Volume 2: The crown and the hat are all over the capital, and the spirit is full of energy and enter the foggy city Chapter 141: Non-stop work
Subtitle of this chapter: Don’t be afraid of getting your hands dirty when you’re a master!
"BOSS, BOSS, BOSS..."
"STOP! STOP! STOP! Aisi, when did you become a parrot ? And it's a broken one."
"Boss, what is a repeater? Forget it, I don't understand a lot of what you said."
Miss Moman said excitedly, "Oh, Boss. That was Mr. Einstein just now! The greatest scientist in human history! I was so excited, but I had to keep ... So when I was talking to him, I felt, felt, felt..."
Yuan Yan suddenly chuckled and said, "VERY SHUANG... um, VERY CRISPY, right?"
His female secretary nodded heavily, opened her eyes wide and said, "Yes, Boss. It is VERY CRISPY. How did you know?"
"Nonsense, how could I not know?" Our Master Yuan rolled his eyes and said, "Ms. Moman, you're welcome. There will be times when you can be CRISPY, but now is your working time."
"Here, here is the telegram and the money. Let Xiaokang drive you to the telegraph office."
"Okay, Boss... So much money just for sending a telegram?"
"Of course, it's a very long telegram."
The recipient of this "very long" telegram from Yuan Yanshu was his fiancée, Miss Wei Mingzhu, from whom he had been separated for several months.
Speaking of this engaged couple, the man in America was like this: The master often goes crazy, holding his wife on the left and holding his wife on the right. He wore a brocade crown and a mink coat, and picked up a rich woman by chance. Oh my, oh my... Anyway, his life was very comfortable.
But the woman in Java was like this: thousands of miles away, I miss you so much that I can't forget you. She was full of grievances and had no place to express her sadness.
Semarang, Java Island.
In the suburbs of this famous Southeast Asian city, there is a residential area called Gangti (also known as Tjandi). This is where the wealthy Chinese merchants in Central Java live. The Wei Mansion is also here.
"Master, Mingzhu is here again. She said she has something urgent to see you about..." A middle-aged woman in her forties cautiously said to the sixty-year-old man who was half-leaning on the couch with his eyes closed. This woman looked about seven or eight points like Wei Mingzhu.
Although the old man looked sick, he looked very energetic. He must have been a handsome man when he was young. He opened his eyes and interrupted angrily: "This good daughter you gave birth to! Let her go back. I won't see her!"
Hearing this, these two are Master Yuan's Taishan and Taishui. Mr. Wei has had several wives, so he is 20 years older than Wei Mingzhu's mother.
"Master, you haven't seen her these days, so let Mingzhu come in and say hello to you."
"Greetings? She didn't even want my master for a man, and... do you know what people say about her outside? She's such a disgrace to our Wei family. Part of my illness is caused by you, my good daughter!"
Yuan Yanshu, the old Taishan, was a little different from the wealthy people in Southeast Asia. He was a devout believer in foreign religions, so he did not keep concubines, and therefore he had not forgiven his beloved youngest daughter for her apostasy.
Miss Wei, the pearl of the South Seas, originally had a large number of local suitors, but in the end she ended up in the hands of an outsider, and the scene was still so "dramatic". Naturally, some people would say something strange.
Madam Wei had no choice but to speak gently: "Master, it was you who agreed to let Mingzhu choose her own husband. You also know that she has always been very ambitious since she was a child. It's rare that she found someone she likes..."
"She only likes the revolutionaries!" Old Master Wei said angrily, "That's why I let Mingniang take her to Europe. I thought Mingniang was sensible, but... every one of them makes me worry. It really makes me angry!"
As the saying goes, the more a mother-in-law sees her son-in-law, the happier she becomes. Mrs. Wei still defended Master Yuan, saying, "Master, your son-in-law is a PhD from America. He has a clean background and no family burdens. He comes from a well-off family, after all..."
Well, the Yuan family, the richest man in a county-level city in mainland China, is just a "well-off family" in the eyes of the wealthy families in Southeast Asia.
"Young lady, young lady, please stay, please stay... The master has ordered that you cannot go in!"
At this moment, there was a commotion outside. Wei Mingzhu walked into the bedroom with her head held high, ignoring the servants' attempts to stop her.
