Chapter 2 Chapter 1 A Fire at the City Gate Affects the Fish in the Pond

In the previous section, it was mentioned that "there are some old people who are clean and tidy, and they will never be rotten", which is not all gossip, and has a lot to do with the beginning of this story. Bai Su's father, Boss Bai, is an unambiguous old man. This old man who was once the most strange person in the world, lived in seclusion in the south of France in his later years, leisurely and leisurely. I thought that nothing would happen to him again, especially a few years ago, he had another brain operation, and the operation went very smoothly. Is there any unexpected accident.However, the world is really unpredictable - if the world is all expected, life will be tasteless, and suddenly something happened to him, which became the beginning of this story.

At the beginning of the story, Boss Bai is on a luxurious cruise ship. This large cruise ship is carrying nearly 700 tourists and is sailing around the world-this kind of voyage even has no destination. During the journey, after passing through some famous coastal cities, we stopped to play for a while, and then set sail to the next city. Traveling around the world in this way is naturally very comfortable, but it is also very time-consuming, at least 30 to 50 days, and the cost is extremely expensive, so young people never participate, middle-aged people rarely participate, and many elderly people participate ——But it should be noted that Boss Bai participated in this type of travel on the cruise ship, not because he was old, but for other reasons.

The reason is very childish. Perhaps when people get older, they will revert to their youth. The reason why Bai Lao went to the cruise ship was because he made a bet with someone. (Boss Bai has a fiery temper and can't be easily provoked, so it's very easy to bet with others.) The bet with him was another old man, who was about the same age as him, and his temper must be almost the same as that of Boss Bai. Otherwise, why would two old men who have lived for nearly a century quarrel over trivial matters, and finally formed a non-bet solution? What about the impossible situation?The other old man has long retired from work, but still owns the majority of shares in a large shipping company. He is a famous rich man in the world. The real master, Mr. Hassan.

Mr. Hassan is a legendary figure. He can’t even tell where he is from. He has a lot to do with China, because he was adopted by a wealthy Jewish businessman from an orphanage in Shanghai to receive education. And grew up. The reason why he was adopted by the wealthy Jewish businessman is also very funny to say-although he is three years old, his appearance is obviously not Chinese, his eyes are big and his nose is high, his skin is dark, and he is from the Middle East characteristics, the Jewish wealthy businessman also regarded him as a Jew. Hassan often joked about himself later, saying: "Jews and Arabs look similar in appearance, and they both live in that area. I may be an Arab at all, but I am regarded as a Jew. This is not the same as a It is a ridiculous mistake for a man to be raised as a woman since he was a child, and there is really no difference!"

Whether Arabs or Jews, Hassan actually doesn’t care, because he can’t be sure—there is no record in the orphanage, and he was abandoned on the street before the full moon. In that winter, the lowest temperature in Shanghai was It was six degrees below zero, and as an abandoned baby, it was a miracle that he didn't freeze to death. Boss Bai and him have known each other very early. When we were in our teens, in Shanghai, we became acquaintances from young people fighting.Regardless of Hasan's appearance, he doesn't look like a Chinese at all, but when he speaks, his fluent Shanghainese, especially when he speaks a series of foul language, can really surprise people.

After the age of twenty, the two went their separate ways and developed each other. The wealthy Jewish businessman who raised Hassan may have seen that Hassan was extremely smart and extraordinary, so he treated him very well, and it is possible that he secretly stayed behind. A part of the property was given to him to develop. The Jewish wealthy businessman was so rich that even if only a little bit was left, it would be a huge number. Coupled with Hassan's business skills, naturally Hassan would soon become a rich man. When Hasan and Boss Bai were each in their early thirties, the two had cooperated in several things, such as a large number of arms transactions, large-scale wartime material transactions and sabotage activities, and so on.

In short, they are good friends who have known each other since they were young. After Boss Bai retired to the south of France, he settled in Hassan in Paris. In the next minute, they used Shanghai dialect that no one in France could understand, making people around them look sideways, thinking that these two old people came from aliens. The two of them had such a friendship, they actually had to make a bet and put it into action just because they didn't agree with each other, so we can also see the teenage state of mind of these two old people. What are they betting on?It all started from chatting. On that day, Hasan himself drove his bright red sports car, passed every car along the way, and came to Bai Laoda's small farm. Hatch bean sprouts in the countryside, go outside and see the world!"

"Hatch bean sprouts" is a Shanghai dialect, which means that people have nothing to do and hide at home all night. When Boss Bai heard it, he already disliked it three points in his heart. He thought to himself, what else has Boss Bai not seen before?But because everyone is an old friend, so he didn't get angry immediately, but his complexion was a little ugly, his eyes rolled up slightly: "What's so interesting?" He pointed to the sports car that Hasan drove: "For something like this, a sixty years ago, it was already so white that it should not be white anymore!"

