Spy War: My Cheat Code is a Rat

"You two want to see me? What's the matter?"

Du Yuesheng put down his newspaper and looked at Lu Chen and the other man calmly.

His gaze shifted and he saw the knife in Liu Jie's hand. Noticing his gaze, Liu Jie quickly put the knife away.

"Sit down and let's talk."

Du Yuesheng spoke calmly, and Lu Chen walked to the sofa next to him and sat down, while Liu Jie stood beside him.

Thank you.

The woman next to Du Yuesheng stood up and poured a cup of tea for the two of them. Lu Chen thanked her.

He glanced at the woman out of the corner of his eye. The woman in front of him and the woman with the child not far away were both well-maintained, just like the woman upstairs. They shouldn't be servants.

Du Yuesheng looked at the newspaper in his hand, a woman was massaging his shoulders, the tea was still steaming, and the voices of children could be heard not far away.

Seeing that Du Yuesheng remained silent, Lu Chen also did not know how to start the conversation.

"Boss Du..."

After a while, Lu Chen finally spoke, but he didn't know how to address Du Yuesheng, so he could only call him by the way his underlings addressed him.

"I would like to buy food from you."

Without much small talk, since the two didn't know each other and there was no need for pleasantries, Lu Chen went straight to the point and explained the purpose of his visit.

"Sure, noodles are five yuan a pound, and rice is eight yuan."

Du Yuesheng didn't even look up. Lu Chen nodded, saying it was the same price as the market price.

"Xiao Jie, remember that warehouse I showed you last time? Go there, there are a few boxes inside, bring them here."

Lu Chen looked at Liu Jie and asked him to move the five hundred bottles of morphine here.

Liu Jie nodded; he was sure he remembered. He lifted his foot and walked out the door.

"How much do you want? You came all this way to see me, there must be more to it than just this, right?"

Du Yuesheng flipped through the newspaper, making a rustling sound, and picked up his teacup to take a sip.

Lu Chen looked at the steaming tea in front of him and slowly spoke.

"Boss Du, I don't need to use legal tender to buy food."

"A dollar is fine too; you can buy it at a store outside."

Du Yuesheng answered decisively, replying to Lu Chen as soon as he finished speaking.

"I don't need silver dollars."

Lu Chen looked at Du Yuesheng and said, word by word.

"Hmm? So... what do you want to trade for the food I have?"

Du Yuesheng paused, then finally looked up at Lu Chen, his face still showing the same calm expression.

"Boss Du, I know you don't get along with the Japanese, but you definitely can't refuse this."

Lu Chen looked confident, but he didn't notice that Du Yuesheng's expression had changed.

Du Yuesheng was getting annoyed with the man in front of him. If you're going to say something, just say it. Why keep dragging it out?

Just as his patience was about to run out, Lu Chen finally revealed the item.

"Morphine, Boss Du, I'll trade morphine for food."

"morphine?"

Just as Lu Chen had expected, Du Yuesheng did indeed become interested in morphine. Morphine is now a strategic resource, and neither side can afford to be without it.

Du Yuesheng didn't speak, but kept staring at Lu Chen. After a while, when Lu Chen started to feel uneasy, he finally spoke.

"You just want to trade for some food?"

Du Yuesheng smiled slightly. He didn't believe that someone as important as morphine could come to him and want to exchange it for some food.

Lu Chen stared at Du Yuesheng, and after thinking for a while, he decided to tell the truth, as a way of testing the waters.

"Yes, just to exchange for some food."

Before Du Yuesheng could reply, Lu Chen spoke up.

"Grain prices are too high now. Ordinary people can't afford to eat it with a month's salary. I want to exchange some with you and sell it at a low price."

Upon hearing his words, Du Yuesheng scoffed and met Lu Chen's gaze before speaking.

"You want to be a hero? Besides me, there are plenty of other people involved in this grain business. Do you think they'll just sit and watch you sell your grain at a low price?"

"No, I don't want to be a hero. Selling grain at a low price is also for business purposes. This way, I can earn more money, and it's also a good thing. Maybe it can even help me survive a little longer in this situation."

Lu Chen narrowed his eyes and answered Du Yuesheng's question.

At that moment, the door opened, and Liu Jie carried in a box. Behind him were two of Du Yuesheng's henchmen, who chased after Liu Jie, saying they wanted to open the box to see what was inside.

"No, these are Brother Chen's things, no one can see them."

Liu Jie didn't let the two men see it. He carried the box to Lu Chen, put it on the ground, and then walked towards the door.

"No need to look anymore, you guys go and guard the entrance."

Only after Du Yuesheng spoke up did the two henchmen give up and return to the door to continue their duties as gatekeepers.

"Boss Du, this is the morphine I was talking about. Are you satisfied?"

Lu Chen opened the box, took out a bottle, and placed it on the table.

Du Yuesheng didn't say anything. He picked up the morphine bottle, waved it in front of him, and then opened the stopper to smell it.

He wasn't afraid it was poison. After all, it was his territory, and he was quite arrogant. If he smelled this stuff and something went wrong, Lu Chen and Liu Jie would have to stay here.

"It is indeed morphine. Tell me, how much do you want?"

Du Yuesheng placed the morphine on the table; he needed just this much morphine.

Morphine is in short supply now, so he can give it not only to the French army, but also to the Japanese and Nationalist armies.

Of course, as a Chinese, he would naturally give more to the National Revolutionary Army. With three parties betting against each other, no matter which side completely occupies Shanghai in the future, it wouldn't be too difficult for Du Yuesheng.

"Five jin, a bottle of morphine, in exchange for five jin of flour and five jin of rice."

Lu Chen spread out his five fingers. He originally wanted ten jin, but thinking that was too much, he reduced it to five jin, which was just right and Du Yuesheng could accept.

"How many bottles of morphine do you have on hand?"

Du Yuesheng picked up the newspaper again and started reading, then asked a question.

"Five hundred bottles."

Lu Chen spoke calmly, and Liu Jie had already brought in all five boxes of morphine, a total of five boxes, with one hundred bottles in each box.

"Okay, that's 2500 catties of flour and 2500 catties of rice. I'll have someone deliver them here tomorrow. You can figure out how to get them away."

Du Yuesheng agreed to the deal without even looking up.

Just as Lu Chen had thought, this amount of rice and noodles was well within Du Yuesheng's acceptable range.

"Okay, then I'll come back tomorrow, Mr. Du. I'll leave the morphine here; I won't take it with me."

"Um."

Lu Chen stood up and, seeing that Du Yuesheng did not continue speaking, walked out of the room with Liu Jie.

He wasn't afraid that Du Yuesheng would break his promise. He wanted a good reputation, and Lu Chen felt that Du Yuesheng was completely different from Zhang Rongshan and Huang Jinrong. He thought Du Yuesheng should still have some sense of national responsibility.

Moreover, 5000 catties of rice and noodles is nothing to someone of Du Yuesheng's stature; he could handle it with just a word.

"Xiao Jie, get a few cars tomorrow, and call more workers to go to the dock. The workers there are strong. Have them come here to wait for us tomorrow night."

Lu Chen took out 100 silver dollars and gave them to Liu Jie as payment for hiring manpower tomorrow, and the extra was a reward for him.

Although this kind of manual labor is tiring, the wages for manual labor will not be low in any era as long as it is done in a respectable place.