Chapter Summaries

Chu Xiaozhong retaliated against the Five Counties pharmaceutical merchants by having the boats they rented disabled, then confronted them over their support for the Zhang Family. He offered to relent if they stayed out of the dispute with Ah Sin, while the merchants began considering challenging the Zhang Family’s leadership of the Pharmaceutical Association.

• Feng Yichang learned that workers had removed the engines from the boats rented by him and other Five Counties pharmaceutical merchants, and traced the disruption to Chu Xiaozhong.
• Feng Yichang and more than a dozen merchants confronted Chu Xiaozhong at Li Heng Company, where Chu Xiaozhong admitted he had targeted their boats because they had helped the Zhang Family against Ah Sin.
• Feng Yichang tried to calm Chu Xiaozhong, who argued that the merchants were free to support the Zhang Family but that he was equally free to defend his younger brother.
• Several merchants proposed confronting the Zhang Family and replacing Zhang Yujie as the person in charge of the Pharmaceutical Association while Zhang Yujie was away.
• Chu Xiaozhong told Feng Yichang that he would discuss matters if the merchants stayed out of the feud, but warned that he would keep restricting their access to boats if they sided with the Zhang Family again.

After the Zhang Family’s arson crisis, Zhang Yuliang visited Song Tianyao at Likang to apologize for ordering Dai Feng to kill him and to discuss the consequences of his failed scheme. Song Tianyao warned that Zhang Yuliang had likely lost his place in the family and should prepare to flee.

• Zhang Yuliang arrived at Likang, and Song Tianyao invited him into his office.
• Zhang Yuliang praised Song Tianyao’s deception, while Song Tianyao admired Zhang Yuliang’s plan to influence the Hong Kong stock index.
• Zhang Yuliang explained that his family had dismissed his ambitions and treated him as an errand-runner.
• Zhang Yuliang apologized for sending Dai Feng to kill Song Tianyao, acknowledging that Dai Feng had killed someone close to him.
• Zhang Yuliang said his older brothers were returning to decide how to deal with Likang, and Song Tianyao warned him that his family would likely cast him aside.

Zhang Yuliang offered Likang the Zhang Family’s pharmaceutical agency rights for five million dollars, threatening to expose the family’s bribery and embargo violations. After Zhang Yuqi dismissed his younger brother’s plan as childish, Zhang Yujie arrived at the European Coast Company and silenced the assembled shareholders.

• Zhang Yuliang told Song Tianyao he planned to force the seven pharmaceutical companies to terminate the Zhang Family’s agency contracts and offered to transfer the rights to Likang for five million dollars.
• Song Tianyao agreed to consult Chu Yaozong and promised Zhang Yuliang an answer before noon the next day.
• After Zhang Yuliang left, Zhang Yuqi entered with Chu Xiaozhong, drank the untouched tea, and called his younger brother’s plan childish.
• As Feng Yichang and the others complained in the European Coast Company’s conference room, Zhang Yulin arrived with Zhang Yujie, A-Yin, and Cai Jianxiong.
• Zhang Yujie took his seat and lit a cigar, causing the noisy room to fall silent.

Zhang Yujie crushed the Pharmaceutical Association merchants’ attempt to challenge his authority, punishing Feng Yichang and Huang Xiaoqiu and making the others accept shared losses. He then confronted Zhang Yulin over neglecting their mother and set out to visit the Chu Family and the Cai Family.

• Zhang Yujie struck Feng Yichang with a cigar for repeatedly interrupting him and ordered Cai Jianxiong to drag him out and bar his shop from receiving pills for three months.
• Zhang Yujie rebuked the merchants for turning against him after profiting from his work and demanded to know who wanted to take charge themselves.
• Zhang Yujie said the firms’ seized goods would go to the Foreign Devils and reaffirmed the arrangement giving the Zhang Family half of future medicine batches.
• Huang Xiaoqiu blamed others for the challenge, so Zhang Yujie ordered him to close his shop and barred him from obtaining medicine in Hong Kong.
• Zhang Yujie questioned Zhang Yulin about leaving their mother in a hotel, and Zhang Yulin admitted he knew what he had to do.
• Zhang Yujie told A-Yin to call the Chu Family and the Cai Family and announce his visit with gifts from Australia.

