Turbulence on the Bund Chapter 5: When the Sea King Takes Action, Villains Get Their Due

Chen Lin hated foreigners, and he had no desire to work for them.

At this time, almost all foreign firms were engaged in the opium trade. They were merely the advance guard of the foreigners’ plunder of the Qing Empire.

Yet the burly man before him, with a body like a sea king’s, had seized his thin little arm and nearly lifted him off the ground.

“Hey, mate, your English is brilliant. Who taught you? Are you a local? You can understand the local tongue, right?” James asked, his face alight with excitement, words tumbling out like a volley of gunfire, spit flying everywhere.

“Sir, please put me down. I am indeed local, and I learned English from a priest.” Chen Lin could tell the man was truly delighted and meant no harm.

Huang Rentang, standing nearby, was also deeply impressed by Chen Lin’s flawless English. He had served as an interpreter for more than a decade, and his English still carried a heavy Cantonese accent.

Yet Chen Lin’s English sounded even more standard than the foreigners’ own speech.

After hearing Chen Lin’s words, James felt a bit embarrassed and quickly set him down.

Without any courtesy, as though he were the owner of the place, he ordered the pawnshop manager, “Boss, hurry up and bring tea and pastries.”

When he finished, he dragged Chen Lin inside without even asking for his opinion.

Chen Miao, pale with fear, followed behind her brother. The sight of the foreign devil terrified her terribly.

Chen Lin, however, thought this foreigner was not quite as hateful as he had imagined. At least he had not despised him for his ragged clothes.

Beside the main hall of the pawnshop was a small reception room, furnished with tables and chairs.

“Hey, mate, your situation looks pretty bad,” James said, pointing at Chen Lin’s clothes. “How about coming to work at our foreign firm?”

The way James spoke was as rough as his appearance.

“Wait...” Chen Lin cut him off.

“You’re with a foreign firm? Looking to hire an interpreter?” Chen Lin asked, having already noticed the badge on Huang Rentang’s chest.

Wearing a wooden plaque on one’s chest was certainly inelegant, but it was very conspicuous.

“Ah, yes, yes, yes. You can call me James, the manager of Denthe Foreign Firm. We need a local interpreter. How about it, mate? Come work for us. Room and board included, and we’ll pay you at least five silver dollars a month.” James offered a generous salary without hesitation.

At the time, foreign merchants doing business with Chinese people generally used the Spanish silver dollar, also called the pillar dollar. Five silver dollars had the purchasing power of about three and a half taels of silver, truly a handsome wage.

“Mr. James, your offer is indeed very generous. But I have one question: what is your relationship with this pawnshop?” Chen Lin seemed to ask something irrelevant.

“Uh... well, the owner of this pawnshop, Mr. Wu, is a friend of our firm,” James said without much thought.

This foreigner did not seem to have much cunning.

“In that case, I refuse to work for your firm. To be friends with a robber’s pawnshop, I suppose your foreign firm cannot be much better either.”

The two spoke in English, and only Huang Rentang beside them understood. The others were left in confusion.

So the manager was still instructing his men to bring tea and refreshments, never imagining that he himself had already been denounced by Chen Lin.

Then Chen Lin told a story: ten years earlier, a missionary had arrived by boat on the Huangpu River. At that time, the Qing court restricted preaching. Discovered by Qing troops, the missionary fled in panic and fell into the river. Chen Lin’s father rescued him and sheltered him in their home...

Chen Lin then changed tone and continued his accusation. “My father was such a kind man. He only left me a small boat, but your Wu pawnshop still wanted to seize it. Tell me, are they not utterly despicable?”

After hearing this, James was likewise filled with righteous indignation. Wu Jianzhang was worth millions, yet he still wanted to snatch away a poor man’s little fishing boat. Truly vile.

So he immediately had Huang the interpreter question the pawnshop manager.

The manager naturally argued back, but Chen Lin could speak directly with James, and James still sided with Chen Lin.

“Boss, please return the fishing boat to this boy. Otherwise, Wu’s will no longer need to cooperate with Denthe Foreign Firm.”

