The Martial Lord of the Troubled World

Chapter 95 Insights
The newspapers were meant for other guests, but Fu Juemin paid the waiter two silver dollars to send him away and get another copy, while he kept all the newspapers for himself.

Back in his room, he drew back the curtains, and the winter sun streamed in. He sat by the window with a newspaper, eating and reading at the same time.

The restaurants on the Haiyan ship mainly serve Cantonese and Shanghainese dishes, while the Western dishes, apart from the most common steak and bread, are all Russian cuisine.

Fu Juemin picked up a piece of crystal pork jelly with his chopsticks and then began to flip through the large stack of newspapers in his hand.

North-South peace talks completely collapse! A key figure in the Lingnan Army assassinated.

In the first issue of the Xilin Times, Fu Juemin saw a piece of news that made his eyes widen in surprise.

He put down his chopsticks, picked up the newspaper, and read the entire news article carefully.

The news was from two weeks ago: the assassinated military and political figure from Xinmin Lingbiao died in his residence in a concession in Shanghai, and there was no direct evidence that someone from the north was responsible.

Below is another news item about the bombing of the Pukou Railway, which has sparked dissatisfaction among many business people.

Fu Juemin raised his head and looked out the window. In the distance, a few white sails drifted slowly across the river.

He knew a little about the North-South peace talks, which started last year but had not yet yielded any results.

With high-ranking officials assassinated and railways bombed, it's unlikely that any further talks will be possible.

Considering the secret letter that the Northern Army had sent to Song Zhenyuan, the governor of Yangping Province, many people probably already anticipated this outcome.

"The new government has barely settled in its three years of existence; in fact, it seems poised to be overthrown and ousted."

Fu Juemin did not have much of a sense of belonging to the so-called New Republic, but if the New Republic collapsed, war would inevitably break out again in the south, which was not what he and most people wanted to see.

"call--"

Fu Juemin let out a soft breath, and for a moment even his appetite disappeared.

He mixed his rice with a bowl of abalone sauce soup on the table and ate it slowly.

His original intention was to see if he could get any information about the southwestern rebels' attack on Yangping Province, but after flipping through a bunch of current affairs newspapers, he realized that he had overlooked something.

Newspapers in this era are far less timely than in the previous life. Information spreads much slower, and since we are currently on a ship, information is scarce. Many of the newspapers in front of us are from half a month or even a month ago.

There have been many reports about the disaster in Southwest China. The situation is far more tragic than what Fu Juemin knew when he was in Luanhe. The number of people affected had already exceeded one million two weeks ago. Now, one can only imagine what a hellish scene it is.

The rest were mostly tabloids filled with entertainment gossip, mostly about the romantic affairs between wealthy businessmen and celebrities, as well as some movie advertisements, which Fu Juemin found uninteresting.

In addition, there were a bunch of foreign-language newspapers. The only one that Fu Juemin could understand was a Victorian-language newspaper called "The Sun Daily." The publication dates of these foreign-language newspapers were even more outrageous, with the earliest being half a year ago.

Fu Juemin quickly flipped through the newspaper and found only one short news item that caught his attention in the lower left corner of the second page.

The report states that a pharmaceutical company called "Otto" in the country of Verido has developed a humanoid bio-weapon called "Cloned Man" in one of its biological laboratories. It is said to be invulnerable to bullets and knives, possessing immense strength, and capable of having gunpowder weapons implanted inside its body.
Upon seeing this content, Fu Juemin suddenly recalled the monster corpses that his second uncle, Fu Guoping, had transported to Shenghai Jinhai and taken away by foreigners.

"Could it be that these things were created by tinkering with the flesh and blood of demons and evil spirits?"
That's a really skewed approach to technology!

Nine days later.

The top deck of the Haiyan, near the bow.

Under the warm and gentle sunlight, a figure in a white suit and white leather shoes leans back in a deck chair, leisurely reading a newspaper while basking in the sun.

Beside him, a man in a wrinkled tailcoat was playing the violin meticulously, while a stern-faced young man stood by, acting as a bodyguard.

