Song Chengqi, Qi Weiwen, Nine-Tattooed Dragon took a rickshaw all the way to Lai Wan before finally seeing the welfare home called Tong An Elderly Care Centre. The welfare home occupied a large area. Even though the old people's Elderly Homes in Kowloon Walled City had been renovated with funds from Song Chengqi, they were still like wooden houses compared to a thousand-square-foot Western-style House.
The welfare home is nestled between mountains and the sea, with an unnamed mountain in Lai Wan on the right and the Lai Wan sea on the left. It does indeed look like a place far from the city, a place for peaceful recuperation.
Above the sign for the Tong An Elderly and Child Care Center at the entrance, there was a small Po Leung Kuk logo. The welfare home's iron gate was closed. Inside a small guard booth nearby, a young man and woman wearing bright yellow social worker vests were chatting. Seeing Qi Weiwen, Song Chengqi, Nine-Tattooed Dragon standing outside, the two men came out with smiles. The female social worker greeted them with a smile, "Hello, gentlemen. This is the Tong An Elderly and Child Care Center. How can we help you?"
However, the signboard, the scale, and the presence of the two social workers and the Po Leung Kuk logo largely dispelled the doubts in Song Chengqi and the other two. Song Chengqi, covered in dust, remained silent. Nine-Tattooed Dragon, seemingly oblivious, tugged at Song Chengqi's sleeve, gesturing towards the entrance of the orphanage while incessantly babbling. Only Qi Weiwen smiled wryly and explained:
"Hello, I'm from the Tsuen Wan Ci Min Vegetarian Hall. This is a grandfather and grandson who came to the hall today asking for shelter. Our hall is small, and all twenty-odd beds are already full. We've even reduced our meals from three to two... I heard that there are still places available at the welfare home here, so I brought this grandfather and grandson here to see if we can keep them here. The older one is healthy, but he's a bit confused and rarely speaks. The younger one is deaf and mute; apart from his grandfather, no one can understand what he's gesturing at."
The female social worker smiled at Song Chengqi and Nine-Tattooed Dragon, and said somewhat awkwardly, "Our facility is already full. How about I register you for this lady, and we can contact Cimin Dining Hall to pick you up when a bed becomes available?"
"Really, there's not even room for two people?" Qi Weiwen didn't expect that the dozen or so old men, including the Bo Ming, would be accepted, while the two people he brought Song Chengqi Nine-Tattooed Dragon, would be rejected.
The female social worker shook her head. "I'm sorry, I really can't help you."
"Alright, thank you. Let's visit some other welfare homes." After thanking the female social worker, Qi Weiwen turned and gestured for Song Chengqi to take Nine-Tattooed Dragon and follow him along the road until they were on a rickshaw and had turned a corner. Once he was sure the people from the welfare home could no longer see him, Qi Weiwen asked the driver to stop and looked at Song Chengqi: "Song Advisor, they don't accept everyone they see here. Could it be...?"
"No!" Song Chengqi said decisively, "Even if Bo Ming leaves, he'll only go back to the Elderly Home; he won't leave on his own."
After he finished speaking, he fell into deep thought with a gloomy face. After two or three minutes, he turned his head and stared at Qi Weiwen with a gleam in his eyes. "Have you ever seen a welfare home that personally comes to pick people up? This one is one! The Kowloon Elderly Home was the one that came to our door and offered to send half of the elderly and children over if they couldn't accommodate everyone. As for the people like Bo Ming, they just made a phone call, and they personally sent people to haul them away in a truck. If welfare homes in Hong Kong were really that good, there wouldn't be so many poor people. It's not that they don't accept people, but that they only accept poor people whose identities they have verified, who were already homeless and living in Elderly Homes. We took the initiative to go to their door, but they didn't believe us."
"So what do we do next? I've already sent Yanni with her men to come and barge in to find Bo Ming." Qi Weiwen hadn't thought of that. Hearing Song Chengqi's suspicions about the orphanage, he also felt there were indeed some oddities. "But the sign has the Po Leung Kuk's logo. If Yanni leads her men in, I'm afraid..."
The Po Leung Kuk logo isn't something you can just hang up anywhere. Let alone Chen Yanni being the leader of the Mong Kok Twelve Golden Hairpins, even the local bigwigs of Hong Kong's He-prefix gangs probably wouldn't dare to act rashly after seeing this logo.
If Chen Yanni were to lead a group to storm the welfare home under the Po Leung Kuk, and in the event that she angered the dozens or even hundreds of wealthy Chinese Big Brother in the Po Leung Kuk, those people wouldn't even need to show their faces; they could wipe out Chen Yanni and even the newly established 14K with just a casual remark.
"No need. I'll go around to the right side of the welfare home and jump in. Once inside, an old man like me shouldn't attract so much attention. Besides, surely no one would dare to counterfeit the Po Leung Kuk sign?" Song Chengqi took a deep breath and looked in the direction of the welfare home. "I have a feeling that Bo Ming is still waiting for me inside."
As he spoke, he got out of the car and instead of walking along the road toward the orphanage, he went straight into the woods, seemingly intending to go around to the back wall of the orphanage from halfway up the Mid-Levels and jump in to investigate.
"I'll jump in with Song Advisor. Sister Wen, don't worry, wait for the others here." Nine-Tattooed Dragon said to Qi Weiwen, and then disappeared into the forest to chase after Song Chengqi.
The two trekked through the forest, taking a rather circuitous route, until they finally reached the back wall of the orphanage. Song Chengqi had already tucked the hem of his long robe into his waistband, and he slowly walked forward step by step, his feet close to the wall, his ears almost pressed against it, listening for any sounds from inside. Nine-Tattooed Dragon had originally wanted to advise Song Chengqi that, given his age, it would be better for him to do it himself. After all, in his eyes Song Chengqi was quite old, an old scholar, and it would be difficult for him to even climb over the wall, let alone jump over it. The walls of this orphanage were designed to be quite high, and a rough glance suggested they were nearly four meters high. Even Nine-Tattooed Dragon himself probably wouldn't be able to guarantee a successful ascent on the first try.
"Ah Long, stand firmly against the wall in a horse stance and don't move," Song Chengqi said to Nine-Tattooed Dragon in a low voice. "I'm going to step on your head later."
Nine-Tattooed Dragon glanced at the height and figured that with Song Chengqi standing on his outstretched arms, the chances of him hitting the top of the wall were slim. However, before he could offer his opinion, Song Chengqi had already lifted the hem of his long robe and tucked it into his waistband, retreated more than ten meters, took a deep breath, and stepped into the mud with his cloth shoes!
The old man's eyes widened, and he charged towards the back wall with all his might.
"Is Song Advisor a martial arts master?" Song Chengqi's demeanor startled Nine-Tattooed Dragon, but when Song Chengqi rushed in front of him and kicked the wall next to him, Nine-Tattooed Dragon sighed.