Chapter 6 Chapter 5
Chapter 5: The Second Young Master of the Chu Family
After only ten minutes of the short song, Xiao Geling held the pipa with ten fingers, stopped and looked at the guest in front of her. Song Tianyao picked up the teacup and drank the tea in it, as if he was unaware of the zither's quiver.
The little songwriter was very well-behaved. He did not make a sound or get up to interrupt Song Tianyao's thoughts, but instead gently fiddled with the pipa and played a quiet tone.
After another five or six minutes, Song Tianyao took off his thoughts, turned his face to smile at the little singer, took out five dollars from his wallet and put it on the desktop:
"Fast but not chaotic, slow but constant, the sound is not high, the festival is not fast, and the tune is elegant and upright, which is what you appreciate."
It was not until Song Tianyao spoke that Xiao Geling stood up and squatted to Song Tianyao and thanked him. However, she did not rush to pick up the rewards on the table. Instead, she was a little surprised that Song Tianyao, a young man who looked like an international student, knew how to evaluate the tune he had just played:
"Sir, do you have any knowledge of the pipa?"
"You just played the Chongming School of Pipa Fingering. When I was in Shanghai, I had an old friend who was also proficient in Chongming's Pipa Fingering." After Song Tianyao finished speaking to Xiao Geling, he remembered someone's shadow and waved his hand: "Thank you for your short song."
Xiao Geling then came over to accept the reward, thanked him again and left.
Although Song Tianyao's expression was revealed for a moment, she wanted to stay and listen to Song Tianyao's past events.
Wu Jinliang left for two hours until it was almost five o'clock in the evening, and he came back with excitement, pushed open the door of the box, and spoke to Song Tianyao without waiting for his seat:
"Brother, it's done. The second son of the Chu family agreed. I have already arranged it. At six o'clock, the third floor of Taibai Seafood Boat. After ten o'clock, the dance floor nightclub in the north corner will go to the entertainment. The front row of the stage will cost a total of 846 yuan, and there are still left..."
Song Tianyao responded to Wu Jinliang with a smile: "Brother Liang, the money I gave will never be collected. The rest is naturally your thank you."
Wu Jinliang had seen Song Tianyao's generous moves before, and was no longer polite at this time. He sat opposite Song Tianyao and began to remind the origin of the second son of the Chu family whom he invited tonight.
In Hong Kong, there are many chambers of commerce and characters in various places. Except for the indigenous people in the New Territories, the Chinese in Hong Kong can only be considered outsiders. People from coastal areas such as Chaofeng, Haining, Shunhua, and Lu Zhao come to Hong Kong to survive, so they naturally have to take care of each other and unite each other.
Therefore, these local chambers of commerce in Hong Kong are probably equivalent to those Wen merchants and Zhejiang merchants whom Song Tianyao contacted in later generations. Businessmen from the same region gathered together to share resources and connections with each other and gain the greatest benefits together.
The club was originally intended to avoid being bullied by other people from other people. Those who know kung fu and are loyal enough to stand up and gather a group of brothers to stand up for their fellow villagers. However, as the number of club members increases, the original intention of the club was also changed.
The current situation is that the chamber of commerce maintains a club and uses it to provide labor and protective umbrellas for itself. The club protects the chamber of commerce and finds some docks for the brothers in the club to solve the problem of food and clothing.
The president of Chaofeng Chamber of Commerce is Chu Yaozong, whose Liheng Trading Company mainly engages in grain and oil business, and is the leader among Chaofeng merchants. After the war, Hong Kong has prospered and various industries have risen. Therefore, in the past two years, Chu Yaozong opened two more small businesses, intervening in the import and export of drugs and kerosene business.
Chu Yaozong has three sons, the eldest son Chu Xiaozhong was 29 years old. He is currently helping Chu Yaozong manage the business of Liheng Trading Company. Because Chu Yaozong is the president of Chaofeng Chamber of Commerce, he has to deal with all the big and small things in the Chamber of Commerce. He handed over his basic grain and oil business to his eldest son, and told everyone from a certain aspect that Chu Lianhai will be the one who will take charge of the Chu family in the future.
