Golden Scale [EN]: Chapter 118

## The Hall of Desire

A middle-aged woman in a black head waiter uniform greeted them at the entrance. “Minister Fang, long time no see. You’re early.”

“Isn’t the president here yet?” Fang Jie glanced at his watch. It wasn’t 7:00 PM yet, so he was indeed early, but his expression wasn’t as respectful as it usually was towards the Japanese. He seemed very arrogant, using the tone of a master speaking to a subordinate.

“Not yet, but your room is ready. Would you like to go there now, or would you like to watch the performances outside first?”

“What do you think?” Fang Jie looked at the man beside him.

“What’s so interesting about striptease? Let’s go now.” Hou Longtao didn’t like this crowded environment.

“To a private room.”

“Okay. You, come here,” the head waiter turned and called out to a bunny girl in pink. “Take these two gentlemen to the Rising Dragon Pavilion.”

“Yes, this way, please.” The bunny girl beckoned, summoning two black-clad bunny girls. The three of them led the two men deep into the venue, through a quiet corridor, and opened one of eight doors spaced far apart. A piece of white jade was inlaid next to the door, with the three characters “Rising Dragon Pavilion” engraved on it. “Please come in.”

Hou Longtao didn’t stand on ceremony and entered the room first. The space inside was over sixty square meters [approximately 645 square feet]. In addition to advanced audio-visual equipment, it was furnished with classical Chinese wooden furniture. The shelves were filled with antiques and jade artifacts, and the lighting came from modified palace lanterns. A huge ink painting of a rising dragon hung on the wall, over three meters long and two meters wide [approximately 10 feet by 6.5 feet].

The two black-clad bunny girls helped the men take off their coats and hung them on the rack, then respectfully retreated. The pink-clad bunny girl stayed behind to continue serving. “Gentlemen, please make yourselves comfortable. Is there anything you need right now?”

“Longtao, would you like something to drink? Beer? Liquor? Japanese sake?” Fang Jie opened a large cabinet door with practiced ease, revealing a bar and a refrigerator.

“No need,” Hou Longtao sat down on a master’s chair in the main seat. “I don’t drink.”

“There are also soft drinks, or tea, but I’d have to ask her to get it.”

“Do you have Longjing tea from the Tiger Spring?” As soon as tea was mentioned, Hou Longtao thought of his meeting with Gu Quan Zhi, but he didn’t know how to say it in Japanese, so he spoke in Chinese. Longjing tea [Dragon Well tea] is a famous variety of green tea from Hangzhou, China, and Tiger Spring is a source of high-quality water known for brewing tea.

Fang Jie repeated it to the bunny girl, not as a question, but as a direct order.

“Yes,” the bunny girl replied, but didn’t seem to be leaving. “Anything else?”

“No, that’s all.”

“I meant anything else.”

“I know what you’re asking, no need,” Fang Jie waved his hand. “I’m a regular here.”

Hou Longtao lit a cigarette. He could guess why he had been invited here today. It was probably because of what he had said on the plane last time. “What kind of place is this? A nightclub?”

“This is a private club managed by the Honda presidents of each generation, called the Hall of Desire,” Fang Jie sat down on another master’s chair on the other side of the square table. “The people who can enter here are either personal friends of our president, or tycoons, financial groups, and government officials. They all have to have a very high social status.”

“Is that so?”

“You don’t believe me?” Fang Jie noticed that Hou Longtao’s expression was a little off.

“Go out and ask yourself. Those junior members outside either have tens of millions of dollars, or are political figures in Tokyo. Not to mention the intermediate and senior members, CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, heads of major banks, members of parliament, you name it.”

“Yes, yes, I believe you.”

“Hey, why don’t you believe me?”

“With so many political figures and bosses as friends, why does President Fukui still need me? Don’t give me that investor confidence crap. If you could easily get money from the Bank of Japan or even the government, you could also increase investor confidence. Although it might not be as big as the confidence given by IIC, at least it’s risk-free, less troublesome, and you don’t need to call me, a nobody.”

