Volume 2: The Rise of Shanghai Chapter 10: Figures in the Storm (3)

  "Wen Yuan, come with me to the Weston Club right now. I'll introduce you to a few people regarding that plan you mentioned last time." Li Wanqi said straightforwardly.

  Xu Shaowen was taken aback, could it be that Li Wanqi had finally made preparations to engage in international arms smuggling? He immediately bid farewell to Li Yu'er and followed Li Wanqi out.

  As they walked down the corridor, Li Wanqi suddenly stopped in his tracks and looked at Xu Shao Wen with a mysterious expression. "Wen Yuan," he asked, "Uncle Li has something to ask you."

  "Uncle Li, please go ahead and speak." Xu Shao said, looking straight at Li Wanqi.

  Li Wanqi pondered for a moment, as if searching for the most suitable words, and finally said: "Do you think Xiao Ru is still well-behaved?"

  Xu Shaowen was taken aback, wondering what Lee Wanqi's intention was in asking him this question. He didn't dare hesitate for long, smiled and replied: "Miss Li is gentle and clever, knowledgeable and reasonable, she's a very good girl."

  "What do you think... about Xiaoyu's appearance?" Li Wanqi asked again.

  Xu Shao Wen swallowed his saliva, was this old fox intentionally teasing himself? He replied straightforwardly: "Miss Li is elegant and lovely, in Wen Yuan's heart she can be compared to the number one beauty in all of Shanghai."

  Li Wanqi smiled comfortably, as if he had just untied a knot in his heart. He patted Xu Shaowen's shoulder and said: "Wen Yuan is indeed a straightforward person, then let's go directly to the Weston Club."

  Xu Shaowen was really confused by Li Wanqi and didn't know what the two questions Li Wanqi had just asked himself meant.

  After leaving Li's villa, Li Wanqi and Xu Shaowen got into the sedan chair and headed straight to Huangpu Beach Street in Luwan District of the French Concession. Along the way, Li Wanqi didn't say much, revealing nothing, which left Xu Shaowen completely unprepared.

  Arriving at Weston Club, the night was the most prosperous time for the nightclub. Xu Shaowen followed Li Wanqi as soon as he got off the car and had not yet entered the club when he felt the boisterous atmosphere inside the club. At this time, all the performances at Weston Club were erotic dances, with songs and dances rising to a crescendo, accompanied by a thick haze of smoke, presenting a decadent scene.

  Yan Wuya personally came to greet them at the entrance of the clubhouse. He led Xu Shaowen and Li Wanqi through the lobby, directly to the VIP room area in the back. Yan Wuya walked in front, stopping for a moment at the door of a room deep in the VIP area. He carefully knocked on the door before opening it and letting Xu Shaowen and Li Wanqi enter.

  This box might be the best in Weston Club, with exquisite decorations and complete facilities, but there were only four people in the whole room. When Yan Wuya brought Li Wanqi and Xu Shaowen in, these four people just nodded slightly to greet them.

  Yan Wuya was just a minor figure on this occasion, he hastily invited Xu Shaowen and Li Wanqi to sit down, then served tea and poured water on the side.

  "Ladies and gentlemen, I'm Li Mou, I'm late, please accept my apologies." Li Wanqi said with a smile as he bowed to the four people in front of him after taking his seat.

  "Mr. Li is too polite, we just arrived not long ago." Across from Li Wanqi sat a middle-aged man over fifty years old, who was relatively thin and wore a green robe, looking somewhat shabby, but his whole body had an air of stability.

  The other three also exchanged polite pleasantries for a while.

  "Let me introduce you," said Li Wanqi, pointing to Xu Shao Wen beside him. "This is Xu Shao Wen, also known as Wen Yuan Xiao Xiong Di, the one I mentioned to all of you bosses not long ago. He was the first person to propose this big deal."

  Everyone stared at Xu Shaowen with different eyes for a while.

  "Mr. Li said it earlier, but I didn't dare to believe that such a big deal was actually proposed by a young man. But now it seems, one has to admit that this young man really has the guts and courage." A slightly plump man, about the same age as the middle-aged man in the green robe, wearing a silk robe, said with a smile, sitting alone on a sofa, looking very much like Maitreya Buddha.

  The person sitting on the same sofa as the middle-aged man in a blue robe was a slightly younger middle-aged man. He wore a suit and glasses, looking quite dignified. He leaned over to the young man sitting next to him and said, "Zhiqing, you and Wen Yuan are of the same generation, but later on, you still need to learn from Wen Yuan more, having a strong personality is also an ability that needs to be learned."

  Xu Shaowen found this young man, called Zhiqing, to be very familiar and couldn't help but take a closer look. The other person was slightly older than himself, with short and sparse hair, and a relatively handsome appearance.

  Zhi Qing turned to Xu Shao Wen, but found that the other party had been staring at himself, and he was also curious. He nodded politely and said: "Wen Yuan younger brother, it is true that the blue out of the green, let me be ashamed of myself, and I will ask for more guidance in the future."

  "May I ask, sir, is your honorable surname Jiang?" Xu Shao asked Zhicheng with a straight face.

  Not only was Zhi Qing shocked and amazed, but even a middle-aged man wearing glasses next to him showed a strange expression.

