Chapter 2: The First Pot of Gold

【2】The First Pot of Gold

In the eyes of Cao Xiaoqiang, who had just experienced great sorrow, great joy, great shock, and great fear, there was no doubt that this time-travel was the turning point of his life. Unless he had lost his mind, he was determined to seize this opportunity. After racking his brains until they felt like they were about to explode, he finally told himself that he must make good use of this chance to benefit both himself and the New China of that parallel space. That was an era that was materially poor but spiritually soaring and ambitious; it was an era where our parents' and grandparents' generations faced the cold eyes and mockery of the West, enduring hardships without ever kneeling to beg for mercy; it was the era that laid the foundation for the "factory of the world."

As an engineering student, the first thing that came to Cao Xiaoqiang’s mind to bring across time and space were the various types of equipment needed to build a modern industrial power. Bringing them over to sell could be described as benefiting both the country and himself.

However, at the moment, there was only a little over five thousand yuan left on his loser’s salary card, which once again made Xiaoqiang understand what it meant for a hero to be defeated by a single penny. One might ask, what could one buy in this time and space for five thousand yuan that could be resold for a handsome profit in another?

In the end, Cao Xiaoqiang chose watches. Thanks to the advanced experience shared online by countless time-traveling predecessors, this dim-witted fool was able to immediately identify the most profitable and easiest item to carry.

Thanks to the superior industrial capabilities of this era and the convenience of online information, old-fashioned manual mechanical watches like the "Puhai" brand could be bought on Taobao for around a hundred yuan. In that era, the value of one such watch could be exchanged for one to two hundred RMB—or 1.2 million *fabi* before the currency reform. Foreign watches were even more expensive, reaching three hundred to five hundred yuan or more (for the sake of convenience, all subsequent transactions in this text will be settled in RMB; please forgive me). In 1949, the People's Bank of China's gold purchase price was three to four yuan per gram. Exchanging the money for gold to bring back to this time and space, where gold was over 300 yuan per gram, meant a profit of about a hundred times. Thinking of this, Cao Xiaoqiang made up his mind: this is what he would do!

Early the next morning, Cao Xiaoqiang called his company to take sick leave. On the phone, the pig-headed boss Wang Bin’s gloomy tone sounded as if Xiaoqiang owed him two thousand yuan, and he repeatedly emphasized that Xiaoqiang’s salary for the month would be forfeited. Cao Xiaoqiang remained unmoved and firmly requested a week off. He had long felt that living in the crowded metropolis was too stifling; people seemed like livestock raised by capital, busy all day to cater to their masters in order to get more feed, even requiring that the right to reproduce be based on being of the same social standing—a "match made in heaven." Meanwhile, capital could run wild without restraint. Xiaoqiang craved freedom; he craved a different life. He would never give up this chance to change his life and change the world.

Cao Xiaoqiang contacted a seller in Beidu he found on Taobao and opted for a face-to-face transaction. He bought forty domestic mechanical watches, which were said to be of decent quality, at ninety yuan each. The brand name was one of those common, foreign-sounding names: "Olade." In Cao Xiaoqiang’s view, an English name was better than having "Puhai" written on it; otherwise, it would be a hassle to explain in that time and space—a Chinese name like that would be impossible to justify.

Back at his residence, Cao Xiaoqiang removed all evidence of this era from the watch packaging, such as instruction manuals and quality certificates, leaving only the beautiful boxes. He then packed them one by one into a medium-sized cardboard box from which he had scraped off all the text.

Now everything was ready; he just had to wait for dark to find a deserted spot to travel. Xiaoqiang found the hotel where he had previously committed suicide and went to the residential area nearby. In his memory, this place before 1949 was a large open space not far from the Shuijing Hutong where he had last traveled.

Like everything else in the world, when you are truly waiting for darkness, time passes incredibly slowly. Xiaoqiang smoked half of the two packs of cigarettes he had with him. During that time, countless possibilities of a failed time-travel flashed through his mind, the beauty of his fantasies clashing violently with the cruelty of reality. Afterward, his mind slowly calmed down. Gradually, gradually, Xiaoqiang settled into a state of nicotine-induced numbness, thinking of nothing at all.

It was dark. It was time to go.

Following the instructions of the Blood Soul, Xiaoqiang pricked his finger with a needle and placed a drop of blood on the cardboard box. The bright red blood made the box look a bit like a crime scene.

