Period drama: Old Cao's carefree life

Chapter 241 Does something with the name 'Yongle' become valuable?

Meanwhile, Cao Weida, who had returned to his residence and stored his night clothes in his spatial storage, was in a good mood as he lay back down in bed.

Killing so many Japanese devils tonight has finally lifted his spirits.

sleep!

I slept soundly until dawn. After the special wake-up service ended, I ate a little food and immediately rushed to the police station.

With such a big incident last night, the rumors must have spread like wildfire by now!
Sure enough, when he was on duty, he heard the surrounding patrol officers talking about it.

"Cao'er, did you hear? It was so lively last night!" Duomen chimed in, excitedly saying:

"You have no idea, the Bamboo Agency was attacked yesterday. A whole patrol of Japanese soldiers was killed, and more than a dozen of the Bamboo Agency's spies were also killed. It was a terrible sight."

"It's not just the bamboo mechanism," Little Ears chimed in, his face beaming with interest; anyone could tell he was in a good mood.
"You know the East Asian Academic Research Association, right? It was attacked last night too. I even went to see it. The bullet holes are the same as those used in the attack on the Bamboo Machine Gun. They're clearly bullets fired from a Type 92 heavy machine gun."

"I reckon these two attacks were carried out by the same group; maybe the Japanese are fighting amongst themselves!"

The East Asian Academic Research Association and the Bamboo Agency are some distance apart, and no one would believe that the attacks on these two places were carried out by the same group of people.

After all, the Type 92 heavy machine gun is quite heavy, weighing a full 55.3 kilograms!

That's over 110 jin!
Who would be so kind as to carry a heavy machine gun weighing over 100 pounds, evade layers of search and arrest, and run to another location to commit another crime in just ten minutes?

That's absolutely impossible!

From the very beginning, they automatically eliminated the most correct answer.

"Where did you get this conclusion? How can you connect it to the infighting among the Japanese?" Cao Weida's expression was strange. What theory did he come up with?

That's incredibly imaginative!

"Brother Cao, isn't that simple?" Little Ears looked around and whispered, "Those assassins were using Japanese grenades and Type 92 heavy machine guns!"

"Who else besides the regular Japanese troops could have this weapon!"

"Besides, so many patrol teams went searching last night, but they didn't find a single hair. Isn't that too strange?"

"Such a large heavy machine gun cannot be hidden away so easily! Only one of our own insiders could do it."

"Perhaps it's because of internal disagreements over the distribution of benefits that they're seeking revenge!"

This reasoning left Cao Wei Da speechless.

If he hadn't done it himself, he almost would have believed it.

He couldn't help but ask curiously, "Who made these remarks, and who else knows?"

"Hey, most of the patrol officers from the police station know about it. Everyone's talking about it because of what happened last night."

There is no shortage of great wisdom in any era, and people are prone to arrogance, believing themselves to be smarter than others when they are admired by others.

And so, what was originally a completely unsolvable situation gradually revealed the 'truth' after several rounds of communication.

"Alright, it's fine to talk about it privately, but don't tell anyone else."

Just as I was about to enter the office building, I saw a familiar face walk in from outside.

"Hey, Inspector Lu, what's wrong with you?"

The person who came in was none other than Inspector Lu Ju. Inspector Lu's face, which was originally somewhat dark, was now frighteningly pale. Anyone with eyes could tell that something was wrong.

It seems like they were frightened?
Seeing that it was Cao Wei Da who greeted him, Lu Ju forced a smile, wanting to say something, but held back.

After the two arrived at the office building, Lu Ju did not go back to his own office, but followed Cao Weida to his office.

As soon as he went in, he closed the door and then launched into a long, rambling monologue.

It turns out that Lu Ju was on "duty" near the Bamboo Agency last night. Although he didn't see the massacre in the middle of the night immediately, he saw the horrific scene firsthand.

After witnessing the horrific state of those Japanese soldiers, he was utterly terrified.

"Master Cao, you have no idea, we just finished cleaning up the scene this morning, the state of it was horrific." Lu Ju's voice trembled with fear.

"The dozen or so who rushed out were relatively lucky; at least their bodies were intact. But the Japanese soldiers nearby were all badly damaged, and out of twenty of them, we couldn't even find three complete corpses."

"We haven't even finished dealing with this yet, and someone else has reported that something else has happened at the East Asian Academic Research Association."

He paused here, looking at Cao Weida with a hint of admiration in his eyes, and said very sincerely:
"Now I finally understand what you told me before. What you did was the right thing. You didn't oppress the people in your jurisdiction and you didn't do anything immoral."

"They're fighting so badly among themselves, what about us?"

"Isn't the fact that so many people were killed by the East Asian Academic Research Association the best proof of that?"

Cao Weida quickly made a shushing gesture and whispered, "Keep your voice down, are you out of your mind!"

"It's fine to say this to me, but what if the Japanese officers found out?"

"Don't overthink it. Just be careful of yourself."

