Towards the end of the night, the hook-like moon finally emerged from the clouds and hung alone in the dark sky.

The moonlight was faint, and the fifteen-light street lamp at the entrance of the alley still seemed deserted, but it could only illuminate the big iron gate at the entrance of the alley, and the rest of the place was still dark. The sound of footsteps was approaching, and Ah Huang, who was crawling on the ground, was immediately alert, it stood up, and while the dog's ears were erected, his throat was also 'whining' ready to bark.

"Dead dog!" A man's voice whispered a curse in the darkness, he was already close with a cigarette in his mouth. After scolding, the man summoned again in a very friendly manner, "Ah Huang, don't scream!" Tut-tut...... Tut-tut......"

The dog's vision is fine at night, and as soon as the voice is spoken, Ah Huang recognizes who it is, but it still whines in its throat, as if it is a warning, and it seems to be flattering. When the man threw out a piece of black fat flesh bone, Ah Huang's tail wagged.

"Li Xisang is going out?" When Li Kongrong was feeding the dogs, the janitor Ah Fu's wife also woke up - for more than a month, Mr. Li had to go out in the middle of the night every day to 'breathe'. She doesn't care about breathing, what she cares about is that Mr. Li will stuff her with two yuan every time he goes out in the middle of the night.

"Well, let's breathe." Li Kongrong was holding a cigarette, and even at night, a pair of eyes were shining. He took the key handed over by Mrs. Afu and gave her a fiat currency with Sun Dacang's head printed on it. "I'm not going out tomorrow." He said.

"Oh......" Ah Fu Niangzi was inevitably a little disappointed when she heard this sentence when she received the money. As a lady of Ah Fu, she can only save a few private money by helping the residents of the alley to renovate the silk quilt and silk jacket before the winter every year, but how can it compare to Mr. Li's generosity. Every time I go out for two yuan of small accounts, I go out more than a dozen times a month, and the quilt that has been renovated for three winters is not as good as this month.

There is a small iron door embedded in the big iron door at the entrance of the alley, and as soon as the lock with the big bowl mouth is opened, the chaotic and luxurious atmosphere of Shanghai outside the alley at night will come to the face. Li Kongrong, who had already lost his cigarette, took a heavy breath, he felt that only at this moment was he free! Turning around and closing the small iron door, through the gap between the two large iron doors, he locked the big bowl lock again, and finally carefully put the key in the pocket on the inside of the military uniform, and Li Kongrong walked out of the alley.

"Li Xisang is here." Next to the Chevrolet taxi at the entrance of the alley, an old driver in the uniform of Xiangsheng Taxi Company saw Li Kongrong leaving the alley, and immediately opened the door and stood outside the car to greet him.

"Oh, it's you again." Li Kongrong knew who it was when he heard the voice, it was this 'old driver' every time, of course, he didn't know the name of this person, he only knew that this 'old driver' was around forty years old, and it was rare to show a good white tooth when he smiled.

"Yes, Sisan." The old driver helped Li Kongrong open the passenger door - the previous service had let him know that this gentleman did not like the back seat. "Allah has already told the dispatcher that Li Xisang should not call other people's houses in the future, just call me."

"Hehe......" Li Kongrong smiled and got into the car, this Chevrolet is not comfortable at all, but what can be done?" Okay, in the future, when I call your company's 40,000 number to call a car, I will say that I will call your car and not call other people. ”

The old driver had just gotten into the car from the other side, and the white teeth that had been laughing at Li Kongrong were revealed again, and he had never thought that this Mr. Li didn't know his name at all. He started the car, pressed the timer again, and then smiled: "Li Xisang, go to Ah Reed today?" ”

"Where are you going...... Li Kongrong was noncommittal, he first lit a cigarette for himself, threw one to the old driver, and took a heavy puff before saying, "I really don't know where to go." Let's go about it as usual, go around and come back at three o'clock. Then there is not to go to chaotic places, let alone noisy places, and the train station must not go to ......"

Speaking of the train station, Li Kongrong was a palpitation, and one time on a whim he actually wanted to go to Nanjing to meet Lao Jiang, and he bought a ticket and was just about to enter the station, not wanting to let out a stretched whistle - immediately wake up another Li Kongrong who was already asleep in this body. What a hell, since then he has never dared to go to a noisy place, especially the train station.

