Chen Zikun's move would have worked in Beijing, where the thugs and hooligans would have backed down at the sight of a tough guy, but this was Shanghai, where heroes and rascals were everywhere. It was unlikely that a newcomer from the 16th Wharf could intimidate everyone with just two pistols.

  The thugs, one by one, crossed their arms and sneered coldly. The leader-like figure walked up to Chen Zikun, bowed slightly, and asked with a smile: "May I ask what is your honorable surname?"

  Chen Zigong said: "My surname is Chen."

  The smile on his face grew thicker: "May I ask if the boss is at home?"

  Chen Zikong naturally detected that the other party was speaking in a gangster dialect, but he, a northeastern horse thief, only knew his own family's slang and didn't understand the Shanghai gangster dialect. He didn't bother to waste words with the other party and said straightforwardly: "Cut the crap, I hate it when people bully others with their power, scram."

  The hooligan was not annoyed and asked one last sentence, which was no longer a slang but plain language that everyone could understand.

  "Is this fellow from the Shanghai Garrison Command?"

  "Didn't hear that, Brother Kun told you to get out, don't look for trouble." Li Yaoting knew Chen Zikun's ferocity and didn't take these little rascals seriously, so he cursed as soon as he opened his mouth.

  The thugs were enraged, with furrowed brows and icy anger, eager to take action. Several of them had already opened their clothes, revealing the handles of axes at their waists.

  Baldy saw the contradiction and had a tendency to intensify, so he quickly came out to mediate: "Brothers, I owe you money and will definitely pay it back. It's just that recently my funds have been tight, slightly inconvenient, but once the funds are in place, I will return them with interest."

  The thugs had a way out, and they didn't dare to fight with the armed men in public, so they just threw a few sentences of slang that Chen Zikun and others couldn't understand and left.

  The bald man let out a sigh of relief and wiped the sweat from his forehead with a handkerchief: "Thanks to both of you for saving me."

  Li Yaoting said: "You're coming back late, you knocked over our food and didn't even apologize."

  "Never mind, it's just two bowls of noodles. This old brother is also having a hard time, let's go."

  Baldy said: "You two are new to Shanghai, right? Why don't I be your tour guide and show you around as a token of my gratitude?"

  Chen Zikong thought for a moment and said, "Alright."

  Baldy cupped his fists and said: "I am Jiang Zhicheng from Fenghua, I don't know what to call you two?"

  "My name is Chen Zikun, his name is Li Yaoting."

  "Baldy said: 'Brother Chen, Brother Li, glad to meet you. Just now you two took action with justice, but offended the local Green Gang character. I'm afraid there will be trouble, let's leave quickly.'"

  The three of them left the small noodle shop and headed west along the bustling main street, with Jiang Zhiqing speaking in a Zhejiang-accented Mandarin that was uninterrupted and continuous, introducing his two newly arrived Beijing friends to Shanghai's human geography.

  "Shanghai is divided into two parts: the concession and the Chinese district. The concession is further divided into the British-American public concession and the French concession, while the Chinese district is divided into Zhabei and Nanshi. All the good food and fun are in the concession area. We're currently walking on the most prosperous main street of the public concession, and up ahead there's the horse racing hall and Fourth Avenue."

  Li Yaoting looked at the prosperous shops on both sides of the road, his eyes were full of excitement. Suddenly, he saw a man carrying a woman on his shoulder, swaggering through the streets. He was greatly surprised: "Old Jiang, what's going on?"

  Jiang Zhicheng was in his thirties, older than the other two, and was called "Old Jiang" without getting angry, but instead felt affectionate. He smiled and said: "That's a girl from Si Ma Road who went to do business."

  "What is Sima Road?" Li Yaoting asked in puzzlement.

  Jiang Zhicheng smiled and said: "Isn't that place full of brothels and casinos? It's the most fun place on Shanghai Beach?"

  "What's the fun?" Li Yaoting still looked confused, in Beijing he was considered a clever guy, but in Shanghai he became so numb that Chen Zikun couldn't help but interrupt: "It's a place to play with women."

