Chapter 394: Brother Zhongtai

Chapter 394: Brother Zhongtai

Chapter 394: Brother Zhongtai

Facing An Rusong's teasing, Alvin laughed, then his expression turned serious, and he said sincerely: "An, as I promised before, from now on, my people will never cause trouble for you, and of course, they will not cause trouble for you either."

"Of course, I believe you," An Rusong also put away the smile on his face and said seriously, "After all, we are friends, aren't we?"

"Haha, yes, we are friends," Alvin laughed. Then, he raised his glass, gestured to An Rusong, and said, "Let's have a drink for our friends."

An Rushong smiled, raised the glass in front of him, saluted the other party from a distance, and then expressed his gratitude to Jin Zhongtai and Leonard beside him, and then drank the wine in the glass.

After the banquet, the group came out of the main entrance of Longshan Hotel. Two American colonels, Alvin and Leonard, walked in front, while An Rushong, Haydn, Jin Zhongtai and others followed behind.

"President An, I really want to thank you for taking care of me tonight," Jin Zhongtai walked to the right of An Rusong. Seeing that the latter and Lieutenant Colonel Hayden had no communication, he whispered, "Otherwise, I would be so embarrassed that I would not be able to sit still."

"General Jin, you are too polite," An Rusong turned his gaze away from Leonard in front of him and said with a smile, "We are all family, and we should take care of each other. What's more, I just acted as a temporary translator and didn't help you in any way."

Jin Zhongtai did not dwell on this issue. He was indeed a rough man with a bad temper and little education. But people with bad tempers or people without education are not necessarily stupid. On the contrary, if a person like Jin Zhongtai did not have some clever ideas, he would not have reached this point today.

In addition, although General Jin has a bad temper and is arrogant, people like him have one advantage, which is that they are very loyal. If he is not loyal, he would not have maintained close contact with the old guys who promoted him many years ago, especially those old guys are all sensitive.

In Jin Zhongtai's opinion, An Rusong was a really good young man who helped him a lot tonight. At this party, several of the main figures present were Americans, including An Rusong, and they all spoke English when communicating with them. If An Rusong hadn't acted as his translator and talked to him from time to time, he would have been embarrassed to death tonight.

However, those words of gratitude were useless. Jin Zhongtai never cared what others said, but only looked at how they did it. Of course, he would abide by this rule. So, after simply expressing his gratitude to An Rusong, he changed the subject and said with a smile: "Chairman An, we are familiar with each other now, so don't use honorifics anymore."

After a pause, he continued, "Also, although I am much older than you, we are still equals. You should stop calling me General Jin. If you think highly of me, just call me Brother Jin Tai. How about that?"

"Then, I'm sorry," An Rusong stopped and bowed slightly to the other party, then smiled and changed his tone, "Brother Jin Tai."

"Haha, OK, OK," Jin Zhongtai laughed. He stretched out his hand to hold An Rushong's shoulder and continued to walk forward with him, saying, "Then I will call you Rushong, and we will be family from now on."

An Rushong smiled and nodded. Just as he was about to say something, Leonard and the other man walking in front of him suddenly stopped and turned to look back.

An Rushong swallowed the words that were about to come out of his mouth, then winked at Jin Zhongtai, took a few quick steps, and caught up with Leonard and the other man who were stopped in front.

At this time, the group had already reached the entrance of the parking lot. Leonard and the other man stopped and prepared to formally say goodbye to An Rushong and the others.

Since taking office in Seoul, Leonard has been living in the U.S. Embassy in South Korea. As for Alvin, he lives in the South Camp of Yongsan Military Camp. So, after a simple farewell, everyone walked towards their own cars, and only Jin Zhongtai held An Rusong.

"Rusong," Jin Zhongtai said softly, holding An Rusong's left forearm with one hand, "I have something else I want to trouble you with. I wonder if it's convenient for you."

An Rusong nodded and said, "Brother Zhongtai, you're welcome. If there's anything you need me to do, just ask directly."

"It's not convenient to talk here," Jin Zhongtai glanced at Alvin who was standing not far away and said, "Well, if you don't mind, can you give me a ride?"

"It's not inconvenient," An Rusong said with a smile, "Brother Zhongtai, just follow me."

Jin Zhongtai nodded first, then waved to his translator, and then followed An Rushong and Jenny towards their Chevrolet.