The second son Chu Xiaoxin was born to Chu Yaozong's successor. He is twenty-two years old this year and is extroverted. When he was born, his family was already rich, so he was very dandy. He liked to be flashy, unruly, and was kind-hearted. He was best to make friends. Chu Yaozong gave the Chu family's fundamental grain and oil business to his eldest son and handed over the pharmaceutical business to Chu Xiaoxin. Although the pharmaceutical business was not big, he could also make a small surplus after deducting the cost of Chu Xiaoxin's monthly benefits.
The third son Chu Xiaozhi is only twelve years old now. He was born to the same mother as Chu Xiaoxin and is still studying at this time.
The job Wu Jinliang introduced to Song Tianyao was to be the secretary of the second young master of the Chu family, Chu Xiaoxin.
"Chu Yaozong's three sons, as the saying goes, the emperor loves his eldest son, and the people love his youngest son. Whether Chu Yaozong learns from the emperor or the common people, he will not pay too much attention to the second young master of the Chu family. Therefore, although Likang Trading Company was given full responsibility to Chu Xiaoxin, he never asked about it, but in fact, Likang Trading Company arranged Chu Yaozong's wife and uncle to stare at the dock. This uncle is not Xu Xian's brother, but the eldest son Chu Xiaozhong's uncle, the younger brother of Chu Yaozong's ex-wife who died of illness, and this wife's uncle
He is always staring at the business of Likang Commercial Bank, looking for opportunities to take the business back for his nephew Chu Xiaozhong. The second young master of the Chu family has long spoken in various teahouses to find a striking secretary to help manage the business and keep his small industry. He is willing to pay the secretary a monthly salary of 200 yuan. Brother, if you are really talented, this is the treasure land for displaying your ambitions." Wu Jinliang drank the fragrant tea in the teacup in a sip, staring at Song Tianyao and said.
Song Tianyao nodded slightly and showed a smile: "After listening to Brother Liang's talk, I think this job seems to be specially set up for me."
The two of them had a tea and chatted until 5:30 in the teahouse. Then they got up and took a rickshaw to the west of Kowloon Tangtang. When they arrived at the west of Kowloon Tangtang, they had already started to light. From a distance, they saw boats standing on the sea, magnificent and brightly lit, and various lights reflected on the sea. The scenery was beautiful. From time to time, small boats were rowing between various boats and docks to pick up the guests who boarded the boat.
Song Tianyao is not unfamiliar with the food boats like Hong Kong at this time. He has watched many Hong Kong movies in later generations, and there are scenes about food boats. For example, in "The Lame Hao", Wu Xihao first saw Fei Fa. Fei Fa was the mistress played by Ye Zimei, who bought a whole food boat and was having dinner, and asked his subordinates to walk for two yuan to see his fellow villager Wu Xihao.
However, this was the first time Song Tianyao came to such a place in this life. He was standing on the dock and looking at the food boats parked on the sea in the distance, but he didn't know how he should call the other party to pick him up.
Fortunately, he followed Wu Jinliang, and Song Tianyao did not speak. Wu Jinliang stood on the dock and pointed to a small boat that had just finished delivering guests: "Go to Taibai."
The boatman dressed in short dress was docked with a bamboo pole and said politely to the two of them: "Please board the boat."
When Wu Jinliang and Song Tianyao stood firmly on the boat, the boatman supported the boat and steadily rowed towards the most gorgeous food boat in the deep bay. The Taibai Seafood Boat was located. Seeing that a boat was coming, the guys on the boat had already prepared the pedals and connected the boat steadily. Two more capable guys came down and helped the two board the Taibai Seafood Boat.
The entire Taibai Seafood Boat is divided into three levels: upper, middle and lower. At this time, there were many diners drinking and chatting at the table and listening to music. It was a bit noisy. The third floor on the upper floor was covered by Wu Jinliang. At this time, after Song Tianyao followed Wu Jinliang to the third floor, the noise on the two floors below was suddenly blown away by the slight sea breeze. The eyes were full of magnificent scenery like stars hanging over the fields and the moon surging in the river. Song Tianyao stood on the railing and said, "Good scenery."
At this time, only a twelve-person platform was set up in the center on the entire third floor. Except for the guys who were waiting for the guests to serve the guests, there was no one else.