Two souls of the same name, surname, and age share the same body. Although it is shared, as the original owner of the body, another Li Kongrong, that is, Major Li, an engineer officer of the Republic of China Navy, naturally holds absolute control of the body, and he can only come out when he is asleep to 'breathe', once there is any noise that wakes up Major Li in his sleep, it will be his turn to 'rest'.

Why is this happening? Li Kongrong was completely puzzled. His last memory of 2016 was when the editor of the publishing house said on the phone, 'We just received a notice that your book can't be published,' and he was angry and about to talk to the editor when a large truck arrived.

"Damn!" Li Kongrong, who was open the car window and smoking a cigarette, cursed like a nervous disorder. At this time, the car had already driven to Zhejiang Road (now Zhejiang Middle Road). Here, it is a famous trick in Shanghai. Prostitute Street - Under the bright arc lights on the side of the street, long hair, red lips, white thighs, flowers and branches; red cheongsam, green cheongsam, little red jacket, charming; Young women, dancers, female workers, you name it. The nightclub of later generations is a station along the wall, and here is a station along the entire Zhejiang Road.

"Xisang, Xisang, go sit and take a breath!" Su Bai, who had a Jiangbei accent, shouted. Should. Summon. The girls saw that Li Kongrong's bright eyes had been staring at this side, and they saw that the back seat of the Chevrolet sedan was empty, and they also shouted when they had only pulled down the others, in case, this lonely gentleman at night fell in love with him by mistake.

"Don't go! Don't go! Before Li Kongrong could speak, the old driver refused on his behalf. After so many contacts, he knew that this Mr. Li was a major, and he was usually generous - Xiangsheng's car price was one national dollar every 20 minutes, and a small account for the driver of two dimes was attached. This Mr. Li chartered a car for three hours each time, and calculated that he should pay ten yuan and eight jiao, but he paid fifteen yuan each time, and he said that he should tip all the change. The ladies on Zhejiang Road don't want five yuan a night, how could Li Xisang fall in love with this kind of goods?

The women were going to rush up, but the old driver's refusal in the car was not counted, and he stepped on the accelerator to speed up the car, and suddenly let them scatter half-around. Like every time, Li Kongrong, who had been watching for a long time, couldn't see half of the good-looking ones, he turned his head and asked, "Why are there so many young ladies?" ”

"Miss?" The old driver couldn't accept Li Kongrong's use of such noble words to describe these lowly prostitutes, but he couldn't say that Li Kongrong was wrong, so he had to reply: "The economy is not good!" According to the Shanghai Times, there were 349,000 women and about 25,000 prostitutes[note 3] in the concession alone, most of whom came from Jiangbei. In the past few years, ordinary people have come to Shanghai to beg for food. ”

said that prostitutes were actually involved in the economy, and Li Kongrong, who already had a certain understanding of the world he was in during this time, couldn't help nodding. The economy of the Republic of China was indeed not good, and the old Chiang's Nationalist Government was constantly engaged in wars, and it also took over more than 1.3 billion yuan of old debts from Beiyang and the former Qing Dynasty -- this was a prerequisite for various countries to recognize Chiang Kee and the Republic of China, and what made Li Kongrong even more different was that this government actually did not collect (of course, with its current organization and position, it could not collect it if it wanted to) agricultural taxes, and its fiscal revenue was basically supported by customs duties, salt taxes, and unified taxes on goods, and the insufficient part depended entirely on the issuance of bonds.

Perhaps from the country's point of view, it doesn't matter if the tax is more or less, the government collects less, and leaves more at the bottom, anyway, the meat is all rotten in the pot, but the balance of payments listed in the government gazette is really unbearable. Although the receipts of 1,577 million were offset by the expenditures, and there was even a slight surplus, in addition to exports of the little more than 700 million, 320 million remittances, and 330 million from the sale of silver[Note 4]. Silver is not endless, and once the silver that was used as currency is sold out in a few years, and no import and export controls are implemented, Sister Meiling will have to sell herself to save her husband.

