Planning a month out was easy enough. Alex may not use a bank and dodge tax, but he still knows how to plan for worse days.
“You ran these numbers with which currency again?” Heinrich stood in a room that looked like a bomb shelter. Books were taken down from shelves, notes were categorized loosely on the bed, clothes were being put aside to pack, and a service uniform was neatly pressed – the only article of clothing remaining in the closet. Alex put out a cigarette by rubbing it against a teacup.
“Republican Yuan. Not sure If it’s worth anything, but that’s why in the next column there’s an equivalent in gold.” Alex leaned over, took the ledger in one hand to put it in better light, and pointed. In very faint type was indeed a column listing out gold equivalents in weight. Two men in Shanghai, veterans of war, now having to flee conflict that in their younger years, they’d love to get in the middle of. While the two Westerners bickered over accounting, Liangfeng was busy in the kitchen making tea for herself.
“Will you two boys stop bickering and pack up?! We have only 6 more days before we need to tell Ma Liu our decision.” She sounded exhausted, having helped pack for hours. After the tea was put into a gaiwan cup, the gas stove was turned off. Several minutes later, the fox magician walked through the doorway into Alex’s room.
Liangfeng carefully took down box after box of gold jewelry. After several minutes and disgusted looks at the state of the room overall, a count was established.
“Okay, so we have 45 kilograms of gold sitting in this closet, spread around 10 boxes. I think I can work with this.”
Heinrich put a hand on his forehead and looked over the mountain of boxes. “There’s too much here for three people to carry comfortably, that’s for sure. We would need a box truck, or some other method to get it out of the neighborhood without people realizing. This is people’s life savings you have stuck in a fucking closet.”
“Let me go make a call.” Alex slipped out of the room and ran down the stairwell, hoping he could pull a miracle out of thin air.
Liangfeng sat on the bed, kicking her legs back and forth. “So how’d you and the bossman meet?”
“We were- well, I was serving under Yuan Shikai. I had come originally as an advisor from the German Army, but the generals in Berlin let me live here permanently. Eventually, news from Berlin stopped. I was on a rest trip in Shanghai when I met Alex in a bar. He was working with Zhang Zongchang, had been for several years mixing chemicals or something. His hands were too clean to fight on the front line. How did you get those… ears?”
Liangfeng giggled, her hands running over piles of cash once stuffed under a mattress. “I’ve always had them. They say magic has only entered the world recently, no no… it has always been here, the eyes of the world are only now waking up to it.”
The nearly folded and categorized bills were being strewn across the room. While she spoke, Heinrich was collecting notes off the floor and bundling them back together.
“I have always been ostracized by humans, seen as a side show. I have my ears, and my veil protects me. Communist, monarchist, all that matters to me is that I live in some kind of comfort… I have been on this earth over a hundred years, I once personally served the Emperor. War is not new to me.”
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
“How was magic once used?” Heinrich asked, curious to know something of the truth.
“Have you ever heard the story of Li Qingyun? He only died a few years ago, surely you have heard of him.” Liangfeng gave a wry smile. Heinrich thought for a moment, his Mandarin poor, hoping to not make a fool of himself.
“That old herbalist? I have heard some things, yes… Magic is embedded in the words and plants of this world?”
“I won’t tell you everything, German man. You are on the right track.. Now let’s continue to organize things, shall we? We have a month, but it is good to plan.”
----
“The situation has changed… A lot.” Alex was out of breath, and acting erratic. He stumbled over to the kitchen, took the gaiwan in his hands, and poured out a cup of deep red tea. Half of it ended up on the floor, but now wasn’t the time to care about how a floor looked.
Two men came in right after. They were dressed in Communist uniforms, their badges signifying the rank of an officer in the People’s Liberation Army. Ma Liu had come through for the group. The scrawnier of the pair spoke up.
“Ma Shu, I am the younger brother of People’s Liberation Army Colonel, Liaoning Provincial Artillery Corps, Ma Liu.” The man stood at attention, his arms neatly folded behind his back. His hair was longer than it should be, and his beard unkept, but that only emphasized the urgency of the situation. “The Brigade Commander stated you are in need of assistance with leaving this location and moving to Dalian, yes?” The silence after that question was palpable.
Heinrich and Liangfeng shared a look with each other, then looked to Alex, then back at each other. Heinrich coughed, breaking the silence. “Well, I was under the impression we had time. As in, a month… Alex…”
Ma Shu shook his head. The young officer pulled out a piece of paper from his coat pocket and handed it to Heinrich, who began to uncontrollably shake as he read the report.
------
REPORT OF ENEMY ENGAGEMENTS:
DEFECTIONS IN THE RANKS OF PLA FORCES IN XIAMEN GARRISON AND FUJIAN PROVINCE OFFICER CORPS TO REPUBLICAN FORCES REPORTED.
COLONEL MA LIU RECOMMENDS EVACUATION OF CIVILIANS FROM SHANGHAI SPECIAL CITY WITHIN ONE WEEK.
FAILURE TO EVACUATE MAY LEAD TO A MASS CASUALTY EVENT.
SIGNED: Officer Lao Bei, First Supply Corps
-----
Three sentences. Three sentences were all it took to get Heinrich’s mind racing. Republican forces were marching, and it would take less time than originally thought. Alex walked over to his desk and pulled out a map of coastal China. “While the timeline has been sped up a bit, I don’t think we will be caught in a meat grinder. Heinrich, look, there is a shipping lane from a small Pudong harbor. The railways to Beijing might be longer, but we risk having Republican forces cut the lines.”
“Right… We can still get out of here. You’re right. Let’s not panic if we can avoid it.”
Liangfeng got up off the bed and nervously packed two wooden boxes full of gold jewelry. She then took a knife and carved a square seal into the top of the boxes. A light red glow began to come from the seals, as the boxes locked shut.
“The seals keep the weight low. Each kilo of gold weighs a tenth as much as normal. The effect lasts until the boxes physically break. Break them if – and only if – you feel you need it.” Liangfeng sounded like a protective older sister, but the seriousness was appreciated. The cold reality of war was looming, and now they had less than a week to sell everything and leave the city. Alex spent time collecting the physical gold yuan notes stored on top of his bed, bundling a total of 1042 individual notes over the course of an hour, categorizing them into what could be exchanged, what to keep, and what to give away in bribes.
“Okay, here is the plan. Tomorrow, Heinrich and I will go talk to some people to get the building sold. Ma Shu, take some of this money and get the workers at the cabaret some kind of passage out of here. Liangfeng, tell the girls to get their papers in order – I won’t force people to leave, but they should know what is going on.”
The plan was set. Everything just had to fall into place, with a little bit of ingenuity the entire group might end up alright. Maybe not all together, but in one piece at the end of this dark tunnel. Alex would have more than a few people to speak with in the coming days, as war would loom ever closer. For now, focus would turn to the cabaret and ensuring all staff knew the score.
What would be just another ordinary Friday night for civilians, was a night that may change the world for the Red Lily Cabaret, her patrons, and staff.