Chapter 3 Hustle and Bustle Association (2)
Hustle and Bustle Association is not the official name of the "Association", and according to the original intention of the founder, the "Association" should not have an official name. However, as the "association" became more and more famous, students gave it the definition of "hustle".
The "Association" evolved from the "Duck Hat Club", a student hunting club founded by young aristocrats from all over the world who came to Windy City to study in the early days, and at that time, because not long after the "Jiazi War" ended, Kyushu was permeated with xenophobic sentiment from top to bottom, so international students from all over the world encountered many unfair treatment in the process of studying.
After repeated applications for hunting activities were rejected for no reason, the "Duck Hat Club" turned into a group of international students from all over the world to protest against injustice and convey their demands, and their members showed their identity and position by wearing inconspicuous Chikusa blue coarse cloth duck caps. Later, because of the violence during the rally and procession, the "Duck Hat Club" was boycotted by schools and the authorities, and eventually banned, forcing the activity to go underground and gradually become a secret organization "association".
With the development of the "Reform Movement", the xenophobia in Kyushu gradually eased, and the school and the authorities opened a channel for open dialogue with international students, and the "association" began to gradually lose its original meaning of existence, and members chose to withdraw one after another.
The few remaining members decided to hold a dinner on the night of their graduation to commemorate the years they had struggled for. It is said that they went to the best tailor shop in the city, "Savile No. 10", and made a uniform dress - a stand-up collar tuxedo with brass buckles in the main colors of the "guild" colors, Chigusa blue and ivory white. They used the remaining public dues to charter a village restaurant, and each person was given a trash can before starting, so that they didn't have to leave the table no matter how much they ate and drank.
During the banquet, they would make high-minded remarks about the situation in various countries, make limericks in competitions, and scold the "military service system" of Kyushu... When it was almost midnight, the shopkeeper couldn't stand it anymore and asked them to leave, not wanting to be rejected by one of them on the grounds that "there is no cream cake to end the party".
In the middle of the night, there was no cake in this small country shop, and the shopkeeper couldn't suppress the fire for a while, and a verbal conflict broke out with them. Under the influence of alcohol, they beat the shopkeeper half to death, frantically smashed the restaurant, and did not forget to light a fire before leaving.
If it hadn't been for that last fire, maybe everything that followed wouldn't have happened.
The village restaurant is located in the back mountain, and the fire spread rapidly when the wind picked up that night, and by the time the city's fire brigade arrived at the scene, the fire was already difficult to control. The fire burned for half a month, stretched for thousands of miles, killed 25 people, burned nearly 1,000 houses outside Linfeng City, and surrounded the city by the smoke of the fire.
The perpetrators had just woken up the next day, and when they saw that they had been in a serious accident, they fled back to their country without even packing their belongings.
Unable to catch the offender, the governor had no choice but to publicly accuse the school of neglecting to discipline his students, causing a catastrophe, and ordered the school to compensate for the casualties and damage caused by the fire.
The school was also not convinced, saying that the perpetrators had graduated at the time of the crime and were no longer students of the school, and the school could not be responsible for their actions and refused to pay compensation.
The prevarication between the authorities and the school has completely annoyed the people of Linfeng City, and a large number of locals have taken to the streets to demonstrate and demand explanations.
Fearing that the situation would become more serious, the state government sent a letter to the Department of Foreign Affairs and issued a letter of condemnation and extradition to the countries where several perpetrators were located.
As a result, what was originally a local case suddenly rose to the level of a national affair.
When countries received the relevant instruments, their attitudes were not consistent.
Kangjuguo, Dusk, and Bayan, which were weak in the south, were afraid of Kyushu's national strength, and at first they were a little relieved, arrested the perpetrators, and prepared to transfer them to Kyushu.
Daxi Guo is different, and directly replied: There are different countries and different laws, so it is inconvenient to extradite.
When the other three countries saw that the Great Western Kingdom was so tough, they feared that the people of the country would criticize the country for its weakness, and they also followed suit in reply.
The Emperor of Kyushu was furious when he heard the news and wanted to crusade against the countries, but the ministers of the cabinet capital tried to stop him with "the old wounds of Jiazi have not healed". The monarch and ministers disagreed, and in the end, through a cabinet vote, the war proposal was rejected.
Just because the war has not started does not mean that the matter is over. On the contrary, the deacons and ministers of Kyushu Province personally contacted the dignitaries of various countries and demanded that the perpetrators be strictly investigated and punished, while at the same time, literati and scholars in Kyushu wrote articles one after another to denounce the arrogance and rudeness of several countries, and did not cherish the hard-won atmosphere of peace. After tossing and turning like this for more than half a year, the countries could not withstand the pressure of public opinion at home and abroad, so they had to arrest people, sentence people, and lose money in accordance with their own laws, so Kyushu did not pursue it again.
A few years later, the perpetrators were released from prison, and some literati wanted to write about the incident, but during the interviews, whenever the question of the "association" was mentioned, they chose not to talk about it, as if they were suffering from amnesia or severe. The literati hunted for curiosity, and with a turn of his pen, he relied on the few materials and imagination he had at his disposal to write an article entitled "The Student Power of the Kyushu Underground - Association".
In the article, he described the "association" as an extremely mysterious organization, whose members were aristocrats from various countries studying in Kyushu, who were close in temperament and lawlessness, and always liked to use outrageous actions to express their dissatisfaction with society.
In order to become a full member of the "Association", you must have extraordinary personal charm, "ability to write and martial arts", and most importantly, money, after all, according to the text, the annual membership fee of the "Association" is ten universal gold coins. In addition to the membership dues collected for the purchase of "Savile 10" custom-made uniforms, the remaining part is mainly used to buy high-end cigarettes, alcohol, and compensation for smashing and destroying when drunk.
As soon as this article, whose authenticity is yet to be verified, caused an uproar in various countries. Many politicians who had worked as international students in Kyushu were rumored to have been members of the association, and no matter how much they denied it, the public could not be completely convinced. Later, when these politicians discovered that the rumors of being members of the "association" not only had little effect on their approval ratings, but could be used as a campaign stunt, no one came out to deny it.
Over time, the various "deviant" legends about the members of the "association" have become the most fashionable topic among international students from all over the world. "Associations" still exist, and more and more people say so in private. As a result of this force, the "Guild" was re-formed, as described in legend.
They even set more stringent conditions for membership: the candidate must first be a man with pure blue blood (that is, nobility in the traditional sense), and at the same time have extraordinary personal charm, "literary and martial arts", and rich in these hard conditions.
Qualified candidates shall be nominated and recommended by the old members, and all members shall conduct secret investigation and voting on them. Candidates who pass the collective vote need to drink a glass of "special" wine and not spit it out in order to truly become a member of the "association".
Over the years, no one knows what the members of the "association" have done and what privileges they have during their time at school.
However, it is a well-known secret that members can return to their respective countries after graduation and gain considerable political and economic rights.