ii
Now you already know what situations existed in Péng-shĭ Angle in those years.
Everybody knows the present situation, but back then it was small. Extremely-very small. Like the image of a fat old dame who is sitting on a rickety chair it is sitting on the Delaware17 River riverbank-top.
The military commander "Scatter-in-All-Directions Move-Back Lord-of-Many" É-Sī-Tă-Bà-Lŭ-Kè18 passed battle there beyond winter; he was a very peeved man and wrote to try to persuade the military commander Washington19; "I'm not getting any aid in this place, because the people are not behind this situation, and I haven't a person approaching me."
During the North-and-South War,20 a small-small fight ensued in the primary marketplace. An officer of the Ninth Pennsylvania21 Volunteers was pursued and the son of a merchant was hit in the head. (He'd been up on a horse and fell down. He'd been full of wine.)
You know that these were only small wars. They only inflicted small scars.
The big war Péng-shĭ Angle escaped.
Just to say, when the biggest-of-all war arrived, you see, Péng-shĭ Angle was watching from the fifty-meter demarcation-line, but they never had to do the job of a pass.
The cobalt bomb that hit the New Zé-Yŏu administrative district,22 an east wind stopped it at the Delaware River.
History records that the radioactive dust that went through Philadelphia23 went up the river forty miles. Then the air-machine spreading the radioactive dust was stopped by a pilot who wouldn't let it get past. (Péng-shĭ Angle was yet a mile farther on.)
The great city of Niŭ-Yāo-Xī24 was surrounded by hydrogen bombs that almost reached Péng-shĭ Angle, but it was in the middle and the whole thing hadn't hit it.
Now are you knowing the situation? They hadn't got past our shield. But after the war we were abandoned.
But you know, that wasn't a bad sort of thing. I think you'll find this in the ancient books. Péng-shĭ Angle sensed that abandonment had very much favorability. The people of Péng-shĭ Angle regretted the war, because it had killed so many people. (Even though we won the war. Because it wasn't as bad for us.) But even the worst-of-all sky has collected itself a good face, and being surrounded at the eight points of the compass by desolation had its advantages.
Péng-shĭ Angle had a Nike25 missile base, and they said that they shot down the first helicopter that came, because they thought the enemy were flying it. Perhaps they thought rightly. But I promise that when the fifth 'copter came, they no longer thought such things. And then there weren't airplanes anymore. Outside Péng-shĭ Angle, I suppose, the people had much to think about. They didn't deal with Péng-shĭ Angle anymore.
And then Mr. Kē-Gé-Lán arrived.
After Kē-Gé-Lán had established communications—because that's what the big bag really was, an electrical communications device—he used it for a time. Chá-Lĭ's forehead had a red impression for a couple of days, because he thought he could see inside the room, and his head was pressed against the doorknob.
"Mr. Mă-FĒi-Dài?" Kē-Gé-Lán said using a loud voice, while an attractive lady's face illuminated the apparatus.
"I am Mr. Mă-FĒi-Dài's bookkeeper," she pleasantly said. "I see that you're there now already. Please to wait a bit, and I'll give you Mr. Mă-FĒi-Dài."
Another face appeared on the screen; the image could truly have been a blood brother to Kē-Gé-Lán. It was the face of an old man who had the ability to let nobody stop him, who knew what he wanted for himself, and for now was able to obtain such. "Kē-Gé-Lán, pardner! Seeing that you already got inside, I'm truly pleased!"
"It didn't cost even the effort to blow away a dust speck, chief," Kē-Gé-Lán said. "I am now taking control of operations. Money. This matter will require much money."
"There is no difficulty?"
"There's none, chief. 1 can assure you of this. There won't be any difficulty." He grinned a grin, and took in one hand a small set of boxes inside one another. He opened a box, took out a small silver-blended-with-red-colored object. "I will be using this straightaway."
"What about the pool?"
"I have not yet looked, chief. But the pilots say they already released the material. You haven't had any opposition from the ground. These people used to shoot at every airplane they thought was coming, Now they're becoming vulnerable."
"That's as good as it could possibly be," V. P.-Mă-FĒi-Dài in the small cathode-ray tube said. "Make this happen, Kē-Gé-Lán. Make this happen."
Now at the Xiào-Wān-Jiā-Nóng-Kè26 National Bank, Mr. Lā-Fā-Jí27 saw KĒ-Gé-Lán enter, and he knew that an unpleasant situation was developing.