The Republic of China, the Great Republic of China! In those boring data, Li Kongrong, a fourth-rate overseas military translator in later generations, and a half-third-rate economic brick who was tempered by stock speculation, could not find her loveliness at all. Shanghai is prosperous, but Shanghai's prosperity is based on the premise that the mainland's industries are generally depressed and most of the cash is returned, which means that the more prosperous Shanghai is, the more depressed the mainland becomes.

The economy is like this, and the external troubles are even more after just three months. In terms of blood, of course, he has to fight with the Japanese, but Major Li is not a major, but he is a naval major! According to Li Kongrong's vivid memory, the navy was basically wiped out in Jiangyin in the first year, and all that was left was guerrilla minelaying. What does it mean that Britain and the United States could be sent abroad to accept new ships until long after Japan's surprise attack on Pearl Harbor and US Navy Lieutenant Commander Melles' visit to China?! Submarines may be the only way for the Navy to survive, but can the Army hold the military port? If the army is unable to defend the military port, not to mention 15 submarines, even 150 submarines will be in vain.

In addition to the war, Li Kongrong is also quite worried about the body he lives in. Judging by the fact that the two of them share the same body now: the other day Li Kongrong dies is when he completely masters the body, which is equivalent to saying that he has two lives! But what if that guy accidentally gets blown into several pieces by a Japanese bomb? What if the ship sinks to the bottom of the sea and runs out of oxygen? Even a broken hand and foot is not good - this body is more handsome and sturdy than he used to be (the most gratifying thing is that there is no beer belly), and the only drawback is that it is too short, less than 1.74 meters.

Eight pieces of spicy! Thinking of his not too bright future, Li Kongrong was a little melancholy. Seeing him like this, the old driver on the side still thought that he was worried about his loneliness tonight, he showed his white teeth and smiled secretly, and turned into a pimp and said, "Do you want to go to Cirosi?" I heard that there were a few Japanese dancers there, and the elders were good-looking. ”

"Ciroth?" The car had already crossed the main road and had already circled several times under the banner of countless neon signs and sales advertisements. Although the lights are colorful and the street is extremely bustling, no matter how Li Kongrong looks at this scene, it looks like an STN fake color screen mobile phone - dim and blurry.

"Japanese dancers? It's also a dollar and three jumps? Li Kongrong doesn't care much about dancers, under the popular science of the old driver, he knows that as long as the price is right, many dancers in Shanghai can go to bed. But if I don't have penicillin, what should I do if I get sick? Go to the old military doctor?

"I heard that she was a dancer from Japan, so I don't know if it's true or not." The old driver had never been to a top-notch dance hall like Cirous, but after he took over the shift in the past few nights, several guests said that Cirox had a few Japanese dancers who looked very 'kawaii' - this word is said to be Japanese, which means old and good-looking.

"It's still ......" The old driver pimped kindly, but Li Kongrong was counting the fiat currency in his pocket. Although Major Li has a monthly salary of 270 yuan, 120 yuan of them should be used to pay off the debts he owed when he bought the Shikumen house, the other 30 yuan to support his family (one wife and one son), 30 yuan to send back to his hometown in Fuzhou (father, mother, grandmother), another 20 yuan to socialize outside, and the remaining 70 yuan to save. Relying on the bank account password that Major Li wrote down in his diary and the nap one day, Li Kongrong had spent almost a year's savings. It's obviously not okay to spend it any longer, Cirous, one of the five high-end dance halls in Shanghai, has at least fifty yuan and one hundred yuan to enter, and the Japanese dancer is really going to be popular, and I'm afraid that I can't even touch my hand for a hundred yuan.

"Let's go to the movies." Li Kongrong said. "Didn't you say that the midnight singing was released?"

Mr. Li actually wanted to go to the movies in the evening, and the old driver couldn't say that he had watched the singing in the middle of the night and said that he was old and scary, and the people who watched it were even more in pairs, only laughing and turning the steering wheel, and pulling him to the Cathay Pacific Theater. The old driver secretly shook his head Mr. Li went to the movies alone, and he didn't want the car to just arrive at the gate of the Cathay Pacific Theater, and just got out of the car and stopped Mr. Li with a voice.