Yangshupu lay west of Wusongkou, a little under an hour away on foot.
Chen Fan asked for directions along the way with the address Brother Bao had given him and soon found the place.
Opening the system panel, Chen Fan confirmed that the Ma Xiaotian Brother Bao had mentioned was inside, then put the address away.
He was about to step forward when a ripple of laughter came from inside. It was children's voices, more than one, chattering like a nest of sparrows.
Chen Fan walked up and knocked three times on the doorframe.
"Who is it?" A young man's voice came from inside, neither loud nor soft, with a steady composure.
The door was pulled open from within.
Standing in the doorway was a young man of twenty-seven or twenty-eight, tall and well proportioned, with broad shoulders and a narrow waist. He stood like a javelin.
His face looked somewhat weathered, but his features were regular, and his brow and eyes held a maturity that did not quite match his age.
Behind him, seven or eight children crowded into the bamboo shack. The oldest looked no more than thirteen or fourteen, and the youngest only three or four.
The children were all dressed in rags, their faces smudged here and there with dirt, but their eyes shone as they peered curiously toward the doorway.
Several coarse porcelain bowls sat on a table missing a leg. The rice broth in them was thin enough to reflect a person's face. Beside them was a plate of pickled vegetables, already eaten almost clean.
Ma Xiaotian's gaze rested on Chen Fan for two seconds before he asked, "Brother, who are you looking for?"
"Could we talk inside? It's inconvenient to speak out here," Chen Fan said politely.
Ma Xiaotian studied Chen Fan for a while, then stepped aside to let him through.
The shack was even more dilapidated inside than it looked from outside. Newspaper had been pasted over the roof, and some patches were already soaked through by rain, ringed with yellow stains.
Straw covered the floor, with several quilts of indiscernible color laid over it. The children he had just seen sat on the quilts.
Chen Fan swept his gaze over the children and gained some idea of the situation.
Ma Xiaotian closed the door and gave Chen Fan the only stool, sitting down on the edge of the bed himself.
"What is it?" Ma Xiaotian went straight to the point.
Chen Fan's gaze sharpened slightly as he looked over everyone. The children stared back at him with wide eyes.
The youngest girl was still clutching a rag doll with a torn arm, hiding timidly behind the table.
"Could you settle the children somewhere first?" Chen Fan asked gently.
Ma Xiaotian turned around and told the children softly, "Go play over there. The grown-ups need to talk."
The older boys obediently led the younger ones to the back of the shack, partitioning off a small space with a tattered cloth curtain.
The youngest girl refused to go, so a boy of about ten picked her up and coaxed her as he carried her inside.
"Are all these children yours?" Chen Fan suddenly asked.
Ma Xiaotian sighed. "Not all of them. Some escaped from the Japanese and had nowhere to go, so I took them in."
"Eight in all!"
Chen Fan recalled the thin porridge and pickled vegetables he had seen on the table when he came in.
So many children, and that was all they had to eat.
And what about Ma Xiaotian himself? Judging by his build and complexion, he did not look as though he got enough to eat.
Chen Fan grew serious. "Let's get down to business. Tomorrow night, a shipment needs to be moved out of Warehouse Three, C section, Zone D. We need hands. Brother Bao said he knew what you could do, and I think you're well suited to it!"
"What kind of goods?" Ma Xiaotian pressed.
Chen Fan set down the enamel mug and looked Ma Xiaotian in the eye. "I can't tell you what the goods are. All I can tell you is that this shipment is very important and can't be exposed."
"Between one and five tomorrow morning, there'll be a half-hour opening at the east entrance of Warehouse Three."
"I need you to keep watch outside, especially for the night patrols and customs officers. You have sharp ears. You're the best man for the job."
Ma Xiaotian lowered his head, looking at his hands resting on his knees.
After a long while, he raised his head and said earnestly to Chen Fan, "Boss Chen, thank you for thinking so highly of me!"
"But I'm stubborn by nature. I can't do anything underhanded!"
"Please leave!"
Chen Fan paused, then asked curiously, "Brother Ma, given your circumstances, don't you even want to know how much I intend to pay you?"
Ma Xiaotian shook his head. "Whatever the amount, I can't let them learn bad habits from me!"
For a moment, Chen Fan was at a loss for words. He did not know whether to call the man principled or wooden-headed.
He was still so particular about rules in circumstances like these?
Inside the shack, in the space partitioned off by the curtain, the children spoke quietly, their low voices occasionally drifting out.
"Brother Dayong, I'm so hungry."
