Wang Xu was already quite satisfied with the price Shopkeeper Zhou offered.
However, business is business; from Shopkeeper Zhou's attitude, it seemed this price wasn't his bottom line yet.
After thinking for a moment, Wang Xu held up two fingers and said, "Two 'Little Yellow Croakers' for one watch. If you agree, we have a deal; if not, I'll find another shop."
"Two!" Shopkeeper Zhou's brow furrowed slightly as he paced the room, a look of difficulty on his face.
Watches were a new invention and shipped from abroad. The cost price for one was generally around 40 Silver Dollars, and they sold for 50.
Wang Xu's watches were higher-end than those. He had only offered a purchase price of 50 Silver Dollars; if it were any more expensive, it wouldn't seem worthwhile.
"Shopkeeper Zhou, my watches are no ordinary goods. Look at this luster and the craftsmanship; they're top-tier, premium choices. People who can afford watches don't care about a little extra cost. With this kind of class, why worry about not having business?" Wang Xu's stock was cheap, but that was compared to the 21st century; in 1940, these watches were enough to lead the trend.
In these times, the rich were truly wealthy, while the poor starved in the streets.
Someone who could produce 40 Silver Dollars to buy a watch wouldn't care if the price was a bit higher.
They pursued class, trends, and taste. Wang Xu was very confident in his coated watches; his business with Shopkeeper Zhou was a win-win.
"Fine, two 'Little Yellow Croakers' it is. But I have one condition: next time you have new stock, you must continue to look after me!" Shopkeeper Zhou ran a large business; once the price was agreed upon, twenty-four small gold bars were quickly brought out.
Wang Xu wasn't very familiar with gold, so he used a crude method: scratching the gold bars twice.
Gold is relatively soft; a real gold bar will leave a clear mark when scratched with a hard object, whereas fake ones cannot.
Seeing the clear marks on the gold bars, Wang Xu smiled with even more satisfaction, repeatedly saying they would continue to cooperate next time.
"24 small gold bars, totaling about two and a half pounds—that's no small amount even in modern times. However, it seems a bit foolish to just take gold bars back. The best way is to use the gold bars to buy some antiques. That's how you make a massive profit!"
Gold in times of chaos, antiques in times of peace—this is an eternal, hard truth.
In 1940 China, antiques weren't worth much because, amidst the war, these things had depreciated severely.
Conversely, reality was different. The people had money, the world was stable, and the price of antiques rose like blooming bamboo, higher and higher with every stage.
Moreover, the time difference between the two eras was only seventy years.
In the antique industry, even with scientific appraisal, a difference of a few decades is very subtle; no one would dare claim it's a forgery.
Wang Xu pondered secretly, feeling more and more that this path was feasible and more profitable than simply returning with gold.
His only concern was that he didn't understand antiques. If he bought a fake and took it back, he would be utterly humiliated.
"I'm a stranger in a strange land here; I'll inevitably be cheated when buying antiques. If only someone could act as a middleman. Earlier, that Shopkeeper Zhou seemed decent, but should I go back and ask for his help? No, I'm not familiar with Shopkeeper Zhou either. In my situation, it's best to move around. It'll be trouble if someone with ill intentions targets me. Better to be cautious."
Wang Xu wasn't an agent, but he had a natural wariness and cherished his life dearly.
But thinking this way, he was in a bind again. If he didn't go to Shopkeeper Zhou for help, where was he supposed to buy genuine antiques?
"Lotus Leaf Chicken! Freshly out of the oven! Ancestral recipe! If it's not delicious, it's free!"
He wandered aimlessly through the streets until the cries of someone selling Lotus Leaf Chicken pulled Wang Xu back to reality.
Smelling the fragrance, Wang Xu really did feel a bit hungry. He looked up into the shop and was suddenly stunned. "Eh? It's Sun Honglei again!"
Sun Honglei—no, it should be Yu Zecheng—was currently walking into the shop.
Wang Xu suddenly thought that he could ask Yu Zecheng for help. In the TV series, Yu Zecheng seemed quite warm-hearted. On the surface, he was a member of the Bureau of Investigation and Statistics, but secretly he was with the Underground Party. He wouldn't embezzle his gold, would he?
He remembered an episode where Yu Zecheng saw a hungry little beggar and shared his meat buns with him. From that, the man was definitely not bad; it was just his identity as a double agent that kept him at a constant distance from others.
But while others feared Yu Zecheng's identity, Wang Xu didn't.
He was a modern person. Once he got the antiques and returned to modern times, whether it was the Bureau of Investigation and Statistics or the Central Statistics Bureau, it wouldn't matter to him.
