Manhattan Reborn 1978

Toyama City, Toyama Prefecture, in the central and western part of the island country.

midnight~

Marat Poyezhnev stood on the deck of a speedboat moored at the pier, flicked the cigarette butt from his fingertips, and blew out a long puff of smoke.

"Have you thought it through?"

"Ok!"

"Okay." A figure wearing a heavy black coat walked onto the gangplank connecting the speedboat to the dock and left.

Marat looked back at his figure disappearing into the night, and the nervousness he had been feeling slowly relaxed.

He walked into the speedboat's cockpit and checked its dashboard. After making sure everything was normal, he sat down and lit another cigarette.

About half an hour later.

A few beams of bright car lights cut through the darkness shrouding the dock.

The car that Kihara Nobunari was riding in parked in the open space next to the pier. He rolled down the window and shouted to Marat in the speedboat.

"are u there?"

"...Here!" came Marat's slightly dead voice.

"Turn on the lights."

"Ok!"

Kihara Nobunari saw Marat coming out of the cockpit of the boat, checked with a flashlight, then got out of the car and walked to the trunk, instructing the following men to take out four large boxes.

Under the light of the Marat speedboat, he looked at the boxes of goods that several people had moved onto the boat and asked Kihara Nobunari.

"You're late! Did you have a hard time on the road?"

"There is a small situation." Kihara Nobunari glanced at his watch and did not explain any more.

Marat frowned and looked at the payment boxes, wanting to open them and check them.

Kihara Nobunari was a little puzzled when he saw Marat's strange behavior, so he stepped forward and asked.

"These have already been counted..."

"I know."

"Then you want to...?"

Marat remained silent and did not answer. He quickly took out three large piles of cash from one of the boxes, pointed at them and whispered.

"That's three benefits we're going to give out."

"One is for the tanker captain who is about to see you, one is for him to take back and distribute among himself, and the last is for you and me to pay for various expenses."

"Huh?" Marat's explanation made Kihara Nobunari even more confused.

He looked down at the cash that was divided into three equal parts, squatted down and asked: "You want to lower the price, use this money...?"

"Correct!"

Marat turned around and left the speedboat consciously. Several people standing on the dock spoke in low voices.

"Now international oil prices have stopped rising as fast as they did some time ago and have entered a period of price fluctuations."

"Although I have reached a verbal agreement with the Nakhodka Commercial Port, we will conduct transactions in accordance with the fluctuations in international oil prices."

"But it is precisely this verbal agreement that everyone will abide by tacitly, and deliberately omits a little space for both of us to operate secretly~"

"So this transaction will be based on a price reduction of one meter per barrel of crude oil..." Marat pointed to a piece of cash closest to Kihara Nobunari.

"Take some out of here and give it to them."

"You decide how much each person gets!"

Kihara Nobunari looked at about half a million dollars in cash in silence. After thinking for a moment, he picked up a few wads and stood up and said.

"You put the rest of the money on the boat first."

“Be prepared!”

"If they don't agree to lower the price, you still have bargaining leverage."

"Haha~" Marat looked at Kihara Nobunari's cautious look and nodded with a smile.

Kihara Nobunari looked at him deeply, walked onto the dock in a few strides, and casually distributed a few wads of cash to his men.

Marat stood on the deck and saw the men who followed Kihara Nobunari. They all looked frightened after receiving the "bonus" and silently bowed to the two of them to express their gratitude.

Kihara Nobunari looked at them quietly, waited for more than ten seconds, and then said a few words.

Marat didn't understand what he said at all, so he put the cash back in and shouted to the dock.

"Let the driver of the boat come up~ I'm about to set off!"

"ok~"

. . .

ten minutes later.

The speedboat Marat was on disappeared into the dark sea in the distance.

Kihara Nobunari took out a cigarette from his pocket and was about to light it when he noticed that a clever subordinate quickly brought a lighter to him.

Kihara Nobunari tilted his head and glanced at him. After lighting his cigarette, he blew out a cloud of smoke and asked casually.

"what's your name?"

"Takimoto Kawaichi."

"Takimoto-kun?"

"Hi~"

"How long have you been working at Fuji Bank?"

"Three and a half years."

"But I'm not an official employee of the bank, just an..."

"Oh?" Kihara Nobunari turned his head with great interest, looked at the burly Takimoto Kawaichi, and asked.

"What's your education level?"

"Which university did you graduate from?"

