Volume 3: The Richest Man in the World Chapter 48 We will definitely win!
The light went out for a moment, and Wu Chengjian lit it again.
In the rekindled firelight, Tan Sanniang wiped away her tears and regained her usual calmness and indifference - she had deliberately been indifferent when she was in Shenxian Island, because Mother Wang said that her style was suitable for pretending to be "indifferent", and "the more indifferent you are, the more men will like you, and the more they will spend money to pounce on you."
But later, she gradually became indifferent. Especially after she started running the charity cemetery, she became even less emotional.
The lights went out and then re-lit. She found a bench in the room, wiped it casually, and sat down. She was no longer the same as when she had just revealed her true feelings.
Wu Chengjian sat on another bench and placed the oil lamp between the two of them.
Tan Sanniang combed her hair gently with her fingers and said, "Actually, I also know that with your relationship with Yi Jin, it is impossible for you not to go up... But if you go up, what will happen to the situation in Guangzhou? Once you go up, others will know that there is a problem with you, and they will definitely take action against Yihehang and the Wu family."
"I know." Wu Chengjian said, "But in this chess game, the ko is in Beijing. If I don't open this ko, I will lose before I make a move. But to fight for the ko, you have to take risks. If you win, you can pull out the dragon's horn, capture the tiger's piece, and ride the wind back. If you lose... let's talk about it after you lose."
"Is there anything I can do to help?"
Wu Chengjian was silent for a long time before he said, "If we fight too hard, it might even get you into trouble."
"Why should I be afraid of getting involved... " Tan Sanniang smiled lightly, her smile was a little cold: "Besides, it may not have as big an impact as you think. You haven't been here for a long time. Everyone in Shenxian Island knows about this. And you chose to come tonight when the weather is unknown to gods and ghosts. Now the charity cemetery can survive on its own without relying on your money. Some philanthropists in Guangzhou are taking good care of it, so... you don't have to worry about me..."
"I..." After hearing this, Wu Chengjian felt more and more sorry for Tan Sanniang, but he opened his mouth and could not utter the words of apology.
"There is only one thing..." Tan Sanniang said, "You have to promise me!"
"Well, go ahead."
"You have to come back!" Tan Sanniang said, "No matter what happens in Beijing, you have to come back, okay?"
Walking back from the charity cemetery, it was almost four o'clock in the morning. The heavy rain had stopped, but the wind was still strong, especially when it was dark.
The surging torrent on the river could only be seen a few steps away. If you looked further away, it would be completely dark.
Wu Qi shouted, "Hao Guan, let's wait a little longer before going back."
This time they came in the Hua Cha, but the Hua Cha was too big to get close to the shore, and then Tietou Junba brought them to the shore in a speedboat. Thinking of the precarious scene in the wind and rain, Wu Qi still had lingering fears.
Wu Chengjian looked at the river water and the light in the boat, and he felt a surge of anger in his chest. He said, "When we came here, there was wind and rain but we didn't back off. Now there is wind but no rain, and the water in the river is just a little higher. What's there to be afraid of?"
Wu Qi almost cried: "Hao Guan, it's not necessary, it's not necessary! Your life is so precious, it doesn't matter if you go back earlier or later, why take such a risk."
Wu Chengjian asked Tietou Junba: "Do you dare to go?"
Tietou Junba grinned: "Haoguan is the son of a rich man, you are not afraid, what's the problem with me!"
"Let's go!" Wu Chengjian said to Wu Qi, "Let's go. You can come back when the wind dies down in the morning."
The speedboat they drove was very sturdy. It was a fine product made by Old Man Liu from a family of sand boat owners. Tietou Junba first dragged the boat upstream and found a good place to land. Then he said, "Okay, get on board."
He asked Wu Chengjian to jump on first. Wu Qi was so scared that he almost hugged Wu Chengjian's thigh and cried, but he still jumped onto the boat screaming.
Then Tietou Junba also went up, steering with one hand and paddling with the other, and the boat was shaking violently in the wind and waves.
Wu Qi crawled into the narrow cabin and hugged a solid object. He shouted, "Go!" and used the oars to push the speedboat away from the river bank.
At this time, the oars were useless, and the rudder was the only thing left. The wind was strong and the waves were big, and the boat was swaying in the wind and waves. How thick was the boat's plank? The three people almost felt like they were standing on the water through a layer of plank.
Fortunately, Huachahao was not far away - Wu Qi was just thinking this in his mind when things changed drastically.
Just as the boat was sailing out, there was a sudden thunder and heavy rain poured down!
The Guangdong Bay area has an ocean climate, and thunderstorms come without warning, leaving no one prepared. The heavy rain extinguished the lights in the cabin, and the wind and waves caused the boat to tilt.
Wu Qi burst into tears: "Hao Guan, Hao Guan, why did you do this? Why did you do this? I'm going to die now, I'm going to die now!"