“Hehe, you’re not a nobody…”

“Let’s get straight to the point.” Hou Longtao also wanted to get a feel for the situation before the negotiation. Anyway, he had a trump card in his hand, and he had the right not to beat around the bush. If the other party couldn’t give him an answer that he considered reasonable, he could threaten them again.

“This… this isn’t good.” Fang Jie’s expression was troubled.

“If you don’t tell me the truth, I’ll really make things difficult for Honda during the negotiation. You know, I can be a bit of a rascal sometimes.”

“Well… you want me to tell you everything… I definitely didn’t leak the news.”

“Don’t worry, it wasn’t you.”

“To be honest, the Japanese understanding of power is not essentially different from that of the Chinese,” Fang Jie also lit a cigarette. “On the surface, there may not be such obvious collusion between officials and businessmen, but in secret, they play it even more ruthlessly than we Chinese do.”

“You already said that just now.”

“Yes, yes, then you should also understand that we are definitely not the only ones doing this. This time, after our accident, several other companies saw an opportunity to completely eliminate us. They even formed a united front, mobilizing all the power in their hands to prevent us from turning the tables through various channels. Now…”

The pink bunny girl brought in tea and snacks, and after they left, Fang Jie continued, “Our relationship alone cannot compete with all the other companies. Our relationship also cannot and is unwilling to fight against ten enemies. No Japanese bank dares to lend us money, let alone direct government funding.”

“Then what’s the use of those people outside? They don’t spend money here, do they? Isn’t that a waste?”

“You can’t put it that way. This time, apart from you, everyone else is powerless. We can’t break off relations with them just because of this. If you help us get through this hurdle, there will naturally be times when we need them in the future.”

“You’re so confident that I’ll help you?”

“I think you will.”

The two men smiled at each other, each with their own agenda.

Hou Longtao didn’t particularly doubt the truthfulness of the information Fang Jie gave him, because it was very reasonable, but he couldn’t understand why he would reveal it so easily. He had been in business for so many years, he shouldn’t make such a low-level mistake. This was clearly giving him the freedom to make harsh demands during the negotiation.

Of course, Fang Jie wouldn’t be so useless. He hoped that the other party would make harsh demands during the negotiation, the harsher the better, preferably so harsh that Honda couldn’t accept anything. He had never really regarded Hou Longtao as an opponent in the business world.

At least not an opponent at the same level as himself.

Hou Longtao looked at his watch. “Does President Fukui have a habit of being late?”

“Haha, maybe he’s stuck in traffic. Are you bored waiting? We can find some fun ourselves first.” Fang Jie stood up, picked up the remote control, and turned on the huge TV. The channel was set to “1”. The screen showed a large room with a circle of sofas around it, filled with women in Japanese school uniforms. “Are you interested in playing with schoolgirls?” He moved his finger, and the channel changed to “2”. The women inside were wearing professional attire. “We can also do female teachers.” He kept changing the channels. “OLs [Office Ladies], flight attendants, housewives, doctors, nurses, and of course, those bunny girls outside, you can call in whoever you want, even the head waiter is fine.”

Being fanned by the other party with such passion, Hou Longtao really felt a little hot, but not so hot that he would abandon his principles and beliefs. He took a big sip of tea. “No matter what clothes prostitutes wear, or what they pretend to be, they are still prostitutes. I’m not interested in prostitutes.”

“They’re not prostitutes. Whatever uniform they’re wearing now, that’s what they really do. Those students are really students. The youngest are only in middle school, not even thirteen years old. They just come here at night to earn some extra money. They’re all top-quality goods that have been carefully selected.”

“Not prostitutes? Aren’t they exchanging their bodies for money? Are they? Then they are prostitutes. Anyway, I’m not interested.” Hou Longtao looked at his watch again. He really didn’t know if the Japanese were out of their minds, using these low-class things to pass the time. “Is President Fukui coming or not?”

