Chapter Summaries

Scribe Hui sold surplus military supplies for the British barracks and earned contracts to make uniforms for nearly four thousand people. Unsure how to fulfill the orders, he tried to involve Meng Wanqing’s father in opening a garment factory, prompting Meng Wanqing to seek Song Tianyao’s advice.

• Scribe Hui sold surplus goods from more than a dozen barracks and returned the proceeds, earning twenty thousand Hong Kong dollars in fees.
• British quartermasters rewarded Scribe Hui by contracting his company to make uniforms for the Hong Kong Island barracks and auxiliary forces.
• Scribe Hui learned that the contracts covered uniforms for nearly four thousand people and worried about the costs and risks of fulfilling them.
• Scribe Hui asked Meng Wanqing’s father to take on the uniform order, but he declined because his tailor shop lacked the capacity.
• Scribe Hui proposed opening a garment factory together, offering the contracts in exchange for a share while expecting Meng Wanqing’s father to provide the money.
• Meng Wanqing, suspicious of Scribe Hui’s motives, went to Song Tianyao’s factory the next morning to ask about him.

Song Tianyao learned that Scribe Hui had earned little from reselling military supplies and planned to involve Meng Chengzhi in a uniform business. Song arranged a bank loan for Tianming Company, and Scribe Hui went to HSBC to meet Meng Chengzhi.

• Scribe Hui brought Song Tianyao contracts to make military uniforms and admitted he had earned only twenty thousand Hong Kong dollars reselling surplus supplies.
• Song Tianyao scolded Scribe Hui for selling the supplies too cheaply and learned he had considered involving Meng Chengzhi to secure enough money for a garment factory.
• Scribe Hui eagerly asked to return to working as Song Tianyao’s errand runner, but Song refused.
• Song called Michael Sandberg at HSBC and arranged for Scribe Hui to borrow two hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars at six percent interest.
• Scribe Hui called Meng Chengzhi and arranged to meet him at HSBC.

Song Tianyao gave his factory workers a generous Spring Festival break and red packets, then spent two days drafting Oxfam’s organizational plan. When he emerged, Huang Liu’s claim that he had been returning to the Maddison Hotel left Song Tianyao suspicious about where he had really been staying.

• Song Tianyao learned that Spring Festival was approaching as Sister Xiong served traditional holiday dishes at the factory.
• Song Tianyao announced four days off beginning on the twenty-eighth and promised every worker a holiday red packet.
• Song Tianyao spent two days writing a detailed plan for Oxfam’s new organization, intending to deliver it to Mrs. Bess.
• Song Tianyao noticed Huang Liu had not contacted him during those two days and wondered where Huang Liu had been staying.
• Huang Liu told Song Tianyao he had been returning to the Maddison Hotel each evening, making Song Tianyao suspect something was wrong.

Huang Liu left for Macau after revealing that he had cut Song Tianyao’s office phone line and dealt with the jianghu men who had been troubling him. As the factory workers departed for the Spring Festival, Song Tianyao went to Likang Company to see Chu Xiaoxin, amid a scandal accusing Po Leung Kuk welfare homes of running a blood black market.

• Huang Liu told Song Tianyao he was leaving for Macau and gave him a contact number before departing.
• Huang Liu revealed that he had redirected Song’s office phone and dealt with the jianghu men, then slipped out of the factory; Song Tianyao cursed him after discovering the severed phone line.
• On the twenty-eighth, Song Tianyao handed the factory workers twenty-dollar New Year’s red packets, while Lou Fengyun stopped him from teasing a worker.
• Song Tianyao arranged for Brother Xiong, Sister Xiong, and Ning Zikun to look after the factory, then asked Scribe Hui to bring Nine-Tattooed Dragon, Sister Fen, and her daughter to celebrate the holiday.
• Song Tianyao took Lou Fengyun, Fu Xinniang, Shu Yan, and Shi Yin to Sincere Department Store, then went to Likang Company to see Chu Xiaoxin.
• A Macau newspaper story accusing Po Leung Kuk welfare homes of operating a blood black market spread through Hong Kong.

After Po Leung Kuk and the Britain Red Cross Hong Kong Branch blamed each other over the Liwan Welfare Institute scandal, Mrs. Bess proposed a government-supervised blood service funded by Chu Xiaoxin. The Hong Kong Lu Peiying Blood Transfusion Service Centre was established, and Song Tianyao came to tell Chu Xiaoxin about the events he had missed.

• Po Leung Kuk said the Liwan Welfare Institute was unauthorized and its emblem forged, while accusing the Britain Red Cross Hong Kong Branch of misleading Chinese residents.
• Gao Shidi denied the branch's involvement and said Zhu Gelian had been killed by robbers, prompting both sides to trade accusations until Governor Grantham summoned them to talks.
• Mrs. Bess proposed a centralized blood service under the Medical and Health Department, supplied through paid transactions and voluntary donations.
• The Hong Kong Lu Peiying Blood Transfusion Service Centre was established under the department's jurisdiction and Oxfam's management, with Chu Xiaoxin donating five hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars.
• Song Tianyao went to see Chu Xiaoxin because Chu knew nothing about the other events surrounding the new blood service.

