Chapter 625 Ogata (Tactical Leaning Back): What Is Backstage? (Part 1) [7600]
The biggest difference between large tourist houses and small tourist houses is the services they can provide.
The service provided by such a small tourist house is quite simple. After the guests order the woman they like, they can't do anything else besides chatting with the woman and studying the biological differences between men and women.
’s matter.
This is not the case for large-scale tourist houses.
Some large tourist houses often maintain a group of artists in their respective shops to help them.
As the name suggests, entertainers are people who are responsible for performing talents. For example: playing shamisen, pipa and other musical instruments, and performing a few songs and dances.
The person in the gang who is responsible for telling jokes, performing skits, and livening up the atmosphere.
In a large yakuza house like that, you can invite entertainers and gang members to liven up the atmosphere before getting down to business with the yandere.
Just by looking at the appearance of this seven-grass house, you can tell that it is one of the largest tourist houses in this new town. It is normal for their shops to have artists.
But what Sodaemon just said, "Let Ogata and Omachi serve as Hatsuko's guards and assistants" is a bit abnormal...
Before Ogata could ask Sodaemon what he meant by what he just said, Sodaemon began to explain on his own:
"Chu Guang is an outstanding artist that our Seven Cottage recruited last year."
"She has a beautiful appearance and outstanding temperament, and her shamisen playing skills are also very good. As soon as she came to our Seven-Cottage House, she became the number one artist in our Seven-Cottage House."
"Every day, countless people want to invite Chu Guang to perform a song. Although she is an entertainer, her popularity and popularity are no different from that of an oiran."
"How to make popular tourist girls and artists actually requires skills."
"One of the techniques is to give them sufficient battle array."
"To put it simply... it's just like wrapping a gift to make it look better, "packaging" the person you want to make famous is one of the secrets to making them famous and increasing their worth."
"So after Hatsumi became popular, I arranged a beautiful assistant named 'Atong' for Hatsumi. She was responsible for holding the shamisen for Hatsumi when she wasn't playing the piano and performing.
"
"After Atong came to help Chu Guang with his battle, Chu Guang's popularity immediately soared."
"Humph, those who like arty things are so vulgar."
Right and left Tian Weimen sneered at this time.
"As long as you make a mediocre product look high-end, countless people with lots of money will foolishly take the bait."
"For an ordinary wooden chopstick, you only need to inlay some silver on the end of the chopstick, and then do some specious publicity. Even if the price of the chopstick is 1 tael, people who are willing to buy it will flock to it."
"Ah, I'm sorry, I seem to have gone off topic."
"After I assigned Hatsuguang an assistant specifically to help her get shamisen, Hatsuguang's popularity immediately soared."
"But whether it's a prostitute or an artist, once your popularity becomes high, it can easily lead to all kinds of troubles."
"Only four months after Chu Guang came to our Seven Thatched Cottage, an accident happened."
"When Chu Guang was performing for the guests, a madman who was extremely obsessed with Chu Guang suddenly rushed up and hugged Chu Guang."
"Although Chu Guang was not seriously injured in that incident, it still frightened Chu Guang."
"Chu Guang is now the important heart and soul of our Seven Cottage, so since that incident, in order to protect Chu Guang and also to further 'package' Chu Guang, I assigned two highly skilled guards to her."
"At the same time, we also established a rule that in the future, whenever Chu Guang performs for guests at a banquet, the guards have the right to sit behind Chu Guang and protect Chu Guang."
"Actually, this rule is quite overbearing, but Chu Guang's popularity is so high. Even with such a overbearing rule, more and more people are willing to invite Chu Guang to perform."
"The two guards of Chuguang have become the new 'packaging' to increase her value as I expected."
"Hatsuko's working area is not limited to our Seven-Thatched Cottage. As long as he can afford the money, Hatsuko can also perform at other tourist houses, teahouses, and izakayas."
