In the fifth act, one must wear a hat when entering the city; without a hat, one is considered a bandit.
"Mr. Luo, the city of Haikou is just ahead, and that Chen Yanwang is inside the city." Zhang Dogzi, who was driving, hesitated for a moment, as if he had made up his mind to be brave, and said again, "Or... or I'll go with you to find that Chen Yanwang too, as long as... as long as we still have a breath of life, I absolutely won't let his people touch you!"
Roger looked at Zhang Dogzi's face, which was red with effort, and smiled, saying: "Alright, I appreciate your kindness, but I'll go see Chen Fengqi myself. Just take care of my luggage for me, there are many things in it that I brought back from the US, can't afford to lose them."
"Alright... alright, Mr. Luo, rest assured, I guarantee no one will touch the package!" Zhang Dogzi let out a sigh of relief, chuckled and patted the hatchet at his waist, seemingly showing off his "superior martial arts skills".
After Roger promised to help, the village chief asked Zhang Gouz to be his guide and bodyguard, driving a cattle cart to take Roger to Haikou, while also looking for opportunities to help. When they were about to leave, the villagers handed Zhang Gouz a package containing 83 silver dollars that everyone had gathered together, which was the last bit of money left after the village suffered from war disasters! If this money is given away, the village will be truly impoverished.
According to the villagers' idea, Chen Yanwang is unlikely to sell a living person's face, but as long as the ransom can be negotiated down, it's okay. As long as it's within the range of 83 yuan, the money will be handed over immediately and the body will be taken back, so that there won't be too many troubles at night, and besides, the weather in Hainan is hot, if it's delayed for a long time, the body won't be good for burial. As for future things, let's talk about them in the future...
As they spoke, the ox cart had already arrived at the city gate and joined the queue waiting to enter.
Roger was considering what to say after meeting Chen Fengqi, but suddenly there was a commotion at the front of the team.
"What's going on?" Roger looked up in surprise, only to see several soldiers dragging a man dressed as a fisherman out of the queue waiting to enter the city, who was being beaten and kicked.
"Hey kid, take off your hat! Are you trying to be a hoodlum or what?!"
The scene of the gate guard beating people had been seen by Roger countless times in movies, but what was this? Just now, that soldier was clearly shouting "You little kid not wearing a hat..."
What does this have to do with wearing a hat?! Is it some kind of slang?!
"What's going on here? That guy wasn't wearing a hat, so why was he beaten up?"
"It should be that man trying to escape the 'hat donation'." Zhang Dogzi replied, "Deng Dashuai stipulated that when entering the city, you have to pay a 'hat donation', and the better the hat you wear, the more you have to pay. If someone doesn't wear a hat when entering the city, it's considered escaping the donation, and they will be caught."
"Ah?! But I'm not wearing a hat! What should I do?"
"No need, Mr. Luo is a returned overseas Chinese, just looking at your Western-style clothes, they wouldn't dare ask you for a hat donation, just pay the entrance tax and that's it."
……
It was easy to pay the toll and enter Haikou City, after finding an inn and putting everything in order, Roger rushed to the police station - Chen Fengqi, who is now responsible for "clearing out bandits", has moved his office to the police station, which the villagers had already learned about.
When he arrived at the police station, Roger was about to walk in through the front door when he was stopped by a guard standing at attention.
"Hey you! What are you doing?! Don't have anything better to do than hang out at the police station? Are you tired of living?! Get out of here!"
Roger was startled and immediately realized that this was no longer modern society. A police station was not a place one could enter casually, especially at this time when there was a "Yang Men Wang" inside.
"I'm here to see Officer Chen, I've finished the task he asked me to do previously and I came today to report back."
"Director Chen? Which one?"
"Who else could it be? It's Chen Feng, Chen the official."
The guard looked Roger up and down before asking, "What's your name? I'll go ask Director Chen if he has time to see you."
"Tell Director Chen that Roger, a journalist from the United States, has come to deliver some photos of Zhangjiacun village."
"Hey! You're from the United States, huh? Don't mind my little dog eyes, just wait a moment, I'll go ask." The guard felt a chill run down his spine as soon as he heard this. His superiors were already having a headache over the protests from the United States, and he didn't dare to offend anyone who came from that country, even if it was a secondary character. He had to flay him alive while his superior was still angry!