When Mr. Wei saw her, he was so angry: "Get out... cough cough cough..."
"Master!" Madam Wei hurried forward and finally made him stop coughing. She turned around and said to her beloved daughter, "Mingzhu, why don't you go out first..."
Wei Mingzhu pursed her red lips and said angrily, "Mom, I'll leave right away, but before I leave I want to let Dad see this telegram."
Her mother asked knowingly, "Mingzhu, who sent this telegram?"
"Yes..." Miss Wei blushed and said, "It was sent by your son-in-law..."
But her father still said stubbornly: "Pooh, pooh, pooh, I don't have such a son-in-law... cough cough cough..."
Mrs. Wei patted his back and consoled him, "Master, since it's your son-in-law... well, what's the harm in taking a look at the telegram sent by Mr. Yuan?"
As she said this, she waved to her daughter, took the telegram, and held it in front of Mr. Wei.
"Take it away from me, I don't want to see it... Hmm?" Mr. Wei was about to wave his hand, but he happened to see a few English words on the telegram, and he read them out unconsciously: "United Fruit Company..."
"United Fruit Company?!"
This ordinary and unpretentious company name made Master Yuan's old Taishan shudder.
There is no way to avoid it. The deeds of this company are too domineering. Just for the sake of trading bananas, it has turned Central America into a "Banana Republic".
By the way, the Banana Republic was named by the famous novelist O. Henry. The Banana Republic in his novel Cabbages and Kings refers to Honduras, which was controlled by the United Fruit Company of the United States.
The famous poet Neruda, who later won the Nobel Prize in Literature, once wrote a satirical poem "United Fruit Company". In the poem, he described: The United Fruit Company and Western capitalists fattened themselves up through crazy plunder, while the poor Central American people, under this cruel oppression and exploitation, were thrown into the garbage dump and left to rot like fruits that had been squeezed dry of juice!
For the people of Central and South America, the United Fruit Company, founded in Boston in 1899, is simply the devil incarnate of American imperialism.
As for the wealthy Chinese in Nanyang, they naturally yearned for such a truly large trust and wished they could become the "Nanyang United Fruit Company".
So how did Master Yuan "hook up" with this big trust?
Minor C. Keith, one of the founders of the United Fruit Company, was the nephew of Henry Meiggs, the American railroad magnate. He also married the daughter of the President of Costa Rica. It was the railway between San José, the capital of Costa Rica, and Limón, built by Meiggs in 1871, that enabled Central American countries to export bananas to the United States. Without his railway, there would be no United Fruit Company.
The Meggs family was part of the Boston consortium, so Master Yuan, who had become a "good friend" of old Kennedy, established this relationship.
“Give it to me now!”
He snatched the telegram from his outstretched hand and began to read. Although it was "very long" for a telegram, in fact, there were only a few dozen English words on the telegram, but he read it over and over again as if he were reading some great article.
Finally, Mr. Wei cleared his throat, raised his head and asked his daughter solemnly, "I want to ask you, is what 'that kid' said in the telegram true ?"
"Humph!" Wei Mingzhu snorted and said, "How should I know? Maybe he is lying? But..."
"He has a wide network of contacts in the United States, and his friends are either rich or noble. He even took me to dinner at Mr. George Baker's house... By the way, we were received by Mr. George Baker himself. So maybe what he said is true. Anyway, I'm not sure about your 'good daughter'."
"Mr. George Baker... Are you talking about George Baker from Wall Street?" Mr. Wei was not just an ordinary local rich man. He was certainly familiar with the names of the "Three Big Tycoons of Wall Street". He slapped the edge of the bed and said angrily, "You are such an unfilial daughter. Why didn't you tell me about Mr. Yuan's affairs earlier?!"
Wei Mingzhu pouted and said aggrievedly: "Dad, you didn't ask."
"This..." Old Master Wei was blocked for a moment, and waved his hand and said, "Forget it, let's talk about the matter of 'son-in-law' later."
As he said this, he lifted the quilt and was about to get up. Madam Wei hurried forward to support him and asked, "Master, what are you getting up for?"
"What?" Old Master Wei stood up unsteadily and said, "I'm going to talk to Taiyuan about this matter. Get the car ready for me."!”
"Ding-ling-ling..."