"For example, tonight, the son of a big businessman is hosting a banquet at the Xutian House in Shinmachi. He spends a lot of money to invite our first lady to perform at the banquet."
"Tonight's guest is not an ordinary guest, so we must not neglect him."
"However, just last night, there was an accident at Chuguang's place."
"One of Hatsuko's bodyguards, Ikeda Araiemon, and Hatsuko's assistant, Atong, got close to each other without knowing when."
"Just last night, they eloped secretly."
"This is a big problem."
"As I just said, equipping Chu Guang with an assistant and two guards is her current 'packaging'."
"I have always publicized that our Hatsuko is different from ordinary artists. She has an assistant who helps her get shamisen and two personal bodyguards."
"So if we can't fill the vacancies of assistants and guards before serving our distinguished guests tonight, it will have a bad impact on Chuguang."
"It's just like you advertise that this person can use a 5-foot-long sword to perform the Iai Slash, but when the person arrives at the scene, he only uses a 3-foot-long ordinary sword to perform, it will make the guests feel like they have been cheated.
of."
"It's easier said than done to fill the vacancies of guards and assistants."
"If we just want to survive tonight, the guards may not look for people with great skills for the time being, but their character must be trustworthy."
"The assistant must be a beautiful young girl."
"Only by allocating beautiful women to Chu Guang as assistants can we best 'package' Chu Guang and increase Chu Guang's worth."
"Chu Guang's former assistant, 'A Tong', is a beautiful girl who is qualified to be the number one in any tourist house."
"Although there are many beautiful girls in our Seven-Cottage House, they are all wandering girls. They are busy every night, and it is not appropriate for a wandering girl to serve as an artist's assistant."
"Whether it's a guard or an assistant, it's extremely difficult for me to find a suitable candidate to fill this vacancy in less than half a day."
"Just when I was worried, you guys came."
"And among you, there happen to be two types of people that I urgently need right now: someone who is beautiful enough, and someone who is qualified for the role of guard."
"You are a timely gift to me now."
Udaemon's explanation is finally over.
Ogata, who understood the cause and effect, nodded: "I see..."
"You are Feng-kun's friends." Zuodaemon added at this time, "So I have great confidence in your character."
"And to be honest, I have no other choice but to beg you now."
At this time, Sodaemon's expression turned bitter.
"Besides you, I probably won't be able to find any more beautiful girls or samurai willing to take over as guards before dark."
To put it simply, you are in a hurry to find someone to replace the vacancies of guards and assistants, and you are treating a dead horse like a live doctor...
In his mind, Ogata summed up in one sentence what Udaemon had just said.
"...I just need to take over for one night, right?" Ogata asked Udaemon.
"Yes." Udaemon nodded, "As long as I can survive tonight, then things will be fine."
"Tonight Chu Guang only needs to perform at the banquet of the distinguished guests in Xutian House. There is no need to go to multiple places to perform."
"In order to maintain the price and dignity of Chuguang, I only allow Chuguang to perform in one place every night."
"Will Hatsuko leave immediately after the performance?" Ogata asked.
"Yes." Udaemon nodded again, "Hatsuko will play three pieces of music at the banquet tonight. After the performance, she will leave. After escorting Hatsune back, your work will be completed.
.”
"...I have an ugly scar on my face." Ogata then asked, "So I don't like to take off my hat and face towel. When I take over the position of guard, can I not take off these two things?"
"
"Huh?" Zuodaemon raised an eyebrow, "Can't you take off your face towel and hat?"
"Yes. Because I don't want anyone to see the scar on my face."
At this moment, the expression on Sodaemon's face suddenly became strange.
He looked at Fuma, then at Ogata.
He opened his mouth but stopped talking.
In the end, Sodaemon closed his mouth, pondered for a moment and then nodded:
"...Okay. If you insist on wearing a hat and a scarf, it doesn't matter. After all, the position you need to take over is just a guard."
Ogata pondered.
