Recaps

Song Tianyao rejected his mother's attempts to connect the family with opportunistic neighbors and to arrange Song Wenwen's marriage. After leaving home, he was approached by Scribe Hui, who asked him to visit the Huayun Mahjong Den on behalf of Sister Yun.

• Zhao Meizhen scolded Song Tianyao for refusing to help neighbors and relatives who had recently sought favors from him.
• Song Wenwen showed Song Tianyao the dress Ah Lun had given her, and Zhao Meizhen explained that Ah Lun's father had proposed a match.
• Song Tianyao rejected the proposed marriage, told Song Wenwen to return the gifts, and ordered her to stop seeing Ah Lun.
• Song Tianyao announced that he would move his family and would no longer solve the neighbors' problems before leaving home.
• Scribe Hui caught up with Song Tianyao and explained that Sister Yun wanted him to visit the Huayun Mahjong Den.

Song Tianyao went with Lou Fengyun to Black-Hearted Wah’s gambling den after she admitted she would have ordered him killed if she had known who he was. He agreed to hear her story over dinner, and they entered a den where the staff ignored their injured boss.

• Scribe Hui told Song Tianyao that Lou Fengyun had been beaten with the encircling rods for breaking the Hung Mun Thirty-Six Oaths and could barely move.
• Lou Fengyun arrived on a stretcher and asked Song Tianyao to let her and Black-Hearted Wah’s family live, but he challenged her about what she would have done if she had recognized him before he stabbed her husband.
• Lou Fengyun said she would have had her men kill Song Tianyao before Rotten-Life Ju arrived, and Song Tianyao decided to go to her gambling den and hear her story.
• Lou Fengyun ordered dinner delivered and had the Wealth and Treasure Pai Gow room prepared while Song Tianyao walked alongside the men carrying her.
• Song Tianyao entered the gambling den, noticed its workers ignored Lou Fengyun, and tipped a worker to bring him State Express 555 cigarettes.

Song Tianyao offered Lou Fengyun a way to leave Fuyixing safely if she surrendered her gambling den and most of its earnings. After weighing her options, Lou Fengyun accepted his terms.

• Song Tianyao visited the injured Lou Fengyun in the Fortune and Treasure private room and heard her explain how Fuyixing's bosses were trying to seize the gambling den.
• Lou Fengyun asked Song Tianyao to help her escape the society's demands, but he offered her only one-fifth of the money and required her to hand the den over to Fuyixing.
• Lou Fengyun protested that she could not support a household with so little, and Song Tianyao asked whether she or Brother Hua had actually run the den.
• Song Tianyao gave Lou Fengyun until he finished dinner to decide whether she would accept his offer to leave Fuyixing safely.
• Lou Fengyun watched Song Tianyao eat and told him she was willing to accept.

Lou Fengyun told Song Tianyao why she wanted to protect Black-Hearted Wah’s family and negotiated for half of his assets, offering Song a share. Song hinted that he might open a socialite teahouse within two years, but questioned whether Lou had the qualifications to manage one.

• Song Tianyao told Lou Fengyun he had considered having her and Black-Hearted Wah sold to a Macau brothel and a Malaysian mine in revenge for trying to kidnap his sister.
• Lou Fengyun recounted how Black-Hearted Wah had helped her and her mother, and explained that she wanted to care for his family after his death.
• Lou Fengyun asked to take half of Black-Hearted Wah’s assets and offered Song Tianyao twenty percent of her share; Song agreed that she had made the offer herself.
• Song Tianyao said he might open a socialite teahouse within two years and explained the qualifications its managers needed.
• Lou Fengyun asked Song Tianyao whether he wanted her to work as a teahouse girl.

Song Tianyao secured Lou Fengyun’s expulsion from Fuyixing and negotiated her share of the gambling den’s money, but then demanded that she give him the other half and the two tenths she had promised. Lou Fengyun was left stunned by his claim.

• Song Tianyao asked Gao Lao Cheng whether he knew Lou Fengyun’s situation and whether he had consulted Golden-Tooth Lei.
• Gao Lao Cheng said Golden-Tooth Lei would let Lou Fengyun keep her savings and offered to expel her from Fuyixing.
• Song Tianyao decided Lou Fengyun could take all the gambling den’s money while Fuyixing kept the den.
• Gao Lao Cheng formally expelled Lou Fengyun from Fuyixing and gave her half a month to move out of the den.
• Song Tianyao told Lou Fengyun that the remaining half of the money and the two tenths she had promised belonged to him, leaving her speechless.

