Pus.h.i.+ng open the door, he walked in and was immediately stunned. It was a coincidence b.u.mping into Chao Fan on the street, and as soon as he walked into this room he b.u.mped into the two people that he was thinking about: the handsome young man and the rough old man who bought over the Rolls Royce Phantom Umbrella back in Los Angeles for ten thousand dollars.
As both parties saw each other, the handsome young man and rough old man also felt stunned.
The rough old man was Song Biaozi. He stood up and stared at Li Du with wide eyes. "Hey, brother, why are you here?"
The young man, Tang Chaoyang, smiled. "Long time no see. It"s fate meeting you here."
Li Du smiled bitterly. "It really is fate. h.e.l.lo to the two of you. Oh, right—any problems with the umbrella?"
Song Biaozi laughed. "It"s a good umbrella. You son of a b*tch, if it weren"t for your umbrella, a few of my men would be dead!"
Tang Chaoyang sighed, "Old Song, can you just shut up?"
Song Biaozi opened his eyes wide and smacked the table. "Fine, I"ll shut it. I"ll just drink some water, alright?"
Seeing that Li Du knew both these men, Chao Fan and Big Cat glanced at each other with weird expressions on their faces.
Chao Fan spoke in a low voice behind him. "I"ve told you, this brother"s network is really wide. You can"t really see through him—he even had connections with someone from the Vanderbilt family."
Big Cat was a little unhappy. "He knows junior master Tang and Brother Song? Then why didn"t he say so on our way here?"
"He probably saw us talking and was just being polite, afraid that we would think he was being showy," Chao Fan explained carefully.
Big Cat nodded. "I see. Then this brother isn"t bad."
Both sides sat down, and Chao Fan apologized, "Sorry, junior master Tang, Brother Songwe were late."
Song Biaozi said loudly, "Hey, what do you mean by late? We were the ones who arrived early. Don"t worry about it, we brothers don"t mind these small issues. It"s tough enough living, so don"t worry about the complexities of culture."
Chao Fan poured some booze and said, "Brother Song is kind, but these two dogs cannot just climb the pole as offered. We are in fact late. I will drink a cup as an apology."
Song Biaozi smiled. "Fine, drink. You have a good stomach for alcohol."
"Old Song, just be quiet, will you?" Tang Chaoyang said helplessly.
Song Biaozi pouted, then he made the gesture of zipping his lips. "Fine, fine, fine. I won"t speak. I"m not talking."
Even though he said this, soon enough he looked at Li Du and said, "The man behind you—German? Bodyguard?"
Li Du said, "Yes, he"s a bodyguard that I hired."
Song Biaozi gave him a big thumbs up. "This one is stronger than the black guy from last time. That guy had a tough face, but in fact, his bones were d*mn soft. This one is fine. He"s seen blood, he can be fierce."
Li Du stared at him in shock. Was this brother"s vision really that strong? He had only seen Big Quinn once, and he had only seen Brother Wolf for a short while, and he could summarize all that?
Feeling his stare, Song Biaozi laughed proudly. "Don"t be so f*cking shocked, your brother Song"s eyes are really sharp. Whether it"s a donkey or a horse, I can differentiate between them with one look. Do you know what these eyes are called?"
"Uhm, I don"t know," Li Du answered stupidly.
"These are called "Bole"s eyes." Last time Bole found good horses, it was all thanks to his eyes." Song Biaozi kept talking, becoming prouder and prouder as he spoke. He almost could not stop himself.
Tang Chaoyang poured him a cup of tea. "Brother Song, just drink your tea, drink your tea. Didn"t the boss just say this is proper dragon"s mustache bird"s tongue tea? You can"t drink this on a normal occasion. Come, drink your tea."
As he spoke, he held onto Song Biaozi"s shoulder and forced the drink down his mouth,
Song Biaozi drank it with tears in his eyes, then he yelled, "G.o.d d*mn you, you"ve burnt a layer of skin off my tongue!"
