Comrade Joffe's accommodation was not in a hotel but a separate residence. The house was fully furnished, but it was obvious no one had lived there for a while. The tables and chairs were wiped very clean, but dust had accumulated in many details. If someone lived there frequently, it wouldn't be like this.

Such thoughtful arrangements meant goodwill toward Joffe and his party. Joffe also decided to utilize He Rui's goodwill, so he took two comrades out of the residence together.

Two people walked out of the residence opposite to meet them, both wearing plain clothes. But judging from their footsteps, they should be soldiers. Joffe didn't mind the surveillance and waited for the two to come in front of him.

"May I ask where you are going?" one of them asked in Russian.

Joffe replied, "I want to walk on the street."

"Do you need us to accompany you?"

"Thank you for your kindness, but is the public security in Fengtian that bad?" Joffe finished speaking, hoping the other party wouldn't misunderstand.

Whether the other party misunderstood or not, Joffe didn't know, but the other party said, "Then please do not carry weapons on the street. Shenyang has a gun ban. If your group takes out weapons, you will be arrested for illegal possession of firearms."

Was there such a thing? Joffe was skeptical. Because in Bolshevik intelligence, the Northeast was a relatively chaotic region with a large number of armed bandits.

While Joffe was considering how to answer, the comrade beside him asked, "Can other foreign missions carry guns?"

"If foreign missions want to carry guns, because they possess diplomatic immunity and normal mail is protected, there are some gray areas everyone can understand. However, if foreign missions want to carry guns openly, they must apply. Otherwise, they will be deported according to diplomatic rules."

Hearing this seemingly ambiguous expression, Joffe felt that the people sent by He Rui had already expressed the greatest goodwill. After expressing thanks to the personnel on the Northeast side, Joffe and the other two returned to the residence first, left the pistols used for self-defense at the residence, and then came out again.

This time the two people opposite came out again but didn't say anything, just handing the three of them three passes with straps that could be hung around the neck. In Moscow, various committees of the Communist Party had their own passes, but the passes were all kept in pockets. Having such a strap was much more convenient. After Joffe expressed his thanks, he walked onto the streets of Shenyang with the two comrades.

Here, Joffe only felt strict discipline. At least half of the pedestrians were walking out of the gates of various units in queues. Students, workers, and military personnel constituted a street scene full of order.

Most of the roads in Shenyang were newly built and very broad. The style of the houses was completely different from Russia and looked acceptable. There were no particularly low and dilapidated houses, nor were there particularly luxurious and grand ones. Walking along the main road for a while, he saw a large building in the distance. It looked familiar to Joffe; the meeting with He Rui today was in this Northeast Government Office Building.

Diagonally across was another large building, the Military Commission of the Civilization Party. Joffe strongly approved of the political structure of the Civilization Party. Looking at the signs at the entrances of these government departments, one could see that the sign of the government and the sign of the party committee within the government hung together. The government operated the political power, and the political party occupied the leadership position within the government.

After walking another section of the road, they seemed to have entered a workers' district. People here all wore work clothes and sat at tables on the broad curb. This place was noisy and lively, and could even be called rowdy. For people in high positions, this was a detestable place. Joffe and the other two found a small shop here and sat down.

Only looking at high society would not give a clear picture of the current situation in China. Only in such an area where workers gathered could one understand a fraction of the Northeast under He Rui's rule.

Probably having seen quite a few Russians, the Chinese workers didn't feel curious about Russians. Although there were many noisy people, no fighting or brawling was seen. To observe the situation of the surrounding workers, Joffe and the others didn't eat fast. During this time, they saw police riding bicycles pass by, neither collecting money from businesses nor doing anything to people they found objectionable.

As for the food sold at the stalls, there were peanuts and edamame, mushrooms mixed with vegetables, and some corn porridge. What impressed Joffe and the others most was 'mutton soup'. In a huge iron pot on a stove, the boiling soup presented a milky white color. Rising and falling with the surging of the soup was mutton, and what always floated on the surface of the soup was fat.

Joffe found that most of these ordinary workers bought a bowl of soup, asked for some flatbread or something, and ate it with a vegetable dish. Some would order some meat to eat. Joffe also ordered a bowl and, imitating the workers, drank the soup with a wooden spoon. He felt the taste of the soup was very good, just that the taste of the coriander inside was a bit strong.

Another food that sparked Joffe's interest was roast chicken. Whole chickens were roasted; one could buy a whole one or half a one. One could even buy separate parts individually. If one was willing to pay, roast mutton was also available. In short, it was all very plebeian food.

Joffe wasn't quite sure if these people were skilled workers. The income of Russian skilled workers was obviously much higher, but even Russian skilled workers were unlikely to eat like this every day.

As for the content of what the Chinese workers were saying, a considerable part was about vocational training, literacy classes, children's school grades, and the like. It was all domestic trivia; no one evaluated the factory itself. It could be seen that the public on the streets of Shenyang did not feel intense class oppression and were not particularly dissatisfied with their current lives.

After eating, it was already dark. Streetlights lit up, and there were few pedestrians on the street. Joffe and the others chatted in Russian. Such scenery reminded Joffe of the night view he had seen in Germany, and he exclaimed, "This really feels a bit like Bavaria."

The two Russian comrades had only been to the German border region and hadn't seen big German cities. Based on their own feelings, they thought this place was like Warsaw.

Mentioning Warsaw, the two comrades couldn't help but sigh a little. Warsaw was once part of the Russian Empire and had now begun to become the capital of the restored Poland. Comrade Lenin believed that oppressed people should be liberated from the great prison of Russia, but the result was bitter for Russians. At least the newly established Republic of Poland felt absolutely no gratitude for Russia's leniency; instead, with strong nationalist sentiment, it threw itself into the imperialist camp.

Joffe agreed with this feeling in his heart but didn't care particularly much. The purpose of this trip was to contact the Chinese officials. At least in China, the fierce ethnic conflicts like those in Europe hadn't appeared yet. It was no exaggeration to say that three Chinese people being able to eat a meal peacefully would be unimaginable in the Polish region. As long as they were identified as Russians by Poles, a tragedy would occur within the time it took to eat a meal.

He Rui, who could control the Northeast so firmly, also provided sufficient social security guarantees. Joffe felt he could no longer use 'warlord' to describe him. He Rui was more like a Prince-elector in Germany, a figure naturally possessing the right of inheritance to supreme power.

Even if He Rui had conflicts with the Beiyang government, it was similar to the conflict between the Duke of Burgundy and the King of France.

It seemed that tomorrow's meeting with He Rui should be approached from this angle.