Fourth Act Police with Corpse of Kidnapped Victim

  The next morning, Roger got up early and went to the hotel's restaurant for breakfast, with a relieved smile still on his face. After making the decision to return to the mountain cave, the faces of the dead villagers that had been constantly appearing in front of him were gone.

  Although he clearly knew that the so-called ghosts he saw were just hallucinations caused by his own mental trauma, and that seeing a psychologist could solve the problem, he still insisted on his decision. It was not to dispel the dark clouds lingering in his mind, but for the surging impulse in his heart, an impulse that could change the humiliating history.

  ……

  Since it has been decided to go back and do something, it is not feasible without sufficient preparation. In order to survive in that era and further build one's own power, many things need to be prepared in advance.

  Firstly, without money, every step is difficult, this is the ultimate principle of ancient and modern times. No matter what you do, you should always have some silver in your hand to cope with it. Others who start from scratch are not in a good condition. Now Roger has a time-space cave that can be used, if he still goes to learn from Liu Bang and Zhu Yuanzhang, isn't that just being idle?

  So Roger flipped through his address book and contacted a counterfeiter of cultural relics he had known when he worked in Hainan, asking him to make several hundred fake Mexican eagle dollars and yuan notes with Yuan Shikai's head on them.

  Although this ocean is fake, apart from being cast in different eras, it actually doesn't differ much from the real one, with completely consistent composition.

  Because Yuan Datou's market has been rising in recent years, the dealer often takes on this job, and the counterfeit goods are all ready-made. Roger almost got the goods in an instant.

  In addition, wanting to blend in with the Republic of China, dressing naturally cannot be too special. Although it's good to stand out like a crane, unfortunately, he can't blend in with the flock of chickens! He definitely doesn't want to be surrounded and stared at after returning to the Republic of China.

  So Roger went to the municipal drama troupe and got a few sets of Zhongshan suits and long gown costumes that didn't look too out of place in the Republic era.

  Moreover, since he had already taken on Chen Fengqi's task, in order to avoid running into trouble later on, Luojie could only recite "Amitabha" while reluctantly converting the photos he took of himself to black and white before developing them to deal with the situation.

  In the end, it's still a matter of money. Roger isn't some rich second-generation kid, and he doesn't have much cash on hand. He can't always rely on using his family's savings to exchange for silver dollars, so in order to make some money and get by in the Republic of China, establish his own power, he purchased a batch of small items to take with him to the Republic of China to see if he could find a way to make a living.

  It was three days later when he finished all these preparations.

  ……

  Roger, who had been through the mountain cave twice and into the Republic of China, easily found the village he had been to before.

  As he walked out of the village, Roger saw a child wearing a straw hat working in the fields from afar and went up to try to talk to him.

  When Roger walked towards the child, the child also discovered this "uninvited guest". It was fine if he didn't look, but as soon as he saw Roger's appearance, he burst into tears...

  "Ah-ba! Something's wrong! That Japanese devil is back!" The child cried out, and before Roger could even open his mouth, he had already thrown down his farm tools and fled into the village in a flash.

  Facing this situation, Roger could only smile wryly and shrug his shoulders, then walked into the village on his own. To be honest, he was really afraid of being beaten up by the villagers, but he had to enter the village, not only to ask for directions to the city in this unknown world, but also to pay his respects to those innocent villagers who had died.

  The villagers reacted to the sudden event with unexpected speed, and Roger had just arrived at the village entrance when he saw a group of villagers carrying sickles and hoes pouring out of the village, surrounding him.

  When he saw that group of villagers who looked like evil spirits, Roger almost knelt down and begged for mercy, shouting "Good fellow, spare my life!"

  Fortunately, although the villagers surrounded him and were furious, they did not lay a hand on him. In fact, Roger even detected a flicker of fear in their eyes!

  Just as Roger and the villagers were confronting each other, an old man walked out with the support of a villager.

  "I'm the village elder of this Zhangjia Village. I don't know what brings you, sir, to our humble village again?"

  Although the old man was smiling and affable when he spoke, the fierce-looking men behind him seemed somewhat unfriendly. As a result, Roger tried to smile in response but couldn't manage it; his smile twisted into a grimace as he said awkwardly: "I... I just happened to stumble upon that matter last time, actually I have no connection with those soldiers at all. This time I came over to pay my respects to the deceased friends of mine. Would you mind, sir?"

  The old man stared at Roger for a long time, then sighed and said: "Since you're willing to come and pay your respects, you must be a person with a conscience. And since you don't know about that matter, it's probably not Chen Yanwang's doing. You've come as a guest, so although I can't let you pay your respects, please still come in and have a cup of tea."

  "Can't worship?" Roger asked curiously, "Why is that?"

  The old man remained silent for half a day, until a villager next to him couldn't hold back his anger and cursed: "It's that Chen Yanwang again! He said he was going to drag the bandits' corpses into the city to display them, but instead he sent over a few police officers, who pulled Old Three and the others out of their coffins and took them away! Now they want us to pay money to get them back, 50 yuan per person in silver dollars. We're all struggling to make ends meet, and our valuable things have been taken away by them. Where are we supposed to come up with so much money?"

  "One corpse costs 50 silver dollars! Five people would be 250 silver dollars!" Roger was shocked, he had seen the prices during the Republic of China era, one corpse cost 50 silver dollars, enough for a family to live in Hainan for a year! The annual office expenses of a poor county government were only around this amount, how could this poor village that had just suffered from war come up with 250 silver dollars all at once? Even if they managed to scrape it together, where would they find the money to pay for those numerous taxes and fees afterwards? How could they survive?"

  Roger thought for half a day with a gloomy face, but couldn't think of any good way. The village didn't have money, and he only had 200 yuan, which was not enough either. He also couldn't spend all the money on this, if there was a way, it would be to continue pretending to be an American returnee to see if Chen Feng gave him face or not. Moreover, he still had some modern small things in his hand that could be worth some money.

  Roger shook his head helplessly and sighed, "I don't have much money now, this money may not be able to help you out. However, I just returned from abroad, I can go talk to Officer Chen and see if he will sell me some face."

  The old man hastily stopped him as soon as he heard Roger's words, saying: "Alas, how can this be done!? This matter has nothing to do with you, and that Chen is a ruthless killer. How can we let you take risks for the sake of a few unrelated people? I thank you for your kindness here, but let's just forget it."

  Roger smiled and said, "Now the Chen family is afraid of Americans, and I, Roger, just returned from America. He won't make things difficult for me even if he doesn't give me face. You can rest assured! Besides, some things may not be beneficial to you after doing them, but if you don't do them, you'll worry about it for the rest of your life. So, I'm definitely helping with the village's busy work!"