"Then just drink one more cup to release the fire." Tang Chaoyang moved to pour him more tea.
Song Biaozi remained quiet, not speaking another word.
The main dish of this meal was roasted duck, accompanied by thinly-sliced green onions, lotus leaf biscuits, and sweet noodle sauce. The roasted duck was sleek and s.h.i.+ny, its shape very pretty, and it seemed like the surface had a little silk on it. In fact, that was the texture of the skin.
The waiter finished slicing the roasted duck. As he shook pieces of bone, slices of duck skin and duck meat came neatly off of them.
Besides roasted duck, there were still spicy duck intestines, salted duck intestines, braised duck intestines, deep fried duck intestines, salted duck liver, quick fried duck tongue, stirred duck stomach, and so on, as side dishes.
Sophie tried a piece of salted, braised duck liver and immediately gave a big thumb up. "This is really nice. Only a country that has a long and beautiful history could have a recipe for such good food. Only the people of such a country could have the mood and energy to experiment and create good food."
Song Biaozi slapped the table. "Big lady," he yelled, "you said it well! Come let"s go for a spin?"
Li Du felt that Tang Chaoyang would jump up and beat this Song Biaozi at any moment.
Chao Fan and Big Cat seemed as if they did not understand his temper well earlier, so they hadn"t dared to talk too much. But now that they had drunk a little and knew him a little better, they could speak more. They praised Song Biaozi for being a bold and straightforward person.
Li Du, Sophie, and the others were focussed on enjoying their good food. Chao Fan and Big Cat as a team, and Tang Chaoyang and Song Biaozi as a team, each urged the other to drink more booze as they chatted.
Hearing these people talk, Li Du could hear that Chao Fan and Big Cat had interesting ident.i.ties. In fact, these two belonged to the Chinese Freemasons!
The Chinese Freemasons frequently appeared on artistic productions in television, movies, and novels.
After Li Du arrived in America, he indeed heard of the Chinese Freemasons. The headquarters of the organization was located in San Francisco, and it was rather active in America.
To explain it from the beginning, the Chinese Freemasons was an underground secret organization formed during the late Ming and early Qing dynasty. It was established by "Keeping Han," then it was further developed by Chen Jinan, the general of Nanming Dongning, and then he turned it into the Chinese Freemasons. It was meant to defy the persecution of the Man Qing dynasty and maintain the culture of the Han dynasty.
When China entered the era of the Republic of China, the Chinese Freemasons became even stronger in America. President Roosevelt, who was on Mount Rushmore, had even once been their legal advisor.
During the Second Sino-j.a.panese War, the organization became even more active. Situ Meitang, the head of the organization, had launched several active ways to become involved in the war effort. This included requesting donations from all overseas Chinese to support their country in fighting the j.a.panese fascists" invasion. He contributed immensely to helping win the war.
Chao Fan"s father was the current head of the Chinese Freemasons. It is important to note that Situ Meitang used to be a powerful man who controlled two gangs. He did favors for Chiang Kai-Shek and had also attended the founding ceremony of the People"s Republic of China.
Even though the Chinese Freemasons had declined, the head of the organization was still in a superbly high position.
Chao Fan, as the son of the head of the organization, definitely had heavy decisive power in the American underworld. That was the reason why, back when they were still in Sydney, he had promised Li Du many times that if he encountered any personal threats in America again, he could contact him, and they would be settled.
It seemed like Chao Fan had set up this meeting with Tang Chaoyang and his friend to thank them. His father had brain thrombosis, and these two men had gotten him something to save his father.
Li Du was very depressed. Wasn"t this type of situation inappropriate for him and Sophie to join? Why would Chao Fan drag him along without hesitation once he saw him on the street?
After a few rounds of booze and conversation, the topic landed on him. He roughly deduced what the matter was about.
Chao Fan said, "Junior master Tang, Brother Song, I heard that you guys needed a batch of diamonds but you couldn"t find a suitable seller. Is that right?"