Courtyard House: Ten-year-old Master Zhu reorganizes the entire courtyard

After receiving authorization from the "shopkeeper," He Yuzhu acted with astonishing efficiency. He was like a precisely operating war machine, breaking down the entire plan into several parallel and independent tasks.

The first line of operations was overseen by Lin Wanqiu. Using her position as a doctor, she circumvented the guise of purchasing medicines and medical equipment to exchange a large portion of the puppet Union Bank notes allocated by the organization for US dollars and scarce Western medicines such as penicillin and sulfonamides through trading companies. These medicines, after the war, would have been worth even more than gold.

The second storyline, personally handled by He Yuzhu, is also the most crucial. He contacts Lao Gui through the dead mail system and arranges to meet at a dilapidated freight station.

"Master Zhu, you are a rare guest." Old Gui still had that same smiling face, but the reverence in his eyes was deeper than before. He now regarded He Yuzhu as a "young master" being groomed by some powerful force.

"Old ghost, enough with the nonsense," He Yuzhu cut to the chase. "I need to sell a batch of counterfeit currency and Japanese yen in exchange for gold bars and silver dollars. I need as much as you can, and I need to be quick."

"Oh, are you clearing out your stock?" Old Gui's eyes darted around. "Gold is really expensive on the market lately, the price changes every day."

"Price is not an issue; what I need is volume and speed. You'll be in charge of contacting sellers and diversifying the transactions, avoiding selling in the same place. You'll take half a percent of each transaction," He Yuzhu offered directly, outlining the benefits.

"Alright! With your word, I'd do it even if it meant panning out all the gold in Beiping!" Old Gui patted his chest and guaranteed.

Over the next week, the underground black market in Beiping was bustling with activity. Every day, different faces appeared in different teahouses, pawnshops, and opium dens, exchanging bulging leather suitcases for small yellow croakers and stacks of "Yuan Shikai silver dollars." The transactions were all small, appearing to be ordinary wealthy people securing their future, attracting no attention from others.

At the heart of all these transactions lies the old ghost who is remotely controlling things from behind the scenes, and the mysterious "Master Pillar" behind the old ghost.

At the same time, He Yuzhu didn't forget his family. He gave his savings to He Daqing, instructing him to buy several bags of millet and flour from the grain store every day under the guise of stocking up for the restaurant, and to quietly hoard them in an empty room at home. He also had Chen Lanxiang wrap the few pieces of gold jewelry they had in oilcloth and hide them deep in the cracks between the bricks in the yard.

Although Mr. and Mrs. He Daqing were puzzled, out of absolute trust in their son, they did not ask any further questions and simply carried out the order silently.

The buying frenzy on the black market intensified. He Yuzhu astutely discovered that besides them, an even larger fund was frantically buying up gold, even driving up prices regardless of cost. Through Lao Gui's investigation, it was vaguely pointed to the secretary of a high-ranking official surnamed Wang in the puppet government.

"It's a big fish," He Yuzhu thought. "Follow the big fish to eat meat, but don't get swept away by its tail."

He immediately judged that the price of gold had already been artificially inflated by these bureaucrats, and chasing it would be neither cost-effective nor likely to attract attention. He had to change his target.

"Old Ghost, suspend gold purchases." He Yuzhu approached Old Ghost again. "Find me two things—tung oil and pig bristles."

"What?" Old Ghost was stunned. "Master Zhu, what do you need that thing for? It takes up space and is hard to sell. It's not nearly as practical as gold bars."

He Yuzhu offered no explanation. The system's prompt highlighted the term "strategic materials." He vaguely knew from his past life that tung oil was an important waterproofing and anti-corrosion coating used on ships and weaponry; pig bristles were an indispensable raw material for making gun brushes and military brushes. These things were treasures more urgently needed than gold for our side.

"You don't need to know what I'm going to use it for," He Yuzhu said firmly. "Just tell me if you can get it. The price is negotiable."

"Yes! Of course!" Old Gui nodded hurriedly. "Several warehouses in the south have a lot of stockpiled goods, all destined for the south, but the war has delayed them. I'll go contact them right away!"

While the gold market was already fiercely competitive, He Yuzhu quietly shifted his funds to tung oil and pig bristles, which were largely ignored. He bought up almost all the available stock in Beiping at extremely low prices.

Storage of the goods became a problem. The warehouse provided by Lao Gui was not secure.

He Yuzhu remained calm and collected, simply instructing Lao Gui to transport the goods in batches to several different abandoned courtyards on the outskirts of the city. Then, in the dead of night, he went alone and quietly stored the barrels of tung oil and bundles of pig bristles into his system space.

His system space has now become the safest and most secretive strategic warehouse.

That afternoon, after He Yuzhu finished processing the last counterfeit currency transaction, he walked out of a small money exchange and bumped into an acquaintance.

"Zhu Zi?" Xu Fugui, carrying a cloth bag, looked at him in surprise. "You... what are you doing here?"

He Yuzhu's heart skipped a beat, but he put on a simple, honest smile: "Uncle Xu, my dad asked me to come and exchange some change. What brings you here?"

"Hey, don't even mention it." Xu Fugui lowered his voice and sneakily leaned over to say, "These days, money is getting worth less and less. I was thinking of doing what others do and exchanging some 'Yuan Shikai silver dollars' for some gold to keep as a treasure. I really saw it in there just now. So many people were scrambling to exchange for gold, like it was free."

As he spoke, his eyes glanced thoughtfully at the money exchange where He Yuzhu had just left. He had a feeling that things weren't so simple. Ever since He Yuzhu returned from outside the city, he had become eccentric and the things he did were increasingly bizarre.

He Yuzhu smiled but didn't reply. He just patted his pocket and said, "Uncle Xu, I'll be going now. My dad's waiting."

Watching He Yuzhu's thin figure disappear into the distance, Xu Fugui clicked his tongue. He had a strong premonition that this most inconspicuous boy in the courtyard was playing a grand game. And perhaps he should cling even tighter to this powerful figure.

A few days later, when the fake official's funds finally drove up the price of gold to a crash, triggering market panic, He Yuzhu and his organization had already completed all asset swaps and quietly left the scene.

In the backyard of Moxianzhai, He Yuzhu reported the final results to the "shopkeeper".

"...I exchanged 120 gold bars, 5,000 silver dollars, and 2,000 US dollars. I also acquired a batch of penicillin, sulfonamides, and other medicines. In addition, I used some funds to stockpile 50 large barrels of tung oil and 300 catties of pig bristles."

As the shopkeeper listened to the report, his hand holding the teacup trembled slightly.

He looked at the calm-faced ten-year-old boy before him, his heart churning with turmoil. He had only allocated a portion of the funds on a trial basis. Unexpectedly, this "apprentice" not only completed the task perfectly but also learned by analogy, stockpiling strategic materials that the organization urgently needed.

What vision and courage that is!

"Good...good!" The shopkeeper exclaimed twice, his usual composure barely concealed by his excitement. "'Apprentice,' you've done a great service to the organization! This batch of supplies is extremely important to us!"

He Yuzhu showed no sign of pride, and simply said calmly, "I just did what I was supposed to do."

He knew that this victory was just the beginning. The real storm was yet to come.