Zheng Yubai returned to the room and felt that he had gone too far. After all, Kong Fang was a guest of the safe apartment. In this apartment, guests spent money and of course enjoyed the same rights as God. Although he was an administrator, he was just a salaried service staff. If the big boss knew about his treatment of guests, it would be difficult to explain.
This job is really a headache, why not quit, Zheng Yubai thought. The underworld is a mess, even if I don't cause trouble, there are always many ignorant little bastards who want to make trouble, maybe I will be involved in trouble again at any time, that is not Zheng Yubai's intention.
But thinking of Xu Heixing's regard for him, Zheng Yubai felt that resigning was a bit unfair to him. Although he knew that Xu Heixing was taking advantage of his ability, he really had no other job to do. He had been working in the safe apartment for four or five months, and he had gotten used to this exciting life. If he were to go to an office building and live a dull life from nine to five, he would probably not be interested at all.
People are really a mixture of contradictions. Zheng Yubai has been feeling a bit philosophical lately, but he can't figure out the truth of life. It seems that he can only take one step at a time. But should he plan a goal for his life? Otherwise, it seems a bit confusing to just go on like this.
Since entering the safe apartment, things have happened one after another, making Zheng Yubai overwhelmed and not thinking too much about his life goals. Although he has not been idle recently, he also thinks that he should make a three-year plan.
But what is this plan? Zheng Yubai scratched his head. He really has no goals. It would be a wonderful thing if he could have a dream that he must achieve like the protagonist in the comics. Unfortunately, his personality is as slow as water. He doesn't know whether this is good or bad.
As he was thinking, there was a knock on the door. Zheng Yubai went to open the door and saw Chen Guchuan standing at the door.
"Is there something wrong?" Zheng Yubai didn't like this guy who always had a smile on his face and looked like a bad boy.
"You won't let me in?" Chen Guchuan asked. He was actually quite handsome, but he always gave people a gloomy feeling. Especially when he smiled and moved his facial muscles, his evil look made Zheng Yubai want to punch him.
He stepped aside to let Chen Guchuan enter the room. Zheng Yubai didn't bother to be polite with him and said directly, "If you have anything to say, just say it."
Chen Guchuan narrowed his eyes and said, "It was indeed my idea to lure you to the Saito Dojo. I have to admit this. I came here to apologize to you."
Zheng Yubai didn't know what he was up to. He only knew that the boy in front of him was full of bad intentions, and that getting involved with him would definitely not be good, so he made a gesture to send him away and said, "I accept it, you can leave now."
"I have something very important to tell you. Don't you want to know?" Chen Guchuan blinked.
"Not interested." Zheng Yubai didn't give him any chance to show off.
Chen Guchuan sighed: "Administrator, you are really a stubborn person. To tell you the truth, I want to join you."
"Recruit me?" Zheng Yubai was stunned. Did this guy's head get stuck in the door
"You should know something about me..." Chen Guchuan said self-deprecatingly, "I guess there is no one in Asia who doesn't know about the sensational nude photo scandal."
"I know a little bit." Zheng Yubai said. Caoji had told him about Chen Guchuan, so he certainly remembered it. Although he hadn't looked up the exposed photos online, he knew that the incident had caused a big stir.
"In fact, there is a mastermind behind the whole thing." Chen Guchuan said, "I was also forced. If I didn't do what they said, I would die."
"What's going on?" Zheng Yubai was a little curious about what Chen Guchuan said.
"This matter is very complicated. It involves the struggle between the Skull and Bones Society and the Yan Dao Tang for more than a hundred years. The Black Star Company is just a small player in it, not to mention you and me. Do you really want to know?" Chen Guchuan's face clearly showed a conspiracy, as if he had dug a trap for Zheng Yubai to fall into. Zheng Yubai saw it, and even though he was very curious, he didn't want to listen to him anymore.
"I don't want to know. You can go now." Zheng Yubai waved goodbye.
Chen Guchuan walked out with a confident look on his face, saying, "You will enter this circle sooner or later. To tell you the truth, no matter where you are in the world, as long as you enter the underworld, you will be a pawn in their hands. Unless you die, you will never be able to get rid of it."
Zheng Yubai didn't want to listen to his nonsense anymore, so he waited for him to walk out of the door slowly and closed it. He didn't know what Chen Guchuan was talking about outside the door, but he finally stopped talking after a long while.
"What kind of places are the Skull and Bones Society and the Yandao Hall?" Although Chen Guchuan was sent away, his words remained in Zheng Yubai's heart, and he was full of curiosity about these two unfamiliar names. Is there any connection between the Black Star Company and them
He returned to the city with doubts and was about to go home to rest when Cao Ji called him and asked him to have dinner with him.
