Walking through Edward Avenue, the rickshaw took Xu Xilin to a crowded slum.

The coachman ran into the maze one after another, and a pungent smell drifted in the air. On both sides of the street, there were small mud-pasteed sheds crowded with one another, and only some grass pieces made of rags and rushes were built on the roof. Some small sheds were made of thin poles with a few sheets of broken oil paper on them.

The sound of whistling steamers came from a nearby silk reel factory. The manure trucks squeaked through the alley and sent the manure to the farmlands in the suburbs. People were everywhere, hurried to the places where they made their livelihoods: textile workers, porters, merchants, hawkers, as well as messengers, fortune tellers and sellers, and beggars.

In Lujiawan, Chen Wenqiang was not found, who had already gone out, and Xu Xilin was a little disappointed and hesitated whether to wait. In Tokyo, because of the strong view of "suppressing and destroying man", he did not join the slogans that were not radical enough, and even had a mild revival. Instead, he had thoughts similar to Tao Chengzhang and contacted the very active associations in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui, thinking that the anti-Qing army was armed.

So, after returning to China, Xu Xilin personally met with the leaders of the Party in various places. After two months, he hiked to visit the parties in Sheng County, Zhuji, Dongyang, Jinhua, Jinyun and other places, and met the leaders of the Party in Zhu Shaokang, Wang Jinfa and other places. However, during his contact with the parties in various places, Xu Xilin found that although there are many parties and have certain forces, his quality is obviously low. If he wants to unite all factions and play a role, he must be trained and taught. Therefore, he came up with the idea of ​​establishing a "martial arts school" to train the backbone of the Party.

The primary issue in running a school, and it is not an ordinary school, the first issue facing Xu Xilin was funding. He first found Xu Zhongqing, a rich businessman in Shaoxing, and tried to convince him to invest and establish a school called "Datong Academy". However, Xu Zhongqing was cautious and although he expressed his interest, he did not agree immediately. Xu Xilin thought of Chen Wenqiang, whom he met in Tokyo. At this time, Chen Wenqiang's reputation was no longer comparable to that day, but he was an unstoppable new business aura.

Judging from Chen Wenqiang's identity, he is a member of the Qinghong Gang, with a high seniority and a high status. He is also a member of the Communist Party that Xu Xilin wants to strive for development. Therefore, Xu Xilin came to Shanghai, first to raise funds to build a school, and secondly, he also wanted to contact the Qinghong Gang in Shanghai through Chen Wenqiang.

After seeing the construction and environment there in Lujiawan, Xu Xilin couldn't help but sigh deeply when he came to this dirty and poor place. He had to admit that compared with the situations in various places he had seen, Lujiawan should be the best place in the environment. Roads, buildings, factories, and people there made him feel a vigorous vitality.

Unfortunately, there are too few such places in China, and they can even be said to be unique. Xu Xilin got off the rickshaw and planned to walk the remaining distance. In Shanghai and in the concession, he felt like he was in a foreign country. European-style buildings, Gothic towers, and arrogant foreigners were exuding foreign style everywhere, which made him heartbroken.

The alley was so narrow that it could only pass by people. The shouts were ringing in the alley, one louder than another. Xu Xilin had become accustomed to this noise, after all, he was born in an environment like this. He knew that at night, he could not hear the sound of coolie's horn.

There were people coming and going in the alley. Xu Xilin struggled to squeeze out of the crowd, walked to a wider road, and stopped in front of the gate of a house.

The house in this yard is not tall, but it is very tight. There are no windows on the street, only a thick wooden door, and a grille made of steel sticks are inlaid with a small window on the wooden door. He pressed the dragon-shaped door buckle and patted it a few times. As soon as the knocking sound fell, the small window on the door opened. A pair of puzzled and vigilant eyes looked him coldly for a while, trying to examine him yesterday.

Xu Xilin announced his name again, and slowly stretched out his hand from the window. He reluctantly took the Mingtao, and the window closed again, everything was the same as yesterday.

Wait, Xu Xilin knows that he has to wait patiently as yesterday. This is the address left to him by his fellow Zhejiang native Gong Baoquan in the letter. Xu Xilin hopes to be helpful to his trip to Shanghai. Of course, Xu Xilin didn't know that Gong Baoquan, Yang Dusheng and others first organized an assassination group in Shanghai, but now he has joined the Revival Society.

Looking at the street casually, Xu Xilin noticed someone pulling his sleeves. He looked down and saw a little girl looking up at him. The little girl looked like she was seven or eight years old. She was covered with a torn jacket and gray shorts on her legs. She was ragged from top to bottom, so dirty that it was hard to tell which clothes were and which were her flesh. Only those eyes were shining.

The little girl was holding a baby in her arms, and she was very experienced in her hip bone. The baby was naked, for only a few months, and her eyes were not blinking, as if she was born with this patience, as if she had experienced hundreds of years of hardship in this world. The little girl stretched out her empty hand, and her innocent expression was full of expectations. Her thin appearance made people unable to bear to get angry at her recklessness. Compared with those beggars walking around the streets, she was obviously more likely to arouse people's pity.

Xu Xilin reached out to take out a few copper plates from his pocket. The little girl grabbed the money quietly, pinched the copper plate, looked at the small square hole in the middle, and then hurriedly turned around and ran away. The naked baby touched her iliac bone, without crying or screaming.

Several passers-by looked at Xu Xilin and smiled strangely. In their opinion, this guy wearing glasses must have come from another place for the first time and did not know the desperate people in Shanghai. Or maybe he had just entered Christianity, Protestants always like to flatter the foreign pastors with kindness and kindness.

The heavy door opened, and an old housekeeper led Xu Xilin into the living room, asked him to sit down, and asked the servants to serve tea.

"Mr. Gong is entertaining guests in the study and asked Mr. Xu to sit for a moment." The old housekeeper said politely: "If you are rude and negligent, please forgive me."

"It doesn't matter, I'll wait here." Xu Xilin smiled tolerantly and looked around casually.

The surroundings of the house were covered with curtains, and were not transparent. There were several thick chairs in the room, and some of the chair covers were wrinkled, as if someone had just sat there. But the long table was empty and there was no tablecloth.

Entertaining guests? It was here just now, Xu Xilin guessed, picked up the teacup and sipped it gently.
Chapter completed!