"One Jiazi" is sixty years, and "Bai Xiang" is playing. Naturally, Boss Bai expressed his dissatisfaction with Hasan's words just now. Hassan raised his eyebrows. His eyebrows were very thick. When he was young, people often said that he was like Tyrone Power, a Hollywood star in the 1930s and 1940s. He was also very proud of this, so he always developed a habit of The movement of raising his eyebrows, to highlight the features of his face, has remained unchanged forever. His movements of raising his eyebrows are quite exaggerated, and his words are also exaggerated, "If you have seen my new cruise ship, you will know how big the ship can be. "

Immediately imitating his appearance, Boss Bai also raised his eyebrows exaggeratedly. At the same time, he slapped a haha: "Yes, I know that there is a ship that is huge!" Hasan raised his eyebrows again, unconvinced: "How big is it?" Boss Bai made gestures: "A man who works at the bow gave birth to a son and ran to inform his friend who worked at the stern. When he came back, his son was married!" After Boss Bai finished speaking, he couldn't help laughing, and Hasan's face was not very good-looking. Boss Bai's joke just now was actually not funny, but it was an old joke that was quite famous in Shanghai.Old jokes sound familiar and extraordinarily funny.

Hasan said coldly: "It's not funny at all, what can you say if you haven't really seen the big boat?" Boss Bai shook his head and said: "You don't need to provoke me, I won't travel by boat like those fools, and I have to wear a dress every time I have dinner, wasting my life dangling on the ocean, leaving you to see for yourself Bar!" The two old people were already very stiff when they said this, and Hasan continued: "You country people, you are guaranteed to be dizzy when you get on my new cruise ship. " If Hasan just said that, it doesn't matter, but when he said this, he pointed to the tip of Boss Bai's nose—— Fortunately, there was still a distance of about one centimeter between Hasan's fingertips and the tip of Bai's nose. If they touched each other all of a sudden, the two old men might fight. Boss Bai stared hard at Hasan's fingers. "Move your paws, a small broken boat, let's brag about it! It's sinking in the water, I'm afraid no one will come to fish it!" Most of Hassan's career was started by shipping, so he has deep feelings for ships. This sentence hurt his feelings and hurt his self-esteem. Moreover, the last sentence of Boss Bai still has an allusion. The allusion is related to the two of them, and it is also related to a historical fact. When the Second World War broke out, the two warring parties formed the Allied Powers and the Axis Powers.The main countries of the Axis powers were Germany, Italy, and Japan, and the concession forces in Shanghai at that time were the Allied powers, Britain and France.There happened to be an Italian cruise ship that was moored on the Bund in Shanghai at that time. When the order of war was declared, it was naturally detained.The captain of the Italian cruise ship sank the ship overnight and refused to hand it over to the Allies. This cruise ship was huge, and after it sank, it flipped upside down, with its bottom facing the sky (just like a shipwreck movie about a giant ship turning over), and the entire bottom of the ship was exposed to the sea surface of the Bund in red, and everyone could see people coming and going. Many adventurers want to fish up this giant ship, because it is said that a large amount of gold nuggets are carried in this giant ship, all of which are the property of the Axis powers in Shanghai, and this ship should pay for it. But the ship was too big. After many attempts, they failed. Later, the Japanese army successfully invaded Shanghai and took back the concession. The entire Shanghai became the sphere of influence of the Japanese.The Japanese imperial army came up with the idea of ​​using extremely thick iron to wrap around the hull of the ship, then extend the iron chain to the shore, bypass the huge buildings built on the Bund, and then use a winch to twist the iron chain Well, it took two years to turn this huge cruise ship over. The buildings were actually slightly tilted due to the heavy force they endured. At that time, the Japanese military was contracted by a company organized by Hassan to carry out this huge project.At the very beginning of the project, Hasan approached Boss Bai, and the two discussed "putting the Japanese red guy in the trap" (letting the Japanese devils fall for it). Their plan was to send out excellent divers while the project was in progress. Sneak into the interior of the cruise ship and take away all the gold and other valuables on the ship. When the ship is picked up, the Japanese will only get an empty ship shell! The old man naturally agreed, and the two carried out the plan. In the past two years, a thousand people have sneaked into the interior and exterior of the Ministry of Shipping, but nothing was found. A large number of gold nuggets exist. They will never be able to solve the mystery, because after the ship was turned upright, the Japanese celebrated with great fanfare and prepared to tow her back to Japan. As soon as the cruise ship was dragged out of Wusongkou, it encountered a large group of bombers from the Allied Powers. I don’t know how many tons of bombs were dropped, and the ship sank to the