The knocking would stop, then start, getting louder and more aggressive each time. Who could possibly need his presence enough to wake Caohua from sleep?
“Sir! We have been made aware there’s a noise complaint at this location.” Two men from the Shanghai Public Security Bureau were standing at his door.
“I don’t know how that is possible. I was sleeping, my roommate was eating a sandwich, there is no noise to complain about. Maybe check two doors down? They seem to have guests come at all times of the day.. What house number were you called to?” Cao
The officer looked at his notes. “304.”
“This is 301.”
The two cops looked at each other, looked at the door placard, and then looked back at each other before making a silent exit. After shutting the door, Caohua would lay back on the couch. A few doors down, he could hear someone protesting.
“Heinrich you can come out now, the cops are gone. You aren’t getting deported.” Heinrich would walk out of his bedroom in an overshirt, a sandwich in his hand. Whether it was the same sandwich is anyone’s guess.
“Alex, you know I have papers now right? I’m actually registered with the authorities, unlike you.”
“Ah but Heinrich you see, I don’t like having them know my information.”
“You… You still pay taxes at work, right? You know the French still want your bank statements, right?”
“I don’t use a normal bank.”
Heinrich put his fingers to his temple. Here was a man who had a turnover of nearly 10,000,000 in gold yuan at his business, living in what amounted to a red light district. He could buy an entire block, yet he refused to use a real bank. Instead, apparently, all of his wealth hung in his closet. Literally.
“Alex what in the actual fuck?...”
“After the war I got a little uh… gold crazy.”
In front of them were various pieces of gold jewelry. If they dared take all of it down, it would easily weigh a few kilograms. He rarely wore any of it, but at 24 karat the gold was some kind of investment, to someone.
“Gold yuan are figurative. Just because you can exchange them for gold does not mean you literally have to every time you get paid.”
“But I do.”
Heinrich would put his hands on Alex’s shoulders and let out a sigh. “One of these days you and me are going to sell this gold and make it rich.”
---
As a regular tradition before opening the cabaret, Caohua would buy food for all the girls working that night, including the guest entertainers. A mountain of pickled vegetables, rice, and steamed buns were on offer for tonight.
One of the newer employees seemed to have a set of fox ears on her head. None of the girls seemed to notice, but they moved like normal ears. She had long brown hair that went to her waist, and usually would wear a veil during performance. Now at dinner, her ears perked up, giving her an extra 15cm of height. According to Heinrich, she was hired as a magic act for one of the earlier acts in the night.
“So, you’re the new magician huh?” Caohua smiled as he walked over to make an introduction.
“Yes sir! I’m really happy to be working here. My name is Liangfeng!”
“So Liangfeng, are those ears part of a magic routine or something?”
“No boss. These ears are 100% real. Want to touch them?” She would bow her head slightly and smile. When Caohua reached out a hand to give them a headpat, the ears twitched.
“Yep, they’re real. So how did you get them?”
“They just kind of showed up one day.. I have been exploring magic and alchemy for many years. I am seeing more and more people in my situation. They develop an affinity for the magical arts, while remaining physically human. Some people disregard me as a freak experiment, but you can see I am a normal 26 year old.” She would give a dry laugh before downing a shot of baijiu.
“Boss, I have to prepare my set for tonight. Can you excuse me?”
A fox girl was now working at the cabaret, and Caohua had been instructed to help decipher an alchemical text. Could this week get any stranger?
Yes, it could. As everyone was finishing their meal, a large imposing figure walked in through the crimson door that separted the cabaret from the street.
Stolen story; please report.
“Hey Alex, it’s been years holy shit!” That voice sounded familiar. Too familiar. Another comrade from the Warlord Era came to his cabaret. A Hui man, two years his senior, immediately commanded the room as he once commanded the battlefield. He had grown a large beard, but Ma Liu, now a colonel in the People’s Liberation Army, carried himself no different.
“Hey, Liu. Been a while, huh? Do me a favor, call me by my courtesy name while I am running a business, will ya? You’re the one who gave it to me in the first place.” Caohua walked over to the table and gave a polite smile.
“Ah, right… What was it? Caiyuan? Caoguo? Chaomien?”
Caohua, trying to retain his composure, let his former comrade rattle off various unrelated food names. “Listen, last week I had a Republican Colonel in here, and now you show up. What is going on?"
“What do you mean, are you helping the Republicans?”
“I’m not, I’m not. They just came in here and gave me a document about alchemy, I gave them a rough translation, it was chicken scratch. The rumor I hear is that alchemy can bring someone back to life. The Colonel also had mentioned to me about a gold hue from Yan’an.. do you know anything about this?”
“The guns have been silent for weeks now, but yes. Chairman Mao said that Yan’an was special, the cradle of the Revolution. The European who came along, he was able to instruct us on how the guns could be positioned, how to harness the power of the earth. Although we do not believe in a God, alchemy is a science.”
