National Tide 1980.

The spacious lobby of the Oppai Reggie Club in Shinjuku, Tokyo, was bustling with activity, with hundreds of chairs packed with guests.

A water show is underway on the double-layered stage, with thousands of water jets rising and falling gracefully to the accompaniment of soft music.

The water was sometimes illuminated by spotlights, and sometimes it shimmered with seven colors.

As the music grew louder, many dancers, resembling water sprites, appeared on the lower level of the two-tiered stage.

They included Japanese, mixed-race individuals, and Westerners of various hair colors, all dressed in rather revealing clothing, performing a line dance against a backdrop of colorful water jets. The music, water jets, and dancers created a beautiful and enchanting scene.

All the customers present were deeply attracted by the performance, especially the two mall managers who were invited by Pierre Cardin Co., Ltd. of Japan and were visiting such a place for the first time. They stared intently at the long, white legs in stockings and high heels dancing to the music, swallowing hard.

This is a newly opened theater and ballroom, quite different from the entertainment venues commonly seen in Japan. It feels like being in an underground theater in Paris, with waves of applause, dancing footsteps, and cheers that unconsciously draw you in.

That's not all. After the performance, there's a special game waiting for the guests, which is the real highlight of the place.

"Everyone, let's play a telephone game."

Piercarton's supervisor, Ishikawa, said that it was clear he had been there more than once.

"What are telephone games?" asked Manager Oda of Keio Department Store.

"Yeah, it's strange, there seems to be a telephone on every table."

Next to speak was Kuriki, the manager of Yaohan. He warmed the glass of brandy in his palm, looked around, and noticed that there was a telephone on every table. Tourists, tipsy and excited, were chatting, laughing, and making noise on their phones.

"Alright, let me demonstrate for you all."

Supervisor Ishikawa readily agreed, then picked up the phone, glanced at the table listing all the table numbers in the lobby, and dialed the number.

After a series of rings, the phone on a table diagonally in front of me lit up.

Three young girls rushed to pick up the phone.

Supervisor Ishikawa said in an extremely familiar tone, "We are table 223, and we are moved by your beauty."

The three girls looked in Ishikawa's direction together, smiled and nodded at him, "Thank you!"

But Ishikawa didn't say anything more. He hung up the phone, completely ignoring the two girls' astonishment and disappointment in the distance. With a mocking smugness, he said to the two mall managers, "Well? You two, it's your turn to try. The phone on the table is a way to send love messages. You can look at this table number list, then call the table number of those women in front of you and ask them if they want to come over, or if they want to dance together."

"Ah, right."

Supervisor Ishikawa pointed to a tubular cylinder next to the table and explained, “If you’re interested, you can also use the notepads here to write love letters, along with the other person’s desk number and this desk number, and drop them into the cylinder. This cylinder is a ventilation pipe equipped with a compressed air device, which will automatically deliver the notes to the office, sort them, and then they will jump out of the cylinder next to the other person’s desk.”

This novel way of striking up a conversation immediately piqued the interest of Manager Oda and Manager Kuriki, who both praised it with great enthusiasm.

"This is interesting. Let's try it too."

"You can even write love letters? That reminds me of my student days."

As he spoke, Manager Kuriki picked up a notepad and wrote in Japanese, “We are the managers of the mall. Would you like to dance with us? We await your reply – Number 223.”

Then drop the paper strip into the cylinder.

Two or three minutes later, the two young women sitting at table 012 looked in their direction, their heads close together, as if they were also writing something on a piece of paper.

A moment later, a slip of paper flew out of the cylinder on Supervisor Ishikawa's table with a "poof".

"The mall manager? Great, we can go there right away—012."

Although the handwriting on the note was messy and not very pretty, the tone and attitude of the reply were satisfactory.

Manager Oda, being a cautious person, asked another question, "Ishikawa, is it okay to dance with a girl like this?"

"No problem. They're not minors. Most are female office workers or university students, and occasionally there are married women. They're here mainly to earn some extra money. As long as you like each other, you can agree on a price while dancing, and then it's up to fate. I'm just reminding you, no matter how interested you are, don't offer more than 100,000 yen. For girls of average quality, 60,000 to 70,000 yen is about right. But don't be too stingy either; offering less than 50,000 yen will make them look bad."

"This is so much fun! I love this way of striking up conversations. I've really come to the right place!" A blissful, intoxicating joy shone in Kuriki's eyes.

