Chapter 45 Zhao Zhengrong
"Your casual standing posture showed a standing position. When you looked at the words, your arms were hanging naturally, your shoulders were level without any normal people's habitual hunching or tilting, your chin was retracted, making your face flat from top to bottom, and especially your waist was always straight. All these natural behavioral characteristics showed that you were a soldier."
"Also, your face is thin and dark, your eyes are bright and resolute, and yet you look out of place in a suit. In particular, the base of your thumb and the tip of your right index finger are covered with calluses, which are caused by holding a gun for a long time. Finally, where your left hand is now, if I'm not mistaken, there should be a saber there."
The middle-aged man described all of Zhao Ziyang's behavioral characteristics with a smile on his face.
"You have a scar on your cheek. It's triangular and dark purple. It must be an old wound from many years ago." Zhao Ziyang continued calmly, "That's the wound left by the three-edged thorn. Your eyes are full of the murderous aura that only comes from battlefields, and the bloodthirstiness that comes from crawling out of a sea of blood and corpses. If I'm not mistaken, you're also a soldier who has experienced a brutal battle. According to your age, that battle must have been a self-defense counterattack."
The middle-aged man stared at Zhao Ziyang for a long time, then raised his head and burst into laughter, stretching out his thick big hands towards him.
"Zhao Zhengrong!"
"Zhao Ziyang!"
The two hands were clasped together tightly.
"Long March!" Zhao Zhengrong shouted at his son at the top of his voice, "Tell the back hall to prepare some authentic and delicious dishes for me. I've met a relative!"
"Okay!" Zhao Changzheng turned around and smiled at Zhao Ziyang, then ran into the back hall.
"No need to say anything more. Brother will treat you this time." Zhao Zhengrong patted his chest and said to Zhao Ziyang, "You are the first brother I met in this damn place. We both have the last name Zhao, which makes us even closer. Hahaha..."
Zhao Zhengrong's military heroism is clearly revealed, and it can be seen that he was once a fierce general on the battlefield.
"Okay!" Zhao Ziyang smiled and shook Zhao Zhengrong's hand firmly without any pretense.
Just at this moment, a few British guys with red, green and yellow hair came into the restaurant, walked to a table and sat down.
"Brother, sit down first. I'll go greet the guests." Zhao Zhengrong threw down half a box of Hongtashan cigarettes and said to Zhao Ziyang. Then he smiled at Angel and Linghu and walked over to greet the British guys who had just come in.
Hongtashan, this cigarette is not available in the UK.
Zhao Ziyang lit up a cigarette and started smoking, savoring the taste of his motherland.
"Special Forces, do you have friends here too?" Linghu asked Zhao Ziyang curiously, grabbed the cigarette box, took out a cigarette, lit it, and started smoking in an orderly manner.
With a swish, Zhao Ziyang took the cigarette out of Linghu's mouth.
"It's not good for women to smoke."
Who knew that as soon as these words came out, Angel also took out a cigarette and started smoking. Her posture was much more experienced than Linghu's. It was obvious at first glance that she was a woman who really smoked.
"Who says it's bad for women to smoke?" Angel held the cigarette elegantly with her right hand and took a puff. She exhaled a puff of smoke and said to Zhao Ziyang, "I like cigarettes."
Zhao Ziyang didn't have any idea what to do with Angel, so he just let her beat him.
But after a while, he saw Angel's face was as cold as ice. She pressed the cigarette butt into the ashtray and stared at him with her jewel-like blue eyes.
Zhao Ziyang felt confused and he didn't know how he had offended Angel.
There was a commotion and the few British guys who had just come in started shouting loudly, and one of them even threw a teacup to the ground.
There is no need for excessive speculation. These young men with colorful hair are here to cause trouble and collect protection money. This kind of thing is not uncommon abroad and is also common in China.
Every region has its dark side, and you cannot eliminate the existence of mafia organizations in a region. Protection money is equivalent to another form of taxation, except that it is paid to private individuals.
The dark side has its own order, like a cancer that cannot be removed. It can only be controlled and maintained, and its power is kept in a controlled equilibrium state while being attacked. If such a dark side is completely wiped out, the people will really fall into dire straits.
Remember one thing: the darkest thing is never the underworld organizations, but the huge national law enforcement system.
Zhao Zhengrong smiled at the British guys and kept saying nice things to them, but a few young guys ignored him and one of them even showed Zhao Zhengrong a fruit knife, looking fierce.
Zhao Ziyang found it funny. In Zhao Zhengrong's eyes, this fruit knife was just like a child's toy and did not pose any threat.
