However, the downside was that Lei Yingdong's mother completely disapproved of her son. After graduating from Queen's College, and with the fall of Hong Kong, his mother helped Lei Yingdong find six jobs to make ends meet, all of which Lei Yingdong botched. He could extinguish the Boiler fire while burning coal, and while repairing ships, he reportedly nearly broke the hands of three Japan shipwrights by swinging a sledgehammer to hammer rivets. If it weren't for someone intervening, the Japan would probably have executed him. He worked as a loader at Kai Tak Airport, where he accidentally crushed one of his fingers. He then became a car mechanic apprentice, secretly learning to drive trucks behind his mechanic's back, wanting to become a driver. As a result, he crashed his job and another truck to pieces.
Considering that her son was a graduate of Queen's College and not good at physical labor, Lei's mother asked someone to introduce Lei Yingdong to work as a chemical laboratory technician at the Taikoo Sugar Refinery, which was under Japan occupation. After all, Lei Yingdong's graduation from Queen's College was considered a rare high level of education at the time.
As a result, Lei Yingdong entered a sophisticated chemical laboratory and saw that Japan chemists could complete various experiments and were treated like royalty by the Japan. He suddenly felt that he also wanted to become an inventor and be admired by thousands. So this idiot who knew nothing about chemistry dragged another apprentice in the laboratory who had a little chemical knowledge, and the two of them actually tried to make hydrogen gas using sulfuric acid. However, after the hydrogen gas was made, it could not be seen or touched. The only way to tell was to see if it would burn.
So, in order to prove that what the two had produced was hydrogen, the reckless Lei Yingdong took out a match and struck it to burn the gas in the chemical vessel in the laboratory. The other apprentice stared at the chemical vessel with wide eyes. As a result, the hydrogen mixed with oxygen in the air and burned, causing an explosion. Lei Yingdong was blown to pieces with glass shards all over his face, and the other idiot was almost blinded by the explosion.
Japan firefighters, military police, and civilian police rushed to the scene, mistaking Lei Yingdong and his companion for Britain spies who had planted the bomb. They were about to hand them over to the military court when, fortunately, the Japan lab technician spoke up and said that the laboratory equipment was worn out and not intentionally planted. Otherwise, Lei Yingdong would have been executed by the Japan long ago. However, although the Japan lab technician saved their lives, he immediately dismissed both of them.
Having botched five jobs in a row, Lei Yingdong was, in his mother's words, a man of bad luck; if he were to ride a horse, it would die; if he were to sail a boat, it would capsize; and if he were to sell salt, the salt would be infested with maggots.
So, for his sixth job, Lei Yingdong helped the laborers transporting grain by weighing their loads. Each laborer had to wait for him to weigh their load before it could be transported to the ship or the grain distribution station. The laborers relied on carrying grain for their livelihood and didn't want to wait. If Lei Yingdong was slow at weighing, the laborers in line, regardless of whether he was a graduate of Queen's College High School, would start cursing and swearing. Being cursed, Lei Yingdong became even more flustered. On his first day of work, because he was slow at weighing, many laborers at the grain depot earned a third less than usual. Fortunately, Lei's mother came to see him work and noticed that the laborers' gazes towards Lei Yingdong had changed. So, she simply told Lei Yingdong to quit his job. Otherwise, if he had worked for another two days, the laborers might have been ready to beat Lei Yingdong up.
"No need to continue. If I were in your mother's shoes, I wouldn't give you six chances, Big Brother. I'd break your legs the second time." Song Lei Yingdong interrupted when Song Tianyao Lei Yingdong recounted his mother's disdain for him, a rare occurrence.
Seeing Song Tianyao speak up for his mother, Lei Yingdong glared at him with displeasure. "Hey, but I've already tried my best."
"You call yourself hardworking? You messed up six jobs and you still have the nerve to say you're hardworking? Hey, does your aunt run a business smuggling contraband? I think I'd be more reliable working with her than with you. With your bad luck, I'd better stay away from you." Song Tianyao laughed, "I'm the one who's hardworking. I bought this secretary job with money borrowed from my whole family. You ask me why I work so hard? If I don't take risks, how will my boss trust me? You messed up six jobs and still have money to buy a ship and run a transport business. If I messed up once, I'd be completely ruined."
"I haven't finished yet. I rarely talk about this kind of thing with people. It's hard to get along with the brothers on the ship. You..." Lei Yingdong wanted to continue telling his painful past.
Song Tianyao shook his head decisively and refused. "I don't want to hear any more, Big Brother, please let me go? Are you talking about the hardships of your past? Are you bragging to me that you have a mother who's so powerful it's scary? If my mother were like yours, I wouldn't be having such a hard time. Your mother cares about your studies, but my mother only cares about whether I've slept with men."
Lei Yingdong paused for a moment, then remained silent, subtly stepping aside. The two men, cigarettes dangling from their lips, fell into silence. As the ship finished loading and was about to depart, Lei Yingdong, preparing to board, turned to Song Tianyao with a hesitant expression and whispered, "Secretary Song, have you ever slept with a man? If you have, next time, please have Likang find a different secretary to do business with me. I have a wife."
"Don't even think about getting medicine from Likang next time. There are still hundreds of boxes of in-demand drugs in the warehouse. Goodbye," Song Tianyao said to Lei Yingdong was striding onto the ship.
Lei Yingdong waved to the boatmen, who immediately untied the anchor rope, started the engine, and prepared to leave. Lei Yingdong put on a long black rubber raincoat handed to him by his subordinate to protect against the sea waves, stood at the bow, and smiled at Song Tianyao, "Don't be angry, at worst I'll introduce you to a man as a bribe?"
"Then why don't you wash off the fishy smell and serve me?" Song Tianyao said, standing on the shore and looking at Lei Yingdong on the motorboat that was cutting through the white waves in the night.
Lei Yingdong waved to Song Tianyao: "Take care, Secretary Song. I hope we'll still have the opportunity to do business together when I return."
"Take care of yourself, and don't get dragged off to be shot by Big Tin Yi or the Britain soldiers."
After the ship disappeared into the sea, Song Tianyao turned to the Likang warehouse. It was already late at night, and Kong Wing-yan and his Scribe Hui were counting the cash payments brought by Lei Yingdong by the light of a few oil lamps.
"Two hundred boxes of Penicillin, each box priced at Hong Kong dollars 9,800, totaling HK Hong Kong dollars 1.96 million; three hundred boxes of PAS Lung Tablets, each box priced at Hong Kong dollars 6,700, totaling HK Hong Kong dollars 2.01 million. We've counted them three times already, the total is Hong Kong dollars 3.97 million." Kong Wing-yan looked up at Song Tianyao as Song Tianyao entered and said this.