"Mr. Xiao Gao Yi, the old man who catches the house is here."

The voice of the guy outside the door woke Gao Yi up from someone else's life. He closed the journal in his hand and struggled to get up from his rocking chair.

Yaxian Ju is a small guest house, open on Baoshan Street, is a typical Shanghai lane house, Shikumen three floors and three bottoms, and then separate the room, a collapse every day to collect two dimes and eight cents. Gao Yizhu has two collapses between the pavilions, five corners and six minutes a day, and a month is discounted for fifteen yuan, in this era when ordinary people can live for two yuan for a month, it is definitely high consumption. Gao Yi has also earned money in the past two months, so he can afford this kind of life.

Coming out of the room, he descended the stairs almost step by step, but fortunately in the alley structure, the pavilion was on the landing between the first and second floors, which meant that he only had to walk down the next half floor.

The living room also doubles as a dining room, with two tables for eight immortals and a circle of drum stools all year round. As soon as Gao Yi walked into the living room, he saw three white men sitting around a table of eight immortals, two of whom were uniformed police officers, and the other was dressed in civilian clothes, and he looked about forty years old.

The proprietor of Yaxian Ju is a proprietress, probably because she was scared when she saw the foreign patrol, so she hid instead of being on the side.

"Good morning, Officer Smith." Gao Yi stretched out his hand to one of them, and he recognized it, this was a patrolman who helped him take a note yesterday.

"Good morning," a red-necked, thick-scaled bull-like officer stood up, shook his hand, and then turned to the officer next to him, "This is Inspector McPherson who will be in charge of your case," he added after a pause, "First Rank Inspector." ”

The word "inspector" is in Chinese, so naturally it cannot appear in English dialogue, in fact, Smith uses the word Sergeant.

In the police system of the Public Concession, the highest officer is the Chief Inspector - after 1919, it was renamed the Commissioner of Police, and the General Patrol is divided into four major levels, Inspector, Inspector, Inspector, and Inspector. However, these are the customary Chinese translations at this time, and the official official names are English, Superintendent, Inspector, Sergeant, Constable. This is actually completely consistent with Hong Kong's police system, after all, the two are in the same line, so if these titles are replaced by more familiar names in later generations, they are, Superintendent, Inspector, Sergeant, and Constable.

In general, a sub-inspector is the deputy inspector of the public concession, and a senior inspector is the team leader, who is responsible for directing the Chinese patrol to investigate specific cases. Because the armband worn by the Inspector on his upper arm had three golden V-shaped stripes, it was also called "Sandaotou", and was later used to refer to foreign uniformed policemen.

"Hello, James McPherson." The other two also stood up, and the young man with the "three heads" stretched out his hand to Gao Yi and reported his name. Gao Yi noticed that he had six fingers.

"Scots?" As the two shook hands, McPherson asked. McPherson, a surname that starts with Mac, is Scottish as soon as you hear it.

"Yes." Gao Yi hesitated a little and replied, but there were no tears in the eyes of the fellow countryman.

In fact, there has never been a father and son between him and Lao Gao Yi, they just didn't explain the misunderstanding of others, at first for the convenience of Gao Yi to recuperate, and later for the convenience of Lao Gao Yi to live. For example, hostels for domestic merchants such as Yaxianju usually do not accept foreigners, so Gao Yi first comes forward to book a room, and then lets Lao Gao Yi move in.

Of course, Shanghai Tang is not without decent Western-style hotels, but they can't afford the monthly expenses of 100 yuan. The small hotels that can afford to live are all temporary resting places for ocean-going sailors or adventurers who have gone to the Far East to pan for gold, and the mixing of dragons and snakes has never been liked by Gao Yi.

"This is Mr. Wilson, the Inspector." McPherson turned to the middle-aged man in civilian clothes. McPherson used the title Chief Inspector, which was later popularly known as Chief Inspector, a senior position in charge of several patrol houses in the area.

"Hello, Mr. Wilson." Gao Yi stretched out his hand and said hello stiffly. As a black account, he was a little apprehensive in his heart, and he didn't know why his case would alarm a person of this level.

"Hello." Wilson just touched his hand slightly and let go.

After everyone sat down, Smith first reported on the progress of the case.

Gao Yi thought at first that Huang Aliu had been caught with this kind of good news, so the three of them rushed over early in the morning to report the good news, but the so-called progress was nothing more than the confessions of a few bystanders, and it did not have any substantial help in recovering his six hundred oceans.

After listening to the briefing, Gao Yi had no hope for the money. The law enforcement power of the house arrest is limited to the inside of the concession, as long as you don't get caught red-handed after robbing the money, you can run outside the concession, even if you know where the criminal is hiding, you can't arrest it, you must go through the assistance of the local government, and it is better to take a wash and sleep as soon as possible.

He just didn't understand what the three people in front of him were trying to do when they came to him so excitedly.

"What do you think of Liao?" McPherson asked first.

"Liao? Do you mean Liao of Guanghefeng? McPherson's pronunciation was rather weird, and Gao Yi realized after a while that he was talking about Guanghefeng's Liao shopkeeper.

"Yes, it's that Liao, what do you think of him? Do you know each other? ”

"It's not familiar, I've only sold goods to him three times......" Gao Yi didn't know why the other party suddenly asked about Liao's shopkeeper, Guanghefeng is such a big store, would he still covet him for a mere six hundred yuan? Besides, although his profit is very high, the selling price is not high, as long as Guanghefeng changes hands, he will have at least 20% of the profit, and the profit after three or five trips will far exceed 600 oceans. This kind of long-term business, as long as the shopkeeper Liao is not really crazy, how can he do something to kill chickens and take eggs.