Song Tianyao found Chu Xiaoxin furious over a tabloid story that credited Chen Judy with his success and portrayed Lu Peiying as a jealous shrew. After stopping Chu Xiaoxin from ordering an attack on the newspaper office, Song read the article and understood why it had angered him.

• Chu Shuheng warned Song Tianyao that Chu Xiaoxin was in a bad mood as Song arrived at Likang.
• Song Tianyao heard Chu Xiaoxin threaten to burn down a newspaper office and entered to stop him.
• Chu Xiaoxin told Song Tianyao that Lu Peiying had sent him the newspaper, then showed his anger at its story.
• Song Tianyao read the article, which depicted Chen Judy as the strategist behind Chu Xiaoxin's rise and Lu Peiying as a jealous, spoiled fiancée.

Song Tianyao calmed Chu Xiaoxin after a newspaper published a damaging story about his love life, then agreed to meet Tang Wenbao about the wig business. At Fengshun Restaurant, the gathering began with a toast, while Song Tianyao noticed Tang Boqi was absent and learned he had returned to the United States for the Spring Festival.

• Song Tianyao persuaded Chu Xiaoxin not to retaliate against the newspaper and suggested promoting his relationship with Lu Peiying through favorable stories.
• Chu Xiaoxin told Song Tianyao that Tang Wenbao had requested a meeting, and Song Tianyao agreed to discuss the wig business with him.
• Tang Wenbao and Tang Jingyuan welcomed Chu Xiaoxin and Song Tianyao at Fengshun Restaurant and ushered them into a private room.
• Song Tianyao asked about Tang Boqi and learned from Tang Wenbao that he had flown to the United States for the Spring Festival.
• Tang Jingyuan praised Chu Xiaoxin and Song Tianyao as loyal Chiu Chow friends and raised a toast to them.

At a dinner with Tang Wenbao and Tang Jingyuan, Song Tianyao discussed the Tang family's plans to enter the wig business and asked how he could help. He left the matter with a proposal to train a few of their workers first, after refusing to train the Tang family alone.

• Tang Jingyuan admitted that he had secretly asked Billy Zai about Song Tianyao's business and apologized for trying to follow his lead.
• Tang Jingyuan asked Song Tianyao to let the Tang family's new workers learn wig production at his factory while they waited for their own machines.
• Song Tianyao explained that other families were also entering the wig business and proposed training workers from all the new factories together.
• Tang Jingyuan objected that the Tang family's workers and machines were ready before the others'.
• Song Tianyao advised Tang Jingyuan to recruit a few loyal workers first, train them, and have them teach the rest.

On New Year's Eve, Tang Wenbao planned to use the wig industry’s need for trained workers to build the Tang family’s influence, while Song Tianyao recognized his ambition. The chapter then followed the festive celebrations on Tai Wo Street, where Zhao Meizhen reflected on how much her family’s circumstances had changed since the previous Spring Festival.

• Tang Wenbao told Tang Jingyuan to recruit women workers from Song Tianyao’s factory with higher wages and use them to train workers for other wig businesses.
• Song Tianyao told Chu Xiaoxin that Tang Wenbao was looking far ahead.
• On New Year's Eve, Song Chunliang hung strings of firecrackers from the rooftop as Zhao Wenye, Nine-Tattooed Dragon, and Scribe Hui prepared to light them.
• Zhao Meizhen remembered her family’s sparse New Year celebration the year before and looked around at the larger gathering in her home.

On New Year's Eve, Song Tianyao's family received clothes, food, and gifts prepared by Meng Wanqing, Lou Fengyun, and others, while Zhao Meizhen wondered about her son's many girlfriends. Song Tianyao visited Song Chengqi and then Lin Yujing and Feng Yunzhi, leaving Feng Yunzhi eager to spend the Spring Festival with Grandpa and promising to make visits to the Lin Family's main house less boring.

• Meng Wanqing supplied new clothes for Song Tianyao's family, while Lou Fengyun and others prepared red packets and provisions for the New Year.
• Zhao Meizhen told Zhao Meizhu she did not know whether the young women around Song Tianyao were his girlfriends, and complained that he had left without taking provisions to his relatives.
• Song Tianyao visited Song Chengqi in Kowloon Walled City, delivered New Year's provisions, and gave him two thousand Hong Kong dollars for the Elderly Home's residents and children.
• Song Tianyao drove to Ngau Tau Shan and brought provisions to Lin Yujing and Feng Yunzhi for the New Year.
• Feng Yunzhi asked Song Tianyao when she could move to Kowloon Walled City to visit Grandpa, and he promised to find a way to make future visits to the Lin Family's main house less boring.

