Chapter 103 Origin
The next morning, Zhang Nianzu set off with Ah San and Ah Si. He did not let Lei Tingting go with them. In his words, this trip was "humiliating and humiliating to the country", so they decided not to go if they could avoid it.
When we arrived at the airport, Mr. Tang was already at the door, which was rare for an old guy who claimed to be the boss of a gang. It showed that he was indeed a big shot. In addition to Mr. Tang and Lao Jiang, there was a large group of older people accompanying them. Most of them were nepotism of Shisanxiang. They came here to support Shisanxiang and to show off in front of their "superiors". There were also a few who were obviously wealthy and wanted to bet on this match. They came to see the boxers of both sides under the pretext of picking someone up, just like looking at horses before a race.
Seeing that everyone had arrived, Mr. Tang took the lead and walked towards the international flight landing gate.
Zhang Nianzu grabbed Lao Jiang and asked, "Are you going to pick up foreigners?"
The veteran nodded.
"Which country are you from?"
Lao Jiang said: "Japanese."
"Devils?"
"Keep your voice down!" Chiang Kai-shek rolled his eyes.
Zhang Nianzu was amused and puzzled: "Aren't you from Shisanxiang local? How come you have a Japanese superior?"
"That's a long story." Chiang Kai-shek had nothing else to do, so he asked Zhang Nianzu, "Do you know who the founder of our Thirteen Spices is?"
Zhang Nianzu shook his head and said, "If I guess it was thirteen people selling spices, wouldn't you be angry with me?" There are many rumors about the founder of Thirteen Spices. The darkest one is that it was founded by thirteen women working in a special industry, but it is not credible. People's favorite one is of course related to spices. The more "official" one is that it was founded by thirteen big names from all walks of life during the Republic of China. There are not many educated people in this industry. Unlike big families who have people writing family histories, the origin of Thirteen Spices can only be passed down by word of mouth, and it has become a mess now.
Lao Jiang said: "I don't know who the founder is, but the only thing I can be sure of is that there was indeed more than one founder. In those days, there was chaos and war, and there were many societies. Thirteen Spices was the most powerful one. Although the government couldn't control it, the local warlords couldn't let you dominate alone, so they launched a crackdown on Thirteen Spices. During that crackdown, the big boss fled to Japan, where he was warmly received by the Japanese society and later became their official member. From then on, he began to remotely control the operation of Thirteen Spices."
Zhang Nianzu said: "Then the Anti-Japanese War began. Your leader didn't do anything against the will of heaven, right?"
"No, in the face of war, these small societies are just like ordinary people. The big boss lost contact for a long time during the Anti-Japanese War. At the end of the war, he only asked someone to pass on a message saying that he would pass the position of gang leader to his son."
"This old guy is really cunning. He has been away for so long, but he still wants to be the leader of the gang?"
Lao Jiang said: "But the other leaders of the gang still recognized them at that time. The big boss relied on his resources in Japan and funded them a lot."
Zhang Nianzu asked, "What happened next? How did this son become?"
Lao Jiang said: "The son of the big boss was born in Japan when he was young and joined a Japanese society. He didn't seem to have any ambitions and never returned to China. After the big boss died, he became the nominal leader of the Thirteen Spices. During festivals, he would just send a telegram or make a phone call to China. Anyway, he was just polite to the Japanese. He never intervened in the affairs of the gang because he was popular. We did our work here and he didn't interfere over there. Both sides lived in peace, which was good."
Zhang Nianzu asked, "Isn't your current leader Mr. Tang?"
Lao Jiang said, "Strictly speaking, he is the deputy gang leader. We have never seen the real one in our lifetime, right? So we just unanimously call him the gang leader."
Zhang Nianzu suddenly realized, "So the Japanese guy is still the gang leader in front of you. This is how your superior-subordinate relationship comes about. Is that the guy who arrived today?"
Lao Jiang said, "No, the son of the big boss died five years ago. He has no descendants in this life. He only recognized a Japanese godson named Ono Taro in the local community. This godson claimed that his father passed the position of gang leader to him before his death. It is Ono Taro who came this time."
Zhang Nianzu said: "The big boss and his son are both Chinese after all, so it's fine for them to bear the name, but Ono Taro is Japanese, why don't you investigate the credibility of his words?"
Lao Jiang asked, "Who will go? How will we investigate?" He lowered his voice and said, "The main reason is that Master Tang doesn't want to go through all this trouble. Think about it, Ono Taro is far away in Japan. After he becomes the leader, he will just be a figurehead like his godfather. Master Tang still has the final say here. If it is found out that this is not the case, will Shisanxiang have to elect a new leader? It's hard to say whether something unexpected will happen by then."
Zhang Nianzu asked, "What's the matter with the competition?"
Lao Jiang said, "This happened once last year. It was proposed by Ono Taro. In addition to being the leader of the Thirteen Spices, he is also a senior executive of a famous Japanese society. So the slogan he proposed was to promote Sino-Japanese friendship, and it seems that he wants to make this a model. Mr. Tang initially thought that he was looking for an excuse to come to China to collect some money. Last year, he instigated our boxer to lose to him on purpose. I thought he would score some points from us, but this guy took the money and left. Isn't this year Mr. Tang also thinking about himself?"
Zhang Nianzu frowned and said, "You are trying to please the devils everywhere. This is a bit like what traitors do!"
Lao Jiang said in a panic: "Keep your voice down."
Zhang Nianzu said impatiently: "We will just meet him for a while, we won't accompany him for meals or anything like that. If I had known it would be so chaotic, I shouldn't have taken the money."
Lao Jiang didn't say anything, but just patted him apologetically.
A group of people waited at the exit for a long time, and people started leaving after the plane landed.
Master Tang stared at the exit intently, and suddenly whispered, "Here we go, everyone, be alert."
As he spoke, a large group of people came out, led by a short and fat Japanese man in his fifties. He wore small round glasses and looked very smiling, but a hint of cunning and slyness could be seen .
Master Tang walked quickly up to him, bowed and said with a smile, "Mr. Ono, thank you for your hard work." In public, they did not call each other leader or deputy leader or anything like that.
Taro Ono said politely: "Thank you for your hard work!" He could actually speak fluent Chinese.
Mr. Tang's followers came forward to greet him, but Ono Taro was much more indifferent.
Behind Ono Taro, a tall young man was chewing gum nonchalantly, ignoring the flattery of the crowd. His face and fists were covered with mottled scars, and his expression was fierce, and it was obvious that he was not a good person.
After the greetings, Master Tang pointed at Li Asi who was standing behind Zhang Nianzu and said to Ono Taro, "Mr. Ono, let me introduce him to you. He is the boxer you will be competing against this time."
Ono Taro glanced at Li Asi and suddenly laughed heartily , "It looks like Jing Tang Jun is going to lose money again this time, hahahaha."