"I would like to ask, are the police suspecting that Guanghefeng was involved in this incident?" Gao Yi voiced his doubts, "But with all due respect, I don't think it's possible, the transaction between us is completely mutually beneficial, and the profits that Guanghefeng can make from it are very considerable......"

"No, Mr. Gao Yi, I have to interrupt you, we don't suspect Guanghefeng, we only suspect Liao and his possible accomplices, not the entire Guanghefeng."

Gao Yi crossed his arms in front of his chest, and there was a look of distrust in his eyes.

"Have you ever thought about Liao's salary? How much money can he take? Eight silver dollars a month, or ten? McPherson stared at Gao Yi's eyes and said, "What does it have to do with him whether Guanghefeng is profitable or not, he is just a manager." Yes, it's possible that he'll get some dividends at the end of the year, but how much is that? ”

The average monthly salary of the shopkeepers in Shanghai is about 8 yuan, which Gao Yi knows, but in his subconscious, he always thinks that the shopkeepers should be a group of people who are much richer than him, because others live in a big house, the family uses a servant, and there are cars and sedan chairs to travel, but he lives in the pavilion, although he and Lao Gao Yi spend more than 20 yuan a month, but they live more than three beds.

"According to my estimates, six hundred dollars is at least equal to his total income for three years, and people are likely to do something for such a sum of money." McPherson continued.

"Are you going to investigate Liao? Just by suspicion? I would say that I don't agree with that, especially when there is no evidence like this. At the very least, you should catch someone in my gang and get the real clues before you investigate. I don't want Liao to think that I am accusing him behind my back......"

Although Gao Yi admitted that from an economic point of view, Liao's shopkeeper may have a motive for committing the crime, but it would be too much to put him on suspicion based on this alone. What's more, he will continue to do business with Guanghefeng next, it is a pity to lose six hundred oceans, but since he has figured out the way to make money, it is only a matter of time before he earns it back.

"Please stop, two." Inspector Wilson interrupted the conversation between the two impatiently, he propped his elbows on the table of the Eight Immortals, leaned forward, stared at Gao Yi in an oppressive posture, and said in an accentuated tone: "We will not investigate Liao, nor will we investigate Guanghefeng. Seeing Gao Yi's confused expression, Wilson continued with satisfaction, "Mr. McPherson's purpose is not to list Liao as a suspect for investigation, but to try to tell you that Liao is a bad guy so that you don't have to contact him again in the future. But it's clear that he can't convince you, and you obviously take your relationship with Liao very seriously, more than he is dangerous. ”

"No, please listen to me continue," seeing that Gao Yi seemed to be about to retort, Wilson held up a finger and stopped him, "Young man, please keep your eyes open and see how our city works, if Jardine needs a load of tea, will he personally go to the tea garden to buy it?" No, he will entrust a knowledgeable Chinese; If Sassoon wanted to sell a piece of cotton, would he go to the countryside to sell it himself? No, he will also entrust it to a knowledgeable Chinese. That's how we work here, we let the Chinese deal with the Chinese, not with the Chinese based on their looks. As he spoke, he pointed at Gao Yi.

Gao Yi understood what he meant, obviously referring to the fact that his identity was a half-race.

"Look here, look at this table, this stool, it's completely a Chinese place." Wilson then stretched out his arms and made an exaggerated gesture that encompassed the entire living room, "What we want to tell you is that you've crossed the line." When you cross this border, you go to the Chinese, where we cannot protect you. Because we will never know what the Chinese are thinking, or how they actually operate. ”

Wilson withdrew his arms, still returning to his previous oppressive position.

"Will we investigate for you? Investigating Liao? Investigating Hirowa Yutaka? No, we won't. Why? Because they are powerful. We will catch petty thieves, we will catch roadblocks and robbers, but we will not touch the powerful Chinese, which was explicitly written in the minutes of the meeting by the old men of the Industrial Board. So all we can do is tell you unambiguously that your trusted friends are a group of powerful people, not a group of harmless ordinary traders, and it is entirely up to you whether or not you want to continue to associate with them. In addition, we will also tell you another point clearly, your coachman Huang, he is not capable of gathering so many people, otherwise he would not have been a coachman for so many years. ”

Gao Yi was speechless. Although he was still skeptical that Shopkeeper Liao would be involved in this case, he completely agreed with the other party's judgment on Huang Aliu. And the inside information that Guanghefeng actually belonged to a powerful organization was completely unexpected by him.

Wilson seemed to be satisfied with Gao Yi's current attitude, he stared at Gao Yi for a moment, and then said in a deeper tone:

"Young people, many people die in this city every year, this is normal, birth, old age, sickness and death are unavoidable for each of us; If a Frenchman happens to die at the hands of the British, I would say that it is also normal, and we all have occasional times when we cannot control ourselves; What if it were a Dutchman and die at the hands of a German, it would be normal and not a big deal. But do you know what's not normal? An Englishman died at the hands of the Chinese, even a half-blooded Englishman like you. Maybe it's just a simple thing for you, just a stab, but for us it's a complicated job. That's what I'm here for today, and I'm going to tell you what I'm going to do in this situation, and I'm going to treat you completely like a Chinese, which means there won't be any follow-up investigation, and you'll just be another nameless corpse in the city. ”