money player

Guo Chunyang had daughters but no sons in his early years, so he adopted several sons. It wasn't until 1899, when he was approaching forty, that he had his eldest son, Guo Shuangjiao. He had his second son, Shuang'ao, at the age of forty-five, his third son, Shuanglong, at the age of forty-seven, and his youngest son, Shuangqi, at the age of fifty-four.

Cen Peipei's knowledge of the Guo family's situation was largely due to the "sudden" appearance of numerous articles about the Guo Chunyang family in the newspapers two years ago, which detailed the family's glorious past and charitable deeds. However, a few days later, Yueyuan opened.

At first she didn't understand, but upon reflection, it was clear that the Guo family had spent money to promote Yueyuan.

Later, when I talked to the master about the Guo family, he gave me a clearer understanding of them. The four sugar kings colluded with the Mitsui zaibatsu and other forces in Japan, and fought fiercely with the Dutch over sugar. They probably became pawns in Japan's and Southeast Asia's conquest strategy to some extent.

In the end, Huang Zhonghan was targeted by the Dutch and could no longer stay in Indonesia. He moved to Singapore, changed his nationality to Japanese, and became a Japanese son-in-law with Gu Weijun.

Rumors suggest that Huang Zhonghan is not proud of his Chinese identity and looks down on his ancestral homeland.

Guo Chunyang retreated to Dadaocheng in Taipei, and later wandered to Hong Kong to develop Chunyang Street. It seems that when Hong Kong was liberated, the Guo family's assets in Hong Kong were taken over by the Hong Kong government. It was only after Guo Shuang'ao's father-in-law, former Beiyang Premier Xu Shiying, worked hard to win back the assets from the Hong Kong government that they were returned.

This is what the newspapers say, only picking out the nice parts. But the master sensed from it that even if the Guo family didn't become traitors during the War of Resistance, they were still suspected of being lackeys. Otherwise, the British wouldn't tolerate such a controversial method of plunder.

Whether they are Han or not is irrelevant. Right now, the Guo family's core assets seem to consist only of the forty-odd interconnected tenement buildings on Chunyang Street, commonly known as "Forty Rooms." This is slightly stronger than the assets of the Xian family, who own fewer than forty tenement buildings, and some of them are not in as good locations as those on Chunyang Street.

The forty houses belong to Zhenxiang Real Estate. Zhenxiang seems to be the nickname Guo Chunyang gave himself after he made his fortune. Zhenxiang Real Estate was established when it developed Chunyang Street. It was later part of the estate, and the four families shared the shares equally.

After Guo Chunyang's death, Zhenxiang Real Estate's only major move was to develop Yueyuan, with an investment of HK$6 million, and Tiangong Nightclub, with an investment of HK$10 million. Just like her dinner tonight, the total cost will soon be HK$1 billion.

Yes, pounds.

Guo Chunyang understood the essence of marriage alliances and attached great importance to the relationship between relatives by marriage. He arranged for his eldest son, Guo Shuangjiao, to marry Chen Qiongyun, the daughter of Chen Wangzeng, a former Qing Dynasty official from Tainan. It seems that Chen Qiongyun had two sisters who married into prominent families in Taiwan.

Guo Shuang'ao married Xu Shiying's daughter. Their wedding was held in Shanghai in 1928. It was a grand affair, and newspapers reported on the couple extensively, praising Xu's daughter as a high-achieving graduate of Nankai University who was fluent in Chinese, Russian, French, and German. They lavished praise on her, but never mentioned her name.

The Guo family seems unwilling to mention Guo Xu's name, and even now, the outside world doesn't know what her real name was.

Guo Shuang'ao also had a concubine who was Huang Yi's daughter, whose name was kept secret from the public.

Guo Shuanglong, the third son, attended the Imperial School of Japan, Gakushuin, in his youth, where he was classmates with many Chinese students. According to the timeline, his classmates were in their prime during the War of Resistance against Japan. His wife was Yang Yinglian, the daughter of Yang Zengxin.

It's likely that Guo Chunyang passed away before he could arrange the marriage of his youngest son, Guo Shuangqi. His wife's family background was probably quite ordinary, as it wasn't mentioned in the newspapers.

Xu Shiying went to Taiwan last year and apparently became a senior advisor to the Presidential Office, as well as a nominal position in Anhui, either a military governor or a high-ranking official. It was all good, but it was meaningless. It was as if she had bestowed upon her daughter, Xiaobai, the Queen of America. Just kidding.

