An extraordinary life journey through old Beijing courtyard houses

Jiang Baowu said impatiently, "Third brother, I've already said that."

"I'm busy! Don't upset Mom and Dad, or you'll distract me."

Jiang Baobin remained unmoved and handed a business card to his cheap second brother.

"This is my boss, Mr. Tom from America."

"He made sure I lived a respectable life, otherwise even he would be looked down upon."

"So I can't go back to my original back room unless I can move into one of the side rooms."

"Otherwise, Mr. Tom won't agree, and I don't want to lose my job because of it."

At this point, all he could do was try to intimidate others.

After Jiang Baobin finished speaking, he ignored everyone and turned his back to continue his standing meditation.

Jiang Baowu stared at Jiang Baobin's back with a surprised look for a full half minute.

His perception was turned upside down—is this still the third brother I know? He seems like a completely different person.

He used to be so quiet you wouldn't utter a word, but just now he rambled on and on.

Moreover, their attitude was extremely firm; they even dared not listen to their own words.

He used to be very afraid of himself, especially after he put on this "skin".

But Jiang Baowu was a shrewd man; he looked down at the business card covered in foreign characters.

Without saying anything more, he silently walked out of the courtyard.

Jiang Baobin sensed that the person had left, but deliberately ignored them—what are you pretending for?

In this world saturated with the internet, what haven't I seen? You, a mere police officer, have a long way to go.

Why did this guy suddenly become so domineering?

He used to be very timid in front of his family.

We can't entirely blame him, can we? He's new here, so he should have observed things first, right? Besides, that's the kind of personality the original owner had.

It's like being transferred to a new unit; you have to be some incredibly powerful person to start arguing with everyone and everything.

However, there was a power outage yesterday.

With nothing to do, Jiang Baobin lay on the bare kang (a heated brick bed) pondering things.

Then let him understand a principle—

Is it too presumptuous of you to try to cover up the fact that the original body was transported to another world and that you worked for Tom?

These days, there aren't any rampant online novels. No matter how much you mess around, no one will think of it as a time-travel story.

Therefore, worrying about being captured and dissected for research is simply needless anxiety.

And then there's the fact that I spend all my time with Tom, not to mention the Smith family's servants, and I've interviewed quite a few people before.

Including Yu Lizhang, whom I met yesterday, and the friend he introduced me to, whom I'm meeting today.

This broadens the scope of contact, and later generations have already summarized the experience—

You can get to know any stranger through a maximum of five people.

Therefore, trying to deliberately conceal this experience is a naive idea, and it will most likely backfire in the end.

It's better to admit to lying from the start than to be held accountable later.

I'm just an ordinary person with an honest family background. What's wrong with me working for a foreigner for a short period of time just to make a living?

Besides, this was in the evil old society. Did they not want people to survive?

So Jiang Baobin is preparing to change his strategy and bide his time. Ha, to hell with that!

I'm going to rise up!

Well, he was just having a little wild thought in his mind.

"When the sky is wild, it will rain; when people are wild, disaster will strike." This is an eternal truth.

In this chaotic time, survival is the most important thing, so it's best to keep a low profile.

But he won't do it if you ask him to be submissive again.

Let's get back to Jiang Baowu.

After leaving the courtyard, he did not immediately explain the situation to Mr. and Mrs. Jiang.

Instead, he rode his bicycle back to the police station.

I first went to the archives and borrowed an English-Chinese dictionary.

Then he placed the business card on the table and looked up the Chinese translation in the dictionary, referring to the English text on it.

Then write them down one by one on paper.

The very title of "journalist" gave him a headache.

Next up was "The New York Times," a name that had some recollection of him, but it was even more remarkable.

You have to understand, he never had the chance to come across foreign newspapers, so if he did remember one, it meant that the person in question was definitely a formidable figure.

After making a few phone calls, his suspicions were confirmed.

The New York Times is one of the three major newspapers in the United States, and it's not something we can afford to mess with.

Not to mention myself, even the bureau chief has to bow and scrape when he sees them.

As for how close the relationship was between the third brother and that reporter, Jiang Baowu had no intention of probing.

He had been a policeman for over a year, and the most important thing he had learned was—

Be careful, be careful, and be careful again when you do things!

Better to be a coward than a bird that sticks out!

××××××

Today, through Yu Lizhang's introduction, Tom met a man named Pan Youpeng.

This man was originally in the Guo army, but he fell off his horse while drunk and became disabled, forcing him to leave the army.

Now I'm just a second-class clerk (a commissioned official, roughly equivalent to a chief clerk in later times; the KMT's civil servants are divided into special appointment level 1, simple appointment level 8, recommended appointment level 12, commissioned appointment level 16, and fourth-class level 37), a really low-ranking official.

However, he had a crucial piece of evidence—a copy of the internal archives of the Guo Army's military supplies procurement department that had existed since 46.

This revealed a shocking "kickback system".

According to regulations, all businesses that undertake the procurement of military supplies...

A 30% "handling fee" must be paid to the purchasing department.

This expense is distributed layer by layer: the head of the purchasing department takes 10%, the section chief takes 8%, the person in charge takes 7%, and the remaining 5% is used as "public funds".

This unspoken rule has long formed a complete chain of interests within the military supply system.

From the lowest-level warehouse manager to the heads of various logistics departments, and then to the top levels of the "Logistics Department," each link takes a cut.

Take, for example, an incident that happened earlier this year.

Fu Zuoyi's troops encountered supply difficulties at Zhangjiakou, and he applied to the military logistics department for additional ammunition.

The dispatched officer stated bluntly: "Without a bribe, you won't get a single bullet."

This guy is the highest-ranking official of the North China "Payment Bureau," but so what? He'll just ignore you!

Tom was very happy to get this exclusive news.

Upon hearing Jiang Baobin's account, he gave Pan Youpeng 50 silver dollars as an information fee and Yu Lizhang 15 silver dollars as a referral fee.

Tom fully agreed and highly praised Jiang Baobin's abilities.

They also encouraged him to keep up the good work and try to dig up even more information.

Seeing that Tom was about to give him more activity funds, Jiang Baobin quickly stopped him.

He was also informed of the current exchange rate between US dollars and silver dollars on the black market.

This surprised Tom greatly, and at the same time, it made him even more convinced of Jiang Baobin's character.

In the evening, Jiang Baobin had just returned home when he was told by Jiang Daya, who was keeping watch over him—

My second brother has arrived, and the whole family is waiting for him to come over and discuss something.

Let's discuss it. Do you think I'm afraid?

After tidying himself up, a spirited Jiang Baobin strode outside.

He has furnished his home more and more nicely, and now he even has mirrors.