Li Laoshi, hiding behind the door, heard Song Tianyao's words. He had no time to respond to the threats in them. His legs trembling, he pulled open the door and raced toward Jialin Road outside the Squatter Area. He couldn't become Song Tianyao's accomplice. Those cops never cared about evidence!
After watching Li Laoshi run off, Song Tianyao said to his father and sister, who were already frozen with fright, "Hey, help Mom into the room and shut the door tight. Don't open it until I tell you to."
The bloody scene had terrified Song Chunliang so badly that he could no longer think for himself. He followed Song Tianyao's instructions without thinking and, together with Song Wenwen, half pulled, half dragged Zhao Meizhen, who was sitting on the ground with a vacant stare, inside. Then they shut the front door tight.
Li Laoshi was quick. In less than five minutes, he came running back with two uniformed patrol officers behind him. The two policemen arrived out of breath, glanced at Brother Hua, who was still groaning on the ground, and cursed at Li Laoshi:
"You fucking bastard! Why did you run so fast? He's not even dead yet! Wouldn't it have been better if we'd come after he died? Fuck your mother, are you going to compensate us for our losses?"
Li Laoshi pointed at Song Tianyao, too concerned to pay attention to the policemen's complaints. "Officers, it was him! He suddenly took my beef knife for slicing braised meats and stabbed someone! I really had nothing to do with it!"
Song Tianyao took out a pack of State Express 555 cigarettes from his suit pocket, gave one to each officer, and struck a match to light them. Then he tucked the pack into the uniform pocket of the officer who had spoken before pointing at Brother Hua.
"It's just a little matter, officers. What day goes by in Hong Kong without hundreds or thousands of people getting hurt? It was an accident. I wonder if this little token is enough for you two officers to help me find someone to take the fall?"
As he spoke, Song Tianyao took out his wallet, pulled out two hundred-dollar bills, and slipped one into each officer's pocket.
The two policemen looked Song Tianyao's outfit over and didn't dare act arrogant. Instead, they asked, "Who are you?"
"I'm the secretary to the second young master of the Chu Family of the Chao Feng Chamber of Commerce. My humble name is Song Tianyao. Judging by your accents, are you two Chiu Chow men too?"
"I'm from Puning, and he's from Chaoyang. Since you're Secretary Song of the Chu Family, and we're all from the same hometown, what happened that made you take matters into your own hands? Wouldn't it have been better to find a few dock coolies from back home to send him west in the middle of the night?" When Song Tianyao identified himself, the trace of arrogance on the officers' faces vanished at once.
What a joke. What Chiu Chow person making a living in Hong Kong hadn't heard of the Chu Family? Besides, word had already spread through the police force today that the Chu Family's second young master had brazenly beaten up Inspector Cheung Wing-kam's godson last night. The second young master's secretary was a trusted confidant of the Chu Family, not someone lowly uniformed officers like them could afford to offend.
"This bastard rubbed me the wrong way. He had a face begging for a beating, so my hands got itchy and I couldn't hold back for a moment. I just stabbed him twice at random, and he ended up like that?" Song Tianyao lit a cigarette and spoke casually as he looked at Brother Hua lying in a pool of blood nearby.
In 1950s Hong Kong, even when murder carried a sentence of hanging, only the poor died. Besides, he hadn't killed the man. He had merely crippled him, leaving him to walk with a hand against the wall and piss blood for the rest of his life.
"That's easy. We can just pretend it never happened and say he fell and happened to land on the knife. At worst, we can drag the knife's owner to the Police Station to take the fall. That would save you some money too, Secretary Song."
As the officer spoke, he walked over and kicked Brother Hua's head a few times. He spat on the ground beside him and shouted, "Hey, you motherfucker, are you dead yet? You look even livelier than I am. You've only lost a little blood, no need for a bandage. Get up and crawl away! Keep lying there playing dead dog, and we'll send you to Kowloon Walled City for a dog-meat hot pot!"
Chapter 31: You Dared to Cross Me? You've Got Balls.
Just then, a gang of men came charging down the cramped, narrow street from the other side, waving all manner of weapons and shouting, "Bastard! You dared to touch one of Lao Fu's people? We'll collect your corpse today!"
The two policemen's first reaction was to reach for the holsters at their waists. They stood shoulder to shoulder, watching nervously as the gang of more than twenty men drew closer.
"Put down your weapons! Are you trying to assault police officers?"
A woman in a short white qipao patterned with blue flowers was also among the crowd. When they reached Song Tianyao's front door, she stepped out, dropped onto her long legs without regard for the blood and grime, and reached out to embrace Brother Hua, who was still groaning on the ground. "Brother Hua! Brother Hua! How are you? Hurry and help get him to a clinic!"
Two men immediately stepped forward, lifted Brother Hua, who had already lost consciousness, and hurried off with him. The rest of the men surged forward. Although they didn't attack, they surrounded the two policemen and Song Tianyao, their faces vicious and the blades of the choppers in their hands gleaming.
"Calm down! Assaulting a police officer is a serious charge!" one officer roared, turning in circles as he faced the burly men surrounding them. Perhaps because he was so nervous, his voice had grown a little distorted.
Outside the crowd, the woman stood up and shouted, "So what? We'll chop you two cops to death, and at worst, two of our brothers can step forward and take the blame! I'll make sure their wives and children and the old and young in their families are cared for! Go on, shoot! Chop all three of them to death! For any brother willing to take the blame, I'll pay five thousand dollars apiece on Brother Hua's behalf!"
At the mention of two thousand dollars, the men's eyes lit up. Some were ready to throw themselves at the three men without regard for their lives, but the officer reacted quickly. Seeing that his status as a policeman couldn't scare these jianghu men, he fired a shot into the air. The gunshot calmed the restless crowd slightly. The officer pointed his gun at the fierce jianghu men before him and roared, his voice a little shrill from extreme tension:
"Do you know who this Secretary Song is? He's the secretary to Chairman Chu of the Chao Feng Chamber of Commerce! Touch him and you'll be crossing the Chiu Chow Gang! Your whole families will be swimming in the sea in minutes!"
Song Tianyao flicked the ash from the cigarette between his fingers and looked at the Fuyixing men, who had barely been cowed by the shot. "Tell Golden-Tooth Lei and Sergeant Hung to see me. Otherwise, I'll take it as Fuyixing declaring war on the Chiu Chow Gang, and we can fight it out. How about it?"
"Fuck your mother! A secretary to the Chu Family would live in a Squatter Area like this? Who are you trying to fool?" The woman pushed into the crowd, pointed at Song Tianyao, and shrieked, "Don't think I don't know your background. Yesterday you were still a piece of trash who failed the police academy entrance exam, and today you're pretending to be the Chu Family's secretary?"