Volume 1: Mission in Danger Chapter 50: The Spy
Cai Qiaozhu went to the backyard and came back, then she said to the shopkeeper Hou San: "The master said that we should invite Xiqiao Hu Laoqi. Although he is more expensive, he knows everything about the family and has a good grasp of the situation. Besides, he is a man of few words and can be trusted. As for the 80% advance, he is waiting for money for emergency treatment, which is reasonable."
Shopkeeper Hou San said, "The old boss has a keen eye. I also think Hu Laoqi is more suitable."
Cai Qiaozhu said, "Then I'll have to trouble Third Uncle Hou for this matter. If possible, please ask Hu Laoqi to pack up and set off tomorrow night or the day after tomorrow. But if it's convenient tonight, please bring Hu Laoqi in through the back door. The master wants to see him."
Shopkeeper Hou San nodded in agreement. He was efficient and contacted Hu Laoqi, agreed on the price, and took Hu Laoqi to Wu's house secretly. Wu Guoying met Hu Laoqi in the yard and talked with him for a meal. He was quite satisfied with Hu Laoqi and asked someone to pay 80% of the advance payment on the spot - the Wu family was short of money, and I mean large sums of money. This small amount of money was just sand leaking through their fingers and was not a big deal.
After he came out, Hu Laoqi wanted to give him a thank-you gift as usual, but Shopkeeper Hou San smiled and declined. Hu Laoqi was a veteran, and seeing that he didn't want to take the money, he became suspicious: "Why, Shopkeeper Hou, do you look down on me, Hu Laoqi, or is there something wrong with the person you want to protect this time?"
Shopkeeper Hou San smiled and said, "No problem, no problem, but the Wu family has been very strict about the rules recently, so we dare not mess around for the time being."
Hu Laoqi said, "If you don't tell me and I don't tell you, who will know?" He stuffed the thank-you gift over without further ado.
Manager Hou San did not refuse.
He returned home, threw the small amount of money given as a thank-you gift on the table, and stared at the oil lamp with a sneer.
While collecting the silver, his wife said, "Master, what's wrong? Silver is not silver anymore?"
Shopkeeper Hou San said with a smile: "We are about to be rich, what is this little money worth?"
His wife said, "Boss, what crazy things are you talking about?"
Shopkeeper Hou San smiled but said nothing, "Go and light some mugwort."
"Light mugwort again?" His wife was very dissatisfied, but she still went to light the mugwort obediently. After a while, the smell of mugwort wafted out of the door. Burning mugwort can ward off evil and cure diseases. In Guangzhou, it is common for families who know how to take care of themselves to burn mugwort occasionally.
Shopkeeper Hou San sent his wife and children to bed, unbolted the door, and waited in the small side room. He heard the fourth watch drum beating, and a man whose face could not be seen quietly walked in and went straight into the small side room. The two of them did not light the lamp. In old houses in Guangdong, there is always a small skylight . Those who did not have money installed opaque colored glaze, while those who had some money installed more light-transmitting glass, which could bring moonlight into the house at night and prevent the house from being completely dark when no lights were turned on.
At this time, with the moonlight cast from the small skylight, the two of them could see each other's faces clearly, and the man asked, "What's going on? Is there any movement from the Wu family?"
Shopkeeper Hou San said, "The Wu family wants to send someone away. I guess it's likely to be Young Master Guang."
Both of them spoke in very low voices, but the newcomer's voice was clearly surprised: "Is Wu Guoying crazy? Where can he be sent? The whole world belongs to the king. If Yihe is really busted and the arrest warrant is issued, they can find him even if they hide the child in the mountains of Fujian."
"We can find them in the mountains of Fujian, but what about Southeast Asia? If we send them to Luzon or Siam, can we still catch them?"
The visitor was surprised again: "This... Wu Guoying still has this courage? How dare she send her underage grandson overseas?"
"When disaster strikes, the only option is to take a risky approach."
Shopkeeper Hou San then recounted what happened today, saying, "The Wu family openly told me that they wanted to help send a relative away, but I sensed a lot of things wrong. First, the timing was too coincidental; second, the old boss took it too seriously - was it really just for a distant relative that they needed both the eldest mistress and the old boss to review the person? Obviously, the person they were sending away was a priceless treasure in their minds, so they handled the matter so carefully."
"Then how do you know it's Young Master Sun and not someone else?"
"The only important people in the Wu family are the old man, the three Wu brothers, and the eldest young master and his mother. The old man is dying, the eldest young master is sick and waiting to die, and the second young master is a bastard. If the Wu family is in great trouble, for the sake of the family's future, the one who should be saved the most is of course the youngest son or the eldest grandson. If the third young master leaves, he has traveled to the capital and the south of the Yangtze River, and is used to dealing with foreigners, so there is no need to find a personal interpreter, which is so troublesome - so the person who needs to be sent away this time must be the young Guang young master."
After hearing the analysis, the visitor also felt that it made sense, so he said, "Okay, I'll report this to the general merchant right away."
"Wait a minute!" said the shopkeeper Hou San. "Children are not yet fully developed in their minds. Be careful when you block them. Don't scare them and cause them to die."
The visitor was a little surprised: "It seems that Shopkeeper Hou has deep feelings for his former master. He is still concerned about protecting the child at this time."
