Chapter 57: Wei Xiangzuo Dines

In the private room.

Seeing the guest had arrived, Yu Mingyuan immediately stood up to welcome him: "Brother Wei, thank you for sparing our lives at the cargo yard yesterday."

Indeed, the arrival was Wei Xiangzuo, the sitting hall of the Zha'nan dock gang. Yu Mingyuan was able to invite him today through the introduction of a friend from Zone One who had some favors with Wei Xiangzuo.

"You're overstating it," Wei Xiangzuo shook hands with Yu Mingyuan and replied concisely: "I left yesterday because I didn't know the goods had been hijacked by Xu Hu before. It can't be called sparing your lives."

"Hehe, Brother Wei is straightforward. Come, please sit!" Yu Mingyuan found a way to save face and gestured for the other to take the guest seat.

Su Tianyu sized up this burly man with a stern face, and from the host's position, helped set out his bowl and chopsticks and poured white liquor.

"I've heard about Brother Wei's reputation at the docks before, but I've never..." Yu Mingyuan was about to use some business drinking etiquette to flatter the other.

Wei Xiangzuo directly waved his hand casually and replied, looking at the dishes on the table: "We're here to eat, not to flatter each other. Boss Yu, if you have something to say, just say it directly. With Old Xu's connection, if it's something I can do, I'll definitely do it. That's what I owe him."

Seeing the other being so direct, Yu Mingyuan adjusted his approach and stopped beating around the bush: "Brother Wei, then I'll speak frankly. The dock gang and port connections have come to this state with our company now, which will definitely affect the sea business. So now I can only find my own way out. I want to ask if there's any possibility of cooperation between us."

Wei Xiangzuo picked up his chopsticks and ate the dishes on the table without ceremony, chuckling as he replied: "Do you want to cooperate with the dock gang, or with me?"

"Of course, I want to cooperate with you!" Yu Mingyuan replied with a smile.

"That's impossible," Wei Xiangzuo's eating manner was very rough, two mouthfuls of fish meat down his throat, his mouth corners already full of oil. "Bypassing the dock gang to play alone, that's definitely not okay."

"I'll give you a 40% profit, which is 10% more than Tang Baiqing got before," Yu Mingyuan continued. "You don't need to do the work, you just need to be responsible for the sea connections and ensure the goods land safely."

"It's not about that," Wei Xiangzuo shook his head.

Yu Mingyuan looked at his expression and pondered for a while before saying: "The dock gang is an organized group, with many rules inside. If you're willing to cooperate with me, and if you want to become the gang leader and enter the general union in the future, I can also find ways for you, give you money and connections support."

"Hehe!" Hearing this, Wei Xiangzuo turned to look at Yu Mingyuan and smiled: "If you can offer me such a high price, why can't you give in to Xu Hu? If you give him 40% profit and he doesn't even need to do the work, I believe he would forget yesterday's unpleasantness in a minute."

"No, this is different," Yu Mingyuan waved his hand. "When Xu Hu negotiates with me, he wants to suppress me to make money. Today he might ask for 40%, tomorrow he could ask for 60%. And he wants me to kick out the dirty gang, which means he's making decisions for me. Doing business like this is definitely something I can't accept."

"That makes sense," Wei Xiangzuo picked up a piece of fish. "But it's still not possible, I can't cooperate with you."

Yu Mingyuan looked at him: "Hehe, Brother Wei, are you perhaps not trusting my character?"

"What do you mean by that?"

"...As far as I know, you and Xu Hu also have different ideas on some matters in the dock gang," Yu Mingyuan said tactfully. "Your resistance to me, isn't it just raising the price for Xu Hu? Not taking a 40% profit, but protecting Xu Hu's face, this... I can't quite understand."

Wei Xiangzuo looked at the dishes on the table, pointing with his chopsticks as he said: "Look at these dishes on the table. There are vegetarian ones, meat ones, clear soups, and dry pot dishes. But if you take any one of them out, no matter how high the quality of the dish, it can't be called a feast! The dock gang may have many branches and many people, with some internal chaos, but when it comes together, it can be called the dock gang. The government gives us face, the foreigners give us face, customs, maritime police, and the police bureau also have to give us face. Why is that? It's simple, just four words: strength in numbers!"

Hearing this, Yu Mingyuan was speechless.

"I don't particularly like how Xu Hu does things, but he and I have paid respects to the same master, we're sworn brothers who recognized the same teacher. You two have started fighting, and if I then take over the business, wouldn't that be like stabbing Xu Hu in the back, inciting internal strife in the dock gang?" Wei Xiangzuo put down his chopsticks and turned to look at Yu Mingyuan, asking in return.

"Brother Wei, I think..."

"Little Yu, from my personal perspective, I don't think this matter needs to be fought to the death," Wei Xiangzuo interrupted Yu Mingyuan and continued in a low voice: "...You should still go talk to Xu Hu. If you two can reach some kind of consensus, I'm willing to mediate in the middle. You move one batch of goods, give the dock gang a cut of the money once, we all put away our knives, make money harmoniously, and let the brothers below live a bit better."

Hearing this, Yu Mingyuan knew he couldn't persuade Wei Xiangzuo.

"Well then," Wei Xiangzuo stood up. "I'll be going now."

As he finished speaking, Wei Xiangzuo walked out alone, and Yu Mingyuan frowned, unable to help asking: "What if I can't come to terms with Xu Hu?"

Wei Xiangzuo turned back and replied without hesitation: "We make our living from the port. If you cross the line and don't pay, that's definitely not okay."

With that, Wei Xiangzuo pushed the door and left.

Yu Mingyuan loosened his collar and cursed helplessly: "Damn it, we've run into a stubborn one!"

"Yes," Su Tianyu agreed verbally, but in his heart, he had some different views on Wei Xiangzuo as a person.

The negotiation had failed, and Yu Mingyuan was in a bad mood. He had no appetite for the food on the table and grabbed his coat, heading for the door.

Su Tianyu found the manager to pay the bill, but was told that Wei Xiangzuo had already paid for it.

......

Going through the internal channels of the dock gang was clearly not going to work, so in the next few days, Su Tianyu and Yu Mingyuan were busy trying to find new official connections, but with little effect. Because during these days, Xu Hu had done nothing but deliver various gifts to cultivate relationships with both the underworld and official sides of the port, giving Yu Mingyuan no chance to cut in.

The business done at sea was now blocked at the port.

With no goods coming in, the company had nothing to do, so Mingyuan Company was almost in a desperate situation.

However, surprisingly, when the company was facing bankruptcy, Yu Mingyuan became less anxious and more at ease, because the worst outcome had already appeared.

This day at noon.

Su Tianyu, Su Tianbei, Bai Hongbo, and Kong Zhenghui came to the Yu family home, intending to talk to him, because in the past few days Su Tianyu had been inquiring a lot about port matters, and he already had some ideas in mind.

As soon as they entered the Yu family villa, Bai Hongbo saw An Qiqi and six or seven other girls sitting by the swimming pool chatting.

The sky was brilliantly sunny, the courtyard had mountains and water, lush greenery, and a gentle breeze was blowing. A group of girls sat on the lawn eating snacks and cold dishes, chatting and sketching. The scene was breathtakingly beautiful.

Seeing this scene, Bai Hongbo immediately composed a poem: "Small bridge flowing water, wind to the north, seven beauties, eating ham, if you ask where brother is beautiful, I want to reach out and touch thighs."

This poem was improvised, completely without any warning, so after hearing it, the other three were stunned on the spot.

"...You are... really fucking... talented!" Su Tianbei was completely convinced.