Roger didn't have to wait long, and soon the guard came back, taking him into the police station, leading him all the way to the office door before leaving with a respectful attitude that was not much different from a well-behaved dog.
In modern society, Roger, who had a low social status, had never received such enthusiastic and flattering treatment before. For a moment, he was somewhat dazed, but soon came back to his senses and focused his attention on the "Yang Men Wang" in front of him.
"Ah, it's Old Brother Luo! Come sit down, you've just returned to the country and are still getting used to it, right? Compared to the United States, our place here is like a small rural town."
After exchanging pleasantries, Roger didn't dare sit down and walked straight to the desk, took out a photo from his bag and handed it over.
Chen Fengqi picked up the photo and took a look, then smiled with satisfaction: "No wonder you've been abroad, the photos are really good! Much better than those three-legged cat reporters I hired! Tsk tsk, this is really clear!"
Roger thought to himself, "Next century's single-lens reflex digital camera is now considered extraterrestrial technology, and yet they still want to bring it out for comparison? However, I'd rather take blurry photos..."
"I said, Luo younger brother, since you just returned from the United States, you must know many Americans?" Chen Fengqi glanced at it twice and threw the photo on the table with a lack of interest. That kind of "evidence" was apparently meaningless to either him or the Americans.
"Of course, it would be strange if one didn't know a Chinese in China."
When Roger mentioned that he knew an American, Chen Feng's eyes lit up: "Then do you know Consul Tan Ni? Or someone around him would be fine too?"
Roger smiled helplessly and said, "There are so many people from the United States, to be honest with you, I only know a little bit, just those friends around me. As for Consul Tan Ni, I don't know him, but as for the people around him, I have to take a look to see if I know anyone, maybe I'll get lucky."
Chen Feng chuckled and patted Roger on the shoulder, saying: "Alright, old brother Luo, you take a look whenever you have time. If you can talk to Consul Tan, that would be best. You don't know, those foreigners are blinded by money, just because someone died, they dare to ask for 1 million taels! It's not like the flesh of that American is made of gold! Now, Commander Deng has emptied the treasury and only got 400,000, but still, those common people who can talk without feeling pain are scolding him, saying he's not a good person... Commander Deng has it easy?! Give in to them, the people won't agree; don't give in, the foreigners won't agree. Sigh..."
"Brother Chen... I also know some people at Citibank, don't know if it's possible to pull some strings and get a connection going, if so, I'll definitely help you out, help Director Deng say something, see if we can get the interest rate lowered! It's getting late today, I'll go tomorrow then!"
In the Republic of China, Roger naturally didn't know any Americans, and saying so was just to hope that the other party could lower the price of the corpse. Anyway, Chen Feng probably came with an attitude of trying anything and everything, hoping for the best but not caring if it didn't work out, so even if he failed, there wouldn't be a big problem.
"That's the best, that's the best!" Chen Feng said with a big smile, "If this matter can be settled, Commander Deng will also have a good sleep. With such a great achievement, the commander will definitely not treat his brother poorly!"
"Speaking of sleep... I don't know if Brother Chen can help me with a small favor, to put those few corpses in Zhangjiacun back? To be honest, after seeing the scene where people were shot, I haven't slept well. As soon as I close my eyes, those dead faces fly in front of me, it's terrifying! I think that if they can rest in peace, I might be able to sleep well too."
"Huh? Let them go back? Aren't their corpses always in Zhangjiacun... I understand, those little rascals are doing private business on their own! Alright, don't mention this again, let the people from Zhangjiacun come to claim them tomorrow. Sorry about that, made you laugh, my subordinates are all old and rough, always not clean-handed, unlike you who have been abroad and educated, but still can't change."
He said that Roger let out a sigh of relief, but the body was going to come back, and he himself had gotten into an even bigger trouble - dealing with the Americans on the issue of compensation, although Chen Fengqi should also have come up with the idea that it would be best if it succeeded, and there would be no loss if it didn't.
"I hope Americans can be more reasonable, I recall that when I was at the hotel, I specifically looked up the history of this matter, and it seemed to have been reduced to 30,000 yuan in the end. Even if they don't buy my account, sending some gifts over should be able to bring down the price a bit, best case scenario is to also establish a connection with Americans, which would make things more convenient in the future..."
