram is fixed. Because the cloth is thicker and heavier, the length of cloth that can be woven per kilogram will be shorter.

For example, the standard coarse yarn used in winter can produce a cloth about 3.2 meters long per kilogram of cotton yarn.

So if we multiply 181 kilograms by 3.2 meters, excluding losses, it is about 580 meters.

As for winter clothes, based on my experience in buying clothes, I estimate that a man's top needs 3 meters of cloth, and pants need 2.5 meters. Our military uniforms also have hats, so we need to add at least half a meter, which makes six meters.

So, one piece of coarse cotton yarn is 580 meters, and 6 meters is used to make one set of uniforms, so the number of sets of military uniforms should be less than 100, about 96 sets."

"That means if we solve one more piece, we will solve 100 sets of winter clothes for the soldiers." Gu Yansheng summarized.

Lu Bowen nodded, "That's the truth, so if we can solve the cotton yarn problem, it's better to solve it as soon as possible."

"Ah."

The information collected is comprehensive enough, the key is how to obtain it.

Giving money is of course the easiest way, but it will also have the worst effect. Money cannot withstand the cold weather in January.

Lu Bowen added: "The key is that this price is not the final price. The price will continue to rise until the winter is over. These dog merchants have hoarded goods and stored a large amount of cotton yarn, waiting for the cold weather to make a fortune.

It’s not cold now, but the colder it gets, the faster the price will rise, so if we want to buy, we may have to hurry up.

He Yun and I have come up with a plan. We definitely don't have the money right now, but if we can find a traitor and kidnap him, we can extort some money from him. The key is to get rid of him first."

Gu Yansheng was just pondering this when he heard it and laughed, "You're a businessman yourself, yet you're still calling businessmen 'dogs'. You must be desperate to even think of kidnapping. You shouldn't do that."

He Yun chuckled when she heard this.

Lu Bowen was helpless. "I can't move now. Do you know how anxious I am? I'm looking for money even in my dreams."

"Hey, I called you here today to give you some money." Gu Yansheng smiled.

"Not only will I send you money, I'll also prepare the manpower for you to go to northern Jiangsu to purchase the rice you want to set up. I guarantee that the background is clean and the Japanese will personally stamp it to verify it."

(End of this chapter)