Tietou Junba cursed: "Why are you crying? You are so useless!"
Wu Qi shouted, "It's not necessary! It's not necessary! We can live a good life. Why can't we wait for sunny days? Why do we have to brave the strong wind and waves to sail the boat?"
Iron-headed Army Scar shouted, "Shut up! What do you know!"
Wu Chengjian looked outside and saw that it was windy and rainy, but he stuck his head out. The rain soaked him all over, but he was not afraid. Instead, he looked a little excited, even crazy, and shouted, "Okay, okay."
Wu Qi didn't know what to do now, his life was almost in danger. Hao Guan's whole state was abnormal tonight!
Wu Chengjian, however, was not afraid at all, not because of his bravery, but because his current mental state was extremely abnormal.
No matter how strong the wind and rain are now, in Wu Chengjian's heart, it is far less stressful than the current situation. How can the complicated weather compare to the various troubles at home and in the industry that he has to bear and resolve by himself?
If death can solve everything, then it would be simple. However, in this time when survival is not necessarily possible and death is not necessarily beneficial, death is a relatively easy thing. Sitting in such a high position, enjoying power and wealth that ordinary people can't imagine, one has to bear psychological pressure that ordinary people can't imagine.
With such great pressure in his heart, when the threat of death came, it actually made him excited.
Watching the strong wind and listening to the heavy rain, Wu Chengjian began to sing. Although he was one of the richest men in the world, he was singing a nursery rhyme: "It's raining hard, the streets are flooded. My brother carries firewood to sell on the street, and my sister-in-law goes out wearing flowery shoes. Flowery shoes, flowery socks, flowery belts, with pearl butterflies on both sides..."
This is a Cantonese nursery rhyme that even a three-year-old child can sing. Wu Chengjian did not pretend to be naive but just sang it casually. However, a children's song conveyed the vicissitudes of life as an adult.
Wu Qi, who was almost frightened to death in the cabin, listened to what was said but didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He thought that maybe Hao Guan had gone crazy.
Occasionally, lightning would flash across the sky, breaking through the thick clouds, just like a ray of light occasionally appearing in this world, but darkness would soon return. The wind would be strong and the rain would be heavy, just like the current situation. The sky was filled with dark clouds, making Wu Chengjian seem to see Heshen's omnipresent influence.
The sound of wind and rain drowned out his singing, and only occasionally one or two lines could be heard, but they were immediately covered by the louder whistling wind and thunder.
The sky is always this dark, as if it will never end.
The boat started to shake. This was not a fantasy story. No matter how strong Tietou Junba was, human power could not defeat the heavens. He was originally steering the boat towards Huacha, but it tilted as it drifted.
Wu Qi started to cry: "It's over! It's over! It's all over now!"
Three or four years ago, Wu Chengjian would have cursed the heavens in this situation, but this time he stopped cursing and just laughed and sang a Fujian nursery rhyme:
"The sky is dark, it is going to rain. The Dragon King wants to marry someone. Gudai is the matchmaker, Tuchi is the investigator. The tortoise plays the sheng, the turtle beats the drum..."
His Wu family moved here from Fujian, only two or three generations later. Because they needed to maintain business relations with the tea mountains in their hometown, everyone in the family speaks Minnan dialect.
Wu Qi's crying and Wu Chengjian's laughing were mixed in with the sound of wind and rain. The lights of the Hua Cha seemed not far away. They could reach it by swimming at ordinary times, but now they were out of reach. The lights of the boat had been extinguished long ago. In this stormy night where people could not see more than a few feet away, they could see the Hua Cha, but the Hua Cha could not see them.
Tietou Junba steered the boat, letting the lonely little boat slowly and slowly approach the past in the wind and waves, but finally... it tilted!
A wave hit and knocked the small boat that was about to approach the Huacha away!
A slight mistake can lead to a great error. After the boat deviated, it was about to be washed downstream of the Huacha. Under such waves, it was wishful thinking to go upstream! If it continued to rush south, it might even rush into the sea!
Wu Qi burst into tears, and at that moment, with a whoosh, something came through the air, followed by a small anchor that hit the boat and hooked it. Then, on the Hua Cha, twenty or thirty men shouted in unison: "Hey yo, hey yo, hey yo!" This was the slogan shouted by everyone when they worked together.
Fortunately, they were not far from each other, and the boat that had originally deviated was pulled closer by the joint efforts of more than twenty strong men, and Wu Chengjian and his two servants were rescued.
Wu Qi, who had survived the disaster, collapsed on the deck, unable to speak. The Hua Cha was also swaying in the wind and rain, but compared to before, he felt much more stable.
Tietou Junba was the last one to board the Huacha. Just as he jumped over, the boat was overturned by a wave. He gave a thumbs up to a little old man wearing a bamboo hat on the Huacha: "Master Gu! Good eyesight. Good strength! Good accuracy!"