"The car is ready for you, Mr. Yuan."
"Thank you, Frank...by the way, have the car meet me at the back door."
Our Master Yuan rarely changed into a more simple set of clothes and put on a scarf to cover half of his face.
He did not take the elevator, but instead took the stairs around the lobby, quietly went to the back door and got into a carriage that Rosewood had arranged for him.
Half an hour later, Yuan Yan got off the car and sent the coachman away with a tip. He then walked for more than half an hour before arriving at the door of a remote little restaurant.
Finally, he looked around vigilantly to make sure that no one was following him before walking into the restaurant.
Master Yuan had to be so careful and act like a spy on the street because the person he was going to meet was really...
"Are you Mr. Jesse Smith?"
It was not yet dinner time, so the small restaurant was deserted, with only one customer sitting at a table in the corner reading a newspaper. Therefore, Master Yuan was not afraid of mistaking someone.
If you have a good memory, you will know that this person is the male lover and broker of the current Attorney General Harry Doherty. No wonder Yuan Yanshu didn't want others to know that he met Smith.
“Crash.”
Mr. Smith moved the newspaper away. He had a pleasing face, good looks, and well-dressed with a small mustache, and he smiled before he even opened his mouth. I don't know if it was due to psychological reasons, but Yuan Yan always felt that this smile was a bit "greasy".
The Attorney General’s “white glove” stood up and stretched out his hand, saying: “Yes, I am Smith. You are Neo…”
Master Yuan interrupted, "Mr. Smith, my name is not an important matter."
As he said this, he shook hands with Smith perfunctorily, without even taking off his hat and scarf, and sat down and asked directly: "Just tell me, what are your BOSS's conditions?"
Smith wasn't used to this straightforward way of discussing business. He coughed and said, "Well, Yuan... okay. My boss wants $100,000. I'll give you $50,000 upfront, and the other half after the deal is done. He said this..."
"OK." Yuan Yan raised her eyebrows and said lightly.
One hundred thousand US dollars is indeed not a small amount of money, and it’s not that he is too lazy to bargain, but he has his own calculations.
Anyway, the bigger the bribe, the more money he made, because he was not going to pay the balance, but to keep it himself.
Our Master Yuan will leave for Europe after getting his Ph.D., and then go to Southeast Asia to bring his bride back to Seris... Well, now he doesn't know what the Master Ball will allow him to do after he returns, but he has to go back and take a look after all.
In short, it would take at least two or three years to complete this circle, and the Teapot Dove Scandal broke out at the end of 1922. Would Mr. Doherty still have the mind to collect the balance by then?
Besides, even if he couldn't afford the balance, the money was not paid by him.
"Ah! You said OK?" Smith, who thought he would have to bargain for a while, was stunned.
"Yes, one hundred thousand US dollars is fine. But..." Yuan Yan said lightly: "But I have a condition!"
He pulled out an envelope from his inner pocket and said, "Ask your boss to publish a signed commentary in the Washington Post or the New York Times... Well, the Wall Street Journal is also OK. I have already written the article for him. He just needs to sign his name and send it to one of these three newspapers."
"As soon as I see this article in the newspaper, I will know that your boss has agreed to the deal. Then I will hand over the fifty thousand dollars to you as soon as possible."
Smith glanced at the envelope and said hesitantly: "But..."
"No buts, Mr. Smith," Master Yuan said in a very firm tone. "I don't think your boss would mind publishing this article. After all, it would only benefit him."
Smith hesitated for a moment and said, "Okay. But he must agree to this."
"Of course." Yuan Yan stood up suddenly and nodded, "Goodbye, Mr. Smith. I wish our cooperation will be successful."
Before he returned to Rosewood, two gentlemen were already waiting for him in the lobby.
"Albert, are you sick? Your speech today was very disappointing. And why did you refuse the dinner? This is the American Academy of Sciences..."
"Haim, don't tell me about the American Academy of Sciences. Mr. Neo Yuan is what I am most concerned about now!"
"Albert, this Mr. Yuan is just a novelist. I admit that his novels are quite good. The novel 'All Quiet on the Western Front' that you gave me is very wonderful and is definitely a classic. But..."
"Haim, there's nothing to celebrate... Ah, here he comes!"
