Volume 3 Hello, Eri Chapter 226 Genji Heavy Industries (IV)
"Are you Japanese?" Caesar looked at Tachibana Masamune with a scrutinizing gaze.
Tachibana Masamune has a straight nose, deep-set eyes, and clear facial lines as if cut by a knife, which makes him somewhat different from other Japanese old men. However, he has pure East Asian black eyes, and his every move has a strong Japanese flavor.
"I have been in Japan for many years, and many people can't tell that I have foreign blood. How did you tell that, Mr. Gattuso?" Tachibana Masamune smiled playfully.
“The accent, you differentiate between the palatal and velar sounds, which is typical of Russian pronunciation,” Kaiser said.
Many people criticize Caesar by saying that he is a dandy, but none of these people can deny that this dandy is excellent in all aspects. In addition to his talent, this is also due to the elite education of the Gattuso family. Caesar can speak all the mainstream European languages, and he can easily distinguish the pronunciation of any country.
Among the family heads present, even Yuan Zhisheng showed a surprised expression, and it was obvious that the other family heads did not know about this matter.
"When Japan surrendered in World War II, there were still 2.8 million Japanese left in China. Some of them were technicians who did not want to return to their country, some were Japanese who followed the army, some even joined the Communist Party or the Kuomintang, as well as some businessmen and ordinary civilian families." There seemed to be a layer of ancient mist in Tachibana Masamune's eyes, which was an old man's memory of the times.
"Are you one of them?" Caesar asked.
"No, I am their descendant. My mother was a member of the Japanese Kwantung Army. When they surrendered, my father did not come to pick her up. At that time, the Chinese people in Northeast China were quite ostracizing these Japanese who were forced to stay. Fortunately, she was good-looking and finally gave herself to an officer of the Soviet Far East Army who entered Northeast China." Tachibana Masamune said, "I have half Russian blood. I grew up in Russia when I was a child. I didn't have the opportunity to return to Japan until the 1990s. I think Japan is my hometown."
Tachibana Masamune admitted it frankly, without any intention of concealing anything. If a person's past life was not good, it is normal not to mention it to the people around him. The only problem is that he is from the Soviet Union, which makes Caesar think of the former Soviet icebreaker. The 1990s happened to be the time when this incident happened.
The water soon boiled, and Tachibana Masamune picked up the iron kettle, poured the boiling water into the tea bowl, and then poured the water out. This is the procedure in the tea ceremony, and the first hot water is only used to heat the tea bowl.
Unlike most teas that require hot water, Tachibana Masamune chatted with Caesar about some things about the academy before he used a wooden tea spoon to pick out two spoonfuls of Gyokuro. These tea leaves are fine and soft, and only require water temperature of about 60 degrees to brew. For people who are used to Chinese tea, it may not be easy to get used to.
Tachibana Masamune pulled out the golden silk gauze from his waist, padded the tea bowl with it, gently rotated it in his hands, turned the side with the bamboo sparrow pattern toward the trio, and bent over to serve tea.
At this time, the first person to receive the cup of tea should be Caesar, the captain of the Cassel team. Of course, the leader has the obligation to be the first to stand up and face the etiquette, but the person who received the tea became Lu Mingfei. She picked up the golden ancient silk gauze in front of her, bent down and took the tea bowl without moving her face, and also used the ancient silk gauze to cushion it, and rotated it clockwise twice in her palm, facing the pattern towards Tachibana Masamune. After drinking the tea, she lowered her head to admire the pattern of the tea bowl with an expression of admiration.
The Japanese like to use various ways to package the few things they have as high-end things, such as kendo, aikido, flower arrangement, and tea ceremony. If you don't understand them, they will look down on you and say that your level is just so-so. Therefore, the tea ceremony has a very high status in Japanese culture. Tachibana Masamune's move is like a silent attack, testing whether the specialists of the Kassel headquarters understand cultural etiquette.
Among the three people, Lu Mingfei is the one who knows Japan best. She has not studied Japanese tea ceremony deliberately, but she has heard a little about it through various animations. Just now, Caesar suddenly realized the deep meaning of this cup of tea, and without changing his expression, he gently touched Lu Mingfei under the table to ask for help. Lu Mingfei reacted instantly and took the tea with the memory of the beautiful girls in the animation tasting tea ceremony. Although this may be suspected of not distinguishing between the primary and the secondary, the people in the Japanese branch do not know who is the real boss among the three. Compared with being rude in etiquette, it is better to deal with it this way.
