20 years of the Republic of China

Chapter 548: Exploring the Old City Again

"Crash-"

In the old town apartment, Mrs. Mei poured all the gold, silver and jewels in the jewelry box onto the table. She frowned and picked and chose among them, muttering to herself:
"Where did it go? It was clearly placed here..."

Mrs. Mei was very depressed because she lost a pearl necklace for no apparent reason, so she was in no mood to play cards tonight.

At first, she suspected that it was done by an outsider, but then she thought, if it was really done by an outsider, why didn't they just take everything and only take one piece of jewelry?
Then, he began to suspect that the sisters who played cards had stolen the items, but he had no evidence and could not ask them.

After searching for a long time, Mrs. Mei was finally sure that the necklace had been stolen. An idea suddenly came to her mind, so she immediately put on her slippers and walked quickly towards the telephone in the living room.

Just then, there was a sudden knock on the door.

"Boom boom boom!"

"Who is it?"

Mrs. May walked over to answer the door impatiently.

He pulled open the wooden door of the house, looked out through the security bars, and was stunned.

There were four men in black standing in the corridor, leaning against the door frame, staring at her with a half-smile on their face.

"Who is that?"

Mrs. Mei was a little panicked. She subconsciously looked at the padlock on the security iron fence, only to find that the padlock had been opened silently.

Yang Lazi grinned and poorly imitated the soft Wu dialect, saying, "Sister-in-law, we are good people, and we are here to bring you warmth!"

Upon hearing this, Lao Jie and others shook their heads and smiled helplessly.

Soon, Zhao Guoyan, wearing a windbreaker, came from the side, stretched out his hands to push away the brothers' shoulders, opened the anti-theft iron bars, and walked into the house.

"What are you going to do?" Mrs. Mei was so scared that she immediately took a few steps back.

"Nothing, don't be nervous, I just want to chat with you."

Zhao Guoyan stood on the doormat, looked down at the floor inside the house, and suddenly asked, "Do I need to take off my shoes?"

Mrs. Mei did not comment, but replied inexplicably: "You are here to look for Ming, he is not here with me."

"Who is Ming?"

Zhao Guoyan frowned, looking a little confused. He left two brothers outside to guard the door, and he led Yang Lazi and Lao Jie in.

Mrs. Mei was of course apprehensive, but seeing that they came with ill intentions, she did not dare to act rashly, let alone shout or yell, for fear of bringing unnecessary disaster, so she just retreated hastily and kept her distance from the three people.

Zhao Guoyan stood in the middle of the room, without saying much, just looking around. His eyes stayed on the telephone in the living room for a moment, and then he walked straight into the bedroom.

Seeing this, Yang Lazi immediately stepped forward and hugged Mrs. Mei's waist, saying with a smile: "Let's go, let's talk in the house."

Mrs. Mei shuddered all over and was about to dodge, but when she glanced at the other person, she saw a gun on his waist. She didn't dare to struggle anymore and had to be quiet and let him do what he wanted.

There was a dim light in the bedroom.

Zhao Guoyan stood in front of the dressing table, fiddling with the gold, silver and jewels on the table, and then opened the jewelry boxes one by one, as if he was looking for something purposefully.

Seeing this, Mrs. Mei said hurriedly: "All these jewels are for you, please let me go, my husband is..."

Before she finished speaking, Zhao Guoyan suddenly raised his hand, signaling her not to say any more.

Yang Lazi smiled and helped Mrs. Mei sit down on the bed. He stroked her shoulders, neck and thighs, and teased her in a nonchalant manner, "Sister-in-law, don't be nervous. If you're nervous, I'll be nervous too. My little heart is beating wildly. If you don't believe me, touch it. Come on, touch it. Don't be shy!"

Mrs. Mei didn't dare to resist and had to let herself be manipulated.

So, they were chatting and rummaging through boxes and cabinets on one side.

Not long after, Zhao Guoyan suddenly stopped and took out a half-length photo the size of a stamp from his jewelry box.

In the photo, one is a young Mrs. Mei, and the other is a man in his early thirties with uneven facial features and a slightly crooked face.

Hold the photo and look at it carefully for a moment.

Zhao Guoyan couldn't help but frowned, and then sat down on the chair in front of the dressing table.

Chuang Hu had seen this photo on the night he left the Old Town Apartment, but because the light was dim and time was tight, he didn't have time to think about it.

Now Zhao Guoyan looked at it carefully and immediately found many suspicious points.