"Activate blood sacrifice, travel to Waypoint One," Xiaoqiang muttered to himself like an idiot in a sci-fi movie.

Immediately, in the darkness, Cao Xiaoqiang, clutching the box, vanished with a *whoosh* without a sound. The place where this fool had stood seemed as if no one had ever been there; only the cigarette butts on the ground testified that someone had indeed been present. The blood from his body had vanished as if evaporated, and this was already Xiaoqiang’s third major blood loss recently. The medical conditions of 1949 had no procedure for blood transfusions for Xiaoqiang, only hanging a saline drip for him, which left him even weaker. Xiaoqiang couldn't help but think that if this continued, he should consider seeing a gynecologist...

Ten seconds later, a dizzy Xiaoqiang stood on the open ground by Shuijing Hutong, clutching his box. Everything was silent; the big houses and small houses were all asleep in the night. The well at the entrance of the hutong cast a shadow, playing a game of chess with the moonlight on the stone path. The autumn night in Beidu slept quietly and sweetly amidst the whistling cold wind.

One must know that autumn in Beidu gets cold early; by now, every household was already covered in thick quilts. Xiaoqiang, standing in the open, looked around. Seeing no movement, he hunched his shoulders and, following his previous plan, ran into Shuijing Hutong, found a sheltered corner, and squatted down to wait for dawn.

When you are asleep, time really passes quickly. Woken up by a rooster’s crow, Xiaoqiang rubbed the crust from his eyes, sniffled his cold-blocked nose, and continued to huddle in the shadows of the corner.

As soon as it was light, the sound of residents pulling door latches could be heard. Cao Xiaoqiang, who had been frozen all night but remained incredibly excited, became alert. He immediately stood on tiptoe and dashed out of the hutong, hurrying toward Qianmen Street with a mix of excitement and anxiety.

Although time and space had changed, the layout of old Beidu in this era was easier to identify than the steel and concrete jungle of the future. Even though it was shortly after dawn, there were already pedestrians coming and going on the streets. Xiaoqiang’s attire was strikingly conspicuous among them.

Xiaoqiang observed carefully as he walked. He could see the People's Liberation Army standing guard at every intersection to maintain social order. Xiaoqiang, who had always felt an affinity for the PLA, felt no fear and walked boldly until he reached the entrance of a shop called "Delong Trading." Cao Xiaoqiang stopped here. He looked at the white-painted wooden sign hanging high at the entrance, where several lines of large characters were neatly brushed in eye-catching black paint: "Foreign watches, radios, phonographs, all kinds of foreign goods." He pondered: *Alright, this is the one.*

In fact, along the way, Cao Xiaoqiang had already attracted countless eyes. Dressed in a 21st-century suit and leather shoes, clutching a cardboard box, he was truly an eyesore on the street. The men and women passing by all carried a spirit of happiness and confidence. Those who looked educated and from good families mostly wore long gowns; a few scattered individuals in suits and trench coats sat in rickshaws, the pullers trotting past in a hurry. These cart drivers and rickshaw pullers all wore short jackets and trousers made of dark green or gray-white homespun cloth. On such a cold day, they exposed the lean, powerful forearms and calves common to the laborers of this era. Other than that, everyone else seen on the street, apart from the faded homespun fabric, was almost entirely dressed in navy blue and black.

Just as he entered the shop, a young clerk of sixteen or seventeen greeted him politely

"Greetings, sir. Please take a look at our shop's goods. They are all carefully selected, high-quality imported foreign goods. Feel free to choose; the prices are fair."

"Is your boss in? Call him out; I have something to discuss with him," Cao Xiaoqiang said, ignoring the clerk and getting straight to the point.

The young clerk was slightly taken aback, finding the man rude, but after glancing at Cao Xiaoqiang’s "uncommon attire," he became even more respectful

"Please wait a moment, sir. I will go and invite Boss Chen out for you."

Cao Xiaoqiang placed the heavy cardboard box on the cement floor of the shop and looked around. He felt that the thirty-square-meter shop was kept quite tidy, wiped clean and shiny. On the red-lacquered wooden shelves inside the walnut counter sat old-fashioned radios and phonographs. The old vacuum-tube radio looked just like a large wooden box. Those phonographs looked even more like the antiques in the movies Xiaoqiang used to watch, with large, open brass horns on top, polished to a shine. On the side of the shop outside the counter, there were larger floor-standing radios and phonographs, as big as small wooden cabinets.

