Zhu Cunshui lived a very subtle life these days. On one hand, he hid cautiously in the most inconspicuous places, mixed among the disaster victims, not letting others notice him. On the other hand, the pride in his heart was simply indescribable. After the potato stealing incident was exposed last time, Zhu Cunshui couldn't dissipate the malice in his chest, so he ran to destroy crops to vent his anger. Then he spread the news among the disaster victims that Fengtai County wanted to drive all disaster victims away. The result was unexpectedly successful. relying on his own strength alone, he actually stirred up such a huge momentum in Fengtai County, directly leading to a comprehensive confrontation between disaster victims and the Fengtai County police, almost triggering a massive chaotic fight.

Reasonably speaking, having caused such a big thing, Zhu Cunshui should have run away quickly. But Fengtai County blocked all boats, and the weather was cold, and the water too chilly. Zhu Cunshui refused to swim across. Of course, the biggest reason was that even if he ran back to Shouzhou, Zhu Cunshui couldn't find any place to eat. So every day he thought about leaving, but always thought about eating the next meal before leaving. So Zhu Cunshui was always in a state of waiting for the next meal.

He could wait, but the police system of Fengtai County did not wait. Dai Enze received a direct appointment from Chen Ke to take full responsibility for the police system of the base area temporarily. And Dai Enze got a deputy, Lin Shenhe, who came from the Shanghai police force [patrolmen]. Lin Shenhe was a revolutionary comrade recruited by Qi Huishen in Shanghai. His reason for joining the revolution was simple: the heroic Lin Shenhe slept with the wife of a certain foreign police chief. Later, the lady told Lin Shenhe she was pregnant. The reason Lin Shenhe could put a green hat on the police chief was very ordinary: the policeman hadn't touched the lady for a long time, and Lin Shenhe was a handsome police officer who had the opportunity to enter and leave the foreign policeman's home. After learning the news that a human life was created, Lin Shenhe had to make some plans for his future. Whether to be thrown into the Huangpu River bound with ropes after the incident was exposed, or for Lin Shenhe to leave his hometown on his own initiative.

But Lin Shenhe was a young man after all. According to his thinking, "I don't even pay when I eat at a restaurant on ordinary days; do I have to pay with my life for sleeping with a foreign woman? This foreign devil is bullying people too much." With full dissatisfaction towards foreigners, Lin Shenhe made a major decision: to defect to the "suspicious organization" registered in the Shanghai International Settlement, the Huangpu Study Society.

As a pledge of allegiance, Lin Shenhe not only revealed the Settlement's investigation and views on the Huangpu Study Society completely, but also provided a lot of internal intelligence to Qi Huishen. The main work of the People's Party Shanghai Branch was first to recruit comrades, and second to make money. The intelligence provided by Lin Shenhe was of great significance.

And Comrade Lin Shenhe did not just give without asking for returns. His request was simple and serious. He hoped the Huangpu Study Society would provide him with asylum and give him the opportunity to change the reality of foreigners possessing privileges in China, which forfeited sovereignty and humiliated the country.

This shameless attitude left Qi Huishen speechless. Actually, let alone Lin Shenhe sleeping with the foreign policeman's wife, even if he had relations with an ordinary married Chinese woman, in the countryside, these two would be sentenced by clan elders to be drowned in a pig cage. regarding such accusations, Lin Shenhe had no intention of guilt. He stated that foreign devils have marriage laws; encountering this situation, at worst the two would divorce. Lin Shenhe would certainly suffer secular criticism, but at least he wouldn't lose his life. But the current principal contradiction was that the social status quo where foreigners possessed many improper privileges in China was unreasonable. Then overthrowing this unreasonable system was the current priority.

Being able to elevate a civil dispute to the understanding of social system contradictions—this kind of awareness made even the revolutionary partisan Qi Huishen have to admire. Of course, in return for Lin Shenhe's frankness, Qi Huishen asked Lin Shenhe two things back: "First, why doesn't Lin Shenhe reflect on his own bad behavior, but blindly pushes the responsibility to the social status quo? Second, the Huangpu Study Society is not a place to hide dirt; how does Lin Shenhe prove that he sincerely wants to join the revolution, and not just to drag out an ignoble existence?"

If an ordinary person encountered such merciless questioning, they would either be flushed with shame and have no place to hide, or simply fly into a rage out of humiliation. But Lin Shenhe was not an ordinary person. This handsome guy answered with a frank attitude that surpassed shamelessness: Lin Shenhe's mistake could be compensated in a normal way, for example, marrying the lady after she divorced, and compensating the husband's sadness with money. However, the current social system and status quo did not allow this proper way of compensation. Then, using Lin Shenhe's mistake to defend the current unreasonable social system was absolutely incorrect. Lin Shenhe was willing to throw himself into the revolution to overthrow this unreasonable social system.