The man in the photo is not good-looking, and is very different from Mr. Mei described by Jiang Lianheng and others. He does not look like a pretty boy at all, and his age does not match.

At this time, Yang Lazi was still flirting with Mrs. Mei, saying "Auntie, you smell so good, did you put on some cold cream?" and "Auntie, please have pity on me, I want to sleep with you." Mrs. Mei was so humiliated that she felt ashamed.

"Yang, stop it."

Zhao Guoyan interrupted him and Yang Lazi immediately shut up, but his hands were still restless and he was still groping around.

Then, Zhao Guoyan waved the photo in front of Mrs. Mei and asked, "Madam, who is this person next to you?"

"That's my husband." Mrs. Mei said in a shocking tone, "He works for the French police. I can give him some money. Can you please let me go?"

Zhao Guoyan's eyebrows tightened, and he asked hurriedly: "If he is your man, who is that little guy?"

"What little split?"

"A man, in his early thirties, wearing a white suit and with a slicked-back hair. He has been to this apartment and has been in your room. Don't tell me you don't know him."

"You are talking about Ming..." Mrs. Mei blushed and hesitated, "He... He is my brother..."

"Brother?" Zhao Guoyan and others looked at each other.

A wealthy lady who has been a widow for many years but still has charm, suddenly has a brother who does not work properly?

There is no need to think too much about this matter. Just look at Mrs. Mei's reaction and you can guess the romantic secret behind it.

In this case, the man in white suit and with side-parted hair named "A Ming" is not the so-called Mr. Mei.

Zhao Guoyan was a little surprised, but not unacceptable.

In fact, Jiang Lianheng and others never asked Mrs. Mei in person whether her husband was the man in the white suit.

They just happened to see the man going in and out of Mrs. Mei's room every now and then, so they naturally assumed that he was the so-called Mr. Mei.

Now that the situation has changed, Zhao Guoyan turned around and asked, "You just said that your man works in the police station?"

"Yes, he is Inspector Huang's apprentice!" Mrs. Mei said hurriedly as if she had grasped a life-saving straw, "You know Inspector Huang, right? Don't make a big deal out of it, or my husband——"

"Isn't your man a freeloader?"

"He's a freeloader, that's why he works for the police station!"

Mrs. May did not lie.

Throughout the entire foreign concessions, whether it was the French Concession or the International Settlement, nine out of ten people working in the police station were filthy hooligans who lived for free. However, in Shanghai, saying that a person was a hooligans who lived for free was not a loss of status at all.

Moreover, Mr. Mei is just a lowly "busybody" in the police station. This identity is not even as glorious as that of a "freeloader".

Previously, Jiang Lianheng and others had focused all their attention on Du Yong and Zhang Xiaolin, and had neglected the power of Huang Mapi's Lao Chai. Zhao Guoyan suddenly felt that things were becoming clearer, so he hurriedly asked, "How long has your man not been back?"

"Him?" Mrs. Mei suddenly felt angry. "He never came back. It's been almost a month. I know he has a mistress outside!"

"So you two haven't been in touch recently?"

"We've had two phone calls recently."

"When?"

"Let me think... I can't remember clearly. Oh, it seems that he called me once after the incident at Sanjin Company..."

"What did he say to you?" Zhao Guoyan asked.

Listening to the other party's accent, Mrs. Mei gradually had a bad feeling in her heart. After hesitating for a moment, she said, "He asked me if anyone in my family had rented a house recently and how long it would be rented. He said that he had a few friends who wanted to come and stay with us."

Zhao Guoyan leaned forward with his elbows on his knees, staring straight at Mrs. Mei, and suddenly raised his hand and pointed at Yang Lazi beside her.

"Ma'am, you'd better tell me the truth. My brother is worse than a beast when he gets mad. He doesn't even let men go. Do you understand what I mean?"

Upon hearing this, Yang Lazi couldn't help but pursed his lips and silently took the basin of dirty water.

Mrs. Mei was terrified and swore, "No, no, no, I'm telling the truth. He just told me that if the tenant moves out, I should notify him immediately and he would arrange for his friends to come and stay with me."

"So are his friends here?"

"No." Mrs. May shook her head.

Zhao Guoyan slowly straightened up, thinking about something.

Apparently, the spies of the Green Gang's "three big bosses" had noticed the situation at the Old Town Apartment much earlier than expected.

However, perhaps because it was not certain enough, or because of the delay in information transmission, or it is possible that the team was fully focused on dealing with the Axe Gang at the time, in short, no action was taken.

But one thing is still not certain - how did they follow the clues and find the old city?