Lao Gu laughed: "It's pitch black, who can see? I heard Haoguan singing, and it was also luck that I was able to hook the boat. Haoguan, you are not destined to die!"
When Wu Chengjian heard these four words, he laughed out loud: "My life shouldn't end. Very good! Very good! My life shouldn't end!"
The sailors around were busy fighting against the wind and rain. Only Lao Gu stood there, looking at Wu Chengjian. After a while, he said, "Hao Guan! Although the old boss and the eldest son are also the outstanding people of the previous generation of Yuehai business, you are not as steady as your father and brother, but they can't compare with you in terms of madness and determination! No wonder you can make Yihe Bank what it is today in just a few years! Today, I, Lao Gu, am convinced by you!"
Wu Chengjian laughed and went into the cabin. Xia Qing helped him change his soaked clothes and drank a bowl of hot ginger soup. Suddenly he felt that the boat was no longer shaking. Xia Qing went outside and came back to say, "The rain has stopped and the wind has died down."
Wu Chengjian opened the cabin door and saw dawn in the sky.
Xia Qing patted her chest and said, "This God is really bad. Wouldn't it be better if the wind stopped and the weather cleared up earlier? I was scared to death just now."
Wu Chengjian said calmly, "Don't think about it. He will always be like this. He only adds icing on the cake, but never helps in times of need. This is the way of the world and the way of heaven."
"Well said!" Old Gu, who had changed into dry clothes, walked in, sat casually in the cabin, and said, "Officer Hao, you called me here tonight, didn't you come just to listen to your singing?"
Wu Chengjian smiled and said, "I'm going to Beijing."
Lao Gu was the only one among all those who heard this who was neither surprised nor objected.
Wu Chengjian added: "Before I go up, I need to meet the people I should meet and explain the things I should explain. Uncle Gu, you are also someone I should meet."
Lao Gu waved his hand: "Tell me, what's the matter?"
Wu Chengjian said: "In order to deal with the situation of the beasts sharing the food, I was forced to be tied together with Heshen. From that time on, what happened today was doomed. I tried to keep a distance from Heshen many times but failed. Instead, I got closer and closer to Heshen step by step. Until recently, the fake good situation that I had managed to maintain finally collapsed."
Old Gu nodded and listened to Wu Chengjian continue: "This time I went to Beijing to fight a desperate battle. If it succeeds, the Wu family will be able to escape from the disaster and move up to a higher level. However, success or failure is always hard to predict, and I also have to make bad plans. The best ending is naturally that I successfully escaped from Heshen and obtained the forgiveness of the new emperor. The middle ending is that I was trapped, but I saved my sister-in-law and Guang'er. At that time, Old Gu, you must find a way to save Youyu and her son. Send them to Macau or the countryside first, and raise them until the children can withstand the storm, and then send them overseas. As for the worst ending, even my sister-in-law and Guang'er cannot be saved."
Lao Gu asked, "Will it be that bad?"
"It's hard to say." Wu Chengjian said, "In fact, if I hadn't taken a risky move a few years ago, our Wu family would have been finished in the round of the beasts' food-sharing game. Now we have enjoyed a few more years of prosperity and wealth. We have already made a profit, right?"
Lao Gu said, "That's true."
Wu Chengjian said, "Anyway, if things get really bad, please ask you and Junba to do your best to protect my sister-in-law, Guang'er, Youyu, and Yao'er. Save as many as you can."
Lao Gu said, "It's not difficult. This is Guangzhou, separated from Beijing by thousands of mountains and rivers. Liu Sanye controls the Hongmen, and Foshan Chen is nearby. Saving a few orphans and widows is not difficult."
"No, this may not be difficult, or it may be extremely difficult." Wu Chengjian shook his head: "Everyone has a price to pay for betrayal. If it is a top-notch ending, everyone will be happy. If it is a mid-level ending, it is hard to predict what Ye Dalin and Pan Youjie will do. If it is a bottom-notch ending, I don't know what those sworn brothers will choose at that time. They may still help the Wu family, but I am not 100% sure. The only ones I am 100% sure of are you and Junba. This is the worst-case scenario - I just hope it won't happen, but I have to be prepared."
Old Gu pondered for a while and said, "Okay, I understand." He paused and said, "But if the situation is going to get this bad, why don't you choose to leave now? If you leave now, your sister-in-law, nephew, wife, children, and yourself can all be saved."
Wu Chengjian laughed and said, "Because I'm greedy! I want to give it another try! I won't give up just like that! And..."
He looked at the increasingly obvious dawn outside the cabin and said with a smile: "Last night there was such a strong wind, such heavy rain, and such huge waves, but in the end I was not killed! This shows that God has not yet decided to take me away! In this case, what should I be afraid of! No matter how powerful Heshen is, can he be more powerful than the sky? If God can't take me away, then Heshen is even less likely to do so!"
"So this time I go north, I have confidence - I, Wu Chengjian! I will definitely win in the end!"