Chu Xiaoxin told Chu Yaozong that Song Tianyao had recommended dismissing Likang’s employees, and the family discussed how to handle the longtime workers. Chu Yaozong ordered them reassigned and compensated, while Chu Xiaozhong questioned whether Likang should dismiss them all at once.

• Chu Xiaoxin asked Chu Yaozong what he thought of Song Tianyao’s proposal to dismiss Likang’s employees.
• Chu Xiaozhong supported Song Tianyao’s recommendation but suggested moving the employees gradually and finding them other positions.
• Chu Yaozong asked Chu Xiaoxin about the money from Song Tianyao’s gold bars, and Chu Xiaoxin admitted he had spent much of it.
• Chu Yaozong ordered half the Likang employees sent to the textile factory and half to the oil refinery, with each receiving an extra two hundred dollars.
• Chu Xiaozhong agreed to arrange the transfers but questioned whether dismissing everyone at Likang at once would make the employees feel slighted.

Chu Yaozong explained why Song Tianyao wanted Likang’s troublesome employees transferred to the factory and realized Song was using Chu Xiaoxin as his public figure while avoiding the Chu Family’s connections. The next morning, Song studied English newspaper recruitment ads and decided to recruit candidates rejected by the colonial government.

• Chu Yaozong told Chu Xiaozhong that transferring Likang’s employees all at once would make them more fearful, so they should be moved to the factory one by one.
• Chu Xiaoxin considered asking his father to help Likang pay off the Commerce and Industry Department, but Chu Yaozong inferred that Song Tianyao intended to keep the Chu Family’s connections out of the plan.
• Chu Yaozong reflected that Song Tianyao and Chu Xiaoxin each benefited from their arrangement, with Chu Xiaoxin serving as Song’s public flag.
• Song Tianyao read an English-language newspaper at the Dulles Hotel and examined government recruitment advertisements as he looked for staff for his trading firm.
• Song Tianyao focused on an advertisement for contract employees in the Administrative Division under the Chief Secretary of the Secretariat and considered hiring people the government had rejected.

Song Tianyao searched for a British lawyer whose connections could help Likang Trading Company, hoping to hire someone in need of money. He found Angie Pellis, but her being a woman made him doubt she could handle his unusual request, and he left without hiring her.

• Song Tianyao memorized the written examination date for the Colonial Secretary's Office recruitment and exchanged twenty thousand Hong Kong dollars into larger notes.
• Song Tianyao went to Gloucester Building to find a British lawyer with useful connections for Likang Trading Company.
• Song Tianyao found a struggling one-person law office and met its lawyer, Anzu Peiruisi, whom he recognized as Angie Pellis.
• Angie Pellis challenged Song Tianyao's assumption that a woman could not provide the legal help he needed.
• Song Tianyao explained that he wanted a lawyer who needed money but said Angie Pellis's gender was the sole drawback, then stood to leave.

Song Tianyao offered Angie Pellis money to arrange a dinner with a British Commerce and Industry Department official, and she agreed to use her connections to approach officials’ wives. The chapter left Angie’s precarious situation exposed when she admitted she had been sleeping at a church.

• Song Tianyao challenged Angie Pellis to arrange a dinner with a British official within two days in exchange for ten thousand Hong Kong dollars.
• Angie Pellis explained that she had come to Hong Kong after losing her legal traineeship in London and failing to find work as a lawyer.
• Angie Pellis proposed finding information about officials’ wives and approaching them with gifts on Song Tianyao’s behalf.
• Song Tianyao noticed Angie Pellis’s spare shoes and asked where she stayed at night.
• Angie Pellis said she was staying at Hong Kong Caritas Methodist Church by pretending to be a Methodist seeker.

Song Tianyao brought Angie Pellis to the Dulles Hotel, gave her a room, and used a meal and money to recruit her help approaching a Commerce and Industry Department official. Their conversation revealed Angie’s independence and Song’s confidence as he prepared to introduce her to his employer, Chu Xiaoxin.

