Chapter 69: Camera

Shazhu discovered Lao Kou had the potential to be a big loudspeaker. Seeing Shazhu, he chattered on and on, reporting to Shazhu that Yi Zhonghai had returned after eleven the previous night, and early this morning Jia Dongxu escorted Qin Huairu to the Sixth Hospital for a check-up etc.

Six Hospital.

Shazhu recalled his past life when Qin Huairu had an abortion and helped Qin Jingru forge a false pregnancy report to threaten Xu Daming and related matters. He originally thought this was Qin Huairu's own ability, but it turned out to be Yi Zhonghai's connections; otherwise, Qin Huairu, who couldn't read a single character, how could she know the doctors at the Sixth Hospital!

It had nothing to do with Shazhu.

He also couldn't be bothered to talk about such leisurely matters.

Carrying a bag.

He headed straight for the store.

He bought a camera at the high price of 440,000 yuan, and spent all the remaining money on film.

He borrowed one million from Yi Zhonghai, leaving only about seventeen or eighteen thousand yuan spent.

He left the store.

Shazhu discovered he had become the most handsome guy in the world.

The camera in his hand added a lot to his appeal.

Shazhu's confidence soared unprecedentedly; before shooting, he specifically went to the police station to file a report as Director Wang required.

He started taking pictures all over the streets.

This was the only thing Shazhu thought he could do after learning that Chunfeng Pavilion was to be demolished: through his lens, record the local customs and past of the Capital City.

He Yushui was used by him as a tool.

He arrived at a place.

He Yushui struck a pose, waiting for Shazhu to help her take a photo.

Basically, the first photo adjusting angle and lighting was for He Yushui; afterwards, shooting the city walls, pavilions, temples, etc., no longer featured He Yushui's figure.

The little girl still thought Shazhu was taking her picture.

He was busy and having a great time.

Shazhu was also clever and didn't slip up.

From the twenty-fifth of the twelfth month to the fifth of the first month, these ten days, Shazhu packed his schedule full of shooting around the Capital City, with no other plans besides.

Probably decades later.

These photos and film negatives in Shazhu's hands will become an important reference for the local customs of the Capital City.

Six o'clock in the evening.

After a day of busying with He Yushui, Shazhu dragged his weary body back to the Siheyuan.

That day exhausted him; he had run a lot, and the film in his hand had been used heavily.

Just as he entered the gate.

He was blocked by the gatekeeper general Yan Fugui.

Lao Kou wore an expression as if he had just met Shazhu today.

"San Daye, are you alright?"

"Shazhu, San Daye speaks frankly: your father He Daqing ran off with a widow to Baocheng; San Daye really doesn't think highly of you, San Daye cannot help but admit he misjudged you, kid. After leaving your father He Daqing, your life has become increasingly prosperous—you work at the scrap recycling station, bought a bicycle, and now you've bought a camera."

Shazhu sucked in a breath of cold air; he didn't want the people in the Siheyuan to know he bought a camera. His attitude toward buying a camera is like that of a later-era celebrity caught in scandal—stubbornly denying it, refusing to admit it no matter what.

"San Daye, don't joke with me—when did I buy a camera?"

"Shazhu, you can fool others, but you can't fool San Daye; San Daye personally saw you buy the camera."

When Shazhu bought the camera.

Yan Fugui went to the mall to look at bicycles.

Just as girls nowadays can't afford brand-name clothes but look at them through glass, Yan Fugui happened to see Shazhu buying a camera.

"Shazhu, you're quite rich—both a bicycle and a camera, and you still take Yushui out to eat every day. Didn't your father leave you a lot of money?"

It wasn't just Yan Fugui who thought that.

Most people in the Siheyuan thought so.

They all thought Shazhu was spending the money left by He Daqing.

"What old man left me that?" Shazhu blurted out a denial; he currently doesn't want any connection to He Daqing, and even if there were, it would be decades later: "Eating out, I'm using my own money; buying the camera, I borrowed it from the eldest elder."

Yan Fugui was startled.

He had lived to such an old age.

It was the first time he heard someone borrow money to buy a camera, an effect comparable to hearing someone borrow high-interest loans to gamble at a casino.

"Shazhu, San Daye admires you."

"What's there to admire or not? Money is meant to be spent; you can't take it with you when you're born, nor when you die—why keep it?"

Yan Fugui squeezed out a smile.

Shazhu instantly understood Yan Fugui's meaning.

Bumming for photos.

Lao Kou's mind is really quick.

"San Daye, I understand your meaning; on New Year's Day, let me take a family photo for your whole family, how about that?"

"San Daye also thinks that."

"I'll provide the camera, the film, and the batteries; the money for developing the photos, you San Daye have to pay yourself."

"Shazhu, San Daye won't let you develop the photos for free; on New Year's Day, San Daye will give you two couplets, his own calligraphy, which in our Siheyuan is like this."

Yan Fugui looked smug and pleased.

Lao Kou's brush calligraphy is truly top-notch in the Siheyuan.

Who let there be so many illiterates in the Siheyuan?

San Daye, people say you are the reincarnation of an abacus genius; I think what they say is reasonable. In our Siheyuan, nobody can out-calculate you, San Daye.

Just say San Daye is strange, that's enough; still an abacus genius?

Shazhu's face changed, he turned and ran toward the Red Star Police Station.

An anxious look.

It was as if a dog were chasing him from behind.

No dog, yet it seemed like there was a dog.

Traitor dog.

While taking photos with Yushui today, Shazhu encountered the strange person he had knocked down that day, and accompanying the strange person was also Jia Gui.

For various reasons.

Shazhu did not take the strange person and Jia Gui to heart.

Just now, while laughing and chatting with Yan Fugui, he suddenly remembered those two people.

He figured it was just paving the way for himself.

Shazhu reported in detail to the chief of the Red Star Police Station about his discovery of the strange person and where he had found him.

On his way back.

He happened to see Long Laotaitai.

Not seen in a day.

Long Laotaitai, who usually swaggered around the Siheyuan with the airs of the clan's patriarch, instantly turned into an ordinary old woman.

Upon seeing Shazhu, Long Laotaitai, as if grasping at the last straw, shouted loudly at him to have Yi Zhonghai come find her.

She probably wanted Yi Zhonghai to rescue her.

How to rescue?

Unless Yi Zhonghai takes responsibility for the fifty jin of white flour and fifty jin of rice.

Shazhu did not refuse.

The public security also gave Shazhu no chance to refuse; after Long Laotaitai finished shouting for Yi Zhonghai to come see her, she was taken to the nearby small room.

Above the door of the small room hung a small sign bearing the three characters for 'Interrogation Room'.

He returned to the Siheyuan.

In front of Liu Haizhong and Yan Fugui, Shazhu repeated Long Laotaitai's original words asking Yi Zhonghai to go to the police station to see her.

Ignoring Yi Zhonghai's unpleasant expression, he turned and went back inside to cook.