“That’s right. If it’s a young woman around twenty years old, I can accept this price,” Xiaotian said.

"Not at all, I was just explaining the situation here. We're treating today, how could we let you two go to so much trouble?"

Ishikawa said with a grin, while simultaneously kicking his absent-minded companion under the table.

Vice President Takada then realized something and quickly echoed Supervisor Ishikawa's words, "Yes, you two can just relax and enjoy yourselves today. We've even booked the hotel for you. Just choose the woman you like, and you won't have to worry about anything else."

"Hello! Managers of the shopping mall!"

The woman who had passed the note earlier came over and greeted him cheerfully.

The two didn't look as young as they did from a distance; they appeared to be around twenty-eight or twenty-nine years old, perhaps even thirty.

But their clothes were quite fashionable, and their perfumes were quite alluring. In particular, one woman in a rose-colored dress had a full figure, and the other woman, who was quite tall, had thick red lips and was very sexy.

The two mall managers, captivated by his charm, both revealed an irrepressible interest.

"Ishikawa-kun, let's go dancing then."

"President Takada, we've arrived. Please have a seat for a moment."

After saying that, the two of them put their arms around their chosen dance partners and headed towards the hall. Ishikawa, not forgetting to make a lewd remark behind them, added, "Don't forget to check the goods before you dance! If you can't see clearly, feel them carefully. You're managers of a big department store, be careful, don't let the fancy packaging fool you..."

One sentence was enough to make both men turn around and agree with a grin.

The two women turned around and scolded each other, one saying "Disgusting" and the other saying "Vulgar".

Against a backdrop of colorful water features, lively dance music played in the hall. Soon, the men and women who had just entered the dance floor were engrossed in dancing together.

No one held back; the men embraced the voluptuous women, holding them tightly and trying every possible way to take advantage of them.

Unethical monetary transactions, on the other hand, are conducted through whispers and close-knit conversations.

As for the dance floor, neither Supervisor Ishikawa nor Vice President Takada were surprised. They quickly stopped paying attention to what the guests they were hosting were doing and instead took the opportunity to talk about things they were more concerned about.

"What's wrong with you today, Takada? You seem so distracted..."

Supervisor Ishikawa expressed his dissatisfaction half-jokingly, "My dear president, you're the one in charge of entertaining the guests, can't you put your heart into it? I did most of your work today..."

"You still have the nerve to say that? It's all because of you that I'm so anxious," Takada said angrily. "Don't you know what kind of situation you've put me in? Don't you know how I've been these past two years? Stop pretending. Even if you're helping me curry favor with Oda and Kuriki, it's only because you and I embezzled public funds to speculate in stocks and needed to get the payment for the goods as soon as possible to get by. What else do you have to complain about?"

However, Ishikawa laughed heartily and handed Takada a glass of wine. "Can you please stop bringing this up? No matter what, with such a good market right now, we've made money, haven't we? Our stocks are worth nearly 1.5 billion yen now. If we sell them all at any time, we'll have made a profit of 400 million yen. If it weren't for my advice, would you have gotten 200 million yen for free? Besides, even if this matter is discovered now and we get fired from the company, you'll still get more money than your pension, so you're not at a loss. What do you have to worry about? You should be thanking me."

This was indeed true, so Takada Tadao's expression softened slightly, but he was still full of complaints.

“That’s true, but I’ve lost a lot of hair in the past two years. You have no idea how much pressure I’m under. Especially now that the company is desperately hiring, and there’s the problem of losses at the Japanese factory, the cash outflow is getting bigger and bigger, and the president has also started to pay attention to the issue of cash flow from the department stores. You have no idea how nervous I am every time I meet with President Hasegawa alone. Right now, I just want to do one thing: take advantage of the good market and sell the stocks as soon as possible to pay off the debt so I can sleep well. I said, let’s sell everything next week. Since everyone can get 200 million yen, that’s already pretty good…”

"Well... I think we should wait a bit longer. Look how good the market is right now. The people at Sanyo Securities told me that foreign speculators have started to return, and there's plenty of money in the market..."

Seeing that Ishikawa hesitated for a long time before finally giving an answer that was completely opposite to what he had expected, Takada Tadao couldn't help but burst into anger.

He believed that Ishikawa was completely disregarding his own life or death.

"What? You want to wait a little longer? You're too greedy! You won't sell when you're losing money, and you won't sell when you're making money. I'm asking you, when are you going to sell!"

"Don't worry, let me explain slowly..."