There's probably no need to associate with Guo Shuang'ao's branch of the family.

Yang Zengxin has been dead for over twenty years, and even if he had connections, they would have been exhausted. But we don't know how well Guo Shuanglong has connections in Japan; perhaps they could be of help to you, sir. Let's leave that as an open question.

Guo Shuangqi's situation is unclear and will not be considered.

On the contrary, Guo Shuangjiao's widow, Chen Qiongyun, has connections in Taiwan that are likely to be helpful to the master. In addition, the fact that Chen Qiongyun did not go to Zhou Ruoyun, who comes from an extraordinary family and presents herself as the legal wife, but instead went to her, shows that the other party has some connections with the people she is dealing with and knows that she is the one who can make decisions besides the master.

After quickly clarifying the stakes, Cen Peipei had her assistant invite people in while she called Li Shiying to her side and whispered, "Go back and have Amin add 'Investigate Chen Wangzeng's daughter Chen Qiongyun's marriage relationship in Taiwan' to today's fax."

"clear."

As Li Shiying was lifting the curtain, she happened to run into Chen Qiongyun and Guo Biwan, who were also about to lift the curtain.

One was a dignified lady in her fifties, wearing a plain cheongsam; the other was in her early thirties, young, wearing a brightly colored cheongsam and a valuable pearl shawl, but she was far less elegant than the former, and there was little trace of refinement in her appearance. It was likely that she had not married well and did not have the conditions to cultivate elegance.

Upon seeing who it was, Cen Peipei stood up to greet them, "Mrs. Guo, Ms. Guo, please come in."

She didn't know which family Guo Biwan had married, so she could only refer to her by her maiden name.

Chen Qiongyun smiled warmly, "Mrs. Xian, please forgive my intrusion in visiting."

“Not at all, it’s my honor that Mrs. Guo could come to the small room. Please have a seat here.” Cen Peipei led Chen Qiongyun and her daughter to the tea table and sat them down. Meng Xiaodong and Zhong Jieling got up one after the other, nodded politely and left.

Regardless of why Chen Qiongyun and her daughter came, they most likely didn't want too many people to know what they were about to say.

After Chen Qiongyun sat down, she asked, "Was that Master Meng just now?"

“This shop is one that Xiaodong and I opened together.” Cen Peipei said while arranging the tea set, “You two have come at just the right time. A batch of Yunnan black tea produced by the state-owned tea plantation of Fohai (now Menghai) has just arrived. It doesn’t have a famous name, but it’s no less than Qihong. Let me pour you some to try.”

Chen Qiongyun said calmly, "I heard that the Yunnan tea trade routes have been cut off. I didn't expect that Mrs. Xian would still be able to get the goods."

Cen Peipei smiled faintly: "What's been cut off are the narrow, winding smuggling routes. The mainland has reopened the main roads. The prices are a little higher than before, but the quality is guaranteed. You don't have to worry about getting counterfeit tea."

"The biggest taboo in the tea business is counterfeit tea. When my father-in-law was in the Baozhong tea business in Taipei, he discovered some bad practices in the Taipei tea industry. Because he frequently traveled back and forth with the Xiamen market and had a close relationship with it, some unscrupulous Xiamen tea merchants exported counterfeit tea to Dadaocheng and mixed it into pure Taiwanese oolong tea."

It was my father-in-law who spearheaded the establishment of the Taipei Tea Merchants Association, rigorously cracking down on counterfeit tea and correcting bad practices, which later led to the renowned Taiwanese tea.

“My father-in-law runs a tea business in Taipei and has heard a little about this old story. The situation of Taiwanese tea is very different from that of decades ago. Nowadays, Taiwanese tea can only win internationally by price and has lost its former glory. I wonder what Mr. Guo would think if he knew this in the afterlife.”

Chen Qiongyun was shocked, and she gained some understanding of Cen Peipei's sharp tongue. She brought up her father-in-law to show off the Guo family's heritage, but Cen Peipei implied that the Guo family was no longer the Guo family of the past by talking about the rise and fall of Taiwanese tea. She told Cen Peipei not to use old stories, but to get to the bottom of things directly.

It's truly a case of a tiger fallen into the plains being bullied by dogs; how dare a half-Tang and half-Tibetan concubine speak to this old woman like that.