Caesar and Chu Zihang looked straight ahead, observing Lu Mingfei's every move out of the corner of their eyes, silently remembering that if the other party wanted to use tea ceremony etiquette to attack, then they would have to use tea ceremony etiquette to break it. This was a fight between club leaders.
Tachibana Masamune served tea to Chu Zihang and Caesar again. With Lu Mingfei having set an example before, the two of them naturally memorized the way to handle the tea ceremony and made no mistakes.
"Brewing tea is one of my few specialties. I want to show my respect to the distinguished guests. I will not waste your precious time. Mr. Fuma and I will take our leave first. The affairs of the academy will be fully supported by Chisheng, and Ms. Sakurai and Mr. Ryoma will be in charge of logistics." Tachibana Masamune stood up and said goodbye, "I hope you all have a good time in Japan and your mission goes well."
The trio sat upright, and even Chu Zihang watched the bosses go away with a faint smile on his face. In the end, only Yuan Zhisheng, the head of the Yuan family that they were most familiar with, was left on the terrace.
"How does it feel?" Yuan Zhisheng asked.
"The tea is good, but a little hot," said Lu Mingfei.
"No... I mean your impression of the Japanese branch." Yuan Zhisheng was almost defeated by just one sentence from Lu Mingfei. To be honest, it was difficult for his brain circuit to keep up with these lunatics from Kassel.
"I originally thought that the Sheqi Eight Clan would be eight emaciated old men with sinister auras coming out of their nostrils. When they meet us, they will fight without saying a word, and then twist their necks and smile and say that young people are great." Caesar turned his head to look at the long road where the family heads disappeared, so as not to be accidentally heard gossiping behind their backs. "In fact, they are all extraordinary ordinary people."
"Extraordinary ordinary people?" Yuan Zhisheng savored this strange description.
"Yeah." Caesar nodded. "They are in high positions, sitting at the top of the Japanese underworld, controlling the lives and deaths of countless people and huge wealth, but they will also hide things they don't want to say and make appropriate jokes with you. They are not some immortal masters who are out of touch with the world. I like this very much. Compared with them, the people in my family are very unique, so unique that there is no one else like them in the world."
Caesar did not say who it was, but Lu Mingfei guessed that Caesar was probably talking about his father Pompey.
"If the family heads were fortunate enough to know that they were evaluated like this among their juniors, they would probably be very happy," said Yuan Zhisheng.
"Shouldn't I be very angry?" Lu Mingfei tilted her head curiously. "I heard that you Japanese have a very serious concept of seniority. Even in school, first-year students cannot disobey second-year students, otherwise they will be bullied by the seniors. It is a taboo for the younger generation to comment on the older generation like this."
"In the eyes of their subordinates, the heads of various families may be elders worthy of respect, but in my opinion, it is really like what Caesar said, a group of extraordinary ordinary people." Yuan Zhisheng smiled.
"That's because you are the young master. If you were a subordinate, would you try again? If any of them can crush you into powder, you can only look up to them." Lu Mingfei curled her lips.
Everyone present was born into a noble family, a famous Italian family, a second-generation Chinese rich man, or a young master of the Japanese underworld. Only Lu Mingfei was an unknown Cinderella. It was an honor for her to compete with all the big guys today. So she often kept her old ideas when looking at things. A guy like Yuan Zhisheng, who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and had been hanging out with the big guys since he was a child, would definitely not understand the envy of the people below looking at the people above.
"I didn't say I don't respect them. Every family head is my teacher." Yuan Zhisheng spread out the sea chart on the table and marked a circle at a certain location. "No more small talk, let's talk about the mission. Norma has already given it to you. This time I will be responsible for providing you with more detailed details."
The atmosphere at the table became serious as soon as the task was mentioned. This was how a commissioner from Cassel should be, someone who could handle both business and housework, and who would correct his attitude when he had to be serious, and would never smile frivolously.
"This is a chart of the Sea of Japan. In 1992, the icebreaker Lenin sailed here and sent out a distress signal, 120 nautical miles from the Japanese coastline. That is an absolutely safe offshore area, with no reefs, no icebergs, and no turbulent whirlpools. For an icebreaker of Lenin's tonnage, an accident in such a place would be like Miyamoto Musashi stepping on a rock and falling to his death. That ship was designed to conquer the world's far north, and it would not sink even if it was hit by a torpedo head-on. But such a ship actually crashed in a safe sea area. It is still one of the biggest unsolved cases in the archives of the Japanese Coast Guard."
"I thought you couldn't tell jokes like my senior brother. This metaphor is very apt. Even foreigners can understand it." Lu Mingfei gave a thumbs up.