"Be good, Xiaocao. I'll take you to catch little fish in a while, and we'll roast them tonight."
"Really?"
"I wouldn't lie to you."
Chen Fan hesitated for a moment, then said, "Brother Ma, let me treat you all to a meal."
"There's... no need." Though Ma Xiaotian's tone was firm, his expression still showed some hesitation.
"Brother Ma, even if we can't do business, we can still be friends. Besides, even if you don't eat, those children have to. You can't just watch them go hungry."
That was indeed a reason Ma Xiaotian could not refuse. After a long while, he slowly nodded.
Before Ma Xiaotian could speak, Chen Fan was already calling to the children behind the curtain.
"Children, how about I treat you to braised pork?"
At the mention of braised pork, the younger girls could not help licking their lips.
In their circumstances, getting to eat braised pork even once a year would have been quite something.
But it had to be said that Ma Xiaotian had brought these children up very well.
Even though they never had enough to eat, none of the children showed excitement or did anything out of line when Chen Fan invited them to a meal.
None cried or clamored to go at once. They all looked longingly at Ma Xiaotian, as though they would not dare move without his permission.
Ma Xiaotian smiled at the children. "Qianjun, Xiaojing, everyone, thank Boss Chen."
Only then did the children smile, all calling out respectfully, "Thank you, Boss Chen."
Yuexiang House.
The restaurant served Shanghai and Zhejiang cuisine.
Chen Fan brought the children in and took two tables. One was for the children, with all eight seated in a circle around seven or eight dishes.
A large bowl of braised pork, steamed fish, beggar's chicken, shredded eel in sizzling oil, nine-turn braised intestines, Dongpo pork hock...
At a glance, every dish was substantial fare.
The children's behavior also surprised Chen Fan somewhat. They were nothing like what some television dramas set in the Republican era depicted.
In those shows, a bunch of starving children would immediately scramble for food with hands and feet flying.
They all sat quietly in their seats and ate quietly, their faces lit with satisfied smiles.
Chen Fan and Ma Xiaotian sat a short distance away by the window, with four or five dishes and two jars of Shaoxing rice wine.
The wine had been warmed with shredded ginger and smoked plums. It tasted sweet and sour and warmed the stomach wonderfully on this winter night.
"Boss Chen, a toast to you." Ma Xiaotian raised his porcelain bowl and clinked it against Chen Fan's.
Chen Fan finished his wine and tilted the empty bowl toward him.
"Brother Ma, do you know why I invited you to dinner?"
Ma Xiaotian was silent for a moment and did not answer.
"Brother Ma, you're a good man, but good men are the last thing a place like Shanghai lacks."
Ma Xiaotian shook his head. "Boss Chen, I know what you're trying to say, but..."
"Now, Brother Ma, don't misunderstand. I won't force you into anything." Chen Fan filled Ma Xiaotian's bowl.
"To tell the truth, I've seen plenty of people like you. You've followed your ancestors' teachings since childhood and have real skills, yet you never dare step out of line."
"You disdain robbery, extortion, and blackmail, but you can't manage buying low and selling high or living within your means either."
"So how else can you make a living? All you can do is sell your physical labor."
"Even children know that a laborer never gets ahead."
"If it were just you, hardship and exhaustion wouldn't matter, but you have so many children to feed."
"Surely you don't intend for them to sell their labor just like you someday."
"Boss Chen, I understand what you mean, but I have principles!" Ma Xiaotian protested quietly.
"Having principles is good, but people with principles still need to eat!" Chen Fan said earnestly. "Even if you don't eat, your children have to!"
"I have a job that's very suitable for you. You won't have to violate your principles or let your children go hungry!"
"Think it over!"
"But be quick. You know you'll be hungry again soon!"
With that, Chen Fan gently pushed a slip of paper bearing an address and a time toward him.
Then he rose and went to the counter to settle the bill...
At six o'clock, Shanghai was in the middle of the evening rush hour.
Miao Desheng drove his car home, cursing all the way.
He was clearly a textbook case of road rage.
He complained that other drivers were too slow, then complained that there were too many pedestrians.
In short, everyone else was the problem.
The car soon entered Myrtle Road. The intersection was a little congested. Someone had overturned a flatbed cart, leaving several cars stuck together.
Miao Desheng rolled down the driver's window, stuck his head out, and looked ahead, swearing.
Just then, a figure emerged from behind the car. As the figure passed him, Miao Desheng inexplicably felt a chill at his neck.
