National Tide 1980.

Chapter 1271 Cannes Hotel

May 5, Hotel Barriere Grau de Albion, Cannes, France.

The hotel manager attentively opened the door of the superior suite, and then enthusiastically introduced the facilities and features of the room in French.

Although as guests from Asia, Ning Weimin and Matsumoto Keiko couldn't understand what was said, it didn't matter.

Because there was also a Japanese woman who was nearly 40 years old but quite short, less than 1.45 meters tall, who entered with them and then introduced herself to them again in Japanese.

Especially the last few sentences, which made them very satisfied.

"...This is the room I have reserved for you two. Both the living room and the bedroom have terraces, and you can see the street view of the city center. It is very beautiful, especially at night..."

"Ah."

When Ning Weimin and Matsumoto Keiko walked in, the first thing they did was to check each window of the suite according to the Japanese woman's instructions, putting their heads against the glass and looking left and right. Then they went to the balcony and leaned on the railing to look out from every corner.

From this direction, you can even see the Cannes Film Festival Palace at the port, as well as the huge billboard hanging by the sea over there.

"What a beautiful place," Matsumoto Keiko exclaimed, taking out her sunglasses and putting them on.

Her long hair and yellow dress were fluttering in the sea breeze, and the sun shining on her body felt very comfortable.

Cannes has a pleasant climate, with the average temperature in May around 20 degrees, making it a great place for vacation.

Except for the fact that the housing prices soared several times due to the film festival, everything else was good.

"OK." Ning Weimin, who was dressed in a white suit, nodded in approval, "Let's take this one. The room is very nice."

At that time, "The Lover" starring Tony Leung had not yet been released, otherwise he would have been mistaken for the handsome leading actor by the French who could not recognize Asian faces.

Of course, it makes sense to say that he is similar to Zun Long in "Year of the Dragon", since they are both handsome young men in white clothes after all.

"Great."

The Japanese woman clapped her hands together and smiled happily, then called the hotel manager and asked the waiters queuing outside the door to bring in the large suitcases.

Unlike France and Japan, tipping is a tradition in both hotels and restaurants.

Ning Weimin followed the local customs and was well prepared. He stood at the door and took out a stack of fifty-franc bills to pay the tip.

It has to be said that this handsome man and beautiful woman, a couple from Asia, left a deep impression on the hotel staff with their appearance, demeanor, and generous tips.

However, after sending away the waiters and the hotel manager himself, Ning Weimin was extremely respectful to the Japanese woman and expressed his gratitude sincerely.

For no other reason than that this petite Japanese woman was not an ordinary translator, but Takada Mei, Pierre Cardin's most trusted personal assistant who had been with him for many years.

"Thank you so much for your help, Takata-san. We are able to settle in so well, thank you so much."

"It's nothing, please don't be polite. The room was chosen for you by the president, I didn't do anything."

Takada Mei's attitude is also very kind.

"Ah... By the way, Ning Sang, the one thousand flyers you need have been prepared. Do you want them delivered here, or..."

"Just send it here. Thank you so much. I'm so sorry. I didn't expect Mr. Carton to send you here for such a small matter. Will it not affect your important work?"

"Don't say that. The president is really happy that Ning-san and Matsumoto-san can come to France. It is my important job to entertain you. Oh, by the way, Ning-san, you don't have to worry about the hotel room fee. The hotel will send the bill directly to Paris for all your food, drinks and daily life here. So please enjoy yourself."

"Ah, this is the president's care. I'm so sorry. If I had known earlier, I really shouldn't have asked Mr. Carton about this. It's really causing you so much trouble."

"Mr. Ning is not only young and promising, but also very polite. Although this is our first meeting, I immediately understood why the chairman thinks so highly of you. Please don't be polite. In fact, considering your contribution to the group and your position in the chairman's mind, you fully deserve it. The chairman is looking forward to meeting and talking with you in Paris. If there weren't so many things going on in Paris, the chairman would definitely go to Japan a few days ago to attend your wedding with Mr. Matsumoto."

That’s not all. Takada Mei actually took out a gift with extremely beautiful packaging from her bag.

"This is a small token of my personal appreciation. It's our first meeting, so it's not much of a show of respect. Please accept it. Consider it my wedding gift to you and your wife."

Ning Weimin was speechless for a moment. To be honest, he had originally planned to give the Gyokuro tea he brought in his suitcase to Takada Mei as a gift. He did not expect that before it was his turn, the other party would take the initiative to show goodwill.

  But the question is, where did this come from?

He was polite to Takada Mei because he was afraid that this "CEO's secretary" would flatter him.

  After all, he follows Mr. Cotton every day. Such a person is like the eunuch who holds the pen beside the emperor. How can you offend him?

An occasional word may have a subtle influence on the old man.