When Zheng Yubai arrived at the Four Seasons Restaurant, a distinctive Cantonese-style tea restaurant in Jinghai, Caoji, Heipi, Shanmao and Donggua were already waiting. As soon as he saw Zheng Yubai, Heipi said loudly: "Brother Yubai, I knew you would be successful one day. This time you have become rich. Don't forget us brothers in the future."
Caoji slapped Heipi on the head and said, "You useless guy, even if you want to hug a thick leg, you should build some relationship first. You are not as straightforward as you are. No wonder you can't make it big. I don't know what sin I committed in my previous life to have a fool like you as a friend."
Heipi rubbed his head and muttered, "Yubai is our brother, why should we be polite?"
"That's right." Zheng Yubai laughed and sat down. "We are brothers in this life. You all took such good care of me in the past. If you need me in the future, just ask."
Cao Ji remained calm, but Hei Pi and the others were overjoyed and kept praising Zheng Yubai for his great future, which made Zheng Yubai feel a little embarrassed.
The few of them were already very familiar with each other, so there was no need to be polite at this time. They soon started eating, drinking and chatting. Zheng Yubai ate a few chopsticks, and Chen Guchuan's words involuntarily emerged in his mind. He finally asked Caoji in a low voice: "Brother Caoji, do you know the Skull and Bones Society and Yandaotang?"
The chicken that was chewing a piece of beef tendon suddenly stopped. He looked at Zheng Yubai, then looked around, spit out the beef tendon in his mouth, and whispered, "Why are you asking this?"
From the expression on his face, Zheng Yubai knew that the words Skull and Bones Society and Yandaotang were very sensitive. Caoji usually looked fearless, but now he was clearly cautious for fear of being heard.
"Let's talk about this later. It's not convenient here." Cao Ji looked around again, swallowed two mouthfuls of rice hurriedly, winked at Zheng Yubai, and the two of them went to a private room in the Four Seasons Hotel together.
After warning the waiter not to disturb him and closing the door of the private room tightly, Cao Ji finally let out a sigh of relief and asked, "Who told you about the Skull and Bones Society and Yan Dao Tang?"
Zheng Yubai told Caoji about Chen Guchuan's situation. Caoji hesitated for a moment and said, "This guy wants to drag you down. He offended the Skull and Bones Society this time. Although he faked his death to deceive the media, he will be dead if he shows his face outside."
"What kind of organization is the Skull and Bones Society?" Zheng Yubai asked.
"This is a long story. Do you know what kind of university alliance there is in the United States?"
"I know, it's called the Ivy League, right?" Zheng Yubai seemed to have read it in a book.
"The Skull and Bones Society is an alumni association of the Ivy League. This organization is extremely powerful. It can be said that they control power in the United States and most European countries, and they also control half of the world's underground forces." Cao Ji was a little frightened when he said these words.
Although Zheng Yubai is no longer the bumpkin who just came to Jinghai from the countryside and would be stunned for a long time when seeing skyscrapers, he has seen a lot of the world, but he still finds it hard to accept what Caoji said. How is it possible that a class reunion controls such a huge force
"I know you find it hard to accept. I didn't believe it at first either. But the Skull and Bones Society is our biggest enemy. We have no choice but to believe it." Cao Ji said, "The story of the Skull and Bones Society and the Yan Dao Tang fighting for more than a hundred years is almost equivalent to the changes in world history in the past hundred years."
Zheng Yubai was attracted by Caoji's words and became more and more interested in these things. As the saying goes, curiosity kills the cat, and curiosity can also kill people. Caoji saw Zheng Yubai's expression and sighed, "Since you insist on knowing, I'll tell you about it. Anyway, you will come into contact with these sooner or later."
If the earth is divided into the North and South Poles from a geographical point of view, then from a certain perspective, the Skull and Bones Society and the Yan Dao Tang can also be called the two poles. Since more than a hundred years ago, they have been entangled in every corner of the world, and their struggles have created the modern history of mankind. But even though they have unimaginable power, they are like icebergs in the North and South Poles, always only a little bit above the water, and the real secrets are all hidden under the ice sea, unknown to outsiders.
The Skull and Bones Society was founded in 1891. It was originally just a Yale University alumni association. But when a U.S. president, a Supreme Court justice, countless congressmen and cabinet officials emerged from the alumni association, it was far more than a simple alumni association. As the Skull and Bones Society developed, it gradually absorbed people from noble and elite families across the United States and even Europe. These people linked their interests together and formed an unbreakable power organization that was above a single country.
In the United States alone, members of the Skull and Bones Society are almost everywhere, from the White House, Congress, cabinet departments, the Supreme Court to the CIA. Among them are members of super families that control the politics and economy of the United States, including the Bush family, the Ponty family, the Harriman family, the Lord family, the Phelps family, the Rockefeller family, the Taft family, the Goodyear family, the Payne family and the Whitney family.