"Today's Chinese businessmen do not have the long-term vision of their predecessors. They are eager for quick success and instant benefits. If this continues, I am afraid that the reputation of Chinese businessmen will be in jeopardy."

Cen Peipei brewed the tea and poured two cups. "Every generation of Chinese merchants has its share of unscrupulous individuals, as well as Confucian merchants who value integrity. Mrs. Guo, there's no need to worry too much. The reputation of Chinese merchants will not be ruined."

While they were still testing each other and couldn't get to the point for the time being, on Feie Mountain, Xian Yaowu was...

Guo Biting, who introduced herself, later learned that Xu Wanyi, surnamed Xu, had also been with him and even taken commemorative photos. At this moment, the two women were squatting side by side on the front of the Mercedes-Benz 220, holding the last tattered pieces of cloth. He was sitting on the hood, with four cigarettes in his mouth.

Guo Biting lit three Zippos and handed them to Anita. Anita understood, took one for herself, and then walked over to the two women, offering them the other two.

Xu Wanyi didn't speak, silently took the food, put it in her mouth, and sucked on it. Her face didn't show the distress that should have come from being defiled, and she didn't intend to say anything useless. She just secretly vowed to make sure that the bastard would be wiped out once she was safely away.

In contrast, Bea Hayden appeared to be in a more normal state, with tears streaming down her face, sobbing, and clutching a tattered piece of cloth to her chest with her right hand.

She didn't accept the cigarette, or even glance at it.

Anita handed the cigarette to Xu Wanyi, returned to Xian Yaowu's side, and whispered, "Honey, are you going to release him?"

"What if they won't release him? Kill him?"

That's what Anita was thinking. Although she hadn't helped massage the thighs, she agreed with Xian Yaowu's actions and stood by indifferently. In other people's eyes, she was an accomplice. Once the two women were freed, she was worried that she would be the first to be retaliated against.

Xian Yaowu was being wise after the event, thinking about what he would do if his son encountered such a situation.

First, it's certain that the prince wouldn't encounter a similar situation; he's never alone. Second, even hypothetically, the prince wouldn't resort to such drastic measures. He would happily befriend the two women, and it wouldn't be long before it developed into a four-person affair, with those photos becoming romantic embellishments.

He was still too naive. He used the most direct and potentially disastrous method: he killed the person, took the photos, and planted the seeds of hatred. Now he regrets it. So what if he was photographed? At most, the two women would watch him privately. If they dared to spread the photos, he would have a reason to come knocking on their door. The Guo and Xu families would never dare to utter a word.

He scratched his head, knowing that he had to report this to his brother as soon as possible; it would be too late if he waited until something happened.

As for Sin Yiu-man, he had already left the Luk family. The merger was a big deal and could not be settled with just a few words. It could only be said that he and Luk Wan-tao had basically reached a consensus on working towards the merger, but neither of them was in a hurry. Luk Wan-tao needed to spend time investigating whether what he said was true, and then the valuation process would require a lot of time and wrangling.

Similar to the Korean War, negotiations and competition were happening simultaneously. Youxing's actions could not stop; it was necessary to make Lu Yuntao see that his Cathay Pacific was depreciating.

At this moment, Xian Yaowen was sitting face to face with his father-in-law, Cai Jinkun, in a teahouse not far from Huaxia. They were not chatting, but playing cards. Thirteen cards, also known as Thirteen Cards or Thirteen Water, consisted of thirteen cards arranged in a 3-5-5 pattern, commonly known as the head, middle, and tail three-way combination.

A deck of cards, with the Jokers removed, has 52 cards, which is exactly four sets of 13 cards each, and four people play.

In the last hand, Cai Jinkun had three 7s in the first round, a flush in the middle round, and three Kings in the last round, a home run. He won 20 points, and each point was worth 1 cents. He made 6 yuan in one hand and was very happy. He was dealing the cards in the order of 3-5-5.

Sin Yiu-man was not happy. Thirteen Cards is an open-ended game, so there is not much room for maneuver. At most, there is room for manipulation in terms of whether or not to match the cards. It is not possible to flatter his father-in-law.

When the cards were dealt, he picked them up, unfolded them, and saw that it was all black except for the last card, which was red. This was the "Central Plains One Red," a reporting card that didn't need to be matched and could be used to collect 13 points from each of the other three players.

He glanced at his father-in-law's smug face and felt extremely uncomfortable.