Revolutionary partisan Qi Huishen was speechless after hearing these words. After a long while, Qi Huishen continued to ask another key question: "Does Lin Shenhe know what kind of reasonable marriage system the Huangpu Study Society wants to establish?"

Lin Shenhe immediately took out a volume of *The Rise of Materialism and Chinese Cultural Inheritance*, which contained Chen Ke's views on the marriage system. He stated that Chen Ke's view on the marriage system was what Lin Shenhe strongly agreed with. Marriage should not be a transaction, but a social family relationship formed by citizens voluntarily.

It had to be said that even as an important cadre of the People's Party, Qi Huishen hadn't read that chapter properly. And a patrolman from the old system could read revolutionary theory from this book with good grounds; Qi Huishen was really convinced.

So, when Lin Shenhe arrived at the Fengtai County Base Area with Qi Huishen this time, he also brought that foreign lady whose lower abdomen began to bulge. Chen Ke was a bit surprised by Lin Shenhe's move, but after seeing the lady, he was somewhat relieved. This lady was Italian, and her Mediterranean-style appearance was still quite Oriental.

Chen Ke asked Lin Shenhe why he didn't adopt abortion to solve the problem. Lin Shenhe answered with very religious common sense that the lady was a Catholic. Hearing the answer based on profound religious cognition, even Chen Ke simply stopped mentioning this matter.

Then Lin Shenhe was assigned to the police department, which urgently needed manpower, according to the principle of matching work to skills.

As soon as an expert makes a move, one knows if there is skill. Lin Shenhe's joining immediately injected new strength into the police system. Police Director Dai Enze knew the mentality of ordinary disaster victims, but didn't know how to infiltrate disaster victim organizations. Lin Shenhe's experience in this area was extremely rich. Any disaster victim organization had its internal factions. How to deal with these factions was one of the skills Lin Shenhe learned in Shanghai. Dai Enze was responsible for recruiting and training police officers of disaster victim origin, while Lin Shenhe quickly mastered the factional relationships within the disaster victims and successfully connected with these underground forces.

regarding the task given by Chen Ke—"Clarify the cause of the last disturbance and catch the responsible person"—Lin Shenhe did his utmost. On one hand, he arranged the children of these faction leaders into the reserve police force to buy them over and win them over. On the other hand, he conducted in-depth interrogations quietly. Lin Shenhe, who had rich practical work experience, greatly appreciated the criminal investigation theory proposed by Chen Ke. To interrogate, don't ask stupidly about the responsible person directly, but investigate details that seem unrelated to this matter clearly. For example, who was emotionally unstable first, who ran around first; in short, pick out people with abnormal behavior, conduct key investigations on these people, and the detection work will be much easier.

After five or six days of hard work, Zhu Cunshui's crimes were thoroughly grasped. The arrest plan was also formulated.

Zhu Cunshui thought it was very difficult to find himself among nearly a hundred thousand people, let alone find himself in this disaster victim camp where everyone didn't know each other. Although he was still uneasy in his heart, thinking it was better to leave as soon as possible. But when it was time to get food, Zhu Cunshui still took a broken bowl to get food. The camp had changed a lot these days. Although the number of police hadn't increased, there were more "volunteer police" recruited from those disaster victims. Everyone said that as long as one became a "volunteer policeman," one could eat one's fill immediately. This rumor could be seen without special verification, because these people indeed had rosy faces; although traces of haggardness could still be seen, they were very different from other disaster victims.

Watching these people wearing black clothes leave the team to patrol among the disaster victim teams, Zhu Cunshui cursed in his heart. "You things living off one person while secretly helping another [traitors]." But cursing aside, Zhu Cunshui lowered his head slightly to avoid their line of sight. Fortunately, there weren't many "volunteer police" on his side.

There were still so many people queuing today. Maybe because the police didn't come, someone started to cut in line. Even cut in front of Zhu Cunshui. If it were usual times, Zhu Cunshui would definitely not let it go, but now what he wanted least was to cause trouble. However, other disaster victims couldn't stand this; someone immediately made noise. The person cutting in line seemed to be a troublemaker too and immediately retorted sarcastically. With this disturbance, the police also surrounded them. Zhu Cunshui subconsciously prepared to avoid the police, but someone grabbed his arm. Zhu Cunshui looked up at the person finding fault; he was also an ordinary disaster victim in rags, but for some reason, this person looked wrong no matter how he looked. With this delay, the police had already pounced over, surrounded, and took away those people including Zhu Cunshui.

