A Girl Traveling Through Troubled Times

Gui'er said, "It's not that easy. They must have extorted quite a bit of money."

Song Xichen nodded and said, "200 gold bars, that's a huge ask, and they even threatened my parents. I had no choice but to scrape together the money and pay."

Gui'er said, "Shopkeeper Liu is in the same situation now. The other party is asking for 80 gold bars, and Shopkeeper Liu definitely doesn't have any left. His wife, Shopkeeper Zhang, is so anxious that she's completely exhausted."

Chen Zhongyu said: "We discussed it with relevant comrades and felt that a head-on confrontation was not the best approach and was likely to result in casualties, so we had no choice but to pay the ransom. However, our funds were very limited, and the comrades had a hard time scraping together 20 gold bars."

Song Xichen said, "I can certainly contribute a little, but if it's too much my parents will notice, so I can't use it from the account office. With what I have on hand, plus my savings over the years, I can barely scrape together about 20 sticks."

This would only be enough for 40 sticks, half of the 80 sticks Director Tian requested. Gui'er was unsure whether Director Tian would agree.

Chen Zhongyu said, "Right now, we don't have many people who can contact Director Tian. Gui'er, you can contact him through Sha Yanyao. It's better for you to arrange the communication with him. At least it will be safer and more reliable."

Gui'er thought about it and said, "Okay, I'll go back and tell him, but how should I explain the origin of these gold bars?"

Song Xichen said, "Just say it's the money that Manager Zhang made from selling the two stores. Anyway, we're planning to move to another base. That place has been raided before, and it doesn't seem particularly safe."

Guier nodded and said, "Okay, I'll go try it."

After the discussion was over, no one dared to delay any longer, but in order not to attract attention, Song Xichen took Gui'er to pay the bill and leave first. Xu Wenjie and Chen Zhongyu changed seats and waited for Song Xichen's car to drive away for a while before leaving.

After returning to the Sha Mansion, Gui'er couldn't wait to find Sha Yanyao, but Dingxiang said he had already returned.

Gui'er looked around the hall and the garden and realized he must be reading in the study. So she went to the study, knocked on the door, and said, "Brother, I have something urgent to talk to you about. I'm coming in."

As soon as I opened the door, Sha Yanyao was indeed in the study, but Jin Bao was there too. Sha Yanyao was sitting on the chair behind the desk, and Jin Bao was sitting on his lap.

Gui'er was stunned for a moment, not knowing how to react. Sha Yanyao and Jinbao also stood up quickly.

Jin Bao forced himself to smile calmly and said, "Guier, you're back. I just came in to ask big brother to borrow a book and I accidentally fell down. He helped me up. I'll leave first." Then he left calmly.

Gui'er and Sha Yanyao were silent for a few seconds. Gui'er forced herself to calm down. She didn't want to bother with all that mess. She was only thinking about how to rescue Shopkeeper Liu. So she said, "Brother, I asked his wife about Shopkeeper Liu's situation. She said that the maximum they could get was 40 gold bars."

Seeing that Gui'er didn't mention what happened just now, Sha Yanyao pretended that nothing had happened. After thinking for a while, he said, "That's half of it."

Gui'er sighed and said, "I know that, but this is the money she earned by selling all her family's wealth."

Sha Yanyao smiled and said, "Sister, you are such a kind and righteous person. You are doing your best to help the couple. But have you ever considered that if we intercede for him, we actually need a little bit of bribes. This is the norm in the industry."

Gui'er was stunned for a moment, and she suddenly realized that the 80 gold bars that Director Tian gave her were most likely not just 80 gold bars, but contained the kickbacks that Sha Yanyao wanted.

She cursed in her heart, what kind of damn rule is this?

But he still smiled and said, "I'm really young and ignorant, but I'm willing to help him because he is my master after all. If he gets a reputation as a communist bandit, it will be like a time bomb hanging over my head. I don't want him to get involved, so I can only help him wholeheartedly. Of course, brother, you have no obligation to help him, but now she can only give Director Tian half of the money. As for the benefit fee, how about I give it to you here, but you have to wait until I return to Jiangcheng during the holiday and ask my second brother for it."

Sha Yanyao smiled and waved his hands, saying, "How could I take your money? We've been through so much together, and you and I are the closest of all the brothers and sisters in our family. You have a point. If this Shopkeeper Liu is labeled a communist, it will indeed implicate you, and even us. Well, I'll help him this time."

Guier asked a little worriedly, "This amount of money is so much less, will it be okay?"

Sha Yanyao smiled and said, "You'll know in a few days. Be patient."

Guier nodded and said, "Okay, I'll leave it to you, brother. I'll go do my homework first."

"Wait a minute," Sha Yanyao suddenly stopped her and said, "Ms. Tian will come to visit us tomorrow."

Gui Er thought he meant for her to behave better, so she quickly said, "Oh, that's great. We should give him a good welcome."

Sha Yanyao smiled and said, "I mean, Jinbao just now..."

Gui'er immediately understood that he wanted to silence her.

So he smiled and said, "Brother, don't worry. I may not know about others, but don't I know your character? You are definitely not that kind of person. Besides, didn't Sister Jinbao explain everything?"

Sha Yanyao nodded in satisfaction and said, "Good boy, to be honest with you, Jinbao was indeed a little... just now. She said she had no hope for the future and cried bitterly to me. I only felt pity for her and ended up like this. She's not a bad girl."

Guier nodded and said, "Indeed, but she probably just wants to find a good home for herself. She told me before that the guys pursuing her in the foreign company don't even have a house because they're too poor."

Sha Yanyao sighed and said, "After Miss Tian has finished dealing with this matter, I will ask my mother to introduce her to someone else. It's not easy for her, and I'm afraid Miss Tian won't tolerate a stranger in her house."

Guier nodded happily, breathed a sigh of relief, and said, "If that's the case, it's perfect. She's not a bad person, and after all, I was the one who rescued her. I hope she can find a good place to go."

After finishing the conversation and returning to the room, Gui'er thought about the conversation just now. She felt that Miss Tian was not a simple person either. She wondered if she would be as sarcastic and harsh as Song Tingting. If so, she would probably have a hard time again.

As for Jin Bao, she probably wanted to take the initiative before Sha Yanyao and Miss Tian had their blind date, but she was still too naive. Even wealthy families in modern times pay attention to matching, let alone in the Republic of China era.