"How long have you worked for the Chu Family, Secretary Song?"
After hearing Song Tianyao out, Yan Hung could hardly contain the delight on his face. He had no attention to spare for further conversation; all he could think about was whether things would unfold as Song Tianyao had described. If they did, then Yiu Muk letting him stay the night really was a ladder to the clouds, connecting him to Chu Yaozong.
As Yan Hung's expression shifted, Yiu Muk set down his teacup and asked Song Tianyao the question.
The young man before him was quick-witted, spoke with neither servility nor arrogance, and kept his joy and anger from showing on his face. Yiu Muk took quite a liking to him.
"To tell you the truth, Brother Mu, I only met Young Master Shun for the first time tonight," Song Tianyao said with a smile.
Yiu Muk stared at him. "The second young master of the Chu Family made you his secretary the first time he met you?"
"I wanted to find a job, so I asked a Chaozhou-Fengshun waiter at Lu Yu Teahouse to help me find one. That waiter introduced me to Young Master Shun," Song Tianyao told Yiu Muk. "From seven this evening to eleven thirty now, Young Master Shun and I have known each other for just four and a half hours."
"Having a waiter at Lu Yu Teahouse make that connection for you must have cost quite a bit. I hear that when those fellow Chiu Chow natives come to Hong Kong and ask waiters at the various teahouses to help them find work, many of them are only sent to do hard labor at factories or the docks, because their thank-you gifts are too small." Yiu Muk asked Song Tianyao a few questions, greatly interested in him.
Meanwhile, Yan Hung had come back to his senses from his wild joy and kept looking at Song Tianyao. The two Double Red Poles outside had come with Song Tianyao, and now that they needed to go back and deliver a message, Song Tianyao naturally had to be the one to send them.
"I'll arrange for the men outside to go back and deliver the message," Song Tianyao said to Yiu Muk and Yan Hung, rising before Yan Hung could speak.
Song Tianyao had barely stepped out of the living room when Rotten-Life Ju and Fish Stall Kun, who had been leaning against the front gate with their eyes closed, pretending to sleep, immediately straightened up. Song Tianyao walked over to them and said:
"Sorry to trouble you two to go back on your own. Tell Young Master Shun to have Chao Yong Yi's men disperse and stop making trouble. If Cheung Wing-kam wants to take Young Master Shun away, let him. Tell Young Master Shun not to worry; Cheung Wing-kam won't touch a hair on his head. He only needs to tell any police officer there that Yan Hung is staying at Yiu Muk's house tonight."
"Ah Ju's better with words than I am. Let him go back and deliver the message. Boss told us to protect you, so I'll stay and keep watch tonight," Fish Stall Kun said.
Song Tianyao considered for a moment, then said to Fish Stall Kun, "Brother Khun, there aren't any guest rooms left inside. If you stay..."
"I said I'd keep watch outside. This is the Chief Chinese Detective Chief Inspector's home; no one will make trouble inside. I'll keep watch outside," Fish Stall Kun said, his expression cold.
Song Tianyao couldn't be bothered with this rough fellow who had no sense of fun at all. Rotten-Life Ju was much more pleasing to the eye, so Song Tianyao smiled at him. "Then thanks for the trouble, Brother Ju."
"It's no trouble. I'll head back to Lichi Garden first, then." Rotten-Life Ju turned and left as soon as he had spoken. There were no rickshaws at this hour, so he had to run on foot to Central Pier, cross the harbor, and then take a Ford parked at the Tsim Sha Tsui pier back to Lichi Garden in North Point, Kowloon District.
By the time he returned to the living room, Sister Fen, the live-in self-combed maid, had found two sets of new bedding and led the two men to the villa's guest rooms. Only after lying down on the guest-room bed did Song Tianyao remember that when he left home, he seemed to have told his mother he wouldn't be home for dinner, but hadn't said he wouldn't be home to sleep. Unfortunately, there wasn't a telephone in the entire Squatter Area, or he could have used Yiu Muk's phone to let her know.
Song Tianyao thought over everything that had happened that night, then looked at the wallet on the bedside table, already flattened. He smiled. He had spent so much money already that someone else might have been pained by it, but Song Tianyao was precisely the opposite: only money that was spent deserved to be called banknotes; money kept in hand and left out of circulation was waste paper.
Three thousand dollars was an astronomical sum to the poor people of the Squatter Area, money they would have to save through years of hard work. But Song Tianyao was confident that in three days, he would return with more than three thousand dollars.
He drifted off to sleep. The guest-room bed at Yiu Muk's house was exceptionally comfortable, and for the first time since his rebirth, Song Tianyao, who had been sleeping on a hard board bed in his family's attic, felt he had gotten a good night's sleep, without having to worry about rats or cockroaches moving around beside him.
Before it was fully light, someone woke him. He opened his eyes to find Yan Hung staring at him with bloodshot eyes.
"Brother Hung, up so early? Don't you knock before entering someone else's room? Trying to scare a ghost?"
"I didn't sleep all night. You were right—someone came looking for me. Open the blinds and look outside," Yan Hung said directly, ignoring the hint of complaint in Song Tianyao's teasing.
Song Tianyao rolled out of bed and went to the bedroom blinds, parting them just enough to look through. Sure enough, directly opposite the villa gate, two young men in plain clothes were squatting with their arms wrapped around their shoulders, cigarettes dangling from their mouths as they nodded off now and then.
They stood in stark contrast to Fish Stall Kun, who was leaning against the wall, his eyes alert.
Yan Hung parted the blinds beside Song Tianyao and looked at the two men outside. "Those are Lai Man-yau's men. They got here at four in the morning and have been waiting ever since. At midnight last night, Cheung Wing-kam called Brother Mu's house. Brother Mu had Sister Fen answer and tell him that the master and his guests were already asleep, and that whatever it was could wait until daylight. It's almost light now. A-Yao, when do you think we should go out and see them?"
After watching Yiu Muk and Song Tianyao speak in riddles the night before, Yan Hung had, without realizing it, grown accustomed to asking Song Tianyao what he thought about the whole affair.
"There's no hurry. Wait until Brother Mu gets up. At the very least, we should have breakfast with him and thank him for his hospitality last night before leaving. Since Cheung Wing-kam was already too restless to sit still and called last night, we should be even less anxious. Keep your composure, Brother Hung. If you get Chairman Chu's support, a Chinese Detective Chief Inspector like Cheung Wing-kam won't be worth fearing. It all comes down to the amount of money. If five hundred thousand can buy the title of Chinese Detective Chief Inspector, then six hundred thousand can put you in that seat instead. Most importantly, you can't let Chairman Chu feel that the Chiu Chow people have lost even the slightest bit of face. We Chiu Chow people have strange tempers. Even if we're fragile eggs, for the sake of face, we have the courage to smash ourselves against a rock. Cheung Wing-kam had Lai Man-yau send men to see you, which means Chairman Chu already knows about last night. And because Brother Mu stepped in, he's left the matter for you to handle. What you represent now is the Chiu Chow people's face." Song Tianyao finished speaking at an unhurried pace, let the blinds fall, and walked over to the bedside table to pick up and light a cigarette.