A country always has something that can be exported to the world, just like when Chinese people go to prosperous cities in foreign countries, whether in Tokyo, London, Paris or New York, they can always find a place called Chinatown. Miyamoto Musashi is one of the cultural symbols of the Japanese. He is known as the Sword Saint and a hero of the Warring States Period. His status is like the king of swordsmen in Japan. Any foreigner who knows a little about the second dimension must have heard of his name.
"It's nothing. I use him as a metaphor because I'm very familiar with him." Yuan Zhisheng said lightly.
"I always feel that your next sentence will be that I have learned his swordsmanship." Lu Mingfei always felt that there was something else behind Yuan Zhisheng's words.
"You're right." Yuan Zhisheng was calm and indifferent, leaving Lu Mingfei alone in the wind. This guy is really pretending to be invisible! Turtle, you are actually very sultry inside, right? You like pretty girls to dance and cheer for you, right? No wonder Yabuki Sakura appears the most among the people around you! You still say you don't like it, you bastard who delayed the girl's youth!
Lu Mingfei settled all the new and old grudges and complained maliciously.
"The Japanese Coast Guard didn't know why the Lenin appeared there. It didn't invade Japanese territorial waters, and Russia didn't ask about it, so there was no way to investigate the matter." Yuan Zhisheng continued, "The search for this sunken ship was only started by the academy in recent years. It is suspected to be carrying cargo related to the dragon clan, but the work is very difficult because it is one of the deepest waters in the world. It was not until a few weeks ago that the search work made a breakthrough. That is the heartbeat you know. After the Japanese branch cooperated with the headquarters to confirm repeatedly, the two sides reached a consensus and set the goal of this transoceanic operation."
"The principal said, let's go blow it up," Caesar said.
"That's right, but he may not have explained it to you clearly. The location where the Lenin sank is right above the Japan Trench, which is integrated with the Mariana Trench. It is an underwater abyss that is thousands of kilometers long. In geology, it is the dividing line between the Eurasian Plate and the Pacific Plate. Undersea volcanic activity is frequent, the geology is quite unstable, and the impact of the plates has formed interlaced cracks." Yuan Zhisheng said, "It is the deepest part of the seabed in the world and the most mysterious area on Earth. Almost no one has reached there. It is called the Arctic Abyss. There is very little information, and most of our understanding is based on speculation. According to the results of sonar scanning detection, the location of the Lenin is very likely in that Arctic Abyss."
"I originally thought it was just a deep dive... but I didn't expect it to be a challenge to break the Guinness record of the deepest place in the world!" Lu Mingfei was stunned. It was like she was tied to a giant time bomb. She could only pray that her senior brother could dismantle it before it exploded. After working for a long time, her senior brother finally stopped. She was surprised and asked, "Did you do it?" Chu Zihang shook his head and said, "No, this is not a time bomb, it's actually a nuclear bomb. I can't do it..."
The difficulty is rising a little too fast. You can't fight monsters of different levels like this, right? Lu Mingfei felt a little dizzy.
"From this we can reasonably speculate that the cargo transported on the Lenin was actually a dragon embryo. We don't know where its destination is or who it belongs to. We only know that an accident caused the Lenin to sink above the trench, and all evidence was destroyed, along with the dragon embryo on the ship, which sank into the depths of the trench." Yuan Zhisheng continued, "Dragon embryos are not something that can be easily destroyed. The extremely deep sea water has become an excellent protective layer for it. In a place that is like a forbidden zone for life on Earth, this embryo can be safely hatched without any interference. If it weren't for the accidental sonar monitoring of the heartbeat by the scientific expedition team, it is very likely that when it hatched, we would know that a dragon was in the sea next to Tokyo."
"Are you sure what kind of dragon it is?" Chu Zihang asked.
"I can't help it, but considering that the heartbeat is strong enough to penetrate thousands of meters of sea water, I think the bloodline level can't be too low."
"The King of Ocean and Water?" After a few seconds of silence, Caesar put forward a possible speculation.
Yuan Zhisheng and Chu Zihang both nodded slightly to show their agreement. This was a possibility that most people could think of. Although the pressure of sea water thousands of meters deep and the abyss environment were not a problem at all for dragon embryos, the adaptability of each dragon would be different.
For example, the King of Bronze and Fire, whose palace is submerged in water and whose habitat is still air, is not very adaptable to water and will not grow up in water. If a dragon in embryonic state shows excellent adaptability to seawater, then even if it is not the King of Ocean and Water, it is at least a descendant of the Water King with a high affinity for water.
