He is Fan Xingyun, the storyteller of this teahouse. He makes a living by telling stories here year-round, and the tea drinkers are all familiar with him.
As soon as he appeared, he greeted several tea friends and even sat down for a chat.
"Old Fan, we're so bored today, how about another passage? Where did you get to in your story? Last time you mentioned Liao Hua defeating Cao Zhen, how about continuing today?" a tea drinker said with a grin.
Another tea drinker, a kind-hearted person, spoke up: "What nonsense are you talking about? There are only a few people here today. If Lao Fan really goes on stage and speaks, how much reward money will you get?"
At this point, he smiled and said to Fan Xingyun, "Old Fan, don't mind him. The Japanese are conducting a search today, so not many people will come. It's just a few of us who are really bored and came here for a while. Just relax and chat for a bit! I'll treat you to lunch, so you won't have come for nothing!"
Fan Xingyun repeatedly bowed and thanked him. Everyone knew that he was all alone and made a living by his mouth. He earned a few tips by telling stories in the teahouse. If he didn't tell stories for a day, he would have no income. However, there were too few tea drinkers, so he couldn't make any money. The old tea drinkers took good care of him.
Fan Xingyun said with a smile, "Thank you for your kindness. I'm out of options today, so I'll go ask Boss Qin for a favor."
After speaking, he stood up, cupped his hands in greeting, and walked towards Qin Lechi. They were all familiar tea drinkers who knew that Qin Lechi was the owner of a trading company and that he and Fan Xingyun usually got along well and could be considered familiar friends.
Fan Xingyun walked up to Qin Lechi, and the two bowed to each other as a greeting.
Fan Xingyun sat down opposite Qin Lechi, who poured him tea. Fan Xingyun didn't stand on ceremony and picked up the desserts on the table to eat.
"Eat slowly, this is all for you!" Qin Lechi said with a smile.
Fan Xingyun laughed and said in a low voice, "It's so good to be a capitalist like you, with plenty of food and clothing. I haven't been able to eat properly for the past two days!"
He quickly ate a few mouthfuls, then rinsed his throat with a cup of tea before saying in a low voice, "You shouldn't have come out to meet me today. The Japanese have set up checkpoints and are searching everywhere. They searched this teahouse first thing this morning and almost arrested the owner. It was only thanks to Chief Liu of the police station who vouched for him and spoke up that they were released. You need to be careful."
Qin Lechi shook his head and said in a low voice, "There's good news today. The medicine we urgently need has been resolved. I just came from Fujiwara Company. They have agreed to give me a batch of medicine, and the quantity is not small. It will definitely save our troops from their urgent needs. Now, every second of delay could result in the loss of a soldier's life. We must transport the medicine out immediately. You need to notify the organization to prepare for the transportation."
Fan Xingyun's eyes lit up when he heard this, and he couldn't help but say, "That's great! This is really good news. I'll report to my superiors immediately. The people in the mountains are in a panic. The Japanese have put in a lot of effort this time, and we have suffered heavy losses. The troops have been forced to go up the mountain, and the wounded are waiting for this batch of medicine to save their lives!"
It turns out that both of these people were members of the underground Communist Party in Shanghai. Qin Lechi was a frontline intelligence agent, while Fan Xingyun was his contact person.
Qin Lechi joined the Communist Party at a young age and was a senior member. After Su Yue returned from Japan, he had been advocating the Japanese system and culture and was a typical pro-Japanese figure. The Shanghai underground party organization took notice of him and found Qin Lechi, who was related to Su Yue, to infiltrate Su Yue's inner circle early on. Because Qin Lechi was shrewd and capable and had good business acumen, he quickly gained Su Yue's appreciation and eventually entrusted the family business to him.
After the Battle of Shanghai, Su Yue, with his connections in the Japanese high command, rose to become the mayor of Shanghai, making Qin Lechi's position even more important.
For a long time, Qin Lechi used his position to collect medicines and scarce supplies for the organization and continuously transport them to the guerrilla areas in southern Jiangsu and Pudong, making a great contribution to the organization. For this reason, Fan Xingyun was specially assigned as Qin Lechi's liaison officer. The two of them were directly under the leadership of the municipal party committee and held very important positions.
After the Japanese occupied Shanghai, medicines immediately became controlled commodities, and the supply was always very tight. Qin Lechi had been able to barely obtain some from the Japanese smuggling companies, such as the Imagawa Company, and send them to the New Fourth Army in southern Jiangsu.
However, some time ago, the pharmaceutical market in Shanghai suddenly ran out of resources, and Imagawa Shokai, the supplier of Qin Lechi, went bankrupt quickly because it offended Fujiwara Company.
At the same time, the Japanese army was carrying out a campaign of mopping up and encirclement in southern Jiangsu. The battle lasted for more than four months and was extremely arduous. The New Fourth Army suffered heavy casualties, with many people sustaining minor or serious injuries. There was a huge shortage of medicine. Therefore, the municipal party committee instructed that enough medicine must be collected as soon as possible and transported to southern Jiangsu. In the end, Qin Lechi had no choice but to go to great lengths to persuade Su Yue to personally speak to Fujiwara Tomohito, the mastermind behind the smuggling market, in order to obtain some supplies.
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