  Li Yaoting suddenly realized: "It's actually a kiln, and it has such a elegant name."

  Jiang Zhiqing burst out laughing: "Little Chen is too straightforward, really a hero, but can't say that, the master of Shu Ju is one who sells art not body, Chang San Tangzi is mainly a place to talk business and make friends, if you want to play with women, go to Xian Rou Zhuang, Ding Peng this kind of place, although they are all old and faded women, occasionally can also pick up good wives."

  These words struck Li Yaoting's sore spot, his mother Yan Hong was a prostitute, and also the lowest-ranking half-hidden door, which was the same as the good family of Xian Rou Zhuang.

  Chen Zikong said: "Brother Chiang is so familiar with this place, I suppose you come here often?"

  Jiang Zhiqing rubbed his bald head and smiled awkwardly, covering up by saying: "I also just heard it from others."

  The topic ended here, a tram with a bell came over, Jiang Zhicheng called out: "Get on the bus, I'll take you to have Western food."

  The tram was not fast, there were no doors, and the guests only needed to hurry a few steps to get on. Three people jumped onto the tram, Chen Zikong touched his pocket, already penniless. Jiang Zhicheng saw his embarrassment, took out three copper coins to pay the fare, and brought them all the way to a French restaurant on Avenue Joffre in the French Concession.

  The Western restaurant waiter saw that the three men were dressed in shabby clothes and knew they were poor people who came to open a banquet, so he had a slight disdain for them. He led the guests to their seats and ignored them, not even pouring water for them. Li Yaoting was from the Xiguan of the Six Nations Restaurant, how could he not understand the rules here? He immediately became furious: "Call your leader over."

  The boss came as expected, but still with a fake smile, intentionally bringing over a full French menu for them to order. Chen Zikun was not polite at all, taking the menu and ordering in fluent Parisian accent, but the boss was stunned because Chen's speech was too fast, and his pidgin French level couldn't keep up.

  But one thing he did understand was that the other person's French level was absolutely more than ten times higher than his own.

  A French manager came over and asked Chen Zikun, "Sir, have you just returned from Paris?"

  Chen Zikun exchanged a few pleasantries with him, and the manager instructed the waiter to give them three free glasses of red wine, and then warmly said goodbye before leaving.

  The leader and the envoy immediately looked at each other with a changed expression, and were extremely courteous.

  Chen Zikun was familiar with the etiquette of Western dining, and Li Yaoting had mixed with foreigners at the Six Nations Restaurant, so he understood even more. The two were elegant and refined, with a gentlemanly demeanor, which secretly amazed Jiang Zhicheng and made him want to make friends with them.

  Three people were happily enjoying French steak, sipping red wine, and having a great time. Li Yaoting held his glass of red wine, gazing out the window at the paulownia trees on Xiashan Road and the passing crowds of men and women, when suddenly he felt as if he had transcended this world, and the pain of losing his mother seemed to be isolated thousands of miles away.

  "This is Shanghai, I must make a name for myself on this land." he muttered to himself.

  Jiang Zhicheng was chatting with Chen Zikun on the other side.

  "Chen, it seems you're not one of us after all." Jiang Zhicheng said, taking a bite of his steak and wiping his mouth with a napkin.

  "What's gotten into you?" Chen Zikun swayed his red wine glass, seemingly as enchanted by the Shanghai charm as his companions.

  "Just now at the small noodle shop, when that guy was asking you questions, I overheard him. When he asked your surname, it was a test of whether you were in the gang or not. If you were, you would answer 'Mian Gui', and then say your surname is Chen at home but Pan outside. He also asked if your elder brother was at home, which is another test for those in the gang, and they would answer 'Hao Shuo' to show respect to their ancestors. Then he asked more questions like who your master is, which involves deeper knowledge."

  Chen Zikun said: "Brother Chiang, aren't you a member of the Green Gang?"