How come the situation turned out the other way around?

He really couldn't figure it out.

But this matter is really just a layer of window paper, and it won't be a big deal if it is broken.

In fact, Ning Weimin understood it after just a few words. It turned out that Vice President Takada of the Japanese branch was related to this person.

The president's secretary meant for him to take care of his cousin as much as possible in Japan.

After Takada Mei said goodbye, Ning Weimin closed the door and couldn't help but shook his head and smiled bitterly.

I thought to myself, I didn't expect that even though I had come to a small town in France, I still couldn't escape the favors entrusted to me by Japan.

  This is probably the trouble of rising up the social ladder, right?

…………

Indeed, Ning Weimin was not just complaining without reason; his distress was real.

Although his wedding was very grand, he had been so busy in Japan for two years that the social troubles that came with it are too numerous to mention. He himself knows the joys and sorrows of it.

Ten days ago, his wedding was held as scheduled at the Hotel Okura in Tokyo.

The witness was Yamaguchi Yoshiko, who was Li Xianglan herself.

Asian singing queen Teresa Teng and her fellow Taipei native Weng Qianyu sang live to entertain the guests.

Not only did Shochiku Film Company itself force all the important figures and main actors including the president to be present.

All the singers and actors signed by Taurus Palace were present.

All the main crew members of the movie "Li Xianglan" are present.

Nikkatsu's Miyashita Junko, Toei's Ikegami Kimiko, and last year's Best Actress Ishida Yoshiko, all actresses who have a good personal relationship with Matsumoto Keiko, were also present.

Even Seicho Matsumoto, the master of social mystery novels who rarely participates in public events, and great directors Akira Kurosawa and Jun'ya Sato came to join in the fun.

What is even more unexpected is that Yamaguchi Momoe, who had retired for many years, came together with her husband Miura Tomokazu and "Oshima Shigeru" Utsui Ken, just like a family, out of respect for Matsumoto Keiko, her senior at Daiei Company.

In addition, there are even many second- and third-rate actors and models who are eager to get a role in "Crazy Rich Asians" and come uninvited or find ways to ask others to bring them in.

For these people, it was like a collective event of the Japanese entertainment industry. Although the sensational effect could not be compared with the wedding of Charles and Diana, the excitement on the scene was not much worse than the record awards and academy awards ceremony.

There were more than 400 guests from all walks of life, including familiar faces from the entertainment industry, as well as well-known figures from politics, business, finance, academia, art and major media.

The pro-China Liberal Democratic Party member Toshihiro Nikai, the executive director of Sumitomo Bank, the managing director of Dentsu, the president of Hanwa Kogyo Kitashige, the chairman of Yamato Kanko Association Masataka Teramachi, and the real estate king of Ginza, Genshiro Kawamoto, were all present.

The complexity of the identities and prominent status of these guests far exceeded the expectations and imagination of Keiko Matsumoto's parents.

This is actually due to many people's respect for Ning Weimin's social status based on his strength.

In any case, the gathering of these guests made Han Yingming, who had always been worried about the "family background" issue, feel that he had truly put down the burden in his heart, so the last part of "sending his daughter" was much smoother than expected.

Even though she couldn't help but have tears in her eyes when she personally handed her daughter in her wedding dress to her Chinese son-in-law.

But in the end, his daughter got married in a grand ceremony, which finally made him feel at ease.

On this day, Keiko Matsumoto was particularly charming as the bride, and it seemed that she was always shining.

The wedding started with a pure white wedding gown, then changed into a long-sleeved kimono embroidered with flowers in gold and silver threads, then changed into a red silk kimono, and finally wore a light brown suit.

She is already very beautiful and good at makeup. With these fashionable clothes, she looks even younger and more charming, worthy of the title of national goddess.

No matter her willow-like waist or her charming face, almost every man was jealous that Ning Weimin had taken away their "first beauty"

However, the guests were very cautious in their congratulations and almost collectively ignored the fact that the groom was 27 years old and the bride was 35 years old.

All people will notice is the match of the couple in wealth, status and appearance.

All in all, this was an idol wedding that satisfied the public, and it cost a total of 250 million yen.

The cost was exactly twice that of Yamaguchi Momoe's wedding and more than that of Matsuda Seiko's wedding two years ago. It instantly became the top standard of the Japanese entertainment industry, and everything was created to be as perfect as in a movie.

Keiko Matsumoto's wedding dress was made of top-grade French silk satin and was worth 20 million yen.

The wedding cake, which is two meters in diameter and nearly seven meters high, is decorated with twinkling blue light bulbs, making it look like a dream.

The wedding banquet followed the Japanese custom of auspicious odd numbers and served a total of 33 dishes, including Japanese, Chinese and Western food.