After pondering for a moment, he turned to Ating and asked:
"...A-Machi, are you willing to be Hatsumi's temporary assistant tonight?"
"I can do it." Amachi replied without thinking, "It's not time-consuming or labor-intensive anyway, it's just helping someone hold the shamisen."
"...Okay." Ogata nodded, and then turned his attention back to Zuodaemon, "Then my wife and I will help you tonight. I hope you can fulfill your promise and give the Second Master's
Let us know where you live."
"Brother." Fuma raised his eyebrows, "Are you and Komachi really going to be the guards and assistants of Hatsune?"
"We do a favor for others, and then they also do a favor for us. It is mutually beneficial. This is reasonable and reasonable." Ogata smiled, "Anyway, the favor they want us to do is not a very troublesome favor."
"I can't thank you enough." At this time, Zuodaemon bowed to Ogata and saluted, "I promise you that I will tell you Yuji's address immediately afterward, and I will never break my promise."
After saying that, Udaemon opened the cabinet next to him, took out two waist badge-like things from the cabinet, and handed them to Ogata and Atachi.
"Take these two things."
"At six o'clock today (6 p.m.), you will come to this seven-thatched house again. After showing this sign to the gatekeeper, the gatekeeper will lead you to Chuguang's room."
"After that, you just need to follow Chu Guang to Xu Tianwu to perform."
…
…
After promising Udaemon that he would help him with this, Ogata and the others left the Seven-Grass House.
It's still morning now, and there's still half a day left before the six o'clock evening date agreed with Sodaemon.
In order to pass the time, Fuuma continued to go to his old subordinate Senbei alone to talk about the past.
Ogata, Amachi, and Azuki went to the streets and wandered around Osaka just like yesterday.
Since leaving Ezo and returning to Japan, Ogata has basically had no rest. He is either on the road or preparing to go on the road every day. Therefore, Ogata is also happy to wander around the unfamiliar city of Osaka.
Relax your tense nerves.
Wandering around aimlessly, I admired the scenery of Osaka that was very different from Kyoto and Edo.
Half a day flies by in a blink of an eye.
Ogata and Omachi returned to the door of the Seven-Grass House very punctually at six o'clock in the evening as agreed with Udaemon.
As for Azuki, who had been wandering around Osaka with Ogata and Azuki all day long and was a little tired, when Ogata and the others were about to return to the Seven-Grass House, she parted ways with them and returned to the hotel where they were staying alone.
Gone to rest
After returning to the Seven-Thatched House, and following what Sodaemon said this morning, he showed the sign he gave to the two of them to the gatekeeper. The gatekeeper immediately took the two people into the Seven-Thatched House and went straight to the Seven-Thatched House.
on the second floor, and led the two of them into a room on the second floor.
It was a very simple room.
There was almost no furniture in the room, just a few cushions.
In this extremely simple room, there was only a big man with thick eyebrows and big eyes, sitting in the center of the room holding a knife and a wakizashi.
When the big man saw Ogata and Atachi, he immediately stood up and greeted them warmly.
"Oh! You two must be the couple that the boss told me about this afternoon who are responsible for temporarily replacing Ikeda and Atong!"
"First time we meet! I am Matakon Shibata! I am the only guard left by Miss Hatsumi after that boy Ikeda eloped with Atong! Please give me your advice!"
According to this big man's self-introduction, he should be one of Chuguang's original two guards...or rather the only one left.
After another guard: Ikeda eloped with Hatsuguang's assistant: Atong, he is now the only one left by Hatsuguang's side.
"This is the first time we meet, Goro Majima."
"I'm Mashima. Please give me your advice."
Ogata's first impression of Shibata was very good. He has always had a good impression of this kind of enthusiastic and cheerful person.
The person who has the best relationship with Ogata in the entire Gourd House and is also Ogata's favorite is Makimura. The main reason is because Makimura happens to be the kind of enthusiastic and cheerful person that Ogata likes very much.
