above the point of the knife

Chapter 34 Bai Yulan's Crisis
In Huifangli, the lanterns are just on, and the Ningxiang Pavilion.

"Sister Yan, what's the situation these few days?" Bai Yulan sat down at the desk, flipping through the ledger in her hand, and she frowned slightly as she saw that the business of Ningxiang Hall was getting worse and worse.

Right now is the end of the new year, when consumption is at its peak, and Ningxiang Museum's income and expenditure are beyond its means.

"The number of customers has decreased in recent days. Many of our regular customers have been dragged to the Grand View Garden and Qunfang Building. They have also launched promotional activities. Without reducing the treatment of the girls, they will give customers a profit and sell our The guests have been attracted, and those who introduced new guests to us have drawn them to the Grand View Garden or Qunfang Building, where the benefits are greater..."

"We are dealing with high-end customers, so it doesn't affect us if they pull people over?" Ah Xiang interjected.

"Ah Xiang, Bingcheng is so big, how can there be so many high-end customers, in fact, what we need most now are customers, without customers, Ningxiang Restaurant will be closed." Sister Yan glanced at A Xiang, but still explained One sound.

Although Ningxiang Pavilion is the top place for fireworks in Bingcheng, Bai Yulan has her own principles in doing things. Yes, most of the girls in the Ningxiang Pavilion are affiliated, and they have been here for a long time. Bai Yulan treats them very well, but which of the men who visit the place of fireworks is not greedy for new things. Compared with the other two, there will be one from time to time The batch of newcomers is naturally more attractive.

It would be good if the Ningxiang Pavilion can be maintained. In the past two years, Bai Yulan has been putting money in it. As for making money, it is out of the question.

She also wanted to close the Ningxiang Hall, but where should these women in the hall go?They may be able to find a better next home, and they can maintain it for a few years, but what about a few years later?
After getting old and fading, the rest of life is miserable.

Whether it was Su Wenqing or Qin Qiye, what they drew was only the signboard of Ningxiang Pavilion and these dozens of poor women, including herself of course.

As for getting it, she would not think about their future at all, and even no matter who she attached herself to, there would be no good results.

"How long can the money in our account last?"

"No more than one month at most." Sister Yan is the steward of the Ningxiang Hall, and Bai Yulan is down, and Sister Yan is the eldest sister of all the girls in the Ningxiang Hall.

Ningxiang Pavilion has no bustards, and there is no contract of sale. There are two different contracts. One is that the previous contract of sale is converted into a five-year or ten-year paid service contract. This is for Ningxiang Pavilion that was signed in the past Girl.

This contract also gave them hope, at least a chance to be free. Therefore, after Bai Yulan took over Ningxiang Restaurant, the business was extremely hot.

There is also a monk who is similar to Buddhism to make a list, that is, a girl who works alone wants to find a shelter, and the treatment can be negotiated, which is different.

The former requires high compensation for breach of contract, while the latter has almost none and a lot of liquidity.

Naturally, there can't always be a group of girls in this romantic place, that is, if the guards are changed without changing the dressing, the guests will lose their freshness, so naturally they won't come.

With these two kinds of contracts, Ningxiang Hall immediately established itself in the ice city, and Bai Yulan won the queen of Huaguo for a term.

But success is also Xiao He, and failure is also Xiao He.

The two contracts at that time helped Bai Yulan master the Ningxiang Pavilion and led her through a period of glory, but now, the situation is different from before.

Not only are there competitors very powerful, but they are also very strong, and they have no bottom line. It is useless to talk about conscience for those who open romantic places and do flesh and blood business.

All kinds of dirty tricks are constantly being used. After all, the Ningxiang Pavilion is run by women. In many cases, they are a little short in terms of momentum. When dealing with it, they are naturally restrained and always suffer from dark losses.

If it weren't for Bai Yulan's powerful wrists, coupled with the relationship and management left by the old horse, the ordinary woman would have disappeared in the ice city long ago.

However, this time it was an all-round attack, whether it was Qin Qiye or Su Wenqing, one was targeting the Ningxiang Hall, and the other was targeting her and other businesses.

Bai Yulan also has many other businesses, mainly dealing in cloth and silk materials, as well as women's clothing factories. If she doesn't have any family background, how can she survive.

But this time, it is clear that he will not break her down, and will not stop swallowing her.

And with Qin Qiye and Su Wenqing's power and influence, almost no one in Bingcheng can help her.

Unless she goes to beg the Japanese.

But the Japanese are more ruthless and greedy. They will eat her and Ningxiangguan so that there will be no bones left.

She needs a working capital now. Although she may not be able to survive, as long as she has time, she can find a way to break the situation.

But now the banks in Bingcheng are willing to give her a lot of loans, but she knows that once she borrows money, she will fall into the other party's schemes.

That's why she put forward the condition that the loan debt cannot be transferred. Even if the interest rate is higher, there is no problem, but after hearing her condition, no bank will give her a loan.

Bai Yulan knew that once she signed a loan agreement with the bank, even if she got the money, the bank would resell her loan agreement in the form of debt to someone who wanted it. At that time, even if she had the money to repay the loan, I'm afraid it's not an easy task.

Those covetous people are staring at her. They know exactly what she wants to do.

There are ghosts inside.