Song Tianyao told Lin Yujing he planned to acquire control of Xizhen Properties and asked her and Yunzhi to remain with the Lin family. After the New Year festivities, he returned to the wig factory and dealt with the Tang family's attempt to recruit its workers.

• Song Tianyao told Lin Yujing he was buying Xizhen Properties shares and wanted her help by staying with the Lin family alongside Yunzhi until he came to take them away.
• Song Tianyao celebrated New Year's Eve with his family and friends, then visited the Chu and Lu families and attended an Oxfam banquet and a Chiu Chow Chamber of Commerce dinner.
• Song Tianyao returned to the wig factory after the Spring Festival and learned from Sister Xiong that the Tang family had promised departing workers higher wages and forewoman positions.
• Lou Fengyun offered to send Golden-Tooth Lei's men to bring the workers back, but Song Tianyao warned her that using underworld tactics could expose the factory to complaints through the Workers' Union.
• Song Tianyao told Lou Fengyun to ask Meng Wanqing to choose more dignified outfits for her after the Lantern Festival and left her to watch the factory.

Song Tianyao hosted Cheng Yu-tung, Lei Yingdong, and Ho Hung-sang for a New Year dinner, cooking alongside them in his rented flat. Over drinks and a lavish meal, the four businessmen discussed their precarious positions and fortunes.

• Song Tianyao returned to his High Street flat, hired two cleaners, and prepared a feast for his guests.
• Cheng Yu-tung arrived with two bottles of ng ka py and helped Song Tianyao prepare the food.
• Lei Yingdong arrived with two cases of Japanese Kirin Beer and joined them in the kitchen.
• Ho Hung-sang arrived with Macau specialties, exchanged New Year greetings, and joked about having to cook.
• Song Tianyao toasted the three guests for their past help and wished them flourishing business as they sat down to eat.
• The four men talked business, and their differing constraints became clear: Song Tianyao was the only one with a company, factory, and steady profitable orders.

Tang Boqi returned from the United States to find that the Tang family had poached Song Tianyao’s workers, and he warned Tang Jingyuan that the move could jeopardize their machinery orders. He revealed that Song Tianyao had secured priority over American factories’ future wig-machine production, leaving the Tang family dependent on him.

• After the Lantern Festival, Angie Pellis’s two American machinery companies and Tang Boqi’s Kime International Trading Company opened Hong Kong branches in the Bivero Building.
• Tang Boqi discovered that Tang Jingyuan and Tang Wenbao had recruited more than a dozen workers from Song Tianyao’s factory to train their own staff and help other wig makers.
• Tang Boqi berated Tang Jingyuan for risking their relationship with Song Tianyao while the Tang family still needed him to arrange machinery.
• Tang Jingyuan argued that the workers had accepted higher wages and that the machinery contract protected the Tang family with a penalty clause.
• Tang Boqi warned that Song Tianyao could choose to pay the penalty rather than supply their machines, which would be prohibitively expensive to replace.
• Tang Boqi explained that Song Tianyao’s American company had secured priority on future production from small factories in Cleveland and Detroit, making it difficult for the Tang family to buy machines elsewhere.

Tang Boqi went to Song Tianyao to explain that he had known nothing about the Tangs’ actions and ask whether they could still negotiate. Song Tianyao brought him to Huang Kee Noodle Shop in Causeway Bay, where their conversation turned to the noodle-shop owner’s plans to enter the wig business.

• Tang Boqi warned Tang Jingyuan that Song Tianyao could block the factory from buying cheap machinery and set off to speak with Song directly.
• Tang Boqi stopped Song Tianyao’s car outside the factory and asked whether there was still room to negotiate, insisting he had known nothing about what Tang Jingyuan and his father had done.
• Song Tianyao had Fu Xinniang, Shu Yan, and Shi Yin ride with Tang Boqi while the cars followed one another to Huang Kee Noodle Shop.
• Huang Siqun welcomed Song Tianyao and brought the group upstairs, then went to prepare noodles and wontons himself.
• Song Tianyao told Tang Boqi that Huang Siqun planned to start a wig factory for his children, then joked that Tang could open a male brothel.

Xia Zuoji weighed the future of his profitable Indian hair business as Xia Harry urged him to stockpile hair and sell to new wig makers, while Xia Zuoji insisted they speak with Song Tianyao first. Song Tianyao then reassured Tang Boqi that he would still deliver the machines, leaving Tang Boqi surprised by his apparent lack of resentment.

