A Girl Traveling Through Troubled Times

Chapter 1062 The Pawnshop Business is Booming

My neighbor on the right, Mr. Zheng, a lawyer who runs a law firm, tucked the handbook into his briefcase, saying he was going to take it to the Department of Justice to show his colleagues. "The British always say it's nothing, but who believes them?"

Another family was having a feng shui master set up a compass in their yard, saying they wanted to create a "house-protecting formation." The manual was casually placed on a stone table, pressing down on several HSBC bank deposit slips.

Back at her front door, she saw Wu Mingqiang standing on the steps, holding a leaflet that the Japanese army had scattered. When he saw Gui'er return, he raised his chin and said, "The young master of the Liu family next door took a cruise ship to San Francisco this morning. He said he was going there to study at university, but actually he just wanted to lay low."

After distributing the manuals to her neighbors, Gui'er took two copies home and gave them to Dingxiang: "These two are air defense manuals printed by our school. Everyone should take a look and learn about disaster prevention."

Afterwards, she asked Acheng to drive her to the pawnshop so she could distribute some more to nearby shops.

Dingxiang suddenly said, "Miss, could you give me a copy of Miss Lily's book? I saw her and Fourth Concubine on the way to the theater with Brother Cheng the other day. They were both wearing such old clothes and looked so down on their luck."

Gui'er was taken aback. Fourth Concubine was the most favored by the Marshal, and she was the kind of person who only took and never gave. Sha Yanxiao had given her a lot of things in the past in order to please her, so she shouldn't be in such a sorry state. She said, "In that case, I'll just deliver a couple of books to her on the way there."

She knew that Dingxiang was definitely persuading her out of loyalty to the Marshal's Mansion, but ever since she left the Marshal's Mansion and came to Hong Kong, the mother and daughter's antics had been disgusting.

When she arrived at the pawnshop, the clerk, Ah Guang, was seeing a customer off at the door. As soon as he saw her, he rushed over with a big smile and said, "Miss, what brings you here? It's been a while."

Gui'er nodded and said, "Yes, I've been busy with my studies lately. How's business?" She walked inside as she spoke.

Customers were actually lining up inside the shop, which surprised Gui'er greatly; there weren't even this many people when the shop opened.

"What, what's going on?"

Another employee, Ah Zong, was receiving a customer. He first asked the customer to take out the items he wanted to pawn for a look.

The other person was holding a Suzhou-embroidered cheongsam with fur trim inside, but the workmanship was not very fine and the embroidery was just average.

Ah Zong shook his head and said, "Sir, our shop is not accepting clothes or blankets for the time being. However, if you have any gold or silver jewelry, you can bring it over."

The customer was a middle-aged woman in her thirties or forties. She said with difficulty, "I've been to several pawnshops, but none of them will accept my money. I really need the money urgently. Boss, please have mercy on me?"

Ah Zong waved his hand and said, "Since you urgently need money, why don't I introduce you to the secondhand clothing shops next door? They buy secondhand clothes there."

Upon hearing this, the middle-aged woman said nothing more, silently folded the clothes, put them into her bundle, and left.

Gui'er was very surprised. She glanced at the counter and saw that the items Zhao Ding was currently pricing had all been inspected by A Zong. They were all valuable jewelry, antiques, calligraphy and paintings, and so on. Normally, there would only be one or two such transactions a month.

"What's going on? Is business so good now? That Suzhou embroidery dress from earlier. Although the workmanship was just average, I think it was still worth some money."

Ah Guang led Gui'er into a private room, brewed her tea, and said with a smile, "Miss, you don't know this, but nowadays, the people who come to the pawnshop are all preparing to exchange for some money to escape the war. They bring some of the slightly valuable things from their homes, but not the most precious ones, to pawn for some money to take back. If the Japanese devils invade, this money will be useful. If the Japanese devils don't invade, they will come to redeem the pawned items. If we accept everything, all our funds will be tied up at once. So now all the pawnshops are doing the same thing: only accepting valuable items. We used to accept cotton quilts and cotton clothes, but we don't accept them anymore, because if the Japanese invade, these things take up space and are not easy to store. If we accept gold, silver, jewelry, antiques, and calligraphy and paintings, and they don't come to redeem them, we can sell them on the black market."

At this moment, Zhao Ding finally finished his work and hurriedly got off the counter, walked in and greeted Gui'er: "Hello, Miss. It's been quite a while since you've come."

Gui'er smiled and said, "Zhao Chaofeng, you've worked hard. I'm here today to deliver the air defense manual printed by the school. It contains some evacuation information, so everyone can take a look."

As he spoke, he took out a small stack of air defense manuals that he had left and handed them to A-Guang and A-Zong, saying, "Could you help distribute them to the surrounding shops as well, so that more people know about them and can cope if something really happens?"

Zhao Ding picked up a book, flipped through it, and said, "This is good. You two should hurry up and distribute the items, then come back early. We've had a lot of guests these past few days."

The two responded and left.

Gui'er asked, "Does the Japanese military exercises in Shenzhen affect businesses in the surrounding area?"

Zhao Ding respectfully replied, "Miss, the sounds of gunfire these morning and evening have terrified everyone. Everyone is afraid that the Japanese might actually attack while they're just putting on a show, so everyone is trying to avoid unnecessary expenses. Businesses on the street vary by industry. For example, the grain, oil, and grocery stores haven't been affected much; in fact, they're doing relatively well. After all, everyone knows that you need to stock up on food when there's a war. Clothing stores have basically no business. And our pawnshops and money exchanges have been doing very well these past few days. However, if the Japanese don't manage to attack, I'm sure many customers will come to redeem their items, and we'll just earn a storage fee."

Gui'er laughed and said, "Then I'd rather he couldn't win the battle. If he did, our shop might not be able to survive."

Zhao Ding smiled and said, "That's natural, that's natural."

As they were talking, more guests arrived, and Ah Guang and Ah Zong hurriedly went out to distribute the air defense manuals and returned, quickly getting back to work.

Seeing that there were many people in the shop, Gui'er said, "You all go ahead and get busy, I'm leaving."

As he spoke, he got into the car and arrived in front of Sally's shop.

The place was surprisingly bustling with people, which puzzled Gui'er, since Sally's family ran a trading company that sold imported high-end goods, and there shouldn't be much business in this day and age.

When I got off the bus, I immediately understood. There was a big sign at the entrance that read, "Support the War of Resistance Against Japan, Support Domestic Products."

There were also staff members standing at the door, shouting slogans to attract customers, and many passersby were drawn inside.

Gui'er muttered, "Didn't they used to make imported goods? How did they switch to domestic products?"

As she spoke, she led Acheng into the store.