“Liu, you are literally Hui.”
“I am also a member of the Party. My service to the revolution and my god are one in the same.”
“Alright then. So, getting back on topic. You are telling me the guns are actually golden in hue? There is some kind of reality to this.. alchemy, this magic?”
“Yes. The Party has created an occult investigation task force for that exact purpose, discovering new ways to harness this power. Who knew, as soon as we kicked the Japanese out and got back to fighting monarchists, this magic would change the tide? I wonder if we could bring Brother Zhang back to life.” Liu heartily laughed as he drank a glass of whisky, spilling some of it on his pristine officer’s uniform. “Alex, I am serious. Why don’t we try to revive the old bastard and defeat the monarchists?”
Caohua shrugged. “I don’t want anything to do with the war, if I can help it. Where are you stationed right now, how did you get into Shanghai?”
“A ferry from Dalian. I am in command of the entire Liaoning provincial forces, and am the Standing Committee Chairman of Dalian. That kind of status will take you far.”
“I imagine it does, especially after you drink your way to the top of Zhang Zongchang’s forces.”
“We don’t talk about how we get positions, just that we attained them.” The two men laughed, remembering the supposed good old days when they wanted to overthrow the Qing, and served with distinction in the army of a Warlord.
Caohua would excuse himself after a silence fell, and would walk to his office. Once inside, he would rummage through a stack of paperwork to produce a Mandarin document containing all the various notes he had on the alchemical texts. Texts that the Republican Colonel never saw, because they were from the Shanghai Library archives.
“Northern General Ma Liu, I present to you documentation regarding alchemical knowledge.” With mild pomp and circumstance the documented notes would be handed over. Just in time, Liangfeng the magician would come out on stage. Caohua would sit down to watch the performance.
“Ladies and gentlemen of Red Lily Cabaret! I am the mystical fox demon of Shanghai. I have guarded this city against war and famine since time long long ago. Tonight, I will present you a few tricks.” Wearing a gold veil to cover her mouth and nose, and a long garment, Liangfeng would take a paper note from an inside pocket. “This note is from the Japanese occupation – or is it?” With the snap of a finger, the old Japanese note would burn a bright red. As the flames died down, a crisp and clear 100,000 gold yuan note was visible, with the Nanjing Government Building clearly visible. Audible gasps escaped as the audience clapped, while the more affluent patrons checked their pockets.
“For my next trick, I will need some help from an assistant.
Qianlian brought out a large bottle marked “Red Star Baijiu”. The fox girl grinned. “Do you all know this brand? It is the best the Communists can produce. I hear it is very strong, for all I know pure ethanol. I will see if this is true.” She would take the bottle and begin to take a big swig. “This isn’t too bad..” Getting up from her seated position, the fox would raise the bottle up to the sky and speak some words in a language unknown to the audience. Seconds later, glasses of the baijiu appeared on every table.
“Ah, dang. It’s all gone up here!” The bottle would be overturned to reveal there was nothing inside of it. “Why don’t you all try? This round it on me!”
The audience applauded once again, and began to drink. That night, 80 bottles of Red Star were ordered. Caohua couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
“That girl has some pretty good parlor tricks, I must say.” Ma Liu smiled.
“Indeed. I wonder if she would know something about alchemy…”
The two would make idle conversation as the next performances came and went.
“We will discuss this in more detail at another time, Caohua, but look. I want to see you out of harms way in this conflict. Shanghai is being assaulted in a month. That is why I came here, to give you that warning. The Republicans are planning an assault on the city, because they cannot accept Nanjing as a capital. With your information, they may very well be met with ever-firing artillery, and ships that cannot be sunk.”
“I care more about this city than the war, Liu. I can’t imagine leaving.”
“Neither could civilians imagine it before the Japanese came. We all must make sacrifices. I can get your girls and equipment set up in Harbin or Dalian. Let me know by the end of the week, and we can make it so. This city simply isn’t safe anymore, the international brigades will protect it but they can only do much without creating an international incident. We respect their being here, but the Party made a calculated decision. Allowing them to be here while we set up a local police force, while we establish the mechanisms of state, but not allow them a force large enough to expand out of Shanghai. This has led to, shall we say, complications. With only 3,000 servicemen, by any metric they are outgunned.”
Alex would ponder this information for a minute, unsure whether to believe him. The Colonel never mentioned a planned invasion. The city seemed calm, but that serenity could be broken any time.
“I will let you know soon. Thank you for this warning.”
How to tell the girls, how to tell Heinrich. They would all need to move on the supposition of war, when international forces had kept peace for the last 6 years. There was no telling what might happen. Caohua would go into his office and shut the door as he began to work on the financials of a move.