After introducing themselves to each other, Ogata began to carefully look at the room at his feet: "...Shibata-kun, is this...Ms. Hatsumi's room?"
Ogata remembered that this morning, Udaemon told him clearly that after showing the sign to the gatekeeper, the gatekeeper would take them to Hatsuko's room.
This room with nothing but cushions... To be honest, it was hard for Ogata to believe that this was the room of a popular star.
As soon as Ogata finished asking this question, Shibata nodded vigorously: "This is indeed Miss Hatsumi's room, but it's not the room where she lives, but the room where she practices piano."
"She usually practices piano in this room. Since it is just a practicing room, the layout is quite simple."
Ogata: "So that's it..."
"You guys should sit down first." Shibata made a "please" gesture towards the two of them, "Miss Hatsumi is putting on makeup now and won't be here for a while. Please sit down and rest for a while."
Ogata and Atachi each took a cushion and sat down.
The three of them didn't speak, which was quite embarrassing, so in order to prevent the atmosphere from becoming awkward, As soon as he sat on the cushion, Amachi immediately asked Shibata:
"Speaking of which, Shibata-kun, Miss Hatsumi's name is her flower name or her real name?"
"Hmm... I don't know about this either." Shibata smiled bitterly and shook his head, "Miss Hatsumi never told me whether her name was her real name or a flower name."
"But I guess this name is probably a flower name."
"The name Chuguang doesn't seem like his real name. It's quite common for artists to give themselves flower names."
After A-Machi got up, the three of them started chatting in this small room.
Shibata didn't ask why Ogata kept wearing a hat and a face towel, probably because Umodaemon had already told Shibata today why Ogata wore a hat and a face towel.
We chatted one after another, and time flowed endlessly like a stream.
The sky, which was just gray a moment ago, turned completely black in the blink of an eye.
Just when Ogata was feeling a little impatient thinking "Why is Miss Hatsumi still in the future?", he finally heard the sound of the door of the room being opened.
Along with the sound of the door being opened, a very pleasant female voice sounded.
"Sorry for keeping you waiting."
Ogata quickly turned around and looked.
The person who opened the door was a very beautiful girl.
Wearing a light blue kimono, a pair of thin white gloves, light makeup, and her hair styled into a regular Shimada bun, she looks very young, no more than 17 or 8 years old, with fair skin and big eyes.
Youshen is holding a very exquisite looking shamisen.
After the girl appeared, Shibata, who was sitting opposite Ogata, quickly stood up.
"Miss Chuguang! Good evening!"
Hearing Shibata's voice, Ogata quickly looked at this beautiful woman again.
Is she...that first light?
While looking at Hatsuko with an appraising look, Ogata's movements were not slow at all. He quickly stood up and saluted Hatsuko, and then said loudly:
"This is our first meeting, Miss Hatsumi. My name is Majima Goro."
"I'm Majima-cho." Omachi followed Ogata and saluted Hatsumi and said hello.
"It's our first time meeting you." Hatsuko returned the courtesy to Ogata and the others generously, "I have already heard the two of you introduced by Idaemon on the right and left. Thank you very much for your timely help. It really helped us a lot."
As for how stunning Chu Guang's appearance is...that's not the case. Although she is very beautiful, she is not stunning yet.
But she has an excellent temperament. She exudes an extremely elegant temperament in every gesture. Her temperament can quickly make people think of the idiom "knowledge and wisdom".
From the way she spoke and the etiquette that showed no faults, it was easy to see that she was extremely well-educated.
After seeing this girl with his own eyes, Ogata finally understood why this girl could become the top artist of Nanakusa House and be sought after by so many people. With both appearance and temperament, it is not easy for this kind of woman to become popular.
Hatsumi didn't ask more about why Ogata wore a hat and a face towel, probably because Udaemon had already told her the reason.