And among her most trusted people, even though she didn't want to doubt anyone, she had already reached this point, and she couldn't tolerate it anymore.

"It's almost Chinese New Year. Since business is not good, let everyone take a break. Everyone has worked hard throughout the year," Bai Yulan said slowly.

"Xiao Lan, are you planning to close your business?" Sister Yan was startled.

"Well, everyone's salary is paid as usual, and everyone has worked hard with me these years." Bai Yulan nodded.

"Xiao Lan, if the business is closed, there will be a lot of daily expenses. Besides, when do you plan to close the business?" Sister Yan didn't understand. The Ningxiang Restaurant was closed at this time during the Spring Festival, which was the most profitable time.

Even if the business is not good, it is a good thing to pay less.

"Tell them, I won't stop those who are willing to leave, and those who are willing to share weal and woe with me, I will repay you in the future, so be it." Bai Yulan closed the account book, she didn't want to do the "Fengyue" business at first, But there is no way, this is the old horse's property, it can't be closed after taking over, it's the livelihood of so many people.

"Xiao Lan, you are going to close the Ningxiang Pavilion completely!" Sister Yan's face turned pale with fright, what will the hundreds of people in the Ningxiang Pavilion do for their livelihood in the future.

"Then if you keep it now, will you be able to survive?"

"This..." Sister Yan was stunned. Bai Yulan was so courageous that she didn't even want the Ningxiang Pavilion, which was regarded as life.

"Ah Xiang, put the sign out. Starting tomorrow, the Ningxiang Restaurant will be closed." Bai Yulan told Axiang, "Just tell the public that the Ningxiang Restaurant will be refurbished before opening."

"Yes, Miss Lan."

Sister Yan was shocked and also confused. She couldn't figure out which sentence Bai Yulan said was true and which sentence was false.

Sister Yan walked out, Bai Yulan raised her head slightly, glanced at the back of the figure who had followed her for many years, and closed her eyes.

She really felt that she was quite a failure, even the people closest to her betrayed her. At the beginning, she tried her best to help her, and even let her be the steward of Ningxiang Pavilion.

Even though she didn't deliberately arrange the matter between her and Zhou Sen that night, she played a key role in it.

However, she hasn't found out who is behind her, so she didn't mention it.

"Sister Lan, in fact, Young Master Zhou can help you..." Ah Xiang leaned over and poured another glass of water for Bai Yulan.

"I told you, don't mention him again, you take my words as deaf ears?" Bai Yulan said with a sidelong glance at Ah Xiang.

Ah Xiang lowered her head in fright and dared not speak.

That man hadn't caught her eye before, if it wasn't for what happened that night, she wouldn't even want to get to know him.

A cowardly "doormat" and nicknamed "Little Bug", even if Bai Yulan was married and came from a lowly background, this is not something that just any man would like.

……

Ahh!

Zhou Sen, who was reading materials under the lamp, suddenly had an itchy nasal tube and sneezed. Strange, he didn't catch a cold?
Could it be that someone said behind his back that he didn't have a fever in his ears?

When I go to work tomorrow, I will go to the mortuary room of the police station first. Since he was in charge of investigating the case of Sherkin, he hasn't seen the victim's body once.

His task force leader (self-proclaimed) is indeed a bit incompetent, and he really doesn't want to be too incompetent.

He can understand and grasp too little information now, and he has not even figured out what kind of organization the Russian Patriotic League that Father Anthony joined is.

I searched through all the books at home and the manuscripts left by my father, but found no relevant records, and I don't know whether Father Anthony joined this organization for the sake of an identity, or if he deliberately hid a shocking secret.

It now appears that it is the latter.

But who would he ask?
Ivanovic, he is also one of the members, but now the two have completely broken up, and if he comes to the door, people probably won't tell him.

Lin Dakuan?
This guy seems to be involved in this case, otherwise, find another opportunity to look for it again?
All that's left is Akiyama's help.

He wouldn't even tell what secret mission Papa Anthony was on, and he wouldn't tell him the truth if he did.

The news is too closed, even if you know the general trend in the future, but what happened outside, what's the use of it?

There is a radio in the study, which is a channel to understand the outside world.

There is no electromagnetic shielding technology these days, so as long as you know the frequency of broadcasting stations outside, you can receive outside broadcasts.

Usually, this original body listens to the gramophone most, and there are quite a few vinyl records in the house. Father Anthony listens to the radio a lot, but he closes the door to listen to it every time. Every time he comes in, It will be turned off in a moment.

Could it be that Papa Anthony also learned about the outside world through this radio?
Zhou Sen's heartbeat was a little swollen. If he could hear the broadcast from Baota Mountain, he would be able to know the situation of the Anti-Japanese War in the pass.

In the middle of the night, radio stations generally do not work, unless there are some special working stations. This is basic common sense.

Zhou Sen checked the radio, turned the volume down to the lowest level, turned on the power button, and heard a "rustling" sound coming from the loudspeaker.

Excited, Zhou Sen turned the FM button very lightly and softly. After one turn, there was nothing but the sound of "rustling".

Suddenly I slapped my forehead, how could I forget the antenna, there is no antenna, how can the radio receive the signal?

Find the antenna, connect it, and adjust the angle continuously...

Carefully, tune to the frequency you started with.

(End of this chapter)