Volume 1: The Other Shore Chapter 6: Taking Stock

  (New book is not easy to publish, seeing that it's published on this side and updated on the other side, do you want to cast some recommendation votes to show appreciation! Hehe! Thanks!)

  Late winter.

  Outside the window, the biting cold wind from the Arctic Ocean is mixed with some fluttering snowflakes, bringing a chill to the bone. Although it's still early in the day, the dense foliage of the trees in the courtyard has been pressed into a dull and gloomy mass by the sky. The window is wide open, letting in not only the wind and snow blowing into the room, but also the biting cold air.

  A delicate and transparent Italian crystal table lamp stood on the table, with no one to turn it on, set against the window curtains drifting in the wind and snow, like a tall black silhouette. The air inside was quiet and desolate, with the chill and dusk deepening at the same time.

  The whole person sank into a wide and spacious sofa, the mobile phone that was originally held in his hand had unknowingly slipped onto the sofa at some point. Li Zichen's gaze unconsciously stared out of the window, allowing the dusk to envelop it layer by layer. After the snow started falling in the afternoon, the weather became even colder, but he, who was sitting in the house and didn't want to go out, was still wearing relatively thin clothing, although the cold air had already become biting.

  Although the cold wind was biting due to the unrolled window, Li Zichen had no intention of moving or adding clothes, but sat on the sofa, deep in thought, with his brow furrowed and staring out the window, as if thinking about something.

  Looking out the window at the snowflakes dancing in the air, Li Zicheng felt as if he could hear the sound of firecrackers coming from Chinatown. Today was February 17th, 1912, an ordinary day for Americans, but for Chinese people, it was the most important day of the year.

  Today is New Year's Eve!

  At every festive occasion, I miss my loved ones even more! But where are my own family members?

  Hiding his body in the sofa, he picked up his phone again. Li Zichen's eyes stared at the screen, although there were many photos stored on the phone, but the ones with his parents only had one, that was all!

  The only one! From time to time, enlarging the photo, looking at the serious expression of his father and the kind face of his mother in the photo, tears kept flowing down his cheeks. Did they know that they had encountered an air crash? Did they... The thought of their loved ones made Li Zichen's entire demeanor extremely despondent.

  "Ah..."

  Lying on the sofa, trying to "bury" himself in it, Li Zichen looked at the ceiling and let out a long sigh. This villa located in the Upper East Side cost tens of thousands of dollars, but it didn't have even a bit of homey feeling.

  "Maybe I'm just too bored!"

  I've been feeling really bored lately, especially after the initial busyness ended. These days of having nothing to do and just eating and waiting for hunger have almost driven me crazy.

  After eighteen banks in New York mortgaged a loan of 1.35 million pounds, he took A Si to Miami and bought a sailboat. He spent a month learning to drive the sailboat. In the next two and a half months, he drove the boat alone every day, transporting boxes of gold, bonds, and film in steel drums from the submarine to warehouses in Miami.

  After two and a half months, the treasure in the submarine was swept away, including the computer, mobile phone, and books on the plane. Finally, the gold was packed into lead ingots and transported to New York by train. From then on, it seemed that I had become more relaxed, or rather, my days became increasingly dull.

  Especially a week ago, Thomas Lee's cargo ship was hired to take away the "goods" left on the deserted island in four days. He himself was bored to the extreme, eating and waiting for hunger every day. Although he is a rich man in New York's Upper East Side, although he has bought this mansion, but for the neighbors, as an Asian, it is impossible to integrate into the circle of New York's Upper East Side.

  In the midst of such boredom, I spent $6,000 to "buy my way" into New York University Law School, or more accurately, to gain the opportunity to take the bar exam.

  Thinking of this, his gaze fell on the New York State Attorney's Certificate framed in a mirror frame on the wall. Before coming to this time and space, he also had a California State Bar license, and even when the company hired him, it was for this reason.

  "You can forget about becoming a lawyer!"

  It's unthinkable that Americans of this era would accept a Chinese lawyer to defend them, and the Chinese don't have the habit of hiring lawyers anyway. This law license of mine can only... hmm! Look at it!

  "Ah!"

  After a sigh, Li Zichen stood up and walked straight to the bedroom, heading towards the basement. The main reason he bought this villa was because of the over 200 square meter wine cellar, which extended directly into the ground. After two months of renovation, the underground wine cellar became an underground vault, divided in half by a steel security door that extended deep into the granite walls on either side of the cellar.

  This safe door was installed two months ago by an insurance company in New York at a cost of tens of thousands of dollars. The original wine cellar has been transformed into a solid safe, with thick steel-reinforced concrete and an inner layer of 2-inch-thick steel plate, plus a mechanical password lock that opens the safe door, making this safe unparalleled in solidity.

