1928: The Rise of Giants

Ye's convoy parked neatly on the road outside the Hongkou Dojo. Okamoto Juzo, the then Japanese Consul General in Shanghai, stood outside the door with a gloomy face, glaring at those who invested in Ye's company.

Ye Luo asked everyone to get out of the car together, walked over to greet Okamoto Jusan with a smile on his face: "Consul General Okamoto, it's been a long time since we last met in Tokyo."

Before coming to China, Okamoto Juzo worked in the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. When Ye Luo went to Tokyo to help the Japanese circulate their gold reserves, he attended many banquets hosted by the Japanese upper class.

During that period, he got to know many members of the consortium and high-ranking Japanese officials. He also offended the militarists in the Japanese military because of his heavy investments in various consortiums and the development of Ye's investment industries in Japan.

Okamoto Juzo was formerly the deputy director of the Diplomatic Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. When Ye Luo came to Tokyo, he was one of the officials who followed Hamaguchi Takeyuki to strongly support Ye Luo's purchase of gold.

Unexpectedly, the financial crisis in the United States would spread to Japan so quickly, directly causing the collapse of their gold standard system.

In this way, Hamaguchi Oyuki's practice of restoring the gold standard was tantamount to accelerating the death of Japan's financial sector, and the domestic economic depression became even more serious.

After Hamaguchi Oyuki's death, Okamoto Juzo, who could have been promoted to Director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was targeted by the military and demoted to the Japanese Consulate General in Shanghai on the grounds of taking the lead in opposing the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' salary cuts.

Following him at this time, another demoted diplomat, Iwai Eiichi, who was in his thirties, also came here for the same reason.

Naturally, the two of them would not be nice to Ye Luo.

Iwai Eiichi works in the intelligence department of the newly established Chinese Embassy in Shanghai and currently lives at No. 15 Qianai Li, Beichuanyu Road.

He was standing next to Okamoto Jusan and was stunned when he heard Ye Luo speak fluent Japanese.

He is proficient in English, Japanese and Chinese. He originally wanted to take the opportunity to serve as Okamoto Jusan's translator in order to seek better power and status here. Unexpectedly, Ye Luo spoke Japanese much more fluently than his Chinese.

"Haha, Ye Sang, thanks to you, I lost tens of thousands of dollars in Tokyo, and now I've been transferred to Shanghai." Okamoto Jusan sneered and completely ignored Ye Luo's outstretched hand.

"Consul General Okamoto, investment is always risky. If you lost money by following me in buying and selling gold, you should blame the unstable gold price and the Americans for not being able to handle the financial crisis. How can you blame me?"

Ye Luo laughed out loud, not caring about Okamoto Jusan's rude behavior and tone. After saying this, he secretly looked at Iwai Eiichi.

This guy is also considered a celebrity in later generations, but what made him famous was not himself, but a legendary underground worker - Yuan Xueyi.

He was active in Shanghai's literary and political circles in the 1930s and 1940s, holding five identities: the Chinese Communist Party, the Central Bureau of Investigation and Statistics, the Military Bureau of Investigation and Statistics, the Japanese puppet regime, and the Green and Red Gang. During his time as an agent, he provided accurate strategic intelligence on the war deployments of Germany and the Soviet Union and the Japanese army during World War II. He was a very powerful and great agent.

The opportunity for him to successfully infiltrate the Japanese spy agency was this Iwai Eiichi. Of course, Yuan Xueyi in this world is not called this name, but has another more well-known identity and name - Ming Lou, the eldest son of the wealthy Ming family in Shanghai!
The Ming family belonged to the second tier among the wealthy families in Shanghai. When the Ye Labor Union was still in existence, the Ming family focused on marginal industries in the suburbs and county towns of Shanghai. After the Labor Union was disbanded, they gradually took over a lot of gang territories.

Previously, the Independent Regiment had wiped out all the gangs in Shanghai. In addition, the three tycoons of Yongxing were defeated one by one by Ye Luo. The Ming family, which had always remained neutral and served as Feng Jingyao's younger brother in the French Concession, gradually rose.

After the death of Ming Ruidong, the head of the Ming family, Ming Lou has been running the huge Ming family industry. Over the past ten years, the Ming family has firmly sat on the top spot of the second echelon of Shanghai's wealthy families. Ming Lou is a very low-key person and basically does not attend any business activities. He only focuses on running the family business.

Not long ago, a certain Mr. Wang gained control of the Nanjing National Government. Ming Lou suddenly emerged and served as the chief financial adviser of the Economic Department of the Ministry of Finance of the Jiangcheng National Government, deputy director of the Special Commission, and inspector general of the General Administration of Customs. Only then did he gradually come into the sight of senior officials and the public.

Now that the principal has regained power, Minglou and his group of Wang's followers naturally don't have a good time. He was transferred to the Finance Department of Shanghai City Hall as a small section chief, and has been idle at home.

In fact, Ming Lou’s other identity now is the colonel chief of the intelligence department of Dai Li’s special agent department, code-named “Viper”, and he is also the leader of the underground organization’s underground intelligence group in Shanghai, code-named “Cobra”.

Minglou's opportunity to infiltrate the Japanese spy agency was through his acquaintance with Iwai Eiichi, but the two certainly don't know each other yet.

Being looked at by Ye Luo for a while, Iwai Eiichi felt a little chilly and uncomfortable. He had heard that many big figures in the Republic of China had homosexual tendencies. Could it be that this handsome young man in front of him also had it?
Seeing Iwai Eiichi avoiding his sight, Ye Luo was stunned for a moment, then continued to smile at Okamoto Jusan and said, "Consul General Okamoto, what do you think of my proposal? Five million dollars, this price will probably drop to more than four million in a few days."

"I'll consider it." Okamoto Jusan was really eager to sell it, but there were too many secrets in the Hongkou Dojo, especially those confidential documents that had not been transferred yet. If he sold it to Ye Luo at this time, what would be the difference between that and treason?
But if it drags on like this, Ye Luo will definitely lower the purchase price again and again, and every time he lowers it, countless dollars will flow out from through his fingers!
"Do you still want to consider it? Then I'll have to come again next time." Ye Luo spread his hands. "But Consul General Okamoto, you also know that I bought this place to build a new cinema. Nowadays, talkies are popular all over the world, and there are only three talkies in the Republic of China, one of which is my Ye's Guangming Cinema, which is also the only one in Shanghai. If you are reluctant to sell the dojo to me, I may find another good place to build a cinema."

"A movie theater with sound?" Okamoto Jusan became even more anxious.

He naturally knew that Ye's Film Company had already entered the Hollywood market, and that the sound films it had produced in recent years had been very popular both at home and abroad. The proprietress of Ye's Film Company, Lin Rushen, had even appeared on the cover of many American film fashion magazines.

Ye Luo wanted to build a new cinema. The Hongkou area in the Japanese Concession was a gathering place for intellectuals who liked to watch movies, so it was understandable that he chose the Hongkou Dojo.

After the slight doubt in his heart disappeared, Okamoto Jusan decided to transfer the information as soon as possible and then kill Ye Luo severely.

It turns out they were planning to build a cinema!

"Yeah, doesn't Consul General Okamoto watch movies?" Ye Luo looked at him with deliberate confusion.

Okamoto Jusan gritted his teeth and said, "I understand. Please let me think about it for a few more days." (End of this chapter)