Zhu Cunshui thought "bad" in his heart; he struggled to escape. But suddenly he understood why those few people looked wrong. It turned out that except for the ragged clothes, the complexion of these people was completely different from the "volunteer police" [wait, context implies they looked healthy like volunteer police? Or different from volunteer police? Text says "complexion completely different from volunteer police". Wait, volunteer police are well-fed/rosy. Maybe these undercover agents were also well-fed but dressed poorly? Text says "complexion completely different from 'volunteer police'". Maybe they looked like *regular* people or soldiers? Actually, earlier text says volunteer police were rosy. If these guys looked "wrong", maybe they were too healthy? Or maybe too sturdy? Let's assume they were healthy undercover agents]. Before Zhu Cunshui could shout "Police are killing people," those ragged people had already rushed up and choked Zhu Cunshui's throat, making him unable to shout. The police also cooperated very well; they came up and gagged Zhu Cunshui with a rag, tied him up, and took him away with those few people. Seeing these rule-breakers being forcefully "suppressed" and then taken away in the disaster victim team, they also quickly restored order. In the view of the disaster victims, this was just an ordinary disturbance; they didn't understand what happened at all.

Secretary Xu Dian, responsible for the judiciary, was half happy and half worried after learning about this. He always felt that finding the responsible person for the last disturbance among the disaster victims who could almost be seen as enemies was looking for a needle in a haystack. He didn't expect the police department to really do it. With a suspicion of "whether the police system arrested random people to claim credit," Xu Dian personally acted as the prosecutor to try the criminals and witnesses. He found that the facts confessed by everyone were clear, human and material evidence was quite comprehensive, and the logical chain was impeccable. Except for Zhu Cunshui biting tight and not letting go, the crimes of the suspects could already be confirmed.

Zhu Cunshui knew very clearly that catching thieves and beating them to death in a disaster year was nothing special in the countryside. The other party set up such a big battle array; they definitely wanted to chop off his head. If he didn't admit it, perhaps there was still a way to live; if he admitted it, there was only a dead end.

For such a diehard element, even Xu Dian felt it was necessary to use some torture. The facts were already so clear, yet Zhu Cunshui still vainly attempted to deny it; this was simply asking for trouble. What he found strange was that Chen Ke sent some strange people to watch the entire interrogation process, and explicitly ordered no torture allowed. In the case of complete human and material evidence, because Zhu Cunshui firmly refused to confess and torture was not used, the matter was deadlocked here.

Lin Shenhe, who amazed everyone shortly after taking office, did not express great surprise at this. Lin Shenhe actually had little interest in using torture. In his days as a patrolman, Lin Shenhe knew very clearly that the effect of physical suffering was only to get the desired confession. To truly solve a case, what was needed was to break through the criminal's psychological defense line. Lin Shenhe was actually very happy to meet someone with common views with himself. When this person was also the highest leader of the base area, it meant Lin Shenhe would have a considerable future.

After arriving at the base area, Lin Shenhe contacted not many revolutionary comrades. As far as he saw so far, only two people in the base area were worthy of respect: one was Chen Ke, and the other was his immediate superior Dai Enze. Although Dai Enze didn't know many characters and his background wasn't great, he was honest and willing to work. As the saying goes, diligence can make up for clumsiness. Dai Enze was not a fool; he just had seen few things before and hadn't led so many people. And Dai Enze's biggest advantage lay in being willing to listen to advice. Whatever Chairman Chen Ke asked him to do, he did it solidly. Ask if he didn't understand, learn if he didn't know. Although he was relatively unfamiliar with police business now, he would by no means be an ordinary figure in the future.

And this figure Chen Ke made Lin Shenhe almost feel deep respect. Although he wasn't clear about Chen Ke's background, the documents issued by Chen Ke, and simple exchanges, all made Lin Shenhe understand one thing: Chen Ke knew the score about all departments. That is to say, Chen Ke knew what these departments were used for, the authority between various departments, including working methods; Chen Ke could give guiding opinions on all of them.

