Chapter 048 Izakaya
At around seven o’clock in the evening, Masayoshi Kishimoto returned from Adachi District to Taito District. He and Miyazaki Ryui had arranged to meet inside a Japanese-style izakaya.
Miyazaki Ryui made good on his promise to buy drinks. Who let himself lose a bet by asking the boss to guess what the older man was doing at the office?
The two sat side by side in front of the dining table, with their own favorite eats in addition to small dishes such as mozuku, which they both liked to down their drinks.
“If that one uncle borrowed the money, what would he do to go?” Miyazaki Ryui said with that one thing that happened today still on his mind.
Masayoshi Kishimoto laughed a little and said, “What else would someone like that middle-aged uncle spend his money on? It’s just to go to a custom store to look for women, to play the pachinko machine inside the pachinko parlor, and to go bet on horses inside the racetrack.”
“Could it be, doesn’t he know that loan sharks are not allowed to borrow? This is tantamount to drinking hemlock to quench his thirst.” Miyazaki Ryui couldn’t understand at all why some people would be stupid enough to go to that extent Dao.
“That uncle has long since completely fallen, lost the ability to think seriously about things, and is mixing one day at a time. If he can’t make it on a certain day, he might be captured and controlled by the loan sharks, and then sell his body parts one by one to cover the debt.
After all, the value of selling him to the Russians to go to Kamchatka Peninsula as a fishing slave is already small. The Russians buy back fishing slaves who are young and strong.
After two years of working as an ox on a fishing boat, their bodies are basically ruined. Then, they would then waste and utilize them, and would directly throw them into the sea to be killed.
Before that, they must have bought the so-called high life accident insurance for them. After all, even if you are cheating the insurance company’s premiums, you have to buy it two years in advance before it can take effect after death.
According to the jargon of loan sharking, this is called gut-pulling. This is the dirty work that even loan shark practitioners are most reluctant to do, but have to do.
Who wouldn’t suffer losses for nothing? How will also want to do everything possible to maximize the recovery of losses? Not to mention that many loan sharks have gold masters behind them.
The real identities of some of these gold masters are various, and there is no lack of famous public figures among them. It is not convenient for them to stand in the foreground to make this kind of fast money, so they leave it to others to do the job.
Several loan sharks also had to pay interest to the upwardly mobile gold lender that was lower than what they lent out. Usually, it’s at least 15% per month as well.
If you come across a loan shark company with a cut-rate interest rate, that is to say, under various pretexts to come up with a 30% deduction of the handling fee. In fact, to get their hands on only 70%.
Interest is still 100% of that amount, not the 70% of the amount in hand. They are able to do to eat the man from beginning to end clean, not a bit left.
Men tend to end up like I told you earlier. As for women, they are just sold to work as ** customers in a custom store, where they have to take on a dozen or so people a day until their bodies are broken.
Or they are forced to make the kind of movie that everyone knows. Don’t think it’s all over. If a woman’s debt isn’t cleared, she’ll be sold down the chain of command.
In the end, she goes to the lowest level of places like the Mitani slum in Adachi ward, Tokyo, to make money from the homeless.” Masayoshi Kishimoto spoke eloquently as he held a glass of wine on top of his right hand, both eyes staring into the glass.
Miyazaki Ryui was completely dumbfounded. Before this, he himself had never heard of anything like this. Where would he have thought that the other side of society would be so dark?
All along, he had been the child of a normal middle-class family, following the most normal path of all, studying. He himself went to private schools from kindergarten to university.
After he graduated from Waseda University, even though he didn’t enter a large securities firm, it was quite good to be an official member of a medium-sized securities firm.
But as luck would have it, he was caught in the Asian financial turmoil, which led to the bankruptcy and closure of the securities firm he worked for. Then later on, it was experiencing all sorts of bad luck.
“Boss, you’re not making up stories to trick me, right?” Miyazaki Ryui really couldn’t believe that what the other party said could be true, saying.
“I used to be in the pachinko business. Although the pachinko business isn’t as dirty as the loan shark business, there are more or less connections in the shadows.
Any loan shark company also hopes that pachinko parlors will introduce people who want to borrow money to them, rather than to their peers.
After knowing each other for a long time and having more contacts, the loan shark practitioners will also talk to you about some things within their circle. In addition to them, there are professional scammers, collectively called crows in the jargon.
Newcomers are called white crows, and veterans are black crows. These crows also each have their own refinement of the division of labor. They have a lingo that a slip of the hand results in a broken hand.” Masayoshi Kishimoto said lightly.
“Hearing you say it like that, I simply feel like I used to live inside heaven. I will no longer complain that the heavens have been unfair to me.” Miyazaki Ryui said with great emotion.
“When people are desperate, they dare to do anything. If one’s head is one-dimensional, with less more comprehensive thinking, one will also become careless.
In the beginning, weren’t you also prepared to hang yourself from a crooked-necked cherry tree in Ueno Park? Nowadays, don’t you feel especially ridiculous when you think of that stupid thing you once did?” Masayoshi Kishimoto said in a salty manner.
Miyazaki Ryui did not deny it at all, and took the initiative to pick up the bottle of wine placed in front of him and said, “Thanks to Boss saving me at that time. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have been able to drink with you tonight.”
Masayoshi Kishimoto tilted his head and gave the sake inside the glass a clean drink. He turned sideways and handed the empty glass out slightly, openly accepting the other party’s pouring of wine for himself.
“Our company is also just starting out, and I haven’t given you any specific task targets, so don’t put too much pressure on yourself.” Masayoshi Kishimoto said seriously.
The more Miyazaki Ryui saw the other party being so tolerant, the more he became jittery in his heart, and even felt a little guilty. If he himself still couldn’t make some achievements, he would really be ashamed of Kishimoto Masayoshi.
“Boss, according to reason, Brother Pachinko is also considered a legitimate and righteous business. Why don’t you continue with it, but come to be a regular investment company?” Miyazaki Ryui asked thoughtfully.
“It’s precisely because I’ve experienced too much of the dark side of society in the past that is why I finally had a clear conscience. A gentleman loves money, and there is a way to take it.” Masayoshi Kishimoto said with a particularly meaningful smile.
Miyazaki Ryui said in a serious manner, “Listening to a gentleman is better than reading ten years of books. In the past, I only saw my own not-so-easy, but I couldn’t see others’ not-so-easy. In fact, it’s not easy for anyone to live.”