Shopkeeper Hou San sneered softly, "Who cares if his child lives or dies? But this child is a precious jade. If anything happens to him, Wu Chengjun will be childless and Wu Guoying will be childless. But with him around, the Wu family will be more cautious and cautious when they want to take risks."
"Taking a risk?" The visitor sneered, "At this point, unless the Guangdong-Guangxi Governor's Office intervenes, what else can the Wu family do? Even if they set fire to the Wu residence and die together, they won't be able to take these largest assets to the underworld."
Shopkeeper Hou San said, "You are stupid. Of the several large assets of the Wu family, the real estate can't be taken away. Not to mention the batch of tea from the family, the money from the tea from the outsiders is also locked in the treasury of the Pan family. Although the silver money for groceries is less than the above three large sums of money, it is for the people above. For us, it is also a huge sum of money. The biggest bone of these funds will naturally be sent to Beijing. The rest will be eaten by Master Jishan, and the rest will be eaten by General Merchant Cai and Xie Shangzhu, and we will get a little minced meat. In general, the more money and goods we can save, the better it is for us. If a fire burns down a million or several hundred taels of silver, there may be a few hundred taels of silver of ours among them."
The visitor chuckled and said, "That makes sense, that makes sense! I'll go back and report to the general merchant right away."
Shopkeeper Hou San said again: "Wait a minute, although Wu Chengjian is a playboy, he often does things unreasonably. If you want to keep an eye on him, you must be careful not only at night but also during the day. It would be best to do this and that, and this and that..."
This person came quietly and left quietly. When he left, the wife of shopkeeper Hou San was still snoring. Shopkeeper Hou San was disgusted by the sound and thought to himself: "When I get the money, I will buy another mansion and hire a beautiful young lady. Then I won't have to deal with this yellow-faced woman anymore."
The next day he reported for duty at Yihe Bank as usual. At that time, there was nothing to do in the bank and he came here just to go through the motions.
Only an old buddy who was very close to Shopkeeper Hou San suddenly asked Shopkeeper Hou San, "Why didn't Shopkeeper San come yesterday?"
Shopkeeper Hou San asked, "What's the matter? Was there any incident in the shop yesterday?"
"Nothing serious," the old clerk said, "It was just yesterday morning when the shopkeeper Liu brought a few customers in and bought a few boxes of foreign goods and left. In the afternoon, the shopkeeper Dai brought a few more customers in and bought a few more boxes of foreign goods and left."
In addition to selling Chinese goods, the merchants in the Thirteen Hongs also imported some seafood from foreign merchants. Once these seafood products arrived in the mainland, their prices would increase several times. Even in Guangzhou, the profits could be doubled after a single resale. Of course, compared with the total export value of bulk commodities such as ceramics, silk, and tea, the total import value of foreign goods was far from offset, and this trade surplus was the result of a large amount of silver flow.
Yihehang also dealt in wholesale of foreign goods. Although it was not a big deal for the two managers, Liu Da and Dai Er, to approve some retail sales, it was not a common occurrence, so the old man kept it in mind.
Shopkeeper Hou San understood and said, "Okay, I'll ask later." However, compared to the big event he was waiting for, he didn't take this little matter too seriously.
In the afternoon, a waiter suddenly rushed in and said, "Oh no! Oh no!"
All the guys who were dozing off in the shop were awakened and asked, "What happened?"
The guy who rushed in said, "The Third Master's car was stopped again."
Some of the guys just said "oh", some showed no interest, only one guy asked, "Who dares to intercept the Third Master's car?"
Another clerk sneered, "Things are different now! Didn't you hear that when the Third Young Master went back to Xiguan at night, a mere constable from Nanhai County dared to stop his car?"
The man said, "But didn't that constable get scolded by Captain Zhou in the end?"
The clerk continued to sneer: "So what if he scolded me? Captain Zhou helped the Third Young Master because he was loyal, but this loyalty is not as important as the general trend."
Everyone said, "That's right, that's right. The situation is like this. The loyalty of one or two people is nothing."
Someone else asked, "Who stopped the Third Young Master's carriage this time? It's really disrespectful to block the road in broad daylight."
The clerk who rushed in to report the news said, "The person who stopped the Third Young Master's carriage this time must be someone very important. Even if Old Zhou from Nanhai County had a hundred guts, he wouldn't dare to step forward. Guess who it is?"
An old friend said impatiently: "No guess, no guess! Stop keeping us in suspense and tell us who it is."
The fellow who rushed in to report the news said, "Gallop!"
"Galuo? Which galuo?"
"And that Gailu? He's the steward of the Guangdong Customs Supervisor's house. He treated the Xie family's young master like a dog last month!"
Everyone just remembered and said, "This is going to be a big deal. For other people, forget about it, but this Galiu stopped the Third Young Master's carriage, that's a strange thing, if this matter gets out of hand, it could be a big deal or a small one."
"There's something even more bizarre." The guy who rushed in to report the news said, "That guy stopped the Third Young Master's carriage for no reason. Wu Qi fought back desperately, but he was accompanied by soldiers from the Guangdong Customs. Then he searched the carriage for no reason. Wu Qi refused, of course, but he couldn't resist and his carriage was searched anyway."
