The Ford drove straight to the Tsim Sha Tsui pier. After Yan Hung got out, he paid no heed to his status as a policeman. Standing on the pier's walkway, he shouted at the small boats moored alongside it, sheltering from the wind:
"I'm Yan Hung, a 426 Red Pole of Lao Fu! My patron boss is Xun Yuanlei, known as Golden-Tooth Lei. I'm calling on the jianghu for urgent help! I need a boat across the harbor tonight. I don't know whom I'm addressing, but I'll repay the favor someday!"
At his shouts, oil lamps went up on several fishing boats beside the walkway. A voice called from one of them, "I'm Qian Rong, an old 49 of Lao Fu. You're Brother Hung, right? We're brothers of the same society; no need for repayment. Get aboard."
Yan Hung looked at Song Tianyao and the two fighters behind him. "The wind's strong and the waves are rough. A-Yao, do you dare come with me?"
"My job is to help the boss put his troubles to rest. A little wind and waves like this are nowhere near enough to stop me," Song Tianyao told Yan Hung.
Hearing Song Tianyao agree to cross the harbor with him, Yan Hung wasted no more words. He took a dozen-odd dollars in change from his pocket and walked toward the fishing boat. Song Tianyao turned to Fish Stall Kun. "Fish Stall Khun, Brother Khun, right? If I'm unlucky enough to fall overboard, sorry to trouble you to fish me out."
"With me aboard, I'll make sure you don't end up feeding the Dragon King of the Sea," Fish Stall Kun said coldly to Song Tianyao.
They left the Ford and its driver waiting at the pier, and the four men boarded the fishing boat. Though called a fishing boat, it was really just a five-meter sampan with an arched canopy fitted over it. Besides the Fuyixing member named Qian Rong, his wife and three children were aboard, huddled under the canopy. Yan Hung, Song Tianyao, Rotten-Life Ju, and Fish Stall Kun were too embarrassed to compete with the woman and children for space, so they stood outside the canopy, facing the wind and waves as they gazed out over the pitch-black sea.
"Brother Hung, who are you going to see across the harbor at this hour?" Song Tianyao asked, standing shoulder to shoulder with Yan Hung aboard the boat.
Yan Hung took a deep breath of the briny air and exhaled heavily. "Brother Muk, the first chief Chinese detective in all of Hong Kong."
So they were going to see the retired Yiu Muk. Song Tianyao knew little about Yiu Muk, nor did he understand the ties between Yan Hung and Yiu Muk, so he merely nodded and asked no further questions.
But Yan Hung seemed to feel he had to get it off his chest. He continued, "Brother Muk took a hundred thousand dollars from me back then. He'd promised to promote me to Senior Station Sergeant, but before he could get it sorted out, he fell ill and retired. The matter never went through, and I never brought up the money again. I treated it as a gift to the old man. But tonight, I'm going to use the favor Brother Muk owes me for that hundred thousand dollars on Young Master Shun."
Song Tianyao bowed his head and cupped a match to light a cigarette. He raised his head and blew out a mouthful of smoke. "Beautiful."
Chapter 17: Yiu Muk
Yiu Muk was already fifty-six this year. Though his eyes and ears were still sharp, his body was past the age of reveling night after night. On top of that, his years as a policeman had left him with many ailments, so he went to bed on the dot at nine.
The Tai Ping Shan villa district where he lived had, before the fall of Hong Kong, been reserved for the British, though there was no written rule to that effect. After Hong Kong's liberation, Yiu Muk had risked his life and rendered great service in the Hong Kong police force. After his retirement, the commissioner of police arranged for him to buy this villa, formerly belonging to Shufudun, the Hong Kong police force's director of criminal investigations and head of the political department.
He was the first Chinese officer in the entire Hong Kong police force to move into the Tai Ping Shan villa district.
"Ding-dong, ding-dong." The electric doorbell installed at the villa gate rang. Yiu Muk was old and slept lightly, and his many years as a policeman had made him alert. So even across the courtyard, he heard the bell faintly as soon as it rang and sat up in bed.
His wife of many years forced her eyes open and looked at Yiu Muk as he sat up. "What happened?"
"Go back to sleep. I'm going to the bathroom," Yiu Muk said, gently patting his wife and tucking the blanket around her.
He had two wives. In his younger years, he had been fond of young women, but as he grew older, he came to remember the goodness of his first wife all the more. So in the two years since his retirement, the long-married couple had spent most of their time together, while his second wife slept in another bedroom with their youngest son.
Yiu Muk got out of bed, put on his slippers and dressing gown, and stood before the floor-to-ceiling window in the upstairs bedroom. He opened a narrow gap in the blinds and looked toward the villa gate.
By the light of the two electric garden lamp posts at the gate, Yiu Muk recognized Yan Hung standing outside at a glance.
Of course he remembered Yan Hung: he was sharp and efficient, and most importantly, when Yiu Muk had returned to Hong Kong and rejoined the police force, Yan Hung had been the first policeman from the Japanese occupation period to side with him.
Later, Yan Hung had even brought him a hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars, hoping to enlist his help in securing a Senior Station Sergeant's post. But before Yiu Muk could set about arranging it, he had nearly lost his right leg and hurriedly retired that same year.
In truth, Yiu Muk had always remembered Yan Hung's hundred thousand dollars, as well as what Yan Hung had done for him back then. Unfortunately, Liu Fu was not someone he had promoted. After his retirement, arranging for an officer in the Uniformed Branch to transfer to plainclothes, or for a detective to be promoted to detective sergeant, was no problem at all. But promoting a detective sergeant to Senior Station Sergeant had to go through the chief Chinese detective. Yiu Muk had always worried that if he spoke up and Liu Fu refused, he would lose face, so the matter had been put off. Still, to his relief, Yan Hung had visited him during the holidays each year for the past two years without ever mentioning it, as though it had never happened.
So when he saw Yan Hung tonight, Yiu Muk immediately thought that he must have run into a truly thorny problem. It looked as though he was ready to use the favor owed for the hundred thousand dollars on this matter. Otherwise, to come knocking at his door in the middle of the night—if Yan Hung hadn't given him that hundred thousand dollars before, would a mere detective sergeant dare ring his doorbell?
Still, for the sake of how tactful Yan Hung had been these past two years, Yiu Muk decided to give him a chance. He left the bedroom, slowly walked downstairs, and sat on the living room sofa in his sleepwear. In a voice neither loud nor soft, he said:
"A-Fen, go open the door."
At Yiu Muk's instruction, the rustling of someone getting dressed immediately came from the small room beside the living room. Within a few dozen seconds, a woman in her forties appeared, wearing a starched and crisply ironed white Chinese-style jacket and a pair of black xiangyunsha silk trousers. Just standing there, she gave an impression of neat efficiency. As she walked, she wound her waist-length braid into a bun at the back of her head and asked: