The twenty-thousand-ton ship Ye Qingning was on was not large. It sailed directly into the Huangpu River, unlike larger cruise ships that had to dock at Wusong Port.
Once she disembarked, she found herself on Aidaoya Road. To the south of the road was the French Concession; to the north was the International Settlement.
Ye Qingning stood there holding her suitcase, frozen in place.
She suddenly realized a very critical problem—she did not know where her grandfather’s home was.
All she remembered was that her grandfather once said their ancestors had been wealthy landlords. Later, in the 1960s and 1970s, they moved to the countryside and remained poor ever since.
But which wealthy family? Beijing? Shanghai? Or some small town?
And most importantly—
Grandpa, please don’t be from a place where they speak dialects she couldn’t understand. Standard Mandarin had not yet been fully popularized in this era.
To her, dialects were just another foreign language.
Honestly, she only knew this era through historical footage. Shanghai was considered a major city.
But this Shanghai was nothing like the future international metropolis. It was far worse than even an ordinary rural village in later Hua Country. Ragged Hua Country people filled the streets, most of them pale and gaunt.
People moved in a hurry, their eyes dull and lifeless.
Because of the heat, many men walked with their shirts open, wearing straw sandals. Some children were barefoot and shirtless.
Every rib on their bodies was clearly visible.
There were even refugees lying silently in street corners—no one knew if they were sick or dead.
It was impossible to imagine how hard life must have been elsewhere. How did this generation survive?
As for the foreign sailors from Boot Country, the Marines of Free Country, Sikh or Annamese police officers, and soldiers in plaid kilts—Ye Qingning ignored them completely.
She had no interest in outsiders.
Even though they were everywhere here.
Her small, rosy, well-fed appearance stood out sharply in this environment, like a wealthy young lady from another world.
Was this how she had once perceived rich people in her past life?
“Bang—”
“Who? Are you blind?”
Ye Qingning frowned in irritation. She had only zoned out for a moment and already been knocked into.
“￥#&”
She looked up and saw someone from one of the “constantly expelled ethnic groups.” The man muttered something and quickly walked toward the International Settlement.
He had knocked her down yet still looked fierce.
Then he shouldn’t blame her for returning the favor.
Ye Qingning said nothing. She simply marked the man in passing.
Anyone who offended her Ye Qingning never ended well.
The Zombie King didn’t count—he wasn’t human anyway.
Just earlier, she had overheard sailors saying that Shanghai’s major financial groups were controlled by these expelled ethnic groups.
How could Hua Country’s land be controlled by people who constantly tried to seize others’ territory?
And they were making massive profits from opium.
In this era, countless people died because of opium addiction. It was all filthy money.
“Little sister, want to buy fish?”
“Hm?”
Her thoughts were suddenly interrupted. She looked at a barefoot boy in worn clothes carrying a basket.
Without hesitation, she took out a silver dollar and placed it in the basket, then casually picked up a fish orb.
It was a transparent glass sphere containing a few small fish.
So they already sold things like this in this era. How novel.
The silver dollar had been “borrowed” earlier from a Japanese man she checked for contraband on the ship.
She wasn’t even sure how many silver coins she currently had—probably quite a lot.
Ye Qingning remembered that before liberation, large amounts of Hua Country silver flowed into Mist Country and Free Country.
She had already taken from Mist Country. Free Country was still pending. She would remember it—everyone would earn money by their own abilities.
Should she exchange for copper coins or paper notes?
Forget it. She was rich and could be willful.
It was all for her own people anyway.
Paper money would soon be no different from waste paper. No need to bother exchanging.
If she needed more, she could just take some from Japanese pockets.
After all, they were “hers.” Hua Country was her home. What Japan took from Hua Country, she simply took back—it was only natural.
“Too much, too much!” the boy waved his hands.
The girl clearly had just arrived. If she later understood prices and came back asking for change, he wouldn’t be able to repay her. He only earned a dozen silver dollars a month doing hard labor at the docks.
He had met someone like this before—and ended up beaten.
“No need to give change.”
Ye Qingning carried her suitcase and looked around. She needed a place to stay first.
She walked toward a row of rickshaws.
The man at the front asked, “Miss, do you need a ride?”
“To the nearest inn.”
“Right away! Please get in, Miss. I’ll carry your luggage for you.”
“Thank you.”
Along the way, Ye Qingning saw all kinds of street businesses.
Food stalls, ear cleaning, barbers, tooth-pulling stands, cigarette sellers, child rentals, and even letter-writing services…
Shouts filled the air nonstop.
“Sharpen knives! Grind knives!”
“Eat my pear syrup candy, cough will be cured instantly!”
“Sell broken banknotes for tofu!”
“Face reading! Facial hair removal!”
The bustling street was chaotic and lively.
The rickshaw driver soon brought her to an inn. Ye Qingning paid him one silver dollar, and he left happily.
They earned only a few copper coins for half a mile of transport, barely a few cents an hour in silver terms. Her ride had been less than half a mile.
But the moment Ye Qingning stepped into the guest room, she immediately ran back out.
It was full of lice.
She felt itchy already—there were definitely lice on her body!
She felt unclean!
Grabbing her small suitcase, she hurried off to find a secluded place to enter her space, bathe, and change clothes.
She had never seen so many lice in her life. Just at the street corner, she had even seen an old man pick lice off himself and eat them, laughing as he said he was “having meat.”
Before she had gone far, she realized she was being watched.
The more secluded she walked, the more the others’ breathing quickened. To them, she looked like a lamb waiting to be slaughtered.
She was already irritated—and now these people were provoking her?
“Hand over your things!”
In a quiet alley, a balding man with a patch of hair spoke first.
“And if I don’t?”
The two men froze. This was not what they expected. At this moment, wasn’t this rich little girl supposed to cry and beg for mercy?
Then they would “kindly” spare her because she had money.
“If you don’t, you’ll be sold off to some brothel. And you really are quite pretty…”
A lewd man with a wart on his lip grinned.
“Oh? Can you take me there?”
A place like this should be erased from existence anyway.
“Hahaha! Did you hear that? She actually wants to go!”
“There are plenty of places like that in the Concessions. Today, we brothers will kindly show you around.”
“First time in Shanghai, huh? Perfect—we’ll take you to enjoy yourself!”
Ye Qingning ignored their filthy words.
“See? There are things here you can’t even imagine—dance halls, casinos, nightclubs, horse racing tracks, the Great World… every one of them unforgettable.”