The Edo Grand Orient Department Store, a Chinese-style three-story building, is the property of the Mitsui family, one of the rising chaebol families.

Most of the people who enter and leave the department store are the clerical class and citizens who are keen on a new life.

It's one of the busiest areas in Edo, and it's bustling with people, like a Chinese temple fair.

On the long street, rickshaws passed quickly, but more people were citizens walking slowly, and the lady holding an umbrella and wearing a kimono was another beautiful scenery.

Han Qi and the others got off the bus here, and were soon connected to the VIP lounge of the department store by a young man named Mitsui Nosuke, who was the manager of the department store and a descendant of the Mitsui family.

Brokered by a Chinese businessman, the Mitsui family came forward to find Misaki's parents, and the Mitsui family did not know the true identity of the Chinese who came to find him, only that these people were on errands for Chinese political dignitaries.

Mitsui Nosuke is just twenty-six years old this year, a young man who graduated from Imperial Guangzhou University and speaks Chinese very fluently.

Mitsui Nosuke was slightly surprised to see that the leader who came to pick him up was a beautiful girl, but he had many friends in China, and like many Yuben students, they had special feelings for China, and they all believed that only with the help of Chinese people could they have a future and hope, and at the same time, they all more or less enjoyed this sense of superiority in China because of their close relationship with Chinese.

Personally making tea for Han Qi and the others, Mitsui Nosuke said enthusiastically: "Miss Han, don't worry, Mr. Kuwata and Mrs. Kuwata will be taken over soon, they have always been our most honored guests, and they have been placed in a quiet mansion in the suburbs. ”

Han Qi nodded slightly: "Thank you, Mr. Mitsui." But neither she nor the four guards touched the teacups on the table, but the interpreter drank them in one gulp.

Mitsui Nosuke looked at a few people thoughtfully, and walked out again, and when he returned to the lounge, there were staff members following behind, holding large bags of gifts.

"Miss Han, I like to make friends very much, these gifts are not a tribute." Mitsui Nosuke made a gesture, and the staff sent the gifts to Han Qi and the others one by one, looking at the paper bag packaging, all of which are made in China, and in Asian countries, there is no doubt that the most high-end goods are made in China. Mitsui Nosuke smiled again: "My company's best products are all from China, so I can only borrow flowers to offer Buddha." ”

Han Qi said, "Thank you, Mr. Mitsui. "I didn't shirk his kindness, and I wanted to return the money to him through the Chinese merchants.

Seeing that he received the gift, Mitsui Nosuke was slightly happy in his heart, but he was extremely measured, and he would not ask about the origin of these Chinese and the details of Kuwata's couple, but only talked with Han Qi and others about the interesting story of his school in Guangzhou and the current situation in Edo.

Mitsui Nosuke is talkative, but he has just met, and there is always a time for the topic to be finished, and after waiting for more than an hour, he has not seen the return of the person who went to pick up Kuwata and his wife, and Mitsui Nosuke can't help but feel slightly anxious.

Mitsui Nosuke was about to send someone to urge him to see what was going on, there was a hurried knock on the door outside the lounge, Mitsui Nosuke hurriedly walked out, talked to someone outside for a while, and when he came back, his face was a little ugly, and he said to Han Qi: "Miss Han, I'm really sorry, there is a little situation, I'll solve it, please wait." ”

Han Qi frowned slightly, not to mention the relationship between Misaki and the Great Emperor, she was friends with Misaki, and if Misaki's parents had a mistake, she would be to blame. But in Edo, she knew that it was useless for her to be in a hurry, so she just said, "If we need help, we can ask the Edo embassy to come forward." ”

Mitsui Nosuke left and came back in the evening, when the department store was closed, and dishes were also delivered in the lounge, but Han Qi and the others did not move, and the five internal guards were very patient, so they kept sitting upright, but it was the interpreter who couldn't help but eat a bowl of noodles.

Behind Mitsui Nosuke are two middle-aged couples, their faces are very delicate, and they are the ones who can give birth to a little beauty embryo like Misaki, and their parents are not far behind.

However, although both husband and wife were dressed in new clothes, the blood marks on their faces were obvious, and they were obviously flogged.

Mitsui Nosuke was ashamed and a little angry, so he could only apologize to Han Qi, "Miss Han, I'm really sorry, because our family relationship has affected Mr. Kuwata and Mrs. Kuwata. ”

Han Qi bowed slightly.

The Sang Tian couple were extremely frightened, they didn't know why there were wealthy nobles looking for them to arrange a place to live and serve, and they didn't know why they were arrested by the people of the police department, tortured to extract confessions, and asked them many questions that they didn't understand at all.