"Yes, yes, you're right. Why risk your life for such a small amount of money?" Lu Ju replied, seemingly detached from the question, his mind clearly elsewhere. Cao Weida understood; he was obviously still reeling from the shock.

Lu Ju was a rather shrewd person. To say he was a good person would be an understatement. He had done plenty of things like extortion, bribery, and collusion between the underworld and legitimate businesses, and had taken a lot of dirty money.

But to say that others are bad is an understatement.

After all, this kind of thing is perfectly normal these days. Everyone does it, and if you don't follow suit, you'll seem out of place.

In other words, Cao Wei Da was trained by Duo Men, who was also quite adept at interpersonal relationships.

Furthermore, Cao Wei Da later aligned himself with Ono Oda, which prevented him from being ostracized. Otherwise, his life might not have been so easy.

Now that Lu Ju has been able to "turn over a new leaf," regardless of how much it helps the war effort, it is at least a significant benefit to the people in his jurisdiction.

Next, Lu Ju asked him for advice on how to govern his jurisdiction, and then he couldn't wait to run back and gather his patrol officers to start doing ideological work.

In the afternoon, Cao Weida was just about to go home and rest when the phone rang.

"Hello, who is this?"

"Master Cao, it's me, Lou Zhenhua. The items are ready. When would be a convenient time for you to take a look?"

"So fast?"

Cao Wei Da was somewhat surprised. Only one day had passed, and he had already found something good?

"Mr. Lou, let me tell you something, don't try to fool me, or I won't be able to explain myself."

"Oh, Mr. Cao, what are you saying? I wouldn't dare fool the Japanese officer, even if I could fool anyone!" Lou Zhenhua's voice sounded very aggrieved on the phone.
"Ever since you told me about this, I've pulled a lot of strings and finally managed to snag one from a friend's collection through a friend's introduction. Seeing is believing, why don't you take a look for yourself?"

Cao Wei Da had no objection, since there was nothing else for him to do here, so he agreed.

About twenty minutes later, in the same car as before, driven by Xu Wude, they arrived at the Lou residence. After exchanging a few polite words at the entrance, everyone went inside.

Lou Yaozu, Lou Zhenhua, and Cao Weida entered the study and closed the door. On the desk in the study was a square box.

Lou Zhenhua walked over and opened the box. "Master Cao, please take a look!"

Inside the box lay a blue-and-white porcelain cup, about the size of a tiger's mouth, the kind of cup typically used for tea tasting.

He picked it up curiously and looked at it from left to right, but he didn't find anything special about the cup.

It's not particularly pretty, but it doesn't have any outstanding features; it looks rather ordinary.

"This is???"

If you don't understand, just ask. He doesn't think there's anything shameful about it.

If we're talking about losing face, pretending to know what you don't is even more shameful. And if you get caught and exposed, that's the ultimate embarrassment.

He had always felt that his life was ordinary, not even as beautiful as the porcelain fired in kilns back then. The porcelain in his courtyard house was all new porcelain fired during the Republic of China period, which was both dignified and beautiful.

(Those interested can search for Republic of China imperial porcelain, Republic of China famille rose porcelain, and Republic of China everyday porcelain; they are all absolutely gorgeous.)
"Master Cao, let me introduce this cup to you. It's called a Ming Yongle blue-and-white 'pressed-hand' cup. Very few of these exist today. If I hadn't done a huge favor by having my friend mediate, the seller wouldn't have been willing to part with it." Lou Yaozu's eyes gleamed with curiosity, his gaze tinged with reluctance.

"If it weren't for the factory, I would never be willing to give up such a good thing."

"Oh?" Cao Weida was quite surprised. Was such a small cup really that precious?

He went straight to the point and asked the price: "How much is this worth?"

Although he felt it was a bit too vulgar, Lou Yaozu still told the truth: "Because they were all bought through connections, the price wasn't high. It cost a total of 8000 silver dollars."

"?!?!?!?!"

So expensive?!

This tiny, broken cup is actually worth as much as the Yongle blue and white porcelain he bought?
Is it possible that antiques become exceptionally valuable simply because they bear the name 'Yongle'?

Forget it, as long as we know this thing is worth 8000 yuan!

He put the cup back into the box and said, "I'll take this first. Wait for my message."

After saying that, he picked up the box and walked out.

After leaving Lou's residence, Cao Weida declined Xu Wude's offer to drive him and instead hailed a rickshaw to Professor Luo's address.

Professor Luo was a student at Yenching University, and in those days, his salary was not low.

In particular, their ancestors were all scholars, so their family was not poor.

Although it's not a large mansion, it's still quite respectable.

Especially the couplet on the gate: "The spring air of planting flowers and trees, the wonderful mind of reading and listening to fragrance." Reading it, a fragrance of books immediately comes to mind.

"Truly befitting a family of scholars!"

He thought to himself with admiration, and after confirming that this was the place, he walked up to knock on the door, but to his surprise, the door opened by itself, and it was a girl.

(End of this chapter)