Imported safes were just becoming popular at this time, coming in all sorts of designs – wooden ones, metal ones, Chinese-style ones, Western-style ones – all quite cumbersome, not easily carried off by common thieves. As for locks, most were general locks hanging at the door; the heavier and thicker, the safer.

Lin Yuchan compared them all around but wasn’t satisfied with any.

However, after walking a few more steps inside, she suddenly discovered a Western Herring security cabinet in the corner, not knowing which foreigner had sold it secondhand. It finally matched her impression of what a “safe” should look like: metal-cast body, with pin tumbler lock core and dial, thick door. However, due to the compact lock body, the dial was inconvenient to use, and the markings were all in English, making it seem unpopular – currently on sale at twenty percent off.

She happily chose this one.

The shopkeeper was delighted to move his slow-selling inventory, his queue nearly coming undone with joy, offering free home delivery, saying he’d send someone tomorrow.

“May I ask the young lady’s home address?”

Lin Yuchan thought for a moment and said: “Yi…”

Su Minguan suddenly spoke up, competing for her words: “Yixing Shipping Company.”

Lin Yuchan: “…xing Shipping Company.”

The two looked at each other.

Lin Yuchan made a “please” gesture to him, whispering: “I’ll generously reward the errand boy.”

What kind of person buys Western safes? If delivered directly to the Hongkou branch, with only two women minding the shop, it would inevitably attract attention from those with ulterior motives. Lin Yuchan had come prepared today to “keep a low profile while cashing in her lottery ticket,” so naturally couldn’t give her real address.

The shopkeeper was stunned, not expecting a young girl to live at a shipping company. He looked at Lin Yuchan questioningly, and only after receiving confirmation did he record the shipping company’s address in his book with confusion.

Meanwhile, he lamented inwardly about declining moral standards – such a tender and delicate little girl actually changing into men’s clothes to work at a shipping company, had she gone crazy wanting to be Mulan? Her family didn’t even try to stop her.

Lin Yuchan cheerfully paid the deposit and received two jingling silver keys. The shopkeeper specifically reminded her that these keys were difficult to duplicate, requiring a specialized Western locksmith at high cost, so she absolutely mustn’t lose them.

Lin Yuchan felt even more reassured hearing this, waving the keys at Su Minguan with a smile: “Need free storage services?”

He had long since returned to normal emotions, smiling as he mimicked her tone: “I’m afraid you’ll run off and disappear someday, and my things will all go down the drain.”

Lin Yuchan snorted with laughter, happily letting him escort her back to Hongkou, taking back her bundle.

Su Minguan cupped his hands in farewell: “Be careful tonight.”

Lin Yuchan laughed: “Don’t worry. I’ll sleep with my money under my pillow.”

As he was leaving, he suddenly turned back two steps, looked at the small “Yixing” seal at her courtyard gate, and reached out to feel the slightly indented copper coin groove.

His slender fingertips were clean, with slight moisture at the nail tips – a few evening raindrops.

“Do you usually clean this area?” he asked out of nowhere.

Lin Yuchan shook her head: “Occasionally. But beggars often spend the night at the door; they might lean here to rest, wiping away all the dust.”

Su Minguan asked again: “Any suspicious people recently?”

Lin Yuchan was startled, her mind conjuring up various third-rate crime novels as she returned to the door to ask him seriously: “Thieves casing the joint? Nobody knew I was withdrawing money today.”

Crime rates were high in the foreign settlement, with petty theft occurring daily. But Lin Yuchan meticulously put up her door boards every day, never flaunted wealth on the street, and hadn’t been targeted yet.

Su Minguan shook his head gently, smiling: “Thieves also care about efficiency. With all your layers of Western locks, by the time they smashed them all open, all the patrol officers in the settlement could come watch the show.”

Lin Yuchan’s imagination ran even wilder: “Other gangs coming to grab territory?”

Su Minguan laughed: “Shanghai local gangs prefer talking to fighting. If there were issues, they’d come directly to Yixing to negotiate – don’t worry, it’s probably just beggars. A’Mei, farewell.”

Su Minguan returned to Yixing and briefly checked the accounts.

The previously obscure Yixing Shipping had emerged as a dark horse this year, attracting attention.

Shanghai’s transportation industry circle wasn’t large. Excluding official merchants specializing in grain transport, the remaining Chinese ship owners mostly knew each other – if not intimately, at least by face. For weddings, funerals, or opening branch offices, they’d show up to support each other.

Though it wasn’t year-end accounting time yet, countless sharp eyes had already spotted Yixing’s potential early. In the small drawer under the counter, year-end banquet invitations had piled up half a foot high, and some had written inquiring about investment opportunities.

Matchmaker cards were fewer, though. Since the gossip about Boss Su being a “wife-killer” spread, fellow merchants cherished their daughters dearly. While they still drank and chatted with him in business settings, they’d all blacklisted him in personal matters.

He could attend the banquets, Su Minguan thought, but forget about investments.

Currently, Yixing’s shares are concentrated. Aside from being tricked out of one twenty-fifth by that cunning little girl, he’d given another twenty-fifth to senior employees as incentive. The rest he didn’t want to dilute yet.

Yixing’s business seemed prosperous, but there were many expenses behind the scenes that fellow merchants never imagined.

Since the Small Swords Society uprising failed and the Taiping Army’s situation became chaotic, the Heaven and Earth Society groups in Jiangsu and Zhejiang were leaderless. After Chu Nanyun’s betrayal, Shanghai had completely become a Hongmen power vacuum.

