After giving Zhao Wenye his instructions, Zhao Meizhen felt the three thousand Hong Kong dollars in her pocket, held her head high, and strode into Li Laoshi's home next door.
Without waiting for Li Laoshi or his wife to greet her, Zhao Meizhen marched straight into their room as if she knew the place by heart. She sat down on the bed and slapped a thousand dollars onto it. "I'm here to repay the money!" she told the still-shaken Li Laoshi and Auntie Hong. "I owe your family three hundred, right? Here's a thousand! Give me my change!"
Chapter 34: Golden-Tooth Lei's Joy Turns to Sorrow
Yan Hung bought some tonics, including ginseng, abalone, and seahorses, then went to Kwong Sang Hong to pick out a few bottles of floral water and several bolts of silk for Golden-Tooth Lei's two wives.
By now, women in Hong Kong were accustomed to splashing themselves with Kwong Sang Hong's floral water. Its lasting fragrance masked the smell of sweat, and it also repelled mosquitoes and insects, making it even more popular than imported foreign perfume.
Golden-Tooth Lei lived in a tenement building in King's Park. As the head of Fuyixing, he was unlike the leaders of other societies, who were accustomed to going to their halls every day to keep an eye on the accounts or calculate how much money the whole society could make that day.
If the gang had no business to deal with, he preferred to stay home and play mahjong or pai gow. When he first came to Hong Kong, he had begun his underworld career as an assistant at a lottery stall. Decades had passed since then, and although his gambling habit was not as strong as it once was, his hands still itched if he went a single day without touching mahjong tiles or pai gow.
When Yan Hung arrived, Golden-Tooth Lei was playing mahjong with his first wife, his second wife, and their maid. They were talking about how Yan Hung had asked him and the other underworld Big Brothers to show their faces at Canton Restaurant that noon. When the conversation turned to Yan Hung going from Detective Sergeant to the Uniformed Branch and being sent to guard Sha Tau Kok Reservoir, Golden-Tooth Lei's first wife, Sister Qiu, held a Life Buoy ladies' cigarette between her lips and casually discarded a two of characters. She said:
"Oh? And you still took forty thousand from the gang for him? Now that he's joined the Uniformed Branch in Sha Tau Kok, I'm afraid he won't be able to pay it back in his whole life, will he?"
Golden-Tooth Lei's second wife was named Suki. She had once been a dance hostess before marrying him as his concubine. Now she cast Golden-Tooth Lei a flirtatious glance and said in a coquettish voice, "Sister, how can you say that? Do you think our husband can't see through a little matter like this? Since he was willing to lend him the money, he must have his own plans."
Sister Qiu looked up at Suki and gave a snort, but said nothing more.
Golden-Tooth Lei could not be bothered with the open blades and hidden arrows flying between his two wives. Drawing a mahjong tile, he said, "Although Sergeant Hung really did come off rather badly this time, he clearly did the Chu Family an enormous favor. A family like the Chus won't be stingy about something like that. Maybe in six months or a year, Sergeant Hung will become a Station Sergeant at Yau Ma Tei Police Station."
Just then, one of his underlings came in and said to Golden-Tooth Lei, "Big Brother, Sergeant Hung has brought some gifts to visit you."
"Oh, let him in. He's about to leave for Sha Tau Kok, so we should see each other before he goes." Golden-Tooth Lei casually pushed over the mahjong tiles in his hand as he spoke to the underling who served at his side.
He then told the maid to make tea. Yan Hung came in carrying tonics such as ginseng, abalone, and seahorses, with A Wai behind him, silk tucked under his arm and rouge and cosmetics in his hands. The moment Yan Hung saw Golden-Tooth Lei, he broke into a radiant smile. "Big Brother! I'm leaving for Sha Tau Kok tomorrow. After that, mountains will be high and rivers long, and it won't be as easy to visit you as it is now. So I bought a few things before I leave, and I also wanted to thank you for backing me this time, giving me money and helping me put on a show of support at the restaurant."
Golden-Tooth Lei remained in his seat, while his two wives inspected the gifts in Yan Hung's and A Wai's hands. Once they saw the expensive tonics—bird's nest, abalone, shark fin, and seahorses—as well as the silk, rouge, and other things, they both nodded in satisfaction. Without waiting for Golden-Tooth Lei to speak, Sister Qiu smiled and said to Yan Hung:
"A-Hung, that was thoughtful of you. I heard you're leaving for Sha Tau Kok soon, so you must have a lot to take care of. Even so, you still thought of your Big Brother. Your Big Brother really wasn't wrong about you. A-Ru, don't leave A-Hung standing there holding such heavy gifts. Take them from him, invite A-Hung and his brother to sit down and have tea, and then wash some fruit and bring it out. You really have no eye for anything."
The maid duly went over and took the gifts from Yan Hung. Yan Hung smiled at Sister Qiu. "Sister-in-law, you're the most considerate, always looking after the brothers. A Wai, go give her a hand."
"We only just saw each other at noon. If you were busy and didn't come to visit, I wouldn't have blamed you. Sit down and have some tea." Golden-Tooth Lei waited until his two wives had withdrawn to divide the gifts, and the maid and A Wai had gone to the kitchen to wash fruit, before speaking to Yan Hung with a cigarette between his fingers.
Yan Hung sat down on Golden-Tooth Lei's right. "Big Brother, it was thanks to the forty thousand the society put up for me that I was able to get Lee Jusheng to come. I'm hosting a table at Taibai Seafood Restaurant tonight and would like to invite you to dinner. I'll introduce you to someone while we're there."
Golden-Tooth Lei's eyes lit up at once. "Someone from the Chu Family?"
"It's the secretary to the Chu Family's second young master," Yan Hung said, lowering his voice. "I told Secretary Song that a big part of the reason I, Yan Hung, was able to shoulder this matter today was that my Big Brother, Golden-Tooth Lei, backed me and put up forty thousand to make arrangements with Lee Jusheng. Although I'm being transferred to guard the reservoirs in Sha Tau Kok this time, my Big Brother and the society are still around Yau Ma Tei and Kowloon City. Could I ask Young Master Chu to do me the honor of letting Lao Fu get a foothold at the docks? Secretary Song has already agreed, for my sake."
Golden-Tooth Lei gave Yan Hung a heavy slap on the shoulder and said excitedly, "Good! A-Hung! I really wasn't wrong about you! You do have the society in your heart! A piece of territory at the docks, and a ride on the Chao Feng Chamber of Commerce's boat..."
The more Golden-Tooth Lei spoke, the more excited he became. A man in his forties or fifties, he actually could not stop himself from standing up and pacing around the living room.
He was one of the Chiu Chow people, yet he had joined Fuyixing. Although he had risen to become a prominent underworld boss over the years, his glory was only skin-deep. If someone from one of the Chiu Chow-led gangs killed a man in the street, they could find a scapegoat to go to the gallows for no more than forty or fifty thousand. But if one of his own men killed someone, finding a scapegoat to take his place required the openly listed price of two hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars.
Why? It was because he had no connections in the police force. The policemen all had their respective gangs and chambers of commerce supporting them from behind, and they showed no consideration to anyone outside the forces backing them. Even if he offered them bribes, they took the money without doing the job; some would not even take the money. The main reason was that the forces behind these Chiu Chow policemen did not consider him and Fuyixing a Chiu Chow society, even though eighty percent of Fuyixing's members were now Chiu Chow people.