"Drop dead! I fuck all eighteen generations of your ancestors!" Yan Hung pointed at Lou Fengyun, his face having gone from deathly pale to ashen. His voice brimmed with unrestrained murderous intent. "You still want to live past tonight? I'm warning you, if my future is ruined by you and your gambling-addict husband, I'd rather take three knives and six holes under the gang rules before the statues of the five ancestors and be struck dead by five bolts of lightning! I'll still send your whole family to the west tonight!"
Ever since he had heard the news, Yan Hung had wanted to find a Tin Hau temple, kneel before the goddess, and ask whether he had burned a few sticks too few of incense at her temple this year. Otherwise, how could his luck be so rotten?
Losing his position as Detective Sergeant was bad enough, but now someone from Fuyixing had offended Song Tianyao again? They had nearly taken Song Tianyao's own younger sister away to sell her in Kowloon Walled City? Didn't that mean the little friendship he had with Song Tianyao had all gone up in smoke? With the kind of brains that let Song Tianyao strip his skin and pick his bones while laughing and chatting, leaving him to help count the money afterward, wouldn't it be easier than eating for him to give Chu Xiaoxin a bad impression of Yan Hung?
Without Chu Xiaoxin's support... Yan Hung did not dare think any further. Sha Tau Kok, the most miserable posting in the entire Hong Kong Police Force—was he to spend the rest of his life there?
Growing angrier the more he thought about it, Yan Hung wanted to keep kicking Lou Fengyun, who had fallen to the floor and was clutching her chin, showing none of a gentleman's tenderness toward a woman. But Golden-Tooth Lei grabbed his clothes with one hand and stopped him.
Yan Hung looked at Golden-Tooth Lei, bloodshot veins now showing in his eyes. He rarely gave this Big Brother much face even on ordinary days; each merely took what he needed from the other. Seeing Golden-Tooth Lei stop him now, Yan Hung glared and said, "What, Big Brother? You're going to protect her? I'm a Fuyixing Red Pole. There's no rule against me disciplining a rank-and-file member of the gang, is there?"
"You can't hit her!" Golden-Tooth Lei had worked his way up from rank-and-file member to Red Pole, Double Red Pole, and finally chairman. Though he was getting on in years, his fighting skills had not deserted him. He seized Yan Hung's wrist and applied a little pressure, making half of Yan Hung's body go numb. "It's not that I want to protect her. This woman is the step Song Tianyao left us to climb down on. If he'd wanted to make a move, she wouldn't be here. She'd already be lying dead under Rotten-Life Ju's blade."
With that, he flung Yan Hung's wrist away. Yan Hung rubbed his shoulder and stared hatefully at Lou Fengyun, but his mind had already begun racing.
Golden-Tooth Lei was right. Song Tianyao could easily have killed this woman on the spot, catching the whole Fuyixing gang, as well as Golden-Tooth Lei and Yan Hung himself, off guard and leaving them humiliated. Yet Song Tianyao had chosen not to?
At the teahouse, that bastard had cheated Chao Yong Yi's Chan Ah-sap without blinking, looking determined to leave no room for mercy. Had he learned so quickly to leave a line uncrossed today so they could meet again tomorrow?
Or had Song Tianyao already chosen a new target to swindle?
At that thought, Yan Hung glanced at Golden-Tooth Lei, whose face was still dark.
He couldn't be targeting Yan Hung himself. Yan Hung was already a pile of dog shit; everyone was too busy dodging him to step on him again. The target was obvious, then: his own Big Brother, Fuyixing's chairman, Golden-Tooth Lei.
Thinking back on his own painful experience, Yan Hung became all the more convinced that Song Tianyao had something like that in mind. Song Tianyao had left that line uncrossed not because he did not want to finish them off, but to tempt Yan Hung's Big Brother into believing there was still room to salvage the situation and taking the initiative to come forward and make a friendly gesture.
Yan Hung knew this game well. Last night, Song Tianyao had tossed out bait and lured him onward. Only when he was lying on the chopping block did he realize he was the one being killed.
He just didn't know what end awaited his Big Brother, who was now so eager to make amends.
But Yan Hung had no intention of warning his Big Brother. He had made up his mind: as long as there was still a chance to turn things around, he would leave Yau Tsim Mong for his new post in Sha Tau Kok as soon as he had Song Tianyao's assurance. For the time being, the farther away he could stay from the man, the better. His more than thirty years of experience looked like a joke next to Song Tianyao.
"Big Brother, the car's here!" A-Lok called from outside.
Chapter 37: They're Here
Chao Yong Yi's Chan Ah-sap believed he had handled everything from last night through today properly. He had sent Rotten-Life Ju to take Zhao Wenye to the Taibai Seafood Restaurant to invite Song Tianyao for a drink and offer him two thousand dollars, asking him to put in a few good words before Chu Xiaoxin. They all worked for the Chu Family; surely Song Tianyao would not deny him that small favor.
Chan Ah-sap actually knew he had been in the wrong last night. He had only stood up with his men to stop those policemen after Chu Xiaoxin shouted.
But there was nothing he could do. The current head of the Chu Family was Chu Yaozong, and the future head would be Chu Xiaozhong. This Second Young Master Chu, Chu Xiaoxin, might still be riding high now, but who knew when Chu Yaozong would close his eyes for good and his older half-brother Chu Xiaozhong would play him to death?
Besides, Chu Xiaozhong had already met with him several times, and his meaning had been perfectly clear, both in what he said and what he left unsaid. When his younger brother stirred up trouble outside, Chao Yong Yi's people were to steer clear if they could and keep quiet if they could, letting Chu Xiaoxin blow things up and get into trouble, so that he would look more and more like an incompetent wastrel with no ambition in Chu Yaozong's eyes.
The benefits were equally obvious. Chao Yong Yi now handled more than just the Chu Family's cargo ships. On the day Chan Ah-sap agreed, Chu Xiaozhong had already introduced the dockside business of three other trading companies to Chao Yong Yi.
So although Chan Ah-sap knew full well that Chu Xiaoxin was unhappy with him, he did not take it too much to heart. No matter how angry Chu Xiaoxin was with him, he could do no more than mock him to his face. It was not Chu Xiaoxin's turn to call the shots in the Chu Family yet.
He was a wastrel young master. Once Rotten-Life Ju took good care of his secretary and got the secretary to coax him a little and soothe his anger, there would naturally be no more problem.
Satisfied that there were no holes in his thinking, Chan Ah-sap took a few of his underlings to Kowloon Walled City for a nourishing dog-meat hotpot, intending to make it up that night to his concubine, who had not been able to serve him the night before.
But the freshly slaughtered dog meat had only just been sliced, placed in the hotpot, and brought to the table. Before the broth had properly come to a boil, one of Rotten-Life Ju's trusted underlings came running down Walled City Road, drenched in sweat. He shoved his way past the other tables of diners eating dog-meat hotpot without a care, provoking many of them to curse him and his mother. Chan Ah-sap frowned and looked at the underling in displeasure.
"What kind of way is that to behave? Always so clumsy and reckless? Has the sky fallen or what?"
Paying no mind to Chan Ah-sap's displeasure, the underling bent straight down to his ear and said, "Boss, Brother Ju sent me running over with a message. Young Master Shun is planning to hand the Likang Trading Company's dockside business over to Fuyixing to manage. He already had Secretary Song host Fuyixing's boss Golden-Tooth Lei and Red Pole Sergeant Hung at the Taibai Seafood Restaurant tonight. Fortunately, Brother Ju was there. Most importantly, Brother Ju saved Secretary Song."