svetikya Chapter 3 The most important thing is to survive.
Chapter 3 The most important thing is to survive.
Han Zhenhua stood on the street corner, clutching the brown paper bag, and only after watching the "Bird's Nest" disappear into the crowd did he finally breathe a sigh of relief and open the bag.
The paper bag contained a key, a "refugee" ID card in the name of "Han Erleng", the address of the safe house: No. 17, Mintiney Road, French Concession, an inconspicuous apartment building, and finally 50 yuan in "legal tender".
Han Zhenhua breathed a sigh of relief after receiving his ID and 50 yuan in legal tender. However, he was speechless when he saw the name "Han Erleng" (meaning "Han the Fool"). He was wearing jeans, a Nike tracksuit, and carrying a backpack. He had just gotten a buzz cut and exuded a youthful and capable aura. Although his outfit was out of place in this era, his clean, tidy, and neat appearance had absolutely nothing to do with the name "Erlengzi" (meaning "fool"), which came from a poor background.
But so be it, he's still a simpleton. At least he has a proper place in this world. Thinking this, he opened his phone again, entered the address, and a series of messages appeared!
Through research, it was discovered that Rue Minnine in the French Concession and the bustling Avenue Joffre were two completely different worlds. If Avenue Joffre was a developed area of Europe and America, then Rue Minnine was a complete African slum!
This is a completely chaotic area with extremely poor public security!
"Damn! Moving into this safe house is tantamount to handing my life over to the Kuomintang. Just considering the security situation in this area, it's questionable whether an unarmed young man like me can even survive!"
So this place is absolutely off-limits!
Although I am willing to do something for the country, the premise is that I can survive. I am not a national hero and I have no noble spirit of "sacrificing myself to light up others". In the end, I was just an ordinary citizen in my previous life! He sneered and stuffed the paper bag into his backpack.
Through a large-scale search conducted by mobile AI, it was discovered that the Shanghai Military Intelligence Bureau station was destroyed by the Japanese army three times in history, from 1937 to 1938. It was even found that high-ranking Japanese spies were lurking inside the Military Intelligence Bureau headquarters and the Second Bureau of the Ministry of National Defense, which was responsible for intelligence.
If they acted according to the Kuomintang's plan, they would be exposed once they were captured. After being exposed, they would only have two options: surrender or be tortured to death.
"I must have my own identity." He made up his mind and turned to walk towards the British concession.
After the outbreak of the War of Resistance against Japan, although Britain and France did not explicitly support the Republic of China, they did a humanitarian thing by "opening up the concessions and accepting refugees". Therefore, as long as you have this "Han Erleng" formal identity certificate, you can enter either the British concession or the French concession!
In those days, identity documents were just a piece of paper stamped with an official seal; there was no photo at all!
Come to think of it, in an era when even food was scarce, who had the money to take photos? Besides, how many photo studios were there in the whole country? Apart from big cities like Nanjing and Shanghai, ordinary counties didn't even have a single photo studio, so where would they get their photos?
The main reason for entering the British concession was that I had at least received nine years of compulsory education plus three years of high school. I had been exposed to English since elementary school. Although I didn't have much of an English environment over the past ten years, I had mastered three or four thousand words, so I had no problem understanding and communicating!
French? Not a single word!
In terms of Japanese, I probably only know a few phrases like "Baka yaru, mishi mishi" from movies like "Mine Warfare" and "Tunnel Warfare" that I watched as a child, and "Nani? How many floors can a bag of rice be carried up? How many floors can a bag of rice be carried up to... Shinra Tensei" from Japanese anime. In total, I probably only know less than ten phrases!
In this era, people who can speak English are extremely rare high-end talents, and they have no trouble finding jobs!
The British concession was more "international" than the French concession, and British police officers, Indian Sikh police, wealthy merchants and students who had fled there could be seen everywhere on the streets.
At the entrance of St. John's University, a group of students are posting anti-Japanese leaflets.
Han Zhenhua leaned closer and asked a middle-aged British man who looked like a teacher in broken English, "Excuse me, is there any way to enroll as a temporary student?"
The British teacher sized up his student and pointed to the administration office: "Try the office, but classes are chaotic now."
Half an hour later, he impressed the three British teachers with his not-so-fluent English and his demonstration of knowledge in numbers, physics, and chemistry.
One of the physics professors, who wore gold-rimmed glasses, immediately approved his enrollment as an auditor in the basic science courses. Although he would not have formal student status, he would be able to use the school's library and laboratories.
Han Zhenhua suppressed his overwhelming joy and repeatedly thanked the student administrator in English. He then completed the formalities with the student administrator and successfully registered as a "wartime temporary student." The name on his student ID was "Han Zhenhua," not the "Han Erleng" given to him by the Military Intelligence Bureau.
"Excuse me, are you new here?" a female student with braids and wearing a blue, fitted school uniform asked curiously.
"Yes, Han Zhenhua, he just fled to the foreign concession." Han Zhenhua smiled.
"My name is Lin Xiaowen, and I'm a physics major." She lowered her voice. "If you're interested in the front lines, we have a book club tonight."
He nodded perfunctorily, having no interest in this pure and innocent young beauty from the Republican era, because he had something more important to do now, something essential for survival at any time and in any place... "money"...
My top priority and most important task right now is to make money!
He only had 50 yuan in legal tender given to him by the Kuomintang in his bag. Legal tender had strong purchasing power at that time. 50 yuan was basically equivalent to 50 silver dollars. According to the prices at that time, a bag of flour was only 2 yuan. So there was no pressure to survive in the short term. But that was not enough. He had to make money!
As for how to make money, Han Zhenhua searched on his mobile phone all the way to the British Concession: how to get rich quickly in Shanghai in 1937.
The phone displayed a ton of information, such as reselling the drug amine sulfamethoxazole, which fiat currency would plummet and how to trade foreign exchange, which oil stocks would continue to rise... and hundreds of other messages!
But all of this information has one thing in common: it all requires "capital"!
I only have 50 yuan, what capital do I have! And with that 50 yuan, I still need to eat and stay...
When he thought about food and lodging, his eyes suddenly lit up. He remembered a spy novel he had read in his previous life, which was based on a true story.
That is the scene in "Borrowing a Gun" where telephone operator Pei Yanling uses her position to overhear a British businessman's conversation about how he was desperately trying to sell a property at 169 Jing'an Road in the British Concession due to war panic. However, no one was willing to take the sale, and the British businessman, eager to escape the war, had to temporarily abandon the property and rush back home under repeated urging from his wife. Pei Yanling, who had overheard the conversation, forged a transaction contract and thus legally took possession of the property!
Following this line of thought, Han Zhenhua decisively searched for information such as "a British businessman who abandoned his Shanghai property in 1937 due to the war... property at No. 169 Jing'an Road, British Concession" on his mobile phone AI, and found that this matter was actually true!