"I'm not listening. I'm just asking you if you're going to sell or not! If you're not going to sell, then you can wait on your own. I'm not waiting! No matter what, I'm going to sell my share next week."

"Don't be so impatient. I know you have grievances, which are nothing more than your concern that the funding loophole will be exposed. But if I can guarantee that no one will hold us accountable, wouldn't you want to earn more? Besides, most of our current funding comes from the payments you make to the mall. Even if you sell your share, do you think you can walk away if my share has problems in the future? We will always be partners, and it's impossible for us to be separated as you wish."

"Do you threaten me?"

Seeing that Takada's eyes were red, he still tried to continue scolding him.

Ishikawa didn't dare keep him in suspense any longer. He put on a smile and quickly explained that he meant no harm. "Don't misunderstand. Can you let me finish? It's like this, there have been some new changes in the company's finances recently. In order to alleviate the financial burden, our company is going to issue bonds, a three-year bond of 15 billion yen."

"What?" Takada exclaimed in surprise. "How come I haven't heard about something this important? Does the French headquarters know about it?"

"I just found out from our president. If I weren't the financial supervisor, the president wouldn't have told me."

Takada was taken aback again. "Isn't the procedure wrong? Shouldn't the chairman approve it first?"

"Don't be naive. What's the point of procedures? Anyway, the decision in France is based on the president's word. What matters is what the president wants to do."

Ishikawa smiled and said, "Takada-kun, how can you still not understand? You don't think we're the only ones eyeing embezzlement and underhanded dealings, do you? To be frank, President Hasegawa is the same; he's envious of others making money. This financing was personally manipulated by the president. Ostensibly, he planned to use the investment returns to cover the daily operating losses. But in reality, it was all for personal gain. He planned to increase his investments in stocks and real estate to obtain excess profits. In the end, the specific profit and loss wasn't up to him. Of course, this also gave us an opportunity..."

This news completely shocked Takada. He was stunned for a long time before he remembered something, "An opportunity? What exactly do you mean? Explain yourself clearly..."

"Isn't it obvious? Our Chairman Hasegawa's speculation is getting bigger and bigger, and he absolutely needs my cooperation as the financial supervisor. So, as one of the insiders, I have leverage over him, even if he sees through our little tricks. Do you think he won't investigate further?"

"Are you planning to use this incident to blackmail the president after it happens?"

"Don't put it so harshly. I just want to put your mind at ease. I can't bear to see you living in fear every day. Now you see how much I value friendship. I've always been thinking of you."

Seeing Takada fall silent, seemingly conflicted, Ishikawa gave him another push. "And that's not all. These financings were also used to buy stocks and real estate. What do you think about me taking 1 billion yen from them as additional funding for us? You don't think I'm doing nothing and you're bearing all the risks, do you?"

"You want to increase your investment!" Takada said as if he had just met Ishikawa. "Aren't you incredibly bold? Aren't you afraid of taking any risks at all?"

"What's there to be afraid of?" Ishikawa scoffed. "I've already thought it all out. Whatever stocks President Hasegawa buys, that's what we'll buy. If we lose money, he'll figure out how to cover it up. We're just little mice following him around. We're simply using his methods to balance the books. Tell me, what risks are there?"

"This..." Takada was really stuck. He couldn't see any hidden dangers, but he also felt that the reckless Ishikawa might cause even bigger trouble.

Especially since he was entrusted by his sister to oversee the operation of the Japanese company, he felt even more uneasy.

Unexpectedly, Ishikawa had already seen through his thoughts. "The only risk is your conscience. I know your sister is the chairman's secretary, and your role is to monitor the president. But in this situation, if you shut up and pretend you know nothing, the president will be fine, we'll all be fine, and everyone will make money. You should know what to choose..."

"I..." Takada suddenly realized that he was the one being blackmailed. "You...you bastard..."

But when his gaze met Ishikawa's, he instantly became dejected, finding it difficult to muster any more courage.

"Haha, that's it. Takada-kun, I knew it. We're the most reliable partners."

Seeing his weakness, Ishikawa laughed triumphantly and patted Takada on the shoulder, consoling him with the air of a victor, "Alright, don't worry about anything anymore, all the risks are gone. Haha, I know what can cheer you up. Here's what we'll do, after we've arranged things for them, I'll take you to find some younger girls, you like high school girls, right? I'll arrange two for you, so just enjoy life."

In this way, Takada completely lost his moral compass.

"Okay, you're right, I don't know anything..." (End of Chapter)