bottom of the sea since then, and it could never be recovered. Both Hasan and Boss Bai lost their money in this operation. Both of them have a strong nature and want to save face. They have not mentioned such "bad luck" (bad luck) things for decades. At this time, Boss Bai suddenly mentioned salvage the sunken ship with a disdainful tone and a malicious expression. Hasan blushed and couldn't hold back his breath. He waved his hands: "I see you, it sounds like I have experienced everything, I am afraid that if you are asked to find someone on the cruise ship, you will not be able to find..." Boss Bai leisurely: "Of course I can't find it in three to five minutes!" Hassan's face became even redder: "Here are eighty days for you. That's the day for the cruise ship to sail around the world, and you can't find it." Boss Bai looked up to the sky and laughed, saying that it was a fantasy and absolutely impossible, so there was no need to answer.But Hassan took it seriously: "If a person hides alone, you can find him within 80 days, and my new boat will be yours!" The two of you said one sentence to another, and they were talking faster and faster, but when they said this, they suddenly stopped. Boss Bai slowly turned the wine glass in his hand, staring at the wandering wine.I didn't know what he would light up—later, I knew what he was thinking: get a big ship.It's useless by itself, so it's good to give it to children to play with.He asked slowly, "How much does this ship cost?" Hassan blushed, his neck was thick, and his eyes flicked: "200 million pounds—why, is it enough for you to act?" Boss Bai took a sip of wine: "Reluctantly!" Then, Boss Bai stretched out his hand, and the distance between his fingertips and the tip of Hasan's nose was also one centimeter: "Get on the boat and hide, and watch me lift you out!" He didn't say "find it out" or "get it out", but said "lift it out" in Shanghai dialect, which contains a considerable degree of insult, and it is necessary to explain it a little bit. Originally, the verb "to carry" in Shanghai dialect means to carry something by hand. It is nothing special, and it cannot be said to be insulting.However, Shanghai, although it has long been a very prosperous big city, in fact, the urban construction is quite poor, and the sanitation facilities are even worse. In many places, there is no flush toilet equipment at all, and traditional Chinese toilets are used. (Until now, in the 1980s, recent statistics revealed that there are still at least 800,000 residents in Shanghai who are using this type of toilet to solve their defecation problem. It’s amazing how far behind they are!) After the toilet is full of excrement, it needs to be cleaned every day. So every morning, workers push the excrement box, call it along the street or into the alley, and go door to door to clean up the excrement. As this kind of workers walked, they shouted in a drawn-out voice: "Come out!" Hasan grew up in Shanghai, so why couldn't he understand the reason, he shouted: "What if you lose?" Originally, these two old men were about to quarrel. The matter had nothing to do with me, Wesley. It had nothing to do with it. They were arguing in the south of France, and I was tens of thousands of kilometers away. Will jump a bit. But there are such absurd things in the world. People say that the city gate caught fire and the fish in the pond were affected. The pond must be close to the city gate. I was dragged in even though I was thousands of miles away. ! The absurdity was initiated by Boss Bai in advance. When Hasan asked him what he would lose if he lost, the question made sense, because the bet he took out was a large cruise ship costing 200 million pounds! Old Bai naturally does not have as much money as Hasan, but he is not inferior either. After drinking three glasses of wine in a leisurely manner, he reached out and slapped his own thigh hard, and shouted, "Yes! If within 80 days If I can't find you on that boat, I will call my son-in-law Wesley to accompany you for eighty days!" This kind of "bet" is simply ridiculous, and it's hard for the boss to figure it out. What's even more absurd is that when Hasan heard this, he actually yelled, stretched out his hand and slapped his thigh hard, and immediately reached out to Boss Bai, and Boss Bai also extended his hand. The two of them didn't "high five" , but each stretched out their little fingers and hooked a sentence vigorously—in order to express their determination to cooperate, children in Shanghai have this kind of gesture of hooking their fingers. role. After the two made up their minds, they didn't mention it anymore. They had a drink and talked about the happy things that happened in those years. Boss Bai mentioned the strange man Zhuo Changgen—the descendant of the Qin Dynasty, which aroused Hasan's great interest. But Boss Bai only started with an opening, and said, "Let Wesley tell you about the next thing!" Then until it was dark, Boss Bai told Hasan some nonsense things, for example, a large piece of charcoal was not willing to exchange until the volume of gold, it turned out that there was a ghost in the charcoal, or the elevator that entered the building, The elevator went straight up and never stopped.Another example is that a person always has the same dream, and the dream is actually his previous life, and everyone's behavior, whether