The shop's counter was a three-section structure. Why was it called three-section? Because the two ends were wooden counters, and the middle section was a glass counter. Only this glass section had transparent flat glass embedded in the front and top. As soon as a customer walked in, it was very eye-catching. Inside this glass counter, eight foreign watches were neatly arranged on a red velvet lining, shining brilliantly. However, in the eyes of Cao Xiaoqiang from the 21st century, only one word could describe his feelings: "unimpressed."

To Xiaoqiang, who was used to seeing Rolexes and Longines in large shopping malls, those watches looked little different from unearthed artifacts.

Just then, a man hurried out from the back of the shop. He was about fifty, wearing a navy blue quilted long gown with a subtle copper coin pattern. His face was thin with a short goatee, and round-rimmed tortoiseshell glasses with black plastic temples sat in the middle of his nose. The eyes behind the lenses carefully sized up Cao Xiaoqiang before saying

"This gentleman is looking for me? I wonder which of my shop's foreign goods has caught your eye?"

"Haha, sir, please forgive my presumption. Actually, I came today because I want to sell your shop some watches I imported from overseas. Please take a look."

As he spoke, without waiting for the goatee to reply, Cao Xiaoqiang opened the box, took out a watch box, and handed it over directly. The goatee was a bit surprised, but his expression quickly returned to normal. He took the box, opened it, and examined the watch, saying, "I wonder where this watch was produced?" (The only manual that stated the origin had been thrown away by Xiaoqiang one by one; now, wherever he said it was made, that’s where it was made.)

"What brand is it?"

"Olade," Cao Xiaoqiang transliterated the name of this second-tier mechanical watch brand from Chongqin.

The goatee’s expression seemed to grow fonder the more he looked at the watch: all-steel case, glass face, steel strap—every visible part was so finely crafted (relative to this era).

"Sir, please follow me to the back room to discuss in detail," the goatee gestured.

So Cao Xiaoqiang followed him to the back room. After a cup of tea and introductions, he learned that the man with the goatee was named Chen Weifang. Cao Xiaoqiang claimed to be a foreign trade merchant who didn't dare to keep stock due to the war, which was why he was eager to offload it and willing to sell it cheap. The two agreed on a price. This old fox was truly a veteran businessman; his haggling skills were formidable. Using both soft and hard tactics, he managed to beat Cao Xiaoqiang’s asking price down from 120 to 80. However, he agreed to help Cao Xiaoqiang convert the payment into gold. According to him, the official exchange rate for gold was too cheap, while the private market price was around 4.5 yuan per gram. Thus, Cao Xiaoqiang sold all 40 watches for 23 "small yellow fish" (the average small gold bar of the Republic of China was 31.25 grams).

In Xiaoqiang’s view, this was simply a huge profit; there was no reason not to agree.

Chen Weifang asked Xiaoqiang to wait in the shop while he went to get the gold. Xiaoqiang had been talking business for a long time and his head was full of calculations, so he was a bit tired. He drank some tea and waited slowly.

An hour later, Chen Weifang returned to the shop and slowly inspected all 40 watches, even randomly opening the back covers of a few to check. Chen Weifang clicked his tongue in admiration

"This American Olade watch is truly exquisitely crafted, and the packaging is also refined. Mr. Cao, if you do this watch import trade again in the future, just bring the goods; I’ll take them all!"

"Boss Chen, rest assured. The quality of these watches is excellent, and the after-sales service is even better. If there are any quality issues within a year, I guarantee a replacement."

"Really! Please leave your contact information, Mr. Cao." (One must know that in this day and age, if a foreign watch broke, you had to find a watchmaker yourself, and the repair cost was extremely high. If you were unlucky and had to repair it twice, the cost would be enough to buy a new low-end watch.)

"I just arrived in Beidu from Puhai and don't have a storefront yet. Once I find a suitable one, I will come to notify Boss Chen."

"Then I shall trouble you. It is already noon; why not stay for a simple meal before you go?"

Cao Xiaoqiang flatly refused Chen Weifang’s invitation: "Many thanks for your kindness, Boss Chen, I appreciate it, but I really have other urgent matters to attend to. Please excuse me, I must take my leave."

Chen Weifang, beaming with pride, personally saw Cao Xiaoqiang to the door and only turned back once they reached the intersection.