Han Qi smiled and said, "Mr. Sangtian, Mrs. Sangtian, you once had a daughter, who is now in China, and she is also a good friend of mine, and she entrusted me to find you two. ”

Mitsui Nosuke acted as a translator next to him, and the interpreter who followed Han Qi was useless.

"Ah, Chieko, you, are you really her friend?" Mrs. Kuwata's eyes widened in surprise and looked at Han Qi in disbelief.

Han Qi said: "Her current name is Misaki, and she is my friend. I will not travel all the way from China to deceive my husband and wife. ”

The Sangtian couple glanced at each other, indeed, what did the two of them have to be deceived?

"She, how is she? Is life good? Mrs. Kuwatian's eyes immediately turned red, and she lost her daughter when she was still an infant, and she was almost insane when she washed her face with tears, and she never thought that she would see her daughter again.

"Rest assured, she is living well, and now in Nagasaki, you will see her soon." Han Qi saw that Mrs. Sang Tian was still asking questions, and said with a smile: "Rest early, you can ask Miss Misaki these words when you see her, and I will send you and Mr. Sang Tian on a steamer tomorrow morning." ”

Mr. Sangtian was more sensible, he pulled Mrs. Lasangtian's clothes, and from what happened these days, he knew that things were not so simple, and he could only wait and see.

At nine o'clock in the morning of the second day, Han Qi said goodbye to Mr. and Mrs. Sangtian, and there were three guards who followed Sangtian and his wife, while Han Qi and another guard stayed.

The ribbons on the dock were fluttering, and there were a lot of people seeing them off, and when the whistle sounded, the steamer gradually went offshore, Han Qi turned his head to look at Mitsui Nosuke, and said, "Mr. Mitsui, what is going on, can you tell me about it?" Otherwise, I won't be able to explain it when I go back. ”

Mitsui smiled bitterly and said, "It was the Third Department of the Police that did it, thinking that the Kuwata couple had some kind of mysterious relationship with my family business, and the director of Saigo Takamori had been looking for trouble with us, and the Kuwata couple were implicated, which was a calamity." ”

The Third Police Department belongs to the secret police of the country, and suppresses those who demand change in the country. Nowadays, there is a political force in Japan that strongly demands the preservation of the samurai system, and this move is supported by the inferior bankrupt samurai, and the head of the government, Saigo Takamori, is one of the representatives of this political force.

The Mitsui family and other chaebols, with the growth of economic power, the voice of wanting to gain political discourse became stronger and stronger, and they were extremely dissatisfied with the status of domestic merchants, and the Mitsui family also submitted a petition for their family representatives to enter the House of Nobles, and received the support of the emerging merchant class.

The contradictions between the two sides became more and more serious, and Saigo Takamori regarded the Mitsui family as a thorn in his side, secretly investigated the evidence of the Mitsui family's illegal enrichment, and even pointed the finger at Hosokawa Shaobang, the great ruler.

"Police Department III?" Han Qi frowned and said, "Mr. Mitsui, someone must be responsible for this matter, and I will report this matter to the Edo Embassy in detail." ”

Mitsui nosuke was ecstatic in his heart, in the political disputes in the country, the Central Plains Empire has always taken an attitude of staying out of the matter, although generally speaking, the chaebol and comprador groups are closer to the Chinese, and in the noble house, there are not a few nobles who are wary of being hostile to the Chinese, but the Chinese official has never intervened in the domestic struggle, which also makes Mitsui and other chaebols and compradors greatly depressed, but in front of them, there may be an opportunity.

"I am willing to testify on behalf of Miss Han's friend who was tortured to extract a confession." Mitsui Nosuke swore by it.

Han Qi shook his head: "Let's see again." ”

At this moment, more than a dozen young men in black uniforms suddenly rushed up from all around, and Mitsui Nosuke's men immediately stopped them, and the two sides quickly turned into a confrontation with short guns, and the atmosphere was extremely tense.

A middle-aged man from Rindanhu showed his ID to Han Qi and Mitsui Nosuke, and shouted from afar: "We are from the Third Police Department, please Mr. Mitsui and this young lady come with us." ”

Mitsui Nosuke's eyes turned cold and said, "This is my Chinese friend. ”

Ren Danhu sneered: "I know they are Chinese......" Over the years, the Mitsui family has colluded with Chinese unscrupulous businessmen, how many illegal things have they done? According to the intelligence, it is now a catch.

Before the words fell, a gunshot rang out, and then, there was a chaotic shootout.