good or bad, is recorded by the energy generated by this person's brain activity, and will be recorded at that time. There is retribution and the like. Boss Bai only said the beginning of every strange thing, and then said: "Wesley will tell you the details!" What Boss Bai said were some of my many adventures, but all of them were full of twists and turns. It turns out that Hasan's biggest hobby is listening to all kinds of weird and twisted, weird and weird stories. He can forget to sleep and eat, dance, and get endless fun from it. A person of Hasan's status has everything in his life, and his own experience is also rich and inexplicable. It is not easy to have a story that can attract him. Hasan knew from Boss Bai that I had many strange and inexplicable encounters, and had long wanted to "hire him with a lot of money" to tell stories for him, and proposed to Boss Bai several times. Boss Bai knew my temper and would never agree, so he never even mentioned it to me. He faltered every time and dismissed him perfunctorily, but he always revealed a little bit of my experience for Hasan to listen to. It's hard to feel itchy, and I want to know what's going on. Afterwards, Boss Bai was still very proud. He raised his head and laughed loudly. He pointed at Bai Su and me and said, "Jinger is old and spicy. You children, learn a little bit! I have been telling Hasan Wesley's adventure was just playing a game of chess, how could it be useful? Hmph, if I hadn't played a game of chess there, which made Hassan very impressed with Wesley, why would I ask Wesley to accompany him for eighty years? God, he accepted it immediately?" If it was the second person, I would have lost my face, but the other party is Boss Bai, so what can I say!Bai Su pointed at my back heavily, and I said repeatedly: "Yes! Yes! You old man is far-sighted!" Later, Bai Su scolded me: "I can't see that you are so hypocritical, even saying 'yes' twice is enough, what are you talking about 'foresight'!" The knowledge of how to deal with the world is so great, but young children really have to learn it! Boss Bai made a bet with Hassan and regarded me as a bet. I only found out later that Boss Bai and Hassan didn’t tell me when they boarded the ship together—he thought rightly, and he didn’t need to tell me at all, because a cruise ship No matter how old you are, with eighty days, it should be no difficulty to find someone you have known since you were young, not to mention that they discussed many details later, just like one party is not allowed to wear makeup or be found out about his hiding place. not come out.The other party shall not threaten the crew with violence to disclose information or the like. The two old people, unless they don't play, once they get excited, they play very seriously. A round-the-world trip in 80 days, the starting point of each trip is the port of Marseilles in France. With Hassan's status, it is naturally impossible to arrange such a game.On the surface, Boss Bai stood still, as if nothing had happened, but he had already scouted out and made arrangements. He got quite a lot of information, which sounds staggering. All the design drawings of the large cruise ship are said to be the absolute secrets of the shipping company, but Boss Bai also has a way to get all the computer data out, and he is going to take it with him when he enters it. In the ship's small computer, that is to say, all the information Boss Bai has at hand is extremely rich. He only needs to press the keyboard, and everything about the cruise ship will appear on the fluorescent screen of the computer terminal, including the plan. Inside. Boss Bai also knew that on the night when the cruise ship was berthed in Marseille, all the crew members, more than 400 people in total, were entertained by Hassan, and Hassan booked a luxury hotel to entertain the crew.Before and after the banquet, Hassan and the senior crew members had secret talks. If Hasan wants to hide on the boat without being noticed, he naturally needs to rely on the cover of the crew. To eat, he also needs a certain degree of activity. Without the cover of the crew, it is very easy to be "lifted out" by Boss Bai.Therefore, he must have a very strict arrangement. Not to be outdone by future generations, Boss Bai found a Chinese-French man who served as the second-level steward on the ship as an insider. The detailed rules of the agreement between him and Hassan only said that the crew could not be threatened with violence, but they did not say that they could not be bought at a high price. Boss Bai wanted that People told Hassan's arrangement. But the man was dumbfounded, and what he said was beyond Boss Bai's expectation: "Mr. Hasan is hiding on the boat? I haven't heard of such a thing. If there is, I will know. I am responsible for all the supplies on the boat, haha Mr. Shan can't go without food for 80 days. Okay, I'll report to you as soon as I get on the boat!" For a while, Boss Bai couldn't tell whether what the man said was true or not. Anyway, for 80 days, in order to prevent Hasan from being cunning, such as not being on the ship at all, the two stayed on the deck until the ship left the shore. , Hasan waved goodbye to Boss Bai, and Boss Bai stayed on the deck for an extra hour so that Hasan could go and hide. Everything was no different from the hide-and-seek game played by ordinary children.