“Coming, coming, of course he’s coming.” Fang Jie saw that the other party was already a little impatient, and quickly took out his phone and sent a few messages. “The president is already at the door, he’ll be here soon.”

Less than five minutes later, Fukui Ikuo walked in with his personal assistant. “I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry, I was stuck in traffic on the way.”

Hou Longtao wasn’t satisfied with the other party’s explanation. It was clear that he had arrived long ago, but was hiding and not coming out, wanting to see if he could be bought with favors. “President Fukui invited me here, wouldn’t it be for some special purpose?”

“How could that be?” Fukui Ikuo sat down on the master’s chair that Fang Jie had vacated. “Today, we’re only here to talk about personal friendship, not business.”

With this sentence, Hou Longtao was even more certain that the other party was going to give him a gift. He wanted to see what good things they could come up with. “That’s the best. Look, it’s almost noon, and I haven’t eaten yet. I can’t do anything on an empty stomach.”

“That makes sense,” Fukui Ikuo nodded to his assistant. “Today, we have prepared our Japanese specialties for you.”

“Sashimi? Rice balls?” Hou Longtao frowned. He really didn’t give the host much face. “I don’t really like to eat those.”

“I believe you will love it today.”

The door opened, and four black-clad bunny girls pushed in a large wheeled board. The board was filled with various foods and seasonings, and in the middle lay a naked woman, her body also covered with food.

“This is ‘human sushi’, right?” Hou Longtao stood up and walked around the board, discovering that the woman was constantly giving him flirtatious smiles. He felt very uncomfortable in his heart, and kept cursing, “Perverted, cheap, so damn cheap, why are some women so cheap?” He thought of a report about Chinese female students in Japan doing “human sushi”, which also recorded the tragic experiences of the people involved. But who was to blame for that? If you didn’t have money to live in Japan, what was wrong with returning to China? With just your foreign language skills, you could live a good life. In the end, it was still your own cheapness in your bones.

“Mr. Hou also knows about it?”

“It’s infamous, it’s hard not to know about it, humph.” Anyone could see that Hou Longtao had a resistance to, or even a strong aversion to, this invention that Japanese men were so proud of.

Fukui Ikuo was also quite cultivated, and didn’t show a trace of displeasure. If he couldn’t even do this, he wouldn’t be qualified to be the head of Honda. Moreover, he was very good at going with the flow. He waved his hand, signaling the bunny girls to remove the “human sushi”. “Alas, today’s preparations were really inadequate, and there was no other dinner prepared. But I can’t let you come here for nothing. How about this, I’ll give you a small gift as an apology.”

“The main course is finally coming.” Hou Longtao knew what was going on in his heart, but he didn’t relax his mouth. “No need, President Fukui is too polite.”

“How can that be? I’m just doing my best as a host, otherwise I won’t have any face left. Come, come,” this time Fukui Ikuo didn’t give the other party a chance to refuse, and directly grabbed Hou Longtao’s hand, pulling him to sit down on a wooden bed chair. “I guarantee you won’t be able to refuse my gift.”

Fang Jie walked outside the door and clapped his hands, then returned to the room and adjusted the lights to be slightly softer.

The corridor was carpeted, and you couldn’t hear the sound of footsteps. Less than a minute later, two identical long-haired beauties walked in one after the other. They stood in the center of the room, separated to the left and right, with sweet smiles on their faces, looking at Hou Longtao very charmingly but not lewdly.