How do I know that? Well, this is in a book. This book is called ‹‹Federation Budget that I Attained, and Adopted a Weight-Standard Law: A Study of Favorable Trade-Balance Strength,›› by Chancellor of the Exchequer (Retired) WĒi-Ěr-bǎi28 É-dī-Sī29 Lā-Fā-Jí. Pretty much everything is inside books; you only have to know which book to look inside. But this is something that you young people must learn.
At any rate, Mr. Lā-Fā-Jí, who was only a minor official then, greeted the old man Kē-Gé-Lán. He was that sort of person. "Morning, sir!" he said. "Morning! Is the bank able to assist you?"
"We'll think of a way," Mr. Kē-Gé-Lán-Xiānsheng said.
"Certainly, sir! Certainly!" Mr. Lā-Fā-Jí was eager. "You'll want a bank account. Definitely! And want a savings account? Want a safety-deposit box? Most certainly! I suppose you require a Christmas Club account as well. You may be wanting an automobile loan, or want to use a mortgage, have a debt-consolidation loan, to make small—"
"I don't owe anybody," Kē-Gé-Lán said. "See here, what is your name—"
"Lā-Fā-Jí, sir! WĒi-Ěr-bǎi Lā-Fā-Jí. You call me what you like."
"WĒi-Lǎo,30 this is my accreditation book." He put the contents of an envelope in front of Lā-Fā-Jí.
This banker look-looked and then frowned. He picked up a document. "Credit letter," he said. "It's been a long time since I saw such a thing. From the Danbury31 administrative division of Connecticut,32? He shook-shook his head, and was upset. "These are all from outside, sir."
"I came from the outside."
"I understand." Lā-Fā-Jí put his voice heavily in the air after a bit. "Ah, sir I don't know. You wanted what?"
"I want 250,000 yuán, WĒi-Lǎo. Want it now. You will give to me quickly, what?"
Mr. Lā-Fā-Jí blinked.
Of course, you didn't know him. He was before your time. You can't know how this sort of request would affect him.
When I said that he blinked, I mean, pardner, that he really blinked. He blinked again, and it put him in a better mood. For a moment the veins had begun to bulge in his head; for a moment, he was about to speak. But he shut his mouth, and his veins calmed down.
You see, it was because Kē-Gé-Lán took the silver-color-and-red-color object out of his pocket. It shimmer-shimmered bright. He gave it a twist, and a squeeze, and it made a low pulsing sound. And yet that sound wasn't able to satisfy Mr. Kē-Gé-Lán.
"Wait a bit," he casually said, and he turned it a little, and squeezed it. "That's a good one," he said.
The sound was lower, but still it wasn't low enough to be able to satisfy Kē-Gé-Lán. He twisted it a little more, until the pulsing noise was so low that it couldn't be heard, and after that he nodded his head.
For not very much time there was silence.
And afterwards: "Want large banknotes?" Mr. Lā-Fā-Jí said. "Or better want small banknotes?" He got up in a hurry, went to a cashier. "Give over 250,000 units! You there, [Teng m Fèi-Ěr-Cǎi!]33 Be quick. What? No, I don't care from where. If there isn't enough in the windows, go to the big safe. But bring me 250,000 currency units now!"
He sat down, gasping for air. "I very much regret this, sir," he said to Mr. Kē-Gé-Lán. "The state of the cashiers! I rather wish that the earlier ways would return."
"Perhaps they will return, friend," Kē-Gé-Lán said, grinning a big grin to himself. "Now," he said without being unkind, "I don't want you to keep speaking.'1
He waited, with his hand tap-tapping the deskfront. Until [Teng m Fèi-Ěr-Cǎi] and another cashier arrived with four large canvas sacks of banknotes, he did not have any interest in Mr. Lā-Fā-Jí. They put the banknotes on the desk and began to count them,
"Don't do it, don't bother," Kē-Gé-Lán cheerfully said, his black eyes glinting. "I trust you all." He lifted the sacks, nodded his head politely to Mr. Lā-Fā-Jí, and went out.
Ten seconds later, Mr. Lā-Fā-Jí shook his head around, rubbed his hand across his eyes, and looked at the couple-two cashiers. "What did—"
"You just gave him 250,000 units," [Teng m Fèi-Ěr-Cǎi] said. "You made me bring it from the big safe."
"Did I?"
"You did."
They could do no more than you-see-me, I-see-you.
Last-of-all Lā-Fā-Jí said: "It's been a while since I can recall that sort of thing in Péng-shĭ Angle."