"Tonight, I will be able to help you two." After saying this, Hatsumi smiled, hugged the shamisen in his arms, and bowed to Ogata and Omachi again, neither humble nor overbearing.
…
…
"Hey, look, it's Chu Guang."
"It's really beautiful..."
"It's a pity that she doesn't want to be a wandering girl..."
"It would be nice if she were a little older..."
"Huh? Why did Chuguang's assistant change?"
"Yeah...it seems that one of the guards has also changed...tsk tsk, Chu Guang's new assistant is really big."
…
After following Hatsuko out of the Seven-Thatched Cottage, Ogata instantly felt countless lines of sight coming towards them.
What followed was a variety of words that ranged from normal to obscene.
Ogata knew that Hatsuko was very popular, but he didn't expect that her popularity could be so high. Just after leaving the Seven-Thatched Cottage, a large number of people immediately gathered around and looked at her as if they were looking at rare animals.
With seven grasses.
I have to say that A-Machi is quite into the character.
At this time, Omachi was walking behind Hatsuko, always keeping a step or so away from Hatsuko, and holding Hatsuko's exquisite-looking shamisen in his arms.
At this time, Omachi's appearance has perfectly integrated into the role of Hatsuko's assistant.
In terms of appearance, he was not inferior to Hatsuko, but he was inferior to Hatsuko in terms of temperament. He also attracted the attention of many onlookers.
As for Ogata, he and Shibata followed Hatsuko.
Shibata's movements were very professional, and he kept scanning the surroundings with a vigilant gaze. His left hand was always resting on the knife scabbard on his left waist, and his right hand was slightly raised, maintaining the most convenient movement for drawing the sword.
Because Shibata and Ogata were guarding Hatsuko at the rear, although many people came around, no one dared to approach Hatsuko casually.
Ogata and his party were like a small boat cutting through the waves, and the "waves" they cut were the "human waves" composed of these onlookers, slowly walking slowly towards their destination tonight, Xutian House.
Like Yoshiwara, the shops in Shinmachi are not all tourist houses, there are also some normal shops.
Shoutaya is the largest teahouse in Shinmachi, similar to a high-end restaurant in modern times. It is a favorite place for countless wealthy people in Osaka.
Just now, while chatting with Shibata at Hatsuko's practice room, Ogata learned some basic information from Shibata about the guest who invited Hatsuko tonight.
Shibata didn't know much about tonight's guest. He only knew that he was a big businessman with samurai status. He was hosting a banquet at Xutian House tonight. It seemed that he was just having an ordinary dinner with friends and spending 80 taels of money to buy the guest.
Chu Guang invited him to perform at their banquet.
Although in the Edo period, the shogunate adopted a very strict status hierarchy, demarcating the four classes of "scholars, farmers, industry and merchants" and defined merchants as a class with a social status only one level higher than that of the shogunate, and did not allow all classes to
Free circulation.
But as the power of merchants gradually grew, in order to get rid of their low political status, merchants gradually discovered many "bug-like" methods to transform themselves from humble merchants to warriors.
One of the commonly used methods is to recruit a samurai as a son-in-law.
The principle is to take advantage of the institutional flaws of the shogunate.
The Edo shogunate had a strange system: as long as a samurai was recruited as his son-in-law, the family's place of origin could be changed to that of the samurai, and the whole family could use the samurai's surname and family crest.
For example: Ogata married into the family of a businessman named Sangoro and became Sangoro's son-in-law. From then on, Sangoro could change his name to "Ogata Sangoro" and the family became the Ogata family.
, you can use Ogata's platycodon pattern to make a new family crest, and the whole family changes from a merchant's family to a samurai family, and can be called Saber.
Most of them are samurai who do not want to endure hardship and want to be the son-in-law of a wealthy merchant family and enjoy the glory and wealth from then on. Therefore, countless merchants rely on this method to become samurai overnight.