• Song Tianyao took Angie Pellis to the Dulles Hotel, arranged a deluxe room, and treated her to a lavish Western meal.
• Song Tianyao identified himself as a secretary for Likang Trading Company and explained that Chu Xiaoxin was his boss.
• Angie Pellis guessed that Song Tianyao had brought her there to give her money before her dinner with a male lawyer.
• Song Tianyao gave Angie Pellis three thousand Hong Kong dollars and said he intended to use her to approach a Commerce and Industry Department official.
• Angie Pellis rejected the idea that she seduced lawyers, describing her work as gathering information through ordinary social interaction.
• Song Tianyao and Angie Pellis toasted the Queen, while Angie privately studied his unusual confidence.

Song Tianyao left Angie Pellis after she saw through his attempt to encourage her, then spent the afternoon preparing business cards for meetings with British officials. He took his design to the colonial government’s Printing Department and paid to have the work started immediately.

• Angie Pellis accused Song Tianyao of tempting her with talk of creating opportunities, and Song praised her for recognizing his tactic.
• Song Tianyao left Angie Pellis to meet the male lawyer and said he would wait for her in the café.
• After a nap, Song Tianyao designed business cards in the hotel café for his planned meeting with British Commerce and Industry Department officials.
• Song Tianyao took his draft to the colonial government’s Printing Department and tipped the clerk so workers would begin the order immediately.

Song Tianyao waited for news from the Department of Commerce and Industry while Angie Perry investigated its leadership. She told him that deputy director Shek Chi-yik was expected to be promoted next month.

• Song Tianyao returned to the Dulles Hotel with business cards and reassured Chu Xiaoxin that Chu Xiaozhong was unlikely to plot against him for now.
• Song Tianyao told Chu Xiaoxin that he had found a foreign lawyer and planned to recruit people outside the Colonial Secretariat’s Administration Branch.
• Chu Xiaoxin declined to meet Angie Perry, saying he wanted to avoid trouble, and told Song Tianyao his father had given him spending money.
• Song Tianyao went to a café, ordered dinner, and read an English edition of The Chrysanthemum and the Sword while waiting for news.
• Angie Perry met Song Tianyao and reported that Commerce and Industry deputy director Patrick Mason, whose Chinese name was Shek Chi-yik, was expected to become a Class I cadet officer next month.

Song Tianyao asked Angie Pellis for information about Deputy Director Shek Chi-yik and decided to pursue him despite the high cost. He gave Angie a custom business card for her upcoming meetings with officials’ wives, and she admired its design.

• Song Tianyao ordered Angie Pellis black coffee and asked her what she knew about Deputy Director Shek Chi-yik.
• Angie told Song that Shek and his wife belonged to elite clubs and described ways to meet them through their social circles.
• Song noted that approaching a senior official would require substantial money, but Angie said Shek had recently spent heavily on club memberships and might want to recoup his losses.
• Song decided Shek was their target and told Angie to create an opportunity, using money if needed.
• Song gave Angie a custom business-card case to use when meeting officials’ wives, and she examined the card bearing her name and title.

Song Tianyao asked Chu Xiaoxin to fund a costly introduction to the deputy director of the Industrial and Commercial Administration Office, hoping to use the connection for smuggling and future trade approvals. Chu Xiaoxin questioned the expense as Chen Judy brought a woman over to meet Song Tianyao.

• Song Tianyao gave Angie Pellis a scented business card naming her as Likang Trading Company's head of legal and advised her to approach the deputy director's wife.
• Song Tianyao went to Lichi Garden and joined Chu Xiaoxin, who introduced him to the wealthy young men at his table as his secretary.
• Song Tianyao told Chu Xiaoxin he needed a large sum to make a connection with the deputy director of the Industrial and Commercial Administration Office.
• Song Tianyao explained that the connection could support smuggling and help Likang obtain approval to trade scarce raw materials, and urged Chu Xiaoxin to borrow without involving Chairman Chu or Young Master Zhong.
• Chen Judy brought one of her sisters over and asked Song Tianyao what he thought of her.

Song Tianyao persuaded Chu Xiaoxin to ask Chu Yaozong for a loan to fund their business, with a written IOU so the profits would remain Chu Xiaoxin’s. After Song Tianyao left, Chen Judy asked Chu Xiaoxin to hire her unemployed younger brother.