The next instant, blood sprayed wildly from his neck, staining the entire driver's compartment red.
Gurgling, Miao Desheng clutched his neck and stared at the person, the curses in his mouth abruptly cut off...
The figure did not linger, quickly vanishing into the crowd as though he had never appeared...
Half past two in the morning.
At Shiliupu Wharf, beneath the pitch-black night sky, not even a fishing light shone on the river.
Chen Fan crouched motionlessly behind a pile of empty wooden crates east of Warehouse Three.
His black night clothes blended into the darkness. Unless someone came right up to him, no one would be able to tell a man was crouching there.
Brother Bao crouched to his right, his burly frame looking somewhat comical tucked behind the crates, like a great bear insisting on squeezing into a hollow tree.
An iron rod was tucked at his waist, wrapped with several turns of cloth. Its grip was already damp with sweat.
Neither spoke, and even their breathing was kept extremely quiet.
They had been crouching there for almost an hour.
Warehouse Three was the C warehouse in Zone D of the wharf. This area mainly held miscellaneous goods shipped from Zhoushan and Ningbo.
The warehouses formed a connected row of brick-and-timber buildings, with gray walls, black tiles, and sheet iron covering the roofs.
Brother Bao yawned and turned his head slightly toward Chen Fan. "Boss Chen, what time is it?"
Chen Fan took a pocket watch from inside his clothes and glanced at it by the stray light of a distant searchlight sweeping past.
It was an old pocket watch he had bought at the Jinling Pawnshop for three dollars. Though somewhat worn, it was accurate to within three minutes.
"Two thirty-five." Chen Fan tucked the watch away and murmured, "Five more minutes. If Brother Ma doesn't come, we'll go ourselves!"
Brother Bao nodded, his rough, large hand tightening around the iron rod at his waist, ready to charge out at any moment.
Looking at the empty path in the distance, Brother Bao muttered to himself, "That fellow isn't going to stand us up, is he?"
Chen Fan said nothing. Ma Xiaotian needed silver dollars. His children would still be waiting to eat tomorrow.
But this hour really was grueling. Past two in the morning was when people were sleepiest, their eyelids heavy as lead.
Chen Fan himself had dozed for less than four hours at the inn before leaving in the dark and walking an hour through the night to reach the wharf.
He gently rubbed between his brows, forcibly suppressing his drowsiness.
An agent's first lesson was not shooting, but going without sleep.
The appointed time drew ever closer, yet Ma Xiaotian was still nowhere in sight.
Chen Fan sighed. Just as he was about to act, an extremely faint sound came from the darkness to the east.
Brother Bao did not hear it. His ears were not that sharp.
But Chen Fan heard it. He lightly tapped Brother Bao's arm, signaling him not to move.
A few seconds later, a figure emerged soundlessly from the darkness to the east.
The figure moved close along the warehouse wall at great speed. Less than ten paces from the crates, he suddenly stopped, pressing himself motionless against the base of the wall.
"It's me," Chen Fan said in a low voice.
The figure moved, darting behind the crates in a few quick strides and crouching down.
"Ran into a night patrol on the way. Had to take another detour," Ma Xiaotian whispered. "The shift change just finished. There's no one on the eastern path. The two patrolmen on the west side just handed over and should be smoking in the guard booth now."
"We'll circle around from the east and climb in through the back wall."
Chen Fan glanced at him. "You've never been inside the warehouse. How do you know we can get in through the back wall?"
Ma Xiaotian pointed toward the warehouse's right side. "I've been here before. There's an iron ventilation window in the back wall. The latch is rusted. I've tried it. You can pull it open."
"Once we're through, we'll be in Section C. Stack Seventeen is in the third row of racks on the east, less than twenty paces from the vent."
Chen Fan glanced at Ma Xiaotian, unable to help feeling impressed. As expected of a former scout, his powers of observation were no worse than an agent's!
And with hearing far beyond the ordinary, he would definitely be a good helper!
Chen Fan said softly, "As long as you're here. It's getting late. Let's move!"
With that, Chen Fan led the way, and the three slipped north along the base of the warehouse's eastern wall.
Brother Bao's tread was heavy, so Chen Fan deliberately put him in the middle. His footsteps were the loudest, and putting him in front would make it easy for the patrols to hear him.
The three walked single file, with Ma Xiaotian bringing up the rear.
Ma Xiaotian kept his ears angled slightly, like an alert cat, constantly picking up sounds behind them.
After about two hundred paces, Ma Xiaotian suddenly gave a soft hiss.