Song Tianyao looked at the woman. She was twenty-three or twenty-four and pretty, dressed in a short white qipao that, together with her exposed, snow-white legs, gave her a somewhat seductive air. At the moment, there was a fierce look about her eyes. Song Tianyao curled his lip in a smile. "Brother Hua's wife, right? You think running a gambling den means you can do whatever you please? I suggest you send someone to see Golden-Tooth Lei or Sergeant Hung before you say those things to me."
Just then, Zhao Wenye's voice called out from beyond the crowd. "Is that my cousin? Is someone laying a hand on my cousin?"
Hearing the voice, Song Tianyao turned and saw Zhao Wenye standing not far away, with Rotten-Life Ju beside him. Following Zhao Wenye's gaze, Rotten-Life Ju saw Song Tianyao surrounded in the crowd. He threw away the roast goose and fruit he had casually bought and drew two short knives from his waist. The smile vanished from his face. Without a word, he bounded to the edge of the crowd, waving his knives. In the blink of an eye, three Fuyixing members were stabbed in the chest, wrist and back, one after another. In the space of a breath, Rotten-Life Ju hacked a path through the crowd and reached Song Tianyao's side. Most of the Fuyixing members still had not reacted. Only after Rotten-Life Ju had stopped did the wounded men fall to the ground, screaming as blood gushed from their wounds.
A Double Red Pole's fighting skills truly lived up to their reputation!
"Secretary Song, someone causing trouble?" After taking his place beside Song Tianyao, Rotten-Life Ju swept his gaze over the surrounding crowd. "I wondered who it was. Turns out you're all just a bunch of Lao Fu trash."
As he spoke, he raised his left foot and wiped the blood from the short knives in his hands on the exposed sole of his shoe. Standing at ease, he addressed the twenty-odd men before him. "I'm Chao Yong Yi's Rotten-Life Ju. You trash don't want to keep your hands and feet to earn your rice anymore? You dare touch Secretary Song? Come on, then!"
These Fuyixing members might not have known Song Tianyao, whose status had changed overnight, but most of those present knew Rotten-Life Ju, the Double Red Pole of Chao Yong Yi at Central Pier.
Song Tianyao breathed a sigh of relief. He had indeed been a little worried that the woman would go mad because her man had been stabbed half to death and recklessly order the twenty-odd men to swarm him and hack him to death. Even if the two policemen had guns, at such a short distance, how many could they shoot dead?
But now that Rotten-Life Ju had appeared, the situation was naturally different. His side now had a Double Red Pole, plus two cops with two guns. Song Tianyao immediately said to the two Uniformed Branch officers, "Officers, aren't we having afternoon tea in a teahouse right now?"
Rotten-Life Ju's name was known not only among society members; people in the police force had heard of him too. There were even Uniformed Branch officers who had taken formidable Double Red Poles as their masters. If even a Detective Sergeant like Yan Hung had to acknowledge a big brother, how much more so for Uniformed Branch officers? The two officers had initially harbored doubts about Song Tianyao's identity, but once Rotten-Life Ju called him Secretary Song, those doubts vanished. Both nodded along with Song Tianyao. "Secretary Song is right. We're having tea in a teahouse. Whatever happens here, we can't see any of it."
Song Tianyao patted Rotten-Life Ju on the shoulder. "Brother Ju, did you hear the officers? We're having tea. Whatever happens here, we don't see a damn thing."
"Got it." Rotten-Life Ju drew a small breath. Facing the twenty-odd men surrounding him, he held one short knife in a forward grip and the other in a reverse grip. The blades crossed, and a cold light flashed. Both hands of the Fuyixing member closest to him were severed! The hands, still clutching a cleaver, fell to the ground! Blood spurted like a fountain from the dark red stumps!
Having struck with his first move, Rotten-Life Ju kept going. Every slash wounded someone. Compared with Rotten-Life Ju, who darted nimbly through the crowd as he struck, the weapon-wielding Fuyixing members seemed to be moving in slow motion. Before a blade could hit him, Rotten-Life Ju had already dodged and slashed backhand, severing his opponent's wrist!
A cigarette between his lips, Song Tianyao closed his eyes. Though his heart was hard as iron, he was unaccustomed to excessively bloody scenes and was in no mood to appreciate the life-and-death fighting skills of a true Double Red Pole in 1950s Hong Kong.
In mere moments, more than a dozen Fuyixing members lay on the ground, some with enormous gashes across their chests, others with severed hands or feet. The blood flowing from beneath them had nearly formed a small lake. It gradually spread and pooled together, finally trapping Song Tianyao and the two policemen on the only patch of clear ground left amid the blood.
The four or five Fuyixing members who had escaped the knives by luck saw their chance and withdrew from the fight early, guarding the woman as they stood at a distance. Rotten-Life Ju did not pursue them. He stood among the people sprawled all over the ground and looked at Song Tianyao. If Song Tianyao told him to cut down the woman too, he would act at once.
Song Tianyao looked at the woman, whose face had gone deathly pale, and the few Fuyixing members. He spat his cigarette butt into the pool of blood and gently rubbed his somewhat dry lips with his thumb. In a sinister tone, he said:
"I told you to have Golden-Tooth Lei and Sergeant Hung come here to see me. Believe me now? Also, what did you just say? You want to fuck me? Fine. Carry Brother Hua home, then wash yourself clean and change back into this outfit. Wait for me to come to your house tonight. In front of him, I'll let you fuck me at your leisure, all right? If you're thinking of running, I'm not a jianghu man, so I don't have to follow jianghu rules. At worst, I'll send your whole family for a swim, free of charge. Fuck me? You've really got balls."
Chapter 32: The Not-So-Great Zhao Meizhen
With that, Song Tianyao did not tell Rotten-Life Ju to make another move. Instead, he waved the woman and the few Fuyixing members away as though swatting flies. "Get lost. Wait until Fuyixing's chairman, Golden-Tooth Lei, finds you, then we'll have a nice long talk."
It was not that he failed to understand that if you cut down the grass without pulling up the roots, it would grow again when the spring breeze blew, or that one had to finish what one started. But he had to leave Golden-Tooth Lei and Yan Hung some chance to save face. If he cut all these people down himself, what steps would Golden-Tooth Lei have left to climb down and come see him?
The woman still stood there in a daze. Hearing Rotten-Life Ju call him Secretary Song had struck her like a bolt of lightning. When the two Uniformed Branch cops called Song Tianyao Secretary Song, she could refuse to believe them, or even pretend not to believe them if she did, and send her men charging in to cut him down and avenge her man. But once Rotten-Life Ju spoke, the men around her no longer had the courage to act. These jianghu men might not believe cops, but they would certainly believe Rotten-Life Ju, a Double Red Pole. Given his standing, he no longer needed to bluff to frighten people; his name alone could overawe everyone present.