Takimoto Kawaichi, who had short hair and was over 1.8 meters tall, pursed his lips, lowered his head, and whispered.

"I never went to college and dropped out of high school in my second year of high school."

Kihara Nobunari raised his eyebrows when he heard this unexpected answer, threw away half of his cigarette, glanced at the remaining people, and asked.

"Which one of you is from the Yasuda family?"

"..." No one answered.

Takimotogawa slowly clenched his fists with his hands hanging by his sides, slowly raised his head and answered with a louder voice.

"The driver who drives you is arranged by Mr. Toshiki Wada..."

"...!" The driver who was driving Kihara Nobunari just now suddenly looked at Takimoto Kawaichi's side face, then lowered his head, maintaining a respectful posture towards Kihara Nobunari.

"Haha~"

Kihara Nobunari patted Takimoto Kawaichi on the shoulder twice, walked slowly to the driver, and said with a smile.

"Please help me tell Toshiki Wada, I think tomorrow night..."

"No~ it's tonight!"

"I'd like to invite him to dinner tonight."

"He will decide the specific time and place."

"..." The silent driver bowed deeply and said that he would definitely tell him.

After seeing this, Kihara Nobunari nodded with satisfaction and waved to Takimotogawa.

"You can drive, right?"

"meeting!"

"You will be my driver."

"Hi!" Takimoto Chuanchi trotted excitedly to the side of the car and opened the door for Kihara Nobunari.

The remaining people looked at each other in silence, and finally their eyes fell on the "unlucky" driver.

Kihara Nobunari sat in the car and laughed silently after seeing the reactions of several people.

----

new York.

Afternoon~

Manhattan.

On the eighth floor of the Blue Crystal Hotel, in Professor Bartley's suite.

David tilted his head and looked at the little secretary Maggie sitting behind the typewriter, and said to his senior brother Joss Aaron with a smile.

"I really can't believe that Manfredi studied medicine?"

"Hahaha~" José Aaron, who was already in his early thirties this year, forgot to glance at his junior brother Manfred P. Villabane, nicknamed "Thick Glasses", and laughed.

"When I first heard about this, I was more surprised than you!"

"When he applied for Harvard University, what he wanted most was to enter a business school to study economics."

"But his family didn't think studying economics was suitable for him, so they directly helped him apply for medical school."

"so.."

"Let him tell his story himself~" Joss Aaron said, bringing the topic to his junior brother Manfred, asking him to seize this opportunity to communicate closely with David.

Manfred, who has curly brown hair and is tall and thin, wears a pair of thick myopia glasses that make him look very knowledgeable.

Although this was only the second time David had seen him, David could always see something in him. . The super academic will soon act as the "shadow" of the pig-eating-tiger drama. .

Sure enough~

Manfred, who was slightly introverted, faced Dawei's gaze, twisted his hands together in a "dodge" manner, and whispered.

"Because I am very sensitive to numbers by nature, I have loved collecting all kinds of digital information in life since I was a child, and classifying, sorting and analyzing them."

"It wasn't until I was in eighth grade that my math teacher said I was very talented in math and should be considered..."

Manfred's story is not as bloody and cliché as David imagined~

In the first half of his life, he was a "misfortunate" child whose thoughts, study and life were controlled by his parents' will.

Manfred's father was a construction engineer who loved his work to the point of going crazy.

His mother made all kinds of harsh demands on her second son, Manfred, which made David feel even more uncomfortable. .

However, this is also a special way for the "Kochi" family chicken baby. David does not want to comment too much on this, let alone tell Manfred ~ Where there is oppression, there is resistance!

However~

Bob Rockefeller, who was sitting next to David and was specially called by Professor Bartlet, couldn't help but sigh after hearing Manfred telling his story.

"Your mother clearly knows that you have been suffering from haemorrhage since you were a child, so she still lets you apply for medical school?"

"This is too..."

"Ahem!" David coughed lightly, reached out and patted the outspoken Bob, deliberately teasing him.

"My mother has told me since I was little that only obedient children will have sweets!"

"Any candy?"

"Uh..." Bob blinked and looked at Manfred who lowered his head. He felt that he had said the wrong thing again, so he closed his mouth in embarrassment. .

Joss Aaron watched the "interaction" between the three people quietly, wondering how David would break the awkward atmosphere in front of him.

David asked in a very casual manner, as if he was "teaching" Bob.

"Come on, let me ask you!"

"Why, even though some people have proven the Theory of Evolution with various archaeological discoveries and facts, there are still people who question its correctness?"