But what surprised him was that Zhao Zhengrong actually smiled and obediently took out a few banknotes and handed them respectfully to the young men.
Amidst the curses, the young men turned around and walked out, grabbed a bottle of red wine from the bar and left.
After solving the problem of collecting protection money, Zhao Zhengrong walked towards Zhao Ziyang and the others as if nothing had happened, sat on a stool, lit a cigarette and smiled.
"It's okay, this kind of thing is normal here." Zhao Zhengrong looked nonchalant.
Of course he could tell what Zhao Ziyang was thinking from his eyes, but he had no choice. In the legal society of Britain, many things are different from those in China.
"It's OK for the hooligans to collect protection money , but if a fight breaks out in the restaurant, it will be hard to deal with." Zhao Zhengrong exhaled a puff of smoke and continued, "If a fight breaks out in your restaurant, the police will immediately intervene and assist the relevant departments in ordering the restaurant to close. The reason is that if a fight occurs in your restaurant, it means that your restaurant will make guests feel unsafe."
"Are you willing to do this?" Zhao Ziyang asked.
"It's just a small amount of money." Zhao Zhengrong said to Zhao Ziyang calmly, "The wool comes from the sheep. What I sell to the foreign devils is fake Chinese food, and the price is not cheap."
"Hahahaha..." Zhao Ziyang laughed when he heard this. He thought Zhao Zhengrong was really interesting.
"I'm not a foreigner, I'm Swedish." Linghu blinked and explained to Zhao Zhengrong, and said carefully: "You have to give us real Chinese food, because I'm not a foreigner."
This sentence amused Zhao Zhengrong. He kicked Zhao Ziyang with his foot under the table, his eyes glowed with ambiguity, and he gave him a thumbs up through the cover of his body: "Win glory for the country!"
Mapo tofu, bacon and bamboo shoots, pickled pepper chicken feet, bang bang chicken, and sauerkraut fish.
Several authentic Sichuan dishes were placed in front of Zhao Ziyang and the other two. The aroma was so fragrant that it made their mouths water.
"Is this delicious?" Linghu grabbed the chopsticks with both hands, held back his saliva and turned to Zhao Ziyang and asked: "How do you use these two wooden sticks? Are they inserted? Aren't they inserted into the spoon?"
"When eating Chinese food, you have to use these two wooden sticks to pick it up. Only in this way can you taste the flavor of Chinese food." Angel skillfully stretched out her chopsticks to pick up a piece of tofu house and chewed it slowly. She smiled at Linghu and said, "It tastes really good."
The fox knew it tasted good just by smelling it, so he reached out his chopsticks and poked the tofu. Unfortunately, the tofu was so soft that he couldn't lift it up no matter how hard he tried. The chopsticks became nothing more than two wooden sticks in the fox's hand.
It seemed like other dishes couldn't be picked up with chopsticks, but she just couldn't.
"I, I..." Linghu looked pitifully at Zhao Ziyang and Angel who were eating with relish, his eyes fixed on the pickled chicken feet.
You don’t need to pick this up, just eat it with your hands!
Linghu threw away her chopsticks, stretched out her hand to pick up a chicken claw and put it in her mouth to chew. As she chewed, her face turned red, and her rosy little mouth hissed as she breathed in cold air, and one hand kept fanning it.
"Is it very spicy? How about I buy you a hamburger?" Angel smiled again and asked Linghu deliberately while picking up the delicious dish.
The atmosphere was a little off. The serious Angel smiled twice, looking murderous.
"Delicious!" Linghu's eyes sparkled as she held a plate of pickled chicken feet in front of her. She inhaled the spicy taste and ate them madly as if she was afraid that someone would snatch them from her. From time to time, she stretched out her pink and tender tongue to lick her lips, sucking the taste lingering on her lips.
As she ate, Linghu was no longer satisfied with the chicken feet. She reached out her hand to grab the chicken bang without any image, and her eyes lit up again.
"Oh, it's so spicy, hiss... Special forces, your Chinese food is delicious, but why is it all bones and no meat?" Linghu asked Zhao Ziyang while licking his fingers with his hands full of soup.
"Chinese food is all about color, flavor and aroma. If you just want to fill your stomach, you might as well eat a hamburger." Zhao Ziyang explained to Angel, pointing to a pile of chicken bones in front of her and said to her: "Look, this is called pickled pepper chicken feet. Isn't it delicious? But there's not much meat on it."
"Yes! Yes!" Linghu nodded heavily, turned around and shouted, "I want some more chicken feet, hurry up! It's better to bring the phoenix legs and wings, they are so delicious!"
