Very Pure and Ambiguous: The Prequel

VPAATP - V4C158 – Gentlemen, We Need To Talk!

Since Yang Mei was traveling, it was very hard to pinpoint her whereabouts. I guessed that it will take quite some effort to do that! As it stood, the difficulty also increased since she didn’t have a fixed place of residence!

Place of residence? She should also be living in a hotel just like me. That is to say, the place where she spends most of her time every day must be a hotel! Then, if we could find the hotel where Yang Mei was staying, we could find where Yang Mei herself was!

And there was also the fact that when someone booked a room in a hotel, they needed to provide some identification! In other words, if I went to every hotel and inquired, I might be able to find Yang Mei! {TL: If only the author hadn’t forgotten about Spiritual Sense.}

Thinking this, I quickly told Mark to accompany me to the nearby hotels. Mark didn’t understand my intentions at first, but he still took me to the hotels nearby.

The hotel wasn’t as luxurious as the one I stayed in, but it was clean and comfortable. When I arrived at the reception, I asked the lady there, “Hello, I wanted to ask if there is a family of three Chinese guests staying in your hotel?”

“Who are you?” Asked the receptionist.

“I am their friend,” I didn’t think much and hastily answered.

“Sorry, since you are not the police, you do not have the right to investigate. I cannot answer your query,” the Caucasian receptionist replied.

“I have really urgent matter, can you not bend the rules a bit?” I put several money notes on the reception desk.

“Sorry, selling the privacy of the guest will make me lose my job! Please leave!” The receptionist said with a blank expression.

Only now did Mark understood what I wanted to do! Seeing the result before him, Mark shook his head, took the notes from the desk, apologized to the receptionist, and pulled me out of the hotel. After coming out, he said to me, “Only now did I realized what you wanted to do! But, what you did was the wrong method!”

“What’s wrong? Is there any issue?” I had not thought that that Caucasian receptionist would be that stubborn.

“Of course, there is an issue. Although people here love money, they all have their own rules and bottom lines, they will not accept black money or bribes like this. The hotels have regulations, they don’t allow anyone to disclose any information about their guests! Once anyone violated the regulations, they will be punished severely! There’s even a chance of the business closing permanently!” Mark answered while shaking his head.

“There are rules like that!” Only now did I realize the reason behind the receptionist’s attitude, “Then, how was Luke able to find me at the hotel that I am staying in?”

“Hehe, he knew your room number and name that he told to the reception and asked them to contact you and inquire if you were willing to meet him!” Mark said, “If one doesn’t know the room number of the opposite party, there’s no way to meet them through the hotel reception!”

After listening to his words, I could only sigh. For a capitalist country, there were quite a few rules here! It seems that this method wasn’t going to work!

While we were about to leave, a few men in black suits pushed open the door of the hotel and walked in. After they said a few words to the young girl at the reception, the receptionist quickly took the phone and dialed a number with a smile. After that, she invited those few men to the rest area.

“Who are they?” I asked casually.

“They are the local gangsters, our taxi companies have to pay them protection money regularly!” Mark said.

“Mafia?” I knew that Italy had a famous organization that they called Mafia.

“Of course not. The Mafia will never do stuff like this, only small gangsters will go around collecting protection money!” Mark shook his head.

“Small gangs can also take protection money? Do you also pay them on time?” I asked strangely.

“Don’t look at them as just a small gang, no one dares not listen to them! These sort of people can do anything; smash things, set fire to anything, cause havoc, and even the police can’t deal with them! There’s nothing wrong with spending some money to buy peace!” Mark said with a bitter smile, “This has already become a habit!”

As we were talking, we saw a middle-aged man in a suit and tie rushing past. After a few words from the men in black, he gave them a bulging bag. The men in black opened the bag, looked inside and then nodded with satisfaction. The several men got up, ready to leave. The middle-aged man hastily saw them off respectfully.

I thought of something and suddenly said to Mark, “Let’s go in, let’s have a look at them!”

“Have a look at them? They are gangsters you know!” Mark immediately tried to stop me.

“It doesn’t matter who they are!” I patted Marks shoulder with a smile and then walked towards the men in black. Gangsters? I was also the Big Boss of the Underworld now.

Mark was helpless and could only follow me inside.

“Gentlemen, please hold on. We need to talk!” I stood before the several gangsters and said to them.

The several men in black stared at me and said, “Who are you? What do you want?”

“You don’t know me, nor do I know you,” I said with a smile, “But I want to discuss business with you now!”

“Business? What business?” The leader of the gangsters looked at me and asked coldly.

“I wonder what your position in your gang is, mind introducing yourself?” I naturally had to confirm the status of the man before me. If he was just the lowest level member, I would only be wasting my time in vain.

“I am the chieftain in this area. If there is something then hurry up and spit it out,” the man said impatiently.

“Good, so what are you called? Should we change the place to chat?” I didn’t care about his manners.

“You can call me Curry. Come along with me, but remember, if I found out that you are playing with us, you better be ready for a bashing!” Curry looked at me coldly.

“Lead the way,” I said faintly. As for who will get bashed, that is uncertain. If you properly work for me, I will give you the corresponding money for that. But if you try to act hard, don’t blame me for being impolite at that time.

I followed behind him and entered a bar in an alley. Mark was very reluctant to go, but he still shook his head and followed after me. It was because of his current actions that he was going to become a prestigious man in Venice in the days to come.

There was some inexplicable Italian written all around the bar, I didn’t understand what it meant. But looking at the situation, the bar should be the stronghold of their gang. After Curry entered a separate room, he pointed towards a sofa and said, “Sit down and speak what you want.”

I wasn’t very appreciative of this cold hospitality from Curry, no wonder they were just a small gang. They seemed to be stupid enough to not understand the diversity of the world and how they were supposed to get business even when it was sent to their doors!

“I want you to find someone for me!” I told him what I wanted.

“Find someone? Haha!” Curry started laughing after listening to me, “What kind of people do you think we are? Private detectives or police? Find someone? How ridiculous!”

“Do you really think it is ridiculous?” I looked at Curry and wondered just how could someone so stupid be the chieftain of a gang?

“Obviously, it’s ridiculous. Did you actually come here to ask gangsters to help you find a person? No one will not laugh after hearing those words!” Curry ridiculed my words unscrupulously.