"Um... I don't know." Bob seemed to be smarter in an instant and shook his head.

David looked at Joss Aaron and Manfred and smiled: "Because, people only believe the truth they want to believe, and are not willing to waste time thinking about its rationality or questioning it."

"It has been more than a hundred years since Darwin's book "The Origin of Species" was published."

"But there are still countless people who believe that creationism is the only correct one..."

"Manfredi, you should have learned this in school~"

"The Origin of Species not only ushered in a new era in the history of biological development, but also allowed the idea of ​​evolution to penetrate into all fields of natural science."

"It also caused a huge revolution in the entire human mind and had a broad and far-reaching impact on the course of world history."

"Darwin put forward influential research ideas such as natural selection, survival of the fittest, and genetic variation in the book, and used a large amount of data to prove that living things were not created by God, but were created by inheritance, variation, survival struggle, and natural selection. Medium, from simple to complex, from low to high, constantly developing and changing.”

"This change is the inevitable result of the internal contradictions and struggles of living creatures in nature."

"It is also a catalyst that continuously stimulates biological evolution and genetic variation!"

After David finished speaking, he deliberately looked at Joss Aaron, smiled and nodded.

Then he continued: "I once met a very interesting person in the New York Public Library."

"He went to the library not to find books that he was interested in, but to find reliable historical basis for the review article he was about to publish in the newspaper."

"The book he is looking for is the famous book "Social Darwinism in American Thought" (English name: "Social Darwinism in American Thought") published in 1955 by Columbia University history professor Richard Hofstadter."

"Professor Hofstadter's book won the Pulitzer Prize the following year as soon as it was published."

"Although its influence is slightly less than that of another book published by Professor Hofstadter, Anti-Intellectualism in American Life."

"But it is still a must-read to understand the development history of Social Darwinism in the past century!"

"Because since "The Origin of Species" entered the United States, the ordinary American people who have received enlightenment and read a lot have given a very warm welcome and affirmation to the philosophy and political theory partly based on Darwinism."

"In the emergence of Social Darwinism and its formation and spread in the United States, three mainstream intellectuals played an important role: Herbert Spencer, William Sumner and Lester Waugh De..."

"They became important iconic figures who represented the ideological changes of the American people in that era."

"For example~"

"Herbert Spencer (1820-1903), a well-known English philosopher, biologist, anthropologist and sociologist."

"It was he who first proposed the survival of the fittest in his published work "Principles of Biology" after reading Darwin's "The Origin of Species"!"

"From our modern perspective, Spencer's ideas are undoubtedly a product of the British Industrial Revolution."

"He is a civil engineer himself and comes from a lower middle-class family."

"He once worked for several years at The Economist magazine, which vigorously advocates free markets."

"Britain's developed science and active thinking allowed him to develop the concept of comprehensive philosophy, trying to integrate the knowledge of physics and biology to produce a set of organically harmonious grand theories that can explain the world on a larger scale."

“In the comprehensive and inclusive view of evolution developed by Spencer, the physical world, biological mechanisms, human thought, culture and society are all in a state of progressive development and evolution.”

At this point, David suddenly stopped.

He looked at Bobby beside him and said: "Thirty years after the end of the Civil War, any sociologist or philosopher who wanted to develop his ambitions in New England would have interacted with Spencer at some point. . . ”

"If they don't deal with Spencer and make comments that affirm and support his ideas, they won't be able to gain a foothold in any field!"

“The pages of popular magazines where his work was published or articles introducing him were often read with many wrinkles.”

"The generation at that time regarded General Grant, who won the Civil War, as a hero, and Spencer was their thinker."

"By 1903, Spencer's books had sold nearly 37 copies throughout the United States."

"At that time, the population of the United States was only 7600 million."

"As a philosophical and sociological author, Spencer's profound influence on the thinking of ordinary Americans during the Gilded Age may not be surpassed to this day, and it is difficult to describe in words!"

"But in his later years, Spencer put forward many extreme conservative thinker theories, which made many people reject him in their hearts."

"Because he had very high-profile opposition to the U.S. government establishing a postal system covering all regions of the country."

"He also opposed the government spending huge sums of money to support the establishment of a complete education system and medical security system across the country."

"The reason why he raises these objections is the same as the views he mentioned in the book~"

"He believes that the basis of all ethics is human beings' adaptation to the environment in which they live, and the root of evil is the unadaptability to the living environment."