Song Tianyao assessed the Zhang brothers’ negotiations with Chu Xiaozhong, then went with him to the Chu Family mansion carrying newspapers featuring Chu Xiaoxin. He entertained the family with his joking bid for a red packet, though Chu Yaozong’s remark briefly chilled the dinner table.

• Song Tianyao told Chu Xiaozhong that Zhang Yuliang’s account was true and praised Zhang Yujie and Zhang Yuqi for their contrasting strengths.
• Chu Xiaozhong drove Song Tianyao to the Chu Family mansion, where Uncle Yan said Madam Chu had been asking him to dinner.
• Song Tianyao joined the Chu family at dinner and showed them the newspapers featuring Chu Xiaoxin.
• Chu Yaozong’s mild rebuke silenced the table, but Song Tianyao joked that he had brought the newspapers to pad his chair.
• Chu Yaozong laughed and promised Song Tianyao a red packet, while Chu Xiaoxin rescued the newspapers from beneath him.

Zhang Yujie visited Chu Yaozong after returning from Australia, presenting himself as ready to settle the dispute between Ah Sin and Zhang Yuliang. Chu Yaozong brought Chu Xiaozhong, Chu Xiaoxin, and Song Tianyao to meet him, leaving Zhang Yujie to dismiss Song Tianyao and frame the conflict as a minor quarrel.

• Song Tianyao joked about the thick red packet Madam Chu gave him, then turned serious when Chu Yaozong asked about the Zhang Family dispute.
• Chu Xiaozhong explained Zhang Yuliang's visit to Likang and doubted that the Zhang Family would revoke its agency agreement; Song Tianyao said the outcome depended on Chu Yaozong's wishes.
• Chu Yaozong praised Zhang Yuqi and told Song Tianyao to make arrangements, while Uncle Yan announced that Zhang Yujie had arrived with gifts from Australia.
• Chu Yaozong took Chu Xiaozhong, Chu Xiaoxin, and Song Tianyao to meet Zhang Yujie in the study.
• Zhang Yujie greeted the Chu brothers deferentially but barely acknowledged Song Tianyao, then said he had returned to deal with the Pharmaceutical Association and settle Ah Sin and Zhang Yuliang's disagreement.

Zhang Yujie offered to use the Zhang Family’s connections to satisfy the governor and British Army and end the customs crisis, while Song Tianyao saw through his show of confidence. Chu Yaozong let the Zhang and Chu families’ younger generation continue their dispute, leaving Likang’s struggle with the Zhang Family unresolved.

• Chu Yaozong made Chu Xiaoxin apologize to Zhang Yujie, who blamed Zhang Yuliang for exploiting Likang and intercepting its charity medicine.
• Zhang Yujie promised to handle the governor and British Army’s demands through the Zhang Family’s connections and said Zhang Yuliang could take responsibility.
• Zhang Yujie praised Chu Yaozong and brought up medicines he had brought back from Australia before departing the Chu residence.
• Chu Yaozong asked Song Tianyao whether Zhang Yujie’s confidence was genuine, and Song Tianyao said Zhang Yujie was afraid of Chu Yaozong.
• Chu Xiaozhong questioned whether Likang should gain something from the scheme, but Chu Yaozong told his sons to let the younger generation continue quarreling.

Zhang Yujie rejected the idea of dividing the Zhang Family’s property, insisting that their father’s instructions to keep the family together still stood. Li Suiyi continued to worry that her son might lose control of the business to his capable uncles, and proposed splitting off two trading companies.