  "Modesty aside, I'm just a nobody who knows some of the simplest passwords. The Qing Bang's underwater password is not just a few simple sentences like this. It has always been kept confidential and never revealed to outsiders. If an outsider wants to pretend to be a member of the gang, it's not easy. If they're discovered, they might suffer physical harm or even lose their lives."

  Chen Zikun said: "We are indeed not Green Gang members, my brother and I came from the north to Shanghai to make a living, if there's anything we don't understand, please instruct us, Brother Chiang."

  "Alright, I can see that you two have a grand momentum, so you're probably not ordinary people. But even dragons sometimes hide at the bottom of the pool. In Shanghai, there are all sorts of fish and dragons mixed together, with docks everywhere, and also the foundation laid by foreigners over decades. It's not enough to just rely on passion. Take today's situation for example, it's very dangerous. Those thugs are from the local Axe Gang, they always seek revenge when they're wronged. They've decided that you two aren't part of their gang, nor are you plainclothes police or military, so they'll definitely take revenge."

  Li Yaoting sneered: "Do you know how formidable our Brother Kun is? Even seven or eight skilled martial artists can't get close to him."

  Jiang Zhiqing said, "I naturally know this, but two fists can't defeat four hands. A fierce tiger can't withstand a pack of wolves. Think about Ma Yongzhen from Shandong in the past, what a strong and fierce man he was. He was blinded by lime powder at Yidongtian Teahouse and then hacked to death with swords, dying so heroically."

  Li Yaoting didn't say a word, feeling a bit guilty. The local thugs in Shanghai are really not decent, they even use lime bags when fighting. Compared to the men from Beijing, they're simply the lowest of the low.

  Chen Zikun saw that he spoke sincerely and was also moved. He clasped his hands together in gratitude, saying: "Thank you, Brother Jiang, for your guidance."

  At this time, the Western food was almost finished. Jiang Zhiqing called the waiter to settle the bill, paid three dollars and two small tips, and stood up saying: "It's not early, you two are tired from traveling by boat and carriage, why don't I open a room for you to rest?"

  Li Yaoting said: "It's always making you spend money, how can this be good? You're not rich either, and you still owe others money."

  Jiang Zhiqing smiled and said, "I owe a lot of money, but it doesn't weigh on me. I've borrowed tens of thousands, so what's another little bit? The two of us get along quite well, and I'd like to stay with you both, also good for learning from each other morning and night."

  So, he troubled him again." Chen Zikong agreed, and Li Yaoting didn't say anything more.

  Jiang Zhiqing took them to the Dong Hotel, opened a double room, and rode the elevator upstairs. The attendant helped them open the iron gate of the elevator, and the three walked in. Li Yaoting's eyes widened: "Every hotel in Shanghai has an elevator! In our Beijing, only the Six Nations Hotel has one."

  "The Da Dong Hotel and the East Asia, Far East, and Yi Pin Xiang are known as the 'Three Eastern Ones' and are among the few luxury hotels in Shanghai. Having an elevator is also a recent development."

  "How much does it cost per night?"

  "Three dollars for one night."

  "Wow, the hardware is comparable to those in a high-end restaurant, but the price is half cheaper!" Li Yaoting couldn't help but click his tongue.

  Entering the room, carpet wallpaper, hot and cold faucets, outside the window is a busy street.

  Jiang Zhiqing explained to them how to use the hot water faucet, bathtub and other advanced gadgets. He took out his pocket watch and said: "I have an important appointment, so I won't accompany you anymore. You two take a hot bath and go to bed early, we'll have breakfast together tomorrow morning."

  "Thanks, Brother Jiang." Li Yaoting sent Jiang Zhicheng out of the room and excitedly jumped onto the spring bed, laughing: "I can also stay in a luxurious room now. This Brother Jiang is really generous."

  "He invited two free bodyguards and was very relieved."

  ……

  Not long after Jiang Zhiqing left the hotel, seven or eight thugs surrounded a man in a suit and came to the Dong Hotel. The man showed his badge from the French Concession Police Station and asked the front desk: "Which room are the two guests who just arrived staying in?"