Until he reopened the “authentic” Yixing, this news spread along certain secret networks, traveling farther and farther, with more and more people coming to seek the organization.

Following century-old rules, he provided lodging for the homeless, job introductions for the unemployed, medical care for the injured and disabled, and help settling legal troubles for those entangled in lawsuits.

Large sums of money were spent on this.

But he didn’t mind spending this money. Since he hadn’t fulfilled his predecessors’ most important trust, at least taking on some basic organizational responsibilities counted as compensation.

Besides, these duties wouldn’t bankrupt him. Looking through centuries of Heaven and Earth Society accounts, the most expensive activity was actually “overthrowing the Qing and restoring the Ming” – purchasing weapons, recruiting soldiers, bribing officials, providing disability compensation – after each doomed uprising, everything returned to zero and started over.

Su Minguan remembered learning English in childhood, reading a Western fable about a ghost who committed crimes and was sentenced to hard labor in the eighteenth level of hell, pushing a large stone up a steep mountain. Whenever the stone was about to reach the summit, it would suddenly slide back to its original position, forcing him to start over.

Su Minguan felt this ghost must have drunk too much of Meng Po’s soup – why repeat the same failure over and over?

Probably, he harbored hope that one time would happen to succeed.

He, too, once harbored such hope, but mysteriously, ever since meeting a mischievous little sorceress, the stone in his heart had grown lighter and more transparent, until one day he decided to forget it, because it wasn’t the “primary contradiction.”

So after eliminating this most dangerous “organizational duty,” he discovered that Yixing’s cash flow was quite healthy, enough to sustain him for another five hundred years.

But continued expansion would be difficult.

Of course, Yixing couldn’t be too high-profile, or it would attract government attention, bringing trouble upon itself needlessly.

Whenever he missed a lucrative expansion opportunity, that part of his merchant blood would start acting up, tormenting him with headaches, making him feel born at the wrong time, his talents unrecognized – how had he been so foolish as to take Jin Lanhe’s position?

Tap, tap, tap.

Someone knocked at the door with a specific rhythm.

Su Minguan calmly closed the account book.

Unexpectedly, no one was outside. Shi Peng handed him a thin letter.

“Boss, three and a half incense sticks.”

The letter bore three long and one short red marks. Su Minguan’s pupils contracted slightly in surprise.

He hadn’t seen this format since leaving Guangdong.

He extracted a thin sheet of paper covered with jumbled, disordered Chinese characters.

Su Minguan tried several decoding methods common in the Heaven and Earth Society and quickly translated it: aside from a pile of brotherly pleasantries, the only useful information was a request for him to meet at a certain location in Pudong at the fourth watch tomorrow.

The signature was still symbolic. Su Minguan deeply regretted not studying seriously back then, learning just enough to be dangerous. But who told the Heaven and Earth Society to love using code words and secret signals so much? After hundreds of years, their secret inventory only grew, with different regions not fully compatible – even imperial examinations didn’t require memorizing so much.

No wonder fewer and fewer people joined.

Of course, he could only complain inwardly. In his youth, every complaint earned him an hour of standing punishment at night.

He stared at those symbols for a long while, until Shi Peng spoke up, carefully educating this helmsman whose professional skills were lacking.

“…Seems like the Jiangsu-Zhejiang branch symbol… Ah, no, I heard the helmsman already passed away… Chu Nanyun decided to establish his faction after hearing of his death…”

Su Minguan suddenly looked up.

“Do they know about the change in leadership at Shanghai Yixing?”

“Don’t know… I mean, I don’t know whether they know or not…”

Su Minguan pondered. Since the letter properly used all Heaven and Earth Society codes, though the language habits differed from Guangdong and Guangxi, and had “overthrow Qing restore Ming” cipher symbols in the corner, the Jiangsu-Zhejiang branch couldn’t have been co-opted by the Qing court.

Besides, if that were true, Yixing would have been flattened by authorities long ago, with no chance for him to happily count money here.

But still…

He remained somewhat puzzled, asking: “How long has it been since the various branches met together?”

Shi Peng consulted with several senior subordinates and told them: “At least ten years… after the Small Swords Society, there was no…”

Su Minguan called out names: “Shi Peng, Yuan Daming, Jiang Gaosheng.”

All handled both legitimate and illegitimate business – his capable subordinates.

He hid a foreign gun in his umbrella and prepared ammunition.

The named assistants grew nervous, reaching up to wipe their sweat.

“Those who followed Chu Nanyun in betrayal, I’ve already pardoned them all. The Jiangsu-Zhejiang branch is my equal; I won’t let them pursue it further.” He suddenly smiled, “Why the rush? Sleep first, there’s still time.”

He folded the letter, about to put it in his chest, when his nose suddenly caught a faint, sweet, cloying scent. Light, but very distinctive.

He suddenly frowned.

Shi Peng, beside him, also noticed the letter had a smell. He leaned over. Su Minguan pushed him away.

Opium. This he didn’t need to review.

He laughed coldly. Those Jiangsu-Zhejiang brothers were living quite comfortably.

Then, as if a discordant string suddenly twanged in his heart, countless half-formed thoughts connected into sharp lines, hooking a certain worry from the depths of his heart to the surface.

He called back the men who were about to disperse and rest, quickly ordering: “Board up the doors, come with me to Boya Hongkou. Everyone else, keep watch!”