It was indeed a luxurious wedding during the bubble economy.

More than 50 media outlets across Japan reported the news, and all entertainment media gave it front-page headlines.

Because Ning Weimin arranged for Matsumoto Office to do some work in guiding public opinion behind the scenes.

Most of the media are discussing the financial cost of this wedding, Matsumoto Keiko's current status, the box office of "Li Xianglan", the original sales volume of the film, personal wealth accumulation, the prospect of continuing to work after marriage... In short, there are various interpretations from various angles and various follow-up predictions.

Generally speaking, fans of Keiko Matsumoto are happy with the outcome.

After all, Matsumoto Keiko's works all have social significance, and those who have always liked her are already adult audiences, and they have a significant overlap with the group that likes singer Teresa Teng.

Most of these people have already married and had children, and have established families. They are much more rational than the young people who are obsessed with idols.

On the day of the wedding, although there were many fans gathered inside and outside the Okura Hotel, most of the voices were blessings, with few cries of grief or curses. This was much better than the situation when Yamaguchi Momoe married Miura Tomokazu.

Of course, such an extravagant wedding and the effort spent were not in vain, and the resulting commercial publicity effect was very gratifying.

The popularity caused by this wedding can actually boost the sales of all of Keiko Matsumoto's works, so why not do it?

The only ones who persisted in producing discordant sound were a few tabloids so small that they did not even receive an invitation to the wedding.

I don't know if there are certain people behind the scenes. They seized on the age-gap relationship and did their best to discredit it. They even started to worry about the distribution of property in Matsumoto Keiko's divorce.

Although such remarks are a bit laughable and mindless, they are not worth mentioning considering their influence.

What's more, they didn't even know the prenuptial property agreement between Ning Weimin and Matsumoto Keiko, so no matter how powerful their methods were, it would be useless, so Ning Weimin didn't bother to pay attention to them.

But then again, opening the door to welcome guests is a sign of face and a favor.

With so many people coming to congratulate me, how can I just accept the gifts and cash gifts for nothing?

Needless to say, many of these guests had requests to make of Ning Weimin or Matsumoto Keiko.

And on this happy day, it seemed that there was little refusal, so Ning Weimin felt like he was acting in "The Godfather" again.

After the wedding, he was just like Don Corleone played by Marlon Brando in the movie, almost becoming the "Lord of the Land" who would grant any wish.

At the very least, he would feel embarrassed to disappoint those who are close to him and have close cooperative relations with him, and he would not want to damage others' trust and confidence in him.

Take the Kagawa sisters for example. Although the newly married Miyoko does not look haggard on her face, the anxiety in her furrowed brows is visible at a glance, which is definitely not normal for a newly married housewife.

Ning Weimin also knew Zuo Haiyoujiro's temperament, and with Kagawa Rinko's attitude as supporting evidence, he could see that the couple's financial situation was not optimistic without Midori herself saying anything.

For this reason, Ning Weimin thought about it again and again and decided to take the initiative and asked Kagawa Rinko to convey his message that he hoped Midori would help him and serve as a temporary consultant for the site selection for the Kyoto and Osaka branches of Dangu Restaurant.

He originally wanted to entrust this matter to Yao Peifang, but he was worried that her language skills and knowledge were not enough to do the job.

Now that I think about it, Midori, who has experience in real estate agency, is the most suitable person. So I might as well let them handle it together. This way, I can give Midori some financial rewards and help her solve some of her life problems.

As expected, this time Midori did not refuse. She soon came to thank Ning Weimin, asked about his needs, took the travel expenses from Ning Weimin, and prepared to start as soon as possible.

As for the request made by Yoshimo father and son of Sumitomo Bank, they hoped that Ning Weimin could mortgage the warehouse near Tokyo Port.

This is actually a good thing for Ning Weimin.

He had this intention originally, but he was worried that it would not be a good deal, so he was just waiting for Ji Mao and his son to take the initiative to propose it.

Thus, he "reluctantly" agreed to the task, which not only made others owe him a favor, but also gave him an extra 10 billion yen in funds to embezzle overseas.

The key is that the 10 billion can be transferred outside through the channels of Sumitomo Bank, which is more secretive, more convenient and less likely to be noticed.

Thus, together with the more than 30 billion yen he cashed out from the stock market (taxes can be paid later), and the 5 billion yen mortgaged from the bookstore, the total amount of funds he can operate overseas has reached 500 million US dollars.

This amount of money is not small in this day and age; it is at least enough to buy two five-star luxury hotels in Las Vegas.

You have to know that decades later, Trump sold the Trump International Hotel in Washington for only $375 million.

Therefore, even in the overall world environment, Ning Weimin is now a genuine tycoon. With the money safely arriving overseas, he can "waste" it as he pleases.