This was by no means comparable to ordinary people. Even those high officials of the Manchu Qing court and those foreign bureaucrats in the Shanghai International Settlement, being able to know what departments were in the government and what they were roughly used for was already very remarkable. And judging from the various situations of the base area obtained these days, Lin Shenhe judged that these departments of the base area were all created by Chen Ke single-handedly, and he guided the operation of these departments. If Chen Ke were fifty or sixty years old this year, one could say he had experienced a lot. But Chen Ke was only in his twenties this year. Being able to do such things at this age—if not seen with his own eyes, Lin Shenhe would absolutely not believe it.

So in Zhu Cunshui's case, after Lin Shenhe finished the work the police should do and handed the case over to Xu Dian acting as prosecutor, he then started to be busy with the next things. Chen Ke handed another important job to Lin Shenhe: conduct a preliminary household registration statistic of the disaster victims.

This kind of thing couldn't stump Lin Shenhe. Because the common people outside the Shanghai International Settlement moved into the Settlement in large numbers to enjoy the relatively regulated system of the Settlement, the household registration issue had always been a major event in the Settlement. It wasn't that the foreign devils had any natural love for "building a beautiful home," but that taxes could be collected better through household registration management. Chen Ke counting the household registration of disaster victims was definitely not for collecting taxes, but Lin Shenhe made no comment on this, just focused on working.

In his work, Lin Shenhe discovered many interesting problems in the base area; one of them was actually compulsory education. The police system required compulsory cultural education, and one of the results of cultural education was that everyone could write and do arithmetic preliminarily. In the countryside, the significance of this kind of learning was limited. But once conducting household registration statistics, the significance of recording and calculating couldn't be praised too much. One must know that even Chinese police in the Settlement didn't know many characters, and those who could write and calculate among foreign devils were not the majority either. Although he didn't know what exactly Chen Ke's initial purpose of compulsory education was, with hundreds of subordinates who could write and calculate, Lin Shenhe's work was fruitful. When he received the new order from the Police Bureau to hold a Public Trial Rally, the rough household registration statistics work was actually half done.

For this, Chen Ke specifically called Lin Shenhe over to praise him verbally.

There were no empty formulas when the two met. Chen Ke said: "Well done!" Lin Shenhe replied: "Thanks for the praise; this is my duty." Then the conference room fell into a brief silence.

Chen Ke rarely saw someone talk to him like this. General comrades either didn't know what to say and became at a loss after falling into silence, or started to say a pile of irrelevant words about three years ago and five years later. But what Lin Shenhe showed was a capable style. Knowing what he should do, without any nonsense. He had both the demeanor of a professional bureaucrat and a style of being free and easy.

What the People's Party lacked most now was this kind of seasoned bureaucrat. Although Chen Ke strove to make comrades mature, he himself was also very afraid that comrades would lose revolutionary enthusiasm and turn into a group of difficult bureaucrats. Moreover, before following Chen Ke to revolution, the comrades had no practical experience. Occasionally seeing a guy like Lin Shenhe among a group of raw recruits was also a very good thing. Chen Ke actually liked Lin Shenhe very much, so he hesitated a bit before continuing: "Comrade Lin Shenhe, the program of our People's Party is to serve the people, so we are unlikely to talk about the treatment [salary/perks] of party members. I hope you can be mentally prepared for this matter."

"Yes, Chairman Chen." Lin Shenhe still responded simply.

Chen Ke waved his hand, and Lin Shenhe obediently left the office.

The so-called treatment problem was nothing more than not allowing extra money grabbing. If it were someone else, perhaps they would have many worries, either worrying about not getting money, or worrying about being discovered after getting money. But what Lin Shenhe heard from Chen Ke's words was Chen Ke's high regard for him. This made Lin Shenhe very happy. Being valued shortly after arriving here meant his future would be very bright. Such an opportunity was something that could be met but not sought for a person newly joining a group. If not for those incompetent colleagues to set off Lin Shenhe's capability, it would be extremely difficult for him to be noticed.

As for the problem of grabbing money, although Lin Shenhe was a master who ate without paying in Shanghai, this behavior was more of a self-protection. If Lin Shenhe appeared upright and honest, he probably would have been killed by colleagues behind his back long ago. Although he wasn't a good person, essentially he couldn't be talked of as some heinous villain either. Lin Shenhe had lived for 27 years until now; he had never been clear about what exactly he lived in this world to do. Being a patrolman was just to make a living. regarding this world, although Lin Shenhe showed obedience, deep in his heart, he actually really hoped to smash this muddled world to pieces. And this impulse was not for destruction, but Lin Shenhe really hoped to see a new world, a new world acceptable to people like him who were both lazy and able to see part of the true face of the world.

And here in the People's Party, Lin Shenhe felt quite satisfied.