Song Tianyao heard Wu Jinliang talk about it while chatting in the teahouse that the cost of placing the third floor of Taibai Seafood Boat was 500 yuan. This money was definitely a huge sum of money in Hong Kong in the 1950s. However, in this situation, Song Tianyao felt that the money should be spent, but the scenery on the railings at this time was not expensive.
After enjoying the night view of the sea for a while, before the time was seven o'clock, a friend had already spoken on the steps downstairs to remind him: "A guest on the third floor!"
The guy near the stairs on the third floor quickly stood over after hearing this. He heard the footsteps on the stairs. A handsome young man walked up in a long windbreaker jacket. When he saw Song Tianyao and Wu Jinliang standing up, he smiled and said hello to Wu Jinliang: "Old Wu!"
"Mr. Xin, please please." Wu Jinliang hurried over and led Chu Xiaoxin to sit in the upper seat. While taking off his windbreaker and throwing it to the servant who was serving him, Chu Xiaoxin looked at Song Tianyao next to him. Putting aside everything else, just Song Tianyao's appearance at this time made him very satisfied.
"Seat start." Wu Jinliang said to the friend in the distance: "Hello people to come up and drink."
A friend immediately went downstairs to arrange it. When Chu Xiaoxin sat down, Wu Jinliang poured a cup of tea for the other party first, and then he introduced Song Tianyao to Chu Xiaoxin: "Xin Shao, this is our fellow villager of Chaofeng. Song Tianyao, who used to be a manager of Hua in Macau Ocean Company, has only recently come to Hong Kong. I always remember that Xin Shao said he wanted to find a secretary, so as soon as Ayao arrived in Hong Kong, I will ask you to come out to meet him immediately. This is Xin Shao, the boss of Likang Trading Company."
"Hello, Mr. Xin." Song Tianyao greeted Chu Xiaoxin politely.
After Chu Xiaoxin sat down, he found that his cigarette was still in his windbreaker. He wanted to turn around and call the guy to take out his cigarette. Song Tianyao next to him had already handed over the Sanwu cigarettes at hand.
Chu Xiaoxin nodded with a smile, took out a cigarette, and said to Song Tianyao: "Ayao, right? How old is this year?"
"Eighteen years old." Song Tianyao handed over a match and helped Chu Xiaoxin ignite the cigarette.
"Eighteen years old? Eighteen-year-old Manager Hua?" Chu Xiaoxin was stunned and looked at Wu Jinliang. He originally thought that Song Tianyao would be in his early twenties, but he didn't expect that at the age of eighteen, which foreign company might have an 18-year-old boy to be Hua's manager? But Wu Jinliang didn't look like a bragging person, so Chu Xiaoxin took a puff of cigarettes and handed the cigarette box back to Song Tianyao and continued to ask: "Have you read a book?"
Song Tianyao took the cigarette box and lit a cigarette for himself and said, "I dropped out of school after studying at the Hong Kong Wenzhi Academy for three years. He worked as a manager of Hua at the Macau Maradou Foreign Company for half a year."
"It turns out that I have studied foreign languages. No wonder I was able to be Manager Hua at the age of 18. Why didn't I study Huangren? If I were studying Huangren, we might be able to be classmates." Chu Xiaoxin nodded in understanding.
Chu Xiaoxin was born in the best middle school in Hong Kong, Huangren Academy, but he also knew something about Wenzhi Academy. Like Huangren Academy, Wenzhi Academy is an official middle school of the Hong Kong colonial government. It teaches classes in English and Latin. Although it is not as famous as Huangren Academy, it is also considered a well-known institution.
As for the position of Manager Hua, to be honest, it seems more reliable than the origin of Wenzhi Academy. Many Chinese people now see ordinary Chinese employees working at Oceanic Bank, and they are used to calling each other Manager Hua. Chu Xiaoxin at this time believed that Song Tianyao should have been an ordinary employee in a Macau foreign company for half a year and wanted to change jobs when he returned to Hong Kong.
"The family has lost its power and dropped out of school halfway." Song Tianyao said to Chu Xiaoxin.
Chapter completed!