• After leaving the Chu Family, Zhang Yujie checked into the Guanghai Hotel and asked his wife how their mother was doing.
• Li Suiyi told Zhang Yujie that their mother had worried that Zhang Yuliang wanted to divide the family after the house fire.
• Zhang Yujie accused Li Suiyi of twisting the order of events and firmly opposed dividing the family.
• A-Yin explained that Zhang Yulin might marry into a powerful clan, giving his wife leverage to demand a division later.
• Zhang Yujie defended his brothers’ past contributions but reaffirmed their father’s rule that the family must live together and share all property.
• Li Suiyi proposed giving the Taihe Trading House to Zhang Yulin and the Zhuxing Trading Company to Zhang Yuqi.

Li Caifa expanded his heroin business and challenged the Hong Kong gangs, while Brother Fei urged him to use violence against their leaders. Li Caifa chose instead to meet the He-prefix gang elders, leaving Brother Fei admonished to think before acting.

• Li Caifa watched workers package morphine and reflected on how his yellow arsenic dens had drawn addicts away from the gangs' opium business.
• Brother Fei reported that their men had wrecked Wo Shing Yee's businesses in Jordan and that the He-prefix gangs wanted a meeting to discuss the fighting.
• Li Caifa learned that police had arrested forty or fifty of his men but none from the He-prefix gangs.
• Brother Fei offered to assassinate the elders, but Li Caifa ordered him to announce a meeting at the Rising Sun Teahouse the next day.
• Li Caifa reminded Brother Fei of his eleven years of service and told him to think before speaking or acting.

Li Caifa welcomed Chen Zhongying at his factory, while the chapter recounted how Chen and Ge Zhaohuang built 14K from a Kuomintang-backed Hung Mun branch into a powerful Hong Kong gang. It left Chen established as 14K’s real leader after Ge Zhaohuang was driven from Hong Kong and became incapacitated.

• Brother Fei left Li Caifa’s office to contact old ghosts from the He-prefix gangs.
• Li Caifa went outside and greeted Chen Zhongying, an Incense Master of 14K, at the factory.
• Mao Renfeng ordered Ge Zhaohuang to build underground influence by absorbing Hung Mun organizations in Guangdong and Guangxi.
• Ge Zhaohuang took over Great Hong Mountain, moved it to Guangzhou, and renamed it Hongfa Mountain before fleeing to Hong Kong with his followers in 1949.
• Ge Zhaohuang appointed Ge Zhixiong mountain master and Chen Zhongying strategist and Incense Master before the British expelled him from Hong Kong.
• Chen Zhongying became 14K’s true leader and led its Kuomintang veterans through alliances and gang battles that established the group’s reputation.

Li Caifa proposed that Chen Zhongying and 14K ally with the Green Gang to fight the He-prefix gangs, offering business connections and morphine in return. Chen listened without committing, leaving Li’s offer unanswered.

• Li Caifa welcomed Chen Zhongying to his factory and proposed that their gangs join forces.
• Li Caifa invoked the supposed historical ties between Hung Mun and the Green Gang, while Chen privately dismissed the claim.
• Chen asked what cooperation Li had in mind, and Li argued that 14K needed wealthy business patrons to grow.
• Li offered 14K half the morphine produced at his factory if it supplied men to help the Green Gang defeat the He-prefix gangs.
• Chen remained silent and stone-faced as Li waited for his answer.

Chen Zhongying stalled Li Caifa's proposal to unite their gangs while privately seeking Hung Mun East Liang Mountain for 14K's advantage. Zhang Yujie and Zhang Yuqi discussed protecting the Zhang Family's business and decided to have Zhang Yuliang arrested and sent away.

• Chen Zhongying told Li Caifa he needed the old Mountain Master's approval before discussing cooperation, while planning to find Hung Mun East Liang Mountain for 14K.
• Zhang Yuqi explained that the Bank of East Asia would guarantee a Zhang Family loan from HSBC and that Mr. Morse had agreed to help.
• Zhang Yuqi said the Zhang Family could resolve its trouble by admitting public defeat and arranging payments to satisfy the officials and British Army.
• Zhang Yujie said he had asked Cheung Wing-kam to help capture Zhang Yuliang, who would be blamed, imprisoned for a few months, and sent to Macau.

Song Tianyao’s efforts to make Chu Xiaoxin’s charity work prominent brought Chu Xiaoxin closer to becoming a Justice of the Peace, and Chu Xiaoxin rewarded him with use of the Ford 49. The chapter left Chu Xiaoxin pleased with his newfound status and imagining how he would use it, with Song Tianyao at his side.

• Zhang Yuqi warned Zhang Yujie that Yuliang might expose the Zhang Family’s dealings with pharmaceutical company employees and urged him to delay sending Yuliang away.
• Zhang Yujie told Zhang Yuqi about his meetings with Cai Wenbai and the Chu Family, and Zhang Yuqi advised him that mentioning Cai Wenbai had been unnecessary.
• Alice wondered whether Zhang Yuqi had deliberately left out the Chu Family secretary surnamed Song, then dismissed her doubts and returned to her room.
• After leaving the Chu home, Chu Xiaoxin let Song Tianyao use his Ford 49 for the next few days.
• Chu Xiaoxin realized his charity work had made him look like a philanthropist and brought him closer to becoming a Justice of the Peace.
• Chu Xiaoxin imagined using the title to complain to Cheung Wing-kam’s superior and planned to bring Song Tianyao along to help with his English.

Song Tianyao visited Xianyu Shuan’s funeral, learned his real name was Wu Shuan, and promised to secure a future for his wife and daughter. The chapter left Xiu’er’s future in Song Tianyao’s hands as her mother listened through her grief.

• Song Tianyao arrived at the Hong Kong Funeral Parlour and learned from Scribe Hui that Fuyixing brothers and Golden-Tooth Lei had paid their respects to Xianyu Shuan.
• Song Tianyao offered incense and promised Xianyu Shuan that he would buy Tai Wo Street for the family and make sure his descendants never lacked for food or clothing.
• Song Tianyao told Xianyu Shuan’s wife that he would pay for Xiu’er’s education at Diocesan Girls’ Junior School and offered to rent them a home nearby if she preferred to raise her herself.
• Xianyu Shuan’s wife listened in grief as Song Tianyao reassured her that her daughter could have a better future.

Song Chengqi revealed his identity as the Dragon Head of East Liang Mountain when Qi Weiwen formally approached him on behalf of Hongfa Mountain. He agreed to go with her to meet Hongfa Mountain’s leaders, while Liang Pei and his companion argued about Hung Mun and Song Chengqi’s past.

• Song Chengqi noticed two plainclothes policemen near the nursing home and helped Bo Ming prepare to leave.
• Qi Weiwen identified herself as a Hongfa Mountain hall master and used Hung Mun’s formal salute to address Song Chengqi.
• Song Chengqi performed the Hung Mun gestures and declared himself Mountain Master and Dragon Head of Dingyi Hall, prompting Qi Weiwen and her companions to bow to him.
• Qi Weiwen said she had been ordered by Ge Zhaohuang, Ge Zhixiong, and Chen Zhongying to invite Song Chengqi and Zhu Xuguang to Hongfa Mountain.
• Song Chengqi accepted the invitation, set off with Qi Weiwen, and asked Bo Ming to save him a mouthful of wine.
• As they walked, Liang Pei and the young woman beside him argued over whether Single Righteousness and its members deserved to be called Hung Mun.

Qi Weiwen brought Song Chengqi to Ge Zhaohuang’s villa, where Ge Zhaohuang gathered with Zhu Xuguang to discuss gang affairs despite his poor health. Zhu Xuguang greeted Song Chengqi as his martial uncle, leaving their meeting poised to begin.

• Qi Weiwen drove Song Chengqi from Kowloon Walled City to Ge Zhaohuang’s villa in Fanling.
• Ge Zhaohuang waited outside the hall with his son, Ge Zhixiong, and scolded him for neglecting the gang and their guests.
• Ge Zhaohuang explained that he had come despite his stroke because Chen Zhongying had found a chance to improve life for the gang’s members.
• Chen Zhongying, Zhu Xuguang, Qi Weiwen, and Song Chengqi arrived at the villa.
• Ge Zhaohuang welcomed Zhu Xuguang and Song Chengqi, and Zhu Xuguang respectfully addressed Song Chengqi as Martial Uncle Song.

At Ge Zhaohuang’s banquet, Chen Zhongying sought the consent of Hong Mun’s local mountain masters to let Hongfa Mountain aid Hong Kong’s He-prefix gangs against Li Caifa’s Green Gang. Song Chengqi rejected efforts to revive East Liang Mountain and said he would destroy its inherited records when he died, while the meeting ended with Number Fourteen offering the guests money.

• Ge Zhaohuang welcomed Song Chengqi and Zhu Xuguang to a banquet and spoke with Song about their military pasts.
• Ge Zhaohuang offered to help Song revive East Liang Mountain, but Song said he would burn its records and symbols when he died.
• Chen Zhongying explained that Hung Mun rules required every local mountain master and dragon head to approve action against the Green Gang.
• Ge Zhaohuang asked Song and Zhu to agree to Hongfa Mountain aiding the He-prefix gangs against Li Caifa’s Green Gang.
• Two Number Fourteen disciples presented Song and Zhu with trays containing one hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars each.

Song Chengqi accepted Ge Zhaohuang’s money on East Liang Mountain’s behalf and planned to use it for local charities. Meanwhile, Fish Ming’s Fuyixing men spotted suspected Fourteen K members watching Song Tianyao’s family and moved to ambush them.

• Song Chengqi took Ge Zhaohuang’s banknotes, agreed to East Liang Mountain’s request, and left to spend the money on the Elderly Home and Charity School.
• A Fuyixing underling warned Fish Ming that five suspicious men were watching the street near Song Tianyao’s family home.
• Fish Ming learned the men appeared to be Fourteen K members and suspected they might be working with the Green Gang against local gangs.
• Fish Ming ordered A-Mao and four men to approach the watchers while he led the others around to block their retreat.
• A-Mao’s group left the lamppost and headed through the Wind-and-Rain Corridor toward the Fourteen K men.

14K’s Bayonet Wing led an attack on Fish Ming’s men in Tai Wo Street, where they were watching Song Chengqi’s family, but Rotten-Life Ju stopped his escape. Bayonet Wing claimed he had come to visit Song Chunliang, and Song Tianyao reacted darkly when he heard the name.

• Bayonet Wing and four 14K men fought A-Mao’s group, stabbed several men, and tried to escape Fish Ming and his men.
• Song Tianyao arrived in a Ford 49 with Rotten-Life Ju and three men, and Rotten-Life Ju recognized both sides and joined Fish Ming’s men to stop Bayonet Wing.
• Rotten-Life Ju dodged Bayonet Wing’s bayonet thrust and held a knife to his neck, forcing him to drop his weapon.
• Bayonet Wing said he had come to visit his friend Song Chunliang, who lived in building nine on Tai Wo Street.
• Song Tianyao got out of the car and asked Bayonet Wing to repeat his friend’s name.

Liang Pei went to Central Pier to rescue four 14K men, but Golden-Tooth Lei refused to release them and explained that Fuyixing had caught them targeting Song Chunliang's family. Liang Pei's attempt to intervene collapsed, and he stopped his lover from reaching for his gun as Fuyixing continued beating the captives.

• Liang Pei arrived at Central Pier with his young lover and several plainclothes officers, expecting Golden-Tooth Lei to release the four captured 14K men.
• Golden-Tooth Lei ignored Liang Pei's pleas and ordered his men to keep beating the suspended captives, even as they snapped Bayonet Wing's finger to make him scream.
• Liang Pei reached for his pistol, but Fuyixing's men surrounded him and Golden-Tooth Lei confronted him over the gang's need to reclaim its standing.
• Golden-Tooth Lei explained that the 14K men had targeted the family of Likang's secretary, and Liang Pei realized that their actions violated the rules of jianghu.
• Liang Pei's lover tried to grab his pistol and demand the captives' release, so Liang Pei threw her hand away and slapped her to prevent a gunfight.