• Song Tianyao explained why Chu Xiaoxin needed to treat the family money as a loan and insist on an IOU.
• Chu Xiaoxin agreed to ask Chu Yaozong for a hundred thousand dollars the next morning.
• Song Tianyao tipped the songstress five hundred dollars, then left for the Dulles Hotel and asked Chu Xiaoxin to meet him for breakfast.
• Chen Judy praised Song Tianyao and asked Chu Xiaoxin to find her younger brother a job at his trading company.
• Chu Xiaoxin questioned Chen Judy’s motives and complained that she had already earned plenty from him.

Chu Xiaoxin brought Song Tianyao a hundred thousand dollars and an IOU, then introduced him to Angie Pellis over breakfast. Chu Xiaoxin left to find company at the theater after Song Tianyao ate both oysters he had ordered.

• Chu Xiaoxin returned to the Dulles Hotel with Uncle Yan, who delivered a hundred thousand dollars and Chu Xiaoxin's IOU to Song Tianyao.
• After Uncle Yan left, Chu Xiaoxin joked with Song Tianyao and ordered two fried oysters for breakfast.
• Song Tianyao and Chu Xiaoxin discussed the money and teased each other while waiting for their meal.
• Angie Pellis arrived, and Song Tianyao introduced her to Chu Xiaoxin as Likang's lawyer.
• Chu Xiaoxin gave both oysters to Song Tianyao, then left for the theater after Song ate them and Chu Xiaoxin failed to flirt with Angie Pellis in English.

Song Tianyao arranged for Angie Pellis to learn what the deputy director’s wife wanted so he could bring Chu Xiaoxin and Shek Chi-yik together. After returning from the Dulles Hotel, he found a long queue at his father’s shoe-repair stall.

• Song Tianyao gave Angie Pellis five thousand dollars and asked her to find out the deputy director’s wife’s interests at the horticultural society.
• Angie Pellis asked whether her work would continue after the meeting, and Song Tianyao promised he wanted to keep working with her.
• Song Tianyao impulsively touched Angie Pellis’s chin, apologized, and realized she had been testing his sincerity.
• Song Tianyao left his money in his room at the Dulles Hotel before returning home by rickshaw.
• Song Tianyao found dozens of people waiting for Song Chunliang to repair their shoes and offered his father a cigarette.

Song Tianyao visited his parents before their move and learned how his mother had used his new position to secure favors and a future for the family. He arranged for his father to come home for lunch and told his mother they would move that afternoon.

• Song Tianyao found Song Chunliang mending neighbors’ shoes for free and told him to finish early and come home for lunch before the move.
• Two Fuyixing underlings told Song Tianyao their boss had resolved his investigation and the matter at Sai Kung Police Station.
• Song Tianyao gave an underling money and ordered him to help Song Chunliang pack up if the shoe-repair line remained long.
• Song Tianyao returned home, where Zhao Meizhen prepared to move and offered to make him soup for lunch.
• Zhao Meizhen explained that she had accepted small favors from neighbors and arranged for Zhao Wenye to attend police school, so he could protect the family once he became a policeman.

Song Tianyao welcomed his cousin Chen Tai, who came to thank him and Zhao Meizhen for arranging his release from the police station. Chen Tai explained that he had fought dock workers after they tried to take forty percent of his wages, leaving Song Tianyao to learn more about his simple-minded but formidable cousin.

• Song Tianyao assured Zhao Meizhen that he could afford the takeover fee, and she went out to buy food for the family.
• Chen Tai arrived at the Song home, thanked Zhao Meizhen for helping secure his release, and kowtowed to her.
• Song Tianyao stopped Chen Tai from kowtowing to him and invited him to sit and talk.
• Chen Tai said he had been beaten at first in the Police Station but later received chicken legs because Song Tianyao had arranged special treatment.
• Chen Tai told Song Tianyao that he had fought dock workers after a man who found him work demanded forty percent of his wages.

Song Tianyao welcomed Golden-Tooth Lei into his family home while preparing to move, and Golden-Tooth Lei asked whether Chen Tai wanted to join the jianghu. The chapter ended before Chen Tai answered.

• Song Tianyao heard Chen Tai explain how he had fought Wo Two Ping's men and said he planned to find factory work in North Point.
• Zhao Meizhen reported that Golden-Tooth Lei was arguing with someone outside, and Song Tianyao continued preparing the family meal.
• Golden-Tooth Lei arrived with Gao Lao Cheng and invited Song Tianyao to lunch at the Lucky Star Restaurant.
• Song Tianyao explained that his family had to eat their moving-day meal at home, and Golden-Tooth Lei agreed to join them and sent his men to the restaurant.
• Golden-Tooth Lei told Song Tianyao that Wo Two Ping had demanded an explanation over Chen Tai, then asked whether Chen Tai wanted to join the jianghu.