This kind of chicken claws spirit fox has never seen before. The chickens they eat there are not this kind of chickens. Most of them eat turkeys, the kind that can grow to dozens of kilograms. Zhao Ziyang said it was a phoenix claw, and she really thought it was a phoenix claw. Doesn't China have dragons and phoenixes?
After the meal, Zhao Ziyang didn't eat much, while Angel and Linghu finished all the dishes on the table, holding their stomachs and groaning.
According to Angel, such an authentic Chinese meal is not available in their home. If they want to eat it, they need to make an appointment with a Chinese chef. However, even if they find a Chinese chef to cook, it will not taste as good as this one, and the price is expensive, which is not affordable for ordinary families.
After dinner, Zhao Ziyang asked Zhao Zhengrong about the nearby hotels, and went to a hotel with Angel and Linghu to book three rooms, planning to stay there for one night before returning to Africa.
The hotel environment is very good, not far from Zhao Zhengrong's restaurant, Zhao Ziyang, who has nothing to do, simply strolls around and stays in Zhao Zhengrong's restaurant to chat. He hasn't spoken Mandarin for too long, and he feels uncomfortable.
There were basically no customers in the hotel in the afternoon. Zhao Zhengrong, who had been chatting with Zhao Ziyang for half a day, went out for something, so Zhao Ziyang pulled his son Zhao Changzheng to continue chatting.
As we were chatting, something unexpected happened. The door of the restaurant was pushed open and a few Chinese people with cigarette smoke sticking out of their mouths walked in.
"Hey, the young master is here, haha..." The leader was wearing a tight black T-shirt, revealing his strong muscles, and there was a dragon tattooed on his arm.
"Damn it!" Zhao Changzheng cursed fiercely, staring at the guy.
"It's okay to scold me, as long as you pay this month's money you can scold me as much as you want." The leading guy looked at Zhao Changzheng and Zhao Ziyang with a smile, sat casually on a chair, and tapped his feet on the table.
Seeing the look on this Chinese man's face, Zhao Ziyang frowned, with a look of disgust in his eyes.
There are local gangs in Chinatowns abroad, but the most powerful ones are the Chinese gangs. The most famous ones are the Big Circle Gang, the Green Gang, etc. Their survival is based on making money from their compatriots in Chinatown, and their methods are even more brutal than those of foreigners.
"No money!" Zhao Changzheng had a fierce look on his face, completely different from his father.
Young people naturally have their own hot temper, and Zhao Changzheng is definitely the passionate type.
With a loud bang, a table was overturned by another Chinese person, and the bowls and chopsticks fell to the ground with a clatter.
Then, a baseball bat appeared in the hands of the Chinese man behind him. He picked up the baseball bat and smashed the fish tank at the door with it.
With a "crash", the fish tank shattered. The Feng Shui fish that were specially raised in it jumped on the ground due to loss of oxygen. The glass was scattered all over the ground, and a puddle of water flowed on the ground, making the scene extremely messy.
"Fuck your mother!" Zhao Changzheng was furious. He picked up a chair and rushed towards the Chinese man holding a baseball bat.
His hot temper was clearly revealed. This guy absolutely cannot tolerate even a grain of sand in his eyes.
With a loud bang, the Chinese man holding a baseball bat knocked the chair out of Zhao Changzheng's hand and grabbed Zhao Changzheng's neck with his left hand.
This Chinese man was tall and strong, and was simply beyond the ability of the seventeen or eighteen-year-old Zhao Changzheng to handle.
"No money? Fine!" The tattooed Chinese leader showed a helpless smile, and then said cruelly: "If you don't have money, I'll give you a leg!"
Threats are always the favorite tactic used by underworld organizations, as they are well aware of the weaknesses of human nature .
"Damn it, you'd better beat me to death. If you don't beat me to death, I will kill all of you!" Zhao Changzheng, who was strangled by the neck, did not show any fear. He gritted his teeth and shouted loudly.
"Break one of his legs." came the cold voice of the Chinese leader.
The Chinese man who was holding Zhao Changzheng's neck swung the baseball bat with one hand and hit Zhao Changzheng's calf hard. There was a whistling sound of breaking wind, and this hit was bound to break Zhao Changzheng's leg.
With a loud "snap" , the Chinese man's wrist was pinched by a big hand. A clamp-like pain came from his wrist, forcing him to let go and drop the baseball bat.
The others who saw this scene quickly turned their eyes to Zhao Ziyang, looking at his unfamiliar face.
