Chapter 464

The air of Hawaii is a mixture of the salty and heavy humidity of the sea, and of confusion and disorder, of wealth and poverty, of powerlessness and strength.

The original settlers had been reduced to the status of slaves, the highest class being, of course, the whites, and the colored people who dressed in imitation of the whites.

There are too many immigrants here, and the architectural styles are varied.

When Su Chunjun came from the dock, there were three different prices for the carriage. Pounds, dollars, and francs were all common, but not Yuan Daotou. He repeatedly said it was sterling silver, and only then was he able to get a carriage to take him.

But this also reveals that he is a poor man.

Su Chunjun didn’t care that he was seen as a poor man, he was very used to this kind of life, rather the life of a rich son was more like the memory of the previous generation.

The carriage dropped him off at the stagecoach station, because he said he could find a relative to beat the money out of him.

The coach driver laughed at him, “Well, boy, I hope this won’t be the last time I see you.”

Su Chunjun rubbed his chest with one hand, “Thank you for your kindness, sir, God will bless you.”

The carriage driver shook his head.

Su Chunjun arrived at the stagecoach station, and with his righteousness and thick skin, he managed to break through the watchman’s blockade and walked into the stagecoach station.

He continued to rely on his thick skin to stay in the public area – that is, the corridor at the main entrance of the stagecoach station for half an hour, during which time he observed what kind of people came in and out of this stagecoach station, which country’s people dominated, and what the most commonly used lingua franca was, whether it was French or English, and also, in front of the main entrance, there was a free message board, and free ink and post-it notes could be used. ink and pee-sticks to use – maybe he could whore out a resume or something or write a letter here.

He got himself out before the janitor was going to kick him out.

Usually, you could find most of the place’s important facilities by circling around the stagecoach.

He circled around and found a post office, a tavern, an inn, a bookstore-but closed, and a tanner’s store for shoe mending, next to a hat store and two tailor stores. The hat store also sold ladies’ clothing on the side.

He walked into the tanner’s store, and the tanner’s apprentice immediately came over and asked him, “Sir, is there anything I can do for you?”

Su Chunjun sat down and asked him to mend the soles of his shoes, as well as his belt, which was broken and could hopefully be joined.

It was not necessary for a tanner to do this work; an apprentice could do it. He sat down on his stool and held Su Chunjun’s tattered leather shoes, first gently cleaning all the dust and mud from its surface before starting to mend the soles.

The apprentice said, “Sir, these shoes of yours are quite well made, and the leather used is also good.”

Su Chunjun smiled and said, “Is that so? You can tell.”

The apprentice nodded, “Yes.”

Su Chunjun surveyed the store and realized that there were many tattered leather shoes, leather bags, leather cases and other leather goods in the corners, as well as a stack of old saddles.

It seemed that this store also collected old goods.

The leather used to mend his shoes was cleaned from these old goods.

The apprentice spent an hour mending the soles of his two shoes and re-oiled them, and replaced the shoelaces with two new ones, and the belts with new ones.

Su Chunjun took out his wallet and asked him, “Do you accept this?”

With this intact wallet, he not only paid off the money for mending shoes and belts, but also earned half a pound more.

With this half pound, he had a fairly decent meal in the tavern: a plate of stewed potatoes and a glass of beer.

After the meal, he had figured out what he could do to make money: collect old goods.

That is, being a second-hand dealer.

In a place like this, not everyone would be able to afford new goods, and there must be a good market for second-hand goods. In addition to the tanner’s store, the tailor’s store must also collect old clothes.

Of course, he didn’t intend to do business here, it was just that he needed a reason to open himself up. A second-hand dealer who collected old goods had a reason to walk the streets and find people to talk to, it was less likely to be noticed, and even if there was a problem, he had enough time to react.

Su Chunjun soon found hidden customers and buyers.

He began to squat at the stagecoach station all the time, like many people do, and when he saw people in shabby clothes or in a hurry, he went up to them and solicited them, saying that he could help them sell the unwanted clothes and shoes in their luggage for a good price.

It’s still pretty easy, because pretty much everyone here is short of money. Some of the rags, which the owners think can only be treated as garbage, are all good stuff in Su Chunjun’s mouth, and can be sold!

But he won’t pay for it first, he will just take it away first, and when he sells it later, he will get the money back to the other party, who will then pay him a favor. Of course, if it didn’t sell, he would still bring it back and take nothing.

This seemed risky, but since he took old clothes and stuff that even the owner himself didn’t think he could sell, a relationship of trust was still easy to come by – thanks to his skin and tongue.

He made three deals in one night, and even the hat store and the tailor’s store let him walk in, in addition to the tanner’s store.

It was at the stagecoach that he had breakfast the next morning. By way of breakfast he read all the newspapers in the post, and found that the earliest newspaper here was two weeks old, but still a little more recent than the news he had had at sea.

There was domestic news in the papers, and he read them hungrily.

All he had known at the time he had left was that the train station had exploded, what he hadn’t realized was that it had been the prelude to a surprise attack. For many days afterward, the train station and docks were attacked in quick succession, with a mass exodus of civilians. His name appeared only once, and it seemed to be assumed that this was retaliation on his part against the Japanese, but the statement of the State** did not admit that it was one of theirs who was responsible.

The newspapers were French, and the reporter who wrote the story said that it was most likely a plan by the comm***e.

After reading all the papers, he went back to the message board with his cup of tea.

The janitor wasn’t staring at him today, so he had easy access to ink and a pen and scribbled there.

He wrote an advertisement note: To the initiated, I am collecting old clothes and shoes and leather goods at a negotiable price. If I don’t sell it, you won’t lose a penny.

Then hid it under the other notes.

He noticed that everyone had a hasty look at the first layer of notes, and then would concentrate on the ones underneath.

Hiding it underneath would also make it look like he had been in the business for a long time.

The notes on the message board would be cleaned out periodically, but not thrown away. It’s a bit of goodwill on the part of the people at this stagecoach.

The notes are dated as far back as last year and the ink color is old.

The notes are written in many languages, English, Japanese, German, Russian, and Chinese.

There were very, very many people who came here.

He read through all the Chinese notes, all of them looking for someone, but he didn’t recognize any of the names.

What did the people who wrote here expect, or perhaps not much at all? Because this place was far from the battlefield, if they were separated in the war zone, what a miracle it would be to be reunited on the other side of the world.

Scrolling down, he suddenly came across a strange note, for it was in many languages, as if written by a child who had only just learned a foreign language.

Looking at it, he held his breath.

–Professor Day, I remember how to spell yogurt dumplings.

–Mom, I miss you so much.

–Sister, I miss you too.

–Mr. Su, I love you so much.

–I’m Yan Yan, I’m here.

A tremendous pressure seized him, as if he had been put into an airless, narrow glass bottle. He couldn’t breathe, couldn’t control himself.

He thought it was her here.

But he hadn’t expected to meet her here.

He hadn’t gone to the post office to send a telegram, he hadn’t made sure it was safe, he hadn’t set up a safe house, he had just gotten here yesterday.

– – Where are you! Yan Yan! Where are you!

Su Chunjun covered his mouth as tears rolled out uncontrollably.

He hurriedly wiped away the tears and stared intently at the note.

Write a note back to her?

No, it might be dangerous.

Remove the note?

No, it might scare Yan Yan.

Right, he could continue to wait here.

She would definitely come back to the stagecoach.

Until then, he needed to make sure it was safe and establish a safe passage as soon as possible.

Su Chunjun left the stagecoach and came back a little later, taking this time to go to the tailor’s store to get a suit on credit, for which he had to bet the tailor’s store his cufflinks, which Ms. Zhu had bought for Yang Xuhe, and which had since been returned to him.

The opal cufflinks, very beautiful, were in Ms. Zhu’s good taste.

Changing his suit, he went back to the barber store to have his hair trimmed. Thus refreshed, he reappeared at the stagecoach station, and the watchman immediately bent his waist ninety degrees.

This time, even if he hadn’t eaten or spent any money, he was able to sit on the bench couch at the stagecoach.

He sat there until noon, when he spotted two potential business targets and went to them to collect old clothes and old goods. Probably because he was so beautifully dressed, this time he went to talk about it surprisingly very easily and got the business done, he took away their old suitcases, including everything in them, then went to the tanner’s store to sell the suitcases, then to the tailor’s store to sell the old clothes, and finally returned to the stagecoach station with the money.

Both the tanner’s store and the tailor’s store would give him a cut, and the man who sold the old clothes when he got back here would give him some kind of favor fee, and after the two deals were done he had even made out the money for tomorrow’s room.

Lunch at the post was too expensive, and he went to the tavern for lunch, which was still stewed potatoes and beer. His plate was a little cleaner today than it had been yesterday, and the journeyman who served him the food thought he was a rich man and complimented him on it.

But even then, he didn’t tip.

He finished his lunch in a hurry and continued to come back here to keep watch.

Thanks to the thrift business, it wasn’t surprising that he was sitting here.

He just looked at the newspaper while he waited with the hope that he would see the figure that walked in through the door.

It had to be the figure of an angel.

“Ms. Su.”

The janitor greeted.

“Hello, Tom. The boat arrived yesterday, is there a new paper today?”

A more than adequate figure stepped through the door. She wore a blue sunbonnet at a slant, a white lace blouse, a lady’s vest with a wide silk belt that cinched her slender waist, and a pair of ankle-length riding boots under a pair of breeches.

She carried a small, crumpled shell-shaped purse, which he remembered her boasting about its virtue of being full without looking propped up, and of being able to stuff a lot of things into it.

In her other hand she held a small riding crop that hurt like hell to use to hit people, especially when swept toward their eyes.

The janitor shook his head, “No.”

She sighed, “Well, I’m not too surprised, they definitely didn’t return home, they just went on a shipment.”

She moved inside, her eyes sweeping over here.

He subconsciously stood up and straightened his lapels.

Their eyes met.

She stared wide-eyed.

He gave a reflexive smile.

In the next second, she walked quickly towards him.

Unobtrusively, and with excited urgency, she embraced him.

He held her firmly in his arms, almost expecting her to disappear in the next instant.

The people around them looked at them for a moment, then averted their eyes, not really interested.

They hugged for a moment, then let go of each other as quickly as they could.

Then all four eyes looked at each other and their brains were spinning slower than usual.

“Hi.” She said, “Want to go to my room for tea.”

He said, “Sure.”

At the knowing glances of the people next to them, they left together.

Whatever they thought, he didn’t care.