Song Tianyao rejected Golden-Tooth Lei’s offer to recruit Chen Tai, deciding to send him to Likang and teach him to drive instead. Lei then reported that he had identified police-school interviewer Ren Chunsheng and described how Fuyixing had approached him to investigate a possible bribe.

• Golden-Tooth Lei revealed that Chen Tai had beaten two of Wo Two Ping’s Red Poles, then offered to arrange his entry into the society and promotion to Red Pole.
• Song Tianyao declined Lei’s offer and said Chen Tai would work at Likang and learn to drive.
• Song Tianyao sent Chen Tai out to buy cigarettes so he could speak privately with Golden-Tooth Lei and Gao Lao Cheng.
• Golden-Tooth Lei told Song Tianyao that the interviewer was Ren Chunsheng, a thirty-seven-year-old man from Shunde.
• Golden-Tooth Lei explained that Fuyixing’s members had traced Ren Chunsheng’s connections and arranged drinks with him to sound out the cost of helping police-school applicants.

Song Tianyao arranged a scheme to punish Liu A Quan for ruining his chance to take the police academy exam and pursuing Li Suzhen. As Song’s family prepared to move, Golden-Tooth Lei and Gao Lao Cheng joined them for a meal outside the house.

• Golden-Tooth Lei told Song Tianyao how Liu A Quan had bribed Ren Chunsheng to block Song’s police academy entrance exam so he could pursue Li Suzhen.
• Song rejected Golden-Tooth Lei’s offer to kill Liu A Quan and proposed arranging a staged adultery scandal involving Liu and Ren Chunsheng’s concubine.
• Zhao Meizhen entered and teased Song about marriage, and Song joked that he might one day surpass the governor.
• Two Fuyixing underlings helped Song Chunliang pack up his shoe-repair stall and bring it home as the family prepared to move.
• Golden-Tooth Lei sent Gao Lao Cheng to buy liquor and food, and the men gathered around a table outside the house while Song poured the drinks.

Song Tianyao moved his family’s belongings from the Squatter Area toward Wan Chai without arranging a home in advance, confident he would find a place before nightfall. After Golden-Tooth Lei left, Scribe Hui hurried over to ask why Song had moved before Lou Fengyun could arrange two floors for him.

• Song Tianyao told Golden-Tooth Lei and Song Chunliang that he would find a place to rent in Wan Chai after arriving there.
• Fuyixing underlings and Chen Tai moved the Song family’s belongings onto a truck, and Golden-Tooth Lei took his leave.
• Song Tianyao learned that Chen Tai had studied boxing and offered him a job with meals and a bed.
• Scribe Hui approached Song Tianyao and asked why he was moving before Lou Fengyun arranged two floors in Wan Chai.

Song Tianyao learned that Lou Fengyun had bought a tenement building in Wan Chai and moved his family into it. As the family settled in, Song Chunliang secretly gave him a cloth bundle and told him to visit his grandfather in Kowloon City.

• Scribe Hui told Song Tianyao that Lou Fengyun had bought a tenement building on Tai Wo Street for his family.
• Song Tianyao went with Scribe Hui to inspect the building and chose the second-floor unit for his family.
• Song Tianyao paid a teahouse worker to gather neighbors to help carry the family's belongings upstairs.
• Song Chunliang discreetly slipped a cloth bundle into Song Tianyao's pocket and told him to go to Kowloon City to inform his grandfather they had moved.

Song Tianyao traveled to Kowloon Walled City to visit his grandfather, Song Chengqi, and reflected on their estrangement and his grandfather’s history. He reached Longjin Charity School, where Song Chengqi taught and lived.

• Song Tianyao declined to help his father, asked Scribe Hui to watch over things, and left for the pier to cross to Kowloon.
• During the journey, Song Tianyao recalled how he had secretly visited Song Chengqi after Zhao Meizhen barred the family from seeing him.
• Song Tianyao took a taxi to Kowloon City and observed the poor, crowded settlement and its vice-ridden streets.
• Song Tianyao found the weathered paifang of Longjin Charity School and read its inscription and couplet.
• Song Tianyao entered Longjin Charity School, where Song Chengqi lived and taught in Kuixing Pavilion.