  He took out the key from his neck, entered the password and opened the safe door. As he pushed open the safe door, what first caught his eye was a row of "lead ingots" inside the safe. He had originally transported the gold to Miami by yacht in an ant-like manner, and in order to bring the gold into the United States smoothly, he had coated the gold with a layer of metallic lead on the island as ballast, which was then brought to New York. Even now, he still hadn't removed the gold from its lead casing.

  On both sides of the underground vault, 186 steel barrels were neatly placed on double-layered barrel racks. The real treasure was in the tall, waist-high barrels made of stainless steel, where microfilmed technical patents and drawings of a country's decades or even hundreds of years were quietly lying inside the fully sealed steel barrels.

  "Maybe... I can start a company?"

  Reading the German words on the steel drums, standing in front of a drum labeled "Chemical Products", Li Zichen couldn't help but think that the American dye industry was very backward, and almost all chemical dyes in the world were monopolized by Germany. If he started his own dye company, maybe...

  "May..."

  Thinking of himself as a Chinese, especially the discrimination against Chinese by Americans, Chen smiled wryly and helplessly. Even this villa was purchased through Zhigongtang with an American-born compatriot acting on his behalf, and then signed a permanent lease agreement. As a Chinese, he didn't even have the right to buy property, let alone start a company!

  "Is it going to be like this for the rest of my life, cooped up in a luxurious house, eating till I'm full and then waiting to get hungry again?"

  Standing in the vault with his arms around him, Li Zichen sighed helplessly.

  As a Chinese, I finally experienced the kind of "difficulty at every step" that a Chinese person faces abroad. Can't start a company, can't open a factory, can't buy a house... In short, American society's rejection of Chinese people constantly reminds me of one fact: I am Chinese and cannot stay in America.

  As long as I stay in the United States for one day, the American Exclusion Act forces me to live a life of eating and waiting for hunger. Can it be said that I will spend my whole life like this without doing anything?

  "Maybe... maybe I should really go back home!"

  When this idea emerged in his mind, Li Zichen couldn't help but pause for a moment. Returning to China might be a good option. It was 1912 then, and in two years' time, World War I would break out. Wasn't the First World War the best opportunity for China's industrial development? If he returned to China himself, perhaps he could utilize the technical data inside these steel cylinders to do something.

  If we can manufacture textile machinery, spinning machines and all sorts of mechanical devices, then perhaps in the next few decades, I can do something for this country that has suffered so much. Maybe I don't have the ability to change history, but within my power, I can make this country's industry stronger. In that case, 25 years later, the war of resistance may not be won with such difficulty and sacrifice will not be so great!

  For the first time, Li Zichen found that he had finally found a value in life, no longer idle and wasting his years, he could do many things, and even become a successful entrepreneur, by then maybe...

  Imagining the future, Li Zichen's heart couldn't help but feel a surge of excitement. This... this is an opportunity! Heaven has its own purpose for doing anything, perhaps, perhaps this is the mission he was sent to this era for.

  Looking at the steel drums filled with microfilm of patents, drawings and development data in front of him, it was as if he saw his own future. What would these bring to himself? Wealth, status... countless thoughts surged in his mind, but this seemed not to be the most important thing.

  Money!

  After a long period of contemplation, a word suddenly burst out from Li Zichen's throat.

  If you want to return home and start a business, you'll need a large sum of money. But how do you solve the problem of money? Walking deep into the insurance vault, looking at those dozens of thin steel boxes painted with gray paint, most of what's inside these boxes are bonds and jewels.

  “1913、1914、19……”

  After a few minutes, looking at the somewhat messy bonds in front of him that he had turned over himself, his eyes were full of disappointment. The number of bonds that could be exchanged was far less than he had imagined.

  "Five hundred thousand, five hundred thousand..."

  After leaving the vault, Li Zichen kept muttering this number in his mouth, which was the amount of bonds that could be used as collateral for loans, a mere ￡50 million.

  At 90%, there are over ￡40 million left, with one pound exchanged for $4.5...

  As I was muttering to myself about my "assets", I unknowingly walked into the courtyard, where the sky was snowing lightly and the piercing cold wind blew straight at me, making my mind suddenly clear. The cool air filled my lungs as I breathed in.

  Stretch out your hand and look at the snowflakes falling on your palm. For the first time, Li Zichen could feel the meaning of life. But... no money!

  No way, I have to think of a way to get some money, to get a large sum of money! Without money, it's impossible for me to make a big move in the country, without money...

  From the snowy ground to under the balcony, sitting on a chair under the balcony, a newspaper that might have been casually thrown on the table a few days ago caught Li Zichen's attention.

  "Charlie Schwab becomes president of U.S. Steel at a salary of one million dollars per year!"

  At the moment he saw this news, Li Zichen's eyes lit up, perhaps...