  "If I'm not mistaken, this is the first time we've met, Xu brother. How did you know my surname is Jiang?" Zhiqing asked Xu Shaowen with a puzzled expression.

  Xu Shaowen burst out laughing in his heart, this Jiang Zhicheng was actually Chiang Kai-shek, Zhicheng being his courtesy name. Last October, Jiang Zhicheng had already joined the Chinese Revolutionary Party which was still in preparation, and in July of this year, he was appointed by Sun Yat-sen to Shanghai to assist the famous revolutionary Chen Qimei in activities in the Songjiang and Harbin areas.

  Since Chiang Kai-shek was here, then the middle-aged man in a western suit sitting next to him would naturally be Zhang Jingjiang, the great rich man of Jiangnan.

  Xu Shaowen didn't show excessive excitement, he smiled slightly and said in a very polite tone: "Two years ago, the potter's name was Jiang Sheng. I had already heard this news when I was in Nanjing. I have long admired Mr. Jiang's great reputation."

  What Xu Shao Wen said about the assassination of Tao Chengzhang was actually that in 1912, Chiang Kai-shek, on Chen Qimei's orders, bought off the assassin and went to kill Tao Chengzhang, the leader of the Guangfu Party. The Guangfu Party was initially led by Cai Yuanpei, a progressive revolutionary organization, but it gradually became extreme in its political stance during Tao Chengzhang's leadership. After reorganizing in Japan, the Guangfu Party consisted entirely of people from the Tongmenghui who opposed Sun Yat-sen, and they even began to adopt the extreme tactic of assassinating their opponents.

  Jiang Zhiqing's assassination of Tao Chengzhang was a sensational event at the time, and most progressive people were familiar with the circumstances surrounding it.

  "That year's matter, I didn't expect Brother Wen Yuan to still remember it in his heart, making Zhi Qing feel a bit ashamed." Jiang Zhi Qing smiled, but the smile was not without a hint of pride about what he had done back then.

  Li Wanqi saw Xu Shaowen, and since he knew Jiang Zhiqing, he had a deeper understanding in his heart. He smiled twice and said to Xu Shaowen: "Wenyuan, let me introduce you to these three big bosses." He first pointed to the relatively fat man sitting alone on a sofa and said, "This is a famous figure in the French Concession, the only Chinese inspector of the police station, Mr. Huang Jinrong, also known as Old Man Huang."

  Xu Shaowen was shocked, never expecting that this jolly-looking man resembling Maitreya Buddha would turn out to be Huang Jinrong, one of the three notorious Shanghai Green Gang bosses. Of course, at this point Huang Jinrong had only recently risen to prominence, and his two future fellow bosses Du Yuesheng and Zhang Xiaolin were still small-time players.

  "Director Huang, I've long admired your great name. As for the case of the French Catholic priest's kidnapping that Director Huang cracked years ago, I truly admire it." Xu Shaowen bowed his head respectfully to Huang Jinrong.

  Wong Kam-fai rose from patrolman to chief inspector, although many of his achievements were self-directed and staged, some were real cases he had solved. In his lifetime, the most proud achievement was cracking the case of a French priest being kidnapped. Now hearing a younger generation mention this case, he naturally felt overjoyed.

  "Wen Yuan is really too polite, but it's an old story, not worth mentioning. Huang Jinrong smiled and waved his hand, he had just been promoted to director not long ago, so he didn't have the majestic demeanor of a big shot that he would have in a few years."

  Li Wanqi felt increasingly strange, how did Xu Shaowen seem to know all these people. He took a deep breath and continued to introduce the middle-aged man in green robes sitting across from him, saying: "Wenyuan, this is Mr. Yu Kuaiqing, a well-known entrepreneur in Shanghai."

  Xu Shaowen was excited again, and he also gradually felt strange. Did Li Wanqi know that he wanted to get to know these people early on, and deliberately invited them all today? He hurriedly asked Yu Kuqing: "Have you seen Mr. Yu, how is the business of Mr. Yu's Sanbei Company recently?"

  "Oh? Wen Yuan, you little brother is really well-informed! Sanbei Company just opened not long ago, and you, an outsider, already know about it? Hehe, looks like Sanbei Company's reputation isn't bad after all." Yu Keqing smiled politely.

  "The reputation of Sanbei Company is not very certain, but Mr. Yu's reputation has spread far and wide in Jiangnan." Xu Shaowen said with flattery.

  "Xu Xiaodi is really good at talking, making us old folks feel comfortable in our hearts." Yu Kuiqing seriously looked at Xu Shao Wen for a moment, such agile and spirited young people are rare nowadays, most young people under the influence of revolution have become numb. It can be seen that this Xu Shao Wen is indeed an extraordinary person.

  Li Wanqi then introduced the last man in a Western suit and glasses, saying: "This is indeed the real big boss Zhang Jingjiang Mr. Zhang."

  "I've met Mr. Zhang, and his support for the revolution is something we younger generations should strive to learn from." Xu Shaowen's guess had indeed been correct - this person who had come with Jiang Zhiqing was none other than Zhang Jingjiang. He couldn't help but feel a sense of wonder in his heart; he had originally planned to meet these figures before returning to Beijing, and now it seemed that he had gotten to know them all at once, and what's more, they were all discussing the same topic - the international arms trade.