These are just the information of Skull and Bones members in the United States. If one wants to compile information of Skull and Bones members in other countries and regions around the world, it would probably be a long list, and every name on the list would be well-known.
As for the Yan Dao Tang, it is an organization comparable to the Skull and Bones Society. The Yan Dao Tang was founded in 1840 after the Opium War. Several Han Chinese who fled to Southeast Asia to make a living founded the Yan Dao Tang in the Philippines. Its purpose is to spread Chinese Taoism to all parts of the world.
With the changes of history, Yan Dao Tang has grown from a small organization to an organization with great power in Asia, covering the political and economic power of countless countries, and it can compete with the Skull and Bones Society. They started a head-on collision with the Skull and Bones Society in the early 20th century, and then fought again and again in military and economic aspects in order to compete for control of the entire world. It is said that behind the First World War and the Second World War, there were members of the Skull and Bones Society and Yan Dao Tang who stirred up trouble and called the shots.
Zheng Yubai listened to Caoji's history, which sounded like a fantasy novel. He clearly felt that these things could not be true, but they existed behind history. It was like the existence of superpowers, which seemed mysterious, but were indeed real.
"Now you understand, don't you?" Caoji was quite proud of Zheng Yubai's stunned look. Thinking back to when he first learned about the Skull and Bones Society and Yandaotang, he was in the same mood as Zheng Yubai.
Zheng Yubai scratched his head: "I need to digest it. But, which faction does our Black Star Company belong to?"
"Don't you know that the owner of the safe apartment is Yan Dao Tang?" Cao Ji laughed, "But we never let anyone know. After all, we are doing business and we have to make money. Even if our client has offended a subordinate organization of Yan Dao Tang, it won't be too late to reasonably squeeze all his money and then solve the problem."
Zheng Yubai had nothing to say about the business philosophy of Yandaotang. It seemed that the intricate power relations among them were more dazzling than the crisscrossing meridians in the human body. He just wanted to live a quiet and low-key life, and it was better not to get involved in this mess.
"Hong Kong's entertainment industry has long been divided up between the Skull and Bones Society and the Yan Dao Tang. That Chen Guchuan was originally a member of the Skull and Bones Society, but unfortunately he was abandoned because of the uneven distribution of spoils among the upper echelons. He came to you to say those things, probably because he knew that he was just a tool used by the Yan Dao Tang to deal with the Skull and Bones Society, and he wanted to find you as a backer." Cao Ji asked Zheng Yubai's analysis again.
Zheng Yubai said: "I won't let him take advantage of me."
"It doesn't matter if I use you. If I can gain some benefits, sometimes I can even kill someone with a borrowed knife." Cao Ji showed a shrewd look at this moment. "You should know that Yandaotang and the Skull and Bones Society are sworn enemies. As long as it is disadvantageous to the other party, we are always willing to do it. There is another thing you don't know, right? Gao Fei and Yao Qian are inclined to the Skull and Bones Society in a sense. Now you know why the boss thinks so highly of you."
Zheng Yubai finally understood that everything was controlled by others, and he was the only one who was kept in the dark. He thought the relationship was very complicated, but in fact, it was nothing more than a struggle between two major forces. He was a chess piece in the struggle, and he actually made contributions to Yandaotang, which gave him his current status. But the higher the status, the deeper he fell. He was afraid that he would have more contact with the skeleton in the future. Zheng Yubai didn't want to get involved too much.
"Once you are in the arena, you have no choice." As if seeing through Zheng Yubai's thoughts, Cao Ji sighed and patted his shoulder. "I want to get married, but I can't leave this circle. Black Star Company is my home and my career. Even if I want to retire, will those enemies of the Skull and Bones Society let me go?"
Zheng Yubai scratched his head, thinking about the situation when he took down the recruitment notice in the alley. If he had known that the underworld was so treacherous, he would not have gone to work as an administrator in a safe apartment even if he had to look for a job for a few more months.
Fortunately, he has a relatively optimistic personality. As long as he is determined not to do bad things and not to harm others, he can stay clean even in this circle. Zheng Yubai felt better after comforting himself in this way. Sometimes, the slow-witted people are the ones who can adapt to the environment the best.
"I know you are actually an honest man, but the world is not for honest people. You should always think about yourself at the right time. When you have strong strength, even the boss will have to look up to you and will not dare to treat you as trash like Chen Guchuan and throw you away at will." Cao Ji said meaningfully.
Zheng Yubai knew that his words were the tearful summary of a veteran who had been in the underworld for many years. In fact, the underworld is no different from other places in this world. If you don't have the ability, you will naturally not be taken seriously. Once something happens, who else can you find but the incompetent? Once you have the ability, power, fame, status and money will come to you like flies. This is the truth behind the real world. Although it seems painful, you have to accept it.