These two women were the race queens he had seen at the Suzuki Circuit, but their clothes were different. The one on the left was wearing a black, white-trimmed, off-the-shoulder cheongsam [a traditional Chinese dress], outlining the curves of her upper body to the fullest, with an unusually full chest. A white rising dragon with bared fangs and claws was embroidered in the center of the front. Her arms were covered in black tight sleeves, with white lace at the ends. Two middle fingers were threaded through the gold rings in front of the sleeves. Although the hem of the cheongsam was very long, almost reaching her ankles, the slits on both sides went all the way up to her waist. Due to her standing posture, with one leg straight and the other slightly bent inward, her plump thighs, wrapped in transparent silk stockings, were elegantly exposed. She was wearing black patent leather high heels.

The other woman was wearing exactly the same thing as the one on the left, except that the black and white were reversed. The visual impact of the two together was definitely top-notch.

Hou Longtao slowly took out a cigarette. Was this the gift that Honda had prepared for him? To be honest, he was really disappointed. In fact, judging from Fang Jie’s performance that day, he had already thought on some level that this scene would happen today, but when it really happened, he was still very disappointed. There were not many women who could attract him from the outside, but when he met two, they were still cheap prostitutes.

“Don’t be silly,” Fukui Ikuo beckoned to the women. “Aren’t you going to pay your respects to your new master?”

“Yes.” The two women agreed, and took two steps forward in unison, kneeling on one knee at the same time, resting their left arms on their thighs, and holding Hou Longtao’s hand with their right hand, kissing the back of his hand with an extremely pious expression. “Master.”

“I can’t afford that, get up.” Hou Longtao pulled his hand back.

The two women were indeed obedient, but after getting up, they showed a troubled expression. “Is the master not satisfied with us?”

“President Fukui, you have repeatedly tempted me with prostitutes. Are you not taking me seriously? Or do you really not understand what kind of person I am?” Hou Longtao really felt insulted. “I’ll tell you clearly now, I’m not interested in prostitutes. If I want to spend money to buy women, I can afford it myself. How much do they cost for one night? I’ll give it to you, you don’t need to give me this favor.”

“Hahaha,” Fukui Ikuo was not angry but laughed. “Mr. Hou has misunderstood. These two women have never been touched by a man before.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean exactly what I said, but there are still some reasons for it. Do you want to hear them?”

“Let’s see.” Hou Longtao found it hard to imagine that these two beauties would be virgins.

“They are twins, you can see that, right?” It was Fang Jie who spoke. Of course, the big boss couldn’t do the job of telling stories. “The one in black is the older sister, named Hoshizuki Chiki. She only wears an earring on her right ear. The younger sister is named Hoshizuki Keiki, and the earring is worn on her left ear. Otherwise, no one can tell them apart.”

Hou Longtao glanced at the twin sisters next to him. Sure enough, as Fang Jie said, each of them only wore one earring. “That saves money.”

“Hehe, from the moment they were born, they were cultivated as Honda products…”

“What do you mean!?” Hou Longtao was really taken aback, staring at Chiki and Keiki with wide eyes. Could it be that they were two robots? He had seen Honda’s robots on TV, and although they were already very awesome, they couldn’t possibly reach the level of the Terminator. He grabbed Keiki, who was closer to him, and put his left arm around her slender waist, and pinched her thigh with his right hand. “This… this isn’t a real person?”

“Master…” Keiki didn’t resist, but her face turned red, and she seemed very embarrassed to hug the man’s neck.

“What are you saying?” Fang Jie didn’t understand what the other party meant. “Of course they are real people.”

As soon as Hou Longtao heard this, he pushed Keiki away again. “Then what do you mean by product?”

“It’s a long story. Twenty-five years ago, the president at the time started a secret project. After many hardships and six years, he found many third-generation mixed-race children from all over the world, including their mother. Then he found purebred people of various races, and then mated them, creating babies with half very pure blood and half very mixed blood.” Fang Jie nodded at the two beauties.

“Those babies became Honda’s property? They are not people?”

“Without Honda, they would not exist, and their parents were also financially compensated. Not all of the babies were kept, only the female babies were kept. You should also be able to understand that women would not be in power back then, and even now, there are not many women who are really in power.”