There was a mess on the dock immediately, but what Ren Danhu couldn't have imagined was that two Chinese, a man and a woman, each took out two six-thunder cannons, fired at close range, and his men fell one by one, and before he could react, he had already been hit by a bullet in his forehead, his eyes were dark, and he fell to the sky.

Mitsui Nosuke was also obviously startled, and even forgot to lead Han Qi and the two to escape, until a large number of military police arrived and surrounded them.

Obviously, this was a planned operation, otherwise the soldiers of the Edo Guard Force would not have been able to come so quickly, led by the deputy head of the guard regiment, Tozu Matsumasa, and the defeated sons of the Tozu family.

Rows of riflemen in black uniforms surrounded Mitsui Nosuke and the others.

Mitsui Nosuke looked at the corpses all over the ground, stunned, in fact, the false information passed to the third hall had the Mitsui family's share, and he wanted to implicate Chinese and make Chinese intervene in the power struggle, opening a passage for the Mitsui family and the merchant class to enter the noble house.

But I didn't want to know who shot first, and I didn't expect these two Chinese to start with viciousness, and the marksmanship was even more accurate, and in just a few efforts, they knocked down more than a dozen secret police, and now the development of the situation has completely out of his control, and under the threat of the military police rifle, he can only slowly raise his hand.

Toritsumatsu was striding in front of Han Qi, who was aiming at the bayonet, and Han Qi had slowly inserted the six-thunder cannon back into the holster on his back waist.

Looking at the bloody corpse on the ground, Torizu Matsumasa's eyes were almost spewing fire, and Mitsui Nosuke saw that it was not good, and hurriedly shouted: "She is the envoy of the Chinese ministry." In fact, he didn't know who was behind these Chinese, so he could only make false threats and move out of the background of high-ranking Chinese ministers.

"Chinese?" Toritsu Matsumasa was slightly startled, but when he saw Han Qi's calm look at him, his heart became nameless, and he reached out and pinched the jaw of this Chinese beautiful girl, and said coldly: "What's wrong with the Chinese?" It's you! ”

Han Qi couldn't understand what he was saying, so he suddenly broke free of his hand and said coldly, "Don't touch me!" ”

Looking at Han Qi's slightly contemptuous expression, Toritsu Matsu was feeling evil in his heart, Chinese woman, you will know how powerful I am in a while! Imagining the picture of the arrogant Chinese woman struggling under him in front of him, his heart was on fire, and now many people say that they are proud of marrying a Chinese woman, and raping a Chinese woman naturally has an excellent sense of conquest and satisfaction.

At this time, Han Qi had already taken out his waist card, shook it in front of Totsu Matsumasa, and said coldly: "I want to see the Edo minister." ”

The Chinese character on the waist card, Torizu Song, is exactly the one he knows, and he is fierce, the guard officer of the Chinese royal family? The violence that had just filled his mind suddenly seemed to be poured with a basin of cold water, and disappeared without a trace in an instant.

No matter how bold he is, he knows the weight of the guards in the Yanjing Forbidden Palace.

Mitsui Nosuke was far away and couldn't see Han Qi's waist card, but he was slightly relieved when he saw Toritsu Matsu was stunned.

Han Qi turned back to Mitsui and said, "Mr. Mitsui, I hope you will accompany me to the embassy to explain the course of this conflict, it was your people who fired the gun first, and Zhang Youkang and I were just defending ourselves." ”

At that time, the situation was very chaotic, Mitsui Nosuke didn't know how the first shot was fired, at that moment, his mind almost became blank, but this beautiful girl, obviously the whole conflict from the beginning to the end, although the continuous shooting, but she was afraid of who and how she behaved clearly.

Mitsui Nosuke was embarrassed for a while, compared to others, isn't he just a gentleman?

Han Qi added: "According to the laws of your country, the samurai class has the right to bear arms, and civilians in our country must declare when they land in ports other than Nagasaki with firearms, and the guards of officials above the fifth rank can wear short guns in your country without declaring. China says that people's disputes require the participation of our consuls in the trial, is this not the case? ”

Mitsui Nosuke nodded slightly and said, "What Miss Han said is right. ”

In fact, with Han Qi's identity, consular jurisdiction, the right to bear arms, etc., cannot be governed at all, but there has never been a treaty between China and China to adjudicate the rights of the royal guards in the territory of Yue, and it is impossible to sign such a treaty. Fortunately, according to the civil case, Han Qi is just as reasonable.

Totsu Matsumasa's face turned pale, and he really didn't know what to do with this hot potato for a while.

(To be continued)