After the violin piece was finished, the aloof young man took a silver dollar from his pocket and handed it to the violinist.

A lazy voice came from the recliner: "Give me more."

The man holding the violin paused, then gave a standard Western greeting, saying "Thank you" with gratitude and elegance.

The unfolded newspaper was slowly lowered, revealing a fair-skinned, handsome young face behind it, with a slight upturn at the corners of his mouth, exuding the air of a noble young master from the Republic of China era.

It was Fu Juemin, who had been on the Haiyan for almost ten days. "Young Master seems to be in a good mood."

Cao Tian, ​​who had given Qu Qian to the person standing to the side, spoke up.

Fu Juemin didn't say anything, but just smiled and handed him the newspaper.

Cao Tian took the document, scanned it from top to bottom, and suddenly his eyes lit up. He whispered, "The new government plans to remove Song Zhenyuan from his post as provincial governor?"

"It's just speculation from the public, it shouldn't be taken seriously."

Fu Juemin shook his head with a smile, but the joy in his eyes was undisguised.

He had specially sent someone to buy the newspaper three days ago when the Haiyan ship docked for resupply. He never expected that after the Southwest Fire Cloud Army entered the country, Song Zhenyuan would lose nearly half of Yangping's territory in less than half a month.

Despite being a provincial governor with hundreds of thousands of troops under his command, he was no better at fighting than a three-year-old child – these were the words of the newspaper criticizing him.

Whether the dismissal was true or not was unknown, but the central government was certainly furious. The secret letter in Fu Juemin's possession, which could prove that Song Zhenyuan was secretly colluding with the north, had not yet been sent out and could only be used to add icing on the cake.

"I wonder how my second uncle is doing these days?"

Fu Juemin was thinking to himself when he casually called Cao Tian to bring up a few more newspapers.

These past two days, he's become obsessed with a small magazine called "Folklore and Strange Tales," which publishes many strange tales such as the cat-faced old lady, the white fox girl, the fire-breathing centipede spirit, and the midnight singing girl's soul.

Many stories are obviously fabricated, but some are told in great detail, even specifying the exact time and place of the events.

Fu Juemin read these tabloids not just for novelty and interest, but for another purpose.

"If even the small Luan River is rife with monsters and evil spirits, then in the Shenghai region, such demonic and evil activities should only be more frequent."

"Even if only one-tenth of the stories published in this tabloid are true, it would save me a lot of trouble."

Fu Juemin had always planned to build his own demon-hunting team. Before, in Luanhe, he could rely on the civil affairs department under his second uncle Fu Guoping when he encountered problems. Now, things have changed, and he can only rely on himself for everything.

A stable and reliable source of intelligence was the first step in implementing his plan.

The newspaper that published Fu Juemin's copy of "Records of Folk Customs and Strange Tales" was located in Shenghai. He flipped through the newspaper, making preliminary selections, and planned to go directly to the newspaper to talk to the publisher once things stabilized in Shenghai.

Suddenly, a commotion arose from below.

Fu Juemin put down his newspaper, listened for a while, and then slowly walked to the fence and looked down.

The sound was coming from the second-class deck below.

A group of young men in their thirties were gathered together. One of them, wearing glasses, held up a letter and said with great joy, "That's wonderful! Brother Guizhi said in the letter that Mr. Mingyi will be coming to Shenghai soon!"

The intellectuals who had gathered around the bespectacled man cheered excitedly upon hearing this, looking greatly encouraged.

Some people clasped their hands in indignation and said, "It would be so good if Mr. Mingyi were here. The achievements that everyone fought for with their lives and blood have been taken by the new government."

Before he could finish speaking, someone covered his mouth.

"Speak carefully! Speak carefully!"

The person whose mouth was covered immediately realized that he had gone too far, and the group quickly dispersed.

On the deck above them, Fu Juemin activated [Listen] and overheard the entire conversation that the group had been having while hiding in the room.

After listening, Fu Juemin had an indescribable strange expression on his face.

"There's a group of revolutionaries hiding on this ship?!"

(End of this chapter)