"Spencer opposes state intervention in natural elimination and opposes all countries providing relief to the poor. He believes that they do not adapt to the development of society and should be eliminated by nature."

"But~"

David spread his hands to the three people, shrugged and said: "Nearly 10% of the ordinary people living in our country have applied for unemployment subsidies or poverty relief from the government."

"If Spencer thinks, should these people be eliminated?"

"The answer is obviously no!"

David saw a look of disdain on Bob's face, raised his eyebrows and smiled.

"William Graham Sumner (1840-1910) was the most influential Social Darwinist in the United States and a classical liberal who had a long-lasting influence on the conservative camp."

"He served as a faculty member at Yale University for 38 years. He was the first professor of sociology in American history and the most prestigious scholar in mainstream academia at that time."

"In 1881 Sumner wrote an article called "Sociology."

“In the article, he focused on explaining his understanding of the connection between biology and sociology.”

"He believes in the article that human beings' struggle for survival can be divided into two levels~"

"The first level is the struggle for survival as a living thing."

"The second level is to compete for life!"

"The competition for life he talks about mainly refers to the competition between people."

"Therefore, no matter whether people live in a barbaric and ignorant era or in an era where a country and a complete legal order have been established, they cannot escape the law of survival of the fittest described by Darwin."

"Anyone who wants to obtain more survival resources can only act according to this law, thus creating some eliminated people."

David's eyes fell on Joss Aaron, and he saw him frowning slightly and lost in thought, then continued with a smile.

"Lester Frank Ward (1841-1913) was a renowned botanist, archaeologist, and sociologist."

"He served as chairman of the sociology department at Brown University and the first president of the American Sociological Association."

"He has always tried to bring scientific ideas and methods, including experimental empirical methods, into social sciences."

"So many people believe that he was a Socialist who had great differences with many of the ideas of Spencer and his disciples."

When David said this, he looked at the silent "thick glasses" Manfred, saw many shining "little stars" in his eyes, and smiled.

"Professor Ward believes that evolution in human society is not exactly the same as in the purely natural world."

"He believed that in the evolution of human society mentioned by Sumner and Spencer, people were not helplessly resigned to it."

"Because people have will, they can control their own destiny and guide the evolution and development of society."

“He also believes that a society and economy guided continuously and scientifically by sociology with scientific thinking can design an environment where everyone helps each other based on equal opportunities, thereby promoting people to more easily obtain happiness and freedom .”

"To this end, my professor also proposed an example~"

"For example, the quality of artificially cultivated fruit trees is much better than those that survive through competition in nature."

"...!!" Manfred's eyes, hidden behind his glasses, shrank violently several times.

David clearly saw his reaction and smiled.

"History is the witness of the times, the torch of truth, the life of memory, the teacher of life and the messenger of the ancients."

"It not only allows us to learn how to distinguish right from wrong, but also allows us to see another difference."

"You may have heard that I like to tell the truth~"

"I like to tell the truth, not just because I like the truth, but also because I deeply understand..."

"It's easy to tell lies, but it's easiest to lie to yourself!"

"In our lives, we can continue to make mistakes, correct them, and then spend our whole life redeeming them."

"But when we have a clear goal in life, our destiny will be in our own hands."

David saw that the micro-expression on Manfred's face was very exciting, and he laughed even more interestingly.

"Of course~"

"Cicero, the philosopher whom Professor Bartlet liked very much, once said: A person who completely relies on himself, believes in himself, and puts everything on himself cannot be unhappy."

"But I think Cicero's words are deliberately ignoring the limits of a person's psychology and ability~"

"The power of one person will eventually come to an end."

“A single tree cannot make a forest, and a drop of water cannot make a sea~”

"Manfred, my friend!"

"A person with courage must have firm beliefs."

"Everything takes time and grows slowly~"

"Take root, sprout, bloom, bear fruit, mature."

"Every stage is indispensable, and every bit of growth will leave a mark of time."

"so.."

"Would you like a Sailor's Horn cocktail?"

"It's what I'm best at!"

"Um...Okay, thank you!" Manfred nodded blankly.

"I want a drink too!" Bob raised his hand and shouted to David.

"ok~"

David looked at Joss Aaron and asked, "What about you? Do you want to have a drink too?"

"...Okay!" José Aaron knew in his heart that this was a signal of goodwill to himself.

He watched David walk to the small bar not far away, and his eyes moved to Junior Brother "Thick Glasses"~

Manfred, has "lost".

What about yourself?

Emm. .