There was a partition between the cockpit and the rear cabin of the Chevrolet Suburban. Jin Zhongtai was not clear about the relationship between An Rusong and Jenny. He saw that the person driving was Jenny, so he just thought that this woman was An Rusong's driver, bodyguard and mistress. Therefore, after getting in the car, he directly closed the small window on the partition. When the car started, Jin Zhongtai did not speak directly. He frowned and looked out the window until the car drove away and Alvin could no longer be seen in the night. He took a long breath and cursed: "Ah~~~, these Americans are really annoying."

As he spoke, he turned his head and glanced at An Rusong, and said with a self-deprecating smile: "Rusong, to be honest with you, compared to those who are in charge of the Congress now, my brother actually prefers to stand on the side of those students who always like to make trouble."

An Rushong could understand what the other party meant. Those who are in charge of the Congress today are the conservatives headed by the Grand National Party, and the so-called "students who like to make trouble" are the progressives. Most of the progressives today have grown up from those students who always organized anti-American demonstrations back then.

"These Americans look down on us," Jin Zhongtai seemed to be a little drunk tonight. He probably would never say something like this under normal circumstances. "Of course, we can't stand up straight in front of these Americans. Tonight, my brother didn't even dare to smoke a cigarette."

An Rushong wanted to laugh when he heard this. Among the people sitting together tonight, Lieutenant Colonel Hayden was the only one who did not smoke. Every time someone lit a cigarette, he would frown involuntarily.

Jin Zhongtai obviously noticed this, so he didn't smoke during the whole party. Compared to him, An Rusong didn't think so much.

He fumbled in his pocket, took out the half-remaining pack of cigarettes, took out a cigarette and handed it to Jin Zhongtai.

"In the past period of time, the drug trafficking of the Americans has been a hot topic," Jin Zhongtai took the cigarette and lit it with An Rusong's lighter. He took a deep breath and continued, "In fact, my brother has known for a long time that this matter is 100% true. Think about it, drugs can be found in the random inspections of military mail passing through the border every year, but in so many years, the coverage of random inspections has never been increased. If no one knows that the Americans use this system loophole to sell drugs, who can believe it?"

"But then again, what good is it to know? What good will it do if we find out?" Jin Zhongtai said ramblingly, "The fact is, no matter who exposed this, it will only cause trouble for everyone."

At this point, he quickly changed the subject and said, "Of course, I'm not blaming you, because I know you have no choice, just like I have no choice either."

"However, fortunately, this storm is finally over," Jin Zhongtai patted An Rusong's leg and smiled with relief, "The most important thing is that now that the Americans' attitude is clear, we can make some public responses next."

An Rushong smiled and didn't respond.

"Rushong, the thing I just mentioned that requires your help is related to our next response," Jin Zhongtai continued.

"Brother Zhongtai, please speak," An Rushong said with a focused expression.

"It's very simple," Jin Zhongtai said, "Brother hopes that your company can work with brother's maintenance command to put on a show, in order to show that the maintenance command has secretly launched an investigation after the scandal of American drug trafficking was exposed."

It was obvious that his idea had not been carefully planned, so he had to think about it while he was speaking.

"I understand. What Brother Zhongtai means is to create a news hype," An Rushong nodded.

"Yes, that's what my brother meant," Jin Zhongtai nodded repeatedly. He raised his left hand, took off the hat on his head, and placed it on the seat beside him. Then, he spread out his five fingers, scratched his head, and said with a smile, "Hype."

"Now, only a hype like this can relieve the pressure on my brother's shoulders." He repeated the word hype twice before continuing, "Otherwise, even after this storm is over, those mad dogs of the progressives will still bite my brother, unless he resigns and retires from the army."

An Rushong understood what the other party meant. Although the Americans have made their position clear on the drug trafficking scandal, and the South Korean government and military will certainly respond quickly, in the final analysis, people like Kim Jong-tae have remained silent over the past few days. In this regard, the progressives, who are currently in a slump in the political arena, will definitely take this as an opportunity to hold some people accountable.

Why are some people in the Grand National Party dissatisfied with An Rusong? Isn't it because he exposed the drug trafficking scandal of the US troops stationed in South Korea, which led to a rise in anti-American sentiment among the Korean people. And public opinion in South Korea is like this. Once the anti-American sentiment among the people is high, the progressives will gain momentum. Conversely, once there is a confrontation between North Korea and South Korea, or a conflict between South Korea and its northern neighbor, pro-American sentiment will rise, and conservatives will take the opportunity to gain the upper hand.

(End of this chapter)