"I lost all afternoon, Yaowen, your luck turned around as soon as you arrived." This was what Cai Jinkun said when he collected the money in the previous hand. Now that he had a good hand, he had to come in, which didn't seem very good.

Looking closer at the cards in his hand, he had six and a half pairs again: a pair of each of 3, 5, 8, 10, Q, and K, and a heart Ace. With this card in hand, he could disrupt many special card combinations of the other three players. In the worst case, the three players would take turns, or one player would have a special card, with a bomb in the last and middle lanes and a pair of hearts in the first lane. In that case, the other two players would be in trouble.

Carefully observing Cai Jinkun's face, he noticed that the smile lines at the corners of his eyes hadn't smoothed out. He felt relieved, realizing that any unusual cards were most likely in Cai Jinkun's hands.

After finishing his hand, Uncle Lin, who was sitting in the Green Dragon position, turned to Sin Yiu-man and asked, "Yiu-man, what kind of business do you do in Hong Kong?"

"Uncle Lin, I do a little bit of everything. I own a small garment factory and a tea shop."

Cai Jinkun just introduced this Uncle Lin as someone who runs a tea shop.

"How's the tea shop doing?"

"We haven't been in business for long, so it's not very noticeable yet. But since we specialize in high-end tea, we can make a turnover of one or two thousand yuan on busy days."

"High-end tea is profitable, but the market is unstable. It's better to sell some low-end tea to stabilize revenue." Uncle Lin took a puff of his cigarette and said, "Do you have any Liubao tea?"

"I won't sell, but I can get it. Uncle Lin, do you want it?"

Lin Bo immediately became interested. He moved to the side, next to Xian Yaowen, put his right hand into Xian Yaowen's right palm, made a gesture, and whispered, "If you can supply the goods, I need this amount every month."

"Uncle Lin, foreign-made or traditional carrying pole?"

Lin Bobi's number is seven, meaning 700 dan (a unit of weight), but there are two standard weights of dan in the tea trade: one is the old system of 60 kilograms, which is mainly circulated among tea people, and the other is the new system of 50 kilograms, which is convenient to use with kilograms when it comes to foreign trade.

"Foreign dan" (a type of foreign dan).

"Should I deliver it, or will you transport it yourself?"

What's the price for delivery? What's the price for shipping?

"Send 16, Transport 13."

After a moment's consideration, Uncle Lin asked, "I'll transport it myself. What's the maximum number you can supply at a time?"

Xian Yaowen chuckled and said, "Several thousand dan a month is no problem."

In Singapore, Liubao tea is priced at 22 Malaysian Ringgit per dan (a unit of weight), equivalent to 0.26 Malaysian Ringgit per jin (a unit of weight), which is 40% cheaper than the most common Pu'er tea. Owners of tin mines and rubber plantations would provide large barrels of Liubao tea to quench the thirst of their workers. The workers called it "black tea cooling soup," saying that a sip would relieve dampness and heat and prevent malaria. Red paper strips were often pasted next to the tea barrels—"Wuzhou Liubao, relieves heat and indigestion."

Liubao tea is also a standard part of morning tea at Chinatown tea houses. "A pot of Liubao tea and two char siu buns" is the standard order for many tea drinkers. Regular customers will boast to new customers that only those who know how to drink Liubao tea are considered old Nanyang people. It has become a secret code and a cultural symbol.

However, this culture is rather awkward, much like how not brushing your teeth or wiping your bottom becomes a culture. To put it bluntly, Liubao tea is the cheapest tea in teahouses, and char siu bao uses a lot of dough; two or three are enough to fill you up, making it the most economical option. This combination is truly a helpless choice for the poor.

Liubao tea is a poor man's tea, and the profit is predictable. It is only popular in Southeast Asia. Unlike low-grade green tea, although the profit is thin, the unit of measurement starts at a thousand tons, which falls into the category of bulk trade. The ceiling for Liubao tea is a thousand tons, and the profit per dan (a unit of weight) is about 1 yuan. Even with a monopoly, the profit per year is at most a few hundred thousand yuan. It is not even on Jinhai's business list.

But in order to open up the market, it can.

"are you free tomorrow?"

"Uncle Lin, I'm not available tomorrow, but someone else is."

"Let's have morning tea at Nanxiang tomorrow morning."

"it is good."

Lin Bo sat up straight and yelled at the person in the Xuanwu position, "Old Li, can you hurry up? It's taking you so long to deal a few cards."

"Don't brag, this hand is hard to come by." (End of Chapter)