"Fuck!" In his agitation, Chan Ah-sap flipped the table with one hand! A steaming pot of dog-meat hotpot spilled onto the chest and arms of a subordinate sitting directly opposite him. The man screamed as he was scalded, large red patches spreading across his chest and arms visibly!
The commotion drew the attention of diners at the other tables. Chan Ah-sap got up and headed outside. The dog-meat hotpot stall's owner came over but didn't dare mention the bill, deliberately calling out loudly instead, "Take care, Brother Ten!" Chan Ah-sap took fifty dollars from his pocket and tossed it in front of him, then hurried out of Kowloon Walled City with his men without waiting for change.
Away from the clamor, Chan Ah-sap calmed himself and first ordered someone to take the scalded subordinate to a clinic to have medicinal red oil applied. Then he said to several of his other trusted men:
"Two of you go back to the gambling den and get three thousand dollars in cash, then head straight to the Taibai Seafood Restaurant. I'll take Ah Ju's men there now. No matter what, Ah Ju was lucky enough to save Secretary Song this time. Lao Fu wants to step into Chao Yong Yi's territory? Fuck, it's their bad luck that they wanted to lay a hand on Secretary Song's family. Tonight, whether Lao Fu gets into the docks or not rests entirely with Secretary Song. His attitude decides everything. Even if we have to bring out a mountain of silver, we'll buy him into saying some bad things about Fuyixing in front of Young Master Shun!"
Rotten-Life Ju and Zhao Wenye accompanied Song Tianyao to the Taibai Seafood Restaurant. Diners were already boarding the boat one after another to eat, and Song Tianyao said to Rotten-Life Ju, "It's not even six yet. People come to eat this early?"
Rotten-Life Ju took the two thousand dollars Chan Ah-sap had given him earlier to pass on to Song Tianyao from his pocket. "Secretary Song, here's two thousand dollars. You generously lent it to me and Ah Kun last night. We made some money today, so we're paying you back."
"Wow, is the interest on a loan that high? You came across the water with me last night, and the wind and waves were strong. I already said it was for your trouble, so there's no need to pay me back. Use it to book the whole seafood boat instead. Dinner's on me." Song Tianyao felt the stack of twenty hundred-dollar Hong Kong notes in his hand, then tossed it back to Rotten-Life Ju.
Rotten-Life Ju was speechless. Two thousand dollars to book an entire seafood boat this big? The third floor alone cost five hundred to book. There were so many tables on the first and second floors that they would only cost more than the third, and then there were the costs of the banquet and the women who drank with the guests...
But since Song Tianyao had told him to handle it, Rotten-Life Ju didn't dare refuse. After accompanying Song Tianyao up to the third floor, he hurried downstairs and found the seafood boat's manager. He slapped the stack of two thousand dollars into the man's hand. "You're the manager, right? I'm Rotten-Life Ju from Chao Yong Yi. Secretary Song on the third floor has booked the whole Tai Pak boat tonight."
It wasn't unheard of for an important person to book the entire boat, so the manager wasn't surprised. He merely looked down at the stack of banknotes in his hand. "Brother Ju, two thousand isn't enough. If you book the whole boat, the thirty or forty singing girls aboard will have nothing to do. Even if each of them only drinks with one customer a night, that's fifty dollars in tips apiece. Their fees alone add up to almost two thousand. It's far too short, so I can't accept it."
"I won't owe you money. I'll have someone bring it over right away. Whatever amount you name, I'll pay. For now, sorry for the trouble, but please ask the guests who've already boarded to leave." Rotten-Life Ju was a little embarrassed too. He was a leading Big Brother in the jianghu and had always disdained shortchanging people to take advantage of them, but today he really hadn't brought enough money.
"Brother Ju, I know your word carries the weight of nine tripods, but I work for someone else too. Rules are rules. We've always waited until we receive payment before clearing the guests out," the manager said cautiously to Rotten-Life Ju, wiping the sweat from his forehead.
He knew those words would displease Rotten-Life Ju, but he had to say them. At worst, saying them would get him beaten, but if he didn't and the money really failed to arrive, the boss would make him, the manager, cover the shortfall. His whole family would have to jump into the sea.
Rotten-Life Ju gritted his teeth, pulled the little-finger-thick gold chain with a snakeskin pattern from around his neck, and placed it in the manager's hand. "Take this chain to any gold shop and melt it down, and it'll fetch a thousand or two. I'm leaving it with you as security. Keep it safe. This is my face, Rotten-Life Ju's face! When the money arrives, I'll take it back from you."
The manager apologized repeatedly but put the gold chain away with both hands. Only then did he wipe his sweat and go clear out the individual diners who had already boarded.
Rotten-Life Ju had just prepared to climb the stairs back to the third floor when a small sampan came bobbing over from the direction of the distant pier. A figure stood at its bow, and he recognized him as the driver of Chu Xiaoxin's Ford.
The driver waved both hands at Rotten-Life Ju. "Hey! Is Secretary Song at Tai Pak? Young Master Shun told me to take him to the Chu Residence first. I'll bring him back later!"
Chapter 38: The Chu Family
Chu Xiaoxin didn't wake up in his room at the Dulles Hotel until evening, when he got up and took a car home.
The Chu Family lived in a garden villa on Caughton Road in the western Mid-Levels of Hong Kong Island. It occupied more than twenty thousand square feet, or nearly two thousand square meters. While an entire tong lau in other areas cost only a little over a hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars, a garden villa here already cost over a million, or even two million.
A small villa on Tai Ping Shan like the one owned by Yiu Muk, the former Chief Chinese Detective Chief Inspector, could only be called a pigeon cage compared with the Chu Family's garden Western-style House.
Chu Yaozong had bought the garden villa in the 1930s. The Chu Family were among the first Chinese families in Hong Kong to move into a Western-style House on the Peak, and Chu Yaozong was the first Chiu Chow merchant to do so. His neighbors included Zhou Xiyu, chairman of the Dongguan Chamber of Commerce, and Cai Wenbai, the Sze Yap Chamber of Commerce Chairman, great Hong Kong Chinese merchant magnates.
That was also why, whether it was Cheung Wing-kam, Lee Jusheng, or even men like Yiu Muk and Liu Fu, no matter how well known they were in the Hong Kong Police Force or the jianghu, they weren't qualified to make these Big Brothers appear in person.
The people who lived here represented the face of their respective regional chambers of commerce and even all their fellow natives who had come to Hong Kong. The position of Chief Chinese Detective Chief Inspector could be bought for a few hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars. In the eyes of these true Chinese merchant Big Brothers, the man in it was merely a chess piece.
Chu Xiaoxin got out of the car outside his family's Western-style House and changed into house slippers with the servants' help before heading to the dining room.
It was a Chu Family tradition that, unless a member had split from the family to live separately, everyone had to sit at the table and eat together whenever they came home for a meal.