Zhao Guoyan then asked: "So, you called the tenant on the night he moved out?"

"Yes." Mrs. Mei remained silent and asked tentatively, "How many of them are Mr. Jiang's friends?"

Zhao Guoyan didn't respond and asked directly, "Madam, do you know what happened at Zhabei Railway Station that night?"

"I know, but I heard from someone that the person who got into trouble was a man called Wang Laojiu."

Zhao Guoyan waved his hand and asked again: "Don't worry about who it is. Tell me about your brother. Do you have a photo of him?"

Mrs. Mei was about to shake her head, but when she saw Yang Lazi beside her, she immediately changed her mind and said, "Yes, I'll find it for you, but Ming hasn't been to my place for several days."

Yang Lazi smiled and said, "It's okay, I'll do it later."

Mrs. Mei shuddered all over, pretended not to hear, and then went to search in the bedside table.

Soon, a small photo sandwiched between the pages of a book was handed over.

Zhao Guoyan took it and looked at it. He saw that the man in the photo looked a little young, but his slicked-back hair and powdered face did fit Jiang Lianheng's description.

He put the two photos into his arms, and without further questions, he said, "Madam, tonight——"

"Nothing happened tonight." Mrs. Mei quickly said, "Don't worry, I won't tell you anything, really, really, please let me go. I don't know anything, I just made a phone call..."

Yang Lazi and Lao Jie smiled at each other and watched Mrs. Mei's panic with interest.

After a moment, Zhao Guoyan raised his hand and pointed at the dressing table, and suddenly asked: "Madam, you lost a necklace, right?"

Mrs. Mei was stunned, and suddenly felt a great fear in her heart.

"How did you know that?"

"You don't want to lose another life?"

"No, no, no, I don't want to." Mrs. Mei was so anxious that her mouth was dry and she almost cried. "I really just made a phone call. I don't know anything else. Please let me go."

At this time, Yang Lazi's hand had already quietly reached behind him, waiting for Zhao Guoyan's order.

However, the order was not issued yet.

Things have changed.

The original news was not accurate. There was a deviation in Mr. Mei's identity. This person was not the man in the white suit with a side parted hair, but a snitch from the French police station.

Zhao Guoyan had to make his own judgment.

After pondering for a while, he suddenly recalled what Chuanghu said in his mind - Mrs. Mei's card game sisters all shared the same suffering.

Thinking of this, Zhao Guoyan suddenly shook his head and said, "Madam, it is impossible to let you go, but I can give you a chance to save yourself."

"Just tell me, I'll do whatever you say." Mrs. Mei said quickly.

"Let's make a deal. It's good for both you and me, but I have to say something ugly first. If my brother can enter your room once for your pearl necklace, he can enter it a second time. Do you understand? Don't scare us with the police station. Those policemen don't have time to follow you around all day, but we two have plenty of time. Do you understand this?"

"clear."

Mrs. Mei looked pale and nodded blankly.

Of course, she had no capital to refuse, but she didn't understand what kind of deal could bring her any benefit.

……

Fifteen minutes later, the door opened again.

Zhao Guoyan led the crowd and walked out of the Old Town Apartment Building. Naturally, there were two brothers standing guard on the road in front of the building.

After meeting and talking for a few words, they split into three teams. One team, led by Lao Jie, headed towards the American Concession; another team, led by Zhao Guoyan, headed towards Edo Road in the French Concession. Finally, the remaining two continued to lurk near the Old Town Apartment.

On the way to the big world.

As they walked, Yang Lazi asked, "Brother Yan, when are we going to fight the Qing Gang?"

"What's the hurry?"

Yang Lazi quickly explained with a smile: "No, no, I'm not in a hurry, it's just that... Lao Niu went to catch the street performer, and we came to find this old woman, and it feels like... it's useless!"

"Useless?" Zhao Guoyan stopped and said seriously, "This is Shanghai, not Fengtian. You don't even know the Qing Gang's spies, and you plan to fight them. Are you looking for death?"

We must find out how the boss's original itinerary was leaked.

Otherwise, these brothers who came to support might repeat the same mistakes at any time.

Moreover, only when this matter is clarified can they decide who can be trusted and who cannot be trusted. Otherwise, they will be like headless flies, bumping around in confusion.

"We came all the way here, not to be targets for others." Zhao Guoyan reminded solemnly, "This is not the time when you are doing dirty work in Fengtian. Your boss will cover you for everything. Shiliyangchang is someone else's territory. If you let something slip, I don't know how many brothers will be killed!"

(End of this chapter)