"Yu..."
Wang Xu was about to step forward to strike up a conversation when he heard Yu Zecheng, who was walking ahead, say to the waiter with a smile, "Your Lotus Leaf Chicken is free if it's not delicious. Give me an 'undelicious' portion; I happen to have no money on me today."
"Oh, look at what you're saying! You're an old customer. Even if you don't have money, would I really not let you in?" The waiter, beaming, pulled Yu Zecheng inside without further ado.
The customers in the shop clearly knew Yu Zecheng as well and chimed in with smiles.
But Wang Xu noticed that as soon as Yu Zecheng and the waiter had that exchange, a rickshaw puller at the door climbed out of his rickshaw as if he'd heard an order, though he had seemed drowsy, and ran off with his rickshaw.
"Is that a secret meeting?" Wang Xu wasn't sure, but he felt it might be.
Earlier, he had clearly seen the puller sleeping in the rickshaw, and there were no customers around. There was no reason for him to wake up and run off with the rickshaw.
Considering Yu Zecheng's true identity, Wang Xu felt it was suspicious. After all, while others didn't know, he knew that Yu Zecheng had already joined the Underground Party by now.
"Waiter, a portion of Lotus Leaf Chicken!" Wang Xu walked in and found a seat.
In no time, the chicken arrived. He ate while looking outside, planning to see who Yu Zecheng's contact was.
As it turned out, he didn't see the contact; instead, within just a few minutes, Yu Zecheng appeared before him.
"Friend, we meet again. What a coincidence!" Yu Zecheng still wore that simple smile, giving off a very friendly vibe.
But whether it was a guilty conscience or something else, Wang Xu felt the surrounding air grow a bit cold.
"Yeah, what a coincidence." Seeing Yu Zecheng, Wang Xu knew the contact definitely wouldn't show up.
He didn't know how he'd been spotted, but from Yu Zecheng's demeanor, he was clearly coming for him, his gaze not without scrutiny.
"Mr. Yu, I mean you no harm. I'm just a bit curious and was planning to ask for your help." Wang Xu wasn't afraid of being discovered by Yu Zecheng or of his goals being exposed, because the Underground Party's style was different from the Bureau of Investigation and Statistics—they didn't have a policy of 'rather kill a thousand innocents than let one guilty man go'.
Yu Zecheng was Bureau of Investigation and Statistics on the surface, but actually Underground Party, so his methods of handling things had changed.
If Yu Zecheng hadn't joined the Underground Party, he believed that at the slightest suspicion, he would have been taken away and thrown straight into an interrogation room.
But now, Yu Zecheng seemed more to be testing his identity and pondering his intentions, with no intention of turning hostile immediately.
"Help? We don't know each other, do we?" Hearing the word "help," Yu Zecheng was somewhat confused.
What confused him even more was yet to come. Wang Xu directly took out a bag, pushed it forward, and said, "I know you, but you don't know me—it's complicated. I'm really asking for your help. Here are 24 gold bars. I want to exchange them for 20 gold bars' worth of antiques; the rest is your commission."
"You must be joking, friend. I don't understand what you're saying." As soon as Yu Zecheng's hand touched the bag, it was as if he'd touched a landmine; he pulled his hand away quickly.
Wang Xu believed he had already felt what was in the bag and said sincerely, "I'm truly asking for your help. Once the items are bought, four gold bars are yours. You can even decide the location for the exchange; I won't even ask."
"More than twenty gold bars... you trust me that much?" Although Yu Zecheng was highly intelligent, he wasn't a monster; looking at Wang Xu, he found him somewhat difficult to understand.
Wang Xu didn't think so. He nodded slightly and said, "In Tianjin City, if I don't trust you, who can I trust? You have to help me with this! Besides, with prices so high now, life at home must be tough, right? Four gold bars, if used well, can be of great use."
"Heh, you must be a madman. I still don't understand. Farewell." Yu Zecheng turned and left, not looking back once despite Wang Xu's calls.
Wang Xu was puzzled himself. The Underground Party's missions included securing supplies; why would Yu Zecheng refuse this money delivered to his doorstep?
Could it be too little? That shouldn't be it; a commission of four gold bars was certainly not low. If he didn't know what kind of person Yu Zecheng was, he wouldn't have dared to offer it.
After some thought, Wang Xu began to understand. He knew Yu Zecheng's identity, but Yu Zecheng didn't know his.
With this information asymmetry, Yu Zecheng probably mistook him for an agent from another department and was imagining things.