• Xia Harry calculated that Song Tianyao had bought enough hair for tens of thousands of wigs, far more than his small factory could use soon.
• Xia Harry proposed stockpiling hair and approaching other Hong Kong merchants planning wig factories so they could sell at higher prices.
• Xia Zuoji told Xia Harry to speak with Song Tianyao before contacting other merchants, and said he planned to use their earnings to build lasting businesses.
• Xia Harry agreed outwardly but privately believed they did not owe Song Tianyao exclusive access to the hair they collected.
• Song Tianyao told Tang Boqi he did not hold Ah Yuan's poaching against him and would deliver the machines on time, leaving Tang Boqi doubtful and speechless.

Song Tianyao tested Tang Boqi’s interest in Hong Kong stocks, but Tang Boqi recognized the attempt to distract him from the wig business and refused to be drawn in. Meanwhile, Meng Wanqing dressed Lou Fengyun in a British-style suit, leaving Lou Fengyun nervous about her new look.

• Song Tianyao described Hong Kong’s declining stock market and suggested Tang Boqi could pursue opportunities in finance.
• Tang Boqi realized Song Tianyao might be trying to divert him from the wig business and said he would stay focused on it.
• Song Tianyao insisted he had genuinely been offering Tang Boqi a way to make money.
• Meng Wanqing fitted Lou Fengyun with a red cashmere skirt suit, added a silver rose brooch, and assessed her appearance in the mirror.

Lou Fengyun prepared to meet other factory owners while comparing her burdens with Meng Wanqing’s quieter life. Song Tianyao asked Hong Lai-sau to help launch a newspaper, but Hong Lai-sau questioned his plan and ended by joking that the earth was round.

• Meng Wanqing dressed Lou Fengyun in a pearl necklace and sprayed perfume on her before Lou Fengyun worried that the other factory owners would laugh at her outfit.
• Lou Fengyun told Meng Wanqing that a man who came to her only for help saw her as a helper, while Meng Wanqing said she envied Lou Fengyun’s chance to work alongside Song Tianyao.
• Song Tianyao met Hong Lai-sau at a tavern and asked him to work with him after graduation.
• Song Tianyao offered to fund a newspaper office, but Hong Lai-sau warned that it needed a reputable editor-in-chief and well-known writers.
• Hong Lai-sau teased Song Tianyao by claiming the earth was round.

Song Tianyao explained his plan to launch a free weekly tabloid built around business, property, and job listings, and Hong Lai-sau began to grasp the idea. The chapter ended with Hong Lai-sau asking how the paper would earn money.

• Song Tianyao reflected on Hong Lai-sau’s wit, education, and easygoing character, while Hong Lai-sau had mistaken his serious business talk for foolishness.
• Hong Lai-sau warned Song Tianyao that a newspaper would struggle without skilled writers or exclusive stories, and Song Tianyao replied that he would distribute it for free.
• Hong Lai-sau questioned how a free newspaper could cover its costs and guessed that Song Tianyao intended to rely on advertising fees.
• Song Tianyao described a weekly tabloid that would print free listings for businesses, property rentals, and job seekers instead of news stories.
• Hong Lai-sau joked about Song Tianyao’s insulting sample job listing, then recognized that the paper would consist of notices and asked how it would make money.

Song Tianyao brought Lou Fengyun to a tea gathering for people preparing to enter Hong Kong’s new wig business, where they hoped he would answer their questions. He met Tang Boqi and Tang Jingyuan outside the teahouse and exchanged teasing remarks with Tang Boqi before they went upstairs.

• Song Tianyao took Lou Fengyun to the One Tea Spring Teahouse for a gathering organized by Li Bazhong, where prospective wig makers planned to discuss the trade.
• Song Tianyao and Lou Fengyun encountered Tang Boqi and Tang Jingyuan arriving outside the teahouse.
• Tang Jingyuan felt awkward because he had poached female workers from Song Tianyao’s factory, while Tang Boqi greeted Song Tianyao casually and offered him a cigarette.
• Tang Boqi joked that Song Tianyao should have arrived late so everyone would wait for him to share his experience.
• Song Tianyao explained that Chairman Chu had urged him to stay humble and arrive on time, then teased Tang Boqi about being handsome.

Song Tianyao attended a tea gathering arranged by Li Bazhong so local businessmen could ask about the wig industry. When Luo Jiabao asked detailed questions about production waste, Song recognized that he had likely been in contact with Xia Zuoji and redirected him to Lou Fengyun for answers.

• Song Tianyao and Tang Boqi arrived early at the teahouse and greeted Li Bazhong.
• Li Bazhong explained that the gathering would let the factory owners discuss their concerns about the wig business with Song Tianyao.
• Luo Jiabao asked Song about raw-material use and production waste, revealing his familiarity with wig manufacturing.
• Song Tianyao inferred that Luo Jiabao had been in contact with Xia Zuoji and his brother.
• Song Tianyao introduced Lou Fengyun as the person who managed Long Light Wig Factory and invited Luo Jiabao to direct his questions to her.