As an economic metropolis where wealthy businessmen gather, Osaka is most indispensable for businessmen who have obtained samurai status through various methods.
From the Seven Thatched Cottage to the Xutian House, the distance between the two places is not that far.
Although there were countless people on the road who came to watch the famous Hatsuko, they did not block the road very much. Ogata and the others arrived at Xutianya smoothly.
As soon as they arrived at the gate of Xutian House, a dwarf with a somewhat sinister look on his face, who had been standing by the gate looking around just now, hurried towards Ogata and the others with a cheerful face.
"Miss Chuguang, welcome to your arrival." Although this short man is a bit ugly, he is eloquent and knows etiquette. "Please come with me. My young master has been waiting for you for a long time."
"Thank you." Chu Guang bowed lightly to the dwarf.
The short man led Ogata and the others straight to the top floor of the Xutian House.
Xutianya is indeed a famous teahouse in Osaka. Not only is it huge in size, but the quality of the waiters is also extraordinary.
When following the dwarf to the top of Xutian House, Ogata noticed that every person dressed as a waiter in Xutian House, whether male or female, all had young and upright facial features.
Because the Xutian House was very large, Ogata and the others walked a short distance before arriving at the door of a room on the top floor of their destination, which had a very exquisite picture on the door.
"Master!" the dwarf shouted into the room, "Miss Chuguang is here!"
As soon as Chaozi finished speaking, a very excited voice immediately sounded in the room: "Oh! It's finally here! Let Miss Chuguang come in!"
Um?
At this time, Ogata's expression changed.
The one whose expression also changed slightly was Atachi.
They both said the same thing in their hearts at the same time: The voice just now... sounds so familiar...
When Ogata was thinking about when he had heard this voice, the dwarf had already opened the door of the room, Hatsumi had already walked into the room first, and Ogata, who was Hatsumi's temporary guard and temporary assistant respectively, had opened the door to the room.
He and Atachi had to go in together.
As soon as he entered the room, Ou was stunned.
No.
It should be said that Ogata, Amachi, and someone in the room were all stunned at the same time.
This is a very spacious room, with a total of 13 people having a banquet in it.
Twelve of them were sitting on the east and west sides of the room, facing each other.
There was only one very gorgeously dressed young man sitting at the head of the banquet. Ogata and Omachi were stunned at the same time. It was this person.
And this person is none other than the Miura who struck up a conversation with Atachi yesterday.
…
…
at this moment
Xutian House, a large luxurious house not far from Ogata and the others
This is the most luxurious and high-end room in the entire Xutian House.
Not only is it extremely spacious, the interior decoration is also extremely luxurious. The tatami mats are high-end goods produced in Kyoto, and the walls are painted with famous paintings by famous artists.
In the room, a middle-aged man with a scar on his face from the left corner of his forehead to the left corner of his mouth, and a scar from his left ear to his right cheek, these two scars just formed a cross wound, sat upright.
On a cushion.
With a flattering smile on his face, he said in a respectful tone to a young man sitting opposite him who was sipping tea:
"Sir, this is the new Longjing tea from Tangtu West Lake that I recently purchased. How does it taste?"
"Hmm... I don't know much about tea, but it tastes pretty good."
The young man sitting opposite the middle-aged man has a tall build of nearly 1.9 meters, with long hair tied up casually and dragged behind his head.
At his side is a very powerful Odachi sword.
"Speaking of which, Yukimura, I haven't seen you for a while. Your business has grown so big." The young man said slowly, "You even bought such a luxurious tea house. I heard that you were involved in the silk business a while ago.
.”
"I don't dare to take it, I don't dare to take it." The middle-aged man known as Yukimura continued to laugh, "I was just lucky enough to buy some silk shops cheaply from a friend named Miura a while ago."
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Today is a long-awaited update of nearly 8,000 words. Please give me a monthly vote! Please give me a monthly vote! I am crying while asking for a monthly vote (Leopard Head Crying jpg)