Hou Longtao immediately understood. “These women were positioned as gifts before they were even born? Are they willing to do this?”

“All human thoughts are instilled after birth. They have known since they were children that they will eventually become gifts to please men. That is the only purpose of survival they know. As for their fate after leaving Honda,” Fang Jie looked at Hou Longtao with a smile, “it depends on their own fortune.”

“They are eighteen, right?” Hou Longtao reached out and took the hands of the two girls, looking up at their clear eyes, and suddenly felt very sorry for them. Nothing in this world belonged to them, not even their own personalities.

“Yes, almost eighteen, but they are not just pretty faces.”

“Is that so?” Hou Longtao’s emotions were now swaying.

“Although they have spent most of these eighteen years isolated from the world, they have not wasted their time. These two sisters are especially smart, proficient in five languages: Japanese, English, Russian, German, and Chinese. They have a ninth-degree black belt in judo, and they have also been instructed by famous teachers in free combat and Muay Thai. Their swordsmanship and marksmanship are even first-class. By the way, do you know that we want to give them to you? Give them to you permanently. Their visas to China have already been processed.”

“I didn’t know at first, but I could guess it just now.” Hou Longtao had already decided to accept this gift.

“They are bodyguards during the day and sex slaves at night. We specially chose two with Chinese blood for you.”

“They are still virgins?”

“Not exactly, they have been strictly trained by advanced female trainers, and they can play any trick, but they have never seen a real man, let alone touched one.”

“Here is the document,” Fukui Ikuo’s assistant took out an agreement. He could see that the target was moved. “As long as Mr. Hou signs it, these two women will become your private property, protected by Japanese law, and they will be absolutely loyal to you. Our president has already signed it.”

“Sign?” Hou Longtao smiled. Black and white, this is solid evidence of bribery, and it must not be left behind. “Protected by Japanese law? What law? Are you kidding me?”

“We will not keep a copy of this document, it is only for your personal retention, Mr. Hou, please rest assured. As for legal issues, it is a secret decree signed by His Majesty the Emperor specifically for this project. When necessary, any court will secretly execute it.”

“I may not be able to afford to support them.”

“It doesn’t matter, you can let them support you. They have studied world trade and have multiple language skills. As long as you say the word, they will find a job, and they will not keep a penny for themselves.”

“Come sit down.” Hou Longtao patted the empty seat next to him.

Chiki and Keiki both showed happy expressions on their faces, sitting close to the man, leaning slightly, snuggling beside him…

Across from the Westin Hotel, there was another very tall building. Because it was long past closing time, there were not many people in the entire building.

A cleaner less than 1.7 meters tall [approximately 5 feet 7 inches] pushed a cleaning cart into an office on the fifteenth floor facing the road. This person was wearing a full set of uniforms, including a baseball cap-style work hat. The low brim of the hat covered the part above the mouth in shadow, but it could not hide the brilliance radiating from those bright eyes.

The cleaner took a rectangular cleaning box from the cart and placed it on an office desk near the window. After opening it, he removed the various cleaning supplies on the first layer. The second layer was a neatly fitted pile of gun parts.

The cleaner calmly assembled a sniper rifle with a night vision scope, and then attached a silencer to the barrel. Then, he opened a casement window on the large window, took a step back, raised the gun, adjusted the scope, and slowly swept across the front of the hotel.

After about ten minutes, two gray-white vans stopped under the curb in front of the hotel. Each car had five young Japanese men in black suits. Except for the two who were driving, each person was holding a gleaming Japanese sword, looking very murderous.

A “road race” bike stopped at a street corner not far away, and a unsheathed Japanese sword was also attached to the frame near the rear wheel.

All of this did not escape the eyes upstairs. The cleaner stuck out his tongue and slowly licked his tender lips…(The carp leaping over the dragon gate [a Chinese idiom meaning to achieve sudden success])