"Those who succeed become kings and those who fail become bandits. Think more about yourself. To outsiders, the Black Star Company is already a vast ocean, but if you look beyond this circle, it is actually just a well. If we are talking about the ocean, the Skull Society and the Yan Dao Tang are it." Cao Ji said again.
"Brother Caoji, I noticed that you were particularly emotional today, and what you said was very philosophical." Zheng Yubai said with a smile.
Caoji sighed, "Aren't you planning to get married recently? Maybe you've thought too much. But Yubai, when I was young, I had a lot of ideals. I wanted to be the number one gangster boss in Asia. But it's a pity that after so many years, there has been no progress. You are much more capable than me. If you don't mind this line of work, you can actually consider it."
Zheng Yubai knew that Caoji was doing this for his own good, so he nodded and said, "I'll consider it."
"Once you decide to do this business, you have to be ruthless. Yan Dao Tang also has many legitimate businesses. For example, our company used to do everything, but in recent years we have mainly developed our influence in finance, real estate, engineering, transportation, and warehousing. We rarely touch pornography, gambling, and drugs, so you don't have to have too many moral concerns. In fact, people live to make a career, and I am very optimistic about you."
Zheng Yubai scratched his head: "Actually, I never thought about getting involved in gangs."
"The so-called underworld is just a name. If you really enter the upper echelons of the Skull and Bones Society or the Yan Dao Tang, can it still be called the underworld?" Cao Ji said, "The current president of the United States is a member of the Skull and Bones Society, and the Sanjiang Society is also a peripheral gang of the Skull and Bones Society. How can you compare the two? Being a petty thief is a lifelong failure, but once you become a big thief, you will be reborn."
This statement is in line with the principle of "those who steal a country will be lords, and those who steal a hook will be executed." If it weren't for Cao Ji saying it, Zheng Yubai really wouldn't have thought about it. He hesitated for a moment and said, "I know, but it's better to think about this matter in the long run."
"I won't force you, but if you really want to do a good job in the future, don't forget that you have a brother like me." Cao Ji put his arm around Zheng Yubai's shoulders and laughed.
The two came out of the private room, and were questioned by Heipi and the others, who insisted that they admit that they had a Brokeback Mountain complex. Caoji laughed and scolded them, ate a few more mouthfuls of rice, and this small gathering ended.
After returning home, Zheng Yubai saw Xu Jin, Yu Luo, Du Bisheng and Xu Ruoyu having dinner together because he was too busy in the past few days and had no time to accompany Xu Jin.
"Yubai is back." As soon as Xu Jin saw Zheng Yubai coming back, he greeted him with a smile on his face and took his coat and hung it on the hanger. This action was just like a loving young couple after marriage.
"Have you eaten?" Xu Jin asked gently. Sometimes, her behavior made Zheng Yubai completely unable to connect her with the sexy woman with tattoos on her arms when they first met, and the nimble female thief on the gambling boat.
"I've eaten, but I can eat some more with you guys." Zheng Yubai smiled, "I could smell the aroma of the soup you cooked from outside."
"Then I'll serve you a bowl." Yu Luo laughed and ran to the kitchen to get a big bowl of soup for Zheng Yubai.
"Boy, what have you been busy with recently?" Du Bisheng asked with dissatisfaction as Zheng Yubai just sat down.
"I got a new job and have a lot of things to do." Zheng Yubai took a sip of the soup. Xu Jin's cooking skills were getting better and better. The soup tasted very rich and fragrant, which reminded Zheng Yubai of the soup his mother made for him after he was beaten by his father when he was a child.
"Then you have to go home for dinner." Xu Jin said, his hands were not idle at all, he picked up a full bowl of food for Zheng Yubai.
Xu Ruoyu said, "It's time for Yu Bai to do something about his career. A man should have some ideals and a career. Don't hold him back."
Xu Jin curled his lips and said, "I want to build a career too."
"What's your career?" Zheng Yubai was stunned.
"My sister and I are going to open a computer service company." Yu Luo chuckled, revealing his white teeth, "I will be the CEO and my sister will be the general manager."
Zheng Yubai didn't know which one was more senior, the CEO or the general manager, but he found it very interesting that they were going to start a computer company, and he immediately expressed his full support. This made the two old men who wanted the girls to stay at home and cook for them very depressed, and in the end they had no choice but to say that they would find a suitable position in the computer company.
After dinner, Zheng Yubai felt a little tired. Things had been happening one after another these days, and even though he was strong, he was a little overwhelmed.
After returning to his room and lying on the bed, Zheng Yubai couldn't fall asleep. Cao Ji's words kept ringing in his ears.
Where should we go in the future
Just as I was thinking, the door was gently pushed open, and Xu Jin's figure flashed in flexibly, and then closed the door. (To be continued)