James was the firm’s chief manager, and he certainly had the authority to make such a decision.

Sweat broke out all over the manager’s forehead.

He looked at Chen Lin. Why could this ragged, skin-and-bones child make the chief manager of Denthe Foreign Firm speak on his behalf?

Whatever the reason, he had to settle this matter today. Wu’s could not lose such an important customer over a single small boat.

“Little brother,” the old manager said smoothly, “I have already asked about it. The boat was indeed pawned by its owner, but since Mr. James has spoken, I could even give it to you outright.”

Just then, Chen Lin took out the fishing boat’s receipt, black and white in clear ink, and challenged the old manager, “When your pawnshop takes in a boat, do you not even check the receipt?”

The old manager had not expected this child to come prepared and was left speechless.

At that moment, the tall attendant from earlier, Lin Aqi, came in with a sharp-faced, fox-like man.

The manager immediately found an outlet for all his anger.

“Lin Aqi, come here and kneel before this young brother and apologize,” the manager snapped at him.

Lin Aqi was bewildered. Seeing that the boy before him looked vaguely familiar, he asked, “Boss, what’s going on? Have you found the person?”

He had assumed the foreign gentleman was looking for the child because the child had offended him.

Miao Miao also remembered the tall man who had beaten her brother, and she hurriedly hid behind Chen Lin.

“Don’t be afraid, Miao Miao.” Chen Lin turned back to comfort her, then looked at the manager and said, “I do not need the boat anymore. But the man who stole it from me must go to the authorities and surrender himself.”

The manager hesitated. Surrendering to the authorities would mean admitting the pawnshop had engaged in an illegal transaction.

When Lin Aqi heard this, he also panicked. “Boss, it was all this man, Qian Laosan, who deceived me!”

Lin Aqi pointed at the sharp-faced man beside him and shouted.

The manager glanced at James, then at the sharply arched brows on the foreigner’s face. He looked once more at Chen Lin—ragged, emaciated, yet with a straight back and chin lifted high.

“Little brother,” the manager said gently, “how about this? Lin Aqi truly was negligent. I’ll have him kowtow and apologize to you. As for Qian Laosan, we’ll send him to the authorities for severe punishment. If you no longer want the boat, we’ll compensate you at five times its value.”

Truly an old hand in the trade, he resolved the matter in just a few words.

Though Chen Lin was a technical man, he had still seen enough of office politics and the contests of wit and will that came with it.

He was merely borrowing James’s power, and this foreigner was not even familiar with him. Perhaps he was only backing him because he truly needed a local interpreter.

So Chen Lin could only stop while he was ahead and accept the manager’s terms.

Lin Aqi felt as though he had been pardoned from death, and immediately knelt before Chen Lin, bowing and begging for forgiveness. They had all been brought over from Guangdong by their master; if they were dismissed, they would lose their livelihood.

As for the boat thief Qian Laosan, he was crying out as he was dragged away by two attendants.

An attendant came in and set out tea and pastries on the small round table.

The siblings, already so hungry they felt their stomachs touching their backs, could not help glancing over.

Yet neither of them touched the food before them.

James, by contrast, casually took two pastries and placed them in Chen Lin’s hands.

“Mate, can you come back to the firm with me now?”

If possible, he did not want to fall out with Wu’s either; his earlier words had only been meant to frighten them.

In his eyes, Chen Lin was nothing more than a child, easy enough to coax.

To his surprise, Chen Lin clearly had hunger written all over his face, yet he did not eat the pastries. Instead, he placed them in his sister’s hands and said, “Miao Miao, you eat them.”

Then he turned to James and cupped his hands in thanks. “Thank you, Mr. James. May I ask what I can do for your firm?”

“You only need to do the work of an interpreter and help me manage the local laborers,” James said with a smile.

Then James frankly told Chen Lin about the difficulties the firm had recently encountered. The Cantonese interpreters hired by the firm could not understand the local dialect, while the locals could not understand English or Cantonese, which made many matters far less efficient than they should have been.