Seeing off Lin Shenhe, Chen Ke also got up quickly. He went to the Mapping Section to call his wife He Ying, and then took the guards to rush to the dock. There were not many people who could make Chen Ke welcome personally without a big array; Yan Fu, as Chen Ke's "teacher," was undoubtedly the most suitable person. The news from Shanghai was that Yan Fu came to Fengtai County personally to visit Chen Ke. Of course, Yan Fu didn't come just to visit; he personally went to Hanyang Iron and Steel Works to negotiate a deal of 6,000 tons of iron for Chen Ke. If the attack on Anqing was launched, the base area would be impossible to get iron from Hanyang on a large scale again. So the significance of this deal to the base area was extremely important. With these 6,000 tons of iron, the farm tools and a large part of the machinery in the base area for a year would be settled.

Chen Ke actually didn't want to trouble Yan Fu at the beginning, but preparing one point more before the full launch of the revolutionary war would have significant effects. Personal thoughts must give way to the revolutionary cause; even if Yan Fu met misfortune because of this, Chen Ke must get these 6,000 tons of iron.

Chen Ke stood on the dock holding He Ying's hand. Married for nearly a year, He Ying was very used to this intimacy. The couple didn't gather much on ordinary days, and at home, neither were people who loved to talk. Besides doing housework with tacit understanding, the rest was eating and sleeping. Reasonably speaking, this kind of life wears down feelings very much, but every time the two held hands, there was an indescribable sense of tacit understanding. It was like saying wordlessly to each other: I am by your side. Both felt that if they said anything about this, it would be superfluous instead.

So they stood there hand in hand, shoulder to shoulder, actually remaining silent until the boat carrying Yan Fu docked.

The old handsome guy Yan Fu looked not much different from a year ago. Chen Ke was originally not willing to be Yan Fu's disciple, but for more than a year, relying on the name of Yan Fu's disciple, Chen Ke saved a lot of trouble. He already knew Yan Fu's painstaking efforts back then. Seeing Yan Fu go ashore, Chen Ke walked up quickly and shouted: "Mr. Yan Fu, hello. Welcome to Fengtai County."

Yan Fu still had that majestic demeanor cultivated in the Beiyang Naval Academy. He stared at Chen Ke and sized him up, then nodded slightly. "Wen Qing looks very good. I am relieved."

Chen Ke led the way in front. Yan Fu said while walking: "I have already settled the steel matter this time; Wen Qing just needs to send ships to transport it. But there is one thing I don't understand: why does Wen Qing want to buy that inferior iron?"

Completely unexpected that the old handsome guy Yan Fu would talk about official business as soon as he came up, Chen Ke was really moved in his heart. He laughed, "Mr. Yan, we also want to build iron smelting furnaces and steelmaking furnaces here. No matter how bad the iron is, it is much more convenient than us transporting iron ore to smelt."

"So that's it." Yan Fu nodded in agreement. "Then when I went to negotiate this time, the harvest was much greater. Hanyang still had seven or eight thousand tons of scrap iron smelted badly. I settled it at a very low price. Wen Qing mentioned in the letter that it must be obtained. I was originally worried that it would be useless to transport it, and afraid Wen Qing would waste money in vain. Now I am relieved."

Seven or eight thousand tons? Chen Ke was startled. Yan Fu really didn't know the cost of fuel and rice without managing a household; the price of more than ten thousand tons of iron was not low. Chen Ke asked urgently: "Does Hanyang accept Pounds?"

Yan Fu was startled by Chen Ke's eager expression. He asked somewhat puzzledly: "Wen Qing explained in the letter, and I already asked. Hanyang accepts Pounds."

Hearing this news, Chen Ke couldn't help breathing a sigh of relief.

Yan Fu saw Chen Ke making a fuss but smiled slightly and didn't comment much on it. He brought up another topic. "By the way, Wen Qing. I have an old acquaintance in Shouzhou, the great scholar Mr. Shen Zengzhi. Before coming here, I heard he was temporarily transferred to be the Assistant Prefect in Shouzhou. I want to visit him with you. I think it should be good for you."

Mentioning Shen Zengzhi, Chen Ke felt the name was very familiar. He thought for a while before figuring out why he had a very familiar feeling. He said somewhat embarrassedly: "Mr. Yan, I have already started the revolution. We captured Shouzhou City a few days ago. Now this Mr. Shen Zengzhi is in our prison. If you want to see him, you don't need to go to Shouzhou."

Just as Chen Ke thought, Yan Fu stood there motionless at that moment.